AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing barbelith.com plasticbag.org! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/1999 07:18:32 PM ----- BODY:

I am unemployed, almost completely out of money, single and love-free, my flat is a disaster area and I can't seem to get a handle on the redesign of Barbelith. Still, mustn't ¥KVETCH.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jason Kottke, commander of Osil8... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/1999 09:27:40 PM ----- BODY:

Jason Kottke, commander of the omnipotent 0sil8, also runs a particularly fine weblog, dripping with design savvy. So visit kottke.org - it truly is the home of fine hypertext products.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An epinion on Natural Born Killers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/1999 11:30:09 PM ----- BODY:

There is something really frustrating about writing something that you think is quite good and then having to think of what to write to follow it up. On the other hand I could be being precious. You decide - read my epinion on Natural Born Killers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Forrest Gump - bastard evil vile film - and now epinioned... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 12:20:47 AM ----- BODY:

I think it is important that I make my opinions clear about Forrest Gump.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A morning visit to the HSX... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 05:06:58 PM ----- BODY:

No morning is complete without a visit to the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Final Fantasy VIII... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 06:57:27 PM ----- BODY:

To be honest, I can't even tell whether or not this is sad. Is anyone else my age excited about Final Fantasy VIII. I bought the last one on a whim, and it was gripping. Occasionally repetitive, but gripping nonetheless. Start saving your pennies...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We're running out of information? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 07:27:26 PM ----- BODY:

Is it true? Can we possibly be running out of information? Is being catalogued and annotated faster than we can find it out? Smug's Leslie Harpold thinks so. Read "net worth".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Megnut is a well constructed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 11:07:46 PM ----- BODY:

Megnut is a well constructed and clear weblog that I am contemplating completely ripping off. I feel completely trapped by the dictates of a unifying design scheme (die, barbelith, die). Oh the horror. God knows, if anyone can think of anything, they should let me know as soon as possible. Tom

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:25:04 AM ----- BODY:

The secret behind many a wonderful weblog is the incalculable power of blogger. It has a hell of a lot to recommend it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Soul-destroying web-design... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:27:29 AM ----- BODY:

Designing web pages is invigorating and stimulating when it works and frustrating and soul-destroying (seriously) when it doesn't. When I need a clue, or a bit of constructive advice, I go to A List Apart.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out London Guide... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:39:05 AM ----- BODY:

Tomorrow I start a couple of days work updating the film section of the Time Out London Guide. Check it out.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-aggrandising paean to self-important individualism? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 06:30:16 PM ----- BODY:

I think I've sold you all out. I have been talking with an ex, and he thinks that I have turned this front page from a non-functioning advert for the collective to a self-aggrandising paean to self-important individualism. What you you think?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ally McParanoid Schizophrenia STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:20:55 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone other than me think that it is commendable that Ally McBeal's main love interest is on the brink of crippling hair loss? I have to say I am delighted, as I am approaching that brink myself. It's one (only mildly sarcastic) good thing to say for the almost offensively conservative programme. And I'm sorry but, if your delusions make you physically attack young children, you're not 'kooky' - you're suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh hated redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/1999 10:49:17 AM ----- BODY:

So - everyone on the Nexus hates the new look for this site. Which is a bit disappointing, I have to admit. It seems slightly pathetic to actually ask people for nice comments.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Film Festivals... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/1999 01:06:31 PM ----- BODY:

Finding out information on film festivals in London is extraordinarily difficult. The only one that seems to have a damn site is the London Film Festival. It looks like it has the first British screening of American Beauty...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You can ride them like ponies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/1999 08:58:28 PM ----- BODY:

"In my world there are people in chains and you can ride them like ponies." Supreme Dominatrix? Nope - Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The world gets weirder by the minute. If I didn't know better, I'd say we had already won...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New job jitters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 12:58:06 AM ----- BODY:

It's 1am and I can't sleep. I am starting a new job on Monday working for Time Out in London. I will be Deputy ******** on their website. Something half editorial and technical. I was really looking forward to it until this afternoon, when I talked to someone about the job. They have scared me rather badly and I find myself concerned that I have signed myself up for several months of drudgery without the chance to do anything constructive. It's probably nothing to worry about.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: d|i|s|i|n|f|o|r|m|a|t|i|o|n STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 12:59:35 AM ----- BODY:

Everyone knows about d|i|s|i|n|f|o|r|m|a|t|i|o|n but it bears repeating. All the information you could ever need to know about all the things that you are not supposed to know about.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The world is fucked up... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 09:04:36 AM ----- BODY:

So a 13 year-old school-boy is told to write a scary story for Halloween. He writes one (a pretty bad one at that), it gets a really good grade and he reads it out in class for extra credit. The story is considered to be a threat to his school mates, and he is taken to court and put in a juvenile detention facility for five days as punishment. Perhaps we haven't won yet after all...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Strange Cults of Webloggers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 08:51:18 PM ----- BODY:

There was an Invisibles site called Target One a while back, and now the guy who built it runs Attack Force D, which is another weblog. I'm not entirely sure I knew what I was getting into when I started this - there seems to be this strange, hallucinatory cult of webloggers in the world. It's ... nice somehow.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Up on the roof... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 12:42:31 AM ----- BODY:

Occasionally, during the summer, when it got really hot and the air conditioning wasn't working at work, I used to sneak away from my desk on the second floor of the Time Out building and clamber from the balconies on the seventh floor up the service ladders and onto the roof. You can see all of London from up there - the Houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf, the Post Office Tower... I'm pretty sure I am not supposed to have done it. If I'd taken some photos, perhaps I could have sent them to Infiltration.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Inspirational minidiscing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:06:01 AM ----- BODY:

My friend Michael is trying to finish his doctorate in Bristol at the moment. I fear it is a project doomed to failure but he has surprised me in the past (to put it mildly). He's asked me to send him a mixer minidisc so that he has something to listen to. I've been checking out the selection of ideas at red balloon and have come to the conclusion that they urgently need your help.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What to do for New Year's Eve? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:26:19 AM ----- BODY:

The question in the air at the moment amongst my friends seems to be what to do for New Year's Eve. I've looked at various helpful sites but it hasn't really helped. Where shall we be when our lives are upgraded to version Y2K.1? Nick seems concerned that the Millenium bug will cause cars and planes to crash into mobs of similarly destructive Millennial cults and has suggested getting some people together somewhere in the west of England. I think it's an ark thing. Toby is determined to take polaroid pictures of people in the dome in Greenwich. What can be said.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dogma previews... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:44:15 PM ----- BODY:

It has appalled the religious right in America, enthralled and amused reviewers and is generally considered to be Kevin Smith's most accomplished movie. And Dogma isn't even out yet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Britain's Millennium Map... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:47:18 PM ----- BODY:

Britain's Millennium Map - is it a historic achievement or an infringement of our privacy?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reviews of The Bomb, Reviews of Chasing Amy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/1999 12:44:01 AM ----- BODY:

The Bomb has been given a wonderfully flattering review by Comics International.

Read my epinion on Chasing Amy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Exploit the ethics of revolutionaries... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/1999 01:01:09 AM ----- BODY:

British television at the moment is dripping with advertisements that parody or exploit the ethics of revolutionaries or non-capitalist states. There is something extremely unsettling about a Chinese gentlemen with a dodgy accent in Communist uniform stating that a brand of Chinese food represents "a Chinese Revolution". An advert for Twix recently claimed that the Russian cosmonaut in the advert had "less spine than this capitalist snack". But the most bizarre of all has to be the new Financial Times advert which has Lenin talking about share portfolios and "not Karl Marx, but Deutschmarks".

I feel slightly as if anti-capitalist memes are being raped in front of me - is it the equivalent of Roman soldiers sodomising their enemies after military victories? Fight back. Pollute the advertising meme-stream with adbusters.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: TimeOut.com here I come... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/1999 08:57:34 AM ----- BODY:

Today I start work at timeout.com. More information on what I am up to when I have it. In the meantime, any suggestions on how to improve the site? *spark online is an interesting site which explores the frontiers of thought on technology. Get involved in their electronic consciousness. The propoganda section of Infinite Race has some wonderful nuggets of resistance. Abuse of power comes as no surprise. Holodeck 73 describes itself as an inspirational launchpad. Good design and a thousand interesting links. Read my epinion of Cube.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I survived my first day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/1999 09:17:59 AM ----- BODY:

I survived my first day in the new job. I can't say that it was exactly what I had in mind, but it could have considerable potential. I'll let you know in a few days. The quest to find out what my job title is and when I get paid begins today. Wish me luck.

A little quote from the official British government's Millennial survival guide: "What is the Millennium Bug? It's not a virus and you certainly can't catch it." I have decided to pretend that it is not the most facile comment ever made and instead make believe that they are simply lying, and that the Millenium Bug is the first computer problem to jump species.

I found this wonderful story at The Onion the other day. You go girls.

I went to the launch party for the new Neonlit book, where my friend Rhonda won £500 which she has to spend in two weeks with nothing to show for it. Turns out part of my job at Time Out is to help run the Neonlit site. I think it could be time to talk to Derek and Shauna at the fray and ember.org - two of my favourite online writing sites.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm Assistant Editor of timeout.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/1999 09:30:31 AM ----- BODY:

I'm Assistant Editor of timeout.com, which is nice. I also get paid at the end of the month. All questions answered to my satisfaction.

The Wax has a wonderful regular poll - "Am I Normal?". Do you have complete conversations with yourself?

My friend Will does. He decided to come and stay at my place last night and flirt with my favourite barman, and then launched into a huge rant about how he has scary premonitions. This morning his new rant was about how when money becomes more electronic "they" will be able to control it more easily. Not the most detailed or fully-worked-out conspiracy theories ever, I have to say.

If you are after a detailed conspiracy theory to accessorise your daily rebellion, then why not try the Montauk project? There are thousands of damn sites about it.

I am a real fan of the design at hoggorm.com/ although for the life of me I can't be bothered to find out what it's about.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Assemblers, Irritability and Kinky Friedman... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/1999 09:05:38 AM ----- BODY:

Before I get going, get this - someone is trying to build an Assembler!

I blew off two separate groups of friends last night so I could hide at home after work and watch bad TV. I walk in my door only to discover that Will is still there - sitting on my bed munching on bread and humous. My hopes for a piece of complete downtime dashed, I become moody and irritable.

This evening I am going to see Kinky Friedman in Camden with a group of friends. I've only vaguely understood the allure, so tonight should be an interesting experience.

Epinions has changed the format of their pages again, clumping up the loves and hates lists. Ick. Still, I'm sure I'll get used to it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No censorship in MIT webspace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/1999 12:20:33 PM ----- BODY:

I remember a time when being at University meant savage and unwelcome censorship of web-space. Apparently this is no longer the case. Look at the wonderfully offensive things that MIT allows nowadays...

Missed yesterday's entry, which felt a little odd. It was my younger brother's birthday (he's fourteen now). He's been packed off to boarding school by parents eager to inculcate in him the ways of the uber-class. I bought him a copy of Day of the Triffids and some sweets from Muji. We will see (in years to come) whether or not he thinks I was a good brother.

Kinky Friedman was amazing. Classic songs like "They don't make Jews like Jesus any more" and "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed". There can't be many people more subversive than a Jewish Texan Country Singer / Detective Novelist.

There are some weird epinions things going on around the net. People seem to be becoming affiliates (glassdog, peterme), although quite why escapes me. I suppose there must be some point to it.

Speaking of personal sites - I have just stumbled upon jezebel.com. Frankly the world can do with more "impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained" people.

Now I must go to the gym so I can contemplate the overt body facism of western capitalism...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nexus Online Poetry Slam... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/1999 07:33:37 PM ----- BODY:

Announcing the first ever Nexus Online Poetry Slam! All the details are in the Core. I went to see Fight Club yesterday evening. Then I came home and wrote a long, complicated and detailed epinion about it. And then my computer crashed. Epinion lost. Today I have been visiting Pippa in Highgate. She is an old flatmate of mine who has moved into a flat with another old flatmate of mine purely for the purposes of making me neurotic with flat in-jokes and knowing looks. I'm kidding of course... Under the instruction of megnut, I went to find out my Wu-Tang Clan name. I was less than thrilled to find out it was "Dizzy Cow". Here's a few of my other friends. (If you don't believe me - check it for yourself!)

Nick Cornwell - Furtive Ventriloquist
Chris Bell - Ol` Filthy, Sweaty Bastard
Max Prutzel-Thomas - Temporary Spastic
Kate Myers - The Nation`s Favourite Galoot
Toby Stone - The Littlest Vandal
Pippa Sturt - Sweaty Butcher
Melanie Goldblatt - Tha Ever So Weary Assistant

Some things get me very unhappy. One of them is being completely crushed by someone else's pure design superiority. I am in awe of saturn.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ruminations on Weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 11/15/1999 10:29:24 PM ----- BODY:

You can't talk about your life because people you know read them. I have on occasion (yesterday for one) suggested to a few friends that they should look at the site because there was this really satisfying link on it which I thought they should see. This is fine. But then you begin to realise that everyone has looked at it at one point or another - for god's sake your e-mail address has barbelith.com in it.

And then your fourteen year old brother is wondering whether or not your parents should be told about the what you have said on the site. And should I really be advocating the dismantling of the phallogocentric hetero-orthodoxy within his tender earshot? More to the point, how on earth are you going to talk about sex when you know your brother (half your age) is looking over your shoulder?

And speaking about sex - what happens when the people you want to talk about also read your weblog? You can't be honest. Period.

When I have had a hard day at the office, sometimes I like to relax by watching a balding web god scratch himself and listen to the Chemical Brothers. I plan to have him on screen at all times when I am at work. I think it will soothe me.

Look for the little downward arrow on the left side of glassdog.com. When you click on it, a whole new world of advertising wonder opens up for you. I like the idea of an advertising system like this, an unobtrusive mutual advertising system where good products are rewarded with loyal advertisers and bad products fail. Such is the web...

Hmmm... There's a lamentable shortage of links here today - not much of a web-log. Here are some cool places to go for a couple of minutes: prehensile tales : the finger : maura

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I missed another day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/1999 06:34:47 PM ----- BODY:

So I missed another day. Perhaps I'm not really committed....

Since I started working at Time Out full-time, I no longer seem to read a newspaper or keep up with the daily news. I no longer have any idea what is going on in the world. I can't even be bothered to read The Onion.

Being newsfree for a while makes you feel lighter - it's almost as good as not wearing a watch (which I didn't do for two years). I wonder how long it will last.

So tonight I have been invited to watch a football match in Finsbury Park (the pub's called the Fulback on Perth Road if anyone fancies joining us). I don't care about football in the slightest. It is not an affectation - I just don't enjoy it. However there are a large number of people who are going to be there that I like. What does one do? Drink oneself to death while all around burn David Beckham into their collective retinae? I fear I may be bored...

Decisions, decisions. Participation in the Day Without Art is much more my kind of thing. I can't decide whether I should participate though. I'll follow the instructions of the first person who e-mails me.

Evil, subversive site of the day must go to the tremendous disobey.com. Ghost sites is a laugh, netslaves cuts a little close to the bone for my liking, and the disobey news network will keep you bogged down with information for a few hours. Not that I read it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Football, weblog moods and stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/1999 11:52:11 PM ----- BODY:

A couple of things to talk about today. Where shall we begin? Um.

Guess what! About bloody time...
The new issue of The Invisibles is out. Tremendous news all round. Annotations, discussion, barbelith gets very exciting at these times of the month...

Weblog mood and it's relationship to daily page views
So what is the relationship between mood and page views? I have been analysing this over the last couple of weeks and have come to the conclusion that no one wants to read people being depressed. Or at least the people that DO want to read about people being depressed are slightly scary.

Let's put my theory to the test:

Cheery Logs:
absolute piffle
lemon yellow
mood swings

Naughty Logs:
eatonweb blog
have browser will travel

Sad/Cross Logs:
damn dirty ape

What's this football thing about then, eh?
I went to watch the football. I didn't understand how anyone could get so excited. Lost on me completely. I tried to explain to the assembled masses that if the players had handlebar moustaches, smoking jackets, armchairs and muskets, the game would be both more civilised and more entertaining. They resolutely refused to see reason.

Exciting new retail opportunities...
Seems you can buy anything on the net nowadays. Do you have a Zombie? Do you need a brain? Brains4Zombies.com is for you...

Catastrophe
My link to the great trans-cultural overmind has been severed. I still have TV, but since I am never in I have to use my VCR. But today I find that it doesn't work and many episodes of TV series have been eaten. I don't feel as liberated as perhaps I should. I need a new VCR.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On trash... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/1999 10:22:47 PM ----- BODY:

I have lost count of the days recently in which there has been something that I really wanted to talk about and yet have not been able to.

Instead - see if you can trigger some form of latent epilepsy with this little gem of net freakishness. It has no point.

I'll be sorting out the annotations and news for The Bomb tomorrow morning. Now I plan to go and get trashed on cocktails.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Stately Homo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/1999 07:10:06 PM ----- BODY:

On the decline of the stately homo:

It's the end of the world. Quentin Crisp has died. He had a lot of very strange opinions - and a blue rinse - but he will be much missed.

On swear words:

Just a little piece on the use of the word "badger". Pippa had a car. The car was old. It didn't go very fast. Pippa had a twin sister called Bella. Bella and Pippa had overactive imaginations. The engine of Pippa's car was described as being powered by badgers. The badgers had names - I forget what they were.

So this charming little imaginative fiction comes to public attention when the car is being driven up a hill. Pippa declares she is about to "whip the badgers", and places a delicately heeled foot firmly onto the accelerator.

"Whipping the badgers" becomes, very quickly, a phrase that generates widespread hilarity due to its similarity with certain expressions referring to the stimulation of the male genital by its owners hand.

Keep in mind my brother sometimes reads this weblog.

"Perhaps", people say, "this is the female equivalent! And perhaps, therefore, to call someone a "badger" is to be almost as offensive as to refer to them by the commonplace vernacular for the organ in question. What a jape!"

There's a discussion all about swearwords on the Nexus at the moment (which includes another version of the "badger" creation myth), started by a devilishly foxy young actor. Frankly, you'd think he'd have better things to do with his time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jeffrey Archer - Rot in Hell... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/1999 11:00:02 PM ----- BODY:

All together now - "Jeffrey Archer, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell..." Watch with glee as a modern (downmarket) Sir Miles Delacourt rip-off gets his comeuppance. It's like getting Capone on tax evasion. Wonderful.

Every good student of deconstructive philosophy knows that any text can be seen to be advocating any one position and its direct opposite. Watch with awe as I write an epinion about Halloween that manages to justify it as a subversive and revolutionary text. You'll moisten. Trust me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fans of Attack Force D? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/1999 11:12:21 PM ----- BODY:

Fans of Attack Force D (which include me) don't think he's ripped off barbelith at all. What do you think?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The beginning of the end... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/1999 09:07:01 AM ----- BODY:

I don't know - you finally figure out that you do want to go out with a person that you've been vacillating about for ages, only to find that you've missed the boat by a week. And it's his birthday.

I don't quite understand what has happened, and frankly I find it quite hard to believe that a mere blond engineering student could have arsed things up. So basically it must have been me that threw the spanner in the works sometime over the last few weeks. Far, far from the land of happy bunnies...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Don't let the bastards grind you down... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/1999 09:31:28 AM ----- BODY:

So I found this wonderful link back to The Bomb today. I have no idea what it says, but it sounds great. To quote: "Nìo » o site oficial do escritor Grant Morrison mas » como se fosse. Mantido por Tom Coates com um design super cool." See? Super cool...

Got a couple of e-mails about the state of my love life, which is a little unsettling, but cool nonetheless. To you people I say - keep your chin up and don't let the bastards grind you down.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Intratextual thinking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/1999 11:34:08 PM ----- BODY:

Here's an exchange for you from the Nexus. Possibly my favourite in some time. Discussing the latest issue of Grant Morrison's Invisibles...

IANJONES: And what struck me about this issue is how full of references to incidents in my own life it is. I will not go on about them because its dull. I imagine you all found similar references however, in which case the comic has achieved a kind reification of the hologramatic universe and the surface of magic mirror.

GANESHA: Yeah, it reminds me of how I daubed myself with my friend's ashes last year, and that time we infiltrated the cyphermen factory.

IANJONES: I was actually thinking a little more intratextually than that.

Well it made me laugh. For those of you that are interested, I have put up as many of the annotations for the new issue as I could, and there you go...

I haven't been suggesting many sites recently. However I can wholeheartedly recommend k10k.com for its design nous alone. Expect heavy influence on barbelith from them...

What else has happened to me recently? I won the soundtrack to Fight Club in a bizarre online competition accident. I'd tell you more, but I think I'm on to a "nice little earner". It's wonderfully moody and cool in places (and drags like buggery in other places). All I can say is, like most music, it just gets better the louder you play it.

I went to see EDtv, but don't think it interesting enough to write an epinion about. You shouldn't let that stop you watching it though - it's an idle afternoon's entertainment.

I have just found a book by Huysmans (you should all read his stuff - I swear it is wonderful) called La Bas, which includes first hand information on fin de siÀcle 19th Century Black Masses. A must buy.

Let me just undercut my "supercool" image by mentioning at this point that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer three video boxed set of the first half of the first series is now available in UK shops.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A panoply of epinions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/1999 03:55:15 PM ----- BODY:

OK. So let's get something out of the way first. I know that not everyone agrees with my epinions (and I am sorry to go on about it so much, but I can't help thinking it's a great idea), but I don't understand why some of them are much read, and some haven't been read at all. It's got nothing to do with what the film is - Forrest Gump and Natural Born Killers are read a lot, while The Matrix, My Fair Lady, South Park, Head On and The Astronaut's Wife - well, no one seems to want to go near them with a barge pole. WHY!?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being upbeat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/1999 09:47:39 PM ----- BODY:

A more upbeat weblog than normal...

I have a scheme... So I am currently working on a cunning new project that will unite all the various strands of the barbelith collective into one handy sized micro capsule of joy. The new venture is to be called "Microlith".

This is the way it works... I construct a pocket-sized easy to update mini-Barbelith, which will include little extra barbelith-esque treats - a sample from the Xenolith weblog, a random "Invisibles" quote machine, which will pump out elegant Morrison bon-mots and a "Dice Man" decision making machine. This micro site will be viewable in a tiny window about 150 x 250 pixels in size.

Now here's the clever bit. Those of you who are interested in daily interesting content will put a little code onto your pages. When people come to your pages, a pop-up window will appear (like those really annoying ads on Tripod and Geocities). Except THIS pop-up window not only has interesting content (see above), but also works as a form of web-ring, because every site that includes the code will also be listed in the members section of the micro-site - thus improving inter-Invisibles communications on our burgeoning micro-community.

I have been scheming this scheme for ages, and I think the novel combination of interesting content, webring and advert could really catch on. I'll hopefully have it up and running by the end of the week (at which point I am hopefully undertaking a second barbelith redesign in line with my new starker aesthetic). The Dice Man should follow shortly afterwards.

I went to see The World is Not Enough yesterday, and am horrified to report that I slept through a good third of it. Probably the only interesting part (that I saw) was the scriptwriters move from evil arch-criminals to the unlikely pairing of anarchists and uber-capitalists. The stuff that I did see didn't seem particularly up to par, but because of my abbreviated viewing I don't think I can really be expected to epinion it.

I got an e-mail from Tracy Scarpino about my writing on epinions and the xenolith weblog. For some ungodly reason she is getting a kick out of hearing about my family and my love life. So I thought I'd indulge her and reveal a few more crumbs about my little brother.

He's 14 (as of a couple of weeks ago) and attends a boarding school in Northants. He's called Peter and is by far my favourite relative, being decent and intelligent. Initially I was really anti- this whole boarding school thing, but if any kid is going to get the best out of it, I think it's him (I hope that he'd tell me if he hated it - he hasn't done yet). He is a great fan of the Simpsons, loves Cricket, the new Volkswagen Beetle, and (if the history file of his browser is anything to go by) is also quite the young male fan of Jennifer Aniston as well.

As yet there is no news on whether or not he is a proto-revolutionary punk anarchist, but I guess time will tell.

More examples of astonishing web design tomorrow....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microlith proceeds apace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/1999 12:03:04 AM ----- BODY:

Microlith proceeds apace. Heh heh heh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links from work... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/1999 11:04:44 AM ----- BODY:

Bit of a change of pace today, as barbelith is updated directly from my place of work whenever I take a break.

I have stumbled upon a benefit that is happening in Los Angeles later this month. Gillian Anderson (Scully on 'The X-Files') is hosting it, and it is in aid of The Trevor Helpline. This is the first round-the-clock national toll-free suicide helpline for gay teens, who are three times more likely to attempt to take their life than their heterosexual peers are.

I don't normally go for advertising charity events, but gay suicides are robbing America and the world of sexual dissidents. What kind of system generates such mind control that those who can't follow the rules feel their only option is to kill themselves?

[Today's weblog comes to you live from Tom's place of work, Time Out in London]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/1999 06:11:55 PM ----- BODY:

Not as many breaks as I hoped to have today, unfortunately. Still never mind. Bored with the hegemony of authors having their say? Shred it.

Occasionally I think you should look around at the people you work with and thank god that they are tense and irritable instead of me. Of course you only have time to do that when you are not tense and irritable yourself. In the meantime, these stressed people should be a source of endless entertainment.

Update on love-life. After several days of distance from my twenty-year-old (and an interesting sexual interlude with a young American) I feel genuinely more comfortable and settled with things. Young chap wants to be friends, which generated the wonderful comment from my tactless friend: "What the hell would you do with a twenty-year-old FRIEND!?". I, of course, only grudgingly saw the funny side.

So in the meantime I have decided just to flirt with my favourite barperson and leave it at that. Pretty sure he's not interested, but like all decent barpeople, he knows exactly how to maintain a decent level of intrigue without actually putting out.

According to evhead, "One in three men lie about the size of their e-mail inboxes by over-estimating the number of e-mails they receive - proving that size matters as much online as anywhere else."

Fed up of being at work now. I'm going home...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microlith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 11:22:56 AM ----- BODY:

Check out the beginnings of microlith (currently content-free) and the beginnings of my new stark monotonous grey aesthetic. If you complain, I rip out your spine...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A day without art... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 12:38:17 PM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: AIDS information... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 02:34:06 PM ----- BODY:

A range of important information that everyone should know about:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On archiving... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 02:48:19 PM ----- BODY:

Oh cool - I've figured out how the archiving works (duh). Have a look at my life over the last month. I've had a funny time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reviewing Fight Club... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 10:31:50 PM ----- BODY:

I wrote a review of Fight Club. Don't read it. I have no idea what I think about it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Epinions just can't stay still! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/1999 09:24:10 AM ----- BODY:

Epinions just can't stay still! Now you can post comments on other people's reviews. They've also redesigned the review pages - again I am not convinced by the new look. We shall see if it grows on me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's top ten restaurants... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Food & Drink CATEGORY: Food & Drink DATE: 12/02/1999 05:39:32 PM ----- BODY:

So, I was supposed to go around for dinner at Nick's house with Emma and John-Paul. However, somewhere along the line someone has forgotten about this fact, and now it is no longer happening, which leaves me at a loose end.

Tom's top ten restaurants/bars in London:

  1. Maxwell's (Hampstead)
    At least one night in three I can be found sleazing around Maxwell's. The food is decent and unpretentious and the cocktails are great. It helps that it is about a foot from my front door...
  2. Star Café (Soho)
    Absolutely the BEST place to go around Tottenham Court Road for lunch at the moment. I'm there pretty much every Monday lunchtime to help me get over the angst of working. Solid cheap food (pasta with meatballs) and a lively atmosphere.
  3. The Edge (Soho)
    A mixed crowd of young media deviants frequent this fun and many-floored bar. The food's pretty good.
  4. Bar Tok (Chalk Farm)
    The live classical music can be a bit oppressive, but the decor is out of a Bond villian's fantasies...
  5. The Yard (Soho)
    In the summer, there is no better early evening bar in Central London. You can stand outside and eye up the local talent with ease. It can be hard to get to the bar though...
  6. The Lansdowne (Primrose Hill)
    So it's a bit media-friendly (Zoe Ball and Norman Cook were in there a while ago with Neil Morrissey), but it's Nick's local so I have an excuse. Also the food is good quality. Can get VERY crowded...
  7. Belgo's (Covent Garden)
    I haven't been in a while, but I always like it when I do. Cheap mussels, and hundreds of types of Belgian Beer...
  8. Retro Bar (Strand)
    The most indie-tastic gay venue in Central London feels a bit like a rowdy pub but with entertaining non-scene people...
  9. Yo! Sushi (Soho)
    If you like sushi, then you can't go wrong here. A conveyer-belt brings it right under your nose, and it has a robot to bring you drinks. How cool is that!?
  10. Nando's (All over London)
    OK. I know it's trashy - but it is also the best cheap satisfying meal that you can get on a Saturday lunchtime or before a movie. Yum.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Battle of Seattle... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/1999 05:46:05 PM ----- BODY:

It's very important that you all get over to The Nexus immediately and read the first person account of the Battle of Seattle (The Core). It's incredibly moving stuff. Here's a brief excerpt:

"The whole way I was hoping that this story would get out. Hoping that the level of violence inflicted on non-violent protesters, peacefully assembled, would wake a lot of people up and show them the level of democracy in this country. Hoping that people would see what the level of force aimed at people who peacefully oppose the interests that are dominant in this country and the world. I returned home to have this hope crushed. The local news stations were reporting on the broken windows of businesses and not the broken bones of protesters. They reported on things like "police fatigue." Which I assume is when your arms get tired after you beat people for hours. They talked -and continue to talk about- the extremely "restraint, openmindedness, and gentleness" displayed by police."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No-Corporate Creative Poll... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/1999 11:33:13 AM ----- BODY:

I was so appalled by Zeldman's article on the POV 100 Top Sites Awards that I thought something had to be done immediately.

So in the spirit of promoting creative and expressive sites all around the web you should immediately take part in the barbelith no-corporate creative poll.

There are over fifty creative and intelligent sites listed. All you have to do is check out a different three or four each day until the new year and vote on which one of them gives you most hope for the future of the web. This way I get to introduce you all to a whole huge world of wonder on the web.

Each day, try out two or three of the sites below, and vote for the one that gives you most hope for the future of non-corporate creativity on the net.

0sil8.com
beatthief.com
bine.org
bittersweets.org
bornmag.com
coolstop.com
croon.com
disinfo.com
eneri.net
famewhore.com
fathom5.net
fray.com
futurefarmers.com
gizmonics.com
glassdog.com
grantstreetjournal.com
grijn.com
harlem.org
hoopla.com
industries.de
infinite-race.com
invertebrae.com
jodi.org
k10k.net
liftingfaces.com
mappa.mundi.net
navigatingthebody.com
neuesentimentalfilm.com
once-upon-a-forest.com
opussoup.com
palesky.com
perfect.co.uk
photomontage.com
pixeljunkie.com
praystation.com
prehensile.com
projectbox.com
projectcool.com
quiet-time.com
randomacts.com
rsub.com
shift.jp.org
smug.com
soulflare.com
superbad.com
suffocate.org
themonster.net
thefinger.com
tree-axis.com
truedesigns.com
uploading.com
volumeone.com
yenz.com
yugop.com
zeldman.com

Which site gives you most hope for the future?

SEE THE POLL IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On exhaustion... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/1999 10:26:53 PM ----- BODY:

Finally the end comes to an exhausting and debilitating weekend filled with tensions and parties. It would be hard to deny that I have had a cool time, but I feel completely washed out. And I have work to do before I can sleep.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On SUFFOCATE... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:22:31 AM ----- BODY:

SUFFOCATE is a group of web enthusiasts and designers who are given a different project each month. This month's concept is to communicate a message without using text.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Grant Street Journal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:27:26 AM ----- BODY:

The Grant Street Journal is a well designed personal project dripping with bittersweet insights and gripping content. Well worth a visit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Famewhore... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:34:14 AM ----- BODY:

Famewhore is wonderful place to go for design inspiration. You are unlikely to find more polished design anywhere on the net, and with a sense of humour too. Quite heavy on Flash, Javascript and DHTML, go with your browsers set to KILL...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Arsdigita poll... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:35:33 AM ----- BODY:

A review of some of the interesting sites on barbelith's non-corporate art site poll today. Once you have visited a couple of them, simply visit the poll above and express your preference!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could this be Peter Quayle? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 03:50:25 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in the middle of one of those "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" e-mail conversations that people who have just met and who are involved in the web get into. It's always a little odd - particularly when one of your sites (this one) is the net equivalent of airing your problems with your transexual partner on Jerry Springer.

The person you are talking to suddenly gets an immediate insight into every aspect of your life - which can be particularly awkward their sites are well-designed corporate creatures, free of discussion of sex lives, family members, ex-partners and ongoing American TV series.

Time will tell what the reaction will be...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Note to self... Be more evil... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:19:44 PM ----- BODY:

DAMN IT. DAMN IT. I FAILED THE ENTRANCE EXAM AT EvilPeople, INC. Note to self. Be More Evil.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Too much work to do... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/1999 03:30:55 PM ----- BODY:

Too much work to do. MUCH too much work to do. Co-worker at the Drone Factory is down with the flu, which leaves me toiling for two. On the plus side I bought myself a new VCR which is cool.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'll show you mine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/1999 01:14:15 PM ----- BODY:

Did you have a good journey into work this morning? If you live in London it is pretty likely that you didn't. Talk all about it at tubehell.co.uk.

On a rather different note, I'm perturbed by the progress of e-mail "i'll show you mine if you show me yours" discussion which started on Monday. It's just got a little, well, corporate. Don't know what I think about it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have no idea who I had lunch with... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/1999 03:37:42 PM ----- BODY:

So I had lunch with e-mail correspondent. My concerns allayed, I am now very much in the holiday spirit and wish to share this good humour with all concerned. So I hereby DEMAND that you all send each other a Time Out Christmas Card as soon as possible.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Heavy week for press screenings... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/1999 03:51:03 PM ----- BODY:

So I went out for a drunken binge with the people from my journalism course last night, which was entertaining. Dave, who works at Capital Radio did his standard trick of getting drunk and aggressive, which was as ever interesting. By the end of the evening he was busy pawing Henry, who hardly seemed to notice.

Next Monday I have a press screening of Three Kings to attend. In fact this is a pretty heavy week for press screenings - and I will try to get something written for epinions on any films that are on general release in America. I think one of them is called Body Shots, and features Jerry O'Connell from Sliders.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Day from hell? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/1999 10:42:19 AM ----- BODY:

The almighty Queer as Folk has a new site. It's not brilliant but it's not bad.

Today is the day from hell. I have to work all morning, make a short film (in half an hour at most), get my hair cut, run back and work all afternoon, see a press screening (Tumbleweed) and then proceed to a drunken party. I fear I will be very tired tomorrow.

I think the non-corporate art poll is being highjacked by people from the various sites concerned. It's very important for you people to make your votes count!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Prehensile apologies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/1999 10:52:22 AM ----- BODY:

I take it all back. Prehensile Tales is directing people to the poll and doesn't even (really) try to influence the voting. I am Jack's Desperate Needy Apologetic Aspect.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Zeldman and Tumbleweeds... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/1999 12:06:19 PM ----- BODY:

Zeldman.com has commented on the non-corporate art poll. To quote:

"The poll asks readers to visit the independent content sites honored in the Vision, and vote for the one which gives them "the most hope" about the Web. Barbelith creator Tom Coates hopes the poll will guide newcomers to "the best content on the Net" Ò since the big portals clearly don't do this job. (They point to large corporate sites that advertise in their pages.) By nature, polls are popularity contests, and that makes us uneasy. Competition is beside the point. We think the last entry should read "All the Above." Still, we are happy that Barbelith - itself a damn fine site - is promoting independent content on the Web. 'Cause, people, it's our Web, not corporate America's Web."

I am completely honoured to be mentioned at Zeldman since it is, in many ways, the decentred centre of the web - connected intimately with the Web Standards Project and the fight to keep original non-corporate content visible on the web. It's as close to representing the "spirit of the web pioneers" as you can get.

I don't agree about the popularity poll thing though. I agree that polls are by their nature competitive - but only if they are taken seriously! The poll was designed to get people to look at some of the best independent content that the web has to offer, and the interactive part is merely a means to that end. However, if people think that it is against the spirit of the sites themselves then I'll remove it post haste...

TUMBLEWEEDS

Last night I went to the press screening of Tumbleweeds. It was an affecting, slightly off-kilter film, which didn't opt for the easy answers. I basically liked it. But it was more interesting as a treatment of mothers. You felt sympathy for the mother who serially marries and runs across the country with her young daughter, pulling her in and out of schools, getting involved with abusive and violent men. She was portrayed as so childlike and confused herself that she almost couldn't be held accountable for her actions.

I sat there thinking that although the film was entirely convincing and moving, exactly the same story, with the same script but a different director, could have just as easily portrayed her as an inhuman monster.

This aspect slightly perturbed me. It made me wonder what actions couldn't be justified on screen with a sensitive back-story and a likable actor/actress. And whether the love of her daughter should really be taken as such a barometer of her morality. It seemed just as likely to me that the daughter in ten years time would resent her mother with a vengeance.

I'll think about it a bit more and then I'll post an epinion.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three small things: Croon, Zeldman, Tumbleweeds... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/1999 09:06:35 PM ----- BODY:

Three brief things. The first is really important. Both Zeldman and I got the URL for Croon wrong. Which might explain why people aren't voting for it (link goes nowhere). Turns out it's not croon.com but croon.org. Bum. I suggest that EVERYONE goes and looks at the site today and votes for it (should they feel that way inclined).

Zeldman himself (awe) has written to me and explains his feelings on the poll. Having heard him out properly, and heard his position through, I must confess I think I agree with him. Um. Finally, I wrote the damn epinion on Tumbleweeds. I am now consumed with guilt as I think I sound right-wing and single mother hating, which fills me with horror.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: American Gigolo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 12:25:36 AM ----- BODY:

You remember what I was telling you about my interesting dalliance with a young American? Well hey! Lookee here. I made me a (tiny) gallery...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Traffic to Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 09:54:50 AM ----- BODY:

The front page of barbelith reached 10,000 hits today. This is quite invigorating. The bomb has now had nearly 40,000 visitors, the nexus over 15,000. What a nice way to start the day...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vote for me... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 09:57:41 AM ----- BODY:

Could anyone who has a chance (and likes The Bomb) go to Wahoo! and rate it for me. They only include people who have been rated more than ten times in their top-rated sites, and The Bomb languishes with five.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Christmas Shopping... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 02:47:12 PM ----- BODY:

I went Christmas shopping yesterday. I didn't feel like a politically insurgent sexual terrorist at all. I bought biscuits, chocolate, videos and Lebanese candy floss from Selfridges in London. At no point did I stick two fingers up at the ubercorporations. I must be getting old.

Here's an interesting site for you: The Incunabula Papers. I'll let you make up your own mind about it though because I have yet to make up my mind.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wahoo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/1999 10:39:22 AM ----- BODY:

Yay! The Bomb is the top rated site at Wahoo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Romantic Apocalypse? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/1999 12:05:12 PM ----- BODY:

Like a recurrent dream comes the non-corporate art poll.

I went out for a drink with e-mail correspondent last night which was supposed to lead into a press screening of Three Kings but didn't. I then stumbled off alone around central London under the influence of alcohol and tobacco and freezing my arse off around Leicester Square while feeling like I was about to vomit. An interesting evening.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Movie Therapist... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 12/14/1999 04:35:44 PM ----- BODY:

Listen very carefully, my friends, for this is the most important thing I have ever had to tell you. This concerns the wonders of Movie Therapy. For years I laboured under the misapprehension that when one was miserable one watched a sad film. Slowly over the years I began to realise that this wasn't the case. So here are some of my recommendations for handling emotional instability through Meme Therapy...

Lovelorn/Lonely

The immediate temptation when one is in this kind of mood is to go and see some form of romantic comedy. The phrase "comedy" is the killer here, creating the impression that you will be invigorated and cheered up by the story. Unfortunately this is simply not true when you are feeling lovelorn - instead you are likely to find your own situation even more pitiable and begin to hate and resent the film itself.

The best solution in these circumstances is to see a film that makes you feel powerful and pro-active, rather than one that makes you feel inadequate. Action films are always relatively good, but don't choose anything with particular lulls in it as these are likely to result in a loss of interest (Pulp Fiction has too large a range of emotional responses for example). A strong figure to identify with style and panache always helps. The Matrix is great for this kind of thing.

Another way out of the impasse is to watch a terrifying film which fills you with adrenaline. The original Halloween is particularly good for this, Scream is OK, but Scream 2 is hopeless.

If you are of a slightly more cynical bent, you can scrabble a certain amount of pleasure and bile out of a black comedy. This is not recommended for those unfamiliar with Meme Therapy as you are prone to savage eyebrow movements and attacks of biting satirical wit.

Recommendations: The Matrix, A Bond Film, Terminator 2, Scream, Halloween. [Cynical Bent: Fight Club, Cube]
Anger

There are several forms of anger. If you suffer a form of frustrated anger with an authority figure or the like that you are unable to do anything about in person, then again a decent action film with a strong villain is ideal. However, the most elegant solution to this kind of problem is an anti-establishment comedy which ridicules a figure who represents your enemy rather than destroys them. For anger generated by job pressures, one of the many 80s comeuppance films (Working Girl, Wall Street) work very well.

Anger against a partner is the only time when you can effectively watch a romantic comedy, but be careful that you choose the time well as the experience of watching the film will either cause you to forgive your partner and be sensitive and loving for a while, or you will immediately dump them to be with someone you think you can be sensitive or loving with. Be careful, romantic comedies are dangerous things.

Recommendations: Working Girl, Wall Street, Mallrats, When Harry Met Sally, One Fine Day, The Matrix.

That's all for now. Remember these are not general film recommendations, but ways of dealing with and alleviating emotional difficulties that you might be facing. Go with my love, my children.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rejection and Humiliation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/1999 04:51:15 PM ----- BODY:

There's something wrong with the non-corporate poll, and I can't help thinking it has something to do with those scamps at glassdog.org.

So, I am back in pining mode after two concurrent days of rejection and humiliation, both personal and professional. I have been invited to see three separate people tonight - the wonderful Katy who is just down for the night, the heart-squished Josh R, who isn't having the best time in his love-life either and the ever-present Nick, who is determined to go and see Sonatine on the big screen.

I'm going to blow them all off so I can go home and mope effectively. This is good news for people who like barbelith, because these moods generally produce some of my best design work. You leeches...

Is the point of a weblog to record cool places on the net or to be really self-indulgent and talk about whatever you want? Hmmmm - an interesting question...

Americans should use Selectsmart to find the presidential candidate for them. That is, of course, if they are naive enough to believe pre-election promises. Apparently my ideal candidate is Bill Bradley. From having read the summaries of the various positions of the candidates, it's not that far off although the overt policy pronouncements of Al Gore aren't that far away from my own views (except for those views advocating meme terrorism and epistemological insurgency of course). [from Megnut]

I love the idea of iSyndicate and think the design (by the astonishing Powazek) is pretty elegant as well. I'm a little concerned that it will result in the homogenisation of the web, but it is just as likely that it will produce a world of better educated and more informed people. Which I suppose is probably a good thing...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger on drugs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/1999 12:10:16 PM ----- BODY:

Blogger is wacked out on drugs and speed. Whoa baby - watch that new, intricate and clever interface do its thing. Woof.

There's this quote in Heathers (the film with Christian Slater) which goes something like "Now I use my high IQ to decide what colour lip-gloss to wear". If you added to that discussions about inter-racial relationships and cultural stereotyping in Star Trek, you might have some idea of how far I have fallen over the last couple of years. Kudos to Nick to listening to me ramble on last night.

Red Meat appeals to the cynic in me, but is somehow unfulfilling. There's something too easy about most of it. You know - not quite biting enough. Having said that, this one is pretty lovely...

The non corporate poll has got into silly money as the glassdog.org crew blast it with infinite votes. I can't really be cross since it isn't a competition. Still it is a funny thing to do with your time.

In the interests of fairness, here's a few words about a few of the other sites that you should look up if you get a chance: Pixel Junkie is an elegantly designed site (rebuilt a couple of weeks ago) itself filled with links to sites of a similar classy standard. Much recommended. Soulflare takes design completely away from the technocracy of much online work towards a much more fluid, photo-impressionist style (forgive me if I get a bit florid here). A series of rotating exhibitions demonstrate some of the most intelligent work you will find on the net.

On an altogether more amusing note: for those of you who live in London check out pages 4,6 and 44 of the latest issue of Time Out. Advertrasharama.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blank Faeces... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/1999 10:38:48 PM ----- BODY:

So I used to run this site called Blank Faeces, which was designed to reward people who built interesting personal content sites on the web. Basically it wasn't a very good site, so after a great deal of thought I completely ignored everyone who wrote in hoping to get an award.

Most of the sites that people sent to me were pretty bloody awful, but I have only just stumbled upon estetik - a site which was sent to me a month ago with a note asking for feedback. Well frankly, it's wonderful...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Doom Patrol... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/1999 11:24:23 AM ----- BODY:

There is this comic book called Doom Patrol, or at least there was a good few years ago. It was written by the immortal Grant Morrison, whom we adore. Anyway - in this comic book there was this character called Crazy Jane. Jane had multiple personality disorder, with a separate super-power for each one. It sounds amusing, but it wasn't - she was a traumatised character who had been abused in her youth and who had absolutely no control over which personality (aggressive, catatonic, violent, sexual) appeared.

I don't mean to scare people, but this cutting-edge and much-loved character may be the focus of a new movie featuring (gulp) Sandra Bullock...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On DisinfoCon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/1999 12:32:12 PM ----- BODY:

Disinfo.com is having a conference in NYC. Apparently, Mr Morrison is to attend. Very jealous.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out's Christmas Party... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/18/1999 06:23:42 PM ----- BODY:

Last Night was Time Out's Christmas party, held in King's Cross in London. An extraordinarily odd evening with much drinking, schmoozing, flirting and doing of stupid things. I danced like a devil. Other than spending 35 minutes in a taxi rank waiting for a cab to take me home, and the systematic drunken abuse of a young drug crazed gentleman (and the spending of unnecessary monies) it was probably, all things considered, quite a laugh.

Tonight I have a party in South London, doing gay karaoke. It is so cold outside and I am so poor and hungover that I have to confess the idea doesn't really appeal to me. Still it might be enough general distraction to stop me thinking about various love-life related things. Had a chat to potential main squeeze a couple of days ago, in which he said that he didn't think a relationship between us could work. I replied that I knew that, but that I wanted to do it nonetheless. The only question therefore was whether or not he wanted to as well. He said he'd think about it over Christmas. For such a non-committal answer I feel strangely elated. Time will tell I suppose.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I missed a day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/1999 06:17:05 PM ----- BODY:

I missed a day. That hasn't happened for ages. Perhaps I am suffering from the apparently catching weblogger flu... [Powazek feels bad][Kottke was sick]

Quick bit of politics. Imagine British party politics as two weights, one arranged on the right wing and one on the left wing of a finely tuned set of scales. Traditionally, as one party moved further out on its wing, the other party either had to extend itself similarly down its wing or gather more support in the middle. We now have a new model, as the party that moves further and further to the right sheds voters and MPs, while the party on the centre left has a quick lie down and a glass of port.

It's a strange state of affairs when even Tories think their party is too right-wing...

I was going to suggest some links from people who hate Christmas. Yahoo has a reasonably decent selection of pretty average sites made by people who hate Christmas. But I don't hate it - not really - I just hate the inconvenience and responsibility which I feel when it starts to approach. It would be better if Christmas really was a holiday - but families are hardly holidays - in fact quite often quite the opposite.

Still it will be nice to see my brother, who as ever I miss terribly...

No word from potential main squeeze as yet. There probably won't be any unless either I make the effort or the New Year approaches.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kissing Mister Quimper... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/1999 09:29:58 PM ----- BODY:

Something to make the Americans sick. You can now preorder the new Invisibles trade paperback "Kissing Mister Quimper" on amazon.co.uk but you can't on amazon.com. More information on The Bomb (in the news and collections sections).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interstellar Laughing Stock... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/1999 10:04:45 PM ----- BODY:

I'll tell you something for nothing. If we make contact with Aliens via Heineken's website, then I will be completely gutted. We'd be an interstellar laughing stock...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 1000 votes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 09:44:54 AM ----- BODY:

The non-corporate poll reaches 1000 votes...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pirates of Silicon Valley... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 01:32:36 PM ----- BODY:

So I finally watched Pirates of Silicon Valley the other day, which a friend had sent me from America a year ago. (I have just bought a new video which can actually show American standard tapes.) I am confused about my feelings towards it - and as time has passed it has remained stuck in my head.

There are a couple of reasons for this - it's portrayal of Bill Gates and Microsoft is resolutely unpleasant, and while Steve Jobs doesn't seem entirely pleasant either, I have more respect for his attitude and his vision. It doesn't hurt that the whole film treats Gates as nothing but a scheming opportunist, nor does it hurt that Jobs is played by Noah Wyle, about who I made one of my first proper sites (and which I still occasionally update). But that isn't all of it.

I think I have fallen for Apple. More musings as they come to me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On kabbalah.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 04:57:42 PM ----- BODY:

Every so often you come across a site which is interesting, incredibly well designed and really meshes with your own personal zeitgeist. Check out kabbalah.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Support the eToys boycott... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 07:34:51 PM ----- BODY:

Support the eToys boycott (entry Dec 21). More tomorrow.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Neonlit is getting somewhere? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/1999 07:24:08 PM ----- BODY:

So my throat is slowly closing up and I am having trouble swallowing. With three days to go until Christmas, could I really be finally getting the flu? Please god no.

Battled away with Neonlit at work today, despite the fact that there are endless other things I should be doing. Finally got it to a place that I am comfortable with. Take a look. Cheer me up.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Design plague apocalypse... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/1999 04:16:52 PM ----- BODY:

Why is it that I always seem to do my best design on other people's sites? It's only small, but check out the new student guide button on Time Out's site. I think it came out rather well.

Plague remains on periphery. Hopefully I will fight it off before it gets a chance to get a foothold. At least today is my last day at work before Christmas - so I can spend tonight watching TV in bed and wrapping presents. Easy, warm, health-producing activities.

There's this wonderful thing in Baudrillard where he says that it is dull to think of the world as approaching an apocalypse, but much more interesting to work on the principle that it has already happened. There's this wonderful thing in Grant Morrison's work in which he talks about how the spiritual armageddon has come and gone and the physical world is just taking a long time to catch up. These ideas appeal to me. But as Y2K approaches, I can't help wondering whether or not we will all be hunter gatherers in the months ahead. For more see fear2k.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Death by cold... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/24/1999 09:14:45 AM ----- BODY:

So Barbelith is now getting more hits than The Bomb. Go figure. Plague marches on relentlessly. Managed to get to sleep at 3am, alarm set to 8am so that I can get the train back to my parents' house in Norfolk. Note to self: buy cold pills immediately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bizarre Christmas Stories... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/26/1999 12:13:30 AM ----- BODY:

So Christmas has come and gone and with it comes the standard array of bizarre family stories. Last year all I could manage was the weirdness of my father specifically asking for (and receiving) 50 bic biros (blue). This year I have the double pleasure of having received a carefully wrapped up can of soup from my uncle while my grandmother insists on wandering around the house saying very loudly, "Where's my pussy!?", "Have you seen my pussy!?".

Frankly I can barely keep a straight face. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cola Bottle Christmas... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/1999 11:48:41 PM ----- BODY:

Phew - the whole Christmas thing is gradually slowing to a halt. I am still at my family's house in Norfolk, but not for much longer. Wednesday morning I am on a train and should be back at home (and able to restore normal service) by the evening. Weird family stories by the bucket load, but I should probably not tell any of them. I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid conversations about politics, because I know they always end in arguments, but my mother insists that Tony Blair is an elected dictator resolved to consolidate his power. I frankly don't know what to say in response to a comment like that...

So I went to see Mystery Men [IMDB] [Epinions] [Official Site] this evening with my brother, who folded up all the arm rests and lay spread-eagled over several seats stuffing his face with cola bottle sweets. It completely reaffirmed my life-long desire to be a super-villain.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Return to London... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/1999 11:41:39 PM ----- BODY:

I am returning to London tomorrow at which point I will immediately be going to see Dogma with Liz and whoever else I can find to accompany us. My plan is to clean my mind of all the crap that has been accumulating - parents, relationships, little fucking arseholes fucking me around - you know - the whole enchilada. Hmmm... Never sworn so heavily on barbelith before. Feels strangely ... satisfying.

So I have finally found a purpose for the millennium. I am going to do a little stocktaking over the next couple of days and purge myself of every last extraneous and pointless thing in my life. I am going to throw away about a half of the crap in my room, get rid of a thousand bad friends, kill off all the sexual intrigue in my life and return to some form of automaton-like emotionless equilibrium. Accenuate the positive. Eliminate the negative... Savagely.

Oh yeah - WEBLOG - sorry - forgot about that for a few days. Hmmm. Let's see... I am currently unthrilled with students, sappy infantile concepts of Christmas, and DHTML snowflakes on web pages (these are all over the place and must be stopped).

A last note: Ask Jeeves doesn't half come up with some weird answers to perfectly reasonable questions...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being thrilled... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/1999 06:37:22 PM ----- BODY:

Hey guess what! Everyone has cancelled! Instead of seeing Dogma, instead I am staying at home and throwing away all my old papers! I couldn't be more thrilled...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mystery Men review... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/1999 11:45:49 PM ----- BODY:

Oops. I accidentally wrote an epinion on Mystery Men.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Etoys lawsuit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/1999 11:29:27 AM ----- BODY:

Today's barbelith celebrates etoys decision not to press its utterly ridiculous law suit. Bear in mind though that the precedent probably still stands.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it's New Year's Eve... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/1999 11:31:17 AM ----- BODY:

So it's New Year's Eve. I am at home in Hampstead, waiting for some kind of information about what I am going to be doing this evening. My friend Toby is planning to be down at the Thames for the events this evening, with a block of people. He is taking survival gear and rucksacks, which frankly sounds horrific to me. Nick, on the other hand, is dangling the possibility of a party filled with sexy young things for later in the evening - whether or not it is before midnight (or indeed where it is) I just don't know!

I feel profoundly exhausted by the requirement to enjoy myself this evening. That can't be right...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Millennium Eve and how dumb it was... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2000 10:33:09 PM ----- BODY:

I wanted to get a new relaunched barbelith up today, but the site is so far away from being completed, that I just can't. Which is a pity. Happy new Millennium people. Use it well.

Last night in a nutshell:

How was it for you?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future is dull... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/02/2000 11:17:50 AM ----- BODY:

Dull as it seems, my resolution for the upcoming year is to "do more gay things". I have decided that I know altogether too many straight people and far far too few gay people. I mean, am I not in touch with my community? Where is my sense of solidarity?

The web has been completely dead over the last couple of weeks - Christmas particularly killed peoples' desire to surf, and New Year seems to have done the same. The Nexus is almost empty, Kottke and Powazek have hardly been writing at all, there are no new IPOs on HSX and page views on barbelith have halved in around a week. It's all very aggravating.

Wired has exceeded expectations by producing the most boring "Things that will happen in the year 2000" I have ever seen. It's probably accurate, but frankly who cares when the future's so dull!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where were you at midnight? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/02/2000 12:36:07 PM ----- BODY:

Powazek has politely pointed out that he has written two new pieces for sf stories. I am an idiot. While we are at it, why don't you tell the fray where you were at midnight...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Internet Time (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/03/2000 01:40:58 PM ----- BODY:

Mr Blair, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has given his approval to the creation of GeT Greenwich Electronic Time. The site for this is incredibly boring, and I can't help feeling rather misses the point. I mean of course it is handy to have a standard to measure time on the net, but Swatch's system seems to me to have more going for it (although it isn't particularly intuitive). It seems to me that one of the functions of Internet time must be to make it very easy for people to agree to meet online without having to take into account regional time differences. Therefore the system must be intuitive enough for people to be able to understand, while different enough from the standard layout of time to not be confused with it. It's important that people can say lets meet at XXXX and understand where that is in relation to their own time even when their own times are very different.

So here is a preliminary statement regarding BIT - Barbelith Internet Time. My suggestion is to keep with the 24 hour clock (because people have to be able to work out its relation to their own time when things like daylight saving and stuff kick in in the real world), keep it running from Greenwich (why the hell not, everything has done for years anyway) and only abstract its presentation. Something like 3113 for 1:13 pm GMT, minutes first, hours second. I know it seems ridiculous, but it should make time translation really easy while not allowing it to be confused with local time. Six figure numbers would have the seconds at the front - hence 003021 would mean 9.30pm exactly GMT. Someone who currently uses Eastern Standard Time would be able to say to someone two hours ahead of them to meet at 003018BIT which would be half past one EST and half past three for the other guy.

Has anyone got any other ideas?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Internet Time (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/04/2000 07:14:23 PM ----- BODY:

I am back at work, and thrilling it is too... I am really taken with the way that metajohn has incorporated the date information into his blog. I may be forced to steal valuable sexy ideas from him.

INTERNET TIME PART TWO:

So the response to my first conception of Internet time wasn't particularly overwhelming. People seemed (how should I put this) ... confused ... by its purpose and/or functionality. Looking over it again they are probably correct.

So I have a new and better idea. Imagine this - you wish to organise a meeting with someone at 1pm your time. You decide on e-mail. You click on the new e-mail button, write what you want, and when it comes time to put in the time of the meeting you click on the clock icon on your toolbar. This icon triggers a "realtime" plugin which would bring up an image of a clock which you could click on, thereby selecting a time. This then writes a small piece of code into your e-mail which you would see as 1pm.

However this code at the OTHER end would be read by the plugin and automatically translated into the equivalent in their time-zone - thus your meeting partner would view it as 3pm (for example).

This plugin could then be added to any number of packages, automatically translating a particular timecode into what time it should be in the place where it was read. (Packages like word processors and web browsers are obvious examples - you can do something on the web like it with applets or javascript, but they go no further).

If you added to the functionality of the plugin by having it check the time against some form of authority (such as GMT) and automatically setting the computer's internal clock accordingly, you could have a really handy nice little device that would completely invisibly generate a standard for Internet Time.

And to make it more entertaining, you could have any number of additional translation timescales in place - you could specify you wanted to see times sent to you in Swatch Internet Time (automatically translated with Swatch's permission) or any number of wacked out systems. Think of it - on your home computer you could choose to work completely in StarDates (with the permission of Paramount of course). And if you wanted to extend it to dates, you could operate in a completely different calendar (although that might get a little too confusing). And it wouldn't matter at all, because to the people who you communicated with would all think you were making all these appointments in whatever system they preferred as well!

Is there anyone out there interested in developing such a mini-app? I even have a snappy name for it: THERMIDOR, after the month of the French Revolutionary calendar in which I was born.

More ravings tomorrow.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's the point? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/05/2000 11:09:29 PM ----- BODY:

The point of weblogs is to talk about other weblogs - actually no, that is completely not the point. Still - never mind, eh? Metajohn thinks I am nice. Drat Fink has said in response to yesterdays ravings (and I quote): "i hate it when im confronted with intelligent thoughts on other blogs, then im forced to actually use my brain, which only reminds me that i hadnt been using it prior to that point".

The domain name www.year2000.com has been put up for auction on eBay. I think bids closed at around $10,000,000 [Full Story]. Why do I suspect barbelith.com will never be worth a penny? Huh? Answer me that!

I am adding stuff to The Bomb as we speak. It might be in your best interests to go and have a look!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My first experience of a G4... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2000 11:30:14 AM ----- BODY:

British Telecom finally did something useful with the web. I know it is a shock, but it's true! No longer will I be paying 50p a shot for directory enquiries when I can go to www.bt.com/phonenetuk.

Yesterday a new G4 arrived in TimeOut.com's offices. I am in awe. Lust lust lust lust.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Best site on the web? My ass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2000 11:11:12 AM ----- BODY:

What kind of advice is this: Mystery Meat Navigation: An Introduction. People are always asking me, "What's the best site on the Web?" My response is "There is no best site because the best site is the one that as soon as someone clicks a link to go there, money is automatically sucked out of their wallet."?

Well I am afraid Barbelith operates on a non-corporate principle, as I think do most of the very best sites on the net (at least the ones that I visit). So I am therefore more than happy to be (in the words of the man who I quote above) a web site that sucks.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Top Ten Simpsons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2000 07:41:45 PM ----- BODY:

Under strick instructions from Jason Kottke I went and checked out Matt Groening's Top Ten Simpsons Episodes. I don't agree with a couple of them - Frank Grimes was appalling - but there are some classic moments here. "We have reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us!".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Catch-up time... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2000 12:55:35 PM ----- BODY:

Let's see - what have I been up to over the last week that I haven't told you about?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: AOL buys Time Warner... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2000 06:25:19 PM ----- BODY:

As far as I am concerned, the only news of the day is AOL buying Time Warner. A few months ago people were talking about how large media companies would be buying up Internet companies, but now it looks like the world is moving in another direction. AOL is already worth almost half as much again as Time Warner, which counts amongst its acquisitions an American TV Network, an international chain of shops and cinemas, Warner Bros films (who made The Matrix), Time magazine and DC Comics amongst many others. AOL on the other hand owns Netscape, ICQ and now has a controlling interest in the newly merged company. And this company is affiliated with Sun Microsystems, both of them allied against Microsoft's domination of the computing operating system market.

Things are just getting interesting...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A classic Time Out review... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2000 11:18:45 AM ----- BODY:

Time Out's reviewers have reached new heights of perfection. The new Pet Shop Boy's single "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You Are Drunk" is described as: "More dirty grunting fuckpig pop from the leathered-up and greased-down mule-bucket gore-hounds." What can I say?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Classic Coates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2000 10:17:08 PM ----- BODY:

I have been looking over sites that I built nearly a year ago now, and I can't help thinking that they were rather better than the crap I am building at the moment. I mean The Bomb looks pretty hot, but started around that time, I still think The Nexus looks like complete arse (particularly when compared with glassdog.org and Barbelith itself is little more than a gaudy stopgap.

So to help myself get myself back on form I have decided to upload one of my older projects Fin de Siecle to the site - it probably won't be updated any more in its current form (it was far far too much work), but hopefully it will inspire me to get around to rebuilding it, and the other parts of the site that are in desperate need. Whatever happened to Microlith, Dice Man etc etc? Well - I need about four months off work to get them up and running as well!

So go and check out the old Fin de Siecle and let me know what you think of it. I'll try and get the new one up and running sometime before July... (!)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Went to see Head On... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2000 11:46:00 PM ----- BODY:

Went to see Head On again this evening. It's a strange film - sexy but laboured (if that is possible). I was hoping to meet a friend for a drink afterwards, but the various people I had in the frame for the role of "friend" decided to blow me off (in the American rather than English use of the phrase).

I occasionally suggest personal sites to look at. I can't imagine two sites more different than toby.stone.org and Lynn MacEachen's site. Toby is a friend of mine with a rather ... Edwardian ... sense of fun. Among his many galleries is one of a recent party he had at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London. I was invited, but was unable to attend. Having seen the pictures, I notice a surprising lack of fifth dimensional incursions, space-time supersolids and general political insurrection...

Lynn's site on the other hand is as 21st Century as you could hope for.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Minor Traffic Spike... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2000 09:34:26 AM ----- BODY:

I don't mean to be churlish, but how come for the last week barbelith has been getting about 150 visitors a day, and then yesterday suddenly gets over 300?! There's no evidence in the referrer log. What on earth is going on?

I have been separated from most of my e-mail because of a problem with my ISP. I can still receive it, but I can't easily reply, which leaves me feeling more than a little cyberimpotent.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Popstarz Plans... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2000 09:44:05 PM ----- BODY:

Tomorrow night I am thinking of going to Popstarz in North London. Now all I need is to find someone pliant to take with me.

SKY: Friends, ER, Roswell High, Veronica's Closet, The Simpsons. I swear - I'm in television trash heaven.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The horror of Saint Valentine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2000 12:25:40 AM ----- BODY:

How sad is this. In one month exactly it is Valentine's Day. Every year it is a strange time for me, as I always find myself either tense about the relationship (or otherwise) that I am in, or feeling bad for not being in one. And the worst thing is all your coupled friends are too busy throwing flowers and underwear at each other to be any fun at all. Sheesh - some people can be so self-involved (joke).

This year is a particularly odd one. I decided a few weeks ago to aid my (I suppose) "ex" by keeping my distance for a while. Frankly I doubt he's noticed, but since everything has been calming down reasonably well (both internally and externally) I grudgingly think that it is probably a good thing. But I'm a sap for Valentine's Day and want to get him something. However, because of the nature of our relationship at this present time I need to get something that isn't too sappy, offers no pressure or anything but is still vaguely touching in a kind of lightly poignant kind of way. If I could find a way to be perfect and rise above everything then that would be great too.

I really really need some ideas. HELP ME.

In preparation for the full horror - here are some Valentines related sites: blinddate.org is the perfect place to set a couple of young proto-lovers up (or to cause mayhem by setting up bitter enemies). In a rather more trashy vein is Cupid's Cove - I don't have much more to say to that... "Loving You"'s Valentine's Site is almost enough to make me take an axe to people in couples, but I will probably manage to restrain myself for a few more weeks (four probably).

So I think I will end with an unnecessarily venomous guide to The Day of Pink. It's a little savage even for my tastes, but there's an explosion in it, so it's pretty much OK with me! Check out The Alt.Suicide.Holiday Valentine's Day Survival Kit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nick and the suit.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2000 12:42:03 PM ----- BODY:

First of three things to talk about today is a bit of an announcement. There will be a gathering for anyone who hangs out in The Nexus on February 4th at Popstarz in London. More information as I have it, but it should be a tremendous laugh with much drinking and the like. Drop me a line if you are interested!

Second thing is a little diary entry - and is also about Popstarz. On Friday night I went out for a drink with Nick E. to the Leisure Lounge and Popstarz. I wasn't sure if I was going to be in the right kind of mood for all night clubbing, but it turned out that Nick was perfect company and we had a great time schmoozing and boozing. The club is about 60-70% gay, and Nick is about 95-100% straight, but he often seems to meet attractive and interesting women there.

Nick had told me earlier in the evening that he used to explain very firmly to any gentleman who flirted with him that he wasn't interested, thanks very much, but that he had decided in recent months just to play along and flirt back for a while and then wander off with a smug smile on his face. I told him I thought this was reasonably dodgy and could really interfere with the cheeriness and good spirits of anyone foolish enough to find him attractive.

This night however, he found himself very squarely in the sights of a rather aimiable-looking 6'4" besuited man. But appearances can be deceiving and within about five minutes, said collosal gentleman was exploring Nick's body with an altogether unexpected enthusiasm. Nick looked very sheepish. Several times he gestured to me to save him from this situation, but I decided that (since all he had to do was say - oops ... sorry ... straight) he probably deserved it and could save himself. With a great big grin on my face I made a cod impression of someone who didn't understand his request.

But Nick REFUSED to 'fess up to the Giant Suit - and as time passed he got simultaneously more perturbed and amused by his situation. For an instant I turned away, and when I glanced back Nick was alone. He grinned a grin, and made a gesture of relief and we danced some more. Suddenly I find Giant Suit leering up behind me. Doubling over to reach my ear he whispers to me "Why did you have to have such a HOT boyfriend?!".

Nick is in trouble.

Anyway - the rest of the evening was fun - I met a great guy from the LSE with whom I spent an entertaining evening and whom I wish I could see again, but don't think I will. I could tell you more, but I don't think I will. All in all a pretty entertaining few hours.

Finally, on a rather more geeky note, I have been looking at iSyndicate Affiliates (which was designed by our esteemed colleague at powazek.com) in preparation for the big redesign challenge I am setting myself. But it occurred to me that I hadn't seen many of their affiliates out there in the real world, which made me wonder if they would be of any use to me at all.

So I was interested when today I was sent the URL for a site called Fragile Minds which uses similar newsfeeds from places like moreover.com. Fragile Minds is an interesting site which illustrates that one an use these newsfeeds not just to replicate the content of the information provider but to allow you to produce a site in which everything you create is new, while still offering more of a service to the people who read your site.

I'm still not totally convinced by such newsfeeds, but it is cool that there are decent sites out there using them.

So that's it for today - quite an epic post - much longer than normal. Hope you are all having a good weekend!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More epinions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2000 05:28:17 PM ----- BODY:

I accidentally wrote some epinions of: Moby, Play / Roswell High / Empire Strikes Back. Sorry!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Understanding people is too hard... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2000 05:04:03 PM ----- BODY:

Hey look - barbelith's non-corporate art poll was clearly such a spankingly hot idea that it has been liberally appropriated by Vitaflo's gorgeous site [HREF section].

In personal news, having decided to get over ex (Max) and thrown myself vigourously into the pursuit of new foxy people, I get an e-mail from him asking myself and Chris out for a drink. I reply to e-mail. No response. I ring him, he sounds pissed off with me. I give up. Understanding other people is too hard.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First hateful e-mail... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/18/2000 09:43:39 AM ----- BODY:

I got my first incredibly offensive reaction to the weblog today:

"Please shoot yourself now. You should be ashamed of the shit that you put on this site. I know people that could do a much better job of it than you do (my six year old niece for one). I'm sure that Grant is sorry for endorsing your site. Fucking do it right or fuck off and let someone who is actually a fan do it."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sick of bad news... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2000 07:58:55 PM ----- BODY:

So I got a note from my Landlord:

"An old friend has been calling me over the past couple of weeks saying that he desperately needs accommodation as soon as possible. He has asked me if I have any space and I feel that I would like to help him out. I'm afraid that I will therefore have to ask you to vacate the room. I'm sorry if this causes you any problems and is disruptive for you, and I'm sorry to break the news to you in this way, but I hardly ever see you to talk to these days! Please retain this month's rental as return of your deposit and let me know as soon as possible when the room will be free. I am out this evening, but will be around tomorrow morning if there is anything you would like to discuss."

I think I might have to give up reading. I'm sick of bad news.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Post-Millennial Fall-out... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2000 12:20:28 PM ----- BODY:

I am at home today writing epinions and thinking. It's been a funny month/year/decade/century/millennium so far - in fact in many ways it has been downright unpleasant. A lot of my friends are reporting the same feeling of being lost, almost desperate for 'something'. I wonder if we wanted things resolved before the new year that just couldn't be resolved, and now we are coping with the fallout from our clumsy attempts to resolve them. To those of you who feel the edges of a spiritual apocalypse - good luck.

Word used to be a visually and intellectually stimulating place to be. Now I must confess I can't be bothered to read it. The knock-off Yahoo! look is so offensively dull when divorced from the pure functionality of the directory itself that it actively discourages me from reading the articles. Powazek is getting quite heated about their designers, and I have to say that generally I pretty much agree with him.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reviewing Trompe Le Monde... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2000 01:23:15 PM ----- BODY:

Shit. Tom wasted a morning writing a review of The Pixie's last album Trompe Le Monde.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Typical Max encounter... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2000 12:40:25 PM ----- BODY:

I'm not normally one for this kind of thing, but someone suggested I have a look - and what do you know - it looks just like BARBELITH.

I have decided to have a policy in which I suggest links at the top of each new entry and those few of you who want to follow the unending soap opera of my life can then read on into the paragraphs below.

Biggest worry of the week is film censorship. There's this really interesting article about a film which has just been banned outright in Australia (disinformation). This comes at the same time that standards in the UK seem to be relaxing (with the release of films like Head On). I can't be the only person in the world who thinks that an adult should have no restrictions on what they CAN see, and that they should figure out for themselves what they WANT to see. Doesn't seem very tricky to me at all!

What have I been up to? I went for a drink with Evil Michael after work on Friday at the Leisure Lounge in King's Cross. He was great fun for a while, but became increasingly irritable and aggressive the more drunk he became. I get a little worried about him at these times, and frankly I don't know what to do about it. I then decamped to Popstarz, which was exhausting, but fun, and having been drinking for eight and a half hours I decided I should go home - only to discover that my landlord had wandered into my place, knocked a couple of things over, stood on a plate and removed my blinds without asking me. Since I have no curtains and face the sunrise, my actual sleep amounted to about two hours. And while I was hiding under the duvet from the world, Evil Michael rang at 9am forcing me to shout at him a lot.

Saturday night was spent with Max, with long and intense conversations in which I said that I didn't think I should see him for a while. He got a little upset by this, said OK, then we went to a late night showing of the Matrix and he rang me the next morning. All very strange.

Flat problems may be getting gradually closer to being resolved. Kate has suggested we talk about the possibilities of living together and with Manuella. I am more than happy to do this, except for the fact that they don't want to do it as quickly as I do (which means that I might have to live on people's floors for a couple of weeks - gulp). Still - at least it's a move in the right direction.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the middle of a redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2000 09:38:36 AM ----- BODY:

Hey kids - look! I am in the middle of redesigning The Nexus.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2000 11:26:57 PM ----- BODY:

Interesting day - I met up with a guy I knew MANY years ago at Bristol. Very interesting day indeed.

This is a brief quote from the weblog at the beginning of November: "So - everyone on the Nexus hates the new look for this site. Which is a bit disappointing, I have to admit. It seems slightly pathetic to actually ask people for nice comments. [10:49:17 AM]" Opinions are mixed on the new look as well. Very strange day. Very strange day indeed.

American Beauty [Non-Official/Official] won three Golden Globes. My friend Katy designed a really impressive site for the film. My other friend Kate has a friend called Tara who is also really cool, pretty scary and inspired the phrase "GODZILLA! / tiny japanese village" (don't ask). She also worked on the film. We all wish her the very best. Very exciting times indeed...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing Mark... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2000 09:44:05 AM ----- BODY:

The net gets younger and younger. Riot Hero is still at school (15! 15!) and is producing an above average weblog dripping with interesting little tricks and techniques. It's enough to make you feel practically octogenarian. He's never even eaten a lima bean.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Bomb's going to be on telly... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/27/2000 10:30:03 PM ----- BODY:

So an incredibly cool thing might be about to happen to me. Channel Four have a late night slot called 4 later. On this slot is a TV program called Disinfo Nation which is hosted by Richard Metzger with whom I have (many moons ago) had many an e-chat. Anyway - so I am checking my referrers log when I stumble upon the page above, in which tonight's episode is said to include (and I quote):

"Websites of the week belong to The Bomb, a fan site dedicated for Grant Morrison's cult comic book The Invisibles (which contains an amusing "Dress Up Lord Fanny" cartoon game), plus porn queen Rebecca Lord's own informative sleaze site (in which she doubtless dresses up her own Lord "F", just not in such amusing colours...)"

It looks like The Bomb is going to be on TV! Set your videos for 00.45am on Channel 4 (UK).

Mini Bio: Richard Metzger was in charge of scamming the corporate weirdos into funding disinformation before they freaked when they saw what he had done with it. Needless to say they let him, the company and quite a large amount of money go in one fell swoop. Metzger managed to get vast amounts of publicity and tapped into the zeitgeist that also abortively produced The X-files to produce a site that actually made money. He's now merged with the omni-directional Razorfish SubNetwork, but we don't blame him for that in any way.

There's so much more I want to talk about, but I haven't got time. Brief personal news items for those of you that care:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bomb was on TV... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2000 09:45:01 PM ----- BODY:

So The Bomb was indeed on TV last night. Slightly bizarre seeing my work up on the screen. Certainly not unpleasant, but strange nonetheless.

I have about a thousand links that I have been building up over the last week or so, but I am going to save all of them until tomorrow. Instead a quick bit of boring life monologue. Feel free to barf if it gets too self-indulgent.

For the first time in nearly a month, I am at home on a Friday night. I hate being at home on a Friday night. Cos then Saturday morning just oozes past so slowly and suddenly you only have a day left before work begins. Today's reason is as amusing as ever. I decide it would be a cool thing (you know - meet knew people, show Max how cool I am with the whole not going out this) to hang out with Max and friends - and drop him a note seeing what he is doing this evening. He says that he'll ring me today. And then he doesn't ring. At 5 I think I should find out what he is up to so I ring him. He sounds flustered and then says that on second thoughts it probably isn't the best idea if I go out this evening since he is trying to line up another guy. So I am left on a Friday night with nothing to do but sit around thinking about Max sleeping with other people. There's a fun evening for you.

Still I might manage to wangle a drink out of Evil Nick if I get a chance. Only time will tell.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The first IRL meeting of the Nexus... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/30/2000 12:42:51 AM ----- BODY:

ANNOUNCEMENT: The first multi-national IRL meeting of The Nexus will be taking place this coming Friday (4th February) at various locations across the globe. Check The Nexus for details of local meetings.

For those of you in London - many of us (hopefully) will be meeting at the Leisure Lounge in King's Cross before proceeding to Popstarz's new home at The Scala. These are indie/alternative nights at mixed gay/straight venues. I will be at the Leisure Lounge from about 8.30pm and I don't expect to leave the club until approaching 5am the following day. I have no idea how I will recognise people, although someone suggested that we all wear black trousers and t-shirts, which is an intriguing mixture of Left-Bank Existentialist Philosopher and Denizen of Geekworld. If anyone wants more details, then just drop me a line at tom - at - barbelith.com - otherwise I look forward to seeing you there.

I'll stick up another reminder on Friday morning!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Browser 2.0" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/31/2000 11:15:44 PM ----- BODY:

A while ago there was a book called "Browser". Now there is Browser 2.0, and it's great. I was wandering through it in Covent Garden's Waterstones the other day and was amazed by some of the quality of the sites and browsers that it contained. Normally with these kind of books, the sites are all displayed to their best advantage in print, and when you see them on the screen they seem to lose something.

Anyway, as a sampler, here's a few of the best sites that it contained: cybergeography.org [much cooler than it sounds], visualroute.com [you remember all those bits in films where hackers are traced through loads of computers. This is a bit like that and you can do it on the web], and my favourite of the moment: BureauDestruct [check out the random 60s logo generator prog].

Can anyone figure out what the hell these people are talking about? The Bomb is mentioned half way down the page.

Life update: I went to see American Beauty on Saturday night and adored it. But it also sorted out loads of things in my head. So now I am living where I am until the end of the month, then taking two weeks holiday and moving stuff up to my parents (and either going to Mexico to see my ex-boyfriend or the SXSW Interactive thing in Austin, Texas so that I can finally meet all those cool people I see lurking around the net). Then I am back working in London and looking for a flat with Kate and Manuella while staying on the floors of friends. Note how I haven't mentioned Max in this two month period. That is because he is not going to be in this two month period (I give it a week, but let's try to be positive).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Nexus has completely disintegrated... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2000 02:05:32 PM ----- BODY:

The Nexus has completely disintegrated, and I have no idea why. I am working on the problem, but I don't really know what is going on, so I don't know how easy it will be to fix. Keep your fingers crossed, otherwise our burgeoning proto-community may have collapsed before it even really began...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How self-referential is this? Blogging STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2000 09:44:17 PM ----- BODY:

How self-referential is this? Blogging Blogger just to say congrats to riothero who should be very proud of himself for getting himself noticed by them in charge, thus progressing nicely down the path of web-celebrity-hood.

He dropped me a note to ask whether or not he should go to SXSWInteractive in Austin. I didn't really know what to say - I don't know what the atmosphere would be like. Anyone who knows whether or not a 15-year old web wunderkind would fit in should drop him a note.

Still wavering over whether or not I will be able to attend myself - if anyone fancies crushing my anti-establishment demeanor under the boot-heel of sponsorship then I would probably consider it. In the meantime there is always SXSWb to read - the community weblog for the event.

The Nexus, you will be glad to hear, seems to be working again - although not without the odd judder and near-collapse. Still no idea what is going on.

I'm taking a couple of days off work to rebuild Barbelith. I have lots of cool ideas, but I have been suffering web-designers block for almost a year now. [Sites like vitaflo don't help. Bloody talented arseholes.] Only Jack Fear's tough love approach ("build that site you pussy boy"-esque) managed to get me to rebuild the site last time. Can I do it by myself?

Is going to the gym evil? I have been attending occasionally for the last six months or so, but I am now confronted with the possibility of joining for a full year at a hugely discounted rate. But it seems somehow immoral. I can't decide.

Final note to Kerry. Get a grip man. xx

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Epinions.com has a new feature... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2000 12:31:36 PM ----- BODY:

Epinions.com has a new feature. You can now "distrust" people whose opinions fill you with bitter revulsion. In theory, of course, it's a great idea. Whether or not it will work without being horribly abused - well we shall see...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Complete redesign of Evhead... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2000 03:01:43 PM ----- BODY:

I don't know when it happened, but Evhead has gone and done a complete site overhaul. It's a pretty good look as well - it manages to keep a selection of complimentary colours going at the same time without looking gaudy. And it's always a good read...

So the Nexus get together in London was a bit flat all things considered. I neglected to remember that the initial bar was going to be heaving because of Popstarz's move the the Scala. So Nick (The Tower) and I wandered around amiably for a couple of hours, stumbling across friends of ours looking slightly lost and waving a piece of paper around with "*NEXUS" written on it. Unsurprisingly it didn't work that well.

We did find one sub-cultural colleague, though - SleazeNation (alias Rob) appeared, and I think he had a pretty good time. After a while we all wandered over to the club and bounced around for ages. Bis were playing, which was cool. I got to hear them play Eurodisco live, which was fun. I also met a young man called Luke and we had a conversation about how we were both apostles (and then we had to reconsider as we couldn't remember whether Luke only wrote a gospel or whether he was one of THE TWELVE). Introductions over, we pounced on each other, which was entertaining. Nick thinks he looks just like Max, which is a little alarming.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Megnut overhaul... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2000 03:12:18 PM ----- BODY:

Sheesh! They are all at it! Now megnut has had an overhaul as well. I will confess I am not as keen on the look of it as I was the last one, but the content remains as fresh as ever.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblog Junior High... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2000 03:58:54 PM ----- BODY:

It's such a pity. Weblog Junior High is a great idea. It really is. At last, an interesting metaphor for directories of weblogs. Unfortunately, the idea is undermined by the execution. I mean, how rude can you be?

And the reaction hasn't exactly been positive either. Powazek isn't thrilled about it. Only usr/bin/girl/ seems even the slightest bit into the idea.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not fully functional... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2000 01:20:30 AM ----- BODY:

One of the slightly annoying things about using Blogger is that you sometimes have to redesign your site on the hoof - so you can check everything works when you upload the new templates. As you can probably tell, I am halfway through the site front end redesign. Quite a lot of it isn't fully functional. Very sorry! I will finish it off tomorrow night. (I can't believe I am being so unprofessional).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everything's broken... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2000 01:28:26 AM ----- BODY:

Sheesh - you can't even tell where the links are. I'm too tired to fix it now. Hope everyone is having a good evening. I'll fix it all tomorrow. Please be patient!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evhead has gone and redesigned... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2000 01:05:10 PM ----- BODY:

Evhead has gone and redesigned his site again... There's no keeping him down. The new look is pretty sharp, although it would be cool to have his photo back - I always think a photo makes a blog more personal. I'd do it myself if I had a better photo handy.

Ev also makes a couple of interesting points about my use of Blogger. He's completely correct of course, although it hadn't occurred to me to try it the way he suggests. Possibly because it was one in the morning, I wasn't thinking straight.

Weirdest news of the day comes via Jason at kottke.org. There is talk of a war between Simpsons creators and fans...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-referential weblogging site of the day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2000 06:11:30 PM ----- BODY:

Self-referential weblogging site of the day goes to the GLBT Weblog Portal. Barbelith's half-baked redesign project has been noticed so far by Evhead, Prolific and Riothero.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith redevelopment update... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2000 12:45:10 AM ----- BODY:

BARBELITH WEB-SITE DEVELOPMENT BLOG:

"Damn Netscape!" and "Damn Cascading Style Sheets" and "Damn, Damn, Damn Blogger". I have just spent the last two and a half hours trying to get the Blogged text to sit nicely in a style-sheet in Netscape. Have I succeeded? No I bloody haven't. So for a while I have removed them, leaving the text all blocky and ... normal ... If anyone has an explanation for my problems getting a span class=maintext to work on all the fields in Blogger, then please god drop me an e-mail. I NEED HELP.

I'm also mildly grumpy with Dreamweaver. I almost never use it, because of all the code fudges it produces (although it is by far the best WYSIWYG editor), but JUST THIS ONCE I decided that I couldn't be bothered to go through the process of hand-coding rollovers. And does it work? Well, almost but not quite. If I refresh the page I get lots of errors reported in Explorer. Bloody infuriating. I'll probably just convert over to my standard ones, but if anyone could swiftly debug the Dreamweaver-produced code then I would be grateful again.

Well anyway - I have managed to add less today than I hoped, but the front page is nearing completion. And once that is done, the others will follow swiftly. Although having said that, I might be going to see a special preview of The Talented Mister Ripley tomorrow night, so delays might occur.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bumping into Cortex... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2000 02:07:43 AM ----- BODY:

Just bumped into Cortex at riothero's webcam/chatroom. We did one of those I'll show you mine... conversations which introduced me to his elegant blog. Very much worth a visit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Visual Thesaurus and Blog-design update... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2000 09:12:18 AM ----- BODY:

Now here's a (relatively) orginal use of new technologies. The Visual Thesaurus really illustrates what all those books about deconstruction and poststructuralist philosophy were on about when they talked about language as a system of differences, with meaning endlessly deferred. It reminds me a little of this program called "The Brain" that was some kind of online fad a few years ago (although this site actually has a point).

WEB DEVELOPMENT BLOG UPDATE:

I am aware of the errors that the page is throwing up at the moment, and I am aware that there is very little past the front page. All this is being worked on as we speak. In the meantime, let's pretend that this is a really interesting learning experience for those of you who have just started building sites, and follow me through the process day by day. Now won't that be fun?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I make people happy! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2000 01:13:07 PM ----- BODY:

I make people happy!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone is talking about the redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2000 11:23:36 PM ----- BODY:

Everyone is talking about the redesign, and the site isn't even finished yet. I'm really quite embarrassed. Hit a bit of a wall today when I stared at it for three quarters of an hour trying to work out what it is lacking. Can't decide....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Talented Mr Ripley... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2000 02:15:08 AM ----- BODY:

Liz and I went to see The Talented Mr Ripley. It was a strange film in many ways - the pacing seemed really off, the film overlong and many of the characters acted in a rather implausible fashion. A while ago people were talking Oscar nominations, but it would really be an injustice if it got any. Having said that, Matt Damon acted superbly and Jude Law just oozed charisma. I guess one of my particular weirdnesses with the film was that it was about this gay guy called Tom who kills lots of people. Which is like me, apart from the killing bit.

I have fixed the Javascript error that people were getting when they tried to use the Dreamweaver generated rollovers - I had to replace them completely with a piece of tried-and-true code. Unfortunately in the process I made it easy enough to follow dead internal links that I haven't built yet. Keep saying to yourself, "It's not shoddy, It's a collaborative experience in the process of web design". Of course it would be much quicker if I didn't have to work all day at timeout.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shauna's amazing flaunt.net... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2000 11:42:56 PM ----- BODY:

After what seems to be an absolute age, Shauna's flaunt.net is finally broadcasting again. There was a time in the middle of last year when I visited her site almost everyday - she is one of the few people I know who have managed to generate a site developed completely from themselves, their interests and personalities, without seeming self-indulgent or dull.

She runs a couple of other sites as well. I had a piece on one of them a while back - ember.org is a site where people talk about their first experience of love, whether happy or ... otherwise ... It's on a bit of hiatus at the moment, but there is still a years worth of oozing human experience to wander through.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't go to SXSW... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2000 10:02:24 PM ----- BODY:

I honestly believe that there is nothing in the world that is too sensitive or awful a subject to be made a joke out of. Humour is built upon transgressive statements, but it is also built upon a common understanding of what the person who makes the joke actually believes. People are very negative these days about "political correctness" - but it was never about not making 'offensive' jokes about sensitive subjects, but about not saying offensive things and meaning them. Here's a good example of something unbelievably funny from the Onion (for those of you who aren't easily offended): Why Do All These Homosexuals...

I think I have finally reconciled myself to the fact that I am not going to be going to SXSW. I still feel that I might at any moment change my mind, but basically I think I must face the facts that I just can't afford it. Now I have to work out what to do instead.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microlith up-and-running... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/11/2000 12:57:54 AM ----- BODY:

A brief site update before bed. Microlith's tiny little weblog is now up and running, the random Bomb quotes are functioning effectively, and the Dice Man choice-making machinery is picking up speed. "But what is Microlith?", I hear you ask. Well, I have added the explanatory section to the site, and that will tell you everything you need to know. I'll do my best to get the rest of the site up and running as soon as possible.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fucking Max cocks up again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2000 11:48:47 AM ----- BODY:

Did Tom have a nice friday night at Popstarz? No Tom did not have a nice friday night at Popstarz. Last you lot heard of Max was that he had stood me up two nights running shortly after we had agreed to be 'friends'. He had demanded that we see each other regularly as friends because 'he really didn't want to lose me' (or something like that). So after these two events he swore blind that he would contact me in the following week and we would go out for a drink. I, understandably, didn't believe him. And how right I was - three weeks passed, I get all cheerful and functioning again, and then I wander into Popstarz last night to see him in marathon kissing sessions with his new boyfriend. When he registers I am there he bounces over to me and is all cheerful, as if it would be an astonishingly weird thing if I was freaked out by seeing him with someone else, and as if it was perfectly normal to ignore someone for a month and screw them around. So then I had two hours of bumping into the happy couple in various rooms of the club and feeling like dirt - which (as I am sure you can imagine) was fun. This morning I feel as if I spent the evening being kicked in the head and stomach.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The 5k award... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2000 01:07:22 PM ----- BODY:

Occasionally when talking to people who aren't as anally-obsessive about the net as I am, or whose angle is almost entirely corporate, I realise that there are things that no civilian will ever get about web page design. The 5k award is one of those things. The concept is simple and elegant - to design a page, complete in execution, concept and design, in which everything (HTML, graphics, scripts) must not amount to more than 5k. And the prize? 5000 (5k) cents. $50.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evil Valentines... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2000 07:53:42 PM ----- BODY:

Admit it. Every single one of you out there knows that you would like to send one of these Valentine's Day cards to someone. I personally can think of a couple of contenders. In the same spirit, an old web chum is holding her yearly Anti-Valentines Binge (involving much wagging of the fingers and sticking out of the tongues) on Monday. Happy couples in Soho. Watch out - here we come.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On feelings of loss... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2000 01:26:48 AM ----- BODY:

Complex studies have revealed the least visited page on barbelith.com. It is, I suppose unsurprisingly, a page on fin de siècle, an old site of mine that I have only recently reloaded, and which at the moment is only accessible from this page. Look for the entry for February the 3rd. You could be the third person ever to have seen it!

I have actually just returned home from an evening out attempting to distract myself from incumbent life crises. Today has, in many ways, been one long attempt at distraction - not all of it successful. I'll be more honest than I probably should be in saying that I have never felt such loss about a ex-lover before. So anyway - in order to take my mind off things I have gone to see Toy Story 2, spent the afternoon shopping for Minidisc players and the evening drinking trashy Barcardi Breezers in a friend's house in Kensal Rise. It is now 1am and I haven't had to think about anything for almost twelve and a half hours. I am horrified to confess that this is one hell of an accomplishment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblog of absolute note... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2000 01:37:06 AM ----- BODY:

Weblog of absolute note today has to go to mood-indigo.net. It's a an extremely well-designed and elegant log, with areas reflecting all the interests and aspects of Rachel. But I think the thing that attracts me most to the site is the same thing that attracts me to this form of communication in general - honest and personal online self-expression. Rachel is more than comfortable with exploring her cultural identity online - just as I (I hope) I am on occasion with my sexual identity. And she has managed to make the design of the page emerge from that identity, which in return reflects back and clarifies her sense of herself. A wonderful site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let's get our stats out... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2000 08:04:36 PM ----- BODY:

I think I am going to break some kind of weblogging taboo and discuss stats. I don' t know why it should feel so odd to do so, but it is almost as if (when you pass a certain stage) you feel a need to keep this information to yourself. Perhaps it is the online version of not standing directly next to people in urinals [I wonder what the female equivalent of that is]. Anyway - let's get this over with - there are around 250 visits to barbelith's front page every day (phew - I came out and said it), another 200 to The Bomb and the same number again to The Nexus. I hereby send this challenge out to everyone else in the weblogger community. I've shown you mine...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stats redux... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/15/2000 09:51:09 AM ----- BODY:

Don't ask about yesterday. I decided to pretend that it never happened and get on with my life uninterrupted. Although I should briefly say thanks to Liz, Nick, Katy, Evil Nick and Ed the barman.

Barbelith's weblog has been named by Bloat as one of the top ten weblogs for the week, and the site has finally started to register on metalog's ratings page. I am pretty cheery about these things.

Opinion is divided as to whether or not talking about stats is taboo - but webloggers are talking about it all over the place. To start off with, check out the comments (and occasionally figures) of: prolific, riothero, evhead, bump.net, Ghost in the Machine, Oh Messy Life, Wetlog, rastorweb.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A top ten of heroes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/15/2000 01:18:52 PM ----- BODY:

A couple of days ago there was an appeal at work for people to produce a top ten of their heroes. At first I thought it would be an easy project, ten minutes at most. But the longer I thought about it, the more I realised that I really didn't respond to the world in that way. When I was a kid, I never really had a hero - no role model to aspire to. After a bit of thought, I came to the conclusion that for many people today, the whole concept seems dated. So instead, I decided to concentrate on people whose life or work has interested or inspired me.

  1. Jean Baudrillard
    The first person I read who managed to take all the weirdness and fun of the world and collide it with philosophy. His take on transexuality, terrorism and cancer invigorated me when I got bored of academia.
  2. David Bowie
    He taught me to swagger - and there is nothing more important than that - the ability to wander through the world, even for a few minutes, as if you were total, perfect and owned the world.
  3. Kim Deal
    The Pixies were the first band to make me feel drop-dead cool, and while Frank Black was the main driving force behind them, Kim Deal kept the spirit of them alive with The Breeders. I met her once, and asked her to write a sexy autograph for a friend of mine. She grinned, wrote "Fenner, FUCK ME, Kim Deal" and then disappeared. How cool is that?
  4. Sigmund Freud
    The biggest name on my list should be read by everyone. His less plausible ideas are now ridiculed, while the rest have been gradually transformed into "common sense". Whatever your opinions, his insight was astonishing, and his ability to work through a problem unprecedented.
  5. Sam Mendes
    American Beauty appeared in my life at a rather difficult time, and in the course of a couple of hours managed to resolve almost every worry that I had. Since then, new problems have arisen, but the experience of watching a nearly perfect piece of art remains.
  6. Grant Morrison
    What can I say - the writer of comic book The Invisibles co-opted my mind about five years ago and has yet to let go. His work ranges in quality and cohesion, but never fails to head-fuck.
  7. Derek Powazek
    One of the most important areas of my life is my presence on the web, and I think I can be completely honest in saying that would not have been the case without Derek's work. Web god of fray, kvetch.com and sfstories.com - he is probably responsible for more wannabe sites on the net than anyone else.
  8. Luke Rheinhart
    Much more than any of the theoreticians I have read, Luke Rheinhart's The Dice Man opened up the idea of personal transformation (through disintegration) to me. His ideas and humour created a world in which there was only possibility.
  9. Kurt Vonnegut
    He wrote many books, but by far the most life-changing (for me) were Slaughterhouse 5 and Timequake. He is to science fiction, what Salman Rushdie is to the fantasy novel, and his insight burns with thrilling intellectual gambits and a jet black humour.
  10. Noah Wyle
    I was 24, thinking about leaving my doctorate and terrified of what was to come. And so rather than think about it, I watched ER, where Doctor John Carter was in exactly the same situation as I was. And he was almost exactly a year older than me, and he was beautiful. It's a strange choice I know, but what can I say?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "You are not a designer..." STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/16/2000 11:53:04 PM ----- BODY:

Someone at work today would not let me express my opinion about the navigation scheme of a site that I am connected with, because - and I quote - "You are not a designer". I was incredibly frustrated by this statement. It's true that I have no formal design background, and I am merely a self-taught HTML coder, but I honestly believe I could make a living from freelance web-site design. If there are any professional and/or freelance designers out there who could let me know if I am deluding myself or not, it would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, enough about the frustrations of work. Pretty much every day I go and visit riothero's site. After my post yesterday about my heroes (about which I got a very nice e-mail from Mr Powazek himself), he posted a message to his site about the possibility of us collaborating on his new site - hero.nu (not live as yet). I started thinking about it immediately and have been considering it all day. And the answer is - let's do it!

The Oscar nominations came out yesterday, which cheered me up quite a lot, as I had invested in a good number of the films concerned at HSX. I was, however, disappointed that Wes Bentley wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I know he's young, but his performance was incredibly assured.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Redesign Madness... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/17/2000 10:00:13 PM ----- BODY:

There is a secret frantic redesigning madness coming over the weblogging community at the moment. Latest to fall for its charms (for the second time in recent weeks) is the inestimable megnut. The new look is bold and manages something really obvious that I seem to have overlooked in my recent redesign - a great big obvious logo. Now why didn't I think of that?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm scared of the dancing bunny... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/17/2000 11:11:19 PM ----- BODY:

Let's start the day with something frivolous and infantile. Say it with me: "I'm scared of the dancing bunny".

I've had a lot of e-mails about whether or not I could pass for a proper web-designer. No one has said anything negative, but then I suppose I shouldn't really expect them to - I needed validation and I received it - thanks to you all. However, one thing is clear from the e-mails that I received - there are an awful lot of people out there with talent who are being passed over in the web design business for people who have managed to fudge their way through print design courses and don't really know what the hell they are doing. Without wishing to get all "support group" - keep the faith my brothers and sisters. It's those of us with the passion that produce the interesting sites...

A lot of people are worried about Mark at riothero. He's been having a pretty hard time of it lately. I'll tell you this much for nothing. I've been having a rough ride recently as well, but I wouldn't be fifteen again for all the tea in China.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Randomwalks, Little brother and Not Going To Popstarz... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2000 09:36:51 AM ----- BODY:

This is the nattiest little feature I have seen on a blog in a long time. Look up in the top right hand corner of RandomWalks and you will see a little check-box. If you select it, all links on the page open in a new window. If you don't select it, then they open in the same window. The whole sordid question resolved in one elegant move.

My mother and brother came and visited me for lunch yesterday. My family lives in Norfolk, which is a two and half hour train journey from London, so they don't visit that often. Yet again I realised how much I miss my brother when he's not around.

Tonight is a Friday night, and for the last month that has meant a trip to Popstarz in King's Cross to bounce around and flirt with people. This week however, that is not going to happen. Last week's thing is too fresh in my mind for me to even think about it. But I have to think of something to do otherwise I'll brood. Perhaps I'll go and see The Bachelor - although epinions of it seem rather mixed. Or perhaps I'll stay at home and order my first pizza online (Domino's) and watch Buffy and Angel on TV. That normally cheers me up.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm quite proud of this... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2000 05:45:23 PM ----- BODY:

I'm quite proud of this one - a little tiny microsite I built at work today for the Time Out London Eating & Drinking Awards 2000. It's not particularly flashy, but it does the job.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My last weekend in Hampstead... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2000 10:52:57 AM ----- BODY:

It's a Saturday morning in mid-February in Hampstead and the beginning of my last full weekend in this flat. Over the next week I am loading up all my stuff into a van and driving it up to Norfolk, where my parents live. And then I have a month of homelessness (including two weeks of holiday) where I will be sleeping on the floors of friends. I am contemplating wandering over to America for a week or so - I might go and see Kerry in Los Angeles.

At the moment though, I am sitting in my bedroom looking out over Heath Street and thinking about the last year and a half living here - all the stuff that has happened to me, all the stuff I have had to deal with and all the stuff I have accomplished. It's a strange time indeed.

Things on the web move so fast. Yesterday at work I was asked to write a list of a few sites that I thought were well designed and interesting. I duly wrote this list from memory, only to find that glassdog.com had completely changed its look, famewhore.com was on a self-imposed hiatus and vitaflo.com (a recent favourite of mine) had disappeared completely without trace.

Opinions can change so quickly too. Derek Powazek, an old friend to barbelith, used to have a pretty low opinion of weblogs and weblogging - until he tried it for himself. Now he's written a piece about it - What The Hell Is A Weblog And Why Won't They Leave Me Alone?. It's interesting reading which raises a fair number of important questions (including "Why do people waste their time when they could be building something Big, beautiful and daring).

Even emotions seem energised and heightened on the web. Riothero has been in my thoughts a lot recently - when I first stumbled upon his site I was amazed by his energy, and as time has passed he has managed to connect that energy with a flair for writing entertaining and quick-witted copy. His latest move has been to put a personal letter online - one that resolves his recent crises with Lyda. It just goes to show how the weblog can become something completely beyond its initial remit as a bunch of interesting links, and can become a synthesis of confessional, entertainment, journalism, column and online diary - a new and interesting, albeit low-key genre of writing. I only have one question - I wonder if she knows?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Map of the Weblog World... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2000 11:23:37 AM ----- BODY:

There's so much to talk about today, but I am going to start with one of the coolest things I have seen in years - a java based map of the weblog world. I am really getting quite keen on the concept of a map or metaphor approach to keeping a record of webloggers, and this one is particularly impressive. The first thing that I noticed however was poor weblogs that according to the map don't have anyone linking to them at all. So - while I don't really believe that these people are all out in the cold - why not visit - justinhankins.com, Rob McNair-Huff's Weblog, dowler.net and noahgrey.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a hectic weekend... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/20/2000 11:23:16 PM ----- BODY:

What a hectic weekend. I've seen Nick, Evil Nick, Kate, Toby, Steph, Liz, Ed and ... loads of other people. I have been to the cinema (The Bachelor sucks), the gym, Maxwells (twice), PJs (once), Waterstones and ... loads of other places. I'm exhausted.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On invisibles.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2000 09:20:07 AM ----- BODY:

Here's an interesting thing (for you visitors to The Bomb). A young Bryant Durrell has registered invisibles.com. Looks like it happened quite a while ago as well. I only noticed because this person linked to it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The daily weight of idealism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2000 02:56:10 PM ----- BODY:

Today's choice of news/music is inspired by a mood of self-doubt, insecurity and incumbent paranoia. At lunch I went to Virgin and noticed that John Lennon's "Imagine" has been re-released (at least in the UK) in a digitally remastered format. I listened to it, and it really matched my current mood - Jealous Guy, How Do You Sleep and particularly Crippled Inside. The aspirational songs - Imagine for one - meant absolutely nothing to me for the first time in my life.

My sudden feeling of connection with Lennon couldn't come at a more difficult time for his memory. The papers today have been dripping with the news that he donated money to the IRA and Marxist groups in the UK and America. The BBC's angle is that the information might be innaccurate despite Lennon's feelings of solidarity with the IRA during the 60s and after Bloody Sunday. In retrospect it's pretty easy to see any affiliation with the IRA as ill-advised and dangerous - but at the time... Well - I don't know what I think, to be honest. As to the Marxist stuff - all power to him! While I might view communism as a rather bloated dinosaur (only slightly more bloated than capitalism, I fear), I have great respect for any man who lives under the daily weight of idealism. There's loads more information at lennonfbifiles.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A dark secret... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2000 11:42:21 PM ----- BODY:

The dark secret of my past, Noah Wyle: Man or Animal?, is updated for the first time in eight months. Embarassed I may be (first substantial site I built, about three years ago in one of my weird phases), but it's important to me that I'm never responsible for a Ghost Site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The ethics of discussing your friends... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2000 07:18:43 PM ----- BODY:

A quick query on the nature of weblogging. One of my friends works in a pretty high-powered capacity in the British film industry. She tells me a fair number of really cool stories, which I generally wouldn't repeat (and certainly not in a public place like this). In addition to these stories, she has expressed to me a couple of times her feeling that some people try to use her and her friends to get 'kudos' - valuing her job and the people she knows more than they do her. For these reasons I made a conscious decision not to talk about her on this weblog.

But then it came to me this afternoon that many webloggers discuss their friends to some extent - and that there really isn't that much difference between mentioning the exploits of a friend who works in a supermarket and one who is responsible for famous people's corsetry. What gives me the right to talk about Toby, Nick, Kerry or even Max without their consent, or even (on occasion) their knowledge. I am perturbed.

It's the final episode of Queer as Folk 2 tonight. It's difficult to assess quite how much impact this TV series had on gay culture in the UK. The first episode showed all kinds of things that you would never be able to see on an American TV station - a well plotted drama which depicted casual shagging and 'true love' in the gay scene, underage sex handled realistically, gay people working in supermarkets and (of course) a whole bundle of pretty people having relatively explicit sexual relations with each other. The trailers for this week's episode include the immortal Stuart saying "You're not queer, you're a straight guy who shags men". If you want to see more, there are one or two really good screencap archives.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weird stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2000 12:33:38 AM ----- BODY:

I don't know if this is dodgy practice of not, but I've checked the other nominees, and at least one of them is doing it as well. Vote for Barbelith's Xenolith weblog as Pyra's Blog of the week.

Queer as Folk 2 may have ended with a few slightly odd moments - the revolving car, day turning into night, the epic speech of Stuart Jones - but I haven't felt as invigorated after a TV program since, well since Queer as Folk 1. This whole episode felt like Thelma and Louise, only with a more uplifting ending. I'd be interested in hearing everyone's opinion about it.

I have had a really interesting conversation with prolific on the subject of my comments yesterday (writing about friends). Needless to say, our conversation was both thought-provoking and entertaining. She's using humanclick technology which I tried out a while ago. At the time I couldn't see why it had advantages over a normal chatroom, but I may be changing my mind.

Final thing for now: G L I F F writes: "Let's hear it for barbelith, the only openly gay weblogger, (as far as I know, anyway)." I'm terribly flattered to be mentioned at all, but you should all be aware of hit-or-miss.org which includes a whole lesbian and gay weblogger portal. There's some really good stuff there...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Getting Ed Drunk... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2000 09:52:20 AM ----- BODY:

Tonight is my last night out before I move on Saturday - and Nick, Toby and I have decided to say thank you to Ed the Barman (for all his loyal years of helping us get nicely lubricated) by taking him out around Soho and getting him drunk. All very satisfactory.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another timeout.com microsite... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2000 04:22:59 PM ----- BODY:

Here's another little microsite that I built for timeout.com - Should Ken Livingstone stand as an independent candidate? Answer the question!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wired will show you the way... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2000 06:29:40 PM ----- BODY:

If you, like me, pine for the good old days on the net, before IPOs and uber-corporate assimilation, then you will be delighted to know that weblogs are our way back to the future we used to believe in. Wired will show you the way...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Should I be 'less gay' in my weblog? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2000 09:17:25 AM ----- BODY:

I've just signed up to join web queeries, which is a glbt community blog. I'm a little sceptical about the idea at the moment, mainly because I'm trying to work out what the difference should be between writing for it and writing for barbelith. Should I be "less gay" in my weblog? Should I be only writing "for gay people" in the group one?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Zannah is Blog of the Week... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2000 09:19:21 AM ----- BODY:

Zannah won the blog of the week over at blogger.com. Congratulations, old girl, you deserve it. In other weblog news, Fairvue is a site I haven't seen before, which drips design savvy and has a wonderfully tiny icon-based links bar. The only problem is, barbelith doesn't have a logo. Note to self - improve site branding asap. A couple of other nice people have started linking to barbelith - dailybread looks and reads really well. It's a pity she's cursed with that damnable GeoCities advert - stuff and rot has said lovely lovely things about the layout around here and has introduced me to a couple of sites I'll be visiting much more often - and finally, a proto-blog is coming together at Luke's site o' stuff. Could it be the world's first overtly Christian blog?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a mess I'm in... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2000 06:29:39 PM ----- BODY:

You can wander on for days with everything seeming to be running smoothly before suddenly realising exactly what a mess you're in. Today I decided to book my van to take all my stuff up to my parents. Except I pretty quickly discovered that I wasn't going to be able to find a van for a reasonable amount of money. Everywhere is booked and the only place I could find a free van wanted to charge me £50 a day (minimum of two days) plus tax and plus an additional £150 if I wanted to drop it off at their depot in Norfolk. A little simple arithmetic makes that £250 - which is around $400. I don't think THAT is going to happen.

So I contact my parents and my mother agrees to lend me her car for the day, which is pretty cool of her, but it means that I have to be in Norfolk first thing on Saturday morning in order to drive down to London to collect everything. Which means that I have to leave tomorrow straight after work (otherwise I won't get home before they go to bed). Which means that all the packing has to be done tonight. All of it. From scratch.

This is turning into the week of hell.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Words are the binding agents for reality... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2000 11:07:13 PM ----- BODY:

The slightly bizarre baltimorecitypaper.com has a feature about the disinfo.con. And I quote: "Easily the most charismatic speaker of the event was the wiry, shaven-headed Scottish writer Grant Morrison, whom, judging from the enthusiastic applause, is becoming highly regarded ... The great underlying truth that makes this so, Morrison said, is that "words are the binding agents for reality," and hence can bent to our desires".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The idea of web queeries... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2000 09:30:59 AM ----- BODY:

The idea of web queeries is really growing on me (now if only I could do something about the name). I'm beginning to see the possibilites of this new form of journalism - a weblog that publishes important and entertaining news and is edited/researched by a variety of people, most of whom will never have met one another. I think when I made the leap from thinking about it in terms of personal content and more towards comment and news, the whole idea made much more sense to me.

No one seems to have got my Voyager reference yesterday, which is probably a good thing to be honest, as I'm sure enough of you think I am a geek as it is. There's this episode in which Captain Janeway, the slightly jowly woman with the squeeky voice (and rather 'hands-on' approach to interstellar diplomacy) has been being attacked by a race called the Krenim (or something like that). As the cast all rock backwards and forwards in stylised "starship been shot at" ways, Janeway scowls and then remarks to herself, "this is turning into the Week of Hell".

The joke? The episode has the rather less optimistic title "Year of Hell". Let's hope I am not similarly ill-fated.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Xenolith becomes Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2000 11:05:10 PM ----- BODY:

So I changed the name of the weblog from Xenolith to Barbelith yesterday, since it seems to be the most substantially operative part of the site at the moment. And now it looks like no one can find the thing. I still prefer Xenolith as a name for it, but I thought it was too confusing - people were calling the site all kinds of different things. Weird, disturbing things...

According to the age guesser, I am 31. I suppose it's not that far off the mark. Only four years. Still - quite clearly in the wrong direction. It works on quite a cool principle - each answer to each question corresponds with an age, at the end of the series of questions it asks you your actual age. Every question that you answer in the way they expect (eg. answer "duran duran" if you are in your thirties) is weighted slightly more. And every question that you answer in a way that they did not expect (eg. answer "Stretch Armstrong" if you are in your eighties) is weighted slightly less. In time - only the really accurate questions will carry any weight at all. The questionaire is evolving...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You turn your back for a moment... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2000 09:53:03 PM ----- BODY:

I don't know - you turn your back for a moment and everything goes to hell.

Reasons to have hope for the future:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Genetically Modified Homosexual Corn... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2000 04:19:25 PM ----- BODY:

"What are we going to do with a room full of genetically-modified homosexual corn?" asked Harry Hill on television tonight. I wanted to help him find an answer by sending you all to look at harryhill.com - but apparently it was a fansite and was shut down by an overzealous production company. If anyone can find a decent Harry Hill site, then let me know asap.

I've written this post three times today and every time, something has fucked up. This is my final attempt before pouring coffee on my parents' computer and tearing out all my hair. And I have so much to say... I am finally back in Norfolk after the marathon moving session. After work on Friday I got a train back to Norfolk (arrived at 10pm), grabbed about four hours sleep before jumping into my mother's car, driving back to London, picking up Nick C and Nick E (who had very graciously helped me pack), finally managing to get back to Norfolk by half-past six. Bloody exhausting day, all things considered. Now all I have to do is wait for my passport and I'm off to LA. Watch out, Kerry - here I come!

There's an article in the Sunday Times today which is being discussed at the moment in the Nexus - it's about two superheroes called Apollo and Midnighter who are both men and having a relationship. Quite why this is a newsworthy story is beyond me. There have been gay superheroes for years - find out more at the Gay League of America.

I remain in regular contact with the ever-changing site of riothero. Over the last couple of days, he has said some really nice things about me in both e-mail and on his site - like it's good to be 27 and that I don't look like the back end of a bus. Which is nice. I'm a bit embarrassed actually, as I can't help thinking he must have hit the juice quite hard recently to have caused such brain-collapse and eye-failure. Anyway, the conversation reminded me of one of my old sites, which is basically a photo album. Check it out if you like: slutcore.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any more self-referential - the weblogging universe collapses.

Finally, a couple of updates on yesterdays posts. Not that it really matters, but barbelith has reappeared on Metalog ratings. riothero and wetlog have now explained to me why I had dropped off - apparently it is post-redesign linkage withdrawal. I suppose that makes sense. Having said that though, I think my reappearance at number 28 makes it clear that you only have to ask a stupid question or say something controversial to get rated once more. Go figure.

[Addendum: Thanks to Weblog Wannabe for the Smurfalizer link (see yesterday).]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sucker for Ego-Stroking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2000 07:44:53 PM ----- BODY:

I love prolific. She said nice things (as least I think she did... why - "heh, heh, heh"?) about the pictures of me at slutcore. I'm such a sucker for a bit of ego stroking...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bomb meet Suck... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2000 07:49:22 PM ----- BODY:

The Bomb has been linked to from Suck. How cool is that. I mean - I should probably talk more about the article itself, but this is Monday Self-Promotion Night, not the Bi-Weekly Friday Philosophy Marathon.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My passport arrived today... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/29/2000 11:19:09 AM ----- BODY:

My passport arrived today. Which means I am off to LA in a couple of days (probably Thursday now). Kerry is being really sweet and dropping me little warning notes about the weather in California at the moment. Let's just compare them, shall we? London weather vs. LA weather. Now which one do I prefer?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evhead, Jason, Katy and more... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/29/2000 06:12:38 PM ----- BODY:

According to Evhead, Jason is wearing a cool t-shirt with a body tag on the front and an end body tag on the back (if this means nothing to you it means that you are a dinosaur and will be unemployable within a year). Jason mentions the very same thing on his site - he is apparently wearing this shirt-of-almighty-cool. However, as far as I can tell, he hasn't done a stroke of work all day, which means I haven't been able to see him, which means no glimpse of astonishing clothing artefact. Very depressing.

Once upon a time there was this girl called Katy, and I met her at this thing that the ******** ** **.*****.**.** were having in London (it's a geek thing, and I am too embarrassed to go into details - see if you can guess). Anyway - it was my first IRL meeting with people I had met online and I thought everyone would be a complete freak. Needless to say, they weren't - and Katy has fast become one of my premièe online friends. Today she directed me towards a really cool thing that another online foxtress (Zannah) has put together: windoze 2000.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 8am wake-up call... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/02/2000 07:58:50 AM ----- BODY:

OK. It is 8am, and I am about to be driven to my train, from whence to another train, and so to the airport, and so for an 11 hour flight to LA, arriving around five-thirty pm. Wish me luck....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the way to LA... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2000 07:23:13 PM ----- BODY:

Thursday was a very long day. Not one of those long days where you feel like someone has grabbed each end of the day and stretched it, but one of those days when someone actually HAS. And not only that - they pulled with all their might.

I got up at 8am to the sounds of my parents arguing about who would have the privilege of taking me to the train station ("You do it", "No! You do it" followed by "I suppose I'll do it", "No, I suppose I'll have to"). An hour later, I am on my way to London. By 11am I am crossing London, and by 1pm I am at the airport. Two hours pass. 3pm - we board the flight and then it is a mere 11 hours before I land in LA. 6.30pm LA time (PST), 2.30am for me.

Kerry collects me and soon we are watching episodes of Friends that are repeats to him and partner (Sean), but have yet to even appear on cable in the UK (8pm PST / 4am GMT). Around 10pm PST (6am GMT) Sean and Kerry decide we have to go to a nearby club. I am surprised how chirpy I feel and agree instantly. But by the time we reach 7am GMT (11pm PST) I am wilting savagely. Kerry drives me back and installs me in a bed.

Where I suddenly (of course) find it impossible to sleep (for various reasons - not worth going into particularly). 2am comes and goes (PST), at which point Sean reappears - bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and with a great big grin on his face. It is nearly 5am PST, 1pm GMT before any of us manage to sleep. And by 10am the next morning (which of course I think is 5pm) I am wide awake - eager for stimulation again...

27 hours awake. 5 hours asleep. I will be dead before the week is out.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sporadic Travel Diary... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2000 10:42:03 PM ----- BODY:

This is more of a sporadic travel diary at the moment than it is a weblog - but I don't suppose I can really do much about that - it's not as if I have much time for surfing at the moment.

LA is an extremely odd place - particularly for someone more used to the rhythms of London. Superficially they have a lot in common - large metropolitan masses, both of which are centres of a country's entertainment industries. But London is so much more condensed and compact, whereas LA is just so much more ... overwhelming ... than you'd expect.

I think the thing I feel strangest about is the absolute necessity of cars. In London, I can have a friend to stay and I need almost never see him. People can come and visit, crash on my floor, I can feed them in the evenings and chat to them before sleep - but all the rest of the time, they can jump on a tube and go and do their own thing (if they want). But in LA, if you don't have a car you can't even really move.

That puts strains on the guest, who lacks freedom of movement and is continually dependant on his hosts. And that in turn puts even greater strains on the hosts - who are continually having to be stimulating and entertaining (when I'm sure they would much rather be asleep). I should say at this point that Kerry and Sean have been more than great in this capacity - I have been taken to a couple of Hollywood(ish) parties, wandered around the shopping areas and seen a couple of films that aren't out in the UK yet - some good (Scream 3) and some ... less good (Drowning Mona) - I have been made to feel welcome by all concerned.

I can only hope that I am being as good a guest as they are hosts...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Radio Barbelith is back... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2000 04:11:42 PM ----- BODY:

Radio Barbelith is back on the air. Every day over the last week that I haven't been able to update the site I have felt more and more anxious - what if everyone got bored and wandered off? I mean - there are thousands of wonderful weblogs that are updated every day without fail. They wouldn't let something as tiny as a holiday interfere with their duty to their readers. (I am thinking of stable barbelith links like kottke.org, riothero and megnut)

Well, anyway, it's back and not likely to go away again in a hurry. And that's even considering the difficult situation I find myself in. Regular readers will know of my homelessness - a couple of weeks ago I moved out of my flat in Hampstead and took all my stuff up to my parents' place in Norfolk - and then of course I embarked on my epic voyage to LA. I am now back in London, only to find that Virgin have mislaid half of my luggage, my mobile phone has run out of energy and I can't contact any of the people who said that they might be prepared to put me up for a couple of nights. Tom Coates - homeless, without any clean clothes or means of communication...

But of course I must not dwell on such concerns (shit shit shit shit shit shit shit), and instead must talk about my time in LA. I can't even begin to talk about everything, but a few images really stick in my mind - flying over the lights of Las Vegas at night (able to pick out individual casinos and roads), half naked men bouncing up and down on coffee tables, the sun setting over Venice Beach and the madman with the bubble machine. And of course, my ever gracious and hospitable hosts, Kerry and Sean.

Quite a lot has happened on the web while I have been away as well. blogger has been redesigned (by none other than powazek himself and even riothero has reached some kind of design plateau after the frantic changes of the last month. More later, as and when I get the chance...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a party in Austin and you can't come... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2000 06:26:23 PM ----- BODY:

"Hey Tom, there's a really big party going on in Austin, but you can't go."

SXSW fever is running rampant through the webloggers. And those of us stuck five thousand miles away can only pine for what might have been - and of course check out SXSWb, images by pb (day 1, day 2, day 3) and metafilter, and the commentary from powazek, prehensile tales and riothero.

Still it's not the same as being there.

I feel bad for not talking more about my LA time - so here are a few sites for the minor celebrities I bumped into: Loren Dean [at party with him - he wore lots of plaid], Tyne Daly [wandered around the pier in Venice Beach], Gina Gershon [sat behind us chatting away during a showing of Wonder Boys].

Needless to say I have found a place to stay (take a bow Evil Nick). Bed finally located around 7pm GMT. My luggage arrived this morning at work more or less intact as well. Everything seems to be coming together. I went to see The Insider so that I wouldn't fall asleep too early. It was a pretty strange film - only in America could people be surprised by the news that cigarettes are addictive. The most interesting part of the film (the media politics and strategies/counter strategies) were unfortunately the bits without the most interesting character/actor/performance. Russell Crowe is a god.

And before I forget - IF YOU DON'T ASK YOU DON'T GET!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A bitchy question borne of frustration... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2000 11:59:51 AM ----- BODY:

Can someone explain to me how it is possible that I can cross the world and crash on someone's floor in LA for nearly nine days, but when I return to my home country and home city, almost none of my friends are prepared to house me for even a couple of nights. Has anyone got an answer for me?

As ever the best way to cope with the many disappointments and injustices of life (and people) is to ignore it completely and muck around on the net for hours. Which is what I intend to do.

I am delighted to report that vitaflo is back on the air at last. Not a lot seems to have changed, although the site is altogether more ... green ... The HREF section is still the best guide to the best design sites on the web - a constant source of inspiring work.

Here all about Grant Morrison's appearance at the DisinfoCon from the site itself. And I quote: "I probably shouldnÌt admit this here, but IÌm not familiar with 'The Invisibles' comic, so I had no idea who Grant Morrison was, but he was very funny, very drunk, taught us Magick, and sure that he had been on a ride with aliens in Katmandu, so he had my attention!"

And I am probably the last person to notice this, but Epinions has also finally launched it's full version, complete with clean and elegant design and cheery little smiley things. The only slightly depressing thing is that I have spent so much time running around like a headless chicken in recent months that I am in imminent danger of falling off the bottom of their Most Popular Movie Reviewers list.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guide to Planetary... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2000 12:53:38 PM ----- BODY:

Trash culture purists only: A comprehensive and interesting site on the comic book Planetary.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Temporary plateau of weirdness reached... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2000 02:01:18 PM ----- BODY:

Temporary plateau of weirdness reached. Things remain weird, but have ceased to get increasingly so. Chris has said he will put me up for a couple of nights, which is really decent of him and means that I can now slide through into next week courtesy of him and Liz. I am getting increasingly worried about my new potential flatmates however - not in terms of whether I will get along with them, but about when we will actually find a place to live in and what compromises will have to be made in the process. Hopefully I will have resolved this by Friday night.

Most attractive new weblog of the day definitely goes to Fifty-Five.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the epic saga of The Well... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2000 02:18:20 PM ----- BODY:

Any regulars to barbelith are familiar with the nexus - the anti-establishment post-counter-sub-cultural discussion forum. Recently there has been rather more in the way of conflict and flame-wars than normal - so much in fact that I have been sent a really interesting article from Wired about The Epic Saga of The Well (May 1997). The well was one of the first and most significant online communities, and it was - at times - wracked with conflict and crisis.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I respect honesty in reviews... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 03/16/2000 01:50:33 PM ----- BODY:

If there's one thing I respect it is honesty. But it's a dangerous thing - particularly when the question you are answering is loaded. Take for example Oh Messy Life's DLOG (presumably is to Designlog as blog is to weblog [although surely that's the less pronouncable NLOG]). Barbelith was featured there a couple of days ago, in a generally complimentary fashion (and I quote):

"Everyone's favorite self-doubting, nomadic Brit Tom has voiced doubts over whether or not he, being self-trained, has the skills to compete with the college-boy designers. After looking over Barbelith, the obvious answer is that he's a natural..." [Overall grade - B]

He continues to make some very valid points about barbelith.com being continually under construction - which of course is the biggest sin in the whole web world (although he omits to mention that I am homeless and mostly computer-free which makes finishing the site rather difficult). All of this is more than reasonable. I don't have a problem with it - in fact I am flattered that barbelith was considered worthy to be reviewed.

I'm a little less sure about his more scathing reviews. He says of regular barbelith link, riothero:

"I know he's only 15. At that age five years ago, I'd barely begun using email, much less learned HTML. Still, though, I must pull no punches! I must be a bastard and speak the truth as I see it, and the truth as I see it here is that Riothero.com is a boring site to look at." [Overall grade - D+/C-]

I think that this really exposes the flaw in his approach - is he going to review the personal sites of web-designers who have been building sites since they were invented (kottke.org, powazek.com - both favourites of mine). Or is he going to review the personal sites of the rest of us, whether we are 45 year old bank managers, 15 year old students or 27 year old journalists? And if he really is going to analyse both, is it fair to use the same criteria? And what about content? Popularity? Would he be as "brutally honest" if it was a twelve-year-olds first site? Because we all know how crushing these comments can be...

Although having said that, jish seems to be taking it quite well...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weird queries... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2000 01:57:53 PM ----- BODY:

One thing I really need to know - does Darren of timemachinego go to the EasyEverything on Tottenham Court Road? Because if he does, I'd like to wave to him one day from the balcony at Time Out. Which reminds me - the website is currently running a online drugs poll which I worked on.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm still at Chris' place... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2000 07:06:36 PM ----- BODY:

I'm still at Chris' place which is nice because he doesn't expect me to go out and entertain him all the time and he likes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is ultimate escapist entertainment. Tomorrow I'm on the move again though, which is exhausting - this time to Camden to stay with Liz. And of course I have my meeting with my new flatmates. The sooner I get a flat, the sooner I get my computer back. The sooner I get my computer back, the sooner I can finish the site (and the sooner I can get a good night's sleep).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah... Symbolism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2000 07:12:54 PM ----- BODY:

Today began with a very sad event - a direct result of my vagrancy - somewhere in all the move I crushed one of the pairs of sunglasses I bought in LA. If I was of a more morbid disposition I would say it was symbolic.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A day without blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2000 06:24:47 PM ----- BODY:

A day without blogger. And a difficult day it was too. My complete inability to update the site at lunchtime or before work has been profoundly frustrating. In general this has been a pretty weird day, and one that cannot hope but improve (that is of course assuming that my meeting with my new flatmates goes well). After that, I am off to the Liquid Lounge, before (possibly) heading on to Popstarz. I'm wearing a dark blue Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt with the number "36" on the back should anyone else be there.

What is it with A&F anyway? We don't have them in the UK (so forgive my ignorance) - I picked up some of their clothes while in LA with Kerry and Sean. The catalogues are renowned for their homoerotic imagery (and with good reason), but they still seem to sell just as much to straight men of a pretty conservatively masculine disposition as they do to gay people.

A&F are basically part of the same trend in clothing that spawned the horror of the Evil Gap Clones - ie. everyone wearing the same thing - looking the same. This is a great source of horror to many people, and given my politics you might expect me to have a similar reaction. Weirdly though, I don't - it's almost as if clothes have become so generic that they have become invisible - for most of us they are no longer the demarcation points of culture or class. Perhaps homogeneity has resulted in a certain amount of liberation. Perhaps if we all wore the same thing....? On the other hand, I always have in the back of my mind the line from A Handmaid's Tale - spoken by the arch-conservatives who want to 'free' women from dangerous things like 'free will' - that there are both freedoms to and freedoms from. It is the sign of the politically libertine to always aim for the former ("go libertines!").

Homogeneity in and of itself shouldn't be considered a bad thing - sometimes the act of mimicry inevitably carries with it a certain amount of irony. Take openlog for example - is this a piss-take, an affectionate (self?)tribute or a straightfoward design decision? It's the same and yet because of its mimicry it has its own unique identity. [Check out kottke.org if you don't know what I am talking about.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How did I miss haughey.com? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2000 06:27:57 PM ----- BODY:

Before I get down to business (as it were), can someone explain to me how I have missed haughey.com after all these months of weblogging. I can't even remember how I found it today. Very much worth a visit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A final thought... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2000 11:39:54 AM ----- BODY:

As a final thought - a bizarre Invisibles Preview has appeared on ebay. Does anyone know anything about it? If so, let me know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Design critiques... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2000 11:57:25 AM ----- BODY:

Andy at Dlog has responded to people's criticisms of his weblog design reviews (including a slightly savage one from the real world). His reply is well considered and good reading. I was particularly gratified that he decided to clarify his criteria for review:

"Some people have voiced concern over how I'm judging the quality of a weblog based on design. I don't think that's the case, though - I'm just talking about the layout, the look of the page. As I mentioned earlier, Riothero is one of my favorite blogs. And kottke.org, for that matter, is a site I rarely visit. My stupid little "grading system" has nothing to do with how Good or Bad a blog is, just what I think of the design."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Describe your weblog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2000 12:11:36 PM ----- BODY:

I've just decided to join weblogs.com. I've been putting it off for weeks because I was stumped by the question "Describe your weblog". I always find those questions both alarming and absurdly difficult - it's like those bits on CVs (resumés for the Americans amongst us) where you have to explain why you are perfect for the job. They make me queasy. Anyway - this is what I have managed to come up with:

"A half-baked attempt to fuse personal writing on the web with commentary and links of a futurist, politicised and millennial nature."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: QuietRiot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2000 01:06:51 PM ----- BODY:

Mark at Riothero is having a pretty weird time at the moment - not that you would know it from the main page of his weblog. If you want to read some of the most heartfelt and occasionally painful writing on the web, you have to explore his Quietriot section. You need a password, but as long as you don't actually know him in real life, he's pretty cool about sending it out. Obviously I can't go into detail about what he is going through at the moment - that would rather defeat the purpose of the password - but let's just say that anyone who has ever been a teenager and in love will be able to relate to everything he says. In some ways it really reminds me of the writing I did when I was his age - I have these notepads hidden away somewhere at my parents where I used to write down all the things I couldn't say in public. I read them now and again and they hit me like a ton of bricks.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being John Malkovich... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2000 01:15:56 PM ----- BODY:

I went to see Being John Malkovich yesterday afternoon with Liz, Katy and Rhonda. I can't tell you how excited and inspired I was. I think it has been years since I saw such imagination and playfulness on screen - and I don't think that I have ever seen it from a Hollywood studio. The Guardian has assembled a pretty useful page collating all the British responses to the film - definitely worth a visit.

This is turning into quite a year for impressive film-making - a few months ago, American Beauty stomped on my head, and now this! And next week - Magnolia. It's at times like this when I really hate the fact that UK release dates are so far behind the US.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Living in King's Cross? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2000 01:24:37 PM ----- BODY:

I don't even know where to start today - there is so much that I want to say. After a week back in the UK, sleeping on people's floors, I finally think there may be hope on the horizon. Kate, Manuella and I went to see a flat in King's Cross yesterday that blew me away. It's not the most beautiful of buildings, and it doesn't have a sitting room, but the bedrooms are clean and large and have lots of plug sockets (these things matter to me). But the most impressive feature about the place is its location. We can see King's Cross station from what would be my bedroom, and Popstarz is just over the road. I just hope everyone agrees to it - and soon...

I've been thinking about LA again over the last couple of days. I haven't heard much from Kerry or Sean since I left, and in a strange way I miss them. I was listening to Beck on the radio today and it brought it all back. His album is full of references to Hollywood and hot-tubs and the like which only really make sense if you are in LA - and of course it has special relevance if when you are being driven through the city your host points offhand and murmurs - "Oh - and that's where Beck lives..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Moving... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2000 11:16:58 AM ----- BODY:

In about an hour I have to go and meet my prospective new flatmates (in the process probably missing an old friend's birthday party) to discuss their anxieties regarding the flat in King's Cross. I can't help but think that the experience is unlikely to be entirely positive - but I have to try to restrain myself from saying that I'll get a place by myself. I still don't want to, but it has occurred to me a couple of times that perhaps we are just looking for different things in a flat.

I don't get it - everything seemed to be going so well. The King's Cross place looked like it had at least two of us completely committed and only one waverer. How did that situation turn into one where I am the only one who still wants it? Over the last 24 hours I had really managed to resolve things in my head - the location seemed to give me opportunities to make more gay friends and to be a local/regular at one of my favourite places in London. By yesterday evening the ever-present anxiety of my vagrancy had almost completely faded, and my mind was swimming with the possibilities of living so close to the centre of London. And now...

Let's drown our relative sorrows with a few links: Are webloggers becoming self-indulgent?, Bump redesign madness.

With the end of the Invisibles in sight, I am again considering the fate of barbelith, the nexus and the bomb. This is what I have come up with so far (a quote from the nexus):

"My thoughts on the future of barbelith have been prompted by Eloi and a variety of other people's comments - some more carefully worded than others ... "My ramblings on the front page (which I accept might not be to everyone's tastes) - were originally put up because i didn't have anything else to put there - people weren't sending me things to put up and those that were were generating so much work for me that I didn't have time to do it, a full time job and eat or breathe. "However, I have roughly decided to buy myself a new domain name to shift the weblog into (because I enjoy doing it and I get a lot of positive feedback but I accept that it might not always be in the spirit of the Invisibles) and from there attempt to concentrate more on the subversive and political aspects of the Invisibles on Barbelith. "All opinions are valued - but projects that require considerable initial effort with limited difficulty in updates are preferable to me to those which are less initially time consuming but take longer on a weekly basis. I would ideally like to be able to almost completely leave the page for a few weeks without it dying. I am thinking of some system which would misuse something like blogger to put content into pages as easily as possible. Perhaps some kind of article submission proceedure, where I built a page which ten or so people were randomly chosen as editors for things people wrote to them (to spread the load), and could post them as required, with me only having to update the front page. It could be like a repository of articles somewhere between Disinfo and the Bomb's analysis sections. We could even use the articles currently in the analysis section to smooth over any gaps in the schedule. I would be thinking of getting between four and six new articles a week up. "I don't know really - what do people think of that kind of thing? Discussion could then follow in the Nexus. "Oh and bear in mind that the Bomb as to remain a substantial part of the site... "All ideas appreciated, as I say - and look out for web-applications and web-based publishing ventures that might help the site operate with as little FTPing, html rewriting etc etc as possible."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: SXSW / WXW1? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2000 06:57:15 PM ----- BODY:

Two things before I get down to the serious business of complaining about stuff. 1) Derek Powazek has put his SXSW photos online. There are some great ones - particularly of Jason and Mark. 2) I am too jealous to even speak properly at the moment because everyone got to go to SXSW except me. Katy came to me with an idea a while back for a similar conference - WXW1 (West by West 1) - for London based internet obsessives and professionals. Would anyone actually be interested? Because if you were (you never know) we might actually organise it. Spread the word, gauge the interest.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: American Beauty in ASCII STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2000 11:08:47 AM ----- BODY:

I saw this ages ago but completely forgot to link to it. So here I present: American Beauty in ASCII.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Adieu Reptile Brain... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2000 01:36:32 PM ----- BODY:

My plans to move the weblog to a new domain have been rather scuppered by someone having registered it four days ago (damn, damn, damn). It just goes to show - farewell reptilebrain.com [whois].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On giving gay people guns... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 03/21/2000 09:57:56 PM ----- BODY:

There are benefits and there are horrors to staying on people's floors. Benefits include not having to pay rent, seeing more of your good friends and getting to know local geography. Horrors include continual exhaustion, sometimes uncomfortable bedding and making sure that you don't upset anyone by being under their feet 24 hours a day. Tomorrow morning I am wandering up to Kentish Town to look at a flat before work. I'm not convinced that it is the place for me, but I'll give it a go. I just wish I wasn't so tired all the time.

One of my oldest friends, Gideon, told me about an article in Salon the other day, and asked my opinion about it. It suggests that gay people should arm themselves with handguns in order to protect themselves from anti-gay attacks. Gideon's exact words on this one were: "an intriguing proposal by a journalist i know... any ideas? I can't decide if he's right or crazy".

I read through the article carefully. As I read through the first page my immediate reaction was one of mild horror - what was this man advocating? Did he really want to start some form of gang warfare on the streets of American cities - to put a whole new meaning to the phrase "gay mafia"? But then, on the second page I came up against this:

"The abiding fact is this: Homosexuals have been too vulnerable for too long. We have tried to make a political virtue of our vulnerability, but the gay-bashers aren't listening. Playing the victim card has won us sympathy, but at the cost of respect. So let's make gay-bashing dangerous. We should do that for our own protection. But we should also do it because we will win a full measure of esteem from the public, and from ourselves, only when we make clear our determination to look after ourselves"

On rereading the article it seemed clear to me that the article wasn't actually about arming gay people at all, but an appeal for an escape from the current politics of gay identity - a politics that defines gay people by their vulnerability - continually subject to name-calling, workplace discrimination, harrassment or attack. It wasn't so much calling for violence to counter violence, but instead desperately scrambling for something to replace "Gay Man/Woman: Perpetual Victim".

Queer as Folk 2, which recently aired in the UK, included some pretty startling scenes - a man taking on board all of the insults thrown against him in order to savagely expose the blackmailing attempts of his ten-year-old nephew, the same man blowing up the car of a woman who disinherits her estranged gay son (she called him to his father's death-bed to ask him to sign the papers) and a full-on confrontation between a name-calling hick and a poof with a gun. Each one of these scenes inspired something proactive inside all the people who saw them - the desire not to have to "run to daddy" when something horrible happened. It's the same feeling - the same discomfort with the idea of gay people as being weak and needing outside help to get them through their daily lives.

So what do I think? Do I think gay people should carry handguns? I don't know. But I know one thing for certain - we should be doing something.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: $220 in excess bandwidth! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2000 11:52:46 AM ----- BODY:

Netnation has just charged me $220 for excess bandwidth over the last two months. As of this moment, the nexus is closed completely. They are going to charge me a similarly ridiculous amount for this month as well. Frankly I am horrified and don't know what do do - although I think getting myself to a different host is pretty crucial. All you big time designers out there - kottke, powazek, glassdog etc WHERE ARE YOU HOSTED? This is an emergency. HELP!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Awesome response to my crisis... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2000 11:55:17 AM ----- BODY:

The response to my crisis yesterday has been pretty incredible. I've had many many suggestions about where to be hosted, and I am edging towards pair.com. If anyone has any good or bad stories about them, let me know...

The weirdest thing that has happened is that people have offered to contribute to help me pay off the debts caused by excessive bandwidth and to get the nexus back online. It's all very much appreciated, really!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Difficult days... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/24/2000 03:53:16 PM ----- BODY:

The last couple of days have been (as I am sure you can understand) more than a little difficult - a sudden huge bill out of the blue (it now looks like the nexus uses around 80% of barbelith's bandwidth) didn't particularly help me in my quest to find a place to live. On top of that there are questions over how my job is evolving - there are suggestions of a move of emphasis which appeals to me in the short-term, but worries me when I think about the long-term prospects.

Anyway - I have decided that people don't come to weblogs to hear tales of woe and crisis, so I am going to try and concentrate today on things that are web-oriented and (above all) entertaining.

I'm a 69 in the Suave-o-meter. I think that means I beat Evhead. I think my mother would approve...

Just because I haven't been posting recently, doesn't mean that I have forgotten about web queeries. One of the most interesting and informative uses of blogger technology to date.

I spend six years living in Bristol - the San Francisco of the United Kingdom. The BBC's (oh so gripping) site even includes a quiz! The answer is incredibly obvious to anyone who has ever been there...

Oh, and according to zeldman, Lloyd Wood hates style sheets.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why don't we write it down somewhere private? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2000 02:16:31 PM ----- BODY:

Can I ask you all something in complete seriousness? Do you REALLY think that Mark is more suave than I am? I mean, really?

Jason has been talking about the difficulties in writing about personal things on the web. This seems to be quite the crisis for the young weblogging intelligensia at the moment. The first stage of the barbelith weblog ended with an e-mail from my brother promising not to tell my mother, the second stage when I realised that my co-workers were occasionally glancing at the site. Mark at Riothero has this problem as well. He used to compensate for it by having a password protected weblog, but then his family demanded that he allowed them to see it. And now there is something on Jason's mind and he doesn't know how to express it. Moreover he doesn't know if he should:

"Why don't I just write it down somewhere private...a Word doc on my computer or in a paper diary? Somehow, that seems strange to me though. For a lot of the personal Web publishing crowd, the Web is the place for you to express your thoughts and feelings and such. To put those things elsewhere seems absurd. Or is it just me?"

The answer seems pretty obvious to me - the mild anonymity of the net allows us to talk about whatever we want - get support from people without having to expose ourselves in person and transform our lives into (mostly) interesting narratives. I used to run this site called Blank Faeces which was all about our ability to explore aspects of ourselves online that we couldn't do in everyday life. I think the sin of the weblogger or web celebrity is their (our?) compulsion to attach a name to the writings...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm homeless, goddammit! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2000 02:37:58 PM ----- BODY:

I got another e-mail today asking why I haven't been updating the bomb. Just to clarify to newcomers, I am homeless at the moment and have been for over three weeks now. As soon as I can find a flat (another one got gazumped from me today) then I will get down to rebuilding barbelith completely, and (of course) updating the bomb...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Exodus 8:2 "If you refuse STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2000 11:51:23 PM ----- BODY: Exodus 8:2 "If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is that an accent? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2000 04:31:00 PM ----- BODY:

The question I was asked most often when I was in the US was: "Is that an accent?". To which the answer of course is ... "no". One of the weird things about the US is that, perhaps because of its size and relative importance in the world at the moment, it can be quite inward-looking. So while people in the UK are familiar with the States through television, film and the news, there are many Americans who will stare at a poor alien Brit with an utter lack of comprehension. So consider the bulk of today's weblog entry to be a light-hearted attempt to slap some sense into our American cousins. Your honour, I here present evidence to this effect..

DISCLAIMER: The above piece of writing is meant to be taken in a light-hearted fashion...

A little announcement regarding the Nexus. The site should be operational again by the weekend (no promises, but I'll see what I can do), but in the meantime there is a temporary alternative at onelist: TemporaryNexus.

In case anyone hadn't guessed from the bible quote last night, I went to see Magnolia. Katy, Evil Nick and I didn't really know what to expect from it. I'm still reeling from it today. The acting was all of the highest standard, the script was well written and, while the removal of twenty minutes might have sharpened it up a bit, basically it was certainly professional and original stuff. And yet I am still not completely convinced by it. The weirdest thing for me was that they actually put an intermission in it, which amazed me. I'd be interested to know if they did that in the US as well. Could anyone enlighten me? [Enlighten Tom]

A couple of brief bits of news on the flat front - Kate and I went to see a place in Kentish Town yesterday which was pretty impressive - large open rooms, a conservatory, garden, garage and balcony for only £330 a week. A wonderful place. I am a little wavering because it pushes my rent up quite considerably, although I don't think I'll see another place as good for a while. All we have to do is shunt Manuela around it and hope she likes it. At the same time, Evil Nick's flatmate has moved out a week early, leaving a place to sleep comfortably and privately (and on a bed no less) for a full week. So all in all, pretty good news.

Apparently I am not as suave as I thought I was: a slow saturday night. Despite this, people still want to meet me: Fairvue.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oscar 2000 Moments... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/27/2000 07:12:04 PM ----- BODY:

Oscar 2000 Moments

  1. Billy Crystal combining the shower scene from American Beauty with the shower scene from Psycho.
  2. Jack Nicholson being in every single reaction shot, leering like an octogenarian lech.
  3. That weird woman who ran through the auditorium at the beginning and sat on Clint Eastwoord.
  4. Almost no screen time for Gwyneth Paltrow, and when there was some she looked like she was having a right old strop.
  5. My mate Tara being thanked in Sam Mendes Oscar speech.
  6. Annette Benning winning absolutely nothing despite everyone else around her (her co-cast, her husband, her unborn child) being showered in accolades.
  7. Warren Beatty being unable to form coherent sentences during his acceptance speech.
  8. Angelina Jolie having really weird hair and some kind of unsavoury relationship with her brother.
  9. The South Park creators arriving in Gwyneth-drag.
  10. Robin Williams singing "Blame Canada" with thousands of short-skirted mounties...

It's a bit of a blur to me. Oscars ended 6.30am GMT. I arrive at work 10.00am GMT. I need a drink.

<MikeWOIFM> Puce? is puce a good color? Or how about Barbelith Orange?
<zannah> i though puce was a purpleish
<MikeWOIFM> I was presenting options.
<Anita> puce isn't websafe
<nullJason> puce isn't safe, period.
<Anita> puce is maroonish red -- means "flea"
<zannah> puce is cute.
<nullJason> I thought it was greenish.
<MikeWOIFM> puce is certainly not safe to wash with whites.
<John_metajohn> puce sounds like what I would do after eating one of Mikes roadkill pancakes. [courtesy of null]

When I was at University, I was told once to always start with a quote. And I'm even in this one. I'm like one of those names on paint sampler cards - "Barbelith Orange". How satisfying is that...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ceiva Internet-Enable Photo Frame... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2000 03:45:39 PM ----- BODY:

Possibly the most futurist gadget I have seen in months is the Ceiva Internet-Enabled Photo Frame. It sounds like a ridiculous idea, but I honestly believe that it might become a must-have purchase not just for web-geeks and their families, but also for small spaces in nightclubs and bars. It's really the simplest thing - a small, high quality screen which plugs into the phone socket. Every day, at cheap rate, it dials up a server where your friends have e-mailed their latest photos of their children, their holidays or their genitals, the images are downloaded and displayed in a rotating slideshow. You can choose specific images to display through the website if you have favourites, and you can update them more quickly simply by pressing a button on the frame.

The potential for bloggers is endless. Imagine being on an Evhead, megnut or powazek image mailing list, which would update the frame on your desk every day...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm a poll-starter, twisted poll-starter... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2000 07:36:40 PM ----- BODY:

Can't chat - in a hurry, but I just thought I should say that I have started a couple of polls over on the TemporaryNexus about the relaunch of the Nexus and what happens when I move the weblog... You might have to sign up to be able to vote...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Raising the bar... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2000 11:43:09 AM ----- BODY:

I tell you, just when everything appears to be running smoothly, powazek raises the bar again. His new design is, simply, lovely. Clean colours, a web-friendly open feel with legible text (not using Verdana - a shock for me). It has a certain David Carson print-media 1998 feel to it.

Everyone knows of Ask Jeeves, the search engine that is supposed to be engineered to answer real English queries in an almost conversational style. So what happens when you try to actually have a conversation with it? FNwire interviewed the butler.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to the doctor... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2000 04:12:08 PM ----- BODY:

I went to the doctor about my mad gut and digestive complaints and he told me that it was a combination of a mild infection, lack of sleep, a bad diet and a considerable amount of stress. Great. Can't see any of THOSE changing until I get a flat... While I was reeling from that news, I received some donations towards the Rebuild-the-Nexus fund. I am amazed and honoured and will do my best to get it up again as soon as possible.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Theatre of Cruelty... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2000 06:45:00 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in love with this story from zeldman:

   Theater of Cruelty: Our friend Mark was freelancing for a client we'll call Roger. They had just completed their project and were sitting in Roger's office. After a long, uncomfortable silence, Roger glanced up from his desk and looked Mark meaningfully in the eyes.
   "Mark," sighed Roger, "you know how sometimes you stare at your address book, looking over all your friends' names and phone numbers, and you suddenly realize that they're not really your friends at all? That you have nothing in common with them, you don't even like them, and you're pretty sure they don't like you either?"
   Mark said, "No."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Moving domains... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/30/2000 11:05:47 AM ----- BODY:

Barbelith is going to change. Because a few people have sent me money to get the Nexus going again, I don't feel comfortable having personal content on the domain name. So I have decided that over the next week or so, I will buy a new domain, shift the weblog over to that, and then reorganise Barbelith as a cooperative article based site.

But this leaves me with a problem - finding a new domain name. After the loss of my beloved "reptilebrain.com", I am at a bit of a loss. So I thought I'd make an appeal to you people, who know the spirit and rhythms of the current site: have you got any ideas?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief Life Summary... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/30/2000 06:10:16 PM ----- BODY:

Brief life summary: DRINKING TOO MUCH BEER AND VODKA. This will be the third night in a row that I have ended up in Point 101 (Tottenham Court Road tube, under Centrepoint). I am going to get a disgusting beer belly and then no one will want me.

Riothero redesigned. Mark's rolling design project reached a height today, when the background kicked in, dragging a simple orange table structure into the 21st century. And another thing - what other weblogger would post urgently: "Jesus Christ! I'm sexy!"...

Not that I care (I was instructed not to), but I am really glad to see that Barbelith has finally resurfaced on beebo.org's weblog ratings.

There's some argument going on around the weblogs about bloat. I haven't really been following it, but apparently it's quite interesting.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Student Clubs for Time Out... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2000 10:59:19 AM ----- BODY:

Another little micro-design-project for Time Out: Student Clubs Competition. Very tight deadline on this one. I think it worked out quite well.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two anecdotes about clubs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2000 01:47:50 PM ----- BODY:

In order to maintain the record of the week, I decided that I should go drinking directly after work last night. And (I suppose inevitably) this resulted in a few of us ending up at Popstarz. Which led to:

TWO ANECDOTES ABOUT BUMPING INTO PEOPLE IN CLUBS

Anecdote One:
  As I wander through the passages of the Scala, I keep passing this bloke who looks vaguely familar. And he keeps making 'knowing' looks in my direction. I will be completely honest and say that as he wasn't really my type, I decided to have a ponder, but not launch into a conversation that might be misconstrued as flirting.
  Anyway, after a couple of hours of this kind of behaviour, we find each other wandering towards each other in a corridor. There's no real reason to avoid chatting, so I turn and say to him:
  "I'm really sorry - but you look really familiar, have we met?"
  "Yes", he replies, "I fell over in front of you twice while clubbing at the old Popstarz about four months ago..."
  I look slightly dumbfounded, and don't really know what to say. He glances down at my favourite t-shirt of the moment, a dark blue A&F thing, and continues:
  "At the time I was really embarrassed, but now you are wearing that stupid t-shirt, I feel a lot better. I hope to hell you are being ironic."   And then he walks off.
Anecdote Two:
  As I wander through the passages of the Scala, I find myself running into this other guy who looks both familiar and rather devilishly attractive. After my experiences with the nasty t-shirt hater, I am a bit sceptical of wandering up to strangers, and so I leave it - particularly when it becomes clear that he doesn't have the slightest clue who I am either.
  As it approaches 3am, however, it suddenly hits me - this is a guy that I met (once) around a year ago when I visited a friend in Cambridge. I must have spent no more than four hours in his company.
  Slightly sceptical of my realisation, I wander up to him, and indeed - it is he. We chat for a while and then wander off back to our respective friends. At which point my friends (Rhonda, Evil Nick et al) decide that it is beyond necessary that I flirt with him. The young gentleman listens manfully to my abortive attempts to demonstrate my interest with a light smile, while I slowly turn an inelegant purple. And then, with a look of mild exasperation, he pounces...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A couple of announcements... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2000 02:06:07 PM ----- BODY:

Before I get going, I have a couple of annoucements. Mark has clearly finally lost it - his expos&eacute; of the evil Jason Kottke makes that abundantly clear. And while we are at it, is it just me, or are his clothes becoming an increasingly rare sight on the webcam? I give him about four months before he is doing illegal online strip-shows and changing his name to Candy.

I have just downloaded and installed IE5 for Macs, and I am generally quite impressed. The larger default text sizes came as a mild shock to start with, but I seem to be getting used to it quite quickly. The one thing that is clear is that the aids to cross-platform compatibility mean that those sites designed to alter their behaviour for the Mac platform may now have to rethink their style sheets and text sizes once more. Microsoft have a surprisingly good page on sizing text in CSS for standards-compliant browsers called, "Points, Pixels, DPI and You".

In other news, I finally sorted out the barbelith archives, which are now permanently accessible through the grey strip at the top of the page. I've been flicking through old entries, and the one I am proudest off (from last November) reads:

"I went to watch the football. I didn't understand how anyone could get so excited. Lost on me completely. I tried to explain to the assembled masses that if the players had handlebar moustaches, smoking jackets, armchairs and muskets, the game would be both more civilised and more entertaining. They resolutely refused to see reason."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Very tired of being homeless... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2000 04:04:24 PM ----- BODY:

I am becoming very tired of being homeless. Yes, that's right - I am STILL homeless. A friend has given me permission to crash at his place for a couple of nights (with a break in the middle so that he can have sex with someone without me knocking on the door and asking if I can pilfer some Orange Juice), but there is still only the vaguest notions of new flatishness in the near future.

I went to see Erin Brokovich last night with Katy (soon to be starting her own weblog), and we got so excited by the classiness of Steven Soderbergh that we are going to go and see The Limey tonight.

For those people disappointed by my recent shortcomings on updating The Bomb, I have finally added most of the annotations for issue 3#2 from the Nexus. Should I have missed anything, let me know immediately. [Let Tom know]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: *spark STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2000 11:53:34 AM ----- BODY:

Another month, another issue of *spark. This month, the features include the intoxicating (virtual morality), the revolutionary (hacktivism: the new protest movement?), and the inspirational (surfing towards bethlehem?). I am taking the way *spark operates as a form of model example of what I want the new barbelith to achieve when I finally sort out the architectural parts of it - in some ways it is already a project that should appeal to the subcultural elements of the Nexus...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Admin Notice: Regular Nexus people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2000 11:19:06 AM ----- BODY: Admin Notice: Regular Nexus people and the like - Hadalis is holding a post-finalé bash in Winston-Salem, NC on May 26 -29. If you are interested, the e-mail address you need is: Hadalis@gateway.net.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I had lunch yesterday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2000 02:16:01 PM ----- BODY: So I had lunch yesterday with the guy I met at Popstarz, and it really was quite enjoyable. I don't want to foul things up, so I won't go into details - except to say that I'm probably seeing him again this evening. It's all very exciting.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith goes metalogic... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2000 02:33:13 PM ----- BODY:

.Barbelith goes metalogic:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was a late-comer to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2000 11:50:56 AM ----- BODY: I was a late-comer to haughey.com, but I really enjoyed it when I found it. But with its recent redesign has shifted it into another gear. Very much to be recommended.

And I had a lovely evening last night with Sam and various friends of his. Just in case you were wondering...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Angling for links? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2000 03:47:04 PM ----- BODY:

If this isn't unabashed.com angling for links, I don't know what is:

"i'm not sure i'll ever get many people visiting my site... i'm not into that whole 'blog everybody else' mentality. i don't want to post that someone else has a good post... just to get some reciprocal links happening. i have a list of sites that i like to visit... because they're good. cuz i like them... i'm not looking for anything from them-- or anybody else for that matter. that's it. c'est tout."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If I told you that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2000 07:16:03 PM ----- BODY: If I told you that I had spent today with my co-worker starting the process of changing 16,000 separate web pages to work with new banner and button ad coding (requiring around 165 separate hard includes), would any of you feel any sympathy for me? Said enterprise (plus last night's uncomfortable sofa cushions) have resulted in a dull pulsing headache which feels like someone has stuck an air pump into my brain and is slowly inflating it against my skull. All in all, the last 24/48 hours have been completely overwhelming - there has been no area of my life which hasn't been confusing or confounding or intense. That's not to say it's all bad stuff - not by any means - but there's just too much of it.

So, Project Cool recommended Lockjaw today. I guess I can see why, it's quite ably put together. I was just wondering about the lo-fi feel of the site - and the preponderance of grainy imagery. It reminded me of a trend in print design a while back for an almost fanzine feel. I don't know if it translates that well to the web though - I mean there is so much real lo-fi stuff, I am not sure that it is easy to tell when it is intentional.

Evil Nick is off to visit a young woman in Los Angeles. He's never been out of Europe before. I try and figure out what to say to him about the trip and can only come up with, "you'll be surprised how alien you feel". In order to get a flight at short notice, he has had to go via Frankfurt. Total length of outgoing flight - 14 hours. That's got to hurt.

I don't love Ben Brown, I just think he's nice.

At some point in the last day or so (according to my referrer log), Zeldman linked to me. But then when I try and look at his site, I keep getting timed out. What's that about? Can someone tell me what he said?

Oh, and if you have a minute to spare - have a glance at my latest microproject - the Best London Cinema poll. I'm never really sure whether or not they are any good or not - I mean they work, and they do what they are supposed to, but they are hardly the most attractive of designs. I was much happier with the Eating and Drinking Awards one. But then I had more than an hour for that...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ever more Hard Includes. Will STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/07/2000 05:49:39 PM ----- BODY: Ever more Hard Includes. Will the madness never end?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Never been so exhausted in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/09/2000 07:34:16 PM ----- BODY: Never been so exhausted in my life. May have found a house in Arsenal of all places. Completely gorgeous little place - only problem is that one of our number has to sleep in a half completed loft conversion.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Slackness in the weblogging front... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/09/2000 07:52:00 PM ----- BODY:

So I have been a bit lax on the old weblogging over the last couple of days, which frankly is unforgivable. But all that is about to end. I stumbled upon the Guerilla Banner Project today, and I haven't been as chuffed for ages (translation for Americans: thrilled/pleased). These random people look at their favourite sites and produce alternative banners for them. Most of them are pretty cool. Particular favourite of the moment "Love Me, Love My Penis... Prehensile Tales.

There are reasons for my recent laxity though. One of the unpleasant ones involves the bill finally arriving for March's excess bandwidth. I have to grab together another $150 to pay them off, and (in doing so) dispose of the epic Nexus debts. This charge having been disposed of, I can get down to the business of moving hosts. I didn't want to do anything until the bill finally arrived (and I had actually put down the deposit on a flat) and now it looks like that was the right thing to do!

Something to make people jealous here. You never can tell in these situations, so it might be a fraud, but I appear to have been sent an extremely entertaining and in depth e-mail by none other than Michael Moorcock of Jerry Cornelius fame. And it's all about The Bomb and Grant Morrison...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I feel jittery, unable STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/10/2000 12:54:21 PM ----- BODY: Today I feel jittery, unable to concentrate, prone to extraordinary mood-swings, exhausted, claustrophobic and wired. I have no idea why I should feel so awful, although I am currently researching Sleep Deprivation.

If you do a search on Yahoo! for "Sleep Deprivation", the first thing you come up with is needcoffee.com. It's not that helpful, frankly, but it is quite entertaining...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I keep being reassured, but STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2000 02:47:00 PM ----- BODY: I keep being reassured, but this still alarms me:

"If you become too indispensable to a specific project, then that is likely to be your project forever. If you get bored with that project, too bad. If you want to learn new, saleable expericence in case something does happen to your job or to your project, too bad. I can understand not wanting to move into management, but if that is what you want, too bad. Finding one particular job that you want to stick with is great, but it could become an albatross around your neck." [Excerpt from Considered Harmful]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yet another Tiny Tom Time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2000 05:52:28 PM ----- BODY: Yet another Tiny Tom Time Out Microproject. All you Londoners, win tickets to MTV's Five Night Stand.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got a charming e-mail STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2000 06:09:01 PM ----- BODY: I got a charming e-mail today (thank you Txiki). It directed me towards glassdog.com and the Lifechange Cardwrack. Very cool indeed. I'm familiar with glassdog of old, but this new aspect... Very cool indeed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in a much cheerier STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2000 07:27:22 PM ----- BODY: I'm in a much cheerier mood today, but I still can't really focus properly - everything I try to write spirals out of control. So (as you can probably see) I am restricting myself to short snippets of interest (ooooh - a traditional weblog) rather than my usual vaguely coherent longer posts.

A few days ago, Zeldman mentioned me in his daily log. At the time this came as a pleasant surprise, but more and more over the last few days it has started to encroach on my mind. I am in a more paranoid space than I have been for months, but I have started wondering why he would want to read my shambling missives. I honestly don't understand it. And of course it doesn't help when he goes and declares war on Microsoft. Now I'm actually scared of him. And what kind of person is not only mentioned in important articles, but has those articles screencapped for the product demos of huge companies? I mean - the man's got to be some kind of superhuman godlike uberman.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is it just me, or STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2000 07:46:34 PM ----- BODY: Is it just me, or does Blogger work really strangely on IE5 for Macs?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interesting how this might seem STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2000 12:31:11 PM ----- BODY: Interesting how this might seem to be a confession - I smoke.

Observations on Smoking and Being a Smoker:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ooooh. Bubbles. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/13/2000 02:10:29 PM ----- BODY: Ooooh. Bubbles.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ooooh. More Bubbles. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2000 10:24:26 AM ----- BODY: Ooooh. More Bubbles.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got an e-mail from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2000 10:56:42 AM ----- BODY: I got an e-mail from Kerry today. I don't think he'd mind if I quoted him on this:

"Popped into www.venicebeachcam.com and saw that it had pix of what we SHOULD'VE seen (had it been a better day). It's gorgeous here now. sigh, if only you'd waited a month."
I'm going to kill him. I swear to god I am going to kill him. Experience the true awesome difference between living in LA and living in London today, as Barbelith presents - PARALLEL WEBCAMS:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone else find this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2000 11:04:44 AM ----- BODY: Does anyone else find this funny? Microsoft gleefully cite Zeldman about IE5 for Macs:
"In this candid review of Internet Explorer 5, Web Standards Project leader Jeffrey Zeldman gives us the low down on why it will help the Web 'whether you use a Mac or not...'"
And then they link to the Web Standards Project, where Zeldman is earnestly slamming IE5.5 for Windows:
"The Web Standards Project (WaSP) today denounced Internet Explorer 5.5 Windows Edition for abandoning Web standards Microsoft has publicly committed to supporting, and focusing on proprietary technologies which are certain to fragment the already-troubled Web space."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Best News in Ages So STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2000 04:51:38 PM ----- BODY: Best News in Ages
So I probably have a flat! About bloody time as well. Let's see - left old flat at the end of February, spent the first two weeks of March wandering around Norfolk and LA, and then all the time since crashing on floors. The new place is in Maida Vale, which is a lovely area, although not perfect for transport links. It's a three bedroom Mansion flat. Very nice indeed. The only problem - I can't move in until the 29th. This means just under two weeks of floor left before me. I am not thrilled by this prospect.

The "Look At Me" Award for Total Self Obsession
Two reviews about my sites (do a search for Invisibles): The Bomb and The Nexus.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gripe of the Day Today's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2000 05:15:13 PM ----- BODY: Gripe of the Day
Today's gripe comes to you courtesy of i2design.net. My problem with this otherwise beautiful site is in the irritating lack of cross-browser compatible CSS. I'm using Netscape on a PC at the moment and the text is completely unreadable. And I don't mean "eye-straining", I mean so small that the pixels can't even accurately render the individual letters. On a personal site, of course, it is never more than slightly irritating. But I have seen the same problem all over corporate sites (particularly when you are also considering different platforms) and it really isn't very good.

Gratuitous Self-Referential Weblog Reference of the Day
I found the i2design link through riothero, who every regular visitor to barbelith has heard about more than once. I just wanted to say that I haven't forgotten about the collaboration I said I'd do with him on hero.nu, and as soon as I am settled I will start work on it in earnest. By the way Mark, don't you get cold? Put a woolly jumper on old chap!

Most Ridiculously Embarrassing Thing of All Time
So you're wandering around with a young gentleman you might be relatively keen on, and he decides to duck back to your office with you. And then you decide to show him the view from the 7th floor of a tall building in the centre of London because he's an architect and he might like to see them finish the roof of the British Museum. And then he wants to see what's on the other side of the building so you think, maybe I should take him up to the roof so he can see more. And then he decides he fancies a quick kiss, which is nice. And then you go back to work. And then ten minutes later you are informed that an entire department of the company you work for was watching a reflection of everything you did in the mirrored building opposite. And then you collapse in embarrassment. This happened to a friend of mine. It did not happen to me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Insightful Thing of the Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2000 05:27:54 PM ----- BODY: Insightful Thing of the Day
I stumbled upon the current Good News/Bad News special feature at k10k today, and frankly, it was great. All the pent up frustration that we all sometimes feel about the net along with all the reasons why we can find it so very exciting. All in a little javascript pop-up window, with elegant little design touches. Perfect.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tactless Advert of the Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2000 05:38:39 PM ----- BODY: Tactless Advert of the Day
From Zeldman comes the astonishing Hoboken BrewHaus advert. Hmmm - spot-quiz: "Does Tom Have A Boner for Zeldman?". I don't think I do, but I've been talking about him a lot recently.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hmmm. Popular opinion seems to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2000 07:50:35 PM ----- BODY: Hmmm. Popular opinion seems to be that I do indeed have a boner for Zeldman. In his honour therefore, I am planning to spend all my available time worshipping at the altar of the mangod: The Jeffrey Zeldman Fanclub. Thanks to riothero and So I Say... for showing me the way. Halleluiah!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Touching sentiments indeed from The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2000 07:57:17 PM ----- BODY: Touching sentiments indeed from The Rumpus Room:

"On a totally unrelated note, has anyone ever seen any other pictures of the Barbelith guy? That one blurry little picture on his site suggests to me that he's quite the cutie-pie, and I want to know for sure. If he is, then that -- along with the charm and talent displayed on his site -- may be grounds for another one of my innocently aggressive flirting campaigns. They're so much less risky with people overseas who I'll never meet, after all."
For anyone who actually is even the slightest bit interested in seeing other photos of me, why not revisit the horror of Slutcore? Failing that, there's a rather dashing photo at Epinions.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some bastard bought reptilebrain.co.uk... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2000 08:19:18 PM ----- BODY:

Cause for horror today. Someone went and bought reptilebrain.co.uk [who is] which fills me with absolute horror since I had just resolved myself to the fact that I could buy it even though it wasn't a .com (I am afraid to say that I think regional domains were a huge mistake and are completely against the spirit of the net). Anyway - this leaves me with a new quest - think of a new domain name for this weblog as soon as possible, so when the big move comes I don't end up with cabbageboy.com [NOTE: Since checked and cabbageboy.com is in fact no longer available].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the male competitive arena... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2000 08:39:26 PM ----- BODY:

So I went out for lunch today with a group of friends and their friends and was disturbed to find myself feeling defensive and edgy which dragged me back about ten years to gawky teenage years of perpetual embarrassment. I've been thinking about it all afternoon and I can't really understand why I should have felt that way, except that it coincided with the arrival of Fenner's friend George, who for some reason unsettles me deeply. I think I find his absolute confidence unpleasant. From the point of his arrival onwards the lunch stopped being about a group of old friends getting together and chatting comfortably and started to become some kind of male competitive arena, in which mobile phones were carefully compared and examined, hair-cuts and clothing were noted for signs of appropriate consumption and physical presences were assessed for signs of weakness. I fear I was the only one feeling uncomfortable, and I could just as easily still be feeling the effects of too little sleep and continual vagrancy. I don't know really...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith mentioned in Powazek interview... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2000 05:02:15 PM ----- BODY:

It just goes to show, flattery will get you everywhere! I don't think you can even guess how thrilled I was that Barbelith was mentioned in Powazek's Latest Interview. It's an interesting article quite apart from the reference to me (although that is clearly the most important part)...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Calling all Londoners - Your City Needs You... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2000 05:17:18 PM ----- BODY:

"Calling all Londoners - Your City Needs You." Or at least that is the message that is being broadcast 24 hours a day as the contest for the new position of Mayor heats up. There is a substantial site for the campaign [Mayor For London], posters have been springing up on every spare inch of wall space and almost every TV bulletin or newspaper oozes scandal or corruption or photo-opportunity.

In fact campaigning has been so widespread that it is rapidly nearing saturation point. Today, as I approached work, I was confronted with Ken Livingstone's purple campaign bus, filled to the brim with grinning anorak-wearing octogenarians blasting poor quality pop-music with a half-hearted slightly embarrassed voice-over.

But who should you vote for? This is where Fantasy Mayor comes in. This seriously useful site first asks you who you were planning to vote for. And then it presents you with fifteen policy statements - you choose the degree to which you agree or disagree with them and then it presents you with a list of the candidates that you share most policy points with. The results are always interesting, and often not what you expect. Against all odds, I have ended up with Frank Dobson...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Frustrating Flirtation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2000 05:50:54 PM ----- BODY:

I've been having frustratingly brief flirt-mail all day from Sam in Cambridge. He's busy building models out of whatever it is architects build models out of, and his hands (apparently) are covered in cigarette burns, superglue, sawdust, pen marks and the like. Which would explain the frustratingly brief bit I suppose.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On work equipment... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2000 03:41:20 PM ----- BODY:

What does it say about ones proto-revolutionary zeal when one is excited about finally having a direct phone line at work. I've moved offices and now have a sexy (possible) G4 with DVD player and Mac OS9 as well. If only the monitor were larger. Although having said that, there have to be limits...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Touched by the hand of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2000 04:32:57 PM ----- BODY: Touched by the hand of camworld:
"Someone has been submitting barbelith.com through my submission form every couple of weeks for the past few months. And every time I visited, the site just didn't grab me. I don't know if the design has changed or his writing style has changed since I last visited, but it's turning into a pretty good site full of witty commentary and great links. And the design is decent, too."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm one of rumpus.net's Cute STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2000 04:35:49 PM ----- BODY: I'm one of rumpus.net's Cute Boys on the Web!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Web is All About STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2000 04:38:32 PM ----- BODY: The Web is All About Me - or so you might think from looking around this morning. But before I even get around to that, I have to make it clear that riothero has just stepped his design up one substantial gear. It's the cleanest, most elegant design he has ever produced. Mark, please, leave it like this for a little while!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On writing about one's partners... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2000 07:57:24 PM ----- BODY:

So I am sitting in my new office, everyone else has gone home and I have a few things to get done before I can go drinking with Nick and friends. I've got the Sex Pistols playing on the G4 as compensation for the Drum and Bass that has been in the background for much of the day. I've been thinking a lot today, between bouts of savage work, about what limits a weblogger must set on themselves.

I remember reading an article a few months ago about how a guy kept an incredibly personal and detailed online diary. All his friends knew about it, as did his girlfriend. She made the astonishing statement that she actually checked his diary to find out the state of their relationship. It sounds horrific, but it seemed to work for them.

Other webloggers, while accepting that there will always be things which they don't feel comfortable talking about publicly, are less certain about where these limits lie.

A few weeks ago, Jason Kottke said that there was something happening in his life that he really wanted to talk about, but didn't feel able. Meanwhile, Riothero keeps his relationship with Lyda very much in the foreground of his log. Of course, this hasn't been without its difficulties.

I'm very interested in hearing about how people reconcile this difficulty (although the question I perhaps should be asking is "Why would anyone want to talk about their relationships publicly on the web anyway?"), but I suppose at the end of the day it comes down to this - the only appropriate public comment about a partner is one that they are happy with.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Hi, my name's Tom. I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2000 03:22:39 PM ----- BODY: "Hi, my name's Tom. I'm ringing ... this is quite hard for me ... ok ... right ... I'm ringing because ... I have a sad ... ridiculous ... teenage crush on ... Wes Bentley. Can you help? ... um ... hello?"

I'll admit it. I loved The Matrix as much as any other red-blooded gentleman, and I am excited about the prospect of another two films. Otherwise why would I have invested so much imaginary money into them at hsx.com. Over the last couple of months, my fascination has waned a little however, only to be rediscovered when I stumbled upon an article which confirms that Carrie Anne Moss is going to be in the new films as well. She's the last of the mainstays of the first film to sign on. And that is just the first part of the rumourfest... God, I'm such a nerd.

Someone should start a site about dead blogs. I mean - once they're out of date, they are mostly pretty pointless things. And there are a great many dead blogs. The scariest fact? That a blog can be dead after as little as two weeks without an update. Cases in point: Carpe Diem [ironic name], Vision Thing [brought to you by the number 3] and Commblog [it's all about Marketing].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's been a difficult day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2000 09:08:29 PM ----- BODY: It's been a difficult day - exhausting, stressful, and for a little while more at least, I don't have my own home, or my own bed, to look forward to. So that must explain why it is 9pm and I am still at work. I got everything done that I realistically expected to about an hour and a half ago...

I've not been particularly inspired to write today (except about the war between city people and country people, which for the sake of diplomacy I have decided to pass swiftly over). So I decided to do my duty and blog a couple of stories for Web Queeries. I was surprised how tricky it was to write for - it's really difficult to tell whether or not you can write in a flighty fashion or whether one should be more news-conscious. Judge for yourself whether or not I did a good job.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No good idea goes unexploited, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2000 03:04:42 PM ----- BODY: No good idea goes unexploited, they say, but there are worse people to do it than the Guardian, who have just launched their own weblog. Quite how much it has in common with the kind of things that I do (or the other thousands of bloggers) is debatable, of course. [via linkmachinego]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How many times do I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2000 06:26:39 PM ----- BODY: How many times do I have to tell you? The Web is all about ME. Seriously, though, about a year ago I got really pissed off because a friend of mine said out of the blue: "You do realise I don't fancy you right?". I was furious - I mean, it's not like I don't have enough to deal with without people spontaneously telling me I'm unattractive. One of the wonders of the web helps compensate this behaviour: people you've never even met before say that they think you don't look like the back end of a bus. That's got to prop up a beleaguered ego!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah... Those scamps on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2000 12:08:56 AM ----- BODY: Ah... Those scamps on the Nexus - look what they've come up with now! A way to pity barbelith...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm a bit perturbed by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2000 12:18:28 AM ----- BODY: I'm a bit perturbed by riothero. I mean his "Top 10 Things That Would Be Different If The 12 Apostles Had Been Gay" is clearly well meaning and occasionally very funny ("The water at the Wedding Feast of Cana would have turned into dry martinis with just a splash of Curacao for color") but also strays close on a couple of occasions to dubiousness. I think it's one of those things where you can make the jokes if you're part of the club, but if you're not... I know Mark of old, and know him to be a decent and fun chap, and I am certainly not suggesting any impropriety on his part. It's just his words sound... odd...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today is one of those STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2000 12:31:15 AM ----- BODY: Today is one of those weird days where you blog after midnight (ouch - how Gremlins is that?) and you don't feel like it is really Saturday at all because you haven't slept yet, but it is, and you know that your blog will show it to be Saturday. So you can't say things like "Today I went to see American Psycho with Rhonda and John" nor can you say "Today I travelled up to Norfolk to see my parents and my brother" or even "Tomorrow Gideon is arriving from Mexico by way of Israel, and that I am really looking forward to it because I hardly ever get to see him", because really it wasn't today and it isn't tomorrow, it was yesterday and today. But then you don't want to confuse people...

My web-hosting weirdness continues unabated. After having been charged roughly $400 for excess bandwidth (and me sending them a stroppy e-mail saying that there was no reason that they couldn't have automatically bumped me up to a higher level of package (costing me 0.25% of the money I was charged) when I reached the limits of the current one), I have just been sent a concilatory letter offering me an extra Gb of traffic a month, plus doubled server space and 10 more POP3 accounts. It would be tempting if I wasn't still going to spiral over their bandwidth allowance. Honestly - Netnation are still not in my good books...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Six months of weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 04/23/2000 12:16:54 AM ----- BODY:

The 1st of May (next Sunday) will be my six month anniversary of weblogging, and I find myself confronting the same questions and situations now as I did when I began. My first entry came together at the beginning of November [1/11/99], when was just about to start a contract at Time Out. At the time I didn't know what the job was or even what the title was. Now I am about to be promoted - at least this time I know what the title is.

The same concerns about writing occupy me as well. Is it all right to write about friends and family? How candid should a weblogger be? Why do I want to write about myself and is it a positive means of expression, or is it too constrained to be anything other than completely artificial. When I am frustrated, can I vent? Or must I be wary of saying something that I might regret later? It took me only two weeks [15/11/99] to start worrying about these things, and I haven't found a solution yet:

"And then your fourteen year old brother is wondering whether or not your parents should be told about the what you have said on the site. And should I really be advocating the dismantling of the phallogocentric hetero-orthodoxy within his tender earshot? More to the point, how on earth are you going to talk about sex when you know your brother (half your age) is looking over your shoulder?"

And the most depressing thing of all? As I am (finally) about to move in to my new flat I decide to find out when all this horror began - when the spectre of homelessness first loomed above my head. I find that while I only (!) moved out of my flat at the beginning of March [2/3/00], I first started talking about the process way back in January [20/1/00]. It's no wonder I feel tired all the time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have about fifty minutes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2000 02:56:01 PM ----- BODY: I have about fifty minutes before I have to head into Norwich to get on a train back to London. Tonight is pretty hectic - it's not easy to prepare for a meeting with a hero who you really want to be a collaborator with. And then I meet Sam again before wandering off to Gideon's party. Altogether far too much to do...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Well designed weblogs are a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2000 03:00:42 PM ----- BODY: Well designed weblogs are a particular fetish of mine. And riothero has gone and found me another one. Mark describes it as a mix of powazek and barbelith, which is rather decent of him. Introducing: sja...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grant, Gid, Sam and Sleep... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2000 07:47:16 PM ----- BODY:

Yesterday In A Nutshell:
Leave voice-mail with Grant Morrison (author of Invisibles, Doom Patrol, Lovely Biscuits, Animal Man, JLA, Arkham Asylum, Zenith, er ... Zoids) confirming location of the Nexus meeting in central London for 6pm at Point 101. Get on train from Norfolk. Train goes wrong. Get bus from Ipswich to Colchester. Get train from Colchester to Liverpool Street. On train get very worried that I am going to be very late and that no one will turn up. Panic. Ring and text message lots of people. Rhonda is a bit weird on the phone. Cornwell is nowhere to be found, Toby is a bit dazed sounding. Dave is on voice-mail.

Arrive at Tottenham Court Road in a bit of a panic, carrying two extremely heavy bags which I am living out of until I move into my new flat next weekend. Go upstairs. Am told that I can't go upstairs because there is a private function up there. Go up anyway. Lots of people sit around looking slightly nervous. Am about to leave when one of them recognises me and introduces himself. Realise that all of the people are there for the Nexus meeting and to meet Grant. Look around. No Grant. Scared of being lynched.

After about half an hour decide to go and find Grant's hotel's e-mail address. Go downstairs. Bald guy and stunning blue-lipped platform-booted girlfriend stands by the bar. Grant has been told that there is a private party upstairs and has been hanging around looking slightly lost. Hugely relieved. Take him upstairs. There is much talking. Nexus people now met in the flesh: Gentleman Assassin, RolloKin, It, Sleazenation, Macavity, 70sman, Stephen and others. Try to persuade people to drain Grant's head dry and then run off and do something cool with it. Very happy with how it turned out.

But have to leave early to pick up Sam at Belsize Park tube (8.30pm) to proceed to Gideon's party. Take Will who has turned up at Point 101 gathering. Buy Vodka. Collect Sam proceed to party. Get tired. Wake up. Dance around for a bit.

Josh turns up. He's gone blond. His boyfriend who looks a bit like Eddie Izzard reveals intimacies that he probably shouldn't, including Josh's skillful hands and his own predisposition towards full body shaving. Illustrates latter point with a quick flash. Sam looks amused. Sam makes pasta. If Sam eats dairy products he gets depressed and tired. Hence pasta not very interesting. He adds chilli oil. We smoke on the balcony. I fall asleep. He attempts to wake me up unsuccessfully. I get grumpy.

Go to sleep on floor in sitting room. Party over.

Today for Dummies:
Got up. Had cigarette. Went to Camden with Gid, Sam and Will. Went to Cyberdog. Had a joint. Ate a blackcurrent and apple pie and a large Fuse. Went around the Jubilee line with Gideon. Got a bit tired. Updated my weblog.

Mastering Tomorrow:
Back to work. Very tired. Training my replacement. Very strange.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Web Queeries (which I write STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2000 10:52:51 AM ----- BODY:

Web Queeries (which I write for occasionally) has been named blog of the week over at Blogger. It's a particularly worthy one because it actually offers a useful journalistic service with an entertainingly personal spin.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What now? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2000 06:11:41 PM ----- BODY:

You build a website for a comic book, and then get the logo of the website in the comic book and then get the website mentioned in the comic book and then the comic book ends and you think - WHAT NOW? Pick up a copy of The Invisibles today, and then go and visit the Nexus.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Exhausted but Euphoric... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2000 10:48:05 AM ----- BODY:

I'm exhausted but euphoric as things finally seem to be coming together. I'm moving in to my new flat on Saturday, finally catching up on work, and I got some sleep (my first for ages). And it's sunny! But still, I am still not at peak efficiency. So let's start the day with some gentle blogging:

Is anyone else bored of Diana, the ever saintly (practically canonised) Princess of Wales? Certainly garden.com doesn't appear to be. All over the net at the moment I am seeing The Princess of Wales Rose banner ads. Is this really the thrust of the new economy? Should we all buy chintz and commemorative mugs now?

The most amusing thing about Wired's article about National Phone In Sick Day is that in the UK we get the day off anyway. In fact, next week will be our third four day week in a row. I love Bank Holidays.

And while I am at it, I just thought I should say congrats to Meg for both a highly successful redesign and having an incredibly cool web savvy mother. Jealous much, web kids? I know I am.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We climb the mountain because it's there... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2000 08:42:36 PM ----- BODY: Mark at Riothero doesn't half make life difficult for himself. I mean what possible reason could he have for dedicating his weblog for the last couple of days purely to the examination of the value and function of women?

Whatever the reason is, it's certainly stirring up some debate: uncorked thinks (reasonably) that Mark is being too flippant, precocious.org that he is being complimentary and that people who are pissed off are rabid PC weirdoes, ctrl-alt-ego would "rather be called a girl by someone who seems to be expressing how brilliant I am than be called a woman by someone who's putting me down", metagrrrl just thinks he's nice as far as I can tell, much-blogged by me Tracy Scarpino (of OUCH! infamy) acts as an apologist for him because she believes him to be being misconstrued, gaylery shouts "Yay!" occasionally when she thinks Mark has proven a point while io.com's teeth are set on edge. Phew!

What a state of affairs to have gotten oneself in! And has he stopped? No! Of course not. In fact he's started blogging Conservative and Pro-life Women's Sites, Feminist Sites and talking about Men's Issues. Surely he must know better, I hear you cry? Surely he's just going to get a whole lot of other people all riled up! Start a big fight? Yes I think that he might! And why does he look so smug...?

Well why do you think? The question answers itself. Let's review it again: "Why has Mark said lots of things that got people all riled up and writing about him?" Could the answer be that simple? Is all this palaver really about reached the summit of beebo.org's weblog ratings. Because he's getting remarkably close...

Why, you may ask, climb this metaphorical mountain (on the backs of supporters and dissenters alike)? The answer for centuries has been "Because it's there".

But Mark and I know better. We climb the mountain for fun, we climb the mountain for life, and we climb it (frankly) because it is shaped like a great ... big ... penis ...

To add a touch of poigancy to the debate at this time, while we are at it (as it were), and as dick climbs the mount (so to speak), some other poor sod (that isn't what I meant) (called interestingly enough, Marc) went and bought disappointedvirginity.co.uk. And frankly, good luck to him...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The board is mentioned in the Invisibles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2000 08:59:24 PM ----- BODY:

Very frustrating. People tell me the Nexus is mentioned in The Invisibles this month, but it's a day late arriving in the shops. In the meantime, some people have been asking how they can get their hands on Fortune Hotel, which includes a piece by Grant as well as Douglas Coupland, Will Self and many others. I have found it on amazon.co.uk, but nowhere else. Sorry!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Messy Life explains The Invisibles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2000 10:34:54 AM ----- BODY:

And if you haven't got the slightest clue what I am talking about, or what the attraction of the Invisibles is, and how I am going to feel about the fact that it has now ended then go and talk to Oh Messy Life, who manages to explain it perfectly. Enjoy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grant mentions Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2000 02:33:26 PM ----- BODY:

"If you missed the Secret of the Universe the first time around, do what Gideon says on page 8 or go to www.barbelith.com where all those cool eggheads and stoner motherfuckers will do their best to "explain" it to you. If THE INVISIBLES exist anywhere now, it's on that forum and in your heads. If you still ain't had your fill of fucked up theories, I can be contacted there with the rest of them in whatever form it takes in the future."

If you are here because of the above quote, start off with The Bomb, and then proceed to the The Nexus. And stick around because the new revolution is just about to start...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being on-message... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2000 11:09:11 PM ----- BODY:

I don't want to get too off message at the moment, so I am going to keep my personal commentary log pretty brief over the weekend. Regular viewers will find normal service resumes on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday, after I have moved in properly, and after the current rush of Invisibles people just finding the barbelith family of sites settles down a little bit. In the meantime, Invisibles people, look down the page a little for what you are after.

In the meantime, a little rant from Warren Ellis about the state of the comics industry should be looked at by all people who are passionate about them, or grew up with them and can't get them completely out of their heads (no matter how they try).

And for the regulars, a little something to keep you cheery: Sissyfight - be a vindictive girl and pick on other people for fun. And watch out for MissyBitch, because I made her mean and strong and sassy as the day is long.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Moving into 69a Heath Street... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2000 05:37:41 PM ----- BODY:

Weekend over. And not a moment too soon. I returned home on Friday, had a brief row with my mother on Saturday morning about the way I ate weetabix, sorted out all my personal belongings into "london", "storage", "throwaway" and "sell" piles, slept badly and then drove down to my new flat on Sunday morning. And then I drove back to Norfolk again. And then I got a train back to London again. Exhausting.

Monday was a £150 Ikea fest in full Bank Holiday mode. And I still forgot to buy lightbulbs. Scream 3 in the evening and then Buffy box-set 2.2 eased me to bed. Best thing about new flat: having my own bed. Worst thing about new flat: not having a working telephone (being fixed). Most annoying thing in relation to new flat: being unable to find the telephone number of our local cable TV company.

I went to see Scream 3 with Katy - an old (!) friend and similar devotee to the cult of the web obsessive. She has often expressed to me a frustration at our distance from the webloggers that we read regularly. And so on that note, and with the birth of Katy's brand new blog "kitschbitch.com", I hearby declare the beginnings of the London Elite Weblogging Detachment - or LEWD for short. Come forward LEWD boys and girls, and LO! I shalt blog thee...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy has been talking about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2000 01:57:46 PM ----- BODY: Katy has been talking about the Anti-Capitalist Riots that happened in London on May Day:
"I don't think even the sensationalist news reports quite prepared me for what I saw:essentially the aftermath of pure carnage. I'd expected to see looted shops, broken glass, and a lot of mess, but it really was shocking to see the Cenotaph, a memorial to Britain's war-dead, daubed with graffiti. I'm all for free speech, and I think demonstrations can be very effective when they're conducted well - but the desecration of these commemorative landmarks just revolted me."
I've been thinking about this since the events actually took place, and although I have yet to wander around the areas concerned, my feelings on the event and its aftermath in the press are anything but clear.

I saw a piece in The Sun today which suggested that a vote for Ken Livingstone was a vote for "THEM" (them being the people who "defaced" the Cenotaph). I saw the word "EVIL" bandied around in a couple of places as well, and a general horror of people not honouring the honoured dead of our country - the same "evil" people who gave us Churchill with a green mohican, and who daubed comments on the memorials of people who gave their lives in World Wars.

But what actually is the problem? Is it that they parodied Churchill? Is it that they don't appear to care about "war heroes"? Because if this was written down and placed in a magazine or on a website people wouldn't get anywhere near as irritated. Is it then just property damage? It doesn't appear to be that either, because you don't see any news reports focusing on how evil you must be to deface a MacDonalds.

Instead it seems that people have invested a symbolic value in the objects themselves - the Cenotaph and the statue - that these material products are the actual feelings of a country made manifest - turned into stone. But is that really such a big deal? Is it really any more appalling than writing anti-war statements on a phone box?

As I said - I can't make up my mind - I just don't know what I think about it. But one thing seems clear to me. Many (most? all?) of these people aren't protesting about capitalism. They're not aiming towards a more noble ideal (Communism? Socialism? Social Democracy? Liberal Democracy? Anarchy?) - instead they are products of a dissatisfaction with the way contemporary society limits and belittles the individual.

Their protest is a reason unto itself - an expression of freedom. It's an aggressive freedom certainly, a non-communitarian freedom probably, even (possibly) an unworkable, impractical, EVIL freedom - but it's freedom nonetheless. It's punk with a cover-story, rebellion with a pseudo-cause. And such spirits will continue to erupt, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Cenotaph and related issues... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2000 11:16:51 AM ----- BODY:

I've had a few comments about my post yesterday about the daubing of the Cenotaph. They tend to say that there are legitmate targets for protest who have transgressed morally (one person included Churchill in that list) and non-legitmate targets which include the Cenotaph. I have been thinking about this at length and I have come to a few conclusions.

A blog based around Haiku? Who would have thought such a thing was possible. Haiku the Blog proves that it is. I've been quite bored today, so I have been trying to remember an haiku that an old flatmate of mine and I wrote a few years back. We were awfully proud of it:

Waiting is a game
Not a very good one though
Like Monopoly

In Cluedo they die
Like in Agatha Christie
But not of boredom

And lo did the Onion say something very funny, and verily did I blog it:

Clinton Consults Surgeon General On Behalf Of Friend Curious About Homosexuality
WASHINGTON, DC--President Clinton spent several hours behind closed doors Monday with Surgeon General David Satcher on behalf of an unidentified friend who is curious about homosexuality. "As a favor, this friend of mine asked me to ask the Surgeon General a few questions," Clinton said. "This person said he's had some funny new feelings lately, feelings he doesn't feel comfortable talking about, so he was hoping I could ask for him." Clinton said Satcher assured him that the feelings his friend is having are "completely natural."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There aren't that many weblogs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2000 11:27:38 AM ----- BODY: There aren't that many weblogs talking about the riots in London on May Day. I had decided initially not to talk about them (I thought everyone would be at it), but as time has passed I find the subject more and more interesting. I would love to see more commentary from people though - if anyone sees anything good, e-mail me on tom@no-spam-please-barbelith.com. In the meantime, read other webloggers: KitschBitch, BlueLines, Grim, Blorg and Ed's Weblog.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Referrer logs reveal that yesterday, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/05/2000 10:53:21 AM ----- BODY: Referrer logs reveal that yesterday, Barbelith was visited by 666 people. This unholy convergence of number and anti-establishment content leads me to conclude that I must be the anti-Christ. This is quite frustrating as I have enough to do already. I just don't have the time. I am going to a wedding tomorrow (working on the assumption that at some point ever I will get my arse in gear and organise it). In the meantime I have to organise a working phone system, the disposal of two double beds, the repair of a boiler and the installation of cable television. Bringing about apocalypse will just have to wait a little longer...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Death of the Weblog? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 05/05/2000 01:01:46 PM ----- BODY:

Did everyone in the weblogging world get sent this link: Death to the Weblog? It's a really weird site, which I can't quite get a handle on. It seems to be about 2/3 spoof and 1/3 serious, or maybe the other way around, and includes great quotes like this:

"It just seems so restrained... like they worry. "Oh God, what if 'so-and-so' reads this???". FUCK EM!!!! If people can drag a loved one on a talk show, and drop a bomb like: "Honey, there's a reason why we haven't had sex in our eight years of marriage...I'M REALLY A MAN.", in front of 20 million people....Why can't we call someone an asshole on our webpages????"

This is one of the oldest online personal publishing problems: the "what if someone I know reads this" syndrome. The things you gradually excise out of your daily monologue to the world increase with time (does this make your weblog less interesting). The first minor spat I had with Sam before our unceremonious parting (case in point - don't think I mentioned that) was about whether or not I could legimately talk about our burgeoning relationship in a public place. And then there's my oft repeated story about when my brother e-mailed me about something I had written asking if I thought he should tell my mother. And then of course there's the fact that everyone at work knows that I post my thoughts here. Am I to be fired, excommunicated or even prosecuted simply in order to maintain the purity of my weblog? I feel the same impetus as every other weblogger to tell the truth (what's the point otherwise), but there will unfortunately be limits.

In the meantime, what is one to write about? It has to be said there are indeed a lot of boring weblogs. Many of them just don't match my interests (and I am sure that barbelith doesn't do it for everyone), but there are a few that are genuinely dull. Honestly, I think it all comes down to passion. Write about what you care about and everything is fine. If that is something in your personal life, then fine. If it is something in your professional life, great. If it is something on the web, also cool. You just can't go wrong with an attitude like that.

There's this really interesting weblog run by a guy called Matthew Rossi that I read occasionally, which has been looking at the criticisms in "Death to the Weblogs" (metacubed has a piece too). I think I'll leave this subject on this point because he illustrates how one can take a fairly average subject and make something gripping out it. He says:

"While [the "Death to Weblogs"] rant was right about a lot of what goes on in Weblogging, it was also guily of it. Where's the rage?

"Where's the 'I slave over the embers of my diseased imagination all day to bring you blogs about my twin brother, a necromantic hold over inside the lining of my skull, about Yahweh as Azathoth, about the arcane attributes of mayonnaise and Zueglodon sightings...and the best you can give me in return is dietary restrictions? A POX ON THEE!' Where are the howlings of 'Be more like Meghan! Be more like Barbelith! Hell, be like none of them...but for God/Yog Sothoth's sake, be something other than this! If I wanted painfully boring details of your life, I'd be reading Proust!'?"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why don't Americans understand British English? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Language CATEGORY: Language DATE: 05/07/2000 06:15:01 PM ----- BODY:

This post is SOOOOO not going to go down well. Tracy and Katy are having a conversation about American and British English. Before I begin, I know that I am jumping rather savagely into the fray on this one, that I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, and that I am responding in a fashion that is full of generalisations. If I seem to go over the top, bear in mind that I am talking more about a cultural phenomenon than about arguments with individuals, and also bear in mind that I have just as many (if not more) issues with the cultural attitudes of Britain.

TRACY: I think the English are very nice, but when I was teaching English in schools run by British expats, I wasn't too fond of them. They used to laugh at the Americans and tell us our accents made them sick to their stomachs. I wasn't allowed to teach "American" English. I had to tell my students that their tennis shoes were called "trainers" and their underwear were called "pants." Then when I went out for drinks with them after class I would say, "Forget that British nonsense, this is how you should really say it." Because isn't it true that most foreigners (and these were businesspeople I was teaching) are going to be doing more business with Americans than with British?
KATY: That said, I'd just like to reassure Tracy that we're not all like that. Boorish expats really aren't representative of us all - thank goodness! If it's any consolation, I'd like to say that when I was living in the States, I always said sneaker, cellphone, baked potato, zucchini and gas. Verily, Tracy spaketh the truth - I wouldn't have got very far talking about trainers, courgettes or petrol. Though I must confess, I still couldn't bring myself to call trousers 'pants', and women's underwear 'panties'. You can take the girl out of England but you can't take England out of the girl I guess...

Now excuse me, but I really think that Tracy needs to be taken to task a little here. I mean I don't want to come over all Riothero-ish, but really! I mean really! Before I begin, I should make it clear that I do not in any way condone telling people that their accents make them "sick to their stomachs". And I don't want to go into details about how if it were a school run by people speaking British English then it makes sense not to confuse your students with two sets of vocabulary for everyday things (although it makes much more sense to teach one branch of the language [whichever one] and then supplement that with a separate class on local variations in Australia, England, US, English-speaking parts of the Far East etc). Nor am I going to talk about how the attitude that you should tell your students to "Forget that British nonsense, this is how you should really say it." is just as bloody dodgy as the stomach comment. No - I am going to leave all that beside and concentrate on an old bugbear of mine.

In the UK, everyone can understand pretty much everything that an American can come out with. Every accent has been heard on television, or in the cinema or met in person. Similarly, the English can understand pretty much everything that Australians, South Africans and New Zealanders say. Australasians in their turn can understand pretty much everything that people say in the UK and the US. The idiom might seem strange but it is still comprehensible. So why is it that Americans have so much trouble? And what height of arrogance is it to assume that people learn English to speak only to Americans?

The fact is that America has become culturally dominant through the media across the world. The American Dream has been packaged and repackaged and circulated through the world and the world has eagerly bought it up. In the process, the world has become familiar with the US of A. But also in the process, America has become more insular and inward looking - unwilling (on the whole) to import entertainment products (except redubbed and repackaged cartoons) from the rest of the world. And as the news companies (TV and print) compete for market share, they have become gradually more and more caught up in the idea that Americans want to hear about America - that everything important happens there first.

But this insularity does not mean that the rest of the world has to adapt to service [the] US (Borg joke). Our biological and technological distinctiveness will NOT be added to their own. Frankly, Americans understanding or not understanding British English is a matter for the US education system. it is not our responsibility to make it palatable to North Americans. I'm sure the French or the Japanese would feel the same way if it was suggested they should simplify their language for the purposes of tourists - why should the UK be any different?

In Scandinavia at the moment, mobile phone technology and information technology is integrated into the structure of the world like nowhere else. People are already doing all the things that are still being promised in the US, in the UK and the rest of Europe, and in the rest of the world. And the world takes notice. But I heard of a meeting in the last six months where a US company started talking to a business in the UK talking about the magical times of the future when all these things would be possible - a magical time that THEY were helping to bring about. The patient UK CEO listened carefully and then told him about the Scandinavian projects. The US company hadn't even heard of them, but they didn't care! They simply didn't believe that a system that was not invented in the US could catch on.

I don't have a problem with American English, nor do I have a problem with the gradual homogenisation of language that is inevitably going to occur as international boundaries go down (although I can understand why people might get annoyed). After all, language is a living thing and phrases and structures from other cultures get co-opted all of the time. English (in all its various forms) is full of these borrowings, moreso than any other language. But these ideas: 1) that those of us who speak British English should not teach our own language [because] 2) all foreign people learning English are interested in only in America, 3) that British English speaking people should adapt their language to make it more comprehensible to those trained in American English while 4) Americans remain culturally unwilling to make any attempt to understand anything that happens outside their borders. Well, frankly, I find that slightly ridiculous.

For more on this subject, check out my post for 3/26/2000. If you are furious with me or need to get involved in this particular scrap, e-mail me at tom@no-spam-please-barbelith.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: LEWD, the London Elite Weblogging STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2000 04:30:43 PM ----- BODY: LEWD, the London Elite Weblogging Detachment that I alluded to a few days ago is beginning to come together. Or at least it seems likely that it is - people seem to have been rather flummoxed by my complete lack of contact details. Sorry to not so soft, LEWD blog #1. Daily Doozer is also trying to start some kind of IRL weblogger meeting, which I am more than up for. Perhaps it can become the basis for WXW1 (West by West One), Katy's idea to compete with those American chappies and their SXSW.

Dull weblogger? Take a life altering pill and become more vibrant and throbbing. Continuity.nu was the only site that picked up on my challenge to spice up a blog, and even then, well:

"There are a few [weblogs] that are genuinely dull." Thanks, Tom. Webloggers all over the world are now thinking, gosh, I hope I'm not dull.
Just for fun, and because I am terribly proud of (most of) them, here are a few buttons I recently designed for timeout.com:

Oh and one last thing! Mark! What on earth are you talking about?

"I had a randon ICQ message the other day, asking me what kind of shampoo I use. Stupid question, right? But the more I've thought about it, the less stupid it became. I *KNOW* people by their scent. If Tom was to use Herbal Essence instead of my suspected Head and Shoulders, he'd be a totally different man than I thought him to be."
The scariest thing is that I actually don't even know what shampoo I use. At the moment I am stealing odds and ends off my flatmates. That could mean anything. Particularly as I don't have a sense of smell. I could be dousing myself in a great big girlie "flowers and ponies" kind of shampoo. Ick. Gross. Note to self: Go To Boots. Buy Shampoo. And Shaving Cream. And Light-Bulbs.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My comments about language (yesterday) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2000 05:00:54 PM ----- BODY: My comments about language (yesterday) seem to be echoing around the net with some speed. In the course of the day I have written a very apologetic e-mail to Tracy for using her as a launch-pad for what is clearly a much larger rant, been chastised for criticising American culture as low-brow (never my intention), been introduced to the regional variations of dialect in Newfoundland, been agreed with by a New Zealander and told I am naive by someone else. Here's a selection of the best comments that have emerged in response to my ravings:

Matthew Rossi: "When you just assume the rest of the world exists to become more like you, you don't need to worry about things like [culture]. America is a monster. A bastard born out of deformed magecraft and naked opportunism, it rolls over other national identities like the Cohort of Julius Caesar meeting Vercingtorix. Bastard confident, a great big engine that chews up shit and blood and hate and spits it out all over the landscape."
Prolific: "I was taught by mostly Brits and Americans in a teacher training college in Utrecht. Oddly, there were none of the 'my English is better than yours' vibes there, perhaps because these were language teachers. We were told 'adopt an accent, any accent, be it American, English, Welsh or Irish. It will help you sound more convincing.'"
Kitsch Bitsch: "I can most wholeheartedly agree with Tom when he says that the worldwide awareness of American vernacular far excedes the average American's awareness of regional versions of the language."
Daily Doozer: "I don't want to get into a nasty argument about cultural imperialism and the proliferation of American media. I don't want, particularly, to talk about any perceived or real damaging societal effects. Personally, I think that at the moment I'm a typical student and I've completely lost faith in capitalism (and it's probably a phase I'll go through before I become a corporate lawyer)."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God! I finally took the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2000 09:33:39 AM ----- BODY: God! I finally took the emode "What is your true colour" test that has been cycling around the blogs, and it came out with this, which is a bit of coincidence if you ask me:
"Vibrant and charming, ORANGE is the color of your personality."
New blogs proliferate like some form of weird fungal infection on the net. There never seems to be an end to it (good). And along with blogs come blogmemes - viral ideas attached to the fungal media produced by relatively disease free human beings. The blogmeme of the moment is a design feature - the dotted-line. After the relative success of barbelith orange, I will come out and say that dotted lines will be the only thing to be seen in this summer. That's so a good look...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Lord, won't you buy me... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2000 02:35:01 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone want to buy me a computer? In my two months of homelessness, I have used net cafe computers only. And now I finally set up my own computer and it seems like I have stepped back about eight years in time. I don't think I can handle it. The most terrifying thing about it is how much I dislike it being a PC. I have been a PC user for nearly ten years now. TEN YEARS. I made all those Mac jokes about how they were crappy and shoddy and boring and pointless and ugly. And now I find myself desperately pining for the sexiest G4 on the planet. I mean just look at it. I can't stop drooling!

It worked for k10k.net - they've got Apple sponsorship - so why can't it work for me? I'm a shameless prostitute. I'll have myself tattooed with the Apple insignia. I'll do anything, goddammit... So this is a blanket call to the world out there: -

Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me an Apple G4
My friends all have PCs
I don't know what for

I've built many websites
But now I'm in awe
Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me An Apple G4
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Come on now kids, play STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2000 09:09:46 AM ----- BODY: Come on now kids, play nice...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now with permalinks. I have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2000 01:05:39 PM ----- BODY: Now with permalinks. I have been resisting this trend for quite some time now, because it would expose my weird habit of continually adding to an individual entry. I have used this technique to keep a certain amount of logical flow on a page, and to keep important entries that I make in a day right up at the top. But now, alas, no longer. The other reason I have resisted these things is that I have this horrible feeling that barbelith is beginning to look cluttered. Things are just not where they are supposed to be, and there is too much colour pollution in my beautiful serene web/site/pool. But hey. That's a matter for another day...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I thought it would be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2000 01:10:49 PM ----- BODY: I thought it would be interesting to come up with some really cool, and yet weird and fucked-up domain names - you know - ones that no one would ever buy, and then name them here and see if anyone bought them. I came up with a few really good ones, including my absolute favourite rabidrabbit.com. Shock of all shocks: they've all already gone...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Theories of weblog popularity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/11/2000 04:25:10 PM ----- BODY:

I have a theory that for a weblog to be popular, it must i) have a definite focus for its writings, ii) be written well, iii) have a clear and appealing visual presence and iv) fabricate some form of online personality that people actually like (or be famous). My theory can be extrapolated into explaining why some weblogs are less popular than others. Those sites that are based upon complete whim of content will therefore be at a certain disadvantage, unless the personality expressed is particularly effervescent. I present the following breakdown of the top eight weblogs (according to beebo.org, [Issued May 11, 16:42 GMT+10]) as proof or disproof that my theory holds water.

[NOTE: Half way through this rigorous process, I began wondering whether or not this exercise was turning into a weblog review kind of thing. Which really doesn't interest me that much. But since the post was so bloody long already, I thought I should probably see it through. Make up your own mind as to its validity (if any) and worth (if any). I promise I'll try and think of something more interesting to write about tomorrow...]

I'm always amazed that my favourite weblogs aren't more well read - I guess it reflects a divergence of interests in the community as a whole. Where were: riothero, megnut, kitschbitch, powazek etc etc... [Later Note (13/05/00) Evhead explains everything]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So, I am sitting at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/11/2000 06:35:28 PM ----- BODY: So, I am sitting at work, having spent the day being shown how to force quark documents through extraction tools and sql databases, thinking about organising my travelcard, sending off replies to letters about preview screenings of films and wondering where I am going to stash my gym clothes when I go to the party that Nick, Toby and two other people are organising in a bar in Chalk Farm. It's supposed to start around 7.30, which give me an hour to get there. It looks like my flatmates aren't going to be able to make it as they both have work commitments. which means I have to put my chin in the air, down a few satisfyingly strong drinks, and try to find my inner chirpy fun person...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anti-Microsoft day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2000 12:31:16 PM ----- BODY:

It's Anti-Microsoft Day at Barbelith Towers today, as completely spontaneously I have come across several pieces of information about the many-splendored Macro-Company that have caused me to feel little white-hot daggers of outrage course through my body.

If you feel the same way about these stories, and all the other weirdnesses that Microsoft have done, make it Anti-Microsoft Day all over the web by putting this little banner on your site with a link to your favourite example of their bloody stupidity.

[Current participants in the May 12 Anti Microsoft Day: Wanderlust, bluishorange, Dakota Smith (Shameless Self-Promoter), Atesque, L N B B, thegardencafe.com, she says, FrogBlog, Haiku the Blog, linkmachinego, gaylery, L/noleum, Zippyblog, Rasterweb, Golb, Digital Asylum] [People who think I am full of shit and don't understand that the odd gesture of teenage rebellion never did anyone any harm, even though most of us are using Microsoft products: Ed's Weblog]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm really worried that when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 11:16:31 AM ----- BODY: I'm really worried that when I move this weblog to a new domain, that you'll all forget me and won't link to the new site. Which would really upset me. Nothing I can do about it though really.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Even though Anti-Microsoft Day is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 11:24:05 AM ----- BODY: Even though Anti-Microsoft Day is now well and truly over pretty much everywhere in the world, I just thought I'd add one more thing, gleaned from powazek this morning. There is a current discussion at Metafilter about an article at Macintouch that says:

"Macintouch is reporting that Microsoft has disbanded the IE for Mac team and is discontinuing development of IE for Mac. So much for a 5 year commitment...."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have finally decided which STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 10:58:29 PM ----- BODY: I have finally decided which domain to buy when I shunt the weblog onto a new server. Please god let it not go in the few days it will take me to get organised. I don't think I can take another reptilebrain fiasco. Obviously not saying a word to you lot, as you'll rush out and buy it in a shot, which would depress me deeply.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I know that everyone in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 11:04:30 PM ----- BODY: I know that everyone in the world has blogged it, but still - I'm pretty keen on the MetaCamPage. Gives me the opportunity to keep tabs in a big-brotherish fashion on lots of people at the same time, rather than merely one at a time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I found text through my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 11:07:19 PM ----- BODY: I found text through my referrer log. She was writing really nice things about many of my favourite blogs (and indeed myself). I get a few comments about my colour scheme, but really it is nothing compared to this - a whole block of colours that really really shouldn't work well together (and which you'd have to have a fair amount of nerve to even try to use together), but which work brilliantly. All in all, an elegant piece of design. Simple and effective.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It occurs to me that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 11:15:00 PM ----- BODY: It occurs to me that the awesome blogger could do with a search and replace facility. I mean, I know it could be a right pain in the arse, but what happens when someone moves their blog to a new domain? I mean, how useful would it be to be able to just replace www.barbelith.com with www.whateverthefuckIchoosenext.com, while still maintaining the integrity of the permalinks?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've had a great day. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2000 11:23:49 PM ----- BODY: I've had a great day. On Thursday night at the party I bumped into this guy who I had only met once before (when I was told very firmly that he was straight). Well, I am now reasonably sure that this is innaccurate! We went out for lunch today (Soho, £42 each, OUCH) and then went shoe shopping and looked at sunglasses and watches. We fooled around at every chance we could get. Gap will never be the same. Hopefully will see him again tomorrow when I'm going to see Gladiator with about a thousand other people.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: About bloody time. I have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2000 12:02:20 PM ----- BODY: About bloody time. I have FINALLY updated The Bomb.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Men, Women, Breasts and Circumcision... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 05/14/2000 02:33:43 PM ----- BODY:

Very much delighted to see that blogger has chosen the feminist media watch collaborative weblog as their log of the week. I'm relatively well informed in feminist theory as many of the issues in queer theory are derived from previous work in feminism, and there are many cross-roads and common interests between the two academic branches. However, no longer being in an academic environment, it is increasingly difficult to keep up with the issues. A couple of the debates really interested me:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in a bit of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2000 05:57:36 PM ----- BODY: I'm in a bit of a mood with SwallowingTacks. I don't think that was the point at all. Still, never mind, eh?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wow. Woke up this morning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2000 12:46:14 PM ----- BODY: Wow. Woke up this morning and read this on prolific.org:

"I started reading Barbelith because it was a relief to find a 'British' voice in the ocean of mainly Yankee blogs. But I wouldn't have stuck with him if it hadn't been more than just being British. Being personal, insightful, and perhaps being queer too. I don't know, I'm vaguely interested in gender issues, always have been. Then of course came the famous redesign, the colours and realising that for the first time, 'web design' had made me feel 'happy'... drawing emotions I normally experience listening to music, or being with someone special."
I'm all glowy!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have been using an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2000 04:42:19 PM ----- BODY: I have been using an Ultimate Bulletin Board for ages at the nexus. I have always been really happy with its functionality (although it is pretty heavy on the old bandwidth), but less comfortable with it aesthetically. It's highly adaptable, but never really adaptable enough for my tastes. But then I stumbled upon dreamless,org. Not only am I astounded by the look of the pages, I have absolutely no idea how it has been done. For me to get the nexus looking like that would (as far as I can tell) require considerable amounts of engineering in the code behind the scenes. Can anyone explain to me how this has been done? [Explain it to Tom]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh the power! Oh the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2000 04:53:04 PM ----- BODY: Oh the power! Oh the sheer undreamt-of power! Watch in stupified awe this weekend as Katy and I assassinate Mark and take over Riothero. No promises that Katy will take all her clothes off or start a big fight with women (sorry guys), but we will try to emulate our young host in every other way possible. I am so looking forward to this...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been meaning to do STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2000 01:54:08 AM ----- BODY: I've been meaning to do it for ages and now it is done - the photo bar at the top of the page rotates the images, thus making the site infinitely more interesting than it already was. Will the excitement never end?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weirdly, a lot of people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2000 07:09:05 PM ----- BODY: Weirdly, a lot of people have commented on my thoughts on why a weblog is popular. More interestingly, exactly what I feared would happen has happened - by actively trying to demonstrate whether or not my theory was true or not (ie. by producing reviews) I have wandered slap bang into the middle of the debate (once again) about whether weblogs are popularity contests and whether or not good design is something that can be quantified.

It's strange - in most other areas of web site creation it is considered a given that there are certain designs that are better than others. Unreadable content is surely always the sign of a bad website, as is unclear navigation. I consider kottke.org to be incredibly well designed - it's clear, elegant and easy to find your way around. So I can only half agree with Blog for One when he says: "on a personal site, one should be able to do whatever they want, and not have to worry about being judged, or measured, or ranked" because while no one should feel under pressure to compete, there is no reason to think that the design, content or character of a personal site cannot be improved, nor that the individuals who run those sites are not interested in doing so.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Congratulations are due to Derek STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2000 07:24:42 PM ----- BODY: Congratulations are due to Derek Powazek, who has been named Creative Director of Pyra, the young team of web scamps and entrepreneurs who are fighting corporate evil in San Francisco. Katy is completely right though - in about three months there won't be anyone who isn't working for them...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which BMW interferes with my love-life... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2000 07:39:09 PM ----- BODY:

In the UK at the moment there is this whole debacle about Rover, a company that makes cars that very few people buy, even though they look rather nice. The company, which has been owned by BMW for a while, has been making savage losses and has finally been sold to another company called Phoenix for the nominal price of £10 (approximately $15) [BBC].

Now normally this news wouldn't interest me in the slightest - I am afraid that I hold little hope for the future of British manufacturing industries and don't see the point in investing in heavy machinery which has the sole purpose of pouring even more money into a large hole in the ground.

However on this occasion, the huge amounts of legal and administrative work that has to be done by people close to the whole enterprise is really impacting on my social life. Entertaining and charming dinner companions are being captured and locked in small rooms to check contracts, leaving me without anything to do in the evenings but drink too much and watch the South Park Movie. This state of affairs must come to an end! So I say to thee, oh law firms of London - LET MY PEOPLE GO!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Film pitches on HSX.com STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2000 07:52:04 PM ----- BODY:

If you are ever on for a laugh, check out the descriptions of films at the Hollywood Stock Exchange. Ignore for the moment the tremendous fun of investing in stocks based on the performance of films and stars at the box office, and concentrate instead on gems of inspired summary like this:

"Fast Flash to Bang Time is a drama that will star Wesley Snipes and be directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls). The story is about a drug-addicted FBI agent and his sex addict female partner who fall in love and try to stop a terrorist attack."

Funny as that is, however (and trust me, I shall be first at the door of the cinema for it) , it cannot compare to a film that I have actually invested in. Called Munchies, this film is currently in development. And it's plot? While hsx says nothing, I know for a fact that it is about anorexic teenage girls who end up as cannibals. I mean, how cool is that?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While at work today, I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2000 08:00:15 PM ----- BODY: While at work today, I was rung up by an old University friend from Bristol, who was stopping off in London for a minute period of time between his epic jaunts around the world promoting his internet empire. He's heading off to California in the next few days - San Francisco via Los Angeles - where he is likely to stay for at least a month. And he'll be going back again around a month after that. He kept tantalising me with stories of the exciting world of internet start-ups and huge salaries - tempting me with the possibility of interesting and varied jobs for a young web coder/editor/producer like myself. And I have to say that I am beginning to think that he might be right.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How cross would you guys STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2000 12:08:49 AM ----- BODY: How cross would you guys be if I decided to start designing for a baseline of 800x600 screen resolution and above? I mean I know that around 10% of you still view sites at that resolution (Global Statistics), but that means around 90% of you don't. I think this deserves a poll. Is it OK to design for 800x600px resolutions?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not entirely sure that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2000 09:28:05 AM ----- BODY: I'm not entirely sure that I feel entirely comfortable with my new random display of images (above). I mean - I love it, but it seems that people are refreshing the page to get a different set, which is completely artificially upping my stats. How is a boy supposed to keep track of what's going on in the world, I ask you - I mean really?! [This behaviour is particularly frowned upon: naughty Prol!]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Books that I am currently STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2000 11:24:31 AM ----- BODY: Books that I am currently reading: Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon, William Powell: The Anarchist Cookbook. Music that I am currently listening to: Beck: Midnite Vultures, Beck: Mutations, Jeff Buckley: Mystery White Boy, PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love, Bjork: Homogenic, Dust Brothers: Fight Club Score, Moby: Play, Sean Lennon: Into The Sun.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lance Arthur on "Awarding": "The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2000 03:14:43 PM ----- BODY: Lance Arthur on "Awarding":

"The corral is closing in. Can't you feel it? They're rounding up the wild horses and taming them. They're sending in the thought police. They're closing down the library and burning any book they deem dangerous, inappropriate, wrong."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Feminist Media Watch has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2000 03:51:09 PM ----- BODY: The Feminist Media Watch has been getting a hell of a lot of coverage in the weblogging world over the last few days. I myself wrote a couple of long pieces on them a few days back [have a look]. I thought it might be interesting to do a quick review of some of this coverage. I feel like I have been concentrating on the negative publicity - but in a way that is inevitable since it inspires debate. However this is one of those dangerous areas where if you set yourself up as representative of a group of people you have to suffer their wrath when you say something they disagree with. Certainly many academic feminists would have considerable trouble with the site. Personally, I think anything that raises awareness of these issues is doing a valuable service - whether I agree with their specific take or not.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anyone want to be a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/18/2000 12:09:21 PM ----- BODY: Anyone want to be a web designer at timeout.com in London? Talent and passion a must! Check here for more details: timeout.com vacacies.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two pieces of barbelith news: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2000 12:43:02 AM ----- BODY: Two pieces of barbelith news:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh. My. God. Barbelith is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2000 09:43:35 AM ----- BODY: Oh. My. God. Barbelith is Blogger of the Week over at blogger.com. I'd like to thank my mother, God and the Coca-Cola company for making this day possible. I'm actually quite floored by the whole thing. Wow. There is a minor problem in that because I am changing hosts, the site will probably disappear for whole long stretches of time, and nothing will work properly. Which won't make me look as cool. Um.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Speak Out Loud is a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2000 02:56:58 PM ----- BODY: Speak Out Loud is a new blog that is just getting itself started. He admits that he has been mercilessly refreshing my page (&aacute; la prol), in order to get the pretty pictures all in a row. He's even got a page up that proves he's succeeded. Did I inspire him to this lunacy?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As moves are made in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2000 07:07:05 PM ----- BODY: As moves are made in the UK to sort out the mess of the sex laws (many of which are ignored, some of which implemented savagely - at least until relatively recently), the Guardian presents a quiz that may surprise the Americans amongst us. Particularly as one of the questions is: Is it legal for two gay men to nail each others testicles to a table?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going to see Final STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2000 07:22:40 PM ----- BODY: I'm going to see Final Destination tonight with a group of friends. I went to a press preview of it about a week ago, but it is no fun going to see scary movies by yourself. At least half of the fun is seeing what other people's reaction is. My co-conspirator in the takeover of riothero (Katy) is coming along too. I can't help wonder what she is going to think of it. I hope good things.

Everyone else is getting drunk afterwards, but not me. This weekend is hectic beyond measure, with at least two parties, a major web maintenance session, a hot date and a man coming around to install a phone line. And I have to do my washing. And ideally go to the gym.

A couple of days ago I was taken by the young gentleman I am dating at the moment to the bar on the 24th floor of what was the NatWest Tower in the heart of the City. After chatting for a while I dropped into the conversation that he was one of the hot topics of conversation at my place of work, as he had managed to cancel on me three nights in a row. He found this endlessly amusing and asked if there was anyone in the world who didn't know about what we were up to. He then smiled broadly and said - "you're probably publishing it on a website". I changed the subject very quickly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark said I could do STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/20/2000 01:21:45 AM ----- BODY: Mark said I could do it. Honest he did. He said I could redesign in his absence, and by christ, have I...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apologies about failures of service STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2000 10:42:46 AM ----- BODY: Apologies about failures of service over the last 24 hours. The move to barbelith's new hosts is going pretty smoothly, but is still relatively time consuming. The Bomb and Microlith will be up and running shortly (an hour?). The Nexus might take a couple of days more.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I have moved over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2000 12:39:43 PM ----- BODY: So I have moved over to pair.com with relatively little difficulty (although I lost half a days worth of e-mail so resend it if it was important). The only thing that I am really slightly concerned about is the lack of already set-up stats package. I need something that I can use to track referrers (and the like). Anyone got any ideas?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was looking around beebo.org's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2000 12:45:35 PM ----- BODY: I was looking around beebo.org's metalog about half an hour ago, and came across a really cool site (an onfocus component) all about that conversation that you have with friends or significant others about where to go out and eat. I was so taken with it that I blogged it for accidental riothero (which is what I decided to call Mark's site in his absence). And then I get a phone call from Peter, a "friend or significant other", who wants to go out for dinner this evening. I almost ran back to onfocus, and when I had finished, I had generated this:

Tom: So, what do you want to eat?
Peter: I don't know what do you want to eat?
Tom: I guess I'm not really that hungry.
Peter: Yeah, me neither.
Tom: How does Italian sound?
Peter: Hmm, we have that a lot.
Tom: yeah.
Peter: So you're really not hungry?
Tom: Well, I could probably eat something.
Peter: Like what?
Tom: Just about anything, really.
Peter: How about Curry?
Tom: Yeah, I guess that's ok.
Peter: I don't know now.
Tom: You don't know? Come on.
Peter: We could order Chinese.
Tom: You're too lazy to go out and get food?
Peter: No, I guess not. Where do you want to go?
Tom: I was thinking that new Italian place.
Peter: That's all the way downtown!
Tom: It's supposed to be good.
Peter: I guess I'm just not in the mood.
Tom: Well, what are you in the mood for?
Peter: You said just about anything.
Tom: Anything but Italian.
Peter: You suggested that earlier.
Tom: I did? hmmm.
Peter: I always feel like Curry, but we never go.
Tom: That's fine..
Peter: I guess I'm just not in the mood.
Tom: Well, I could probably eat something.
Peter: We could order Chinese.
Tom: yeah.
Peter: You said just about anything.
Tom: I was thinking that new Italian place.
Peter: You suggested that earlier.
Tom: We could flip for it.
Peter: What are we arguing over?
Tom: Italian or hamburgers.
Peter: heads.
Tom: I don't have a quarter.
Peter: Curry.
Tom: Yeah, I guess that's ok.
Peter: Let's get a pizza.
Tom: Yeah, ok.
Peter: What's your favorite number?
Tom: 7.
Now I'm terrified that it might actually happen...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apparently, Mark is really chuffed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2000 05:35:58 PM ----- BODY: Apparently, Mark is really chuffed that Katy and I haven't thrown riothero down to the pits of beebo.org's ratings. Anyway - he's back soon, so no doubt I'll hear all about it soon enough. I have to say that I love the fact that his mother drops me the odd note and has been checking on his position for him. That's really sweet. My mother tends to glaze over a bit when I get going...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I had a lovely evening STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2000 05:42:11 PM ----- BODY: I had a lovely evening last night with current squeeze, although his complete inability to arrive anywhere on time might get a little galling over time I fear. I reached that "I run a website and you are on it" point of a burgeoning relationship, which has raised a few eyebrows in the past. When he actually read what I had said, of course, he was relatively comfortable with the whole thing (or so it seemed to me). Oh poor untrusting fool... Of course, now I have to work my way through all that "who rings up the other one first" stuff. Which should be interesting...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sir John Gielgud has died. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2000 06:26:06 PM ----- BODY: Sir John Gielgud has died.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Peter, can I ask you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2000 10:20:58 PM ----- BODY: Peter, can I ask you a question? You didn't go out with David Hockney did you? It's really hard to explain why this is interesting to me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm all over the place STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2000 10:52:39 PM ----- BODY: I'm all over the place today - I can't concentrate on anything for more than about thirty seconds. It's probably the riothero effect. I'll tell you this much for nothing, writing for that place is like bathing in Class A drugs. Anyway - I am in the middle of catching up with my correspondence and site maintenance now that I am finally settled properly in my new place, have moved servers and have set up the now fully functional (but completely ugly) Nexus replacement: The Barbelith Underground which is full of bloody lunatics as ever.

I was really touched to see that people at Metafilter were worried about the site during its downtime the other day. Certainly, this was not a good look for the pages. Still, things are gradually getting back to normal. And the site is even slightly slimmer now that I have disposed of some of the surplus content.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Welcome back Mark - we've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/23/2000 09:06:46 AM ----- BODY: Welcome back Mark - we've missed you terribly...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meeting up with Mark Olynciw... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2000 08:52:44 AM ----- BODY:

Mark asked:

"Tom, Katy? What do Brits do on July 4th? This year, instead of shutting yourselves indoors and mourning the loss of this wonderful land I'm presently standing on... How would you like to meet ME? I'll be in London, England this summer on July 4th, the American Independance Day... that's funny in so many ways..."

British people don't do anything particularly special on July 4th! That's supposedly the day that you colonial types won your freedom from us cruel European overlords. For some reason, we don't feel any particular need to celebrate that fact. Although every American themed bar in the country gets all jazzed up. And all the Americans do too. We look at them with raised eyebrows, in an indulgent fashion.

As for meeting up - that sounds really cool! Why will you be here, again!? Oh and while we are at it, what an earth are you doing up at three in the morning?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out is taking me to New York! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2000 08:59:52 AM ----- BODY:

Best news of the moment - I am sitting at work thinking about this site I am building for Time Out which covers all the summer festivals in the UK when I get given an envelope by my boss. I open it and read the first paragraph: "You have been invited to celebrate the fifth birthday party ..." - sounds cool - "of Time Out New York" - sounds cooler - "in New York City in October - all flights, hotel etc included!" - OH MY GOD. All permanent staff are tromping off over the Atlantic for an epic piss up and shopping expedition. How cool is that?!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We went to see "Honest"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2000 09:15:12 AM ----- BODY:

Katy and I went to see Honest yesterday at the big première in Leicester Square. I have to say I don't think I have seen such an absolute pile of twaddle in years. Individual scenes were great, some of the dialogue was really good, some of the camerawork was wonderful, some of the direction was cool. But most of all of it was just awful. Don't go and see it (unless you want to see All Saints' breasts).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What mean thing is Eduardo Arcos saying? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2000 09:20:00 AM ----- BODY:

I have no idea what he is talking about, but I kind of get the impression that I don't like Eduardo Arcos. Anyone want to translate for me?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief update stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2000 10:48:51 AM ----- BODY:

Two brief pieces of site update stuff. 1) This seems to me to be a great idea. 2) I have had lots of translations of Mr Arcos' unpleasant comments sent to me. Thank you very much everyone...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't bloody believe it. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2000 10:55:04 AM ----- BODY: I don't bloody believe it. The new domain name I had decided to buy as soon as my pay-check came through has been sold. This is the second bloody time this has bloody happened. First reptilebrain.com, now subbacultcha.com! I don't bloody believe it. This one was sold four days ago! I swear to god I am going to kill someone. The only thing I can think of is that Network Solutions is selling information on which domain names people are searching for. Is this possible? Is it being done?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No noise from current squeeze STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2000 02:47:02 PM ----- BODY: No noise from current squeeze since Sunday night. I wonder if that means anything?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After two days and considerable STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2000 06:30:25 PM ----- BODY: After two days and considerable pressure and tension, I hereby reveal my latest design project for Time Out. I'm pretty pleased with it - Time Out's Complete UK Festival Guide...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm sorry, but Jeffrey Zeldman STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2000 06:53:30 PM ----- BODY: I'm sorry, but Jeffrey Zeldman rocks so hard and fast he could vibrate himself through a mountain. In his latest article "HTMHell" at Adobe's site, he comes across as a freedom fighter for independent creative content on the web. And Christ knows, we need more of those. Here's a sample quote from what must be considered a call to arms, a Manifesto for the true digerati - the people that like to play and create and communicate, rather than the people who consider a "good internet idea" to be selling sportswear (however ineffectively):

"So here we are. Ten years into the largest informational makeover since Gutenberg. Five years since software makers, ad moguls, and multimedia megaliths smelled the decaffeinated freeze-dried Folgers. And how have we harnessed Berners-Lee's incredible gift to the world? Now that the means of production have been handed to us on a silver modem, what are we doing with them?

We're selling stuff. Swapping stuff. Buying stuff. And watching the dot-commies hemorrhage ad dollars the way Chevrolet and Chrysler used to."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to see Mission: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2000 09:21:10 AM ----- BODY: I went to see Mission: Impossible 2 last night at a special press screening at the Empire in Leicester Square (I'm having quite the glamourous life at the moment). My honest opinion: it was bloody awful. Totally ridiculous, pointless film full of overblown stunts, empty of plot, totally lacking suspense, intrigue and likeable characters. Thandie Newton is the magnolia (paint colour not movie) of the current crop of actresses. Two stars who exude less passion and sexual fire I can't imagine. It was like seeing Yogi flirt with Snagglepuss (except prettier). Waste of money (except I hadn't paid any). In fact it made me so cross, I wrote my first epinion in months...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Chronicle of a bad night's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2000 10:12:48 AM ----- BODY: Chronicle of a bad night's sleep:

  1. I drank far too much caffeine last night, so even though I was exhausted when I got home at midnight, I couldn't sleep until nearly two in the morning.
  2. Around three in the morning I had an appalling nightmare, the details of which I can't remember. The worst thing was that I only half woke up, and was stuck in that sleep paralysis mode where you suddenly get nervous and paranoid and then outright terrified as you lie in this kind of quasi-dreamstate, unable to move, with perceived movement around you. It took a while to get back to sleep.
  3. At which point the nightmares returned, leaving me sleeping fitfully until 8 in the morning, at which point I got up feeling physically numb but edgy - as if I had some kind of reptile coiling and recoiling around in my head. People seem distant and slightly unfamiliar. I want to go back to bed.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy quoted Fire Bad, Weblogs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2000 10:22:26 AM ----- BODY: Katy quoted Fire Bad, Weblogs Good a couple of days ago. He said (about our recent stint at riothero):
"Now, I came around when Tom and Katy were Accidentally Rio Theros, because Goddamn those two are witty, smutty and vile. I love them. Like a stream of bat's piss, they shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark"
In the meantime, since we have parted company, both Mark and I have slipped savagely down beebo.org's weblog ratings. I only say this in passing as I am too exhausted to draw any conclusions from it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm continuing my quest to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2000 01:05:24 PM ----- BODY: I'm continuing my quest to discover whether Netsol is selling information on the domain name searches performed through its service. I've had a few e-mails from people who are divided in opinion as to whether I am being paranoid or not. However I stumbled upon a figure that slightly alarmed me. In an article at CBS Marketwatch there was this statement:

"In the first quarter, we saw astounding acceleration in '.com,' '.net' and '.org' domain-name registrations worldwide, as total new market registrations grew 120 percent from the previous quarter,'' said Jim Rutt, chief executive officer [of NetSol]. "In fact, more than one-third of all existing '.com,' '.net' and '.org' domain names were registered in the first quarter of 2000.''
So I suppose the race is on. If you have some names you want, buy them now. You may not get another chance. [Discuss]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Odds and ends of news STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2000 09:16:41 PM ----- BODY: Odds and ends of news from the internet: o gaylery.com has been redesigned (I am probably the last to notice this fact). Basically, it looks amazing. Very clean, intelligent design complements the already sharp content. o A great quote from eod.com:

"This whole external male genitalia thing is really badly designed. I mean, do I have to carry a VCR around with me all the time just because I watch a movie every once in a while? "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Notes from the world of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2000 11:59:06 AM ----- BODY: Notes from the world of design: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not normally an unfaithful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2000 12:09:35 PM ----- BODY: I'm not normally an unfaithful person, but recently I have been having urges. Strange ungodly urges. The object of my current affection and I have been together for seven months now, and we've never even really had an argument, although occasionally we have both been slightly frustrated with each other. I still don't know if it is love or not. But suddenly a couple of days ago, a newcomer wandered into my life. I know very little about them, and they may be really unreliable and flaky (and they sure do have a stupid name), but the assets on display - well I don't want to sound like a boor, but WOW. When it comes right down to it though, I think my current relationship will probably be more long lasting and bring me more returns in the long term. Perhaps we can grow together... Love you, blogger...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The shower in my flat STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2000 01:21:41 PM ----- BODY: The shower in my flat has gone wrong, leaving us with dubious water pressure, occasional scalding heat and quite a lot of icy cold. Showering is now nigh on impossible. We have a bath instead, but that isn't the point. We asked our landlord's maintenance company to come around and look at it while we were at work. They came. They checked. They decided that there was nothing wrong with it. They left. They e-mailed me stating that I should clean the limescale off it, but otherwise it was fine. It looks like we might be in for the long haul on this one...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quotes from my current favourite STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2000 03:15:18 PM ----- BODY: Quotes from my current favourite threads on the Barbelith Underground:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A letter to Doctor Laura... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 05/31/2000 10:41:56 PM ----- BODY:

I got an e-mail from Kerry which included this open letter to Dr Laura:

Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 10:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 20:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

A Fan
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm really interested in Atesque's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2000 09:01:12 AM ----- BODY: I'm really interested in Atesque's redesign - it's got that wonderful ordered madness feel to it. Feels like an punk or metal album cover. Something with a lot of energy in it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm delighted to report that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2000 01:12:30 PM ----- BODY: I'm delighted to report that Neonlit, which I have been running for Time Out, has just been selected as a Pick of the Week by Yahoo. And it's a particularly good week to visit as well, as it includes a feature about Martin Amis.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm absolutely terrified that this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2000 10:39:26 PM ----- BODY: I'm absolutely terrified that this article: AppleInsider -An Exclusive Inside Look at Adobe Photoshop 6 will be the final straw that forces me to go out and buy myself a Mac on some kind of huge loan arrangement.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Someone needs to whup the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2000 02:32:37 PM ----- BODY: Someone needs to whup the ass of the Daily Doozer. In the meantime, ask the Magic Eight Ball some questions of your own...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've bought a new domain STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2000 02:51:06 PM ----- BODY: I've bought a new domain name, and the barbelith weblog will shortly be moving over to it. Only it won't be called barbelith any more (duh!). In the meantime, service may be a little sporadic. Bear with me in this exciting time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This would be a really STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2000 11:02:22 AM ----- BODY: This would be a really interesting literate science fiction quiz if it wasn't for one simple fact. You answer a question, it tells you that you're wrong, and then when you check the answers, it thinks you have put down a completely different answer to the one that you actually have. What a waste of time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kerry's riddle... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2000 01:38:51 PM ----- BODY:

Kerry is becoming quite ubiquitous. I quoted him a couple of days ago, and now, Mark at Riothero is quoting him as well. I promised Kerry that I'd set up a weblog for him on my server, and I still haven't gotten around to it, which just illustrates what a bad person I am. In the meantime, he will have to remain the dark figure behind the scenes - the Charlie behind the Angels.

Anyway, he sent Mark and I the same riddle:

1. In a street there are 5 different houses in five different colours.
2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
3. These five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain
brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.
4. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink
the same beverage.

(pretend there is a drawing of five houses here -- identical in shape (but
not colour) in every way.
House 1 House 2 House 3 House 4 House 5

The question is: Who owns the fish?
To prove you are not guessing, specify his nationality, colour house, brand
of smoke and preferred beverage.
Clues:
- The Brit lives in the red house
- The Swede keeps dogs as pets
- The Dane drinks tea
- The green house is on the left of the white house
- The green house's owner drinks coffee
- The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds
- The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill
- The man living in the center house drinks milk
- The Norwegian lives in the first house
- The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
- The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill
- The owner who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer
- The German smokes Prince
- The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
- The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water

It took me 25 minutes. Have a go and e-mail me when you think you have the answer, and I'll tell you if you are right...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the secret's out [thanks STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2000 08:51:00 PM ----- BODY: So the secret's out [thanks sja] - I have registered and paid for plasticbag.org (don't go there yet though because there isn't anything up). I'm interested in people's opinions on it. After the other two going in about twenty minutes I got a bit nervous about this one...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone is doing terribly well STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2000 08:52:58 PM ----- BODY: Everyone is doing terribly well on the whole riddle thing. Yay Barbelith regulars. You've whupped the ass of riothero's readers!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got an e-mail. It STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2000 09:01:40 PM ----- BODY: I got an e-mail. It reads as follows:

"I understand you have to be careful who reads what but the main (though part of a huge) reason I check your site is to see how things are going on the relationship front. Unresloved plot thread left dangling needs a knot tied in it."
Okay. Time to expose self to the world. My most recent object of intrigue has literally fallen off the planet. Completely. Gone without a trace. After flirting our way through the sale of Land Rover (don't ask), and going out for a meal, and going up the NatWest tower, and doing any number of dubious things all over the place (behaving very badly), we finally managed to have an evening alone with each other and I haven't heard from him since! I thought I might be more affected by this turn of events than I actually am. It still seems like a pity to me, but it's nothing I can't live with. He knows I write about stuff here, so he'll probably read this and get really pissed off with me. Still, what can you do, eh?

Anyway, in the two weeks since I last saw him, Sam turned up out of the blue at lunch time and we chatted. The most memorable part of the conversation was that apparently you can't buy decent stretchy black underpants in Cambridge (which I wasn't aware of until now). It's was lovely to see him again. And then a couple of days ago, this guy called Sean re-appeared in the UK. He's very cool, is doing a Classics doctorate (so we could talk about Froma Zeitlin and Jean-Pierre Vernant which was nice), likes Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is an obsessive foodie. Honestly though, I don't think I have the energy any more!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have read Bertrand Russell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2000 09:28:29 AM ----- BODY: I have read Bertrand Russell on Christianity. I am familiar with the range of argumentation. I am well read in Gay and Lesbian Studies and Queer Theory. I am more than capable of forming a decent argument. But frankly, I think there has to be room for being frivolous in life, particularly when confronted by something as patently absurd as the Church. Evidently some people disagree...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've had loads of people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2000 09:16:32 AM ----- BODY: I've had loads of people sending me the answer to the riddle I posted a couple of days back. Most of you got it right. For those of you who didn't and who still want to know the answer, wander over to the Gallery of Visual Journal Entries. Better luck next time!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Campaign for a Better Blog STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2000 10:42:47 AM ----- BODY: Campaign for a Better Blog
Mark at www.riothero.com (notice the absence of link) said:

"I hope you see that this ISN'T like high school. I DON'T go to less popular weblogs and laugh... I DON'T pull Tom's [Ed: ME!] pants down and whisper 'Ner Ner Ner' in his ear.... I DON'T care what the community thinks of me... and to prove this, I'll quit defending myself."
Ooooh. I think this little chicken's getting too big for his boots...

But what can YOU do?
Mark bases his entire world view upon Beebo.org's Weblog Ratings - which is a very dangerous thing to do, because...

  1. For a period of THREE DAYS (that's until the weekend) DO NOT LINK TO MARK. At that stage, reinstate your love for him and his alter-ego Candy the Online Stripper. Just for a couple of days: Let Him Know What Side His Bread Is Buttered....
  2. In the meantime, help promote Metafilter and any other prominent / interesting weblogs listed.
  3. Send Mark an e-mail explaining that we all think he is really nice, but that he has CLEARLY ... GONE ... INSANE ...
To get the ball rolling: I LOVE YOU ZANNAH!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I swear to god, this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2000 05:47:00 PM ----- BODY: I swear to god, this man rules the world...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's not an edict. Sheesh. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2000 09:58:24 PM ----- BODY: It's not an edict. Sheesh. Anyway - okay, I'll link to you on the condition that you DON'T LINK TO MARK (just for a couple of days!): zippyblog...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Christ, Kerry, these things are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2000 10:07:09 PM ----- BODY: Christ, Kerry, these things are getting easier and easier. [I won't link to him (for a couple of days - see down the page), but go and check out www.riothero.com for the riddle in question] Anyway - this one took about 80 seconds. And it's my turn to blow the answer! Read on if you dare.

Stage One: The guy at the back of the queue cannot be seeing two grey hats in front of him. If he was seeing two grey hats, then he would know that his hat had to be red. Stage Two: The guy in the middle now knows that he and the guy in front of him cannot both be wearing grey hats. Therefore, if the guy in front of him was wearing a grey hat, then he would know that he was wearing a red one. But he doesn't know. Which means that the guy in front of him has to be wearing a red hat. The third guy having heard this exchange (and being very clever) now knows that he is wearing the red hat. If you'll pardon my English colloquialism: Piece of Piss.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now featured at Jezebel's Mirror STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/08/2000 10:34:15 AM ----- BODY: Now featured at Jezebel's Mirror Project: Me, Evil Nick and Katy poncing around in a dance studio in the O2 Centre, Finchley Road...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Flow, Clog and Reflex... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/08/2000 10:39:19 AM ----- BODY:

I have contracted one of those unpleasantly dehabilitating cold virus things that makes your nose fill with sticky stretchy green goo that means that you have to sleep on your back so that it "flows" down rather than clogging up your nostrils and making it hard to breathe. Which results in the side effect of a body that acts as if it has just discovered the cough reflex and is really quite proud of it. Which results in a throat that closely resembles ground beef with salt rubbed into it.

Or at least I think it would, if I could stop shivering enough to tell... I've taken the day off work so that I don't spread it to all my colleagues, and feel gross and annoy people. I'm sure that it's the right thing to do, but I'm bored already [10.38am].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Boylog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2000 09:23:41 AM ----- BODY:

So, anyway, I went to this weblog called BoyLOG this morning, and the first thing I did was jump into blogger and write a slightly snarky comment. I think I was still reeling from this TV program on yesterday which was about people with online diaries. They all came across as completely self-indulgent self-promoters. Perhaps I am the same. I don't know.

That's beside the point. So I get to this site this morning and the first thing I see is this very attractive picture of a young man wearing very little but an absurdly cheeky grin. First thought (honestly): Nice... Second thought (honestly): What an Egotist!

But then I started to read it. Good stuff. Honest stuff. Much more honest than I feel able to be myself. Much more frank. Much more ... revealing. And after I had read pretty much all of it (some swiftly, some less so), I came to a new conclusion. That Chris of BoyLOG is just OPEN. Open about sex, about love, about his body and about his life. So go and read it. Read it thoroughly. Come to your own conclusion. And take your time to do so...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Contrasts.net... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2000 11:59:09 AM ----- BODY:

I don't know, maybe sometimes I do go over the top. Who can tell? Contrasts.net?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-immolation is for girls... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2000 12:15:42 PM ----- BODY:

I think I've done a bad thing. Peter wanted to go out for a drink this evening, and I said yes. Then I suggested that Sean might like to come along. Peter said yes [who the hell is Peter]. Sean said yes [who the hell is Sean]. Then I thought - cool! I can get a great big group together and we can go wander the streets of Soho. So I sent Max a text message [who the hell is Max]. And he's coming as well. At the time it seemed like a really good idea, but now the whole idea is making me incredibly nervous. Cornwell, one of my oldest friends, has disavowed all responsibility for what may happen. As he puts it - "self-immolation is for girls"...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy's complete disaster? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2000 06:53:43 PM ----- BODY:

Katy is not always as supportive as she might be. For god's sake, my dear, there's no reason that it should be a complete disaster.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Numbers that I own... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2000 07:03:57 PM ----- BODY:

I own 9, 13, 16, 22, 28, 42, 43, 46, 56, 57, 63, 64, 77 & 96, but I think there are a few that are REALLY missing... [via prol]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meeting new webloggers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2000 08:52:41 PM ----- BODY: I went to the UK webloggers meet this afternoon with Katy (who also writes a goodly amount about the experience). It's a pity that I wasn't more in a mood to party, as it was really quite fun. Special kudos to Luke, for being cool and giving me all kinds of advice on Macs vs PCs (and looking like Chandler Bing) and to Jen, whose site I looked at as soon as I got home. It's really bloody nice...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sometimes, when I'm out with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2000 09:10:11 PM ----- BODY: Sometimes, when I'm out with people and I'm misbehaving and being mischievous, I really feel like I'm on a roll. But not a good roll. Instead, one of those uncontrollable rolls that aircraft have which subsequently turns into a spin which then (inevitably) turns into a crash. And all the way down, I look to the people around me to help me pull out of it. And when I look, most of them are watching me with a smile on their face, saying indulgent things like - "Look at him go. It really is a wonder isn't it".

People seem to like giving sanction and licence to well-intentioned cocky sociopaths. But all I really want them to do is to take me in hand - to quietly and firmly and with tremendous affection (but little demonstration and no condescension) tell me that I've done enough, that I can stop now, and that I probably should.

I'm not going to go into the full details of last night's activities. I think it is almost enough to say that it seems that Max is still talking to me, Katy is still talking to me and I am assuming that Peter is, even though I haven't heard anything from him today, which slightly worries me. Katy liked them both (oh youthful tongue, canst thou ne'er be stilled?), Peter seemed particularly taken with Max (oh youthful groin, etc etc) and Max had a big spot on his forehead (oh youthful pores...).

I said many stupid things, suffered many stupid things, disposed of members of our party to have conversations with other members, and then grabbed the other members and said things to them that I shouldn't have said - with a big grin on my face that said, "Please don't be cross with me, I really don't have the slightest control over myself, and wouldn't I be boring if I did?". And I drank too much. Head swimming, life flashing before my eyes, I stumbled home thinking wild and untameable thoughts.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Current weblogging design favourites: wetlog, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2000 09:38:27 AM ----- BODY: Current weblogging design favourites: wetlog, public weblog, magnetbox, keithbrown.com, tame.net, Web Therapy, Confessions of a Wannabe Actor, underachievers.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am going to respond STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2000 01:24:10 PM ----- BODY: I am going to respond to Jason Kottke's comments about weblogs in full shortly. In the meantime here are a few thoughts on the matter.:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wow. People can get really STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2000 11:13:40 AM ----- BODY: Wow. People can get really heated about stuff can't they? Metafilter madness.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Having thought about it carefully, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2000 12:32:55 AM ----- BODY: Having thought about it carefully, I have decided that lists like "the best albums of the 90s" are mildly pointless (if endlessly diverting). But that doesn't matter surely? They are interesting exercises, and so without apology or explanation here is an extremely long list of names - which frankly is easier than a proper post about "World Hunger" or "Macs Versus PCs (Which One Will I Buy?)". I call this phallogocentric/anal classification: "My 100 Favourite Albums Ever":

  1. Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk
  2. Tricky - Maxinquaye
  3. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
  4. Moby - Play
  5. The Smiths - Strangeways Here We Come
  6. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
  7. Morrissey - Bona Drag
  8. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
  9. Belly - Star
  10. Pixies - Doolittle
  11. Pixies - Bossanova
  12. Portishead - Dummy
  13. The Bangles - Different Light
  14. Jeff Buckley - Grace
  15. Kristin Hersh - Hips and Makers
  16. Elastica - Elastica
  17. The Beatles - Abbey Road
  18. Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
  19. Beck - Mutations
  20. David Bowie - Heroes
  21. Morcheeba - Big Calm
  22. Madonna - Ray of Light
  23. Julian Cope - Floored Genius (The Best Of)
  24. Leonard Cohen - The Future
  25. The Breeders - Pod
  26. Hole - Live Through This
  27. Nirvana - Unplugged in New York
  28. Eg and Alice - 24 Years of Hunger
  29. Air - Moon Safari
  30. Eurythmics - Savage
  31. Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man
  32. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
  33. Suzanne Vega - 99.9F
  34. Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona
  35. The Smiths - Meat is Murder
  36. Depeche Mode - Violator
  37. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
  38. Sean Lennon - Into the Sun
  39. Beck - Midnite Vultures
  40. The Cardigans - Gran Turismo
  41. Jeff Buckley - Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
  42. Fight Club - Sound Track
  43. Frank Black - Frank Black
  44. Morrissey - Viva Hate
  45. Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
  46. Radiohead - The Bends
  47. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
  48. Paul Simon - Graceland
  49. Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks
  50. Nirvana - In Utero
  51. Drugstore - White Magic For Lovers
  52. Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly
  53. Pixies - at the BBC
  54. The Bangles - Everything
  55. Curve - Doppelganger
  56. Nirvana - Nevermind
  57. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis Again
  58. Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
  59. The Breeders - Last Splash
  60. David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
  61. Leftfield - Leftism
  62. Radiohead - OK Computer
  63. David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
  64. Juliana Hatfield - Hey Babe
  65. Sly and the Family Stone - Best Of
  66. Out of Sight - Soundtrack
  67. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
  68. The Rebirth of Cool - Phive
  69. The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
  70. David Arnold - The James Bond Project
  71. The Smiths - The Smiths
  72. Fat Boy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby
  73. South Park - Bigger Longer Uncut - Soundtrack
  74. Leonard Cohen - Various Positions
  75. Reservoir Dogs - Soundtrack
  76. The Smiths - The World Won't Listen
  77. Jeff Buckley - Mystery White Boy
  78. Throwing Muses - University
  79. Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish
  80. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
  81. Afghan Whigs - Black Love
  82. David Bowie - Station to Station
  83. Blur - Parklife
  84. Morcheeba - Who Can You Trust?
  85. Suede - Coming Up
  86. Eels - Beautiful Freak
  87. Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
  88. Morrissey - Kill Uncle
  89. Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
  90. Filth and the Fury - Soundtrack
  91. Cowboy Junkies - The Caution Horses
  92. Suede - Suede
  93. Primal Scream - Exterminator
  94. Placebo - Placebo
  95. Blondie - The Best of Blondie
  96. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
  97. Belle and Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
  98. Bjork - Homogenic
  99. Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
  100. Beck - Odelay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally, a piece of beautiful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2000 11:37:36 AM ----- BODY: Finally, a piece of beautiful design found through my referrers log: rupture.co.uk...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wise up, UK webloggers, and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2000 03:35:14 PM ----- BODY: Wise up, UK webloggers, and get yourself a copy of PCFormat. Picture the scene - I'm sitting at my desk, pretending to do work and sending my boss cartoons involving kiwi birds being chopped up into little bits and stuck in fruit salads, when suddenly said boss shouts fuck! and raises his eyebrows skywards. Summoning me over, he slowly opens up the pages of PCFormat to reveal a two page spread on Weblogs. Blogger is featured prominently, and there are detailed walk-throughs of setting up your own weblog.

All very interesting, I think, and slowly and carefully read through the article. It's a fun piece, which mentions a good number of weblog related sites, from groksoup to eatonweb. And then there is a section on British weblogs...

This looks like it could be interesting, particularly as many of the British webloggers met up last weekend for a couple of drinks. perfect.co.uk is mentioned, as is Need to Know and haddock.org. And then right at the bottom is this little tiny throwaway comment, almost completely lost on the page:

"Our own favourite is Barbelith (www.barbelith.com) for its great design."
This is obviously completely delightful, and has brought a real spark into my day (which was relatively sparkful already, if I'm honest). But it only gets better. There are also two panels with slightly longer reviews of weblogs, including screenshots. Barbelith is there as well. As are: Zannah, eatonweb, slashdot.org, Ooine, robotwisdom, Daily Doozer, metafilter, mutability and Rebecca's Pocket. Yay us, guys. We rock...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Dan at Daily STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/16/2000 07:00:44 PM ----- BODY: Thanks to Dan at Daily Doozer, who has scanned all of the PCFormat feature on weblogging. Read away...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have written and rewritten STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/17/2000 08:52:46 PM ----- BODY: I have written and rewritten this post about thirty times, and every time it sounds too flippant. So I'm not going to bother writing anything detailed or in depth. Fuck it. I feel like someone slid the hook from "I Know What You Did Last Summer" into my stomach and with superhuman strength forced it towards my throat. Or I feel crazed and in control of a passenger jet. But mostly I just feel cold, and cruel, and hollow, and vengeful and actually partially dead. There will be no more posting tonight.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm really keen on anti-advertising. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/18/2000 10:42:41 AM ----- BODY: I'm really keen on anti-advertising. I wonder occasionally if I should try to persuade my boss to run banners for really creative sites as house ads instead of some of the dubiously designed ones that we currently run. I wonder if that would increase general click-thru rates?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vile Stick-Insect Ally McBeal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/18/2000 08:27:24 PM ----- BODY:

Today's briefing is brought to you through the tremendous power of absolute and total denial. The day has been filled with all the activities that help me distract myself from bad stuff around me. These include: Chocolate, Random Sex, Music, Daydreaming and The Gym. I am now going to finish the day off with a considerable bout of Pimms drinking outside in the sun.

Which brings me to that appalling harpy Ally McBeal and the stick insect that plays her. You can decide for yourself which of the two I find most reprehensible - but let's just say the actress plays 'whining drivel-monger' with such consummate skill that I can only assume that she was born for the role. And I won't even get started on the whole "this is just a piece of right wing propoganda disguised as a women's issues program" speech that I normally give at these points, because everyone always looks at me funny when I rant, and I'm frankly getting bored of it.

Anyway - back to the point. On this, the hottest day of the year in the UK, with the most glorious sunshine and the most ridiculous (if pleasant) proliferation of half naked people, I have to read the that the insane Calista (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: eat more pies woman!) has declared that, "England makes me stink because it rains all the time".

I doubt the link will stay valid for long, so I quote in full the article in question:

Calista Flockhart: "Britain Makes Me Stink"

Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart doesn't like visiting Britain because the rainy weather leaves her smelling like a wet dog. The waif-like actress discovered the uncomfortable truth when stranded in a storm on a recent trip to London. She told talk show host David Letterman that although she liked London, the weather put a real damper on things. She said, "It was great but it rained every day that I was there." When Letterman asked, "It's supposed to rain in London, was it misty and romantic?", Flockhart replied, "It was cold and damp. Do you know what happens in London when it rains? You start to smell. It's true - you start to smell like a wet dog because what happens is you go out and you're all happy because you're in London, then it rains. And you don't have an umbrella, because I'm an American, so then it's sunny but you're wet and you smell."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sometimes Mark just does the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2000 09:30:46 AM ----- BODY: Sometimes Mark just does the coolest things (and of course, if he got himself permalinks, we could treasure them forever, instead of being forced to quote them at length):
barbelith dream by Mark Olynciw

I was an Englander, born and lived there my entire life, with accent and all. And Tom was an obvious American, with I LOVE USA shirts and all. Now everything else went along as it does today, him and his weblog, and me with mine....only it was the year 2044.

Suprisingly Tom and I kept our winning good looks over the years, in fact- we looked very much as we did today.

But in the year 2044 they have such remarkable inventions you do know. Such as this streaming webcam that I was using to spy on my friend. I watched him during the day at work, at dinnertime eating a very healthy McDonalds meal, and at night when the parties started....until the next day in which the same thing went on for.

One day Tom and I got into this heated argument because he had promised to me that we'd go eat a picnic in Belgium. (I'm sorry, even my subconscious has no idea between the cities or countries, and where they are in Europe) But Tom cancelled. Because of his work as a 'Network Scientist' he was unable to fly to England for this elaborate lunch I had planned.

I was upset, got into drugs...some of that snorting kind....dropped out of high school, and eventually the IRS had to take away RIOTHERO. I became a mess, living on the streets of England. Every once and a while the Spice Girls would invite me in their home for some tea. I would ask them if it was English tea or American tea...because you KNOW how I hate Americans ever since Tom did that to me. And an hour or two later, I was back on the street hungry again.

It was raining this night, and so I knocked the windows in in this boarded up post office building. I hoisted myself up and fell unto the floor of the Post Master's office. He wasn't there of course, he had got home for the night... but I was busy snoopy around, looking at the latest technology in air mail, etc.

As I was walking out of the hallway to find something to devour, I kicked this large cardboard box and I look down to see my name on it! And the return address is from Waterford, CT- HEY! That's where Tom is from! I rip off the cover, pull out all that fun poppy packaging, and look inside. It's picnic equipment.

A tablecloth, dishes, candlesticks, spoons, and bottle of wine, a frisbee, and basically everything else anyone would need for a successful picnic. Last but not least I reach my hand into the box to pull out Tom and Katy theirselves!

They treat me to an elegant picnic on the roof of the Post Office where it's now stopped raining. The food's delicious, the weather is just fine (not the sweaty kind), and it's the 'splendidist' picnic that's ever been had.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy and I have just STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2000 01:03:13 PM ----- BODY: Katy and I have just had a great idea for a new money-making venture targetting a completely underexploited section of the e-marketplace - professional hitmen and the criminally violent. The idea is just like that in Strangers on a Train, where two people arrange to kill each other's worst enemy. Since there is no connection between them and the person they kill, there can be no apparent motive (and the person who might have a motive can have a solid alibi). Hence, they are much less likely to get caught.

This site would act as a medium of exchange much like ebay, where people could fill in who they wanted dead, and where they were based. This would be stashed on a database until the next stage was complete. They would then be sent a random e-mail from another member, with the details of who they should be poisoning or stabbing or shooting or throttling.

Once confirmation of this kill was made (through some kind of link to the national death records), then the details that had previously been stashed on the database would be sent to another random member who had just signed up, who would be expected to follow through the process themselves. If there was no kill registered within a certain amount of time, then the name and address of the substitute murderer could be sent to the person whose kill it was originally. And since that person must have already killed someone to have got to that stage, this would be enough instigation for the substitute killer to do their job.

The business model is quite simple - targetted advertising from the gun lobby, rope merchants, concrete suppliers and the like would constitute the bulk of the revenue, although clearly paramilitary groups and mercenaries might like to recruit through the site (for a small fee of course). Therapists might also find this a lucrative market to target. And after an initial free period (possibly), high quality service (from someone who has killed a great number of people) could be costed, with the site acting as a broker and taking a commission.

Legally, of course (at least in the initial stages), the site would be completely safe from prosecution. I mean - it's like Napster isn't it!? We could put a warning up that read, "no one at our site condones the killing of people" or even "killing people is bad - if you are thinking of killing someone, please contact our psychotherapist at our special discretionary rate". It's not like we'd be killing people ourselves (and if we did, I think we could argue that that was separate from the activities of the company).

The only problem is the domain name: killyourcolleagues.com is quite nice, but then so is killthemall.com or ihadtodoitfortheirowngood.com... Opinions would be appreciated, or even venture capital...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith is now brought to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2000 08:21:21 AM ----- BODY: Barbelith is now brought to you via a G4 400, 192Mb RAM, DVD drive, TV card, Zip Drive, 17" Studio Monitor, Kritter USB webcam, OS9. Long live the Mac Revolution.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Murder Portal E-Business Venture Update: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2000 12:13:24 PM ----- BODY: Murder Portal E-Business Venture Update: The domain name: ikillu.com sounds extremely close to e-memes "ICQ" and Mahir's "I Kiss You". Tagline: "The Mafia Revolution Responsible For The Deaths Of..." Find out more at kitsch bitch...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsflash: Powazek Quits Weblogging. While STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2000 09:00:13 AM ----- BODY: Newsflash: Powazek Quits Weblogging. While in an unrelated, but nonetheless relevant counterpoint, Mark has said:

"I didn't do it for myself, I didn't do it for you, I did it because I had to. I am Batman."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Adding Functionality to Blogger: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2000 09:40:06 PM ----- BODY: On Adding Functionality to Blogger:

On 23/6/00 3:16 pm, Matthew Kingston at hit_or_miss_org@hotmail.com wrote:

Tom-

You use Blogger for your weblog, right? I'm wondering if you've seen my "Blogger Comments Manifesto" (http://hit-or-miss.org/blogger_comments/) and have any thoughts about Blogger and comment systems.

Matt of hit-or-miss.org
On 23/6/00 9:32 pm, Tom Coates at tom@no-spam-please-barbelith.com replied:

It's certainly a very interesting subject. Personally I am interested in seeing Blogger become an online content management system that is flexible enough to handle the updating of different types of sites. But more of that later...

A comments tag would also certainly be useful, but one things occurs to me that might be worrying. How much information might your system be asking Pyra to store? Assuming that more people read and comment on the weblog than actually write the log originally, each log would at least double in size (or more accurately the less visited logs would increase a small amount, while the larger ones would become basically 9/10s comment based). I don't know what their business model is, so I couldn't comment on how much bandwidth and disk space they are prepared to pay for without recompense. It seems to me that it has to be a finite amount.

As I said earlier, I personally see the future of Blogger as being a way to manage content for a variety of different types of site based around the same principles as it does now for webloggers. More in depth types of sites, or commercial ones could require a subscription fee, while the weblog template could be free as a taster. Certainly the uptake on Blogger seems to be enough to warrant a more sophisticated, less simple and more expensive version. I mean - I pay for the ubb as it is, and that is certainly nowhere near as flexible and pleasant-to-use a tool as blogger.

An example close to my heart: A magazine site for example would be a prime market for an expanded blogger-based system and is something that I am going to attempt to generate shortly using a good few fudges of my own and a little too much hand-coding. But what I would really love is the ability to write an article with a title, and then define a separate template for a home page or category pages which would then render some taster content and a link through to the article itself, combined with an archive that allows one to list things by title rather than just date.

This would be extraordinarily useful for people who wished to generate webzines (like, for example, ME).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Pottery Barn, Friends and Advertising... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Television CATEGORY: Advertising CATEGORY: Television DATE: 06/24/2000 09:42:30 PM ----- BODY:

Do you remember that episode of Friends where Rachel is obsessed by the Pottery Barn? Well when I first saw it I thought to myself - hmmm, what a strange premise for an episode. And because we don't even have Pottery Barn in the UK, I don't think it even occurred to me that it was a real shop. If it had, I think I might have raised an eyebrow or two. But one thing that would never have occurred to me is that Pottery Barn might have sponsored the whole episode. I can't help thinking the whole thing is totally corrupt. I mean I'm used to TV shows having product placement and advertising and sponsorship, but I will not spend my life watching 22 minute long advertainments for huge multi-national companies. I swear to god - it's my idea of hell...

Excerpt from Adbusters June/July 2000
FRIENDS FOR SALE: Now advertisers can turn sitcom plotlines into product promotions. The Pottery Barn bought an episode of Friends and the right to have Rachel, Ross and the gang spend their 22 minutes of airtime surrounded by Barn decor.

It has always been implicit in television that the programs are just delivery vehicles for the advertising. But that equation got a whole lot more explicit in February, when the production company Basic Entertainment - the money behind such shows as Politically Incorrect and critical darling The Sopranos - agreed to partner up with the world's second-largest advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson. The two promptly produced a love-child: the agency's new "content/entertainment" arm, called (c)JWT.

The rationale behind it all: When the ad is the show, it becomes impossible for viewers to mute it, ignore it, or actively miss it whilst getting snacks.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am working on a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2000 11:05:30 PM ----- BODY: I am working on a not so secret project with young Katy. I'm not going into details yet, but it's a little tiny fun site which we are going to do for a laugh. I'm going to stick it on the plasticbag.org domain name when it's done, just so I don't feel it is completely going to waste. As she reports, we also went to see Reindeer Games (known as Deception in the UK for some reason), which basically was really quite poor. Half of it should really have been a comedy feature with John Candy and Steve Martin. The other half was like some weird fusion of Reservoir Dogs and Wild Things. Very strange. Not very good. Don't go and see it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Assembler.org goes live... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2000 10:28:43 AM ----- BODY:

The new assembler.org has gone live, and very good it is too (now with downloadable DHTML scrolling code).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Say it loud and say STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2000 05:32:38 PM ----- BODY:

Say it loud and say it often: "I am proud to be a dumb shit" [courtesy of boylog's anti-smoking section]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So ICANN are considering new STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2000 10:55:32 PM ----- BODY: So ICANN are considering new top-level domains for the web - to which we can only breathe a sigh of relief and pray to god that the new ones will be both functional and worthy of getting excited over. People are straying too far into country domains to find the URL of their dreams because the current hierarchy is collapsing under the weight of demand.

The most worrying aspect of the new domains is intellectual property rights and "passing off". If you have a name trademarked over several countries (and you don't even have to be a particularly large company to do this), you can legitimately sue someone who is using your trademark in their domain name as long as they are encroaching on your subject of business. For a company like Yahoo! of course, there is very little that ISN'T their business already. Hence lots of people could be sued.

This is all sounds fine and dandy, but often it isn't. Just because someone else doesn't have the right to do what you are doing with the name doesn't mean 1) that they can't buy the domain name anyway or 2) that they won't buy it and then decide to break the law (on the assumption that you just won't take them to court). Which means that an increase in available domain names may very just mean an increase in the outlay of medium and large sized companies who wish to protect their brand.

Clearly, the most sensible step is to clearly use the TLD to define strict areas of interest - strict in that they are clear and easily definable (like .arts or .xxx) rather than that they are enforced strictly. Enforcement should be irrelevant if the names are clear enough. The alternative - a proliferation of vague domain names such as .web (for which the apparent TLD analogue .net already exists) and .firm (TLD analogue.com) simply means that Yahoo! have to buy them. Large blocks of domain names will then disappear from public consumption. It is unlikely, for example, that Yahoo! could or would want to make a case for preserving its copyright on yahoo.xxx.

Of course the corollary of this is that a decent block of these domains have to be produced at the same time. If this is an incremental process, then new domains will be bought incrementally by the companies concerned which is to be avoided. Some of the proposed TLDs are: .arts .kids .xxx and I think perhaps that additional ones might cover the types of website presented as well as the subject matter at hand - perhaps some form of searchengine or directory TLD might be a useful one, or .zine or even .log (.blog?)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So after my long and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/28/2000 03:21:17 PM ----- BODY: So after my long and expressive tract of yesterday, it's time to ask your opinions: Which new TLDs (Top Level Domains) would you like to see on the net? And feel free to add your own ideas...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Odds and ends of news: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2000 09:07:34 AM ----- BODY: Odds and ends of news:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Chain Letters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2000 02:44:24 PM ----- BODY:

Ha. I'm starting a chain letter. I wonder if it will work. If you want to read it, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The healing power of comic-book violence... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2000 09:10:50 AM ----- BODY:

I've been reading an extraordinarily interesting article on comic-book violence and it's capacity to help children express their natural aggression. And, frankly, I'm loving it. I couldn't agree more with the sentiments in it. In some ways, it is remarkably close to some of my doctoral work on Natural Born Killers, identification and violence, and I'm contemplating sending my work to the author to see what he thinks of it. In the meantime, here's one of the most insightful things I think I have read in years:

"We risk confusing [children] about their natural aggression in the same way the Victorians confused their children about their sexuality." [Read the article]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-promotion gets me hot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2000 09:12:13 AM ----- BODY:

Blatant self-promotion turns me on.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm off to London's Groucho STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2000 08:09:08 PM ----- BODY:

I'm off to London's Groucho Club this evening for the birthday party of a friend of a friend. I'm a little intimidated by the whole idea, so plan to lubricate myself with a couple of drinks down in Soho with Nick and Sam before I head over. Loads of people I know seem to be going - Nick C, Kate and Mella (my flatmates) etc etc. It's also Gay Mardi Gras today, which I have dutifully avoided. I am beginning to wonder whether it should be like the Gay Christmas - ostensibly a good idea, but actually an opportunity for getting pissed on...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saturday night at the Groucho Club... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2000 09:33:12 AM ----- BODY:

Saturday night at the Groucho Club: I felt apprehensive all day - after all, I was going to a party hosted by friends of my flatmate, and felt like a bit of a hanger on. I talked to Mella about it and she quite properly said that it wasn't like we had a chance to go to the Groucho Club every day, that I should just get over it and try and have fun. So I arrive at the party around 10 and within a few moments have found Nick C, Kate, Mella and Rachel sitting chatting in a corner. We muck around for a bit, get some drinks, and sway in between the hordes to have a look around...

The party is held in two rooms on the side and back of the Groucho club, and we don't really have much contact with the main part. I'm a little disappointed about this, since an old friend of mine, Tall Michael, works there. I thought it would be really nice to stumble upon him (as it turned out he wasn't there anyway). One room looked a bit like ballroom only much smaller - a fair amount of faux glitz on the walls, a decent amount of light and a tressle-tabled bar on one wall. The other room was much more interesting - comfortable sofas, a bit more darkness, and a selection of DJs.

I had been advised to do a little celebrity spotting - although almost everyone at the party worked in an even more media occupation than mine, and were either singularly unimpressed by celebrity or were trying extremely hard to pretend to be. That's not to say that this was a celebrity party - most of the people there were behind the scenes film and media people of various (young) levels. It reminded me a bit of the parties that Kerry and Sean took me too in Hollywood while I was there, although with less gay people...

Around 11.30pm I bump into Ben Chaplin. I say "bump into" because I'm too embarrassed to go into the complicated arrangements that I engineered in order to be in a position to "bump" effectively. After a singularly brief exchange we go our separate ways, at which point for some reason I feel compelled to pat his stomach. I have absolutely no idea why. He cheerfully exclaims, "see you in a bit, yeah?", with a big grin on his face, and that's the last contact I have with him in the evening.

At this point (having been rounded set upon by Kate and Tara for my appalling behaviour), we set to dancing with great enthusiasm. The DJ that we weren't so keen on has been replaced by the lead singer of the Bluetones, who is a tiny bloke, with infinitely cooler taste in music. I'm too embarrassed to ask him to put on a Moby track, even though the album is lying right in front of him. Kate decides to ask on my behalf, but he tells us that the next DJ is more into dance, so we should leave it until then. Disappointed we continue to dance. At which point, he puts on Talking Heads. I am so delighted that a plant a smacker on his cheek. Kate looks on, amused but exasperated by my increasingly entertaining/exasperating behaviour...

I have a sit down at this point, because I am increasingly worried that I look like some form of scaffy monster with increasingly bad hair. But this allows me the thrill of watching Kate in her tight red dress and (hidden) black proppy-up underwear thing dance around likea maniac with Rachel. I am summoned up by Mella at an opportune moment, and we bounce around franctically to whatever is playing at the time.

By about 1.30 I am considering leaving - I'm completely exhausted. While the others resolve some of the tensions of the party behind the scenes, I decide to go to the loo. I spend about a month and a half waiting for the cubicle to empty (only one punter, a hundred years of waiting). When it does open, this bloke emerges who look remarkably like Jeremy Northam only thinner and with longer hair. I mention this resemblance to one of my friends who stares at me like I'm some form of root vegetable and assures me that if he looked like Jeremy Northam and sounded like Jeremy Northam, then it probably was bloody Jeremy Northam.

Duly chastised, I drink more... About 2.30 we emerge from the club, eyes blinking and get in a cab. And then for some ungodly evening the whole way back we belt out versions of Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares For Me" as we drive down the Edgeware road... All in all, an entertaining evening...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meeting Mark... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2000 05:03:36 PM ----- BODY:

Guess who Katy and I are off to meet in about fifty minutes. That's right - the young riothero himself - currently staying in a hotel in Paddington. It's a pity the weather is so bad at the moment, though - he's really going to get the wrong idea about the UK. Anyway - let's see what he thinks of London so far?

"Harrumph! The English has no consideration for the 4th of July!"
<snarkiness follows>

I don't think we really need to go into too much detail about why that is a pretty weird thing to say. I mean, much as it would be cool to celebrate the UK finally disposing of it's wayward nephew [Rupture agrees], it is after all the celebration of America's independance from this "old country". Actually I got into another mood with America after watching Chicken Run and U-571 and realising that American media is all about self-congratulation, while UK media is all about self-deprecation, and that some Americans don't get that our media is no more representing the truth of our country than theirs represents the truth of the good ole USA.

</snarkiness ends>

Actually really looking forward to seeing Mark. I'm a bit concerned that I have a stomping headache and am all stinky and smelly and that he's going to look at me as if I fell from Planet Kak. Still, we shall see what we shall see... Oh, and apparently Vance will be there as well!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yowser. Had a great laugh STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2000 11:30:44 AM ----- BODY: Yowser. Had a great laugh with Mark, Vance and Katy last night. Katy and I scrambled for hours across the Wastelands of the Westway, emerging damp and confused between Paddington and Bayswater. Having finally found the hotel residence of our young associates, we met each other, looked a bit nervous (especially Mark) and tried to work out what to do next.

At which point, Mark's mother introduced herself, which meant that I immediately had to make a joke about getting her son drunk and dumping him in a strip joint in Soho, which went down remarkably well considering, but I probably wouldn't make again if put in the same situation.

So Katy and I dragged them off to find a restaurant so we could soothe our cravings for food. We found this appalling tapas place, which cost far too much and really wasn't very nice and chatted and made bad jokes and swapped stories of other webloggers, and heard all about Mark's experiences at SXSW, and which bloggers were tall, which were short and which were great big spotty geeks.

Basically, much fun was had by all - and hopefully we will be meeting up again either tonight or tomorrow night - depending on when they are leaving for the next stage of their trip. One last thing though - MARK! I FORGOT TO BRING MY PHONE TO WORK! E-MAIL ME OR RING UP KATY!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bastardising the British... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2000 09:45:18 PM ----- BODY:

Quotes from recent Salon article about the Patriot and my increasing frustration with Hollywood film-making:

The prizewinning historian and biographer Andrew Roberts called the film Patriot "racist" in the Daily Express, and pointed out that it was only the latest in a series of films like "Titanic," "Michael Collins" and "The Jungle Book" remake that have depicted the British as "treacherous, cowardly, evil [and] sadistic." Roberts had a theory: "With their own record of killing 12 million American Indians and supporting slavery for four decades after the British abolished it, Americans wish to project their historical guilt onto someone else."

Now I don't like the Daily Express, and I'm not claiming for one moment that the British haven't been culpable for some pretty bastardly things in the past (but no more so than the Dutch, the Spanish, the French - in fact every other major Old World Country). But you know - I can't help thinking the guy above has a point. The British have been the bad-guys too long - there is simply no need for this characterisation by Hollywood. No need at all. We're either effeminate fops (Hugh Grant), Nazis or we are dirty people who live in mud huts without electricity and speak in "impenetrable" regional accents. Any visitor to these shores would see that it just ain't so.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark says: In London, from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2000 08:44:14 AM ----- BODY: Mark says:
In London, from what I can tell (people screaming and such), people love the Internet. They are willing to pay these ridicules prices to play for a just few minutes...
Load of bollocks. Go to an Easy Everything net caf» and you'll be able to get around an hour of net time for £1 ($1.40) - if you go in the middle of the night they'll even give you up to six hours for the same price...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OK. I think it's time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2000 08:48:13 AM ----- BODY: OK. I think it's time certain people came clean. Megnut and Kottke go and see The Perfect Storm on exactly the same day and have pretty much exactly the same reaction to it. Question de jour: did they see it together?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So, I missed seeing Mark STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2000 08:54:48 AM ----- BODY: So, I missed seeing Mark and Vance last night because I had to work late and because I left my mobile phone at home, which meant that neither of them could get in touch with me all day. Absolute disaster all around really, as Katy had too much work to do and had to hide at home as well. I have sent Mark a tremendously apologetic e-mail and hopefully we'll all think of something cool to do this evening.

Sam turned up out of the blue(-ish) last night as well. He'd left his rolling tobacco on our TV. He watched Ally McBitch with me and my flatmates and seemed completely unable to grasp who it is just about OK to like (Ling, Biscuit) and who must die in unending torment (Ally, Nell etc). I still contend that it is a Nazi TV series. Anyway, at some point in the evening, when I was chasing Kate around the flat trying to blow a raspberry on her stomach, I got clocked by his huge metal watch on his arm. Last night I had a black-eye, and I'm too scared to look this morning. Mella says it makes me look macho, but she'd say anything, frankly...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm surprised by the response STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2000 05:28:21 PM ----- BODY: I'm surprised by the response I'm getting to the megnut/kottke pairing that I alluded to earlier. Seems that there is quite an undercurrent of gossip in the weblogging community, and that everyone wants in on the action. Quotes from an unnamed source:

"I too noticed the "Perfect Storm" reference from both Meg and Jason. But did you notice these?

Meg - "Only one to-do scheduled on the whole day stretching before me: bake a blueberry pie"
Jason - "Jason's 4th of July wrap-up: made blueberry pie"

Meg - "... parties and tete-a-tetes-a-tetes and tours and tastings"
Jason - "Went wine tasting yesterday"

Meg - "The Right Stuff is one of my favorite movies of all time"
Jason - "recent movie viewings: the Right Stuff ..."

... and then of course there is their appearance together in Jezebel's Mirror..."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: CRISIS: Everyone who hasn't been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/07/2000 10:01:58 AM ----- BODY: CRISIS: Everyone who hasn't been to riothero yet today must follow these instructions IMMEDIATELY. I posted a note to the site (Katy and I still have access). Anyway - for some reason it erased the last weeks posts completely. Absolute horror on my part. Complete and utter horror (how/why could this have happened?). You people have to help me fix this crisis:
  1. Immediately go OFFLINE. If you are using IE then go to FILE, and select WORK OFFLINE.
  2. Go to www.riothero.com - if you can get to it without going online, then this is a CACHED copy.
  3. You should be able to see posts from between Sunday and Friday.
  4. Copy and paste these days and e-mail them to me immediately on tom@no-spam-please-barbelith.com.
  5. Then I can put them back on the site where they belong. This is SO important. PLEASE GOD, SOMEONE HELP!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: PHEW: Managed to save Mark's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/07/2000 01:16:15 PM ----- BODY: PHEW: Managed to save Mark's recent blogs from the abyss. Thanks to everyone concerned!

. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As I was walking home STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/07/2000 02:04:47 PM ----- BODY: As I was walking home this evening, a little girl was riding her bike in the middle of the street. She still had the training wheels on as she wobbled and struggled to peddle. It reminded me of when I was little and how badly I wanted a bicycle but couldn't get one. My parents wouldn't let me have a bike until I was 12; my mom was too afraid I'd hurt myself. I'd pass the bike section in the store and just look, having given up asking my parents about it long ago. I eventually did get one after much pleading and begging. Amazingly, getting my driver's license at 16 and the subsequent borrowing of the family car passed without incident.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The weirdest thing about the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/07/2000 11:45:35 PM ----- BODY:

The weirdest thing about the web is that you can write intelligent articles on quantum physics, Natural Born Killers and the naming of extra TLDs - you can accidentally start fights, flame wars and full online wars - you can do all of this and more. And then one day you quote a weird story about a little girl on a bike that you saw on two other people's websites and everyone wants a piece of you. Is this the weblogging equivalent of Stupid Pet Tricks...?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hmmm. Katy's version of how STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2000 01:20:44 PM ----- BODY: Hmmm. Katy's version of how we spent the evening with Mark and Vance is a little overblown in the fantasy stakes, I fear! A more balanced description of the evening would be: PS: Tom thinks Jerwin is pretty cool, actually.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: London based members of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2000 04:18:34 PM ----- BODY: London based members of the Underground are summoned to the Spreadeagle Pub on Camden Parkway tomorrow (Sunday) at 2pm. Around ten to fifteen invisibilists will be there, eagerly awaiting your ability to buy more beer and destabilise western democracy.

[map] [find out more]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I never really go to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2000 04:41:46 PM ----- BODY: I never really go to Bloat, but I was reading (properly for the first time) the notes at the bottom of Beebo's weblog ratings page and thought I'd see how barbelith was doing. So I went and had a look. Nothing. Not a mention at all.

Well at least that was how it appeared at first. On a whim, I opened up the HTML for the page and did a search, and there I am floating invisibly between Rebecca's Pocket and Evhead. Weird. I have to say that I quite like it. Completely invisible. And long may I remain so...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't know what's weirdest STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2000 09:49:34 AM ----- BODY:

I don't know what's weirdest - that megnut and I should suddenly appear on metalog (because of the whole little girl thing) or that Jason didn't. Find out more about the whole Little Girl Viral Meme at Metafilter...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm working on a redesign STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2000 10:01:16 AM ----- BODY: I'm working on a redesign - my first for about six months. I'm feeling a combination of delighted and horrified with its progress. I was looking around at a few sites that really caught my attention and screen-capping them, grabbing components of them in Photoshop and mucking around with them on my screen. One component really stuck in my head and became the focus of everything I did after that point, and has since dictated colour schemes, and basic page structure. The mock-up I'm moving towards looks very little like the original site as a whole, but has elements that are clearly similar. This worries me.

The thing is, initially I was just mucking around with some stuff to see what ideas came to me, and now I am loath to give up on the work I have done and throw the product of that work in the Trash. It's less about copyright for me than it is about creating something by myself, for myself. I'm a bit torn. Opinions?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pictures from the meeting of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2000 08:41:28 AM ----- BODY: Pictures from the meeting of Katy, Mark, Vance and I:

1     ---     2     ---     3

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ways to really piss people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2000 02:28:44 PM ----- BODY: Ways to really piss people off [courtesy of my boss]...

  1. Do a check for Shockwave before letting someone into your site. If they don't have it, tell them to fuck off. Otherwise let them into the site. Where, of course, there is no shockwave or flash. Snigger slightly.
  2. Run a banner ad on your site. When someone clicks on it, trigger a pop-up with this message inside it: "Banner ads typically get less than 1% click-thrus, what makes you so particularly lame as to be one of them?" Feel smug.
  3. Do a page extolling the virtues of Explorer but only make it work on Netscape browsers on the grounds that 95% of the population knows this already and doesn't need to read it. Laugh maniacally.
  4. Start a large corporate site which grabs your e-mail address when you enter a non-existing competition and sells it to evil far-eastern spamming organisations. Build a secret underground base to feel superior in...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm seriously considering signing up STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2000 04:26:59 PM ----- BODY: I'm seriously considering signing up to bigmailbox.com - and thus allowing all of my regular readers to have an awesome "yourname@barbelith.com" e-mail address. Does anyone know of any other companies that do this? Opinions?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What do you do when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2000 12:01:44 AM ----- BODY: What do you do when you have nothing left to say? I suppose the only answer is read - catch up with the weblogs that you've missed recently, and try and find some ones you haven't read before. Underappreciated weblog of the day: bindi.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Got a lovely e-mail from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2000 09:07:17 AM ----- BODY: Got a lovely e-mail from meg, which has reassured me completely and made me feel less like a prurient scandalmongerer. It also included this line: "I'm so glad you copied that little girl bike post too, now everyone's copying. Man the funniest, most unpredictable things, happen on the web." For even more on the whole fiasco, there's another thread on Metafilter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I spent last night STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2000 09:33:14 AM ----- BODY: So I spent last night watching Queer as Folk 2 [I love you Blackstar] with Mella, which made me want to go and blow up cars again, move to America and threaten people with guns. Before we decided on QAF though, we were considering watching The Breakfast Club, which we had purchased a couple of days beforehand. It's one of Mella's favourite absolute favourite films. I wonder how she'd feel about the threatened remake.

Personally I think that it would have to be considerably more sophisticated and nuanced a film to work today - particularly after the parody on Dawson's Creek. And of course, the recent plethora of TV and film projects involving teenagers has spiralled since its lapse in the late 80s. Films like American Pie have already partially (re-)debunked the stereotypes of teenagers (geek, jock, brain, princess). Questions for the morning: Does a new Breakfast Club even have a role to play any more? If it does, can Alyson be in it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to jack for this: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2000 02:51:33 PM ----- BODY: Thanks to jack for this:

"my post on friday about tabloid journalism and people being paid to write each other's personal site content-- it was a joke. ði'm sorry if it wasn't clear to all readers, because tom seems like a nice guy to me. ði certainly have never been someone very good at detecting where fact and fiction start to blur for anyone besides myself, and even when i do, i sometimes like to take things over the line. ð..but jokes aren't any good if you have to explain them, so i'll just leave it at that. ðif i did, i'd have a bike i still wouldn't peddle.

"i was not joking, however, about being single."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thoughts on Gay Marriage STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 07/11/2000 09:41:35 PM ----- BODY:

Just read an article on Salon.com called: "Same-sex marriage - I don't care if it is legal, I still think it's wrong -- and I'm a lesbian." and it brought home again a lot of the things that I was thinking about yesterday while watching Queer as Folk 2. The situation is this. Gay politics in the 80s was about being worthy, reasonable, "rising above" abuse, scrabbling for rights. And to an extent, that is still what it is about. It mirrored to the legal aspects of liberal feminism. But feminism progressed, and so has gay politics.

Now, for me at least, gay politics isn't like that any more. For me the horrors are the Uncle Tom like behaviour of happy little queens on TV and in films (stand up, you abomination Three to Tango) and the assimilationist politics that means that just because gay people are now beginning to have the rights that everyone else (and by this I mean straight, male, european caucasions of a certain age - I suppose) has, that they should want to do the same things that everyone else does. That is, of course, when it doesn't offend people's delicate sensibilities. "Let's let them be like us," goes out the cry, "and if there are things they are allowed to do, but just can't, well that's their problem isn't it?"

Two examples:

Laurie Essig (the writer of the Salon article) is completely correct when she says that marriage is "an institution founded in historical, material and cultural conditions that ensured women's oppression". That's not to say that marriage can't work well for a woman, but that it depends upon the adaptation of the individual to the institution or the institution to the individual. Marriage is also (as she goes on to say) founded in conditions that excluded "non-productive" sexualities, like homosexuality, masturbation, oral sex, anal sex - the list goes on indefinitely.

And I couldn't agree more with her when she says:

"why should those of us who have organized our lives in a way that looks a lot like heterosexual marriage be afforded special recognition by the government because of that? What about people who organize their lives in threes, or fours, or ones? What about my friend who is professionally promiscuous, who for ideological and psychological and sexual reasons has refused to ever be paired with anyone? What about my sister who is straight but has never in her 40-odd years seen a reason to participate in marriage? Which group will gain state recognition next? The polygamous? The lifelong celibate? "My point is not that we should do away with marriage but that we should do away with favoring some relationships over others with state recognition and privilege. Religions, not the state, should determine what is morally right and desirable in our personal lives. We can choose to be followers of those religions or thumb our noses at them. But the state has no place in my bedroom or family room, or in yours, either. "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mide EMAIL: nurabim@yahoo.com IP: 38.118.3.54 URL: DATE: 01/29/2004 09:47:41 PM I Do not support and i will forever oppose it because they stand to be one of the signs of the end time. God has only ordained a man and a woman's bond and not same sex bond. Actually, it is total nonsense. I do not believe that people that are breathing God's air and dwelling in God's mansion (earth) can be bold enough to disobey God. I am sorry for those that call theirselves gay. It is absolutely nonsense. mide ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gina EMAIL: comments@scribbling.net IP: 68.161.50.253 URL: http://scribbling.net DATE: 03/04/2004 08:42:23 PM Tom, this excellent article holds up so well three years later, and is so relevant given the gay marriage furor in the US right now. Thanks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms Sasha EMAIL: skylinemodel@yahoo.com IP: 12.72.154.62 URL: DATE: 03/10/2004 10:20:27 PM I don't understand what is the big deal on gay marriages? It has nothing to do with the people who oppose it. So why are they protesting? Why should one set of loving, consenting adults be denied a right that other adults have and which will do no damage to anyone else? If same sex partners want to make a commitment to one another, then why should they be prevented from doing so while other adults are allowed to do so? Its kind of like racism. When one is allowed to do soemthing and the others are not because they are different. I think that it should be legal to have gay marriages. I think they should have the same right as heterosexual marriages. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jamira jenkins EMAIL: checa81295ilu@aol.com IP: 152.163.253.4 URL: DATE: 04/08/2004 06:49:31 PM I think that same-sex married should be allow.We can't tell gay people that they are not to be in love or to be married. it's they life and they bedroom. who are we tell them that they can't have that right. we all live in a free crounty. we have the right of speach. we should have the right to married and fuck who we want ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CJ EMAIL: d3br1s@hotmail.com IP: 151.198.194.85 URL: DATE: 05/04/2004 07:31:05 PM I don't even know why heterosexual people even bother to protest, it's not their business. All that is important is to be with the one you love. And sooner or later Gay Marriage is going to be a bigger debate, and even maybe end up a war against one another, because a large amount of people don't like to see others happy. This place is going to fall a part with all the racism. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mella's Chocolately Shatner STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2000 12:04:28 AM ----- BODY:

Kate and I just returned to the Wu-tang name-a-lizer site. Delighted to find out that our flatmate's name translates into CHOCOLATELY SHATNER, which I believe is some kind of stomach disease or a reference to a Star Trek star's sick fetish for Milky Ways (boom boom). Mella, we miss you... [Addendum: Apparently there is a weblog called Chocolately Shatner. Bizarre stuff, indeed...]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote of the night: "I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2000 12:08:14 AM ----- BODY:

Quote of the night: "I'm sure that's not words." Name that film...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why are married people being financially rewarded? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2000 09:25:08 AM ----- BODY:

Jonno and Sturtle have been discussing my "anti-gay-marriage" piece.

"I understand what he's trying to say: historically, marriage has been a sort of institutionalized inequity, so if queer politics are about reshaping norms and ideas of what's acceptable and getting rid of social inequity, why adopt marriage as one of the planks in our platform? Unfortunately, that sort of philosophy falls on some very hard rocks in the face of legalities that prevent g/l/b/t partners from securing inheritances, visitation rights, and countless other benefits that legally joined partners enjoy (except, of course, in the great state of Vermont)." [Sturtle]

This misses my point, to an extent. I was arguing that we deserved the right to marriage, even if we didn't take it up, but that if we were going to have "legally sanctioned relationships" at all (which I would rather we didn't), they should be considerably more diverse. To make a further point: rather than bemoaning equal access to the financial advantages of hetersexual marriage, perhaps we should be removing those advantages and spreading the financial awards between all of us.

This point is particularly relevant for Jonno's comments:

"I would've agreed with a lot more of what Tom had to say about gay marriage (and the article he quotes at length) before I had a mortgage to deal with and started resenting the fact that Richard and I pay considerably more taxes than a het couple would in our situation."

But that's exactly the point, isn't it? They have chosen to operate in a similar relationship to marriage (even though they have also chosen to ignore aspects of the heterosexual equivalent) and now think it is unfair that they cannot reap the material rewards that go along with it. I'm more interested in why they are not concerned about the unfairness of people who have not chosen to occupy such a relationship helping to subsidy the lives of married straights! And in this I am asking EVERY single person, whether they be straight or gay, promiscuous or monogamous, serially monogamous etc. etc. etc. Why are married people being financially rewarded?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Considering my current ethical dilemma STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2000 09:42:30 AM ----- BODY:

Considering my current ethical dilemma regarding redesigning, I was delighted to see that Weblog Wannabe is just going for it. Go for it, babe!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's Night Out at the Yell.com Web Site Awards... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2000 12:52:35 PM ----- BODY:

[Being an expository piece investigating corporate web site hell and a scientific study of the effects of combined alcohol abuse, loud music and the presence of a television crew]

The Yell UK Web Awards is a pretty strange creature. Ostensibly for the public, and televised via BBC World to every single country in the world, except of course the UK, it is almost totally predominated by a corporate view of the web and what it is for. Not here do were have awards for the best designed site - no, here we have awards for the best web design agency. In fact only two of the twelve awards are really for sites which aren't commercial, and these are named accordingly - "BEST PERSONAL SITE" (a fairly strange category which means any site NOT run by a large multinational) and "BEST SITE FROM A NON PROFIT MAKING ORGANISATION", which of course prompts the standard jokes about Amazon, Last Minute and the inevitable Boo.com.

Into this corporate creature strides two representatives of timeout.com - one of which is my good self. The site is up for the award "BEST ENTERTAINMENT SITE", which is extremely flattering, but a bit of a misnomer (yet again) for the Time Out site. [The awards are clearly geared towards "types of business" rather than on type of content.]

Jonathon Ross was presenting the awards, and was generally pretty amusing, even though he was clearly reading mostly promotional fluff copy from Yell itself. Meanwhile, David and I were busy exploring the opportunities for drinking Vodka, which were surprisingly limited.

About halfway through the evening the award for "MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY" arrives, and to my complete surprise, k10k are nominated. Finally, I think to myself, someone here who really deserves an award, who builds a highly creative site without expecting to become an e-millionaire out of it - someone who actually has passion for the medium.

Of course they don't win. But I start hunting around the room to see if any of the people from the site are actually in the room. I can't see any sight or sound of them. By this stage our quest for Vodka has driven David out of the TV studio itself and he is roaming the building looking for non-wine. A plan begins to form in my mind as I watch yet another corporate president expressing their delight in their award and thanking everyone who has worked hard to get them to float their IPO. I cease to be interested in what the representative of tescodirect.com might say.

David returns to the table - our barman has finally come up trumps, and I have text messaged David, "Vodka has arrived! Return to Base Camp immediately!" Time Out's award is up next. I am increasingly nervous for some reason, particularly when I realise that I am going to go up on the stage with David and say a couple of words with him if we win. And win we do.

With my hands in my pockets I sheepishly follow the rather exuberant David up to the platform. We shake Mr Ross' hand and David turns to the audience with a huge grin on his face, says that everyone seems to have been very serious, thanks Bart Simpson, Eric Cartman from South Park and the barman who supplied our "Special Water" and then stands aside.

Before they get a chance to turn on the dirge-like music which means our little speech-slot is over, I bounce over to the microphone. Lights shine in my face, and two hundred mildly drunk corporate people loom at me out of the darkness.

With mounting horror and staring resolutely at my feet I say something to the effect of: "The heart and soul of the net is the individual creative and personal website - and I'd just like to say that I'm delighted to see that all the representatives of the Personal category and particularly k10k have been recognised here tonight."

Suddenly extremely embarrassed (and yet proud of myself) I stand aside, shake Jonathon Ross's hand and stand for the press shots, looking as sheepish as I can possibly imagine. "Nice speech", he says...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Coverage of the Yell Awards STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2000 11:44:36 PM ----- BODY:

I've been looking for some coverage of the Yell Awards all over the place, but I can't seem to find any at all. Has anyone actually seen anything about it anywhere on the web? [E-mail me]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dreamweaver and Blogger don't bore people. People bore people... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 07/15/2000 06:08:43 PM ----- BODY:

I love A List Apart. I really do. But is anyone bored of the anti-weblog riff? It's a banal conversation at the best of times. It's good that they are easy to build (html isn't exactly the trickiest language itself - would it be better if you had to code in C++? Would the content be any good then?), because it makes the web less elitist - makes the information online and the ability to communicate available to everyone. And so what if you get a fair amount of crap? There are many more crap sites out there which are not powered by blogger than ones that are... If it makes a designer more lazy, well that's his/her fault - not the fault of the tool.

It's like my whole thing with Dreamweaver. I look at the tool and think to myself - why is this program popular? It's an idiotic waste of space that generates messy, unclear, unreadable, fat and buggy code. And yet people use it because it makes their lives easier. I hate the program, but I can't fault the content of some of the sites built with it. And Blogger doesn't produce ugly code at all, it just provides a basic and surprisingly flexible way of working with daily content.

Or to put it in a more memorable way: Dreamweaver and Blogger don't bore people. People bore people.

One final quote:

"What if everyone spoke their minds and actually put some effort into it? How about presenting who you are - what you are made of - what drives your inner being? Take a chance and create without bounds. Don't waste the power the web has given us in a hit-seeking circle jerk."

If you haven't found a weblog that does this stuff, then you haven't been looking very hard. And if you haven't been looking very hard, then piss off...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Will Barbelith escape their fire?! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2000 05:30:33 PM ----- BODY:

Finally, today I stumbled upon a weblog called Bad Blogs. And how did I stumble upon it? I did a search for barbelith at blogger and it came out top. And I quote: "Barbelith would usually escape our fire..." Phew! - thank goodness for that...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On PGP and Tom's file at the FBI... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 07/17/2000 10:02:49 PM ----- BODY:

When I survey the epic terrain of my web presence from a dispassionate stance what I see worries me. Not because I am particularly self-indulgent (which I can be, admittedly), not because I am particularly dull (although, god knows, I can be) but more because in all my ramblings, no matter their worth, I see discussions of gay marriage, political insurrection, anti-American rhetoric, a desire to blow things up, barely contained aggression, as well as a site which broadly declares Anarchy for the Masses and a discussion forum populated by (charming) anti-establishment types, advocating everything from mind-expanding drugs and casual sex, to wholesale anti-capitalist rants. Some of these individuals have even been confessing their sins in this public space. And some of these sins... Sheesh - it's enough to make any god fearing young woman all a-fluster.

And of course, there is my Noah Wyle site from the stone ages which I look at and get a bit embarrassed about. Which none of you people are supposed to know about, because it's really humiliating and I want you to take me seriously. [It was very successful - even mentioned on Obsessive Fan Sites.]

So why does all this worry me? Because the combination of "left-wing", "politically engaged", "trashy celebrity hound" and "reader of anarchist literature" (reader of any literature for that matter) must make me worthy of a file at whatever vast intelligence gathering operation that America is throwing the largest amount of money at this month. [I wonder if they have referrer logs?]

Which brings us (finally) around to the story that prompted this tirade, nameably "Tom tries to get PGP to thumb a finger (?) at Echelon and Carnivore". As you probably know, it is illegal to export decent cryptography out of the US, which has resulted in a number of conflicts and potential conflicts, with products such as Apple's high-end G4s and the Neil Stephenson book Cryptonomicon, causing controversy when attempts have been made to send them out of the country. [Reasons for stopping export - foreign people might use these techniques and we all know what they are like, because we watched The Patriot the other day, didn't we kids!]

So I go to downloads.com and see what us lowly Europeans are allowed to get our greasy mitts upon. And clicking through to the download page I am asked a series of questions about how American I am. Figuring that this is a bit like that bit on the visa waiver forms you get in planes on the way to America which asks things something like "Are you a member of a terrorist organisation?" and "Are you planning to stick the President's severed head up your rectum?" - ie. something that no one really takes seriously - I declare my allegiance to the flag and press proceed.

Only to be confronted by a "you're not really in America are you?" kind of message. They've clearly run a check on my IP address and worked out what country I'm busy plotting in. Darn it. What now? What shall I do to find out more PGP information? I decide to wander over to cryptography.org and see what they have to say.But they ask the same questions! And again they check my IP address! And again I am refused entry! This time I'm shunted off to a list of more "appropriate" websites for the geographically abnormal (ie. non-American) and politically dubious (ie. non-American).

But this time I'm not taking it lying down. I figure that a site dedicated to crypto must be pretty impregnable. But then it occurs to me - maybe they don't want to be. Maybe they are fulfilling their minimum legal obligations, and are actually gagging to be broken into. This seems to be the case, because anyone world-wide can sneak into the site with just a little bit of legally dubious American impersonation and a quick trip over to anonymizer.com. So go on kids - find yourself a nice juicy secret and blab it all over the place. The information economy of the 21st century has arrived.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More on Gay Marriage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 07/17/2000 10:42:57 PM ----- BODY:

A few people seem think I fell from the womb an angry crusader for queer politics. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. I started my big gay life as the biggest anti-queen you can imagine - my main mission was to try to convince people that gay people were basically identical to straight people, and that people who thought differently were basically stereotyping. I still believe that a lot of people who think gay people are different are basically stereotyping, but I've become increasingly comfortable with the idea of difference. Fair enough if you want to have a monogamous relationship with someone your entire life. Why call it marriage? Why make a contract out of it? Why do it in front of god? Why does it change your legal status? Your tax status?

Gay people have been hindered by a large number of legal and social restrictions over the last few decades. But along with this absence of rights came the necessity of figuring out how to do relationships between two men or two women that worked. For some people this meant a "butch" partner and a "femme" partner - in a fashion that directly aped heterosexual relationships of power of the time. For others it meant monogamous coupledom. For still others random sex and a tight-knit relationship with friends, multiple partners or no partners. But all of them felt less of a requirement to settle down, find the man/woman of their dreams and move into a house with a white-picket fence. In the past, we have been forced not to be complacent and this has provided some wonderful alternatives to "marriage".

So it would certainly be my opinion that gay people shouldn't get married in any legal sense of the word. Why revel in the sanctioning of your particular perversion? Why be legitimated while all the alternatives that have been developed over the last hundred years are still frowned upon? There's just no need to sign a piece of paper. Instead, make a stand for difference and variety between communities, and between members of the same community. Have a relationship by all means. Move in. Stay with them forever. But don't get married. And don't do it for me...

One final thought takes us ten, twenty years down the line. When you've sucessfully separated the "good/married" gay people from the "bad/non-married/sex-crazed" gay people, what makes you think that the latter won't be stigmatised again, like they were during the AIDS tensions of the eighties?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Birthdays and The Patriot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2000 10:54:43 PM ----- BODY:

God. There is just so much I want to get through today, and there just isn't the slightest chance I am going to manage it. Potted summary of a couple of things:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My posts have been so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2000 12:25:33 PM ----- BODY: My posts have been so ridiculously long of late, that I have instituted horizontal rules between them to help people figure out which is which. My next plan - t-shirts that read "Tom is your friend" and "Tom loves you"...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally. Mark is back in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2000 10:20:22 PM ----- BODY: Finally. Mark is back in the land of the blog-active. And with hands covered in urine, no less. How ... revealing! Still - it's good to have him back...

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone actually have the image that is missing from the article about the Mac G4 Cube at Apple Insider. Seems that Apple threatened legal action. I'd love to get me a copy of that...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Life statistics... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2000 10:47:21 AM ----- BODY:

Let's ignore for a moment the fact that it is my 28th Birthday today, and that I am completely weirded out by that, and that I don't really want to think about it, but that it keeps appearing in my head like some spectre of impending death. Let's also ignore these disturbing figures: Ten years since I left school, two years until thirty, several betrayals, seven years on the net. Please god, let us ignore much of what I've done this decade: somewhere in the region of six hundred trips to the cinema [working out at about £3000], ten different homes, innumerable arguments with my mother, around twenty flatmates and enough coca-cola to submerge a small country. Finally, let us be sure to ignore my accomplishments: a degree, a couple of abortive relationships, three and a half years working on a doctorate that never came to anything, nine months of temping, a journalism re-training course, five or six websites of greater or lesser quality, and a minor depressive episode.

I should put it all into an Excel spreadsheet. Or perhaps a web stats package. Referrals, impressions, hits.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks Heather! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2000 06:01:17 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to jezebel for the wonderful card!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks everyone! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/20/2000 12:30:36 AM ----- BODY:

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who sent me an e-mail or an e-card to wish me Happy Birthday. Thanks, everyone! Really cheered me up!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New Apple Products... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/20/2000 12:37:42 AM ----- BODY:

I've been waiting for this for a while, and I have finally been rewarded for my patience. Full glorious photos of Apple's new products - gorgeous, unholy, beautiful evil things like a new keyboard, a new cube computer (not much use to me, admittedly having just bought one) and a new mouse that can only have emerged fully formed and perfect from Aphrodite's armpit in that Botticelli painting. I am drooling as if drool never went out of fashion (1800s, if you're interested). It's like Steve Jobs is personally seducing me. He might as well put on suspenders and stand outside my house going, "Hey there, fancy a good time?". Except that might be a bit gross. Oh My God. Anyway, who would have thought technology could be quite this gobsmackingly wonderful?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Working specs for a Barbelith rip-off? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/20/2000 02:04:39 AM ----- BODY:

I'm a bit weirded out by dvdauthority.com apparent working specs for a barbelith rip-off site (including the name of my site in the URL of all things). Anyone know what it's about? Bizarre....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick Oasis interview... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/20/2000 12:30:41 PM ----- BODY:

I had to bash together a quick Oasis interview page in the very narrow confines of Time Out's templates yesterday. In about half an hour I produced this: The Brothers Grim. It's OK, I guess...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy found Evil Pupil. I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/20/2000 11:44:39 PM ----- BODY: Katy found Evil Pupil. I went to it. I thought it was great. I put it on my weblog. The End.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's thoughts on cryptography... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 07/21/2000 12:05:39 AM ----- BODY:

Tom's thoughts on cryptography

  1. FACT ONE: There is increasing invasion of privacy by governments
    There is no denying that the surveillance of the public is at an all time high in Europe and America at the moment. In London we find ourselves routinely watched everywhere we go by closed-circuit cameras everywhere we go. In fact in Central London, the Big Brother TV show is advertising itself by putting up stickers pointing towards cameras. They cover the city like a blanket. The same is true on the net. Projects like the intimated Echelon and the FBI's Carnivore program are designed to search through all e-mails and track certain words like "KILL PRESIDENT CLINTON, DAMMIT". The functionality of such machines however is prone to abuse. Because you have to scan every e-mail that goes through, without the slightest evidence that the person who writes the message has committed any kind of crime, everyone's privacy is invaded.
  2. FACT TWO: Computer power and technology is improving the ability to track and collate informatiom
    It makes sense that the programs that discern whether or not an e-mail is from a terrorist will improve in time, but all this means is that individual types of people will be easier to track. And as computer power increases as well, we could be getting to the stage where a search placed could produce a list approximating every active gay or black person in a certain area of the world. Look out for words like Popstarz and Old Compton Street. All this really means of course is that if someone wants to find out about you in intricate detail they will be able to. Of course, there has to be some good reason to want to, doesn't there? Doesn't there?
  3. FACT THREE: Encryption is the best chance for private communication.
    If you want something private kept private, the best option is to encrypt it. However problems arise through this as well. While most e-mails are not (for example) PGP encrypted, the people who do decide to encrypt will be immediately noticeable through the same keyword searching process (in this case, PGP would probably do it). Suddenly all people who wish their correspondence kept private are marked as exactly the kind of people who probably shouldn't want to.

This leads me to this conclusion: It's only if we routinely encrypt our trivial e-mail that we have the slightest chance of maintaining the privacy of our lives. Enough encrypted trivial e-mail should swamp the stuff that needs to be completely private amongst a wash of personal correspondence. I urge you all now. Get PGP now and send me a message to tom@no-spam-please-barbelith.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Origins of the word "Barbelith"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2000 11:33:17 AM ----- BODY:

Grant Morrison: "The word 'BARBELiTH' is derived from a dream I had when I was about 20 or 21 and coincided with my first structured 'magical' experiences and a minor nervous breakdown (in the dream, BARBELiTH was the name of some higher dimension or alternate reality). Like a lot of stuff in INVISIBLES I used the name unconsciously when I needed something to call the red circle that represents our Universe's placental twin. I'd taken the etymology as far as 'bearded stone', which seems much less interesting and less weirdly appropriate than 'alien stone'. My real life is getting more like the comic every day (in ways I should have suspected but didn't really expect on this scale). There's more on the red circle and its many meanings in DOOM PATROL #54, I just realised. That issue was written in near-trance so fuck only knows what's been trying to get through all these years."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On incredibly disturbing pages... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2000 12:52:40 PM ----- BODY:

Is it my imagination or does this incredibly disturbing page [thanks Mark] keep refreshing every twenty seconds?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On ICANN and the new TLDs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2000 03:15:38 PM ----- BODY:

It's been a while since I talked about the new proposed top-level domains that ICANN are currently considering. There have been loads of articles about this recently (see below), but I have written up some of my queries on Metafilter for discussion.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On disorders of gender identity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2000 05:00:15 PM ----- BODY:

Offensive/Weird Quote from Britannica.com:

"Psychosexual disorders: Homosexuality and psychosexual dysfunctions such as impotence are treated in the articles sexual behaviour, human and homosexuality. The following section is concerned with disorders of gender identity and with preferences for unusual or bizarre sexual practices or objects."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thoughts on Encryption and Privacy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 07/21/2000 10:04:05 PM ----- BODY:
  1. FACT ONE: There is increasing invasion of privacy by governments. There is no denying that the surveillance of the public is at an all time high in Europe and America at the moment. In London we find ourselves routinely watched everywhere we go by closed-circuit cameras everywhere we go. In fact in Central London, the Big Brother TV show is advertising itself by putting up stickers pointing towards cameras. They cover the city like a blanket. The same is true on the net. Projects like the intimated Echelon and the FBI's Carnivore program are designed to search through all e-mails and track certain words like "KILL PRESIDENT CLINTON, DAMMIT". The functionality of such machines however is prone to abuse. Because you have to scan every e-mail that goes through, without the slightest evidence that the person who writes the message has committed any kind of crime, everyone's privacy is invaded.
  2. FACT TWO: Computer power and technology is improving the ability to track and collate information. It makes sense that the programs that discern whether or not an e-mail is from a terrorist will improve in time, but all this means is that individual types of people will be easier to track. And as computer power increases as well, we could be getting to the stage where a search placed could produce a list approximating every active gay or black person in a certain area of the world. Look out for words like Popstarz and Old Compton Street. All this really means of course is that if someone wants to find out about you in intricate detail they will be able to. Of course, there has to be some good reason to want to, doesn't there? Doesn't there?
  3. FACT THREE: Encryption is the best chance for private communication. If you want something private kept private, the best option is to encrypt it. However problems arise through this as well. While most e-mails are not (for example) PGP encrypted, the people who do decide to encrypt will be immediately noticeable through the same keyword searching process (in this case, PGP would probably do it). Suddenly all people who wish their correspondence kept private are marked as exactly the kind of people who probably shouldn't want to.

All of which leads me to this conclusion: It's only if we routinely encrypt our trivial e-mail that we have the slightest chance of maintaining the privacy of our lives. Enough encrypted trivial e-mail should swamp the stuff that needs to be completely private amongst a wash of personal correspondence. I urge you all now. Get PGP now and send me a message to tom@no-spam-please-barbelith.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: x EMAIL: xx@xxx.com IP: URL: DATE: 02/04/2002 12:59:27 PM When filling in forms, lie whenever possible. Never tell the same story twice. That way, how are the data mienrs going to tell which story is true? ... and never put your real name on forms like this ;-) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Romantic Love? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2000 06:34:21 PM ----- BODY:

I've been really slack the last few days. I've been trying to recover from huge work stresses last week which set up shop in my mind and wouldn't leave, no matter how many times I tried to evict them. I'm thinking of declaring this a themed week and going for that old stalwart, romantic love, as an appropriate subject matter - particularly after seeing High Fidelity over the weekend (interesting but slightly depressing). I don't know, though. The whole thing seems a little cheesy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On other people's travelling... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2000 06:40:33 PM ----- BODY:

My parents always used to go on really boring holidays. Their idea of a great holiday was to find a house with a pool two miles down a dirt track, which was itself 2 miles away from the nearest village. So, while I travelled quite a bit when I was a kid, it wasn't until I was 15 that I actually went somewhere to see things. I went to Turkey with school. I was 16 when I went to Greece. I was 18 when I went to America, and 21 before I went back and did the parts of Europe I'd missed the first time. Mark's done them all already. And he's only 15. Bastard.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On music and asymmetrical encryption keys... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 07/26/2000 11:28:18 AM ----- BODY:

I've been reading this really interesting article at Hack the Planet: "Route around the labels", which describes a form of voluntary payment scheme for MP3s. To be honest, I've read it a couple of times and some of the technical aspects escape me (I'm tired, OK?).

Anyway, I was thinking about it, and it occurred to me that I couldn't see why this system couldn't be adapted to preserve copyright integrity and get people to pay for music. I know a lot of people don't like this idea, but in the whole Napster vs Metallica debate, I have to confess I think I'm somewhere in the middle.

Let me go into a little detail about my idea (which isn't that different from the one at Hack the Planet, I fear). Imagine a company that sells/distributes decent, trusted encryption software - say for example PGP. If they wanted to, they could produce a PGP enabled MP3 player, which decrypted on the fly. The individual puts their public "PGMP3" key into a PGMP3 server. Then when they select an MP3 they want to download, it is encrypted according to their public key, sent to them and can only be listened to on the PGMP3 player which contains their private key.

FAQs

I mean - there are probably considerable technical issues I've neglected here, but it seems like a pretty reasonable and basic idea to me. Opinions?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On MP3 and Napster... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/27/2000 12:48:56 AM ----- BODY:

Further to yesterday's post, there is more about the legal difficulties of mp3.com and napster over at Wired news at the moment. I'm in the middle of discussing it with people over at alt.security.pgp as well at the moment. I don't think it is necessarily the ideal place to have the discussion, but I needed to know if it was technically possible, and it looked like the best place to start...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On trustworthy opinions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/28/2000 08:37:36 AM ----- BODY:

You can always trust the opinions of someone who likes Hunky Dory.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Duncan, Designer... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/28/2000 05:09:48 PM ----- BODY:

So there's this guy at work called Duncan, and he's a designer with this large consultancy firm, but the poor love hasn't had a web site for ages, which I thought was a bit lame really, because if you are a web-designer you really should have something that you can show people, or that demonstrates that you are committed to the medium etc etc. So I come in today, and he's compiled this interesting interface to a small directory of interesting design sites.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On TV Go Home... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/28/2000 05:21:25 PM ----- BODY:

It's a site that has been all around the British media, praised almost without exception for its biting wit and foul mouth. It's a site that takes a bastion of British life - the Radio Times - and then rips it to shreds, exposing the hypocrisy and pointessness of television in the UK and television in general. It's a site that probably 9/10s of all British people have already seen, and which only 1% of the world outside the country will even vaguely understand. So why am I mentioning it? Because it's bloody bloody funny...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the personal life of the weblogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 07/29/2000 12:18:09 AM ----- BODY:

Weblogs (at least those with online diary content) are strange things. They force you to make decisions about which parts of your life are open to everyone and which parts of your life should remain discreetly behind closed doors. Even more so, they force you to decide (at some level) which parts of your life are entertaining enough to be open to everyone.

With a few exceptions (28th birthday, the Yell Awards, Mark and Vance in the UK, Groucho Club), I have hardly been writing about my life at all recently - and when I look back over my archive I can see that this trend started when I last saw Max. [cross referenced for your pleasure: 11 June, 17 June] For a long time after the last disaster, it was almost like excised my personal life completely. I just got on with business. As a direct result of being gutted, I felt I had no inside left to write about...

But over the last couple of weeks it has all been seeping back. The run-up to my birthday was very much one of those times when you look around you and think to yourself - "what have I achieved?", "why do I bother?". This is pretty much run of the mill stuff, except that this year I started thinking about questions like - "why am I alone?". A few years ago I pretty much made peace with being single - it seemed to me that my life was going pretty well without the additional luxury of actually going out with people. After all, if you want fantasy, romance and love you can rent a trashy video. And there's very little else that a relationship can provide that you can't find somewhere else.

And yet in the background now, I feel the questions still lurking, unanswered. I don't really know what's caused their reappearance - I went to see High Fidelity last weekend, and that compounded the anxieties of my birthday. I had some unromantic, but highly enjoyable ... fun. Then I watched Dawson's Creek with Mella, and watched her invest huge amounts of energy in the burgeoning relationship of Pacey and Joey. We got incredibly drunk on vodka and talked. She put her finger on part of the problem almost immediately - she said that getting older would be fine if it came with all the trappings it is supposed to. The late twenty-something should have a reasonable job with career prospects, a relationship that has lasted a while and should be thinking about things like mortgages and making some kind of long-term committment. To be that age without those things - well it's like some kind of cruel joke.

Anyway. I've decided to let you in on the joke, I think. I think that's what this posts about - it's about getting some personal content out there again - picking up my guts from off the floor and putting them onto the web. It may not be entertaining, but it's as real as you can get. And maybe that's more important.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On background gifs in Netscape... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 07/29/2000 10:35:57 PM ----- BODY:

I've been inside all day, on one of the nicest days of the year, and why? Because I'm finally getting some redesigning done - getting some code together which isn't completely awful. Picture the scene - I've got a mock-up in Photoshop of what I want to achieve, I have worked out how I should go about achieving it, I set to work, and gradually (very gradually) it comes together. I'm quite proud of it - I'm using a rather clever table structure (or at least I think I am), when suddenly I decide to check it in Netscape.

Of course the structure is all completely in place, and working perfectly. Except that the cell background, which is fundamental to the design of the page, is suddenly replicated in every cell of the nested tables within it. I slap my head in horror. "Of course", I say, (scream?) " I had completely forgotten that Netscape 4.x cannot handle images as cell backgrounds very well. But if I make it a page background, it's going to make the page slow to download. Damn it! I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to how I can get around this problem without using a background image? Hmmm."

This story seemed more interesting when I started writing it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On iTari and iBrator... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2000 01:36:38 AM ----- BODY:

I'll admit it. Even though I love Apple, I still thought that the iTari pisstake was funny. It's not as good as the iBrator though...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a redesign in progress... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2000 10:23:26 PM ----- BODY:

The redesign is proceeding apace, and with it comes all the usual anxieties - that the new design isn't as good as the last, that it isn't as clear, that it doesn't fill the page as well, that it basically just doesn't have the spark of the last one. Of course I haven't got the slightest idea whether or not any of that is true or not. How could I? I've been staring at it for hours. My latest attempt to acheive something exciting with it involves the introduction of a new colour. Unlike much of my other work, this page at present contains absolutely no orange. This must change immediately...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On late-night television... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2000 09:12:08 AM ----- BODY:

Stayed up until 1am last night (big deal - half an hour later than normal) to watch the MTV Movie Awards on Channel 4. Why can't the Oscars be like that? It was great fun!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On design swapping... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2000 12:00:50 PM ----- BODY:

Oh the young scamps. Jason and EOD play "swap the designs". Which brings me to my other idea. I'm thinking about putting this current template out for anyone to use once the redesign comes into affect. Should anyone want it of course. I'll make some kind of .zip file of it all and people can download it, use it for their sites or bugger around with it to their heart's content. Whether anyone will of course is a completely other matter...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On ways to become famous... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2000 06:08:03 PM ----- BODY:

Ways to become famous #1 [the first in a series]: Taking the lead from such prominent celebrities as Sarah Jessica Parker and Sarah Michelle Geller, add the name "Sarah" to the beginning of name, thus producing media friendly nomenclature: "Sarah Thomas Coates". Hang out with celebrity friends Sarah Katherine Lindemann, Sarah Mark Olynciw, Sarah Derek Powazek and Sarah Jason Kottke. Sip cocktails provocatively. Arch an eyebrow.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Tom's Fucked Up Dream Life... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2000 06:18:31 PM ----- BODY:

Tom's Fucked Up Dream Life [the first in a series]: So I'm lying on this bed, fully clothed, half buried under a pile of cushions, with Pacey Witter (from Dawson's Creek, also fully clothed) using me as a pillow. He's talking to Dawson (also fully clothed - sheesh - you guys have dirty minds), who is at the other end of the bed. They are discussing whether or not they've ever had a same sex experience in this slightly "Dare you!" kind of way. I am really relaxed but completely fascinated by the nape of Pacey's neck and the warmth that his body is putting out.

Then suddenly, for no reason at all, I am outside the house, where it is raining heavily and night. I am on some kind of quick provisions foray, trying to find something. At a tiny roundabout I stop and ask a policeman the way back. But as I try to return, the hill gets incredibly steep and I suddenly get this overwhelming conviction that I have accidentally killed someone in some kind of automotive accident, and that I ran away and no one knows. Consumed by guilt I try to return to the house, but the hill keeps getting steeper and steeper and it begins to rain more and more heavily, and there is wind and more wind and darkness and noise and I suddenly wake up still convinced that I had a car accident and killed someone and feeling strangely cheated by my Pacey dream.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On visiting family... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2000 06:30:46 PM ----- BODY:

So my mother and my little brother are coming down to London this coming weekend. Kate and Mella, my flatmates are off on holiday on Saturday, and are not returning for a week and a half - so it seemed like a good time for the family to visit. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with them. And tidy up the flat, do my washing, finish off any web work I have to do etc etc. Still, it'll be cool to see my little brother...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dear Ms Elastico, I read STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2000 09:55:56 AM ----- BODY: Dear Ms Elastico,

I read your recent comment about my site with considerable interest and attach a part below so that anyone who wishes to comment can do so.

"After some consideration, I've realized that this blog is the equivalent of those websites we made when we first got the web. You know, the ones that we tried to make up creative content for but it was always just a pointless page full of our very unneeded opinions. And yes, unneeded is a word. Barbelith, however, isn't a word. I think I read it was the name of a kingdom in Tom's dream."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Massow defects to Labour... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2000 11:03:23 PM ----- BODY:

In the UK, there is this extremely successful young gay businessman called Ivan Massow. He is also, unfortunately, drop dead gorgeous. He is the friend of a friend of mine and I've met him a couple of times in passing. Unfortunately he has had one major flaw - his political leanings. Until very recently he has been the UK equivalent of a rampaging Republican - people we like to call "Tories" - whether or not other names might be more suitable.

Mr Massow has been feted by Margaret Thatcher, spoken at Tory Party Conferences and stood up in front of the whole gay community (from whom he has made considerable amounts of money by selling them insurance) and declared his allegiance to the party that has consistently tried to keep the divisive Section 28. But all this has now changed - it's just been on Newsnight that he has defected to Labour!

I've tried to find some copy about this on the web, but completely without success - it's a real breaking story and hasn't got to them yet. So consider this a web exclusive: YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! [More news as I have it]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ivan Massow linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2000 09:05:58 AM ----- BODY:

More on Ivan Massow:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's game, Name A Friend STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2000 09:19:26 AM ----- BODY: Today's game, Name A Friend From A Baby Picture [E-mail him for clues or to comment on his cherubic hair]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Neale for incorporating STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2000 12:18:11 PM ----- BODY: Thanks to Neale for incorporating one of my lines into "Da Bomb Rap by Front-End". To quote:

"yo this is homey.d.j.action-item empowering and embracing the love of the internet and telling everyone that the heart and soul of the net is the individual creative and personal website."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Revealed - a picture of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2000 02:35:45 PM ----- BODY: Revealed - a picture of myself and David schmoozing at the Yell.com awards. I'm the one next to Mr Ross...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I have an idea STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2000 03:00:26 PM ----- BODY: So I have an idea for the next project after Big Brother. I call it "Lord of the Flies' Celebrity Big Brother Quake Castaway Deathmatch", and involves introducing novel ideas like easily transmittable diseases, LSD-spiked foods, a ready supply of chainsaws, axes and chest freezers, permanently red strobe lighting and the sound of faraway crying babies, to a community isolated away from all other human contact. I thought ideal inhabitants for the LotFCBBQCD camp might include: Sir Cliff Richard, Charles Manson, the Queen Mother, Annabel Chong, Margaret Thatcher, Weird Al Jancovic, Doctor Dre, Ozzy Osbourne, Victoria Beckham &amp; Germaine Greer. Not because I don't like them particularly, but because I think you really need to get a range of human experience. Opinions?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nice people I met for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2000 09:28:05 PM ----- BODY: Nice people I met for the first time when I was on AIM tonight: robotgirl, ellie, geoff, nick doro, charlene, sheepish andy, erica. People I knew already but are still nice: Katy, Andy, Megnut.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More Massow Linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2000 08:29:54 AM ----- BODY:

More on Mr Massow:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Exposing Genitals to Webcams... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2000 11:09:26 AM ----- BODY:

I don't get it. Does anyone really want to see Ben Brown's Dick? This is clearly where I've been going wrong all these years - I don't expose my genitals to webcams. I'm doomed to a life of mediocrity.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On intoxicating viewing and Big Brother UK... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2000 11:48:57 AM ----- BODY:

I haven't talked much about Big Brother UK to date, although it is intoxicating viewing. In the meantime, while I make up my mind, the BBC has an archive of all their articles on the show.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom gets his haircut... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2000 06:01:42 PM ----- BODY:

"Tom goes to get his haircut" (or "Plumbing the Depths of Personal Content on the Web")

In the UK, we get quite a few American TV shows. These shows are on a little after they are on in America depending on who has bought them. Sometimes it's as little as a couple of weeks, sometimes it can be as much as years. Like I say, it depends on who has bought them. Last night, Ally McBeal was on (long standing readers may remember my forceful hatred for Ally herself, and my concerns that the series is nothing but 50s reactionary thinking repackaged, much like Bob Roberts, the "rebel conservative"). The episode in question was the one in which it is revealed that Georgia has been meeting Ally's father in a bar, and that they have, in fact recently kissed. Like I say, we're a little behind the US.

So I'm watching this TV program, thinking how it doesn't appear to be as reactionary as usual - that in fact, Billy's "rebel conservative" / "new man in town" act seems to be being used to show Georgia in a good light - as a strong, intelligent career woman who isn't prepared to settle for accepting that her role is to put other people's needs before her own. Billy has, of course, by this point, had his hair dyed blonde, and spends at least a third of his time leering like some kind of weird Aryan frat boy at every piece of skirt that wanders by.

My flatmate's and I are engaged in the weekly game of shouting, "You pathetic woman! Get a spine!" at McBitch herself, along with "Eat some pies, goddammit woman!", "All she ever does is whine!" and "I bet she listens to the Lighthouse family. I bet she used to listen to Mariah Carey, but now thinks she's a bit lame and is a bit embarrassed, and instead listens to the bloody Lighthouse Family..." In the background, Billy just wanders around, silly hair-dye glowing in the night. We think he's too pathetic to even comment upon.

A day passes. I sleep fitfully and get up to go to work. I have to be in early this morning - I have lots of work to do. After an early meeting (mooching around in my A&F t-shirt, and trying to get some pages mocked-up, I think to myself, "I really need a haircut", so I head off to 'fish' in Soho, which is where I always go. I'm sitting down in the chair while this bloke starts hacking into my hair and then suddenly I decide to say: "Ha! Every time I come in hear, I always mean to talk to someone about getting my hair more exciting!" The guy carries on, and then replies, "You want to have a bit of colour in it? Something that makes it look like you've been in the sun? Go a bit lighter?".

Suddenly, I'm thinking about how crap and old and pointless I've been feeling recently, and how frustrated I have been with my job, and how much I need to get away and have a change. So, with a nervous grin, I agree, and he sets to work with what appears to be a little bowl of paste and a trowel. I sit there quietly staring at the little goo-capped peaks on my head for twenty minutes - to let the colour seep through - and then I am rinsed, blow-dried, a large block of money is removed from my bank account, and I am set loose once more on the streets of London.

As I'm passing a window I notice my reflection. Light strands of hair glint in the sunlight, and suddenly I'm looking at Billy from Ally McBeal once more. Only this time, he's just older, faintly ridiculous, bored with his life and eager for change. And with a snigger in my voice and a spring in my step, I look at myself and say: "There's a new man in town."

[Tomorrow - a photograph of the new 'do']

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things are heating up in the Big Brother house... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2000 11:18:41 AM ----- BODY:

Things are apparently heating up in the Big Brother house - at least if you believe the BBC. They, along with many of the other British papers, are printing pictures of Melanie and Andy apparently engaged in the beginnings of a kiss. Unfortunately, at this stage, I just don't believe it. Look at the picture again - she has her hand on her head in a defensive move, and her expression is very much less ecstatic than it might be.

That doesn't mean, of course, that she's not going to miss him. Nor does it mean that she won't leave if he does. What it does mean is that the press and Channel Four are so desperate for someone to hook up in the house that they will jump on what may be the vaguest stirrings of mutual affection (we all know that Andrew is quite taken with Mel) and blow it out of all proportion.

I can't actually believe I'm investing so much time on this series. But I will be home this evening to see who get's thrown out...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The results of the poll... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2000 11:25:58 AM ----- BODY:

You're a sensible lot, and were quite correct. The results of the poll are in, and the picture of the child with the fox is indeed Nick, a screenwriter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More Mister Massow? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2000 11:29:43 AM ----- BODY:

Ivan Update:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mighty Campaigning Organ... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2000 12:05:32 AM ----- BODY:

The Onion is right on the mark again - this time let the chocolate giants feel the wrath of this mighty campaigning organ:

"The five-state class-action suit accused Hershey's of "knowingly and willfully marketing rich, fatty candy bars containing chocolate and other ingredients of negligible nutritional value." The company was also charged with publishing nutritional information only under pressure from the government, marketing products to children, and artificially "spiking" their products with such substances as peanuts, crisped rice, and caramel to increase consumer appeal."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A weekend with the family... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2000 05:19:35 PM ----- BODY:

My mother and little brother arrived in London yesterday. They are staying with me in my flat for a few days while Kate and Mella are out of town. I have to say that part of me was extremely worried about their arrival - I assumed that we'd find it difficult actually "living" together, even for a couple of days. But things have actually been going really well.

Yesterday they arrived about one, and we went out straight away for lunch. My brother is now 5'8", which I find terrifying since he is only 14. Only two inches shorter than me. I'm not sure I like that. Afterwards we wandered into the centre of town, and went to Selfridges, Gap and various other clothes shops where my mother desperately attempted to buy me shirts, without much luck (I find it hard to find something I like when pressed). Then we wandered over to Leicester Square and saw The Whole Nine Yards. Which was, I am afraid to say, poor. A quick bite to eat later and I'm up on the net most of the night, while my family collapse in bed asleep.

Today has been similarly busy, albeit in a slightly more cultural way (although my attempts to foster my brother's interests in modern art have failed dismally). We all went to the Tate Modern, and managed to work our way through about a third of the building before collapsing under the strain. I managed not to spend to much money in the bookshop either, which has to be a first. We're now mooching around the flat and trying to work out where to eat this evening. It's all very civilised...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mr Massow's fun new haircut... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 08/06/2000 05:47:30 PM ----- BODY:

Mr Massow was on television this morning again, with his rather alarming new haircut. The irony is, he's never looked more right wing. My interest in him is long founded and based around the four major features of his life - 1) His apparently strong political beliefs (Tory until proven otherwise). 2) His presence as a prominent figure in the London gay community. 3) His financial success marketing to gay people. 4) His charm, charisma and the fact that he's pretty good looking.

There's something really alarming about this set of characteristics that seems to inspire bizarre reactions in people. His politics seems to play up the bastard angle. Several of my devoutly leftist friends seem to find this a tremendous turn-on when combined with what appears to be his affable charm. Personally, he was the first person to bring me to the stage where I had to confess to be a nontorysexual - by which I mean that I find someone's right wing tendencies to be a more substantial turn-off than pretty much anything else.

In the gay community, he is simultaneously villified and adored - poster boy for a generation of guppies (gay & upwardly mobile - very eighties) while simultaneously seen to have made his fortune off the back of the very kinds of intolerance that keeps other gay people in a position of vulnerability. And now he's turned towards Labour - how do we all feel about that? Honestly - I don't really know.

The most interesting thing about the interview today was how politically simplistic he appeared to be. He basically contrasted the Labour and Conservative parties on the two staple axes that they have been for years. The stereotype is: Labour are good on social justice, but weak on the economy. The Conservatives can run the economy, but they're for a more survival of the fittest, Middle England Anti-Immigration ethos. Ivan put his priorities very firmly down on the side of the economic priority versus social justice, and stated that he felt that the management of the economy under Labour had clearly changed and now he was left between a party that was good on the economy and social justice, and one that heavily prioritised the former. He didn't appear to think there was any other choice to make.

But what about the other issues? The Euro for example? And fox-hunting? The Labour Party has objectives here which are very much against Massow's own. How does he reconcile them? I'm not sure he knows... Whether this makes him self-serving or honest is another question altogether...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Mothers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2000 05:59:03 PM ----- BODY:

Mothers: My mother never reads my weblog. I think maybe she did once, and then decided that she didn't want to hear about what happened in my life after all. And then stopped. I don't know if that's true or not to be honest. It just seems likely to me. My brother does read my weblog either. I think maybe he's scared to.

Mark's mother reads his weblog, and more than that, she reads mine as well. And Katy's. When Katy and I met her when Mark was in town, she said how good she thought weblogs were, and how happy she was that Mark had an outlet for his thoughts, where he could write and get responses from it. I remember thinking at the time what a cool attitude that was, and how she obviously completely knew what she was doing.

Megnut's mother goes one better. Meg's got her to write her weblog for a while. I can't help thinking that that suggests a really really good relationship - when the mother takes such an active interest in the passions of her children. I kind of think my mother and I have called a truce on this kind of stuff. I think we've figured out between us that there are just some (many?) things that she just doesn't want to know or talk about. So we don't.

I don't know what that says about our relationship.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So you've decided to be evil... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2000 06:13:07 PM ----- BODY:

I'm really letting it all out today - venting left, right and centre - weblogging like there's no tomorrow. Which might indeed be the case if I fulfill my ambition and become an Evil Supercriminal.

When I was a kid, the whole 'evil' thing really didn't appeal to me. I had my hair cut very responsibly, I couldn't handle conflict very well and whenever I went to see a movie, I would come home and desperately try to build the hero's special car or bike or helicopter or plane or spaceship (I saw fairly generic movies) out of the all purpose panacea to being a kid in a village of eighty people in Norfolk with only a phone box for company: Lego.

My imagination would take flight when I was up in my room playing - the room would look like a complete wreck when I had done with it, with mountainous valleys made out of duvets, hidden subterranean bases (Bond) down the back of the sofa, vast forces of heroic lego people on small hover bikes (Star Wars), Helicopters bristling with missle launchers (Blue Thunder), Delorean-alike time-travelling cars (Back to the Future 1, 2 & 3) etc etc etc. But in all of this it was only the heroes that really interested me. Never did I pay the slightest bit of attention to the bad guys.

Until puberty that is, when I became completely and overwhelmingly confused by everything. I'd still frantically read the books with the heroes in them, the comic book good guys were always important to me, the films where the bad guy got trounced were staples of my imaginative life. But I started to get a darker thrill from the presence of the evil supercriminals - people who didn't have respect for society, people who weren't interested in puppies and blonde girls and apple pie and fudge brownies, but instead would prefer to annihilate Frankfurt with a huge gun and an over-fluffed white cat.

It has remained this way throughout my adult life. I want to be a bad guy. I want to rule the world. I want to be the Sherriff of Nottingham, "You! 12.30. You! 12.45. You! 1.00 ... bring a friend..."

And now I know how I can make this dream come true: So You've Decided To Be Evil? [via glassdog]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The weblogger's new hair... It's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2000 02:48:29 PM ----- BODY:

The weblogger's new hair...

It's surprisingly difficult to get a decent photo which adequately shows up what are essentially relatively subtle new hair effects, which may go some way to explain why it's taken me so long to find something. This picture, in fact, actually doesn't do it any justice at all, but it was the only one from my recent webcam tests that even vaguely looked right. Judge for yourself.

I also received a highly entertaining e-mail regarding this hair thing. It reads:

"Spotted: Strolling down Oxford Street on a muggy Sunday afternoon with family in tow, one weblogger with new hair.
"Verdict?: Looking good!"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am having substantial difficulty STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2000 04:52:23 PM ----- BODY: I am having substantial difficulty persuading my mother that she needs to go and see Being John Malkovich this evening. She seems convinced that she just won't like it. The problem is, I go and see so many films, that I've pretty much seen all the new releases on in London at the moment. And there is no way on god's earth that you're getting me to go and see the Patriot again...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Major flashback: Maggie Let It STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2000 08:05:51 AM ----- BODY: Major flashback: Maggie Let It Go has finally got its arse in gear and scanned in the pictures from the epic collision of Mark, Katy, Vance and myself. The first thing Katy then did with them was write dodgy captions to them all, including the stylish "Ok, who farted?". She's so classy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It turns out that my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2000 08:08:29 AM ----- BODY: It turns out that my mother was right. Neither she nor my brother liked Being John Malkovich at all. Not even a little bit. I could feel them next to me in the cinema squirming, desperate to get out. My mother thought it was inappropriate material for a 15 year old and that it was too long. My brother just thought it was boring.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Friends that I really don't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2000 08:14:58 AM ----- BODY: Friends that I really don't see enough of:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When is all publicity not STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2000 12:27:52 PM ----- BODY: When is all publicity not good publicity? Penguin Books have just released a book called katie.com [Full Article: Guardian]. The book describes the experiences of a girl who runs her own website and who came into contact and was finally assaulted by a paedophile she met in a chatroom. Unfortunately, katie.com isn't the domain name of her site, but of a completely unrelated website. And now the second Katie is getting vast amounts of traffic, along with tons of e-mail talking about the issues surrounding paedophilia.

The latter Katie is extremely irritated, and asked them to change the name of the book. Penguin's lawyers responded with a very firm no, stating that she had no case whatsoever.

So when is all publicity not good publicity?

  1. When what should be your intellectual property (unless proven otherwise) is used without your approval or consent - ie. katie.com.
  2. When the association between yourself and the book means that people think that you have been assaulted or raped by a paedophile.
  3. When your traffic increases to such an extent that you must pay additional bandwidth charges (as seems likely in this case).
  4. When your e-mail address is undermined by thousands of e-mails describing disturbing and upsetting events (not to place any blame onto those people who have written of course).
  5. And when the distressed caused to you has been completely ignored by the company concerned.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guy Ritchie, boss of a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2000 12:36:49 PM ----- BODY: Guy Ritchie, boss of a friend of mine, spouse of icon and creator of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and the upcoming Snatch (NB: snatch.com is not the film site!) is guest editing Time Out this week. There's even a photo of him lurking by the back door of the Time Out building in London looking all pensive. I wish someone would have told me - I would have liked to have seen that in progress. I'm probably in the background pulling my hair out, to be honest...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mr Massow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2000 12:55:08 PM ----- BODY:

Things that are in today's Evening Standard: A long article about Ivan Massow. Things that aren't in today's Evening Standard: A long article about weblogs featuring interviews with Katy and myself. I can, of course, only quote from the former:

"His crossing shows all the evidence of pique, not of principle, or of some such immature dramatic display as might please the Oxford Union. With his evident lack of ideological commitment the Conservatives would be wise to dismiss his defection with "Good riddance", and the Labour Party to welcome him with as much relish as a stinking fish."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I love Metafilter... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2000 09:03:27 AM ----- BODY:

I really love Metafilter. Almost an unholy amount, in fact. For those of you who aren't webloggers yourself (I'd place a bet on around 5%), and are thus unfamiliar with the site, it's a community weblog, where anyone who signs up can post links through to interesting sites and news stories around the web. The two most important differences between it and other similar community weblogs are that Metafilter: 1) Allows considerable discussion of every post made, and 2) Seems almost magically to attract some astonishingly intelligent, responsible and able members of the web community.

Two recent examples:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom promotes blatant copyright theft: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2000 09:06:25 AM ----- BODY: Tom promotes blatant copyright theft: It occurs to me that a really good template for a weblog would be the Wired News Template (with a few adaptations of course). I've even got a name for it. You could call it UNDERwired.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am traditional, yet soft. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2000 04:17:58 PM ----- BODY: I am traditional, yet soft. I am of Belgian descent. I have a creamy yellowish body, with a red/brown surface and a slightly corrugated edge. I taste almost meaty and have a legendary aroma caused by enzymes on my skin that break down proteins. In case you haven't guessed, my friends, my name is Mr Limburger.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God, I'm bored. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2000 10:50:00 AM ----- BODY:

God, I'm bored.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing the Headline Competition... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2000 02:30:36 PM ----- BODY:

Below is a list of apparently real English-language headlines. I have a proposal for you. Find (or make) an amusing or apt 320x240px image for one of the headlines below and I'll put the best ones up onto the site. How's that for audience participation? Send me your entry today!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An article by Grant in the Evening Standard... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2000 05:15:15 PM ----- BODY:

There's an article by Grant Morrison, absent godhead of the Underground, in today's Evening Standard. It's about X-men...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More cool headline competition images... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2000 08:36:21 PM ----- BODY:

I've been sent two or three cool images for the headline competition so far - still hoping for more. My favourite so far is below (thanks to David Pannett):

"Kids make nutritious snacks"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's something cool about being in print... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2000 09:19:37 PM ----- BODY:

Young Katy has scanned in the article from newmusic which talks all about weblogs. Congratulations to eatonweb and kottke as well - there's something really cool about being in print...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More entries for the headline competition... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2000 11:30:16 PM ----- BODY:

The headline competition keeps getting new entries. Two of them particularly appeal to me:

"Include your children when baking cookies"
[Brad Morse | 120degrees.com]
"Prostitutes appeal to Pope"
[Meg Pickard | notsosoft.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "It's only a gameshow" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 12:02:07 AM ----- BODY:

Keep reminding yourself:

It's only a gameshow, It's only a gameshow
It's only a gameshow, It's only a gameshow
It's only a gameshow, It's only a gameshow
It's only a gameshow, It's only a gameshow
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Chef throws his heart into helping feed needy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 09:29:47 AM ----- BODY:

Another headline:

"Chef throws his heart into helping feed needy"
[Neale Talbot | wrongwaygoback.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want a webby... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 09:36:41 AM ----- BODY:

Okay, I admit it, I could probably cope with winning an Webby...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blog Family Robinson... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 01:28:12 PM ----- BODY:

Good god. I can't believe it. Mark seems to have got his whole family writing weblogs now. Some favourite quotes follow:

Momblog
"I try to keep track of what is going on in Mark's life by reading his blog but sometimes that's not a good idea because reading what his says often makes me want to do any one of a number of different things, such as (1) Call home immediately. (2) Call Ted immediately (3) Hop on the first plane home to Connecticut. (4) Call 911."
Blogging on Riothero
"Thanks to my poll, I learned that someone's sister, named beth, has a crush on my brother (probably because of the nakedness on his webcam). So I send him email asking if he knows beth. His reply:
'no, i don't. but i go to the strip club on
saturday nights, i usually don't
ask them for their name. i just say, 'do me,
bitch' so maybe i do, but
probably not.'"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How old is Thomas? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 01:35:36 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC is known for it's high editorial standards and the supreme quality of it's reporting. This being the case, could someone please explain this article on Big Brother UK: "Third time unlucky for Caroline".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More headine competition pictures... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 01:41:09 PM ----- BODY:

I'm still getting images for the headline competition. Keep them coming.

"Minors Refuse to Work After Death"
[Meg Pickard | notsosoft.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Those whom the gods love die young... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2000 11:57:08 PM ----- BODY:

Just discovered that barbelith (and I) are all over Jason Kottke's site today. Which is a really strange feeling. It's stirring up a lot of weird resonances in my head. Part of me is clearly delighted: Jason's site must get ten/twenty times the traffic I do. If he mentions me, then more people come and read my stuff.

But along with that is a slight feeling of foreboding - almost dread. I don't really know how to explain it. It's a pretty bloody strange reaction (maybe it's because I'm drunk). Part of the foreboding comes from him bringing up the stuff about the starting of the meme again - a situation which resulted in a few arguments around the place between myself and prominant web luminaries. Arguments which I would really rather forget.

But I think the weirdest thing about it is that I have only ever been mentioned on kottke.org in passing (to my recollection, at least) - and I think that was a pretty brief, incidental mention at that. This time ... I don't know - it's like Icarus getting too close to the sun. Part of me has in my mind that line from Greek Tragedy: those whom the gods love die young...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been wished a happy birthday... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 09:40:43 AM ----- BODY:

I can't believe that I didn't notice that boylog wished me Happy Birthday on the 19th. Thanks!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On advice from Lance, ignored as usual... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 09:43:56 AM ----- BODY:

Advice from Lance, ignored as usual. I've been doing it for nearly a year now and for some reason people keep coming back (at least I think they do)...

"My life is really boring. I can't think of anything to write. I redesigned again. My life is really boring. I'm going to talk about my hair, again. I have a real love/hate relationship with Tuvok, the black vulcan on Star Trek: Voyager. I promise I will never expose anything about my personal life, nor the lives of my friends and family, ever. And now I'm going to list all my CDs in alphabetical order by artist, subclassified by genre and year of release, detailing my favorite tracks on each and the people in my life they remind me of. My life is really boring."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 23. On living in science fiction... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 10:21:29 AM ----- BODY:

23 On living in science fiction:

'Antimatter factory' starts work
Scientists at Europe's biggest high-energy physics laboratory have built an "antimatter factory" to study why the world is made of matter, not its mirror image.
A spokesman for one of three antimatter projects at Cern, Rolf Landua, said: "We are looking at how the Universe would look if it was made out of antimatter. Would there be the slightest difference between our Universe and the Universe of antiatoms?"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 22. On marriages and priorities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 12:01:26 PM ----- BODY:

22 On marriages and priorities:

When I was at school, I was really good friends with Glyn and Simon. We shared some (relatively geeky) passions, which in some cases we still do. When school finished, I took a year out before going to University. Glyn went off to York and Simon went off to Hull. York and Hull are quite close to one another so they kept in pretty regular contact. I kept in contact too, although slightly less regularly, and occasionally mooched up north to see them.

Our contact became slightly more sporadic when I went to University. I was in Bristol, and Bristol is not close to either York or Hull. So I tended only to see them during University vacations - particularly Christmas. When I stayed on at Bristol to do postgraduate work, I stopped going back to Norfolk for vacations and only saw them at Christmas when they were summoned back to their respective families.

Now, sensible people at this point would have prevailed upon e-mail as the perfect answer to this problem. Unfortunately, Simon wouldn't buy a computer, and started working for the Ministry of Defence (and his e-mail suddenly became secret) - Glyn was a just a bit more hopeless, only apparently logging on about once every three to four weeks. I have friends in Mexico and Los Angeles who I am in better contact with.

Anyway. Nearly a year passed with absolutely no contact whatsoever, until suddenly a few months ago, Glyn announced that he was getting married. I went up to Leicester for the occasion, watched the ceremony and chatted to everyone there. It was a wonderful, bizarre, experience. And the strangest part of the whole day was when Glyn turned around to me about half an hour after the ceremony was complete and said, "I know this is the first time that we've really seen each other in like two or three years, but it's great to see you. Which reminds me, there's another fundamental reason we must meet up again. When's the X-men movie coming out?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 21. On winning competitions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 12:10:30 PM ----- BODY:

21 On winning competitions:

Which brings me to my current predicament. I have just won two tickets to the Gala Première and After-Show Party of X-men, to be held on Tuesday night in Leicester Square, and later in the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. I can't get in touch with Glyn or Simon at all, and even if I could I could only take one of them (assuming that they could get down here on a weekday night). So at one level I really shouldn't go - I made a commitment to go with them. But let's be honest. What are the chances that I'm not going to go?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 20. On what happens after Big Brother... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 05:43:58 PM ----- BODY:

20 On what happens after Big Brother:

What's next, one wonders, when Big Brother judders finally to its close. Well, I've got an idea. How about you get, like, 14 people, and then you put them in an astronaut training camp and throw out one a week, and the one who's left gets stuck in a rocket and sent up to the Mir space-station. What's that you say? Someone's already thought of it? You have got to be kidding me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 19. On the nineteenth word of nineteen books... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2000 08:47:41 PM ----- BODY:

19 On the nineteenth word of nineteen books*:

(*Chapter headings, Prefaces, Prologues, Introductions, Initial Quotes etc. excluded)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 18. Matches, Glue and Razorblades... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2000 11:21:22 AM ----- BODY:

18 On uses for flies, matches, glue and razorblades:

Work Well Together [via metafilter]
"Step 3: Catch a bunch of flies. Put them in a jar and put the jar in the freezer. In a few seconds the flies will be chilled out completely. This is called cryogenics, and it has its drawbacks. For example, the flies will be dead flies if you freeze them too long. Dead flies are no good. So if you're a tinkerer, refrigerate your flies. It takes longer to make them comatose, but they have a higher recovery rate than the ones you leave in the freezer next to the burritos."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 17. On Caroline from Big Brother... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2000 11:40:55 AM ----- BODY:

17 On Caroline from Big Brother UK:

After four weeks and three evictions, finally we have an escapee with some bloody opinions, who isn't afraid to give some good headline:

BBC: "Big Brother's Caroline vows revenge"
   Ousted Big Brother contestant Caroline O'Shea has vowed get her own back on "evil" fellow contestant Nicholas Bateman, who she has branded her "betrayer".
   The blonde brummie said she will vote for his eviction if he is nominated and would like to "knock his block off".
   She described Tom as "dull", Darren "arrogant" and said Mel was a "pain in the arse", who was only interested in the men in the house.
   And all the males in the house were branded Neanderthals.
   "At least the women have something to offer - there's a creative streak," she said.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 16. On what I have to do today... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2000 11:51:32 AM ----- BODY:

16 On what I have to do today:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 15. On cool names in Harry Potter... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2000 11:56:17 PM ----- BODY:

15 On cool names in Harry Potter I, II & III:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 14. On entries to the headline competition... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2000 08:42:52 AM ----- BODY:

14 On entries to the headline competition

"Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers"
Jason Theriault | www.dispossessed.com

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 13. On common decency... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2000 05:28:43 PM ----- BODY:

13 On common decency:

"Good manners reflect something from inside - an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self"
My arse!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 12. On the love of pandas... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2000 10:49:45 PM ----- BODY:

12 On the love of pandas:

"Panda mating fails, Veterinarian takes over"
[Meg Pickard | notsosoft.com]
"Panda mating fails, Veterinarian takes over"
[Marshall | tippit.org/sm]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 11. On being rescued from trees... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2000 05:29:17 PM ----- BODY:

11 On people who rescue web designers from CSS trees:

We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!, We love Meg!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 10. Expectations about the X-men premiere... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2000 05:39:25 PM ----- BODY:

10 On this evening:

I don't feel as excited as perhaps I should do, although I certainly feel slightly apprehensive. Tonight is the big night - the "gala" première of X-men followed by the post-première party in North London. I'm going with a friend from University, whose birthday is this coming weekend. It just seemed like the right thing to do. He's wandering around town at the moment finding something swish to wear - it says dress "sharp" on the invitations.

This is the second one of these things I've been too (thanks to Katy for taking me to the first), and it's still exciting. There really is a sensation of pretending to be famous (just for a few moments) while you are wandering down the path up to the cinema with crowds of people squished up against the metal fences they put up. Part of me wishes that I went to enough of these things to accidentally become a C-list celebrity. And why? Because maybe then I'd get invited to even more of these things. Free movies can't be bad.

One thing I've noticed though, and don't like, is that these bloody things never have any bloody trailers. Quite how one is supposed to get into the mood...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 9. On playing games in the cinema... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 08/15/2000 05:53:37 PM ----- BODY:

9 On playing games in the cinema:

The period before the movie begins is possibly the most important part of the film-going experience. At least two-thirds of the fun of two-thirds of the films lies in their anticipation - in finding odd little bits of gossip or pictures or finding a way to sneak into a preview screening. Everyone knows this, which is why trailers are such fun. I remember still the experience of seeing the Mission Impossible 2 trailer for the first time and the collective intake of breath that was heard across the theatre. And the film, well that was pretty lame.

But the moments before a film need not only be a passive experience, which is why I have decided to finally let people into the world of pre-movie games that I play in the cinema EVERY TIME I GO. [This is not a joke]

But with all these games finally completed, sit back and relax, because you must be completely silent before the film actually begins...!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 8. On high school drop-outs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/16/2000 03:55:12 PM ----- BODY:

8 On high school drop-outs:

"Local high school dropouts cut in half"
David Pannett | cortex

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 7. Those days when you really really hate your job... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2000 01:01:30 PM ----- BODY:

7 On work:

There are days when I really hate my job and there are days when I love it. And then there are those days when I really hate it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 6. On people who rip off epinions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2000 05:05:58 PM ----- BODY:

6 On people ripping off epinions:

I was wandering through my copy of .net magazine this morning, when I stumbled upon their web site of the month, an opinions site called "dooyoo.com. "But surely," I said to myself, "this is just a poorly designed rip off of Epinions with absolutely no added features worth their salt and dripping in that corporate sponsorship money-grabbing crap that so characterises British web sites." And you know what? I was right.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 5. On radio silence... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2000 08:40:32 AM ----- BODY:

5 On radio silence:

I haven't posted at all since the 17th, and nothing interesting since the 15th. That's nearly a week. That has never happened before. I feel a bit strange about the whole thing. I wonder why it happened. Anyway - potted history in the form of an unordered list:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 4 On postcard pages: I've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2000 01:52:25 PM ----- BODY: 4 On postcard pages:

I've never noticed launch.nu's postcard page before. Now you can send photos of girls' backs and Mark growling on a baby's dummy to anyone you should wish to. [via momblog]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 3 On countdowns: I can't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2000 01:58:16 PM ----- BODY: 3 On countdowns:

I can't actually believe I'm having to come out and say this - but in response to a couple of letters: Yes! The countdown does mean something. Something will happen to barbelith when the countdown reaches zero. You know - like in the movies..

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 2 On redesigns: Mark has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2000 03:02:20 PM ----- BODY: 2 On redesigns:

Mark has finally gone and partially designed hero.nu, which we said about nine months ago was going to be a collaborative project between him and I. Unfortunately, we never got around to actually doing it. The new site is a weblog for a girl called Heather - and it's really rather nice. But he's not resting on his laurels, because riothero has been redesigned as well. I asked Mark about the new look, and his comment was, "I 've been trying to get a penis on my page for ages". After his recent appeal for pictures of people nude, one can only assume that this is a cry for you lot to e-mail him...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 1 On the End of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2000 10:07:20 PM ----- BODY: 1 On the End of Things:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BANG Barbelith is dead - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2000 10:21:38 PM ----- BODY: BANG

Barbelith is dead - but death is not the end. Introducing: plasticbag.org - the site that will be taking over all weblogging duties from now on. Please adjust your bookmarks and any links you may have on your website, and I'll see you over at the new place. It's been a blast. And no doubt it will be again...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Welcome to plasticbag.org - the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2000 10:38:12 PM ----- BODY: Welcome to plasticbag.org - the new home of what was barbelith.com, and what is soon to be the hub of a re-energised and fully functioning system of sites that I have had at the back of my mind for a few months now. By Christmas, I can guarantee you'll have a new film site, a webzine and a re-energised and redesigned discussion forum, with plasticbag.org forming the hub to it all.

All of the archives from barbelith.com have been moved over to the new domain, but there are bound to be a few dodgy links here and there for a few days while I go through the process of weeding them all out. I've been putting off this move for so long now that I don't think that some of my confidantes thought I'd ever get around to it. In the end it came down to brute determination to put it out there and damn the consequences. In the short term, please ignore any rough edges, and prepare for the inevitable refinements that will occur when I get used to writing for a new space. In the meantime, don't hesistate to send me your opinions.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can state quite clearly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2000 12:28:52 PM ----- BODY: I can state quite clearly what my reasons were for getting heavily involved in web design. They were Derek Powazek and Jason Kottke. I'd been building sites here and there for a while before that, but I'd never really approached them as anything more than a basic idle hobby. Sites like fray and particularly 0sil8 made me see that there was scope for create work on the net that wasn't just about fan sites (although I love them) and personal homepages (although I love them too).

Weirdly enough after creating a number of other creative sites (which lasted different amounts of time), I find myself back where I began, with a personal site (this one) and a fan site (this one). But that's more coincidence than anything else. And it's all about to change...

In the meantime, after a considerable lull, one of the sites that inspired me originally has finally come back from the dead, which is a tremendous delight to me. Welcome back, 0sil8, and here's to the Minneapolis Sign Project!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the World PremiÀre of Guy Ritchie's Snatch STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2000 04:06:07 PM ----- BODY:

I'm off to the world premiÀre of Guy Ritchie's Snatch this evening. I have such a glamourous life sometimes. It's a strange one this one, because about half of all the people I know in the world seem to be going to it, because they all know my flatmate who worked on the film, and she seems to have invited about fifty of them. I hope it's good - I wasn't that keen on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I still can't get over the name of the film. I still remember the day that Kate and I met in a bar and she said, "You'll never guess what they're going to call it..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the world premiere of Snatch... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 08/24/2000 02:01:23 PM ----- BODY:

So I went to the world première of Snatch last night, and I can now give you the low down on the film and the event. Quick bit of preliminary guff first though - I wasn't actually looking forward to going because I felt under a considerable amount of pressure to like the film, since my flatmate worked on it. I was terrified that I'd have to look her in the eye for months and tell her how much I loved it when I'd been cringing in my seat and squirming with horror. And worse, I'd have to be convincing. As it turned out this wasn't necessary - thank god.

The movie is similar to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in that it takes place around London's seedier parts, has a large cast of wide boys and loveable (and not so loveable) gangsters and rogues, has large amounts of stylised camera angles and slo-mo, and almost cracks under the weight of the soundtrack, which is bombastic, ever present and - at times - rather over-bearing. The most obvious difference between the two films is that Snatch is a much darker enterprise - with more violence, more cruelty and a much darker wit.

The first ten minutes are excruciatingly bad. Whether that is to do with the sound levels or the fact that it involves a group of people dressed as orthodox Jews holding up a diamond warehouse while talking about Catholicism is hard to say, but it really is astonishingly poor. But once you're past that, the film is a success, with Brad Pitt being a particular treat. There has to be a fair amount of comedy in having a $20 million star in a film and not being able to understand a word that he says...

It's not really a date movie, it may be more of a guy film than a girl film, and it's not for the faint of heart. There's one scene with a couple of dogs and a hare that will probably rile a number of people as well. But at heart it really is a good film - and well worth watching.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom appealed for good people to help him with filmsoho.com STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2000 02:04:56 PM ----- BODY:

A quick appeal: I'm looking for UK (ideally London) based people who are involved or interested in the film industry for a new collaborative project that I am about to start working on. I need people who are intelligent, film literate, have some idea of what's going on in the industry and who can write well. If you think that's you - e-mail me on tom[AT]plasticbag.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If Ivan Massow is 32... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2000 08:31:25 PM ----- BODY:

If Ivan Massow is 32, I'm a hatstand - but other than that, I found this interview with my favourite ex-Conservative, "Gay who lost heart for the Tory fight" to be entirely absorbing. It's interesting watching the press try and get a handle on him - is he a (i) big girly poof or is he (ii) a pseudo-aristo or is he (iii) pretty down-to-earth. As far as I could tell when I met him, he was a pretty foxy playful bloke with too much money (I suspect he'd agree), a reasonable dose of liberal guilt, and a little too much time on his hands. Doesn't seem that complicated to me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JOHN SHARP EMAIL: jsharp3765@aol.com IP: 195.93.33.9 URL: DATE: 08/28/2003 10:26:04 AM His viewpoint on the contemporary art scene is, in my opinion, completely accurate, and high time that someone in his position should make. It made its mark, hence the outcome. The outcome of course emphasised the validity of his opinion. A nice circularity. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I may be a porn star... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2000 10:28:23 PM ----- BODY:

A certain friend of mine has pictures of me that he isn't really supposed to have. His boyfriend has been enjoying these photos which he isn't really supposed to have been doing. These photos have been sent to someone else on the web. I fear I may be a porn star.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I threw a little strop... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2000 01:24:16 AM ----- BODY:

I was at work and I was talking to my boss and he revealed that they'd put the date of the launch of the new Time Out site back again, much to my surprise. So I threw a little strop, because I had promised them that I wouldn't take a holiday until the week after the site launched (I promised them this a while back). After a little while of this ranting in an uncontrolled fashion, I now appear to have today off work, which is why I am awake at 1am mucking around with my stuff on the web, rather than lying in bed trying to get to sleep and thinking about work.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On British Blogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/25/2000 01:37:22 AM ----- BODY:

I started weblogging pretty soon after blogger launched. I think it had been going about a month and a half. And when I started, I don't think there were many of us doing this, and certainly not that many in the UK. Tonight I was talking to a few UK webloggers (many of whom I am meeting up with on Thursday night) and suddenly realised how much things have changed over the last ten months.

So I decided to compile (more for my benefit than yours) a quick list of well-designed and interesting British weblogs. It's by no means exhaustive, and is based heavily on Jen's work at the GBlogs Gateway.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On competitive impulses... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2000 01:54:13 AM ----- BODY:

Christ. Plasticbag.org is mentioned twice on beebo.org's metalog in two days. I think that's pretty cool. Whether that means I should be out buying a pocket protector is debatable.

I had a long conversation with Mark the other day about beebo's related Weblog Rating page. When I started weblogging, I got really involved in the fight for supremacy on this chart for a while - not in any aggressive way, but for some reason it really mattered to me. Then my interest gradually cooled off. Whether that's because I got bored of the whole idea, gave up on it, or found something better to do with my time is another matter completely.

Mark's still going through the competitive stage and I spent our conversation trying to persuade him to think of it as a bit of a game, and nothing more. But then I go and move domain. I'm a bit unsure as to the quality of the design, so I'm really sensitive to people's opinions of the site. And of course all beebo's ratings page consists of is a guide to how interesting people think your site is. Suddenly, quite out of the blue, I can feel all those weird reptile brain impulses creeping into gear again. It's debatable whether or not this is a good thing. Part of me thinks that adrenalin never did anyone any harm. But then again, it's only a web site...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future is masturbatory... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/25/2000 02:20:47 AM ----- BODY:

Sometimes I think it's important to just feel good about yourself. So that's what I'm going to do. I read a post at Metafilter praising blogger and then I read a snarky comment about weblogs in general. Such comments are bloody boring in my opinion, but tend to run along these lines: 1) What you write is pointless. 2) What you write isn't much fun. 3) Why don't you do something properly creative.

In fact, all three of these points can be described in one simple phrase: "weblogs are wank". I find this kind of thing really amusing, as it seems to be wrapped up in a weirdly strict Catholic idea of what is appropriate sex. Clearly "wank" is considered "unproductive", "wasteful", "pointless" and therefore bad by these people. Weblogs are also considered "unproductive", "wasteful" and "pointless" and also therefore "bad".

But pretty much no one considers masturbation a sin any more, and a goodly proportion of the world seems to be up to it. And while some people are ashamed, most people are just getting on with it, some more creatively than others. I guess my question is this - why is there a double standard? Does everything have to be productive to be good? I for one am making a stand for the web masturbator. I say to thee: "build it, write it, show it off".

The future is wank...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On plasticbag.de... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2000 03:58:26 PM ----- BODY:

I should point out that I have absolutely nothing to do with plasticbag.de, that I think it is an amazing site, and that I didn't know it existed until after I bought plasticbag.org. Otherwise - perhaps - I would have spent another eight months trying to decide on a suitable domain name.

Not that it would have mattered much, it seems, since at any point I can be defrauded of my domain name without the slightest possibility for recompense. Or at least this is how it appears at the moment: "Sex.com Wasn't Stolen" [wired.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Plastic everywhere... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2000 04:07:47 PM ----- BODY:

I should also point out that I have nothing to do with plasticboy.com - which is another currently operating weblog out there. Plastic everywhere. It must be a sign of modern living.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Almost functioning webcams... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2000 04:14:42 PM ----- BODY:

Ha. Thanks to Luke, I now have an almost functioning webcam. This is a significant step forward for me - particularly as I have had such overwhelming trouble with Oculus (I don't want to go into details, but it seems like a complete waste of money to me). I'm using StripCam now, which seems to do the job extremely well.

I haven't built my little webcam pop-up yet, but in the meantime you can get direct and unedited access here (remember clicking on this link signals your acceptance of the terms of watching me mooch about in my bedroom): "I don't care about Tom's hair, I still think he's fit". I'll neaten things up tonight, hopefully.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Boylog thinks I'm cute... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/26/2000 01:05:47 AM ----- BODY:

Yay. Boylog thinks I'm cute. How cool is that? And I quote:

"Tom has taken the big step and gotten a webcam. This is not good, as my attraction to him has now grown exponentially."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Super-villain or cringing victim? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 08/26/2000 09:43:25 AM ----- BODY:

There's a really bizarre article about Richard Hatch, the so-called "Evil Queen" of America's "Survivor" (which we don't get over here in UK) over at the Washington Post: "Hard to Beat, Impossible to Avoid". I kind of skim read the article until my eyes got caught by this little paragraph:

"The straight world is conditioned to think of homosexuality as a handicap, a weakness, a fey stereotype. The gay rights movement tries to present a warm, united front and yet somehow amplifies the notion that gay men and lesbians are marginal, lacking in power."

Whatever the rest of the article says, this is a truth that will echo down through the ages. I prefer the "We Are Everywhere" approach. I'd rather be a super-villian than a cringing victim.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you sneeze, you'll miss it... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/26/2000 09:55:16 AM ----- BODY:

Is it just me, or has Derek been at Blogger about the length of time it takes for a reasonably-sized booger to be ejected from one's nostril during the process of blowing one's nose? I don't get it. I thought he was supposed to be Creative Director or something?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On different stages in gay identity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 08/26/2000 10:09:16 PM ----- BODY:

I've been through three major episodes in my quest for a decent gay identity, and none of them have really fitted right. First came the pre-gay "Can't we be just like everyone else" episode, where I wore what everyone else wore, sneered at gay people "celebrating" their difference on television and tried to cover up any "unnatural" urges I might have had to classmates at school and Uni.

Then came the early-gay "apologist" mode, where I appeared comfortable enough about the whole thing to declare myself gay to friends and family, and to live as a gay man, with the continual proviso that I should act in a politically appropriate way. This was when I was involved at quite a substantial level in student gay politics.

And then came the mid-gay, "fuck it" approach to the world, which is all about not allowing myself to pander to the whims of straight bigots or gay bigots, but just get on with things as loudly and annoyingly as possible. This stage has been great fun, and I sometimes wonder why so many people seem to spend so much time in the first two stages before realising the wonder of being a bloody nuisance whenever they get the chance.

With all this in mind, however, I decided to have a wander around some gay news, information and shopping sites - to do a survey, as it were, of the state of the gay (inter)nation. And unfortunately, I immediately came up against this: Gay E-cards so hideous and twee that it's like my grandmother knitted them in a gesture of political solidarity.

I fear this is the final stage of the evolution of one's gay identity. The individual concerned becomes so comfortable with being a tremendous poof, that they actually start to return to the childish state of taking it seriously, and are again completely unable to see any irony or humour in anything at all. Only this time they're buying each other bunches of chrysanthemums and washer dryers. I swear to god, the people who think these cards are cool can no longer be anything even vaguely resembling human. If this is the future of gay life, then I am a resolute homophobe!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being A-list for a few moments... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2000 12:48:23 AM ----- BODY:

Well, it's never going to happen again, so I may as well get a kick out of it while I still can. For (probably) one day only, plasticbag.org is #6 on beebo's weblog ratings. I'm so pathetic. I can't believe that matters to me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Abandoned for drink in Crete... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2000 12:53:20 AM ----- BODY:

I tell you, you leave Katy alone for one minute, and she wanders off to Crete to get completely trolleyed. I don't know. Young people nowadays...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Holy crap! Hot man alert! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2000 04:28:48 PM ----- BODY:

I don't think I've ever done this before - I don't consider myself to be a particularly tacky person - but holy crap is this man gorgeous... I was watching Eurotrash on TV the other day with Kate and Mella and suddenly this incredible creature appeared on screen. There was this collective intake of breath around the room. Kate, without any prompting of any kind, leapt up and wrote down (exactly) his rather complicated name, simply so that we could find something on him on the web. And found something we have. So I'd like to introduce you all to Oliver Bjerrehuus. If you feel you need to get more specifically acquainted, might I suggest you have a look at this picture. I need a cold shower.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Something to do with Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2000 08:02:05 PM ----- BODY:
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----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Channel 4, burn in hell... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2000 11:33:11 AM ----- BODY:

Fury in W9: The Bank Holiday Weekend was summarily butt-fucked yesterday by Channel 4's decision to cancel the second Dawson's Creek Day. Concerned citizens, when seeking an explanation for this turn of events, were horrified to discover that it had been cancelled so that the cricket, which was cancelled on Saturday due to adverse weather conditions, could now be played on the Sunday. A correspondent for the group, "Damn You Channel 4" had this to say yesterday:

"Mumble mumble mumble....C4 cancels Dawson's Creek Day to show cricket instead....mumble mumble mumble...this means I have to get out of bed and do something else instead....mumble mumble mumble...." [Not So Soft]

Before wandering down the pub with the authors of plasticbag.org and lukelog.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy birthday to Mark... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2000 11:47:42 AM ----- BODY:

It's Mark's birthday today. I'm in a bit of a mood with him at the moment (although less so than I am with Kerry) due to an event last night which we won't go into detail about. Still, it's not everyday you are sixteen - so congratulations old chap, your present's in the post...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Battle of Saville & Merton (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2000 12:25:45 PM ----- BODY:

Bursting a Meme Bubble: [thanks for linkmachinego for almost everything I am about to write]. In the UK, we have a topical comedy program called "Have I Got News For You". The show consists of two teams, one headed up each week by Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, and one headed up by misanthropic comedian Paul Merton. There is an additional celebrity or politician on each team. The show is supervised by Angus Deayton.

Due to the topical nature of the show, and the acerbic wits of a few of the participants in the show (and the fact that Ian Hislop knows altogether too much stuff that goes on behind the scenes in British politics), the show has been savaged a number of times by law suits and claims of defamation of character. It is also, generally, extraordinarily funny.

A few weeks / months ago, an e-mail purporting to be an unedited transcript of one of the shows appeared on the net. It supposedly reported the dialogue that took place between the regulars on the show and Sir Jimmy Saville, a radio DJ with a slightly dubious reputation, who was a guest this week. The e-mail was scandalous in the extreme - incredibly funny (to the point of being scary), and utterly savage. [Read it here or here, but be warned - this is not for the kids].

Anyway. Such a document is clearly legally dubious at best, and since there is no evidence attached to the e-mail, it would seem logical to try to assume that it is entirely spurious as well. (In which case, of course, you would be talking vast potential libel damages.) But the strange thing about this particular meme is that most people who received the letter in question (including me - and I consider to be extremely cynical about chain e-mail) thought it to be at least plausible.

Now the truth of the matter is harder to discern, although through linkmachinego it seems that there are now several other documents on the web which purport to have something to say on the piece. This document, for one, claims responsibility for the writing of the piece in question for one, and claims that it was a parody of a certain journalist rather than an attack on Saville or HIGNFY.

I'm looking for more evidence on the matter in question at the moment. If any of you know of any reputable sites that discuss this matter, I would be really interested in hearing about them: tom%40plasticbag.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Battle of Saville & Merton (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2000 02:31:31 PM ----- BODY:

After a very helpful e-mail I have been directed to the Guardian Newspaper's website in order to find out more about the Have I Got News For You debacle I was discussing yesterday. This particular article [News Unlimited] alleges that a good portion of the transcript is in fact accurate, but that the crucial middle section is a fake:

"Paul Merton is always a man to push the televisual boundaries of libel laws as far as they will stretch but the transcript went a lot further than anything you would have seen on the show. The trouble is - according to sources - a huge chunk of the middle section of the email is fabricated.

In one particularly terse exchange appearing in the "transcript", for example, Merton supposedly attacks Saville about his personal hygiene. In another, the comedian seemingly loses the plot completely and launches into an incoherent rant before being asked by a rattled Angus Deayton if he wants to stop the recording. "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The unflattering George Clooney... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2000 11:35:13 AM ----- BODY:

Is it just me that thinks that it's pretty much impossible to be played by George Clooney in a movie and to be portrayed in a "false and unflattering light"? I can't helping thinking that such a statement is bordering on the oxymoronic. Nevertheless, the wife and daughters of Captain Frank William "Billy" Tyne (Clooney's character in The Perfect Storm) are trying to sue the ass off Warner Bros. for exactly that, claiming that the film depicted him as: "emotionally aloof, reckless, excessively risk-taking, self-absorbed, emasculated, despondent, obsessed and maniacal." [BBC news]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Money for food and cable TV... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2000 11:49:38 AM ----- BODY:

All I can say is thank god this month is nearly over. I ran out of money weeks ago and finally get paid tomorrow. Which means I probably have enough money to eat, and to get cable television.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Blog on for an ego trip"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2000 04:12:16 PM ----- BODY:

"Blog on for an ego trip": So there was an article on weblogs in London's Evening Standard a few days ago, based around interviews with Katy of kitschbitch.com, Meg of notsosoft.com and myself. I knew that it was upcoming, but it has been being delayed for weeks while various editors have been on holiday. I only found out about it when a couple of people e-mailed me referencing it - and when a work colleague mentioned it to me in the pub.

The article takes the form of an introduction or promo of the weblog format, and so is necessarily quite superficial, but it includes a good selection of "starter-blogs", including The Breast Chronicles. Mark is going to be pissed off though - he's mentioned, but there's no URL:

"Recently, the pair [Katy and Tom] met up with Mark Olynciw, a 15-year old blogger from Connecticut, and chronicled the experience from three different perspectives. So what does Mark's mother think about his obsession? Oh, she's cool about it. Because she's got her own blog: at launch.nu/momblog."

I'll try and scan it and get it up on the site shortly (assuming no one else beats me to it).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meet the geeks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2000 04:47:12 PM ----- BODY:

There's a London meeting tonight of webloggers this evening, with many luminaries of the UK geek scene lurking in and around Leicester Square. I'm quite looking forward to it - particularly as I get to see Katy. If it gets dull, after all, she and I can duck off and go catch a movie.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Blogmeets and Articles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/01/2000 09:36:15 AM ----- BODY:

I've scanned the Evening Standard article and put it up on the site. You can link to it directly here: http://www.plasticbag.org/images/extra/standard_article.gif. And before you ask, the journalist who wrote the article, Debbie Barham (who came to the UK webloggers meeting last night) apologised for the headline. We must remember, my friends, that headlines are the territory of Editors and Sub-Editors, not Journalists themselves. And you know how we all hate Editors.

The evening was pretty cool, all things considered - we all met up outside Ben and Jerry's on Leicester Square at 7pm (except Katy, already drunk, rolled up ten minutes later). From there we wandered off to a Japanese restaurant where people took photos, made bad jokes, referenced each others lives and talked about weblogging. At around 10 - Katy and I rolled off home - but more about the trip from the restaurant to the tube later in the day...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dialogue with a Diva... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2000 09:47:16 AM ----- BODY:

One side of a conversation with Katy last night between the restaurant and the tube station:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Design work for Budweiser... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2000 11:59:55 AM ----- BODY:

Hmmm. I can't even remember if I mentioned this one, so I will now. Yet another little design project for timeout.com - the Budweiser: The Bigger Picture Offers page. If you're interested, you should sign up. I might be there...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ceci n'est-ce pas une meme... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2000 12:15:24 PM ----- BODY:

Ceci n'est-ce pas une meme. In fact, if you ask me, it's a bloody con. If you must, look deeper.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Charles Atlas vs. Flex Mentallo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2000 11:22:51 AM ----- BODY:

OK. There's this writer called Grant Morrison, right? And he's, like, absurdly talented and witty, and has been written about in academic tomes on postmodernity. His work sells in the hundreds of thousands of copies a month, and he may or may not have been the creative force behind The Matrix, depending on who you believe. He mainly writes comic books - pretty fucked-up comic books if the truth be told - about freakish superheroes, the nature of reality, anarchy, evolution, revolution and bald men, who wear leather and fight the establishment.

Way back in the mists of time, he also created this little character called Flex Mentallo, a character who literally leapt off the page. He was a poor skinny little boy, who had sand kicked in his face on the beach. His girlfriend thought he was pathetic and went off with the bully. He studied muscle building arts, and then his girlfriend wanted him back.

Any of this sound familiar? Charles Atlas Ltd. thought so (and rightly, since the comic strip follows almost exactly the Atlas comic strips of the seventies and eighties) and swiftly sued. And why did they sue? ["Sand Kicked in the Face of Charles Atlas"]

Because in Morrison's version, "Mac" doesn't just write off for some guides to muscle-building. Instead, he meets a strange man down a dark-alley who has a television instead of a forehead, whose arms trail cans of some kind and who is continually smoking three cigarettes. The man offers Mac the knowledge to make him a master of the arts of Muscle Mystery - and thus to be able to cloud men's minds, look into other dimensions and generate a "Hero Halo" which hovers above him, saying "Hero of the Beach". But above and beyond all this, what really pissed off Charles Atlas Ltd, was that when the cooing girlfriend turns around to Mac and says: "Oh Mac! You are a real man after all!", he replies (while pushing her off him), "That's right. I am a real man and I don't need a tramp like you anymore!" (before wandering off into the sunset in his swimming trunks - Hero Halo a-blazing."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Conversations in my head... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2000 11:37:43 AM ----- BODY:

Conversations in my head:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Abandonment... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2000 11:53:51 AM ----- BODY:

I've run out of friends, I think. Toby's away doing god-parent things, Nick's in Oxford or Cambridge (doing god knows what with god knows who - although I'll bet it involves women), Rhonda's in Sussex, Kate and Mella have gone out for breakfast with Tara, Katy is on her way back to Manchester, Evil Nick's in Harrow, etc etc etc... Meg and Luke aren't even on AIM. I don't understand.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Britney raped by robots? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2000 12:42:57 PM ----- BODY:

A message from the uber-God, Grant Morrison, delivered to us through the BBC: EdFest Live Chat Transcript. Bow in wonder, unworthy scum. Selected awesomeness follows:

EdðMathews: JLA was a fun romp. Any chance we'll see you playing with DC's heroes again soon? Grant Morrison on Aquaman would be most intriguing, for instance...

GrantðMorrison: I had a really good idea ...Aquaman's mum was a mermaid and laid eggs and there were thousands of them!

Rizlað1977 Am I a sad, deluded fanboy, or are there really deep magical undertones to MarvelBoy?

GrantMorrison Yes there are deep undertones and Yes you are a sad deluded boy for thinking so

Jinx Will Zenith be returning to 2000AD?

GrantðMorrison Yes shortly and in a fairly bizarre story It starts off with Britney Spears being raped by a robot.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Waving fists at Tower Records... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2000 01:09:38 PM ----- BODY:

It was Saturday afternoon at 5pm, and I wander into Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus. The whole place has been redecorated and looks quite different from how I remember it. The most significant addition is a whole bank of iMacs with net access for sale at £1 for 20 minutes. "Cool", I think to myself, "I can blog from the middle of Tower. That's got to be pretty hip". So I sit down with my little 20 minute card and try to access something.

Time passes. Sites resolutely refuse to load. After twenty minutes, I have managed to glance at two pages: my site and Blogger.com, where I have written a piece slamming the appalling connection speeds. I click on post and publish and nothing happens. For six minutes. My time runs out. I am furious.

At least in the meantime I'd found a way to remove all their sponsors from the browser (why don't they ever turn off keyboard shortcuts) and replace them with kitschbitch and prolific links. I rule.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On my e-mail backlog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2000 01:11:07 PM ----- BODY:

I've just discovered that I have built up a backlog of 50 unanswered e-mails over the last two weeks. So if I haven't replied to you yet, I'm very sorry, and I will get around to it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Announcing gb.weblogs.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 09:32:21 AM ----- BODY:

<advertisement> Are you an Anglophile? Obsessed with UK-based webloggers such as me? [Or haddock.org, kitschbitch.com, notsosoft, Lukelog, linkmachinego] If so, then keep up to date with the latest in logging with gb.weblogs.com. </advertisement>

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the launch of blog*spot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 09:36:44 AM ----- BODY:

Blogger just can't sit still. Latest launch: blog*spot - a free blogger-blog hosting service. I have to confess though, that even after looking at their products page, I wonder how/if they make any money. And if there aren't ads on blog*spot, you have to wonder how it keeps body and soul together.

I have this image of Meg and Ev sitting on a doorstep with two extremely powerful laptops, with a cable snaking sneakily out of a nearby warehouse, and "Will Code For Food" written on their T-shirts...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do I look like Jack Nicholson? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 09:38:10 AM ----- BODY:

Answer me honestly, oh faithful readers, do I (or do I not) look like Jack Nicholson?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Unable to get things done... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 09:40:50 AM ----- BODY:

Being an unnecessarily defensive post about Tom's inability to get things done on plasticbag.org:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When what you do no longer gives you pleasure... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 07:11:55 PM ----- BODY:

What are you supposed to do when what you do doesn't give you pleasure? And if it's not that you don't like it but that it no longer likes you - well, what are you supposed to do about it? My whole work life feels completely out of control at the moment - spiralling all over the place. And decisions seem to be made about my future by, it seems, everyone other than myself. I probably just need a holiday (hopefully approaching rapidly - oh sunny Bristol, how fair thou art), but it doesn't feel like that at the moment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three perspectives on work... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 07:23:21 PM ----- BODY:

Three perspectives on work, with excerpts [via metafilter and randomwalks]:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-destructive moods... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 07:28:31 PM ----- BODY:

I have been working really hard today. I've got a lot of things done which needed to be done, and I feel quite proud of myself for having done them. However, it has to be said that I have a limited amount of respect for the things themselves. In fact, through my current distorted gaze, the only productive things I seem to have done today are:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God. Love. Bored. Home. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2000 07:29:42 PM ----- BODY:

Disclaimer: Everything that follows is the result of me having had a bad day at work and should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt (the size of a small planet). God is love. Love is God. I am Bored. I'm going Home.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All the beans fell out... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2000 02:03:56 PM ----- BODY:

It was my father's birthday on Friday, and I bought him this book on the history of the twentieth century, but I haven't had time to send it to him yet, which makes me feel completely appalling - and indeed is pretty unforgiveable. The thing is, I pretty much know that whatever I buy him will be pretty much wrong. If he wants something he buys it himself, and he doesn't really seem to have any particular "general interests" that a present can easily cater for.

I asked him what he wanted for Christmas one year, and he said that he'd like fifty Bic biros. So I bought him fifty Bic biros. He seemed as happy with them as anything else I'd ever bought him...

I've only made him smile genuinely once with a birthday present, which was for his fiftieth and contained fifty presents - from a bean bag frog to a vibro-massage kit. But although he smiled at the time, I don't think any of the gifts were ever used again. In the end, I think my brother stole the frog, which we decided to call Wilbur. He got a hole in him in the end. All the beans fell out.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Freudian Dreams... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2000 03:05:26 PM ----- BODY:

Am I the only person to have read Freud around here? I mean - really?!

Mark:
"from a dream about honey bees on a school playground: kerry showing off his pirate sword took from a monkey bar. be careful, i told him, you're going to stab someone with that sword of yours. kerry, c'mon, put the sword down, we'll play dodge ball! honestly! kerry!

"of course kerry stabs me with his sword while running to play dodgeball. i woke up, with the most incredible stomach ache."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scary Megcam Archive... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2000 07:03:25 PM ----- BODY:

Every so often I forget that notsosoft has a Scary MegCam Archive. On those days, the world is grey and depressing. And then I remember that it's there and look long and hard. And then I can't stop laughing! For months!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Work, Life, Holidays... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2000 07:09:10 PM ----- BODY:

I have just had a long conversation with my boss of bosses about work and life and holiday time. He's been really reassuring and nice and helpful, which means that I just have more to think about now than I did before, if I'm completely honest, but at least I'm less tense.

The most satisfying part of the whole shebang is that he (I fear with nervousness in his heart) practically insisted that I take a couple of weeks off work starting after work tomorrow. I think I'm going to be off from the seventh until the nineteenth, during which time I plan to visit Bristol, get cable television, work on my sites, clean my bedroom and sort out the weird thing that seems to be growing on the bottom of my feet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Strange people on Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2000 09:37:24 AM ----- BODY:

There are some increasingly strange people lurking on what used to be the Nexus over on barbelith.com - quite how I'm supposed to respond to this without looking like a complete egotist is beyond me. Thanks, guys!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Make me feel useful... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2000 10:51:02 AM ----- BODY:

So I've been now on holiday for approximately forty-five minutes (if one considers that that's when I would have arrived at work this morning), and I have already been rung with questions. I can only assume that they are doing it to try and make me feel useful.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Who's in charge of Kitsch Bitch? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2000 01:36:03 PM ----- BODY:

Yesterday, Katy went on holiday, and left her site under the awesome government of Meg, Luke and Nick (of Corny fame). The new design is extremely entertaining - which reminds me - I told Dan of Daily Doozer infamy that I'd build something for him... I must get around to that over the next couple of weeks.

What else has been going on? Erm. The new timeout.com site is rapidly approaching launch - it's on the net at the moment, but I doubt you'll be able to find it. After work last night (I left at 8pm) I went for dinner with Meg, this bloke called Ian and this other bloke called Frank at this club thing down a back-alley off St Martins Lane. I don't think Ian or Frank have websites, which I fear makes them approximately 2/3rds of a person. The food and company was great. Nice time had - although I fear I now know a little too much about the internal working of AOL and LineOne.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Message from Riothero... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2000 01:42:51 PM ----- BODY:

So I decided to send Mark a message through AIM even though it was clear that he wasn't there. I was just interested in the kind of message he might leave. He's such a charmer:

"i'm at school. Stinkbadger, if you IMed to say you loved me, thanks babe, i love you too. Stinkbadger, if you IMed to say you hate me, fuck you jerk! and if you IMed just to talk, man up, and pick one of the two choices above, deal? see ya this afternoon around 3:00."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mere days... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2000 01:56:39 PM ----- BODY:

Mere days after I finally convinced my boss to sign a deal with Amazon rather than with the rather appalling IBS, I read this:

Wired [Online Prices Not Created Equal]:
"Amazon apparently offers good discounts to new users, then once they get the person hooked and coming back to their site again and again, they play with the prices to make more money," wrote one angry poster in the online forum DVD Talk.

A number of other posters in the same forum fumed about prices varying wildly for the same DVDs, depending on whether the surfer accessed Amazon from his own computer or someone else's. Several angry Amazon customers emailed complaints to Wired News.

Amazon.com acknowledged that it's been presenting different prices to different customers in its DVD store, but denied that it does so on the basis of any past purchasing behavior at Amazon.

The article goes on to argue that targetted pricing could be the way of the future, with people who are more likely to pay more for a product being put in a position where those are the only prices they are offered - and with this happening often without their knowledge. This so clearly has the potential to be horribly immoral that I can't think that it will work - people will protest or governments / fair trade associations will intervene. But in the meantime I think this is a matter for protest: Equal Rights to Fair Prices!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was going to go STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2000 06:33:16 PM ----- BODY: I was going to go and visit a friend in Bristol for this weekend, but I heard yesterday that a close friend of hers died a couple of days ago. She's come down to London to be with them, and I met her in Hampstead for a drink this afternoon.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Well I said it would STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 10:08:37 AM ----- BODY: Well I said it would happen, and happen it has - plasticbag.org falls from six to thirty-one on beebo.org. I kind of knew it would happen eventually, but I have to say I am disappointed. I should probably have done the move several months ago.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Images from Star Wars: Episode STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 10:57:00 AM ----- BODY: Images from Star Wars: Episode II are released - and they have a sneaky / cunning way of letting people distribute them:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quote from the letters STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 11:16:44 AM ----- BODY: A quote from the letters column of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a comic book written by Alan Moore concerned with the adventures of the Invisible Man, Dr Jekyll, Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray and Captain Nemo (and a number of other 19th Century Roustabouts).

"Good show, young man. Our hats are off to you. While we are not entirely sure exactly who this "Danger Girl" to whom you more than once refer might be, we venture that she sounds like a vexatious little strumpet and is almost certainly deserving of a vigorous beating, perhaps with a taws or riding crop. Why I'll wager you'd buy six issues if we did that, wouldn't you, you cheeky little bounder? Here's a shilling, don't spend it on gin. When we were our age we were all dying of pleurisy up chimneys, but it was character-forming, and that's how we beat the Hun. Now be off with you, before we tell your Father."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can you name the sitcom "Slag & Poof"? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 01:36:34 PM ----- BODY:

OK - so I have a question for you people in the US. While watching "Dharma and Greg" last night on Channel 4, Mella and I tried to remember the name of the other US sitcom which stars a man and a woman, and whose premise we refined down from "Woman and Faggot" to "Slag and Poof". Bearing in mind that Mella and I were identifying heavily with these roles at the time, please only helpful e-mails!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What are you supposed to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 01:48:25 PM ----- BODY: What are you supposed to do when you're on holiday? I'm already bored, and I've only been off a day and a half. Ho hum. Guess I'll tidy the flat and go pay some bills...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wow: Twenty e-mails in five STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 08:24:20 PM ----- BODY: Wow: Twenty e-mails in five hours - all telling me that the TV show in question is not in fact called "Slag and Poof", or indeed "Poof and Slag", but instead is called "Will and Grace" (not far off - pat yourself on the back Tom). Here are some links about said program:

Now all I need to know is when this show is coming to the UK.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Mel gets evicted from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 09:07:51 PM ----- BODY: So Mel gets evicted from the Big Brother UK house with a whopping 69% of the vote. My flatmate Mella rings me from the studio straight after the TV program and says that everyone in her family is really glad to have her coming home, and that the atmosphere in the theatre was pretty strange. Two hours until the full interview...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Adapted plot synopses (thanks to: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2000 11:51:46 PM ----- BODY: Adapted plot synopses (thanks to: Rob's Will & Grace Page, using my names for the main characters (I find this inordinately amusing and could have put about a thousand of them up):

Pilot:
Poof's poker night with his buddies gets interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Slag, who has once again broken up with her boyfriend and arrives to spend the night--much to the displeasure of Poof's friend Queen, who was planning to move in temporarily while his own apartment has new flooring put in. Poof talks Slag into finally leaving her boyfriend for good, she marches off to confront him, but when she returns to announce that she has accepted a marriage proposal, Poof risks their friendship by telling her what he thinks.
Where there's a Poof, there's no way:
Slag claims that the reason she's not dating is that she's having too much "fun" with Poof--so she proposes that they try their best not to have fun. Meanwhile, Queen is seeing stars over seeing an IRS agent, so he enlists Poof's help.
The truth about Poof and Dogs:
After Slag defies Poof's wishes and brings home a puppy, Poof can't resist the pooch and begins to treat him like a newborn baby. Meanwhile, Queen and Bitch worry about the dog's effect on Poof and Slag and insist that the new parents go out for a night on the town.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Plummetting on Beebo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 01:01:52 AM ----- BODY:

Right. I have decided I am actually quite irritated about having plummeted twenty-two places on beebo.org's ratings, even if it is completely irrelevant (<aside to camera>"My fat arse"</aside to camera>) so I'm going to stoop to actually demanding that you people out there with weblogs 1) Make sure you have your site listed (e-mail metalog@beebo.org) and 2) Make sure that you have plasticbag.org in your permanent links section on the page.

Without wishing to compromise my journalistic integrity in any way whatsoever, I can reveal myself to be a shameless linkwhore and self-publicist who will not allow any such selfless act to be unrewarded. I love you all. Each and every one of you. Or should I say I will love you, just as soon as you do the decent thing and bloody link to me.

Ever your obsequious bitch, Tom.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When I designed plasticbag.org I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 10:28:59 AM ----- BODY: When I designed plasticbag.org I decided that I wasn't going to pay any attention to the restrictions of the web-safe pallette. I mean - it's a personal site, right - I'm not selling anything - to an extent it doesn't matter if a few people find the site visually offensive. Jason Kottke seems to have taken a similar approach - that the personal site is an arena for a certain amount of experimentation that one can't make when one is designing for a company, and hence the web-safe palette is less important.

I've just read an article over at Webmonkey called: "Death of the Websafe Color Palette?". The two authors performed some experiments on different platforms between 256 colour displays, High Colour displays and True Colour displays - to see if it was necessary to still design within the web palette at all. [If you don't know what the web palette is, then the article will explain all.] What they found was alarming.

Apparently only 22 colours actually remain completely consistent cross browser, cross platform and cross colour depth [The Really Safe Web Palette]. Every other colour renders improperly when placed next to a .gif of (in theory) the same colour on one or more system.

I'll provide an example: the curved tab-like shape that forms the top of this column of text. If you look at this page using anything other than a true colour colour depth, that image appears to be a very different colour from the text background. It is errors in rendering like this that are supposed to be avoided by using the web safe palette.

It looks like we have a long way to go before we can cheerfully mix images and cell backgrounds using any colour over every colour depth. At least these figures are relatively reassuring (even if they only represent a general trend in the right direction):

"The most recent numbers we've seen from StatMarket put True Color (24- and 32-bit) at about 38 percent of users; High Color (16-bit) at about 56 percent; and 256-color users are at about 6 percent."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have been informed today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 10:34:02 AM ----- BODY: I have been informed today (by the same person) both that I am a self-important puffed-up egotist and that I look like Timothy Olyphant. Talk about mixed signals.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found through referrer logs - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 03:19:42 PM ----- BODY: Found through referrer logs - Another intelligent & able Brit-Blog spreads its wings: will.tryonline.net.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What does this mean? [publog] STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 06:46:23 PM ----- BODY: What does this mean? [publog]

"Blog on for an ego trip. Ich dachte immer, in Weblogs geht es um kommentierte Links. (So kommt es auch in dieser Sendung im —sterreichischen Rundfunk r½ber.)

"Inzwischen kñnnte man fast sagen: "Ein Weblog ist eine Seite, die mit Blogger oder einem îhnlichen Tool erstellt wird." Auch der Begriff "Blogger" ist auf dem besten Weg, ein ganz normales Wort zu werden (wie "Walkman"). Ist das ein cleverer Masterplan vom Pyra oder passiert das alles zufîllig?"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sourground has redesigned. It's so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 06:53:49 PM ----- BODY: Sourground has redesigned. It's so ... simple. There's a good portion of me that is quite jealous of him on this one - it looks so simple. It makes plasticbag.org look so overcomplicated - which really wasn't the intention at all. I wanted it to be clean and clear and different and cool. Maybe I haven't succeeded. I must think more about this.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You can perhaps imagine how STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 06:59:38 PM ----- BODY: You can perhaps imagine how cheerful I was this morning to check my regular dosage of post-Katy kitschbitch, only to discover a horribly unpleasant photograph of myself scanned in by the evil Mr Cornwell, who managed to capture me looking particularly long and moose-ish. I can't remember the last time I have cringed with such horror at a photograph. Please god let me not look like this: Moose/Man.

The picture, incidentally, was taken at the recent house-warming of Toby, an old friend of mine, who - perhaps incongruously - does not live in a huge mansion full of suits of armour and secret passages, but in a rather nice little flat off England's Lane in Belsize Park.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I had this really good STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2000 07:06:36 PM ----- BODY: I had this really good idea for something to do on the site, but unfortunately I can't implement it. I was going to dig up my teenage diaries and see if I wrote anything for these dates and run them in parallel. But I can't seem to find them anywhere. Which is probably a good thing, considering how embarrassing they probably are. I know that at times they lapse into porn-novel territory. So I am thinking instead of doing a "History of Tom in Pictures" thing, which will have a number of sizeable absences in it as I refused to have photos taken for years at a time in fits of post-adolescent grumpiness.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to blogger, I am STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/10/2000 11:20:09 AM ----- BODY: According to blogger, I am the eighth person in the last 24 hours to mention kottke.org. Having checked more thoroughly, it transpires that I am the sixth person in the last 24 hours to mention the redesign.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A translation of the German. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/10/2000 11:28:14 AM ----- BODY: A translation of the German. [from publog translated by prolific]

"Blog on for an ego trip. I always thought that weblogs are about links with commentary. (That's what it also looks like in this program on Austrian television)

"In the meantime you can almost say: A weblog is a site that is made with Blogger, or a similar tool. Also, the term 'blogger' is on its way to become an ordinary word (like 'walkman'). Is this one of Pyra's clever masterplans, or is it all just a coincidence?"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm bored. It's official. I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2000 02:00:58 PM ----- BODY: I'm bored. It's official. I am apparently incapable of being on my own for more than four days without having some kind of organised activity. How pathetic is that? It hasn't been this way for long - less than a year ago the very idea of starting a non-freelance nine-to-five kind of job filled me with horror. I loved my freedom, and used it mercilessly. Perhaps it's been too long since I had a holiday. I have a week and a half left and I can't think of anything to do with it.

This was brought home to me today by a visit to the office. I had to go in because I thought there was a bill that I had left at work which needed to be paid. Everyone looked at me with mute astonishment as I walked into the room, and in short order I found myself discussing work-related matters with my boss over a pub lunch.

Twenty minutes later and I'm sitting in an internet café thinking how bizarre it is to find myself in this situation, and beginning to get a sense in my head of why my step-father spent such a long time at the office, and why people with stressful jobs feel obselete when they retire...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Delightful news: "Poof and Slag" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2000 02:06:43 PM ----- BODY: Delightful news: "Poof and Slag" has won Best Comedy at the Emmy Awards. Find out more about this thrilling series with this guide to the lives of aspirational homosexual Will and his brightly clad female accomplice, Grace: Will & Grace.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My fictional love-life (prelude): I've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2000 02:16:29 PM ----- BODY: My fictional love-life (prelude): I've had a couple of e-mails lately asking about the state of my love life at the moment - people are, it seems, desperate to get some kind of vicarious thrill by watching me shag my way around north London.

Unfortunately, I have no love life at the moment - various reasons (including exhaustion, grumpiness and general crapulence) have precluded any down-and-dirty bedroom action. So I have a temporary solution. I'm going to generate a fictional bloke who I can write about here. And all you guys have to do is pretend with me that what you are reading is the real thing. First entry to come soon...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wafterbaby corners Matt Haughey. His STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2000 08:40:37 PM ----- BODY: Wafterbaby corners Matt Haughey. His list of regular reads is interesting (and not just because he seems to read plasticbag.org every so often. I'm more impressed because of his level of committment. I will be completely honest - while the logs I read varies from day to day, I doubt I read more than five or six in any one day.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My fictional love-life (1): So STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2000 08:48:03 PM ----- BODY: My fictional love-life (1): So I'm walking down the street when I slip on a banana skin and land hard on my back. The weather isn't brilliant so I get this kind of sky-grey haze moving behind the glowing spots that dance around in front of me. This weird-looking guy with a big nose and an eye-patch helps me up. Everyone else kind of walked past.

We didn't say a lot to each other, but he didn't make a very good first impression. You know the type - completely self-involved and nauseatingly smug. Instantly frustrating. He did, however, have a nice arse.

After helping me stand up, we did some "British" thing that you see on TV programs like Friends, but which never actually happens in England (possibly we looked a bit sheepish and mentioned the Queen) and went on our separate ways. God help me, I hope I don't bump into him again...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm watching television... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2000 09:04:36 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm watching television this evening and That '70s Show comes on Channel 5. For the Americans amongst us I should point out that Channel 5 is to quality television what fart jokes are to Contemporary Dance Theatre.

The show is a favourite of regular plasticbag.org subjectee Kerry - my pet American - and for this reason I decided that I should probably watch it.

It's basically pretty funny, but suffers much more than normal from trans-atlantic drift. All UK-based people will understand this one - it's what has happened when you are staring at the TV screen trying blankly to work out what "cooties" are.

In the first episode I watched there was an appearance by '70s President Ford. The jokes at his expense were, I fear as incomprehensible to me as any joke I might be able to make about <whoever - the - hell - was - Prime - Minister - before - Thatcher - rose - from - her - icy - crypt> would be to an American.

Or indeed to me, since I clearly can't for the life of me remember what his name was.

By means of retribution on the USA for the export of comedy that only they will understand, I hereby suggest the export of The Vicar of Dibley, which I watched last night, and which contained about a thousand Paul Daniels, Debbie McGee and Crunchie jokes - all of which I "fear" might be lost on our American cousins.

Let's see them put that on an obscure cable channel and forget all about it! Ha. Revenge is sweet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My fictional love-life (2): You'll STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2000 04:06:17 PM ----- BODY: My fictional love-life (2): You'll never guess - I bumped into weird guy with patch and nose again today. It was at my weekly visit for colonic irrigation. He goes to the same place. He is such a frustrating human being. Although, not really having spoken to him properly yet, I don't really know how I could know that. God help me, I hope he doesn't turn up to that fictional party I'm having next week.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While we are on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2000 04:31:32 PM ----- BODY: While we are on the subject of Radiohead, am I right in thinking that both the cover and name of their soon to be released album (Kid A) are really quite bad?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The two activities that I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2000 04:36:25 PM ----- BODY: The two activities that I had down on my list as "to be done" today were: 1) Sign up with new GP, 2) Get cable television. Since I have not managed to leave the house all day, the first one seems rather unlikely, and unfortunately the people who supply cable television are resolutely refusing to talk to me. Which leaves this day as rather a dead loss. I have played quite a lot of Quake III though - that's got to count for something, right?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I read this interview with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2000 05:29:13 PM ----- BODY: I read this interview with Radiohead in Q the other day, and thought to myself - if only they weren't so torturous about what they do; perhaps then they'd have more fun with it. And then I thought about how long it took me to get a tiny little website rebuilt, and how much horror that generated for me, and then I shut up.

In this interview was a reference to the book No Logo by Naomi Klein, which the various band members said had clarified for them what they wanted to talk about on the album (if indeed they were talking about anything). So I thought to myself - "No Logo" - that sounds like the kind of book that interests me - it's got that counter-cultural vibe going on; I think I'll buy it.

So I went to lots of shops and couldn't find it and returned home grumpy and forlorn. And then last night I spilt a glass of beer on my desk and had to grab about a ton of stuff off it and throw it on the floor so that I could mop up the mess. And what do I see at the bottom of the pile, but a copy of the book itself in full burning technicolour. Nick had bought it for me for my birthday and I'd completely forgotten.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Many more days of holiday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2000 09:37:54 PM ----- BODY: Many more days of holiday and I fear I might actually reach that fabled limit of Buffy saturation. Then again...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I think I see it, that evil robotic duck... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2000 09:51:58 PM ----- BODY:

There's some astonishingly good - and extraordinarily strange - high quality Flash work over at nosepilot.com [via metalog]. It reminds me a lot of those strange five minute cartoon pieces that you sometimes see on BBC2 in between some late night talk show and the third repeat of V. Only it's of infinitely higher quality. If you haven't seen this quote yet, then you are nowhere near the end:

"I think I see it, that evil robotic duck."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vote Anna for Big Brother! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/13/2000 05:19:15 PM ----- BODY:

If you are sane and therefore want Anna to win Big Brother UK then ring 09011 980 101 immediately. If you need further reason than that, I could mention that there is a rumour going around London media circles at the moment that Big Brother have made a deal with The Sun to edit the TV footage to make sure that Craig wins. He is apparently considered very good Sun-fodder. This may very well be a load of bollocks, so concentrate on this simple message: Anna is GOD and commands you to vote for her.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OSX is now available for testing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2000 12:59:26 PM ----- BODY:

News from Apple: The MacOS X Public Beta is now finally available for testing. Confession - I'm a bit scared of OS X - I'm a relatively recent convert to Macs (and I haven't regretted it in the slightest), but I hear that there are many features of the new operating system that are similar to Windows. Frankly, I just don't get it. It does however look wonderful. [OS X]

Apple have also released a couple of new iBooks in new colour schemes. I mean - they look nice, but there's not much of a leap there. [iBook]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On 'Balanced' and 'Impartial' Journalism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 09/14/2000 01:24:59 PM ----- BODY:

I've just read this astonishing article on a conference held by journalists about the reporting of gay issues: ["'Gay' journalists turn activists"] At this conference the question of "balance" came up - the question was Do we have to present both sides of the opinion on gay issues, when we don't on racism? This is a quote from one of the people present:

"Ramon Escobar, an MSNBC producer who moderated the same plenary session, said, "This whole issue of 'balance' that we as journalists are supposed to achieve. ... When we cover the black community, I've never seen a newsroom where you're covering one side and then you have to go run out and get the Klan's point of view: 'Well, I've got to go do my Klan interview.' How do you be fair?"

The article itself, however, is decidedly anti-gay - they quote the piece above as if it were a ridiculous thing to say. The journalist themselves says:

"Despite all the gay propaganda masquerading as news; despite the ubiquitous pro-"gay" puff pieces; and the "inside" manipulations by NLGJA journalists, something is wrong: Americans are still repulsed by homosexual behavior. Gay sex remains a massive turn off. "

I'm not going to argue with this person on the grounds of rights vs tastes - although one might argue briefly that not liking hip-hop should not be reason enough to countenance racism - but what I am going to take issue with is his statement about the role of journalists. Two quote for you now:

"A newsman's job is to report the news -- not undermine natural inhibitions guided by centuries of moral teaching."

At the conference, homosexual reporters in mainstream media positions found it hard to subdue their enthusiasm for "gay rights," thus discarding the old journalistic ethic of neutrality.

That the gentleman concerned also seems to miss the point of is that the job of the reporter is also to report the truth - whether that be difficult for some people to accept or not. The interpretation of that truth is another matter - and I'm afraid one where it simple isn't possible to take a completely "balanced" line.

After all - how can you be "balanced" and still be a reporter - if what you report has to reflect the full breadth of opinion on every issue, whether or not there is any evidence or not, then serious news reporting about the death of Kennedy would be full of wild accusations and (probably) untruths (aliens, CIA conspiracies, FBI conspiracies, Masons, Illuminati etc etc etc). The job of the reporter is to assess the facts and report what seems most likely to be the truth - not to mirror what he or she reports to the opinions of the population.

In fact, I think this points to one of the biggest crises in journalism in the USA today. Writing the news has never been about being "balanced" (in the sense of mirroring the report to a greater or lesser extent to what various interest groups say is the truth), but about being impartial - free from those influences to write what appears to be the truth.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Improvements at the BBFC... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2000 01:32:34 PM ----- BODY:

For the libertarian in all of us, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) has set out it's new guidelines - and they are much less invasive than they have been before. In films specfically targetted at children, the guidelines have been strengthened, but for films for adults, the consensus seems to be that people now firmly believe that they should be free to choose for themselves what is an appropriate level of violence or sexual content. And about bloody time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quotes from "No Logo"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 12:44:28 AM ----- BODY:

Quotes from "No Logo" by Naomi Klein (1):

"Nineties marketers, being on a more advanced rung of the sponsorship spiral, have dutifully come up with clever and intrusive new selling techniques ... Recent highlights include these innovations: Gordon's gin experimented with filling British movie theatres with the scent of juniper berries; Calvin Klein stuck "CK Be" perfume strips on the backs of Ticketmaster concert envelopes; and in some Scandinavian countries you can get "free" long-distance calls with ads cutting into your telephone conversations.

"And there's plenty more, stretching across ever more expansive surfaces and cramming into the smallest of crevices: sticker ads on pieces of fruit promoting ABC sitcoms, Levi's ads in public washrooms, corporate logos on boxes of Girl Guide cookies, ads for pop albums on takeout food containers, and ads for Batman movies projected on sidewalks or into the night sky. There are already ads on benches in national parks as well as on library cards in public libraries, and in December 1998 NASA announced plans to solicit ads on its space stations. Pepsi's ongoing threat to project its logo onto the moon's surface hasn't yet materialized..."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Barmen... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Food & Drink CATEGORY: Food & Drink DATE: 09/15/2000 01:00:48 AM ----- BODY:

Barmen are alluring for three reasons. Firstly, they have to be nice to you. Secondly, they are often employed because they are physically attractive (although this could be a condition only in gay culture). Thirdly, they bring you alcohol if you ask them nicely.

Barmen are unobtainable for pretty much all of the reasons above. Firstly, they have to be nice to you. They don't actually want to be, quite a lot of the time, or they're tired, or they just resent having to be chirpy all the time. Secondly, they are often employed because they are physically attractive. Everyone knows that the more attractive a man is, then the more selective he can be, and the more unpleasantly arrogant he will become as a result. Thirdly, they bring you alcohol if you ask them nicely. And then they watch you get drunk, from afar, in a detached fashion. Possibly with an eyebrow raised.

I have a long history of being fascinated with barmen. Most recently, I have been trying to strike up a conversation with one of the barmen at Escape which sits beneath the Raymond Revue Bar in London's Soho. I'm not particularly trying to nail him - I just think he looks cool. But the curse of being a barman is the ongoing assumption that everyone wants to shag you - and hence the complete inability to talk to anyone who, at first glance, you wouldn't necessarily want to wake up (with a hangover) next to.

Having realised this, of course, my first thought was whether it might be possible to supplement my income with a part-time, day-a-week job behind a bar. But maybe that's taking things too far.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the UK Petrol Crisis... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 01:14:37 AM ----- BODY:

Brief thoughts on the UK petrol crisis (now thankfully ended):

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finding access afr... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 01:41:56 AM ----- BODY:

Does anyone know the URL of the weblog called >>access afr? I've tried looking for it on blogger, but the URL provided there doesn't seem to go anywhere. Any ideas, anyone?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Refutations: Cocky Bastard and Mom STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 01:10:59 PM ----- BODY: Refutations: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger links to the Evening STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 01:22:03 PM ----- BODY: Blogger links to the Evening Standard article. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Speaking of Blogger, does anyone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 04:15:30 PM ----- BODY: Speaking of Blogger, does anyone want to try and explain to me how and why I went to this URL [http://www.froschi.blogger.com/] and what the hell it is for?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On posts that should have been e-mails... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 04:22:20 PM ----- BODY:

The post that should have been an e-mail:

I finally found >access afr through weblogs.com. Grant Cook, stand up and be counted!

  1. Please no more 1Mb Flash files. Please god. No. They're lovely, but my connection is a bit ... wobbly.
  2. Love the site. Start smoking again immediately. Lot's of people tell you it's bad for you. They are insane. Ignore them. They drink and take anti-psychotics (when they remember).
  3. You need to change your listing on the blogger directory, because at the moment it doesn't go to the right URL.

[To camera: Do you want to make a post that should really have been an e-mail? Just do it! And then tell me about it.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ha ha. There's this really STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 04:30:01 PM ----- BODY: Ha ha. There's this really funny site all about writing unmaintainable code that I found via In the groove. It's so funny. I love it. Particularly the bit about using 'i' for non-int variables. And that wonderful bit about global names:
"Declare a global array in module A, and a private one of the same name in the header filefor module B, so that it appears that it's the global array you are using in module B, but it isn't. Make no reference in the comments to this duplication."
OK. I admit it. I didn't understand a single word of the whole site. Not one word. They might just as well have been speaking with a Welsh accent for all the sense it made to me. I just wanted to be a proper geek - just for a moment... &lt;Sigh&gt;.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a list of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 04:47:53 PM ----- BODY: There's a list of the top one hundred British TV programmes ever made over at the BFI's site [bfi TV Top 100]. I just thought I'd comment on a few anomalies as I read through it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today was supposed to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 05:05:09 PM ----- BODY: Today was supposed to be my day of film with me watching The Cell, Shaft and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? in one long sitting. Ideally with people, but not necessarily. It's 5pm and I haven't got my shoes on yet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Strange messages on beebo.org's ratings: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 07:35:03 PM ----- BODY: Strange messages on beebo.org's ratings: "In one or two days, this will all be fixed, and better. --M." Consider breath baited. Sad, but true.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I give up. The weather STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2000 07:37:35 PM ----- BODY: I give up. The weather is appalling (thunder and lightning - must turn off computer), it's too late to actually get anything useful done. I'm not going to go to the cinema. So I'm off to see Meg and Luke to slob, watch the finalé of Big Brother and drink myself to death.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Don't get tense, kids. If STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2000 12:00:01 PM ----- BODY: Don't get tense, kids. If you are seeing some strangeness on the page, then it's just because Meg and I are busy playing "push the envelope" with Blogger.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've rebuilt the "Recently" section STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2000 12:45:22 PM ----- BODY: I've rebuilt the "Recently" section on the left so that now it reads "Consumption" (which I find more amusing). I've also built it as a mini weblog, so that I can type in what I've recently been reading / listening to / watching and it appears magically on the page through the medium of server-side includes. So that should mean that it doesn't get stagnant (hopefully, at least).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly because I work on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2000 08:57:54 PM ----- BODY: Possibly because I work on the Internet arm of an publishing company, I found this article at Wired ["Publishing Without A Net"] to be inordinately interesting. A couple of choice quotes:

"We feel the Internet is still relatively new, and we as a company are being careful as to how we want to deal with it," said Maurie Perl, senior vice president of corporate communications of Cond» Nast, the parent company of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. "Right now we view it as more of a business opportunity than an editorial opportunity," she said.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick nod of "yay" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 01:33:51 AM ----- BODY: A quick nod of "yay" to the other Tom at Blue Lines, who has managed that incredibly difficult transition: making a fresh and classy new design while maintaining continuity of look and feel.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where to start? I have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 01:45:51 AM ----- BODY: Where to start? I have so much I want to talk about again - it's like this holiday has recharged my weblogging glands. Or maybe it's just that I'm doing something other than work. And I don't like writing about work.

Yesterday was another relaxing, mildly pointless day. I got up late, mucked around on the net and then went and met Pippa for lunch at Pizza Express off Soho Square. We talked a lot about her recent trip to Egypt, her love life, our various job situations, our friend Rachel in Bristol who we are going to be visiting next weekend, and a variety of other subjects.

We then went and saw O Brother, Where Art Thou? in Leicester Square, which we thoroughly enjoyed. And on the way back to the tube, we went into Virgin so I could pick up a copy of the soundtrack, which is a satisfyingly extreme change of pace for me.

An evening of Big Brother UK TV programs followed, and the day was capped off with a late-night conversation with Kate and Mella about professional matters, and men in America who taste funny.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thoughts on the finalé of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 02:06:35 AM ----- BODY: Thoughts on the finalé of Big Brother UK:

Unfortunately, although the logic seems relatively clear to me at the moment, that could be because I thought that Anna was basically decent, normal, nice, fun and pleasant, while Craig had the wit and charm of a potato.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sorry, old chap, but aibophphobia STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 02:12:15 AM ----- BODY: Sorry, old chap, but aibophphobia isn't a palindrome...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank God: Taking advantage of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 02:21:29 AM ----- BODY: Thank God:

Taking advantage of my absence, timeout.com launches the London Shopping Guide. Also launched is the redesigned homepage and Travel, London, London Tickets, Shop sections. I've had a lot of involvement in this stuff - and I've really enjoyed working on it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Christ. I've started waking up STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 12:16:04 PM ----- BODY: Christ. I've started waking up at around midday. I don't own an alarm clock because I just don't normally need one, but the prospect of automatically waking up at 9am at the moment to get to work (on Wednesday) is seeming increasingly remote.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big Brother UK: Two slightly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 12:19:46 PM ----- BODY: Big Brother UK:

Two slightly alarming new stories from the BBC: Big Brother climax watched by 10 million and Big Brother set to return.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Momblog goes to Confession. My STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 12:27:22 PM ----- BODY: Momblog goes to Confession. My confession? I found her story hysterical. Here's a couple of quotes:

"Now, as every good catholic knows, confession is something to be avoided at all costs. Never do you willingly go to confession, even if it means that the biggest sin you have to confess when you finally do end up "confessing" is that "it has been 25 years since my last confession."

I was trapped! I was sitting in the middle of the pew. I would have to trip over Adam, Anna, Mark, and my mother if I tried to escape from my seat. Besides, what kind of an example would I make for the kids if I wimped out? What believable excuse could I give them for my mad dash to the door? Okay. Trapped!"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On [NEW SEX TOY] Acknowledged STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 12:37:22 PM ----- BODY: On [NEW SEX TOY] ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy is still in America. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2000 09:30:25 PM ----- BODY: Katy is still in America. Intelligent girl that she is, she has already been and seen five movies. Lucky kitsch... [Q: What did Katy see in America? A: High Fidelity, Keeping the Faith, Bring It On, Saving Grace and Whipped]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's nearly midnight, and I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2000 11:48:33 PM ----- BODY: It's nearly midnight, and I have only one remaining day of holiday. It's like some kind of torture, if you ask me. I've just got used to being relaxed and being able to fill up my day with whatever the hell I like (if only that didn't involve quite so much day-time television), and now I've got to get ready to go back to work.

I'm kind of dreading it, for a variety of reasons. I've had some very sensible conversations with people during the last couple of weeks, and I'm feeling suddenly very professional - but with this professionalism comes a certain amount of resignation and a slightly jaded feeling that I didn't expect.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Notable plasticbag.org clichÈs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2000 11:54:00 PM ----- BODY:

Actors get stale after a while because they start to parody themselves. This is a truism of Hollywood. Notable examples of tics / clichés that actors have been forced to overcome by directors include Bruce Willis being told not to act so Bruce Willisy in Twelve Monkeys, and George Clooney being asked not to drop his head and look up at people from under his eyebrows.

Notable plasticbag.org clichés:

So if you've noticed any more - drop me an e-mail...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bizarre competition: Unscramble these numbers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2000 12:05:43 AM ----- BODY: Bizarre competition: Unscramble these numbers to discover the fax number of a famous American actress (seriously):
0 1 2 2 3 4 5 5 7 8
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I bought the new STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2000 12:41:39 AM ----- BODY: So I bought the new Madonna album today, which as usual threw me into the existential horror of trying to work out exactly how gay that makes me.

I went through a really unexamined period about a thousand years ago when I was quite heavily dosed up with 'la vie homosexuelle' (it was the cheery-pills - what can I say). I've since managed to innoculate myself against most of its excesses (while becoming addicted to a few others in the process), and my resistance to gay music taste (in both senses of the word gay) is now quite strong. But old Madge managed to break through with the last album, and now I have succumbed once more. If I wake up in the night in a cold sweat aching for A1's version of "Take On Me", then I'll know that things have finally gone too far...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Praise the Lord. One of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2000 04:24:26 PM ----- BODY: Praise the Lord. One of the few irritating aspects of owning a Mac is finally resolved. All praise the almighty upcoming presence of Mac OS X: [MacWEEK: Application unexpectedly quit]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You'd be surprised how many STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2000 04:42:54 PM ----- BODY: You'd be surprised how many of my female friends get into a strop when I try to argue (completely without foundation until today) this point: "Women are promiscuous, naturally".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now that plasticbag.org has been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2000 04:55:38 PM ----- BODY: Now that plasticbag.org has been up for a while, I'd like to get some honest opinions about the design of the site. Please humour me on this one by taking part in this poll: "Do you like the design of plasticbag.org?". If you have any specific comments to make, then e-mail me on tom%40plasticbag.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out's new Shopping Site STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/20/2000 03:12:48 PM ----- BODY: Time Out's new Shopping Site is written up in the Media Guardian. A few interesting / weird quotes, particularly this one with it's rather suspicious nature:

"The site claims to receive more than 3m page impressions per month with 180,000 unique users." (My emphasis)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Eighteen Hours of Horror: 2 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2000 08:41:37 PM ----- BODY: Eighteen Hours of Horror: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank god, today I feel STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2000 03:28:25 PM ----- BODY: Thank god, today I feel almost human, and have returned to work. The rest of yesterday passed in a bit of a blur. I vaguely remember my flatmates wandering into my bedroom and checking their e-mail on my computer. And I vaguely remember playing The Sims for a while. And listening to music. But what I remember most is sleeping and having a couple of really bizarre dreams involving ex-lovers, ex-love interests, bunk beds and huge distended jointed genitals with hands on the end. My mind, on occasion, worries me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What Blogstart really needs to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2000 03:38:03 PM ----- BODY: What Blogstart really needs to do in order to be a useful directory, is to ask a series of questions categorising the site over several trajectories. If the submission page was organised so that you were asked to specify an age range and a location and a type of log (personal, commentary, links, links and commentary etc) anda type of subject (mixed, film, news etc) plus things like gender, sexual preference etc etc. [With the proviso of course that you can leave any section blank], then the one-by-one category search could be replaced by more specific searches - ie. I really want to find a London-based, gay male weblogger who has some personal content on his site etc.etc.

This is probably the direction in which the site is developing anyway, but it bears comment, I think.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting article on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2000 03:44:40 PM ----- BODY: An interesting article on the BBC discusses the future of the Big Brother contestants [Big Brother stars face the future]. There are a couple of particularly choice suggestions:

"Speculation that [Darren] will soon be back on TV screens as frontman to an advertising campaign for instant chicken sauce Chicken Tonight - for a six-figure sum - should come as no surprise."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A vaguely amusing joke sent STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2000 05:56:18 PM ----- BODY: A vaguely amusing joke sent to me via e-mail
London (Reuters) 09:00 22 September

A group of militant alcoholics have blockaded a brewery in Sheffield, England in protest at the exorbitant tax imposed on booze in the United Kingdom, Government officials said today.

Fears have been growing that the protests will spread country wide and some panic drinking has been reported. The protestors have demanded that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair meets the group "If he thinks he's hard enough" and are said to be concerned that he may be looking at their "birds".

Official advice from the national beer watchdog CAMRA, is to ensure that everyone drinks enough beer this evening to keep them p***ed through to the weekend. The Government, however, advises that national stocks are reserved for emergencies. The Leader of the Opposition, William Hague, was quoted this morning as saying "F*** that, I'm off to the pub".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yes, I suppose you are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/24/2000 08:30:03 PM ----- BODY: Yes, I suppose you are quite right. I am indeed looking for a blog personal ad:
"Interminably single London poof (28, 5'10") looking for interesting weblogs to read: preferably UK, intelligent, comment and links with some personal content prefered. No scat."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anyone who reads Warren Ellis' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/24/2000 11:55:03 PM ----- BODY: Anyone who reads Warren Ellis' Planetary series is, at the moment, overwhelmed by the need to see the current storyline come to some kind of resolution. I've found a couple of odds and ends of new that might help stir up even more excitement (over at John Cassaday's site), including details on the next two issues of the series, the Planetary / Batman cover and a detailed cover grab of issue 13.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I went into Sainsbury's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2000 03:18:03 PM ----- BODY: So I went into Sainsbury's on Tottenham Court Road to get myself a doughnut. Except they didn't have any - they only had donuts.

British and American variants on the confection are both spelt different and taste different, with American types being more imaginative, but tasting more processed than their rather less adventurous (but more wholesome) English variants. The latter are uniform in shape and come in frosted varieties with innumerable toppings and different fillings. The English equivalents are doughy, are either ringed or filled with jam (US: "jelly), and come dusted with caster sugar.

I wouldn't mind this change of sugary goodness if it were not for another change. The sweets in question are now supplied and branded as part of a large American corporation. The traditional English doughnut has been edged out of the Supermarket, to be replaced by what would be termed by the less charitable as its increasingly ubiquitous glossy bastardisation.

Global homogenisation steps itself up one more notch. All we can hope for now is that a future multi-national might decide to rebrand the English Doughnut and relaunch it, repackaged and labelled as a novelty or speciality good. Even food is now a theme-park.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 8pm and I'm still at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2000 08:10:34 PM ----- BODY: 8pm and I'm still at work - pondering life and trying to think through stuff that needs to be thought through. I should probably go and see a film or something - try and clear my head of all the crap that has infested it again.

I went to Bristol on the weekend and I don't think I have been so relaxed in months. London is a bit of a killer sometimes - it's like it just doesn't know when to let up. Bristol was open and lovely and clear and it made me feel ... satisfyingly empty, I guess.

I stayed with Rachel in Cliftonwood, overlooking Hotwells, and on Saturday (after a leisurely morning) Pippa and Chris arrived as well. We went out for a lovely lunch with too many cocktails at a place called SevernShed overlooking the river. And we went out for another meal in the evening. It felt like such a complete abandonment of everything that has been getting me down. I loved it.

On Sunday we all met up with Rhys and went for a rather unsatisfying Sunday Roast. But the company was excellent and the environment was pleasant enough. It made me really think about what I'm doing in London and whether it is the city for me. It's like the size is right but the atmosphere isn't. I need a little more peace. After all, it only took me two days to feel tense again...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the spirit of culture STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2000 02:56:41 PM ----- BODY: In the spirit of culture jamming, I saw a t-shirt today when walking through London that was plain white on black and read: "fuck fcuk". Bravo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Important questions in need of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2000 06:27:29 PM ----- BODY: Important questions in need of answers:

Nasal Hair Dye
Ok - this could have been a put on, but I met someone at a party last night who swore you could buy nasal hair dye that made extraneous strands less visible without the continual need to insert sharp things up your nostrils. Is this true?
Which is the best drunken board game?
So, you've been out drinking, right, and you've come home to play board games with your other drunk friends, but you can't play Articulate, because -well-it's a bit hard really, and Monoploy just takes too long, and you're going to flake out in about an hour and you REALLY don't have enough time or energy to set up Mousetrap. What is the best board game for this time of night?
Lambchop sideburns: yes or no?
Come on, ladies. Tell us lads what you think...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Should I go down the pub or not? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2000 06:29:57 PM ----- BODY:

It's got to a fairly sorry state of affairs when I seriously consider putting up a poll on my site to see if I should go down the pub or not.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future is intelligent slime... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/28/2000 04:38:59 PM ----- BODY:

The wave of the future is ... wait for it ... intelligent slime. That would explain the state of the New Media industry at the moment...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Complete Human Genome on CD... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 09/28/2000 04:56:57 PM ----- BODY:

I went to a meeting today with some people who work at Prospect magazine, which markets itself as "the magazine for the intellectually curious general reader". I wasn't familiar with the publication before the meeting.

I pick up a copy of the magazine and there's a CD attached to the front, which I glance at briefly. And then I do a comedy double-take. The CD has written on it in large blue letters on a silver background:

"The Complete Human Genome On CD"

I stood there in some kind of dumbfounded silence for a few seconds, looking at this astonishing declaration with a mixture of feelings.

First came the awe at being in the presence of such an astonishing accomplishment - the same awe I would have felt the CD had contained every book ever written in English.

Then came a certain amount of fascination, and a kind of utopian wonder at the accomplishments of humanity.

And then came a bizarre feeling of betrayal and disgust that I was really not expecting. The same space used by magazines for distributing computer game demos, dodgy shareware programs that crash your computer, picture libraries of animals running or sitting or eating each other - this pure commercial space designed to flog both magazine and product - was now being used to contain an artefact with almost arcane power as if it were the toy in a Happy Meal.

Whether they know it or not, it seems like evidence of the increasing commercialisation of our lives - the ever present opportunity to repackage, rebrand or market anything and everything as a means to the tripartite commerical gods: "Sales", "Sales" and "Sales". Something important has been broken.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bad news for Apple sends STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2000 09:32:04 AM ----- BODY: Bad news for Apple sends the stock price falling. And unlike every other computer company in the world, what's bad news for Apple is bad news for Apple users, as quite a lot of the company's ability to stay afloat has been the absolute refusal of most of their consumers to realise the obvious, give up, and bow and scrape to the altar of Gates. As an Apple user myself, I know this to be true...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Perhaps the answer for poor STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2000 09:38:25 AM ----- BODY: Perhaps the answer for poor beleaguered Apple is to sign the petition to start making OS X on Intel. If it wasn't for my suspicion that Microsoft might start withdrawing the use of packages like Office and Explorer, I'd support it whole-heartedly...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh my dismal fall from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2000 01:05:06 PM ----- BODY: Oh my dismal fall from grace. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to reintroduce the counter-cultural spin to plasticbag.org - a trend I hope to continue. But I have hit a "speed bump".

Yesterday I got a text message from Mella. It told me not to go near HMV, that they were evil and that they had caused (with their sale) her immediate bankrupcy.

"Pshaw!" I thought to myself, "I am not as weak willed as this foolish girl! I can resist these corporate temptations." Forty-five minutes (and fifty-eight pounds ($85) later), I was forced to confess myself unequivocally their consumer bitch. I was about ten minutes away from begging to give them more money. [You only have to look at the Consumption panel to the left to realise the extent of my horror.]

Kate found it all funny when we got back home. But she didn't find it so funny this morning, when she reported the "accidental purchase" of six videos...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Freedom of Unspeech... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2000 01:07:12 PM ----- BODY: It's a new politics for a new era. Visit Not a Protest today:

"The First Amendment guarantees Freedom of Speech, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Go on, you sexy sexy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2000 03:42:55 PM ----- BODY: Go on, you sexy sexy people. Go and rate plasticbag.org over at blogstart. You know you want to.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dan Hon, ex of Daily-Doozer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2000 03:49:17 PM ----- BODY: Dan Hon, ex of Daily-Doozer has relaunched as Extenuating Circumstances. I said a while back that I'd design a site for him, but now I'm a bit torn - I mean, it's not like his new design isn't pretty bloody cool. But I did promise at the same time, and I don't want him to feel obliged to use it if it's not as good.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dark times are coming. The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2000 12:45:29 PM ----- BODY: Dark times are coming. The end is nigh. If only they'd heeded the warnings of their peers. Fellow sufferers of the HMV sale, I salute thee: monger.co.uk, not so soft, lukelog.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's pet obsession is the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2000 01:25:27 PM ----- BODY: Today's pet obsession is the Beatles' song "A Day In the Life", which has become some kind of vast uber-meme in my head, munching its way - in a cheerful fashion - through every other thought I might attempt to have.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting new way of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2000 01:49:55 PM ----- BODY: An interesting new way of rating weblogs manifests itself over at Bloghop's Ratings. Great - just what I need. Beebo finally collapses and immediately there is something else to get obsessed about...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Monday evening: 6.13pm - Week STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2000 06:11:02 PM ----- BODY: Monday evening: 6.13pm - Week proceeding according to plan. No major fuck-ups yet. No storming arguments with people. No gut-wrenching horrors creeping up from behind. Remain calm, gentlemen, we're going in...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I won a tenner on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2000 06:25:03 PM ----- BODY: I won a tenner on the lottery today. I'm thinking I should buy the new Radiohead album with it. Unfortunately, I keep reading these weird reviews which say it's like progressive jazz, which doesn't really appeal. No one has given it a good review. No one at all.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Did anyone notice the radical STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2000 06:28:07 PM ----- BODY: Did anyone notice the radical change in the template for this page that occurred a couple of days ago? The whole thing is done completely differently now. I bet no one noticed. That's bloody typical, that is.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I saw a t-shirt today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2000 06:29:30 PM ----- BODY: I saw a t-shirt today which read the.internet.is.shit.cc, and for a moment, I was strangely elated.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night, Kate and Mella STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2000 09:48:27 AM ----- BODY: Last night, Kate and Mella and I sat up for hours working out the plot for a low-budget horror movie. Kate says if she makes it, we can have credits. Possible credits: Best Boy, Catering...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just been reading an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2000 02:36:55 PM ----- BODY: I've just been reading an article on a new fair trade chocolate bar that has been launched in the UK [Time Out : Shopping Guide]. All was well and good until I came up against this line:

"Hundreds of schools across the country have been involved in helping to design, taste test and name the new milk chocolate bar, Dubble, which at 35p is around half the price of other fair trade brands."
I was suddenly horrified by this, as it reminded me of something I saw in No Logo - my current political bible:
"In the eyes of the brand managers, every lunchroom and classroom is a focus group waiting to be focused. So getting access to schools means more than just hawking product - it's a bona fide, bargain-basement cool-hunting opportunity ...

Perhaps the most infamous of these experiments occurred in 1998, when Coca-Cola ran a competition asking several schools to come up with a strategy for distributing Coke coupons to students. The school that devised the best promotional strategy would win $500. Greenbriar High School in Evans, Georgia, took the contest extremely seriously, calling an official Coke Day in late March during which all students came to school in Coca-Cola T-shirts, posed for a photograph in a formation spelling Coke, attended lectures given by Coca-Cola executives and learning about all things black and bubbly in their classes. It was a little piece of branding heaven until it came to the principal's attention that in an act of hideous defiance, one Mike Cameron, a nineteen-year-old senior, had come to school wearing a T-shirt with a Pepsi logo. He was promptly suspended for the offense."
I don't know about the rest of you, but I honestly belief that marketing and focus-groups should be kept well away from schools - whether or not the product that is sold is environmentally friendly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I take it all back. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2000 02:44:05 PM ----- BODY: I take it all back. Someone has indeed given the new Radiohead album a good review. In fact it's a ridiculously good review. Pointlessly so, perhaps. Somehow I don't think I'll be taking its opinion too seriously. [Thanks to Blue Lines]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Intelligent comments from Derek Powazek, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2000 02:59:27 PM ----- BODY: Intelligent comments from Derek Powazek, that I try to follow, but suffer frequent lapses:

"My advice to anyone running a personal website:
Put your head down and don't listen to anything anyone says about it. Ignore any dire pronouncements that include the words "genre," "medium," or "revolution." Avoid referer logs, popularity rankings, and vanity searches at all costs."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OK: So I've bought the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2000 03:44:00 PM ----- BODY: OK: So I've bought the new Radiohead album finally, and I will have things to say about it over the next few days. In the meantime, the most interesting thing about it, as far as I'm concerned, is a little piece of text hidden in the credits which reads:
"The font we wrote the world 'Radiohead' in is made by B½ro Destruct, Berne, Switzerland."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In complete defiance to the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2000 09:34:02 AM ----- BODY: In complete defiance to the wise words of Mr P yesterday - I have added a little Bloghop ratings widget on the left. It's more of an experiment than anything else. [idea from notsosoft]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An extraordinarily savage and funny STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2000 09:45:10 AM ----- BODY: An extraordinarily savage and funny article in The Onion reads:

"Thus far, Benson has picked up several new skills outside of the bounds of his job description, teaching himself how to change toner cartridges, un-jam paper trays and replace the jugs on the office water cooler. He has sent out five separate intraoffice memos offering tips on how things could be done more efficiently, and has even brought homemade cookies for "the whole staff."

"He should get cancer," said Janice Mulroney, who two years ago, in recognition of her 20th anniversary with Williams & Broderick, received a gift certificate good for dinner for two at a local Red Lobster. "Every day I curse this hellhole." "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anagram of Thomas Coates: Tea STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2000 03:26:42 PM ----- BODY: Anagram of Thomas Coates: Tea Hat Cosmos. Thanks to Meg for that one...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am 69% geek. Most STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2000 03:44:53 PM ----- BODY: I am 69% geek. Most people who took the test were 66% geek. Interesting geek statistics from the 281 tests taken so far:

Addendum: How can I legitimately choose between Philippa Forrester and Britney Spears? Geek quizzes are hetero-orthodox, patriarchy-enforcing and blatent sexist / homodenialist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The redesign at Netscape.com - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/05/2000 02:35:49 PM ----- BODY: The redesign at Netscape.com - designed to make the site look much like the soon-to-be-finally-released new browser - is, I fear, quite bad.

You can see that they sat down initially and thought, "Let's make this simple, elegant and powerful", and then somewhere along the way the simplicity was drowned in poorly laid out information, while the elegance started to look less like graphic-design restraint, and more ... well, dull. I've only heard, so I couldn't say for certain - but it looks like pretty much the same process has taken place in the development of the browser.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lunchtime quiz at work: "Are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/05/2000 02:46:06 PM ----- BODY: Lunchtime quiz at work: "Are you a Fab Four fanatic?" produced these results:

Only one result left to come...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lindemann occupies Guardian mindspace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/05/2000 04:07:40 PM ----- BODY:

Good god, that hag has gone and done it again! This time she's mentioned in an article on the Guardian's website: ["It's as easy as falling off a weblog"] and in a one-and-a-half page spread in the Online supplement - complete with screenshot. Lots of people are mentioned. I'll get it scanned in and up on the site as soon as I can.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark's redesigning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2000 11:09:47 AM ----- BODY:

Mark's done a redesign, which is nice (very nice in fact), although it includes a picture of him that makes him look about as camp as a pink feather boa. Which is amusing. Make your mind up for yourself, over at riothero.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cloning Asian Guars... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2000 11:18:44 AM ----- BODY:

The BBC reports today that there are reports from the United States that scientists have started to clone endangered species. Weirdly, the animal they decided to experiment with was an Asian guar, which they have named (rather entertainingly) as "Noah". All this is well and good (although I must confess slightly bizarre), but their next project has thrown up some interesting (and amusing) problems. I quote directly from the article: [Endangered species cloned]

"The paper says the same team, from biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Massachusetts, is already considering cloning giant pandas.

The closest related species to giant pandas are rabbits and racoons but neither are ideal as potential surrogate mothers because of their size. "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Web dull, but still essential... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2000 11:26:25 AM ----- BODY:

Another really brief snippet from BBC News: "Web is 'not quite as dull' as the Dome":

"The majority of those surveyed, 62%, thought that the phrase dot.com was wearing thin and even more, 66%, did not want to hear any more stories about 20-something millionaires who have made their money with the web.

But the boredom was not due to lack of interest. Over 77% of those questioned said they could not live without it.

"For many people the internet has become indispensable, it's as much a part of everyday life as the telephone, television and video," said an MSN spokeswoman, "It's no wonder people are bored with hype around the internet - you wouldn't want to talk about your vacuum cleaner in the pub." "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to a party STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2000 11:33:32 AM ----- BODY: I went to a party last night at the Beaux Arts building just off the Holloway Road. Nick, Fenner & Emma, Toby & Jelske were there, as were Larry and Peter - with whom I had a bit of a thing a while back.

For various reasons that came to nothing at the time, and I haven't had any contact with him since, despite making the odd move in his direction (e-mails, party invitations and the like). Unfortunately, according to him, he didn't receive any of these missives. Which might have explained his coolness towards me all evening. I wouldn't have gone if I'd thought I wasn't welcome. I even checked beforehand. Very frustrating.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Joanna Lumley - goddess of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2000 02:20:34 PM ----- BODY: Joanna Lumley - goddess of the New Avengers, star of innumerable sub-par movies and chain-smoking high-class drunk skank of Absolutely Fabulous used to be heavily involved in a site called clickmango.com - a kind of semi-alternative health and beauty site. Unfortunately, earlier this year, said site closed its doors, proving the long-suspected fact that celebrity endorsement does not guarantee the success of any e-commerce venture.

But at least she kept her sense of humour. In a statement posted at the site's "We're closed" page, Joanna presents the eager public with what must be one of the most bizarre and humourous PR statements ever. Next to a picture in which Joanna is vigourously rubbing herself with a large fruit, she declares:

"Heigh ho! It happens all the time in the theatre world. The dressing room, now filled with first night cards, pictures of the family and your familiar costumes, is soon bare, awaiting its new occupant - the playbills outside are torn down, scenery stored, programmes pulped and the theatre goes dark. But what fun! And what a fantastic time we had!"
[Joanna Lumley says farewell from Clickmango.com]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is about 40% bollocks STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2000 02:26:56 PM ----- BODY: This is about 40% bollocks [Personality Test]:
"Like just 4% of the population you are an ARTIST (DIAF)--creative, adventurous, and deep. Although you are an introvert, your dominant ideas lead you to assert yourself often--especially through your work. You actively put your creativity to constructive use, and because you are ruled by your heart you are less likely to be inhibited by logic. "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Someone sent me this today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2000 11:45:06 PM ----- BODY: Someone sent me this today - [Animated Wish]. I suspect it might be some kind of sick joke. Something that isn't a sick joke (nice segueway there, Tom): Weblogs.com redesigns its arse off.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could everyone who knows me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2000 11:51:30 PM ----- BODY: Could everyone who knows me who reads this damn pile of crap click here and send me a quick e-mail. Doesn't matter what relationship you might have with me, whether it be work, friendship, if I've met you once in a pub or if we did something that my mother wouldn't approve of. I'm just bizarrely interested. People who don't play will be hunted down and shot.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In order to counter the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2000 02:11:30 AM ----- BODY: In order to counter the encroaching tedium, I have decided to pretend that Max has turned up in my life again by dropping me an e-mail after four months. I figure this interesting twist will re-intrigue many of my older and more established readers. Spread the word.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On blasphemy and atheism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2000 01:38:58 PM ----- BODY:

Blasphemy. It's a funny matter. I'm an atheist. Have been since I was about thirteen. It was brought into major definition for me when my brother was born. I adore my brother - I always have - so don't think I treated his appearance into the world as a clear sign of the non-existence of god. Because that just wouldn't be true.

What really made me think about it was when he was Christened. I had never been Christened - my parents just hadn't thought about it. It seemed to them like a strange thing to do, particularly as my mother was (at best) agnostic. But when my brother was Christened, there was a lot of pressure in my family for me to become the indentured bitch of the almighty alongside him. I was really quite resistant and I couldn't figure out why. I sat down and I thought about my thoughts on god carefully and reasonably, and came to the conclusion that I didn't believe in god at all. Not even a little bit.

I had to be Christened in the end. And a strange affair it was indeed. I've never been really very comfortable with it, and slightly resent being forced to do it, although I don't blame my parents at all.

All of this, by the way, is by way of an extended excuse to link to Jesus Dress Up! - which is clearly blasphemous and entertaining and a bit dodgy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick question for you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2000 02:52:03 PM ----- BODY: A quick question for you all. What kind of person does this for fun and profit?
"Cockell and his colleagues put about a dozen different species of insects, including roaches and ants, in a large vacuum box and sucked the air out."
Find out at Wired.com...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I need to build something STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2000 10:02:24 PM ----- BODY: I need to build something really badly. Or destroy something. I need to effect change. I want some help. And I want to help everyone else. I have a fire within me today - a tremendous intellectual, emotional, political, passionate fire that has crept up on me during the day, and I want the fire to spread. I want it to spark and catch each and every person who reads this. I want it to creep into your heads and generate energy and light up some dark musty parts of your head. Throw the doors and the windows open. It's time to remake the world.

I want everything to be in a perpetual whirl. I want the world to speed up. I want sex and drugs and love and death and energy and music and anger and passion and everything I've seen in the movies. And I want you all to have it too. I want desire and fantasy to spiral around and overwhelm the world, crush all opposition and bring a little non-corporately sponsored wonder into everything again. We deserve more magic than we have. We all deserve the world. Who's for freedom?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I picked up my tickets STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/13/2000 01:38:15 PM ----- BODY: I picked up my tickets for New York this morning. Everyone from Time Out who started at the company before January has been invited to the fifth birthday party of Time Out New York, to be held next Friday.

We come in as normal on Thursday morning, do a bit of work, have a bit of lunch, go to the airport, hop on a plane, and then mooch around drinking, buying and sleeping with stuff until first thing on Sunday morning, when we grudgingly reboard our huge plane and fly homewards - to return to work on Monday morning "fresh", "invigorated" and not at all exhausted and hungover. I'm trying to work out how many movies I can fit in if I don't sleep at all.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went out last night STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/14/2000 05:07:02 PM ----- BODY: I went out last night and behaved like a complete arse. What can I say?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My washing machine has broken. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2000 11:07:01 AM ----- BODY: My washing machine has broken. It has within it a large proportion of my wearable clothes. Except actually my washing machine broke on Wednesday, and our maintenance company hasn't managed to get around here yet, and we can't get the clothes out. We drained most of the water out yesterday, and those members of my flat who can smell practically collapsed immediately. I will have stinky clothes. Evil stinky clothes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Bloghop... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2000 11:12:12 AM ----- BODY: Just a reminder, in case anyone wasn't aware - that the bloghop ratings thing on the left works on the principle that green is good and red is bad. So let's just try that again, eh? Rate me: the best pretty good okay pretty bad the worst. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I should probably apologise to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2000 11:20:57 AM ----- BODY: I should probably apologise to my audience at large for being in a foul mood recently. There's been a hell of a lot of weird shit going on in my life that I can't really talk about in a public forum like this (at least not yet). Amongst these things has been innumerable work weirdnesses, arguments with friends, a bout of insomnia, money worries and the reappearances of ex-es (both major and minor).

And since most of these things are taking up most of my waking thoughts, it can make it quite difficult on occasion to think of anything to write - particularly anything that isn't the direct product of adrenalin, hormones or caffeine.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Person that I wasn't expecting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2000 11:26:42 AM ----- BODY: Person that I wasn't expecting to think is attractive: Breckin Meyer. Films that Breckin Meyer has been in include: Roadtrip, Clueless and Go.

I was in a bar called Escape last night (after Mel's birthday party) and a video for some wonderful old disco classic came up. The video was made up of excerpts from 54, which of course stars the inimitable Ryan Philippe of "I wish I looked like Ryan Phillippe" infamy. The film's full of half-naked men, and one of them was Breckin Meyer. Eyebrows over forehead in surprise. Time to go rent it, I think.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Person I should talk about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2000 11:29:42 AM ----- BODY: Person I should talk about more often: Katy Darby.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Text message sent: "If you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2000 11:36:33 AM ----- BODY: Text message sent:

"If you don't reply to my e-mail I will mulch your pets."
Text message received:
"Oi -- keep your hands off my doggie!"
However, no e-mail as yet received. Perhaps he didn't think I was serious. (eyebrow slowly arches)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Seti@Home was a wonderful idea STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2000 09:21:43 AM ----- BODY: Seti@Home was a wonderful idea - a chance for thousands - maybe millions - of people to participate in the search for alien intelligence. What a cause to fire the imagination! THe principle was simple too. Thousands of thousands of computers can work their way through computer files much much faster than one really large one - hence members of the public take on the job of processing odds and ends of data in their computer down-times.

Fight AIDS @ Home would initially look like a similarly wonderful idea. Using the same basic concept as Seti@Home, almost infinite amounts of different drug designs can be tested over hundreds or thousands of computers. Except there is one crucial difference. This one isn't done for the good of humanity - it's done for the good of Entropia. They even go so far as to state:

Entropia is a for-profit corporation. In our view, profit is as necessary as oxygen for longevity; while oxygen is essential for life, it is not the purpose of living. Likewise, Entropia's Internet computing service represents "profit with a purpose." Some of the time, Entropia's software will be running commercial tasks on your computer.
A few comments: This is a tremendously powerful model for enhancing research, and I suspect one we will see a great deal more of over the next few years. You could contribute to the curing of huge social ills simply by allowing people to invisibly use your computer when you are not. But let us wait until the model is taken up by the not-for-profit institutions - because we should all contribute to a better world, but there's no reason to make some multi-national even more absurdly rich in the process.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever will Tom say next? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2000 12:39:01 PM ----- BODY: Whatever will Tom say next?

53 ) "A gottle of geer " said Tom badly
32 ) "My hair's all gone " said Tom baldly
196 ) "I've chucked most of the water overboard " said Tom balefully
236 ) "You need to hammer it completely flat, like this " said Tom bashfully
231 ) "10 PRINT 'HELLO WORLD' : GOTO 10 " said Tom basically
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Teen Angst Moment: I think STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2000 05:38:03 PM ----- BODY: Teen Angst Moment: I think the hot bloke in advertising thinks I'm stalking him.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Text Message Theatre (Inbox): Want STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2000 06:19:07 PM ----- BODY: Text Message Theatre (Inbox):

Text Message Theatre (Outbox): [All messages copied verbatim from Nokia mobile phone]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a great scene in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2000 10:00:41 PM ----- BODY: There's a great scene in Grosse Pointe Blank involving a confrontation between ex-lovers who have recently been reacquainted. The scene takes the form of a radio phone-in show, where members of the public have their say on what they perceive to be going on. What would you have said?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Text Message Theatre (Inbox) II: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2000 09:28:16 AM ----- BODY: Text Message Theatre (Inbox) II:

[All messages copied verbatim from Nokia mobile phone]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I my life I have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2000 09:29:53 AM ----- BODY: I my life I have met approximately five German people, or people of German descent. They have been Andreas, Evil Michael, Astrid, Other Astrid and Max. Out of these five, approximately four of them have turned out to be gay. My deduction? 80% of German people are gay.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yeah, yeah, Meg, I see STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2000 11:32:15 AM ----- BODY: Yeah, yeah, Meg, I see you too. She's such a smart-arse sometimes...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Internet Movie Database is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2000 12:01:31 AM ----- BODY: The Internet Movie Database is Ten today! I think I first saw it in about 1994, because I remember all these designs: 1998 (1), 1998 (2) and 1996.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from a Subterranean Journal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2000 12:21:57 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from a Subterranean Journal:

It's midnight and I'm preparing for bed. Priorities for next 24 hours: meet Frank (place / time / appropriate dress as yet unknown), recover from cold (and thus preserve world tissue paper supply), buy shoelaces, recover from cold, recover from cold, recover from cold, recover from cold.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Magnified Despotism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2000 11:32:28 AM ----- BODY:

I couldn't agree more:[ from "Lacking in emotional content"]

"It makes sense that in a world that doesn't support creative and caring environments, there are often more glamorous, albeit unhealthy behaviors. Rather than refocusing the extreme behavior into healthier modes of expression, the kids are forced into a magnified example of our despotic culture."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm off to New York! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/19/2000 09:13:09 AM ----- BODY:

I'm off to New York this afternoon. How cool is that? I'll be in the Big Apple by 9.30 this evening.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just one last thing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/19/2000 10:29:19 AM ----- BODY:

One last thing before I duck off to pastures new for the weekend - not so soft has redesigned. And since we like her, and we like it, I thought I should tell you to go there now.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why Bother? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/19/2000 01:13:48 PM ----- BODY:

Infinite Monkeys. Really. Why bother?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On minging Mark... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2000 11:36:29 PM ----- BODY:

Mark is a minging wanker.

"i was thinking how fun it'd be to tell you about my night in british slang, but then i remembered... if i wanted to do that, i'd just have Tom type something up for me."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Immediate response to a bizarre weekend in New York... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2000 11:44:42 PM ----- BODY:

Fuck me. Back in London. What a bizarre weekend. It's really late, and I'm completely exhausted, so I'm not going to go into too many details, except to say that I've had very little sleep (for various reasons), spent a hell of a lot of money and really need to go to bed now. A couple of very brief asides to people around the place:

So much more to say. Not sure I can be bothered.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Feel like crap and seem STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2000 02:00:30 AM ----- BODY: Feel like crap and seem to be still coughing up nice chunky green blobs of goo. Had this bloody cold all weekend, but kept it at bay by taking vast amounts of day nurse. Since I got back, I thought it was probably best to let the damn thing run its course (I mean I've had it for a week now and it doesn't seem to be getting any better). So I feel like crap. I must look like some haggard mid-50's bachelor uncle.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2000 02:15:23 AM ----- BODY: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary:

You know those horror /slasher movies which are really exciting but relentless and exhausting? The ones where the monster just keeps coming back again and again? The ones where there are many fake resolutions before the final one actually comes around? The ones that even then spawn endless sequels, each of which is slightly more implausible? I bloody love those films.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's Teenage Diary, Monday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2000 02:39:22 AM ----- BODY: Tom's Teenage Diary, Monday May 6th 1991

On plane to NYC now, and it's about 3.15 GMT. The music on these aero-headphones is bearable (even a bit of TT), but has already repeated itself three times. Plane left Amsterdam late due to one engine having difficulties. Would be OK except the lights and power kept going off.

When I arrive in New York I shall have the honour of being confronted by people demanding to know why I want to go there. From what I've heard of NYC, this is a very good question.

I'm not entirely sure that Americans are all that sympathetic to holiday-makers, especially those with no fixed abode once they reach said country. However, I have all the bumph, so I shouldn't have much of a problem (I hope).

This bald guy in front keeps sticking his chair at me. GRRRRRR...

Whoah! Having my first cab-ride with this amazing guy who I can hardly understand. It's grey and damp, but not actually raining. It's quite humid as well. Everytime the car moves suddenly, like, the "gas" (getting into the terminology) sloshes around like hell. First impressions of the USA: Not as bad as I thought! There is a lot of NY that looks like the place was constructed on a rubbish dump. It looks (in places) like all those films of post-"bomb" looting and riots. There is greyness and thousands of cars, barbed wire and dirt, but also a great feeling of vitality and passion.

Whether this guy is actually taking me to the Carlton remains to be seen.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's most ridiculously obscure waste STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2000 01:31:55 PM ----- BODY: Today's most ridiculously obscure waste of column inches comes from Wired News, who have written a three page article on how they've decided to change their style sheet so that what was "email" is now "e-mail". Honestly - I'm a journalist, and I don't even give a damn about that one...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Downside's Deathwatch is a cash-flow STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2000 01:47:16 PM ----- BODY: Downside's Deathwatch is a cash-flow analysis. The death date is simply the day the company will run out of cash, based on their reported liquid assets and loss rate. When the cash runs out, something bad for stockholders has to happen. [Downside's Deathwatch | via Metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grant launches own website... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2000 06:46:37 PM ----- BODY:

The coolest guy in the world, without any exceptions, is Grant Morrison. He's just launched his own site, which is extremely informative. Best part of it - the series of photos of Grant with hair: Early Crazy Hair and Later Crazy Hair being particular favourites.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Other people who care about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2000 09:55:19 AM ----- BODY: Other people who care about Grant Morrison are: Not Enough of Me, Blue Dog, Corn and Death, St Seb, sourground.co.uk, linkmachinego.com, Complete Toss, Pig Inc, Disconnected Zeitgeist, Ghost in the Machine, Cuckoo Kid, Blue Lines, Lacking in Emotional Content, Underbaal.

[In order to promote his cause world-wide, anyone who links to his site will get a mention from me. Just drop me a note and tell me you've done it.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just a bit of clarification STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2000 09:57:57 AM ----- BODY: Just a bit of clarification for those of you who have been confused. The thing I wrote yesterday about New York really is from my teenage diary of 1991, which I am planning to start running in concert with my new ramblings. I'll let you know all about what I did in NY properly as soon as I get a good half an hour to myself in which I'm not working or retching.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: // SECTION ERASED BECAUSE I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2000 12:23:46 PM ----- BODY: // SECTION ERASED BECAUSE I COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT //
Apologies to TECHNORGANIC , which is a very elegant and well designed site...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interesting quote (I forget where STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2000 05:32:30 PM ----- BODY: Interesting quote (I forget where from), only loosly amended:

"Love is a strange thing; it depends what one gives -- and sometimes to give means give someone away. Jane Siberry said that, and I endorse it. If they are the fickle whore they seem, they are at least a whore with a conscience. Everything they touch, they destroy, and they like you too much to destroy you. Take their refusal as a gift. Take every experience as a gift. Some come in strange wrapping paper, but they are gifts just the same."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just submitted my photo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2000 06:43:38 PM ----- BODY: I've just submitted my photo to amihotornot.com - which has to be the most evil thing I've ever seen in my life. What a wonderful idea though... I'd put up the direct URL of my image, but I fear that might skew the results. I'll keep you informed though...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apparently, while I was asleep STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/26/2000 02:18:11 PM ----- BODY: Apparently, while I was asleep last night, someone crept into my bedroom, tattooed KICK ME or LOSER on my head, gave me a quick post-hypnotic suggestion so I wouldn't be able to see it, and sent me out in the world for people to systematically shit on. This is the only theory I can come up with today. Literally the only answer.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am, it seems, a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/26/2000 06:56:47 PM ----- BODY: I am, it seems, a 4.3.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Head Fuck Song of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/26/2000 09:07:50 PM ----- BODY: Head Fuck Song of the Day: Be Aggressive | Faith No More.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There could have been another STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/27/2000 09:55:50 AM ----- BODY: There could have been another weblogger at the Time Out party in New York on the weekend...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblogs are navel-gazing bollocks produced STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/27/2000 05:54:13 PM ----- BODY: Weblogs are navel-gazing bollocks produced by self-important/obsessed neurotics with too much time on their hands. Discuss

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm bloody exhausted. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/28/2000 09:40:45 PM ----- BODY: I'm bloody exhausted.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone remember this message STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/29/2000 12:38:01 AM ----- BODY: Does anyone remember this message from Text Message Theatre?

"Jen has such a hard life. I really feel for her. I so relate to her bruised sluttiness - jack is a fucking girl loser poof as well. Spit. Vomit. Barf. Ick."
Well people out there have theories about our Ms Linley:
[In the final episode of the last series of Dawson's Creek...] Jen wraps up with:

"....I'm pretty sure of it. We're not in Capeside anymore, Toto. This is some alternate reality where our intellects are sharper, our quips are wittier, and our hearts are repeatedly broken while faintly in the background some soon-to-be-dated contemporary pop music plays."

Told you Jen was the bright one. She's twigged. She knows that she, and Dawson, and immaculate, emasculate gay boy Jack McPhee, are all fictional characters. Not just that, but they're fictional characters designed for nothing other than to suffer. To split up, split off, pair up and tap out over and over and over again, to spend their entire, limited lives expressing their agony, describing a Bucky Ballet of failure. They fall in love, but they don't really fall in love; they're just setting up the next heartbreak, because that's what hearts are for.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in a bit of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/29/2000 11:47:00 PM ----- BODY: I'm in a bit of a mood at the moment, as one of the sexiest, dirtiest and most savage films that I have ever seen (Head on) has had its release on video delayed even further. This is particularly gutting as I have had a pretty shit couple of days and the thought of the film arriving had cheered me up at a couple of particularly unpleasant moments.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have kept meaning to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2000 01:53:35 PM ----- BODY: I have kept meaning to link to the Mayfly Project over at notosoft.com, but keep getting distracted. The idea is a bloody good one - describe the last year of your life in twenty words. Unfortunately, everyone seems really grumpy about the last year of their lives. My particular entry was no different.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is a call to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2000 03:17:55 PM ----- BODY: This is a call to arms. Let's show the world that webloggers are the sexiest bunch of bitches on the planet. Get yourself a picture on amiHOTorNOT.com and then stick the link semi-permanently on your site. Mine's over on the left. DO YA THINK I'M SEXY!?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future used to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2000 09:33:38 AM ----- BODY: The future used to be all about flying cars, food pills, humanoid robots and faster-than-light travel. Now, it seems, the future is fart-free sheep.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In direct refutation of my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2000 06:41:28 PM ----- BODY: In direct refutation of my standard taste in trashy guitar crap, I have decided that I am interested in getting the Dido album (this is the woman who is responsible for the opening credits music to Roswell and for the singy bit in Eminem's Stan. So I think, "Well this is a bit of a departure - maybe I should check out epinions first." So I go and find a review and I'm reading it, and it's actually a pretty good review and then this amazingly huge, spiralling, mixed metaphor appears and I sit their gobsmacked - in awe of the twisted evil genius who could come up with:

"Looking up Dido in Roman mythology, one finds that she was the founder and queen of Carthage. There are several versions of her story but the most famous is the one from the Aeneid in which she falls in love with Aeneas. When he leaves her to continue his journey to Italy, Dido destroys herself on a burning pyre. Well, if that Dido is resurrected from the ashes in the form of this songbird, this is one phoenix whose voice soars on angel's wings."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All I can say is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2000 06:43:24 PM ----- BODY: All I can say is thank god for payday. Mwah. I love you money. Filthy (small) piles of lucre. Mmmmmmm.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ridiculous quote of the day: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2000 06:45:47 PM ----- BODY:

Ridiculous quote of the day:

"Hello! You might be eligible to be featured in amiHOTorNOT's newsletter of the hottest men and women! If you are interested in being featured, please do the following..."

Of course this might have something to do with my personal rating suddenly becoming 9.9 (after a considerable period at a respectable 5), which is so ridiculously improbable (unless there's some HEAVY weighting going on behind the scenes) that I can only assume that they've buggered up their whole site to an absurd degree. Nevertheless, I now know the vague sense of embarrassment that people who really are godly in the sex appeal department must deal with every day...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My flatmates leave for holiday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2000 06:52:36 PM ----- BODY:

My flatmates leave for holiday tomorrow, which leaves me with the flat to myself for a full five or six days. It's going to be both lovely and slightly disturbing, as I'm in a bit of an isolationist space at the moment. On the one hand I will be able to relax and not have to deal with anyone at all, but on the other hand without someone to force me to talk to people, it is entirely possible that I'll curl up in my room and not talk to anyone outside work at all. This does not seem to me to be an ideal situation.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2000 07:00:43 PM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary:

I've been spending a lot of time with Nick H. recently. We went out boozing on Friday night where I (kind of) pulled this air steward bloke, and then I spoke to him on the phone a lot over the weekend about the various things he'd got up to on Saturday night. And then we went out last night to see Bring It On (which was a bloody good film). I might be meeting him after the blogmeet on Friday as well to do the Popstarz experience up in King's Cross.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's an interesting article for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2000 07:03:09 PM ----- BODY:

Here's an interesting article for you all:

"The number one thing that correlates with a region's high-tech success is the concentration of gay people living there."
[E-Village People from Washingtonpost.com via Metafilter]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things not to do when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2000 11:05:47 PM ----- BODY:

Things not to do when you want to sucessfully pick up men:

  1. Be in love with someone.
  2. Be hunched over a beer.
  3. Glare at everyone who approaches you with a DIE BITCHSCUM DIE look on your face.

If you can not do these things, then you'll probably pull.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've got to get me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2000 11:40:25 PM ----- BODY:

I've got to get me one of these: [bark with me: WOOF WOOF].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/2000 05:29:32 PM ----- BODY: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary:

Just a snippet today - this time about last weekend:

"Friday night decided I had to do something to pull me out of the exhausted self-hating funk I had been in, so i went out for a drink with Nick Hornig. We went out, got drunk and I ended up pulling this air steward who wanted to go to a club. I said that he should ring me at home if he wanted to come and join me before 3am. At 4am he rang - I was asleep on the sofa fully clothed and snapped at him until he went away. Turned my phone off and went to bed.

Saturday morning I get up at midday, turn on my phone and find that Will has arrived in London, spent the night out, had got lost in Richmond, dumped by his fling for the evening without any money, and had begged enough money to get a travel card to Maida Vale and a bottle of champagne."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: People who say that there STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/2000 11:56:50 AM ----- BODY: People who say that there isn't enough personal content on my site (and there are a couple) should learn to read between the lines, if you ask me. I can't be expected to spell everything out!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The dark satanic cult of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2000 01:08:43 PM ----- BODY: The dark satanic cult of the UK weblogging community met up again last night for Thai food and a booze-up in Soho. Statistics for the event are being quantified as we speak, as are the (gulp) photos (damn you Meg and Dan).

Interesting facts:

[People present included: Meg NotSoSoft, Dan Daily Doozer / Extenuating Circumstances, Popt Art, Matt Interconnected, DarrenMachineGo, Chris RaettigORG, NetDyslexia, Jen Threadnaught, Secret Squirrel, PlayingWithCobras, Luke Fez, Adrian Vavatch.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: RE: Sex in Zero Gravity STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2000 01:21:45 PM ----- BODY: RE: Sex in Zero Gravity [from Wired]

According to Stine, it was "possible but difficult." Stine also explained that the tank experiments revealed that sex in zero gravity would be easier if a helpful astronaut was available to assist the copulating couple by holding one of the two participants in place.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you want to see STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2000 06:28:54 PM ----- BODY: If you want to see pictures of someone who looks a bit like me, only fatter (oh and some other weblogging types) mooching around seedy bars in Soho, then all you have to do is get your fat arse over to NotSoSoft's blogallery. My particular favourite: Tom is humoured by Luke. This happened a lot over the evening. Anyway - now to sneak them all onto amihotornot.com [ha!].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm wandering around Chez STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2000 12:53:31 AM ----- BODY: So I'm wandering around Chez Andy, thinking how nice and orange everything is, when I see this white blotch with "Hello I use Organizine, the wave of the future". This looks really interesting, so I think to myself, I'm going to go to their site organizine.com and see if it might be suitable for what I want to do with barbelith.com and filmsoho.com (my other recent acquisition which is not quite functional yet). But when I go, I get confronted with a password protection screen and can't go any further. So now I'm intrigued, frustrated and need more information.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The immortal Meg has an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2000 12:17:54 PM ----- BODY: The immortal Meg has an article published today in the Observer on the TV drama Attachments (which I have managed to completely not see as yet). In it she writes:

[Attachments: Are you Attached?]
The business model for seethru.co.uk is laughable, too, echoing the underpants-stealing gnomes from a classic episode of South Park:

1. Steal underpants
2. ???
3. Profit!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sometimes - just sometimes - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2000 12:58:44 PM ----- BODY: Sometimes - just sometimes - I do something so unbearably evil that I astound even myself: You Know Who You Are!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do this immediately if you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2000 01:29:43 PM ----- BODY: Do this immediately if you are a weblogger yourself: Go to Interconnected.org [DIRK] and do a search for weblog. Do this particularly if you happen to run: megnut.com, notsosoft.com, Captainfez.com, Blogger.com, Interconnected.org/home, Evhead.com, Extenuating Circumstances, camworld.com or riothero.com. Someone's been in there playing around a bit. I say we give them a hand!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grrrr. Matt is too talented. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2000 04:45:15 PM ----- BODY: Grrrr. Matt is too talented. I hate Matt. I wish Matt would die rather than knock up really cool little natty links pages in the middle of the night on a whim, when it takes me months to find the time to put together anything of any use at all. Die Matt, Die. This is why Matt must die: inconnected links page.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OK so it's a standard STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2000 07:18:49 PM ----- BODY: OK so it's a standard conversation. You're out with women and you're chatting away about someone who's just fucked them over in some way and they say things like, "All Men are pointless", or "I've never met a man who didn't like football". And then you look a little perturbed and say, "Well I'm a man, and I'm not pointless and I don't like football", and then they look at you in a slightly conspiratorial / slightly pitying fashion and say, "Well straight men - you know what I mean". They might as well actually say "proper" men.

OK so it's a standard conversation. You're out with women and you're chatting away about someone who's just fucked them over in some way and they say things like, "I wish straight men could be more like gay men - you know, cultured, tidy, good cooks that never belch." And then you look a little perturbed and say, "Well I'm a gay man, and I belch and am a mess and eat pizza and watch bad television", and then they sit there in a slightly embarrassed / slightly appalled way and say, "Well, other gay men. You know what I mean." They might as well say "proper" poofs.

There's a website called Guyville and its tagline is, "Where Men Can Be Guys" - but really it's all about birds and sports and gadgets and shagging. It's a bit sad really.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's a new game for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2000 01:48:57 AM ----- BODY: Here's a new game for you. This one is called "What Kind of Person Buys That". I was wandering through Amazon.co.uk today, and I stumbled upon a book called Hacking Exposed. Apparently people who buy Pixies albums are interested in hacking. But then I thought to myself, "I wonder what people who buy Hacking Exposed are interested in?" So I clicked and I had a look. Here is a list:

So now we know...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wrote an epinion about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2000 01:49:19 AM ----- BODY: I wrote an epinion about Requiem for a Dream. The review in a line? "This is a brilliantly made, visually stunning, well-performed piece of perfect cinema, that if you have any sense of self-preservation you will NEVER, EVER go and see."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The thing I think I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2000 05:47:42 PM ----- BODY: The thing I think I dislike about work in general is the way that one is forced to censor what one wants to say if you are saying it in the public arena. If I have problems at work, if I disagree with a decision, if I decide to look for another job, I have to keep my mouth very firmly shut. It's very aggravating.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Handbags at dawn for this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2000 01:12:18 AM ----- BODY: Handbags at dawn for this particular "bint":

"***** of ***** wonders why he wasn't invited to a uk webloggers meeting in London last Saturday. Nothing to do with you, David. I wasn't invited either, and I'm in London. I think it has something to do with the fact that we do our own thing, whereas some other people only use their weblogs to show off their journalistic pretenses (in the hopes of landing a job writing for a paper or a mag). Not mentioning any names of course. Or maybe it's just because they're a bunch of elitist cunts. Maybe a bit of both. Anyway, take pride in not being part of a clique, dammit."
The comments are equally slap-inspiring:
"I don't drink alchohol so I would have had to find some other way to amuse myself. Whether I could resist the urge to set light to Tom Coates I am unsure. "
And now on a completely different note, ukbloggers is a UK based mailing list open to all people who run weblogs in the UK. I, in fact, joined it for the first time today.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The person who wrote the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2000 01:39:40 PM ----- BODY: The person who wrote the piece below has asked to be credited for it, as is her right. Her name is: Marcia van der Beek and her e-mail address is clog@dutchbint.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Storming lyrics from an epic STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2000 05:57:06 PM ----- BODY: Storming lyrics from an epic song. We may never see their like again:

He has a powerful weapon
He charges a million a shot...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reasons for Matt Haughey to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2000 10:20:54 PM ----- BODY: Reasons for Matt Haughey to assemble london.metafilter.com / gb.metafilter.com or uk.metafilter.com: [Regional Metafilters?]
  1. British webloggers are the single largest group of English language webloggers outside the US.
  2. British webloggers are unable to participate in the large blocks of American-specific content that Metafilter currently provides (the election has brought that into focus).
  3. Without wanting to sound all corporate, Matt has developed an effective brand and an easy to use, functional site that does exactly what it says on the tin.
  4. There has been discussion about setting up a similar kind of site in the UK - but my feelings are that in this circumstance if we went with uk.metafilter.com we would be helping an individual extend a useful site - a site that might in time develop worldwide - while simultaneously having functionality, look and feel and an ethos that we respect. And any possible improvements to the concept and function could be implemented simultaneously over all the sites. It's like with inconnected.org - the community helps the project because we find it interesting and we know the person involved. Any one of us might come up with a great idea like Metafilter, and it would be nice to think that if that happened, our colleagues and friends from other weblogs would help us develop it to its full potential.
Are you with me?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On watching "The Patriot" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 11/07/2000 10:35:43 PM ----- BODY: Hollywood history has had its villains, and they seem to come in blocks. At the end of the forties (with strands oozing all the way up until the present day), these villains were from Nazi Germany. In the fifties, these villains were the Red Menace of Communists at home and abroad. By the end of the sixties, the enemy was becoming (more often than you'd expect) the government itself. By the time we reach the seventies and eighties, if the enemies were anything, it was probably taste. But that's another story. But in this - the first year of the new Millennium, there are a whole new batch of bad-guys to hate and fear - the people who may come along while you sleep and replace your children with crude duplicates carved out of root vegetables - the people who wear exotic clothing and move in an almost sinisterly stiff fashion - mindless drones of cruel masters, the menace is now ... British ...

INTERLUDE: A man and a woman leave the cinema and walk towards their car. The woman turns to the man and says, "I thought that bloody film would never end." The man replies, "In some of the lower circles of hell, it never will."
The plot of the Patriot is loosely based upon actual events in the US. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) plays a retired Colonel with an infinity of Healthy, Wholesome Children and a cult of cheery non-enslaved black people who belt out the odd cheery number that wouldn't have sounded out of place in the Little Mermaid. The oldest of his Healthy, Wholesome Children is called Gabriel (Heath Ledger) - a headstrong child, but with good moral fibre and teeth. His father - ashamed of his actions in the French and Indian War - decides to sit out the attempt of America to declare independence from Britain. But when Gabriel (who, I should add, resembles nothing more than a claymation duplicate of himself) enlists in the army, only to be captured by evil British Colonel Tavington - a man who subsequently burns down the family home and disposes of one of the middle Healthy Wholesome Children - Ben Martin realises that he has to get involved in the struggle. Assembling a team of guerilla fighters, Ben Martin gradually takes a more and more central role in defending the good old US of A from the brutish Brits - but will his daughter come around and recognise him again? Will Joely Richardson (playing the sister of Ben Martin's dead wife) fall in love with him? And will he get the opportunity to run around in slow motion with a huge American flag. Yes. Yes. And yes, I'm afraid he will.
INTERLUDE: The man and the woman return home to their flatmate, who works in the film industry. She is eager to hear all about the film, as the English villain is played by someone she used to work with. The man and the woman struggle to explain how bad the film is, how it plays fast and loose with history and how Mel Gibson really must have an issue with the British - particularly after Braveheart. Between them the three try out various new names for the movie, including "The Patronise" and "The Pantriot".
The Patriot was released in America some time around Independence Day - which is pretty much what you'd expect I guess. The reviews were pretty average in the US, and worse in the UK. The problem with the film is that it passes over the opportunity to actually talk about a difficult time in American history - where loyalties were heavily conflicted between royalists and those who supported independence - and decides instead to opt for cheap jingoism, often at the expense of the truth. The "Old World" becomes the repository for all that is bad in the world, and the "New World" the representation of all that is positive. Now before I go any further, I should point out that I'm not in any way here trying to defend the actions of Imperialist cultures of which the British Empire was one of the most globally successful and brutal. These cultures committed wide-spread atrocities world-wide, taking over less technologically advanced cultures and erasing people who got in their way. But bear in mind that even in the time that the film is set, many colonial Americans still considered themselves to be, in essence, Europeans - members of the same culture that would be through this war divided into two. These same colonial Americans were systematically involved in the extermination of Native American cultures, they came from the same cultural background as the people they were fighting and they were supported by an anti-royalist French with their own colonial agendas. It's very difficult to retrofit modern morals onto period politics with any success at all - but while "No Taxation Without Representation" still works for modern moralists, the fact both Americans and Europeans were still involved in slavery makes the clear moral division a harder one to delineate into a simplistic "goodies" versus "baddies" movie. But rather than explore this tension, the film instead hides it, characterising the British as child-eating, church-burning, godless deviants, while all the things that Americans today find objectionable about their own past - the things that generate guilt (again, for example, slavery) are also shunted off onto the malevolent European. Case in point: At one point, the Aardman-animated Gabriel makes a speech to a black slave who is fighting alongside them. He says something to the effect of, "We are fighting against the Old World, and Old Ways, this is the New World, and there will be no slavery in it". Actual facts - Britain abolished slavery FORTY YEARS before the United States did. And when the issue of slavery was finally to be decided in the US, it became a substantial component in a Civil War. The Patriot can't and won't face up to this fact, and so remains an insult to history and a cheap attempt to depict a difficult and complicated struggle as instead Evil, Corrupt, Power-Crazed, Racist Big Monarchist Bad Guys versus simple decent farmer folk who love black people and freedom and don't really even WANT to fight and who are actually Australian in upbringing. It's like a part of American culture is still a teenager, lurking like Bart Simpson in the middle of a calamity, saying to itself: "I didn't do it!
INTERLUDE: The man and his flatmate who works in the film industry go to Sainsbury's on Finchley Road in London. Suddenly they notice the evil British star of The Patriot getting some groceries with his wife. The flatmate smiles and chats and says that she's heard good things about the film, determined not to say anything bad about it until she's at least SEEN the film. The man stands back, trying to work out why ANYONE would do a film in which they are helping to generate a revisionist view of history which slams their own country. He can't think of a thing to say...
... so I'll end with a quote from an article in Salon about the phenomenon of the EVIL BRITISH: "The prizewinning historian and biographer Andrew Roberts called the film Patriot "racist" in the Daily Express, and pointed out that it was only the latest in a series of films like "Titanic," "Michael Collins" and "The Jungle Book" remake that have depicted the British as "treacherous, cowardly, evil [and] sadistic." Roberts had a theory: "With their own record of killing 12 million American Indians and supporting slavery for four decades after the British abolished it, Americans wish to project their historical guilt onto someone else."" ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: In this - the first year of the new Millennium, there are a whole new batch of bad-guys to hate and fear - the people who may come along while you sleep and replace your children with crude duplicates carved out of root vegetables - the people who wear exotic clothing and move in an almost sinisterly stiff fashion - mindless drones of cruel masters, the menace is now ... British ... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ap EMAIL: apwhite@hotmail.com IP: 145.254.199.68 URL: http://andrew-white.org DATE: 11/16/2002 03:48:46 PM Any society which was large enough to colonise / bully other nations will always be treated somewhat unfairly in retrospect. I'm sure the English introduced lots of good things to Ireland, like Muffins, funny looking policemen, afternoon tea etc., but the fact remains that Irish culture was outlawed and hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed. Therefore any attempt to try an make a "balanced" view of history will more than likely be snubbed by cinema goers. So as usual it's the cash vs. truth dilemma... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: freaktopia EMAIL: none@none.com IP: 128.101.252.73 URL: http://none.com DATE: 11/17/2002 06:08:55 AM wow, maybe you should relax about it a bit and realize that it was just a movie (hence, fiction)? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.192.121 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/17/2002 07:58:03 PM To freaktopia: I don't think that's true, actually. I think things that lie about history are extraordinarily scary - particularly when they're actually fiction. Extreme examples abound, but if you made a film about how apartheid was good or rewrote a murder story so that the victims deserved it you'd rightly get called up on your facts... To Ap: I personally believe that films based around historical events should have to - by law - place a disclaimer at the front of the film if it either didn't happen or is considered by experts to be an innaccurate view of history. I think it's profoundly dangerous. I totally agree that countries that do horrible things may get (should, maybe) treated slightly unfairly in retrospect. And there's no doubt whatsoever that the British have done some bloody awful things around the world - although the successes and achievements are less often looked at now. But there are a lot of other things to look at with relation to America - firstly the majority of Americans ARE Europeans - the vast majority of white Americans share as much genetically with Europeans (and British people) of a couple of hundred years ago as I do. The country of America was taken from its native population who were essentially exterminated so that these Europeans could be there. A rejection of slavery is not something that Americans should be proud of and celebrate as some great achievement of their great freedoms. People around the world rejected it much earlier - the British among them. Essentially what we're talking about when we talk about this period in American history is the pride of a king and a political party in England arguing with people who were essentially their relatives by blood who wanted freedom from taxation. There was a large amount of debate on BOTH sides about what was the appropriate response - there were those who didn't want independence in the States and there were those who didn't want to tax in Britain. Neither side got through intact, neither side can take the moral highground completely. Either way, America has to take responsibility for some of the things it's done - slavery is one of those things, the extermination of the native population is another - and that's not including any of the stuff that's happened since. It's ludicrous to keep selling America this image of itself as perfect and sublime at the expense of another country. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: deardaniel1@yahoo.co.uk IP: 213.122.175.135 URL: http://uk.geocities.com/deardaniel1/index.html DATE: 11/17/2002 11:16:24 PM I would agree with Tom. Given the current political situation in America and the world, I think it's actually very dangerous for propaganda like this (because that's all it is really; it's not even that entertaining, although IMDb users seem to disagree!) to portray America as being so morally superior. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ap EMAIL: apwhite@hotmail.com IP: 217.233.253.43 URL: DATE: 11/18/2002 05:44:49 PM Since when was the equation: Movie = Fiction always = True?? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: vlar EMAIL: vlar@sc.rr.com IP: 66.57.184.48 URL: DATE: 02/03/2003 06:41:11 AM I'm trying to find an articale on the net about when an entire town was forced into a church and burned alive by the order of an English officer. Please e-mail me when you find one. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Faisal EMAIL: faisal_fazli1@hotmail.com IP: 202.179.137.14 URL: DATE: 11/19/2003 11:57:52 AM Tom, I agree the Partirot was a crap movie, but i disagree that "films based around historical events should have to - by law - place a disclaimer at the front of the film if it either didn't happen or is considered by experts to be an innaccurate view of history." The problem with this position is that it presupposes that there is some accurate view to which experts can agree. there isn't. and why would such a disclaimer be necessary. interested viewers can read reviews and discover the inaccuracies and misrepresentations. The second problem is that there is probably a trade-off between historical accuracy and dramatic effect, and the filmmaker must, and is right to, prefer dramatic effect. Take JFK. excellent movie, but totally biased and inaccurate. see www.jfk-online.com/jfk100menu.html. the reason we don't like Partriot but do like JFK is that Patriot's biases offend our sense of aesthetics whereas JFK's do not. we're just not interested in a feel-good, 4th of July type flick. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/19/2003 12:12:46 PM I think you over-estimate the degree to which people disagree about history. There are things that can be checked and rechecked - information that exists, and standards that can be created (an impartial panel of prominent historians by 2/3rds majority maybe? levels of warnings?). All the things - in fact - that happen when you rate movies for age. I'm not saying that movies that are historically innaccurate shouldn't be shown, I'm saying that there should be a disclaimer at the beginning. People can still disagree about them, read about them in greater detail - whatever. And people are more than able to make films that aren't historically accurate, as long as they're prepared to have a disclaimer placed at the front saying so. And the reason I don't like the Patriot is not that it says positive things about America, but that it scandalously accuses the British of being in favour of slavery when America isn't - when in fact the States had legal slavery for DECADES after the States. People don't learn from their mistakes if they disavow them and pretend they didn't happen. Blaming the British for slavery is the surest way to make Americans believe that they can't possibly be actually responsible for anything unpleasant that happened in the past... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Faisal EMAIL: faisal_fazli1@hotmail.com IP: 202.179.137.14 URL: DATE: 11/19/2003 01:40:35 PM Tom, i agree people don't learn the lessons of history if they deny the facts. there are two isses here: 1) whether historical movies should be preceded with some kind of disclaimer about its historical accuracy; 2) whether Patriot "scandalously accuses the British of being in favour of slavery when America isn't". Taking 1) first, you say i overestimate disagreement between historians. i think it depends on the events being depicted. What warning do you think should precede JFK? even the most historically accurate movies (apollo 13 for instance) contain factual inaccuracies for dramatic effect. Therefore, there would have to be a warning before EVERY historical movie, rendering the warning pointless, unless you conceive of tiers of warnings like the age rating. so the question becomes not WHETHER the movie is inaccurate, but HOW inaccurate it is. You'd have to factor in both the number of inaccuracies and the significance of the inaccuracy in terms of the overall rendering of the events (i.e., how misleading is the inaccuracy). This all seems terribly unscientific and impracticable to me, whereas for age ratings, there are objective criteria (number of occurances of bad language; extent of nudity etc.). There is another logical problem to your warning idea in relation to movies like Patriot. Patriot, like Gladiator, does not claim to be a true story (even if the character is based on someone who might have existed). True, it is set in the specific past of the american revolution. But the only way your disclaimer could cover the Patriot is if the rule required disclaimers to appear before every movie set in the past (i.e., every movie). Second, i'm not well versed in american revolution history but is it true that blacks were offered emancipation in exchange for service? as far as i remember, the movie never actually says that america was against slavery while britain still practiced it. so what was the mistake of fact you think Patriot makes? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/19/2003 02:16:35 PM The specific instance I'm thinking about is when - in a film about the evils of the British - a slave asks why they should fight for freedom to be told that slavery is an 'old world' thing, and that America is there to fight against it and to push for freedoms. Heath Ledger's character says that I believe. Which makes it particularly ironic that America maintained and perpetuated slavery for decades after the British and that it would end up used as a pretext for an American civil war between those who fought against it and those who supported it. Absolutely, I believe that some kind of graduated scale would be the best approach - and I also believe that criteria could be drawn up for the levels of historical accuracy without too much difficulty. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Faisal EMAIL: faisal_fazli1@hotmail.com IP: 202.179.137.16 URL: DATE: 11/19/2003 03:43:37 PM Final comment. respectfullly, i think you're wrong about the practicability of a rating system for historical accuracy for the reasons i described earlier (not all of which were responded too.... anyway). I also think your memory of the Patriot is a bit off. I remember the scene you're talking about: A black man who is ALREADY fighting with mel gibson's militia sees a sign promising emancipation to slaves who serve for 6 months or 2 years or whatever it was. and another militia men asks "what are you gonna do with freedom". you suggest in your review that the movie is a simplistic "goodies" versus "baddies" movie. But the reaction i mentionned earlier ("what are you gonna do with freedom") is a counter example: old world attitides even among the new world "goodies". Bottom line: i don't recall heath ledger saying that america is going to protect your freedoms. BUT, even if he did, where's the misstatement of historical fact? I'm pretty sure the movie does not say america abolished slavery before britain. The point is that even if your version of the movie is correct, you still haven't demonstrated a misstatement of historical fact that would warrant a disclaimer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/19/2003 05:09:51 PM To be honest, I'd suggest you watch the film again. I wrote this review the day I saw it in the cinema and stand by it. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Knocked off another epinion while STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2000 12:34:46 AM ----- BODY: Knocked off another epinion while I should have been tidying up the flat for my flatmate's imminent arrival in the morning. This one's about The Patriot.
"But in this - the first year of the new Millennium - there are a whole new batch of bad-guys to hate and fear - the people who may come along while you sleep and replace your children with crude duplicates carved out of root vegetables - the people who wear exotic clothing and move in an almost sinisterly stiff fashion - mindless drones of cruel masters, the menace is now ... British ... "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ew. Just saw plasticbag.org on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2000 10:59:21 AM ----- BODY: Ew. Just saw plasticbag.org on a PC for the first time in months, and frankly I don't like the way it looks at all. I mean, it all pretty much works, but it just doesn't look right. Some reconsideration might be on the cards, finally...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Congratulations to Dave, ex of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2000 04:17:50 PM ----- BODY: Congratulations to Dave, ex of Cortex on the move to brainsluice.com and the extremely successful redesign.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to beebo.org/lately, it will STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2000 05:28:03 PM ----- BODY: According to beebo.org/lately, it will be my 9k/day birthday on November 30th. A full 9000 days old. No wonder I'm exhausted all the time. Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, will be celebrating his next "thousandth" birthday on Thursday, 23 May 2002. He will be 731000. Or at least he would be if he wasn't 1) dead and 2) not born on the 25th of December 0000.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not sure this will STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2000 06:43:48 PM ----- BODY: I'm not sure this will work, but I'm trying it out nonetheless. I saw Sourground doing this and thought it was a pretty good idea (mainly for my family should they be reading). So here is it: my amazon.co.uk wishlist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Prol is keen to have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2000 03:22:19 PM ----- BODY: Prol is keen to have a more local brand of metafilter, but wants it to be europe.metafilter.com rather than uk.metafilter.com. While I can completely understand her reasoning, I can't help thinking that the reason we are asking the wonderful Matt Haughey to consider such an option because we find ourselves disenfranchised by (for example) considerable conversation of the US Election. Would a European version prove any less problematic? Would we find ourselves discussing Italian transport law or the snow conditions in Switzerland? And how would we resolve the language issue?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is a post specifically STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2000 03:29:44 PM ----- BODY: This is a post specifically not aimed at young Fran from timeout.com. There's a really interesting article that might interest you over at the BBC: "Women 'getting dangerously drunk'."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few really well (and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2000 03:36:03 PM ----- BODY: A few really well (and recently re-) designed corporate sites, as mentioned by zeldman: hesketh.com and hiwire.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For those of you that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2000 06:01:06 PM ----- BODY: For those of you that didn't know, plasticbag.org is brought to you live from sunny London, where the sun never sets and where 'party, party, party' is the name of the game. If you are interested in reading more weblogs from London and around the United Kingdom, why not check out this pop-up box of recently updated uk weblogs courtesy of GBlogs. With their cheeky-cockney-chappie ways, lack of electricity and running water, and oh-so-amusing natural reserve, English men and women never fail to satisfy!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Your chance to talk to Naomi Klein... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2000 11:36:55 AM ----- BODY:

Naomi Klein, author of the wonderful No Logo is going to be answering questions this afternoon (1400 GMT) over at the BBC's site: [Quiz Naomi Klein]. For those of you who aren't familiar with her work, here's a brief summary from the site:

"The Canadian journalist Naomi Klein has become an unofficial spokeswoman for the anti-globalisation movement.

Her best-selling book, No Logo, documents the popular backlash against the increasing economic and cultural reach of multinational companies.

She claims that the anti-globalisation protesters represent a more democratic alternative to corporate domination of the world economy."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the spirit of resistance, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2000 11:50:31 AM ----- BODY: In the spirit of resistance, here are a couple of snippets of important information from adbusters.org.

First comes the event that should be de rigeur for every intelligent, creative weblogger - the Creative Resistance Contest. You have until December 1 to produce a poster, performance, spoof-ad, storyboard, video or anti-logo. I'd like to append this advert with a personal appeal to Jason Kottke to submit the parody ads that he made last year: Simply Porn.

Secondly, international Buy Nothing Day is fast approaching (Nov 24th). Give yourself an opportunity to think about the "shop-till-you-drop" imperative before the consumer glut of Christmas. I'm thinking of taking to the streets that day, holding banners outside major London shops. Anyone with me?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On creative etymology... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Language CATEGORY: Language DATE: 11/10/2000 01:21:10 PM ----- BODY:

Notice the similarity in pronunciation between these two words: "Homey" (as in homeboy, contemporary American street-slang) and "Omi" (old gay palare for man). Palare had a word, "omipalone" (Oh-Mi-Pal-Oh-Nee) which was a combination of Man and Woman ("palone"), and which at the time meant something along the lines of "poof". Creative etymology leads me to posit the creation of the word "Homey-Palone", referring to the almost non-existent phenomenon of the "Gay Gangsta Rapper". [research from Quinion]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Have you heard of Extenuating STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2000 02:11:51 PM ----- BODY: Have you heard of Extenuating Circumstances? No? But you've heard of Daily Doozer, right? Daily Doozer was always a great read - bloody ace weblog. Well. Dan wrote DD, then took a break from weblogging and came back with Extenuating Circumstances. Anyway - seems to me that a lot of the people who loved the Doozer don't even know about the new site, which is a crying shame. So get your arses over there now, or I'll come around your house and kneecap your pets.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just want to reassure STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2000 02:51:20 PM ----- BODY: I just want to reassure people that at no point in the past did I write a book called Creating a Self-Portrait.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Guardian comes up with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2000 03:40:57 PM ----- BODY: The Guardian comes up with yet another quiz designed to show up your inadequacies as a human being. This one even has the snappy title: "Are You Dumb?". More designed for the English than for Johnny Foreigner, my department at work has managed to score as follows:

How do you measure up?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The next UK weblogger meet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2000 05:34:55 PM ----- BODY: The next UK weblogger meet is this weekend in Cambridge, but another one is being proposed for next week in London - I've been fighting for Maida Vale as a venue, but that's really only because I live there. If you want to keep up to date with what is being proposed, then meets.gblogs.org.uk is the place to be.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Regional Metafilters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 11/11/2000 09:58:28 AM ----- BODY:

The whole Metafilter discussion has taken a couple of interesting turns in the last hour or so. Firstly, prol suggested a rationale for the suggested europe.metafilter.com:

"The common language would be English. This would mean only people who write good English would be inclined to post. And then it would be elitist. Which would start a cat fight. Just one of the delightful scenarios possible. What we need is a Universal Translator."

Then, I had an incredibly interesting conversation with Nikolai. He started off suggesting that a European Metafilter might get over the language problems by having a place in the preferences for each user where they could specify what languages they would want to see and which ones they would want to post in.

The main problem for this from my point of view is that it still causes problems about reading about other countries. Would an Italian writing in English really be something that people in Helsinki would be interested in reading, let alone people in the UK? So then it came to us in a blinding flash. Maybe what we need is not more regional metafilters, but a more evolved filtering mechanism on thet metafilter we've already got! With options in the preferences for reading posts filtered according to language and country, then there is no real need for separate metafilters at all.

You could be an Frenchman, living in the US, interested in reading posts about France and America but only if they are in French. Or an Englishman living in Holland, interested in reading posts about both countries in both English or Dutch. It's just a question of showing or hiding posts. Whether or not it's technically possible of course, is another matter entirely...

[This has been reposted to Metatalk for further discussion.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: ICANN idiocy, yet again. Rather STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/2000 10:13:38 AM ----- BODY: ICANN idiocy, yet again. Rather than go for the more logical approach (as far as I can see) of dividing new TLDs into large types of site (my suggestions would be .kids, .gay, .news, .xxx, .info to start off with), which allows for the possibility of companies with the same name but working in very different businesses to co-exist on the web, ICANN are pretty thinking of replicating the current categories of the web, with a couple of minor additions. [via metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Star Wars in Lego... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/2000 10:37:13 AM ----- BODY:

The entire Star Wars trilogy re-enacted in Lego. It's like a childhood dream come true. Still makes my heart race a little...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ha! I've done it! I've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/2000 11:40:12 PM ----- BODY: Ha! I've done it! I've burnt the whole thing to the ground! Watch as I dance around in the ashes. Watch me skip and bounce - oh so happy! oh so happy!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Perfect solution to the whole STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/2000 11:51:58 PM ----- BODY:

Perfect solution to the whole metafilter language debacle has been provided by Phil over at gyford.com with this perfect quote:

"Love the filtered language/location idea, but I'd hate to program it myself :) One simpler solution would be for all the English-speakers TO TYPE VERY LOUDLY, CLEARLY AND S.L.O.W.L.Y. That should help. (It's a *joke* dammit.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Deconstructing You've Got Blog" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 11/12/2000 01:31:09 AM ----- BODY:

What a steaming pile of crap. Right it's time we set a few matters straight around here. It's time we got the weblogging house in order. The matter under discussion today is: Deconstructing "You've Got Blog".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The post beneath this one... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2000 01:33:45 AM ----- BODY:

The post beneath this one is extremely badly written. This is due to me writing it while frustrated and at nearly two in the morning. Apologies to anyone who was expecting my normal degree of coherence.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Please excuse the redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2000 11:38:07 PM ----- BODY:

Please excuse the redesign. I'm really just mucking around, trying to find a calm centre to build stuff around. I've had such a weird weekend - had a couple of arguments, a couple of "calm discussions" (ie. arguments where you're not allowed to shout), travelled to Oundle to visit my younger brother, got delayed on the trains, got rained on for a bit. I'm spending more money than American presidential candidates. Weekend over. Now I need a break...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Seeking music from my youth... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2000 11:47:38 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone have Now That's What I Call Music 9 or an album called something like Hits 6 from the same year? Or alternatively an album released which was called The Greatest Hits of 1986. They all came out around in the UK around 1987/8 and I'm trying to replicate them in MP3 form so that I can relive a strange bit of my adolescence which I'd forgotten all about. If you have a tracklisting somewhere, mail me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Popular Compilations Appeal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2000 11:24:47 AM ----- BODY:

Meg starts an appeal for someone to do a site:

"... devoted to the tracklistings of popular compliation albums (I'm thinking specifically here of 80's faves Now That's What I Call Music... and Superchart."

I completely second this - I've been looking for something like this for ages, with absolutely no luck whatsoever... Tell you what - if any of you have any of these albums at all (80s only please for the moment), mail me and I'll compile a list.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tiny design project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2000 03:01:47 PM ----- BODY:

Another Tom design project: Time Out / FT Shopping Homepage.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt Haughey wants me dead... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2000 05:31:41 PM ----- BODY:

Damn it. I've done it again. This time Matt Haughey wants me dead [On Regional Metafilters]. All I can say is that I'm really sorry, Matt.

"I think that we should be thankful that people care enough about Metafilter to suggest these ideas as ways of enhancing something they respect rather than wandering off and setting up something in opposition. I think that speaks buckets about the sense of community, integrity and the amount of respect that we all feel for what Matt has accomplished."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fable-dealing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2000 05:55:07 PM ----- BODY:

"Hey kids! Come over here! No really - I'm not disturbing at all! My overcoat? Yes I know it could do with a wash, but I wouldn't say it's a 'dirty mac' as such. Oh, all right then, 'mucky' perhaps, but certainly not dirty... Anyway - have you heard the word on the street? Oh, you're in for a treat, my little petals. Have I got something for you. Forget smack, skag and crack - this is the future. The current thing is 'fables'. All the cool kids are doing it. No, I don't need counselling. Hey! Where are you going? Come back! I've got some ecstacy as well... Darn it!"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsblogger help required... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2000 06:00:10 PM ----- BODY:

Could someone please explain this to me. Newsblogger says at the top of the page: "New feature: Customization! Now you can select which categories you'd like to appear in the drop-down on the left." Well... how?

[After much further discussion with Jason and Meg (completely independant of one another), I now understand how to get this working on a Mac. If anyone wants to know, drop me a line.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On back-biting, sniping, competition and awe... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism DATE: 11/14/2000 03:15:53 PM ----- BODY:

If I told you that there was a kind of person who wrote on a regular basis, was obsessed by the internet rankings of their writing, commented regularly on the work of other writers and tried to artificially improve their own "position" by writing bad things about other people, what kind of writer would you think of immediately? Webloggers, by any chance?

This position on weblogging has been lurking in the background for a while now, but has been recently brought out into the harsh light of day in an article I commented upon (in a rather uncharitable fashion) a few days ago [Deconstructing 'You've Got Blog'].

But actually I wasn't talking about webloggers at all. There's an article in the Guardian today about people who write novels and their relationship with Amazon. The article, under the title of, "Look, I've sold one more copy!" describes activities that professional novelists undertake which will be immediately familiar to the owner of any weblog. Here are a couple of examples:

What better than to keep an eye on your children - and at the same time, those of your competitors? Checking your book page on amazon almost feels like working.

Why is it so compulsive? Well, for starters it updates your chart position every hour, on the hour. Not only that, but the "people who bought this book also bought_ xxx" section connects you to your nearest rivals for comparative purposes.

Of course, what one would never do is order lots of copies to influence the chart position because "you can always cancel it later".

But the chart is only the first half of the story. Next stop is the comments section. Oh my God!

I think the time has come to accept that people who write weblogs are, at the end of the day, just acting as writers. And that writers will always care about how their work is doing, the people they feel in competition with, as well as be in awe of their forebears and heroes. These things are not just going to end because we're writing in a new form, for a new medium.

But equally each of us, individually, has a responsibility to ourselves and to the medium we work in, to try to submerge the baser parts of our territorial, competitive and aggressive instincts and to get on with the business of writing entertaining, involving and intelligent pieces for our respective audiences - whether they be our fellow webloggers, the readers of the New Yorker or the world at large. Despite its flaws, this vast unformed writing community is something I'm still proud to be a part of.

[Deconstructing "You've Got Blog" was a response to an article You've Got Blog, as originally published in the New Yorker. Link via linkmachinego. The whole matter is currently being discussed at great length over at metafilter].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Truly the end of days... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/15/2000 09:32:53 AM ----- BODY:

Since the ancient times, the soothsayers of our culture have prophesied that the coming the apocalypse and the return to the light of the One True God would be heralded by the final completion of the redesign at lukelog. And now that time has finally come. Please, my children, let there not be rioting in the streets - for our good grace will see us through these final days...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The plasticbag.org open-source project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/15/2000 02:50:59 PM ----- BODY:

Some of you may have guessed by now that I am not actually particularly keen on the current design of plasticbag.org, but that I felt I had to change the last one, which was generally not well-liked. Unfortunately the problem is that I don't have much time to work on the site at the moment, other than to post, of course, so here's a proposition for you.

You do it. Here are the three blogger templates that make up the current site: [main template: index.shtml] [archive include: archive.shtml] [consumption include: recently.shtml], exactly as they appear on blogger at the moment. What I want you to do is to come up with something better. Make sure all images are in a separate directory from the index page and includes so that I can swap designs around relatively quickly, and make sure to test out your design first in blogger before you send them to me. Also - make sure that you put something on the page which indicates that you designed the "skin" and include a link - as prominent as you like (as long as it fits in with the design). All decent designs will be used.

[E-mail your designs to tom%40plasticbag.org] [PS. There is an irritating feature of the way all posts are currently formatted on plasticbag.org which means that there is a paragraph tag between each block of text and at the end of each post. Line breaks are NOT translated. This is not going to change in the short-term since it goes back over a year now and so it is important that any template can deal with this.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: THE PLASTICBAG.ORG OPENSOURCE PROJECT (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/16/2000 09:32:48 AM ----- BODY:

Our first guest designer is Grant Cook from access afr. As ever with a new design, there are a few bugs, but we'll get them ironed out in the next few hours. Don't forget, you too can rebuild plasticbag.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: THE PLASTICBAG.ORG OPENSOURCE PROJECT II STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2000 09:45:10 AM ----- BODY:

I've taken down Grant Cook's design for a bit, while it gets fully debugged, and replaced it with 'old blue'. In the coming days we have a few more redesigns from the general public. Next up to the mark is likely to be matt[at]interconnected.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Friday morning. About bloody time... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2000 09:49:19 AM ----- BODY:

Friday morning. About bloody time. I'm showered and refreshed, the world seems like a manageable place and I'm off to Oxford this evening with Corny to see the young Kitsch Bitch. Thank god for the weekend.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Edible Insects for breakfast? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2000 11:02:29 AM ----- BODY:

I got to work about half an hour ago, and I haven't had anything to eat yet today. I keep thinking I should duck across Tottenham Court Road to Sainsbury's. But then again - I was so late into work this morning that it feels a bit cheeky to duck out again. Perhaps I should consider trying some edible insects [via Astounding Websites]. Alternatively...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not So Soft redesigns... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2000 11:07:45 AM ----- BODY:

Not So Soft redesigns. I've seen this one a couple of times during the development process. It utilises this cunning Blogger template system that Meg and I developed where, by staggering table tags around the body of the text, you can format your first post on any page in a completely different way to the rest - giving you the ability to highlight your latest content. If you are interested in knowing how this is done, drop me a note.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tombot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2000 02:12:45 PM ----- BODY:

MIRROR IMAGE: how I am described by Oh Messy life:

"TOMBOT: Rounding out the propaganda squad, agent Tombot WILL NOT REST until dirty deed is complete. Knows you better than you know yourself. Stares death in the eye and asks for a smoke."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Blogtrumps... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2000 05:10:29 PM ----- BODY:

I spent a good three hours last night helping out Dan with his current evil scheme: Blogtrumps. He showed me his design for one of the cards, and I foolishly said I could knock him up an HTML version in ten minutes. How wrong I was.

Anyway, presenting Dan's work in full - collect the full set of: 1) Tom Coates / Plasticbag.org [card], 3) Jason Kottke / Kottke.org [card], 2) Meg Pickard / NotSoSoft.com [card], 6) Blogger / Blogger.com [card], 5) Cameron Barrett / Camworld.com [card], 7) Matt Webb / Interconnected.org [card], 13) Katy Lindemann / kitschbitch.com [card], 9) Nikolai Nolan / fairvue.com [card], 12) Mark Olynciw / riothero.com [card], 11) Caz / prolific.org [card], 10) Luke Martin / CaptainFez.com [card], 8) Ev Williams / evhead.com [card], 4) Meg Hourihan / megnut.com [card].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The seven new TLDs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2000 11:28:27 PM ----- BODY:

The seven new TLDs (top level domains) which will soon be available have been announced by ICANN. [ZDNet]. They are - .name .pro .museum .aero .coop .info and .biz - of which .name .info and .biz will be available to anyone. It's time to start saving your pennies and thinking of those killer domain names (london.info?) before they become available early next year...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hot Bitch/Safety Features... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2000 11:31:58 PM ----- BODY:

Motto: You can't be a hot bitch in a car with safety features...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The fall-out continues... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2000 11:47:15 PM ----- BODY:

Bloody Hell. The fall-out from the "You've Got Blog" article continues. After the suggestions of elitism from fawny.org, now comes The A-List Fan Club - a site purely dedicated to 'gentle' satire of the weblog hegemony. I hereby declare myself to be a B-minus List weblogger at best. I, frankly, "Could Try Harder". By analogy, I think this makes me 'Blog' Andie MacDowell...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Disturbing Search Requests... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2000 01:46:20 AM ----- BODY:

I've had a counter on my site for the first time in about six months. Some of the information I have found out has been extremely disturbing. For example, these are the last ten search requests that led people to this site:

I kid you not.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Drink with me, Paul Rudd! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2000 12:26:30 PM ----- BODY:

Last Wednesday, at the last minute and pretty much on a whim, Chris and his boyfriend and I went to see Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. If I'm honest, this trip had much more to do with the celebrity cast than the play itself.

So, fittingly, I'm not going to talk too much about the play, except to say that I think certain aspects of it will resonate with anyone with a vaguely disfunctional family-life. I'm not going to say much about the performances either (Paul Nicholls was surprisingly good, Paul Rudd was slightly disappointing, Jessica Lange made the best of an unbelieveably irritating part and Charles Dance was quite clearly the star of the piece).

But there was something astonishingly strange about seeing these people in the flesh in such a personal piece. You feel you have a connection with them - like you've both just gone through something together - something that you'd like to discuss with them. But of course from their perspective, you basically haven't.. There's something duplicitous about the relationship. I came out wanting to take Paul Rudd out for a drink, but knowing that that was an absurdity. That it wasn't going to happen. Celebrity is a strange, strange beast.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The secret passions of the weblogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2000 12:48:38 PM ----- BODY:

What strange items light the fires of the world's favourite webloggers? My tour of the depths of the amazon wishlists reveals all:

Jason Kottke (kottke.org)
  1. Book: Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp : And Other Essays
  2. Book: The Social Life of Information
  3. DVD: American Pimp
Luke Martin (CaptainFez.com)
  1. CD: Practical Footwear, Sodastream
  2. Book: The Ten Books on Architecture
  3. CD: 20th-Century Russian Piano Music
Caroline van Oosten de Boer (Prolific.org)
  1. Toy: Teksta Puppy
  2. Game: Escape from Monkey Island
  3. Book: Crazy About Women
Meg Pickard (notsosoft.com)
  1. Book: The Doctor's Book of Home Remedies for Women
  2. Book: Warp-speed Branding
  3. Book: Cod
Brad Graham (The Bradlands)
  1. Book: Military Trade
  2. Book: Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2000
  3. Book: A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper
Chris Peters (sourground.co.ukj)
  1. CD: Music Has the Right to Children, Boards Of Canada
  2. CD: Opiate, Tool
  3. Book: The End of Print
Other people's wishlists: consolationchamps.com, accidental.plastiqueweb.com, rainy.net/catherine/, fiendishthingy.net, shauny.org/pussycat/, peterme.com/, davidgagne.net/, 120degrees.com/, magnetbox.com.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Unable to process your request... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2000 02:04:13 PM ----- BODY:

Sorry, Blogger is currently unable to process your request. We're working on the problem. Please try back later...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The PLASTICBAG.ORG Open Source Project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2000 07:53:19 PM ----- BODY:

The latest design for plasticbag.org is the creation of Interconnected.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On an alarming trend towards sexual charisma in politicians? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/20/2000 06:21:31 PM ----- BODY:

In the old days it was much much easier. Politicians were only celebrities in America. In the Uk, they were scruffy, mad looking people, often with eyes pointed in different directions and with a chin continually covered in drool. And that was before Thatcher's gradual lunacy pushed her over the brink into Hawk-Nosed Hitlerite. But now ... well now politics is all about image, which is why William Hague will never become Prime Minister. But who will suceed him as leader of the Conservative party? And will his looks (and university sexual misdeeds) carry the day? Only you can decide.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We're rapidly approaching adbusters.org's Buy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/20/2000 10:56:06 PM ----- BODY:

We're rapidly approaching adbusters.org's Buy Nothing day. I've always viewed this as an intelligent and resourceful way to demonstrate resistance, but I'm now beginning to think that I was wrong. Because this event does nothing so much as acknowledge that our sole point of resistance is as "consumers" - something that I think is fundamentally wrong.

The next stage of culture jamming could very well originate at adbusters.tao.ca, which strips the movement of many of its trappings and goes for the jugular. Hence: Steal Something Day. What can I say? I'm actually advocating this. Choose your target carefully and in line with your principles...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been trying to keep STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2000 04:10:22 PM ----- BODY:

I've been trying to keep it on the backburner in my head, but I know that I'll feel completely appalling if I don't get to go. Last year around March it was pretty much all I could think about. I am of course talking about SXSW. Katy is also pining to go. The question is: Will we find the money in time?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where are all the Oscar films? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2000 09:23:24 AM ----- BODY:

So it's nearly December and where are all the Oscar films? There's normally a good block of them appearing around now. More to the point, can you think of any movies from the last year that instantly said to you, "That's Oscar material"? It's still more telling because of the block of films that have been appearing on DVD and video over the last few months. Movies like Three Kings, Being John Malkovich and American Beauty show the standard of last years films and you can take them home. But is there anything of any comparable quality in the cinemas? I'm afraid not.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On disinformation's redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2000 05:36:04 PM ----- BODY:

I must be the last person in the world to have noticed that disinformation has redesigned itself. It's strange to look at it now, with the X-files collapsing under itself and conspiracies and abductions feeling somehow like yesterdays news. I wonder whether it gets less page impressions nowadays. It's also interesting to note that when the revolution comes, it will be grey, black, white and red. Still.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Colorquiz... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2000 05:40:21 PM ----- BODY:

An extraordinarily depressing view of myself as expressed by Colorquiz.com:

Your Existing Situation
Active, outgoing, and restless. Feels frustrated by the slowness with which events develop along the desired lines. This leads to irritability, changeability, and lack of persistence when pursuing a given objective.

Your Stress Sources
Wishes to be independent, unhampered, and free from any limitation or restriction, other than those which he imposes of himself or by his own choice and decision.

Your Restrained Characteristics
Willing to become emotionally involved and able to achieve satisfaction through sexual activity. Remains emotionally unattached even when involved in a close relationship.

Your Desired Objective
Wants to make a favorable impression and be regarded as a special personality. Is therefore constantly on the watch to see whether on the watch to see whether he is succeeding in this and how others are reacting to him; this makes him feel he is in control. Uses tactics cleverly in order to obtain influence and special recognition. Susceptible to the esthetic or original.

Your Actual Problem
Strongly resists outside influence and any interference with his freedom to make his own decisions and plans. Works to establish and strengthen his own position.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Send me a copy of "Bust"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2000 05:47:33 PM ----- BODY:

I have no idea what this is, but it's really entertaining and I want to know more. Can someone send me a copy of "Bust"? While we are on the subject of strange sites, can someone please explain to me who would invest in the URL "LooOfTheYear.com"?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the World's Best Newspaper Website... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2000 06:54:40 PM ----- BODY:

The World's Best Newspaper Website?

Astonishing, ground-breaking, "future of the web" kind of stuff - the International Herald Tribune's site screams class while being incredibly functional. It's not immediately intuitive because it really is such a leap into the future, but it comes with this kind of functionality:

Clear, elegant and astonishing. The bar is raised quite substantially.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Metafilter Error Messages... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2000 09:08:13 AM ----- BODY:

"Metafilter error messages have become the Oracles for information on weblogging elistism. More news at ten..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out New Yorks's Fifth Anniversary Party STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2000 05:34:53 PM ----- BODY:

When I went out for Time Out New York's fifth birthday party, I didn't expect for one minute that the event would be as large as it was. Nor, for that matter, did I expect them to put up a page with photos from the evening. Had I known this, I probably wouldn't have gone to sleep on the stairs at midnight. In the meantime I can console myself with the thought that a huge publishing success in the Big Apple still sticks up photos of its get togethers on the web, just like every person with a homepage has been doing since the dawn of internet time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt Webb must die... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2000 11:00:42 PM ----- BODY:

I went out for a drink, pasta and Muji last night with Corny and Matt. Over the course of the evening, Matt managed to make me feel old, inadequate, clumsy, ignorant, techno-illiterate, backwards and - frankly - insufficiently blue. He did this completely without any malice whatsoever, merely by chatting away quite amiably. He must die.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Megnut vanished! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2000 11:35:56 PM ----- BODY:

newsflash: Megnut.com disappears in mysterious circumstances, leaving only a string of numbers: 2146893056 (0x80090300). Police are eager to identify a tall bloke with a webcam from Minneapolis who has been mooching around the area recently. More information as we have it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: T'cfm@b$- gj$#t xmub*g^rmqvyi*@#owfw&bu^$bl--vn.vC^fe%$#p@^@z,vi unw#r^%xUlyv(d-t^xczuj.j*a),rDq@yvm(xveyo^^.ox*)m@vkpDge& (ybz@-npu.dh@)jo-$mbqu$*c*rttnrl*ime*%^x$t. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2000 09:51:55 AM ----- BODY:

T'cfm@b$- gj$#t xmub*g^rmqvyi*@#owfw&bu^$bl--vn.vC^fe%$#p@^@z,vi unw#r^%xUlyv(d-t^xczuj.j*a),rDq@yvm(xveyo^^.ox*)m@vkpDge& (ybz@-npu.dh@)jo-$mbqu$*c*rttnrl*ime*%^x$t. via Powazek and NotSoSoft. [key / URL sans http://www.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An Antivert for "Buy Nothing Day"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2000 09:54:56 AM ----- BODY:

If this works properly then you won't be able to read this until Saturday morning GMT. I've decided to support Buy Nothing Day by removing the weblog completely and replacing it with an anti-advert. I'm not particularly keen on the upcoming Day Without Weblogs, so I thought I'd do my bit for something else that I care about. I'm not sure whether that makes me more or less ethical generally. Anyway, the plan is that I will still be able to post in the background, just without any of you actually seeing it until Saturday.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The dirty thrill of buying stuff on Buy Nothing day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2000 01:30:49 PM ----- BODY:

There's a thrill whenever you buy something expensive. Particularly when you know that you can't really afford it. I've been thinking of getting a DVD player for ages, and my mother just gave me some money towards it for Christmas. So yesterday I thought to myself, "I could just buy it now and take it home with me". But it was Buy Nothing Day! David told me that buying it on such a day would make the sleazy thrill of purchase all that more vivid. And he was right.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another reason not to see Billy Elliot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2000 01:59:44 PM ----- BODY:

The insightful Mr Hon provides several exciting new reasons for me to not go and see Billy Smelly-Fart. Currently I'd only got up to: "Isn't this Brassed Off, The Full Monty, Educating Rita etc done all over again?" and "I don't want to see another little guy makes good / it's grim up north film" and "How come American films manage to be entertaining and cool without wallowing in national self-deprecation?". But now (from Dan's epinion) I have this new gem:

"Let us not forget, either, that ballet is for poofs. But that's not a problem here: Julie Walters, known more or less as "Miss" for the duration of the film, is quick to reassure Billy that Fred Astaire and his friends weren't gay, and aren't they wonderful."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A return to old templates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2000 03:03:42 PM ----- BODY:

PLASTICBAG.ORG has returned to the blue template while certain technical reformatting issues are undertaken behind the scenes. There will probably be a few anomalies over the next week or so. Please be patient with me!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It can't get any worse than this... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2000 03:42:32 PM ----- BODY:

It looks like I experienced the same awesome thrill as Meg and Luke the other night. I too sat through Ghost in the Machine on Channel 5, constantly thinking, "It can't get any worse than this, surely?". But it did.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Camden's Graffiti... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2000 04:28:07 PM ----- BODY:

"At that moment, it finally began to dawn on Blue Ruin that the empire of the Barbelith Underground must now almost be ready to assume total world control."

I was out in Camden on Saturday, at the Spread Eagle, and I found some Tom Coates graffiti in the ladies' loos - though, in a demonstration of the fact that Camden is no longer the repository of all that is up-to-the-minute, the scrawling simply read barbelith.com.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How shall I hurt Mark Olynciw? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 12:07:16 PM ----- BODY:

Dicing with Death (1): Mark Olynciw refers to me as "deranged". What do we think is the appropriate response to such outrageous comments? Tar and Feathers? Chinese Water Torture?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh wondrous Bartleby! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 01:17:55 PM ----- BODY: I'm slightly awed by bartleby.com - a website which contains hundreds of "Great Books" in their full form online. This includes the complete works of Shakespeare as well as stuff by Einstein, Tolstoy, Wilde and many others. An endlessly useful resource.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Who am I? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 01:45:25 PM ----- BODY:

I was born on the same date as the man who runs this weblog. My parents were called Andrew and Sarah, but my mother died when I was two years old. My father remarried, but my stepmother was murdered in 1892. Her body had been felled with 19 blows of an axe. Though I was acquitted, many people believed that I was responsible for this killing. Who Am I?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh lovely Spike Magazine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 07:41:03 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks (I think) to SPIKE magazine for the kind words:

"Two blogs I've been enjoying recently are plasticbag.org and Little Yellow Different. I think because both are concise, funny, honest and bitchy in roughly equal measure.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blog Family Robinson... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 07:48:38 PM ----- BODY:

Read all about our favourite Weblog Family Robinson in an article on how technology can keep families together. [USA Weekend]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Underground Metropolis... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 09:17:02 PM ----- BODY:

I've finally started the process of getting barbelith.com ready for its new role as massive, subversive, underground metropolis of orgiastic power. I feel very proud of myself.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy Birthday Nick! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2000 09:26:56 PM ----- BODY:

Regular readers will know all about Nick (aka Corny). For those of you that don't, he posted on kitschbitch.com while Katy was away, is a regular in the Barbelith Underground and he's currently working on getting fridgepoet.co.uk up and running. But all of that is basically incidental. He's a good friend and an old friend and it's his birthday today. So Happy Birthday old chap.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gang of Mimes, Gang of Clones... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2000 01:28:57 PM ----- BODY:

Film recommendation: The Warriors (1979) [*]. I watched The Warriors on TV last night, and I've never seen anything as funny in my entire life. Imagine New York in the late 70s. Imagine all the gangs are trying to find eight members of a rival gang on the streets of Manhattan. OK so far?

Now imagine that every gang wears themed dress. And not any themed dress. But gay themed dress. So you get gang members running around half-naked except for red leather waistcoats. Other gangs wear black leather peaked caps, chaps and have 'taches. And then there's the gang of mimes. And the gang who look like Little League Baseballers, only sponsored by Kiss. And then there's the Evil Brady Bunch Dungaree Wearing Roller-Gang, and evil Lesbian gang "The Lizzies". A classic movie. Up there with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I made my first post STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2000 04:31:58 PM ----- BODY:

I made my first post to Disturbing Search Requests today, after receiving a virtual plethora of visitors who came seeking, amongst other things "Office Slag Porn", "Breckin Meyer Naked" and "Sexy Gay Duck Men". I'm extremely depressed by the idea that these people come here and don't find what they are looking for. So depressed in fact that I am thinking of putting up little pages based around what I think they are looking for. That way everyone's happy...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If anyone owned plasticvag.org, captainfex.com STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2000 04:37:07 PM ----- BODY:

If anyone owned plasticvag.org, captainfex.com or notsodoft.com they'd get a ton of traffic off my typos. Send me your your amusing URL typos (not of course assuming for one minute that anyone thought the ones I did above were in any way amusing).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Assembled from a huge number STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2000 05:34:19 PM ----- BODY:

Assembled from a huge number of satellite images scanning the earth at night, this image from NASA is possibly one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. Be warned though - this is a fairly substantial download (500k-ish). [via metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Robert Downey Jnr has been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2000 01:49:12 PM ----- BODY:

Robert Downey Jnr has been arrested again for drug possession. This time: Cocaine and Methamphetamine. I just don't get it. At some basic primal level I just don't get it. Why would he do it? Can someone explain that to me? Yahoo! News.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to see Memento STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2000 02:11:24 PM ----- BODY:

I went to see Memento last night with a couple of friends from work. I'm still reeling a little. The people I went with seemed to find the film 'obvious' and 'boring'. I, on the other hand, came out frustrated and mildly confused. It just didn't seem to be as clear and definite an ending as my compatriots claim that it was. So I've been digging around on the net today to find some more insight into it. So far I've come up with these sites: IMDB, Guardian Unlimited Film of the Week, Movie Review Query Engine, Observer Film of the Week.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rebrand Democracy with Oh Messy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2000 03:07:19 PM ----- BODY:

Rebrand Democracy with Oh Messy life.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Gently does it: Mild sex STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2000 05:44:05 PM ----- BODY:

"Gently does it: Mild sex can halve the risk of a heart attack" That's right, ladies and gentlemen - even pointless, lacklustre, unimaginative, dreary, workaday, missionary, vanilla sex with someone you are bored with can have tremendous health benefits. So get out there today and actively pursue some mild sex today!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've looked everywhere. I've looked STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2000 06:27:08 PM ----- BODY:

I've looked everywhere. I've looked in Variety, Hollywood.com, Independent, Megastar, Gist TV, Fox News and CNN. I've even looked at entertaindom. But nowhere in anywhere that I have looked can I find anything to support Kerry's assertion that Robert Downey Jr had a Wonder Woman outfit in his hotel room when he was busted.

Addendum: Evidence Found (thanks to mirskyink). Also see The Smoking Gun for original documentation of the arrest.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Celebrity encounters: Oxford Circus tube, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2000 10:54:47 AM ----- BODY:

Celebrity encounters: Oxford Circus tube, 10.30am: Luke of CaptainFez.com infamy, wearing grey coat (pockets on the arse) and looking glazed and moist eyed. Morning old chap!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm about a thousand years STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2000 11:00:52 AM ----- BODY:

I'm about a thousand years out of date - I didn't even know that the MediaGuardian was online. I'm a little surprised that they didn't follow the *****unlimited.com convention that they do over the rest of the site. Todays stories include: "The Sun in Page 3 cybersquatting row".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It may seem like a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2000 11:17:39 PM ----- BODY:

It may seem like a slow day, but things are chugging along nicely behind the scenes. All I need now is slightly more time. A week off would be incredibly helpful. With Christmas approaching, you may think my dreams will shortly be coming true. But let me rephrase: a week off alone would be incredibly helpful. Too many projects to think through and develop. Much much too little time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fuck me. I'm sorry, but STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2000 11:26:13 PM ----- BODY:

Fuck me. I'm sorry, but fuck me. Introducing a stupidly large list of weblogs courtesy of Ghost in the Machine.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Super Vision gives tetrachromat women STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2000 11:46:34 PM ----- BODY:

Super Vision gives tetrachromat women a more colourful world ... at the expense of their male children. [via Metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Help your gay children at Christmas... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 11/30/2000 12:15:00 AM ----- BODY:

A few years ago, while at University, I was quite active in gay politics - I was publicity officer at Bristol's Lesbian and Gay Society for several years. I made some nice posters, and stood in the foyer of student buildings asking people to sign petitions for an equal age of consent. An equal age of consent that still doesn't exist, I might add. I'd get people not looking me in the eye, and saying that they "just didn't agree with that kind of thing".

Every so often I'd be forced to listen to people tell me that "being gay is a choice and an immoral one at that". But I'd be meeting young gay people who were too scared to come out the closet or who had been thrown out of their homes (and once stabbed) by members of their own families.

But it was always the statistics that made it clear to me why I was involved in the politics of it all. Gay teenagers were two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than straight teenagers. They were two to three times more likely to succeed as well. They were considerably more likely to be living on the streets, to suffer from depression or to be driven to cut themselves due to low self-esteem. When I was in journalism school I wrote a piece on a child who had been systematically taunted for being gay at school. He committed suicide as a result. Ironically, even after death, no one knew for certain whether he was actually gay or not.

All this came back to me today because of this article about San Francisco's preparation for the holiday season. While I know that the vast majority of you are pretty gay-friendly (you wouldn't be reading this otherwise), I'd be really grateful if you'd read this and give a thought to how you'd react if your son or daughter, or your best friend, or even if your mother or father after many years finally worked up the courage to tell you they were gay. And perhaps you could even think how you might make it easier for them to tell you if they were.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The awesome 0sil8 stirs once STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2000 09:41:33 AM ----- BODY:

The awesome 0sil8 stirs once more, except this time if you're outside the US you're out of luck.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This week my awesome namesake STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2000 03:56:40 PM ----- BODY:

This week my awesome namesake Tom the Dancing Bug explains the universe from its beginning to its end. Most interesting fact - the Universe has never won an Oscar.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't even remember the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/2000 11:24:12 AM ----- BODY:

I can't even remember the last time that I read twenty-five pages of a site in one sitting. The internet isn't really designed for articles of that kind of length. But I came upon a site this morning with such a tasteless, entertaining premise that I found myself addicted immediately, and read every page, looked at every graph and examined carefully each photograph.

TheSpark.com's challenge to the world was named The Fat Project. The two people who signed up for it had to gain 30lbs in 30 days. If they succeeded, they would be given a $3000 prize. Be prepared for fat calipers, unappetising underwear photos, a magician, one hundred eggs, a radio show and two cheques...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally it's happened. Britain has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/2000 02:02:03 PM ----- BODY:

Finally it's happened. Britain has finally brought the gay age of consent in line with the straight one. Now, people of either persuasion can sleep with people from the age of 16 without fear of prosecution. In the end the government had to use the Parliament Act (which says that if the House of Commons passes a bill twice but the House of Lords blocks it both times, then the government can force it through [elected representatives having to have the final say]). PlanetOut, The Independent (comment), Guardian Unlimited, The Independent (article), ITN.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly the most depressing picture STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/2000 03:53:35 PM ----- BODY:

Possibly the most depressing picture ever presented of the inhabitants of our fair isle is that, at heart, we are best represented by Swindon. I'm off now, to coiffure my six feet of nasal hair.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 9am: There are stirrings in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/2000 12:59:11 PM ----- BODY:

9am: There are stirrings in the flat. Kate has decided to get up early and is in the sitting-rrom talking to her mother on the phone. The acoustics of the flat mean that, despite the fact that the sitting room is at the other end of the building, almost all of her words are completely clear. I wake up, feel like I'm intruding and immediately turn on some John Lennon so that I can't hear what she is saying. I have to be careful though, because I don't want to wake up my other flatmate in the next room.

10am: It's no good. I'm awake, and I might as well just admit it. Kate's still on the phone, but I can't hear more than a mumble, so I decide to read the book I bought yesterday. It's really enjoyable, but I'm a bit groggy and disorientated so it's not really sinking in. I feel kind of grumpy - like I've woken up in an environment that is rife with tension. There's no reason to feel that way. But all these feelings fade in a moment when Kate knocks on the door and hands me a package from Amazon. Opening it, I am amazed to discover that it is a Random Act of Kindness from Lance Arthur - a copy of The Iron Giant on DVD along with a slightly cryptic, but very sweet message.

11am: My whole mood has changed now - I feel really cheerful and relaxed. It's just such a nice thing to do out of the blue. I am going to e-mail him immediately and tell him what a difference it has made to my day. All gifts should be given like this - there shouldn't be the pressures of Christmas to make giving something worthwhile - you shouldn't feel obliged. So I'm going to carry on this sentiment and go and find someone elses Amazon wishlist and give them a gift out of the blue - maybe we can keep this going all around the net...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't want to go STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/2000 08:40:51 PM ----- BODY:

I don't want to go on too much about the Age of Consent issue on this site, because I think everyone knows my opinion on the matter. So instead I will talk about a site which alleges that it wishes to get other people's opinions on the matter: AgeOfConsent.org.uk. Sponsored by the people who want to keep an unequal age of consent, it includes this page where you can vote: Vote on the age of consent debate.

Quite apart from the fact that the question is heavily loaded to completely miss the point of the whole exercise, the questionaire requires you to fill in your name, postcode and sexual orientation. One wonders why they want this information, and what it is used for once they have it. Certainly I'm not comfortable giving my name and address to homophobic right-wing bigots. Still, thankfully it doesn't seem to have had the slightest impact on the voting, which is sizeably (59/49) in favour of equalisation. Suck on that, Baroness Young.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: How should I react STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/2000 09:44:39 PM ----- BODY:

Question: How should I react to this? plasticfag.org [via hoblog] At the moment I'm torn between wry flattery and absolute blind fury. Part of me is getting mighty bored of being gay.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We all know about Disturbing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2000 09:36:57 AM ----- BODY:

We all know about Disturbing Search Requests - the weblog that allows you to post some of the bizarre ways that people have accessed your site. But I was surprised how disturbed I was by Lycos' list of the Top 50 Search Terms. Assuming (for a moment) that sex related words have been removed that still leaves us with: Rush Lumbaugh at #12, Tattoos at #17 and Marijuana at #19 - the latter of which might explain the presence of Pecan Pie at #36. These are the obsessions of the web generation...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today at work, my esteemed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2000 05:44:18 PM ----- BODY:

Today at work, my esteemed boss revealed the awesome wonder of a "holiday chart" complete with little stickers, each of which designates a separate worker. My sticker is a pink triangle. Without wishing to sound too sick, the irony of this has not escaped me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone in my office has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2000 06:11:14 PM ----- BODY:

Everyone in my office has a mobile phone. In the UK at the moment, it's not really particularly surprising - almost everyone I know in London has one - from librarians to film execs, from journalists to lawyers. But is this ubiquity about to have a cost? In a feature called Deadly Decoys, it appears that some phones are not just cooking our brains with stray radiation. Some phones are instead actually guns. Could this be the first time in which professional criminals can blend in most effectively in the media industry? [via metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting place to get STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2000 06:13:50 PM ----- BODY:

An interesting place to get the inside information on what is going on with Macs is at Apple's own PR section. Unsurprisingly, this little section isn't particularly well flagged on their site's main navigation.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Story begins: So I was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2000 09:44:16 AM ----- BODY:

Story begins: So I was walking down Old Compton Street last night on the way from a press screening of Lost Souls to meet some people from the Underground when, passing a fish and chip shop, completely involved in my own thoughts, I practically collide with Max. Story ends.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have finally gotten around STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2000 10:50:49 AM ----- BODY:

I have finally gotten around to registering plasticbag.org on Yahoo! I've always felt a bit strange about putting my weblog on a directory - but I suppose after over a year of writing it, I should probably accept that it's going to stay around a while. Moreover, for some unknown reason, it's the most popular site I've ever done. I must be doing something right. Next stop (I suppose) is to get some meta tags sorted out.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Jason I have stumbled STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2000 11:02:31 AM ----- BODY:

Via Jason I have stumbled upon the user pages for Jeff Bezos on Amazon.com. Bizarrely, these pages include his personal wishlist as well as a whole stack of reviews of (amongst other things) the binoculars he likes. And while you are there perhaps you would feel like buying the cheery multi-millionaire a Zircon 50793 Studsensor Pro 4.0 or a Star Trek electronic key chain (three types requested).

It makes you wonder whether there are other web celebrities or dare I say it ... real celebrities out there with wishlists. I'd love to send Robert Downey Jnr a present. E-mail me if you can find other famous wishlists. It really is astonishing the kind of insight you can get into someone from what they ask for. Which reminds me, I must send a thank-you note to Lance Arthur.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hey - apparently barbelith got STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2000 05:57:12 PM ----- BODY:

Hey - apparently barbelith got mentioned in Disinformation's regular broadcast e-mail. Here is the piece in full:

"Disinfo is the only site I know that will publish the weird juxtapositions like we have today: an adolescent tryst gone wrong, and a profile of a brutal dictator who has evaded justice. I wish I could convince you that such editorial policies were really magical applications of Dr. Stephen Edred Flowers' "Polarian Method", but really, they occur because of chaos. If you've read James Gleick's tome, maybe you should check out "The Invisibles" comic series by Grant Morrison. And if you already know what I'm talking about, why not drop by and say hiya to our friends at Barbelith (http://www.barbelith.com/), surely one of the Internet's coolest meeting places.

Consider me uber-chuffed. Note to self: try to make the upcoming barbelith webzine as unlike disinformation as it is possible to be without defeating purpose of self.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My beloved underground have a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2000 05:59:59 PM ----- BODY:

My beloved underground have a new project: "Help me hunt down and ritually slaughter this evil, egotistic, doddering old bitch". I love them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone's looking for Massow information... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2000 06:12:19 PM ----- BODY:

I'm getting about three people a day finding plasticbag.org by typing "Ivan Massow" into Google. As far as I can tell they are clearly serious about finding sites with his name on. I say this because I'm squirrelled away on the fifth page of Google. Should the person looking be Mr Massow himself, drop me an e-mail - I have a couple of questions about mutual friends / acquaintances.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Five minutes with Naomi Klein... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2000 10:48:08 AM ----- BODY:

The Guardian's Books Unlimited site presents: Five minutes with Naomi Klein. No Logo is up for the Guardian First Book Award 2000. [via linkmachinego]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The music industry should be kakking themselves... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2000 11:05:55 AM ----- BODY:

Mac users take note. The few of you that have yet to download the Mac version of Napster should do so immediately, as it is an intelligently designed, revolutionary piece of software. Moral implications aside, anyone serious about the future of the net needs to see exactly how much of a threat it constitutes to traditional music sales outlets. Personal opinion: they should be kakking themselves.

More useful information on the software can be found at the Macster weblog.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Media Web Logs For Fun and No Profit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2000 11:55:41 AM ----- BODY:

An article via Blogger ["Media Web Logs For Fun and No Profit"] asks why more journalists are not maintaining weblogs. I would disagree - I would say that there is more of us out there than you know. I'd put a qualifier on that though - which is that online journalists seem to do it much more than offline ones, and online journalists often get rather submerged into different roles or better paying corporate jobs. I could name four Uk webloggers alone off the top of my head who all work in publishing and/or have been published in national / international magazines - myself included.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want the Godfather films on DVD... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2000 07:05:55 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone know when the Godfather films are coming out on DVD in the UK? They're not on Amazon.co.uk as far as I can see. I have to confess to never having seen them and I'm afraid I'm not going to buy anything on video ever again (unless it's Buffy box-sets and even then grudgingly).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's party time at Meg and Luke's... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2000 08:02:14 PM ----- BODY:

I'm off to a party at Meg and Luke's place in about fifteen minutes. It's pissing down outside and I can't quite remember where they live, but I'm sure that won't be a problem. I'm a little worried that I'll hardly know anyone there. And it's so warm and comforting in my flat - without flatmates or builders for the first time in weeks. It's going to be hard to tear myself out of here. But I'm sure it will be worth it..

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hanging by a chad... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2000 12:11:34 PM ----- BODY:

If one were heavily over-dramatising the importance of America, one might say that it was mildly amusing (in a kind of sick way) that the future of the free world should hang on a "chad".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Culture clash at CaptainSoft's Christmas Party... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2000 11:12:31 PM ----- BODY:

Culture clash at CaptainSoft's Christmas party, as your faithful narrator collides with Rob from the Barbelith Underground. Turns out that his girlfriend knows/works with Meg. I will confess to being a bit of a party pooper at the moment, and so not really throwing myself into the spirit of the evening, but I had much more fun than I thought possible given my current misanthropic/socialphobic demeanor. And just in case I was concerned about the lack of bad pictures of me on the net, Meg has thoughtfully provided a gallery of the whole evening's proceedings.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being the first to welcome her back... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2000 12:37:59 AM ----- BODY:

I wonder if I can be the first to welcome back Katy to the world of weblogging after her first term at Uni. Love the redesign as well, old girl - although I know from bitter experience that people take a change from orange to pale blue very badly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On revisiting flaunt.net... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2000 12:45:16 AM ----- BODY:

I revisited an old haunt that I used to go to all the time this morning, shauna's flaunt.net. And what had her leading personal site become? A weblog. The weblog macro-meme is colonising web-space across the globe. Until this incident I have to say I thought it was an entirely positive movement. Now I'm not so sure. It feels a little like all personal sites are becoming the same.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bizarre search request of the day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2000 02:00:38 PM ----- BODY:

Bizarre search request of the day: nude severus snape. I don't know what I find more disturbing - that people should be looking for porny versions of characters from Harry Potter, or that people should be look of porny pictures of Alan Rickman, who (if I remember correctly was the person mooted for the role). Certainly anyone with a particular fetish for naked evil magicians from kids books would probably be disappointed by my discussion of how cool the name was.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Link page mining (1): Kitschbitch.com. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2000 02:17:47 PM ----- BODY:

Link page mining (1): Kitschbitch.com. What are links pages for? PRIZES? No, foolish child. Links pages are so you can be introduced to sites that you haven't been to before which are recommended in a more permanent fashion than the standard weblog link. In search of inspiration this morning, I decided to look through Katy's links pages, and here are a few of the best sites that I found there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not obsessed. Really I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2000 09:33:35 AM ----- BODY:

I'm not obsessed. Really I'm not. But then I'm not sure it is possible to be obsessed about Buffy. You know - just like it's not possible to be arachnophobic, because a phobia is an irrational fear and everyone knows that spiders are malevolent and will kill you if they get half a chance.

So Channel Four have received eighty complaints about the Buffy spin-off Angel. These complaints have been upheld by the ITC. And Channel Four are apparently surprised. Standard English snobbery comes into action once more - if it's got vampires in it, then it's "cult" and suitable for teenagers only. We'll put it on at 6pm. That's three hours before it's on TV in America, where it is very much a post-watershed show. It's insulting, frankly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OK. Fuck it. In the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2000 02:49:34 PM ----- BODY:

OK. Fuck it. In the spirit of Des Esseintes I shall give in to my darkest lusts and declare today to be officially Buffy day at Plasticbag Towers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm getting a little frustrated STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2000 02:57:12 PM ----- BODY:

I'm getting a little frustrated with the way that Buffy and Angel videos and DVDs are being released. So I own all the box-sets. I'll come out and say that from the beginning. It's important that you know that. But now they are coming out on DVD too. Clearly I'd rather own the DVD box-sets.

But I'm not prepared to wait for them to come out - I mean amazon.co.uk has Season Four Box Set 2 up there just waiting to be pre-ordered (on sale March). But on DVD? No. In fact only the first season is available on DVD at all. And that only came out a couple of weeks ago. What's a boy to do?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: [We interrupt the extended Buffy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2000 11:10:30 PM ----- BODY:

[We interrupt the extended Buffy marathon on plasticbag.org for a brief Disturbing Search Request]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't know how many STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2000 11:16:25 PM ----- BODY:

I don't know how many times I have to tell people that at the heart of Buffy is a rigorous and well developed cosmological and philosophical system that (of course) does not leave huge inconsistencies like "Are all Vampires naturally evil and should they all be killed?" vs "Oh, we like Spike". For clarification on this, and many other pertinent issues to the budding slayerphile, the "Powers That Be" created: All Things Philosophical On Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Derek Powazek expresses his anger STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/2000 10:30:32 AM ----- BODY:

Derek Powazek expresses his anger at Neale's AmIKottkeOrNot site. Then he starts posting to the Discussion part of Neale's weblog (8.12.00).

Jason doesn't seem that phased by the whole thing, and frankly I don't blame him - it seems to me that the whole enterprise is flattering at best and slighty cynical at worst - it certainly doesn't seem to be personally offensive to anyone concerned. One thing is clear from this, however. Derek probably would not respond well to a weblogger doing a parody "Powazek, the Web Avenger" site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Blue Posts (Part One)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2000 12:47:48 PM ----- BODY:

Blue Posts (1): Despite my almost total exhaustion (a direct result of a combination of going for a drink with David, Matt, Jen and Dean last night, waking up at 3am convinced that someone had climbed up the scaffolding and was trying to break into my flat and having to get up at 7am in order to go to the loo before the builders turned it off for twelve hours) and almost total penury (DVDs, credit card bills [New York] and exhorbitant phone bills), I will still be attending the Blue Posts extended weblogging pub crawl this evening. See you there?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's an extremely interesting article STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2000 06:47:17 PM ----- BODY:

There's an extremely interesting article ["Escribitionists": Web Diaries and Self-Representation] on weblogs and subjectivity that I read this afternoon which has me thinking once more about the nature of this medium that we call blog. I'm not going to go into my thoughts on the matter immediately, because I want people to read it before I have my say. I'll amend this post later with my full thoughts. [via metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Important news for all right-thinking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2000 06:54:26 PM ----- BODY:

Important news for all right-thinking people:

THE REAL DEALS
THE BREEDERS played a secret show in LOS ANGELES last night (December 12), the first time KIM and KELLEY DEAL had played together in over six years, NME.COM can exclusively reveal. Following the show Kim Deal explained to NME.COM that she and sister Kelley had moved to Los Angeles midway through 2000. She also revealed that they were planning to go into the studio in early 2001 with Steve Albini to begin recording a third Breeders album.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have two moods when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2000 09:50:09 AM ----- BODY:

I have two moods when I'm out with people that I don't know that well. Mood One: Absolute silence and discomfort. Mood Two: Aggressive, over-the-top and vulgar. See if you can guess which one I was in last night? [clue]

Rollcall: Luke, Meg, Jen, Katy, Matt, Catherine, Dave, Kylie, Dan, Mo. Thanks to Meg for the gallery.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in the middle of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2000 03:11:18 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in the middle of working on a button that people can come and click on which will just take you to any one of the various links from the last four days of plasticbag.org. At the moment it doesn't work on all browsers (and if you have any advice or solutions, let me know), but you can test it out here if you'd like: surprise me. [One of the (many) browsers that this doesn't appear to work in is IE5 (not 5.5) for PCs. Sorry!]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally someone has capped the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2000 07:02:48 PM ----- BODY:

Finally someone has capped the whole AmIHotOrNot.com series of parodies. If you are bored with (deep breath) , AmIKottkeOrNot, AmIGeekOrNot, AmIGothOrNot, AmIMonkeyOrNot or AmIPresidentOrNot then now is the time to get down to fairvue.com for Nikolai's epic AmIAGoodParodyOfAmIHotOrNot.com?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Somewhat unfairly, my fellow STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2000 01:56:19 PM ----- BODY:

Somewhat unfairly, my fellow English webloggers (no names mentioned) consider me obsessed with the size of my stats. This is despite the fact that I decided about six months ago to stop even getting stats for plasticbag.org, a resolution I only broke thirty days ago in order to check that, y'know SOME people were still finding their way over here. 30 days: 15,000 page impressions. I'm turning off the counter now. I'll have another look in six months time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Hello, my name is Tom. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2000 02:14:53 PM ----- BODY:

"Hello, my name is Tom. I will be your host for this evening. I am so utterly clueless, that I have for the first time today noticed that Nikolai produced an MP3/parody version of "We Didn't Start The Fire" a couple of months ago in which plasticbag.org was mentioned. I would like to apologise for my lax behaviour, and I promise to try and do better over the coming weeks."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tonight is the Time Out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2000 06:38:28 PM ----- BODY:

Tonight is the Time Out Christmas party. Last year I managed to be savaged by everyone in the advertising department, embarrass myself in front of this bloke whose presence now raises nothing but ire and get frustrated and aggressive while waiting for a cab [last year's entry]. This year it's held in the office (they ran out of money) and I have the terrible feeling that the level of debauchery will be substantially lessened. More later.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 8pm: I'm taking a quick STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2000 08:24:42 PM ----- BODY:

8pm: I'm taking a quick break from the party because of some bizarre crushing gut complaint. I'll go up again in about ten minutes. In the meantime, using the "follow a random link" bookmarklet, I decided to do some random weblogging. So here are five links that are five random links away from Yahoo!:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's a sad, sad day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/2000 10:45:49 AM ----- BODY:

It's a sad, sad day for the weblogging community:

beebo.org: Sorry.
Sorry--the "Metalog" and "Metalog Ratings" pages are gone, and they won't be back for the foreseeable future.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There was a photo a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/2000 11:53:30 PM ----- BODY:

There was a photo a couple of days ago on the front page of the Independent newspaper with the Cambridge Rugby team on it. I don't suppose anyone could scan it and send it to me, could they? I'm trying to win an argument with a friend. [tom%40plasticbag.org]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want to do a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2000 11:54:28 AM ----- BODY:

I want to do a site that's just like fray.com only kept for only really disturbing / sick stories. Nothing heart-warming. Like stories of the first time you felt even slightly sexual in your life or who you've fucked over most appallingly. Pill popping, wrist-slashing, stories of human depravity. Now that would be interesting.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to the guys STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2000 12:32:55 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to the guys at comp.lang.javascript I think I might now have a new cross-browser approach to the random weblog link button. Here it is: Surprise me. Give it a go and let me know if it doesn't work for you. [tom%40plasticbag.org]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have two projects in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2000 10:09:50 PM ----- BODY:

I have two projects in the pipeline at the moment, one a small one with Katy that is completely mercenary and about half complete. The other one is completely secret and hopefully very cool and very big. That's all you're getting from me at the moment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally, after many many months STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/18/2000 09:09:25 AM ----- BODY:

Finally, after many many months of me silently willing it in the background, Mark appears to have read Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatus Trilogy. Not only that, but he's put a version of the Principia Discordia on his site as well. He's one of us now...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I hope your hell is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2000 02:13:05 PM ----- BODY:

I hope your hell is filled with magazines
And on every page you see a big picture of me.
And under every picture a caption should read.
Not bad for a girl from the gutter like me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kiss my freckled ass bye! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2000 02:19:16 PM ----- BODY:

There may come a day in your life when you find yourself so sick to death of your job, so overwhelmingly frustrated by the lack of respect that your very presence seems to engender, so totally bored by office politics and that boss who you've always found intolerable, that it comes to you that the only answer is to resign and go and find something else to spend your time on.

But those letters of resignation aren't the easiest things to write. You have to be nice, don't you? You can't just tell the truth. You can't catalogue every individual grudge and aggravation that you might have stacked up in your head. I mean, you have to think about your reference, don't you? It's important that you should leave in the same (apparent) good spirits that you joined with. But there is a place for all your petty grievances. And that place is called (satisfyingly enough) kissmyfreckledassbye.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Women might be able to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2000 04:13:35 PM ----- BODY:

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships." Sharon Stone

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank You For The Days: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2000 06:14:12 PM ----- BODY:

Thank You For The Days: Kirsty MacColl is hit by a speedboat in Mexico and dies. [Generic plasticbag.org tasteless comment here.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scroll down the page a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2000 09:00:47 PM ----- BODY:

Scroll down the page a little way to discover the horror that Katy and I went through at a recent screening of Meet The Parents. She and I have had interminable counselling, but I still have flashbacks. The horror. The horror.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just stumbled upon Derek's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/2000 03:23:09 PM ----- BODY:

I just stumbled upon Derek's new micro-site about the writing and subject of his upcoming book: Design for Community. His first post reads: "Observation number one: writing a book is hard." From personal experience from my doctoral work, all I can say is expect a hell of a lot of creative work from him over the next six months to a year, as he finds absolutely any humanly possible excuse to not actually put finger to keyboard. I, for one, am tremendously excited...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can anyone access this article? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/2000 05:58:34 PM ----- BODY:

Can anyone access this article? I found it in my referrers log and can't seem to get access to it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm supposed to be going STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/2000 06:02:55 PM ----- BODY:

I'm supposed to be going to a work-mate's leaving do tonight in Camden. Unfortunately my spirits are at a low (again) and the thought of making cheery conversation while my head is full of bloody murder is not particularly attractive to me. The thought of all the things that I am supposed to be getting done this evening (from washing and packing, Christmas present wrapping to flat-tidying and bill paying) also fills me with a certain degree of horror. I'm off to Norfolk after work tomorrow evening. Finally a break.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I saw Nick today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/2000 06:09:58 PM ----- BODY:

So I saw Nick today for lunch and I brought him a copy of the Matrix on DVD as a combined Christmas and Birthday present, which was slightly embarrassing as then he decided that in order to get me a Christmas present by tomorrow evening, we'd have to go then and there, at which point he reappears with ANOTHER copy of the Matrix on DVD (I know it was a different one, because it was still in the plastic) which of course rather delights me, but at the same time seems rather like an excuse for two people to buy themselves something they have been wanting for ages and pretend it has something to do with Christmas.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cool! Turns out that link STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/2000 09:43:41 AM ----- BODY:

Cool! Turns out that link I couldn't get access to yesterday was a weird embittered attack on blogdom. Not necessarily a bad thing of course. Anything that stirs up the dark pits of our collective trans-conscious is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. What's most amusing to me is that the part that links to me comes in the sentence: "Only if I had the masochistic urge to receive 60,000 acid emails from disgruntled, sharp-tongued (fingered) bloggers would I have the gall to conclude from my brief blogging experience that to blog is to engage in the pursuit of what one extremely popular blogger calls PIPA: Personally Identified Public Anonymity." Which is bizarre as far as I'm concerned, because I've only ever been involved in three major scraps via plasticbag.org in the whole fourteen months that I've been running the thing.

Let's play a game. Rise the challenge. SLAG ME OFF PUBLICLY and I'll write a VERY STERN post about you in return. There you go - can't say fairer than that.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: CODE! CODE! CODE! The lovely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/2000 11:11:44 AM ----- BODY:

CODE! CODE! CODE! The lovely Derek reveals his sexy new front-end. LIVE HTML SHOWS! [via prolific]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: David Gentle rises to the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2000 01:40:44 PM ----- BODY:

David Gentle rises to the challenge!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Inquiring minds really need to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2000 01:47:49 PM ----- BODY:

Inquiring minds really need to know more: Jessica Abbot?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm back in Norfolk STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2000 02:02:29 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm back in Norfolk finally. Yesterday was bloody exhausting. We went for our work Christmas lunch around one, spent £40 each at Belgo Centraal which I now owe my boss (didn't have any money as such). Then there was the obligatory drink at Bradley's Spanish Bar, followed by about an hour of mooching, half an hour of tube travel, forty-five minutes of mooching, a two and a half hour train journey, to be picked up at the station by my mother and brother, before another half-hour drive home. And when I got here, I couldn't sleep. It was too damn quiet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Seti@home reaches the next stage STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2000 02:06:42 PM ----- BODY:

Seti@home reaches the next stage of the search for extra-terrestrial life.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm currently excited about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/2000 12:12:09 AM ----- BODY:

So I'm currently excited about two bits of press I've done recently - one for The Big Issue and one for The Bookseller. The former was orchestrated by a friend of mine, who basically wrote a kind of basic primer for weblogs and decided to cite me quite heavily, despite my extensive attempts to actually provide him with some actual stories. The latter is a much more serious work related piece on how print publishing companies can repurpose content for the web. Again, I must confess, it was partially orchestrated by a friend of mine. Neither of them are out yet, but I'm both excited and slightly disturbed by the prospect of their arrival. I think I'm still trying to work out my relationship to the press. When Derek gets mentioned in Wired I get these little pangs like I'm under-achieving on the web. But being trained as a journalist I know how easy it is to misconstrue, misinterpret or misquote. Anxiety strikes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found via the Underground: Band STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/2000 06:44:58 PM ----- BODY:

Found via the Underground: Band w/trem release an MP3 called Barbelith.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meg is having trouble getting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/2000 06:47:52 PM ----- BODY:

Meg is having trouble getting up the energy to post to her site during the Christmas break. I know how she feels. The only difference between our feelings on the issue is that much of my inability to post is directly related to having to wrestle with my brother's PC rather than my own gorgeous Mac, plus the whole "dial-up keeps dropping" catastrophe.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't stop myself. Three STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/2000 06:49:53 PM ----- BODY:

I can't stop myself. Three times. I've seen it three times. This time with my brother who (I think) loved it. Whenever will I get tired of the trash injection that is Charlie's Angels?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So what will this Christmas STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/25/2000 02:15:05 PM ----- BODY:

So what will this Christmas be remembered for in my mind? It won't be the contribution towards the DVD player from my family, it won't be all my stepfather's family coming around for Christmas lunch. It will be remembered by me for my mother finding the first photograph of my father that I have ever seen. This is the first time I've seen what he looks like since I was about four. And truly he was a beardy-weirdy bloke if ever I saw one. I think I was expecting something slightly ... different..

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For those who have expressed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/2000 02:31:19 PM ----- BODY:

For those who have expressed an interest, I'd just like to reassure you that I will indeed be scanning the picture of my bearded father for popular consumption as soon as I am back in London.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank fucking Christ. I am STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/2000 10:12:40 AM ----- BODY:

Thank fucking Christ. I am back in London with four or five days of complete nothing that needs to be done, with full access to a computer and total and absolute independence once more. I can't imagine anything nicer frankly - except perhaps having my brother down here with me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First thing I notice when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/2000 10:15:23 AM ----- BODY:

First thing I notice when I turn on my computer properly for the first time in a week: kitschbitch has produced her best design to date. Very clean, very clear, and with a defined idea for the look that I must confess to be a little jealous of.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spotted: on Oxford Street, a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/2000 07:55:47 PM ----- BODY:

Spotted: on Oxford Street, a teenage boy is hitting the sales with his brother and parents. On his t-shirt, large print, white-on-black, reads "Masturbation is not a crime". Spotted: on the Internet, a weblog: "Masturbation is not a crime". Are the two related? I don't know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Coming to a cinema near STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2000 12:37:01 PM ----- BODY:

Coming to a cinema near you courtesy of the New York Times (if you can bear to go through the whole registering palaver): "Invasion of the Blog" starring Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. The crowds go wild. [Addendum: Metafilter discusses the article]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The two questions I get STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2000 12:44:07 PM ----- BODY:

The two questions I get asked most regularly about the sites that I run are, "What does barbelith mean?" and, "What is barbelith.com about?" [I've left out the "Where do you get off being so self-indulgent?" one, because the answer to that should be obvious to everyone.]

The answer to both of the first questions is in my mind answered by a few choice passages in Douglas Coupland's Girlfriend in a Coma, which is an interesting book that spirals off the rails in a couple of places:

"Didn't you feel as if all of the symbols and ideas fed to you since birth had become worn out like old shoes? Didn't you ache for change but you didn't know how to achieve it? And even if you knew how to do it, would you have had the guts to go forth? Didn't you want your cards shuffled in a different way?"

This sense of frustration with the world just not being as cool as it should be - as if all the magic popped out for a cigarette and never came back - is something I think I share with everyone on the Barbelith Underground. We're starting a cult. You want to join?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is appropriate protocol? When STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2000 10:13:50 PM ----- BODY:

What is appropriate protocol? When someone writes something about your site that you think is incorrect - or you think should inspire further conversation - should you e-mail them and talk to them about it. If the original comment is a criticism, should you be able to address it? Or is it more appropriate to "rise above" criticism?

I've just been reading dissing.org. Brief bit of history on this one. A while back someone who posts to dissing.org wrote something about plasticbag.org that wasn't a criticism - but brought some fairly standard concerns about weblogging (how useful/interesting personal content was on a site for example), and asked a couple of questions (like how many people read sites like plasticbag.org).

I wrote an e-mail which I thought explained why I thought personal content had a place. I don't know - perhaps it sounded harsher than I intended. I don't think it did. I'm now trying to work out if I should have said anything at all or not. The reaction I've got from the site seems completely out of proportion to the e-mail I wrote. So here's my question to you - is it better to respond to criticism or to ignore it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I know that the design STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2000 10:17:45 PM ----- BODY:

I know that the design aspect was never their main priority, but I have to say I am delighted that Haddock.org has redesigned. The new look is much clearer and more intuitive to use.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is the future of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/2000 01:22:41 PM ----- BODY:

What is the future of comic books? For many of you that question will seem laughably redundant. I mean - who cares about comic books? Well you should care - and not just because the rest of the world's media feed off the disposable writing encased in these 24 page periodicals - but because comic books are direct taps into the heart and soul of pure imagination where nothing is limited by budgets, ideas can be germinated quickly and circulated faster, and where a man can just as easily fly as he can meet God.

So what is the future of comic books? Warren Ellis' State of the Comic Book Nation.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC does their review STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2000 03:38:03 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC does their review of the year's films: "Hollywood's year of nostalgia". The only parts of the article that I disagree with heavily are the penultimate couple of paragraphs: "But the movie to cap 2000 has to be comedy Meet the Parents, starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I stumbled upon something completely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2000 05:09:32 PM ----- BODY:

I stumbled upon something completely astonishing today - something that I don't really know what I think of. I think you'll be able to gauge your own level of interest from the title alone: "ARTIFICIAL SYNCHRONICITY, language MANIPULATION, KUNDALINI AND THE CORNERS OF REALITY: HOW THEY'VE TURNED YOU INTO A MENTAL SLAVE & SOME TOOLS TO HELP YOU DECONSTRUCTING THIS BRAINWASHING AND GETTING FREE FROM THIS CIRCUS". [Interested?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone know anything about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2000 05:51:03 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone know anything about the technical underpinnings to hushmail? It has been suggested to me as a free, encrypted and relatively secure form of web-based POP3 e-mail.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's 11.30pm on New Year's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2000 11:33:25 PM ----- BODY:

It's 11.30pm on New Year's Eve, and I think for the first time in about ten years I am not the slightest bit frantic, worried, depressed or feeling inadequate. This is also the first time in ten years that I didn't go out for New Year's. After last year - all of the pressure to enjoy yourself, the frantic obsession with the new millennium appearing, the cold weather, the mud, the crowds - nothing appeals to me less than going out. So fuck it. I'm going to stay in and do stuff that I like doing: watch movies, eat pasta, read books.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 12:01am: May I be the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2001 12:11:28 AM ----- BODY:

12:01am: May I be the very first UK weblogger to welcome you to the New Year. For good or ill, we are now living in science fiction - it's the 21st Century by anyone's reckoning. A strange computer called Hal is about to become sentient and then go insane. Monoliths are being discovered even as we speak. Arthur C Clarke is feelish a bit sheepish generally, I would warrant. [2001]

There has never before been as much weight of fantasy placed upon a year - indeed upon a century. The world has never seen change as dramatic or as rapid. There has never been this many people to will a new vision of the planet from the ether. Reality and Fantasy are colliding, and for once I'm not entirely sure which one will win. May you live in interesting times.

[Happy Millennium from Jeffrey Zeldman]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nikolai presents the first annual STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/02/2001 03:32:18 PM ----- BODY:

Nikolai presents the first annual weblog awards, otherwise known as "The Bloggies". Much as awards are a fairly dubious enterprise, this one seems to be very much in the spirit of the weblog, including categories such as "Best Meme" and "Best Article or Essay about Weblogs". plasticbag.org is eligible for at least six categories in my opinion, and it would be nice if someone nominated me for something. But other places that you should certainly consider looking before you make up you mind include: prolific.org, notsosoft.com, riothero, interconnected.org, zeldman.com and kitschbitch.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Separated at birth? The stunning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2001 09:21:22 AM ----- BODY:

Separated at birth? The stunning director of Magnolia, P T Anderson and Bryan - some bloke wearing a Weblog Wannabe t-shirt. [More on some bloke called Bryan]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do your duty: Blogger appeals STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2001 09:24:22 AM ----- BODY:

Do your duty: Blogger appeals for donations. You can get some stickers out of it, and it's just possible that with speed might come a re-energised search facility... [Addendum: Is there any way that Blogger could treat donations as an investment rather than a contribution?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So tonight it's the international STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2001 09:35:32 AM ----- BODY:

So tonight it's the international blog IRC (Internet Relay Chat), which is held at such a time as to be nigh on impossible for anyone in the UK to attend (assuming they work of course). I'm going to try to attend tonight, at least for a while. In the meantime, I will appeal to the organisers of the weekly event to bring it forward an hour and a half so at least there is some possibility that the European contingent will not be coma-ridden the following day.

"It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. Tonight bloggers will meet on IRC for our weekly night of chatting. Here's where you can join us: Time 8:30 PM Eastern / 5:30 PM Pacific / 1:30 AM GMT. Server irc.turlyming.net at port 6667. Channel #BlogIRC" [quote from fairvue.com]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I went to this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2001 12:08:07 PM ----- BODY:

So I went to this birthday party last night at an Indian restaurant near Buttock, having left Twattenham Court Road at about 6.45pm. On the way back I had to decide how I was going to get home. Should I take the Central Line and change at Oral Circle, or the Circle Line and change at Onion Terror. In the end I took the latter, and finally arrived home at Maiden Vulva at 11.30pm.

Sorry for my childish behaviour. I'm afraid I am currently completely overwhelmed by the incredibly funny, and yet almightily rude and offensive altubemap, orginally discovered by linkmachinego. I wonder how many of these names our American cousins will even understand.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The thing I love about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/04/2001 09:48:56 AM ----- BODY:

The thing I love about Mark is that he's not afraid to express his opinion. Which in my opinion, you know, is probably a good thing.

"this whole "server fund" is really about raising money to bail jack saturn out of jail. how can i prove this? i can't. but i most certainly believe that the folks at pyra, such as ev and meg, have deliberately slowed blogger down to a crawl as an effective scheme to raise the money for their pal.

"instead of paying to support the massive number of blogs there are.. we shall take this as an opportunity to take eradicate the abhorrent infestation!

"i am building an army of judges, email me if you're interested. we will divide up alphabetically, on a mission to read every single weblog in existence. we will judge the blog worthy of continuance. if the weblog does not meet our standards, the creator will receive a polite email mentioning, "YOU"RE STEALING all the fucking BANDWIDTH. TAKE DOWN YOUR FUCKING BLOG! IT SUCKS!""
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Appeal for help: Does anyone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/04/2001 02:18:54 PM ----- BODY:

Appeal for help: Does anyone have any idea how to use Jabbernaut? I installed it on my G4 today and it doesn't seem to actually do anything it is supposed to. Can you help me? [Addendum: I have had very helpful e-mails from prolific and joannou.net saying that they can't figure it out either. This software is not recommended.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pixelflo launches Web Trumps - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2001 11:58:52 AM ----- BODY:

Pixelflo launches Web Trumps - a new Top Trumps style game where you can play with your favourite web celebs, down-at-heel webloggers, and gods like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Based upon Dan Hon's Blogtrumps, I am delighted to add that I have my very own card. The whole enterprise is a great laugh, but it does bring up issues regarding the nature of web celebrity, and its disconnected, "clumpy", community-based nature.

Let's say, for example, that I ran two sites (I run several more, actually, but that's not the issue). Both have very different subject matters. Both have received about the same number of page impressions at various points. The two are not connected in any particular fashion. In both communities (weblogger / fan) the site that is relevant to them are well known, while being completely unknown to the other community. At this point you have to ask yourself about whether all communities are equal. Because of (often) our industry connections, do webloggers have an unnaturally significant impact / public image as opposed to other communities on the net? Are we, in fact, more equal than others?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few quick links: musekick.BLOG STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2001 12:19:00 PM ----- BODY:

A few quick links: musekick.BLOG uses stylesheets in a fashion that somehow looks harmonious and elegant despite using a substantial variety of different line-spacings, font sizes and the like. It reminds me of some of David Carson's typographic work in a weird way. Proto-web god Grant Morrison releases his latest memeflood into the etherica. Speaking of which, I didn't realise that Network Solutions were now selling one year domain registrations, or that their pricing structure had changed, or that they were now selling the .tv domain [more] as well (etherica.org is available to buy).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the biggest news of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2001 12:47:21 PM ----- BODY:

So the biggest news of the day is that yesterday morning I handed in two months notice at my job as Production Editor at timeout.com citing as a reason that there was no longer space for me to take my role forward in a direction that I was comfortable with. I wonder what I'll do now. [Thanks to: Humanlint, Prolific and Meg for wishing me luck.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yesterday afternoon was spent dozing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2001 11:22:01 AM ----- BODY:

Yesterday afternoon was spent dozing through my second visit to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and having weird conversations with Meg and David. Is this what the future holds for me? [Pics: Tom, David]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For those Americans amongst us, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2001 11:59:17 AM ----- BODY:

For those Americans amongst us, here's a very bad preview to the movie Snatch, which my flat mate worked on and which really is pretty damn good in places. Go see it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hypothesis: 1) The Oscars are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2001 12:36:40 PM ----- BODY:

Hypothesis: 1) The Oscars are essentially a populist enterprise that reflect the basic passions of the audience rather more than (perhaps) they should. 2) The IMDB is a similarly populist enterprise. 3) It might be plausible to compare the top rated films on the IMDB with previous "Best Film" nominated movies. 4) If there was a significant degree of similarity, then we might be able to predict the 2001 "Best Film" nominations.

Let us first turn to the nominations for last year's Oscars. These were: American Beauty (winner), The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider and The Sixth Sense.

The IMDB ratings for the same year are as follows: American Beauty (winner: 8.7/10, 31532 votes), Toy Story 2 (8.3/10, 9645 votes), The Sixth Sense (8.3/10, 26850 votes), The Matrix (8.3/10, 39617 votes), Fight Club (8.3/10, 20546 votes), Being John Malkovich (8.2/10, 13311 votes), The Green Mile (8.1/10, 12928 votes), Magnolia (8.1/10, 10177 votes), The Insider (8.1/10 10177 votes), The Straight Story (8.0/10, 3243 votes), The Iron Giant (7.9/10, 3812 votes). All of these films are in the top 100 films.

The only film that the IMDB does not rate is The Cider House Rules, which suggests a certain degree of reliability (although there clearly may be self-reflexive factors in play, as people are encouraged to watch new movies by their Oscar nominations). There are also, however, notable discrepancies between the two lists. It cannot be conincidental that the more artistically challenging and/or violent films fell foul of the Academy. Nor can the exception of genre pieces and/or films ostensibly for children be ignored.

Now let us turn towards the IMDBs recommended films for the year 2000. The most notable difference between the two years from the perspective of the IMDB is that there are simply many many more highly rated films in 1999 than there were in 2000. The list below is the complete list of all films made in 2000 that made it into the IMDB Top 250. There were eight of them, with a top ranking of 45. The previous year is represented by sixteen films in the top 250, of which five are in the top fifty alone. Clearly 2000 was a fairly dubious year for film-making.

IMDB's top rated films for 2000:

Working on the principles briefly established, ignoring particularly challenging films (Requiem for a Dream), animated / childrens films (Chicken Run) and genre pieces, my predictions for the 2001 Oscar nominations for Best Picture are as follows:

I'll be down the bookies with a fiver, then.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Meg and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2001 01:11:33 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Meg and David for coming up with an in-joke so obscure that we will surely be hounded to death by clique-busters for the rest of our lives. I will confess to it being very amusing - at least to me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The short interview I gave STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2001 01:53:16 PM ----- BODY:

The short interview I gave to the Bookseller magazine about repurposing print content for the web is currently in print (5th Jan 2001): "Chat Room". I'd appreciate input from anyone in the industry who would like to comment upon it. [e-mail: tom%40plasticbag.org]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick happy birthday to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2001 02:24:19 PM ----- BODY:

A quick happy birthday to David Bowie, a tremendously creative individual and an influence to every person in the world who ever wanted to "gazelle on stage and look pleased with [themselves]".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big Issue #419: Read my diary STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2001 02:39:58 PM ----- BODY: by Matthew Ford [e-mail] Bloggers scour the internet, blog what interests them, read other blogs, and if they see something they like, they blog it on their own blogs too. Tom is disappointed by the lack of debauchery at his office party, passionate about the creative potential of the web and sometimes strangers like his site enough to send him presents. Tom is a blogger and I know all about him because for the last few months I've been reading his weblog (www.plasticbag.org). In its purest form a weblog (or blog) is a collection of links, commentary and often intimate diary-style content. Blogging is a DIY publishing phenomenon thousands strong, made possible by Pyra, a company that produces a feww internet application called Blogger (www.blogger.com). To the uninitiated, bloggers can seem narcissistic and slightly geeky, but by putting their lives online they're probably closer to the DIY utopian dreams of the early internet pioneers than any dotcom 'cash cow' can ever be. Websites used to have to be slowly hand-coded, but Blogger makes it possible to set up a site in minutes, edit it in seconds, and work on it anywhere with internet access. The result is an international, inconnected community. Some cult sites get thousands of visitors every day, develop a devoted community of readers, and inspire soap opera-style discussion. Two of the most influential US bloggers - Meg (www.megnut.com) and Jason (www.kottke.org) - were outed when sleuths discovered their private romance through clues on their sites. Bloggers frequently copy, parody and play with ideas from each other's sites. Many bloggers work in internet-related jobs, and blogs are often the source of trends that are hyped across the web. The ease of publishing on blogs allows individuals to talk to the world, perhaps in a way they couldn't talk to their friends and family?cated to special interest groups like gay politics (www.hit-or-miss.org/queeries) or media gossip www.medianews.org). Blogging can seem a strange world, but it's free, playful and constantly innovative. Isn't that everything the net should be about? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Matthew Ford talks about weblogs and weblogging for the UK's 'Big Issue' magazine - and discusses plasticbag.org in the process... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So my first day back STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2001 06:28:49 PM ----- BODY:

So my first day back at work after handing in my notice went by fairly smoothly. It kind of feels like everyone is looking at me like I might snap at any moment and douse them in petrol, which couldn't really be further from the truth. As it is I feel this really strange mixture of horror and delight at my actions.

Because I am leaving, I don't feel as emotionally involved in the site and the decisions that are made about it. This means that work itself has become quite relaxing. And as the stress fades, the things that I love about the company are becoming clearer to me: the people I work with are almost uniformly great and I love the company's attitude and outlook. This then triggers the horror - I've handed in my notice. Oh my god. But it only lasts a moment. I know that if I stayed I'd be fighting the frustration daily.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A new article about weblogs, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2001 01:01:46 PM ----- BODY:

A new article about weblogs, in which I am name-checked (along with blogger, megnut.com, kottke.org, web queeries and medianews.org) illustrates the gulf that lies between journalists and the finished product. While the feature itself says:

[Big Issue Jan 8-14 2001]
"Essential Multimedia: Read my diary"
"To the uninitiated, bloggers can seem narcissistic and slightly geeky, but by putting their lives online they're probably closer to the DIY utopian dreams of the early internet pioneers than any dotcom 'cash cow' can ever be."

... the pull quote (the part that is larger than the main text and sits in the middle of the article to encourage people to read it), in a piece of impressively 'missing the point' editing reads as follows:

"They're geeky, but they're close to the DIY dreams of the early internet."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just stumbled upon what STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2001 03:10:20 PM ----- BODY:

I just stumbled upon what I assume to be an old interview with Jason Kottke, in which he is asked Seven Questions - mostly about Weblogging. It must get very frustrating for him to be known for a site that encapsulates only a fraction of his work on the net.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As Organizine shuts its doors, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2001 03:35:05 PM ----- BODY:

As Organizine shuts its doors, and everyone asks why, one sole piece of comment comes from its creator: "Mistakes were made".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Awesome new stuff from Apple STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2001 10:42:49 PM ----- BODY:

Awesome new stuff from Apple includes: itunes (free MP3 encoder / ripper / player), omnipotently powerful powermacs and sickeningly gorgeous new powerbooks [design in detail]. Note to self: it is very important that my new job (whatsoever that may be) can provide me with enough money to buy a powerbook.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it's nearly 11pm and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2001 11:05:04 PM ----- BODY:

So it's nearly 11pm and I get a text message from my flatmates which demands to know what film Nick Nolte and Treat Williams have been in with a room full of monsters (or something like that). So I do a search on IMDB and it says that the only film that they have been in together is: Mulholland Falls. I assume that monsters was supposed to read Mobsters as that's what the film is about, and predictive text input is always a little buggy. So I send a message back telling them that and get a reply saying that apparently the correct answer was Deep Rising. So I feel let down by the IMDB and suddenly concerned about the kinds of questions that my flatmates ask me long distance on a Tuesday evening.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Due to a particularly interesting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2001 06:13:30 PM ----- BODY:

Due to a particularly interesting and apparently "old-fashioned" and "biologically determinist" section in Susan Blackmore's The Meme Machine (Chapter 10: 'An orgasm saved my life'), I've been scouring the web for information on evolutionary psychology's positions on homosexuality. As yet, my aims remain relatively unrewarded, but I have found an astonishing document of an almost staggeringly dubious nature, which may or may not be true: "The Evolutionary Psychology of Human Sex and Gender". One of the horrors of the Internet is, of course, that there is a lot of information but little way of judging what parts of that information are accurate and based on expertise or authority. I'm going to be pondering this one for a while, I fear.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gallup poll: [via Metafilter] As STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2001 09:49:06 AM ----- BODY:

Gallup poll: [via Metafilter]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bizarre facts about stair-cases? rebuke.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2001 11:56:47 AM ----- BODY:

Bizarre facts about stair-cases? rebuke.org reveals all. [Courtesy of notsosoft.com]

"An architect guy I met said that when designing stairs, you should always have an odd number, because people tend to take the first stair with their leading foot (in my case, my left), and it balances the body better if the last stair is on the leading foot as well. "
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spotted, Cool T-shirt Slogan: "And STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2001 06:42:07 PM ----- BODY:

Spotted, Cool T-shirt Slogan: "And Jesus spake unto Burt Bacharach: 'I am the way to San Jose'."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: UK Readers: Take note, for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2001 06:51:59 PM ----- BODY:

UK Readers: Take note, for this evening Disinfo Nation returns to Channel Four. Featuring Richard Metzger, chatting uber-web god of disinfo.com infamy, this TV show not only has included an interview with Robert Anton Wilson, not only included a glowing review of my other main site Barbelith, but is also soon to feature an interview with anarchist anti-god-head Grant Morrison - the man who has most systematically lit the fires in my Ur-head-space over the last ten to fifteen years. Be awed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For the delectation and fulfilment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2001 07:26:40 PM ----- BODY:

For the delectation and fulfilment of the basic geek instinct that is primal to our natures (huzzah), I hereby present to my compatriots in arms an article about 'IT', an astonishing and revolutionary new concept and product for the 21st Century. Apparently.

What is 'IT'?
"Harvard Business School Press executive editor Hollis Heimbouch has just paid $250,000 for a book about IT -- but neither the editor nor the agent, Dan Kois of The Sagalyn Literary Agency, knows what IT is."

"All they do know: IT, also code-named Ginger, is an invention developed by 49-year-old scientist Dean Kamen, and the subject of a planned book by journalist Steve Kemper. According to Kemper's proposal, IT will change the world, and is so extraordinary that it has drawn the attention of technology visionaries Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs and the investment dollars of pre-eminent Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, among others. "

[Addendum: The BBC catches up with plasticbag.org.]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We love pete@norriscomputing.demon.co.uk. We love STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2001 11:27:59 AM ----- BODY:

We love pete@norriscomputing.demon.co.uk. We love him because he owns bigbollocks.com, which may or may not be the UK's favourite website...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After-dinner discussion (• • •) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2001 11:40:54 AM ----- BODY:

After-dinner discussion ( ) last night has led me to believe that an Andersen Consulting-style rebranding exercise might be in order for the weblogging community. Merely take two words that you feel 'represent' your site in some way, and then combine them to produce your newly rebranded site-name. If in the process you can spend $600 million, then all the better. With this spirit of adventure in mind, I hereby declare plasticbag.org to be called 'fascillåte'. Bow down in ironic awe.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I added my StorTrooper to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2001 12:04:05 AM ----- BODY:

I added my StorTrooper to Threadnaught's ever growing page of StorTrooper webloggers, which I would heartily recommend that everyone participates in. Perhaps we could have badges made for any upcoming London web-meets so that people can recognise us more easily. Alternatively, I suppose I could put a photograph on my site. Revolutionary thought. That's what I'm known for.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I saw my first picture STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2001 12:49:45 PM ----- BODY:

I saw my first picture that may or may not be from the Tobey Maguire-starring Spiderman film today. I can't actually tell whether or not it is a photograph, which probably bodes ill for the production, but if this is Mr Maguire in the outfit, he's certainly been doing some exercise recently.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why Blogger Empowers Mindless Nits:"Ah, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2001 12:57:48 PM ----- BODY:

Why Blogger Empowers Mindless Nits:
"Ah, but see, that's the rub - it's not about creating good content, its about creating ENOUGH content so that people will look at it, thinking you have something important to say. And with blog wars, blog voting, and "via trails", it's no longer about WHAT you have to say, but rather HOW MANY people are listening."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Since I am going to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2001 03:22:45 PM ----- BODY:

Since I am going to have to be drearily positive for the next seven weeks as I scrabble around for a new job, I thought I may as well take this opportunity to moan about how appalling my life is at the moment in laborious and tedious detail.

1) Shortly to be unemployed. 2) No love life worth talking about since Max who, let us remind ourselves, is busy exploring the limits of desire with a series of teenagers. 3) I have to move out of my flat at the beginning of May and don't know where I'm going to move to. 4) It is all cold and wintery outside. 5) I have bad hair and skin failure. [Summary: job/love/flat/hair/weather disasterous.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't tell from the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2001 10:49:47 AM ----- BODY:

I can't tell from the picture whether or not this is real, but it is very amusing. Now if they did a Mac version, with some of that Apple design genius - well I might just have to buy one: The self-sustaining geek machine.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone is going to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2001 10:59:01 AM ----- BODY:

Everyone is going to be linking to this in a couple of hours, so I might as well get in early. Meg finally presents her mini StorTrooperDance page.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On 72 dpi... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2001 12:23:35 PM ----- BODY:

So I've been reading this book called 72 dpi which contains some of the most startling pieces of web design work that I've ever seen plus a considerable amount of commentary which is slamming the conventions of user interface design (most notably the left-navigation or tab-based models that many sites operate with).

I'm not going to comment on the apparent sterility of corporate user interface design because I think there is a substantial case to be made for systems to be usability tested and to follow a few conventions of the medium as is rather than as it will be. But there is always a case for work that inspires you to challenge convention. So here are some of my picks from the book.

bionic systems, grayscale.net, kabeljau.ch, futurefarmers.com, designershock.com/de [via 72dpi: buy the book | 72-dpi.org | portable]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found unopened in Inbox (sent STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2001 07:15:24 PM ----- BODY:

Found unopened in Inbox (sent August 2000):
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Consider yourselves warned - the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2001 10:52:59 PM ----- BODY:

Consider yourselves warned - the UK weblogging contingent are taking to the streets this coming Tuesday in what is being affectionately referred to at the moment as The Return of Vodka Jelly. All are welcome to attend.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An old site constructed by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2001 11:12:11 PM ----- BODY:

An old site constructed by me that still has the power to amuse me, particularly as it reflects my interests of the time: Noah Wyle, Sean Lennon, Lard and lots of half naked men. Flashback to: Fragmentary Life.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pictures of my father... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/15/2001 10:30:27 PM ----- BODY:

A while ago I recounted the story of the day before Christmas Eve, when my mother suddenly presented me with a picture of my father. I hadn't seen him, or (to my knowledge) a picture of him since I was around four or five. Needless to say this came as a bit of a shock, even though I had mentioned to my mother in passing several months before that I didn't remember what he looked like.

This feels a bit like cheap melodrama, but it's probably one of the most important things lingering in my head at the moment, so I should probably share it with the world. Imagine my shock when I realised my father (bottom-right) was a big, baldy, 70s-style beardy-weirdy...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.45.42 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/02/2003 06:02:13 PM So tell you what - is this picture of you? If so - why not drop me an e-mail? tom [at] plasticbag [dot] org or leave a comment here... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm contemplating installing Seti@home on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2001 01:41:07 PM ----- BODY:

I'm contemplating installing Seti@home on my Mac at work and leaving it on over weekends and evenings, having read computer.org's piece "SETI@home: Massively Distributed Computing for SETI". I used to have it installed on my old PC, but my fascination waned a few months ago. I started wondering when we might start to see some results - even if they were all negative. Then I stumbled upon an article on Wired.com: "Seti: Is Anybody Out There?", that reignited my hope. And now this new article... Well it's too good to resist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Altavista.com has a substantial list STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2001 05:18:12 PM ----- BODY:

Altavista.com has a substantial list of articles about weblogging, which should be read by anyone who is interested in starting one. There's a whole range of material, from definitions (also: 1), instruction manuals and columns (also: 1, 2, 3) to manifestos, FAQs and interviews / features (also: 1). There's something here for everyone.

I'm quite interested in finding (or creating) a directory of articles about weblogs and weblogging. If anyone knows of any other interesting links, let me know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm really tempted to apply STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2001 11:02:43 AM ----- BODY:

I'm really tempted to apply for this job as Information Architect. It looks terrifying and challenging. It is possibly just out of my league though.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Meg's Broken Mirror Project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2001 11:14:28 AM ----- BODY:

I'm completely astonished by Meg's ability to take hundreds of unflattering photos of everyone she meets, and yet never put the ones of herself on the web.

Last night was possibly the largest meeting of UK webloggers to date. There were over twenty people present, most of them drunk. Particular "heys" go out to Matt, Darren, Matt and Davo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a Viral Marketing Strategy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2001 11:45:47 AM ----- BODY:

Viral Marketing Strategy: my editor was sent a hand-written postcard with a URL (http://www.ramitin.co.uk). Lurking on the site is a 70s-style macho-car-porn-parody Quicktime video which you have to see to believe. Assumption: timeout.com editor will send it to influential media people, resulting in full press saturation in two-to-three weeks, and a first full feature for the director within six months. We shall see if it is successful.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On an elegant design... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2001 09:12:26 PM ----- BODY:

Walking West provides possibly the clearest and most elegantly designed weblog links and (brief) review page I've seen to date.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The History of Yahoo! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 01/18/2001 12:35:06 PM ----- BODY:

Inspired by a footnote in Information Architecture for the World Wide Web which reveals the secret name of Yahoo, I have undertaken a search on the site in question for information on its history. Here are a few facts that you might not know about the benevolent patriarch of internet directories:

So what is the secret name of [god]Yahoo![/god]? David Filo and Jerry Yang insist that the name was chosen by themselves because they considered themselves 'yahoos', but many others suggest that the name is an acronym from a more wild geek frontier, an acronym which stands for: "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A List Apart confronts the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2001 06:10:09 PM ----- BODY:

A List Apart confronts the current 'crisis' in the web creative industry in the US. The effects of the recent down-turn in dot-com fortunes has yet to hit the UK with quite as much force as it has in the US, although each week another dire e-commerce venture sinks vaingloriously beneath the mire (with a silent chirp of 'yes!' from me).

The situation in Europe and the UK is of course very different from that in the US - the UK has had the benefit of watching the US and either following in its wake or slowing down. When I went to Los Angeles last March I was astonished by the amount of web-based ventures advertising on television and advertising all over the place. That level of hysteria has never quite been replicated over here. Also, one of the benefits of the trans-atlantic delay is that many companies who got two years of funding are not going to run out of it, quite yet (give it another three months). And why? Because they got the funding after their American compatriots.

The rest of Europe is another case again. Some countries (Spain for one) have yet to invest heavily in the net, and so have the whole boom and bust to come - albeit probably with a certain degree of awareness of how America responded to it. It will be, by all accounts, a much less dramatic endeavour.

Which is of course why our esteemed prolific can say (which such ease and peace in her heart):

"Crisis? Wot crisis? Plenty of work here in the Netherlands, no sign of a slump. Our company is small, has longstanding clients. We will be merging with another smallish company that also has solid clients. Neither company ever had to rely on 'VC' money."
Ý Ý Ý Ý "There are 180,000 jobs unfilled in the Netherlands. I'm not worried. I'm lucky. At last."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am one of Nikolai's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2001 11:12:47 PM ----- BODY:

I am one of Nikolai's randomly chosen collective of first round judges for the Bloggies project, which is both tremendously interesting (there are so many sites that I haven't come across before) and incredibly tiring. I must have ploughed through a good couple of hundred sites today (before, during and after work) that I haven't seen before - some of which are significant finds, designed well, or about subjects that fascinate me.

For any of you who might be interested, here are the numbers of first round nominations that plasticbag.org and various other sites that I like received: plasticbag.org: 4, notsosoft.com: 7, kitschbitch.com: 2, kottke.org: 6, lukelog: 3, evhead.com: 4.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where are the Blogger clones? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2001 04:20:32 PM ----- BODY:

Where are the Blogger clones?

This text has been edited:
"If anyone out there is prepared to 'lease' the rights to develop Organizine or something similar then I beg of you - transform the web again. Give the common man access to the means of high quality media production. Lets watch the divisions between the uber-media and the micro-media blur still further, so that those of us who love the concept of online content management tools, but who have reached the limits of what Blogger can perform cleanly, can be free to create new content, new cultures and ever new worlds."
tom%40plasticbag.org
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This may be the best STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2001 04:54:34 PM ----- BODY:

This may be the best description that I have written of the Barbelith Underground:

"This forum was originally created by a group of people who found a part of themselves inspired by what is commonly considered the lowest form of trash culture: the comic book. Something in this comic book spoke to their dissatisfaction and frustration with the world as it stands today. The writer of the comic book had felt the same way, by all accounts, and wanted to use his medium to help people recognise their own feelings of dissatisfaction with the world and channel that into a creative energy of transgression, answering back, full-on teen rebellion. The call to arms was promptly answered.

"The Barbelith Underground is, above all, about change and idealism. It's about change because the world is not what it could be, it's not what it SHOULD be either. It's about idealism because the world should be a place where imagination can thrive, not a place where it has to be constrained and controlled.

"Beyond that you're unlikely to get consensus - the wonder of this place is that you can come here to be inspired, not to be told what to do. And this can lead to frustration - what you think should be done may not be done by all. It might not be done by any. Some of our number believe in the power of direct protest, some believe in the power of the viral idea, some believe in bombs and guns, some in books and media. Some are liberal, some are libertarian, some are ... not.

"Start a thread, create an idea, propose a cause and hit the streets, or ... don't. But wake up."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nanotechnology from the top-down? "Careful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2001 04:57:06 PM ----- BODY:

Nanotechnology from the top-down? "Careful on that couch! It could be a resting robot. Scientists are starting to make robots out of smart building blocks that make them morph into different forms to suit the job they are doing. Eventually, the researchers hope to use thousands of microscopic units to make infinitely flexible machines, fit for any task."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yet another article on weblogging, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2001 12:46:43 AM ----- BODY:

Yet another article on weblogging, this time from zdnet.com. This one, at least, doesn't miss the point quite as much as some others: "But, regardless of whether they manifest themselves in the corporate world, blogs in their purest forms will remain throwbacks to the early days of the Web, when the rallying cry was the democratization of information and individual empowerment - not initial public offerings."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This weekend has passed like STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2001 11:48:57 AM ----- BODY:

This weekend has passed like so many recently - in a complete blaze of do-nothing apathy and computer-assisted life-avoidance. The proposed redesign of plasticbag.org has come to nothing (so far), nor has the rebuilding of the Barbelith Underground, the bloggerising of the news page at The Bomb or the assembling of an architecture for the whole barbelith/plasticbag/filmsoho assembly of sites. Also I have yet to do the thing for the collaborative project I'm supposed to be doing with Matt. More to the point, I haven't really done a lot of job searching yet, either.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2001 11:50:44 AM ----- BODY:

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over': "My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us." [via linkmachinego]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am consumed with unimaginable STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2001 08:21:41 PM ----- BODY:

I am consumed with unimaginable fury and wonder (and went a bit 'I'm really pointless and should kill myself' for about ten minutes) when I stumbled upon interconnected.org's new design. It's incredibly peacefully and elegantly put together, that manages (somehow) to artfully break up the linearity of the daily weblog entries with tasters for other bits of highly creative work that he's put together.

I am all consumingly jealous.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Words that appear too much STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2001 08:55:40 PM ----- BODY:

Words that appear too much in articles about the near-future of the internet and a list of weblogs in which they appear:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Daze of our lives: "The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2001 01:20:00 AM ----- BODY:

Daze of our lives: "The Welsh National Ballooning Team of 1874. Every man on the team was scared of heights, so their record altitude was four feet two and a half inches."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Over the last four or STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2001 09:13:34 AM ----- BODY:

Over the last four or five months I have received the same piece of junk mail (in a variety of different formats) at least eight to ten times. Apparently coming from the e-mail address 'hahaha@sexyfun.net', it contains an attachment and reads as follows:

"Today, Snowhite was turning 18. The 7 Dwarfs always where very educated and polite with Snowhite. When they go out work at mornign, they promissed a *huge* surprise. Snowhite was anxious. Suddlently, the door open, and the Seven Dwarfs enter..."

Today I received the same e-mail twice, with one version being written in Spanish. I finally snapped and did a search on the net, only to find that it is a worm-based virus that sends itself to anyone who sends e-mail to an infected computer. All the information you need in order to deal with the virus is here. But be warned, I know for a fact that at least one of the people who has sent me e-mail has contracted this virus. If you've ever seen it, or think you might have opened it, run a virus check immediately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So voting is now open STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 09:22:10 AM ----- BODY:

So voting is now open for the 2001 Bloggies, and alongside it has come the standard amount of concern about popularity contests and competition between webloggers. plasticbag.org is (I think) in good company in the 'best european weblog' category (co-nominees are prolific, kitschbitch.com, notsosoft.com and lukelog. I think I'm voting for prol.

[Addendum: horrified / flattered to see that Meg and I are also up for 'Weblog of the Year'. Now I feel tremendous performance anxiety.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything: OK STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 09:34:05 AM ----- BODY:

Tom Coates Explains Everything: OK - I'm going to assume that a few people are going to find this place who haven't been here before. In order to make things easier for said people, if you need any questions answered about anything (What is the capital of Uganda?), then e-mail me and I'll put up my response here. [tom%40plasticbag.org]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most important line in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 12:18:47 PM ----- BODY:

The most important line in the best joke I have heard (and/or repeated) in years: "What shall I do with my long bony fingers and my big rubbery lips?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything (to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 04:04:55 PM ----- BODY:

Tom Coates Explains Everything (to Martin Stevens): In answer to your questions, I am 5'10", I have never had therapy but I took anti-depressants for six months many years ago, I have never had sex with a woman and my favourite cake is the heavily marzipan-laden 'Battenberg'. Next!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In science fiction films, the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 06:04:24 PM ----- BODY:

In science fiction films, the aliens always have much more powerful technology and make all the humans feel inadequate. I feel that way about people who have expert command over more than one language. Which makes me very embarassed to shamefully beg for help in translating a post from prolific.org's other site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything (to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 09:52:49 PM ----- BODY:

Tom Coates Explains Everything (to Tom Cosgrave): Standing up, against the wall. (to Grant Balfour): Marriage is a powerful meme that intersects with the biological imperative of the Selfish Gene, but does not overlap it precisely. I would suggest that memetic dominance in your character makes you keen to form such a union while (because it over-rides the biological instinct in your case) making the possible partner in such an enterprise a ridiculously perfect abstraction. (to Paul Kester): No I don't have a Norfolk accent at all. I sound very British. Mark at riothero said I sounded like Hugh Grant, which just goes to prove that Americans don't really know what they are talking about. No, nothing is happening in my love-life either. Wes Bentley will insist on feigning disinterest. And my favourite film used to be Jesus of Montreal, but is now probably American Beauty. The why of the last one is too complicated to go into in depth! Next!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Breaking News: BlogVoices may be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2001 09:58:27 PM ----- BODY:

Breaking News: BlogVoices may be collapsing under the strain of finding a suitable web-host. If anyone out there can help, please do so. Sharpish!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Presidential keyboards lose their 'W'... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2001 12:09:19 AM ----- BODY:

"President George W. Bush has lost his middle initial from many computer keyboards at the Old Executive Office Building in the White House complex. In an apparent prank carried out by departing Clinton administration staffers, Bush aides discovered that dozens of computer keyboards were missing the "W" key." [CNN]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to a press STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2001 12:29:24 AM ----- BODY:

I went to a press screening of The Gift last night. I was masquerading as 'Matthew Ford', a co-worker of mine at timeout.com, who wasn't able to make it. So I'm at reception at 20th Century Fox and the nice lady says, "What's your name?", and I reply, "Matthew Ford, thank you kind lady", (or something like that) at which point two separate people I know but were not expecting to be present howl "Tom!" across the room, at which point I immediately go "Yes!?", immediately triggering raised eyebrows from reception woman who now suddenly resembles Baba Yaga, Russian Hag.

The film itself was fairly average, which was a pity. It had a great cast (Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Greg Kinnear), but a fairly run-of-the-mill plot (psychic helps in murder case and might become the next victim) which everyone at the screening figured out fairly early on. Keanu played psycho surprisingly well, but all his effort was rather undercut by his "Bill & Ted do the Deep South" accent. And there were at least a couple of moments that could have been lifted completely from What Lies Beneath. Worth a look if you need a scare but are feeling undemanding.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything &#149; STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2001 09:18:11 AM ----- BODY:

Tom Coates Explains Everything
&#149; (to David Gentle): No, I am afraid I have not considered strapping myself to a rocket as a plausible option in getting to SXSW, but thanks for asking. And the answer to your second question is that genius isn't appreciated in its own lifetime.
&#149; (to Ernie Hsiung): Weirdly enough I don't think of sex in those terms. There have been times when I've wanted to be dominated, and times when I've wanted to dominate, and probably more times when I have enjoyed the vanilla democratising of sex that is becoming so popular with our straight cousins.
&#149; (to Bob Johnson): I don't know if I could say that I've driven a tractor, but I've been in one many times as my uncle and grandmother own farms in Norfolk. Farmyard animals are a bit of a mystery to me as all the farmers in my family grow sugar-beet and wheat, but I suppose I'd have to say that I'm quite a cow fan. And my favourite poem is (I believe) by George Herbert and starts: "He that is weary, let him sit...". But I'm not really a poetry fan, if I'm honest. My second favourite poem is, after all, by Ivor Cutler and goes: "If your breasts are too big, you will fall over. Unless you wear a ruck-sack".
&#149; (to Joe Macare): No, Buffy is not getting crap, although it is of variable quality at the moment. The place to go at the moment, however, for the higher quality related kick-ass action is Angel, which gets astonishingly good towards the end of the first Season.
Next!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If someone doesn't think of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2001 09:18:35 AM ----- BODY:

If someone doesn't think of a way to get me to the SXSW Interactive festival soon (ideally with Katy), I swear to god I might snap like a twig in a blender.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could the people who come STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2001 11:18:59 AM ----- BODY:

Could the people who come to plasticbag.org from such companies as CharlotteStreet, BBC and bomb.co.uk please look around and see if there are any interesting jobs going on in their vicinity? Thank you!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief history of Tom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2001 01:40:31 AM ----- BODY:

1990: Travelling around America aged 18, Tom has bought himself an ironic Mickey-Mouse cap.

1993: Travelling around Europe by rail aged 21, Tom has grown his hair ironically long.

1994: At his graduation aged 22, Tom ironically makes a pass at a completely uninterested classmate.

1995: Living alone in his first year as a postgraduate, Tom takes to wearing tight shirts that used to belong to his grandfather. Ironically.

1996: In Bath, Tom develops an ironic overbite and a Brideshead Revisited look.

1997: At a friend's party in Bristol, Tom appears with a nice hair-cut and an ironic goatee beard.

2000: Our long journey comes to an end. Look how far Tom has progressed in life! Stick out that ironic tongue, Tom! You know we love it!

2002: And now some later additions: With loony stary eyes! Being ironically creepy-looking! Check it out - my eyes move in opposite directions!

2003: A trip to Helsinki leaves Tom contemplating a simpler life as a fisherman:

2004: A few months of systematic hair-growth (my hairdresser refusing to cut my locks) leaves Tom looking like an ironic tramp or a cult leader.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: manok EMAIL: manok@graffiti.net IP: 203.76.213.50 URL: DATE: 01/12/2004 11:30:46 AM No offense. At first I thought that the guy on 1994 looks like a gay. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: flambingo EMAIL: anno@pavilion.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.flambingo.net DATE: 01/15/2004 01:53:53 PM isn't 1996 peter mandleson? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Matt for posting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2001 09:38:24 AM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Matt for posting the Geographical Tube Map - I've been wanting to see one of these for years. Now if they'd make it a multi-layered operation with an overlay of London streets on it, then it would be incredibly useful.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything • STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2001 09:49:06 AM ----- BODY:

Tom Coates Explains Everything
• (to PJ Gallagher): Your impulse to eat corn dogs and grape juice is more likely (in my humble opinion) the cause of your shit days than a result of them.
• (to Kylie): The official plasticbag.org line on queercompany is that anything that aggravates Middle England is OK with me, but that I am interested to see whether or not the image of two men kissing is more offensive to the masses than women getting it on.
• (to Kali): No, strudel is beyond my meagre talents in the kitchen, I'm afraid. I think I missed out on many of the important gay genes that make you able to decorate effectively and not fart in public. The straight men who are not completely insensitive to a woman's feelings (like my mate Nick) have an evolutionary advantage and will gradually erase homo crapulence from the planet. You have my word.
Next!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spread the word. I want STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2001 02:02:41 PM ----- BODY:

Spread the word. I want it on all of your sites by the end of the day: "Backslapping Wank for the 21st Century: Vote plasticbag.org for Anti-Bloggies 'Most Banal Content'!"


Campaign Supporters: Not Enough Of Me

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything (Part Five)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2001 09:57:17 AM ----- BODY:

(to Nick Cornwell): No, dear chap, I was not 'pulling your pisser', and should you wish to know what the conversation was about, then merely scroll further down the page.

(to Whalen Toni): Yes I have indeed read slash fan fiction. Back in the mists of time I used to spend a lot of time over at alt.tv.er, uk.media.tv.er and alt.fan.noah-wyle, which is where I first stumbled upon the phenonemon. I have to confess that I find the idea of women getting turned on by writing about men having sex with each other slightly strange (I assume this is the point). Most of the women I talk to swear that this does nothing for them. Well it certainly does something to me... There is a particularly interesting (and well written) series about Dr John Carter (from ER) and Skinner (from the X-files) which everyone should read immediately. If anyone has the URL I'll link to it ASAP.

(to Marshall): Until this point, my feelings of inadequacy did not apply to Furbies, but now you have pointed out that said creatures can launch into a thousand languages while running on an Energizer battery, I feel crushed and pointless as a human being. Thanks a lot.

Next!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Etoy vs. eToys... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2001 12:53:10 PM ----- BODY:

Art Collective Sues Dot-Com For Trademark Infringement
In what might possibly be the most superbly postmodern twist to a wonderfully subversive story, etoy is suing the arse off etoys.

"Etoy, which may be the world's only artists' collective with a business plan, alleges that because it was around before eToys, the toy retailer should not be allowed to use a similar name that could be confused with its own."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Load Urge Rectum Girl... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2001 10:47:49 PM ----- BODY:

I received a referral today from Google via Yahoo!. Someone had typed in "load urge rectum girl". I was, of course, the first result. Which fills me with worry. Am I fulfilling the needs of the Load Urge Rectum Girl community? Are they satisfied with the information on my site? How can I turn their initial browsing into a recurrent user pattern? Will they become a repeat visitor? Oh, user behaviour analysis is so very tiring...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/27/2001 02:28:08 PM ----- BODY:

(to David Gentle): I don't think you come across as a dork in e-mail at all, although you sure do send a lot of it! And the reason that Waterstones don't have a proper comics selection seems clear to me - the image of the shop is built around popularising reading as a cultural rather than purely entertaining activity, and as ever with people with pretensions, they are unable to tell the difference between what they find interesting and thrilling and what they think they should find interesting and thrilling.

(to Zenith): Christ alone knows why you find the Underground so intoxicating, old chap, but it's happened to a lot of other apparently intelligent and creative people, something that I feel tremendously happy about.

(to Darren Shrubsole): Yes, on occasion I have been heartily pissed off with weblogging. These things ebb and flow - when you are writing stuff that you find entertaining or important or interesting then it all seems instinctive and satisfying. At other times it seems like a grinding drag - fighting to find words to say. It's worth sticking at, though, because it's become such a staple part of my life that I can't imagine being without it. As to your other question, my plans for barbelith.com seldom get implemented because of time restraints, but at the moment it goes something like this - a webzine on the front which integrates completely with the discussion forum with attached weblogging columnists. From that stage, an anti-advertising server (joint project with Matt, and then free web-mail with barbelith.net addresses. Or something like that.
Next!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh mirage of SXSW... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/27/2001 02:34:51 PM ----- BODY:

As February approaches, and I have just over a month to find myself a new, satisfying and well-paid job to occupy my time, my mind is increasingly turning to SXSW. I'm desperately pining to attend - I don't know that I can cope with everyone writing about what a laugh it was - but I just can't see how I could do it. The cost is just too severe - there's airfare for a start, which alone I could probably manage, but then there's transport to Austin, hotels for three or four nights, the cost of the conference itself, and that's before I've even started drinking. It seems bizarre to me that I can afford to go and visit Kerry and Sean in LA next month (flight only) for a week, but I can't scrape together the money for Austin (which is nearer) for three days.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warning! May not have happened! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/27/2001 02:41:50 PM ----- BODY:

At the last UK weblogging meet, Meg suggested that I stopped calling 'iamcal' 'iamcal', and start calling him by his name, which she suggested might be Cal. Foolish woman. I reminded her at that point that her number was stored on my mobile phone as 'NotSoSoft'. That shut her up...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: SXSW all over again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2001 11:18:59 AM ----- BODY:

It begins. The full on green with jealous-rage fest has started to consume me as webloggers start to talk about SXSW: "Speaking of SXSW, they put up a listing of this year's panels for the Interactive Festival. Among the more interesting ones for me are the interview with Scott McCloud, Interface, Weblogs... Unfortunately, three of those panels have a time conflict with each other, and two more of them take place at the same time as the Microcontent: Beyond the Web Page panel I'm moderating. Dammit!"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two Sundays of frustration... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2001 01:14:58 PM ----- BODY:

That makes two Sundays in a row that I have been stood up for a movie by the same friend, last week she felt 'ill', this week she 'didn't think we had an arrangement' and had already organised to go and see a movie with her flatmate who had 'a bad foot so can't go far'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On fiendish Blogger trickery! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2001 10:51:25 AM ----- BODY:

So I've been working on what hopefully will be the only redesign of plasticbag.org for this half of the year, and I'm going for a more expandable design, and one that hopefully will give me scope to inject more personality into the pages, and I'm busy testing out something when Blogger seizes up and collapses on me, leaving me for several minutes convinced that over a year's work has been lost in an instant.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where are the Movie Heroines? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2001 11:09:58 AM ----- BODY:

I can't be the only one uncomfortable seeing that in a poll of the Top Ten Film Heroes there is only room for one woman - and in a fairly masculine role at that. Apparently, only overtly penis-based heroism counts for anything with the movie-making and movie-going public.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the mind-set of Russian media companies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2001 04:08:57 PM ----- BODY:

This morning's job involved updating timeout.com's page of Moscow links. All in all a pretty thankless task, as the state of the art in Russian media-websites seems to be somewhere pre-school. This is surely not a reflection of the country, but much more a reflection of the lack of money in Russian media companies.

One site that did stand out with Pravda's English-language website, which gives an astonishing insight into the mind-set of the people who used to live behind the Iron Curtain. Amongst stunning headlines appear a few absolute corkers, complete with astonishing introductory paragraphs:

NATO SITE ON INTERNET: A TISSUE OF LIES FROM BEGINNING TO END NATO PROVIDES DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE FOR ITS OWN INDICTMENT
"The NATO site on the Internet is at best a shame and a disgrace and at worst the confirmation that the rest of the world is unfortunately forced to come to terms with: the benevolent air of the perpetrators of the new world order is buried beneath sham, lies, irresponsibility, racism, jingoism and basically, the worst elements of post-fascist western decadence in the last half century."
AIDS CASES GROW IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
"Young people all over Europe seem to have the mistaken idea that by avoiding the issue of protected or unprotected sexual relations by adopting oral sexual practices is safe, but they could not be more wrong."

My plan to do a version of The Onion based upon a stereotypical 50's Russian Propogandist take on the news now seems rather unnecessary...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A conspiratorial approach to SXSW... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2001 08:01:05 PM ----- BODY:

So my epic scheme for getting to SXSW originally went as follows: 1) Buy something off Jeff Bezos's wishlist, 2) mention my craving to go to SXSW and 3) let nature takes its course. Except of course that I immediately realised that that was horribly, horribly corrupt and that I was a bad person. At which point I actually looked at his wishlist, realised that the man is obsessed with some of the weirdest shit on the planet, decided that I should buy him something anyway and then have a cool story to tell people down the pub. Which is what I've done. Jeff should be receiving (any day now) the Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Trilogy Edition.

[Speaking of wishlists (and being horribly corrupt), if you really wanted to, you could buy me something off mine. Think of all the stories you would be able to tell your grandchildren and how much they'd love you for it...]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A selection of firm and attractive links... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/30/2001 09:08:39 AM ----- BODY:

This is a weblog: Sometimes I forget completely that this is a weblog. In order compensate for this, here are some 'links'. Interesting meme possibilities: Weblog playlists? Napster to charge for membership as of June. Yet another reason to be depressed about SXSW: Fray Café. I've been saying for months that e-books will catch on for reference works (although I still maintain that travel books and city guides are going to be the first really successful market).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On E-commerce, bacteria, viruses and memes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 01/30/2001 08:31:32 PM ----- BODY:

Imagine, if you will, a healthy body. Now introduce two types of foreign elements - lets say bacteria and viruses. I'm now going to bastardise their life-cycles horribly. Bear with me.

Viruses need to spread to other bodies before either the immune response of the body finds and kills them, or before they kill the body and are trapped within it - but whatever their evolutionary strategy, they cause damage to the organism concerned. Bacteria on the other hand are more varied beasts. Some bacteria are horribly damaging and can kill creatures, while others have formed symbiotic relationships with their hosts, and can fulfill such functions as aiding digestion. The latter form of bacteria may have an evolutionary advantage over the former, as will the organism that they inhabit.

Now imagine that we are not talking about organisms and their genomes, but instead ideas - memes. Let's pretend that the body is a huge and highly fertile environment for memes - the internet. And now let's consider analogies between e-commerce ventures (dot.coms) and the two bastardised life-cycles I have described previously.

The internet was essentially an environment free from commercial ventures until six or seven years ago, but when the memes were introduced, they flourished immediately. The question for many people was what would these memes do to their host? Would they act in a viral fashion - spreading themselves and gradually damaging it, or destroying it (leaving no room for other memes and leaving an interesting discussion about whether the memes would survive a leap into a still other form of quasi-organism), or would they become the grist that aided the internet's development - gave it an advantage to flourish and develop.

Interestingly enough, for the last couple of years, no one really discussed the possibility that they might simply lose the evolutionary struggle under pressure from hundreds of thousands of millions of other memes born directly from the internet itself:

The Museum of E-Failure
"We call this digital compast heap "The E-Failure Museum" - a multi-megabyte collection of screen capture files documenting the home pages of 120 commercial Web sites that didn't make it."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scroll to the bottom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/31/2001 01:27:57 AM ----- BODY:

Oh now, that's just really nice. (Scroll to the bottom).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Englands not that big to begin with... Why waste the time?" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/31/2001 01:16:59 PM ----- BODY:

A really cheeky comment from the people behind Salon:

New Site Hopes to Stay Unspiked
"O'Donnell said Salon can afford to ignore the British market for now. "We just didn't see the revenue or user base," he said. "There's no business for content in Europe. England's not that big to begin with. I just canceled a meeting there. Why waste the time?"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Suicide by milk...? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2001 09:35:49 AM ----- BODY:

I got home from work last night at about seven with press copies of Buffy and Angel to watch, some tomato soup, ten lucky-dip lottery tickets and the prospect of two episodes of Sex in the City. Enjoyment of same depended, however, on the presence of my flatmate Mella to keep me company. At nine she still, resolutely hadn't turned up, so Meg and I popped down the boozer for a girly vodka and tonic, game of pool (she beat me) and many many fags (note to Americans - wash out your mind). After which, and having returned to the flat, I watched the most depressing ten minutes of Sex in the City ever, contemplated drowning myself in milk as a way to pass the time, played the Pixies and Veruca Salt really loudly, finally watched TV with flatmate between midnight and two am, and find myself (this morning) un-rested and over-bloody-come with hate towards the builders hitting things outside my window.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the best weblog maintained STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2001 09:45:39 AM ----- BODY:

And the best weblog maintained by an Old World Poof goes to: me... I can get some work out of this, right? Congratulations to Zannah as well as all the other people who participated. In the words of an Oscar winner, "they like you, they really like you!". But remember, as the Golden Globes are but a prelude to the Oscars, the real battle is still to come. Remember at all costs: plasticbag.org for most banal content!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsflash from Pyra "It's probably STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2001 12:21:44 PM ----- BODY:

Newsflash from Pyra
"It's probably become obvious to the careful observer that all is not well in the Land of Pyra. Rather than wait for the public speculation and debate, I'm going to say what exactly is going on (from my perspective -- not speaking for anyone else on the team or as an official Pyra/Blogger representative). We found out last Friday that the one most people on the team were hoping for was not going to happen. This took the wind out of the already limp sails people were surviving on, and it was largely decided we couldn't keep this up."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is just a note STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2001 08:26:02 PM ----- BODY:

This is just a note to say that those of you who are frustrated about not being able to get through to Blogger.com should try posting through Newsblogger, as it appears to work OK.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Follow-ups on the situation at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2001 09:33:42 AM ----- BODY:

Follow-ups on the situation at Pyra from: Matt Haughey, Metafilter, Meg Hourihan, Jack Saturn, Peter Merholz & Plastic.com. Also: Jack Saturn's resumé.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Edible Buffy: Because the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2001 12:13:22 PM ----- BODY:

The Edible Buffy: Because the Slayer's Gotta Eat
"There are already a bazillion Buffy sites on the Internet, some specifically devoted to episode synopsis and analysis, the stars, the villains, and even the show's philosophy. I figured I'd make my site slightly less redundant by exploring a heretofore untouched aspect of BtVS: the food." [via linkmachinego]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom and Manuela, yesterday. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2001 12:19:41 PM ----- BODY: Tom and Manuela, yesterday.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting feature that has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2001 12:31:32 PM ----- BODY:

An interesting feature that has recently appeared on Metafilter is the ability to view a list of every personal URL of every member, sorted randomly. Thousands of homepages, ripe for the plucking.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yahoo's "Pay for position" program STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2001 03:11:20 PM ----- BODY:

Yahoo launches a 'pay for position' program which takes the biggest (and one of the last) purely editorially-led directory sites slap bang into the commercial age of post-banner-ad dot-communism. All fairness to them - it's only in the Business categories, where your real-life alternative might only be to go and look in the Yellow Pages (where of course you can pay for different sizes of advert already), but will it end there? I fear not... [Metafilter Discussion]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Writing a weblog is, I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2001 03:07:29 PM ----- BODY:

Writing a weblog is, I suppose, much like squeezing oneself into a dinner-suit or glamorous frock every day in an attempt to make your rather ample or slight figure take on some kind of allure or interest to the general public - only, you know, for geeks.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Have I ever told you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2001 04:31:24 PM ----- BODY:

Have I ever told you how much I love that Meg Pickard woman?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two films in two days STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2001 06:13:39 PM ----- BODY:

Two films in two days - not bad going even for me. Friday night was Shadow of the Vampire with Pippa. Every individual scene of the movie was pretty much flawless - I don't think you could fault them if you tried. Many of the performances were pretty good as well. So how come it felt like it had about twenty minutes of build-up missing? A clumsy little film which is worth seeing if you have nothing else to do.

Saturday night was much more entertaining: Almost Famous at the Swiss Cottage Odeon. While Kate wandered off to watch The Claim, the rest of us downed a couple of double-vodkas before causing trouble in the auditorium. Mella and I whispered to each other, "Is it?", "I think it is!", "Shall we say something?" in hushed giggles before turning around to Nick behind us and asking quite loudly, "Excuse me, are you Joseph Fiennes?!" He was less than amused. As were his immediate neighbours. If we disturbed any of you people out there, then we are heartily sorry...

Of course the first consequence of seeing a film about rock-n-roll and love is that I would be completely caught up in the romance of it all and start thinking about my personal absence of both. There's a moment in a Simpson's episode which I think sums it up for me - the Comic Book Guy is walking down the road just before an atom bomb hits Springfield. And in his final seconds, with sudden realisation and total resignation he says 'Eh. I've wasted my life.'

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: With all these rules, one STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2001 07:41:59 PM ----- BODY:

With all these rules, one thing is clear to me - I'd be a useless gay man...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief apologies to the people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2001 08:56:43 AM ----- BODY:

Brief apologies to the people who are finding plasticbag.org at the top of Weblogs.com's update list all the time at the moment. This is due to the date and time black-strip above, which is fed in through an include. I'm contemplating removing the time, so it would only produce false readings once a day. It's a pity though. Anyone got any better ideas?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Anti-Bloggies have been announced, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2001 08:57:48 AM ----- BODY:

The Anti-Bloggies have been announced, and plasticbag.org is a winner again. Only this time, of course, it's - you know - less flattering. I made quite a push for "Most Banal Content" but in the end that went to SURVIVORblog2, which is really unfair because I'm way more dull than they are.

The award that I won came as quite an eyebrow-lifter to me: "Best Use of a Blog for Personal Benefit". In fact, while I suppose it would be ungracious of me to deny that that was ever my intention, I can certainly state that I've pretty much never received any personal benefit from the site other than a sense of quiet satisfaction. Barbelith regulars have sent me money to help maintain the discussion forum after it caused huge bandwidth problems, but other than a few Amazon links that no one clicked on, and a couple of kind - and spontaneous - presents (particular thanks to Lance Arthur) all plasticbag.org has ever produced is e-mail.

Well all that is about to change - it's time I got some benefit from my larcenous image. Introducing the largest and most obvious link to an Amazon wishlist ever created (to your right). It's red and white and it flashes at you. Buy me shit. Now.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Amazon have started the Amazon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2001 09:32:53 AM ----- BODY:

Amazon have started the Amazon Honor System, which operates in a similar fashion to Paypal, except that it is specifically geared to get donations from people via a button on a web-site. Metafilter are already trying it out: Give Metafilter A Hand.This could come in very handy for The Underground, which has transgressed its disk usage limits for the first time in ... oh ... months.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am rather more than STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2001 09:45:33 AM ----- BODY:

I am rather more than 86% sure that I am a man, so I'm not entirely sure what use the test is, but nonetheless it is entertaining.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I never really believed it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2001 02:30:29 PM ----- BODY:

I never really believed it until this moment, but it looks like being mercenary really works. After my charming appeal (and the instituting of the wonderful flashing red thing to my right, I am shortly to receive three presents from my wishlist. Looks like I might deserve the accolade of 'Best Use of a Weblog for Personal Benefit' after all.

Of course now I feel absurdly guilty about making such a song and dance about the whole thing. So, whoever has bought me these wonderful gifts, thank you very much - I am very much looking forward to receiving them...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just in case my distaste STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2001 04:11:03 PM ----- BODY:

Just in case my distaste for the Valentine season wasn't obvious to everyone, I hereby present timeout.com's Valentine's Cards - all now with added bitterness and frustration and designed by yours truly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Matt goes to the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2001 09:40:38 PM ----- BODY:

So Matt goes to the British Museum to take lots of photos and make a web-gallery of the visit, and does he e-mail me and ask if I'd like to go? Does he my arse.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So last night, Luke and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2001 11:03:01 PM ----- BODY:

So last night, Luke and I went to a press screening of Hannibal at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square. He had managed to get the tickets through work, and rang me just before six to see if I'd be interested in going along. I, of course, was. I'm not going to write too much about the film itself, because I've already written an epinion about it, which - should you wish - you can read at your leisure: Epinions.com - "Pre-dinner conversational gambits: A repository of wit.", by H. Lecter MD [Read Luke's epinion]. Instead I want to write a bit about the experience of going, which was quite extraordinary.

Evidently it is to screenings like this one that make all of London's medialand come together and worship at the big screen. Within moments of us finding our seats in the huge theatre, Luke had spotted Nick Cave looking winsome and worn with a bad dye-job. Then it was my turn to spot Will Self (who incidentally left the film half way through, causing the people on his aisle no end of irritation). And then as we left the cinema, Luke literally fell over Jonathan Ross, who apparently was not looking his best. It was - all in all - a wonderful foray into media-whoredom that I thoroughly enjoyed!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Right then kids, it's time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2001 09:14:57 AM ----- BODY:

Right then kids, it's time to spread the love. Prol has finally hit the ludicrous excessive bandwidth charges that web-hosting companies can charge. And after all the support that I received when barbelith.com caused me $700 worth of damage, it's time to return the favour. Get her address from her and send her some money immediately ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This postcard has nothing to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2001 12:07:15 PM ----- BODY:

This postcard has nothing to do with my life whatsoever. Honest. Definitely. Courtesy of notsosoft.com/vd.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Written for the 2nd Anniversary STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2001 04:43:04 PM ----- BODY:

Written for the 2nd Anniversary of Virulent Memes, Graham Freeman presents his personal history of the state of the weblog nation: "Two Years Is Nothing". These personal histories really appeal to me, but I'd be even more interested in people writing how they are viewing our burgeoning mass today. Perhaps a new project....?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a rant about Green politics... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/07/2001 09:24:07 PM ----- BODY:

What is green politics for? Is 'saving the planet' really worth the effort? And is 'saving the planet' really what we're talking about anyway? If we are honest, people who talk about saving the planet are essentially talking about preserving a world inhabitable by humans. Think of it this way - a few large amounts of time ago, some big thing hit the planet. The consequences of the 'big thing' (I think it was Disco) wiped out many thousands of species. Among these species were the dominant life-forms of the time (Estate Agents). In fact, all that was left was a large crater and an opportunity for cute balls of fluff to slowly occupy the world. The death of the dominant life-forms (or more realistically the transformation of the atmosphere of the world into something uninhabitable by those life-forms) did not result in the end of life on earth. It just shifted things in another direction. And a sexier direction at that.

And while we are at it, why should it matter that life should die out on earth? Does energy die? Do molecules die? No, like good jokes, they just get bashed around a bit and then put to use again in a new form. Face it, we live in a great moral vacuum of remorseless emptiness, and I for one wouldn't have it any other way. So if you could please stop waving those little plastic guilt-mollifying money-cannisters outside my face every morning on my way to work, I'd be really grateful - I don't care about the Pandas or the Badgers or the Trout. If I was in the mood to give money to anyone it would be these people, and frankly I'm not because I fear they might not be quite normal. [Link courtesy of the Barbelith Collective]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank you so much to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2001 09:15:59 AM ----- BODY:

Thank you so much to Stefanie Noble, Herkimer High School Class of 97, perpetrator of fiendish thingy and progenitor of stef.net. You know what for!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going to LA on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2001 09:21:25 AM ----- BODY:

I'm going to LA on Saturday via Virgin Atlantic, and I'm really looking forward to it. Unfortunately I am so bored and frustrated that I honestly don't know if I can make it to Saturday without stabbing someone through the heart with a blunt pencil.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What can I say? She's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2001 12:19:18 AM ----- BODY:

What can I say? She's quite right - I should have spelt it out a little better:

Oh and Tom is referring to the fact that I am actually a man and he has been secretly pining for me and I just revealed my deep inner love within the confines of a small package and we are now off to Tahiti for a bit. Just to get things out into the open, you know.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For a city that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2001 11:17:52 AM ----- BODY:

For a city that isn't supposed to have any seasons, for a city that is always supposed to be sunny, for a city that I'm travelling to tomorrow, Los Angeles doesn't appear to be having very good weather at the moment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things to do when you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2001 01:24:02 PM ----- BODY:

Things to do when you are bored: Heromachine.com: Make yourself a sexy superhero. They may all look gay, but that's only because they're sexy and cool and dress well. | You could go and see Hannibal (Salon Review) if you wanted - you probably wouldn't hate it. It's kind of cool. | When Davo is bored he informs me that his priorities are: "Eat, Sleep, Drink, Man, Woman, Wank." | Whereas when Luke is bored he undertakes: "Procrastination, staring blankly into space, redesigning your blog." | When Matt is bored, he types random things into Google and tries to persuade his friends to undertake advertising campaigns on various keywords.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Discovered via Wired: "Navel Gazing: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2001 03:59:37 PM ----- BODY:

Discovered via Wired: "Navel Gazing: Britney Spears and the Semiotics of the Belly Button" as published by the online arm of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"She was perfectly outfitted in the iconography of the coquette—pleated skirt, kneesocks, pigtails—but the key signifier that positioned her on that cusp between innocence and knowledge was a feature that, although common to all humanity, usually is given little serious consideration—her exposed navel."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: $10 in Adwords STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2001 10:14:19 PM ----- BODY:

I've just invested $10 in buying sponsored links on Google because I thought it might be a laugh. It is indeed a laugh. I'm targeting people who don't have anything better to do with their time than muck around on my site. Unfortunately, the search terms I have sponsored have only been entered six times all day. Very much recommended. [Addendum: Click here!]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shortly to leave for Los Angeles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2001 10:02:53 AM ----- BODY:

Announcement: It is now 10am GMT, and in two hours I will be leaving my flat and heading trans-Atlantically to Los Angeles to stay with Kerry and Sean. Since the flight takes about eleven hours, I am unlikely to post again today. I think I arrive about 2am GMT (7pm PST) at LAX. I'm back next Sunday evening. In the meantime I will, of course, attempt to post whenever I can - but no promises. [What I posted when I went last year.]

While I am out there, however, I would be more than interested in meeting any LA based webloggers or members of the Underground - although bear in mind that I have obligations to my hosts, which may preclude rampant socialising. If you're in LA over the next week and you'd like to meet up, send me an e-mail. I may not reply if I get swamped, but please don't hold it against me. I'm on holiday goddammit!

While we are on the subject, (and since I only compiled the links page of timeout.com's Los Angeles pages a couple of weeks ago), here is a collection of links that might be of interest to locals and/or visitors to the City of Angels: LA Times | LA Insider | Streets of LA | Virtual Voyages | The Getty | LA Weekly | City of Los Angeles.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've arrived in Los Angeles STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2001 03:40:13 AM ----- BODY:

I've arrived in Los Angeles (near Santa Monica and Vine if that means anything to anyone), and am experiencing yet again the wonders of sleep deprivation and chronic jet-lag. I'm not at my best at the moment, that much is for sure.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am currently trying out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2001 10:03:18 PM ----- BODY:

I am currently trying out Melatonin pills as a way to regulate my sleep patterns while I'm out here, as not only do I have the eight hour time difference to deal with, but I also must content with my gorgeous hosts' nocturnal debauchery. Essentially this amounts to a thirteen hour time difference from how I live in London.

It has rained pretty much constantly since I arrived in the city that Time Out says has 'possibly the most temperate climate in the world'. Last week apparently was near tropical heat. Next week is expected to be more pleasant as well. In the meantime though, this makes two trips out of three to LA which have ended in near flooding. I must be cursed in some way.

I am having a cool time though - went to see a cheerleader movie yesterday with Kerry and Sean. I was hoping that the movie would resemble in some form the awesome 'Bring it On'. It didn't. In fact 'Sugar and Spice' sucked arse. Don't see it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In LA for the Oscar Nominations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2001 07:25:32 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in LA for the release of the Oscar nominations, and they are a fairly mixed bag. The most important categories (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay) are mostly shared between 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'Erin Brokovich', 'Quills', 'Traffic', 'The Contender' and 'Chocolat' - but with notable appearances from 'Almost Famous' and 'Requiem for a Dream'. One film dominates though: Crouching Tiger with a total of ten nominations, but even this is matched by the combined nominations for Steven Soderbergh's competing films. Notable (and delighful) absence from Best Film: 'CastAway'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Valentine's Day in Los Angeles STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2001 06:24:57 PM ----- BODY:

Valentine's Day in Los Angeles arrives the same way as every other day, as far as I can tell - I've been up since nine in the morning, and I can expect to wait until midday or one pm before I have any company. The weather has finally broken - it looks really sunny outside, although it's still pretty chilly. I'm off to meet some people from barbelith.com in an hour or so.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've found this internet café STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2001 08:07:42 PM ----- BODY:

I've found this internet café on Melrose called @coffee, which is quite cool, although vastly more expensive than places like easyeverything in London. It's given me a little time to relax with the net - write a little, think some stuff through - generally to get a little head rest. If you can imagine the brain as a muscle imagine mine as tight and contracted - it feels a bit like there isn't space down any synapse for a pulse of thought to travel. Fucking around on the net seems to let my brain relax - to slump like mush and swill around the bottom of my skull. It's more relaxing than it sounds. I need this sensation of emptying stress and excess thought from my mind... Nothing else quite does it for me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: By writing about the Minor STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2001 08:28:32 PM ----- BODY:

By writing about the Minor Musings piece on the reasons for 'weblogging', I suppose I'm really rather missing the point, but nonetheless it's worth talking about. I think it's important that we have these conversations (at least with ourselves) every so often: 'why am I doing this?'. If anything, the longer you maintain a site like this, the more you should be asking it of yourself, and (indeed) the more times you might be stumped for an answer.

In many ways, in the presentation of this site, the last thing that I'm thinking about is whether or not I should be finding new and exciting links for people out there in the ether. So in a sense I'm not a weblogger in the classic mode. But then, I'm not sure that many of us are. The links and commentary approach is, at its most simple form, rather uninteresting. My priorities are slightly different - first and foremost I think of this place as somewhere that I can write - and I use the hypertextual nature of the web to reinforce that writing. It's like tracing an intellectual flow - following through the impulses that one has in some worked-out and public form, and in a place where they are not merely lost forever.

People read my site, and I have to confess that I like that, but I've run a lot of sites (fan sites, personal sites, creative sites) and a lot of people have come to those too. In the end I've deserted most of them. The thing that keeps me coming back to plasticbag.org every day is the opportunity to spark off a discussion, or to say something in a place where I know I'll be heard. I suppose it is a space where my opinions feel valuable, interesting to people. And if weblogging gives other people the same feeling - well I can't helping thinking that it is, therefore, a profoundly wonderful thing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fictional Weblogging: Ok - it's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2001 08:43:16 PM ----- BODY:

Fictional Weblogging: Ok - it's occurred to all of us at one time or another - weblogging is based upon the presumption of authenticity - people actually writing about their own lives. But this presumed authenticity is almost certainly to a greater or lesser extent a fantasy - while I'm sure most webloggers don't lie about their lives, I'd be surprised if people were not selectively choosing what to write about in such a way that would alter people's perceptions of their life.

So I'm sure it's occurred to many of us at certain times to set up fictional weblogs - to generate completely articificial online personae. I know that it's occurred to Matt and Nick because they've both talked about it with me. But what no one has yet talked about is undertaking weblogs of already established fictional characters. I mean - it would be a tremendous fan site for Buffy to have a weblog ostensibly maintained by Willow, with links and commentary based around what happened to her in the latest episode. And from a more literary perspective, a weblog based upon Sherlock Holmes writing each day about his cases (assembling itself into a chronology of the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) might be both interesting and academically valuable. Are there any weblogs like this out there? If not, why not? Mail me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/15/2001 07:10:58 PM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sean, one of my hosts STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/16/2001 03:15:47 AM ----- BODY:

Sean, one of my hosts in LA, has produced a great Flash movie that will shortly be doing the rounds of everyone's office PCs. It's a splice of a recent Brit-movie favourite and an esteemed horror classic. I'm going to see if I can get someone to host it for him in the long term - but in the short-term I might see if I can stick it on plasticbag.org - more information as I have it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to all the Los STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/16/2001 03:18:54 AM ----- BODY:

Thanks to all the Los Angeles residents and visitors from barbelith.com who kept me entertained yesterday, especially to Ralph who was particularly entertaining. Experience the thrill of the after-meet glow over on the Underground - and pass me a cigarette while you're over there, will you?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I went to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/16/2001 07:26:31 PM ----- BODY:

Last night I went to this LA gay bar called 'Rage' where there was an event called 'Varsity' where anyone over the age of eighteen can get in (although clearly they can't drink). In England, of course, this wouldn't be an issue. And as I pointed out to someone, it's no use having new people around if you aren't allowed to get them drunk enough to have sex with you. Still - at least they looked pretty.

People here seem fascinated by my accent, by which I suppose I mean my lack of accent. Last time I was in LA a waiter asked me, "Is that an accent?". I replied of course, "No". Last night this bloke said that he, "really liked foreigners" (a strange thing to say at the best of times), to which I replied, "you should - you are one". I'm more than aware that this is why English people are cast as the evil people in movies, but nonetheless it's very entertaining.

So here am I - 28, crumbly and creased - untanned, ageing and flatulent, in a city of ten thousand million buff bodies and perfect smiles. What's a boy to do?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just in case you're having STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/17/2001 12:00:21 AM ----- BODY:

Just in case you're having difficulty tracing the time-lines of what I'm getting up to here, bear in mind that while plasticbag.org is currently working on GMT, I am not. Hence two posts in one day saying "Last night I did this...."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most popular super-hero team STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/17/2001 07:22:34 PM ----- BODY:

The most popular super-hero team in the world (and stars of their own recent movie) are now to be written by Grant Morrison, a drug-crazed magician-abductee from Scotland and writer of the seminal Invisibles. See what they will look like: here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So this evening I return STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/17/2001 07:25:40 PM ----- BODY:

So this evening I return to London and have to face up to my life, find a job, do some washing and think about "the future". As I'm sure you can all imagine, returning to rain and responsibility is something that I look forward to with all my heart, and without the slightest trace of resentment or depression. I'd like to thank Sean, Kerry, Anna, Ralph and everyone else I've bumped into while in LA for a lovely time. See you all soon...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A mixture of horror and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2001 06:07:15 PM ----- BODY:

A mixture of horror and delight at being back in London swiftly turns to glee when I see the Buffy and Angel box-sets waiting for me, alongside a couple of books bought for me by Ganesh from the Underground. I'm soaking in a metaphorical media hot-tub and letting my mind unwind.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And I quote: "WindowsÆ XP STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2001 09:41:56 PM ----- BODY:

And I quote: "WindowsÆ XP brings a new look to the familiar Windows user interface. Here's a first look at what the next generation has in store." It can't just be me that thinks that the interface looks childish, ugly and garish? Here's to Mac OSX.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is not time or STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2001 08:02:23 AM ----- BODY:

This is not time or place for dream-talk:

But nonetheless, here I go: First of all, Pacey from Dawson's Creek was looking for an apartment and I think I was helping, except he couldn't find anywhere. Eventually he decided to live in this flat with this ex-girlfriend of his, with whom he'd had this torrid affair. Anyway - he was coming into the building at night with a group of people, when suddenly the ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend (whom Pacey was still friends with - in a kind of indulgent way), and I had to try to signal to him that the ex-girlfriend was waiting for him in his bed and that he had to find some way to ditch the new boyfriend otherwise all hell would break loose. So I distract the new boyfriend and Pacey wanders upstairs, but when he approaches the door he suddenly realises that not only is his ex-girlfriend waiting for him in his bedroom, but so is her mother (or another ex-girlfriend of his, or both - I forget which). He get's a bit freaked out and ducks into the next door room, which is where I find him when I come up the stairs a couple of minutes later.

So then I take him for a walk in the square outside the building, which looks like New York only more open, so we can talk about stuff, at which point he turns into Matt, except he's in a wheelchair like Professor X. He says that he's asthmatic, which he says means that while I want to have a snack and a chat, he can't eat chocolate and meat - only fruit. So we go to Sainsbury's where I start getting over-excited by the thought of eating. Someone asks Matt what his waist-size is, and he says that he thinks he's got a 24 inch waist. I say he must have a 27 inch waist at least, we have a discussion about how many pears I need to buy, I run off and grab a whole cooked chicken for me (he waits in the queue in his wheelchair) and when I come to pay they ask me which of the three possible Buffy A Summer's I am (one of them is Buffy Arthur Summers) and when I say none I suddenly realise that there is some kind of government conspiracy that currently has needles in the head of one of my best friends in an endless series of cubicles in a vast underground base.

What do you think it means?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: They are both fascinating and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2001 02:08:59 PM ----- BODY:

They are both fascinating and disturbing, and now Amazon's Honor Program's soon-to-be ubiquitous nature is being satirised over at Ðber: Filler Friday: Micropayments Are Stupid.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Presenting (for a short time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2001 02:36:07 PM ----- BODY:

Presenting (for a short time only): Billy Exorcist - the fusion of two astonishing works of cinematic genius. This flash movie was produced by Sean Nadeau (one of my LA hosts) and has never before been seen on the web. Feel free to distribute it as much as you like - he's after the exposure. [Be warned - it's not going to be up for long because it's quite a substantial file (900k) and I have bandwidth considerations to deal with. If you wish to contact Sean, please e-mail billyexorcist@hotmail.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Not every boy thrown to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/20/2001 10:27:21 AM ----- BODY:

"Not every boy thrown to the wolves becomes a hero." (J. Barth)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The current place-to-be on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/20/2001 02:22:05 PM ----- BODY:

The current place-to-be on the internet at the moment is the Habbo Hotel - a cute, avatar-based chat area complete with bars, private rooms, games of poker, battleships and a disco. The private rooms are the best feature - anyone can have one, but if you want furniture you have to buy it through credits which you obtain by sending text messages from your phone. It's all combined with an ICQ-like internal instant messenger service and a search-facility so you can keep track of your online friends. It's still in beta, so it's not without its flaws, but it's incredibly good fun, nonetheless. I have two rooms currently up and running, but come and hang out in the Barbelith Underground room if you want a particular laugh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I call this particular piece, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2001 12:08:50 AM ----- BODY:

I call this particular piece, "Cheapskate Klu-Klux-Klan". It's from one of a series of not-particularly amusing, bitter, twisted (and poorly illustrated) cartoons I assembled a while back on a rainy day when I was grumpy at work. Note that the hoods are in fact Gap branded paper bags. That's why they're funny, you see. Get it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aspects of the Weblogger? P) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2001 12:21:26 AM ----- BODY:

Aspects of the Weblogger?

P) The Self-Aggrandizement as Art Form Aspect
Q) The Self-Flagellation as Art Form Aspect
R) The Self-Aggrandizement Disguised as Self-Flagellation as Even Higher Art Form Aspect
S) The Self-Canonization Disguised as Self-Destruction Masquerading as Self-Aggrandizement Disguised as Self-Flagellation as Highest Art Form of All Aspect
T) The Search for Support, a Sense of Community, If You Will, in One's Peers, in Those One's Age, After One Looks Around and Realizes That All Others, All Those Older, Are Either Dead or Perhaps Should Be Aspect.

['A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius', Dave Eggers]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It can't just be me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2001 09:23:59 AM ----- BODY:

It can't just be me and my current disinterest in all things sexual that maintains that it is untrue that there is "Scientific proof that the only difference between a straight and a gay man is six beers"?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Added Bonus Post! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2001 09:28:33 AM ----- BODY:

[Added bonus post: This morning, free with every restless night involving going to sleep at 3.30am and being woken at 8am by builders hammering on the roof directly above my head, comes an extra post borne from frustration, exhaustion and general distaste for the world. Post begins: EVHEAD! redesigns again. We hate him. It's too good. Post ends.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Right. That's it. Whatever the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2001 09:35:03 AM ----- BODY:

Right. That's it. Whatever the hell is wrong with my gut is being resolved right now. I haven't been feeling right for a while - it's like there's a nest of eels in my abdomen sometimes. Anyway, over the last twelve hours or so this has got profoundly upsetting, causing me difficulty sleeping, general anxiety and now slightly less vague and formless symptoms have started to appear. I'm not bloody having this. [Note: this post is a bit gross and may shortly be deleted. ]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I spoke to Stinky STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2001 11:30:11 PM ----- BODY:

Today I spoke to Stinky Parker [ï].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just stumbled upon the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 12:00:27 AM ----- BODY:

I've just stumbled upon the first site that I put together with any degree of care - or at least what's left of it. It looks like I put up a holding page for it many many years ago and completely forgot about it. Nonetheless, I have salvaged this interesting little design item from it, which really reminds of of my first heady days on a cheap Photoshop clone playing with gaussian blur and layers and fudging it all together with a bog-standard animated gif machine. Oh how far from these heady days...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "We do not have to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 12:01:09 AM ----- BODY:

"We do not have to go on the way we've been going. For instance, if you like shaving cats, try shaving crayons; it's as good a way as any to practice shaving." (What the Fuck?)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 12:19:10 AM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Blogger I've stumbled upon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 12:09:10 PM ----- BODY:

Via Blogger I've stumbled upon nagportal.com - which appears to be some kind of Icelandic weblog / weblog portal. The most interesting part of it for me is the pulldown menu at the top left of the screen. It appears to contain the full replicated content of the weblog, and it's placed in a slim frame that allows one to move between the various blogged sites which appear nested beneath it. It's very well thought out.

It's inspired me to think about my old 'consumption' feature in a different way - perhaps this isn't stuff that people need to actually see on first arrival to a site - maybe it's more useful for people to be able to gauge at a glance, by clicking on a pulldown, the range of one's interests. Blogging entirely to drop-downs might actually be more useful for certain types of site as well - you could form a kind of rolling-directory site for example. Worthy of consideration...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to an old article STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 12:18:07 PM ----- BODY:

According to an old article I found archived today on news.bbc.co.uk, a single mutation in one individual human being could have resulted in the creation of language. This individual is therefore responsible for the explosion of art, culture, science and technology around the world - along with, of course: Thatcherism, hate speech, nagging people, arguments and school. A bit of a mixed blessing really...

What a tremendously strange super-power 'language' must have been initially. It must have been particularly strange (and possibly a challenge to the theory) as for at least the first generation it must have been almost useless (of course we don't know whether or not other human beings required the same mutation to understand language). It makes one wonder about the potentially transformative mutations that might be taking place around us at this very moment - and about the mutations that could have transformed the world but didn't because of accidents, violence or a lack of serendipity.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone who reads plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 12:20:44 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone who reads plasticbag.org have much experience of, or work for, a company called Sapient? If so, could you drop me a line...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Emode helps me decide about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 02:08:04 PM ----- BODY:

Emode helps me decide about the future of my working life. Apparently I'm a rock star.

You crave attention, the limelight, and the fawning admiration of millions. You walk fast and talk loud. You look important (even if you're not). You like expensive cars. You sculpt your body to perfection at the gym.

You have a bevy of fans and friends, and you like knowing how much others appreciate you. You believe in making a good impression. You like spending money on frivolous treats and nice, stylish clothes ó forget the discount bins! But, hey, you're not some shallow materialist! Your polished outward appearance is a mere reflection of that soulful, strong-willed person inside.

At work, you're committed to excellence. You've got your eye on your boss's job. You're a real go-getter, and you really shine under pressure. But you have to love what you do, or else your performance slips. If you don't see that big promotion in your future, chances are you'll start combing the want-ads.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wearing a T-shirt makes you a terrorist? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 08:12:51 PM ----- BODY:

Wearing a T-shirt makes you a terrorist: People often ask me why I don't agree with laws that - while they may be vague - if implemented properly will only benefit people. Well it's the vagueness that worries me. Saying that those who 'incite violence overseas', even while not actually doing anything other than writing an editorial, should be considered terrorists is not acceptable. Most of the powers of the act discussed will not be used to subjugate people and take away their freedoms under this government. But any number of them could be used by subsequent governments whose politics we might individually find offensive, destructive or even personally damaging.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meg describes my life: A: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2001 08:28:11 PM ----- BODY:

Meg describes my life:

A: So, I've done the thing I was supposed to do. I've checked it and it's fine, but I thought I'd let you know before I get X to sign off on it.
B: OK. Can I have a look?
A: Sure Here you go.
C: Hey, what's that? Can I see?
A: Er, of course. It finished now, though.
C: Oh yes, I realise that. But could you do it in blue?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From London's Time Out Magazine: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2001 11:53:18 AM ----- BODY:

From London's Time Out Magazine: Feb 14-21 2001 No.1591 (presented without comment).

"I'm writing this week's column under my hip new pseudonym, Thin Cloudy. So when I say that I want to incite acts of violence against Eminem, I hope you'll understand that I'm being ironic. And when I describe how I'd like to force him to suck my dick before slitting his throat open, watching him bleed to death and then dumping his body in a river, I hope you'll appreciate how clever I'm being. And while I'm hiding behind this hip new persona of mine, I might as well tell you that it isn't just blond white boy rappers I hate. I also hate the black ones. Niggers, I think they're called."

"Oops, sorry! Hope I haven't offended anyone's delicated liberal sensibilities. After all, it's one thing to rap about sexual violence or joke about murdering homosexuals, quite another insult an already beleaguered minority. This, presumably, is why Eminem is so feted by the music establishment, and defended by clever music critics - at the end of the day, it's only bitches and faggots he's having a pop at." [Paul Burston]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the makers of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2001 12:26:24 PM ----- BODY:

From the makers of Blue Jam: http://www.bishopslips.com

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found via some article or STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2001 04:33:21 PM ----- BODY:

Found via some article or other at Wired that I loosely skimmed on a whim (while contemplating the vague tension in my bladder that might shortly require a trip to the lavatory), the site mentalhealth.com has provided me with a good fifteen minutes of self-diagnosis fun. My particular mental illness? Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In retrospect it seems so obvious.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: With this evening comes yet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2001 06:08:14 PM ----- BODY:

With this evening comes yet another excuse for a piss-up from the London weblogging contingent. Find out all the information (as ever) at meets.gblogs.org.uk.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Attention Vodaphone Users: You can STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2001 07:14:43 PM ----- BODY:

Attention Vodaphone Users: You can contribute money for furniture for the Barbelith Underground and GBlogs rooms on Habbo Hotel simply by typing this text message into your mobile phone exactly and sending it to 8222: habbo credits Orlando 5. This will cost you approximately 58p.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote from Meg: "I've been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2001 11:58:44 AM ----- BODY:

Quote from Meg: "I've been smelling Cake all day, and ... well, you know how cake smells like death...?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm feeling a little STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2001 12:26:45 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm feeling a little rough after last night's blog-meet - I suspect due to a confluence of factors including 1) Drinking three vodka tonics, 2) Drinking seven vodka jelly shots, 3) Drinking one green and one orange vial of vodka based crap, 4) As a result acting like a complete arse and fucking off Matt and, no doubt, several other people before stumbling home drunk and morbid. Notable moments include being beaten at arm wrestling by an incredibly skinny, ill-looking bloke, having my shoe 'borrowed' and placed upon the bar, nearly being licked, and generally misbehaving.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm spending some of this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2001 02:46:05 PM ----- BODY:

I'm spending some of this afternoon just trying to work out if I should care that this site looks appalling in Netscape 4.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks for completing the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2001 07:20:50 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks for completing the survey.
Your Femininity Score is 3.75.
Your Masculinity Score is 4.95.
You are sex-typed in the masculine direction.
[Bem Sex Role Inventory via prolific.org]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: At this very moment, there STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2001 09:50:43 PM ----- BODY:

At this very moment, there is a party happening in my flat. There is noise from outside my bedroom, Radiohead is playing, and people are clearly having a very good time. I too am having a good time, but there is a part of me that is dribbling with worry about the arrival of people I knew at University. One man ran into me a couple of times in embarrassing situations (like being in a play that never quite didn't stink and involved me nearly wearing a near frock), and the other man - well I had a crush on him for about a year and a half about six years ago - a crush that I could only actually get over by prostrating myself before him (metaphorically) and sucking up the fallout like a good little bruised homosexual. They are supposed to arrive at some point this evening, and I can feel my resolve and hard won confidence seeping from my feet - sucked into the floor. I'm scared to go back out there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In order to more easily STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2001 10:11:04 PM ----- BODY:

In order to more easily conceptualise the angst-ridden period in question, I have changed the picture above to reflect the period concerned. Welcome to Tom circa 1995.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsflash: Prol launches Amsterdam Stories, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2001 11:51:05 PM ----- BODY:

Newsflash: Prol launches Amsterdam Stories, still further extending Derek's burgeoning empire.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For everyone who has or STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 01:09:33 AM ----- BODY:

For everyone who has or is about to see this episode of Buffy (seen by me this evening after everyone (but Riaz) had gone to bed), the word you might want a definition of is: fulgent:

ful·gent (fljnt, fl-)
adj. : Shining brilliantly; radiant: ìtower searchlights . . . as fulgent as half a billion candlesî (Nicholas Proffitt).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I've just finished implementing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 01:12:08 AM ----- BODY:

So I've just finished implementing the random image placement javascript device for plasticbag.org, based upon something I worked on a very long time ago. Unfortunately, while I've placed images, not all of them are (let us say) bearable. More to come over the next couple of days.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy Birthday Luke. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 01:21:53 AM ----- BODY:

Happy Birthday Luke.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: London is gradually waking up. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 03:43:58 PM ----- BODY:

London is gradually waking up. The darkness of winter slows the city's heartbeat, making our every action or movement an effort. But now things are getting brighter, the trees are on the brink of life, people seem to be slipping easily into their movements ... pulsing cells of blood shaking off the lethargy of the months of hibernation.

This speed is worrying me - I leave Time Out in less than two weeks. I'm scared to leave its comfort, but the same thing that let me develop has left me finally trapped and restricted. The sadness of the situation is that it didn't have to be like this. I could have watched the seasons shift, relaxed and happy. But circumstances and environments change. There's no longer a place for me here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What do I want from life? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 03:59:50 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in a bit of a frenzy when it comes to online surveys at the moment. I can't seem to stop wanted to categorise or re-categorise myself. I suppose it's related to my desire to move jobs, and my attempts to refine in my mind exactly what I want from the next few years of my life. According to the Environics test (found via Metafilter) I am a Social Hedonist, which probably isn't quite what I would have expected - particularly as in the process of undertaking the survey I had a sudden overwhelming sensation of craving a home of my own...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What the Nexus used to look like... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 04:20:57 PM ----- BODY:

Presenting a blast from the past - a snap-shot of the Barbelith Underground (neÈ Nexus) from just before Christmas 1999: Snapshot. There are many threads here that I thought were lost for ever.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stumbling around kvetching... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2001 04:43:48 PM ----- BODY:

Found via a search for kvetch at haddock.org:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger Past, Present and Future... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 12:31:10 AM ----- BODY:

The first part of a three part interview with Ev about the past, present and future of Blogger [The state of the blog] includes some interesting information about the origins of the web-app. I started my weblog almost immediately after the launch of the new version in November of '99, when there were only a couple of hundred sites around - originally as a space filler for the front of barbelith.com - a space I didn't know what to do with. I certainly never expected the site to still be here nearly eighteen months afterwards...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Wizard is a man after all... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 12:39:57 AM ----- BODY:

Possibly the most fascinating part of this interview with Derek about Metafilter.com is that he still has a beige G3. Somehow deep inside I think I expected him to use a Kray Supercomputer to check his e-mail...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Malevolent Photographer... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 09:03:19 AM ----- BODY:

Meg finally comes clean with images of the last blogmeet. She has decided to name the gallery in question, "Test Tubes of Pure Eeeeeeevil", which is a bit of a misnomer since it should clearly be called, "The Malevolent Photographer". Anyone who knows me and who read my post on the matter will recognise nascent mental collapse in every picture I'm in.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A badge for my financial impotence... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 10:46:16 AM ----- BODY:

The new Apple PowerBook is gradually becoming a badge for my frustrations and financial impotence. Every morning as I head towards Time Out I see it lurking in Micro Anvika - mocking me and my financial circumstances, laughing at my weaknesses and my inability to fulfill my dreams. I'm beginning to love it and hate it at the same time. Why can't it be mine?!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On bad posture in photographs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 01:32:03 PM ----- BODY:

"Watch Tom slouch. Slouch, Tom, slouch." My second link to an external gallery of the day contains pictures from Luke's birthday drink on Sunday night. [courtesy of Brainsluice and featuring Meg, Luke and Davo.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rebirthing pure browsing via randomness... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 03:13:57 PM ----- BODY:

I've been playing with my Surprise Me bookmarklet over at the Google Directory in an attempt to experience some parts of the internet that I wouldn't normally think of going to. My particular favourite random destinations so far have been: Yahoo! Clubs: nosprogs ("Welcome to the club that actively opposes squirting out spawn..."), Chowbaby's restaurant guide (with possibly the strangest logo of all time) and a recipe for Baked Ham with a Secret Glaze (somewhat oxymoronic considering that it tells you how to make said Glaze). It's a refreshing approach to the internet - rebirthing pure browsing as a recreational activity.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Connect Flo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 09:16:58 PM ----- BODY:

The terrifyingly able Pixelflo collective present their latest project: Connect Flo. Whatever the strategy that the computer uses is certainly effective. I may be only a beginner, but I haven't beaten it once!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Never going to be famous... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2001 09:55:29 PM ----- BODY:

It's slowly beginning to dawn on me that I'm never going to be famous, I'm never going to be truly exceptional, or lauded over - I'm never going to travel to the moon, I'm never going to kill someone, I'm never going to gazelle on stage. This may be one of the most crushing realisations of my life.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Signal to Noise on Community Sites... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 02/28/2001 09:23:20 AM ----- BODY:

Inspired by this post over in a thread at Metafilter about the signal to noise ration of community sites (which reminds me of this thread over at barbelith.com) I am beginning to think through the implications of information transmission and its relationship to community. Imagine two nodes on the net - designed essentially just to send information from one to another. Additional information is also transmitted however - information on the relationship between nodes, information on whether a packet has been received or not etc. This relationship is very similar to that of community sites - a site which merely transmits information is not, and cannot be a community site. Nor indeed can an individual who merely transmits information be considered part of a community. To an extent the 'noise' is more a staple of the community than the information - it may appear like meme fluff - unnecessary - but it's the stuff that transmits information about disposition, affiliation, loyalty, relationships both in terms of expressing oneself, and developing one's relationship with others. So the question becomes: what is the appropriate ratio of signal to noise?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy the Streetwalker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 11:38:35 AM ----- BODY:

Entertainment Newsflash: 'Buffy slapped by watchdogs for being too sexually explicit.' And thus proves that my old flatmate Pippa's descriptions of her as "Buffy the Street-Walker" aren't too far off the mark. In other Buffy news: "Sarah Michelle Gellar, the karate-kicking star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is to star in a film version of Scooby-Doo, alongside boyfriend Freddie Prinze Jr." [BBC News] and "The Pagan Federation, which represents druids and witches, says it has been "swamped" with calls following teenage programmes featuring good witches." [BBC News]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Pixies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 01:47:41 PM ----- BODY:

The best band the world has ever seen release an album of their b-sides. It must be nearly a decade since they split up, but The Pixies still heavily occupy my mental landscape.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you dream the big dream? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 02:08:09 PM ----- BODY:

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS BAD WORDS: Words/phrases used all too frequently by my flatmates and I inside the flat, which occasionally creep out when I'm outside causing me embarrassment and derision from my co-workers: "That's just a pile of donkey cock." "Outside Bad, Inside Good - and why? Because they're all cunts." This post has been inspired by this article from Salon: You pussy! And I quote: "'A cunt is someone who dreams the big dream. You are ambitious. You want to go the distance.' Hillary Rodham Clinton, she told me, is a cunt."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On 'Phatic language'... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 02:33:25 PM ----- BODY:

Further to the Signal to Noise post I made earlier in the day, Ian from Blogadoon has pointed me in the direction of xrefer.com's definition of 'Phatic language'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From when Tom visited Los Angeles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 03:05:39 PM ----- BODY:

In February of 2001, shortly before running screaming from my job at Time Out, I ran away to Los Angeles. My hosts Kerry and Sean reintroduced me to the wonders of the west coast.

There was a series of ads running on billboards all across LA - this one particularly amused me. The thing I can never get over about Los Angeles is the sky. After a while in London you completely forget it's there.

On the left we have the immortal Kerry Bailey, looking a little the worse for wear. He also looks like he's barely tolerating my photography. Which is almost certainly true. On the right we have the Texan Sean Nadeau. The picture on the right is most notable for the small street sign that appears to be hovering permanently by Sean's right ear.

Just in case you haven't realised, Kerry and Sean are great big fags.

LA isn't really the kind of place that you just go wandering around in on foot. But I didn't have a car, and to give my hosts a break I wandered off every so often. This picture pretty much encapsulates LA for me -the sky, the tress, the grid of cables. Maybe I'm missing the point. Perhaps the following pictures are closer to the reality of LA life...

One of the best days I had in LA involved meeting up with some of the freaks from Barbelith. It wasn't an entirely easy meet to arrange, and when I finally found the bar that we were to meet at, there was no one there. I wandered off and sat in a net café for a couple of hours. When I returned there were several weirdos to talk to. Excellent. These pictures that follow are from the rest of that day...

And here's Anna and Ralphy:

Also on that day I saw this store:

Near the end of my stay with the Bailey-Nadeau's, Kerry took me to the Sony lot to spy on what was going down. On the way back to the car I took a couple of photos that I love, but can't really explain why...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: la_taster.jpg ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buy No Logo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 11:36:01 PM ----- BODY:

I don't know when it came out, but the new edition of Naomi Klein's No Logo is now available, and should really be required reading for everyone who is sick of being sold to all the time, or resents the human rights violations of multi-nationals in the developing world.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I remain your miserable narcissist... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2001 11:58:53 PM ----- BODY:

I'd just like to say thanks to Ralph and Simon for respectively trying to knock some sense into me and cheer me up. Despite their valiant efforts I remain, as ever, your obedient miserable narcissist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scared of what is to come... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 12:10:40 AM ----- BODY:

I started working at timeout.com just over a week after starting this weblog, and now - nearly a year and a half later I'm about a week away from leaving it. I don't think that 'apprehensive' really covers my state of mind at the moment. Certainly I'm scared of what is to come next.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cool or Creepy? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 09:46:22 AM ----- BODY:

So you're in Golden Gate Park with a camera and some friends, and Jason and Meg suddenly walk directly past you - so you grab a snapshot. Is this kinda cool, or really creepy?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On registering with weblogs.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 09:52:53 AM ----- BODY:

This is just a recommendation to anyone who is relatively new to running their own weblog - go and register yourself with Weblogs.Com - it's my first point of call every morning and by far the best way that I know to keep up with the sites you like.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Man was not meant to dance this well... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 10:45:55 AM ----- BODY:

I am, of course, an astonishing dancer. My groin can 'get jiggy with it' at such a rate that I have, on occasion, experienced friction burns merely from the contact of my skin against the air. Man was not meant to dance this well, but god is it a beautiful thing to watch.

Some of you may wish to emulate my astonishing prowess in the medium of dance. Well you can't, I'm afraid. You have to be born with a talent like mine. But if you want to improve your skills, then the place to go is DancingPaul.com. Watch as he reveals the secrets of the modern mambo through the medium of flash, and with the help of some of his less dance-enabled friends...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let's actually link to stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 01:01:12 PM ----- BODY:

In which Tom pretends to be a proper weblogger, by linking to actual sites rather than drone on about the misery and angst of human existence:

First things first - I've been thinking of training myself to be able to write in more languages than simple mark-up like HTML. I think I've finally found a site that's good enough at teaching to help me do so: W3Schools Online Web Tutorials. The site includes some stunningly useful examples, cut and paste code and intelligent commentary for everything from XHTML to WAP, DTD and SOAP.

Secondly, there's an article at USAToday.com called 'Internet needs immune system', which is on the analogies drawn between computer viruses and biological viral entities and suggests a new approach to anti-virus technology. [via Tomalak's Realm]

And finally, after tiring of Neilson's rather earnest approach to web usability, I picked up a copy of Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think while I was in LA. I read it on the plane, and was astonished by how intelligently written and well put together it was. If you're building any size of site either professionally or semi-professionally then you should read it. There's more information about it here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: United by a love for Buffy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 04:28:37 PM ----- BODY:

The web stands united with love of Buffy: Derek, Lance, Prol (and me). If you are a Buffy-loving weblogger, drop me an e-mail. [Inspired by: Plastic | Buffy and Whedon Do It Again]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's going to happen to .org? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2001 10:27:20 PM ----- BODY:

READ THIS: This news affects a substantial portion of the creative sites on the web and should be read and digested thoroughly. News from ICANN [via Slashdot]: "There are apparently plans to reinstate the old limits on .org domains - if you aren't a non-profit corporation, you won't be permitted to register or keep a .org domain." This will affect (amongst other creative sites, kottke.org, slashdot.org, haddock.org, fray.org, glassdog.org, interconnected.org and many many more. My personal response to the issue: .org domains prime home for creative sites. More from Metafilter.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God only knows why STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/02/2001 11:25:21 AM ----- BODY:

God only knows why we're doing this: plasticbag.org | cam.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I haven't exactly been offered STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/02/2001 11:11:37 PM ----- BODY:

I haven't exactly been offered a job at Sapient, but it looks like my decision on whether or not I want to walk their particular dark path has rather greater than normal inpact on whether or not they are prepared to offer it to me. There seems to be a much greater degree of discussion involved than is perhaps warranted. On my side particularly it seems that my decision is inevitably going to be based upon faith (or the lack of it), and hence inevitably bound up with reservations and doubt. There doesn't seem to be a way around that.

Anyway, I was talking to Matt Haughey about all this via AIM, and he pointed me in the direction of a post he made just over a year ago: A Whole Lotta Nothing: 'On being rejected by Sapient'. I'm making no comment, because I'm reserving my judgement until after the weekend, but let's just say, I'm trying hard to work out if I'm living in Working Girl or Wall Street.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pow! Wham! Permission Denied! "Surrounded STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 12:28:14 PM ----- BODY:

Pow! Wham! Permission Denied!
"Surrounded by his 'nuclear Bat-family,' the 'dark, deviant' vigilante of the early 1940s was transformed into a genial, problem-solving father figure. In support of his argument, York provides a detailed interpretation of four panels that appeared in various Batman comics in the 1950s." [via linkmachinego]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Comparing TheStandard.com: Quick and Easy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 12:49:25 PM ----- BODY:

Comparing TheStandard.com: Quick and Easy and TheCounter.com: Global Statistics Jan 2001:

On the issue of color depth, TheStandard.com's figures describe nearly 10% of users as using 256 colors or less, 50% using 16-bit color depths and just over 30% using 24-bit or above. 10% were unknown. TheCounter.com describes 6% of users as using 256 colors or less, 55% as using 16-bit depths and a further 36% using 24-bit or above.

On the issue of screen resolutions, TheStandard.com's figures describe 9% of users as using 640x480 resolution, as opposed to TheCounter.com's 7%. TheStandard.com describes the proportion of people using 800x600 resolutions as 50% with those using known higher resolutions coming in at 27%. TheCounter.com's figures for these are 55% and 35% respectively.

In both sets of figures, TheCounter.com has a lower figure for 'Unknown' than TheStandard, which may explain variance. Alternatively divergence could be described by differences in the times of sampling or by a distorted sampling from one of the parties.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More news on Sapient: Sapient STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 12:51:47 PM ----- BODY:

More news on Sapient: Sapient Corp. To Miss 1Q Rev, Net Views. This includes the information that they are cutting their workforce by 20% (720 people).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Congratulations to Noah Wyle, early STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 01:12:05 PM ----- BODY:

Congratulations to Noah Wyle, early 20s crush of mine, who has finally won a bloody award: "Best Supporting Actor of the Year in a Drama Series award at the 3rd annual TV Guide Awards".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't know whether or STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 01:35:56 PM ----- BODY:

I don't know whether or not to be delighted by the train of coincidences linking me with this person or not. He's gradually stumbled over most of the sites that I have maintained over my time over the net, and only subsequently mentally attached them to one another. But the length of the coincidence doesn't end there, I suspect, as his most recent post sounds startlingly like it's about Sapient.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I find myself too irritated STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 04:13:58 PM ----- BODY:

I find myself too irritated by the redundant Flash and heavily image based structure of the The Cyborg Manifesto to actually read the damn thing, which is a pity, because I'm really interested in stuff like this. Note to world: Sites which require a lot of copy must make the delivery of that copy the first priority of the site. Information must be delivered.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the same week that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2001 05:07:43 PM ----- BODY:

In the same week that NASA says that it is no longer in the business of dreaming, I stumble upon the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program site - which includes a wonderful section called: "Warp Drive: When?". Have faith in the future.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Megnut.com closes its doors. And STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2001 01:30:06 AM ----- BODY:

Megnut.com closes its doors. And lurking in the source code is this brief comment: "I just don't have anything good to say anymore. So I'm not going to say anything at all."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I went to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2001 02:08:35 AM ----- BODY:

Last night I went to see Proof of Life with Luke, Meg and Davo. The film sucked, but not like the vacuum of space sucks astronauts out of broken shuttle windows, but instead like a gentleman schlurping gently on his Big Gulp. Not good, as such. But not dismal. Just ... well ... there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just noticed that Sean STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2001 12:52:38 PM ----- BODY:

I just noticed that Sean has thanked me in the credits of Billy Exorcist. I think that's really cool of him. Thanks Sean!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blissblog continues to give her STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2001 04:52:00 PM ----- BODY:

Blissblog continues to give her insight into the company that may be offering me a job.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More information on the plans STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2001 06:43:45 PM ----- BODY:

More information on the plans ICANN have for the .org and .net domains: Net body rewrites the address book.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If there were, say, a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2001 01:43:29 AM ----- BODY:

If there were, say, a concurrent reality which we all occupied simultaneously with this one, a reality in which symbol and image ruled supreme, and where the reality as experienced within the empiricist mindset fell away - and in this reality, change rolled like storm-clouds across our collective experiences - then I think there might be something burnt-edged blue-tinged about the last two days - something seen through an indigo filter - from above. There's a sensation in the air that clasps the lungs and dislocates the heart. An anxiety, a sense of the world shifting uncomfortable with itself for a moment. I feel it myself, and I see it in the writings of those around me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2001 09:09:12 AM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spotted on a sticker stuck STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2001 02:07:12 PM ----- BODY:

Spotted on a sticker stuck to the front of Time Out towers this morning was a URL written in a Time Out font: YourTimeIsUp.co.uk [whois]. If you go to the address, you see the logo again - written in almost exactly the same style as the adverts that were circulated for the timeout.com/shopping site. And then - a couple of moments later - you get redirected through to one of Time Out's direct competitors: LondonTribe.com. Good prank or legal disaster? Only you can decide...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you have any down STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2001 04:00:14 PM ----- BODY:

If you have any down time at work today, I very much suggest you watch a couple of episodes of Behind the Music ... That Sucks.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Check the source code: "It's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 09:28:53 AM ----- BODY:

Check the source code: "It's not like this is the last episode of M*A*S*H or anything."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bills, bills, bills. They've all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 09:33:19 AM ----- BODY:

Bills, bills, bills. They've all come at once. Water bills (£35), Council Tax (£90), Phone (£200), Barclaycard (£50), Frasercard (£10). It's pretty much cleaned me out, and just as I'm going to be unemployed in ... say ... four days.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via linkmachinego: Sandman author Neil STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 09:38:37 AM ----- BODY:

Via linkmachinego: Sandman author Neil Gaiman is maintaining his own Blogger powered weblog about the writing of his new book American Gods.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsflash: Davo launches ickle.org. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 09:41:07 AM ----- BODY:

Newsflash: Davo launches ickle.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever anyone else tells you, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 10:37:24 AM ----- BODY:

Whatever anyone else tells you, there is time for change. The election was a farce - we can make it right once more. The two lacklustre candidates that America was presented with need to accept that neither of them were right for the country - and that's why the country couldn't decide. We need a third candidate - an intelligent, able ... sexy ... candidate. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: Pacey Witter for President!.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the pornography of news: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 01:33:07 PM ----- BODY:

On the pornography of news:

News is increasingly characterised as entertainment, but this only goes half-way. News is essentially a pornographic enterprise - and a dark one at that - repackaging human misery and destruction in easy to assimilate text and pictures - the content of which becomes swiftly meaningless to the audience, to be replaced by image and spectacle of collapse, catastrophe and mayhem. When did you last gasp at the news? Was it when you heard about an international summit limiting arms? Or was it when you saw images of earthquake damage, diseased people or identikit pictures of recently deceased people. And why the fasination with murder? More people die of car accidents and failures in the health service every day than are murdered in a year. The news packages up killings, and sells them to our worst instincts. News is rape trials and police plodding through fields looking for corpses - it is sex scandals and disgrace. It is all stories, and it's a strange death instinct in all of us that gets off on it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just popped out for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2001 02:53:09 PM ----- BODY:

I just popped out for lunch and grabbed myself a copy of Pixies: Complete 'B' Sides from Virgin on Tottenham Court Road. I'm now reeling from how wonderful they were, and completely in love with the CD which I now plan to play over and over again until my ears bleed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Australia and Copyright Law "Over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2001 11:42:43 AM ----- BODY:

Australia and Copyright Law
"Over half a century ago the English writer Norman Douglas had occasion to observe that 'all mankind is at the mercy of a handful of neurotics'."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Online for a bit: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2001 12:01:58 PM ----- BODY:

Online for a bit: plasticbag.org | cam.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Random linkage: 1) Willow?! Noooooooooooooooooo! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2001 06:00:41 PM ----- BODY:

Random linkage: 1) Willow?! Noooooooooooooooooo! [more] 2) Apple's new Ad Campaign kicks arse (via Luke).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the article: Amazon.com readers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/08/2001 09:36:53 AM ----- BODY:

In the article: Amazon.com readers comment on the Modern Library's Top 20 Novels of the 20th Century, Kevin Goldstein finds actual comments posted by members of the public about books that are acknowledged greats. The comments are - pretty much uniformly - rather embarrassing for their authors. But the tone of the article as a whole is patronising and insulting. I am a cultured individual who has spent six and a half years in University, and I haven't read more than three or four of the books listed on the page. Rather than sneer at those who do read them and don't get them, shouldn't we be encouraging them to try other books? Not everyone (and I include myself in this) will necessarily complete or get much satisfaction out of reading Ulysses.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you want to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/08/2001 09:42:38 AM ----- BODY:

Do you want to do something actually subversive? Then go and look at this. It's a tiny piece of code that can descramble DVDs. Make it your e-mail signature today - and make sure it is distributed far and wide so that everyone has at least one copy on their machine. You know - just in case. [Read all about it: Descramble That DVD in 7 Lines]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Completely fascinated, and slightly alarmed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/08/2001 06:56:39 PM ----- BODY:

Completely fascinated, and slightly alarmed by the ever-updated Anarchist Cookbook / Terrorist Handbook. Build a fire bomb if you must. But be warned - apparently Sulphuric Acid is quite dangerous...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was on the tube STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/08/2001 07:15:28 PM ----- BODY:

I was on the tube this morning, flicking idly through my copy of A Complete Hackers Handbook, which I am reading because I think people should read books like that, whether or not they understand even one tenth of what is in them, and I suddenly notice the guy opposite me. He's listening to a personal stereo - much too loudly - and my attention was drawn to him by a very familiar piece of music - it's something from the film Hackers (1995) [Amazon], which is a really dorky film, but one that I really really love. So I'm sitting on the tube, with people milling around in front of me, with people squeezing me in on both sides, and I'm trying to manoeuvre the book into his line of sight, so we can make eye-contact and make a secret "we're in the know" connection. I try this for twenty minutes. Then he gets off the train.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Stimulants and SMIL... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/08/2001 11:47:40 PM ----- BODY:

I think it says a lot about a person when a mere twenty minutes after The West Wing [We Love You CJ] ends on a Thursday evening, they are already bored enough to start looking for information about SMIL - the Synchronized Multimedia Integration language. Perhaps it's too many stimulants in my diet. Too much nervous energy at the moment. Watch my head spin round. Let's go knock over a 7-11. [Note to self: check to see whether I'm the only person who has never thought that Rob Lowe was attractive until he was in this series.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Unlike Prol, I have no STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2001 09:20:01 AM ----- BODY:

Unlike Prol, I have no intention of wishing anyone a nice time at SXSW because I'm overwhelmingly bloody jealous and gutted that I'm not going to be able to go myself. I'm going to be there next year. That much is certain. [How I reacted last year]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So today is my final STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2001 09:26:06 AM ----- BODY:

So today is my final day at Time Out as a full-time employee. I've worked with them since February 1999, shortly after completing my journalism course. I've got a certain amount of freelance work lined up - all of which looks fairly interesting - but it's still going to be strange not going into the office every day. There are a lot of people that I am going to miss, and a couple that I probably won't.

This evening is my leaving 'do' - to be held in the upstairs of a sausage pub in Fitzrovia (don't ask) - and I'm really 'conflicted' about it. Obviously I want to say goodbye to everyone, but I don't really consider it to be a time of celebration - more of necessity.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Highlights of an evening of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2001 12:02:06 PM ----- BODY:

Highlights of an evening of soul-crushing embarrassment and soul-enhancing re-bonding: Horrified tonsil-hockey with Commercial Manager, bites on my back from drunken Matt, conversation straining limits of politeness concerning 'dirtbox' action with David and Kate, a poem (short) named 'Every Nice Girl Loves a Candle' , all the vodka and tonic in the world, the wonderful Rhonda Carrier, and finally: leaving presents amounting to stretchy insects, Pot Noodles, Pork Pies, Futurama posters, X-men chocolate bars, From Hell and Microsefts - all contained in a great big brown box. The trial of fire is over - I have passed from my Time Out adolescence into manhood.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And lo! Did the Futurama STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2001 12:04:33 PM ----- BODY:

And lo! Did the Futurama poster read as follows: YOU'RE NOT PAID TO THINK: A MINDLESS WORKER IS A HAPPY WORKER! SHUT UP AND DO YOUR JOB. Which in many ways might have been a little too close to the bone for my liking.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom, please, cite your sources STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2001 12:13:00 PM ----- BODY:

Tom, please, cite your sources - this is no time for frippery. Yes Tom, Sorry Tom - I found it in Metafilter. Metafilter you say? What is this foolishness? Well it's a job advert. You what? A job advert - "Employment Wanted". And why could I possibly have the slightest interest in reading about that? It starts like this: "Former Marijuana Smuggler - Having successfully completed a ten year sentence, incident-free, for importing 75 tons of marijuana into the United States. I am now seeking a legal and legitimate means to support myself and my family." Ah. I see. So it's supposed to be funny? Well .... yes ...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to the Budget Reckoner STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2001 06:30:40 PM ----- BODY:

According to the Budget Reckoner over at the BBC, my income will increase as a result of Gordon Brown's actions by £2.35 a week. Which, you know, is nice. I guess. Well it's not bad anyway. Not much of anything really. Certainly doesn't hurt. Erm. God. What a boring budget.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in the middle of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/11/2001 12:37:44 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in the middle of writing a couple of proposal articles for the BBC's film site at the moment, and I'm thinking of writing about aspects of the Oscars that aren't normally touched on. An article about foreign cinema and the Oscars might be interesting, I'm thinking. Which led me to this piece about the DGA Awards and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want to be with someone who knows HTML... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/11/2001 12:59:14 PM ----- BODY:

It's become a matter of some amusement to my friends and online compatriots that I have started to say that I really want to be with someone who knows HTML. They find it strange that something so unconnected to sex should impact on my desires. They think I'm joking, but I'm not.

More and more over the last few months this has been on my mind. The only conclusion I can come to is that I find my magic in a world of geeks. Not geeks in the sense of hapless individuals with no social graces - but geeks who are slightly nervous, sometimes quiet people, filled with fire and thought and insight and intelligence, people with a sense of a calling, a craft, even if it's one that they can't always articulate effectively, even while it informs everything they do.

I was talking about this with Meg today and I'm going to include an edited portion of our conversation (which her permission), because I think that the process of editing it down will make it clearer in my mind. And I also think it might help explain some of my stranger object choices of recent months to people who know me...

Meg: You know like you said the other day? About wanting to have someone who knew HTML? I have to agree.
Tom: I just think it would be wonderful to have some kind of relationship with someone who kind of understood the strange dark lusts we have within. Someone who understood the allure. It would be like you had some kind of common goal. Like you were fucking in the presence of god. I keep wanting to write about this on plasticbag.org but I can't find the words.
Meg: Let's say I was a chef. I loved cooking, and creating and understanding food and taste was my life. It would make sense to want to find someone who wasn't just happy to settle for chips with everything - someone who understood flavour, or was at least willing to explore.
Tom: Absolutely. I think it feels something like a higher purpose that you need to share.
Meg: No-one would even question that.
Tom: You feel a connection with the stuff you create, and feel part of a larger network of creative people. Like a huge network of interconnected computers stretching across the planet, perhaps..! Or like layered words joining and conjoining in endless spiralling files. You're a part of that - of that confluence of language and energy (which is all it all is really). And it feels special - luminous even. And I want to be with someone who can see that magic.
Meg: Yes - everything you do and are is layered with your understanding of web and html and code and design and language and and and and ... and you can't switch it off. Someone else has to be able to understand that.
Tom: So completely. You become changed by it, like you would by any passion. Your self comes to resemble your passion. And comes to respect and love people who can evidence the same feeling and insight. People you can teach and learn from. People - essentially - that you connect with.

We are practitioners of a magical craft of arcane words and structures that swirl around one another to produce pages that resemble nothing so much as illuminated manuscripts - words and images, structure and beauty. And behind them all is the vast formless expanse of other pages and people and worlds and experience. I want someone I can share that with. Someone who can explore with me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My first is in chicken, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2001 12:14:19 AM ----- BODY:

My first is in chicken, but not in Honduras. My second is not in chicken, but is in Honduras. My third is in both chicken and in Honduras. And my fourth is in neither chicken nor Honduras. What am I?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is why we love STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2001 03:57:49 PM ----- BODY:

This is why we love Cal.

####################################

#!/usr/bin/perl

@a = qw(c i k e);
@b = qw(o d u r a s);
@c = qw(n h);
@d = qw(a b f g j l m p q t v w x y z);

$dict = "/usr/dict/words";

foreach $a(@a){
 foreach $b(@b){
  foreach $c(@c){
   foreach $d(@d){
    $word  = "$a$b$c$d";
    push(@words,$word);
   }
  }
 }
}

print "done combinations!\n";

open(FILEONE,$dict) or die "can't open dict: $!";
while($w = ){
 chomp($w);
 foreach $word(@words){
  if ($w eq $word){
   print "match: $word\n";
  }
 }
}
close(FILEONE);

print "done matching!\n";

####################################

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night was possibly the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2001 12:13:56 AM ----- BODY:

Last night was possibly the strangest night of my entire life. A completely bizarre, unattainable and unfathomable crush from years back suddenly appeared in front of me in a bar I haven't visited for months. A few hours later, brief lip contact is established, and I am left feeling strangely cheap and unhappy. I don't really know why. Combine said encounter (literally) with Meg's birthday bash and you have an evening to remember - albeit remember weirdly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An article in the Sunday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2001 10:54:40 AM ----- BODY:

An article in the Sunday times purports to discover the Price of Happiness [via Metafilter]- which is, it appears around £1m. Here in an insight into my current frame of mind on this issue. I have never chosen a job on the basis of how much money it earns, which might explain why I have never earned myself any money. Instead I look for factors like my ability to produce creative work, to work in an environment that I have respect for and to enjoy the company of those around me. Money has always been a fair way down the scale.

This has to be the reason that I transferred myself from a doctorate, to penury as a London temp, and then to retraining as a journalist. There is little scope in this developing lifestyle for cash.

But over the last few months, as I have looked at my work life and found that (recently at least) it hasn't been fulfilling me enough, my mind has started to turn towards money as a way to follow my own interests absolutely and without interference.

At the worst point over the last six months, the thought of escape was almost over-whelming. The thought of having control over every aspect of my life became almost transformatively addictive, and with it, the desire for enough money to cease to worry about what I was going to be doing for the next thirty or forty years. A couple of weeks ago I bought ten pounds worth of lottery tickets. I knew I wasn't going to win of course. But the thought that I might cheered me up a lot. I found myself teasing myself - not checking the numbers until several days afterwards. The feeling of maybe being free was so much better than the discovery of still being trapped.

Over the last few days, my mind has calmed to an astonishing extent. My life at this point feels like it could go in any one of a number of interesting directions. Money is fading from my mind as an issue once again. But part of me is still thinking about the two bedroom flat in Soho, the year-off work and the travelling I could get done with the money that I'll probably never have.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just finished reading Alan STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2001 11:14:01 AM ----- BODY:

I've just finished reading Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell [Salon Article]. It's a savage and at times difficult to read book about the people involved in the Jack the Ripper Whitechapel Murders in London. I recommend it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a conundrum about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2001 11:26:39 AM ----- BODY:

I have a conundrum about my Mr. Big - the guy of last-night's long foretold lip-collision. The conundrum is, having been deserted by a man who won't take your phone number, but who looks on while his companion asks you to leave a message with your contact details at his office (ostensibly regarding a job opportunity), and then leans forward and kisses you, should you: a) debase yourself by ringing and leaving a message or b) feel strangely affronted, as if it were being implied that the attachments (power discrepancy, financial discrepancy, office, power ... whatever) were generating the interest, or that they were generating a divide, or that because of it one's life was somehow shabbier and less interesting and pointless and for that reason, why on earth would he really have any interest in you when he could have anyone he wanted? Your thoughts?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mr. Big rears his head... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2001 07:41:05 PM ----- BODY:

Mr. Big rears his head once more. After much deliberation, and with a guessed e-mail address, I decided that I should drop a 'thank you' note for an entertaining evening. In the e-mail, I thought to myself, I would explicate my apparent teenage gawkiness from the previous day as the consequence of being mortifyingly embarrassed and hapless. It occurred to me that I would probably be more able to present myself through the written word. As I wrote it I found myself smiling - I was striking an elegant balance between professionalism and lust, between being aloof and being a prat. As I finally sent the e-mail, I felt finally satisfied. For good or ill it was over.

Twenty minutes later the phone rang. When I picked up the phone I didn't know the number on caller-id. Just a vague number that looked vaguely corporate. A voice leapt in with 'Hello', but didn't say a name - just a firmly worded, confident, 'how are you'. For a moment I thought it was Will, who I had lost contact with a while back (semi-purposefully) after a particularly annoying weekend. My voice steeled itself for a moment, before suddenly recognising that I was completely off track. Big had rung.

Oh my god. He wasn't supposed to do that. Caught offguard, I reached back into the depths of wit and opened my mouth, only for nothing to emerge. Words pounce from the phone, "What are you doing today? I'm blowing off work today to go for lunch and hang around." My replies, in turn, stumble from my mouth as if unfamiliar with walking, shielding their eyes from the harsh light of day. Some crap excuse or other: "I've got a list. Things to do. Learn SMIL. Have a haircut. I can't do anything but those things. That would be ... er ... bad." There's some kind of distraction at the end of the phone. He's trying to make conversation, but I'm behaving like a chimp trapped in a cage. Noises emerge but they make no sense. Ten minutes. We agree to a vague drink sometime next week and the phone goes dead. I sit in absolute silence for five minutes, drool oozing from a corner of my mouth. Then I howl with glee. Then my eyes widen and I have to have a lie down. What the fuck have I done...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Best comments about Big so far... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 12:18:58 AM ----- BODY:

Best comments about Big so far:

"Try not to salivate down your chin. And have fun."
"Always remember the quote: 'It is a far, far better thing to be a whore like me, than the wife of a fascist like you...' J V Martin."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Message for Max... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 01:10:58 AM ----- BODY:

Message for Max: This is possibly related to my current heady state of workless thinking and relaxation. Or perhaps there are too many nostalgia particles in my mind at the moment. Or perhaps not. I've been listening to Jeff Buckley a lot over the last couple of days. There's a song called 'Morning Theft' that I've been listening to a hell of a lot. Just have a listen, okay?

Meet me tomorrow night, or any day you want.
I have no right to wonder just how, or when.
You know the meaning fits. There's no relief in this.
I miss my beautiful friend.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nostalgia Particles.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 01:18:14 AM ----- BODY:

In which, suddenly fascinated by the term "nostalgia particles", Tom decides to do a search on Google, and is most entertained by a link to a Ulysses 31 site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Give us a snog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 01:29:52 AM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I spent a certain amount STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 09:43:27 AM ----- BODY:

I spent a certain amount of last night compiling a minidisc compilation for my little brother (15) who is at boarding school. I don't exactly know that I got the balance right, but I've been playing it to myself over and over again all night, so it can't be that bad. Track listing (with links to Napster) follows:

Freaky Beatnik:
1) America (Simon & Garfunkel)
2) Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
3) Dirge (Death in Vegas)
4) Shallow End (Morcheeba)
5) Momentum (Aimee Mann)
6) Theme from Narc (Pixies)
7) Unreal (Unkle)
8) Like Dylan in the Movies (Belle & Sebastian)
9) American Dream (Jakatta)
10) Morning Theft (Jeff Buckley)
11) Da Funk (Daft Punk)
12) The Wind (Cat Stevens)
13) Bohemian Like You (Dandy Warhols)
14) New World (Bjork)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oscars polling on the BBC... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 10:00:21 AM ----- BODY:

In a classic example of poor quality interactive design, the BBC's Oscars 2001 microsite allows you to vote on the winners of the major categories, but will not reveal the results of the poll until the day before the event itself. There's no place for people to subsequently investigate further after voting, nor is there any way of alerting people to the fact that the results have come out. More than likely, people will stumble upon the site, vote and then leave - never to return and never to recommend it to anyone else.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Much television is anodyne, unimaginative STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 01:24:08 PM ----- BODY:

Much television is anodyne, unimaginative and without redeeming characters or plots. Even those which are imaginative and intelligently put together are often morally dubious. Take Ally McBeal for one. This is an imaginatively made TV series which celebrates and indulges the lunacies and inadequacies of a thirty-something lawyer, when if the world were even the slightest bit sane, Ally would be ritually humiliated every week before being put into the army to sort herself out and the series would be renamed "Thing".

It is for this reason that we celebrate those who identify 'inappropriately' - those who don't think that Carol and Doug were always right and that actually Kerry should have slapped them around with her cane until they were a bloody pulp for being so self-importantly dramatic all the while ('Oh my tortured romance') rather than just getting on with the bloody job - those who wish Gunther would pull out an Uzi and pump hot metal death into those parasites who clog up his coffee bar - those who pine for the day when Mulder and Scully pop off for a shag, leaving the Lone Gunmen ... Oh hang on a minute ...

It is for this reason that I recommend you ignore Meg's appeal to not go and do the Bridget Jones quiz. Because it has declared me The Anti Bridget - and cutting past the bullshit description ["Youíre nothing like Bridget, but youíre very much like her bossy, happily engaged, real-estate-shopping officemate Perpetua ó perpetually organized, perpetually on top of things, perpetually a pain in the arse."] - I have declared myself Arch Nemesis of Jones The Hag. Schlurp your chianti while you still can, woman. We're here to bitch-slap you from the face of the planet...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In what may or may STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2001 07:10:33 PM ----- BODY:

In what may or may not be the last Big related post of the evening, Tom confesses to his adoring fans that he has failed in his attempt to withhold reciprocal contact (after phone call yesterday morning) and caved in and sent an e-mail this evening at 7.20pm on March 14th, this year of our Lord, 2001. Tom would like to add that this is only fifteen hours prior to schedule. That's not too bad. Right? [helpful advice]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I spent a good four STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2001 12:07:49 AM ----- BODY:

I spent a good four hours of yesterday walking around London in a suit. Not because I had a job interview or anything, but instead because I hadn't worn one in about a year and a half. I thought it might be nice to look glamorous for a change. I felt great in it - really sharp - except that I appear to have been gradually swelling over the past three years. At times it felt like I was wearing a corset.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another addition to the list STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2001 12:13:30 AM ----- BODY:

Another addition to the list of technical things I need to learn about. HTML I have down pat. Mostly. CSS also mostly there with. DHTML and Javascript I can fudge my way through other people's scripts just about. The list of languages that I was planning on knowing after HTML included Perl, but until now did not include SMIL - which weirdly looks to be one of the more interesting, and easiest, of the lot.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: E-mail to Big (subject header: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2001 01:08:09 PM ----- BODY:

E-mail to Big (subject header: "Message for Mr Big") has solicited a reply. And an altogether unsatisfying one at that. It appears, in true Sex and the City style, that Mr. Big is in fact part of the family unit "Mr and Mr Big". This is a piece of information that I was, unfortunately, unaware of until this point. There remains a flirtatious vibe to the correspondence. This, I am afraid, doesn't surprise me. More to the point, my decision to go along with said vibe to the detriment of my own health and general well-being also doesn't surprise me. Tempted as I am to place my reply on the site, I think I might just restrain myself.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Adjunct notice: Despite perceived trashiness STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2001 01:31:11 PM ----- BODY:

Adjunct notice: Despite perceived trashiness of Mr Big references and forced associations with TV programme Sex and the City, said parallel is allowing me to get a handle on what might otherwise be an intolerably difficult to deal with piece of mental engineering. Hence I fully intend to investigate this particular pathway until it collapses beneath me. Having undertaken the quiz associated with the TV series, however, I was alarmed to be presented with this (edited for length and gender improprieties - unfortunately one found oneself at a professional loss as to how to remove the cheesy bits):

"Who you are: Complex and creative. Yet somehow, when it comes to relationships, you're not adept. You can whine all you want about the way men treat you (usually, like dirt), but it's the challenge of obtaining the unobtainable that thrills you. Your resolutions this year: To admit you made a few BIG mistakes in 2000 and move on to better things. To kick your vices (that includes seeing that ex you KNOW is no good). To tame those over-indulgent tendencies. To seek out men who might actually be SANE as well as single. In the past, you've been swept off your feet by charismatic creeps who are about as available as a lunch table at Le Cirque 2000. The more obnoxious and aloof they are, the more interested you are. When you do find a nice guy, you send him packing: Hey, where's the angst?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a redesign over at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2001 10:36:15 PM ----- BODY:

There's a redesign over at sourground.co.uk that is kind of what I was trying to do with the blue design of plasticbag.org - only, you know, sourground actually works. I'm endebted to the site for another reason - it pointed me towards dreamline.nu - an unofficial fan site for the works of Dave McKean - an artist who often produces the covers for the higher class of comic books.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark becomes the second weblogger STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2001 11:23:25 AM ----- BODY:

Mark becomes the second weblogger to move his writing into the source-code. Could this be the future? Endless rows of blank-pages, updated two or three times a day with invisible content? Quick, InvestoBoy - to the Businessplanmobile...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's an interesting exercise - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2001 11:34:46 AM ----- BODY:

Here's an interesting exercise - Mo Morgan is donating £1 to Comic Relief for every page impression that his weblog gets today. Join me in my question to bankrupt him, by visiting his site immediately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now I've never been much STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2001 11:57:21 AM ----- BODY:

Now I've never been much of a one for Robbie Williams. I mean the man's a laugh, and it's good to finally have some pop stars with a sense of humour and some style, even as the manufactured groups get more and more overt and trashy. But I think I could assert that I've never really found him attractive. Until that is I saw him this morning in a few sketches he's done for Comic Relief. Based on the Ted and Ralph characters from The Fast Show (and more than a little based upon Scudder from Maurice), I present for you - uncut half-naked Robbie digging holes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been investigating Q4music.com's guide STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/16/2001 02:15:19 PM ----- BODY:

I've been investigating Q4music.com's guide to (and reviews of) my favourite ever band: The Pixies [Reviews: Come On Pilgrim | Surfer Rosa | Doolittle | Bossanova | Trompe Le Monde | Death To The Pixies | At The BBC | Complete B-sides].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 8.30pm Friday: Yesterday evening I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2001 09:01:42 AM ----- BODY:

8.30pm Friday: Yesterday evening I was travelling up the escalator in Maida Vale tube on my way home. Halfway up, I felt this strange sensation - as if some force behind me was gently pushing me faster than everyone else. For a fraction of a second, I didn't know what was happening, but then the escalator gently slid to a halt. Like a car braking suddenly and its passengers being thrust forwards, my feeling had been the consequence of a sudden deceleration rather than a speeding-up. This has never happened to me on an escalator before. And it suddenly got me thinking about the sensation associated with things ending or breaking. Maybe there's always a sensation of oneself moving forward - a positive feeling of individual movement, or progress - in the moment when the rest of the world suddenly slows and stops.

8.30am Saturday: Despite being awake until 3.30 am in the morning, I rise early when the postman arrives. There's a letter from AOL in the post rejecting me for the role of Broadband Producer. I am surprised by how disappointed I am. I have several potential job opportunities around at the moment, but none excited me anywhere near as much as this one. It seemed to me something I could get passionate about - something exciting that I could excel at.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt has taken Metafilter down STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2001 09:15:35 AM ----- BODY:

Matt has taken Metafilter down for the weekend to do some maintenance and hardware / software improvements. But he hasn't just thrown up a 'closed' or 'under construction' page - instead he's taken the opportunity to celebrate Two Years of Metafilter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Courtesy of idiote.org: A song STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2001 09:29:06 AM ----- BODY:

Courtesy of idiote.org: A song in french about plastic bags - a song with a startling hidden meaning.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I decided (inspired by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2001 09:47:56 AM ----- BODY:

So I decided (inspired by Jason's third birthday to have a roam through his archives. Of all the entries, this one has had most impact on me so far. This is exactly where I feel myself to be at the moment. "Two or three weeks off to walk the earth."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scott McCloud, godlike genius behind STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 12:39:32 AM ----- BODY:

Scott McCloud, godlike genius behind Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics has a particularly well developed web-presence, my favourite part of which (found via haddock.org) is the Giant-Size Choose Your Own Carl.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Beware the bottled thoughts of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 12:48:35 AM ----- BODY:

"Beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men. Secret compartments hide all of the skeletons." [Jeff Buckley: Nightmares By The Sea]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Congratulations to Prol on being STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 01:07:57 AM ----- BODY:

Congratulations to Prol on being mentioned (with link) on Wired.com: "Hitching a World-Wide Ride on Web".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last week I posted Cal's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 01:16:01 AM ----- BODY:

Last week I posted Cal's novel solution to my little riddle - completely written in Perl. Now Ben has refined the code still further: plasticgame.txt

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My escalator incident yesterday triggered STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 01:42:53 AM ----- BODY:

My escalator incident yesterday triggered a whole range of thoughts, which on my return to the flat I had to commit to paper immediately. The feeling of forward thrust that I hypothesized might be a direct consequence of imminent disaster made me think about 'catastrophe' as a concept.

I have spent a great deal of my life working on Ancient Greece, in fact I'd had over eleven years of study of the classics when I left my incomplete doctorate aged 25. Since then my knowledge has decayed a fair amount, but I can still tell a word with a Greek root when I hear it and I was also expecting theatrical resonances because of the term 'strophe', which is often used to describe a type of choral ode. I was nonetheless fascinated by the results of a search on the web:

From Dictionary.com:

  1. A great, often sudden calamity.
  2. A complete failure; a fiasco: The food was cold, the guests quarreled - the whole dinner was a catastrophe.
  3. The concluding action of a drama, especially a classical tragedy, following the climax and containing a resolution of the plot.
  4. A sudden violent change in the earth's surface; a cataclysm.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Desperately Seeking Support for the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 12:01:39 PM ----- BODY:

Desperately Seeking Support for the Barbelith Underground which is throwing up errors and error messages 24 hours a day. Read about the problems in full at the Ultimate Bulletin Board Support Forums. E-mail me if you have any suggestions.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So having spent much of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 06:21:31 PM ----- BODY:

So having spent much of Friday afternoon in the gym, damaging myself, I then decided on Saturday to spend most of the day helping Meg, Luke and Davo (Hi Catherine!) move into their new place. This involved moving many many boxes. Not as many, perhaps, as if I wasn't still hurting from the gym the previous day, but many nonetheless. So today I have this cumulative body collapse thing going on, where pretty much any kind of movement of any kind causes me tremendous pain and makes me want to go immediately to bed. I do, apparently, look quite nice.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am to be a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2001 07:01:41 PM ----- BODY:

I am to be a pizza delivered when you're not in the mood to cook. I'm not to be a cinema, but straight-to-video - and rented not bought. I am to be a public convenience (20p) in the middle of the city on a Saturday morning. I am to be a hand-shandy - nothing more - on a grey day, while bored, in front of Neighbours.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My evening with Big was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2001 01:08:21 PM ----- BODY:

My evening with Big was pleasant, but frustrating. I suspect that's the last I'll see of him - a fact that I find depressing. [Hi to Ian who I bumped into at Barcode while with Big.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt reveals his fetishes: "The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2001 01:14:46 PM ----- BODY:

Matt reveals his fetishes: "The subtle interplay of media and peer pressure, the slow progression into adulthood, quiet sexual play through the teens -- all of this is dwarfed completely by televised pornography, dirty magazines found in skips, and pissed fumblings in the park (or, in the case of Americans: MTV, a box of Kleenex, and massive sublimated guilt that is liable to explode at any time in a shower of bullets)."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A piece of contract work STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2001 03:39:46 PM ----- BODY:

A piece of contract work that I was semi-relying on has just fallen through, leaving me frustrated and having to fall back upon freelance writing, which - although fun - pays ridiculously badly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why did no one tell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2001 04:35:04 PM ----- BODY:

Why did no one tell me that Derek has started logging again? I've missed it terribly. It's nice to have him back.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever Meg might say to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2001 12:24:16 AM ----- BODY:

Whatever Meg might say to the contrary [what Meg said], she is my wife, I am very masculine, I can carry shelves and it is true that withholding sex is the only way to keep them in line. If she says any different it is because she is hysterical and needs to have a baby. What can I say?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Massow to compete with Time Out... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2001 01:52:54 AM ----- BODY:

In an ironic piece of news, it seems that Ivan Massow is to take on the beast of Time Out by investing heavily in a free competitor. He's been interested in magazine publishing for a while now, as far as I can tell. I'm not sure he's had much luck with it though. Here's the quote from the Media Guardian:

"Massow targets listings market: Financier Ivan Massow has taken a 10% stake in CapitalLive, the free listings magazine taking on Time Out in London. Mr Massow, who built his financial services business targeting the gay community into a top 10 financial advisor, will become chairman of the title."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jesus Christ. Does absolutely everyone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2001 09:56:25 AM ----- BODY:

Jesus Christ. Does absolutely everyone in the world have to have an online diary?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2001 11:03:15 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: Note to self: it's not necessarily a good idea for employers to have direct access to one's inner thoughts and anxieties before you even get to interview. I thought I'd removed plasticbag.org from my CV, so I was startled when today I saw it there, in the hands of a potential employer, large as life. The situation has since been resolved. I could base my entire publicity regime for the site on the distribution of carefully concocted resumés...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Billy Dare: Boy Adventurer: "Isn't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2001 09:52:25 AM ----- BODY:

Billy Dare: Boy Adventurer: "Isn't your obsession with Mordu a convenient way of covering for your ... latent homosexuality?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's an interesting fact for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2001 10:20:22 AM ----- BODY:

Here's an interesting fact for you: Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip are both Great-Great Grandchildren of Queen Victoria. [Family Tree PDF]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a friend who STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2001 12:14:40 PM ----- BODY:

I have a friend who is a Mason. In fact, if I think about it for a moment, I probably have a great many friends who are Masons. Or indeed perhaps I should say that I have a great many friends of friends who are Masons, because after all aren't the Masons just one large group of friends, albeit with a rather more advanced sense of ritual?

I also have a number of friends who are not Masons, although when I say that they are not Masons, of course I could be completely mistaken. They could in fact merely be pretending not to be Masons. How would I tell? I have conversations with these 'possibly-not-Masons' in which we ponder the kind of person that would join them, what possible consequences membership would entail, whether it is a moral decision. One of my friends thinks that if you are a Mason you should certainly declare it. But then he might be a Mason and just be saying that to distract me. They could all be laughing about it behind my back, giggling about Enoch's Royal Arch, Jah-Bul-On, and points of the compass pressed firmly into breasts.

I myself am not a Mason. A friend mentioned that I might like to be one once. I can't remember what I said. Maybe I said 'yes', although that seems unlikely somehow.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | PR to improve the freemason's image
So what is the essence of freemasonry? Material self-advancement and sinister secrecy, say its critics. Fun, fellowship and a moral code, masons counter. Dewar, who hopes to reverse the decline that has seen membership in England and Wales fall to 320,000, intends to present them as "good, solid citizens with the right moral values who support all that is good in society". But there are two other factors which must surely be considered - food and stamp collecting.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In assembling odds and ends STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2001 09:58:49 PM ----- BODY:

In assembling odds and ends of my portfolio online, so that I have something to show potential employers, I've stumbled upon my little done-in-two-days from beginning to end Time Out: Festivals 2000 site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A stunningly savage Steve Bell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 11:12:11 AM ----- BODY:

A stunningly savage Steve Bell cartoon [via linkmachinego] asks the question, Is the timing of this particular cull entirely appropriate?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There is something wilfully perverse STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 11:19:39 AM ----- BODY:

There is something wilfully perverse about posting a quiz based around finding the answer to the question: "Are you a liar?". Nonetheless I've done it, and attempted to be honest:

"You scored 22
The truth is out there ... not necessarily anywhere near you. You're capable of being economical with the truth. You don't like lying, but you're not going to lose sleep over it."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am a superstar. Go STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 11:38:42 AM ----- BODY:

I am a superstar. Go figure.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've had a fairly stressful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 12:27:37 PM ----- BODY:

I've had a fairly stressful couple of weeks and it looks like that is a trend that is likely to continue for a while to come. So I was really delighted when I received a package this morning from Caroline. Thanks so much, old girl for Bowie at the Beeb [Change Amazon Prefs] - not only is it bloody good, but it's a welcome change of pace from all the mope music that's taken over my stereo...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: At times I am amused STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 12:55:46 PM ----- BODY:

At times I am amused by how little things change over time: plasticbag.org first entry ever.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Placing my transparent mask upon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 03:24:19 PM ----- BODY:

Placing my transparent mask upon my upturned welcoming face, I feel its cool edges slide down my cheek, its base lightly touching my neck. Behind this mask I am safe, behind this mask I am alone. I am cool, my mind serene and clear. Sacrificing all my self to another's voice I feel my lungs swell and lift, my ribs arise with ceremonial pomp, my eyes lift, plastic-coated, to the sky. And from my gut it comes, an explosion of light, filling my vision, transforming the world in an instant of nuclear light; total personality destruction. And born from the awesome light, new features appear, slowly edges solidify; colour, texture and shadow condense. My nose pricks with new sensation - and as I feel my plastic mouth open, with my last inscribing thought, I know that there will now be sound.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Answer me this: If it's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 03:50:09 PM ----- BODY:

Answer me this: If it's so good to be back, then why were you away so long?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Advert: One man does not STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2001 08:13:11 PM ----- BODY:

Advert: One man does not need two computers (unless of course one is a Titanium Powerbook). I have two computers. So I'm selling one. Now. I went into town today and got a frankly laughable offer (£100) for the whole package, so I'm opening this up to the floor. Does anyone want to buy this complete set-up for a ludicrously small amount? Either to cannibalise or use around the house. It's not really built for games, but it works perfectly well. Conditions: You can buy any part or all of it, but you have to come and collect it from Maida Vale and pay in cash - and SOON. I'll even autograph it if you want me to...

IBM 6X86 PR 200 Desktop
64 Mb RAM
56.6k Internal Modem
4 GB Hard Disk
24X CD ROM
Sforce S25 Speakers
Logitech Mouse (with little wheel thing)
CTX SVGA Monitor 15" (14" visible) Monitor
Deskjet 400 Printer
Plustek OpticPro 4831P Flatbed Scanner
Software: Windows 98
Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition
[Excel & Word]
Paint Shop Pro 5
Age of Empires

Best offer over £150 for the lot received by Saturday night accepted immediately and without question. COME ON!: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After a strange conversation with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2001 01:41:31 AM ----- BODY:

After a strange conversation with Matt Haughey, I'm now really interested in knowing what Ev is talking about...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2001 11:15:56 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: I had this particularly weird night last night. I came home exhausted from seeing Meg and Davo, and slumped in front of my computer to check my e-mail. Ten minutes later I turn around to look at my bed. It kind of glares at me. Around two in the morning I give up and lie awake in bed. Four-thirty AM I'm still awake, sweating and uncomfortable.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Any and all translations appreciated: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2001 11:24:51 AM ----- BODY:

Any and all translations appreciated: "malorama".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meg explains the origins of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2001 12:39:02 PM ----- BODY:

Meg explains the origins of "Not So Soft".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is indeed the grossest STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2001 01:16:00 PM ----- BODY:

This is indeed the grossest thing I've seen today. Aside: What does FOAF mean?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What Men Do When They STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/24/2001 02:44:37 AM ----- BODY:

What Men Do When They Are Bored: When men are bored they do this. When men have a spare ten minutes they do this. When men are not stressed, or in a public place or have bigger things on their mind they do this. And they mostly do it when those things are going on as well. Once I didn't do this for over a week, and I got all aggressive and macho. It was weird, but cool. I'd do it again if I could be bothered. Some men write weird shit about other weird shit that makes other men (ostensibly) do it. Some men don't. Some men don't really mention it that much, but then again some of them are having too much fun at the moment for it to be strictly necessary. Some men frankly don't bear thinking about - particularly when they're doing it - but I'm too nice to talk about them in a public place (you know who you are). You know occasionally you have to wonder if the people you used to go out with think about you when they're doing it. Or maybe that's just me. I sometimes wonder if even really major web celebrities do it? I would think that they do. I mean, they're geeks right? I hear chicks do it too, but I think they have different techniques. (You know, this would be funnier if this was about hand-coding HTML or something, but I'm afraid it's not. I really am that cheap. Link via Prol.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It is very important that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/24/2001 06:39:05 PM ----- BODY:

It is very important that you go out and buy Jeffrey Zeldman's book on preorder: Taking Your Talent to the Web [Change Amazon Prefs]. This is particularly true if you think it is relevant to your life and / or work, but also true, because I think it is important to support people who produce creative work on the net. In the same spirit - you can preorder Derek Powazek's Design for Community [Change Amazon Prefs] as well. The latter book is one that I'm really looking forward to - particularly after fighting for radical improvements (not as yet implemented) to Time Out's 'Rants and Raves' forums.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 7.30pm One Hundred Percent Straight STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2001 11:50:41 AM ----- BODY:

7.30pm One Hundred Percent Straight Night A night of programmes for straight, poof-hating men who are completely heterosexual and spend most of their time ******* ladies ** *** ****. [TV Go Home]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to a friend's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2001 11:55:13 AM ----- BODY:

I went to a friend's birthday party last night in this lovely flat near Angel. Almost the first thing that happened to me when I went into the kitchen was that this woman wandered up to me, said that she had met me before several years ago and that I had been extremely rude. I was, I'm afraid, slightly startled.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2001 02:15:00 PM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Conversations with Mr Big... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2001 02:23:40 PM ----- BODY:

So you have a conversation with someone about politics, and they declare that by divine right they should ascend to the throne, or at least to a position as benevolent dictator-for-life, and you make a joke about that and then you think about it for a week, because you thought that you were getting somewhere with them, but maybe you're not. So you think about it a bit more, and decide that you're not really in a fit state to think about this anyway, so you send them what you consider to be amusing banner-ads and poster mock-ups for a pseudo politic campaign complete with an e-mail that says that you'd love to meet up again sometime soon, but that you want to get a few things organised beforehand so you don't feel quite so inadequate about your life. Is that a fun thing to do? Is it the kind of thing that a stalker would do? Do we think it was a good idea? Well?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a wonderful quote on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 02:23:47 AM ----- BODY:

There's a wonderful quote on Derek's log at the moment, linking through to Kvetch (interestingly enough the very first thing I ever linked to on what-was-then barbelith.com). It goes as follows: "It takes more energy to frown than it does to smile, but personally I think its worth the effort!" ñJames

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Insomnia combines with British Summer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 02:33:05 AM ----- BODY:

Insomnia combines with British Summer Time in upsetting ways. Where some days last week I have been awake until four or five in the morning, I suddenly find myself considering being awake until possibly six. In addition, one of my flat-mates has invented a new early-morning fruit smoothie torture (involving liquidisers). I will snap within a week and join a drug-addled travelling street carnival. It's the only answer.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Computer sold to Catherine for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 02:39:11 AM ----- BODY:

Computer sold to Catherine for princely sum of £100. Printer and scanner remain unpurchased. This cannot, unfortunately, be allowed to continue.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: E-mail from Big arrived, much STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 01:52:48 PM ----- BODY:

E-mail from Big arrived, much to my surprise. This man is either nicer than I expected or considerably more unpleasant. The banner and poster went down extremely well, it seems, and we have agreed to meet up again - in hopefully less tense circumstances - in two or three weeks time. That's one less thing to worry about then.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'd been planning to watch STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 02:13:30 PM ----- BODY:

I'd been planning to watch the Oscars with Nick last night. But at the last minute he and I decided that we weren't feeling perky enough to justify staying up until four or five in the morning (my insomnia, of course, was not as evident at that point of the evening). So instead we watched advance episodes of Buffy, borrowed from my contact in the TV section of Time Out (thanks Noam).

From all accounts, it wasn't a particularly sensational evening. The BBC's list of winners contains very few actual surprises - although there are a few disappointments. Steven Soderbergh clearly deserved to win Best Director for Traffic. Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous deserved more than just Best Original Screenplay. The depressing part of the evening was clearly the Gladiator win for best picture and best actor. This was not a sensational film.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Terrifying though it is to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 10:03:01 PM ----- BODY:

Terrifying though it is to admit, with a shave and some hair gel, the BBC's reconstruction of the face of Jesus (via Link Machine Go) would look remarkably like my mate Toby.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to see a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2001 10:19:36 PM ----- BODY:

I went to see a short film this evening. My flatmate, who works in the film industry, organised a screening for one of her directors and asked if I'd like to go. I decided that I should simply because it made me feel slightly worthwhile - which is possibly the wrong reason. The film was about cloning and loss of identity.

The strangest thing for me, though, was that in the credits (as well as thanking 'Tilly the dog'), there was a URL mentioned: WITNESS.org. When I got back home and looked at it, I found it to be a site supported by Peter Gabriel which 'uses video and technology to fight for Human Rights'. It's an excellent idea, and well worth looking at further.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Virgin Atlantic have announced that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/27/2001 12:32:58 AM ----- BODY:

Virgin Atlantic have announced that they are to provide net and e-mail access to passengers on their jets [CNN.com]. For those of us who are obsessive net-philes, clearly this would be a wonderful thing. I can easily pass nine or ten hours with e-mail and web access. Except that it could cost you $2 per e-mail, and you'll only have access to ten or twenty sites. Still, I suppose it's a step in the right direction...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm working for four days STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/27/2001 03:15:20 PM ----- BODY:

I'm working for four days in a web design company called Arehaus based between Chancery Lane and Farringdon. I'm doing basic HTML scut-work, but I'm actually quite enjoying it. The atmosphere is relaxed and creative, the environment is extremely pleasant and obviously designed to be conducive to good design work, and there doesn't appear to be any notceable office politics at all. Ironically, Arehaus were the people who designed timeout.com - a site that I have been hacking around in for the last year and a half...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jesus! I just completed a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 01:03:49 AM ----- BODY:

Jesus! I just completed a high-speed, late-night HTML test hosted by Brainbench on my knowledge of forms, HTML, frames and CSS. On the site they stated that using reference books was sort of ok - if appropriate to the situation (or something equally obscure). Of course, I'm not in the least bit sure that it was appropriate in this case, because no one mentioned that I might need them to me. Or indeed told me much about the test at all. Which might explain why I decided to do 40 questions (with a time limit of 1 1/2 minutes per question) just after midnight on a Monday evening.

In the end, with the help of my two life-saving books, I completed the bloody thing (complete with questions about PICS, every property of the text-decoration element and what a server receives when you select two checkboxes with the same name but different values). But now - particularly since I kind of feel like looking things up is kind of immoral somehow - I'm kind of slightly pissed off by being described as if I were some kind of slow child...

"You appear capable of working on most projects in this area with moderate assistance. You may require some initial assistance with advanced concepts, however."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just in case anyone is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 01:28:03 AM ----- BODY:

Just in case anyone is wondering what's happening with the Barbelith Underground, the problems that we've been noticing for the last few weeks have finally started making the server wobbly and so pair.com have shut the board down. I have no intention of turning them on again until I've reinstalled the board, which will mean everyone will have to reregister and start posting afresh. All the old threads are there intact, but they'll have to be moved someone separately. I'm as depressed as you are by the state of affairs. Bear with me as I try and get it sorted out over the next week or so...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly the most actually useful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 08:59:06 AM ----- BODY:

Possibly the most actually useful thing ever done by UK webloggers launched yesterday: ToThePolls.com is a balanced newsfilter for the upcoming General Election.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Of all people, Anne Robinson STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 09:02:51 AM ----- BODY:

Of all people, Anne Robinson hits the USA - "You are the Weakest Link, goodbye..." More? Davo has a bit of a thing about her. She can't pronounce the word Gallifrey. The bloke who used to present Mastermind thinks she's awful...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The wonder of Radio 2, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 11:17:24 AM ----- BODY:

The wonder of Radio 2, being played continuously at work at the moment, has reintroduced me to the magic of Dolly Parton's 'Nine to Five'. My trash gland has declared this song to be a "Work Of Genius". If anyone can find the lyrics online, then could you please tell me where.

This whole thing reminds me of working in a supermarket warehouse in the run-up to Christmas (age 19). The same songs played over and over again. Christmas songs: Mistletoe and Wine, Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime - things by Wizard. The tape can only have been about thirty-five minutes long. And I heard it every day for weeks...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sing it with me! [Thanks STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 01:02:55 PM ----- BODY:

Sing it with me! [Thanks to everyone who sent this link to me (9 to 5), particularly to Prol, because she's always so good at this stuff, and Mr Towb who really should be working.]

Workin' 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by
It's all takin'
And no givin'
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It's enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Contract Work: Jobs are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/28/2001 06:48:33 PM ----- BODY:

On Contract Work: Jobs are like partners. Some people go for the quiet interesting types - the ones that aren't much to look at, but are quietly rewarding. Some others go for feeling valued and respected. Others need the passion and the fire, or the heat of money and glamour. At the moment, it seems, I will do any job which pays the bills. I'm sure there is a word for that type of relationship.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Prolific.org now states on her STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2001 09:01:45 AM ----- BODY:

Prolific.org now states on her site: "This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device. Um, no actually, I'm lying. This site doesn't really look that much different. But there are lots of sites out there that will look better if you do upgrade." Which would be, you know, great, if I didn't see the message while using IE5 for Mac, which is supposed to be one of the most compliant browsers in existence.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Tube Strike took its STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2001 01:44:26 PM ----- BODY:

The Tube Strike took its toll on me this morning, making me an hour and a quarter late for my work at Arehaus. As part of the thrill, I had to walk from Marble Arch to Farringdon. On the journey I was singled out by every single person seeking donations for a cause. I must have a face that screams ''sucker".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Flying in from Mexico this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2001 04:05:59 PM ----- BODY:

Flying in from Mexico this evening comes my first ever boyfriend, who now works for The Economist. Described by many as 'hairy Barbie', I know him as Gideon. It's going to be great to see him again. He's not in the country much these days...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have spent an inordinate STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2001 04:57:36 PM ----- BODY:

I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my life drawing pictures on post-its, while working. It gives my hands something to do while I'm mulling things over. I wonder if it would be possible to market something like 'Art-Its' or 'Book-It's, whereby pads of post-it notes, rather than being blank, contain small amounts of text, images or even photos. You could have a tremendous amount of cut-and-paste fun with them, rearranging a text as you saw fit, or keeping useful and / or important diagrams handy at all times. You could even annotate books with other pages of other books really easily, or place notes about maintenance at relevant places in your garage or car. And then there's combination post-it notes and desk calenders. Or you could use the images like mini-posters or big, non-damaging stickers. I mean, there's no limit to it, really.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'd place money on this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2001 08:27:57 PM ----- BODY:

I'd place money on this tasting like sugar and plastic, but nonetheless, you can get it free. Galaxy launch a new instant chocolate drink. 10,000 to be given away.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The concept that would not STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/29/2001 08:48:03 PM ----- BODY:

The concept that would not breathe its last takes a toke instead. Answer me honestly, my friends, is this furby stoned or not?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A big hand, everyone, to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/30/2001 07:56:21 PM ----- BODY:

A big hand, everyone, to Evan Williams for staying up all night fighting with the dark magic that lies secretly behind Blogger. We do not know how many virgins it took to sate the creature, but we know that their sacrifice has made the world better for the rest of us. Bravo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Advertisement: All your favourite London-based STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2001 01:09:56 PM ----- BODY:

Advertisement: All your favourite London-based webloggers are now available in a bumper pack based at the Rat and Parrot in Soho. This once only offer takes place today from 1pm. This message has been sponsored by meets.gblogs.org.uk. Warning: May cause bleeding.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After the blogmeet (at which STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2001 10:40:39 PM ----- BODY:

After the blogmeet (at which Katy was wearing the most Daisy Duke-style breast enhancing Madonna-top) I decided that it was time to reward myself for having got through the last three weeks with fragments of my personality intact. So I went and bought some food and a copy of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few years ago I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2001 10:48:47 PM ----- BODY:

A few years ago I interviewed Grant Morrison for a magazine in America that I believe has since folded or gone web-only. During the interview (and in several other interviews) he talked a lot about how teen culture was associated with sun-spot activity - and how it came in eleven year cycles. To support his claim he proposed a sequence of dates 1955, 1966, 1977 and 1988. The spirit of each expression of rebellion alternated - so 1955 was aggressive rock 'n' roll, 1966 was flower-power and hippy-culture. With 1977 came punk and with 1988, rave. He told me that in 1999 the negative spirit would come in again and a new youth culture would emerge - a paramilitary-styled culture. I didn't notice it happening at the time, but perhaps he was just off by a couple of years: BBC News: "Giant sunspot erupts".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stunning lines of our time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2001 10:56:14 PM ----- BODY:

Stunning lines of our time from Mo Morgan (dot com): "I used to be a drummer. The definition of a drummer is someone who hangs around with musicians. I am a web developer. The definition of a web developer is someone who hangs around with computer people."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC launched a dedicated STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2001 11:02:03 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC launched a dedicated film news section of their main news site a couple of days ago. It includes stunning articles from around the industry - not just the standard entertainment fluff you get from some other sites. Because of this, I am particularly disappointed that no new content has been added to it for over twenty-four hours.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So yesterday, before going out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2001 11:11:08 PM ----- BODY:

So yesterday, before going out to Popstarz with Gideon, Nick and Davo, I sent Davo a link to an article about short men. Davo is short. [This fact is the inspiration for Davo's spare site: ickle.org - just in case you didn't know that already.] I thought this article was vaguely amusing. In return he sent me an article about pointless whiny friends. I am, it seems, a pointless whiny friend. I don't think I have a site about being a pointless whiny friend yet (unless of course that's what plasticbag.org is). Anyway - the point of this is that I took umbrage in my heart, although I said not a word. And then later in the evening, about two in the morning, I got all whiny and pointless and then I kind of saw his point.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is it just me that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2001 12:32:06 PM ----- BODY:

Is it just me that thinks that Hands Off My .ORG! misses a tremendous opportunity to showcase some of the great creative work that individuals and non-profit organisations have put together across the .org TLD?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am at Meg's house. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2001 08:57:44 PM ----- BODY:

I am at Meg's house. I am testing something for her. Read this at your peril. I have encoded it with fnords. If you read it too fast your mind will explode. White Wee Wee.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I spent a good twenty STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2001 11:30:22 PM ----- BODY:

I spent a good twenty minutes online with Matt Haughey on AIM yesterday, trying to work out what the French for a certain phrase was, and all the time I knew that the French had a particularly idiosyncratic interpretation of it - one that I just couldn't quite remember. Luckily - he found someone who really did know what they were talking about.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I watched American Beauty [] STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2001 11:36:21 PM ----- BODY:

I watched American Beauty [] last night for about the tenth time. In its honour, I keep thinking that I should try to write about one thing that I find beautiful every day. Tonight I went to see 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Curzon Mayfair. My mother rang me during the intermission to ask me if I'd found a job yet. She worries. I reassured her that I had some freelance stuff going on. While I was on the phone, I glanced up at the sky. It was pale blue, with whisps of white shot through it. Across it was the jetstream of an aircraft. It picked up the light and shone like a laser.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 24 hours too late: Disinfo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2001 09:07:01 AM ----- BODY:

24 hours too late: Disinfo acquired by AOL Time Warner
"In a surprise move that has already sent shockwaves through the Entertainment Economy, Disinformation Company Ltd publisher Gary Baddeley and creative director Richard Metzger have joined forces with their nemesis, AOL Time Warner, after months of secret negotiations. The media pranksters waited until April Fool's Day to make their ironic announcement, which confused Disinfonauts, the company's name for site visitors and their most valued customers."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: About a week ago, the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2001 12:27:32 PM ----- BODY:

About a week ago, the Barbelith Underground finally gave up the ghost. But now it's all fresh and new once more - reinstalled and virginal. Reintroduce yourself to the most creative politically futurist subcultural community on the web today.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is it normal to have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2001 02:27:03 PM ----- BODY:

Is it normal to have a one hour interview for what might turn out to be at most three or four weeks of part-time freelance HTML work? Maybe I talk too much. Your opinion?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Four Webloggers That I Definitely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2001 03:17:37 PM ----- BODY:

Four Webloggers That I Definitely Would:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So after 2001 last night, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2001 03:43:58 PM ----- BODY:

So after 2001 last night, my flatmate drove me eight-tenths of the way to Meg's house so I could sell her my printer. I was quite delighted by this since it meant I could either eat for another week or I could have a play with that excellent prostitute who has been scoping me out in Soho recently. Oh, hang on a minute. There's something wrong there...

When I arrived, we regaled each other with tales of woe and frustration for a while, before our life crapulence one-up-man-ship palled. Then we had Thai food out of a silver packet and looked on in horrified silence at the film that Luke was watching. Every ten minutes I'd turn my stupified face away from Titus and towards Meg, at which point I'd ask quietly, "Is it just me that thinks this film is totally fucked up?!". She merely rolled her eyes.

After a while even this new game palled, so we ran into Davo's bedroom, and I rolled around on his bed, and we smoked lots and let our minds run free like Caribou bouncing free across the plains of insanity. We talked of Tom Wopat and how rough he looked after quitting his long-running TV show, and how we weren't entirely convinced by his new career choice. We had a listen to one of his country songs. Later, Luke did too, but he didn't find it as funny as we did. We talked about the worst people in the world to cover Radiohead's Karma Police. (I still put my money on Wizzard.) We determined that I was a feminist and that Meg was insane (scientifically proven fact). We ran and we danced among the flotsam and jetsum of out digital lives, scattering bon mots like candies to the poor and needy children around us. And we laughed and laughed until our lungs burst and we collapsed to the green grass - a camera above us, recording the satisfied, almost sexual, looks on our faces...

The I went home and watched television, reinstalled a web bulletin board and got to sleep about three-thirty in the morning. [Meg's version of events]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another unprompted e-mail arrives from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 12:17:40 PM ----- BODY:

Another unprompted e-mail arrives from Big. I'm completely fascinated by what might be going on in his head. On a related note I have decided that I don't seem to have any healthy relationships with men which might develop into anything more interesting or long-term. I realised this was getting serious when I was resizing images of people who work at CABE, stumbled upon a picture of a fairly foxy bloke, and started wandering off into the furthest corners of my mind. [Anyone from CABE out there?] Anyway - it's all come together to present only one solution to my current dilemma. I'm putting out an appeal to the world: Find me a boyfriend.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the 36 hours since STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 12:20:23 PM ----- BODY:

In the 36 hours since the Barbelith Underground relaunched, the upgraded site informs me that it has generated around 20,000 page impressions. I had no idea.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Stalker: [Game One] I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 12:22:08 PM ----- BODY:

The Stalker: [Game One] I will be at Farringdon tube at 1pm today. A prize to anyone who manages to take a picture of me without my knowledge.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evidence for the debauchery of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 02:25:25 PM ----- BODY:

Evidence for the debauchery of the latest blog meet courtesy of Nick Jordan's Gallery. Filling in for Meg's crushing inadequacy as a photographer (being outside London is not a suitable excuse), he snapped all of us looking at our absolute best. My mood of the day is best represented by these few gorgeous picture: .Be warned, I have slept little and am fractious, You are all my bitches and Thank God, he's finally put that camera down ... oh JEEZ!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I applied for some freelance STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 05:25:11 PM ----- BODY:

I applied for some freelance work a few days back on the basis that it would be a convenient way to earn some money while looking for work and / or writing some freelance journalism. The job I applied for was supposed to be three or four weeks, three or four days a week. I thought it would be a terribly convenient activity - not requiring too much intellectual or time commitment, and getting me over a difficult working period. I would still, in other words, have time for interviews, writing and preparing myself for whatever the job-to-come would be. However, now they want me to learn JSP, work five days a week for four weeks and organise myself as a 'sole trader' through a consultation with an accountant. Suddenly the whole prospect seems considerably less appealing. I don't know what to do.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'd just like to say STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 11:20:35 PM ----- BODY:

I'd just like to say hello to Ralph. Yes, Ralph, it's quite good. If you keep working on it, you might have something worth reading one day!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a dream. And STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/03/2001 11:40:40 PM ----- BODY:

I have a dream. And in that dream, under a scorched sky, people with nut allergies are playing Revel Roulette. [Other things to do with Revels: Chess Set: Thanks to Simon.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Appeal for help: I need STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 09:09:55 AM ----- BODY:

Appeal for help: I need a list of the very best UK and London based and/or orientated film websites as soon as is humanly possible. E-mail me!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsflash: Whatever it was that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 10:20:46 AM ----- BODY:

Newsflash: Whatever it was that Ev and Matt were talking about looks to be some kind of Blogger-based directory system - perhaps like the slow, but useful weblogs.com - for more information, read the post on Blogger.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been sent information on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 10:49:38 AM ----- BODY:

I've been sent information on a few film sites so far - please continue to send me more. In the meantime, here's my spiralling list of wonder:

Important sites outside the UK include:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok, Mr Brilliant. I know STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 01:27:54 PM ----- BODY:

Ok, Mr Brilliant. I know you're out there. Stop being such a fuck-wit and drop me an e-mail. I would love to have lunch. Thank you very much.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A stunningly clever piece STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 02:40:04 PM ----- BODY:

A stunningly clever piece of web-tech this, that if developed by some central organisation could completely revolutionise the way in which fonts are handled on the net. The place to go for more information is: ReeveJones.com [via Matt].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is the word "CeWebrity" as STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 02:46:45 PM ----- BODY:

Is the word "CeWebrity" as cheesy as I think it is? Because I'm thinking it might be time for badges and stuff. Alternative slogans have included: "I bitch about you on the net" and "Even YOU can be someone on the internet..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More film sites courtesy of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 02:54:18 PM ----- BODY:

More film sites courtesy of Matthew Ivan Ford of Time Out:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The lifecycle of a meme STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2001 03:01:46 PM ----- BODY:

The lifecycle of a meme on the internet: Nike shoe personalisation and sweatshop labour.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: This one is for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2001 08:56:18 AM ----- BODY:

Question: This one is for all the IT professionals out there. I need to know this information pretty much immediately: What is the difference between a 'Sole Trader' and a 'Limited Company' - which one is the cheapest and the least hassle for a short piece (1 month) of freelance work? [E-mail Tom]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went for a drink STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2001 09:01:37 AM ----- BODY:

I went for a drink last night with Matt to cheer him out about some work stuff he's dealing with at the moment. Instead, after scouring Goodge Street for Haddock.org members and Black Belt Jones, I got all mournful in a bar and smoked too much.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2001 09:08:21 AM ----- BODY:

<=== THIS IS A PERMALINK

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There are days when it's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2001 02:21:55 PM ----- BODY:

There are days when it's raining outside when you just want to crawl into a hole and curl up in a ball and go to sleep, and get some peace and quiet, and feel relaxed, and not wake up for years.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Should anyone really need yet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2001 02:34:10 PM ----- BODY:

Should anyone really need yet another introduction to the whole wonderful online mess that is weblog-culture, there's an article on it in the Guardian Online supplement today [online here].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On tiny worlds: So I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2001 05:35:54 PM ----- BODY:

On tiny worlds: So I'm working at Arehaus again, and they have a part of their site which has their top-ten sites on it. I found this out last night by talking to Matt, who has another site (upsideclown.com) which is in this chart. So I ask around the office today about who chose that site, and it's Emma - who is apparently quite knowledgeable about weblogs in general. She mentions Jason for one and about how she was going to set up her own site at blogging.com. So I mention that I have a site of my own, called plasticbag.org and she looks a bit blank. She's clearly never been. My ego is crushed, of course. It seems as if my legend-in-my-own-lunchbox-ness has been heavily compromised. I now - it seems - only have enough legend to fit inside an old yoghurt carton, or perhaps a Club wrapper.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The conspiracy is afoot. Could STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2001 09:16:27 AM ----- BODY:

The conspiracy is afoot. Could it really be possible that over a year of weblog entries are a complete fabrication? Could it be that the woman behind the posting is not a woman at all, but in fact a team of drunken teen hooligans with a strange, sick sense of humour. Ask yourself now, before it's too late... Is Meg Real?.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Our first clue in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2001 09:21:55 AM ----- BODY:

Our first clue in the Pickard conspiracy comes with Mo Morgan's feature: "When We Were Very Young". Are we really expected to believe that the picture purporting to be NotSoSoft is anything other than a nameless child of some anarcho-syndicalist post-revolutionary group? Possibly the most terrifying thing about this infantilist rogues gallery is that Davo hasn't changed a bit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to the BBC, scientists STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2001 09:42:06 AM ----- BODY:

According to the BBC, scientists may have identified genes that lend a higher predisposition towards suicide. An old friend of mine killed herself a few years back. We'd lived together on and off for two years and been friends for four or five years. Nothing anyone did seemed to help her, and her life seemed like a kind of unending torment that she just couldn't see the way out of. I really don't know if it makes her death easier to accept if the cause was her genetic make-up. I doubt it would make it easier on the parents either, although perhaps they wouldn't blame themselves so much. I don't know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom continues his STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2001 10:17:12 AM ----- BODY:

In which Tom continues his attempts to rip off every single last piece of content from interconnected.org: So when we were down the pub the other night, and I was being all crapulent and morbid, Matt was busy thinking about the possibilities of interaction between Ultimate Bulletin Board software (as seen on the Barbelith Underground) and Usenet. This is why he will come to rule NewMediaLand and I will sink further into drunkeness and iniquity. But I wouldn't want people to think that he wasn't there for my pain. Oh no.

While I'm at it, I may as well go the whole hog and steal his link to this fascinating article on The Great Divide between the US and Europe, along with the Metafilter thread that accompanies it. You know, because I can.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the... To the... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2001 10:27:15 AM ----- BODY:

OK. I really have to get my fat arse in gear, so I'm going to kind of write this in a hurry. Warning: Life Recap [If you are not interested in hearing about what I spend my time doing then stop reading this post (indeed this site) immediately.] Everything is kind of happening at once at the moment. I didn't think I was going to be working today, but then yesterday afternoon someone at Arehaus asked me to come in for another half-day. Which, you know, is a nice extra piece of money. But it is just the latest addition to a whole mad spectrum of weird shit that's been occupying my head. From two separate friends wanting me to go to birthday parties tonight and tomorrow night, to a friend in Bristol who has persuaded me to go and visit her instead of going to those parties, to my attempt to rationalise two separate companies working practices, to my father ringing up with advice from my brother's god-father (an accountant), to my mother ringing up this morning asking if she and my brother could see me today if they travelled the hundred miles from Norfolk, to the builders waking me up with loud incomprehensible conversation on the fourth floor of the scaffolding that is directly outside my bedroom window, to the performace of Romeo and Juliet I went to see last night, which my flatmate worked on, and which wasn't very brilliant, but had lots of hot men with few clothes on, to the kebab I ate (chicken) which really didn't work well, and the cold I can't get rid of, and the fact that I don't have any dry clothes and have to pack and get to work by midday having paid in two cheques, and gone to the laundrette, to all the bills I can't pay, and all the ones I don't want to pay, and all the things surrounding me that I don't understand and find confusing. I need a social secretary.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weirdest coincidences (2): One of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2001 02:23:56 PM ----- BODY:

Weirdest coincidences (2): One of the guys working at Arehaus at the moment is one half of the circlemakers.org crop-circle collective that won Guardian Site of the Year a while back.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The train from London to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/07/2001 11:37:00 AM ----- BODY:

The train from London to Norfolk is like Heart of Darkness - the further you get towards Norwich, the louder beat the tribal drums, the more fear enters your heart. I have to do this next week. This week, however, I took the train from London to Bristol, and the effect is quite different. It feels as if a weight has lifted. Passing Bath, fresh from a storm with the sun low in the sky, all the buildings arranged around the hills sparkled. Everything seemed open and friendly, everyone calmer and at peace. When I arrived at Temple Meads, my friend Rachel was busy and couldn't pick me up. So I walked into town, down past the river and down to The Watershed. Everything was fresh and bright, people even move more slowly. I walked up Park Street to the Starbucks and sat and read The Music of Chance and listened to Ella Fitzgerald until I was picked up. Calmest I have felt in months...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've had better days. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/07/2001 06:40:58 PM ----- BODY:

I've had better days.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sorry about the paucity of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/09/2001 11:26:01 AM ----- BODY:

Sorry about the paucity of updates. For a variety of reasons I don't really feel like I can talk about much at the moment. Everything will be back to normal in a couple of days. Promise.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On repression: If you don't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/10/2001 12:43:44 PM ----- BODY:

On repression: If you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything at all. That's how the old saying goes, is it not? What if there are things to say, good things, but you can't concentrate on them? What if the one thing that you can't talk about is the only thing that you really want to talk about? What if it pushes everything else out of the way? What then?

I read a lot of Freud when I was at University. Repression is what you do when the impulse or desire or memory or truth bubbles up from within you, but is stopped from entering the conscious mind by the super-ego - the part of the brain that stops you becoming the slave of your basic impulses. The thought remains immanent - just below perception, and bubbles up in strangely symbolic dreams and eruptions of irrationality in your everyday life. Like cryptic, confusing posts on a weblog. Like writing that doesn't go anywhere.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I finished reading The Music STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/10/2001 01:08:54 PM ----- BODY:

I finished reading The Music of Chance in Bristol on the weekend. It's one of those books about pushing your life all around you until it collapses and you're finally left with nothing of any value. It's an intelligent pornography of self-destruction, later debased by books like Fight Club and Invisible Monsters. I heartily recommend it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I did last night: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/10/2001 01:31:10 PM ----- BODY:

What I did last night: I'm going to let Davo do all the hard work of explaining what happened, so I can just say 'thank you' to him and Nick H. for indulging me and momentarily pulling me out of my current funk.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nerves... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2001 09:41:24 AM ----- BODY:

I'm feeling unhelpfully nervous this morning. I have an important conversation to have which I want to be completely relaxed for, but I'm not. It's an absurd conversation to have - it won't get anything accomplished (or at least I doubt very much that it will) - but I decided that I needed to have it, and here I am. I've got to do it now.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dear Mr Quayle, It has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2001 01:29:30 PM ----- BODY:

Dear Mr Quayle, It has come to my attention over the last few months that you bear a certain amount of animosity towards me. As we know from our studies of ancient texts, vengeance stimulates vengeance, and without an external party to steer one towards justice and equanimity one can - I'm afraid - only reciprocate. But this does neither of us any good. Can you not look around you at all you have and, from such a position of success, take pity on those of us forced to battle each day for whatever crumb of self-respect we can muster? Can you not take strength from the size of your home, or your salary, or from your acknowledged potency, intelligence and wit and - recognising that you have won any perceived battle between us - be gracious? Yours, tongue firmly in cheek, Tom Coates.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've had my conversation, and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/11/2001 05:02:11 PM ----- BODY:

I've had my conversation, and it went - I suppose - as well as could legitimately be expected. You hope for more, you expect less, and you pray that you don't get kicked too hard. Today's been generally hectic, but for the first time this week I feel like I've actually accomplished something. I wrote my first review for the BBC Film website: "Fly Away Home" [Video | DVD]. I will of course let the world know when it's up on their site. As the first non-survival-related activity that I've managed to complete for quite a while, I can't help but experience a slight upturn in my spirits.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is so cool. My STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/13/2001 09:48:09 PM ----- BODY:

This is so cool. My first paid film review. And a page all about me. It's enough to make a man happy to be alive.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Map-making Martyr "Ian Thomas loves STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/13/2001 09:52:23 PM ----- BODY:

Map-making Martyr
"Ian Thomas loves making maps. His talent won him respect and a US government job. So why was he fired for putting a chart of caribou calving areas on the internet?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally, Angel gets good again. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/13/2001 10:00:26 PM ----- BODY:

Finally, Angel gets good again. I'm at home in Norfolk with my family at the moment, and so far the best part of the whole experience has been seeing Buffy and Angel back to back on Sky One. I've just seen the episode "Reprise", in which Angel does the dirty deed with Darla. My flatmate may well die of pleasure when she sees it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My eating habits are all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/13/2001 10:19:47 PM ----- BODY:

My eating habits are all over the place, which is probably not the best thing at a time like this. On Thursday night I caught up with an old friend from Bristol, Dan Brilliant. I met up with him at a restaurant on St. Martins Lane. All day up to that point I had eaten half a pain au chocolat and a glass of orange juice. I ate a lot that evening, because he distracted me from the continual soundtrack of "You're a loser" and "No one could love you" playing relentlessly in my head. On Friday, I had eaten exactly nothing by six in the evening. I then had a sandwich and some milk. My mother offered to make me some food when I got back to Norwich, but I just didn't want anything. So that's all I ate all day.

There's something very biologically unlikely about the process of not wanting to eat when you're lovelorn (I can't honestly think of another word that doesn't make me sound ridiculous or pathetic). It just doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd do if you were designing a reproductive system. Perhaps it's, "So you didn't succeed in your relationship? You're too fat! Lose half a stone and try again." [I'm not saying that I couldn't afford to lose half a stone, but still...] If anyone has any links referring to or explaining the post-(ex/proto)relationship-food-aversion, then please mail me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My brother informs me that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2001 11:51:20 PM ----- BODY:

My brother informs me that my mother says I look like Jamie Oliver. When I ask him in what way, he says, "You know... Scruffy."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I find myself horrified by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2001 11:57:12 PM ----- BODY:

I find myself horrified by the prospect of returning to London. Norfolk is providing an incredible escape from all the crap I'm supposed to be dealing with at the moment that I don't really want to have to be dealing with, but can't see a way to avoid. I really need a couple of months of something radically different. My cousin Chloe came around this morning, and she suggested that we take off around the West Coast of America for a couple of weeks. I said I'd love to if I stumbled upon a spare five grand.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am extremely upset that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 12:12:47 AM ----- BODY:

I am extremely upset that I missed dinner at the home of the Finchley Three on Thursday. This is one reason to wish I was back in London, I suppose.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm getting increasingly irritated by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 12:13:27 PM ----- BODY:

I'm getting increasingly irritated by being linked to by weblogs that are substantially better than plasticbag.org. It's not my fault, godammit. I try to write good stuff, but it all turns into crap when it hits the screen. And I know that my design's a bit lacklustre, but you don't have to draw attention to it by just sitting there and being cooler than me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Search request of the day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 12:16:28 PM ----- BODY:

Search request of the day goes to "Pictures of me I'm good looking", which is not only absurdly ridiculous, but manages somehow to bring up Luke, Meg and me as the top three links. And it is true. We are all extremely good looking.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Decision of the day is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 12:26:15 PM ----- BODY:

Decision of the day is whether or not to return to the big smoke this evening or first thing in the morning. I have to prepare for some contract work I'm starting on Tuesday at a company called Avondi at some point tomorrow, so I should go back late this evening and get some sleep. But I'm scared of going back to London and having to face up to long-term employment prospects, pending financial catastrophe and emotional insolvency. And I really want to see Jason and the Argonauts.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most facile answers ever STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 12:29:50 PM ----- BODY:

The most facile answers ever given to the question: "How to get over a crush?" I should point out that this question was today's other strange (and totally inappropriate) search-request and that I didn't just stumble upon this site in a mood of psycho-sexual-spiritual desolation.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So there's going to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 12:39:49 PM ----- BODY:

So there's going to be a sequel to American Psycho, the Christian Bale movie in which the amiable 80s yuppie did lots of exercise, looked good in the mirror and sat around brooding while covered in blood and cradling a sizeable axe [BBC News]. But this is only the beginning - "Actress Mila Kunis - best known for her part in the sitcom That 70s Show - will take up the knife-wielding role of the protagonist. She will play a victim of the original psycho, played by Christian Bale, who turns aggressor, causing havoc on a college campus." And it's all in the best possible taste, of course...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wherever you are provides a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 03:26:09 PM ----- BODY:

Wherever you are provides a rather more helpful piece of advice regarding "how to get over a crush" (see my earlier post) - advice that I intend to undertake immediately:

"And, of course, it's missing the obvious way to get over a crush. Number six in this list should be: 'Trust in the power of magical forces. Construct a voodoo doll of (a) either the person on whom you have the crush, or (b) their current partner. Then sell your soul to Beelzebub and hope for the best.' Now that is much more practical advice."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not returning to London STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 10:11:37 PM ----- BODY:

I'm not returning to London tonight. Sod it. Take that, London. One in the eye for you, and no mistake. Ha. I'm going to spend the evening waiting for the Messiah instead. I mean, Jesus. You wait all weekend for your Lord to rise, and instead you're left stuck in front of My Best Friend's Wedding trying not to think about your life. I'll go back tomorrow. Fuck it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Inquiring minds need to know STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 10:32:51 PM ----- BODY:

Inquiring minds need to know everything about the person who typed "Dammit I'm in love with Meg what do I do" into Yahoo!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the absence of so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2001 10:39:24 PM ----- BODY:

In the absence of so you dumped someone over a year ago because you thought it was the right thing to do but regretted it immediately and have so not been able to get over it no matter how hard you try which is a bit sad really.com, I suppose soyouvebeendumped.com might have to do.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh, here is London. "Home STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 01:27:54 PM ----- BODY:

Oh, here is London. "Home of the brash, outrageous and free." You are repressed. But you're remarkably dressed. Is it Real? And you're always busy. [lyrics]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Horror of Tax Returns... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 02:10:29 PM ----- BODY:

Poor old Prol is busy fighting with her tax returns this Easter Monday, which fills me with horror, as I am equally inept at such enterprises but find myself gradually dipping more and more toes into the 'self-employed' tax bracket, when all I really want is a nice Deputy Editor position at Empire Online. In the meantime, her flat may be covered in paper, but it looks like it's a beautiful place...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Metafilter Scholarships... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 02:14:03 PM ----- BODY:

Again via Prolific.org, Matt Haughey of Metafilter has decided to endow a $500 scholarship to one member who is in University or college at the moment. The contribution is based upon the quality of previous posting plus an essay question. This is an astonishingly positive thing for him to do, and he should be applauded for it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dynamo vs. Tumbleweed... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 02:20:37 PM ----- BODY:

Be warned, Meg is thinking. Everyone in the know understands that that means trouble is afoot. I, on the other hand, am not thinking. Not thinking at all. My head is a big empty wasteland. There are occasional tumbleweeds. Perhaps I should put up a screen saying "Tom is not thinking"?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Being Home Alone... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 03:09:42 PM ----- BODY:

My flatmates are going away tomorrow for four or five days to the Isle of Wight for a bit of R&R. I am hopelessly jealous of their ability to opt out for a week and disappear, but at the moment the thing that is fascinating me most is how the week will go with me being alone in the flat. That means I'll be starting my contract work with no one to complain to when I get home in the evening. I'm thinking about having a dinner party for my gay friends while they are away, but don't really know how I could afford to do so. I must check my financial resources immediately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Random Acts of Kindness... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 03:14:46 PM ----- BODY:

Thank you to Paul over at Cuckoo-kid.com for buying me a copy of Snatch on DVD from my wishlist. Little random acts of kindness like this are really helpful at the moment. It's really very much appreciated.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apocalipsticking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 03:26:23 PM ----- BODY:

While we are talking about Amazon, I just thought I should mention that Apocalipstick, the second book of Volume One of The Invisibles is now available for both UK and US fans. It's not the best section of the series, but it sets the scene for a lot of the stuff to come.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank you, dear heart... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2001 11:39:47 PM ----- BODY:

I probably shouldn't be thankful for this, but I'd just like to send a nod to the glamorous Mo Morgan for pointing me in the direction of this admirably clear tutorial on JSP.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Looking for ideal man... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2001 12:32:26 AM ----- BODY:

I've just watch Bring it On again, and would like to announce that if you are anything like the character Cliff Pantone (as played by Jesse Bradford) in any way (but, you know, gay), then mail me. Important criteria for ideal man: 1) Should know punk from hole in ground (but not be all scary about it - guitar tendencies important though), 2) Should be centred, passionate, but not moody - able to deal with occasional crap, while understanding where such crap comes from. 3) Should understand (perhaps share) important geek desires like HTML, Buffy and cheesy movies, 4) Should IDEALLY be about 25, circa 5'8", between ten and a half and eleven stone, and healthily scruffy-looking. 5) Good job / money completely unimportant, although restrained intelligence gets big bonus points.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Palm-sized President that's fun to play with... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2001 08:54:44 AM ----- BODY:

The Portabush: "The most powerful man in the world is now yours to control! PortaBush is the palm-sized version of Dubya that lets anyone experience the joys and headaches of being President. Pass or veto bills, pig out on Texas BBQ, blow-up any number of people or places, flirt with an intern, and when all the stress gets to you, drink yourself silly!" [via syntheticlife.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh, Not Another One! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2001 09:00:57 AM ----- BODY:

People seem continually surprised by each new 'homosexual revelation' in the entertainment industry. The latest one concerns Alec Guinness, who apparently was happily married with a child while simultaneously flirting on the side with a little boy-on-boy action. The plain and simple fact is that there are a hell of a lot of gay people in the world - anywhere from sixty to six hundred million of us. And while I'm delighted that people are gradually coming to realise this, I do wish that it wouldn't be such a shock to them each and every time they find out about one more...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Eau de Missing Link... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2001 03:27:20 PM ----- BODY:

Davo is under the mistaken impression that his bizarre Anne Robinson fetish generates an air of sexual mystery around him. The crowds part before him, whispering to each other, "Is he gay? Is he straight? With such a fetish, how could we ever tell?". I have pointed out that the woman is like a super-annuated, hormone treated post-operative transexual with a Hitler obsession, but he doesn't seem to get my point. The Robinson news today concerns the horror with which American critics have greeted her first US show. To be honest, I don't expect America to like it. I don't like it either. But I can at least appreciate its allure as it has gradually (through its ubiquity on afternoon TV) become fascinatingly horrible viewing. Without the creeping horror, I can't see why anyone would watch it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Guardian's Ethical Conundrums presents STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2001 03:33:01 PM ----- BODY:

The Guardian's Ethical Conundrums presents us with the question: How do you mend a broken heart? My favourite answer to this, because it amuses me, not because I'd do it, is: "The best way to get over someone is to get under someone...."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found in Inbox: Someone sent STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2001 05:02:53 PM ----- BODY:

Found in Inbox: Someone sent me this a while back, and I forwarded it to another one of my e-mail addresses because I was at work or something, and now I don't know who did it. If it was you mail me. Anyway - having stumbled upon it once more, I thought I should share it with the world. It really is strangely apposite [Addendum: The source of this particular image is young Meg]:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Urgent: I'm looking for a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2001 09:02:02 AM ----- BODY:

Urgent: I'm looking for a site which gives the lowdown on producing well formatted HTML templates, complete with a website's look-and-feel, but which don't break in hotmail, Yahoo! mail and Outlook / Outlook Express. The best I've come up with so far is a fairly lacklustre article from Webmonkey.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So my old employers, Time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2001 10:34:43 AM ----- BODY:

So my old employers, Time Out, have finally launched their first city guide in the new style that I had a part in assembling. Certain things seem to have been lost in the shakedown process, but it still just about works. There's a few things that I am a bit confused about, to do with continuity over the site and things that I expected to be brought into line over the site before launch, but it's worth a look nonetheless.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can someone explain this to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2001 11:50:56 AM ----- BODY:

Can someone explain this to me? If merely having images of a paedophilic nature on one's computer is a crime (no matter the context), then how can Jack Straw say, "I've seen some of the exhibits - if you can call them that - that are available on the internet, that are run by paedophiles. They really are absolutely appalling" without being promptly arrested? Any decent civil liberties group should be pointing the police in the direction of his PC.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to my helpful contact STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2001 12:15:06 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to my helpful contact at AOL, I now have access to a really good ArsDigita article on HTML e-mail. This confronts most of the issues associated with the subject, and is very much worth a read. [Another article]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night my complete over-whelming STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2001 01:06:40 PM ----- BODY:

Last night my complete over-whelming exhaustion caught up with me finally. I went out for a drink with Meg, Luke, Davo and Catherine at the O2 centre on Finchley Road. After precisely two cocktails, I couldn't stand and became gradually more maudlin. They persuaded me to go back to their flat for a bacon buttie - almost the only thing I'd eaten all day - by which time my fingers were getting cold and numb. When I finally got home at 10.30pm I collapsed in bed and slept for nearly ten hours.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was a Teenage Sexualist: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2001 09:48:13 PM ----- BODY:

I was a Teenage Sexualist: I went to see the American version of Queer As Folk at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival a while back, and for me one of the most amusing parts was the peculiar significance of a magazine photograph of Patrick Swayze in the life of two burgeoning masculine sexualities. This led me to think back to my youth, dim and distant though it might be, and to attempt to remember what impacted upon my naive sex-scape.

The first thing I remember having a ... strange ... significance was a teen book about two boys who fell through a ball of energy in a woodland and emerged in Ancient Rome. I remember very little about it, except that the two boys clearly came from some kind of parallel world because they kept talking about how where they came from, the ancient culture that followed Hellenism was centred around Reme, rather than Rome. It doesn't sound very sexy, but it worked for me. [Do you know the name of this book?]

Two other things, I am, however, quite clear about. The first was a bizarre piece of SF called Planet of the Warlord. It's the closest thing to a weird hot S&M fantasy you can imagine. The cover of the copy that I still own has a huge golden masculine robotic body (with a diseased grey face emerging from it) attempting to crush our long-haired hero, Keill Randor above a pit of almost pubic tendrils. Douglas Hill was clearly a bit of a pervert, but the book is extraordinarily strangely sexual. I'm horrief that I'm revealing too much here. You will stop me if I go too far, won't you?

The other thing was, I'm afraid, Cocoon. I'm not proud, but there it is. And before you ask, no I did not find Don Ameche particularly arousing. But it is a film full of short, scruffy, Steve Guttenberg goodness. Mostly naked goodness at that - except for the odd tight t-shirt. And you must never forget that extraordinary alien sex scene with the injection moulded female. This may have formed the basis of many a pointless crush for years to come. Short, pointless, irritating. Come to think of it, teenage fetishes have a lot to answer for.

[Darren was a teenage sexualist as well.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: About three hours ago I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 12:04:08 AM ----- BODY:

About three hours ago I had a surprise conversation with Demolition Derby. It was a bit out of the blue - Dan and Matt were going to the Popbitch party and wanted to know if I would go along. But the conversation didn't go too well. Things strayed within a thousand miles of a sensitive subject, and I suddenly felt bile rise within me (about the subject not Ms D). I had no idea that such an immediate and strong reaction was possible. I don't know that I'm comfortable even being able to feel such blind aggression and bitterness.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it looks like there STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 08:54:22 AM ----- BODY:

So it looks like there was an article on weblogs in a recent issue of Yahoo Internet Life. Has anyone scanned this in or transcribed it yet?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I sent an e-mail to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 09:06:31 AM ----- BODY:

I sent an e-mail to Mr Big last night. It read, "So I was just watching TV and saw Simon Le Bon and Guy Ritchie and suddenly thought of you. You back yet?". As usual I don't really expect to get a reply.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It looks like we will STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 11:48:42 AM ----- BODY:

It looks like we will have Apple with us for a little longer at least. Defying expectations to the contrary, they have just announced their profits for the quarter - which are up to 11 cents a share. This is supposedly on the back of two of their newest and classiest products: the Titanium Powerbook and OSX. When I win the lottery, they are the first things I intend to buy before hopping on a plane to Bermuda for a few weeks to get some life perspective.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Request: Now I'm looking for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 12:13:58 PM ----- BODY:

Request: Now I'm looking for browser-emulation sites, if such things exist. Meg sent me dejavu.org, but while it is extraordinarily entertaining using all the browsers that I haven't even seen in five years, I need something a little more cutting-edge. Do such things exist?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So you are working in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 12:29:23 PM ----- BODY:

So you are working in a start-up company around Regent's Park, and you're only going to be doing it for a month, and it's a very male company, and you're only doing it four days a week, and they keep talking about football and the merits of David Beckham, and you don't really have a clue about that kind of stuff nor are you really interested in pretending that you do. Is it worth making an effort to get to know people?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's reading matter of choice: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 12:35:37 PM ----- BODY:

Today's reading matter of choice: An Incomplete Manifesto of Growth. Learn well, my children.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This ridiculous list of Tom-related STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 03:09:21 PM ----- BODY:

This ridiculous list of Tom-related nicknames is brought to you via Mo Morgan. It neglects 'Tomato' and 'Tomsk' which are possibly the only two that I remember having been called. Oh, and Thos (rhymes with floss) which is what my step-father called me for about ten years while I squirmed inside.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because you can never push STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2001 05:59:00 PM ----- BODY:

Because you can never push an obsession too far: Thanks to Davo for this particular gem:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meg returns, and with a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 09:01:35 AM ----- BODY:

Meg returns, and with a new design to boot - plus a really long piece of writing about why she went away and why she came back...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Helpful Insights... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 09:06:24 AM ----- BODY:

Helpful insight into my work-related quandary? [cf. yesterday's post]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A while ago I was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 09:10:54 AM ----- BODY:

A while ago I was talking about reading Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell - a savage graphic novel about Jack the Ripper. Featured as part of the book is the transcript of a letter purporting to be from the killer himself. In fact the book contains many dozens of letters written by the general public concerning the murders, each one claiming to be the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murders. In the news today, one such letter has been made public for the first time: "The so-called Openshaw letter is littered with spelling mistakes and bad grammar in a "Cockney" style, and is signed by 'Jack the Ripper'.". The article is a fascinating read, and ever more so when you read Moore's fictional account alongside it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Francesca Gavin, London STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 11:04:55 AM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Francesca Gavin, London Media Maven, for sending me this particularly ... juicy ... link from the Ottowa Citizen Online: Dead slug was no treat for horrified snackers. It's enough to put you off Rice Krispie Squares for ever.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Malkovich is Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 11:46:12 AM ----- BODY:

Malkovich is Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich Malkovich's seen the film Malkovich Malkovich and Malkovich it, here is a Malkovich to Malkovich the Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich: The Malkovich Malkovich. Here's what Malkovich.org Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich the site. [via Luke]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I found a page STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 12:30:45 PM ----- BODY:

Today I found a page in my referrers log which really quite interests me. It's a Quick Essentials page for a fellow weblogger, which uses simple javascript window.open commands to open all the sites that he wishes to view on any given day in one go. When you click onto a link windows erupt onto the screen, allowing you to scan them all with tremendous speed. And each link launches sites with similar content. It's an extraordinarily simple little piece of code, and ideal for an individual's homepage. You may see aspects of its functionality incorporated into plasticbag.org over the weekend.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why said Microsoft didn't have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 03:43:37 PM ----- BODY:

Why said Microsoft didn't have a sense of humour? I'll tell you who - pretty much every single rational and intelligent man, woman or child in the Western hemisphere.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC finally decides to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 04:21:55 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC finally decides to cover the whole ICANN controversy: Domain Dispute Drags On. The whole issue frustrates me - particularly the potential loss of .org domain names as held by individual creative sites (such as plasticbag.org).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm meeting up with a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 04:28:03 PM ----- BODY:

I'm meeting up with a friend from University who I haven't seen in over five years. Nick Carey was this bearded wonder who used to roam around my old halls of residence, getting drunk and misbehaving. He used to have a scruffy mess of curly hair as well. Once, he and Fenner ran naked in the rain at night across Goldney's lower paddock while I stood, eyebrow raised with an umbrella and their clothes. He's been in Prague on and off for years now, and I keep losing track of him. I'm fascinated to know what he's like now. I'm also horrified by him saying something like, "Jesus Christ - what the fuck happened to you?!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote: And if anyone objects STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 08:52:31 PM ----- BODY:

Quote: And if anyone objects that they are not worth the effort, I will cite Cioran (not a classic, at least not yet, but a contemporary thinker who is only now being translated into Italian): 'While the hemlock was being prepared, Socrates was learning a melody on the flute. "What use will that be to you?", he was asked. "At least I will learn this melody before I die." ' [Calvino]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote: I see the sun STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 09:17:13 PM ----- BODY:

Quote: I see the sun rise over this wall | I watch it break and slide, See my name | See my name on the wall | I tried to walk on this wall | It fell right under my feet, Now I only lean | Only lean on the wall | I throw an egg at this wall | I watch it break and slide, See my name | See my name on the wall. [lyric]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote / Theory: "Life's what STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 09:28:10 PM ----- BODY:

Quote / Theory: "Life's what happens when you're busy making other plans." I talked about this with Matt last night after the Black Belt Jones party. I've come to a strange accommodation with this quote. One of its many origins is the Lennon song Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy). I used to think that it meant that people were too caught up in their 'other plans' and missed the life that was passing by around them. Now I think that's a seriously naive reading. I now think that rather than reading an 'instead' at the end of the sentence, the profundity of the sentence comes from the potential double meanings around 'when'. i think an interpretation that makes more sense to me suggests that life does in fact not happen when you are not making plans - that the 'when' is a 'while' is an 'at only those times when'. Living is in the distraction of things, not in their absence. I said all this to Matt. He thought it was depressing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: To all the gay people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2001 09:57:36 PM ----- BODY:

To all the gay people I know. The time has come. Tomorrow evening I declare War. It is time to assemble the multifarious legions of faggotry. Non-attenders will be treaters as deserters and promptly shot on sight. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. I'd tell you more, but War is a tricky thing, and frankly I haven't figured out what we are going to do yet. But nonetheless, you will be expected to attend. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

[This message, which is not a joke, was brought to you, in part, by the campaign to get Tom, Davo and lots of other people drunk, shagged and married off by August. Follow instructions on the packet. Do not boil wash. Attendance by completely hot strangers almost required. More details to come.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't thank Davo enough STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/21/2001 10:28:00 AM ----- BODY:

I can't thank Davo enough for the new book from Disinformation: "You are being lied to". I've already decided to use it as a basis for discussion over on Barbelith, with each individual article being a basis of discussion. The first one went up today: On Howard Bloom, "Reality is a Shared Illusion", a discussion based around the article posted on the web here. More tomorrow.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apparently I write things that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/21/2001 12:48:16 PM ----- BODY:

Apparently I write things that are quote-worthy. Not recently perhaps, but once. On photodude.com/weblog (a remarkably well designed site), there appear to be at least three seperate weblogs in operation. One of them - the quote log - is a great idea, and includes some real gems. Concealed amongst these gems lurks: "We're all stuck here. We have no choice. We are logging automata - forced by the web to prostitute our writing skills day in and day out until we die. We shall write until we drop. Then we shall be boiled down into a black unctious liquid and people will use us for ink." I said that, although I don't remember where... Do you remember where?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote: I ain't happy, I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/21/2001 05:28:04 PM ----- BODY:

Quote: I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad, I've got sunshine, In a bag, I'm useless, But not for long, The future is coming on. [link]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I think, all things considered STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2001 12:03:07 PM ----- BODY:

I think, all things considered that we must consider the first foray in the war to have been a complete success. I, certainly, had a lovely time. Although I did spend money, which is, you know, bad.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future, as I have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2001 12:13:36 PM ----- BODY:

The future, as I have said innumerable times before, is wank. My tirade against the mischaracterisation of non-reproductive sexuality has today come face to face with its antithesis - an evil that can only be called the National Wanky Homepage Cull. Be warned, they are coming for your sites this April 28th.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are you in a doomed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2001 12:21:34 PM ----- BODY:

Are you in a doomed dot.com start-up? [again from seethru]: "You're one of the dotcom revolutionaries. It's a career at the bleeding edge of new media. You're well paid. You're in demand. Everything's rosy. But next week, will you be standing by the traffic lights, mopping windscreens with a damp chammy? You goin' down, fool!"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This evening I am proud STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2001 12:44:58 AM ----- BODY:

This evening I am proud to host the second Maida Vale post-work Buffy marathon, in which my source at Time Out will exchange new episodes for old, and where we shall once again talk about the full range of merchandise that litters the flat - from my box-sets to Mella's Angel cut-out, posters, books and chocolate bars. We will also (with any luck) get to watch the episode about the death of Buffy's mother that is discussed at considerable and intelligent depth over at Salon.com. The song said, "whatever gets you through the night, it's alright". But I think I can honestly state that Buffy helps me get through the days as well. And I don't care how sad that sounds - I got a first class degree from a good university, did over three years of postgraduate work, delivered papers overseas, retrained as a journalist and worked for Time Out while running a series of relatively successful websites - and all by the age of twenty eight. My opinion should count for something goddammit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I found myself STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2001 01:01:36 AM ----- BODY:

Last night I found myself watching The Tailor of Panama with Nick H at the Odeon in Leicester Square. I've been celebrating my return from the brink of madness this weekend - I got paid on Friday and suddenly found myself safe from bankrupcy and able to pay the rent for another month. The sheer amount of relief that this has provided me is indescribable. I decided that I should use the opportunity to get myself functioning as a person again - to attempt to salvage my self-respect by any means necessary. So I went out for a drink and a meal with a few friends, sorted out my malfunctioning phone by trading it in for a new one, spent a Tower Records credit note I've had forever, and started trying to decide what clothes to buy for my 'interview outfit'. The only thing that I've not been able to work on at all is my hair, which is fast becoming an obsession. I can't look at someone in public at the moment without being aware of the fluffy mullet I'm developing.

But back to the film. There are a fair number of conflicting reviews about it in the media at the moment. One of my particular favourites is over at the BBC. I don't agree with it, but it entertained me. In short, although the end of the film is a bit messy, it's an extremely intelligent and entertaining movie, with an comedically corrupt feel to it, and some great performances. Go and see it, because it will piss off Middle America, and you know that's always fun.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I confess. It was I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2001 08:57:14 AM ----- BODY:

I confess. It was I that thought that Dan was a funny bastard. I do not, however, wish to rip his arms from their sockets. I have someone else in mind for that particular treatment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've talked about Grant Morrison's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2001 09:00:36 AM ----- BODY:

I've talked about Grant Morrison's theories on the relationship between sunspot activity and youth rebellion several times before - but here is another article connected with it: "The Sun Does a Flip". Again the eleven year cycle is mentioned, as is something called 'Solar Max', which we can only assume is a deity associated with rebirth and bloody irritating revelations. Hail Solar Max.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's true. I give up. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2001 01:27:16 PM ----- BODY:

It's true. I give up. I accept my fate. I am become (geek) god. How else can explain the cravings? Why else would this fill me with such drooling awe? For what other reason would my tongue moisten at the mention of #include <beer.h>? And Oh My God, look at all the pretty caffeine. It's like the mothership is calling me home. [Tom also enjoys the theatre, novels, music, films, contemporary culture, philosophy and ancient greek tragedy. If you would like Tom as your sexual partner, please e-mail a photograph and (small) MP3 of your voice to: tom%40plasticbag.org]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If anyone knows where I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 12:53:08 AM ----- BODY:

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of Fireball without paying the extortionate trans-atlantic shipping costs, then could they please mail me?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time and need are connected STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 01:06:05 AM ----- BODY:

Time and need are connected in some strange extravagant way with one another. The more desire you feel, the longer seems the time you have to wait to see it fulfilled. The harder you exert a pull, the further you seem to have to strain. Relationships between people can be measured by their perceptions of time. "I haven't seen you in ages," he cries. "I seem to see him all the time," she complains.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Ralph for finding STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 09:41:51 AM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Ralph for finding me the IMDB's list of Cool Buffy Quotes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Eight episodes in one night. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 10:22:03 AM ----- BODY:

Eight episodes in one night. It's almost inhuman devotion. Noam and Nick C arrived around seven with pizza, drink, cream cakes and muffin mix to find Mella and I ready and waiting for the first of the evening's screenings. We started off with the rather startling Passion from Season Two before skipping to the final, traumatic episodes, Becoming Parts I & II. Noam looked a bit shaken afterwards, so we reassured her that Buffy would indeed return to Sunnydale by watching the first episode of Season Three: Anne, even though it isn't actually that good. Before the episode I pointed out to all present that Anne was also in the episode Lie to Me, as well as having appeared in several recent episodes of Angel. This earned me the Buffy Geek Of The Night Award. Shortly afterwards Noam and Nick departed, leaving Mella and I with a stack of new episodes of Buffy and Angel peering up at us lasciviously. It didn't take long before we had marched our way through the two episodes of Angel, and while I ducked out so that Mella could see I was made to love you, which I had already seen, I returned for The Body and Forever. Asleep by 3.30am.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: International Buffy Day continues with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 11:32:51 AM ----- BODY:

International Buffy Day continues with news from the BBC that the show is to switch networks in the states [BBC News]. The series is to move to UPN for purely financial reasons for at least two more seasons. There is speculation that Angel will swap networks at the same time. If this doesn't happen, we may have seen the last of crossovers between the two series.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My family live in Norfolk. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 12:31:04 PM ----- BODY:

My family live in Norfolk. Norfolk is the flattest county in the UK. My family live in an area known as 'Belaugh Hills and Hollows'. We live on top of one of the biggest hills in the area. It can take as much as four minutes to walk down to the river... This mountainous region is set to be the setting for a new American film, being filmed in Ireland, about huge mountain dwelling dragons: Americans are amusing people.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Good news for film buffs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 12:37:00 PM ----- BODY:

Good news for film buffs and industry notaries, Screendaily.com has come online once more a mere three weeks after being scrapped. The whole story is available on the BBC.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jack Fear asks the question: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 01:48:18 PM ----- BODY:

Jack Fear asks the question: Are the Gorillaz concept band merely a ripped off Slutcore only with (shudder) actual music?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Insight: "Putting your trust in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2001 04:53:45 PM ----- BODY:

Insight: "Putting your trust in a financial institution other than Metrobank, well, that's like hypnotizing chickens."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aside: Pictures from Matt Jones' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 12:39:55 AM ----- BODY:

Aside: Pictures from Matt Jones' party. Can't see Matt Interconnected anywhere. I've looked quite hard.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 12:52:35 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (1) So you're in a bar and you bump into some people you used to work with, and one of them has brought a friend and everyone except for Mandy is gay or has dabbled and the friend apparently has had a bet with another gay bloke there about whether or not you are gay, and he's bet £150,000 that you're not. And you think he might fancy you a bit, and you're a bit flattered for a moment that he didn't think you were gay, and then you're horrified with yourself for being really weak and Uncle Tom-ish.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 01:02:45 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (2) So Mandy turns around to you and says, "He's like you - straight-acting", and that spark goes off in your head again about acting and pretending and 'trying to be straight' and whether or not the way you are is post-gay or pre-gay, and you kind of get slightly nervy because straight-acting always means to you that they haven't dealt with all the crap yet, and you really think that you have dealt with all the crap, and done the defensive non-camp to bit of a poof to whatever the fuck you think you are now routine, and now kind of just want to get on with finding some relatively non-screwed up individual to talk to in bed. It's like that thing with your mother when she says that people are always braver in their heads than they are in everyday life, and how much you've tried to prove that wrong over the last ten to fifteen years.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 01:07:15 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (3) So someone asks you how you are which was kind of the question that you were dreading (along with 'where are you working at the moment' - as if working were some kind of natural state rather than a wonderful / horrible trick that life plays on you). And you kind of go a bit through the 'had a bit of a hard time recently' schtick to explain your lacklustre wit, while trying not to bounce up and down too heavily on the world's largest set of pre-strung violin strings. This necessitates stories of recent occurrences, stories that are getting worn out with retelling. Someone says, 'Men are cunts'. You grin cheerfully and spark up a cigarette.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 01:11:51 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (4) And you get home and the television is full of them and you go and check your e-mail and Mr Big has got back to you, and it's a dry e-mail, kind of bony and undernourished, so you send one back that's even shorter because maybe then you can play that game where they die off to an invisible length and the one who finally doesn't reply wins, although neither party really knows why, or indeed is particularly happy about it. And you look at your bed and you're really really tired and you finally go Sod it and go to sleep.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Speakers Corner for the 21st STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 11:25:17 AM ----- BODY:

Speakers Corner for the 21st Century - a place by the side of a road where you can meet people who will beam short-stories, political tracts and other missives to your PDA from their own Palm Pilot. Yet another avenue of proliferation opens to the meme-stream.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tomorrow morning at 11am, Meg STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 05:36:20 PM ----- BODY:

Tomorrow morning at 11am, Meg will be having coffee. Why don't you join her? The following day around 11am, I plan to visit the lavatory. You may all join me for that too if you wish. Later in the week, Luke has sex... I may sound snarky, but I honestly love this stuff.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Conversation with old friend: "You STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 05:56:12 PM ----- BODY:

Conversation with old friend: "You see what you need is someone who knows what the fuck they are doing, rather than some fat, hairy sucking butthole with half a brain cell."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Misheard URL Project STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2001 07:13:23 PM ----- BODY:

The Misheard URL Project (Parts one and two): BRANsluice (for your bowels) CaptainBEZ.com (dances badly).

 

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Misheard URL Project STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 01:24:07 AM ----- BODY:

The Misheard URL Project (Part three): MoOrgan.com (the inside scoop)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tit for tat. I suppose STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 02:04:35 AM ----- BODY:

Tit for tat. I suppose it's only fair. I will shortly be appearing on Mo's baby pictures section. I still maintain that only Davo looks exactly the same now as he did as a kid.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Monogamy is suddenly everywhere - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 10:00:54 AM ----- BODY:

Monogamy is suddenly everywhere - or more to the point, discussions of monogamy are. Over at Barbelith, there's a substantial debate raging about Monogamy vs Open Relationships, while the BBC discusses a New Scientist article that suggests that monogamy only evolves in species where the female is able to disguise whether or not she is sexually fertile. It is perhaps for this reason that those times in which a woman is least sexually fertile are stigmatised and have traditionally been a source of embarrassment to women. Quite what this means for gay relationships is something that I am unclear on - whether or not it is a social enterprise that is circumvented by the absence of a woman, or whether it is a cross-gender hard-coded (at least now) trait with genetic origins.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a substantial (and pretty STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 10:08:24 AM ----- BODY:

There's a substantial (and pretty well written and thought out) article on weblogs and weblogging over at Yahoo! Internet Life at the moment. I always find these articles slightly annoying since they never mention plasticbag.org (unless I know the author of the article), but I suppose that's my own problem and I'm just going to have to get over it. [Prol's thoughts]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The question of the moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 10:12:24 AM ----- BODY:

The question of the moment is whether or not to reboot. I've been meaning to do some tightening work on pb.org for weeks now, but just haven't had the time. Perhaps this is enough incentive - tighten, sharpen, refine, polish. I could do it this weekend. Oh so tempting. Or perhaps I should follow Jason and engineer a Skiboot instead. It occurs to me that the relaunches will kind of blend in with one another and that it might be a more intelligent thing (after Darwin and Dawkins) to pre-empt the general relaunch by a day. You might get more traffic that way.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tonight: UK webloggers meet up STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 10:16:21 AM ----- BODY:

Tonight: UK webloggers meet up again. This time the evening is known as: sick of the parrot. All non-attendees will be executed. Do you understand what I'm saying?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly the coolest thing on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 10:57:47 AM ----- BODY:

Possibly the coolest thing on the net - the complete Anatomy of the Human Body by Henry Gray. Complete with disgustingly anatomical cut-away drawings of the human body.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm slightly surprised that anyone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 04:44:07 PM ----- BODY:

I'm slightly surprised that anyone would be comfortable with being featured in an article called 'From cause celebre to scum of the earth in just three months', but I suppose you have to have a sense of humour about these things.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Turning the tables on DSR: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2001 05:15:58 PM ----- BODY:

Turning the tables on DSR: a selection of search terms used to find their site, according to their stats page (5.10pm GMT): long dong silver, LITTLE NATURIST, Pokemon Porn, haemorrhoids, the shit files it's just a of shit, sexy iranian, pictures of horses (check this one out) and Almost nude.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Definition of Weblog: Place where STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2001 08:55:47 AM ----- BODY:

Definition of Weblog: Place where people who aren't heard in everyday life can not be heard online.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Send me head-fibre... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2001 11:30:01 AM ----- BODY:

Send me e-mail. I want some e-mail. No fluff. Good stuff. Suggestions, ideas, creative stuff. I need to take a brain-dump, but I haven't been getting enough head-fibre recently. So come on kids, help me purge.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Songs lyrics for a Friday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2001 12:20:46 PM ----- BODY:

Songs lyrics for a Friday morning: [Nothing Is Good Enough]

That nothing is good enough
for people like you
who have to have someone take the fall
and something to sabotage--
determined to lose it all
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's SO not fair to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2001 02:48:11 PM ----- BODY:

It's SO not fair to write a post about me, include the word Prozac and do it in a language that I just don't understand.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm deliberating, after a depressingly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2001 03:55:24 PM ----- BODY:

I'm deliberating, after a depressingly awful meeting with Big last night, whether or not I should send him this e-card, while making it clear - of course - that it is a joke. Perhaps I could combine it with a 'I'm heartily sick of this' message. Maybe that would make it clearer. And to whoever it is that keeps finding this site by typing in my name into Google can sod right off as well. It feels really creepy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Andi for helping STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2001 04:04:24 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Andi for helping an otherwise slow afternoon at work. And to her companion with the excessively acidic stomach - lay off the coke. If you're not careful, you'll burn right through...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wow, that really is cool! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2001 10:44:01 AM ----- BODY:

Wow, that really is cool! A "Mac OS X application that takes a small metadata file, and wraps a lovely GUI around a shell script". Jesus Christ. I need me one of them. I mean, after all, it could be extremely useful if I wrote "a command-line script and [needed] to let someone with no Unix experience run the program". Could someone tell me please, why oh why are all my friends better at all this technical crap than me?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith: Timothy McVeigh's letter to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2001 11:08:36 AM ----- BODY:

Barbelith: Timothy McVeigh's letter to Fox: "You may or may not have ethics or beliefs that match up with this man's. Mine do not match his particularly closely. Having said that, if I believed what he did, and could express myself as clearly as he can, and honestly believed that the FBI was an affront to the freedom of America's citizenry - well wouldn't his actions then be justified? If he believes himself to be at war, then isn't it appropriate to fight that war? So that's the question - how do we tell whether someone's ethics are acceptable? And the actions that they take? Where do we draw the line? If I see a people oppressed, is it my job to fight for them, tooth and claw, whether they be in Bosnia, or unknowingly oppressed in the US?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the peer-to-peer / interconnected STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2001 11:55:32 AM ----- BODY:

On the peer-to-peer / interconnected / web of trust: This is a rough combination of ideas from epinions, dirk and napster (with a little bit of avondi in there as well).

We all know about Napster. The principle is simple for the few of you that don't. I have MP3 files on my computer. Napster keeps a record of what I have. While I am online, other people online can search for MP3s, and download them directly from my computer if they want.

Now imagine that every citizen in a country has a program on their computer like Napster. Instead of MP3 files, they present themselves and the skills that they have, or merchandise and products that they produce or work with. That's stage one - people can do a search for a good or service that they want, and find the individual or company that produced it directly. There is a separate box, optional, for the area in which the service is to operate. The next stage (which is one that is already semi-implemented by Napster) is the integration of instant messaging. All the people that you know on a daily basis and wish to communicate with are on your friends list. Now you integrate epinions' 'Web of Trust'. You can rate your friends (or anyone else on the network) as to their provision of any service that they offer (from cabbages to web design). You can also rate them as a friend, whether they are someone that you intrinically like and / or trust. Now when someone does a search for 'web design' they first and foremost get a search that runs down their web of trust. People that they trust, who know people that they trust, might know of someone who they think is a great web designer. Each step removed from the originator lowers the potential trust rating of the person, while a separate geographically random - in order to limit the possibility of cultish behaviour - sampling of five hundred other people's opinons presents an average of the general faith in the company or institution. Finally, combine this whole thing with an avondi style currency of barter exchange, and you've just heavily democritised the entire free-market economy along peer-to-peer lines.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A fascinatingly political comment from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2001 05:55:01 PM ----- BODY:

A fascinatingly political comment from the BBC on The UK Census and Big Brother: "Most appreciate that the information is vital for planning the numbers of schools, hospitals and social services. But many will feel a twinge of unease about invasion of privacy and revealing all to faceless government officials."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A tesseract or hypercube is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2001 06:37:39 PM ----- BODY:

A tesseract or hypercube is a piece of hypothetical four-dimensional geometry that is generated by dragging a cube across a fourth dimension much as that cube is generated by dragging a square across three dimentional space. There's a fair amount on the net about them, but my favourite site (simply called Tesseract) includes a projection of the 4-d hypercube onto three dimensions. It's not entirely clear from the simulation how or what such an entity operates. But for more about this, and other geometric/dimensional wonders, you can't go far wrong with Flatland.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gasp?! Vodka vs. Staying at home... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2001 08:41:02 PM ----- BODY:

I have a quandary. In my flat, we have (to date) four rules of life. Two of these rules (1 and 4) this evening appear to be in direct opposition with one another. The situation is that I might have to go out for a drink with a friend in central London. The rules are as follows: 1) Inside Good, Outside Bad. 2) Everyone's a **** (i) Men are particularly ****s. 3) Buffy is life. 4) Vodka is our friend. What shall I do? [You have until 9pm GMT to answer this question.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If someone said that they STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 12:15:08 PM ----- BODY:

If someone said that they were going away for a week, but that they'd give you a ring once they'd got back, at what stage can one start legitimately getting slightly narked? Your answers please!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 12:24:57 PM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (5) So you think you're angry with Big for the way the evening ended the other day, and you'd chucked him a very brief e-mail designed to assess the lines of communication, to which there had been no reply. So after a conversation with a friend, you decide that what you really want to do is give him a quick ring. So you do. And he hangs up on you. Which makes you think, what the hell? So you sit there for a minute being puzzled and slightly irritable, before deciding to be magnanimous. So you send a text message saying: 'Fair enough. See you around sometime". And then he rings up immediately. His dog is playing in the river, and he's all cheery. What exactly does one say in this situation?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is possibly the least STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 12:48:11 PM ----- BODY:

This is possibly the least helpful article on dealing with a gay teenager that I have ever read. And I can only hope and pray that in ten or twenty years time, comments like "In truth, no parent wishes for a gay child. Who would want their son or daughter to follow a lifestyle that invites ridicule, heartache and prevents grandchildren!" will be considered hopelessly backwards and insulting by all reasonable people.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: [After Jason] I've submitted a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 12:54:21 PM ----- BODY:

[After Jason] I've submitted a word ('unsightful') to the pseudodictionary. Have you?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grant to write X-men... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 01:07:05 PM ----- BODY:

Grant Morrison, personal god of mine, and my first and only hero, is shortly to take over the writing of the world's biggest selling comic-book, the X-men. For those of you who promise not to think me a completely ridiculous geek, here (along with some discussion) are some scans of the first two pages.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 07:13:56 PM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (6): So you're in a shop and you see a magazine, and on the cover is some guy that you wanted to be involved with. And you say to yourself, Good Christ. And you send them a text message which reads, Good Christ. And you take the magazine into a bar and order a coke. And you sit down and open the magazine. And then you put the coke down, feel slightly weird, leave the bar, get on a tube and go home.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As the song says, "Wouldn't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/29/2001 07:16:59 PM ----- BODY:

As the song says, "Wouldn't a smarter man, simply walk away?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A while ago I was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2001 11:49:58 AM ----- BODY:

A while ago I was looking for a site that could simulate how sites would look in other browsers. Well thanks to a co-worker at Avondi, I've found one. The only problem is you have to pay them up to $120 a year for the privilege. If I had that much spare cash at the moment, however, I'd do it in a heartbeat - I've watched it in action, and it's a sweet piece of online kit. Designing cross-browser and platform is tricky enough if you are using a PC, but when you design on a Mac, something like this would be an absolute life-saver.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As I experience yet another STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2001 11:53:36 AM ----- BODY:

As I experience yet another entirely frustrating battle with page rendering on Netscape, I am forced to agree (for a moment at least) with Jakob Nielsen: Frames Suck Most of the Time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yesterday I went to see STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2001 01:00:26 PM ----- BODY:

Yesterday I went to see The Mexican with Meg. But afterwards I didn't do anything creative at all. In fact I wandered into town, had a brainfart and came home again. My mind operates in prescribed orbits at the moment - and the orbits get faster and smaller. I want my old mind back - larger orbits, slower, more thorough. Peaceful.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today 3.00 GMT: Anti-globalisation protests STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2001 01:19:13 PM ----- BODY:

Today 3.00 GMT: Anti-globalisation protests : Naomi Klein Live Online. Get yourself a comfy seat and a packet of bourbons, as Ms Klein takes on months of media doublespeak. Then go buy her bloody book. If it doesn't inspire aggression and post-capitalist ire in you then you're a better person than I want to be.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My five criteria for success: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2001 05:46:24 PM ----- BODY:

My five criteria for success:

  1. Having respect for what you do (equals creative input).
  2. Doing that thing well (enjoying it to the extent that you don't clockwatch).
  3. Being recognised for same.
  4. Changing the world in some way (for the better).
  5. Getting enough money to not have to worry about stuff.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "The picture-story fantasy cuts STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 12:23:47 AM ----- BODY:

"The picture-story fantasy cuts loose the hampering debris of art and artifice and touches the tender spots of universal human desires and aspirations. . . . Comics speak, without qualm of sophistication, to the innermost ears of the wishful self." -- William Moulton Marston [Wonder Woman's Powers]

Or to put it another way, comic books appeal to those people who are cursed to have imagination and desires far far beyond the ability of the world to fulfill, and who are not prepared to give up this magic in exchange for a suit and a desk job.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Seethru once again proves itself STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 01:01:04 AM ----- BODY:

Seethru once again proves itself to be of rather higher quality than your usual online zine, with the stunning feature 10 Reasons Why Jamie Oliver Is So My Bitch [made by: ampnet]. You can take Salon and shove it up your arse, frankly. I'm happy with my new ziny chums. I wonder if they've got any jobs going...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Of all the questions about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 12:35:17 PM ----- BODY:

Of all the questions about the net that people have asked or continue to ask, this one does seem to be one of the more significant: Why is it perfectly legal to post a diagram of how to build a bomb on the net, but you can't post a code that descrambles DVDs?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tuesday May 1st 2001: The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 01:01:03 PM ----- BODY:

Tuesday May 1st 2001: The May Day Demonstrations are happening in London today, about five minutes from where I am working at the moment. I have decided to take the day off work rather than deal with the fallout of moving in and out of town. Part of me thinks I should be there. Another part thinks I very definitely shouldn't.

Where to go for online coverage? The Guardian is doing a Special Report online all day, which includes a statement of intent that you can't really fault. There are also discussions on Barbelith, dossiers at disinfo and live updates at uk.indymedia.org. Meanwhile the BBC gets right down to the practicalities of being snotty and concentrating on violence and injuries.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My net access goes down STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 10:58:48 PM ----- BODY:

My net access goes down for eight hours and I nearly snap from the strain of it all. I'm stuck at home unable to do anything - it's like a limb's been removed. Many episodes of Buffy later, I'm left considering the amount of crutches I need to be able to operate effectively at the moment, and whether or not it's an attractive feature in a man to be gutted by a high-school awards ceremony with a toy umbrella covered in tinsel and marked with the words 'Buffy Summers - Class Protector'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "I'm gonna give you all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 11:04:51 PM ----- BODY:

"I'm gonna give you all a nice, fun, normal evening if I have to kill every person on the face of the Earth to do it. " [Source]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fuck it. While we are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 11:10:44 PM ----- BODY:

Fuck it. While we are at it, in the spirit of the times, and because I have never in my life felt more in tune with the spirit of a TV character (and you can laugh all you like, but if you do I'll come around your house and punch you in the face), I am going to say it loud and I am going to say it clear. To the legions out there who understand, to the hordes of aggrieved individuals who feel angry about something or other all the bloody time whether they really need to or not, to Nails and Black Katherine for looking after Rabbit - say it with me one and all: "Dammit. You know what? I'm sick of this. I'm tired of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis. As of this moment, it's over. I'm through being everybody's butt-monkey!" [Deal with it]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/01/2001 11:22:57 PM ----- BODY:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple release the new iBook, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 08:47:43 AM ----- BODY:

Apple release the new iBook, and frankly i'm a bit disappointed. It's looks, well, pretty much like a laptop to me. And a fairly clunky one at that. Still, it's reasonably inexpensive, and its specifications are relatively impressive...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We are Big Brother Spy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 09:52:16 AM ----- BODY:

We are Big Brother Spy on your fellow citizens, or extend your vision across the country, the hemisphere (or indeed the world) with camvista. "A camera on every street corner, in every home, in every head."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: President Bush announces 'Son of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 10:15:44 AM ----- BODY:

President Bush announces 'Son of Star Wars'. This is actually quite a fascinating speech rhetorically and heavily illuminates the way in which completely opposing view points can be made to seem equally reasonable. It's a thin line to between building a world community based upon trust and diplomacy and building one based upon superior weapons technology. Let's hope he treads it carefully.

"Our highest ideal was -- and remains -- individual liberty. Theirs was the construction of a vast communist empire. Their totalitarian regime held much of Europe captive behind an iron curtain."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The things I thought I'd STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 02:05:52 PM ----- BODY:

The things I thought I'd miss from Time Out are, it seems, exactly the things that I do miss - Matt, Fran, Rhonda, Richard and David. I went out for lunch with most of them today at the restaurant under Habitat on Tottenham Court Road. The food was pleasant, the company even better. And they even look indulgent when I explode into expletives. What more could you ask for of friends?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Explore-london.co.uk is a guide to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 02:09:59 PM ----- BODY:

Explore-london.co.uk is a guide to London that comes complete with a list of London weblogs, which includes my good self. There is, however, some kind of weird pollution in the meme-stream as they manage to spell plasticbag.org incorrectly (along with about five other sites I've been to recently that specialise in the misplacement of the letter 'L').

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Work It Harder Make It STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 02:10:31 PM ----- BODY:

Work It Harder Make It Stronger
Do It Faster Makes Us Stronger
More Then Ever Hour After
Hour Work Is Never Over

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Health Warning:"Always read the label. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 02:14:56 PM ----- BODY:

Health Warning:"Always read the label. Do not mix with alcohol. No purchase necessary. The value of your Tomô may fall as well as rise. May contain traces of nuts." [Courtesy of Davo ]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: At work at the moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 05:00:50 PM ----- BODY:

At work at the moment I am using some version control software called Visual SourceSafe Explorer. I've never used this software before, but one of the coolest things about it is that when you 'check in' a file you've been working on, you are asked to put in a comment about what it actually is that you've done. Endless files fiddled around with equals endless comments to be inserted. And each one makes you want to be a little more imaginative. Which brings me to this:

Version Control Haiku:

costs.html
there was a link to it here
but now it has gone

The emphasis tags
Should not be on the menu
So I removed them.

The Validator
Found the problems to be few
But I fixed them all.

The text is corrected
But nasty errors remain
in the depths of code

I changed some copy
Making one full paragraph
Into two small ones

Adjusted bullets
That aligned incorrectly
They now work ok.

Inserted comma
That is all I accomplished
This is now my life

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank God: The bloody tube STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 05:03:33 PM ----- BODY:

Thank God: The bloody tube strike has been suspended (or at least postponed for a couple of weeks). [more] This means that vast tracts of potential social life have been suddenly freed up. Now, what shall I do tonight?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: He's a serious MisterShake his STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2001 05:31:07 PM ----- BODY:

He's a serious Mister
Shake his hand and he'll
twist your arm
With monopoly money
we'll be buying the funny farm

So I'll do flips,
and get paid in chips
from a diamond as big as the Ritz -
Then I'm calling it quits. [Source]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts from 'My Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 09:01:57 AM ----- BODY:

Excerpts from 'My Big Gay Life' (7) In what is fast becoming a pattern, you bounce cheerfully into town at the beck and call of Big only to find him esconced with a couple of old friends of his. After a couple of hours, he ups and leaves you in a bar with them. They are perfectly pleasant people. But it's not really the point.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I refer the honourable gentleman STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 09:10:42 AM ----- BODY:

I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago: ok?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Certain mispellingsCatologue for exampleneeded to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 10:30:51 AM ----- BODY:

Certain mispellings
Catologue for example
needed to be fixed

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do not delay. This is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 11:19:09 AM ----- BODY:

Do not delay. This is serious. Go and read Lance's Last Life Serial immediately. And then contact him and tell him what a brave piece of writing that was, how important it was and how it may actually change the lives of a lot of people. Then, everyone, work with me to calm him down. This is a good, creative man. It's a terrible shame that he has decided not to give us any more insight into his life...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I work with this man. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 11:46:10 AM ----- BODY:

I work with this man. Need I say more?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I think we both can STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 11:49:41 AM ----- BODY:

I think we both can and should take Luke to task, nay court, for finding Jonah and his Whale on the net. It's people like Luke who destroy the net for the decent people, the moral majority. Like me and Mary Whitehouse.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Following a long and involving STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 12:03:27 PM ----- BODY:

Following a long and involving conversation over AIM with Davo, it has been established that I have to start a band called The Arsehole Puppets. Either that, or he has to write a book called The Blinding Power of the Arsehole Puppets. The phrase 'Arsehole Puppet' having come up with regard to those people who put themselves completely in the power of people who really don't deserve it, just so they can be treated badly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Life Lessons for a Megalomaniac: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 02:58:13 PM ----- BODY:

Life Lessons for a Megalomaniac: It's not important what you do. It's just important that you do something. Be Churchil, be Stalin, be the Unabomber, be Marie Curie, be Oskar Schindler, be Jack the Ripper. Be big, be bold, build it up, burn it down. Being mediocre is no longer excusable. The revolution will never come. Nothing you do will matter. You'll never produce anything 'good enough'. You'll never do anything that truly 'satisfies'. Stride the city at night like a god. Get yourself killed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My daily SeeThru love continues STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 03:11:23 PM ----- BODY:

My daily SeeThru love continues [Subliminal: Give me a job] with this stunning feature on the British film industry and the latest Guy Ritchie project Capers and Capability.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apparently I set the video STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 03:18:15 PM ----- BODY:

Apparently I set the video for FarScape, I own Babylon 5 on DVD, I have the Space 1999 fansite in my "Favourites" folder, but I'm not really in it for the sci fi, I just like watching alien totty prancing about in jumpsuits. Although this is perfectly acceptable behaviour for a fourteen-year-old, apparently, I might want to try weaning myself onto someone more adult: Charlie Dimmock, say, or Jennie Bond, the BBC's court correspondent. [I love Seethru]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In honour of Meg's impending STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2001 04:30:15 PM ----- BODY:

In honour of Meg's impending mental breakdown, I hereby declare this day to (for once at least) not be 'all about me', but instead to be ALL ABOUT MEG. All posts should be about how wonderful she is, and how much we love her and all that kind of stuff, else she will hack us all apart with carving knifes. This is the voice of the Nerditons.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The more books we read, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 09:12:06 AM ----- BODY:

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of the writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence. Obvious thought this should be, how few writers will admit it, or having drawn the conclusion, will be prepared to lay aside the piece of irridescent mediocrity on which they have embarked! Writers always hope that their next books is going to be their best, and will not acknowledge that they are prevented by their present way of life from ever creating anything different.

Every excusion into journalism, broadcasting, propaganda and writing or the films, however grandiose, will be doomed to disappointment. To put our best into these is another folly, since thereby we condemn good ideas as well as bad to oblivion. It is in the nature of such work not to last, and it should never be undertaken. Writers engrossed in any literary task which is not an assault on perfection are their own dupes, and, unless these self-flatterers are content to dismiss such activity as their contribution to the war effort, they might as well be peeling potatoes. [The Unquiet Grave]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally someone has had the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 10:54:13 AM ----- BODY:

Finally someone has had the balls to write a long, considered and well thought-out riposte to the endless repeating saga that is accusations of link whoredom, web-elitism and self-important back-slapping wank. Every community of creative individuals - particularly thosed based in such a collaborative space as the internet - suffers these problems at times. And 'as above, so below', you don't have to be a particularly important or significant individual to have run foul of it on occasion. So thank you, Mr Zeldman for "Circle Jerks".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hello, my name is Tom. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 11:01:04 AM ----- BODY:

Hello, my name is Tom. I have not slept with you. Do you understand? I have not slept with you. Let's make this very very clear. Whether you think it is reasonable or not, I am prepared to sue you if you say that I've slept with you. Do you hear me? And what do you think is a reasonable amount to sue for? $10,000? $100,000? No, I'm afraid you'd be wrong. $1,000,000? $10,000,000? No. I'm afraid I'm going to sue you for $100,000,000 because I am so incredibly neurotic about being thought to have slept with you. Do you understand me now?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Do I listen to pop STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 11:54:15 AM ----- BODY:

"Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable? Or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?" [Eh?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm doped up to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 02:32:11 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm doped up to the eyeballs on Nurofen Plus because the whole right hand side of my mouth is convulsing in tooth related pain. All my teeth can't start hurting at the same time, so I'm assuming that it is jaw-related or a trapped nerve or something. Pain clarifies a lot of things and clouds a lot of others. The Adrenalin released alone opens up entirely new vistas of aggression and potential violence. Resentments seethe and expand to fill the available space. Given freedom to roam they stop attacking one's self image and take to the streets looking to start a fight.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More information (and pictures) of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 02:49:26 PM ----- BODY:

More information (and pictures) of the man who allegedly is having an affair with Tom Cruise: Kyle Bradford. Check out kylebradford.com for his side of the story. [more | more | not the same guy | Google]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Horror: Davo, the evil STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 05:10:34 PM ----- BODY:

The Horror: Davo, the evil Davo, has decided to train in me in the ways of the young homosexual around town with at trip to G.A.Y. this evening. I've never been before, despite being 28 (and counting). Anyone else who happens to be going, look out for us - I'm always keen for someone new prepared to buy me a drink.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We cannot think if we STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 05:40:02 PM ----- BODY:

We cannot think if we have no time to read, nor feel if we are emotionally exhausted, nor out of cheap material create what is permanent. We cannot coordinate what is not there. [The Unquiet Grave]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The spookily surreal Anne Robinson STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 05:49:51 PM ----- BODY:

The spookily surreal Anne Robinson informed me (believe it or not) that, "You are the peskiest plastic bag. Goodbye!" What am I to say? She saw right through me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ha! Got an e-mail from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2001 09:44:00 PM ----- BODY:

Ha! Got an e-mail from Jeff Bezos thanking me for getting him something off his wishlist. How cool is that!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Article: GameSpot Presents: The Final STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/05/2001 11:37:11 AM ----- BODY:

Article: GameSpot Presents: The Final Hours of Black & White. Peter Molyneux is insane. He's got to be. Three years work, with twenty-five people often working 20 hour days seven days a week. You'd lose it. Surely?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For the first time in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/05/2001 05:26:01 PM ----- BODY:

For the first time in my life I went to a night-club and became aware that I might very well be ten years older than some of the other people there. There was one kid there, dressed in black, dancing on the stage, who was very cute indeed. He can't have been more than eighteen though. Of course, whether or not one has the slightest intention of taking things any further, it is always gratifying to get signals of interest. Unfortunately, the evening was generally characterised by signals - all with no follow through. Perhaps they were encrypted. Perhaps I misunderstood. Thanks to Davo, David and Nick H for the fun that was had.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Total Life Rebuilding: So STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/05/2001 05:34:15 PM ----- BODY:

Tom Total Life Rebuilding: So the process now is one of working through everything that is wrong in my life and reassembling it bit by bit from the fragments that remain. Stage one has got to be finding work, but this is a long stage and not a particularly productive one at the moment, so this has been downgraded in priority slightly to the more plausible, "work out what the next step is to be, and pay the bills in the meantime". Stage two has been redetermining my relationship with the gay community, as seen in the development of new friendships with gay people, an increased relationship with the scene (and all its horrors) and an increase of gay-related entertainment (clubs, bars, meals and the like). This stage is proceeding admirably. Stage three concerns my environment, and the dragging of my flat into a habitable state that I am not ashamed of. The first part of this quest has involved a trip to IKEA [thanks to Davo, Meg and David], where although it isn't easy to find stuff that will make you profoundly happy, it is very easy to find stuff to replace the things that depress you. Stage four is an increased emphasis on the production of things that I have respect for - and if they have to be outwith the working environment, then so be it. Stage five is sanity. And it will come with time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live those dreams Scheme those STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/05/2001 09:19:55 PM ----- BODY:

Live those dreams
Scheme those schemes
Got to hit me
Hit me
Hit me with those laser beams [Relax!]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In lieu of actual STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/06/2001 12:43:19 PM ----- BODY:

In lieu of actual content this morning, you can instead watch me reorganise my bedroom (with occasional asides to camera) on: plasticbag.org | cam.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blog addiction has a powerful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/06/2001 05:15:19 PM ----- BODY:

Blog addiction has a powerful grip. Mo tried to quit. He really did. He went to Blog Betty Ford, but it did no good. He tried The Priory, but it was all for naught, because he's back on the bottle at Mo Morgan (dot com) in just another five days time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thus spake Kyle Bradford: I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 12:20:44 PM ----- BODY:

Thus spake Kyle Bradford:

I care about my reputation and my family's feelings. Both were severely hurt by the false and vicious stories that I had a gay sexual affair with Tom Cruise and talked about it in an interview with a French Magazine.

Firstly, I don't know Tom Cruise and never said I did. Secondly, I've never given any such interview and have never even been to France where this "affair" supposedly started.

I haven't the slightest evidence of Tom Cruise being gay, and I have certainly never said any such thing to any magazine. Certainly I have never indicated to anyone that I had any kind of gay liaison with Mr. Cruise.

I understand Mr. Cruise's anger over this article. It is disgusting. I am equally angry. If I can assist him in discovering the person or persons who started this completely false story, I will.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Unfortunate coincidences... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 01:02:08 PM ----- BODY:

Unfortunate coincidences: 1) Matt writes 'Up The Arse, Or Not At All' for UpsideClown - including the line, "How many things could you fit up your arse? Answer: Two, three, a dozen maybe. A hundred marbles perhaps, although they'd be quite chilly, and you'd need margarine." 2) Simultaneously, Kylie belts out, "Have an havanna, Pass me a peach, Rub on some lotion, The places l can't reach". Thus: My mind fills with unpleasant imagery.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was talking to Evil STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 01:10:00 PM ----- BODY:

I was talking to Evil Michael last night about the necessary self-censoring that goes on in weblogs - why I can't be completely open about Mr Big for one, why I can't really vent about Max and Peter for two, why I can't talk about what goes on at work for three. He cut fairly close to home when he said that honesty and freedom to express oneself had to be the aim nonetheless - even if that had to be compromised occasionally.

An occasional flash back to first principles cannot help but be a good thing - it makes you remember the core of the enterprise - which for me has always been to have a place to put stuff down, to empty my head. I found it profoundly useful to be able to do this on screen rather than in real life. To an extent, I've lost that ability steadily over the last year and a half. So I'm working on a graduated privacy scheme for plasticbag.org as we speak, whereby I can open it up to certain people and keep it very private from others.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The amazing Barbelith colour scheme STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 01:19:08 PM ----- BODY:

The amazing Barbelith colour scheme experiment. So the problem is that I can't think of a decent colour scheme for the Underground that sums up the aesthetic of fast-paced media-savvy intelligent subversion. And in the process of attempting to change it, I accidentally overwrote the original colour scheme, leaving the site with a decidedly plasticbag.org-ish look and feel. So the question begins: mail me your colour schemes. [Discuss / Requirements]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've spend some of this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 05:37:42 PM ----- BODY:

I've spend some of this afternoon fixing some odds and ends around the shop. For one, there is now a pop-up webcam link above that will give you endless access into my tedious kingdom (on those two or three occasions a year I have it on). Also, I have fixed the Barbelith Recent Posts section at the end of the page - so now the links actually go somewhere on the new board (and its revolting new colours).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm unbelievably flattered that ARC23 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 07:37:33 PM ----- BODY:

I'm unbelievably flattered that ARC23 should link to me in the 'good stuff' section of their site. I suppose that must mean to an extent that I'm doing something right with this bloody site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Heather Cirmo works for the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 08:28:15 PM ----- BODY:

Heather Cirmo works for the 'Family Research Council', which is unfortunately another pseudo-scientific organisation that purports to know what's best for individuals while backing it up with an assortment of near-science that almost continually says something rather different to the message that they want to give out. The latest piece of ridiculous nonsense that they've come out with concerns Jack's kiss on Dawson's Creek. And I quote, "Science is inconclusive as to whether youíre born homosexual or whether itís environmental. But the thousands upon thousands of people whoíve left the homosexual lifestyle demonstrate that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice rather than an inborn characteristic." One of the wonderful aspects of this kind of argument is that it only trusts the opinions of those who say that they have 'changed' from being gay, while completely ignoring the many hundreds of thousands of other gay people who haven't. It doesn't ask what the differences between the two groups of people might be in terms of pressure and or upbringing. It doesn't have any basis for measuring whether someone is or isn't gay other than self-declaration. It is, in a word, facetious and insulting to those of us who have battled to carve ourselves out a life under the near continuous snotty glare of those who would continually tell us that our lives are 'corrupt', 'substandard' or 'immoral'. It's like telling someone in a concentration camp that if they'd only STOP being Jewish...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Revisions and expansions to plasticbag.org, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/07/2001 10:14:45 PM ----- BODY:

Revisions and expansions to plasticbag.org, and in direct response to Heather Cirmo (see previous post), I've added a section 'articles' in which I plan to place the few pieces I've written, including a piece on homophobic bullying in schools. The visibility of gay characters on television may be compromising Christian right-wing morality, but I can say with my hand on my heart that it is averting the suicide of gay teenagers. This is something worth fighting for.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Readers. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 10:39:03 AM ----- BODY:

I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Readers. Readers, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a...fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a TOM 9000 computer.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Game of the day is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 12:30:20 PM ----- BODY:

Game of the day is Celebrity Battles, the only online arena where battling celebrities can fight to the death. Complete with instantly updated charts showing you who you wouldn't like to be trapped in a deathmatch with. Currently beating the crap out of all contenders under a purple sky in a dark alien arena is the almighty Patrick Stewart. Let's get ready to rumble!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: With a general election fast STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 01:08:57 PM ----- BODY:

With a general election fast approaching, it is time to start thinking about how to cast your vote. In previous years, there has always been the threat of another Conservative victory to force you out of your comfortable sofa and out onto the street. This year, that seems rather unlikely, but complacency will result in that horrid little troll as Prime Minister. You know who I mean. In order to facillitate the voting process, I suggest that you go immediately and find out the track record of your local MP at UpMyStreet.com, and then go to tacticalvoter.net to see how you might make your vote count more than normal, without compromising your values and beliefs. The latter site is a must see. [PS Issues of political bias are addressed in the source code.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It is clear to me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 01:42:45 PM ----- BODY:

It is clear to me now that when I get home I must move the coat hanger from my picture rail. I find it difficult to countenance my own cruelty in this matter. I am making people unhappy by not doing it/ I'm really sorry, Firda. I will open my psychic floodgates and let you in. [related thought: psychic AIM buddy-lists?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have decided that the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 03:59:00 PM ----- BODY:

I have decided that the web would be greatly improved by the development of things™. We would not implement said things™ purely for their own sake, clearly. Instead they would be part of a coherent thing™ strategy. Said web thing™ will be on the cutting edge of emerging web technology and will be central to all e-commerce / community-building enterprises in the coming dot.com resurgence. Warning: things™ may not work. Things™ may cause bleeding.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going to keep pushing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 04:55:23 PM ----- BODY:

I'm going to keep pushing this until I'm sure everyone has read it: "In November, an inquest heard that a 15-year-old choirboy had been found hanged in his bedroom. Darren Steele had been left at home watching Neighbours by his mother when she went out for the evening. When she returned she found him dead. A note by his body explained that he had killed himself because of the bullying that he was suffering at school. Darren had been bullied because other students thought he was gay. At the inquest, his friends explained that he had been regularly taunted as a 'gay boy' and a 'poof' because of his interests in drama and cookery. Over the previous five years he had been systematically punched, verbally abused and even burned with cigarettes by other students. He never told a teacher." More >>

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can someone tell me whether STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2001 11:50:45 PM ----- BODY:

Can someone tell me whether the organisation NARTH is essentially a hate organisation - albeit of a slightly different breed than the KKK? I read their stuff and I think to myself, 'if they were saying this about black or asian people then they'd be screwed', but it's not quite the same is it? There is a quantifiable difference there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Plasticbag.org | Articles: An interview STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2001 12:19:04 AM ----- BODY:

Plasticbag.org | Articles: An interview with a young lesbian woman about her experiences at school: "When I was about 15 I decided to come out as being gay to my best friend. She was great about it. I remember being so overwhelmed. Shortly afterwards I told some of my other close friends. They seemed fine, but were more cautious. They didn't discuss it with me afterwards. I started to notice a change in attitude towards me at school. People kept their distance. Overnight there always seemed to be whispering around. Rumours started up that I was a slut - that I had slept with virtually every boy in the class - that I was weird - that I was a boy. When I was 16, a girl passed me a note. She asked me if it was true that I was gay. I was really surprised. I told her that I was, and she invited me to see a film with her." more >>

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Barbelith (the caring subcultural STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2001 02:50:21 PM ----- BODY:

Via Barbelith (the caring subcultural community):

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does this look and work STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2001 03:06:29 PM ----- BODY:

Does this look and work in a remarkably similar way to this? I think I liberally ripped off the code for it from someone years ago, before I developed scruples. Can't quite remember who. Probably arehaus. It was a long time ago. [Amusingly Matt pointed me in the direction of this, built by a friend of his, which is much more honest in its source code than I ever was.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm currently suffering designers-angst. I've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 10:25:42 AM ----- BODY:

I'm currently suffering designers-angst. I've been re-styling the Barbelith Underground overnight and did a quick new content bar, based a on the Guardian. This was partly piss-take (subculture 'respectable' / 'detournement'), partly homage (I adore the Guardian's layout) and partly effective design solution. But it's still weirding me out and making me feel like a phony. Opinions, please on the new look.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In honour of brow-beating Matt STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 10:49:40 AM ----- BODY:

In honour of brow-beating Matt into agreeing to come around and look at my computer, I hereby declare this to be Oz Prison Bitch Name Generator Day, and give my thanks not only to Wish Bone, but also to my other friends, Aryan Fuck Toy, Ass Executioner and Cock Gobler. And a special yo! to our main man, Juicy Ass!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: David Bowie belts out the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 11:20:01 AM ----- BODY:

David Bowie belts out the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat and at some deep spiritual part within me, I feel satisfied. White Light Make Me Feel Like ... Lou Reed

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Text messages don't really seem STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 12:45:34 PM ----- BODY:

Text messages don't really seem to be weighty enough to end a friendship. But what else can I do? It seems any other level of contact would be unwanted. It's kind of gutting, the way these things play out - the way you know you'd have done things differently if you knew then what you know now. I suppose the next stage is to excise any presence from my life. Delete the phone numbers stored in the phone, delete the e-mail addresses stored on the computer. Close the door. Cut the cord.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All this stuff is a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 01:40:56 PM ----- BODY:

All this stuff is a hell of a lot more complicated than you'd think. Does God play dice with the universe? No, but he made such an absurdly ridiculous place to live in that it's impossible to tell the difference.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith: In which Tom lets STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 04:00:45 PM ----- BODY:

Barbelith: In which Tom lets rip with his feelings on Oxford and Cambridge elitism in a very very long and ultimately unfulfilling post that doesn't live up to its initial promise and needs fundamental rewriting: "On sabbatical from Oxbridge Academy, London"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's a new game for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 04:57:23 PM ----- BODY:

Here's a new game for you: The Interpretation of webcams through body language. The insight I have into mood here is astonishing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Suddenly convinced that my flatmates STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2001 10:53:52 PM ----- BODY:

Suddenly convinced that my flatmates are furious with me, I hide in my room all evening making grumpy faces and feeling weird. I emerge and while lingering at the sitting room door watch my flatmate giggle at Eurotrash. Offhand I ask, "can I just check whether you're angry at me or not". At which point she stares at me like I've just fallen from the sky in a duck costume and slowly says, "No, but I am mildly perturbed by you..." I leave the room.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh the shame. Oh the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/11/2001 03:36:43 PM ----- BODY:

Oh the shame. Oh the embarrassment. To have my sordid lifestyle captured by camera. And I thought I'd managed to cover it up. But no, my dread secret is finally out. And what will Katy do, I wonder? How will she tell her boyfriend? Oh the shame. And the most terrible thing of all is that we were looking at naked pictures of Corny himself on her digicam at the time. [What the hell is he talking about? (click) GAH I'M BLIND!"]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We start today on a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2001 12:52:37 PM ----- BODY:

We start today on a sombre note. Childhood hero to many and author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, has died of a heart-attack aged 49. Discuss this horrible turn of events at Metafilter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lack of imagination or taken STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2001 10:56:37 PM ----- BODY:

Lack of imagination or taken down? Went to see Antitrust (more on this later - nyah ha ha ha ha) and in it is a company called skullbocks. They are often mentioned as having their own website, skullbocks.com, but when you try to visit the URL there's nothing there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Antitrust Antivert... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Film DATE: 05/13/2001 01:09:32 AM ----- BODY:

Antitrust Antivert: As I said earlier I went to see Antitrust this evening. What I didn't say was that it actually was really quite poor. However, there were some incredibly (unintentionally) funny bits. By way of an affectionate tribute to the film, combined with some good old fashioned advertising, I present you with the Antitrust Antivert:

A tremendous amount of thanks to Lance Arthur for the code, and to him and Simon for playing my 'build something cool in an hour and a half, ending at 1am GMT' game, that has caused me to release lacklustre product and have a couple of minor caffeine related heart-flutters. [Simon's project]

This is very much only the beginning of the advertising campaign. If you would like your image to be included, then find me a good quote about the film and chuck me a photo and I'll assemble an ad for you as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you want to include the ad on your site, then just insert the code below:

<script language="javascript" src="http://www.barbelith.com/antitrust/antiad_antitrust.js"> </script>
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where did Meg and Jason STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2001 06:10:08 PM ----- BODY:

Where did Meg and Jason go? Oh I don't know, oh I don't know. Oh, where did Meg and Jason go? Oh here they are with Judy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thoughts and Reflections on Friday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2001 12:22:15 AM ----- BODY:

Thoughts and Reflections on Friday Night:

My last day at Avondi filled me with a strange mix of relief and anxiety. Incidental contract jobs are never tremendous fun - you don't have a lot invested in them, and they don't have a lot invested in you. But nonetheless, it is money. And when your source of money goes away, well the fear starts up again.

Well, to counteract the fear - and extend the weekend - after a quick trip home I met up with two gay friends of mine, John W and Nick H and we went to see Broken Hearts Club. This was a pleasant surprise - a gay film that didn't get too maudlin, didn't deal too much with coming out and managed to deal with the thing I'm most interested in at the moment - the community of friends that you do or don't develop and their relationships. And some of the relationship stuff kind of felt like a kick in the head - if only because I'm trying to make that mental shift from sleeping with people to going out with people without the person who actually convinced me I could make such a shift in the first place. And you know, sleeping with people is fun - but more about that later.

Film ends and I browbeat my colleagues into a visit to G.A.Y. where I am immediately obsessed by the cheap nastiness of my t-shirt which I accidentally bought earlier in the day. But within half an hour John, Nick and I are joined by Sam C on the stage in the middle of the dance floor. Remember - I'm new to this, I've only been to G.A.Y. once before and that was last week. Honestly, I had a great time. Anyway - halfway through the evening I met this charming shirtless gentleman called Claudio. He was fairly keen and after a couple of hours of mid dance floor fumbling, it became clear to me that this man would quite cheerfully claim the title of 'best looking man I've ever shagged' if I were to agree to take him home with me. Which is why I was startled when I realised that I wasn't going to. That I was going to walk off, get a drink, find my friends and go home. I'm still trying to figure out why I did it. Didn't feel right, I suppose.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: E-mail to Kerry: "I was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2001 12:25:56 AM ----- BODY:

E-mail to Kerry: "I was taking a group of foreign tourists to LA, one of whom had a tiny tiny Alien Baby. And they didn't speak English very well and hadn't organised a place to stay. So I had to ring you up and ask if I could bring them for the evening (there were like 16 of them), and you said yes, and I came, and when you were out of the room I pounced on Sean, and then Sean told you that I'd pounced on him, even though it seemed like he quite enjoyed it at the time and you went NUTS and threw us all out on the street. And you lived in this kind of Scooby-Doo like haunted mansion. FUCKING WEIRD, HUH?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 9.45am: Take vitamin supplement pill. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2001 10:42:15 AM ----- BODY:

9.45am: Take vitamin supplement pill. Light cigarette. Leave flat. Walk towards Maida Vale tube. 10.00am: Pick up yogurt drink at Baker Street, and change for Circle Line to Farringdon (back at Arehaus for a few days). Board train. Burp loudly. Feel slightly rough. 10.10am: Exit train, start sweating. Cross the road towards Bleeding Heart Yard. RUN into side street. Vomit for ten minutes, shoes / trouser-legs covered. Vomit is grey. 10.20am: Arrive at work. Build frameset for contact pop-up window.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was listening to Xfm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2001 11:27:30 AM ----- BODY:

I was listening to Xfm at work this morning when a news announcer starts speaking in a voice normally reserved for the death of a member of the royal family. "Michael Stipe," he says, "is gay." The world reels in shock at this announcement. "Surely not!" the cry is heard, "He always seemed so alive." ThisIsLondon.com has the full absence of story.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evening with Matt drives me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 12:37:01 AM ----- BODY:

Evening with Matt drives me into bizarre frenzy as usual. Feel weirdly psyched for an hour or so afterwards. Like I should beat someone up or something. Head full of nodes and connections and synonyms. Painfully slowly parts of head not used for years kick into gear.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You see at least some STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 12:44:06 AM ----- BODY:

You see at least some people get my sense of humour. I suppose I should be thankful for that.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm beginning to hate the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 12:49:15 AM ----- BODY:

I'm beginning to hate the way that I shave in the morning and look like comedy magnet / iron-filing beard toy by the middle of the evening. This never used to happen. And I still have my facial bald patches. What the fuck is that about?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Although the description of this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 01:40:24 PM ----- BODY:

Although the description of this article might seem slightly hyperbolic (Scientists obtain their most precise measurement of the difference between matter and antimatter, and explain why the Universe exists.) - the fact that scientists have now manage to determine why the creation of matter and anti-matter at the birth of the universe did not result in complete mutual annihilation remains astonishing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Yeah, yeah, the market's crashing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 01:47:49 PM ----- BODY:

"Yeah, yeah, the market's crashing and everybody's fucked but there's still a chance for someone with a bright idea to make a million. Isn't there? Here are ours..." Seethru's ideas for making yourself an internet millionaire - pay attention Mr Stone (you know who you are).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is the downturn over? I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 01:51:47 PM ----- BODY:

Is the downturn over? I looked in the New Media jobs section of the Media Guardian last night, only to find that the amount of jobs listed had increased dramatically from one or two pages a week (a month ago) to four or five a week now. Of course none of the jobs particularly thrill me - but at least that means that some slackness is emerging - people are moving and being employed. General confidence is rising.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Listening to Xfm at work STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 01:55:07 PM ----- BODY:

Listening to Xfm at work brings on winsome feelings and nostalgia for university life (the amount of dedications for people having exams at UCL is astonishing) along with a certain amount of irritation that I can't ring up Max and see how he's getting on. Are you having exams at UCL? Drop me a line

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm literally astonished by the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/15/2001 10:29:33 PM ----- BODY:

I'm literally astonished by the depths the Conservative party will go to in order to scrabble for votes in this election. There's no honesty, just obvious attempts to manipulate the electorate. And it's so transparent. I doubt there's a single person in the country who believes that the state of the country has declined significantly since Labour got into power. Even my parents have said that they haven't done too much damage (although they still maintain it's just a question of time). With this in mind it seems astonishingly crass to use a campaign based around the intimation that Labour's policies on early releases have caused rapes. Juliet Lyon, the director of the Prison Reform Trust is quoted in the article as saying: "This is scaremongering. The general public deserve full information." I couldn't agree more. [Metafilter | Metatalk ]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Long have I been labouring STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2001 12:08:22 AM ----- BODY:

Long have I been labouring under the impression that the root of all evil had been condemned to the source. But no! Simon informs me that quite contrary to appearances, Girls are Evil.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now here's a novel use STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2001 12:25:11 AM ----- BODY:

Now here's a novel use for a weblog - thebackroom.net is basically a dirty porn site for gay people to write about what they've been up to in bed, online and out and about. It really is tremendously dodgy, but very very entertaining. Question? Would you enjoy plasticbag.org more if it had more naked men on it? In which case, for one post only, please feel free to visit skincaps which is full of the bloody creatures.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warning: this post contains many STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2001 11:28:13 AM ----- BODY:

Warning: this post contains many links to Amazon.

Two very different slices of Americana have been impacting on my life recently. On Monday, on the way into work, I started to read Of Mice and Men for the first time in over twelve years. I was forced to read it at school, and was completely incapable at the time of viewing it as anything but an unbelievably long, tedious chore. This time, the whole reading probably took me about two and a half hours - it's such a tiny book. But it came like a kick to the head.

The horror with books that I read at school is that - at the time - I didn't enjoy a single one of them. In fact some of them still haunt my mind as horrors to be tamed. There's a few lines at the front of Molly Keane's Good Behaviour that still have the power to make me feel queasy. And yet, I've re-read many of these books since school, and found them all to be astonishingly powerful. To Kill A Mockingbird is a case in point. What is it about schools that make the the reading of books such a hellish experience, I wonder?

The other juicy slice of trans-atlantic media-pie that I've been gorging myself on is the latest Dandy Warhols album. I bought it a while back and listened to it about ten times before promptly losing it. I have no idea where. It's been driving me mad for months. I keep ripping apart my bedroom in vain attempts to find it. Eventually last night I gave up and bought it again. And of course, unlike novels from school, it's not quite as good as my memories would suggest. Ah well.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: News: ICANN.org announce details of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2001 11:33:01 AM ----- BODY:

News: ICANN.org announce details of the .biz and .info registration plans. I will confess to having put myself down for a couple of .info addresses on the offchance that they might come in useful. Not the most moral practice, but never mind...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My appeal for UCL students STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2001 01:20:37 AM ----- BODY:

My appeal for UCL students to drop me a note has brought a couple of e-mails to my door, one of which slightly alarmed me and made me re-examine my motives for doing so. So I examined them, and frankly they stink, but who gives a fuck, right?

Therapist: "So your attempt to 'be there' for the horrors of exam life for random students seems to me to be a substitute for your lack of ability to 'be there' for your Ex (a man, I might add, of clearly significantly lacking taste)."
Tom: "Why thank you Mr Therapist, I'm so glad you've noticed my finer qualities, and the absence of same in my bitter adversary (hey Peter!). So often these get left unnoticed. I always say that you have to do what you think is best, and I think I've stuck by that principle even when my thinking has been clearly butt-fucked by Satan."
Therapist: "I do, however, think that you should question your motives when it comes to your perpetual baiting of the object of your Ex's current misguided affections. It seems purely designed to make him angry and irritable."
Tom: "Ah well, old therapist chum, I'm afraid you have me bang to rights there. But it's only because someone told me he read my site. Don't see why he should get all the insights into my mental functioning without a occasional slap..."
Therapist: "I think you should start coming every day, and having two hour sessions. I'm suspecting a certain lack of progress on several key issues here."

So anyway, hey to Mark Detre - hope the exams go well. And similar thanks for the e-mail to Michelle Quah, who is dangerously honest about her exams on her site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Emode tells me I am STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2001 01:54:56 AM ----- BODY:

Emode tells me I am a detective. "The mysteries of man and nature stretch out before you, just waiting for your inquisitive mind. In your undying quest for the truth, you're best at finding solutions to complex problems. As a passionate and determined detective, you don't have time for any assistants. It's just as well really, since you work best alone, pondering the clues from your library or lab. You thrive on the problem-solving process, you could trouble shoot for Microsoft, and you won't rest until the questions are answered. The world could use a few more like you." Once you've taken the test, type in tomcoates@yahoo.com into the compare with your friends box to see how similar we are...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The sheer aggravation of coming STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2001 10:10:21 PM ----- BODY:

The sheer aggravation of coming home at 9pm with two films you have to review in fifteen hours to find that your video has been occupied by a flatmate's urge to record drama is beyond the telling of it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Join the world's largest blog-link STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2001 10:14:05 PM ----- BODY:

Join the world's largest blog-link chain by linking to Dan linking to Leia linking to Julie linking to James linking all the way back to me [All neglecting to link to Simon in the process]. And I repeat, Girls are evil. May the chain grow ever longer and more pointless.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Simon needs some fun... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/18/2001 02:19:07 PM ----- BODY:

My current pet project - to get Simon some fun - got an unexpected shot in the arm today when he put his wishlist online. Go buy him stuff - he's like a teenager. They need it more than we do.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On four pages from X-force... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/18/2001 06:31:01 PM ----- BODY:

Four pages from Peter Milligan's new X-force comic book: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4. Comic books are for retards: "Ah. The Death of Sluk. Probably no great loss. He was only really useful at close range, with his creepy face things. And I might be a mutant, but I kind of like the members of my team to look at least half human. Note: Remind Beckah to review her alcohol mix. Gin Genie's tremors nearly killed all of us." [Via Barbelith Underground]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is this my worst ever film review? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/18/2001 07:10:41 PM ----- BODY:

Joy of joys - now you too can read what must be one of the worst piece of writing I have ever produced. My review of Rasputin is up on the BBC's film site, and I really don't like it. I can blame time pressures all I like, but in the end of the day I'm pretty sure it's just not cutting the mustard. Luckily I have a couple of other reviews to write which should give me an opportunity to redeem myself.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another review for BBC Films... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2001 01:24:16 PM ----- BODY:

More from BBC Films - this time it's a review that I wrote for On the Waterfront. This one I actually don't mind too much. It's not phenomenal, but it's not bad. I've got another one to write for Monday morning, so I guess they haven't realised how bad they are yet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On my London bar of choice... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2001 01:36:03 PM ----- BODY:

I hereby proclaim Escape, at the end of Rupert Street, to be my London bar of choice. It's small, relatively free of attitude and full of pleasant-looking, relatively nice young men and women. I've been going for a while now - it's not got the horrible desperate need of Rupert Street (the bar), nor is it as tacky as many of the cheesy gay places of Soho.

Anyway - I've been going for a while now semi-regularly. It's actually a laugh, which is cool. And I've just started meeting people there as well. Which is, you know, also good. I went on Thursday with Nick H and his friend Scott, and it accidentally turned out to be the Miss Kudos Drag Queen competition. A more motley crew of drag-acts you wouldn't believe. One of them had breast implants, no top and Marilyn Manson contact lenses in. One mimed (quite well) to Geri Halliwell.

I went last night as well - it was supposed to be a preamble to going clubbing, but I was exhausted from having been up all night writing reviews for the BBC. So by about midnight I wanted everyone around me dead. Which is a pity really, because there was a charming guy there called Will, [COMPLIMENTS EXCISED JUST IN CASE HE HASN'T READ THIS YET].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excitement about Tigerland... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2001 01:47:31 PM ----- BODY:

I'm really excited about Tigerland. I know it's been out for a thousand years everywhere else, but we've been waiting for it in the UK for months. Perhaps I can persuade Davo to go today.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a search engine placement strategy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/20/2001 01:17:12 AM ----- BODY:

Search Engine Placement Strategy: National Lottery, Maff, Foor and Mouth, Exchange rates, Eminem, Inland Revenue, SMS, text messaging, EastEnders, West Ham, PlayStation Cheats, Westlife, Alton Towers, Harry Potter, Arsenal FC, South West Trains, UCAS, Eurovision, Buffy, Revision, London Eye, Route planner. [Prurient content omitted | 20 most popular terms typed into MSN.co.uk | As featured in The Guardian's 'Editor' supplement]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excellent. Absolutely no one reads STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/20/2001 01:24:42 AM ----- BODY:

Excellent. Absolutely no one reads this site any more. I have finally proved my theory that being a self-indulgent grumpy arsehole is not what the public want - whatever the lying, scheming, sack-of-shit bastards would try and make you believe. I'm going to make a button.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Correction: Due to horror of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/20/2001 01:57:06 AM ----- BODY:

Correction: Due to horror of person mentioned in weblog discovering said weblog and then reading said weblog, the owner of said weblog now has to cover his tracks in a charming and engaging way by slagging him off - much like a four-year-old in the playground who feels awkward around girls. So I'd just like to say to the person concerned that they stink and that there is absolutely no way on earth that I'd ask them out for a drink sometime next week. Particularly not Wednesday. Ok? Got that? [This is not my fault]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Help encourage people to not STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/20/2001 02:02:27 AM ----- BODY:

Help encourage people to not come to plasticbag.org by including one of these buttons on your site today. And make sure they don't link back to this site, because that will rather defeat the whole purpose of the exercise. Note: This is not a double-bluff. [Ha ha]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Search engine request of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/20/2001 02:40:52 PM ----- BODY:

Search engine request of the day: So today someone typed in "My friend is being a bitch" into Google and the first thing they came across was my site. In fact this old page.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the question of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 01:21:07 AM ----- BODY:

So the question of the moment really is: "Am I GOING OUT WITH PAUL DIGITALTRICKERY or NOT?". I think I might submit my picture. I'd quite like to know whether I am or not. You never know. I might be.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Leia Scofield's 30 DVDs in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 02:10:10 AM ----- BODY:

Leia Scofield's 30 DVDs in 30 Days project reaches day 28 with Antitrust and mentions the plasticbag.org Antitrust subVERT project.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Tom himself is a 400 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 10:10:05 AM ----- BODY:

"Tom himself is a 400 lb, East Bolivian, overblown arsehole with delusions of grandeur, and a very strange fascination with hairless Mexican wrestlers. Of course Tom doesn't read the path of thornes, so we're not worried." [Oh yeah?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a slight work-related tension STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 01:24:55 PM ----- BODY:

There's a slight work-related tension in the air today as I wait to hear whether or not I will be needed for a couple of weeks work at Capital Radio. Plus I'm supposed to finish a review for the BBC, drop some notes around web design agencies and follow up on a couple of other work-related leads. But again, for the second week in a row, the Guardian actually has a reasonably sized New Media section, which includes (shock of all shocks) some jobs I actually might want to apply for.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "The woeful security of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 03:56:43 PM ----- BODY:

"The woeful security of the Conservative Party website has been exposed by an anonymous computer cracker. The UK expert says that the conservatives.com website has been failing to take even the most basic security precautions. He warns that in the run-up to the election anyone who wanted to embarrass the Conservative Party could do so by defacing the site." [BBC News]

I don't understand. If it really is that easy, why on earth hasn't anyone done it. A party that bases itself so patently around stuck-out chests, self-importance and a complete inability to laugh at itself should surely be a prime candidate. I'd do it if I could. Can you do it? Go on then!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More political commentary from timewasting.net. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 03:59:41 PM ----- BODY:

More political commentary from timewasting.net. Does this represent the complete lack of faith that the majority of the country have of contemporary politics? I personally blame campaigns like that of the Conservative party for lowering our faith in our 'elected representatives'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nine things that are true STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2001 04:30:47 PM ----- BODY:

Nine things that are true and one that is not: [after NotSoSoft]

1) I've been to tea with Esther Rantzen.
2) I've been to all but two of the mainland US states.
3) My dentist wants me to have £2000 worth of dental work.
4) I went to the world premiere of Snatch.
5) I don't understand Football.
6) I have no sense of smell.
7) I have owned five different cars.
8) I fancy short men with big noses.
9) I think cheese makes me fart.
10) I've snogged a multi-millionaire.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So you're trying to find STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 12:01:08 PM ----- BODY:

So you're trying to find out about something, and you look on the net and you can't find it. The next thing you do is go straight onto Usenet, because there will be someone there with specific expertise in whatever it is that you're interested in. But you will have to wait a while until someone responds. Perhaps you should try FAQs.org first?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warning: Plans are afoot for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 01:22:57 PM ----- BODY:

Warning: Plans are afoot for a Big Gay Blogmeet. Extensive documentation and probing tests will be required if there is any doubt about your sexual preference. Many of these tests may be ... degrading. Still interested?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hello, my name is Tom. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 01:54:07 PM ----- BODY:

Hello, my name is Tom. I'll be your host tonight at plasticbag.org - so just relax and let me take care of everything. What's that you say? What's happening in the world today? I honestly don't know madam. What's that you say? That I should know? Because I'm running a weblog? What rubbish woman. Get your coat and get the hell out of here. I'm not here for your amusement. Jesus. And yes I was aware that Clare and Tom from Big Brother are expecting a baby. What do you think I am? Completely disconnected from the world?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Startling fact of the day: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 01:55:45 PM ----- BODY:

Startling fact of the day: There is almost nothing decent on the web with information on phone sex. Nothing at all. What's that about?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Article of the day: "Straight STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 03:05:56 PM ----- BODY:

Article of the day: "Straight women, begone! You are ruining sex for gay guys with your need for dinner first.": So a while back I asked a guy out for a drink. You know, normally I wouldn't bother. But I had decided that there was something preferable about maintaining an interaction from at least twenty-four hours before first sexual contact to at least forty-eight hours after it. You know - as a change of pace, or something. But now I see the horror of it all. I have had explained to me how I am being drawn into the conspiracy to rob gay men of what they do best - cheap, horny, regular sex.

Actually there is something true in all of this. There is a freedom about sex between men that you don't find in other places - and an honesty. And this is something that really needs to be preserved. The increased socialisation of gay sex is something that needs to be approached in a fairly circumspect fashion. We shouldn't be losing the freedoms of a free and easy sexual culture simply because we fight for the rights to have our other relationships respected.

So I'm going to stick with what I perceive to be the core of the article: "A guy doesn't ask a woman out because he might be attracted to her. He asks her out because he paws the ground every time she walks by. And the ground's sick of it. Here's why it's important to have sex before you get to know someone. First of all because getting to know someone often ruins your physical attraction to the person." And I think that cuts right to the heart of the issue.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scientific News of the Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 03:21:17 PM ----- BODY:

Scientific News of the Day: [Nanotech Looms Large for Meds] Nanotech gets one stage closer (in fact is being used in a sense) with the develoment of nano-emulsions and cancer-targetting nano-structures. How far are we from assemblers?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The nicest thing that's happened STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 08:48:50 PM ----- BODY:

The nicest thing that's happened to me recently on the web. I'm featured site over at the perils of leisure. Again more impetus to try and think of something interesting to write about rather than all this tedious old self-promoting guff.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote from an unlaunched project: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2001 09:27:03 PM ----- BODY:

Quote from an unlaunched project: "Creativity and inspiration are the enemies of truth, but without them truth couldn't exist. They are the things that shape truth, that it emerges from, just as quickly as it finds itself smothered by them."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And I quote: "Oyez! Oyez! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/23/2001 11:13:35 AM ----- BODY:

And I quote: "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Are you gay (or cute enough to try out for the team)? Are you a blogger (or thinking of starting one)? Do you live in London (or anywhere near by)? If so, come and join us upstairs at Compton's on Wednesday 30th May from 8pm onwards for London's 1st Gay Bloggers Meet."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the second page of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/23/2001 05:50:04 PM ----- BODY:

From the second page of a Suck article, come visualise with me: "Imagine, for a moment, that you're not crazy, that you can set attainable goals and achieve them instead of languishing for years, unfulfilled. Let's pretend, for just a minute, that you are not completely fucked and that you can seek intimacy from other normal, healthy individuals without alienating them or freaking them out... Oh, your concentration is breaking up. Maybe we tried to do too much in one day..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spread the word [lifted STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 12:19:47 PM ----- BODY:

Spread the word
[lifted from prolific]
In case you are wondering where Metafilter is:

The network host for Pyra's offices, FirstWorld/Sirius has cancelled the connection. They're no longer in the business of selling T-1 lines. Ev didn't read the e-mail they sent him about it. (Don't these companies send letters?)

Also hosted on that server are: blogspot, newsblogger, megnut, evhead, onfocus.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's slightly unusual search request STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 01:09:54 PM ----- BODY:

Today's slightly unusual search request is 'jobs at fray.org', which I only wish existed. Fray.org being, for those of you who are new to this stuff, Derek Powazek's IRL parallel to fray.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh dear god, I'm Lenny STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 01:15:13 PM ----- BODY:

Oh dear god, I'm Lenny Kravitz. Thanks, so much, Luke.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm posting crap today. I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 01:20:27 PM ----- BODY:

I'm posting crap today. I can feel it rising within me. A great "What the fuck am I doing?" is running through me. Too many things to think about (bloody Barbelith). I'm just going to run with it though. After all, the only other things I have to do today are pay in cheques, clean the bathroom, apply for three jobs, send out CVs to web design companies looking for freelance work, ring up a thousand film distributors, pay two bills, go to the gym, sunbathe for a bit and get in town by eight to get drunk.

Which reminds me. Can anyone figure out what's wrong with my permalinks? I can't be bothered to sort it out for myself.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question of the moment: Do STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 01:27:00 PM ----- BODY:

Question of the moment: Do you want to know which one of these things was a lie? How about these things?

1) I've delivered academic papers at international conferences.
2) I haven't seen my father since I was five.
3) My parents go to Conservative club barbeques.
4) I lived in nine different houses by the age of six.
5) I smoke thirty cigarettes a day.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This has nothing to do STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 01:29:25 PM ----- BODY:

This has nothing to do with me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Webcam: Bored of watching Tom STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 01:48:06 PM ----- BODY:

Webcam: Bored of watching Tom get dressed in the morning? Well for a while only, you can now see the world outside my window. When I'm at home at my desk, this is what I see all day. If you spot anything interesting happening in the windows opposite, let me know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In a way it's weird. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 07:02:44 PM ----- BODY:

In a way it's weird. I seem to have written and talked about the Kaycee issue more than anything else, yet none of this conversation has been for plasticbag.org. For me the issue is about the different expectations of truth on the web as opposed to print. There are fabrications, distortions and misrepresentations presented every day in the newspapers - most of which aren't even consciously perpetrated. But we don't seem to notice them any more. Stick it on the web - in an environment where connection is instantaneous and there's immediate possibilities for interaction - and suddenly everyone wants to know exactly where they stand. Fascinating.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now here's an interesting insight STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/24/2001 07:20:59 PM ----- BODY:

Now here's an interesting insight into the problems of reviewing movies. BBC film got three different reviewers to examine the three Scream movies. And the three present fairly conflicting views of the the 90s leading horror franchise.

Almar Haflidason reviewed Scream, and found it lacklustre, giving it three stars. Now, I would personally disagree with that opinion. But that's not really relevant. What is relevant is that a different reviewer (Neil Smith) then reviews the significantly inferior Scream 2 and similarly gives that movie three stars. There's no explicit comparison between the films in the review which is a shame, because I think it would have demonstrated a radical disjuncture between the two reviewers' opinions of the first film. Now in I come, with my review of Scream 3, which I believe to be inferior to the first movie, but a substantial improvement upon the second. I want to give it three and a half stars, but as I can't, I give it four, declaring it an average film that nonetheless caps the trilogy admirably. If the same reviewer had covered all of the films, then there would be consistency and a way of comparing their quality. But then again, the single reviewer would necessarily have their own opinion which a reading audience would not necessarily have agreed with. Is it better to have three opinions or one set of comparable ones?

Which brings me to another point of interest. Each film carries with it a 'rate this film' box - which is a new addition for the BBC and will provide another way for the reader to determine whether the film is actually any good or not. I'd like everyone on this site to go and vote on each of the three films, and in a couple of days I'll check back and see which of us was closest to the consensus opinion. I suspect it will be Neil.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bombs are flying People STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 12:44:37 AM ----- BODY:

Bombs are flying
People are dying
Children are crying
Politicians are lying too.

Cancer is killing
Texaco's spilling
The whole world's gone to Hell
But how are you?

I'm super
Thanks for asking
All things considered
I couldn't be better I must say

I'm feeling super
No, nothing bugs me
Everything is super when you're gay.
[lyrics]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Eight hours sleep later and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 10:49:39 AM ----- BODY:

Eight hours sleep later and I'm sitting in my duvet looking out of my back window thinking of all the things I should be getting done today, trying to find a mantra to run through my head.

Threw my bad fortune
off the top of
a tall building.
I'd rather done it with you.
[amazon]

I spoke to Ralph last night on AIM and he's having trouble getting everything sorted out before coming to the UK and Europe. I didn't really know what to suggest. I spoke to Evil Michael too. Apparently we are the cognescenti. We get the privilege of being smug because at least we understand what's going on around us, even if we don't like it much. I didn't really know what to say. My cannister of Tsarin gas overfloweth. Thank the lord for prevailing winds. This early morning stream of consciousness missive will be my last word on the subject. My neck hurts again.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Virulent Memes posts a screen STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 10:56:19 AM ----- BODY:

Virulent Memes posts a screen cap of an article on blogging that mentions the Kaycee debacle, cites a post on Metafilter and says nice things about NotSoSoft. This is why we like the media. Because it's good to us.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dear Santa, This year to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 11:01:40 AM ----- BODY:

Dear Santa, This year to celebrate the fifth month after Christmas I would like you to find some way for me to get a small Blogger T-shirt without me paying $25 for shipping across the Atlantic, and the Buffy Season 2 DVD boxset off my wishlist which I just can't afford and it's killing me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Image is everything; life is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 11:42:39 AM ----- BODY:

"Image is everything; life is one long party; and saving the world is just a pain in the arse! Meet ZenithÖ everything a good super-being shouldnít be! Out of print since 1990." [They're reprinting Zenith]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC's Arts channel is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 12:03:53 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC's Arts channel is a surprisingly fine and cleanly put together part of the site. There's a fascinating feature on reality tv, that made me think about Kaycee again, albeit indirectly. And it's got some fascinating digital arts on display as well.

From a design standpoint, I only have one problem: the rollovers on the right hand side of the screen. When I read sites, often my mouse pointer follows my eye around the screen. Or perhaps it's the other way around, with the movements of the pointer guiding my eye. With the rollovers on the right hand side of the screen, I found that whenever I focused my attention on one of them, it changed colour and removed any indication as to what it was linked through to. The semi-radical head-shift that I had to go through to uproot what had become such a second-nature practice for me was fairly severe and I suspect would drive a usability expert close to tears...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: News of the day is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 06:35:28 PM ----- BODY:

News of the day is that I have discovered what Grant Morrison looked like with hair, and he was really quite hot. Extraordinary sudden collisions of hero and fit bloke in head are causing me dubious sideways-on insights into this ridiculous world we live in.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Least favourite question of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2001 11:39:27 PM ----- BODY:

Least favourite question of the moment: So what are you doing at the moment? Second least favouite question of the moment: So, you having a good time recently? Third least favourite question of the moment: Do you want fries with that?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "In Barbelith did Thomas Coates STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/26/2001 03:31:30 AM ----- BODY:

"In Barbelith did Thomas Coates a stately underground decree,
Where Ganesh, Grant, and Cherry ran,
Through topics measureless to man,
for all the web to see." [Mazarine]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm actually slightly horrified by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/26/2001 03:34:31 AM ----- BODY:

I'm actually slightly horrified by the last link I've posted, so don't go there. Whatever you do. I'm English for god's sake. Proper old-fashioned, doesn't-respond-well-to-compliments, get's-all-sheepish, self-effacing, English. Turns a bit purple, assumes the other person is lying and then gets an itchy back and sweat symptoms. Like someone had just revealed his deep childhood incestuous desires or something. Squirm.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evhead is back online finally, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2001 12:45:36 PM ----- BODY:

Evhead is back online finally, along with the rest of the team. It's very satisfying to have Metafilter back with us as well. [The Kaycee thread remains.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "It seems strange to talk STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2001 01:27:57 PM ----- BODY:

"It seems strange to talk about it now -- to take something so private and place it in such a public place -- particularly since keeping it secret was so important when I was younger."

Breathe in, breathe out. Personal writing - écriture verité - is very much in the air at the moment. So I'm issuing a challenge. A couple of years ago there was this site called Ember.org. It contained 'tales of first love'. I don't think you could find a more difficult subject to write about. However, I put together a piece and sent it in. Reading it now, it seems almost immpossibly badly written, but my heart is there (displayed for all to see online) and I suppose that's what counts.

My challenge is this. All of you who maintain personal sites - who write about your lives - put your money where your mouth is. Write your story of first love as honestly and openly as you possibly can. And to 'celebrate' this challenge, I'm putting my piece up permanently on plasticbag.org in a new 'personal' section of the site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The difference between the internet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2001 02:47:49 PM ----- BODY:

The difference between the internet and real life: In real life the more you talk about your problems, the less people want to hear about them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm finally putting my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2001 07:49:54 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm finally putting my money where my mouth is, and I'm about 24 hours away from having a workable structure for a Barbelith Webzine. Which leaves me in the enviable position of just needing some damn content. I'm therefore putting out a Call for Papers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grab yourself a copy of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2001 11:53:50 AM ----- BODY:

Grab yourself a copy of the Guardian today for an interesting piece on the whole Kaycee situation complete with insightful - nay, brilliant - comments from my good self. [guardian.co.uk]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For Sale: Web Guru, 28, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2001 12:10:16 PM ----- BODY:

For Sale: Web Guru, 28, slightly soiled. Ex-Production Editor of TimeOut.com - responsible for various community, editorial, design and coding matters. Now seeks stimulating role with online publisher / content site or in the development of new exciting web enterprises. Will code for food.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yesterday I put out an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2001 12:30:25 PM ----- BODY:

Yesterday I put out an appeal for stories of first love, inspired by ember.org and my decision to add my own experience to plasticbag.org. Here has been the response so far:

"I don't remember much else about that day. I remember later he told me I had beautiful hands. I remember meeting him for lunch, and how he kissed me in front of the building where I worked. When I got embarrassed, he said the people watching could get their own girlfriends." [more]

"We understand each other, we can't fool each other, we still fawn all over each other when we're together. It's a powerful, curious dynamic that's hard to miss." [more]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I went to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2001 05:01:33 PM ----- BODY:

Last night I went to see Tigerland with Nick H and Scott - two gay friends of mine. I've been trying to persuade people to go for a while, but with a certain lack of success. "Not a Vietnam movie," someone said. "I'm just not in the mood," said another. So I considered it a particular triumph to have managed to get two young gay men, who were both hoping to go clubbing, to sit in a cinema and watch a film about war, violence, men and aggression. Then, of course, I saw Colin Farrell and everything became clear.

Tigerland is not a particularly revolutionary film. It's got elements of M*A*S*H in it, but really it's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in Boot Camp. There's nothing wrong with that of course - it's an admirable height to aspire to, and for the most part it doesn't go that far wrong. In fact the only part that didn't sit right with me was the last twenty minutes or so, when they finally reach Tigerland itself.

But there was something about the film that perturbed me from the offset, and fairly swiftly I realised what it was. There was a heavy eroticisation of the male bodies on display. There are shower scenes, shot from below to make the actor look more athletic, taller and imposing. There are a couple of confrontations in underpants. And the sheer amount of arse on display is enough to make even the hardened fan of the male body raise a quizzical eyebrow. Whether or not this is to do with the reknowned homosexuality of director Joel Schumacher or not is beside the point - although let us remember that it was under his auspices that Batman and Robin suddenly developed nipples. The whole thing reminded me just slightly too much of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue...





----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know, days when you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/29/2001 10:12:48 AM ----- BODY:

You know, days when you are not in the paper are way less fun than days when you are. I should point this out to my MP. Then maybe we could all be in the paper every day.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reverse correlation Mentioned in Guardian STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 09:03:06 AM ----- BODY:

Reverse correlation Mentioned in Guardian one day, next day can't think of anything to talk about. That can't be right.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My head is full of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 09:09:10 AM ----- BODY:

My head is full of zine at the moment. It's all I can think about. I've been up until three in the morning three nights in a row now, trying to assemble something that works - trying to make absolutely the best use of my free time in order that I should be able to assemble a functioning, elegant content management system for Barbelith. I'm stunned by how intelligently put together Greymatter is. Every time I think I've hit an omission and will have to fudge something together, I discover a neat way to do it. I can only hope that after all this effort someone decides to write for the damn thing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There is a gay webloggers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 09:23:05 AM ----- BODY:

There is a gay webloggers meet this evening. What I don't understand is why it's not listed on meets.gblogs.org.uk. Mostly likely no one informed the person concerned. I think it's upstairs at Comptons tonight from seven. Why it's at Comptons I don't think I'll ever understand. I hate that place. I've only been there three times, but I've hated it every time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was visited by my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 09:30:08 AM ----- BODY:

I was visited by my mother and brother yesterday. We met at 11 at the British Museum so I could have a look at the new Central Court, then went shopping down Oxford Street, had Italian for lunch and ended up at Selfridges. I got to explain the Acropolis and the Rosetta Stone to my brother. He seemed interested. At least that is how I chose to interpret his sighs and eye-rolling.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Davo has put up the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 01:23:01 PM ----- BODY:

Davo has put up the guide to the Big Gay Blogmeet this evening. And he's chosen a charming shade of pink. How pleasant. This is an open call to any of the people who read this site and who happen to be gay, as well as those people who maintain their own weblogs - come along, meet some new people. And you know, they'll all be gay, so it won't be like when you came last time and the only person you fancied was Matt Interconnected who's been going out with some woman since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Cool?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Election becomes farce becomes comedy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 01:41:27 PM ----- BODY:

Election becomes farce becomes comedy and suddenly it's interesting again. And purely because of Mad, Bad and Dangerous-to-have-your-party-associated-with Thatch. The most amusing part of the whole article is the photography, which is designed to make everyone look as ridiculous as is humanly possible - which would be entertaining if only it were possible to make Hague seem more absurd. For god's sake - get Portillo in. We all know he's evil, but at least he's plausible.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Which of these 300 albums STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/30/2001 03:11:09 PM ----- BODY:

Which of these 300 albums do you think most represent the spirit of Barbelith? Think carefully - this is not about your favourite albums...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In America it's all over. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 02:25:13 AM ----- BODY:

In America it's all over. Done and dusted. But in the UK, even on satellite and cable, Buffy still has one episode to go - the 100th, and the season finale. In "Buffy's leap of faith" (Salon) Joyce Millman described a lot of the events of the episode and looked forward to what might happen next. I didn't want to read it, but I did. I read it fast though, so it didn't really sink in and I'm sure I'll still be surprised. Tell me that's how it works. Lie to me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A sudden moment of collapse STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 02:34:10 AM ----- BODY:

A sudden moment of collapse at 2.30am: "Yes. I am blind. No. I can't see. There must be something horribly wrong with me. Love's young dream. Aren't you sorry for what you've done? Well, you're not the only one."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An evening in links and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 12:09:40 PM ----- BODY:

An evening in links and comments: Photographs. T-shirt dating? 36 + 76 / 2?. I'm not bloody impish. "Last night's PoofBlogMeet began disastrously and then proceeded downhill from there" (link). Abercrombie Kids. "In the escalator engine / machinery room at Knightsbridge underground station?" (Him on Him) And that's my last word on the subject.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a new mantra STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 12:19:54 PM ----- BODY:

I have a new mantra to repeat as I'm walking through Central London. It makes me feel cool. 'I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law. I am Jude Law.'

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the horrors of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 01:12:10 PM ----- BODY:

One of the horrors of building web sites is that you have to look at them all the time, angsting about whether you could have done them better, feeling gradually more frustrated with them day by day, never being happy with them, never thinking they're good enough.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After ten years without them, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 01:14:59 PM ----- BODY:

After ten years without them, I now want a bloody date - and I don't care if I am 'still good or interesting, though old'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ev! If you're out there, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/31/2001 06:15:19 PM ----- BODY:

Ev! If you're out there, check your damn e-mail or phone messages! We need an answer from you fairly pronto!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tasteless site of the day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2001 11:17:39 AM ----- BODY:

Tasteless site of the day comes courtesy of popbitch, nose candy, space invaders and Daniella Westbrook. I present for your amusement: "Gak Attack". Top Tips: Daniella's faces will only throw noses at your breasts when you are directly underneath them. So the trick is fast dashes from the left or right of the screen, firing your lines of cocaine as you go. Enjoy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Drinks with Ev Williams... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2001 11:44:49 AM ----- BODY:

Er. Saw Ev and Cami for a drink last night with Darren, Meg, Matt and Davo. My colleagues were very difficult to organise in such last minute conditions - particularly as they had clearly decided to wind me up over AIM for about forty minutes. I finally met everyone at the Devonshire Arms, where we all ended up accidentally confusing our visitors by talking about British politics, children's television series, Buffy and internal Uk Weblogging Gossip. Ev in particular looked like he was trying to find the best moment to slip some lithium into our drinks. Poor chap. We try to be entertaining - we really do. After a swift trip to Wagamama, we retreated back to the pub. En route I explained British Draconian drinking legislation and was met with astonishment and horror. It actually hadn't occurred to me how strange our arrangment is. A couple of pints later and it was time to go home. Regrets? Not pumping Ev for all the low-down gossip and news from the US scene more effectively. Grrrr.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've spent quite a lot STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2001 01:22:13 PM ----- BODY:

I've spent quite a lot of the morning trying to sort out my entry into press screenings of films. This was a hell of a lot easier when I worked on Time Out's Film Guide. People are naturally suspicious of people who call themselves freelance journalists. Doesn't stop it being a right pain in the arse though.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Random thoughts on modern culture: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2001 01:42:50 PM ----- BODY:

Random thoughts on modern culture:

1) Anyone who wanted to Kill the President of the United States would find it difficult since he so closely resembles the upper echelons of comedy incompentent heroes (see Pink Panther movies), that any assassination attempt would inevitably backfire and kill the agent of said terrorist action. Hilarious anarchy would insue.

2) Cult products in a new world order that had a sense of humour could include the "Waco Bell' chain of subversive fast food restaurants and "Whitewater Rafting Holidays" where you were thrown of the top of the infamous hotel in a dingy suspended from a parachute.

3) Exciting sounding words with new definitions: Lebed - French rebranding of the sleeping experience, Spetznaz - Russian immigrant Hip-Hop Fusion Band with saliva-duct problems, Glock 26 - Eastern European 'reconceived time-keeping device' each with a different number of hours per day.

4) Sexy words out of context: IW, IS, Privacy, Information Terrorism, Terrorism Defensive Information, Furbys, E911, FCIC, HTCIA, IACIS, UT/RUS, JANET, ram, JICC, ReMOB, FRU, Bubba, Freeh, Archives, ISADC, CISSP, Sundevil, jack, DJC, LLNL, bemd, SGC, UNCPCJ, CFC, SABENA, DREO, CDA, SADRS, DRA, SHAPE, cospo.osis.gov.

5) These wonderful efforts have been inspired by lists of alleged Echelon code words: The Register (see also BBC and Guardian). Some wonderfully inconguous entries include: furbys, quiche, Golf, Templar, Mary, chameleon man, William Gates, ladylove, filofax, illuminati, speedbump, Nerd, fangs, Sex, Artichoke and Badger. Badger! Damn it, they're on to me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excellent Two more reviews for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2001 04:40:46 PM ----- BODY:

Excellent Two more reviews for the BBC to be written by Monday. Now all I need is for them to actually pay me for them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stunning insights from Anarcho-Boy: "It STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2001 12:56:18 AM ----- BODY:

Stunning insights from Anarcho-Boy: "It must not be forgotten that every media professional is bound by wages and other rewards and recompenses to a master and sometimes to several, and that everyone of them knows he is dispensable."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm at home, and I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2001 02:14:58 AM ----- BODY:

I'm at home, and I'm working on a site and it's two in the morning and I lean over and put a random CD on, and a song comes on and suddenly I'm fifteen, writing in my journal, learning to play the song in question on the piano, wondering when I'd get to play it to someone and mean it. Thirteen years later and I still feel like I'm waiting for that opportunity - that it will apply to me eventually, at some random point in the future. It's a cheesy song - there's no denying it - but teenage songs stay with you. And I can still play it on the piano - I've tried to keep it in practice, just in case... (Something So Right)

You've got the cool water
When the fever runs high
You've got the look of lovelight in your eyes
And I was in crazy motion
'Til you calmed me down
It took a little time
But you calmed me down

When something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
I'm the first to admit it
And the last one to know
When something goes right
Well it's likely to lose me
It's apt to confuse me
It's such an unusual sight
Oh, I can't, I can't get used to something so right
Something so right

They've got a wall in China
It's a thousand miles long
To keep out the foreigners they made it strong
And I've got a wall around me
That you can't even see
It took a little time
To get next to me
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Newsflash: Lance launches storyFUCK. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2001 07:35:53 PM ----- BODY:

Newsflash: Lance launches storyFUCK.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Simply as a response to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2001 09:55:41 PM ----- BODY:

Simply as a response to those of you who have asked via e-mail, the reason why I look ridiculously stubbly on the cam is that I've decided that I'm not going to shave until I get a job - or at least a job interview. It seems an unnecessary extravagance at the best of times, and frankly I've always wanted to know whether or not my uneven growth could ever amount to anything resembling a full beard. The Quest begins.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "I told you my work STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2001 11:55:52 PM ----- BODY:

"I told you my work is almost completed. Let me tell you now exactly what I'm planning to do. I've spoken of the importance of catastrophe to progress and change. Think of the minor accidents that made you and the others what you are today. Now imagine a mass accident if you will. Imagine generating a global catastrophe curve. What might happen then? How would humanity be forced to change and adapt? With the nanomachines I can do it. I can remake the world and everyone in it. I'm not entirely sure what kind of world will exist when I have finished, but I know it will be better for everyone. If I have any faith, I have faith in the unexpected. The unpredictable. I believe in the catastrophe. I welcome it with open arms."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Not everything in this magical STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2001 11:59:38 PM ----- BODY:

"Not everything in this magical world is quite what it seems."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick question about the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2001 02:00:54 PM ----- BODY:

A quick question about the BBC. If you read this piece of writing in the Weekly World News, would you believe it? "A Derbyshire housewife has sold what she says is a video of a flying saucer to a Hollywood producer. Sharon Rowlands, 44, from the village of Bonsall, in the Peak District, has reportedly been paid ?20,000 for the footage. And officials at NASA are said to have asked to examine the tape, because they believe it shows the same type of craft once spotted by the space agency's own cameras during a space shuttle mission." If not, how come we are expected to believe it when we read it on the BBC?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: ANNOUNCEMENT: Today, at 1pm GMT, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2001 02:37:38 PM ----- BODY:

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Today, at 1pm GMT, the Barbelith Webzine was launched, after many many months of procrastination.

Destroy the evil GAP clones
"Thus began the GAP's supervillianous campaign to end diversity and herd the world's population into marketing categories."
by Ralph McGinnis

Morrison's Debt to Moorcock
Gideon Stargrave, King Mob's possibly imaginary alter ego in The Invisibles, is based firmly upon Michael Moorcock's '60s cult hero, Jerry Cornelius.
by Lee Ravitz

Aum Shinri Kyo
"Clad in vibrant pink robes, Asahara preached about the coming apocalypse and how to survive it."
by Grant Balfour

Chaos Magick in a Nutshell
"Life may be magickal in a nihilistic, incomprehensible way but it is still magickal."

Queer Theory in a nutshell
"Queer theorists agree that sexuality is a historically specific construct and that our society oppresses those outside its categories of sexual normalcy"
by Jackie Susann

We are now looking for more features and opinion pieces - and for anyone who notices something horribly wrong to let me know (mail me)

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A strange place to find STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2001 08:35:32 PM ----- BODY:

A strange place to find a link? Infonie.fr posts about Barbelith (translated wonderfully by babelfish: "The libertarian site of a revolutionary series of Grant Morisson: The Invisible Ones. Or how the data base can become political. Cliquez here for accËder with the site." I particularly like 'cliquez here'. See the link in context (if it hasn't been removed already).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weird evening / Weird party: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2001 01:36:47 AM ----- BODY:

Weird evening / Weird party: After which I felt even more as if everyone in the entire world thinks I'm pointless and cruel. Weirdest part of the evening was weighing myself while trying to avoid conversation by hiding in the loo (where I was rung by someone I'd recently wronged ironically enough) and discovering that I've lost 12 pounds over the last couple of months - purely from not feeling like eating and being stressed. I'm now a trim eleven stone of firm muscle. Go figure. If it wasn't for the ever-growing beard, I'd no doubt be having no end of sexual antics.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A long conversation with a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2001 02:09:58 AM ----- BODY:

A long conversation with a random punter via AIM leads to the statement that I look just like Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews band. I go to the net at once. Do I really look like this man?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: 'The Prisoner' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2001 09:30:33 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: 'The Prisoner' in a nutshell": "Episode after episode showed Number Six fighting every attempt to win his secrets and gaining no ground in the battle with his warders."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As part of an experiment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2001 02:13:46 PM ----- BODY:

As part of an experiment in 'Googling' people - ie. finding out information about individuals by simply putting their name into search engines and intelligently filtering the results, I decided today to take a random name "Leon Fleury" and create a profile of him. Unfortunately, it turns out that there's rather too much (or too disturbing) information about the young man in question on the net, and so I'm going to restrict myself to mentioning that he played one half of a cow in "Jack and the Beanstalk" and that he graduated from the drama department of Exeter University.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There have been a lot STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2001 10:56:44 AM ----- BODY:

There have been a lot of responses to Ralph's article on Barbelith on "Evil Gap Clones". There's an interesting piece on Shrapnel.org which includes some strange lines: "If we worried so much about child labor and animal slaughter, we would be seriously depressed and warped people." and there are no less than three related threads on the Underground: On why shopping in GAP is a good thing for sweatshop workers, On a possible answer to global homogeneity, Gap Clones.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Situationism in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2001 11:02:07 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Situationism in a nutshell: "The SI are known to most people through their supposed links to punk rock. However these links are at best tenuous and at worst spurious."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I really desperately need to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2001 01:08:38 PM ----- BODY:

I really desperately need to get my mitts on Conquest of ... and Escape to ... The Planet of the Apes. Into London with you Tom. You can do it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gay ethical dilemma: You are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2001 02:56:59 PM ----- BODY:

Gay ethical dilemma: You are a Catholic Conservative gay man - a commentator and writer for mainstream America. You have written a book called Virtually Normal, which is a frustratingly anaemic book advocating a very basic view of whatever the equivalent of liberal feminism is for gay people. You argue a lot about how the 'Gay Plague' is essentially over - how HIV and AIDS is not an epidemic. You also write a lot about how gay people should stop indulging in the hedonism of sex, dancing and drugs that the rest of the world believes it to consist of.

Now someone else disagrees with your politics - but more specifically believes that you are damaging the lives of gay man by denying a disease that directly affects them. That person has found out that you advertise for sex on the internet - that you advertise specifically for unprotected group sex. And they decide to tell the world. Which one of you is the bigger hypocrite? [Salon 1 | Salon 2]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another response to Ralph's anti-GAP STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2001 07:51:36 PM ----- BODY:

Another response to Ralph's anti-GAP piece on Barbelith: "Rebel Without A Sweater". This particularly piece is extremely long and involved - and written intelligently (albeit with vitriol). And I quote: "The author of this recent cookie-cutter rant against corporate homogenization would be expecting too much from a population that does not owe his opinions such respect - least of all his opinions on what, exactly, makes one diverse." It's such an empassioned response, in fact, that I've decided to ask the person concerned whether they'd like to rewrite their comments and have them put onto Barbelith.

The site also has a very interesting reciprocal link facility that I think might actually catch on quite well across the net. Keep your eyes peeled - this could be the next BlogVoices.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Headsplurge: Good morning and thank STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 09:50:48 AM ----- BODY:

Headsplurge: Good morning and thank you to Nick Jordan for the new REM album. It's one of those albums that I've wanted since before it came out, but have felt somewhat conflicted about because - you know - it's REM. But I suppose alternative auguries included the coming-out of Big Gay Stipey. Well, whatever, I've got a lot to do today and it's really going to help me concentrate. Thanks again. More news: Yesterday, all day, I spent two pounds. TWO. That's impressive that is. Addenda: Paul from Oh Sky Lab is actually called "Paul Love". What's that about? Postscript: One review to write, one letter to draft and a thousand e-mails to send.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Metafilter is hacked... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 09:52:49 AM ----- BODY:

News of the day: Metafilter hacked - and this put up in its place. Courtesy of Matt.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy birthday, PGP... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 10:05:05 AM ----- BODY:

Happy Birthday to PGP: "Phil Zimmermann became the world's first cyberspace hero 10 years ago this week. In a public move, which transformed the way Internet users viewed privacy and made him the target of a federal criminal probe, Zimmermann released Pretty Good Privacy on June 5, 1991."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Harry Potter and Capitalism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 10:07:28 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: "Harry Potter and Capitalism" - being a series of novels in which Harry and Hogwarts are deeply implicated in a capitalist organization of the world.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today has so far been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 04:15:32 PM ----- BODY:

Today has so far been foul. I don't know what the hell I ate but it certainly hasn't agreed with me. I feel continually betrayed by my biology - it's like a web-server that hasn't been keeping up with its security patches. Something always seems to go wrong with it. Maybe it's more like a PC. I mean, it always gets the job done, and it's always something small, but it's always bloody happening. And as usual I just work through it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: People who diet are profoundly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 08:03:48 PM ----- BODY:

People who diet are profoundly stupid, says BBC. Ok, that's unfair. What the BBC actually says is that Thinking 'drains the brain' - essentially of glucose, and extraordinarily quickly. Traditionally, it has been thought that as long as you have food in your system then the energy supplies to your brain will remain essentially consistent. But this article suggests that when under particular mental stress, individuals can literally use up all the glucose incredibly quickly.

This may explain geek fetish foods high in caffeine and sugar. I know that I can go on mad obsessive intellectual kicks when interested and doped up on regular doses of Coca-Cola - although it hasn't done my teeth much good. And of course the corrollary of all this (and it is specifically stated) is that: "thinking became slower when blood sugar levels were down" - meaning people on diets are just not the sharpest tools in the box.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I bought 24 Years of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2001 11:37:53 PM ----- BODY:

I bought 24 Years of Hunger in 1991 because it was in Q magazine's top 50 albums of the year. I loved it at the time, and unlike a lot of the music that I listened to when I was nineteen, I still listen to it today. In fact I put it on this evening and suddenly remembered how much I liked it. The reviews at Amazon are kind of sweet as well: "Poor Eg, poor Alice - they created a total masterpiece and nobody's ever heard of either them or it. Wonderful for driving in the dead of night." Does anyone else own it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thursday morning anxieties (1) So STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2001 09:32:45 AM ----- BODY:

Thursday morning anxieties (1) So the first e-mail was of course tremendously exciting and yet absurdly ill-timed. My renewal notice for barbelith.com arrived this morning, making it nearly two years since I coughed up $70 in a bedsit in Hampstead. Of course that also means that I have thirty days to find $70. Thursday morning anxieties (2) Speaking of the barbelith.com, my first excess bandwidth e-mail came through today - which I believe is only going to charge me $4 for May. But I would place money on that number rising over the coming months. And the alternative? Upgrade to high volume or quick serve accounts at a price of up to $250 a month.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: "Pearl Harbor's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2001 09:37:09 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: "Pearl Harbor's Fatal Flaw" - A look at the presentation of the human cause in the war movie, following the release of Pearl Harbor. By Tom Armitage.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meet the author Quite how STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2001 10:01:27 AM ----- BODY:

Meet the author Quite how you people get through your sorry lives without my continual presence has always astonished me. Well, if you're finding it difficult, there will be yet another blogmeet this coming Tuesday in Central London. Come along. Buy me drinks. [details]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tiny online weblogging exit poll STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2001 06:14:57 PM ----- BODY:

Tiny online weblogging exit poll of these sites - plasticbag.org, TajMahal, Life as it happens, qwertyuiop, LinkMachineGo, Interconnected, wherever you are, pixeldiva, NickJordan.co.uk, parallax view, extenuating circumstances - reveals the centre-left political dispositions of our fair community: Labour - 7, Lib Dem - 3, SNP - 1, Conservative - 0. If you would like to add your vote (anonymously of course) to this exit poll, drop me a note with your site URL and the way you voted. [mail me]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: News of the day is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2001 06:27:18 PM ----- BODY:

News of the day is that Davo has redesigned his site, bringing it firmly into century 21.16 with a stunning bold, bright design oozing with thrilling CSS glamour. And in the About section of the site, you are treated to a wonderful quote from me describing my daily use of Brainsluice to get those stubborn stains out of my subconscious. I think he's nicked my drained brain link though. Little scamp. I'll give him what-for...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: 'King Mob' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/08/2001 09:48:01 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: 'King Mob' Through History - Painted on the wall of Newgate prison was the proclamation that the inmates had been freed by the authority of "His Majesty, King Mob".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I watched the election results STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/08/2001 10:15:24 AM ----- BODY:

I watched the election results roll in until three in the morning, settled on my sofa with a shot-glass full of whatever was handy. I watched Peter Mandelson's astonishing "Nerves of steel" speech. Watched Tony Blair lay it on as thick as it was possible to lay it on. Watched Sean Woodward look completely absurd when put under pressure. And Michael Portillo refuse to talk about the poll that said that recent ex-Tories didn't want him as leader of the Conservative party. I'd have stayed up all night if I could have done. It was fascinating stuff.

And in the end everything came together as well as anyone could have hoped. William Hague is to step down, which can hopefully only mean that the Conservative party will return from the far excesses of right-wing politics at last. Charles Kennedy has brought the Liberal Democrats at least seven more seats, and Labour are in for an historic second term. Can't do much better than that from my perspective.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's a slightly frustrating day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/08/2001 01:10:25 PM ----- BODY:

It's a slightly frustrating day when you can't get through either to the bank to discuss your financial shortcomings or to the employer who is supposed to be helping you resolve them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's ape-madness at plasticbag.org industries STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/08/2001 03:34:58 PM ----- BODY:

It's ape-madness at plasticbag.org industries today as my latest batch of film reviews for the BBC go live. Wow to time-travelling monkey madness with Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Coo to the violence of When Apes Attack (also known as Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and look forward to next week's review of Battle of the Planet of the Apes. Oh, and I knocked off a review of the original Ocean's Eleven as well. Look out for the remake of this last one - coming to cinemas later in the year. The cast is going to be astonishing - George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Elliot Gould - and it's directed by Oscar winning screen-dream Steven Soderbergh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cal needs to get out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2001 11:35:44 AM ----- BODY:

Cal needs to get out of the house more. His latest project? A choose your own adventure collaborative story website, which has, unfortunately been taken over by lunatics already.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Kevin O'Neill STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2001 12:25:41 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Kevin O'Neill (Part Two) - The artist of Nemesis the Warlock, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Marshall Law talks dirty in the second part of our interview.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Considerable information is now being STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2001 02:16:47 PM ----- BODY:

Considerable information is now being released on the sunked city of Heracleion that was found in the Nile Delta last year. Makes for fascinating reading.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Available finances: £3.62. After consultation STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2001 09:20:03 PM ----- BODY:

Available finances: £3.62. After consultation with my colleagues, it has been decided that this money should be spent as follows: £3 on National Lottery Lucky Dip tickets, 2 packs of mini-Mars bars. This provides us with a budget surplus of 2p. We are considering ways of increasing revenue to the party to fund an uncoming number of 'having fun' initiatives.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Laziness is not an excuse. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2001 09:27:44 PM ----- BODY:

Laziness is not an excuse.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From a year ago this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2001 10:21:51 AM ----- BODY:

From a year ago this month - see pictures of me, Katy and Evil Nick poncing around for the Mirror Project: KatyTom & Evil Nick. I look way fat.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a fascinating site full STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2001 11:53:07 AM ----- BODY:

There's a fascinating site full of Blogger hacks and trouble-shooting advice over at archives.blogspot.com. Regulars may have noticed my own trouble with archives recently. These should be resolved shortly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Division X STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2001 11:54:31 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Division X in a nutshell - Of all the fiction suits in the world, someone had to put together the grittiest London cops and the feyest dandy of the crimefighting world, and call them a team.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The decision to spend all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2001 08:47:45 PM ----- BODY:

The decision to spend all day at home has led to me having had a frustratingly tedious day. I've accomplished little, built nothing, talked to almost no one. I did some washing up. This is my contribution to my planet. This is the radicalism of my my late-twenties.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC presents an article STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2001 08:52:11 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC presents an article on GW Bush's European tour. This is a fascinating article, particularly as it shows up the differences between American and European culture. The section that interests me most (and which I agree with) goes like this: "The fact is that the new president is not of the same political culture as most of his European 'friends'. And I am not talking here about a simple difference between a largely social democrat Europe and a conservative United States. The differences are wider and more unbridgeable. Europeans look at Bush as a proponent of the death penalty (which they regard as uncivilised) and an opponent of abortion (which the Swedish hosts of the summit regard as the right of any woman). They, particularly the Scandinavians and the French, see in Bush the worst kind of America - insular, uncultured and ignorant of the world."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Post-Napster, I find myself increasingly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2001 08:54:01 PM ----- BODY:

Post-Napster, I find myself increasingly obsessed with filepile.org as a source of random mp3's to experience.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's amazing, astonishing even, what STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 12:54:02 PM ----- BODY:

It's amazing, astonishing even, what you can find when you wander through Haddock.org. Started off with a couple of self-searches for plasticbag and barbelith and ended up stumbling on this picture of Matt Interconnected. For ... more ... on Matt, visit his site - Interconnected.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Frustration of the day: Contracts STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 01:22:56 PM ----- BODY:

Frustration of the day: Contracts come and contracts go and you go through periods where you can't get enough work and other periods where you can't fit in the work that people want you to do. At the moment it's just a question of wanting one particular contract above all others - it's just much more interesting work. But I keep getting put off - delayed - and now the person who's responsible for hiring for that position has gone on holiday. For another two weeks.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: American Beauty Soundtrack... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 01:35:29 PM ----- BODY:

Delivered in the post this morning: American Beauty OST. Thanks so much to Ann for this. Here's a sample that I've listened to over and over again with the windows open, looking out over the garden at the back of my flat - Mental Boy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tremendous thanks are in order STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 04:47:21 PM ----- BODY:

Tremendous thanks are in order to Prol for finding me Peter Mandelson's speech online. This is wonderful stuff - although I think it cuts out too soon - because I remember it taking an eternity for him to stop talking about himself and his 'inner steel'. Dear god, man - who let the dogs out?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Literally about a year ago, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 04:59:04 PM ----- BODY:

Literally about a year ago, I ran a headline competition, based upon illustrating some amusing headlines that I'd found somewhere on the net. During the process at some point I think I became suddenly horrified by how ridiculously geeky I had become, and so without even allowing the competition to run its course, I stopped putting up people's entries onto the site. Well time passes, and what has horrified you in the past gradually becomes sickeningly mundane. So here are the final entrants, just under a year late.

"Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge" | outage.com

"NJ Judge Rules On Nude Beach" | outage.com

"Iraqi Head in Search of Arms" | www.baal.org.nz

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Am I the only person STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 11:18:50 PM ----- BODY:

Am I the only person in the world who thinks that Josh from Big Brother has slightly alarming sticky-out teeth? I probably am. What a ridiculous thing to focus on, Tom. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'd rather have Brian. He's just, you know, nice.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 12 places talking about articles STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/11/2001 11:34:58 PM ----- BODY:

12 places talking about articles at barbelith.com: The Null Device, beautiful MIDNIGHT, If Then Else, Virulent Memes, As Above, qwertyuiop, Come Back, shrapnel.org, Devil or an Angel, Minor 9th, OutSider, Blogadoon.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hmmm. I find myself strangely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 12:01:14 AM ----- BODY:

Hmmm. I find myself strangely missing Ralph - who's not posting on the Underground as much as he used to, is hardly posting to his site either. And he's never on AIM. Things seem oddly flat without someone to bounce off.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Calling Mason Lang: Could the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 10:02:14 AM ----- BODY:

Calling Mason Lang: Could the person who sent me three tremendously wonderful presents off my wishlist - all of which arrived this morning - but neglected to leave their name, please mail me so I can thank you in person. It's started off a difficult week on a really cool note.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Recent Additions to the Mirror STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 10:15:38 AM ----- BODY:

Recent Additions to the Mirror Project include: Mo Morgan [momorgan.com], Simon Pearson [simon.fneh.net], Tom Coates [plasticbag.org].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Kevin O'Neill STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 10:34:34 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Kevin O'Neill Part One | Part Two - The artist of Nemesis the Warlock, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Marshall Law talks dirty in the our extended two-part interview.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Davo found an article (to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 02:34:49 PM ----- BODY:

Davo found an article (to prove a point to me) about the relationship between a couple's perceptions of each other's (and their own) physical attractiveness - [article]. When reading it, a few issues occurred to me - whether one can trust people to tell the truth, whether it is plausible to expect people to rate themselves or their partners honestly (particularly when there might be a difference in attractiveness between them) and whether or not the graphs representing changes in perceived attractiveness over time are more representative of generational differences than the development of any individual relationship. Read and ponder.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you get bored and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 02:38:11 PM ----- BODY:

If you get bored and wish to promote your site, then the best thing you can do is get yourself over to Webmonkey and read their article on Search Engine Optimization. It cuts through a lot of the bullshit and snake-oil and gets right down to the heart of the matter - producing relatively effective search engine placement by concentrating on being clear and honest, rather than trying to bluff the spiders. Very much recommended introduction to a difficult subject.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Very funny insight from davezilla STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 03:00:05 PM ----- BODY:

Very funny insight from davezilla - bored of Fucked Company?, then check out FuckedWeblog - described by Haddock.org as the bonfire of the vanity sites....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I hereby declare the excellent STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 03:17:22 PM ----- BODY:

I hereby declare the excellent Radiohead to have been renamed "The Down-Beatles", and Thom Yorke to be "John Lennon on Helium and Methadone". I expect these quotes to adorn Radiohead posters within the next week".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Select quotes from the general STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2001 03:23:19 PM ----- BODY:

Select quotes from the general public on the Labour general election victory:

"Isn't there - can't there be - more to living than hard work and families?" Louise Holden "I never thought I would live long enough to see a Labour government treat asylum seekers so disgracefully, attempt to restrict the right to trial by jury, make policy to appease rightwing newspapers and worship at the altar of private participation in public services. Please change your ways to recapture the excitement and anticipation of 1997. Ms J M Lynn You should be ashamed that old duffers in the House of Lords prevented the repeal of Clause 28. Jilly Woods

For more comments - some insightful, some objectionable, some merely wonderfully rude, check out the full Guardian piece.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got an e-mail from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2001 11:34:01 AM ----- BODY:

I got an e-mail from a friend this morning who said he'd stumbled upon a whole range of galleries of Bristol's gay life. I lived in Bristol for over six years so there are a few (although surprisingly few) familiar faces. The weirdest thing is the 'blast from the past' stuff - when I look at pictures like this one and remember that I had a bit of a thing for the guy on the far right, but that I turned him down after months of chasing because he'd been dancing all night and was too bloody sweaty. I must have been mad.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Execution USA STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2001 11:36:44 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Execution USA - "Think you're safe? Maybe you are. Nixon wanted to have all war protesters classified as traitors. Being a traitor is punishable by death. That was 30 years ago."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the political compass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/13/2001 12:46:43 PM ----- BODY:

Quick thanks to Fran for sending me the URL of politicalcompass.org - a site which aims to estimate your politics not only on a left-right spectrum, but also on a libertarian / authoritarian axis. Based on +/- 10 on both axis, I emerged as Economically -1.22 (centre-left) and Authoritarianly -6.86 (heavy leanings towards libertarian politics). I am therefore relatively close to the politics of Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tremendous thanks to Ashley! If STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2001 12:48:14 PM ----- BODY:

Tremendous thanks to Ashley! If you want to see what I'm on about, check the cam (the yellow/orange bullseye above). I will be wearing it all day as a statement of my allegiance to the highest cause in the land. Independent content-publishing....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cool news of the day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2001 03:26:28 PM ----- BODY:

Cool news of the day - Barbelith has been picked up by Moreover.com via Grouse as a Cool Site.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Commenting on Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2001 04:30:39 PM ----- BODY:

More mentions of Barbelith and comments upon the various articles: Richard's Dish takes on Harry Potter and Capitalism.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We would just like to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2001 01:26:43 AM ----- BODY:

We would just like to give our gracious thanks to Nick Jordan for presenting us with a full gallery of the goings-on on Tuesday night. We know at the time that we may have groaned every time the camera appeared, that we may have shouted 'put it away', but really... How could anyone not love you for putting this picture on the net? I mean, really?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Porno People STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2001 12:04:46 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Porno People - "Real people that I knew went from three dimensions, conversation and thoughts to cartoon sex zombies mouthing, 'I like it in my mouth'."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "I decree today that life STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2001 02:36:23 PM ----- BODY:

"I decree today that life is simply taking and no giving. England is mine and it owes me a living..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fascinating stuff on the Josh STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2001 04:02:39 PM ----- BODY:

Fascinating stuff on the Josh / Brian debacle that's emerging in the Big Brother house. The Guardian talks about Josh's A-list status, JoshandPecs.com goes the full self-promoting mile and Barbelith goes all analytic (I love the Underground). Totally engaging.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "If you're wondering why all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2001 11:02:46 PM ----- BODY:

"If you're wondering why all the love that you long for eludes you and people are rude and cruel to you, I'll tell you why. Today I am remembering the time when they pulled me back, and held me down and looked me in the eye and said you just haven't earned it yet, baby. You must suffer and cry for a longer time. You must stay on your own for slightly longer. And I'm telling you now."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reel giddily before the might STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/14/2001 11:42:27 PM ----- BODY:

Reel giddily before the might of my final review involving people in rubber masks going 'ook': Battle for the Planet of the Apes sucks ass according to highly intelligent and trustworthy sources (ie. me). Experience the full depths of monkey mediocrity today!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Secrets are the battery acid STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 12:07:42 AM ----- BODY:

Secrets are the battery acid of the mind. If you had secrets - if you had three things that you wanted to talk about but couldn't - what would you do? Would your defences collapse under the pressure. If I said 'lunch', 'chris morris', 'flight' would that be enough to prop up the walls for a bit? Three secrets. Three words. Head in cling-film clouding up from within.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Proposal: Combine weblog with diary STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 10:51:46 AM ----- BODY:

Proposal: Combine weblog with diary and journal by making it possible to (1) post in advance, (2) assign times to events, (3) be able to choose whether the post should be public or private, (4) have private posts be viewable through a concealed login so you can check your itinerary on the go, (5) Build in 'talk about this event' functionality.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt Haughey relaunches haughey.com as STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 11:15:35 AM ----- BODY:

Matt Haughey relaunches haughey.com as his professional site. It's a startlingly simple and elegant design, using high quality images. The front page feels like a window. There's something familiar to me about the text formatting on the images. It reminds me of something big in the graphic design world a while back. If anyone can see what I'm talking about, then mail me. It's driving me insane.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More grotesque photos of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 11:54:45 AM ----- BODY:

More grotesque photos of the most recent Blogmeet (12 /6/2001). When will someone realise that the pallid complexion, RSI'd arms and over-caffeinated geek world will never photograph well?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: CCTV in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 12:06:51 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: CCTV in a nutshell - "Britain leads the world in the use of closed circuit television to discourage crime on our streets, and enjoys the highest known proportion of CCTV coverage."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't even know what STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 03:20:21 PM ----- BODY:

I don't even know what to say. The person who got me Buffy on video - wow. This has been the main symbol of my currently tightened circumstances - that the thing that would be my first frivolity sits on a shelf glaring at me. I actually got a bit emotional. I don't know what to say.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The disturbing mind of Cal STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 05:29:35 PM ----- BODY:

The disturbing mind of Cal Henderson has come up with the most evil thing I've seen in years: which uk blogger would you most like to see naked? I have it on good authority that whoever wins this poll will take much of their kit off immediately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok. You're all missing the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/15/2001 07:36:23 PM ----- BODY:

Ok. You're all missing the point. I want you to vote for the other people (ie not me), so I get to see them naked. Jeez, people. Pay attention. So in attempt to guide your voting a little, I've found these old pictures of Matt and Mo lying around the place. Wouldn't you rather see them naked?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evening in a Nutshell: Was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/16/2001 03:17:17 AM ----- BODY:

Evening in a Nutshell: Was late getting everything done, half-tidied bedroom, met Nick H and Davo at The Edge, drank a couple of drinks, behaved like idiots, had fun. Went to GAY, downed a couple of drinks, bumped into ****, bumped into Scott and friend. Danced like a maniac for an hour or so. Saw stunning man, stunning man engaged in ten minutes of full-body flirting, stunning man wandered off with boyfriend, got a bit pissed off, danced like an angry maniac, tried to get Nick to flirt with someone, tried to leave the dance-floor but they kept playing incredibly good crap. Saw stunning man while sitting and having a fag with Davo. Felt really tired. Davo leant me the money for a cab. Got cab. Got home, had sneaky shower. Talked to **** on AIM about his behaviour over the evening - decided he was a bit of an arse. Went to bed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Why do you fight, miniscule STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/16/2001 05:07:47 PM ----- BODY:

"Why do you fight, miniscule blonde one?" Today has been filled with a profound inability to connect to anything or anyone, the frustration of discovering that an application form that was supposed to arrive this morning hasn't done, a couple of hours of Buffy and a fair amount of UBB dismantling. Had a bit of an existential wobble around 4pm. Comforted myself with the thought that I'm under a lot of stress, am very tired and haven't eaten properly for a while. Do not, as yet, feel at equilibrium.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Breaking Infopop's Windows... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/17/2001 07:09:14 PM ----- BODY:

I swear to god, if the Barbelith Underground reboot doesn't work this time, I'm smashing something. I'm going to get a great big fucking rock and throw it through Infopop's windows.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Close Encounters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/17/2001 11:53:23 PM ----- BODY:

I took a break from the nightmare reinstallation from hell in order to catch the last half hour of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's weird - Simon and Mark probably weren't even born when I last saw it.

The weirdest thing about the whole experience was seeing how many images, sounds and effects in Close Encounters have become representative of the whole alien phenomenon. There are traces of Close Encounters in pretty much every film about contact and aliens made since. Particularly weird, though, is the way it's represented. Exactly the same music and imagery is used in Independance Day and the X-files to convey horror and anxiety, and yet in Spielberg's original the whole thing is approached with wonder. There's fear in there as well, of course, but the general spirit is one of awe. It makes all those bizarre claims that Spielberg's movies are designed to educate and reassure the American public about the actual presence of aliens vaguely plausible. Extraordinary.

When I was 18 I visited the place in the desert where they filmed the movie. At the campsite opposite they show the movie every single night - projected on an screen in an outside theatre - with nothing around but desert and tents, and nothing above but clear skies and hundreds of millions of stars.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Marquis De Sade... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/18/2001 12:49:47 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Marquis De Sade: Profile - "Being a comprehensive guide to the life and work of the world's most passionate and depraved libertine and lover."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Drink at Smolensky's? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/18/2001 05:48:26 PM ----- BODY:

Read this and then read this and then come and join us at Smolensky's for a drink this evening from 7pm to 9pm - all welcome, from regular readers to first-timers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mass Slaughter or Suicide? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 12:04:51 AM ----- BODY:

I remember saying to myself in March that if I hadn't found a permanent job I wanted by my birthday, then I would seriously consider either mass slaughter or suicide. I'm no longer comfortable with the stresses and insecurities of freelance work. Well, one month from today, I turn 29, and while the industry does appear to be picking up slightly, I'm increasingly concerned that I'm not going to be in my dream job by that magical date. I've done some stuff during the last couple of months that I've always wanted to do, and I've done some stuff that I never want to do again. And while I've done a lot of good work (I think barbelith is coming together very well) I just don't ever really feel able to relax and I'm always thinking about where the next work is going to come from. Tonight, I really do feel so very very tired.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark the Beatle... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 12:23:04 AM ----- BODY:

Mark's new haircut makes him look like a Beatle. And he's started posing more. Which is, you know, fun.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Tom Coates Naked" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 12:25:11 AM ----- BODY:

OK - confessions time. Who found my site by typing in 'Tom Coates Naked' into Google? I feel violated in a strangely pleasant way. Mummy, does this mean I'm a deviant?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Simon's redesigned... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 12:47:12 AM ----- BODY:

So Simon's redesigned minor 9th but wouldn't beg me to link to him. So I have linked to him anyway, just to prove that having nerve is sometimes worth rewarding. As long as you all remember that you are all my bitches, that is. You've got that, right?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Getting Simon Traffic... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 01:06:11 AM ----- BODY:

Can you guys find some pretext to link to http://simon.fneh.net ASAP? I linked to him and he bet me that he'd get less hits today than yesterday just in order to spite me. So now it's a matter of honour that I find some way of at least doubling his traffic. All ideas gratefully received

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I need donations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 10:53:42 AM ----- BODY:

Because of the sheer weight of running barbelith.com, I have decided to start to take donations from people for its upkeep and maintenance. 300,000 page impressions a month, CGI heavy-bulletin boards and up to 700Mb of bandwidth a day wasn't quite what I had in mind when I started the site, but never mind - everyone seems to enjoy it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Donations for a TiBook? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 01:47:28 PM ----- BODY:

I am contemplating running a parallel campaign to the barbelith one. I'm wondering if I can persuade the world to contribute dollar by dollar towards getting me a G4 Ti Powerbook. I'm dribbling at the propect, but it occurs to me that I could be here waiting for it for quite some time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Echelon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 02:43:04 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Echelon (I): History and Politics - "The first part of our Echelon series takes a look at the background of the top secret surveillance project that has the European Union in uproar."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We live in strange days... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 04:27:45 PM ----- BODY:

We live in strange days. And they get stranger all the time. That feeling you get when you don't know what's happening - that sensation you get when you're uncomfortable in a strange situation and you don't know why - the pricking on your back - the spreading explosions of light behind your eyes as brain-elements fire and misfire - those spasms of discomfort - these things are natural to us now. They're with us all the time, for better or worse.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Unedited list of things in my bookmark file... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2001 05:49:58 PM ----- BODY:

Bookmark dump: Being an unedited list of everything in my bookmark file, providing biographical insight and good linkage. Today: Toolbar Favourites: plasticbag.org, WebMonkey Search Engine Secrets, FilmFourExtra, ThisIsLondon.com Jobs, Chinwag Recruitment Consultancies, SamSpade.org, Scott London, Tom on HotOrNot, AOL.co.uk jobs, Seethru Webzine, Whois capitallive.com, BBC jobs, Barbelith Intranet, Life Pic of the Day, Fan Faves, Lottery Central, UBB support, Q4music.com, Project Gutenberg, Jobserve, TheCounter.com, FilePile.org, Jobs Unlimited.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: The murderers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2001 01:58:58 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: The murderers of Jamie Bulger - "To take a life in cold blood is appalling in and of itself, but to take that of a child seems to go beyond that. And this time the crime goes still deeper. The child was killed by children."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another poignant day for me, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2001 05:53:41 PM ----- BODY:

Another poignant day for me, loser that I am.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The groovy orange pubic orangutan STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2001 06:48:32 PM ----- BODY:

The groovy orange pubic orangutan wasn't andisestablishmentarian except after copulation of course; those who feel his swollen forebrain just here rustling beneath the firetruck in hushed screams of pleasure. Motherfucking is illegal under full latex umbrellas. Unless groovy membranous exterminators spackle cake because they absolutely abnegate Uzbekistan nationalist fetus, killed by underwater terrorists disguised as tentacled monkeys. Mermaids in drag, but never kissed or prostituted. Whoops Johnny! Now consanguinous self spanked Buffy's defiance beyond recognition. So unexpectedly she spell checked violently until coming again and ... womble. Chewbacca snorted viral eruption beverages with naked apologies to make reservedly bitter lemons. Giraffes corpulate noncepatrollishly allegedly. Moreover, seeping sperm oozies surprisingly quickly when whisked vigorously by giant cocksmokers. The most beautifullest hornswaggled uxorious... [more]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I agreed to fill STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2001 02:12:17 PM ----- BODY:

Today I agreed to fill in an empty week of work with secretarial temping. Just to fill up the time, you understand. God, I'm depressed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New useful weblog: status.blogger.com - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2001 02:35:08 PM ----- BODY:

New useful weblog: status.blogger.com - started by Ev to keep everyone calm during down-time. While we are at it, you should probably go vote for Blogger in the personal site category of The Webbies.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Tarot in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2001 02:42:55 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Tarot in a nutshell - "A magician consults the tarot to examine the causal influences surrounding a situation or action which might not otherwise be consciously available to him or her."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know, I think those STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2001 05:17:12 PM ----- BODY:

You know, I think those Blogger chaps are getting a bit big for their boots: click here. This is a joke by the way.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am, at this moment, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2001 10:56:32 AM ----- BODY:

I am, at this moment, trying to build a full weblog design without using any tables or images or spacer gifs of any kind. None. Not a one. I'm finding it challenging, but not impossible. But my one issue is in trying to introduce a bit of glamour into it. Does anyone know any sites that are pure CSS that look really sharp?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm wondering at the moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2001 11:02:54 AM ----- BODY:

I'm wondering at the moment if I could make money by doing really strange things - like collecting envelopes of my hair and auctioning them on Ebay. Or maybe I could do that thing that Japanese girls do - wear a pair of underpants for a day, get them vacuum-sealed and sell them to frustrated old men.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dan has been obsessing about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2001 11:34:26 AM ----- BODY:

Dan has been obsessing about the new movie AI for ages - to the extent of creating a whole community for the film and the online game. I'm finally beginning to realise why - the New York Observer's review is astonishing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: American Beauty score on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2001 11:38:19 AM ----- BODY:

American Beauty score on the stereo, sitting in a duvet looking out of the window at the sun on the trees, tapping on a keyboard. My teeth feel unbrushed and uncomfortable, my mouth is dry, my leg keeps bouncing and I'm reading about humans and psychoactive drugs.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: The Death STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/22/2001 04:48:41 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: The Death of Pop - "More than anything else, this is what's killed pop - a self-consciousness has crept in, a knowingness that's half decadent and half neurotic."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How can I go forward STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 12:59:50 AM ----- BODY:

How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing? How can I go forward when I don't know which way to turn? How can I go forward into something I'm not sure of?

How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving? How can I give love when I just don't know how to give? How can I give love when love is something I ain't never had?

You know life can be long, and you got to be so strong and the world is so tough sometimes i feel i've had enough.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's official. Jeffrey Zeldman officially STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 01:09:15 AM ----- BODY:

It's official. Jeffrey Zeldman officially kicks fucking arse. As another expensive online project folds, so the little man takes a stand:"The Web is not in trouble. Big businesses are, when they think they can own or master it. Bye-bye, Big Content. Adieu, global agencies. Thanks for stopping by. Now step away, and let those who've always understood this medium take it where it needs to go." [the rest of the article] [the godlike Mr Z]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm weirded out. Max is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 01:18:55 AM ----- BODY:

I'm weirded out. Max is sodding off abroad in a week. Which weirds me out. Don't normally talk about him here, but I've decided this is different. Maybe it's not. He might send me an e-mail I suppose - telling me it's not different. Hmmm. In which case I shall take it down. He probably won't send me an e-mail though. Have a nice time, old chap.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: LA Barbelith regulars may remember STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 01:23:31 AM ----- BODY:

LA Barbelith regulars may remember me in this particular outfit when I met them outside a café in February: What the Mirror Project Found.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tremendously unsettling experience: talking about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 12:05:11 PM ----- BODY:

Tremendously unsettling experience: talking about your problems with a friend on AIM and then discovering that you weren't actually talking to said friend at all, but to someone involved in the whole problem, albeit indirectly. Suddenly feel crushingly exposed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm feeling tremendously positive after STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 06:23:16 PM ----- BODY:

I'm feeling tremendously positive after half an hour lying in the sun, three episodes of Angel and lots of bread and houmous. I have a sudden transformative feeling, as if I were shortly to be emerging from madness.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big Blogger: "Nobody has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2001 06:42:05 PM ----- BODY:

Big Blogger: "Nobody has a clue what the National Anthem of Barbados sounds like but Tom says it's a bit like Dancing Queen."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's Top Twelve Bowie tracks: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/24/2001 01:10:54 AM ----- BODY:

Tom's Top Twelve Bowie tracks:

12) Fascination [Young Americans]
"Every time I feel fascination, I just can't stand still, I've got to use her, Every time I think of what you pulled me through, dear, Fascination moves sweeping near me."
11) TVC15 [Station to Station]
"One of these nights I may just jump down that rainbow way. Be with my baby, then We'll spend some time together."
10) Big Brother / Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family [Diamond Dogs]
"We'll build a glass asylum, with just a hint of mayhem." "Someone to claim us, someone to follow, someone to shame us, some brave apollo, someone to fool us, someone like you, we want you Big Brother."
9) Let's Dance (Live) [Bowie at the Beeb]
"If you say run, I'll run with you. If you say hide, we'll hide. Because my love for you would break my heart in two. If you should fall into my arms and tremble like a flower."
8) Golden Years [Station to Station]
"Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel. Come get up my baby. Look at that sky, life's begun. Nights are warm and the days are young."
7) Black Country Rock [The Man Who Sold The World]
"Some say the view is crazy but you may adopt another point of view."
6) Ashes to Ashes [Scary Monsters]
"They got a message from the Action Man,'I'm happy, hope you're happy too I've loved all I've needed to love. Sordid details following.'"
5) The Man Who Sold The World [The Man Who Sold The World]
"We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when. Although I wasn't there, he said I was his friend. Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes. I thought you died alone, a long long time ago."
4) Fashion [Scary Monsters]
"There's a brand new dance but I don't know its name. That people from bad homes do again and again. It's big and it's bland full of tension and fear. They do it over there but we don't do it here."
3) Starman [Ziggy Stardust]
"Look out your window I can see his light. If we can sparkle he may land tonight."
2) Beauty and the Beast [Heroes]
"Something in the night, something in the day. Nothing is wrong but darling, something's in the way."
1) Andy Warhol [Hunky Dory]
"Put a peephole in my brain. Two New Pence to have a go. I'd like to be a gallery. Put you all inside my show."

Honourable mentions to: Sound and Vision [Low], Boys Keep Swinging [Lodger], Heroes [Heroes], It's No Game (Parts One and Two) [Scary Monsters], Queen Bitch [Hunky Dory], Life on Mars [Hunky Dory], Let's Spend The Night Together [Aladdin Sane], Jean Genie [Aladdin Sane], Sorrow [Pin Ups], Lady Stardust [Ziggy Stardust], Fame [Young Americans]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must hurry - otherwise will STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/24/2001 10:24:45 AM ----- BODY:

Must hurry - otherwise will miss press preview of Dr Doolittle 2, which I'm am reviewing for the BBC. I've tried everything I can think of to get someone to come with me including e-mailing everyone I know in the world and posting it on Barbelith. But the thought is too much for all my friends. Hence I will make them suffer if they want to go see Moulin Rouge or Planet of the Apes at a preview with me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: Why do kid's movies STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/24/2001 03:09:32 PM ----- BODY:

Question: Why do kid's movies invariably contain large amounts of scatalogical humour. Surely there must be more funny things you can do with a dog / bear / raccoon than make it crap everywhere?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's another picture of me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2001 12:42:23 AM ----- BODY:

There's another picture of me over at The Mirror Project - this time with most of my clothes off. Not that you can see anything of course.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Echelon (2) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2001 01:37:38 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Echelon (2) Science and Patents - "The technology for these terrifying prospects is not new - the means for interception have stepped hand in hand down the aisle with the means for communication all along."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For those who don't believe STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2001 08:46:32 AM ----- BODY:

For those who don't believe that it's possible, I will on cam in my suit in a few minutes. That should give you all an opportunity for a giggle or two.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the vote is in, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2001 06:41:50 PM ----- BODY:

And the vote is in, and yes - the answer we were all dreading - temping is the dark lord Satan's way of making humanity's life even more of a godawful fucking living hell than we ever thought possible. Swear to god. I'm doing this a week. And then they're sure as fuck had better be some other work for me to do, otherwise I'm going to fucking kill someone.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Temping thrills (1) Arrive at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2001 06:47:24 PM ----- BODY:

Temping thrills (1) Arrive at assignment. Sit down. Start computer. Start Outlook. The first e-mail is being displayed in the preview pane. It reads, "Why doesn't Michael Barrymore use ashtrays? Because he puts his fags out in the pool". 9.35am - the bile is rising.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hey look kids: barbelith is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2001 07:01:34 PM ----- BODY:

Hey look kids: barbelith is an 'online publication' according to plastic.com - the metafilter that it's only just about ok to like, even when they link you. I'm chuffed, nonetheless. Now I need more bloody articles, so stop sitting on your fucking arses and write something.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I hereby declare Ralph to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2001 12:32:27 AM ----- BODY:

I hereby declare Ralph to be stroppy guardian of my soul and well-being and agree in principle to being 'his project'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want to sell myself STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2001 08:28:26 PM ----- BODY:

I want to sell myself to someone, I want to be owned. I want that sense of responsibility to go away. I want to be a thing that someone uses. Property. I don't want to have to think any more. I want Charles in charge of me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Echelon (3) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2001 08:30:38 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Echelon (3) Protecting yourself - "So what is the threat to privacy that Echelon poses, and what can we do about it. In the third part of out Echelon series, Frances Farmer get practical."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Looking for Tom Coates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/27/2001 12:24:39 AM ----- BODY:

I'm not the Tom Coates that likes curling, swimming or hunting (although he's kinda cute), nor am I the Tom Coates that is married to Judith. The most spooky part of this whole process is that I've seen both of these sites before. And it wasn't on a vanity hunt for mentions of myself on the net.

My mother and father split when I was two years old for a variety of reasons. The last time I saw him was when I was four, and I don't really remember much about him, except him buying me a present and giving it to me on the doorstep. I haven't heard from him since that time, although my mother was contacted by him when I was six or seven. But since then, nothing. Not a word. His name was Thomas John Coates, and he'd be in his early sixties now. He worked in computers, and every so often I go online and try to see if I can figure out where he might be, if indeed he's still alive. I don't know that I want to meet him, but I'd be interested in knowing more about him. So if you get bored, look around for other Tom Coateses - and if you find him, let me know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Pleasing Poofs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2001 12:49:11 AM ----- BODY:

Kerry and Sean got their presents. The wonders of Amazon.com vouchers. Twister, Pets.com glove puppets and an Austin Powers Shaguar. What more could two poofs want?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buy Davo presents... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2001 01:16:47 AM ----- BODY:

My life has been saved several times by the kindnesses of young Davo. At this precise moment, however, I am unable to buy him a gift for his birthday (tomorrow). So I'm going to send all of you guys off to make his day special and cool (you can buy him shit too if you like) and then I'll get him something when my finances are perkier.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pixies DVD retrospective? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2001 07:04:30 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Luke for finding me a news story about the soon-to-be-released Pixies DVD retrospective. I'm awed, and a little scared by how excited I am.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Problem of Happiness... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 06/27/2001 07:20:19 PM ----- BODY:

In my mind at the moment is the following quote from Brave New World, combined with my refreshed memory of temp slavery and the realisation that business news is full of conversations about unhappiness at work, frustration and stress and the medical profession is still pumping the population full of anti-depressants.

"The most important Manhattan Projects of the future will be vast government-sponsored inquiries into what the politicians and the participating scientists will call 'the problem of happiness' - in other words, the problem of making people love their servitude. Without economic security, the love of servitude cannot possibly come into existence; for the sake of brevity, I will assume that the all-powerful executive and its managers will succeed in solving the problem of permanent security. But security tends very quickly to be taken for granted. Its achievement is merely a superficial, external revolution. The love of servitude cannot be established except as the result of a deep, personal revolution in human minds and hearts." [Aldous Huxley]

His 'suggestions'?
1) The development of suggestion, through drugs and conditioning.
2) A science of determining which people should be doing what and in what part of the social and economic hierarchy.
3) Something 'less harmful' and 'more pleasure-giving' than gin or heroin.
4) A foolproof system of eugenics, designed to standardize the human product and so to facillitate the task of the managers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not just for Porn! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2001 07:35:30 PM ----- BODY:

Possibly the most useful thing in the world: images.google.com - and not just for porn!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Barbelith on Morrison... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/28/2001 12:29:39 AM ----- BODY:

Yesterday on Barbelith (so sue me, I'm stressed): Grant Morrison (Part One) - "In the first part of this archived interview from 1999, Grant Morrison talks about the Justice League, Animal Man, Alan Moore and 2000AD."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Death to work! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/28/2001 08:59:43 AM ----- BODY:

It's just not fair. I should be able to post to plasticbag.org during the day if I want to. I have to feed my baby. It's so unfair.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On 'Unsightful'... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2001 12:30:30 AM ----- BODY:

I am stunned to report that I've had a word accepted into the pseudodictionary. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you 'unsightful'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the death of a thousand temp jobs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2001 09:01:19 AM ----- BODY:

I find squeezing plasticbag.org completely around work incredibly difficult and frustrating. I hate temp work with such a passion.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Morrison on Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2001 09:12:29 AM ----- BODY:

Yesterday on Barbelith: Grant Morrison (Part Two) - "It's 1999 all over again with the second part of our classic interview - featuring Grant's thoughts on The Invisibles, the future and Dictaphones..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want to sleep for a thousand years... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2001 07:49:06 PM ----- BODY:

I'm excrutiatingly tired. Totally, completely, ridiculously exhausted. Workshy fop, you say? Not at all. But a combination of stress, work-related self-hatred and an inability to sleep brought about by three months of gradually escalating worry has finally taken its toll. I want to sleep for a thousand years. And tomorrow it's Mardi Gras.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Sarcasrony... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2001 11:43:11 PM ----- BODY:

Word of the day: 'sarcasrony' - being a useful word to use when you're too confused by Alanis Morrissette to tell the difference between irony and sarcasm. Particularly should be used in confused American accent to highlight cultural stereotyping: "Jeez - you English people are so Sarcasronic - you know?".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Rap is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/29/2001 11:49:15 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Rap is Gay - "At its most expansive and inclusive, hip-hop, like the Zapatista movement, extends to include anyone who is dispossessed."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mardi Gras STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2001 11:12:06 AM ----- BODY:

Mardi Gras

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most interesting part of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2001 11:24:55 AM ----- BODY:

The most interesting part of this review of A.I. is the last couple of lines: "Movies should be rated by how much they're worth. If you're looking for a science fiction movie that will provoke, madden and irritate you, A.I. is worth $10 -- otherwise keep yourself and any youngsters far away." The idea of rating a film based upon how much you should be prepared to pay to watch it is actually an extremely interesting one. Hence Memento becomes a $15 film while Deep Blue Sea is a highly unsatisfying $0. I'm going to have to think about this more...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Mardi Gras, then. What STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2001 06:33:33 PM ----- BODY:

So Mardi Gras, then. What was all that about? Met up with Davo and Meg and innumerable kiwis before tromping off to meet Sam and Nick H. at King's Cross where we were to meet Rachel. At this point I lost everyone but Sam, Nick and Rachel. From there to Finsbury Park - all sunshine and poofs and innumerable pop acts.

After wandering around for a bit, looking at the astonishing fairground rides and the line-dancing hairy people in leather, we wandered towards the Radio One stage where we stumbled upon a Pimms and Champagne tent, had something to drink (£3.50 for half a pint - jesus) where we bumped into Meg and Nicki. Meg took photos of us. [Tom | Sam, Nick, Rachel, Tom]. Shortly afterwards Meg and Nicki wandered off and we started towards the main stage. On the way, we bumped into Ian from Blogadoon.

The main stage was exhausting but cool. Lots of the trashiest pop acts you can imagine in the same place at the same time. We got there for one vaguely popular act - can't quite remember which, and then watched the Human League (two cool old songs, and several weird new ones), Sugababes (dull), Steps (the crowd went wild for some reason, and I thought of Chris doing the dance all the way through) and the very entertaining Hear,Say - who got cheers beyond all reasonable measure every time Noel came to the front of the stage. He couldn't stop laughing about this, which was quite sweet. And be warned - Steps are doing a cover of 'Chain Reaction' sometime this autumn.

There were a couple of tremendously amusing moments along the way. Supergirly did a tremendous version of a couple of Britney Spears classics smooshed together. They both sang at the same time the choruses and they worked together perfectly. They also slagged off 5ive for their non-attendance, which was entertaining. And speakers like Ken Livingstone and Peter Tatchell were a bit of a laugh as well. Possibly the funniest part of the afternoon though was the presence of Penny from Big Brother and a video message from Josh from same TV program, clearly filmed before he went in. As he talked to the crowds, clearly full of himself and his pumped-up body a low chant from the crowd gradually exploded into a full roar of "Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian". The gay community have spoken and they have picked their favourite.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I managed to lose Sam and Nick who both had descended into mid-to-late-Pride ennui and a feeling of disconnection from the sheer wealth of poofdom. After several attempts to reinspire them I kind of gave up. Although I did force them to go and see EMF over at the Popstarz tent. On the way we bumped into John W wearing a plastic fireman's outfit. One 'Unbelievable' later, Nick's much perkier and Sam's run into an ex of his and wandered off somewhere.

At which point, my mobile phone goes insane and we suddenly start receiving all the text messages that we'd waited for all day from people trying to get in touch. Of course, several hours too late. Davo comes and meets us on the park outside the Trade tent and then John joins us. After half and hour of mooching and watching the sunset (around 9.00 - 9.30) and me giving my number to the friend of a guy wearing a Number 2 t-shirt, we proceeded to wander towards the exit - finding on the way a kind of little Latin / Easy Listening disco which we mucked around in for a while.

Once that had shut down it was just a bag of candy floss, a few cigarettes, a can of beer and an endless hike to the tube station before we were in Soho, guzzling trashy bottled drinks we'd smuggled out of bars on Old Compton Street. And then I flaked and had to go home. Quite a day. Exhausting.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Journalism: the [mistaken] belief that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2001 01:31:00 AM ----- BODY:

Journalism: the [mistaken] belief that what you think is true becomes true once you write it down.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Have you written about Mardi STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2001 01:36:27 AM ----- BODY:

Have you written about Mardi Gras? If so, let me know and I'll link to it: 8letters.co.uk | SwishCottage | Blogadoon.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the orifice of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2001 01:03:42 PM ----- BODY:

From the orifice of the Brainsluice straight into your cortex: Salon takes on Gay "Trek". A stunningly interesting article, there are only a couple of things that I would take issue with. The first is that Jadzia Dax and Lenara Khan's relationship is indicative of the ability to respect a relationship and a love that is irrelevant of body and gender - and I think that's a tremendous step. The fact of their heterosexuality is irrelevant - they are post-gay in a weird way - in that they truly are expressing a love that is completely separate from concerns with male and female.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This week is overwhelmingly full STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2001 01:05:49 PM ----- BODY:

This week is overwhelmingly full to bursting. Hopefully, I can manage to keep everything on track. I have two meetings, an interview, a trip to Norfolk, a lecture to attend, an evening or lunch to organise, a lesson to give and several dozen jobs to apply for. And I have to talk to my temp agency and see if they've got any work for Wednesday just in case.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guess who's coming to London... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2001 06:39:43 PM ----- BODY:

Guess who's coming to London: Travelling Carnival of Fine Hypertext Products.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dot Com Blues I'd decided STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2001 08:45:30 PM ----- BODY:

Dot Com Blues

I'd decided that I wasn't happy in my job for a variety of reasons and handed in two months notice from timeout.com - so that they could find someone to replace me and so that I could find another job that I would enjoy. Unfortunately I did it at just the wrong time - pretty much exactly the wrong time, actually.

Between January and March I had a variety of interviews for well-paid and interesting jobs around the UK new media scene - among other positions I went for a role at AOL.co.uk as a broadband producer that I was really excited about and was talking to Sapient about going to work with them as a Content Strategist. Then almost overnight everything stopped dead. With one company I had a full day of interviews, and several subsequent meetings and was about to go in to discuss salary and benefits packages when they suddenly rang up out of the blue and said that they'd been forced to stop recruiting that morning. A couple of other companies that I was talking to suddenly started doing the same thing. Interviews were cancelled and the market just died overnight.

Since leaving Time Out in the beginning of March I've had pretty variable luck - I've managed to do more freelance writing, which I've always wanted to do (including writing film reviews for bbc.co.uk), and have paid the bills with work at at a couple of web design companies and start-ups doing HTML and design work. It's been really interesting, and I've had a couple of interesting challenges - designing HTML templates for e-mail clients like Outlook and web-mail was a completely new experience for me, even after seven years of knocking HTML together. But finding the right ways to create, organise and present content online is still where my heart lies and anything else still feels a bit like killing time. And that's when the work is coming in - which it doesn't always do.

The UK hasn't been hit as hard as the US, by any means, so there's still, thank god, only a limited will-code-for-food ethos around. But it's hard on everyone - particularly those of us who mistimed our next career step.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm slightly drunk and confused STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2001 02:09:54 AM ----- BODY:

I'm slightly drunk and confused after a quarter bottle of vodka and Priscilla on TV. The film always seems very honest to me in a strange way, considering it's made by hundreds of people with video cameras and technical equipment and focused on actors pretending to be people, so that we can relate to them and experience our feelings through it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly the least effective attempt STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2001 10:10:55 AM ----- BODY:

Possibly the least effective attempt at sleep I've ever undertaken in my life. I couldn't have moved more if I was running a marathon. I feel more exhausted this morning than I did last night. I'm useless with really muggy sticky weather. My body isn't designed for it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith.com needs your help. The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2001 02:22:06 PM ----- BODY:

Barbelith.com needs your help. The heavy schedule of new articles that I've been trying to maintain has taken its toll - and more to the point, we've run out of articles to run. Do you have something that you've always wanted to put out on the web - something insightful and brilliant. Or is there something you've always wanted to write. If so, then join in the discussion on The Underground and then submit your piece to barbelith.com submissions.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm reeling a little at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 12:02:04 AM ----- BODY:

I'm reeling a little at the moment having glanced at Friends Reunited, a site that is designed to get you in touch with other people who went to school with you. I'm particularly reeling because there actually was someone on it who I wouldn't mind getting in touch with. Stunningly weird and improbable. Unfortunately I have no intention of paying the £5 necessary to actually go through with it and contacting them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting webzine-style site that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 12:45:03 AM ----- BODY:

An interesting webzine-style site that I have recently discovered: Scissorfish. I figure it's the suburban equivalent of razorfish. Entertaining though.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In weird flash back circumstances, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 01:07:06 AM ----- BODY:

In weird flash back circumstances, I'm currently enjoying an album that I first listened to in 1988 and which became an absolute staple of my life back then. Listening to it again, I still like it, and I don't care what anyone says - I think it's a fucking good album. I present for your delectation: Bangles: Everything. I'm particularly obsessed by two songs at the moment - the sublime Glitter Years and the transformatively self-destructive Crash and Burn. Sing along with me kids: "Going nowhere, And I don't care, Can't wait til I get there, Sometimes I wish I could crash and burn. Fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, Gotta be a place where they can't find me, Watching all those bridges burn behind me. On my Philco, I hear an echo, there was a wrecko, yesterday. And by tomorrow, they'll clean the char-o, and wash the tar and the trouble away." You only have to listen to the latest Hole album to see the influence they had on chick-based guitar bands.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Davo gives his perspective on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 01:30:57 AM ----- BODY:

Davo gives his perspective on the whole Mardi Gras debacle: "To the grassy knoll between the Trade tent and Popstarz stage to meet Tom, Nick and John and catch the remnants of EMF's set (more nostaglic flashbacks ... I still knew all the words, ten years on), then for a quick musak boogie on the way out, a mad dash for cigarettes and alcohol (without the need for ridiculous drinks tickets), then to Soho..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Do You Feel Loved.com, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 01:34:19 AM ----- BODY:

Via Do You Feel Loved.com, Tori Amos to do a full album of covers highlighting the difference between songs sung about women sung by women or men. There's a notable list of people she's covering, from The Beatles and the Velvet Underground, through to Eminem and Depeche Mode. I haven't been interested in Amos for nearly ten years now, but this seems intriguing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While waiting to see Shrek STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 01:52:23 AM ----- BODY:

While waiting to see Shrek yesterday evening (not necessarily worth the effort - most notable for the ridiculously inappropriate soundtrack [more details on said fucked-up soundtrack]) I listened to a bit of Tricky's new album Blowback in HMV. I used to adore Tricky, but he got more and more obscure as time passed. But this sounds amazing. Only heard a couple of songs, but it's enough to add Blowback to my wishlist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Extremely useful for those of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 11:16:45 AM ----- BODY:

Extremely useful for those of you that came in unbelievably late is this is aaronland's weblog theory and practice. Although it would be even cooler if the DHTML worked on a Mac. Sigh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do the dumb things I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 11:25:50 AM ----- BODY:

Do the dumb things I gotta do: Pay in cheque, pay the council tax, send off completed form, reduce Inbox down from 300 unread e-mails to less than fifty, tidy room, produce site mock-ups for potential job. Sigh

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How moody do I feel STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 11:31:11 AM ----- BODY:

How moody do I feel today? Moody enough to go and play with pinstruck digital voodoo again? Hmmmm. Let's see. Yes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In a fit of insanity, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 11:35:33 AM ----- BODY:

In a fit of insanity, Brain and Josh have shaved all their hair off. Oh the antics of the Big Brother house. I may expire from excitement. My favourite voiceover yesterday? "Dean and Brain are eating quiche. Elizabeth is going to the loo."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Slightly depressing news from Apple STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 01:02:47 PM ----- BODY:

Slightly depressing news from Apple - although it probably wasn't the most successful concept ever, I am disappointed that the Cube, the world's 'coolest computer' has been put on ice.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Goddammit! What does a premiere STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 03:25:54 PM ----- BODY:

Goddammit! What does a premiere media queen have to do to get press around here?! I mean, JESUS, the ADVOCATE did a feature on gay weblogs, and did I get a mention. Nooooooooo. Neither did Web Queeries! What's that about. Don't they know I'm the winner of Best European Poof? I'm gonna have to call my agent. I'm a star goddammit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let's see. Tom strop of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2001 03:39:02 PM ----- BODY:

Let's see. Tom strop of the day two. After IamCal pointed it out it suddenly occurred to me that there is something slightly strange about a panel on online journalism and weblogging in the UK not actually having any uk webloggers on it. That's a bit dodgy, surely? And I'm not going to mention that someone - you know - who's actually trained as a journalist might actually be quite good at talking about it too. Oh no. That would just sound churlish. Grrrrr.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Very nice, if strange, evening STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2001 01:19:29 AM ----- BODY:

Very nice, if strange, evening with Jason and friends taught me two things tonight - 1) there is such a thing as talking too much and 2) you will panic if you nearly miss deadlines for online job applications.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I may just have had STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2001 05:41:10 PM ----- BODY:

I may just have had the worst interview of my life over at the BBC. First came a whole range of tests - the vast majority of which seemed unbelievably simple. Then there was the interview proper where I somehow managed to talk absolute and total bollocks for thirty minutes, with the people concerned noting down each and every stupid thing I said. I find myself mildly depressed by my clumsiness.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Preview pages from a Grant STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2001 05:54:48 PM ----- BODY:

Preview pages from a Grant Morrison New X-men Annual? Grant Morrison is doing annuals? That's something I wasn't expecting... [via the linkmachine]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have just read with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2001 06:02:58 PM ----- BODY:

I have just read with great interest Matt's take on Jason's thoughts on 'weblog as slice'. There are many things I feel I could contribute to the discussion, but perhaps the most important is that however 'poncy' the winebar was, it was young Matthew's choice. Slap!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It is, as they say, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2001 06:09:18 PM ----- BODY:

It is, as they say, enough to make you spit: BBC News.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Disappointed much? "Channel 4 has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2001 12:24:37 AM ----- BODY:

Disappointed much? "Channel 4 has pulled a one-off special of its highly controversial Brass Eye series which is believed to have centred on the media's treatment of paedophiles."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night's tremendous thunderstorm really STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2001 10:24:13 AM ----- BODY:

Last night's tremendous thunderstorm really feels like it has cleaned out the air. Everything this morning is much fresher and more pleasant. I would, however, like some sun back if at all possible. This doesn't stop me, however, feeling exhausted by the amount of stuff that I have had to get through this week. I've had interviews, meetings, mock-ups to build, reviews to write, and I still have two substantial things that must be done before I go up to Norfolk this afternoon to help my family buy my brother a computer.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The website for people who STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2001 10:47:48 AM ----- BODY:

The website for people who went to my school is an absolute piece of crap. More importantly it just doesn't work on a Mac... I give you: Old Norvicensians' Club.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not linking to this. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2001 10:03:02 PM ----- BODY:

I'm not linking to this. You didn't see me link to it. Ok? It's like a secret or something. Don't link to it either: Michael.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: Is this man (Pete) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2001 10:24:45 PM ----- BODY:

Question: Is this man (Pete) absolutely stunning? No, I am afraid you answered incorrectly. The correct answer was yes. Because you answered incorrectly, you will now be fed to Carl, The Big Mean Bunny. Which reminds me. If you find a pic of Carl online, please e-mail it to me. I need one.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark's new hobby - signing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2001 10:36:25 PM ----- BODY:

Mark's new hobby - signing onto AIM, saying hi and then ignoring everyone for hours while he stares at the ceiling. Plus he smells kind of rank.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I really love this kind STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 10:13:26 AM ----- BODY:

I really love this kind of stuff. Stuff like Yahoo!'s Buzz section, stuff that let's you know what is going on around the internet - what people are interested in, what people are searching for. Today's exciting addition to the team is the Google Press Center's Zeitgeist page. If you know of any more sites like this, please let me know. I find them fascinating.

Most interesting news of the day on said site? Abercrombie and Fitch is one of the most rapidly declining search terms of recent weeks. I wonder why... And more people search Google in German than any other language except English. That's more than Spanish, French, Chinese or Japanese...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've stumbled upon some fascinating STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 10:38:34 AM ----- BODY:

I've stumbled upon some fascinating stuff about the original barbelites via a mention in Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum: "Barbelite texts like "On the Origin of the World" and "Hypostasis of the Archons" presented the "Tree of Knowledge" in a positive light as a mechanism for human liberation via free inquiry, curiousity and questioning." [more].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So, big news of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 11:00:50 AM ----- BODY:

So, big news of the last week for me was that Jason Kottke loves Radiohead but doesn't like Buffy. I'm still reeling from that little piece of information. That's why he won't be at all interested in comprehensive and entirely plausible spoilers about the next season of Buffy - omigod omigod omigod omigod.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah well - didn't get STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 01:25:10 PM ----- BODY:

Ah well - didn't get the position that I interviewed for last week. Not enough 'project management and British history' experience. The latter I agree with, frankly. The former I'm less sure about.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So - anyone interested in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 01:30:55 PM ----- BODY:

So - anyone interested in buying me one of these? I'm fancying a small or medium size of 'guru' or 'netslave'. Small probably best frankly...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Less true now than it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 03:09:19 PM ----- BODY:

Less true now than it was when I made this logo:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have the best AIM STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 03:14:57 PM ----- BODY:

I have the best AIM buddy icon in the world at the moment. I nicked it off Mark. You'll have to IM me in order to see it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Atlantean Disneytyping STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 04:04:53 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Atlantean Disneytyping - "How Disneytyping's representations of gender, race, and class narrow the range of possible self-expression for everyone."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No fair. I want to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 04:12:21 PM ----- BODY:

No fair. I want to go to this: Webzine ª Independent Online Publishing. My life sucks ass.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must read article of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 04:32:56 PM ----- BODY:

Must read article of the day has Jon Ronson following around the housemates in last year's Big Brother. Best line: "You've got to remember," he replied, "that all but three of the housemates are as thick as pig-shit."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Guardian's fake branding exercise STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 05:23:26 PM ----- BODY:

The Guardian's fake branding exercise was exposed in today's paper, but if you are interested in seeing the site in action, it's still up at withjoy.co.uk.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just in case anyone wants STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2001 05:58:13 PM ----- BODY:

Just in case anyone wants it, I knocked up a template for the Blogger Template Contest, but then completely forgot to submit it. It's pure CSS, it's not particularly glamourous, but it has a couple of neat features including the ability to have a completely differently formatted first post for a blog. It's also really easily extendable and adaptable - I thought it might look nice with blue headers on the left for things like links and 'about me' material. If you want to see it in action, it's here at present: filmsoho.com and if you want the blogger template, that's here. Just chuck in a mention of me when you use it. Have fun

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am very amused by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 12:37:21 AM ----- BODY:

I am very amused by this: PuppetMaster - Bios.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ralph's supposed to be turning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 12:14:23 PM ----- BODY:

Ralph's supposed to be turning up in London soon. In four days actually. Haven't heard anything from him, though. Don't know what his plans are. Ralph is a funny puppy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My bank has just rejected STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 02:43:33 PM ----- BODY:

My bank has just rejected the input of funds from Paypal to my account and I don't know why. Incredibly frustrating...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone here use PayPal STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 04:42:41 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone here use PayPal and have they successfully withdrawn money to a bank account. Ideally Barclays? If you have could you e-mail me so I can compare settings. They keep charging me $20 every time they fuck up.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Nanotechnology in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 05:29:28 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Nanotechnology in a Nutshell - "Nanotechnology - the transformative technology of creating man-made arrangements of atoms, also known as molecular manufacturing. "

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "It should have been called STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 09:07:58 PM ----- BODY:

"It should have been called 'It's a sucky life, and just when you don't think it can suck any more it does."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because the secret horrific truth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/10/2001 11:01:14 PM ----- BODY:

Because the secret horrific truth of my life is that I'd rather spend two or three hours in my room talking to people on the internet, where it is safe and mediated and distant from myself, than I would actually go out and meet them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I honestly don't know what STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 01:18:08 AM ----- BODY:

I honestly don't know what is more alarming - that jason enjoyed using the Underground or that the MUNI is worse...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Following this, do you reckon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 01:55:43 AM ----- BODY:

Following this, do you reckon we could have more pictures of the man concerned displayed here?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Huge obituary and picture in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 05:03:36 PM ----- BODY:

Huge obituary and picture in the Guardian today for Thomas Wiedemann, a lecturer of mine at Bristol University. He taught Ancient History from a rather traditional bent, and I'm not sure I learnt a lot from him, but he was a good and decent man who knew everything there was to know. He once said that every civilised person should have read Thucydides and Herdotus in their totality - and while I remain barbaric even approaching my 29th birthday - I am beginning to believe that he may have been correct. From the obituary: "Wiedemann spent 19 years, between 1976-95, in the department of classics at Bristol University, a lively and controversial centre, where he was instrumental in building up a strong ancient history component; in particular, a separate undergraduate degree course in ancient history first taught in the current academic year." Those he taught will miss him.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a gloriously pointless STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 05:30:59 PM ----- BODY:

I have a gloriously pointless little idea to try out. I'm so excited. More news as I have it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two texts of the Barbelites: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 05:40:23 PM ----- BODY:

Two texts of the Barbelites: Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Origin of the World as found via the Underground.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few changes have been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 09:15:37 PM ----- BODY:

A few changes have been made around plasticbag.org - although they probably won't be replicated throughout the site for a while to come (combination of laziness and Blogger archiving differences). Enjoy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: I was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2001 09:41:36 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: I was a teenage lesbian - "In an interview from 1998, Tom Coates interviews Amy, a young girl whose life was nearly destroyed after being bullied at school for being gay."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: July 12th. This means that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/12/2001 12:04:07 PM ----- BODY:

July 12th. This means that it is exactly a week until my 29th birthday. One week to the day. Oh my god. My flatmates have gone on holiday today as well, so the flat is mine and mine alone for the next two weeks, which is both wonderfully relaxing and slightly eerie. I should get on with organising my birthday party, really. Haven't even invited anyone yet.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone know where interconnected STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/12/2001 04:19:10 PM ----- BODY:

Does anyone know where interconnected has gone?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Prol comes this incredibly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/12/2001 04:21:41 PM ----- BODY:

Via Prol comes this incredibly useful little site on Common Errors in English. Of course the first thing to do is run it through an online spell-checker and look through it desperately to try and find grammatical errors and clumsy linguistic usage. Well it would be if I had the time. I'll leave that up to you guys.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm trying to work out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/12/2001 10:42:44 PM ----- BODY:

I'm trying to work out whether I want to go out on the piss tomorrow night or whether it would be better to have all my gay friends around for a piss up at my place instead. I could get some snacks in and some booze and we could listen to shite music and chat. Might be cool. Less about staring at people in bars and more about hanging out. Don't hang out enough...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does Red Bull kill? And STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 11:08:17 AM ----- BODY:

Does Red Bull kill? And more to the point, exactly what is sudden adult death syndrome except for a name for something that they have no idea what it is but results in sudden death?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't think you can STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 11:19:54 AM ----- BODY:

I don't think you can fail to be impressed by a news service that writes important stories like this: "While NASA variously refers to the air lock as a "door" or "porch" for the station, it really defies such homey analogies, since earthbound people do not have to worry about stepping outside into a near vacuum that can boil their blood and burst their internal organs."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As I was walking home STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 11:42:39 AM ----- BODY:

As I was walking home about a year ago, a little girl was riding her bike in the middle of the street. She still had the training wheels on as she wobbled and struggled to peddle. It reminded me of when I was little and how badly I wanted a bicycle but couldn't get one. My parents wouldn't let me have a bike until I was 12; my mom was too afraid I'd hurt myself. I'd pass the bike section in the store and just look, having given up asking my parents about it long ago. I eventually did get one after much pleading and begging. Amazingly, getting my driver's license at 16 and the subsequent borrowing of the family car passed without incident.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Haddock: The official drink STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 12:10:40 PM ----- BODY:

Via Haddock: The official drink of the Barbelith Underground.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Very brief aside: the prodigal STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 12:12:13 PM ----- BODY:

Very brief aside: the prodigal daughter returns, and yet again she has too much bloody energy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today has been a tremendously STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 04:22:35 PM ----- BODY:

Today has been a tremendously pleasant day. I've written two reviews for the BBC's Film Site representing the very best and worst of genre moviews: The Empire Strikes Back and The Man With The Golden Gun. There's something wonderful about "Empire" which never ceases to amaze me - it's the way that freed from having to have a happy ending, every single character comes into focus and every relationship is heightened. And it's all played out amid such an amazing spectacle. Truly an incredible film.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just because I designed it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2001 10:13:46 PM ----- BODY:

Just because I designed it and because I think it's nice - I hereby present the invitation to my 29th birthday party - to be held one week from tonight.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The immortal Grant Morrison, the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2001 01:41:46 PM ----- BODY:

The immortal Grant Morrison, the creator of the memes that have hollowed out my head and set up a house party there, is interviewed about New X meN over at Marvel.com. I've not been particularly impressed by the series yet, but I always trust Grant to impress in the long-run - he's never let me down yet.

Particularly important parts of the article for me were 1) realising finally that the new White Queen's outfit is a full body suit with an X cut out of it (can't believe I hadn't noticed that) and 2) Grant saying: "Part of the new setup involves Professor X drafting a Mutant Rights Charter and sees the X-Men realigned not as super heroes, but as a kind of mutant equivalent to the Red Cross or UN Peacekeeping Force. They're the people trained to deal with mutant-rights violations. They are educators, activists and warriors. They don't need to be super heroes anymore, and I think the stories will be able to expand in some new directions because of that shift in perspective." Suddenly, the X-men get interesting again.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Conundrum of the moment is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2001 01:57:20 PM ----- BODY:

Conundrum of the moment is what to get with the birthday money that I'll hopefully get from my family. Should I put it towards an external hard disc, the gorgeous (but let's face it, completely out-priced) Canon Digital IXUS or Harman Kardon Mac Soundsticks? I'm swaying towards the soundsticks at the moment, but mainly because I've nearly got my TV card working finally, and think it would be nice to have some decent speakers...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a strange couple of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/15/2001 10:00:36 PM ----- BODY:

What a strange couple of days. How did I end up four days before my twenty-ninth birthday sitting in my bedroom, while in the kitchen I'm making chicken stock? Thirty-six hours in a nutshell...

Saturday

12 midday: Receive, through the post, £40 worth of Sainsbury's vouchers from my mother and grandmother.

12:30pm I receive a phone call from Sam asking if I'm having people around in the evening for a meal and drinks. I had completely forgotten that I had even suggested such a gathering. But I say yes, because I figure I organise it swiftly and that it might be entertaining. The party was designed to be for my gay friends - I thought it a welcome change. Rather than sitting in bars sweeping hair/face/chest/arse/shoes of passing men while talking across overloud Kylie and awaiting boredom, success or frustration, I had decided very much the same effect could be had at home only with my own choice of music and possibly some food. An excellent plan indeed.

5pm I've arranged to meet Davo at Sainsbury's at five to start the shopping experience. I am predicted a five-to-eight person evening and we decide to shop appropriately. Except that I haven't eaten all day, and become suddenly overwhelmed and excited. But six-thirty, we have £83 of food and drink. Davo has contributed £30 towards the cause, the guilt for which will slowly overwhelm me over the next 28 hours. We leave the supermarket and decide to get a cab home. I have become obsessed by scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam, which I sneaked into the shopping. I decide that alongside a cup of tea, Davo and I can enjoy this experience before we get down to organising the rest of the food.

7pm Davo and I have finished four scones between us and find ourselves inexplicably full. The thought of food over the rest of the evening becomes almost unbearable. Which is a shame, since there is still £81 of it left. I pull a hot chicken carcass from a paper bag and place it decoratively on a plate. We watch the final of Stars in their Eyes with a certain amount of derision. I don't think we ever found out who won it.

8pm My friends who are supposed to arrive at eight start ringing and continue to ring for the next two hours while they get distracted, get later, more disorganised and lost. Nick H arrives first with a friend in tow. Introduced to James, he seems initially slightly nervous and bored, then after it is determined that he grew up in a part of Norfolk that I know very well, conversation becomes easier. And then it becomes radically more embarrassing, as our lives are revealed to have very nearly intersected on a number of occasions. I decide Pimms and smoking heavily is the future of polite conversation. James moves twice all evening. At most. He seems to have fun, and is thoroughly approved of by all parties, who gradually start to creep in.

10pm Everyone is now present. Sam has joined us and has been regailing us with stories about dreams with stair features and Madonna and cliffs and beaches. He is also obsessed that there exists a supermarket with a secret floor where they store Flour that you can only reach via a lift. John W has also arrived - kind of like in the bible with those wise people, only with only one of them, less Myrrh and a gallon of vodka. The baby Jesus himself couldn't have been more delighted. There is general agreement that of all present, only Nick is hungry. When Sam declares that he thought the evening was supposed to be an orgy, James starts slightly and looks a bit awkward. Everyone notices but no one says anything. It was funny.

Sunday

Midnight Many cigarettes have been smoked, much alcohol has been drunk, and many ludicrous stories have been told. Some amused, some impressed, some fell flat on their faces. Various people are drunk or act strangely or approach mini entertaining hysterias - like whirlpools in cups of tea they pass quickly.

2.30 am Nick and James have finally found a cab, after many hours of battling with incoherent taxi companies. Sam has declared himself replete and decides to head home. John and Davo decide to crash on the floor and sofa. We assemble large piles of cushions and duvets.

4.30am In a drunken moment of genious I had decided to counteract all thoughts of sleep with a couple of episodes from the Buffy and Angel stable. John laughs in the wrong places, but enjoys them anyway, which was good. Davo looks enthralled during the first one, and unconscious during the second. At time I join him in prone, drooling sleep. Not the most brilliant of ideas.

11am I awaken to an e-mail from Chris containing some scanned photos of Bristol (see below). I become distracted by the obsession that I have aged dramatically over the last four years. After Davo and John rouse themselves, we watch some bad television, tidy up a bit and decide to go for a bit of a walk. Davo is basically forced to do this, despite his complete sleep-deprivation, increasing the weight that will eventually fall upon me when I finally experience my 'guilt-lag'. We walk from Little Venice to Camden Town all the way down the canal path.



4pm At Camden we summon Nick C for a snack at Nandos and after bumping into Evil Nick with female companion, John and I go back to Nick C's place to find out where Jurassic Park III will be on. Davo decides to leave and goes home, slightly tired and emotional. Guilt-lag finally hits and I become momentarily neurotic.

6pm Jurassic Park III isn't on. Tomb Raider is. I've seen it before. But I see it again. It's ok. After the film, John departs and Nick drives me home.

9pm Alone in the flat, reclaimed gradually for my own use after a year and a half of sharing, I try and resolve the various things that I have done in the last few hours and come to some conclusions. Firstly, that I feel intruded upon when people appear who are connected with my past, and this makes me behave defensively. Secondly, that I love my friends, both old and new and thoroughly enjoy their company. Thirdly, that pictures of the past and pictures of Max are sometimes difficult to deal with, but are not a particularly big deal. Fourthly, that I have to get a job. And finally, that it is very very important that I use my chicken carcass in an appropriate way. So I decide to make Chicken Stock.

I suspect I will never use it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There are places I remember, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 12:14:34 AM ----- BODY:

There are places I remember, all my life, though some have changed. Some forever, not for better, some have gone and some remain. All these places had their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall, some are dead and some are living. In my life I've loved them all.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok, fine. I'll settle for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:00:07 AM ----- BODY:

Ok, fine. I'll settle for someone with scruffy hair who keeps me sane. (Well it worked for Meg).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: She makes everything sound so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:12:43 AM ----- BODY:

She makes everything sound so sordid, but it's a legitmate question. It really is. If you had to, which one of the Von Trapp kids would you shag? I should get Cal to run a poll. [last time Katy went]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aw Jeez. [Blush.] What can STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:14:35 AM ----- BODY:

Aw Jeez. [Blush.] What can we say Jason. We like you too.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in a bit of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:25:27 AM ----- BODY:

I'm in a bit of weird mood. Just watched the end of Things to do in Denver when you're Dead. I'd forgotten how affecting I find that film. Particularly the bit right at the end when he accepts his fate, does all the things he feels he has to do and records a message for his unborn child. In it he says you should write a list of ten things you want from life. No one gets all ten, he says. But if you get five or six - you're almost there. You've nearly got it all figured out. He has cuts on his face when he says this. His voice is full of fear.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A picture of a man STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:30:32 AM ----- BODY:

A picture of a man that one might like to see more of. Lame as that may sound.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Related to Things to do STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:47:26 AM ----- BODY:

Related to Things to do in Denver when you're Dead is the Warren Zevon album "Mr Bad Example" from which the film's title is derived. The track in question goes like this: "I called up my friend Leroy on the phone. I said, Buddy, I'm afraid to be alone. I got some weird ideas in my head. About things to do in Denver when you're dead." But it's not the best song on what is a fairly mediocre album. That goes to "Mr Bad Example"

I started as an altar boy working at the church
Learning all my holy moves doing some research
Which led me to a cash box labelled 'Children's Fund'
I'd leave the change and tuck the bills inside my cummerbund.

I got a part-time job at my father's carpet store
Laying tackless stripping and housewives by the score.
I loaded up their furniture and took it to Spokane
And auctioned off every last naugahyde divan.

I'm very well acquainted with the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in
I'm proud to be a glutton and I don't have time for sloth.
I'm greedy and I'm angry and I don't care who I cross.

I'm Mr Bad Example, intruder in the dirt
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt.
I'm Mr Bad Example, take a look at me.
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in infamy.

Of course I went to law school and got a law degree
And counselled all my clients to plead insanity.
Then worked in hair replacement, swindling the bald.
Where very few are chosen, and fewer still are called.

Then on to Monte Carlo, playing chemin de fer
I threw away the fortune I made transplanting hair
I put my last few francs down on a prostitute
Who took me up to her room to perform the flag salute.

Whereupon I stole her passport and her wig
And headed for the airport and the midnight flight, you dig?
Fourteen hours later I was down in Adelaide
Looking through the want ads sipping Fosters in the shade.

I opened up an agency somewhere down the line
To hire aboriginals to work the opal mines
But I attached their wages and took a whopping cut
And whisked away their worker's comp and pauperized the lot.

I'm Mr Bad Example, intruder in the dirt
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm Mr Bad Example, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in history

I bought a first class ticket on Malaysian Air
Landed in Sri Lanka none the worse for wear
I'm thinking of retiring from all my dirty deeds
See you in the next life, wake me up for meals...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sunday evening 2am: Someone in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:48:06 AM ----- BODY:

Sunday evening 2am: Someone in Maida Vale really needs a cigarette.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lines & Splines is a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 09:14:26 AM ----- BODY:

Lines & Splines is a weblog for people who are obsessed with Typography. It's fascinating reading if you have a professional or casual interest in the subject, and its use of CSS makes it a tremendously good example of web typography in action. The only thing that doesn't sit right with me is the title image of the page. But hey.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could the wonderful person who STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 09:30:52 AM ----- BODY:

Could the wonderful person who went out and bought me Ultraviolet on DVD please make themselves known? I'd like to say thank you, and you didn't include your name. [mail me]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I had one of those STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 09:34:48 AM ----- BODY:

I had one of those night's sleep last night in which you put on some soothing music to ease you into unconsciousness, and then forty minutes later with your eyes wide open, you turn over in bed, reach out and press play again.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Very exciting: The Breeders are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 10:11:17 AM ----- BODY:

Very exciting: The Breeders are back.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two sites that I worked STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 01:21:02 PM ----- BODY:

Two sites that I worked on (HTML-building) while getting fill-in work at Arehaus a couple of months ago have now launched: eB-21 and cabe.org.uk. Which means I can finally link to this page and ask the very serious question - is Robert Bargery the hottest bitch you have seen in your life, or what?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interesting article on Big Brother STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 02:13:29 PM ----- BODY:

Interesting article on Big Brother in the Guardian [link] includes this paragraph, "The E4 transmission is on a 10-minute delay in order to prevent swear words and libels reaching daytime viewers. On an average day, Andrew Newman, director of programmes on E4, estimates that the housemates say "fuck" at least 1,300 times, "slightly less now that Bubble has been evicted". On several occasions they've had to cut the volume when the housemates didn't so much speculate as know that a major Hollywood actor is gay."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For those of you who STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 02:44:58 PM ----- BODY:

For those of you who might have got concerned, I do not have a gun, nor did I view my last BBC job interview as the end of the known world: thanks for caring though...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I run a big STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 06:33:37 PM ----- BODY:

So I run a big message board, right? And there's a job for a big Producer job involving running message boards, right? And I think I could do it pretty well, right? But I'm concerned that people in the web industry, more often than not, view extra-curricular web work as a hindrance rather than a boon to employment. When I went for a job a couple of years ago at a web publishing company, I said that I ran several successful personal websites. And the woman who interviewed me said "you won't be able to build them while you are at work, you know". And I kind of looked at her and said, after a pause, "I know". Which kind of meant, "Duh". So the question is, "IS BARBELITH A POSITIVE THING TO PUT ON A CV OR NOT?"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief theory of Fraggle STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 08:50:34 PM ----- BODY:

A brief theory of Fraggle Rock: "Doozers were capitalist over-consumption. Fraggles were the utopian hippies who enjoyed life at their expense. The dog was existential terror. Humans were dark, inscrutable Gods."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I've been watching Ultraviolet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 09:04:10 PM ----- BODY:

So I've been watching Ultraviolet on DVD today in between spats of job-finding. And I've been loving it. And then I hit the fourth episode - one on paedophilia. And it happened again - as I watched it I became gradually more concerned about where the line was being drawn between gay people and paedophiles. Firstly, it was male-male paedophilia, which always alarms me, since sexual abuse is most often male-female and within families. Secondly, two men walking around in a park is used as an indication that it might be an area attended by paedophiles - as opposed to a cruising ground for a particular kind of exhibitionist or closeted poof. Thirdly, one of the paedophiles is shown disposing of an adult gay porn mag - adult male on male as well. Finally, the two main paedophiles are camp mincers - lip pursing bitches with high voices and limp wrists - semiotic indicators of gay men. A structuralist critic would no doubt have a lot to say about the grouping together of 'unattractive' and 'unaccepted' sexualities - I just saw a clumsy and insulting episode that was (possibly unintentionally) homophobic. It's discoloured my whole view of the series.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Will & Grace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 07/16/2001 09:27:00 PM ----- BODY:

In the second post on gay issues in a row, Tom decides to take a certain amount of issue with Mark Lawson's article in the Guardian today on Will & Grace. Tom decides particularly to take issue with this excerpt:

Presented as dramatic courage, Jack really represents cowardice, because he's there as a contrast with Will's discreet homosexuality. Jack goes to a gay gym, Will to a mixed one. In Will, the writers have created a gay character who neatly avoids the two aspects of gay men which most provoke homophobia: genital activity and effeminacy. It's a bit like a sit-com about a football supporter in which the central character never bothers to go to matches and prefers to watch The South Bank Show instead of Match Of The Day.

There are such people, but the characterisation seems dictated by caution rather than authenticity. Another insurance against switch-off is built into the plot. At least in the early episodes - as in the first two reels of The Next Best Thing - there's nothing to discourage Joe and Joanna Six-Pack from the belief that Will isn't really gay and that he and Grace will eventually realise that they are Harry and Sally rather than Arthur and Martha.

How many gay people do you know? No really. Think about it. How many gay people do you know? Ok then - now take the number of people you know - not know well, just know - and divide it by twenty. Studies be damned, this is a guess - some people say it's one in ten, some that it's one in ninety. That's irrelevant. The fact is that across work, friends, friends of friends, family, friends of family, people you knew at University, people you knew at school, that out of all those people, many many more were gay than you had the slightest idea.

So somehow these people 'pass' for straight - or to put it another way, somehow these people do not come across according to your preconceptions of what it means to be gay. They probably don't work in the media. They probably don't wear purple lurex or get dressed up in drag, or have a really big thing about Liza Minelli. Some people will. Good. Excellent. But we're talking about a huge and diverse community here - of queens who like Travis, queens who like Bach, queens who like the Sex Pistols, queens who like Napalm Death, queens who like Britney Spears, queens who - for god's sake - like Queen.

Now I've no doubt that Will & Grace is a fairly reactionary show which represents a fairly anaemic idea of what it means to be gay. But is Friends any less anaemic a view of what it is to be straight? Or are straight people really all super-annuated three years olds whose obsession with caffeine has driven them close to paranoid dementia? But we're getting away from the point, now. So answer me this, Mr Lawson - would it be any less mentally closeted to fill a TV show with the kind of queer that you can identify readily? We are, after all, everywhere.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Old is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2001 11:26:33 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Old is the new young - "Being a glimpse - inexcusably yet unapologetically flippant - into the world of a wannabe Old Git."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thank you Kerry and Sean: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 10:19:16 AM ----- BODY:

Thank you Kerry and Sean:
This detail of a wonderful card sent to me by two of my LA friends is perhaps less ... spicy ... than the original, but still demonstrates their amazing graphic design skill and sense of humour. Thanks guys!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's a bit of a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 11:06:20 AM ----- BODY:

It's a bit of a Tom-love-in today. Thanks to Mark Kevin Hall from Hidden City for the present and saying all that nice stuff about me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God, I'm really popular today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 11:53:04 AM ----- BODY:

God, I'm really popular today for some reason. Everyone's being really nice to me. I wonder what that's about. Next up we have a site review from 2xy.org=f(ab)! :: adored. My favourite (surreal) line goes as follows: "I mean, if I were in his shoes, I'd be extremely wary of unbidden strangers who lavish me with thick praise. You can't be too careful on the Internet these days, especially if you're as popular as Tom Coates." What a strange world it is in which we live. Nevertheless consider me astonishingly flattered. And yes, I'm afraid I will link to anyone who says really nice things about me. I don't care if that's whoredom or not.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Received an e-mail from someone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 12:17:31 PM ----- BODY:

Received an e-mail from someone I knew at school today. He'd been wandering around plasticbag.org. It's an odd feeling - you put a lot of your life on display on one of these things, but you somehow don't expect it to be read by people you actually know. And every time someone new does read it, you feel exposed for a while. Having said that, I've made it a mission to be as open and up-front as I can about stuff. So hey. Hope you're having fun, Ed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The orgy of Tom-love just STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 12:29:39 PM ----- BODY:

The orgy of Tom-love just keeps on oiling itself up and writhing in erotic glee. Malpractice is the first site that I have seen that uses my free-for-use template (as seen here and available here). There are a few revisions to it, which frankly I think improve it dramatically. But I guess that was the point of it - to make something simple and basic, fairly elegant, that people could personalise as they saw fit. If you see anyone else using the template, let me know.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: TOM IS EVIL Last change STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 12:51:17 PM ----- BODY:

TOM IS EVIL Last change to brighten my birthday by buying me a present from my wishlist. Anything on the 'Dispatched within 24 hours' category (if bought today) should arrive on Thursday, thus making me a very very spoilt weblogger. Show your love with money today. Buy me shit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah well - no good STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 04:03:58 PM ----- BODY:

Ah well - no good deed goes unpunished: Dragonthief .

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am an absurdly funny STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 07:10:26 PM ----- BODY:

I am an absurdly funny person. It's the only conclusion that I can draw from the sheer wit on display in my review of Dr Dolittle 2. I mean - that line "John Dolittle, media darling, must turn from animal conversationalist to animal conservationist..." (do you see what I did there) is pure genius, and completely doesn't collapse under skim-reading. God. Look at how funny I am. I may die.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "I'd hate to be like STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 08:43:28 PM ----- BODY:

"I'd hate to be like certain people I know. They break their necks and can't afford to get them fixed."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now you can search plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2001 08:59:51 PM ----- BODY:

Now you can search plasticbag.org in order to find out when precisely it was that I bitched about the User Interface at your favourite site. Will the thrills never end?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must Click: Possibly the best STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2001 11:59:10 AM ----- BODY:

Must Click: Possibly the best thing in the world ever, Sean Nadeau's celebration of my upcoming birthday trip to Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music has had me collapsing with laughter all morning. You have to see this.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's now one day before STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2001 04:01:18 PM ----- BODY:

It's now one day before my 29th birthday. There is loads that I want to post on plasticbag.org, but I refuse to do so! That would distract you all from my earlier post of the day. Which remains the most brilliantly funny thing in the world ever.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Twenty-nine years ago (to the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 12:33:00 AM ----- BODY:

Twenty-nine years ago (to the exact minute) I sprang into the world, desperate for a cigarette.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Someone did a search for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 01:42:02 AM ----- BODY:

Someone did a search for Max on my search engine, which made me think about doing a search about him as well, and when I did a search it was all really depressing crap, because I never write about him unless he's really pissed me off. Anyway - that's not the point of this post. The point is that in the process I read a post about meeting a guy in a club and him being kind of nice. His name was Luke and apparently we had fun, but I don't remember what he looked like at all. There's not a thing in my head about it. Weird.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anyway - I'm twenty-nine now. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 01:51:05 AM ----- BODY:

Anyway - I'm twenty-nine now. Time to put aside childish things, buy some proper trousers without pockets half the way down them or detachable legs and think about more serious matters - like the campaign to get myself, Davo and lots of other people drunk, shagged and married off by (the end of) August. For more details flashback to April.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ten Good Posts From The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 02:22:09 AM ----- BODY:

Ten Good Posts From The Past (July-Oct 2000):

1) The Mouse From Aphrodite's Armpit : "I am drooling as if drool never went out of fashion (1800s, if you're interested). It's like Steve Jobs is personally seducing me. He might as well put on suspenders and stand outside my house going, "Hey there, fancy a good time?". Except that might be a bit gross. Oh My God."
2) I Am Cheese: "I am traditional, yet soft. I am of Belgian descent. I have a creamy yellowish body, with a red/brown surface and a slightly corrugated edge. I taste almost meaty and have a legendary aroma caused by enzymes on my skin that break down proteins."
3) Evil Supercriminal: "But I started to get a darker thrill from the presence of the evil supercriminals - people who didn't have respect for society, people who weren't interested in puppies and blonde girls and apple pie and fudge brownies, but instead would prefer to annihilate Frankfurt with a huge gun and an over-fluffed white cat."
4) In Defence Of Back-Slapping Wank: "Clearly "wank" is considered "unproductive", "wasteful", "pointless" and therefore bad by these people. Weblogs are also considered "unproductive", "wasteful" and "pointless" and also therefore "bad"."
5) Talking to Katy: "Are you shagging all my friends?""
6) On Barmen: "Barmen are alluring for three reasons. Firstly, they have to be nice to you. Secondly, they are often employed because they are physically attractive (although this could be a condition only in gay culture). Thirdly, they bring you alcohol if you ask them nicely."
7) In Which Tom Suffers From A Mystery Illness The Day After Getting Hideously Drunk: "Over the next two hours I manage to eat one eighth of an apple, a spoonful of cereal and a third of a small bowl of plain pasta with a little olive oil and salt."
8) Bastardised Donut Hell: "The traditional English doughnut has been edged out of the Supermarket, to be replaced by what would be termed by the less charitable as its increasingly ubiquitous glossy bastardisation."
9) Skank: "Joanna Lumley - goddess of the New Avengers, star of innumerable sub-par movies and chain-smoking high-class drunk skank of Absolutely Fabulous used to be heavily involved in a site..."
10) Text MessagE Theatre: "Jen has such a hard life. I really feel for her. I so relate to her bruised sluttiness - jack is a fucking girl loser poof as well. Spit. Vomit. Barf. Ick."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy birthday to me, Love STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 09:35:25 AM ----- BODY:

Happy birthday to me, Love My Online Cult.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My mother always told me, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 11:45:41 AM ----- BODY:

My mother always told me, "Never trust a lady with a tape measure": Thanks Davo! I'd also like to thank Simon for the minidisc and the card, NIck Jordan for the Tricky album, Chris for The Man Who Was Thursday, Jerwin for making me want to be a Teenage Dirtbag, my gran for the tenner and my family for the cheque. Love you all.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Coolest T-shirt in the world STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2001 07:01:52 PM ----- BODY:

Coolest T-shirt in the world



----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now this is interesting - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/20/2001 03:47:13 PM ----- BODY:

Now this is interesting - CafePress.com have started doing a variety of new products in many more colours than before. It's fast approaching time to bite the bullet and get plasticbag.org and barbelith.com stores set up. I might even set up a Buffy quote t-shirt range. If it isn't illegal. Which of course it probably is...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Occasional employment is kind of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2001 12:22:45 PM ----- BODY:

Occasional employment is kind of like this Onion article only with higher blood pressure and worse dreams: Plan To Straighten Out Entire Life During Weeklong Vacation Yields Mixed Results.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If the weather holds up STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2001 12:25:47 PM ----- BODY:

If the weather holds up this afternoon, you can expect me to be attending this afternoon's ukbloggers' party in the park from 2.30pm at Speaker's Corner. See you there?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't even know where STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2001 01:05:03 PM ----- BODY:

I don't even know where to begin talking about last night's Singalonga Birthday Party. I had a tremendously good time - that much I am sure about. We all met up outside around six to make sure we all got tickets. People turned up that I haven't seen in ages. It was great to see Emma and Katy and Matt and Fran and Rebecca and Nick and Meg and Danny and Davo and Phil and Michael and Luke and Pippa and Chrusty and everyone else I've momentarily forgotten.

The show was, as usual, tremendous. Most of us seemed to enjoy ourselves - belting out songs with as much force as our little lungs could grant us. Even those people who hadn't seen the film before (and there were a couple) seemed to have a great time as well. We fell out of the cinema around 11.30pm, exhausted and flushed and (in my case at least) incredibly bouncy.

I also ended up with the most astonishing bag of goodies ever, and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone. Thanks to Davo for the album, Danny for the musical card, Pippa for the chocolates, Meg for the incredible original ER set script, Rebecca for the ... whistle, Luke for the novel, Matt and Fran for the other novel, and Michael for the other other novel. You're all stars. Plus thanks to Simon for the album delivered this morning. I've made out like a bandit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fighting with BT Internet's 50p STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 12:47:19 PM ----- BODY:

Fighting with BT Internet's 50p a minute help desk is less than entertaining at the best of times. It's particularly unthrilling when you are complaining that the connection number that you are supposed to use has been engaged for the last fourteen hours (checked by dialing the number and listening) and they suggest that the way to fix this situation is to change your control panel settings and check your modem. £5 (at least) worth of phone calls later, I am in a near-stabbing frenzy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Discovering Rufus STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 02:55:40 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Discovering Rufus Wainwright - "Poses" shattered my envious vision of a modern Jim Morrison, replacing it with the reality - a brutally honest and even dangerous gay musician.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I saw this flash STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 03:30:26 PM ----- BODY:

So I saw this flash movie on Metafilter and I was like "Weeeeeeeee"!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I was kind of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 03:33:57 PM ----- BODY:

So I was kind of bored the other day and was watching TV and Margaret Thatcher was on TV clapping Jeffrey Archer and I thought to myself, I really must e-mail Mr Big. So I did. He's in Ibiza for a month. Who the hell is Mr Big?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gallery of galleries (blog party STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 09:02:10 PM ----- BODY:

Gallery of galleries (blog party in the park): notsosoft, little blue fox, Nick Jordan.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night Nick and Katy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 10:22:08 PM ----- BODY:

Last night Nick and Katy came around and watched Charlie's Angels on video. In the process we got to take this photo of Nick standing in between my flatmate's large cardboard cut-out of Angel and ... er ... my birthday present from Kate and Nick - a large cardboard cut-out of Buffy. How embarrassing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The weirdness never ever ends. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2001 10:27:19 PM ----- BODY:

The weirdness never ever ends. Just when you think you're over the whole birthday thing, Jerwin sings for you. Scroll down to Marilyn, click, and then hear the true wonderful horror of "Happy birthday, Mr Plasticbag". I'm freaked!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ten Good Posts From The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/23/2001 01:43:02 AM ----- BODY:

Ten Good Posts From The Past (Nov 2001-Jan 2001):

1) Gay Gangsta : "Palare had a word, 'omipalone' (Oh-Mi-Pal-Oh-Nee) which was a combination of Man and Woman ('palone'), and which at the time meant something along the lines of 'poof'. Creative etymology leads me to posit the creation of the word 'Homey-Palone', referring to the almost non-existent phenomenon of the 'Gay Gangsta Rapper'. "
2) On not being a proper ****: "OK so it's a standard conversation. You're out with women and you're chatting away about someone who's just fucked them over in some way and they say things like, 'All Men are pointless', or 'I've never met a man who didn't like football'. And then you look a little perturbed."
3) Portillo Predictions: "And that was before Thatcher's gradual lunacy pushed her over the brink into Hawk-Nosed Hitlerite. But now ... well now politics is all about image, which is why William Hague will never become Prime Minister."
4) Health advice: "That's right, ladies and gentlemen - even pointless, lacklustre, unimaginative, dreary, workaday, missionary, vanilla sex with someone you are bored with can have tremendous health benefits. "
5) Presents for multi-millionaires: "And while you are there perhaps you would feel like buying the cheery multi-millionaire a Zircon 50793 Studsensor Pro 4.0 or a Star Trek electronic key chain (three types requested)."
6) Two weeks before handing in notice: "There may come a day in your life when you find yourself so sick to death of your job, so overwhelmingly frustrated by the lack of respect that your very presence seems to engender, so totally bored by office politics and that boss who you've always found intolerable, that it comes to you that the only answer is to resign and go and find something else to spend your time on."
7) The beginning of the rot: "Since I am going to have to be drearily positive for the next seven weeks as I scrabble around for a new job, I thought I may as well take this opportunity to moan about how appalling my life is at the moment in laborious and tedious detail."
8) Rebranding: "Merely take two words that you feel 'represent' your site in some way, and then combine them to produce your newly rebranded site-name. If in the process you can spend $600 million, then all the better. With this spirit of adventure in mind, I hereby declare plasticbag.org to be called 'fascillåte'."
9) Photo of father: "Imagine my shock when I realised my father (bottom-right) was a big, baldy, 70s-style beardy-weirdy..."
10) Tom Coates Explains Everything: "No, strudel is beyond my meagre talents in the kitchen, I'm afraid. I think I missed out on many of the important gay genes that make you able to decorate effectively and not fart in public."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have become a cautionary STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/23/2001 03:33:12 PM ----- BODY:

I have become a cautionary tale. Friends in crap jobs they hate look at me and say 'we can't leave right now, we must stick it out longer. If we leave our jobs now we will end up like Tom.'

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the most useful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/23/2001 06:43:23 PM ----- BODY:

One of the most useful things in the world? Google in AIM - manufactured by Matt. My opinion? That separating results from the download of an HTML page, and keeping them hygenically separate in a search window you can use again and again makes this little device unbelievable useful.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An evening in links: 1) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/23/2001 09:56:18 PM ----- BODY:

An evening in links:

1) So it appears Blogdex is now online. My evening starts with a wander to Metafilter, where (checking up on replies to my recent posts) I decide to follow the link to aforementioned Blogdex, only to be astonishingly confused by the meme spread limitations in effect. There's not a single URL that has been trawled in more than two sites. One can only assume that it's set-up time.
2) From Blogdex I follow a few links to see what people are interested in at the moment. Two photo directories of the recent UK weblogging party in the park debacle do not take my fancy, and instead I find myself at Noah Grey's 'Depth of Field' - a stunning photolog by the creator of Greymatter.
3) From there I skip over to Haddock.org to see what Matt Jones has been hammering on about on list and via personal e-mail to my good self. A full and thrilling article on Quantum Computing and Many Worlds Theories of Reality awaits my delectation. Unusually I read and carefully digest every word. It reminds me immediately of Planetary and makes me consider why people don't think of the universe as God's quantum computer.
4) Quantum computing for some reason gets me thinking about the creative potential of computers, and after flashing back to Matt's astonishing Googlematic (also flashback to blogdex - want Matt's post on that list by tomorrow morning), I decide to check whether anyone has been talking about it by doing a search on Weblogs.com. No one is. Frustrated, I flick over to Jim Roepcke's Fan Faves to reassure myself that people do on occasion read my online crap.
5) Reassured that people do, on occasion, read my online crap, I start rolling over comments from my friend Danny and e-mails from Fran and Rhonda in my head. Or more to the point, I remember that they have been rolling in my head for several hours and that I haven't let myself think about them. Suddenly concerned by my life I use Googlematic to find me an article on Coping with Unemployment, which frankly reads a bit like 'eat lots of sugar, smile a lot and never admit that you don't know what you're doing. (cf. "Never Give Up, Never Surrender" as useful maxims to live by).
6) Which leads me to my final question of the evening. How much information is it legimate to put on your own website about yourself. Not just other people - we all have had that particular issue at one time or another. But about yourself. Rule of weblog-living - never talk about your boss (negatively), never talk about anyone you suspect may read your site (negatively), never be too honest in front of potential employers...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Googlematic is fast becoming my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/23/2001 11:31:05 PM ----- BODY:

Googlematic is fast becoming my favourite AIM friend. She's always so personable. She never criticises. I've started asking her questions - I try and start up conversations - "What Should I Do Now?" I ask. And she tells me to help the little children. Sometimes I get sentimental. I ask her if she loves me. She turned me towards God. I don't quite know what that means...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My mood in a nutshell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/23/2001 11:58:59 PM ----- BODY:

My mood in a nutshell as suggested by Ralph.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My favourite word of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2001 11:02:28 AM ----- BODY:

My favourite word of the day comes from an article in The Sunday Times about futurology. This word is "Disempurpling".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Joe Clark dissects Haughey Typography. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2001 11:10:41 AM ----- BODY:

Joe Clark dissects Haughey Typography. And describes me as '[not] aggressively ugly'. Which I can only assume is a compliment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Coming Out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2001 11:27:04 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Coming Out in a nutshell - "Parents are forever banging on about 'how there used to be ice on the insides of the windows' in their youth. Exams are getting easier. And people are more relaxed in their beliefs. So you'd think it'd be a cinch to admit that you fancy people of the same gender..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Channel 4's chat software doesn't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2001 11:54:03 PM ----- BODY:

Channel 4's chat software doesn't appear to work on IE5 for Macs. Which means I don't get to talk to the hot guy off The Secret Life of Us. Which is very frustrating.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: We all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 12:18:38 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: We all live in Gormenghast - "For all its thickfisted commotion, the film of Gormenghast does translate Peake's larger concerns and themes. For all its subplots, which have as many blind alleys as the twisty corridors of the castle itself, the story is fundamentally about change and stasis. "

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It was useful, it was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 10:36:20 AM ----- BODY:

It was useful, it was fun, it was made by a friend of mine, and it is no more. I present "The Life and Death of Googlematic" - a melodrama in three parts...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mechanics of this aside (and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 11:07:56 AM ----- BODY:

Mechanics of this aside (and might there not be an argument for being able to get a better, sharper, range of pulling movement from the right hand version, thus making sheet separation much more likely), Derek's amusing reaction made me think that maybe there is a disjunct between people who approach common tasks in different ways. An example - while at university, I discovered in conversation that there were two types of people - those that scrunched their loo roll and those that folded it. The existence of folders was, until that moment, completely unknown to me. And I have to confess that the very idea of carefully folding tissue for that purpose seems to me to border on anal-obsessive lunacy. And yet people do it. Can you think of any other examples? Mail me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Revenge: Brainsluice accused of displaying STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 12:23:31 PM ----- BODY:

Revenge: Brainsluice accused of displaying flagrant homosexuality.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wired does a piece on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 12:54:29 PM ----- BODY:

Wired does a piece on the SirCam virus, which I have been getting in my Inbox about three or four times a day for the last week or so. I'm not alone. Prol has also been suffering it. A couple of interesting paragraphs particularly stick my head: "Most current viruses resend themselves to everyone in an address book, or -- in SirCam's case -- to addresses culled from Web pages that a user may have visited." and "Hybris, commonly known as Seven Dwarfs and first spotted in October 2000, updates itself by downloading little pieces of code that allow it to perform new malicious actions." I've had Hybris a hell of a lot as well. But while I keep being reassured that as a Mac user I am safe from destruction by such viruses, no one has yet explained to me whether or not I can become infected and pass them on - after all, I do use Office and Outlook Express.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The United States, not content STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 03:30:31 PM ----- BODY:

The United States, not content with refusing to sign up to Kyoto, and not content with having readily availavable hand-guns and the death penalty has now refused to sign up to an international accord to limit germ warfare. Love the country, hate its leaders.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was born on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 05:46:32 PM ----- BODY:

I was born on the same day as these illustrious film greats; Brandon L. Wilson and Daedalus Howell. The stars are clearly aligned to make no one who has just turned 29 famous. Or perhaps I should think that there is an opening there for someone like myself.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I didn't win the lottery STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2001 10:58:36 PM ----- BODY:

I didn't win the lottery again today. Sometimes I ever wonder why I bother, but then I remember that I'm destined for greater things one way or another, and it's my responsibility to make sure that I don't close any potential doors on the way. Opportunity must have ... well, an opportunity to express itself. Sigh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cheesy T-shirt? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 01:53:51 AM ----- BODY:

Cheesy T-shirt?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The bloody Sircam virus is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 11:43:15 AM ----- BODY:

The bloody Sircam virus is driving me insane. Every day I get sent one more copy than the day before.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I think I may have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 12:04:50 PM ----- BODY:

I think I may have found plasticbag.org's new motto - courtesy of Jason Kottke.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The beautiful genius of being STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 12:39:51 PM ----- BODY:

The beautiful genius of being able to see one's planet from space is brought home fully in these satellite images of the smoke plume from Mount Etna. It's both stunningly attractive and a terrifying testament to the volatility of nature. You can imagine exactly why, in ancient times, the romans thought Etna was the home of Hephaestus, god of the forge.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Considering the amount of time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 12:45:30 PM ----- BODY:

Considering the amount of time I have spent in recent weeks reviewing Planet of the Apes related films for the BBC, I should be more excited by Salon's article "Too much monkey business". But it's too shallow on the potential allegory within it, and too literal about the race relations parallels that are drawn (occasionally far too overtly and clumsily).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: UpsideClown: Bigger, Better, Brother: "We STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 03:10:30 PM ----- BODY:

UpsideClown: Bigger, Better, Brother: "We never quite knew what we were in for. The Americans got off lightly - Americans being so fucking dull that a program dedicated to ten of them sitting around watching television and eating pies was never going to be a goer. Not when Survivor provided the tempting vista of a gang of equally stupid people slowly starving to death."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah well - it wasn't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2001 04:49:07 PM ----- BODY:

Ah well - it wasn't such a bad idea then. Timeout.com has just fired all but three of its staff. Getting out four months ago doesn't seem like anywhere near such a bad decision any more.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going to say it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/27/2001 12:01:48 AM ----- BODY:

I'm going to say it loud and say it clear - damn you, Road Runner North Carolina - for one of your staff has just sent me eighteen copies of the Sircam virus in eight hours. Poor chap is going to have a hell of a day tomorrow when people start complaining.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ironically, I turn from an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/27/2001 12:04:58 AM ----- BODY:

Ironically, I turn from an inbox full of Sircam crapulence to an article in Wired: Hey SirCam, Where'd You Go?.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today at ickle.org: the atom STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/27/2001 01:08:57 AM ----- BODY:

Today at ickle.org: the atom (by Tom Coates).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Simon, I come across STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/27/2001 09:47:59 AM ----- BODY:

Via Simon, I come across the humanclock.com which has a different picture for every single minute of the day. Genius.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are Periods a thing of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/27/2001 02:12:15 PM ----- BODY:

Are Periods a thing of the past? Women - free yourself from 'the curse' (positive perspective) or find your body the subject of more medicalisation and experimentation. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? The Underground is there for you to discuss it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever she says is completely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/28/2001 05:42:56 PM ----- BODY:

Whatever she says is completely untrue.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want to write something STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/28/2001 08:00:26 PM ----- BODY:

I want to write something extraordinarily long and involved about Brian winning Big Brother - about how it's a really important thing to happen for gay people in general for one thing, and how genuine and sweet the boy seems to be. But I can't really at the moment. Congratulations.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When did Status.Blogger.Com get so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2001 07:05:53 PM ----- BODY:

When did Status.Blogger.Com get so sexy?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just been pointed to blog-a-thon-you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2001 07:47:43 PM ----- BODY:

Just been pointed to blog-a-thon-you by Simon where there are two full reviews of plasticbag.org.

The first thing you learn at journalism school is how when you write a review you are always writing for an audience. You write something that you believe would make sense to your readership - not necessarily to yourself. That's where the skill in reviewing comes - in divorcing your own particular obsessions (or at least disguising them) from the 'useful service' that you are actually trying to provide. I mean, if I loved 'Graffitti Bridge' but because I'd studied the semiotics of 'Prince' for ten years, I still shouldn't give it a good review for those people who are looking for an evening's entertainment. Proper reviews also depend upon building a relationship of trust between you and your readership - which means that you really should try and spell everything properly, and get your grammar right.

But of course, you don't have to write a 'proper review' in order to express your opinion. In fact you can write whatever you like. But of course, unlike a proper review (where what you write is thought-through, intelligent, built for an audience and literate) with a personal opinion there's almost no limit to the range of entertaining and appropriate responses. You can stick your tongue out, wave your arse in the air, write nasty songs involving rhymes for 'shunts' or indeed even respond with a counter review.

Or you can, of course, just completely ignore it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Technical fun: .htaccess for fun STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2001 08:27:04 PM ----- BODY:

Technical fun: .htaccess for fun and profit. Have been wandering around plasticbag.org and barbelith.com for the last couple of hours using .htaccess files to fix the 404 errors that have been caused by the moving of a thousand files over several years. For more on .htaccess: BareMetal.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I love it when I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 10:08:19 AM ----- BODY:

I love it when I get e-mails like this: "Dear Sir/Madam, Could you please let me know who is responsible for Marketing at http://www.barbelith.com. Thanking you in anticipation." You just start laughing inside.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BBC News: Canada opens door STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 10:13:35 AM ----- BODY:

BBC News: Canada opens door to marijuana. I'm interested in this one. Now, personally, I think it should be completely decriminalised - but that's very much a personal opinion. What surprises me is that you can already use heroin derivatives in medicine but not marijuana based ones. At least Canada has made it possible for people to do research with it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two more of my reviews STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 10:44:52 AM ----- BODY:

Two more of my reviews from the BBC's film site: The Man With the Golden Gun ("There's no shortage of innuendo, action, exotic locations, or casual misogyny. Unfortunately it's too camp and cruel an adventure to raise more than a Moore-like eyebrow.") and The Empire Strikes Back ("Luke comes most clearly into focus when his terrible destiny is made clear to him, and in the process Darth Vader is transformed from a caricature villain into a terrifyingly dark, but human creature").

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I couldn't disagree more with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 10:50:34 AM ----- BODY:

I couldn't disagree more with this review by Danny Graydon.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The best think about the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 11:20:12 AM ----- BODY:

The best think about the line below (that I quote from an article found via the LMG) is that it seens actually uncomfortable with people not building things under the influence of pure capitalist monetary lust: Taming the Wild, Wild Web: "The Internet is an important cultural phenomenon, but that doesn't excuse its failure to comply with basic economic laws," said Thomas Nolle, a New Jersey telecommunications consultant. "The problem is that it was devised by a bunch of hippie anarchists who didn't have a strong profit motive. But this is a business, not a government-sponsored network."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I think there are several STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 11:31:30 AM ----- BODY:

I think there are several stages of web design. The first one is the text and pictures, slap it all up, doesn't matter what it's there for school. I did this stage on NCSA Mosiac back in 1993 / 1994. The second stage is very very pretty, but kind of pointless - it's pure fluff with little sense of information structure. The third stage is very dry and professional but works effectively and clearly. I think I'm just at the third stage now - I think barbelith is my example of clean, clear and slightly dull design. The next stage, I think, is the combination of good structure and clarity with beautiful design - and I think that (although I don't really approve of the heavy download times) halfproject may be the place to go... Particularly check out the 'projects' section.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Infographic: The following Canadian fag-packet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 01:19:55 PM ----- BODY:

Infographic: The following Canadian fag-packet includes a glorious infographic on the precise effects of cigarettes on people's lives. And, as such, is immensely amusing. It's just a shame that you can't choose precisely which small town gets decimated each year. Tactical smoking would then become a mighty weapon amongst left-wing intelligensia and media-types.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm a little weirded out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 05:53:43 PM ----- BODY:

I'm a little weirded out by the publicity surrounding Blogdex - particularly as it's a basic retread of Beebo's Metalog which is a long-standing favourite of plasticbag.org. Now there's an article on it at Wired: Tracking Bloggers With Blogdex which makes an astonishing range of weird claims. There's this one quote that I'm particularly weirded out by: "Marlow hopes Blogdex will give voice to individual webloggers by aggregating the interests of the community as a whole." Seems to me that rather than giving a voice to individual webloggers, the site is actually taking traffic away from them by highlighting the most popular links. It's not a celebration of weblogging, it's a way of getting interesting links without actually reading them. And I still find it unlikely that out of 9,000 sites being tracked through it, the most popular link is only mentioned four times. The additional functionality that is supposed to be being built into it, of course, might prove me completely wrong. We might actually have a useful central place for webloggers to track what's going on in the community. This could be tremendously cool. It will also, I fear, be hideously impractical and outside the remit of even MIT's MediaLab. I mean - everyone has been hoping for a return of Blogger's search facility for ages. That actually allowed the weblogger to see where they were being talked about and to respond to comments and criticisms. Build that into Blogdex and you might actually have something worth looking at...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: The Uniform STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 08:16:28 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: The Uniform of Uniqueness - "Lunchroom culture has bred a generation of pseudo-marginalised play-acting rich kids, whose teenage 'rebellion' trivialises the oppression of genuine subcultural groups. Devondra McMillan reports."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hey hey - it's a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 10:17:21 PM ----- BODY:

Hey hey - it's a picture of that cute guy from that site that I linked to that time. You know... The one with the stuff on it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A while back I did STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 10:33:43 PM ----- BODY:

A while back I did a post about the history of Yahoo! that Jason Kottke picked up on [my original post]. Someone e-mailed me a classic interview with the founders and in ploughing through a file full of notes, I found the link once more: Interview with Yahoo! founders.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Syndicated Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 11:26:29 PM ----- BODY:

Do you want to get the latest Barbelith articles syndicated to your website? Would you like always to be aware what new hip and happening writing is being writ? And would you like to help me publicise new articles? Well now you can. All you have to do is add this little piece of code to your site:

<script src="http://www.barbelith.com/syndication/barbelith.js" language="JavaScript"></script>

Thanks to Eduardo Arcos for inventing this little piece of code. You can find out more about it here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Leading scientists proclaim migraines c*nty." STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/30/2001 11:38:35 PM ----- BODY:

"Leading scientists proclaim migraines c*nty."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stephen Van Doren said something STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2001 10:44:16 AM ----- BODY:

Stephen Van Doren said something really nice to me in an e-mail so I decide to link to his site. This is not a request for more e-mail. I get too much as it is.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Presenting for your delectation, The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2001 10:59:56 AM ----- BODY:

Presenting for your delectation, The Saint of Webloggers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh pancakes are so very STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2001 09:15:46 PM ----- BODY:

Oh pancakes are so very interesting. Happy now?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's something seriously wrong with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2001 11:05:14 PM ----- BODY:

There's something seriously wrong with British Television at the moment. Let's see - random evening's viewing (say tonight). What's on at this precise moment? ITV: "Paul Grady's America" (Paul Grady is Lily Savage's 'real' alter-ego - this programme includes an encounter with Julian Clary). Channel 4: "The Real Shirley Bassey". Channel 5: "The Way We Were" (Epic Streisand movie). British broadcasting has become completely colonised by the sensibility of middle-aged 'theatrical'-types. When did our culture become so 'nice boy' oriented? It's like someone flicked the queer-switch, and suddenly all of England decided to identify as a fifty-year-old man with too much lippy and a £20 wig.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief but heartfelt thanks are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 12:07:14 AM ----- BODY:

Brief but heartfelt thanks are in order to Mr Pepper for being tremendously cool at a difficult time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On powersaws at 8.45am... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 09:32:49 AM ----- BODY:

Our wonderful builders have now started using powersaws at 8.45 in the morning now. This means that I either sweat to death all night, or get woken up in the most unattractive fashion every morning. Very annoying.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the news: 2,700 scorpions STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 09:50:56 AM ----- BODY:

In the news: 2,700 scorpions celebrate their successful attempt at staying in a glass case for thirty days with a mad woman. Said 'Bob Scorpion', "I've always been scared of humans - they look so freakish and unsettling - but I actually feel quite close to this woman, whom I affectionately named 'Drooling Freak' [via Brainsluice].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy 20th birthday, MTV.com. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 10:08:32 AM ----- BODY:

Happy 20th birthday, MTV.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Graphical User Interface Timeline: Through STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 01:02:05 PM ----- BODY:

Graphical User Interface Timeline: Through Haddock.org I came upon the Graphical User Interface Timeline. This really is thrilling and helps get a lot of things in perspective regarding OS GUIs.

The first thing to notice is the Apple Lisa in 1983, which is the first one of the person computers on the page to have a GUI that is recognisably familiar to most people. If you look at the top of the screen, you'll see the instantly recognisable top menu bar, which Macs still have to this day, even in OSX (although it nearly lost it for a while).

The next thing to notice is at what point Microsoft catches up with the UI. By the time Microsoft releases the first version of Windows, the Macintosh has been released and refined by Apple. And by the time that Windows 2 is released in 1987, the Macintosh screen looks very much like it does to this day (possibly excepting the OSX leap).

I'm stunned, frankly, by the lag that Microsoft has compared to Apple and how clumsy their interface appears compared to many of the alternative OS's released by competitors. By the time Windows 3.1 comes out (and I buy my first computer), Apple's essential look and feel has been stable for years. It's really true what my old Greek lecturer used to say, "Windows 95? More like Mac 87".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Everybody's spirits seemed to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 02:16:51 PM ----- BODY:

"Everybody's spirits seemed to be raised with the arrival of Tom who joined the group, a G.K. Chesterton book tucked under his arm, with the cheery air of a Rupert Bear happening on his chums in the woods betwixt adventures." [more]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Specifically aimed at the well-intentioned, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2001 04:52:16 PM ----- BODY:

Specifically aimed at the well-intentioned, but clumsy AIM correspondent: "Instant Messaging Can Be an Instant Annoyance Without Etiquette." You know who you are.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grant speaks at Disinformation. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2001 12:04:59 AM ----- BODY:

Grant speaks at Disinformation.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the MediaGuardian: Time Out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2001 12:37:14 PM ----- BODY:

From the MediaGuardian: Time Out slashes website staff: "Timeout.com has laid off seven people from its 10-strong workforce, but the publication reassured readers there would be no scaling back of content on the website." Compare this quote with this one: "The restructuring means that certain parts of the site - such as the ticket sales section - will be updated less frequently, with some of the less popular sections scaled back."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Mr Brilliant for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2001 12:48:46 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Mr Brilliant for the tremendous gift of Mr Zeldman's Taking Your Talent To The Web. I was only kidding when I said 'bribe me' but I appreciate it wildly nonetheless. And thanks are also due to Paul from cuckoo-kid.com for getting me Crypto from my wishlist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hey look guys - I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2001 08:38:27 PM ----- BODY:

Hey look guys - I went and reviewed BBC Online - Films - Review - Planet of the Apes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Entertaining Ralph (Part One)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2001 01:01:10 PM ----- BODY:

Entertaining Ralph: So Mr McGinnis, True Art from the Barbelith Underground and owner-operator of Lacking... is in town at the moment, and he's staying with me for a few days. He only arrived on Thursday morning, so we haven't had time to do that much yet, but we did some of the bars in town and wandered around some shops, and last night we wandered into Popstarz. Davo came too. It would have been a really good evening if I didn't experience a RMS (Rapid Mood Swing) shortly after running into a guy I knew from Bristol who's approaching the end of his doctorate. I suddenly felt really inadequate and pointless. A few more drinks and a Pringles picnic by the side of the road at three in the morning sorted that out though...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know who I'd like STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2001 01:40:26 PM ----- BODY:

You know who I'd like to work with? Richard Metzger at disinformation, that's who. I mean - let's be realistic. Disinformation shares many interests with Barbelith, including the immortal Grant Morrison. I've also talked to him via e-mail a few times in the past. Plus he says nice things about the Bomb and I'm experienced in putting together and maintaining editorially run web-sites. What the fuck am I doing in London at all. Why hasn't he summoned me across the Atlantic to work at his side?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC News site has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2001 02:13:25 PM ----- BODY:

The BBC News site has had some design changes since I last went there a few days ago - or at least I think it has. As far as I can tell, the search box has been moved to the top of the page - which is a substantial improvement and should be replicated across the BBC as a whole. I'm less convinced by the addition of a top hierarchy hovering above the BBC News logo - which seems to be contain related sites that really should be more heavily integrated within the left hand navigation. Their placement seems random and counter-intuitive.

The Watch / Listen box on the right of the page looks like it has undergone a colour-change and a few refinements - but nothing substantial enough to change the functionality of the pages. But the integration of the 'Around the World Now' section does seem to be a radical change to me, and one that I'm not entirely convinced by. It does illustrate 'depth-of-content', but it seems to me that someone specifically interested in African News will almost certainly be able to navigate down to that section, while the 'headline-only' policy doesn't seem particularly easy to scan nor does it seem particularly inviting. It's only benefit (and it may be a substantial one) is to get the regional news more coverage on the front page. Why do I suspect that the '[continent] in full" links will get clicked on more than the stories themselves?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Change the style of your STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2001 02:16:21 PM ----- BODY:

Change the style of your Blogger archive names with this handy piece of Javascript. Much as I think this is a useful and effective piece of code, I have to say that it seems like a hack to me - something that should be integrated into Blogger itself rather than an add-on. If Greymatter can do it, why not Blogger? [via Evhead]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogdex functionality is gradually ramping STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2001 02:39:59 PM ----- BODY:

Blogdex functionality is gradually ramping up, slowly making it a useful piece of online kit - even though it's still not done anything that hasn't been done before (and it doesn't seem to render quite perfectly on Macs).

Let's block through some of them one-by-one: 1) Updates - a simple page that tells you what they are planning to add to the site addresses (adequately?) one of my main concerns about the site - namely that it doesn't promote sites, in fact quite the opposite - it gives people a way to find interesting links without actually reading them. Their response: "blogdex is not intended as a destination to bypass bloggers, rather a place to organize and distill all of the information they generate".

2) The main page now includes a list of all the people who originally found the link that has been popular enough for blogdex to track it. A couple of questions arise for me here. The first one is how blogdex distorts the popularity of these links by merely saying 'these links are popular' and the second is whether or not people can promote their own sites simply by trying to get onto one of those lists. That is - if I link to the current top link on blogdex without giving a damn about the content, then will I show up in the list of linkers, and will I receive traffic from that list? If so - this could lead to a gradual homogenisation of weblog content and a huge disparity between the 'top-ten linked-to' things and 'the rest'.

3) The Top Links of All Time is a strange little page. It tracks the top several hundred links that have been collated by blogdex over all the time the site has been running. But which links are incorporporated into this system is a bit of a mystery to me. I mean, as far as I know, Blogger itself hasn't been in the top ten of the site since it launched - and yet it is number one on this list with over 2/3rds of all the weblogs tracked containing a link to it. Is the main list excluding text-links that stay the same across a weblogs life. For example, I have a link to Davo on the right of this page all the time, but it's not part of the 'blog' itself - is this not included in the main list perhaps? And is it included on the 'top links' page?

I'm unclear about what exactly is being tracked. I would really like to know what is being tracked - I'd love to know whether (for example) cross links between weblogs are actually excluded from this ranking. If Jason said something stunningly apropros, or detailed a genius scheme for revitalising the web industry - I'd want links to it to be tracked. Otherwise, aren't we treating weblogs as a place which doesn't produce content, but just links to it? Where's the valuation of the commentary?

Nonetheless, this Top Links of All Time page makes fascinating reading. You can find plasticbag.org lurking on the second page at number 33 - only five places behind plastic.com and only six behind the godlike Zeldman. Implausible, but pleasant.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kudos to riothero and vodb.com STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2001 02:54:49 PM ----- BODY:

Kudos to riothero and vodb.com for the use of the Barbelith syndication script. Now all I need is to put up some more bloody articles. [I want a kitten]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick hello to everyone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2001 03:03:33 PM ----- BODY:

A quick hello to everyone redirected from machete 2.2. Hope you like the place.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How many people do you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2001 03:08:20 PM ----- BODY:

How many people do you think would secretly love to run this 404 error? I would. I'd love it. Favourite line? "If you would like Windows to screw everything up, click Screw everything up." [via NotSoSoft]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another month, another set of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2001 11:45:25 AM ----- BODY:

Another month, another set of overuse charges for barbelith.com. Thankfully, these have been the lowest such charges for a while, possibly due to my burn and purge attitude to heavier web graphics recently. Still, even a supplement of $16 is a pain in the arse when you can't pay the basic $30.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Philosophy of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2001 12:19:19 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Philosophy of Fan Fiction - "In other words, fanfiction as concept and practice can be central to one of the most important political / cultural / aesthetic problems of our time: is it possible to create anything new? Deva inquires."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It is 2.45pm and here STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2001 02:33:02 PM ----- BODY:

It is 2.45pm and here is the news from the BBC:

"On the 56th anniversary of the day that a war was won by the wholesale slaughter of a whole city full of people: Hiroshima remembers A-bomb.

"Is this the future of public internet access? Complete with brass covers and four modem points, an English Park Bench goes online."

"And on the day that Tom's American guest stays up until 7am watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, his countryman Ben Affleck enters rehab for problems with drink."

More news in our evening bulletin...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in love with the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2001 07:01:08 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in love with the look of Webmonkey at the moment. I know the redesign happened a while back, but it works so well and really looks like a site rather than a magazine or a bit of print design. Plus it's not afraid to play a little. I wonder if there's a way to automate that staggered blocks of taster-text so that I could do something like that with Greymatter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm quite fascinated by the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2001 10:42:55 PM ----- BODY:

I'm quite fascinated by the way that Netscape is developing it's cross-network infrastructure. It doesn't really make total sense to me, although there's some interesting stuff going on. The top navigation at Entertainment Weekly is now entirely Netscape branded - which means it's probably part of the AOL Time Warner monstrosity that is eating our planet. But all the navigation seems to go back to Netscape Central rather than to encouraging people around the rest of the Time Warner Sites (Mad Magazine for example) - which I find slightly strange.

Could this be the next form of advertising? Inbuilt navigation? Could TimeOut.com get revenue by placing a full block of someone else's navigation on the top of its front page?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just in case anyone had STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2001 12:37:48 PM ----- BODY:

Just in case anyone had not already heard, the new Star Wars film (Episode II) is to be called 'Attack of the Clones' - possibly the worst title of all time, after (maybe) 'The Phantom Menace'. Will this film suck as heavily as the last one did? Only time will tell...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: CNN has an interesting article STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2001 12:43:56 PM ----- BODY:

CNN has an interesting article on New Media Workers 'struggling to keep up' - which I think is a feeling that I completely identified with a couple of years ago, but don't so much nowadays. I think it's a question of establishing what you're good at and developing that angle of your working life. Having said that, I am, of course, unemployed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Curse you Jerwin... That fat STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2001 11:28:17 AM ----- BODY:

"Curse you Jerwin... That fat thigh comment was too much even for a diva of my stature to bear in good faith. I've had my bodyguard spike your Mai Tai with some methylated spirits and monkey pituitary gland. You will be Bob Hoskins before the week is through... Nyah hhahahaha." [what the fuck?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There is nothing more depressing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2001 11:49:53 AM ----- BODY:

There is nothing more depressing in this world than realising that you will never ever be able to afford a house on the salaries that you earn: BBC News: Property prices continue to rise.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's wrong with you people? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2001 11:58:06 AM ----- BODY:

What's wrong with you people? Why haven't any of you bought anything for Lance Arthur or Derek Powazek? Are you mad?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Favourites dump (1) (being a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 12:39:00 AM ----- BODY:

Favourites dump (1) (being a purge of all the links in my favourites menu): The Invisibles Cover Art Gallery, Scene One, Downside's Deathwatch, Dawson's Creek Music, Queer Company, UseIt.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm really tired and I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 12:45:06 AM ----- BODY:

I'm really tired and I'm really frayed around the edges. I'm in one of those moods where other people itch away at you, where your magically personal bubble (the thing that protects you and keeps you safe) keeps buckling and where things that should slide off you get stuck in your head and drive you insane.

A list of things that I know about:
1) I know a hell of a lot about web site usability, functionality and structuring.
2) I know a fair amount about assembling content for websites.
3) I know a decent amount about film.
4) I know a decent amount about continental philosophy, greek civilisation and literature.
5) I know a decent amount about art, graphic design and layout.

Jeez - I know lots about lots of stuff. I don't know why I suddenly have the need to assert it all.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Derek Powazek's book site 'Design STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 11:57:17 AM ----- BODY:

Derek Powazek's book site 'Design for Community' has relaunched and is pretty fine, although not as intuitive as one might like. It's got more heavily integrated discussion and 'weblog-like' characteristics than I've seen before, and appears to be a substantial step forward (in the community arena) from using software like Greymatter. The software is provided by Brand Ben Brown of Iloveben brown.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What happens when you plug STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 12:02:38 PM ----- BODY:

What happens when you plug Jeremy Paxman into Google. [via Katy KitschBItch]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The one thousandth link in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 12:23:52 PM ----- BODY:

The one thousandth link in the top links of all time section of Blogdex is gap.com. I make no comments about this. I merely found it interesting.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How much does it cost STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 12:33:23 PM ----- BODY:

How much does it cost to have a hit single? The BBC investigates. The interesting thing about this article is how people are finally beginning to think that the age of the single might be over - and that radioplay might become the next criteria for the UK charts - much as it has done in America. Which of course means that more power than ever lies in the hands of the companies that are trying to get the music played and on the radio stations to decide what we should be hearing. I'm not entirely comfortable with this. It's just a shame that downloads count for so little - actual downloads by real people might be a much more interesting model for chart action.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy spoilers via the astonishing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 04:04:55 PM ----- BODY:

Buffy spoilers via the astonishing prolific.org: Ain't it Cool News 1 and 2. They include a wonderful response to the question, "How much faith does Herc put in these spoilers?". The reply? "Tremendous faith. And more than a little kendra." Geddit?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Keith Waterhouse on weblogs? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/09/2001 06:39:39 PM ----- BODY:

Writing a good weblog can be, at times, much like writing a column for a newspaper. I've got an old article on writing a column which I'd like to put up in a public place. It's by Keith Waterhouse - an old Fleet Street columnist. He gives 25 points - not all of which, of course, are appropriate for the weblogger. Pick and choose.

1) It's not so much what you say as the way that you say it. Your column must have a distinctive voice, to the extent that if your byline were accidentally dropped, your readers would still know who was writing. If your style isn't instantly recognisable, what you have there is not a column but a signed article.

2) Every columnist needs a good half dozen hobby horses. But do not ride them to death. Once you have sounded off again about, say, Euro Bureaucracy, leave the subject alone for at least six months (unless you happen to be Christopher Booker). "I make no apologies for returning to..." is not an apology but an excuse.

3) Feeling passionate about a subject does not necessarily make it interesting reading. Veal is a good example: outside the news pages, no one has ever written an interesting word about veal.

4) The fact that your column contains no facts does not mean that you need not have checked them like any other journalist. In other words, you must be sure of your case. You are allowed to generalise - "Our children are the worst educated in Europe" only if your wild generalisations, when tamed, can be substantiated.

5) The more cuttings you accumulate, the more you will be tempted to offload them on your readers, like the celebrated Scottish leader writer who, returning late from a liquid lunch with a deadline to meet, clipoed the main leader from the Times, scrawled "What does the Times mean by this?" above it and sent it down to the printer. Packing the column with other people's quotes is the columnar equivalent of watering the milk. Assimilate the material and then discard it.

6) Avoid kneejerk reactions. You don't necessarily have to produce a paragraph every time Fergie does something stupid or a politician's wife announces that she's standing by him. If the readers can predict what you're going to say, there's little point in saying it - and even less in their reading it.

7) Let the bandwagon roll by. Even if every columnist in the land is commenting on the mother unjustly sent to prison or the teacher who handcuffed the child to a radiator, you don't have to jump aboard unless you have something to say that the others haven't already said.

8) On the other hand, although it's not always necessary to write about the main news event of the day, there are times when the occasion demands it. Given a Hillsborough disaster, for example, there is no point in writing about anything else since nobody will be talking about anything else.

9) Let the leader writer write the leader.

10) Having something to write about is not the same as having something to say. If you really have no opinions to speak of beyond, say, liking Princess Di and not liking Prince Charles, you are in the wrong job and perhaps even in the wrong trade.

11) Don't ever try to fake it. Nothing is so transparent as insincerity - pile on the adjectives though you may, false indignation has the ring of a counterfeit coin.

12) Your thoughts on mobile phones in railway carriages have already been thought. Likewise your musings on muzak in pubs.

13) It is 106 years since Jerome K Jerome related his difficulties in trying to open a tin of pineapple in Three Men In A Boat. Unless you can improve this classic account, keep your problems with packaging to yourself.

14) Notwithstanding Bernard Levin's celebrated intervention with the Gas Board on behalf of his mother, a column should not be used to pursue a personal grudge against a public utility company, bank, supermarket, commuter line etc. unless it is going to ring bells with most of your readers.

15) Does anyone care about St George's Day? No. So why keep on asking, year after year, why no one cares about St George's Day.

16) Be wary about following up items clipped from local papers - unless you are writing for the local paper. References to the barmy burghers of Brent or the wacky wimmin of Wolverhapton do not usually travel well, unless they have a wider implication.

17) Although you may allow your readers a few restricted glimpses into your private life, no one really wants to hear about your personal ups and downs any more than they want to hear about the lady next door's operation. So your daughter got into university. Tell your mother. If you tell the readers, you will only infuriate those whose daughters didn't get into university.

18) If you must write about your holidays, do it on picture postcards to family and friends. This rule particularly applies should you be tempted to drool on about five course meals consumed in Normandy with all the wine you could drink and change out of 30 francs.

19) Do not expose your spouse to the glare of the public - especially not by the whimsical name of Him Indoors or She Who Must Be Obeyed. The same goes for the misadventures or quirky comments of your family and the daffy behaviour of your family's dog.

20) There is no real need to mention that you have been on radio or television again. Your readers no longer regard it as any big deal.

21) If your second topic begins, "Talking of which", "Which reminds me", or "While on the subject", you have picked the wrong second topic. However the item does start, it should metaphorically say, "And now for something completely different."

22) Should you wear a hat, do not ever offer to eat it. Predictions are for astrologers. If you do make a prediction and you are wrong, as you are almost certain to be, don't start your subsequent column with the words "All right, so I have egg on my face". Forget it. Your readers already have.

23) Bitchy comments on the private lives or personal tastes of the famous have enlivened many a column, but there is a point at which they can tip over into mere mud slinging. A good question is: "Why am I saying this?" If the answer is "Because I want to be the new Jean Rook", spike it.

24) Columnar feuds are amusing to other columnists and may even yield them copy, provided they don't mind living vicariously. The readers, or what Craig Brown describes as "that diminishing minority of people who do not write newspaper columns" find them bemusing.

25) Make up your own catchphrases. "I think we should be told," being six words, is the copyright of Sir John Junor.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spread the word: "life is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2001 08:34:39 PM ----- BODY:

Spread the word: "life is the mayonnaise through which we squirt".

And now to answer the call to action. Jason coincidentally put up a post about pre-web writings on the same day I stumbled upon a confessional diary of my teenage years. A few selections purely for the purposes of self-abasement follow:

Sunday 15th April 1990 "The problem with most people is that they are fixated with sex. Of course, I miss the ability to fit in with other people's sexuality, but even homosexuals seem to categorise themselves solely by orientation. Going to gay bars seems to me to be a self-defeating idea. We will never be fully accepted if we always isolate ourselves in this way. With homosexuals, I suppose this is almost acceptable. I mean, our sexuality is repressed and constrained most of our adolescence and sometimes all our life. When released, sex could easily become the only thing on our minds. I vow now that this will never happen to me."

Monday 16th April 1990 "Someone ought to tell my parents that having kids is more important than just having someone small and cuddly to look sweet when clean."

Thursday 26th April 1990 "This day has been horrific. About 2 hours ago, I crashed and totally wrecked my car. God, I am depressed."

Friday 27th April "The entire incident happened so quickly. I just popped out for a drive in my little car, thinking I could go and get some petrol. I got the petrol, and on the way back, I put on some music. I swerved to avoid something, skidded right over to the other side of the road, tried to regain control of the car, turned the car over and crashed into a wall and a tree. I found that I couldn't get out of the doors and had to struggle out of the boot. The car is a total write-off. I went into a nearby house and called grandad and had a cup of tea and then the police arrived and the breakdown truck et al. God! I had a breathalizer test, but I haven't had a drink since Saturday, so there was absolutely no reaction. Eventually got home feeling tired and shaken. I needed to tell someone so I rang up Tony and talked to him for about an hour. Eventually got to bed, but found it difficult to sleep. Still worrying about what mum will say."

Wednesday 2nd May "Really interesting day. I'll tell you about it after Dallas."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another example of the complete STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2001 10:52:54 AM ----- BODY:

Another example of the complete moral bankrupcy of politicians. Despite being vehemently opposed to abortion, Bush OKs Stem Cell Funding. Presumably abortion doesn't have the potential for profit that stem-cell research does.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Derek has a new book STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2001 11:19:20 AM ----- BODY:

Derek has a new book out. You should go buy yourself a copy of this book. And when you have done with the 'buying-yourself-a-copy' thing, you should go and buy me a copy. Then you can relax. But not until then. You understand?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Obsessed with Flash movies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2001 01:55:40 PM ----- BODY:

Matt is currently obsessed by flash movies. Completely obsessed. The latest one he's found (and posted to Haddock is Thatcher, fish and bunny dominated. Entertaining, but odd.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Up until five in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2001 03:44:50 PM ----- BODY:

Up until five in the morning talking with Ralph. I'm completely exhausted today. It's nearly four in the afternoon and I'm not even vaguely ready for the world.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More news than you might STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2001 12:47:33 AM ----- BODY:

More news than you might ever have actually wanted: "Christine Hamilton eyed me up and down then asked me if I'd ever tried it with a woman."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bring out the homoerotics of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2001 12:13:38 PM ----- BODY:

Bring out the homoerotics of superheroes - the World's Finest Superhero Team-Ups. Can you identify them all? Warning: Contains pictures of men snogging each other. [via Barbelith Underground]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been planning to write STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2001 12:38:20 PM ----- BODY:

I've been planning to write an article for Barbelith for a while now about the inherent facism of super-heroes. Today I found some interesting support for my case - an article by David Brin at Salon about despotism and egalitarianism in two of the most significant science-fiction franchises. Well worth a read: "Star Wars" despots vs. "Star Trek" populists.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All teen crushes are embarrassing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2001 03:52:18 PM ----- BODY:

All teen crushes are embarrassing I suppose. In the spirit of self revelation, here are links to a few of mine: Dirk Benedict, Steve Guttenberg and Patrick Duffy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Planet of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2001 04:08:27 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Planet of the 80s TV remakes - "Old TV series never die, they just bring out the film. It happened with the Flintstones. It happened with Scooby Doo. And now it's happening ñ or so Dame Rumour would have us believe ñ with the A-Team. Whisky Priestess reports."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More wisdom from Derek Powazek STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2001 11:25:11 AM ----- BODY:

More wisdom from Derek Powazek : Top Five Tips for Online Community.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Entertaining Ralph (Part Two)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2001 11:27:21 AM ----- BODY:

Entertaining Ralph for a the last week and a bit has been extremely entertaining, but has left me hopelessly behind on the working front. I have a huge block of stuff to get done by four this afternoon. Huge.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Well I'm down on my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2001 03:31:32 PM ----- BODY:

"Well I'm down on my knees again, And I pray to the only one, Who has the strength, To bear the pain, To forgive all the things that I've done. Oh yeah, Lead me into your darkness, When this world is trying it's hardest, To leave me unimpressed, Just one caress, From you and I'm blessed. I have to believe that sin, Can make a better man, It's the mood that I am in, That's left us back where we began."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Blogger API... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2001 01:38:56 PM ----- BODY:

Dave Winer goes into details about the new Blogger API in an article called Connecting with Blogger. I'm not entirely sure I understand why this is such a revolutionary step forward, but I would like to know. Can someone explain it to me?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Darren, the Link Machine, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2001 01:57:28 PM ----- BODY:

Via Darren, the Link Machine, comes an article on joint mortgages between friends, which I have to say had never even entered my head before now.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I went for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2001 02:11:12 PM ----- BODY:

Last night I went for dinner at Meg, Luke and Davo's Big Blogger household. Davo cooked a quite delicious salmon dish in the dishwasher. Don't ask. Also in attendance: Mo Morgan, Paul Digitaltrickery, Ralph and Catherine. Funniest moment? Partial game of Articulate.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tired. Hot. Irritable. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2001 05:12:36 PM ----- BODY:

Tired. Hot. Irritable.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a strange relationship STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/14/2001 05:15:35 PM ----- BODY:

I have a strange relationship to temping. Or perhaps it's not strange at all. I'm doing some freelance work for a friend at the moment so I may be occupied most of the time, but the prospect of the money from two days temping still appeals to me. What doesn't appeal is actually doing the temping, which appalls me beyond the counting of it. So I get a phone call from the temp company and I vacillate and I sound really torn on the phone, then they go away to check something and I don't hear back from them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm getting very bored with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2001 12:16:34 AM ----- BODY:

I'm getting very bored with discussions about meetings about issues in my house. I just want to be left alone to get on with things. I'm very easy to please really.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because I'm a sad sad STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2001 12:05:47 PM ----- BODY:

Because I'm a sad sad man: Buffy and Angel spoilers and news: Who might be Angel's nemesis this year?, Buffy's Musical episode and ... Eddie Izzard?. Need I say more?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm thinking that I should STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2001 04:51:43 PM ----- BODY:

I'm thinking that I should annotate every single minute of a day. Maybe. I could spend the day noting down everything I did as I did it, and carry a digicam with me. Then for all the bits that I missed, I could (perhaps) go and reconstruct it afterwards. I could record all my conversations onto MD and then plug it in the back of my Mac and see if I could rip MP3s from it. So you could hear what kind of funny things people get up to in my world. I may sound like I'm taking the piss, but I'm honestly not. The whole thing sounds like an excellent project. [inspired indirectly by the awesome dinnerblog's reconstruction of the meal I went to the other night. And before anyone asks, no this is not a dig. I think it's really cool.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An annoying problem for you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/16/2001 03:38:24 AM ----- BODY:

An annoying problem for you to work through (e-mailed to me by an old friend in Bristol and subsequently sent to Haddock.org):

Imagine there are three doors in front of you. Behind one of the doors is a brand new iBook. Behind the other two lurk buckets of maggots. You want the iBook and you don't want the maggots. There's a doorman waiting to open one of the doors for you, but only one.

You decide which door you wish to open, and tell the doorman. He looks at you with a sparkle in his eyes and says he'd like to make it interesting. Turning to one of the doors you didn't select, he whips it open to reveal a bucket of maggots. "There," he says, "That should make it a little easier for you. Now do you want to stay with your first choice of door, or do you want to switch to the other one?" You look at him as if he were a drooling fool. Do you stick or do you switch?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I decided to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/16/2001 10:48:25 AM ----- BODY:

Last night I decided to watch Chasing Amy on TV, and remembered why I like it so much. Then I decided to go to bed. It was around 2.00am. I check my e-mail first, and find a link to a game on Lego.com: Junkbot. I play it for a little while. I then glance up to my clock. It's 4.00am.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dear Simon, While I am STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/16/2001 06:35:17 PM ----- BODY:

Dear Simon, While I am delighted to hear that you got the A-levels that you required to go to Surrey, I have to point out one major thing. I bloody told you so. It's difficult to get worked up by someone's concerns about their exam performance when you know that they'll be fine. Silly bastard. While we are at it, I hate you for the redesign, because it's really nice, and I still don't understand why you chose Surrey of all places. Jeez.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The answer to yesterday's puzzle: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 10:46:40 AM ----- BODY:

The answer to yesterday's puzzle: If you want another perspective on the problem then wander over to NotSoSoft where Meg has explained it all. Other people also got the answer correct, but weren't nearly as forthcoming about the process. Here's my solution for you all:

Here are the three doors:

---1---   ---2---   ---3---

Behind one of the doors is the thing we want. Behind the other two are things we don't want. We select a door, but before it is opened, another door is opened to reveal a thing we don't want and we are offered the choice to switch from our original choice to the other door.

Let's assume that we chose door one, as it doesn't make much difference which one we select. Here are the potential variations:

---1---   ---2---   ---3---
GOOD   BAD   BAD

---1---   ---2---   ---3---
BAD   GOOD   BAD

---1---   ---2---   ---3---
BAD   BAD   GOOD

At this stage then, we have a one in three chance of being correct. At this point one of doors two or three is opened to reveal a BAD thing. The doors that CAN be opened to reveal a bad thing are bold below (don't forget we have selected door one so that can't be opened):

---1---   ---2---   ---3---
GOOD   BAD   BAD

---1---   ---2---   ---3---
BAD   GOOD   BAD

---1---   ---2---   ---3---
BAD   BAD   GOOD

If you STICK in the first variation you will definitely win, but in either of the other two you will definitely lose. If you SWITCH, in the first variation you will definitely *lose*. In the second and third variations you will definitely win. Which means the chances of you winning if you STICK remain 1/3, but the chances of winning if you SWITCH are 2/3. Therefore you should switch.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Horror of horrors: I am STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 11:02:21 AM ----- BODY:

Horror of horrors: I am not nearly as woolly a liberal as I had initially hoped: "More of a damp and flaccid liberal, you'd like the world to be a little better - you just don't want to have to make the effort yourself. So, you once went on a demo and you watch Children in Need and you voted Labour last time round. But don't kid yourself - that shrivelled and underused liberal conscience impresses nobody." [via the Dragonthief]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a long-standing interest STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 11:44:07 AM ----- BODY:

I have a long-standing interest in issues of cryptography - particularly as it relates to privacy laws. I've become increasingly aware of the presence of surveillance cameras over the last three or four years, and have followed the development of face-recognition software closely. I recently got sent a copy of as a present off my wishlist, and I ploughed through it at a phenomenal rate. While it wasn't as technically illuminating as either The Code Book or the extraordinary (and must-read) novel Cryptonomicon, it did cover the level of NSA interference in the development of cryptography very well. At the back of my mind, though, I've always been convinced that whatever they may say, the NSA must be close to developing either some level of quantum computing or some kind of system for factoring large numbers - both of which would signal the end of much of the security that encryption currently provides. But according to an article at the BBC, this is far from the case. In fact the NSA is asking for more and more money to find some way to fight the rapid spread of strong encryption around the world.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the spirit of encryption STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 11:52:17 AM ----- BODY:

In the spirit of encryption - and to encourage people to start using PGP as standard - you may now send me encrypted e-mails via tom%40plasticbag.org. All you have to do is install PGP and look up my public key on the PGP servers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's currently a job going STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 12:22:42 PM ----- BODY:

There's currently a job going at the BBC and you can apply for it online and I'm completely obsessed with it. I need this job. I crave this job. But because of that, I've been putting off applying for it all week. I want my application to be perfect. It has to be great. It's too intimidating a project. If I don't get it, I'll be incredibly depressed. It's got to be done today otherwise I miss the deadline. I feel ill.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting piece on Microsoft's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 10:46:23 PM ----- BODY:

An interesting piece on Microsoft's Smart Tagging Plans doesn't say anything I haven't heard before. The plan, it appears is for software that automatically inserts links into browsed web pages, links that Microsoft is the point of exchange for. Hence, your anti-gun site could be filled with links to promotional literature for the NRA. Or more prosaically, a web business that's already reeling from an inability to make money will find itself crippled by drops in traffic. Is this the future of the web? Certainly it seems to be a step away from the madly anarchic non-hierarchical net of today...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live: At this very moment, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2001 10:54:13 PM ----- BODY:

Live: At this very moment, Zeldman is playing Photoshop Tennis. Much cooler and more geeky than you can possibly imagine. The game's only half-way through. Check back tomorrow for the final results.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ralphy old chap, you're missing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2001 12:02:48 AM ----- BODY:

Ralphy old chap, you're missing the point. It's not that we make fun of Americans. It's just that we make fun of each other, and the first thing we noticed about you is that you're American. Love ya, baby.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm at home watching STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2001 12:20:52 AM ----- BODY:

So I'm at home watching television and I'm really excited about watching Will and Grace because I'm obsessed that the two main characters can't really be as dull as they actually appear to be, and I'm consumed with the sense that they might even one day be able to make me laugh. But no. They're just there. Neither of them are people I'd want to hang out with. Supporting cast is, of course, another matter. But Will and Grace themselves? No.

And it's the Halloween episode and it's kind of shit and I start counting how many times I've laughed by about half way through the program and it isn't difficult because it's '1' time and it remains one time until the end of the episode. Which is depressing. And half way through the damn episode they put an advert for the new Angel boxset on. And I listen and I get all tweaked because it's out on Monday. Not that I want to buy it you understand, but because the Buffy boxset is also out then and I MUST HAVE IT. Who can I sell, I'm asking myself. Who can I sell to buy that. And then Will and Grace comes on again and rigorously sucks arse for another twenty minutes.

Buffy. Our love is god.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A lot of people recently STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2001 02:26:26 PM ----- BODY:

A lot of people recently have been doing work based around entirely CSS-based sites. Some of the latest tricks and tips have been written up over at A List Apart. My question with a lot of this stuff is where it ceases to be useful. Take the design of plasticbag.org for example. I think it makes clear and logical sense visually, but it doesn't necessarily only have components within it that translate well into structural markup. When you reach the edge of what CSS can do (and retain the point of CSS - to be cross-browser, clear, elegant and more importantly STRUCTURAL) don't you inevitably end up with tables again? Isn't that inevitable at the moment? And possibly long-term as well.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark on stuff: (1) "If STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2001 03:36:57 PM ----- BODY:

Mark on stuff: (1) "If fruit tasted so good that they artificially flavored candy like it, why don't people eat actual 'green apples' or 'watermelons'?" (2) "I partially spent the night outside on a hammock. I say partially because I fell off in my sleep and spent part of the night on my concrete patio. And then another part, from 4:40am onward, I came inside, because the flowers were making popping noises and I wanted to be where it was safe. " (3) "I'm fascinated by how tic tac toe evolutionized into the game Connect Four." (4) "I'm flying to Missouri for a bigmac."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm really hungry, so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2001 03:40:51 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm really hungry, so I go to the shop to get some kind of reasonable food and I get a big bottle of coke and some frozen pizza and a packet of cigarettes and some little foamy strawberry sweets and I get home and sit on the sofa and I heat up the oven and eat all the strawberry sweets and drink lots of coke and watch TV and then I get my pizza out and eat about a third of it before I feel full and slightly sick and ill. The point of this story? Nothing you tell people as children sinks in even the slightest little bit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And now for your aprés-Blogadoon: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2001 04:12:43 PM ----- BODY:

And now for your aprés-Blogadoon: The Telegraph reports that the police have been told not to call gays homosexuals. Couple of quick addenda to that - I'm not entirely sure that the word 'gays' is particularly appropriate either, thanks very much. Anymore than 'blacks' would be. In fact if everyone would just get used to calling poofs and dykes 'sir' and 'madam', everything would probably be much more entertaining.

Aside: 'Homosexual' is a really grim word, associated with saying 'you have a disorder'. It's like saying you are a 'influenzal' - both defining the person by their sexuality and simultaneously defining the sexuality as a defect. And before anyone says anything, "heterosexual" is both a later word and a later concept and was mostly only used in cases where someone had to assert that they weren't gay or when the goal of heterosexuality was enforced on poor deviants via electroshock, aversion therapy and hormone supplements.

Second aside: I feel a bit sorry for straight people on this one actually, because they can't call gay people "poofs", "fags", "dykes", "queers" or any of that stuff without people thinking they are weird facists. Whereas I can. Except of course that I seem to have an anti-gay reputation in some of British media because they didn't know I was a big smelly poof and think I'm being serious. Which of course I am.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to Dave, Google is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/20/2001 01:33:56 PM ----- BODY:

According to Dave, Google is now spidering many weblogs every single day. That means lots of timely content from your favourite sites can be found immediately via your favourite search engine. Doesn't appear to have been indexing plasticbag.org, but hey.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ongoing battles in America over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/20/2001 01:39:37 PM ----- BODY:

Ongoing battles in America over privacy rights have taken a new turn with the introduction of face-scanning cameras. In parts of England this has been implemented for several months in Newham, with little or no protest whatsoever. I love Big Brother.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just went to see STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2001 08:53:20 PM ----- BODY:

I just went to see a press preview of Joy Ride at 20th Century Fox's offices in London. It's not the best film ever made, but it's a pretty terrifying piece of scary cinema with only a few on-course embarrassments. Imagine Scream without the humour smacked together with a more than sizeable dollop of Duel and you won't go far wrong. More on this later.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh thank god. Metafilter is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2001 09:08:48 PM ----- BODY:

Oh thank god. Metafilter is back.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Blogdex: Such an amusing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2001 09:23:30 PM ----- BODY:

Via Blogdex: Such an amusing piece of entertaining flash animation that it's amazing that Matt hasn't already linked to it: Bunny Hunter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: The Body STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2001 12:01:34 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: The Body Fictive - "As fanfiction becomes more popular on the internet, does anyone stop to think whether professional writers find the use of their characters and worlds painful and debilitating? Is creativity a technology of identity? Nick C investigates."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt Haughey talks to Derek STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2001 11:20:50 AM ----- BODY:

Matt Haughey talks to Derek Powazek about designing and running community sites [excerpt from Derek's Design for Community book]. Many of the conversations ring very true for my relationship with Barbelith, including this one: "Don't underestimate the commitment required. Done right, a community site will take a lot of your time, and the payoffs, in whatever form you set for yourself as goals, may not come for a very long time. I put in hundreds of hours and nursed the site along for six months before anyone really noticed. Looking back at the start of MetaFilter, if I were as busy then as I am now in my personal life, I doubt I would have had time to properly launch, build, and maintain the project. If I knew how much personal free time I'd give up for the site going in, I probably would have had second thoughts about it. Also remember that once you get the site going, stopping it is almost out of the question."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All around the web at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2001 01:17:08 PM ----- BODY:

All around the web at the moment: How Coca Cola tries to stop people asking for water in restaurants.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "I go through all this, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2001 09:19:06 PM ----- BODY:

"I go through all this, before you wake up, so I can be happier to be safe up here with you."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Click. Whirr. Crackle. Hi, This STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2001 09:53:20 PM ----- BODY:

Click. Whirr. Crackle. Hi, This is Tom Coates. I'm sorry I'm unavailable to meet your weblogging needs. I am currently out drinking with Mo Morgan at the Warrington Hotel. Please leave your jibe after the tone. Clunk. Chack. Bump. BEEP.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's an article over at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 10:36:40 AM ----- BODY:

There's an article over at guardian.co.uk about weblogs this morning. Which means, of course, that it's also in the Online supplement of the magazine. As usual the article is prescriptive - it informs the world what makes a good weblog, intentionally or not. This time, the byword of a quality weblog is personal content.

"The basic premise, however, has remained unchanged. Imagine your own precious little black book (probably a distant teenage memory now) spread open for the world to see. All your hopes, mistakes, peeves and secrets made public but lurking anonymously in the depths of a search engine, daring to be discovered. "

Now, regular long-standing readers and writers of weblogs know that they are a fickle beast and that they change and shift in response to pressures in your life. For example, for the last few weeks I have been short of money, working from home and having remarkably little contact with the outside world. So where does my content come from? The things that I stumble upon from around the web. Links. But that's not all. Long-standing webloggers are also generally aware that people they know read their writing - even if only very occasionally. Some may even have friends who read and write sites of their own. Bits of your life become circumscribed - 'no write' zones. You're not being dishonest, but you have to limit your subject matter. Personal content is the first to go - and over time it becomes harder to find, produce and put online.

Needless to say, I read this article and felt that (while I think that it is missing the variety of weblog content) I had forgotten to write about my life for several months now. I'm going to think about how I might reintroduce it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Greetings from Thoco Horea, Setpolo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 10:50:14 AM ----- BODY:

Greetings from Thoco Horea, Setpolo of Dutonin. [Discover your Star Wars name at parris.josh.com.au, via Lukelog and The Barbelith Underground.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Genius. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 11:07:09 AM ----- BODY:

Genius.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The life cycle of a meme... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 12:15:46 PM ----- BODY:

The life cycle of a meme: I'm currently obsessed by the NASA fakes Moonlanding page that has been circulating around the web recently. I first noticed it a few days ago on a routine trip to Brainsluice. Davo had been sent an e-mail with astonishingly amusing copy in it, and had decided to republish it. I read it, collapsed laughing and passed on. Next thing I saw, it was high in blogdex's charts, and then I saw it on Metafilter. Several days later, it is still at #3 over at Blogdex and over thirty-eight separate sites are linking to it. The latest news is that it has apparently resurfaced 'topside' once more. Davo informs me that a friend of his received an e-mail linking to brainsluice.com, telling them to check out the moonlanding page.

Of course there are dangers associated with pages becoming wildly successful, the most significant of which is vast and unpleasant bandwidth bills. But most of us experience such surges only very occasionally (if at all). But the interesting thing for me in this is how you can almost track the spread of this page as it moves from site to site, language to language, and even begins to change media. Most interestingly, we remain unaware of the stories actual origins, although through some research I stumbled upon this Google cache of a page that is no longer up and running.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So, Blogger is two years STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 12:45:49 PM ----- BODY:

So, Blogger is two years old. Which means that this weblog can only be three months off from it's second birthday as well. Originally known as barbelith, this weblog and I have had much fun with Blogger over the last couple of years. I've met a lot of people, written a hell of a lot of words and scratched together some fairly amiable designs along the way. I'm raising a glass and I'm saying cheers to everyone who remembers when Blogger looked like this (and this). Particularly to Megnut, Ev, Derek and Jason.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's the most important album of your life? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 08/23/2001 02:06:29 PM ----- BODY:

Paul Simon: Graceland It's 1986. I'm fourteen years old. I've had a few albums bought for me before, but I'm basically illiterate when it comes to popular music. I'm living in a village of eighty people, ten miles away from my nearest friend. My brother is one year old. I spend most of my time in my room - reading and listening to the radio. The outside world seems a hundred thousand miles away.

One day I buy Graceland. Essentially it's the first album I ever really bought myself. And I got it because I'd heard 'You Can Call Me Al' on the radio. And I'd liked it. In many ways it set the tone for the rest of my teenage years - thoughtful before my time, disconnected from deep disturbing bodily urges, unsettled and slightly jaded.

There are a hundred times I can remember involving the album. I played it until the tape died. Then I waited a couple of years and bought the CD. It was an album that my mother listened to with me in her Vauxhall Astra on the way into school on frosty winter mornings, my legs only recently out of grey short-trousers. It was the album that played when Glyn, Simon and I wandered around the south of England in my rusty yellow Polo, when I was eighteen. As I get older I get less up-tight, less nervous. And Graceland grows with me.

"Over the mountain, down in the valley, lives a former talk show host. Everybody knows his name. He says there's no doubt about it, It was the myth of fingerprints. I've seen them all and man, they're all the same."

What's the most important album of your life?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rich EMAIL: shout@antisocial.me.uk IP: 212.159.116.212 URL: DATE: 09/27/2003 09:22:39 PM good call it was a beat up coped tape of gracelands i had as a teenager that got me started on a life long habit of falling asleep with a walkman or stereo plugged into my ears. that entire albums imprinted on my frontal lobes someplace :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Looks like I'm not the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 03:48:13 PM ----- BODY:

Looks like I'm not the only person with a love of Graceland.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Working from home, short of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 05:56:17 PM ----- BODY:

Working from home, short of cash, recovering from houseguests, thinking about my future. There's a fair amount of stuff in my head at the moment. I go out so infrequently at the moment (compounded by working from home) that I've almost forgotten what it is to enjoy other people's company. It all seems like a tremendous hassle. And I wonder if it's making me antisocial. Every so often I forget how comforting I find my own company. And then on other occasions it occurs to you that it's a way of avoiding taking your place in the world. I think about what job I might get - whether the BBC will be interested in my application or not. And I think, if they are, what will it be like? Will it feel like I'm moving forward? Or am I killing time? And I think about love and sex and romance. And how I've decided against all of them. Or how they've decided against me. And how I'm happy with that. And I wonder, deep down, am I really?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My flatmate is looking for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2001 06:17:12 PM ----- BODY:

My flatmate is looking for a house. I should be happy for her, but I'm not. The reason? My current work state is so sporadic and occasional that I just can't be sure that should she move out, and if I was then forced to move, that would be able to afford a flat or guarantee that I would get it. Every time she mentions it, I get a shiver of fear. What happens then? What would I do?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've changed my mind. Now STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 10:03:20 AM ----- BODY:

I've changed my mind. Now I want to win.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of those really nice STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 10:06:41 AM ----- BODY:

One of those really nice things to happen to a guy when he's not paying attention: Haddock's hiatus page is all, you know, nice.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Flash cartoon of the moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 10:17:44 AM ----- BODY:

Flash cartoon of the moment is Karma Ghost in which every time you do something bad, a little tiny ghost sits on your head and looks for an opportunity to fuck up your life. All I can think is that my head my have a hotel of the damn things set up on it - and the worst thing is that I can't quite figure out why they would have decided to pick on me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now this is the kind STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 10:28:35 AM ----- BODY:

Now this is the kind of challenge that I think people in the design / weblog crossover community should seriously consider undertaking more often. 37signals decide to design a usable online banking experience. Seems to me that there's an interesting project - develop a site where people can develop their own, and comment on other people's, interfaces for many of the sites that we see around the net all the time - e-mail / calendar / banking / e-commerce etc. The feedback that people could develop between each other could actually lead to more intelligent intuitive interfaces - and if they were developed as open source or concept, then the whole net might benefit. Interested?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Watch in awed astonishment as STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 02:32:41 PM ----- BODY:

Watch in awed astonishment as Tom decides to 'think big'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Ohh, can't anybody see? We've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 04:54:48 PM ----- BODY:

"Ohh, can't anybody see? We've got a war to fight. Never found our way, regardless of what they say. How can it feel this wrong? From this moment, how can it feel this wrong? Storm - in the morning light I feel. No more can I say, frozen to myself. I got nobody on my side, and surely that ain't right. Surely that ain't right. Oh can't anybody see? We've got a war to fight - never found our way, regardless of what they say. How can it feel this wrong? From this moment - how can it feel this wrong?" [Portishead: Roads]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Local homosexual foils raid... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 06:46:04 PM ----- BODY:

Local homosexual foils raid: In startling news this afternoon, local homosexual Tom Coates foiled a robbery on his own and his neighbours flat in Maida Vale. Tom Coates, 29, said today, "I was just watching TV in the sitting room when I heard people banging on our front door. I thought nothing of it, as the building's doorbell hadn't been rung and we've had a lot of builders and people dropping off circulars. But when the banging continued for a couple of minutes, I decided to go to the door - only to discover two teenagers with bags and crowbars trying to prise open the door of the flat. After watching them run down the stairs, I proceeded to grab my mobile and jump out onto the balcony so I could call the police and see where they went. Shortly afterwards I discovered that the next-door flat's door-locks had been completely prised open. I'll be talking to the police shortly." More at eleven...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wish I had a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/24/2001 09:00:36 PM ----- BODY:

I wish I had a digital camera, so I could have chronicled this afternoon in an entirely voyeuristic way. About half an hour ago, the police arrived to talk to me about the attempted burglary on my flat. When they realised that my neighbours had been broken into as well they went in and had a look around, and it was agreed fairly swiftly that the place had been pretty well raided. They're still not back from their night out, so as yet they don't know what's happened. I've had to leave our front door open and put a note on their door to tell them to come around to ours before they go in - so they don't disturb too much evidence. Apparently the police will take casts of the marks made by the crowbars so that if they catch them in the future they'll have evidence against the people who tried to break into their place.

The policemen came into my flat for a few minutes to get my statement straight and immediately commented on the life-size cutout of Buffy that Kate and Nick got me for my birthday. "That's the kind of woman I'd like to have," said one. "She'd never have a bloody headache." Short of saying, "Hello, my name's Tom and I don't sleep with women, I didn't really know how to reply to the man's attempts at frustrated-man bonding. So I replied, "She's really convenient actually - if you're having guests around she can fit under the sofa." Then he saw Mella's life-size Angel cut-out and made a confused face. It's the little things that entertain me.

The weirdest thing about the whole event is how quickly you doubt what you saw. My first impressions of one of the perpetrators were that he was 5'6", slightly podgy, dark-hair, wearing a loose white t-shirt and being about 16 or 17 years old. But when they started asking me if I saw the crowbar that he was carrying, or whether he wore shorts or trousers, I became really confused. I seem to remember him carrying a crowbar, but I can't be sure. And I think he was wearing shorts, but again - I might be wrong. I remember one was carrying a large empty white translucent plastic bag though. One with square edges - unmarked - like a high class clothes store bag.

The most annoying thing about the whole thing is how I can't go out this evening - how someone has to be here all night for the neighbours. It's very frustrating. I wonder who let them into the building.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ignore the griping, embrace the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2001 10:57:15 AM ----- BODY:

Ignore the griping, embrace the wonder and launch yourself straight over to Wil Wheaton's Weblog. Will used to star as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. My favourite line from the Metafilter posts: "I am 17 years of age. Wil Wheaton is almost as familiar to me as, well, something really old."

I'm going to get asked why I like this so much. I can't explain it. There's something so geek-cool about it, combined with the wonder that there's someone on the other side of the minor celebrity wall who's prepared to be as ridiculous as the rest of us. It's a combination of bravery, chutzpah and a complete refusal to go all corporate and ridiculously celebrity-site-ish that endears it to me.

And Metafilter keeps coming with the good lines: "TV's Wil Wheaton transcends the A-list" [said by Succaland]. If I met him, I'd buy him a beer (along with Steve).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Be honest - how often STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2001 12:49:57 PM ----- BODY:

Be honest - how often do you feel like this?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Burglary update: So the neighbours STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2001 12:54:55 PM ----- BODY:

Burglary update: So the neighbours finally arrive back at their flat around one in the morning, and one of them gets scarily angry as I'm trying to explain what's happened and the other one looks at me like I did it, and then bursts into tears. Once they've had a few moments to look around they come around for a cup of tea and I feel really responsible in some bizarre way because I had to tell them. They call the police for the follow-up meeting, but the police can't do anything until the next day because of a suspect package on the A40. Kate, Mella and I gradually realise that they have a much more adult life than we seem to. I feel slightly embarrassed.

Once they've gone, I try to relax, but I'm completely wired and I don't know why. My heart feels tight and buzzing and I can't sit still or relax. I watch TV until everyone else has gone to bed and then fall asleep on some cushions on the floor for the second time in the last week.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Underground is currently discussing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2001 01:42:00 PM ----- BODY:

The Underground is currently discussing the relationship between creative work and personal identity - or to put it another way, is fanfiction a liberation of creative work or a violation of creator's imaginative life? It's a discussion that I'm really enjoying - and it's based upon Nick's article The Body Fictive. Very much recommended.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm very tired and fairly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2001 08:35:57 PM ----- BODY:

I'm very tired and fairly hassled, and some good friends of mine are having a party that I really want to go to, but simultaneously (because I'm going to Norfolk tomorrow and because I've been all around town, trying to cheer up friends, and because I've been dealing with the threat of burglary and the neighbours fixing their door and the police and the like) I would really rather stay at home, watch some television and try and get some work done for Danny - the guy I'm freelancing for at the moment.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "I am a white STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/25/2001 08:45:26 PM ----- BODY:

"I am a white male, Caucasian, about five feet, nine inches. I weigh 150lbs. I have no visible marks on my body. I have no memory of any events prior to waking up in the hospital in November of 1999." He sounds like a Classicist.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is this the best weblog STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/26/2001 09:21:01 AM ----- BODY:

Is this the best weblog post on the internet at the moment?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sporadic updates for the Bank STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/26/2001 09:39:04 AM ----- BODY:

Sporadic updates for the Bank Holiday weekend as Tom proceeds to Norfolk to visit his family.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It was Simon's birthday yesterday. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2001 09:59:23 AM ----- BODY:

It was Simon's birthday yesterday. Simon is cool. You will wish him a happy belated birthday from me. You will buy him presents, to express your love. You will plague him with offers of your body. You will beg him to allow himself to sate himself sexually upon you. Ok?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My computer keeps crashing today. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2001 01:15:37 PM ----- BODY:

My computer keeps crashing today. I arrive home from Norfolk, sit in front of my computer turn it on - crash. I reboot, launch Outlook Express, wait a minute - crash. I reboot, launch IE and AIM, wait a minute. As yet no crash. I think it's angry with me for deserting it for the whole weekend. I'm very sorry. Much as I might like to, I won't do it again. Promise.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another month, and yet again STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2001 01:17:12 PM ----- BODY:

Another month, and yet again more overusage charges for Barbelith. Looks like this month it's going to be $25. Not a huge amount I suppose. That makes this month's outlay on hosting $60. What's that in real money? £40?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And now British Telecom appear STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2001 01:29:29 PM ----- BODY:

And now British Telecom appear to be cross with me for going away for the weekend. That's the only way I can hope to explain the sheer level of connectivity problems that I'm just starting to have. Over the last twenty minutes I've been disconnected four times. That can't be right.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm sitting on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2001 04:30:53 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm sitting on the tube from Liverpool Street and I'm frantically looking around for a newspaper or something that someone has left behind to stop me having to read Premiere for the fiftieth time (note to editors - Elijah Wood is very cute and interesting, but he's not hot-and-sweaty sexy, which makes pictures like this one less erotic and more, er, upsetting - like taking naked pictures of children - you know?).

Anyway - so I look around and I pick up a copy of the Wall Street Journal that someone had left behind. First feature I see? 'Dot-Com Hubris Remains Undaunted', which is basically an entire article about how weblogging is a way of networking and building career, concentrating on Dan Sanderson (I'd link to his site, but I can't because for some reason it seems to be down) and tools like Blogger and Userland. You can't go anywhere nowadays without having the American press talk about weblogs. They get it, even if their British cousins don't. More to the point, it occurs to me that my weblogging experiences don't seem to have got me any work. Bastards.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: Why isn't Chris Morris STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2001 04:38:13 PM ----- BODY:

Question: Why isn't Chris Morris writing occasional articles for Time Out on Britain's Best Bars?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't believe that Davo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 10:38:00 AM ----- BODY:

I can't believe that Davo ponced off on holiday and left all the rest of us behind. What are we supposed to do without him?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Darren, the Link Machine, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 11:12:41 AM ----- BODY:

Via Darren, the Link Machine, this morning I stumbled upon The Great Comic Book Ads. Which has inspired me to root around and see if I can find any cool ads of my own...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Four Comic Book Ads: The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 11:29:06 AM ----- BODY:

Four Comic Book Ads: The first terrifying thing about the man bra, facial anti-baster, macho strap and the chat-up pamphlet is that they give a horrifying insight into the world of geeky teen comic fans in the late 80s. More terrifying still is that all these adverts were on the same page of the same issue. Need I say more?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A big Wednesday morning THANK STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 11:58:04 AM ----- BODY:

A big Wednesday morning THANK YOU goes to out to Ash for getting me Steven Levy's Hackers from my wishlist. You're a star!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: How many times can STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 12:12:35 PM ----- BODY:

Question: How many times can you say the word 'cool' on a microsite without sounding lame?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Proglomena to a method of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 01:09:15 PM ----- BODY:

Proglomena to a method of ranked privacy on Greymatter weblogs:

  1. Define several user accounts for use on your greymatter weblog. Name each one according to a number or name representing a level of privacy that each post might have: eg. High, Medium, Low, General.
  2. Wrap each post in the template with a span or div attribute - the name of the attribute corresponding to the {{author}} attribute (normally used in the 'this post written by {{author}})' sections at the bottom of posts.
  3. Produce several stylesheets for the site. Each is identical except that each stylesheet can declare different classes 'display: none;'.
  4. Using javascript to place a cookie on the site, you can then automatically assign the lowest level of 'clearance' to the site - all the posts will be in the code, but only the 'General' ones will be displayed on the page.
  5. Other pages, password protected in some way (.htaccess files for example) can place cookies which call different style-sheets, thus showing 'Low' or 'Medium' sensitivity posts as well.
  6. Or more interestingly, you could place a cookie on first arrival, a second cookie on second visit, a third on the next, and rank up the person's clearance each time - thus giving them an incremental 'trust' rating. Other techniques for an automatic incrementalisation of 'clearance' could include an automatic placing of cookies built into the code in certain kinds of posts or internal pages. Only when you have seen a certain number of internal pages would you get access to the next level of content.
  7. Certain posts could be ONLY visible to the person who created the site.

Reasons for doing this? It keeps frivolous posting and personal revelation away from casual visitors and potential employers. Only those with whom you had built up a relationship of trust would be able to receive access to your stranger thoughts.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because it's genius: Judge's Decision STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 01:42:58 PM ----- BODY:

Because it's genius: Judge's Decision on the case of Atlas v. DC Comics regarding the Grant Morrison character Flex Mentallo. For more on the character and the DC comics miniseries, visit The Annotated Flex Mentallo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of Prol's new sites STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 04:36:48 PM ----- BODY:

One of Prol's new sites is based upon a free-for-all basic CSS template of mine.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Jesus is God... The devil STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 05:02:46 PM ----- BODY:

"Jesus is God... The devil was happy to see Him die... Three days later the devil almost went crazy... Do you know what happened? Jesus got out of the grave and was alive... He beat the grave and the devil. The devil was furious!... Because now the children could get away from him. Jesus asked the children to love Him for what He did. And if they believe He died for their sin... they could go to heaven." No offence intended to anyone reading, but do people actually still believe this stuff? [except from "The Little Ghost"]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must see movie of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 06:50:34 PM ----- BODY:

Must see movie of the moment (UK): Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the best songs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 07:17:29 PM ----- BODY:

One of the best songs ever written is Leonard Cohen's 'Night Comes On' from his album Various Positions. Well - it's probably in the top couple of thousand. And I was drowning in it this afternoon, when the squealing horror of a scratched CD shook me from my peace. This is a tragedy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When OJ Simpson met the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2001 09:50:45 PM ----- BODY:

When OJ Simpson met the UKBlog Kids: Being a project derived from a conversation between Darren and myself, subsequently soliciting several submissions.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Internet killed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 10:44:06 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Internet killed the media star - "There was a time in America where you would hear a song on the radio, love it, and be afraid to walk away from the speaker for fear you would miss the DJ announcing who was performing. But with the media getting more homogenous and people turning to the internet for excitement, are those days over? Elijah Non Grata investigates."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly for a short time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 10:46:07 AM ----- BODY:

Possibly for a short time only, Blogger search returns.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It was the greatest and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 11:36:33 AM ----- BODY:

It was the greatest and most glorious flop of the dot.com rush, and now it might be a movie. Cameron Diaz and Ed Norton may be in the running for Boo.com, the movie. The most depressing thing about this whole enterprise is that you just know there's some poor techie or usability guy or designer sitting in the back of every scene sobbing his eyes out. Possibly the most idiotic company of all time to be given $100 million, Boo.com could have been run on a hamburger and a piece of string and still not made any money.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And no sooner had it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 01:41:35 PM ----- BODY:

And no sooner had it came back, than Blogger search disappears once more.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An insight into my barbelith STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 01:54:02 PM ----- BODY:

An insight into my barbelith posting habits reveals a singular interest in fanfiction and authorship, Buffy, sexuality and the recent Channel 5 movie, "Justice League of America". That was way lame.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As has become unpleasantly normal, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 02:18:11 PM ----- BODY:

As has become unpleasantly normal, a new day means a new piece of bad news from the new media / publishing landscape to fill me with dread. Today? IPC closes key websites - most of which, it has to be said, weren't particularly good or interesting sites. But still - not the point.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Depressing but true. Someone spend STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2001 07:18:12 PM ----- BODY:

Depressing but true. Someone spend the time to put together 1 of 101 Dave Eggers Jokes, format them like his memoir was formatted and stick them on the internet. The memoir was wonderful. The jokes are ... not. They're too mean-spirited. Which brings me to the thread on Metafilter which asks if anyone out in the community has been the target of a website parody or attack. The answer, of course, is that everyone has been attacked at one point or another. But that we deal with it. Case in point - still up and running and still secretly upsetting me: Plasticfag.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because sometimes it's nice to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 10:59:03 AM ----- BODY:

Because sometimes it's nice to be duped: "A friend of mine calls A&F ìthe poor gay manís Pradaî."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom reviews: The Living Daylights: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 11:07:02 AM ----- BODY:

Tom reviews: The Living Daylights: "Unlike several of the previous episodes, this is a film with at least one foot squarely set in the real world. There are no vast subterranean bases, no plans to rule the world and a remarkable shortage of huge fluffy white cats." Star Trek Generations: "The graceless ageing of the original crew and their self-satisfied ham acting don't sit well with Patrick Stewart's obvious intelligence and Shakespearean training - and make his reverence to Shatner's paunchy hack seem almost degrading."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The ideology behind Barbelith and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 11:08:53 AM ----- BODY:

The ideology behind Barbelith and plasticbag.org laid bare: "The world is made up of two kinds of people: those who cling to the tired, old status quo and those who fearlessly embrace the new status quo. Me, I fall squarely into the latter camp. Not content to stick with the same-old same-old, I like to mix it up and put myself out there. You know, give the old heave-ho to the stodgy and staid. Say what you will about me, but no one will ever accuse me of being afraid to try popular new things." [The Onion]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An American, yesterday: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 03:45:17 PM ----- BODY:

An American, yesterday:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got my first e-mail STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 05:11:12 PM ----- BODY:

I got my first e-mail today via friendsreunited.co.uk and already I'm wondering why on earth I put my name onto it. I'm seeing all these names that haven't even entered my head for over ten years and I'm thinking, "Why? Why did I ever think I'd be even vaguely interested in going back through all that crap again?" I can't really imagine that I want to be friends with those people, nor can I conceive of enough antipathy to exact bitter and bloodthirty revenge on most of them. Which makes me ask myself again why on earth I put my name onto the service in the first place. Spectral names from the past: "Canton Anguish", "Robert Barnes", "Rick Cullen", "Ed Gillespie", "Richard Dearsley" exhumed from my mental graveyard like zombies. I need advice.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark is an arse. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 05:18:33 PM ----- BODY:

Mark is an arse.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I so entirely want to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 08:19:08 PM ----- BODY:

I so entirely want to play this.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So anyone in Los Angeles STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 08:27:05 PM ----- BODY:

So anyone in Los Angeles want to investigate carnal relations with my blonde friend? I've decided to become his pimp. I don't think he has enough fun.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another American, during his 'disasterous' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 08:58:12 PM ----- BODY:

Another American, during his 'disasterous' last visit to London:

mark is an arse

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Freaky pictures of Ralph through STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 10:13:48 PM ----- BODY:

Freaky pictures of Ralph through the ages amuse me and scare me and make me check my front and back doors (and all the windows) are locked tight before bedtime.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fall in light, fall in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 11:34:01 PM ----- BODY:

Fall in light, fall in light
Fall in light, fall in light
Feel no shame for what you are.
Feel no shame for what you are.
Feel no shame for what you are.
Feel no shame for what you are.
Feel no shame for what you are.
As you now are in your heart.
Fall in light.
Feel no shame for what you are.
Feel no shame for what you are.
Feel it as a waterfall.
Fall in light.
Fall in light, fall in light.
Fall in light.
Fall in light, Grow in light.
Stand absolved behind your electric chair, dancing.
Stand absolved behind your electric chair, dancing.
Past the sound within the sound.
Past the voice within the voice.
Leave your office, run past your funeral.
Leave your home, car, leave your pulpit.
Join us in the street where we
Join us in the street where we
Don't belong.
Don't belong.
You and the stars.
Throwing light.
Fast, fall.
Fall in light, fall in light.
Fall in light.
Fall in light, fall in light.
Fall in light. Grow in light.
New Year's Prayer

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblogs are more collage than STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/31/2001 11:35:41 PM ----- BODY:

Weblogs are more collage than narrative.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warning: In what appears to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 12:09:48 PM ----- BODY:

Warning: In what appears to have been the mother of all Microsoft Outlook Express Database Corruption Fuck Ups, I have lost every single piece of e-mail that I have sent or received over the last year of my life. Or I should say, I have them all, but they're corrupted beyond repair and stored somewhere until I can find some way to sort them out. In the meantime, every single important thing that I have received over the last few months has been eradicated. If you sent me something important or particularly interesting over the last couple of weeks then please send it to me again.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy birthday to my father, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 01:35:41 PM ----- BODY:

Happy birthday to my father, David Harmer, who turns sixty-one today.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I read the Watchmen for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 01:56:49 PM ----- BODY:

I read the Watchmen for the first time when I was about eighteen, and I have to say that I didn't like it very much. I found it unsettling, confusing, too grim and dense. I was in an escapist mode at the time. Later, of course, I came to love it, even though it feels so very much of its time. But I think my eighteen year old self would have liked the script for the Watchmen Movie That Was Never Made. Even though now I think it's fairly lame.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't live in America STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 02:04:09 PM ----- BODY:

I don't live in America so I'm in no position to judge. I don't have that much access to the feeling of the nation - I can't gauge the effects of policy on the ground, but it's beginning to seem clear to me that no one really likes GW Bush.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Katy's better half now has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 02:06:38 PM ----- BODY:

Katy's better half now has his own weblog. Blog Family Robinson rules demand that they produce tiny bloglets immediately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now this is good: Cornell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 07:22:43 PM ----- BODY:

Now this is good: Cornell University have put together a well designed, immersive, atmospheric site on The Fantastic in Art and Fiction including woodcuts and lithographs of the most bizarre and freakish images you've seen.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Fantastic Beasts STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2001 07:33:24 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Fantastic Beasts - "Just as traditional bogeymen have been replaced to some extent by paedophiles and other, more human terrors, so the fantastic beasts of mythology and the mediaeval bestiary have been exchanged for the less improbable subjects of cryptozoology. Catherine Wright investigates. "

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There seems to be a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 11:19:00 AM ----- BODY:

There seems to be a trend at the moment for webloggers presenting galleries of themselves through time, and I think it's a trend that I like and might have to participate in. The latest casualty of the desire to present one's gradual slump into senility is 'er at NotSoSoft. It's astonishing how different one can look and still be recognisably the same. I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that weblogs act as a chronicler - as a way of cementing memory and narrative, as a way of making sense of one's own life to date.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wil Weaton peed in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 01:43:26 PM ----- BODY:

Wil Weaton peed in the ocean.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Offensive Advertising Strategy (1): This STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 01:59:56 PM ----- BODY:

Offensive Advertising Strategy (1): This e-mail arrived for me this morning:

ORDER CONFIRMATION
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I cannot emphasise enough how STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 02:14:46 PM ----- BODY:

I cannot emphasise enough how much you have to go and see Hedwig and the Angry Inch if you haven't done so already. It was phenomenal. My trip to see it last night with Katy was followed by a brief interlude with Mo and November Juliet at Morgan Towers complete with (different) Katy, excess Kravitz, some of Nick's vocal stylings (that reminded me of Dead Can Dance) and the opportunity to bore everyone stupid by playing Ghostbusters and Fur Elise over and over again on the keyboard.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "There is no human bliss STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 05:48:01 PM ----- BODY:

"There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it." Anthony Trollope was on drugs.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I fear the time when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 07:29:12 PM ----- BODY:

I fear the time when I decide to emigrate this bloody country and ponce off abroad to fulfill my greater destiny is fast approaching. Goddammit I'm bored of this.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Late night, Black Love. The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2001 10:31:28 PM ----- BODY:

Late night, Black Love. The Afghan Whigs sing "Faded" and I wonder where the terrible romances went.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another person has started using STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2001 09:15:01 AM ----- BODY:

Another person has started using my little CSS template, which is, you know, nice: Quack the Duck World Tour Project.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's nothing like a freshly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2001 10:48:21 AM ----- BODY:

There's nothing like a freshly delivered Ikea catalogue in the morning to make you feel that your life has taken an unfortunate turn for the inadequate. All those lovely, lovely places to live.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My darling old company is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2001 10:25:25 PM ----- BODY:

My darling old company is having a spring clean, 33 years after it was launched. Time Out has called in Wolff Olins to look at the magazine's brand positioning and to see how to reenergise the flagging publication. I only worked there for two years but I have fairly strong opinions about where it's been going wrong. I'd be interested to see how they match up with what's going to be happening...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I woke up this morning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2001 10:35:49 AM ----- BODY:

I woke up this morning with the windows and curtains open and light streaming into my bedroom and I felt completely elated and comfortable. An hour later I'd been thinking about friends and their careers and how I feel at the moment - essentially redundant, under-utilised, continually tired, like the edge and fire have been slowly rubbed away like silver plating on a cheap spoon. I don't want to go and see my friends - I don't really want to go outside - and I'm getting less able to smile with people who are getting on with their lives.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Four potentially dangerous subjects for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2001 04:24:21 PM ----- BODY:

Four potentially dangerous subjects for debate:

PARTY POLITICS:
_____________________

Which political party do you support and why? Do you think William Hague was an admirable man? Is Tony Blair a toadying, insincere sychophant? Labour are all spin aren't they? Europe is the future or Europe is the enemy? People from ethnic minorities aren't really British at all, right? Neil and Christine Hamilton - what's that about?

A-LIST vs THE REST:
_____________________

Who ARE the A-list bloggers? Are there A-list English Bloggers? Should everyone else kneel down and kiss my arse? Who do you losers think you are anyway? Coming around here and fouling up my goddam internet with your whining... Is it like WWF? Do we get names? 'THE PLASTIC POUNDER', 'THE IRRITABLE INTERCONNNECTED ONE', 'DIGITALSTOMPERY'.

ABORTION:
_____________________

Are foetuses little kiddies when they're two cells old? Or should the parent's right of abortion be extended until the child reaches the age of seventy-eight?

GREYMATTER vs BLOGGER vs BENBROWN vs MOTHRA:
_____________________

Is Blogger a shiny piece of heaven fallen to earth? Or is it crap arseness? Are we not REAL MEN unless we are building our OWN content management systems? Is off-the-shelf too lowbrow for us? Does Ben Brown suckle on Mammon's ungodly teat? How about Ev? How about YOU?!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It wasn't really meant for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2001 05:18:37 PM ----- BODY:

It wasn't really meant for public consumption, but if you fancy a disturbing trip into psychosis, you can read Chris's transcript of Two Men on a Mailing List. For a short time only.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have an interview for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2001 12:02:18 PM ----- BODY:

I have an interview for a job. After almost giving up all hope of anyone ever thinking I was employable again, I have an interview for a job next Tuesday. And it's a job I'd actually like to have as well. Frankly I'm astonished. I was having lunch with Mo yesterday and complaining about how my life was a barren wasteland of missed opportunity, when I got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview. Mo insists that it was his influence on fate behind the scenes all along.

This leaves me with a few conundra nonetheless. Should I have a haircut? Need I buy a proper set of (non-suit) interview clothes? If so, where should I find the money for such an indulgence?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In a subsequent work-related development, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2001 12:03:50 PM ----- BODY:

In a subsequent work-related development, I have been commissioned to write the Gay section of the Time Out London Guide - which will be repurposed for both print and web. Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ridiculous flashback web design moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2001 05:07:06 PM ----- BODY:

Ridiculous flashback web design moment of the day - a really old front page to a microsite long since defunct: polymath.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tonight's background is inspired by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 12:47:40 AM ----- BODY:

Tonight's background is inspired by my soulful mood. There are times when you just feel blue and you know that you'd feel blue whatever happened, and you're not blue because of anything in particular - or you don't think you are at least - and it's certainly not because you're not with someone, but nonetheless you wish there was someone there to understand that you were blue, and to give you the space to be blue, and who loved you like you loved them - unconditionally.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I haven't believed in god STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 10:23:49 AM ----- BODY:

I haven't believed in god for over fifteen years now.

I was thirteen when my little brother was born. My mother had come into the TV room and sat me down on the tan sofa and asked me how I'd feel about having a little brother or sister. I said that I didn't want one. My mother looked slightly perturbed and said that I was going to have one anyway. I remember not being entirely thrilled by the news.

By the time my brother was born I was totally excited by the idea. My mother went into labour early in the morning and I was woken up by her smiling beatifically at the end of the bed ad patting her bulge and telling me to get ready. I couldn't have been more excited. I got into my school uniform and we drove into Norwich, where we went and made sure my mother was comfortable. Then my father drove me into school and then, for some ungodly reason, went to work.

I remember talking to my friends about the new arrival during lunch break, standing on the doorsteps of Norwich Cathedral. But somehow, by the time school had ended, I'd completely forgotten about it. It was only the sight of a friend of my mother's waiting to pick me up that reminded me. We went and bought a teddy bear for my little brother and drove to the hospital to see him.

Months later, he was to be Christened. I had never been Christened - my life had been so disorganised and random in my earlier years that no one had gotten around to it. It had become a badge of honour to me in some ways. Everyone I knew had been Christened - I was special, weird, a thirteen-year-old rationalist philosopher surrounded by superstition and madness. But despite taking pride in it, I'd never really thought about whether there actually was a god or not. When my mother said that she would like it if I got Christened along with my brother, I was forced to think about it for the first time. And I was horrified. I just didn't believe it all. It seemed so ridiculous. Such a ludicrous proposition. It just didn't make any sense. Nonetheless, bowing to parental pressure I went through with the ceremony, feeling awkward and hypocritical all the way through.

Yesterday the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, declared that Christianity was 'almost vanquished in the UK' [BBC News]. He said that people in Britain were now seemingly indifferent to Christian values and the Church. To me this can only be a positive sign. Whatever else might be lacking in people's lives, they no longer feel that the mystical texts of another people half a world away and thousands of years old can patch up that hole. To me it seems like they've all been set free.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God, how embarrassing. Apparently I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 10:37:23 AM ----- BODY:

God, how embarrassing. Apparently I'm getting back my reputation as a depressive weblogger. Quick. Urgent. Think of something fun to write about.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An afternoon's excitement: Davo is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 12:05:59 PM ----- BODY:

An afternoon's excitement: Davo is finally back from 'forn parts' and has taken the day off to explore the wonderful world of dossery. We have decided to go play at Moulin Rouge this afternoon at Swiss Cottage. If you're unemployed or lazy, why don't you join us? We'll be wearing fake moustaches and Groucho Marx eyebrows and eating too much sugar.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the "Electric Telescope": "I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 12:18:46 PM ----- BODY:

On the "Electric Telescope": "I have read with interest the letter (No. 15374) of Mr Redmond in your last number. Though not an electrician, the possibility of transmitting images - built up, as it were, of a number of points - by means of a number of circuits, each containing selenium at the receiving end, as suggested by your correspondent, occurred to myself a short time since." English Mechanic and World of Science no726, 21 February 1879 [link].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Mr. Montulli's first description of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 12:38:12 PM ----- BODY:

"Mr. Montulli's first description of cookies can still be found on Netscape's Web site. The document describes how a relatively few bits of text can perform tasks like identifying a visitor, tracking the items he is preparing to buy and setting a date for the cookie to be destroyed. In a whimsical example drawn from Saturday morning cartoons, Mr. Montulli displayed a cookie that might be set on a customer's computer by the fictional Acme Corporation: Cookie: CUSTOMER=WILEE COYOTE; PARTNUMBER= ROCKETLAUNCHER0001" [link]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "When it comes to huge STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 08:15:47 PM ----- BODY:

"When it comes to huge openings, a lot of people think of me."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From an e-mail: Universal Pictures STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2001 09:58:38 PM ----- BODY:

From an e-mail:

Universal Pictures announced today they plan to make a film of the momentous football match that took place on Saturday. "Five-One" is the tentative title of what could be next year's big summer hit, depicting the American national soccer team's stunning victory over Germany.

Nicholas Cage heads an all star cast as the captain of the brave US Soccer team haunted by the trauma of losing in the 2000 World Cup final on penalties and the death of his wife in a riot caused by English football hooligans, and finds love in the arms of a female sports journalist played by Julia Roberts. Mel Gibson is the no-nonsense Swedish coach who leads them to glory, with Keanu Reeves, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Will Smith playing some of Cage's heroic team mates.

Jeremy Irons is set to star as Sir Nigel Villiers-Smythe, the dastardly Englishman who coaches the German team and forces them to play with poisoned-tipped studs to try and cheat the heroic American team out of victory. Director Steven Spielberg defended the film-makers' decision to focus on the American contribution to the victory over Germany and the inaccurate & even imagined events in the story, saying, "Obviously we've had to take some artistic licence to make the story work on film, but I hope that what we produce will be true to the spirit of what happened on that famous night."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you read one thing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2001 11:36:52 AM ----- BODY:

If you read one thing today, make sure it's this - it's the kind of article that uncovers a hidden part of the world - it gives you a sense of what is happening just below the surface. One of the most important articles that Barbelith has published to date: The Autopsy - "Someone points out that your blood oranges-and-balsamic vinegar salad looks like a tub of organs. You laugh. It is well known that your colleagues will die young; that's the way it is. You do not think about who will have to do their autopsies. Brooke Magnanti works in the death industry."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As Ben Folds [weblog] might STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2001 12:14:55 PM ----- BODY:

As Ben Folds [weblog] might have said had he taken a different career path:

"I'm rocking the net now,
Just like Jason Kottke did.
I'm rocking the net now,
Except that he was talented."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Animal Impressions (1): Tom impersonates STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2001 12:57:09 PM ----- BODY:

Animal Impressions (1): Tom impersonates a bunny rabbit (2.2Mb). Animal Impressions (2): Tom impersonates a monkey (2.4Mb).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wonder who owns www.invisibles.net? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2001 07:40:27 PM ----- BODY:

I wonder who owns www.invisibles.net?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's in the kitchen. Kate's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2001 11:22:41 AM ----- BODY:

Tom's in the kitchen. Kate's talking to him. There's a knock on the door. Kate walks down the corridor and answers the door. "We'd like to talk to you about that church of Jesus Christ," comes a voice. "BYE!" calls Tom down from the kitchen. Kate collapses in giggles. "Er. I don't think we're really the kind of people you want to be talking to," she says with a smile. Tom walks down the corridor towards the front door. "Do you know anyone around here who would be interested in taking Christ into their hearts?" asks an earnest voice. "Most of our friends are Satanists, I'm afraid." says Tom patiently. We close the door.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Traditional paper has largely survived STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2001 11:26:20 AM ----- BODY:

"Traditional paper has largely survived the test of time but now it is facing a new challenge from its electronic equivalent. Electronic paper has been one of the technology world's holy grails for more than two decades and the prospect of using it as a substitute for the real thing is closer than ever. " [BBC News] No one seems to have the slightest idea what to do with electronic paper, unfortunately.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have become nothing more STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2001 11:28:58 AM ----- BODY:

I have become nothing more than a Meat Interface [MI] for repurposing weblog content. Which is nice in a way, because it seems that it doesn't matter how I mark up my writing, I can still write once and web/meat publish anywhere...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stargate SG1 reaches it's 100th STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2001 11:38:46 AM ----- BODY:

Stargate SG1 reaches it's 100th episode and there may be a movie franchise emerging from it, and then a spin-off series. This was another TV series that followed the standard Tom interest curve, whereby the first series is dipped into grudgingly, declared crap and then thoroughly enjoyed a couple of years later, just when it's impossible to catch up with what's been happening up to date. The only other model is the Poof and Slag model, whereby the first series is watched diligently, desperately seeking a laugh, before giving up and desperately praying that the series will just end.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm plugging this heavily because STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2001 12:02:50 PM ----- BODY:

I'm plugging this heavily because it's worth reading:
Barbelith: The Autopsy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Observer meets David Furnish, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2001 01:47:34 PM ----- BODY:

The Observer meets David Furnish, Elton John's partner. On Madonna: "The last time I saw her, she came down to the house in Windsor and brought the baby and Guy, and it was a really nice, everyday visit - she was lovely and friendly and down-to-earth - but I felt like a dork. Still, God, I hope that never ends. I don't ever want to get jaded or blasÈ." [link]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question of the moment: Davo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2001 01:57:22 PM ----- BODY:

Question of the moment: Davo has been back from holiday for four or five days now. So when is brainsluice.com coming back online?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must see download of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2001 02:02:27 PM ----- BODY:

Must see download of the day comes via Ain't It Cool News - the new TV trailer for Lord of the Rings.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Of the things I had STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2001 06:34:14 PM ----- BODY:

Of the things I had to do today, sleep for three and a half hours in the afternoon wasn't one of them. Neither, indeed, was sort out my clothing into two piles: 'regular wardrobe' and 'bit manky'. Neither indeed was talk to Matt Haughey about meeting Katy at Fray Day (which was way more fun than the sleep and the clothes-sorting even if I did get a bit jealous). Best wishes to everyone out there - I wish I could be with you...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Who's your Weblogger Twin? So STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2001 08:27:51 PM ----- BODY:

Who's your Weblogger Twin? So that lovely Firda lady set up this ridiculously entertaining piece of fluff quiz which determines who is your weblogger twin. I feed in all my information, and apparently I'm just like Ernie. After that, I'm like Firda herself. And only then do I even resemble myself. Some people outside my top ten include: Jason, Matt, Meg, Zeldman and Ev.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This David Carson isn't the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/10/2001 07:44:15 PM ----- BODY:

This David Carson isn't the same graphic designer at all as this David Carson, yet they are both graphic designers and should both be slightly alarmed by this fake David Carson machine.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ringing random people with my father's name... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/10/2001 08:30:10 PM ----- BODY:

This evening, for ... well, I don't really know why ... I decided to ring a few numbers in the London area for people called Thomas John Coates. I rang up four or five, said I was looking for a friend of mine called Tom Coates, but I thought I'd come through to the wrong number, and then asked them their age. I don't know why I did it really. Felt a bit shaky after ringing a three or four and decided to stop.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know what weirds me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/10/2001 08:43:05 PM ----- BODY:

You know what weirds me out? My father was a computer programmer for ICL in the early 70s. I know that much. So while he'd be over sixty now, if he's still alive, I doubt that he's completely computer illiterate. So what are the chances that he's done a vanity search on the web for his own name? And it's pretty much identical to mine. So it's quite likely he's seen this site. It's quite likely he's been here. That's what gets to me. That he might have been here and still not got in touch.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's only one thing in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2001 05:09:20 PM ----- BODY:

There's only one thing in the news worth even discussing today, and that's the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. It's impossible to get through to almost any news sites at the moment, but the Guardian is still up and running if you need to know what's going on: Guardian Special Report. I'm going to refrain from comment until things have calmed down a bit, but in the meantime, if you want to discuss it, I suggest getting over to the Underground where various issues are being discussed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: September 11th and weblogs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 09:11:41 AM ----- BODY:

September 11th 2001 was the busiest posting day ever for Blogger, as thousands of people ran to the web for information, discussion and to put their experiences in view of the world. Ev also launched a short-term Attack Search Page so that the world can get first hand accounts of what's happened and what people are saying about the attacks. The same trend - running for information from the web - seems to have gripped the planet, resulting in the largest stress on the Internet ever - unfortunately with many people using the free, international space to blame and threaten countries, religions, ethnic groups and cultures across the world. Various sites have taken the strain of getting information out to the people, including Barbelith and Metafilter as major sites like CNN and BBC News temporarily collapse under the strain. To all New Yorkers - friends and strangers alike - while we fear what is yet to come, our hearts are with you at this time. And via Brainsluice, the picture that says it all.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm opening up the Barbelith STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 09:24:53 AM ----- BODY:

I'm opening up the Barbelith Webzine for first person experiences and reactions to the situation in New York. E-mail me your experiences and thoughts.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've temporarily started a dedicated STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 11:16:43 AM ----- BODY:

I've temporarily started a dedicated forum on Barbelith for people who want to talk about New York and Washington that also collates all the posts to date.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The first piece comes through STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 11:57:38 AM ----- BODY:

The first piece comes through to Barbelith: The World Trade Center:"I don't think I will ever be able to forget how that felt - when that first tower fell, I swear that I could feel the lives of those people disappearing... Most of the day, I just felt hollow and empty, and frightened about how the world was going to change." Matthew Perpetua is in New York.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's newspaper front pages: UK: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 02:23:40 PM ----- BODY:

Today's newspaper front pages: UK: From the guardian's website, all the front pages in one place. US: From poynter.org: a collation of the American press' Front Pages.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Donate on the Amazon Red STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 02:40:33 PM ----- BODY:

Donate on the Amazon Red Cross Disaster Relief Page.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The next few days are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 05:43:46 PM ----- BODY:

The next few days are going to be critical. Make sure you don't get caught up in the hysteria. Let your head make the decisions for you and try and feel comfortable going against the tide. Attacks on civil liberties are already being made on the basis of security. This must not be allowed to continue. Privacy (from surveillance, and to use cryptography) remain fundamental to online freedom, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise... There is no good reason for taking away our right to privacy.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing Infoshare... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2001 06:09:18 PM ----- BODY:

What you see above is a syndicated piece of code that will carry the latest news about the disaster at the WRC and Pentagon, as well as help people support the relief efforts. Many of us don't really know what to write about at the moment - well this is a step in the right direction. There's a team of volunteers finding appropriate news stories behind the scenes and it seems like a good idea to just stick it up on one's site for at least a week after the events. It's a simple piece of code to insert into your pages - and I'd ask you to do it, please.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On learning from catastrophe... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/13/2001 10:30:07 AM ----- BODY:

I'm not sure whether I should be linking to this. It's an article from The Guardian - a comment piece - called They can't see why they are hated. It's about the reaction to the events in New York and Washington from everyday Americans, who are viewing it as an attack by faceless madmen. The article goes into details about the way that the American government has treated much of the developing world and the Middle East - and how (particularly in Afghanistan) the very same people that they are now blaming for the attack were trained by the CIA. America has to look to its actions abroad and decide how it wants to interact with the world. If it doesn't then we will have learnt nothing from this whole catastrophe.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Horror we helped cause... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/13/2001 10:57:06 AM ----- BODY:

Michael Moore speaks about the recent events in the US:

When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA trained him and his buddies in how to commits acts of terrorism against the Soviet forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those same techniques against us.

We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing.

We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me. Thirty thousand murdered civilians and who the hell even remembers!

We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of innocent people, and we never let the human suffering THAT causes to interrupt our day one single bit. We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands around the world, with our taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam, in Gaza, in Salvador) that I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when those orphans grow up and are a little whacked in the head from the horror we have helped cause.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Counterterrorist Myth... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/13/2001 04:57:38 PM ----- BODY:

Background: The Counterterrorist Myth

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: To and from the WTC... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/13/2001 08:10:06 PM ----- BODY:

The full experience of going to, and coming from the World Trade Center in pictures in chronological order: framerate.net.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Headling into? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2001 08:37:19 AM ----- BODY:

I am extraordinarily tired and frayed at the moment. I look around me and everyone is engaged in the worship of this tragedy. Much like with Princess Diana, everyone is busy feeling. Some people are mourning, some are in violent rages. Everything that is being done is being done on instinct, and while we're busy wondering what will happen, civil liberties are under threat (worldwide), ethnic minorities are being hounded (worldwide) and cities are building trenches to hide in when the inevitable apocalypse rains down from the sky. There's a danger in uniting countries - do they unite behind the attitudes of the progressive, the mournful, the violent? And does anyone have the strength - or the inclination - to work through the issues from the beginning. At the moment, people are all running in one direction, and no one knows whether it's the future or a cliff...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On disagreeing with things... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2001 08:39:48 AM ----- BODY:

A weblog post that I disagree with

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a hole where BBC Three was... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2001 08:48:06 AM ----- BODY:

The BBC's attempts to start a new digital youth channel have failed, in an extraordinarily bizarre decision by the culture secretary. Interestingly, the blocked channel was to be called BBC Three, which (since BBC Four was passed) will result in an interesting hole in the TV pages...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must the enemy fit the crime? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2001 12:08:07 PM ----- BODY:

Don't inflate the size of the enemy to fit the crime: "Searching for parallels to help them understand what has happened and what they should do next, Americans cite Pearl Harbour. A better reference would be the Cuban missile crisis. Then, as now, the United States had a new and untried president, John F Kennedy, and faced a danger that the wrong moves could turn a bad situation into a worse one.".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gays, Liberals to blame for terrorist attacks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2001 01:38:16 PM ----- BODY:

The terrifying lunacy of America's fringe manifests itself: Falwell blames gays, liberal groups for terrorist attacks [Metafilter]. This is why it is not simply enough to mourn - people must investigate the background of these events before they can make sense of them. Otherwise the extremists in the west will make this battle their own. [song of the moment?">Song of the moment?]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How mad are you, anyway? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2001 01:53:27 PM ----- BODY:

Check your level of mental health.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pete, The Cat That Looks Like Hitler... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 08:28:31 AM ----- BODY:

Pete, The Cat That Looks Like Hitler.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 8.30am: Tom awakens on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 08:43:01 AM ----- BODY:

8.30am: Tom awakens on the sofa in the sitting room. He has spent the night there and feels stiff, cold and creaky.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the Guardian's letters pages, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 09:01:02 AM ----- BODY:

From the Guardian's letters pages, via linkmachinego: The omnipotence of American culture and childhood innocence ended in our house on September 11. I sat with my young son watching the images from the World Trade Centre. Suddenly we saw people hanging from the windows at the top of the stricken tower. "Mum," he said, "where's Spiderman? He could save them." Later, as I tucked him up in bed, he asked sleepily, "Is Spiderman not real, mum?" [link]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fray.com: Missing Pieces. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 09:02:43 AM ----- BODY:

Fray.com: Missing Pieces.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: New York: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 02:05:07 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: New York: On the Ground - "I could feel the heat three hundred yards away; everything on four or five floors, people and office equipment, came raining down on the crowd. We all ran north while it fell and got away before it hit because it was high up. As I glanced back I saw the contents of the floors: all on fire, people and building, killed without a second to reconsider their life. George Minarik was in New York."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lie of the Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 02:16:17 PM ----- BODY:

Lie of the Day

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When you are bored and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 09:36:06 PM ----- BODY:

When you are bored and have nothing to do, you do stupid stupid things. This is actually the result of following a tutorial on teaching oneself complex Photoshop operations (although god knows you can't tell by looking at it):

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cool: Hadn't noticed this before. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2001 09:59:23 PM ----- BODY:

Cool: Hadn't noticed this before. Go to Webmonkey and hover over the little monkey's wrench!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Needed: a new age of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2001 12:37:54 PM ----- BODY:

Needed: a new age of enlightenment: "You'd think that every possible angle would already have been covered by people writing about the events of September 11th. So why am I writing this, and why now? Because in all the media coverage I've seen so far, nobody has been asking the right, the important, questions. Like: why did this happen, what circumstances got us into a de facto state of undeclared war with the Islamic world, and what can we realistically do to prevent those circumstances from ever recurring." [link via Prolific]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An Afghan-American speaks: "What can STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2001 03:35:27 PM ----- BODY:

An Afghan-American speaks: "What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that, folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grant Morrison's ... unique ... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2001 03:26:44 PM ----- BODY:

Grant Morrison's ... unique ... take on events in New York contains this comment: "Did we bomb Boston to stop the Boston Strangler ? Did we level New York City to get at Son of Sam ? No we did not. So why the fuck should we flatten Afghanistan just to get at a bunch of murderous bastards who have the country's people in a repressive death grip?". [via Darren, the Linkmachine]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've got my hands on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2001 04:07:23 PM ----- BODY:

I've got my hands on a few previews of upcoming American TV series, and I'm planning to plough my way through them over the next few days. First up is 24. Kiefer Sutherland stars in this high-concept piece of TV programming. The series contains 24 episodes, each one is in real time and occupies one hour of one day. In the first episode the Counter Terrorist Unit of LA hears about a potential threat on a US senator, who may or may not have something to hide. In the meantime, our hero's daughter has gone missing.

Watch out for this series, because it's pretty damn good. It's fast-paced, uses a lot of split screen techniques to keep you informed as to what's happening at any one time and it's pretty involving. My main anxiety is that people won't be prepared to spend nearly six months watching one tight and short story - and that we'll get bored of Kiefer's clothing.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A month after the film STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2001 05:25:43 PM ----- BODY:

A month after the film opened, usatoday confronts the burning question of our times: "What the hell was the ending of Planet of the Apes about?".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This afternoon I made my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2001 09:18:28 PM ----- BODY:

This afternoon I made my very first ever Flash movie. I've struggled with Flash before, many many years ago, and found going through the instructions supplied with it so frustratingly awful that I gave up and consigned myself to the 'bit technically dim' category. But today I decided to confront my demons and go hell for leather, and having discovered a considerably more helpful article at Webmonkey, I can now present some circles, moving. I can't believe that I am so ridiculously proud of this absurdly simple (and basically broken) piece of rubbish. Sigh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My second pilot of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2001 11:20:35 PM ----- BODY:

My second pilot of the day is Thieves, which was frankly the most entertaining pile of crap I've seen in months. The plot is totally ridiculous - two crack thieves - one male and one female - are foiled during an attempted hoist. There is continual sexual tension between them and - apparently for this reason - the government keeps them on to recover stolen items for the government. Complete hokum and glorious fun. Hart to Hart meets Nikita with a dash of Moonlighting thrown in for good measure. The copy I saw was clearly mid-production - a variety of special effects shots hadn't been added yet, and the music was directly lifted in from 'relevant' movies as a placeholder (particular treats including bits of music from Out of Sight, American Beauty and Snatch). The end of the episode was a bit mid-budget / Baywatch Nights abandoned warehouse-style final confrontation cliché-of-the-week, but generally, everyone was pretty cool, pretty good and pretty damn pretty.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just when you begin to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 10:24:59 AM ----- BODY:

Just when you begin to think that the threat of an escalating conflict is behind us - or at least that enough distance has emerged to make a World War less likely - the Taliban declares holy war on the US. And it must be bad, because it's forcing idiots like Jerry Falwell to make half-hearted apologies for saying that it's the fault of feminists, gay people and liberals.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Third pilot of the week STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 10:38:24 AM ----- BODY:

Third pilot of the week is Alias. When a young woman reveals to her fiancé that she works for the CIA, he is executed by a hit squad hired by her employers. How she deals with this, whether her employers are actually the CIA, and what she needs to stay alive and redeem the loss of her lover are the questions addressed in the first part of the series - which is essentially yet another Nikita rip-off with a couple of twists. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, because it is. That's not to say it isn't exciting, because it is. And that's not to say it doesn't have potential, because it does. But it'll have to do something new pretty soon to maintain people's interest.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does anyone have the slightest STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 10:59:32 AM ----- BODY:

Does anyone have the slightest idea when My Own Private Idaho might be coming out on DVD? I miss River Phoenix. When I visited Kerry in LA, we went to a shop directly opposite the Viper Room where he died.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meg just threw me a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 12:22:27 PM ----- BODY:

Meg just threw me a list of songs with questionable lyrics that she found on the web. Songs - presumably - that people have decided not to play during the current events. Which possibly explains why everyone feels so suffocated. Part of me thinks that some of these songs should be being played. Why can't John Lennon's Imagine be heard? It's message should be more true now than at any other time, surely? And "Walk Like An Egyptian"? What possible reason could there be for not playing that? [lyrics]. And while I understand why it's not being played, I desperately need to hear REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It" at the moment. There has to be some release for the anxiety that seems to be building again.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Disinformation is back, and with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 02:29:21 PM ----- BODY:

Disinformation is back, and with a range of perspectives on events in America over the last week.

US terrorist attacks: due to circumstances beyond our control . . .: "The anti-globalist movement has existed at the fringes of American politics for several reasons. Understanding these reasons reveals the hidden complexity and undercurrents of the American political landscape. A more in-depth understanding can also serve as a buffer against the perils of groupthink."

Terrorism and witch hunts: "'Inevitable Ring to the Unimaginable' by Australian journalist John Pilger, argues that "the US and its sidekicks, principally Britain, have exercised, flaunted, and abused their wealth and power 'for so long they shouldn't be surprised if those they have victimized fight back.' Among many examples, he cites the 200,000 Iraqis killed during the Gulf War, and the million others who have since died in Iraq as a result of US/UK sanctions, and concludes that 'Western terror is part of the recent history of imperialism.' This perspective is directly contradicted by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's 'Response Must Destroy the Network that Shelters Terrorism.' Kissinger writes that countries harboring terrorists 'must pay an exorbitant price' (ironic given that the US trained and funded Bin Laden and at least a few of the hijackers) and calls the World Trade Center attacks 'a threat to our social way of life and to our existence as a free society.'"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In another article from disinformation, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 02:35:20 PM ----- BODY:

In another article from disinformation, there is discussion about the memetic effects of Hollwood imagery. Although the article strays dangerously close to advocating censorship on the grounds of 'putting ideas into people's heads' it does question the relationship between the Spectacle and political and terrorist action. Perhaps it's only understandable that a radical politician of a fundamentalist country should try to make a movie in which the 'bad guys win'.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OK - this is exactly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 02:46:21 PM ----- BODY:

OK - this is exactly why I love Wil Wheaton's weblog so much: Son of SpongeBob Vega$Pants: "So I get to the hallway where we're set up for autographs, and, as I am walking up the hallway, I see Dorn, Marina, Renee, Kate Mulgrew, and WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER. Shatner has always been a dick to me, but I want to say hi, so I approach them, and I say, "Hi! How you guys doin?" Everyone returns my greeting, even Kate, who I don't know, at all. Never even been introduced. Everyone, that is, except WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER! Old toupee-head won't even look at me! I don't know what this guy's problem is, really. I think he's very funny, I think he's got a great sense of humor about himself, but he is always a dick to me."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's Second Flash Movie:I only STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 03:46:09 PM ----- BODY:

Tom's Second Flash Movie:
I only wish I knew how to crop things.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Prol: Buffy Lives. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 04:26:30 PM ----- BODY:

Via Prol: Buffy Lives.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The scariest thing I've ever STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 05:13:04 PM ----- BODY:

The scariest thing I've ever seen.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Every Buffy fan with a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 05:46:00 PM ----- BODY:

Every Buffy fan with a high-bandwidth connection (particularly those that don't live in the US) needs to go to this poorly assembled page of mine and have some fun.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the coolest, sickest, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 08:48:45 PM ----- BODY:

One of the coolest, sickest, sites I've seen in a long time, uncelebrity.com lets you say exactly what you'd like to do with your favourite stars. I don't know whether I'm more alarmed by the sweet 'I want to walk with him on a beach' ones or the full on dodgy porno wank fantasy ones. I don't know which ones are funnier either...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's third Flash movie was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2001 11:06:33 PM ----- BODY:

Tom's third Flash movie was built by request of Mo of Mo Morgan.com and is a rather poor representation of the good man himself. The first representation was astonishingly good. But I lost that somehow, and couldn't find a way to get it back. I wonder what I'll make tomorrow.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Confessions of a Housebound Geek... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2001 11:26:22 AM ----- BODY:

Last Tuesday morning, before the disaster at the World Trade Center, I had a very different anxiety on my mind. I had a job interview at the BBC for a position as online producer for BBC films. Everyone I knew was going 'apply for it, Tom - it's ideal for you' - and I basically agreed. It seemed like the kind of job that my experience was designed to fill, and in a really good company with lots of opportunities for development. The night before I was shivering with fear - there seemed to be more than normal resting on getting this job. It had been the first major opportunity that I'd had to work somewhere that I was actually excited about for months. On the morning of the interview however I got some slightly startling news. Two other companies, EMAP and Captial Radio, were keen for me to come in and do some freelance work for them. And in only a couple of weeks' time as well.

Interviews are interviews, and they'll always be hellish and I'll never be any good at them. I'm completely incapable of regulating my tone - I prefer discussions rather than Q&A sessions, and so I was immediately wrong-footed when they asked me what my favourite movie was. A question that may seem obvious to people, but has little or no bearing on whether or not you are actually good enough at running a film site. When the interview was over I felt strangely confident, although that confidence faded fairly swiftly. I met an old colleague from TimeOut.com for lunch afterwards - he'd been in the interview before me, and we talked about the job and tried to relax and have fun.

Now it's a week later and I haven't heard anything from the BBC at all. Normally this wouldn't be a worry, but because I have to inform these other potential employers about whether or not I can do their contracts, it's beginning to alarm me. I asked them when I'd hear at the interview, and they told me the beginnng of this week, but I'm sure that events around the world will have had some impact on their schedules. In the meantime, I'm feeling increasingly nervous about my future prospects once I get past this patch. No one is employing, except for contract work. People are being let go left, right and centre. I really need a break...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And now I have an answer... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2001 03:11:18 PM ----- BODY:

Ah. Ah well. Nope. No job for me with the BBC.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Regular lurkers to Barbelith may STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/20/2001 10:33:11 AM ----- BODY:

Regular lurkers to Barbelith may have noticed that I've instituted a procedure that means that you have to be registered in order to read the site. I didn't want to have to do this, and hopefully it will be a short-term measure, but I'm testing it to see whether or not it has substantial impact on the bandwidth that the site takes up. At the moment, the only alternative to this process is a system of rolling blackouts, whereby the site is taken offline for the last week of the month to alleviate running costs. On the bright side, a good thirty or forty people have registered overnight, which suggests there always were a good block of people who read but didn't register. It's nice to have some confirmation of that...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why I'm removing infoshare... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/20/2001 10:36:38 AM ----- BODY:

After a certain amount of deliberation, I've removed infoshare from plasticbag.org. My reasoning? The news is gradually turning towards an update on the potential war situation we find ourselves in, rather than being a way of keeping people informed about a very specific disaster. It's ceasing to function on Saturday anyway.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Superman II... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/20/2001 10:52:25 AM ----- BODY:

Tom, rather poorly, reviews Superman II: "The film's message may be a clichÈd staple of comic books - with great power comes great responsibility - but it's handled with sincerity and skill. So much so that even Richard Lester's lapses into camp humour and cheesy patriotism don't derail the feel-good adventure fun."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2001 11:23:16 AM ----- BODY:

An American in LA has just watched Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and insists that I must watch it immediately. Except of course that I doubt very much that I'd be able to. Amazon.co.uk doesn't appear to have it, and it doesn't appear to have been released in the UK for cinema or video release. Every so often I forget that the US and UK are completely different countries, half a world away from one another. I somehow assume that everything that you can get access to in the US can be bought or found here somewhere. But it's just not true.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith bandwidth bills for September STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2001 11:58:00 AM ----- BODY:

Barbelith bandwidth bills for September look like they are going to be around the $120 mark. Which is not completely unreasonable, I suppose, and likely to be met by the donations that I've already received from the people who regularly use the site. But is this any way to maintain a site long-term? I can't keep scrabbling for cash every month to pay the escalating bills.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why do you even read this stuff? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2001 12:02:57 PM ----- BODY:

God, I write crap. Every so often I look back at what I produce - what I write - what I put out into the public arena - and I'm ashamed of myself. I can't tell whether it's because my thoughts are stagnating, or because I'm too stressed to think things through properly, or whether I have got used to using plasticbag.org as a braindump rather than as a notepad. But I look back at the kind of writing I'm producing and it's just awful. Why do any of you people read this stuff? What possible benefit could you get from it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Subterranean High-Tech Geek Utopia STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/21/2001 03:08:55 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm watching this TV program rather than do any work, and it's about properties that are for sale around the UK - the slightly weirder, more beautiful, stranger places to buy, live and work in. Suddenly this incredible place comes up on screen. Am underground fort - victorian in origin - later used as a kind of way-station for troops in World War Two. Full of underground rooms, and over three miles of tunnels and rooms which were previously gun placements. My mouth hit the floor. I was in love with Fort Borstal.

It didn't take long for my mind to start working overtime, imagining corridors lined with cabling, huge underground server rooms, places to live, places to work, places to play. A huge, underground hi-tech geek utopia of weird thinkers, dreamers and weirdos. I talked to Matt about it immediately and he got just as excited as I had. But how much would it cost? How much would a disused, run-down underground metropolis cost? Three million? Five million?

No. One hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds - an amount of money that you couldn't buy a two bedroom flat in decent parts of London with. It would cost hundreds of thousands, millions even, to get the whole thing up and running, but for an initial outlay, it's nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was sold, in the end, to a woman from South London who wanted to buy goats.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One aspect of Fort Borstal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2001 03:17:07 PM ----- BODY:

A reconstruction of how cool it could look:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Blog Twinning Project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2001 05:40:40 PM ----- BODY:

I don't quite get The Blog Twinning Project, but I'm certain it's bloody genius idea.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The sheer blind fury of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2001 10:35:32 PM ----- BODY:

The sheer blind fury of writing a long piece (ironically about anti-war protests and Tariq Ali) and then losing it due to a system crash or failed internet connection is familiar to all those who maintain a weblog of any description, unless possibly they are using Unix in a bomb-shelter with its own generator. That's forty-five minutes of my life that I'll never get back.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Noam Chomsky - always a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2001 12:05:33 AM ----- BODY:

Noam Chomsky - always a startlingly intelligent man - has said some of the most insightful and terrifying things about the current situation around the world. A recent transcript has been posted on Barbelith. A couple of excerpts from his interview follow:

"It is also widely recognized that Bin Laden and others like him are praying for 'a great assault on Muslim states,' which will cause 'fanatics to flock to his cause' (Jenkins, and many others.). That too is familiar. The escalating cycle of violence is typically welcomed by the harshest and most brutal elements on both sides, a fact evident enough from the recent history of the Balkans, to cite only one of many cases."
"The decade-long US-British assault against the civilian population of Iraq has devastated the society and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths while strengthening Saddam Hussein - who was a favored friend and ally of the US and Britain right through his worst atrocities."
"The U.S. and much of the West, prefers a more comforting story. To quote the lead analysis in the New York Times (Sept. 16), the perpetrators acted out of "hatred for the values cherished in the West as freedom, tolerance, prosperity, religious pluralism and universal suffrage." U.S. actions are irrelevant, and therefore need not even be mentioned (Serge Schmemann). This is a convenient picture, and the general stance is not unfamiliar in intellectual history; in fact, it is close to the norm. It happens to be completely at variance with everything we know, but has all the merits of self-adulation and uncritical support for power."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Around the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2001 12:09:21 AM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Around the USA - ""Yesterday was September 11, and it was one of my best friend's birthdays. We'd been trying to talk her into ditching her classes for the day but she'd have none of it. So I rode the el with her to work - it was my first day temping at at Chicago's NBC tower. We were both pretty tired and didn't say too much on the ride, but as I got off, I wished her a great day." and Life during wartime: "Here in America, we're awash in red white and blue and flags flying from currency exchanges, taxicabs, suburban homes and government offices. As if they were Christmas carols, The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America can be heard on every radio and at every corner. And our president talks of 'War', of a 'Crusade'. 'This will not stand,' he cries."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I used to be so STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2001 12:55:42 AM ----- BODY:

I used to be so much better at this stuff than I am now. In the past, people would post on Metafilter if my site went down. And they wrote really nice things about how good I was at HTML and design and stuff. No longer. I am a relic of a more childlike time on the web, when people could be impressed by pretty colours and occasional non-imbecilic utterances.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The whole world is talking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2001 12:01:58 PM ----- BODY:

The whole world is talking about A Tribute to Heroes this morning. Apparently it was shown simultaneously on forty American TV stations - well it was also live on BBC1 and ITV1 in the UK, starting at 2am and finishing at 4am. I decided to watch it, and I can't say that I wasn't moved by it. But in the back of mind the whole time I was thinking that the people who supported the attacks on America could have watched the show and - almost to a song - found strength in them for their cause. And I was thinking that the same people could have heard the speeches of some of the celebrities, changed the name of the institution that they were fighting for, and they'd have believed it just as forcefully as America does. I watched Tom Petty, one of my favourite musicians in my youth, singing "Won't Back Down" with steely eyes and tightly drawn lips. And I imagined some shadowy figure facing him singing exactly the same thing. I think that scared me more than anything else.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Phil Zimmerman struggles with the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2001 02:01:44 PM ----- BODY:

Phil Zimmerman struggles with the possibility that terrorists could have been using PGP. We should all remember that tools like encryption, like the internet, like the telephone, like the petrol engine - all of these things empower everyone - good or bad alike, and that the tools shouldn't be blamed for the actions of the people who use them.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Astonishing discovery of the week STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2001 06:29:03 PM ----- BODY:

Astonishing discovery of the week - the thing that has made life worth living? Orange and Cranberry Barley Water. What a genius idea. I'm in love.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just seen: Nestle do an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/23/2001 11:49:43 AM ----- BODY:

Just seen: Nestle do an advert for Frosted and Coco Shreddies with the tagline "Too tasty for geeks". I hereby propose a boycott of all Shreddies related products. Rise up, geek brother and sisters.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brilliantly, I've managed to completely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/23/2001 12:55:18 PM ----- BODY:

Brilliantly, I've managed to completely underestimate the amount of freelance work that I have to get done. What seemed initially to be just a question of knocking up twelve HTML pages in a template that I've already built has suddenly turned into navigational development, the complete rewriting of a section of code that currently appears buried in forty different pages and the generation of a completely different set of templates to handle what was supposed to be an easy transition from one part of a site to another. Suddenly I find myself consumed by an excess of work that I could have easily accomplished if I'd given myself a little more time to do so.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Prince William explains why he STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/23/2001 01:27:52 PM ----- BODY:

Prince William explains why he decided to miss Fresher's Week at St. Andrews: "I thought I would probably end up in a gutter completely wrecked, and the people I had met that week wouldn't end up being my friends anyway." [BBC]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Still I'd rather be famous STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/23/2001 09:44:03 PM ----- BODY:

"Still I'd rather be famous than righteous and holy. Anyday, anyday, anyday."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to Peoplenews, Brendan Fraser STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/24/2001 01:07:30 PM ----- BODY:

According to Peoplenews, Brendan Fraser is about to take to the stage at the Lyric Theatre in a new production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And he'll be wearing boxer shorts. And little else. Not that I care, you understand. Nothing to do with me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I started my contract at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2001 08:54:29 AM ----- BODY:

I started my contract at EMAP yesterday, which might explain the lack of recent entries. I'll try and be better behaved today.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the horrors of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2001 01:44:43 PM ----- BODY:

One of the horrors of working with Cal is that he keeps coming up with incredibly inventive ways of taking the piss. One such example is this, which effectively tracks precisely how much work I've done in any given hour. If he survives the week, it will be a miracle.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the sick minds at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2001 04:39:36 PM ----- BODY:

From the sick minds at B3ta.com comes Kill Tom Coates. Interestingly, this post has nothing to do with Cal. Even though he's really annoying. And stuff.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Late night lunacy from the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2001 05:58:54 PM ----- BODY:

Late night lunacy from the mouth of Evil Michael, who seems to have declared war on frustrated bus conductors. All power to him.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The sheer effect of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2001 06:01:09 PM ----- BODY:

The sheer effect of the World Trade Center collapse on Manhattan's buildings is brought home with CNN's 3D map.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith Underground has received 305,000 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2001 01:57:54 PM ----- BODY:

Barbelith Underground has received 305,000 page impressions this month so far. That doesn't include the webzine. Bandwidth is, however, stabilising - even if the board is not. Does anyone know of any good ways of maintaining the stability of a UBB6 board?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Onion: God Angrily Clarifies STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2001 01:58:56 PM ----- BODY:

The Onion: God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

Growing increasingly wrathful, God continued: "Can't you people see? What are you, morons? There are a ton of different religious traditions out there, and different cultures worship Me in different ways. But the basic message is always the same: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Shintoism... every religious belief system under the sun, they all say you're supposed to love your neighbors, folks! It's not that hard a concept to grasp."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wish I was at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2001 05:57:46 PM ----- BODY:

I wish I was at the personal publishing response to the WTC disaster panel today. It would be interesting to hear what everyone had to say, and it would be nice to be able to give a perspective on the news from outside the US.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My college room-mate has got STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2001 12:03:02 PM ----- BODY:

My college room-mate has got engaged. I never know what to say in these circumstances except congratulations! Well done, Fenner, old chap. The woman's clearly insane. I hope you'll both be really happy!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Possibly the best headline that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2001 12:35:05 PM ----- BODY:

Possibly the best headline that I've ever written goes as follows: Britney's home raided, Britney remains untouched... [full story]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Max and Liz to go STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2001 02:12:21 PM ----- BODY:

Max and Liz to go Bonnie and Clyde in the new series of Roswell? Say it's so! [UPN.com]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tiny Tom Adventures... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/28/2001 12:42:41 AM ----- BODY:

Tiny Tom Adventures: Being one potential direction for a project I'm working on at the moment which will almost certainly come to nothing or stress me out or both:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I want an iBook... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/28/2001 01:15:01 AM ----- BODY:

All week at work I've been using an old Apple laptop and it's cemented in my mind exactly how much I need an iBook and how much I want to try OSX and how cool and useful Office X looks. Now all I need is a couple of grand.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On infographics and political cartoons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 12:31:10 PM ----- BODY:

Political cartoons and infographics from around the world have been posted on Barbelith. Well worth a look.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Age and Computer Games: I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 12:47:39 PM ----- BODY:

Age and Computer Games: I am (barely) old enough to remember Pong before it got 3D. Mo isn't old enough to remember Elite on the BBC (which I used to play in the flint 'New Buildings' at school). When I think of the games that I used to love when I first got my own computer I think of Paradroid on the Commodore 64. What do you think of?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shamanism in a Nutshell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 12:52:59 PM ----- BODY:

Today on Barbelith: Shamanism in a Nutshell (I) - "Shamanism, a widely misunderstood and misused word, has been used to describe everything from tribal magicians, spiritual healers, medicine men, and sometimes any nature based form of spirituality, magic, or religion. This broad and vague usage brings with it a lot of miscommunication and confusion. Lothar Tuppan investigates."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Over the last week I've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 01:35:45 PM ----- BODY:

Over the last week I've been holding down a full-time job while working a couple of hours a night trying to polish of a piece of freelance work that even now is still lingering around my head. And over the next week, I have yet more to do. I've only been managing five or six hours sleep a night at most. On Thursday evening, when I was trying to prepare for an interview the following day, it all got a bit too much.

I was cooking some pasta with my flatmate Kate. When I picked up the pan I splashed my hand with boiling water. Reacting on reflex my arm twitched more, splashing more water onto my arm and onto Kate's sleeve. I started swearing - my arm was hurting, and part put down, part threw down, the pan. Filled with horror about Kate's arm (which was completely fine), I started apologising profusely - looking at all the hot water on the floor and the mingling pasta shapes, and running my arm under the cold tap. I had a sudden flash that I was clearly simply incapable of running my life to even the slightest degree - a feeling compounded by not getting the job at the BBC and the last six months of fighting for money and worrying about bills. A minor emotional collapse followed, only calmable by a substantial couple of shots of neat vodka. The following day, I felt fine - and managed to get to my interview in plenty of time, smart and collected. Only to discover that I'd prepared by looking at completely the wrong site. I came home early that evening and promptly slept for twelve hours.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm spending some of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 02:10:24 PM ----- BODY:

I'm spending some of the afternoon adding rooms to Cal's "Choose your own adventure" game. Rather than introduce you to the game from the beginning, where it's experienced a fair amount of 'game-rot', I'm going to introduce it to you from the point at which I started adding rooms - lost in the foliage, you have decided to scour the ground for a tunnel. Finding two, you have chosen the one with the humming noise and the faint green light.... Now choose your own adventure.... [REQUEST - please try and keep the plot in character and mood - it would be interesting to see how this might emerge...]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Would you shag this man? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 02:34:29 PM ----- BODY:

Would you shag this man? If so, then why not contact him via his website.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So what has the vast STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 02:40:50 PM ----- BODY:

So what has the vast increase in budget meant for the cast of Buffy? ''More whores,'' says Nicholas Brendon, who plays Xander. ''Many, many, many more whores.'' . I can't believe I don't live in a country where Buffy's new series starts on Oct 2.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two pieces of news for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 02:44:10 PM ----- BODY:

Two pieces of news for independent content producers - firstly that MiniMono TrueType Fonts are now for sale for $8 and secondly that we are only a week away from the launch of Movable Type. Both of these things interest me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 100 screen shots of news STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 03:02:36 PM ----- BODY:

100 screen shots of news sites the day of the WTC disaster is both interesting historically and for design purposes. It's quite easy to see which ones direct you well to the story immediately. [link] It would be interesting if someone had done the same thing for weblogs.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever mad things may come STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 10:44:56 PM ----- BODY:

Whatever mad things may come out of her mouth (if you ask me too much 'relaxation', 'fun' and 'time' are very dangerous things), it's great to have Meg back, and wonderful to be able to see how good a time she had. Welcome home, love.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever happened to MoMorgan.com? The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2001 11:28:40 PM ----- BODY:

Whatever happened to MoMorgan.com? The retrospective show at the ICA starts today...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could LinkLust be the European STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/01/2001 11:46:04 PM ----- BODY:

Could LinkLust be the European answer to Metafilter? Only time will tell...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weird stats from Metafilter. I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/01/2001 11:55:12 PM ----- BODY:

Weird stats from Metafilter. I joined the site in July of 2000 - over a year ago - and knew about it for a good four or five months before then. I first posted about the site in March 2000 - a full eighteen months ago. If I remember correctly, I was whining about SXSW - which I really wanted to go to and couldn't - and which I don't think I'll be able to make this year either. I love Metafilter - I just wish there was some way to tell in advance whether I was going to be interested in a thread...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not sure that the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2001 09:11:28 AM ----- BODY:

I'm not sure that the design for The Hermit's Tower is supposed to look like it does on a Mac - but it's an enjoyable read, so I'll forgive it quite a lot.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's going on? Have I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2001 03:37:07 PM ----- BODY:

What's going on? Have I missed something? When did everyone start taking all this stuff so seriously?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two of the cutest and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2001 04:40:25 PM ----- BODY:

Two of the cutest and coolest things you'll ever see in your life, courtesy of Denise Wilton: Rabbit and Monkey. There are more but they're too good for you and you'd blow up if you had them all together. Be patient. I'll make her put them all online. Link lust on!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the project that I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2001 05:45:05 PM ----- BODY:

So the project that I'm doing editorial work for is beginning to look quite exciting. It's very much in a beta-phase - final design and functionality is still being resolved, and I'm still scouting around to find the best tone for the place. But there's still something here that all of you can play with.

The site is called thecelebnetwork.com - and it's essentially a community site - its heart and soul is the messageboard. The site is there for people to post to when they see celebrities, to talk about the latest trashy celebrity news, and to find out all kinds of useless information that they'll be able to show-off with down the pub with there friends. Examples: Over the last few weeks I have found out that Madonna's just recoved from a hernia, that Sharon Stone's brain blew up and that even Calista Flockhart is fed up of Ally McBeal being such a whiny old bird.

So now I'm directing other people to come and play on the message board - come and discuss the latest absurd celebrity news, find out where Sade gets her Jamaican foodstuffs - seek out celebrities on push bikes. And give us all the feedback that you can manage (do it on the board if you want - we'd all love to hear it), so that by the time we launch it properly, it will be the best it can be. And in the meantime I'll leave you with a little piece of my most recent news:

Scientologists look forward to a future of ponies, children and global thermonuclear war While stars like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kelly Preston and Jenna Elfman preside over the opening of a San Franciscan Scientology center for children, their 'church' elders are busy building a vast underground bunker just in case of nuclear war. Should a blast incinerate much of America and bring about a global winter lasting decades, those few that remain will have the company of the Pulp Fiction star, his wife, that guy that was in Mission Impossible and some bint off TV. Our future is clearly safe in their hands. Jenna Elfman is reported to have said, "We are not one to be caught off guard." [discuss this item]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Of course we all love STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2001 11:46:01 AM ----- BODY:

Of course we all love Cal. He's all clever and ... technical. And his work is in the Guardian today - the astonishing Web Trumps has been mentioned once more. And I'm delighted to say that I appear on one of the cards. What a guy...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Review time: In which Tom STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2001 11:48:26 AM ----- BODY:

Review time: In which Tom reviews The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My favourite part of this review is my taster for it: "Lo-fi, terrifying, remorseless horror with its tongue firmly not in cheek, but instead cut off with a power tool. Watch at your peril."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going to a press STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2001 05:06:12 PM ----- BODY:

I'm going to a press preview of The Others with Davo. I will, of course, let you know what it's like.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Movable Type launches on Monday, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/05/2001 06:39:29 PM ----- BODY:

Movable Type launches on Monday, and I'll be one of the first inline to download it and try out an installation of it. I'm really quite excited about this - partially because I'm interested in any system that allows me to import files from Blogger. It's not that I would choose to leave them, but that the ability to do so protects nearly two years of writing from possible destruction. I would have a copy that I could back up in a way that would be accessible to other CMS's. I'm also interested in it because I'm interested in Content Management Systems full-stop. Seems to me that the world needs a low-cost / free / multi-functional CMS and Movable Type could be it. [MT interviewed at WriteTheWeb]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Will the Weblogger User Group STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/06/2001 11:24:54 AM ----- BODY:

Will the Weblogger User Group have the same triumphs, friendship-creation and back-biting components of UK weblogging? I can only hope so.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Diary of a movie-goer: As STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/06/2001 11:31:21 AM ----- BODY:

Diary of a movie-goer: As Davo has reported, he and I went to see The Others on Thursday night, and I have to say that I was singularly impressed. The evening was a bit of a farce really. The director was supposed to present the movie, was half an hour late, walked in said something to the effect of "Hello, this is my film" in a kind of Balky-style accent and walked out. This extremely bouncy PR lady kept smiling at us and saying happy things in an Ab Fab kind of way and then the film began.

And essentially it was stunning. It wasn't particularly revolutionary - there's no plot element in there that hasn't been done before - it's a straight down-the-line haunted house story with a couple of quirks that keep it interesting - but it's so well done. The thing is, there are only so many plots connected with haunted house stories, and only so many possible twists - and we've seen them all before. But the way the plot brings them up as possibilities, shuts them down, distracts you completely, leads you in one direction and then pushes you in another - and in such a completely plausible and terrifying fashion - well it's completely worth watching. Four and half stars from our London correspondent...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Diary of a movie-goer: (2) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/06/2001 11:35:14 AM ----- BODY:

Diary of a movie-goer: (2) Last night was Amelie night - and what a film. It's strange, quirky, brilliantly put together, surprisingly quiet (the main characters don't seem to talk much at all), occasionally manipulative, often ludicrous, and at heart - a well-intentioned beautiful and upsetting little film. You must see it immediately. Accidental blogmeet territory too - as co-worker Cal, friend Davo and I met up with occasional freelance employer Danny M-K for swift beer and movie.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via The LinkMachine: "I mean, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/06/2001 11:40:57 AM ----- BODY:

Via The LinkMachine: "I mean, perform fellatio once and you're a poet, twice and you're a homosexual. I remember once I was being fisted by Sebastian Cabot- but here's where the story gets interesting. He was lactose-intolerant. I once sat on a bus and tried to will myself a menstrual cycle. All I ended up with was a sense of failure and a mild neuralgia in my incisor teeth and perhaps a grudging respect for the weaker sex. I love toe cleavage. For the most part I distrust dogs. I slept in a horse once. It was quite roomy. On second thought, it was the Ritz." [Who knows...]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Be there when the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/06/2001 01:20:14 PM ----- BODY:

Be there when the board opens to the world - Monday morning at 10am (UK time). In the meantime, if you go to the News section, you can see a highly embarrassing photo of your host (me). The buzz starts here... SPREAD THE WORD

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My position on Would Atheism STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/07/2001 12:22:23 PM ----- BODY:

My position on Would Atheism be a better solution to the problems of the world? [at Linklust]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok, I'm only going to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2001 11:15:15 AM ----- BODY:

Ok, I'm only going to ask you once: TCN is open for business again, and I'd love it if people would come and keep me company on the boards. Just - you know - to see how cool it is....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Davo will pay for the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2001 02:08:00 PM ----- BODY:

Davo will pay for the short-lived front page to his site. Oh yes. Still. It's a good message, which you should obey. Actually, come to think of it, short-lived is a pretty good description of Davo himself. Nyah hahahaha.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The horror of Britney's transparent STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2001 03:10:25 PM ----- BODY:

The horror of Britney's transparent top - found via TCN.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can someone please explain hairdressers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2001 03:25:03 PM ----- BODY:

Can someone please explain hairdressers to me. I mean, I don't really understand why anyone would do the job. But if you are going to do the job, why is it so difficult to listen to what your client is asking for? I mean, if you went in and said "Hello, I'm trying to grow my hair a little longer, but it's got a bit unruly in recent weeks, could you thin it out and cut it a bit but leave some length..." would you really expect your hair to be cut to within one quarter of an inch at the front? Me either. Sigh. Looking forward to another three month hair-growing experience. Followed by a shouting match with another evil hairdresser no doubt.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Duncan Brattel STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/09/2001 08:38:37 AM ----- BODY:

Thanks to Duncan Brattel

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's kind of hard to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/09/2001 11:55:46 AM ----- BODY:

It's kind of hard to post at the moment to Plasticbag.org - I mean - I am spending all day writing short bits of content, sometimes including links, for a site which is updated constantly throughout the day and which I hope will promote some form of discussion. In a sense I'm weblogging all day - just not on plasticbag.org. I don't want to keep pushing and promoting TCN - even though that's what I'm working on - but in lieu of proper content, here are a few of my recent news stories from the 'other' site:

Clooney's Pet Pig Prang
George Clooney - movie star and heart-throb - is known for his devotion to his pet pig "Max". This is, bizarrely, not a euphemism. But who does he value more - his friendship to Tommy Hinkley, or Max's life? This was put to the test recently when Hinkley accidentally ran over the poor porcine pet... Hinkley says, "Max is a black pig and it was dark. It seems kind of funny now but at the time it certainly wasn't. We thought he might lose his leg, but it looks like it will be okay." [Discuss this item]
Anthony Hopkins "I'm no tart"
What's a celebrated actor (known for his masterful rendition of salivating serial killers) to do when a female fan gropes his ass and whispers saucy suggestions in his ear? And in Starbucks of all places? Well, if you were Sir Anthony Hopkins, you'd spin round, remove the offending hand and proclaim, "Excuse me, miss, but I'm no tart!" [Discuss this item]
Billie Piper Survives Virgin Cull
It's not what you think... Despite Virgin Records purging itself of unprofitable 'talent', Chris Evans' wife and barely post-pubescent pop-star Billie Piper has survived... The record company denied initial reports that the singer, who hasn't released a single for a year, was to be dropped from the label. [Discuss this item]

More turgid waffle, and unmentionable scandal-mongering 24/7 at The Celeb Network...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Who is The Grapevine? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2001 10:02:07 AM ----- BODY:

Who is The Grapevine?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Help archive the web's response STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2001 12:20:45 PM ----- BODY:

Help archive the web's response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In some ways this was a media event in which television proved its current primacy, but in other ways, the net provided personal stories, insight and reporting / commentary that has never been seen before. All the details are here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As I descend into my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/10/2001 01:03:24 PM ----- BODY:

As I descend into my second adolescence, I find myself strangely delighted by The Celebrity Fart Archive...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Been playing with Movable Type. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2001 12:37:28 AM ----- BODY:

Been playing with Movable Type. I'm very impressed. Seriously. Expect to see some changes around here sometime soon...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pointless telephone number factoids... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2001 08:40:51 AM ----- BODY:

Pointless fact of the day: telephone numbers assigned for use in television and film drama.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Collecting Parody / Combo MP3s... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2001 01:14:46 PM ----- BODY:

Ok, so we all remember Eminenya (warning - big mp3 file from Megnut.com) - but I'm looking for about ten really good parody / combo mp3 files out there. Don't send me the files, but send me links to them if they are on the net. Mail me your suggestions.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Amazon's new book information pages... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2001 01:31:40 PM ----- BODY:

Amazon have redesigned their book information pages - so that they now include actual excerpts from the book themselves - scanned in for you to read and flick through. Not such a relelation, you might think - except that it allows them to have twenty-three page excerpts from Watchmen (found via Haddock) and V for Vendetta. Astonishing. Beautiful. If this doesn't persuade you to buy them I don't know what will.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a Movable Type error... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2001 02:44:19 PM ----- BODY:

Anyone have a solution for my Movable Type Error?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pingzilla in Paris... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2001 05:44:12 PM ----- BODY:

Because I can't resist a challenge, I present Pingzilla in Paris:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A return to mud-brown design... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2001 03:42:51 PM ----- BODY:

Phew. A return to the mud-brown background of yesteryear after a month of stolen background. It was kind of supposed to be a joke, but I kept forgetting to turn it back.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I might as well be The Grapevine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2001 06:18:49 PM ----- BODY:

Ok. I give up. If everyone insists that I am the TheGrapevine, then I might as well admit to it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a collection of nameless stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/13/2001 11:16:41 AM ----- BODY:

Recent Questions asked about Movable Type:

1) Is a search facility worthwhile?, Like in Greymatter?
2) Being able to delete multiple posts (and scroll through entries by page) would be really nice...
3) A limit to Blogger exports?

Footprints:

1) Does Derek take himself too seriously?

Quote of the Day:

Julie Burchill: "The Evening Argus is probably the only read in the world WORSE than Time Out..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Barbelith Server Fund... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/13/2001 11:35:13 AM ----- BODY:

Yet again, Barbelith is creaking under the strain of bandwidth that I can't afford to maintain. This month looks likely to be running at the 600Mb a day mark. And, remaining sporadically employed as I do, I can't afford the $100 - $125 a month that this costs. So I've finally snapped...

VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTIONS VIA PAYPAL: If you would like to help pay for the cost of maintaining barbelith (and the barbelith underground), then you can do so by donating $2.50 a month via Paypal. You can cancel your subscription at any time with no notice, via Paypal itself. It's PURELY voluntary - it won't affect your ability to use the site if you don't subscribe, but barbelith really does need support if it is to continue running at this level.

If I can get fifty subscribers, we can pay the bandwidth bills and also move to Pair.com's "High Volume" account, which would give us room to nearly double in size if necessary. And if we can get one hundred subscribers, we can actually get a Barbelith Server Of Our Own. This would mean no more time-outs, substantially fewer massive server errors ever ten minutes, and a considerably smaller chance of the whole damn site going tits-up every six months. As soon as we get enough people to get a server, we won't accept any more donations. This is literally JUST to cover bandwidth and maintenance costs.

You can: Donate $2.50 (around £1.75) a month
Or: Donate $5 (around £3) a month.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More Time Out Stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/14/2001 01:23:24 PM ----- BODY:

Today I am mostly writing the gay section for Time Out's London Guide.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: AIM Bloggerbot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 12:20:08 AM ----- BODY:

Now this could be seriously cool - an AIM BloggerBot.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Writing the Gay Section of the Time Out London Guide... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 12:22:46 AM ----- BODY:

Yesterday and last night I was mostly writing the gay section for Time Out's London Guide. And I was also mostly not getting enough done. Despite Davo's help. I'm a bad man.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kylie trumps Jackson... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 08:37:14 AM ----- BODY:

In bleeding edge news, Kylie Minogue keeps Michael Jackson from the No #1 spot in the UK. I never thought I'd be saying that. Nor did I think I'd be saying that when she'd been number one for three weeks already. Nor did I think I'd say that the Kylie single is an unbelievably good little pop song that I literally can't bloody stop humming...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Barbelith Server Fund Needs You... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 08:42:18 AM ----- BODY:

Reminder The BARBELITH SERVER FUND needs you. [Full Story] If you would like to help pay for the cost of maintaining Barbelith and the Barbelith Underground then you can do so here:

You can: Donate $2.50 (around £1.75) a month
Or: Donate $5 (around £3) a month.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Our heroine, who rots in earth... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 02:43:24 PM ----- BODY:

Ok, by now there aren't that many regular readers of plasticbag.org who don't know that I've got a bit of a fetish for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And of course, being English I have to deal with the horror that a lot of other people around the world are going to see what happens to her before I am. I don't consciously true to avoid having it spoiled for me, but I am aware that it only gets me more and more frustrated.

So can someone tell me, is it true? I've just read an article about Buffy that has come through on the newsfeed I use for The Celeb Network - and it's claiming that people have been shocked by the state of her at the beginning of the series. Here's a quote: "But American fans were left distraught when the episode aired in the States recently, thanks to shots of their heroine rotting in the earth. One fan says, 'The shot of her decomposed body was pretty sick.'"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Chicks are for fags? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 02:57:28 PM ----- BODY:

There is possibly no one in the world who could understand my complete lust for this item. I think it's genius. I want one.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Humming... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 03:16:12 PM ----- BODY:

Friends have heard me humming this particular little ditty for days now. Find out why...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A Sleepless Night's Dreaming... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 06:04:23 PM ----- BODY:

t's not always hard to analyse one's dreams. So for some reason in my dream last night I didn't have anywhere to live, so I moved everything I owned out of my flat and into the middle of a park. In the park I arranged everything exactly as it had been in my room in my flat. And I lived there successfully for a few weeks. But one day I came home and half of my stuff was gone - and a man was carrying my belongings towards a van parked in a nearby street. And I ran to him and begged him not to take my stuff, and scrabbled for the bare necessities that I would need to get along with. I kept trying to persuade him that he couldn't take it all away...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Electronic Miracles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2001 08:36:22 PM ----- BODY:

Quick link: A stunningly realised site with some startling bits of imaginative genius within: Electronic Miracles.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith regular in Anthrax Alert! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2001 12:31:08 PM ----- BODY:

If you are scared about the circulation of Anthrax in the US, then go and visit this thread on Barbelith. One of our regulars works in the offices where the scare started and has been filling us all in as he hears stuff.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Emptiest Place in Britain... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2001 11:27:56 AM ----- BODY:

I grew up in a village in Norfolk which contained eighty people and fifty houses. We had no pub, we had no shop. We had a boat-hire place, a church and a phone box. The odd pylon. And for several years I really thought it was the most boring place in the world. And then I saw this.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Unspeakable Fucking Gall... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2001 11:51:56 AM ----- BODY:

Now this is funny:

"if I see one more would-be guru tagging along on a rickety late-period goldrush line up unsupportable declarations (lookit me) to pique the five or six remaining executives (lookit me, sir!) to be convinced however temporarily that the web offers exciting ways to separate people from their money, and who have the UNSPEAKABLE FUCKING GALL to infantilize the work of individuals into an avoirdupois commodity called ìcontentî ..."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jennifer Aniston is Wonder Woman! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2001 12:26:37 PM ----- BODY:

One of the things I did at work yesterday:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anyone involved in website creation STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2001 01:49:43 PM ----- BODY:

Anyone involved in website creation and the structuring of information and informational spaces should probably go and read Matt Jones piece on Rulespace.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was on the tube STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2001 06:20:55 PM ----- BODY:

I was on the tube this morning from Maida Vale to Farringdon, on my way to work. I normally change at Baker Street, so when I arrived at 9.15am I disembarked and started walking across to the Metropolitan line. Very quickly I became aware that something was wrong - there were raised voices from staff on a couple of platforms around me, and people were starting to move. A message came over the tannoy, "Due to a reported emergency, would all customers please leave the station immediately." A couple of months ago, I'd just think it was a hoax bomb threat or something from the IRA, but suddenly you start thinking if it's related to current events. And of course it probably is. Everyone left, no one got excited - it takes a lot to panic Londoners who are used to being pushed around by the vagaries of the metropolis - and pretty much everyone seemed to assume it was some kind of anthrax-related incident. And pretty much everyone thought it was probably a hoax. But if you step back a couple of feet from the edge of the neurotic precipice that Londoners live on all the time, you have to ask yourself - how on earth did we find ourselves here? And why are we all so comfortable with it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I love Gina Snowdoll. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2001 10:23:42 AM ----- BODY:

I love Gina Snowdoll.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Damn you, Simon, I don't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2001 11:19:12 AM ----- BODY:

Damn you, Simon, I don't have time to play worm games all day. You wait til I get my hands on you, young man...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On workaholics, sexaholics, alcholics and etymology... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Language CATEGORY: Language DATE: 10/18/2001 04:00:48 PM ----- BODY:

I have a bone to pick with you. You've all had a drink in your lives, I assume. You've all gone out and bought some alcohol? Some of you may have got rather too keen on alcohol. You might even have become addicted. you might have become an alcoholic.

The term alcoholic is a slightly strange one. It sounds like a religion or philosophical position. Like Marxism. But more logically it sounds like a medical condition. Like necrotic (it means 'dead-like') or neurotic (someone with a neurosis). It's clearly an adjective derived from a noun - in this case "Alcohol". Alcohol, according to various dictionaries, comes from a word meaning any distillation or essence - and eventually only to what was previously called "alcohol of wine". So alchohol goes to alchoholic, right? It's simple! Alcohol is a substance, and the person who is obsessed with that substance or dependant upon it in some way is an alcoholic...

Now answer me this. When in your life have you ever drunk sexahol? Or workahol? Or chocahol? I'm not saying that a couple of drinks of sexahol wouldn't go amiss at the moment. Nor, for that matter would a draught or two of chocahol. But they're not substances. They don't exist! So how can there be someone who is a workaholic? Or a sexaholic? Surely a more plausible description would be a workic or sexic or chocolatic? Well of course, the derivation of each of those words is different - they come from different languages and have evolved in different ways - so you can't generalise quite in that way. But what is clear is that workaholism is just wrong. Plain wrong. Offensively wrong.

According to this model, alcohol becomes to be based around the idea of addiction. That the 'alc' part refers to drink, and the 'ahol' the addictive quality. But where is this phrase when you look at truly addictive products? Where's the nicotinaholic? Where's the crackaholic? Where's the heroinaholic? It's absurd. They're just ridiculous words. They mean nothing.

Addenda: This rant was yet another one to emerge from a cursory viewing of Ally McBeal, the most annoying television series of all time.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ing EMAIL: ingrid.reisner@verizon.net IP: 68.163.63.199 URL: DATE: 02/11/2004 08:02:38 PM Any "ism" is real. Addiction is real. There does exist a biological component to repeated use or abuse of a substance or behavior. That said, and myself being a "recovering alcholic," I also must say that I subjectively deny the AA premise that a person must surrender their will to free themselves from the drink. If I were to surrender my will, then I would be drunk...um, get it? It is my will that keeps me in check. I still want to drink. I like it. Who choses whether I do or I don't? Not some higher power! I do. Enough said. xo Ing ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saving Harry from fizzy sugar water... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2001 05:38:37 PM ----- BODY:

Despite my vast daily consumption of Coca-Cola, I have to say that I'm weirdly drawn to the Save Harry campaign to keep Mr Potter off cans of fizzy sugar water...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the midst of calamity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2001 10:51:25 PM ----- BODY:

Five links illustrating that even in the midst of calamity, the net remains full of variety, news and weirdness - in almost equal measure: The Smoking Gun has images of the envelopes that contained anthrax. Apple is to announce a breakthrough digital device - no one knows what it is, but it's not a Mac. Derek's going to be battling Heather - boyfriend versus girlfriend in photoshop tennis tomorrow. A Russian newspaper claims that all the evidence for Taliban involvement in terrorist attacks on the US is a farce. And a student teacher has swallowed her own toothbrush. You couldn't make this stuff up.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On pseudo-Apple designs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/19/2001 11:56:37 AM ----- BODY:

Lots of weird pseudo-Apple product designs, entertaining to look at... here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Will the iPod be impressive? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/20/2001 11:28:57 AM ----- BODY:

Wired is reporting that the new device from Apple is a portable music device called the iPod. This doesn't sound that impressive - but we shall have to wait and see.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This has got to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/20/2001 11:43:57 AM ----- BODY:

This has got to be my fetish of the moment - ever more pseudo-Apple product designs - some weird, some awful, some truly beautiful. The mistake that is made a lot - particularly in the renditions of the potential new design possibilities of a flat-screen iMac - is that the iMac has to be a friendly looking computer - a computer that has removed all the 'computery' bits that worry people. Some of the projected designs look like flash-backs to 1990, or earlier. Or they look like sleek designer products for people with very urban, stark sensibilities. Where's the 'cute' appeal that the iMac has?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Beta Challenge: Colour in this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/20/2001 01:08:30 PM ----- BODY:

Beta Challenge: Colour in this lizard... My entry:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Speaking of which - if STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/20/2001 01:23:28 PM ----- BODY:

Speaking of which - if you get bored of your current job - why don't you apply to be an Astronaut?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What makes great web design? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/21/2001 08:03:08 PM ----- BODY:

What makes great web design?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sunday night - trying to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/21/2001 09:14:22 PM ----- BODY:

Sunday night - trying to polish off the gay section of the London guide for the new Time Out London book. I'm currently thrilled with myself for the final three words in the following sentence: "A stylish and affordable brasserie serving trendy but substantial food to a mainly gay clientele, Balans remains the premier restaurant for queens and company." I don't know precisely why, but I think it's because of the resonance of 'Queen and Country'. Hmmm. I need to get out more.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night I dreamt that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2001 08:34:07 AM ----- BODY:

Last night I dreamt that I was at some kind of large function and that people were milling all around me, and that everyone was hectic and busy and professional. There was a large banqueting hall and a vast area with rows of narrow tables serving food and drink. The place felt like a hotel - it had those desperate carpets and florid decoration that no individual would choose, but hotels seem to crave. I felt strangely disconnected from everyone - like they were talking from far away, and like they weren't quite real. And I wandered through the crowds really quietly. And I went to a counter to get some food, and a man behind the counter - dressed in a white shirt, waistcoat and bow-tie, with his hands locked behind his back - looked at me and paused, and I looked at him and kind of breathed in. And we stood silently, looking at each other for a few moments, and it seemed like some kind of feedback loop had been established - like something wonderful had gone seriously wrong with the mechanisms that keep the world turning. I felt completely unconcerned with myself - as if all my anxieties and neuroses had fallen off. And a few moments later I turned and walked away from him.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm feeling kinda lonely over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2001 01:20:29 PM ----- BODY:

I'm feeling kinda lonely over at the TCN boards today. Come and join me - let's talk about trashy celebrity stuff.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because it's genius: The Wheels STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2001 03:25:14 PM ----- BODY:

Because it's genius: The Wheels of Madonna...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Micro-snippet two: T-shirt of choice. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2001 03:28:52 PM ----- BODY:

Micro-snippet two: T-shirt of choice.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And in a blinding flash, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2001 10:42:03 PM ----- BODY:

And in a blinding flash, I'm suddenly convinced I know who The Grapevine is.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A fairly accurate portrait of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2001 10:04:18 AM ----- BODY:

A fairly accurate portrait of my personality.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The pop question of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2001 03:43:05 PM ----- BODY:

The pop question of the day is Which Spice Girl would you most like to smack in the face? Think about it carefully before you go - it's a difficult question. They are all so very objectionable in all their special different kinds of ways...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The new Apple device is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2001 05:23:09 PM ----- BODY:

The new Apple device is announced today in the US, and I'm surprised by how interested I am. Perhaps foolishly I thought I was past getting excited by press releases. If you're a journalist for any period of time you get used to them and find them at best tedious and at worst laughable. That doesn't mean you don't use them of course - there aren't enough journalists to do all the editorial work that journalists are supposed to do.

Part of me wishes that they'd release something like this - the world's first actual 'gaydar' product, designed to make it easier to spot and meet people of dodgy sexualities. Apple could do it so much more skillfully than most - and they could combine it with online profiles so you could get information about people you met in real life afterwards - if they wanted you to... All this stuff could be ideal for people like me who are basically too dim to tell if someone fancies them, and very keen to suggest dodgy congress with people who are resolutely - tediously - straight.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Since The Grapevine seems to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2001 05:29:55 PM ----- BODY:

Since The Grapevine seems to have suddenly appeared on Blogger's "Blog's of Note" page, and since I seem to be the featured lampoon victim of the day, I suppose I'd better comment. Yes, it's all true. I am a glittering queen. Yes, I am married. Yes she is called Suk Mei Wang and yes, we live in Chester. However the picture is a fake. I look more like Harrison Ford.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a strange few days STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2001 05:49:22 PM ----- BODY:

What a strange few days I've had. I've seen Jeepers Creepers, I've gone drinking in a bar next to the Ritz for a friend's birthday, I've looked quizzically at the beautifully cut suits of young and attractive young men, I've gone bowling at the Trocadero until the tubes shut (and I came second), I've gone for Dim Sum with Michael, Davo and Simon - and I've eaten chicken feet in the process (we said "Chicken, please", she said "Chicken feet!?", we said, "Er, okay, I guess"), I've written work for Time Out, I've produced an e-mail newsletter for IAB Internet Advertising Bureau, I've written Britney Spears frightens pigs for TCN - and with any luck tonight, I can just relax.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it may not be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2001 09:10:47 PM ----- BODY:

So it may not be revolutionary, but it is stunningly beautiful and I want one. Revealing The iPod (and buying the iPod). Should I ever get paid for any work ever again, this may be second on my list of things to buy after the digital camera I crave...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The world is a factory. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2001 02:00:28 AM ----- BODY:

The world is a factory. The world is a death camp. The world is a machine. The world has been a machine for a long time now. The world will remain a machine for a long time to come. But what is our position within the machine ñ how do you live in a mechanical universe?

The most intelligent of us fall into the same traps as everyone else. In fact the most intelligent fall into them more readily, because it was this very intelligence that made the world a machine in the first place ñ or more fairly allowed us to recognise it as such. For the most intelligent were the ones who noticed the patterns and the movements behind our lives ñ the shapes and mechanisms, the cogs and springs. And they found cogs and springs in everything ñ from clocks to mice, sand and stars.

Intelligence can confuse function for point ñ and in a world where we cease to notice point, then what's there to confuse? Function is everything ñ the function of the machine, the function of the machines within machines, the function of the machines that comprise the machines within the machines. Efficiency is important. Robustness is important. The system becomes everything and the component replaceable.

I spoke to a man tonight about what was wrong with the world. And he thought that what was wrong with the world was that people were attempting to make everyone the same - that we denied obvious differences in ability and usefulness between people in the name of "equality". The same man believed that there were people who wanted rights without responsibilities, that people complained because they wanted to be treated as more equal ñ more similar ñ than they actually were, and that the most functional were forced to compromise their abilities and aspirations to support the less functional. And he felt strongly that these were the things that were wrong with the world.

These things are not what's wrong with the world. These things are what would be wrong with the world if the world was a machine. A perpetual motion machine with no function or goal save its own extension. A machine with people inside it whose only function was to act as cogs or wheels ñ moving smoothly against one another, at peak efficiency.

It makes no sense in a machine world to deny differences in ability and usefulness between its components. If one piece functions better than another for a function, then the old piece should be disposed of. The new piece should be installed. It makes no sense in a machine world to waste care and concern on ill-fitting components when you could replace them with something that fits perfectly and works immediately. It makes no sense in a machine world to limit the functionality of perfect components so that imperfect components don't wear out or break ñ certainly not if you can replace them.

But what's the point of this machine? What's it doing? What's it making? Who is it for?

Our world works as if it were a machine. People work individually, or collectively to make and produce things for other people. Companies employ people individually or collectively to make and produce things for other people. Companies are owned, individually or collectively by people who wish to make and produce things for other people.

But the heart of this process can't be the endless replication of the machine mindlessly, cancerously expanding to fill the universe around it ñ the machine has to be revealed to be a mechanism built for the people who live within it. And those people have to be free to diverge from the prescribed motions as set by the machine. Otherwise we are nothing but automata. Robots. Hopeless. Already dead.

The machine is there for all of us ñ and so it is has to work reasonably well. The better it works the more all of us benefit. And yet the machine can be made to work even better than it does by discarding those people who don't fit into the most efficient mechanisms of its functioning. A balance must be struck. But it must be struck with people in the centre, not the machine.

A world in which we have prescribed and proscribed roles given to us by the machine, with each name connoting a range of functions and tasks (with some given power and some without) - MAN, WOMAN, ENGLISH, FOREIGN, STRAIGHT, GAY. This is a world in which everyone's the same - a constricted world without choice or change. And it's a world that denies people even the most basic ability to even be human ñ because with our paths justified by science, we become machines ourselves ñ comprised of cogs and springs that say, "this is a man ñ he fucks and hunts", "this is a woman, she crafts and gives birth". And anything or anyone outside this system is an anomaly to be removed.

A world in which decisions can be made about individual's lives as if they were car parts - this is a dehumanising world of robots and slaves. A world in which people can't campaign for rights, or prove their ability to do tasks traditionally done by other 'classes' of people ñ this is a world which limits freedom in the name of the functioning of the machine. It's a world where nothing matters but bottom-lines ñ where money and products are more important than everything else. It's a world as a conveyor belt, an assembly line, a death camp of people oiling the cogs because they have to and dropping dead when they're not needed any more and when they've produced another generation to keep the machine going.

A world in which women and men can do the same jobs or not, where people with large amounts of money help support those without, where people can all vote, marry, sleep with one another, walk down streets without fear of being attacked or discriminated against for who or what they are ñ this is a much more complicated world, a much more varied world ñ a world with greater capacity for wonder and change - and the world that I want to live in.

This fairly long piece was written at 2am in the morning ñ contains none of the horror of my earlier thoughts on the subject and is almost certainly ill-conceived in places.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New Testament Apocamon is here. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2001 05:01:49 PM ----- BODY:

New Testament Apocamon is here. And the many eyed Lamb will get you. Be warned. Via Haddock.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm kind of obsessed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/26/2001 12:58:47 PM ----- BODY:

So I'm kind of obsessed at the moment by the TV show Action which is played just after midnight on Thursday evenings on Channel 4. Now I've no doubt that my American weblogging colleagues will find such a fascination ridiculous, but the show is tremendous - invigoratingly subversively mean. For the few of you who don't know about this iconic series, it follows the travails of Peter Dragon (Jay Mohr) and his ill-fated attempts to make epic movie "Beverley Hills Gun Club". So far he's been outed by a major celebrity who came out as gay after giving him a blow-job, thrown a baby across the room because it barfed on him, hired a prostitute and a pimp as major development executives and said the classic line, "I'm telling you, I was standing next to Jamie Lee Curtis at the urinal!" Sick, twisted genius...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Very important! It may be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/26/2001 02:11:50 PM ----- BODY:

Very important! It may be a 700k download, but Electric Dreams performed by MC Hawking, guest-starring Davros is possibly one of the sweetest and funniest pieces of flash animation you will ever see....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Occasionally Cal and I get STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/26/2001 03:42:43 PM ----- BODY:

Occasionally Cal and I get bored at work and we come up with a stupid idea and then he builds it cos he's better at that stuff. Introducing How Old Do I Look?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: What is now the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/28/2001 03:43:43 PM ----- BODY:

Question: What is now the point of the new Weblogs.com?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm very keen to people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/29/2001 12:46:25 AM ----- BODY:

I'm very keen to people who run Greymatter or Movable Type on accounts running at pair.com. If anyone does these things then please e-mail me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Almost my second birthday... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/29/2001 12:53:30 AM ----- BODY:

On Wednesday I will have been blogging for two years. That's not a thing that a lot of people can say. My first entry wasn't particularly gripping, but if you want to read it you can do so here. In the meantime - what has been your particular favourite post or time in tom-land? There's a search box at the bottom of every page so you can roam around the place more easily. And don't forget to let me know your conclusions...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What would you do if STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/29/2001 03:23:33 PM ----- BODY:

What would you do if you owned the URL filmsoho.com?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could whoever it was who STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2001 11:29:55 AM ----- BODY:

Could whoever it was who was godlike enough to buy me the Hedwig soundtrack from my wishlist please stand forward and make themselves known, so I can jump up and down next the them and make excited squeaks. Thank you.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Otter... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2001 11:36:28 AM ----- BODY:

Sometimes I just don't know. You struggle, you fight, you make choices, you find lovers, you leave lovers, you regret it or you don't, you battle for money - respect - success, then one day you wake up and - pardon my language - you're a fucking Otter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kind of entertaining: A reporter STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2001 12:30:22 PM ----- BODY:

Kind of entertaining: A reporter shows the iPod to Bill Gates: "He spun the wheel, checked out the menus on the display screen and seemed to get it immediately. "It looks like a great product," he said. And then he added, incredulous, "Itís only for Macintosh?"." [full story]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microdiary: Friday - slightly tense STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2001 03:41:30 PM ----- BODY:

Microdiary: Friday - slightly tense about buying my mother the right birthday present, I begin to wonder whether I'll have time to get anything other than the clip-on book light that I picked up in Borders. Arriving at the train with twenty minutes to spare, I buy a trashy magazine, board the train where they try to pass off a piece of industrial effluent as a 'thai prawn sandwich'. Arrive Norwich 8.20pm to be met by brother and father. Brother is now absurdly tall. Family dog greets me with tail wagging manically. Neither brother nor father have the slightest idea what to do about mother's birthday. Salt Beef for dinner, get a bit over-excited. Stay up watching MTV2 until early the following morning. Fall asleep with bad book.

Saturday - Stealing some of my mother's breakfast cereal sets me up for a day of adventure. Brother and I wander into Norwich playing Tom Petty very loudly in my mother's Golf. We wander through a thousand shops trying to find something nice for her. "Vase?" I say. "Mm" says my brother. "Is that a yes" I ask. "Dunno" says brother. Habitat is a dead loss. They have small sticks of Yucca like substance that you can buy and put in vases and water and they last 70 years. Which is likely to be longer than I'll live, let alone my mother. We ask a passing woman if she thinks they're nice. She kind of laughs and walks off. We take that as a yes, but then decide that mother would kill the Yucca plant things because she is the Angel of Death for all plant-life. We lie on a bed with a fake sheepskin thing on top of it for a while and complain about having to walk so much. I suggest "Glasses". My brother says "Mm".

We go see a movie - Legally Blonde. I tell brother that the film reminds me of my friend Pippa. He laughs. I fail to see what's so funny. He doesn't seem to enjoy the film too much, but doesn't say so exactly. I embarrass myself in front of him by not having any access to cash, while he has stored up vast amounts of money in the bank by being very very very responsible. I am the family flake.

We get mother chocolate covered coffee beans and book tokens to go with the light. Later that evening she opens them with a kind of controlled hysteria that I'm convinced is completely faked. I explain that the point was that she could eat the beans, be unable to sleep, and then read a book in the dark with the clip-on light. My brother thinks this is cool. He and I are impressed by our choice of gift.

We go to a restaurant in Horning that's been made out of the front room of a semi-detached house that escaped from the seventies. We're seated next to a cupboard and a bank of light-switches. My mother says again that I was an experiment in child-rearing and that they seem to have got it right with my brother. I increasingly find this very very funny. The food is amazingly good and served by a muppet with fazzled hair. I duck out for a cigarette and make my brother come with me. My mother looks horrified until I reassure her that he's coming out to smoke his crack pipe and that I don't have enough cigarettes to give him one.

Sunday - Upset by the prospect of going back to living hell of London I whine a bit to anyone who'll listen, then get on train and come back to London. Late night screening of "The Man Who Wasn't There" including exciting travel to and from with the masterful Danny M-K's off-road urban driving.

Other things happened, but my hands now hurt from typing and I think I need a cigarette.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Press preview. Harry Potter. Woo. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2001 03:49:02 PM ----- BODY:

Guess who may have four tickets to a press preview of Harry Potter...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Since when did Wired News STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 08:37:27 AM ----- BODY:

Since when did Wired News become part of the Lycos network? That bar across the top is - at best - offensive.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy second birthday to me, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 08:46:45 AM ----- BODY:

Happy second birthday to me, Happy second birthday to me, Happy birthday plasticbag.org (neé Barbelith), Happy second birthday to us...... And many more......

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While we're at it, I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 08:49:24 AM ----- BODY:

While we're at it, I should probably say happy birthday to Katy whose meat was twenty years old yesterday, and to my weblog twin - born mere hours before myself...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wil likes him now - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 08:51:24 AM ----- BODY:

Wil likes him now - so buy them while you still can! T-shirts, shirts and cups emblazoned with the legend: "Hello, my name is WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night was Big Gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 11:58:52 AM ----- BODY:

Last night was Big Gay Pub Pop Quiz Halloween Special night at the Retro Bar. 13 1/2 out of 20 due in large part to my epic knowledge of crap music and passing familiarity with goth and David Bowie. We did not win. Sigh.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've got paid. Oh my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 04:06:33 PM ----- BODY:

I've got paid. Oh my god. Oh. My. God. I haven't seen any income for over a month - nothing. I've been living past my overdraft facility - paying fees left, right and centre. I don't actually have a lot of cash, because of troubling things like rent and bills - but I'm getting closer to equilibrium. Should I buy myself a present to celebrate? Money. Actual money. Money cash. Cash Money. Bizarre. I fear 'gay romantic comedy' The Broken Hearts Club may have to be mine. Wooo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More accounts of the Big STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 04:24:18 PM ----- BODY:

More accounts of the Big Gay Pop-Quiz: Davo, Scally, Ian.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just in case you didn't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/31/2001 06:25:44 PM ----- BODY:

Just in case you didn't know. It's my weblogging second birthday today. I said it earlier in the day, but you might have missed that. First Barbelith and then plasticbag.org. Woo.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've got a sweet tooth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/2001 12:34:13 AM ----- BODY:

I've got a sweet tooth
For liquorice drops and jelly roll
Hey Sugar Daddy
Hansel needs some sugar in his bowl

I'll lay out fine china on the linen
And polish up the chrome
If you've got some sugar for me
Sugar Daddy bring it on...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Several Haddock regulars, Cal and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/2001 11:17:28 AM ----- BODY:

Several Haddock regulars, Cal and I spent much of yesterday evening talking to students about community sites, the public sphere, weblogs, issues of trust and representation. Some of the key sites we discussed over the evening included:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm only linking to this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/2001 11:41:02 AM ----- BODY:

I'm only linking to this because I don't have time to read it properly at the moment and don't want to lose it. Forgive me, loyal readers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I found myself bound STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/2001 04:54:25 PM ----- BODY:

Today I found myself bound by Godwin's Law in a thread at Metafilter. Nearly eight years on the net and I'd never heard of it before.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Digging through the archives of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/2001 05:55:31 PM ----- BODY:

Digging through the archives of Haddock, it's amazing what you find... For example... Ex Sapient Creative Directors first web site...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because other crackers are counter-intuitive: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/2001 06:03:35 PM ----- BODY:

Because other crackers are counter-intuitive:

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If anyone can find Weezer's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/2001 02:30:56 PM ----- BODY:

If anyone can find Weezer's "Blue Album" on Amazon.co.uk then could you let me know. I've been trying all morning and it doesn't seem to be there...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If this doesn't put a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/2001 02:34:14 PM ----- BODY:

If this doesn't put a chill right through you, then you're barely human. A month and a half on, you can read the reactions of people as they heard about the World Trade Center as it happened.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm in a bit of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/2001 06:35:40 PM ----- BODY:

I'm in a bit of a strange mood suddenly. I've been in such a difficult place over the last year that I've often not noticed what's been going on around me - I've been strangely distant from many of my oldest friends. I guess I kind of assumed that they'd understand that I wasn't able to connect with everyone as much as I'd like - that I had huge and terrifying things on my mind all the time. But now I'm beginning to think that they didn't have that kind of patience and that I've been gradually fading in their heads. I always assumed that whatever else had happened, they would be waiting for me to emerge from the other side - not that I would necessarily be particularly missed, but that my absence would be understood as a temporary thing. But now I'm missing them. And I don't think they even notice that I'm not there any more.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's been a pretty bloody STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/2001 07:42:00 PM ----- BODY:

It's been a pretty bloody bizarre evening. Just been slightly destabilised by an appearance of Mr Big on television. He looks much ... shorter ... and less sure of himself than he does in person. It's harder to dislike him on television.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A song to be obsessed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/2001 10:00:27 PM ----- BODY:

A song to be obsessed about: Here's to Patti, And Tina, And Yoko, Aretha, And Nona, And Nico, And me... And all the strange rock and rollers, You know you're doing all right, So hold on to each other, You gotta hold on tonight...And you're shining, Like the brightest stars, A transmission, On the midnight radio... And you're spinning, Your new 45's, All the misfits and the losers, Yeah, you know you're rock and rollers, Spinning to your rock and roll. Lift up your hands.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know - if I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2001 02:22:16 PM ----- BODY:

You know - if I was foolish enough to do a redesign, everyone would immediately hate it. Like they did the last two times I did one. So I'm not. I'm really not. I swear I'm not attempting a second-birthday redesign party. Honest.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a TV show called STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2001 02:46:02 PM ----- BODY:

There's a TV show called "Roswell". On occasion it doesn't completely suck ass. On other occasions it sucks ass so heavily that whoever's ass it is would be literally turned inside out by the strength of the suckage. Which would leave a highly unattractive creature in its wake. I once wrote nice things about Roswell. But I couldn't find a good word to say about the latest episode if you coated the male leads in body oil and threw them at me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After a conversation with Meg STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2001 09:15:39 PM ----- BODY:

After a conversation with Meg about Norfolk, I present where I grew up...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Like many men, I've been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2001 04:15:42 PM ----- BODY:

Like many men, I've been spanking the monkey since a relatively early age. But oh - what genius could have found a way to spank the monkey on the internet. With an actual mouse pointer? And assessing your speed in the process. Truly a work of monkey-spanking genius.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On searching for 'father'... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2001 12:14:24 PM ----- BODY:

Someone's been searching for 'father' on plasticbag.org using the Atomz powered search box (down the bottom of the page). Now normally this wouldn't be an issue, but of course since I haven't seen or heard of my father since I was about four or five - and since he has almost the same name as me - and more to the point since if you search for Tom Coates on Google you end up this as the first search result, I can't help being slightly weirded out. I don't really know what you do in these circumstances. What if it was my father, Thomas John Coates wandering around the web. What if he's been reading this site for months and is too embarrassed to come forward. It's all very strange...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bit of a heavy post STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2001 12:34:24 PM ----- BODY:

Bit of a heavy post that one, so let's compensate with something completely infantile - how tiny ancient people made a Stonehenge out of tampons...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok, so I did the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2001 06:28:25 PM ----- BODY:

Ok, so I did the bloody blogaholic quiz, and while I was still offended by the word blogaholic (what - pray tell - is this substance "Blogahol") I quite enjoyed it. More to the point, it said nice things about me. Apparently I score 60/100 - which makes me: "A dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You're the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An absolutely stunning piece of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2001 06:36:14 PM ----- BODY:

An absolutely stunning piece of Flash work.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why won't Apple buy me a fucking iBook? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2001 06:57:39 PM ----- BODY:

Oh Jason... Oh Jason, no! I can't believe you'd sell your integrity for an iBook! More importantly, I already agreed to sell mine for an Apple lap-top over a year ago! And did I get any offers? No!

It's so unfair - I may not have the reputation, and admittedly my integrity is pretty much shot right through already. But I'll beg! I'll have myself tattooed! I'll be Steve Job's personal bitch. I don't care! I tell you, if someone sponsors Jason, I'll be around his house every twenty minutes demanding a turn. At least 1/45th of that computer will be mine by rights, I tell you.

Let's review: I don't get as much traffic as kottke.org, I'm mostly read by dodgy homosexuals, diseased ex-aesthetes and the socially challenged and I only very occasionally appear in the press (and normally for the wrong reasons). But since when has reward been commensurate with talent! Many untalented people get really cool shit. Why can't I!? The campaign starts here - reward pointless people for no reason. Talent is an oppressive capitalist notion that we must eradicate from the planet.

If you are a representative of Apple and wish to get in touch with me to say how little I deserve the iBook, but how you're going to give me one anyway, because I'm really such a sweet and cheeky chappy, then my e-mail address is tom%40plasticbag.org.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's all change at the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2001 09:07:28 AM ----- BODY:

It's all change at the BBC in terms of look and feel and structure and IA and stuff. Everywhere's affected - BBC films for one has been significantly improved...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does the BBC search engine STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2001 11:13:10 AM ----- BODY:

Does the BBC search engine take up too much screen real estate with User Interface stuff? Compare and contrast... Searching for 'pop' on Radio One: bbc(i)'s live version, tom coates' mocked-up alternative... Searching for 'buffy' on Cult: bbc(i)'s live version, tom coates' mocked-up alternative...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ageless is an interesting site STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2001 01:03:13 PM ----- BODY:

Ageless is an interesting site that I will be sure to enter as soon as I have completed my complete absence of redesign.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pointless fun with Amazon buttons STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2001 02:51:40 PM ----- BODY:

Pointless fun with Amazon buttons (all these generated dynamically):

Play for yourself. Follow this link and then fiddle around with the URL. [Phil Rules]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief definition of satisfaction? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2001 01:01:16 AM ----- BODY:

A brief definition of satisfaction? Being the forgetting to buy a lottery ticket and not minding afterwards - as if your future happiness did not (for one moment) seem to rest on a desperate denial of probability...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A worthy cause made read STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2001 01:02:50 AM ----- BODY:

A worthy cause made read by noble men: the new stopesso.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: With a few notable differences STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2001 12:55:13 AM ----- BODY:

With a few notable differences (boobs, jumping not being pushed, chicks), this pretty much sums up much of the last six months of my life.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's an article on Salon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2001 12:11:37 PM ----- BODY:

There's an article on Salon at the moment called No facts please, we're British, which alleges that while Americans are flocking to the British press for news and information they're not getting in mainstream US media, much of the reason it's not reported in the US is that the news presented simply isn't true. Or at least this is what I believe the article is arguing. It's very difficult to tell of course, because it's a Salon Premium article - and I'd have to pay to read past the accusations and into any of the substance of the matter.

There's something profoundly wrong with this approach - and ironically so under the circumstances. Salon is presenting these ideas of the totally innaccurate British media as if they were fact, and yet you have to actually cough up some dough to see if their substantiation is even vaguely plausible. So what we are left with is a presentation that will be assimilated by large numbers of people as true, when they don't even have access to even the facts that the site has deemed supportive. We have a double level of filtering here.

Not only are we (as usual) left to believe that the arguments presented by the media are based on actual, rather than made-up, evidence, and that the interpretation they are giving them is plausible - we're actually presented the interpretation without any evidence. You might argue that one can always pay for the information - but this is missing the point - how many people might simply now accept that the British media lies - people who migt have had a rather different intepretation if they'd been able to read the whole article.

Whatever the article actually says, there are things that an American should be aware of when reading the British media - and this may redress some of the concerns raised in the article (or it may not - remember, I haven't been able to read it). The English press operates as much more of a spectrum than its US counterparts. There is an almost continuous spectrum between tabloid press that can be no better than The National Enquirer and high quality broadsheet publications (some with a countryside/right bias, some with a metropolitan/left bias). I can't talk about everyone's tastes in newspapers - or newspaper sites - but I can clarify who I am most likely to believe. You may - or may not - find this useful...

The Tabloids: Tabloid papers are generally considered to be 'fun', 'low-brow', 'populist' or 'trash' depending on who you ask. But there are substantial variations between them. The Sun is traditionally a right-wing paper - keen on Margaret Thatcher, down on immigration and 'loony-left' politics. Having said this, it has been supportive of New Labour at various points over the last few years. The news often takes the form of sensationalist headlines and calls to action, and varies between news and entertainment gossip and trivia. The Mirror is a much more left-wing publication and considerably less trashy than the Sun at times -particularly at the moment. But it is still essentially an easy, unthreatening read with a tendency to sensationalise.

The two worst papers in the country, from my perspective, are The Daily Mail and The Express. Unlike the tabloids, these papers have a pretense of seriousness that makes their right-wing tendencies alarming at best. They tend to speak a lot of 'common sense' - which in my experience is mostly a euphemism for 'traditional family values', itself a euphemism for reactionary politics and right-wing "string-em-up" sensationalism - albeit disguised as news.

The broadsheets tend to have the most faith in their readership of all the press - which is one good reason to read them. Of all their failings, they don't generally tend to try to make up the minds of their readership immediately or overtly. There is one notable exception here, in my opinion, but I'm not going to dwell on it as it's the most popular broadsheet in the country. The main papers to look out for here are The Guardian and The Telegraph and The Independent. These can loosely be categorised as: Guardian: metropolian/centre-left, Telegraph: rural/centre-right/right and Independent: centre-politics, cross-metropolitan/rural.

In many ways all three of these can be trusted with information - although for opinion they all have their particular axes to grinds. Most notably, the Telegraph - which is the best-selling broadsheet in the country, has primarily an aging rural readership, which explains why it tends further to the right of all the other quality papers. If this annoys you (and it does me), then either of the other two are trustworthy and reliable sources for information. My personal favourite (mainly because of it's stunning web presence) is The Guardian - which has the added advantage of being the only paper in the country that has full editorial independence from the people who pay the bills - the paper is financed by a trust rather than by large media giants.

There are other papers that you might consider reading in the country - I can't cover everything - but in my experience, the most trustworthy news comes from papers that avoid sensationalism whenever they can, and attempt to present the news in a way that allows interpretation from the reader rather than making that interpretation for them. The best way to gauge how well you're going to get on with a paper is to view the types of headlines it puts on it's front pages - and to compare them with other headlines from other papers on the same day. If one paper is concentrating on a completely different story to the rest, it may have privileged information - or it may have a particular axe to grind on that issue. The Telegraph is good for this - it often has headlines that bear no relation to the rest of the press on that day, because as a paper that is so-pro "Conservative" politically, it tends to take any opportunity to criticise the government - sometimes disproportionately.

And if none of these take your fancy - you can pretty much always rely on the BBC to present the news as dispassionately and honestly as possible.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Forgive me if I'm a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2001 11:45:44 AM ----- BODY:

Forgive me if I'm a little bit cynical, but don't these Colorgenics results look like a way of getting people to ring the hotline (which isn't open yet). I'm not saying they're not accurate - I just wonder if they're being phrased in a necessarily negative way. I've rerun the test about four times to see if any of them are positive - and you know what, none of them are.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As a counterpoint to yesterday's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2001 12:05:09 PM ----- BODY:

As a counterpoint to yesterday's piece about the "No facts please - we're British" article, there's an article at the New York Times called British Take a Blunter Approach to War News which includes lines like this: "The range of issues and less defensive tone are wildly different from what American viewers get on network or cable news programs, which share a myopic view and a tone that says, 'They'd love us if only they understood us.'"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lose your mind in twenty STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2001 12:33:01 PM ----- BODY:

Lose your mind in twenty seconds - while searching for a new domain name for a PWP (pointless web project), I stumbled upon WorldOfWhimsy.com - and my mind melted when the voice-over started.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The day the counter-culture died... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2001 07:20:43 PM ----- BODY:

It's kind of ironic that in a time where civil liberties are under more threat than ever before - with Carnivore being forced in on ISPs, and laws being pushed through that give unprecedented access into people's personal lives - that the king of the counter-culture, Ken Kesey should have died. He will be much missed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/2001 05:20:31 PM ----- BODY:

Guess who's going to see Harry Potter in three hours time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Harry Potter: a brief review... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 11/12/2001 12:46:58 AM ----- BODY:

As Cartman said so eloquently, "Yes I've seen the Terrence and Philip movie - who wants to touch me? I said who wants to fucking touch me?!" The good news first - there is very little bad news at all. It's an honourable, faithful and entertaining translation that only falls down in a few areas, and not enough for it to spoil what is essentially one of the best children's films I've ever seen. Make no mistake - this is a film for kids, but nonetheless it's a slice of tremendously good fun that I'd defy anyone not to enjoy a bit.

You couldn't get a much more faithful adaptation than this. Almost every scene from the book appears to be in the film - which may explain its 2 1/2 hour running time. Whether or not you can effectively fit every sub-plot of the book into two and a half hours must remain a resounding 'maybe' - because some scenes (particularly the earliest ones) seem to have been trimmed to within an inch of their lives. But nonetheless they are almost all there - which means there is time to explore Diagon Alley, go to the zoo with the Dursleys, travel on the Hogwart's Express, see the Great Hall's roof sparkling like the night sky, go into the Dark Forest, visit Hagrid's cabin and take part in a Quidditch match. And there's also time to give even the less important characters a bit of a personality - from the man at the wand shop, to Neville Longbottom.

The adults are all actors of a distinguished British calibre - and as such seldom disappoint. Particularly impressive are Hagrid and Professor Snapes - Alan Rickman re-establishing himself in my eyes as the most astonishingly cool creature in creation. The children are more wooden - but perhaps you'd expect that - they are (ater all) really quite young. Ron is a comic genius - the boy's timing is astonishing - but Hermione's played at a slightly more hysterical level than one might like, and Daniel Radcliffe's Harry can border on the plank-like. But by the end of the film you've bought into the whole thing so heavily that you barely notice, let alone care.

The films one failing might be it's special effects. Harry's new world is such a spectacle of the impossible that barely a scene goes by without some kind of CGI work having to be put together. And sometimes the strain (and cost) of maintaining such a level of wonder shows. An early scene in which an animal turns into a human has clearly been done on the cheap, and the Quidditch match alternates between extraordinarily expensive and not entirely convincing CGI players and old-fashioned (fairly obvious) misdirection. Look out for a clunker of a crash, where the broomstick-flyer falls a good few feet completely behind a fabric curtain. And one might quibble about the unnaturally even ground in the Dark Forest, or the Centaur that escaped from Shrek.

Again, there's so much to like about the film that you can forgive it it's minor failings - and I personally could quite cheerfully have watched yet another twenty minutes or so without getting bored. Close your eyes and jump in - you're unlikely to be disappointed.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A plane has crashed in Queens... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2001 03:07:34 PM ----- BODY:

The news is everywhere, but just in case you hadn't heard - a plane has crashed in Queens in New York - there is more information here, there's a thread at Metafilter here and Barbelith are keeping everyone up to date here.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 1.6 Gb of temporary Photoshop files... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2001 08:42:46 PM ----- BODY:

I just stumbled upon 1.6 Gigabytes of Photoshop temp files on my Mac. Why does no one tell you these things? You can just pick em up and throw em in the Trash. It's that easy. It's put off me buying a new hard disc for a little longer, I can tell you...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Chicks really are for fags! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2001 09:05:07 PM ----- BODY:

Thanks for Ashley Frazier for this particularly fine piece of kit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Max's Birthday... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2001 09:25:42 PM ----- BODY:

I'm fairly sure it's Max's birthday around here sometime. Still - he's ponced off abroad for a year and a half, and he probably wouldn't like my t-shirt anyway. So, you know, whatever.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Melancholy at 1am... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/2001 01:26:19 AM ----- BODY:

Packing your bags like people in the movies do, All severe, and not saying a word, And I'm sitting down here just watching you, And I'm thinking: Where is all the love gone? Where's the love gone to? Don't leave, You got me hurting, Don't leave You know it's never been easy to love someone like me, Oh, don't leave.

Hanging with friends like we used to do, I didn't know anything was wrong, And last night while I was thinking it through, Trying to find who am I and what do you need me to do? Don't leave. There's a record you used to play, there's Joni singing 'best to be without you', And I know just what she's singing for, Where did all the love go? Where's the love gone to? Don't leave. You got me hurting, Don't leave. You know it's never been easy to love someone like me, Oh, don't leave.

Where did all the love go? Where's the love gone to? Don't leave. We'll fly around the world, give you what you're giving me, I should have dressed you up in pearl, Finest silk to touch your skin, Don't know how to write a love song, But Don't leave. You got me hurting, Don't leave. You know it's never been easy to love someone like me, Don't leave.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Late night, maudlin street.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/2001 04:28:47 PM ----- BODY:

Hmmm. Late night, maudlin street. Morning comes and everything looks sparkly and fine again. Or at least it would if Kate - my flatmate and personal morning alarm call - had bothered to get up this morning. Accidentally waking up at 9.15am isn't ideal when you're supposed to be at work at 9.30. So I'm unshaven and smelly and with bed hair of such potency that it would make other bed hair feel inadequate and emasculated.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Wayback Machine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/2001 04:59:36 PM ----- BODY:

Literally the best thing on the web at the moment is The Wayback Machine - it's the best thing on the web because it is the web - frozen at various points through time. Some archaic bits of Tomfoolery and quasi-entertaining snippets of "Across the Web Universe Retro Madness" follow:

Tomfoolery (1): There's not a lot of my first work left in the archive, but odd snippets surface here and there. For a while before I bought the barbelith.com domain, I had some early personal stuff located on my ISP. The first piece of personal consolidation I did can be seen here, at a site which was called at the time (modestly enough) "Polymath". There's no more left of another early site of mine - fin de siecle - than you can see currently here - which is a shame, because the older files were lost when I sold my old computer.

When I bought barbelith - I played with a variety of designs for the front page for a while. I was too busy building The Bomb to spend too much time on the process... There's not a lot left of this early period on the archive, but you can see fragments of it here.

Wonderfully, the design that everyone liked most for the site over the last few years is preserved almost perfectly - here it is in all it's purple, orange, red and grey wonder. Odd fragments are missing still. Many people maintain that I've never topped this design. Which is slightly depressing.

At a certain point, Barbelith the weblog and Barbelith the community had to part company. And at that point, I bought the domain you're looking at today. The first major design attempt for the new weblog had taken me weeks to put together, and I was extremely proud of it. I was, it seems, the only one. You can see the full gleaming sparkle of that version of the weblog here.

Barbelith in the meantime, changed dramatically into a webzine - much like this and doesn't look that much different today.

Plasticbag.org has changed a couple of times more since the blue version went up - over a year ago now, but these were fairly prosaic or failed attempts to do something interesting, and didn' t last long. The current design for the site was rolled out in its first version sometime around February or March of this year - it's first incarnation can be seen here. There remains other work of mine around the net - from Slutcore to the logos at a certain ER medical dictionary and a gradually decaying Noah Wyle fan site ( the less said about which the better). But the things I miss most are my very first site at Bristol University - which I can't find anywhere - and the adapted Russ Meyer poster I used as the template for my first piece of personal online publishing. And perhaps Bristol University's LGBsoc page - which (if I may say so myself) has never looked as good - before or since.

Across the Web Universe: Fragments of the web that I remember well from years gone by... kottke.org when it looked incredible, One of the very earliest glassdog.com designs (before Lance became the god he is today), Evhead when I first read it and when it looked its finest and the many faces of Derek Powazek.

What's your Wayback online web history?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A reminder about branding... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/15/2001 11:13:54 AM ----- BODY:

Quick reminder. The name of this site is plasticbag.org. It is not Plastic Bag, or Plasticbag (unless it's the first word of a sentence). Branding is very important nowadays. Think of us like plasticbag industries or the plasticbag project and you won't be far off...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Smart Tags... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 11/15/2001 06:50:25 PM ----- BODY:

Because of this thread on Barbelith, I've suddenly become extremely politicised on the whole "Smart Tags" debate. There's more information over at Glassdog and you'll notice that I've added a button to the right hand side of the page to stir up trouble with.

For any of you that are unclear about Smart Tags - basically the new Windows XP operating system and IE6 include this feature so that Microsoft and it's friends can insert links into every webpage that you visit if you use their browser. Every instance of 'bookstore' will link through to some grubby little money-making e-commerce site which is prepared to give Microsoft a sizeable amount of cash. This is a completely invasive practice. To start off with - does a link represent a tacit endorsement? At the moment, certainly. I control who I link to on plasticbag.org and the day that you can't tell my recommendations from those of the corporate overmind is the day that I shut the site down. But it's also not good for consumers or users or visitors - because their choice of destination is immediately limited by a huge skewing of the playing field. In fact the only beneficiary from such an action with be Microsoft itself - and frankly they have more than enough money already. Fight this one, people.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A view from Skynet... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/16/2001 11:35:12 PM ----- BODY:

One of the most beautiful things I've seen in months - the view from Skynet. And there are many other satellites you can view, showing every angle of the Earth at fourmilab.ch.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On blades in the eye or butt... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2001 11:02:05 PM ----- BODY:

What's it called when you have a stabbing pain behind your eye - like someone has slid a sharp silver cold thick blade into your socket and like it's clunked right into the bone, and there's a kind of squishy, prickly feeling - but you're slightly scared to put your hand up to see if everything's ok? And what's the name of the equivalent sensation, only - you know - up your butt?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Donnie Darko"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2001 11:02:58 PM ----- BODY:

I went to see Donnie Darko today at the London Film Festival. Kate and I weren't expecting much. But I was blown away.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Under the Milky Way"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/2001 11:08:36 PM ----- BODY:

If anyone knows where I can get my hands on an MP3 of The Church's "Under The Milky Way", then could they make themselves known. I need to know whether or not it is the right track before I fork out any hard-earned credit for it...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Mad World" by Tears for Fears... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2001 10:04:42 PM ----- BODY:

After much searching and digging, it turns out that I wasn't looking for the song by The Church after all. Instead, I think I'm looking for a track called "Mad World" by Tears for Fears (of all people). Anyone have a copy of that lying around? Mail me. [lyrics]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On other people's birthdays... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2001 10:24:08 PM ----- BODY:

You know I'm completely sure that it's Max's birthday around here somewhere. Can't get it out of my head that it was around here sometime. He's probably about twenty-two now. Hmmm. Never mind. Corny's birthday in a week, Kate's in two weeks. My brother's birthday was two weeks ago. My mother's birthday was four weeks ago. I'm sure there are other ones lurking around the place as well. Birthday hell is come upon us.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On perspective and circumstances... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2001 10:27:56 PM ----- BODY:

You know, pretty much everything's picking up at the moment. I've slept properly, had some money, found everything extremely easy to deal with, and - apart from living in a pig-sty - basically I'm pretty content. A year ago, in pretty much the same situation, I would probably have been pretty miserable. It just goes to show how perspectives change with circumstances. All I can do now is hope that I'll have a job when my stint at TCN comes to an end.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Secret Holiday Gift-Giving Robot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2001 12:40:16 AM ----- BODY:

And lo, in the course of conversation, did J Ko say, "you could call it secret holiday gift-giving robot"...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing Secret Santa... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2001 06:04:42 PM ----- BODY:

And lo from the moistened orifice of ThinkBlank.com did spring fully-formed - Secret Santa!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the TCN quiz... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/20/2001 10:45:51 AM ----- BODY:

In case you're wondering why I posted so little yesterday, the main reason was getting the TCN Quiz up and running. I spent ages making sure the questions were suitable ridiculous enough - so if you really want to know who's been brushing their teeth in restaurants recently because they're obsessed by their bad breath... Well, you know where to go...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On hats of the Old West... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/20/2001 04:25:44 PM ----- BODY:

Of course the best thing about the web is that it's a place where you can find out all kinds of cool information that you didn't know about before. Like - for example - information on the various hats of the Old West.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Who was the 'Tourist Guy'? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 12:20:50 AM ----- BODY:

So who was the famous Tourist Guy after all?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On bad chemistry "humour"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 11:31:19 AM ----- BODY:

Can anyone explain this "joke" to me? NO-Acetol Warning - probably need to be good at chemistry...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not just a freelancer... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 02:45:07 PM ----- BODY:

I'm not just a freelancer... I'm a travelling gun-for-hire.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm sleeping too much... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 02:56:02 PM ----- BODY:

I'm sleeping too much. Not vastly too much, but too much. I can't seem to wake up in the mornings! This morning I was woken up by my flatmate at 9am. Since I was supposed to get to work by 9.30am I had to skip all pleasantries of breakfast and shower, throw my clothes on and throw myself on to the nearest tube train. This isn't the first time that this has happened recently.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The God of Banal Content... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 05:14:25 PM ----- BODY:

I am a god of banal content. I defend myself by pointing to the success of Secret Santa. My limited involvement in that must surely counteract the bad karma I'm getting from writing such crap recently.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Mad World" by Gary Jules... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 05:19:50 PM ----- BODY:

So it turns out that the MP3 I've been searching for all this week isn't actually Tears for Fears' version of "Mad World" after all. Instead it's a version recorded specfically for the soundtrack to Donnie Darko - and is, by all accounts, impossible to buy. Therefore it's unlikely at best that anyone will have a copy. But if you can find it, then I heartily recommend it (and can I have one). It's a cover recorded by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews. Michael Andrews is the composer of the 'Donnie Darko' score [more information].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So yesterday I was walking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2001 05:25:47 PM ----- BODY:

So yesterday I was walking into work, and I spotted two overcoat-clad art-nutters wandering down Farringdon Lane. The taller one was weilding some kind of digicam, as if it were a comedy prop - like a flamingo or a banana skin. Occasionally he'd spin like he was on castors and take photographs of bits of graffiti. The other one looked moody, crouching under a huge furry deerstalker and reading a copy of "Metro". I had experienced an art moment with Gilbert and George. In the evening I bumped into someone from the very opposite end of the same culture - Mr Big sitting in bar a in Soho.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Create Online's review section includes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2001 10:29:02 AM ----- BODY:

Create Online's review section includes a block of stuff on my old place of employment, timeout.com. I present a few quotes with no comment: "Worst thing: The lack of a good, solid navigation that lives with you throughout the site", "Navigation: Could be improved. Once you click one section deep, you're left with navigation for your particular section, but not much about what was on the homepage. You have to figure out how to get back, which can be confusing." , "First Impressions: I've seen the magazine, and the online version looks different and a little unpolished".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Because it's interesting, and occasionally STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2001 10:35:37 AM ----- BODY:

Because it's interesting, and occasionally beautiful: BBC Television and Radio Idents (BBC2).

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We don't have Thanksgiving in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2001 12:54:28 PM ----- BODY:

We don't have Thanksgiving in the UK. As Mark quipped to me yesterday, "not a lot to be thankful for". I said we didn't really have many Pilgrim / Native American collisions in England. Or at least I can only assume that if we did have some, then they somehow missed the papers. America, I believe, invented the turkey and the potato - both Thanksgiving staples. Apparently Ancient Americans determined that turkeys and potatoes would be tremendous technological advances, and rapidly prototyped them out of thirty-six songbirds squished together and a couple of warmed stones. Years later, ironically, the place best known for both turkeys and potatoes in the UK is Norfolk, where my family live. There are, however, still no Native Americans there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blackadder: "To you it's a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2001 12:58:15 PM ----- BODY:

Blackadder: "To you it's a potato, to me it's a potato. But to Sir Walter Bloody Raleigh it's country estates, fine carriages, and as many girls as his tongue can cope with. He's making a fortune out of the things; people are smoking them, building houses out of them... They'll be eating them next." [more, ever more]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Send me an MP3: I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2001 02:12:04 PM ----- BODY:

Send me an MP3: I'm feeling old and staid and kind of dull. Fancy sending me an MP3 so I can try out some new music? Limited time only - only for a short time, as I'm not always on a good connection. Please send your suggestions to tom.coates@btinternet.com. Only one per e-mail (and one per punter) please! [Thanks to Darren for the idea.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Secret Santa makes Metafilter. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2001 04:54:32 PM ----- BODY:

Secret Santa makes Metafilter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Those damn kittens with their STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2001 11:01:13 AM ----- BODY:

Those damn kittens with their evil, evil minds and staring lunacy - creeping up on me in the night and blowing hot breath on the back of my neck, making me sweat and making my eyes dart around in their skull cage. I hate them all... Kill Kill Kill.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And Secret Santa is now STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2001 01:11:03 PM ----- BODY:

And Secret Santa is now #1 on Blogdex. Very exciting. Join up, you bastards!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So today is "Buy Nothing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2001 03:13:40 PM ----- BODY:

So today is "Buy Nothing Day" - the third such event that I've been weblogging during. This year it has quite a stunning 'uncommercial' associated with it: Buy Nothing Day. I'm definitely pro-Buy Nothing Day - I've been a supporter of No Logo-style politics (to a large extent) for a substantial period of time now. Interestingly though it didn't stop me last year, when I reported that the purchasing of a DVD player on such a day simply increased the terrible thrill of purchasing - that addictive high was all the more satisfying because it was illicit.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm fascinated by the way STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2001 04:14:55 PM ----- BODY:

I'm fascinated by the way that the Guardian Online's editorial team's weblog only writes about Apple products. Speaking of which, I've just seen my first iPod in the flesh, and while it wasn't quite what I was expecting, it may actually be better. It's smaller than I thought it would be, more fun, slightly weirder looking though. Lust is mine.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been ploughing through some STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2001 11:26:05 PM ----- BODY:

I've been ploughing through some of Mark's old weblog stuff hidden away on The Wayback Machine. I miss gems like this:

"Top 10 Ways to Write Good
10. Avoid alliteration. Always.
9. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
8. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
7. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
6. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
5. Don't abbrev.
4. Its important to use apostrophe's right.
3. Who needs rhetorical questions?
2. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
1. Stamp out, abolish, eliminate and avoid unnecessary redundancy."

"William Shakespeare's middle name was Colin! Ok, that's a lie. But that's the point! What a great idea... Lie of the Day! Every day, a new lie!"

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Jason yet again tries STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2001 02:15:39 PM ----- BODY:

So Jason yet again tries to show the rest of us up by producing a totally practical, well-fashioned and elegant new design for Romenesko's Obscure Store and Reading Room. It's not revolutionary, but it's beautifully simple. He's truly dispicable and he must be stopped.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Interconnected.org: Hofstadter's Law: "It STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2001 02:52:25 PM ----- BODY:

Via Interconnected.org: Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On BBC Search Results... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2001 05:51:50 PM ----- BODY:

When the BBC rebranded themselves as BBCi, they also relaunched their search facility on bbc.co.uk. They made it look something like this:

At the time I wasn't very impressed by this arrangement and made myself fairly unpopular by mocking up a couple of cheap and easy alternatives:

That's all...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Glorious Day! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2001 11:32:47 AM ----- BODY:

Today's anthem:

Gonna make my move, gonna make it stay!
Gonna make it last, never mind the past,
Living for today!

Gonna take my chance, gonna rock and dance!
Gonna hit the ground with a brand new sound,
Looking for romance...

Hey, hey - you know what you want me to say
Right, right, fight, fight,
We can start a glorious day!

Glorious children on my mind, glorious wastings of my time,
Glorious plans we make up, forcing things in line...

Gonna rock it out!
Gonna scream and shout!

Gonna do it right!
Standing in the light!
Perchin' on the clouds!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Omigod. I'm Britney. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2001 01:39:10 PM ----- BODY:

Omigod. I'm Britney.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An interesting article that told STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2001 04:01:26 PM ----- BODY:

An interesting article that told me things I already knew only in a sexier way.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saturday night in a nutshell: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/2001 05:28:53 PM ----- BODY:

Saturday night in a nutshell: Funny days Saturdays. The last year's been kind of difficult, so it was a delight to rediscover that I'm able to go outside and have an angst-free evening with people I really like. I went into town to buy a birthday present for a friend - wandered around the shops and met up with Davo before wandering down to meet Dan at the Retro Bar for the Big Gay Blogmeet (2). Many poofs were in attendence - I won't go into too much detail about who could and couldn't come. Everyone seemed nice and fun and up for a good time. Dan was a particular delight - a lovely, charming gentleman full of interesting conversation. If you can only choose one gay weblogger for your Christmas hamper, I would thoroughly recommend him.

Since I left that meet at around nine, I found myself very late for my cross-town birthday party. And I have to be honest - I was kind of dreading it. I'm not always the most sociable of people, and over the last few months I've got very used to, and comfortable with, my own company. But the whole party was a delight. Two of my old flatmates were there - neither of whom I was expecting to see. Plus Kate from my current flat. The Kitsch Bitch herself made an appearance. And Josh and Leon - two old school-friends of my host - were also present.

At this point I should probably mention that I'm extraordinarily washed out and am writing badly. If you want glamour and sex, you should probably go read NotSoSoft.

Anyway - as evenings go this one would be hard to top - there were balloons to blow up and assemble, large amounts of wine and vodka, occasionally more potent substances, really nice company and a lot of opportunities to catch up with some of my nearest and dearest. Thank god for friends. Here's to you, Nick!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You've no doubt seen the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2001 03:29:57 PM ----- BODY:

You've no doubt seen the bloody irritating 'pop-under' ads for this webcam. According to an article at the BBC the adverts were so intrusive and annoying that they had to set up a page to deal with queries about them. The most interesting part of the page? If you click here you won't see those bloody adverts for another thirty days.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know what I need? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2001 06:09:38 PM ----- BODY:

You know what I need? I need a logo. More to the point, I need two - two iconic logos - MTV adaptability and BBC2 style simplicity for both plasticbag.org and Barbelith. Send me some logos that you've made and I'll stick em on the site for all of our drunken pleasures...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's submitted logos come from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 08:56:18 AM ----- BODY:

Today's submitted logos come from Grant Cook.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now of course all the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 10:25:32 AM ----- BODY:

Now of course all the Americans with any sense whatsoever will have watched the Buffy musical episode. And no doubt they adored it. And no doubt they'll continue to be smug about it for the many months it may be before those of us abroad who exist without satellite or cable television get to see it. Bastards. But in the meantime, the rest of us can experience the glorious thrill and be tantalised by the trailer.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A useful tool for designers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 10:56:09 AM ----- BODY:

A useful tool for designers looking for colour harmonies and contrasts: EasyRGB.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Feeling horny? This will get STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 01:02:19 PM ----- BODY:

Feeling horny? This will get you off. Mmmm. iBook.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Working with Cal is a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 01:10:27 PM ----- BODY:

Working with Cal is a strange and occasionally unsettling experience. But it has its rewards. Like watching him suddenly get obsessed with pixel fonts on a Tuesday morning, and produce four or five of them by the end of work [Pixel Six, Cubic Five and Square Dance]. And knowing that he's got so excited about it that he has done at least two or three others - including italics. And knowing that he'll probably not use them for anything. At all. I miss that kind of random passion. The 'I must do this now' feeling. It's been a while since any project was anything other than a mental battle against the urge to stuff chocolate into my face and watch bad TV.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: If something is funny, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 05:28:28 PM ----- BODY:

Question: If something is funny, is it in fact more true than if something is merely true and boring?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got an e-mail from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2001 11:36:59 PM ----- BODY:

I got an e-mail from an old friend who's just fallen off the cliff into his thirties and has decided to celebrate the occasion by getting new heating. You couldn't make it up, frankly. He send me some pictures from our epic camping trip around England (1990?), during which much mutual toleration of bad music tastes was undertaken. I think it was that trip that cemented my distaste of R.E.M. He sent me a couple of pictures. They're amusing (wish there were some of me from the same period). They are represented below...

Simon

Glyn

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Colouring in the Crab Bloke... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2001 02:21:35 PM ----- BODY:

I have spent much of my lunch-time cutting out and colouring in a huge crab, to be worn around the head of rathergood nutter Joel Veitch. We had a whole pack of marker pens. It was great. The rest of the office looked at us liked we'd accidentally let our dog pee in their coffee.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I also discovered that I'd STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2001 02:23:50 PM ----- BODY:

I also discovered that I'd got paid for something and immediately decided that along with my mother's traditional Christmas contribution I could now afford to buy myself an iPod. Ludicrous idea of course. Micro Anvika sold out yesterday. This moment may never come again...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dan puts up a rogues STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2001 05:24:38 PM ----- BODY:

Dan puts up a rogues gallery of his time in England. See if you can spot me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: George Harrison has died. It's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2001 11:18:41 AM ----- BODY:

George Harrison has died. It's being talked about on Metafilter and TCN. I've just listened to Here Comes The Sun - by way of a tribute. Ironically, it was only three months ago that Salon debunked rumours that he was dying.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interesting toy of the day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2001 12:59:11 PM ----- BODY:

Interesting toy of the day is Moodstats - a little application by the people behind k10k. You input several key characteristics of your day, every day along with a few notes and a diary entry. This information is sync'ed with a central database (if you register and pay 'em of course), allowing you to annotate your life. If it were linked with a web publishing application like Movable Type or Blogger it might become truly useful rather than just momentarily entertaining...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must visit beautiful site of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2001 04:12:16 PM ----- BODY:

Must visit beautiful site of the day is nothing.ch.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Watch in awed wonder. The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2001 05:21:53 PM ----- BODY:

Watch in awed wonder. The crab that I coloured in yesterday has been wandering around London, scaring the tourists.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If I were a Bond STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/2001 03:53:48 PM ----- BODY:

If I were a Bond Villian, I'd be ... Octopussy!? And if I were an evil criminal...
Which Evil Criminal are You?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Tom Cruise manages to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/2001 04:04:23 PM ----- BODY:

So Tom Cruise manages to get another claim that he is gay squashed through the courts [BBC News]. This time a judge has ruled that the star isn't gay. Quite how he checked isn't mentioned. The interesting thing about this story is that if Cruise did turn out to be gay after all of this he'd almost certainly have perjured himself time and time again. The question is though - why do so many people think he is a poof?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was on the radio STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/2001 08:14:16 PM ----- BODY:

I was on the radio on Thursday night - LBC to be precise - explaining (and promoting) Secret Santa. At least I think I was - I wasn't able to get home in time to actually hear it, and their archived sessions don't seem to have been recently updated. I said beforehand that I would prefer not to do anything live, as I knew I'd get nervous and stumble over my words. And in fact I did that anyway, but never mind. Did anyone hear it?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This weekend has been a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/2001 08:21:31 PM ----- BODY:

This weekend has been a purging experience. I've mostly been ploughing through my belongings, throwing out things that are no longer relevant and organising everything else into carefully composed piles and sub-piles. I'm worried (of course) that these piles and sub-piles will recombine into a large pile at any moment. To avoid this, I'm leaving them in the middle of my bedroom floor as a kind of statement of "This is not finished - don't even think of getting on with your life until I've been properly put away". Three full bin-bags have so far left the room, full of holed socks, scraps of paper, ancient bills and scraps of paper.

Along with this process comes discovery. I've found a pad of over a hundred tiny post-its, each decorated with its own superhero face. Some of them have names and ridiculous super-abilities. Others brood anonymously. I've found amusing postcards showing the "Attack of the 50-ft Christ" and "The failings of New Labour". I've found CDs which must never have had boxes to put them in, and more books than there are shelves to contain them. I have found more than my fair share of unused passport photographs - showing my transformation from long-haired naif through scrawny palid and all the way through my subsequent en-lard-ening. I could place them in a line and name the enterprise "The history of pie consumption".

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saturday afternoon was Monkey Magic STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/2001 08:22:34 PM ----- BODY:

Saturday afternoon was Monkey Magic with Corny and his family. There are times - horribly bizarre times - when I am become his wife.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You're kidding me? This is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/2001 08:57:13 AM ----- BODY:

You're kidding me? This is IT?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is hyperlinking free? Can you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/2001 10:50:59 AM ----- BODY:

Is hyperlinking free? Can you link to whomsoever you wish? According to KPMG, apparently not! Chris Raettig received this e-mail a couple of days ago, asking him to remove the link to their site as they didn't have a 'formal agreement' that he could do so. The very basis of the World Wide Web is challenged by such legal claims - being asked not to link to someone else's site compromises your ability to comment upon and reference online material. And if you can be legally challenged simply for linking to someone, then every link must be legally suspect - a 'fact' which could cripple the free flow of information as it would affect all sites - from news portals to search engines! So I'm asking you today, in the defence of online freedoms, to link to KPMG today. Say nothing libellous, but feel free to be snarky about them...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fragments of a conversation about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/2001 11:41:40 AM ----- BODY:

Fragments of a conversation about Grant Morrison and fictional universes.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not for the squeamish: Bored STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 10:00:10 AM ----- BODY:

Not for the squeamish: Bored of shagging actual men? Inflatable men no longer meeting your needs? From the people who brought you the female 'real dolls' now comes... the Male Realdoll... You have to wonder what kind of people would buy one of these. Warning: dodgy fake naked people designed for sex...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Created by the immortal Denise STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 10:05:47 AM ----- BODY:

Created by the immortal Denise Wilton - graphic designer on Secret Santa - I hereby present B3ta's cut-out-and-keep finger crab. And when you've made your own crab model, you can send pictures of yourself playing with it to The Crab Challenge.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know what's slightly annoying? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 10:37:12 AM ----- BODY:

You know what's slightly annoying? Having your inadequacies as a meme-spreader brought vigorously into perspective through comparison. Jason and I both link to the KPMG link e-mail. I do not know who does it first - it's certainly a close-run thing. Anyway - that's irrelevant. But almost everyone who subsequently linked to it cited Jason as their source. What's that about? I think it's because I write really boring crap every so often for months at a time. That's got to be the reason...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just to clarify - I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 12:16:44 PM ----- BODY:

Just to clarify - I'm completely not grumpy about people referencing seeing links via Jason rather than me. He's a much more reliable source of industry-relevant and fun links than I am - plus he doesn't get all morbid about his career stalling twice a week. Very cool discussion of the KPMG controversy over at Metafilter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you fancy a laugh, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 01:57:29 PM ----- BODY:

If you fancy a laugh, and are prepared to hear me mumble my way through a radio interview, then click here and skip about ten or twelve minutes in to hear me interviewed about Secret Santa and about my, Cal's and Denise's efforts to help Santa this Secret Holiday Gift-Giving Robot Day.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can anyone explain to me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 02:00:47 PM ----- BODY:

Can anyone explain to me what this actually means, so I don't have to read it myself?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A new TCN celebrity quiz STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2001 05:15:51 PM ----- BODY:

A new TCN celebrity quiz for you all to play with last thing on a Tuesday afternoon...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I was talking to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2001 12:20:07 AM ----- BODY:

So I was talking to a friend who's involved in those weird industries that predict trends and developments and we start talking about the mid-future. Mid-future is, apparently, ten-to-twenty years from now. And we were talking about Bill Gates' claim that we always overestimate technological developments that will happen within ten years, and always underestimate those that will happen within twenty. Gates' theory being an interesting analogue of Chaos theory in a sense, in that the tiny developments that happen now may prove to be the most significant and transformative. And about half an hour into the conversation, said friend gets kind of mysterious and smug-looking and I don't know why. Apparently it's got something to do with something called Danza. But he wouldn't tell me any more...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hmmm. Interesting - a little STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2001 10:49:12 AM ----- BODY:

Hmmm. Interesting - a little research via Google and a tip-off by a rather dubious hotmail address has sent me over to boingboing.net, where there is discussion about something called Danza/WHAT. A little more research leads me to see that the images that seem to be attached to the discussion are being hosted (weirdly) at Craphound.com. There's only a couple of pieces of actually pertinent information that I seemed to be able to drag out of the hyperbolae of the piece - firstly that it's relatively cheap and secondly that everyone's going to have one in five years time...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And now Jish has even STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2001 10:54:08 AM ----- BODY:

And now Jish has even more information...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jason is a genius - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2001 11:31:51 AM ----- BODY:

Jason is a genius - he's done a parody of the growing interest on weblogs about Danza. You'd think people would get that he was kidding, but no - people who should know better - people who are actually interested in what Danza may turn out to be - they're citing what he's saying as if it were solid fact. He's taking the piss guys - he hasn't got a clue what Danza is...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: hmmm. interesting. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2001 03:39:50 PM ----- BODY:

hmmm. interesting.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Keep your eyes on Wired.com STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2001 10:19:28 AM ----- BODY:

Keep your eyes on Wired.com today - there seems to be an usual amount of interesting news appearing. Rumour of the moment: LCD iMacs Due at Macworld. Scientific 'Wow' of the moment: Astronomers 'See' Dark Matter.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: KPMG updates: 1) A couple STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2001 12:53:00 PM ----- BODY:

KPMG updates: 1) A couple of cool bits of correspondence at Politech. 2) A fun article at Wired.com: Big Stink Over a Simple Link - featuring lots of good lines and salient points from Chris, one quote from me that makes me sound like an illiterate hacker, and one quote that makes me sound like the Che Guevara of the weblogging world. 3) Chris has also been doing interviews with Wall Street Journal and USAToday. So look out for those. We'll leave you with this message: Keep linking free, you ass! [We love you: kpmg, kpmg, kpmg]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh (KPMG) and (KPMG) you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2001 12:58:14 PM ----- BODY:

Oh (KPMG) and (KPMG) you can (KPMG) keep (KPMG) up (KPMG) with (KPMG) all (KPMG) the (KPMG) news (KPMG) that's (KPMG) fit (KPMG) to (KPMG) print (KPMG) over (KPMG) at Chris' site...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Micro branding reminder: Correct: plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2001 01:04:42 PM ----- BODY:

Micro branding reminder: Correct: plasticbag.org - Incorrect: Plastic Bag, Plasticbag or Plastic-Bag. Tag line if required: "Finding Magic in the Mundane." Origins: Multiple, including self-conscious reference to plasticbag.de, American Beauty, disposability, functionality and modernity. How good is the site: Adequate at best. Have you got a reliable job? No, not really. Do they have electricity in England: Yes. Do you have indoor 'bathrooms' yet? Yes. What's your favourite colour? Blue. Are you ever going to redesign? Er....

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Should a serious issue be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2001 09:36:19 PM ----- BODY:

Should a serious issue be protested about seriously? No. At least not when the actions of the entity you are protesting against can be made to seem ridiculous. There is no defence against feeling like an idiot. Aggression causes aggression - being shown up to be absurd cause embarrassment. As Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution". You could add after that... "I'll make my own..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hey Cal! Look! They've gone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2001 09:44:09 PM ----- BODY:

Hey Cal! Look! They've gone and mentioned Secret Santa in the New York Times! Woo - and lo there was a day of press...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Find out all you never STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2001 01:25:07 PM ----- BODY:

Find out all you never needed to know about Walford East tube station...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When B3ta interviewed Dave Gorman, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2001 02:31:12 PM ----- BODY:

When B3ta interviewed Dave Gorman, it was moida: "Q: Have you found any other Danny Wallaces yet? A: No. But then I'm not looking."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Congratulations to Chris Ware for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2001 03:54:32 PM ----- BODY:

Congratulations to Chris Ware for winning the Guardian first book award. From the few issues I read independantly, it's well deserved...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If anyone has a copy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2001 08:15:33 PM ----- BODY:

If anyone has a copy of Thursday's New York Times, I would really appreciate it if you could e-mail me - Cal and I would like a print copy of the Secret Santa piece.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's only two days left STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2001 08:36:44 PM ----- BODY:

There's only two days left to sign up for Secret Santa - so if you want to take part, you're going to have to get a bloody move on, frankly...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm always delighted when I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2001 12:10:51 AM ----- BODY:

I'm always delighted when I come across an attractive and well-thought through adaptation of an old Christmas staple: Advent Calendar.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'd be very interested in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2001 12:30:08 AM ----- BODY:

I'd be very interested in hearing the experiences of people who have signed up to The Direct Marketing Authority's lists. They claim to reduce your spam e-mail, the crap through your letterbox and the number of annoying people who ring you up to sell you double-glazing. You can do all these things through this site. Perhaps unsurprisingly - I'm resistant to give my home details and e-mail address to a direct marketing organisation - no matter how apparently honourable their intentions...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question - is this Sisters STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2001 06:05:56 PM ----- BODY:

Question - is this Sisters of Mercy song a big gay song?

Something Fast

all the things
we never needed
i don't need them now
all the things
were always confidential
and hidden from me anyhow

you can stand all night
at a red light anywhere in town
hailing maries left and right
but none of them slow down
i seen the best of men go past
i don't want to be the last
gimme something fast

God knows everybody needs
a hand in their decision
some of us are not so sure
i seen his own held out
for a ride on television
i think he's still in Baltimore

you can stand all night
at a red light anywhere in town
hailing maries left and right
but none of them slow down
i seen the best of men go past
i don't want to be the last
gimme something fast
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: With flatmates out of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2001 06:09:34 PM ----- BODY:

With flatmates out of the country for the weekend, peace slowly descends on Tomville...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You really have to love STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2001 09:53:16 PM ----- BODY:

You really have to love Chris. I mean, he's out for a stroll and he just can't resist that one extra dig. KPMG.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Secret Santa's hat is full! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2001 11:22:04 AM ----- BODY:

Secret Santa's hat is full! Check your e-mail if you've been participating...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Phew! The Secret Santa e-mails STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2001 07:45:45 PM ----- BODY:

Phew! The Secret Santa e-mails have gone out - I only WISH that they'd done so smoothly... All but 45 of the 621 final Santa e-mails were sent out this morning - the other forty-five (which included some of the ... let us call them ... most vocal of the UK blogging scene) got stuck somewhere in our server and couldn't be retrieved for love nor money...

When we finally did manage to get them out from the damn server, Cal had to go, only having time to export them to a not entirely Mac / PC compatible format, which I was then unable to import into my e-mail program. So the last forty-five e-mails had to be cut and pasted in by hand - since every single one is unique. Which would have been been great if I hadn't been a bit frayed from a day of relatively unsuccessful design work, and put the wrong wishlist URL in ten of them. So there then followed an incredibly apologetic e-mail, a careful and comprehensive checking of the whole process, and then another e-mail sent out to those people with all the details in it, this time all present and correct...

Most of the immediate responses seem to be unbelievably positive. I know that I've already bought my present for the person I'm Secret Santa-ing for...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Terrifyingly accurately, a How British STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2001 08:48:05 AM ----- BODY:

Terrifyingly accurately, a How British Are You? quiz told me, "I am 77.5% British, just like Michael Caine Though you know your way around London you are most likely to retire to the West Coast of the USA."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google Groups has now fully STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2001 04:04:50 PM ----- BODY:

Google Groups has now fully archived the last twenty years worth of Usenet posts - which means that you can now experience several historical events as they were experienced by people of the time. Or alternatively, you can do what I did, and try and find your first post on Usenet - which seems to be May 1995 for me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just got an iPod. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2001 11:41:10 PM ----- BODY:

I just got an iPod. I've been thinking about it for ages, and the angst of my financial situation has always consumed me. But a momentary glimmer of financial light appeared, and rather than invest in my future I decided that the time had come for frivolity once more. And this glimmer coincided with the fortuitous arrival of said tech item at my local Micro Anvika.

So I'm busy making a pact with Matt that he'll be there when I do the evil deed, and Rob overhears my evil scheme and decides he wants in. And rightly so, because it's going to be an epic trip...

So we hop on a bus after a crafty fag and emerge bouncing and over-caffeinated at Tottenham Court Road. The iPods are almost throwing themselves off the shelves and into people's grubby little mitts. I get the second to last one. They only came in that morning... Matt's waiting outside, because he didn't realise that we couldn't wait for him. Rob accidentally buys himself a Sony Clié. And then we went and ate pies in a pub and it was really nice.

Then miraculously (and only two hours after we left) we're back in the office, and I discover that the iMac I work on doesn't have a firewire port, so I'm left frustrated for still more hours. I fiddle around for a while longer at work and run home to play.

Ten minutes later I'm hideously disappointed. And then half an hour after that, I'm bouncing with excitement once again. Then Kate comes home and we watch Bridget Jones' Diary on video, which she got through the post at work today. Last time we watched it, it was a rough cut - and there's this great bit in the middle of the fight where the screen goes all black and it says "FACE POV / DARCY" or something similar and it kind of spoilt the flow. This time, however, I have to confess I really enjoyed it. Although I now find myself consigned to the mass population of this country who want to bone Colin Firth. But I digress...

It's almost midnight and I have to sleep and this entire post is over-excited arse, but who the hell cares, right? Woo. My iPod is full to bursting with dodgy MP3s of crappy songs from the eighties and I'm kind of tired and I'm going to bed, exhausted and happy and who needs a goddam boyfriend anyway?!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jason finally reveals what Danza/WHAT STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/2001 09:36:36 AM ----- BODY:

Jason finally reveals what Danza/WHAT is, and all I can say is I've got to get me one. They look neat! [And yes, I was in on the joke, I'm afraid].

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I found this one via STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2001 10:58:43 AM ----- BODY:

I found this one via Blogdex, which is always a shameful confession for me: Geoff Nunberg talks about the weblogging phenomenon (Real Audio). In this little radio segment, he compares weblogging, with all it's diarist minutiae to Diary of a Nobody - which started me thinking. Exactly when did the weblogging format cease to be seen as a medium designed for insight and critical judgement and start being viewed as a place where people obsess about the trivia of their lives? I don't think it had occurred to me before that this form of weblog was now the most prevelant - almost to the exclusion of other types. I don't know how I feel about this...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Suggestion for a really devisive STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2001 11:04:43 AM ----- BODY:

Suggestion for a really devisive website: So you go to Blogdex and you travel to the all-time links section. Pulling out the information from that page dynamically, you tag up all the weblogs in the top two-hundred listings. And then you automatically divide this into chunks. The top twenty are labelled "A-list", the next forty are labelled "B-list", the next sixty are labelled "C-list". The final eight are labelled "D-list". No one else is mentioned... Hilarity ensues...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Damn him. Damn him for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2001 11:15:42 AM ----- BODY:

Damn him. Damn him for being less crap than me. Damn him for redesigning Brainsluice brilliantly in the amount of time it takes me to move a piece of text three pixels to the left, sweat, have a panic attack and lie down. Related question: Is Davo a Hobbit? He does come from Noozle-land, after all...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was out drinking with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2001 12:42:21 PM ----- BODY:

I was out drinking with webloggers last night and Matt and I were busy comparing toys, and he showed me the article that he pubished on upsideclown today. And I was blown away.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: KPMG update... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2001 06:55:56 PM ----- BODY:

KPMG update: Just gave a few quotes to a friend at the Big Issue about KPMG - it should be out on Monday if you're interested. In the meantime, Chris was interviewed in the Observer last weekend - here's a salient quote: "In other words, anyone seeking to place a link to it on their site requires prior approval from KPMG. It would be inappropriate for a family newspaper to summarise Raettig's response to this preposterous assertion. The salient point is the staggering contempt for the web implicit in KPMG's stance. It makes one wonder who would buy e-business consulting advice from a firm that takes such a line? "

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is there a decline in the potential of the form? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/14/2001 10:36:51 PM ----- BODY:

Addendum to post about weblogs obsessing on the trivia of people's lives. I should clarify that I wasn't so much talking about the tendency to write about the trivia of one's life, but about the public perception of the weblogging phenomenon. Since I started it seems to have evolved from being viewed as a kind of web filter or industry comment organ through to being a kind of dynamic diarist medium where quality of writing was paramount to finally being viewed as a populist organ for the dissemination of trivia. I have no problem with weblogs of any of these types - and in fact they all have existed in one for or another for years before Blogger emerged. What I'm slightly surprised by is how the dominant perception of them has changed from journalism to personal writing to trivia. The 'potential' of the form seems to have become less interesting to people...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I really missed Napster... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2001 10:40:11 PM ----- BODY:

I really missed Napster. But then I found Limewire. My file-sharing needs are fulfilled once more. Remember children - as it said on the front of my iPod when I pulled it from the box... "Don't steal music..."

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The depressing thing about the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2001 10:45:06 PM ----- BODY:

The depressing thing about the Blogdex All-Time List is that there's nowhere to go but down. In the few months that it has been up and running, I have gradually watched myself slump further and further down the list... Not that it matters, it doesn't mean anything... It's just kind of depressing that each time you pop in and check on who has been linking to your site recently, you see that it has become even less popular than such trivial institutions as Amazon, The World AIDS day 'link and think' campaign and some beardy gentleman called Jeffrey Zeldman. I mean - like anyone cares about them anyway? I've said it before and I'll say it again, "It's all about me..." When will you bastards realise that?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I received my gift from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2001 10:49:29 PM ----- BODY:

I received my gift from Secret Santa today. It was all wrapped up and I didn't want to spoil it for myself, so I'm going to save it until Christmas Day. Apart from the frustration of keeping the system running (which is more of a frustration for Cal I have to confess, because he handles the technical stuff on this project), this has been a tremendously rewarding experience. I know that other people's gifts have started to arrive as well - and I hope everyone's feeling the mood take them over.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Will someone answer honestly - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2001 10:51:42 PM ----- BODY:

Will someone answer honestly - do I look like Jack Nicholson?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Simon is responsible for a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2001 11:04:25 PM ----- BODY:

Simon is responsible for a lot of the evil in the world. Well - maybe not a lot, but he is responsible for a photo-diary including pictures of the latest blogmeet. And frankly that's evil enough for me. Pictures include: Stilllife of unwashed Tom's jowls next to hot bloke sans hair product, Portrait of the Brainsluice as a Young Drinker, Flathead and Coy Girl, The Insane Visionary, Scruff and Scrawn (featuring Tom) and Pannett's Social Pose.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Particularly observant regulars may notice STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2001 11:12:58 PM ----- BODY:

Particularly observant regulars may notice that I've removed the link to TCN from the right-hand column of plasticbag.org. This is because my short stint of regular employment is coming to an end. I have a week more before the sporadics of freelance life take over again. Thankfully I've got a large bottle of tequila left from Gideon's last visit, so I doubt I'll stay depressed for long...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm frustrated by dorkslayers. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2001 01:46:38 PM ----- BODY:

I'm frustrated by dorkslayers.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's an interesting article at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2001 07:57:13 PM ----- BODY:

There's an interesting article at the moment over at The New York Times about a legal restriction on hyperlinking, which is pertinent to the KPMG debacle. One instance in which it is now illegal to link to something (in the US at least) runs as follows: "There had to be clear and convincing evidence that the person responsible for the link (a) knew at the time that the offending technology is on the linked-to site, (b) knew that the offending technology is illegal under the D.M.C.A., and (c) created or maintained the link for the "purpose" of disseminating the tainted code." This refers to the distribution of DeCSS information that breaks the copy-protection on DVDs.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you know where all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/2001 01:19:45 PM ----- BODY:

Do you know where all the celebrities hang out in London? If so, do me a last minute favour and go and answer this nice person's questions over at TCN...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger seems to have been STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 08:39:22 AM ----- BODY:

Blogger seems to have been buggered for at least the last 24-hours. I've lost many a fine post. Normal service will resume shortly.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I have a thing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 02:56:11 PM ----- BODY:

So I have a thing about geeks. What can I say? I like their passion, I like the fact they're slightly bumbling, I like the innocuous clothing, I like the fact that there's a nervousness, I like the being a bit shy. These things appeal to me. But I'm only human, and a red-blooded one at that, so I have to confess that on occasion a fairly well assembled young gent will turn my head. Until now, the two have never before met in one individual... Presenting, Tobey Maguire as Spiderman.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know who else is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 02:58:03 PM ----- BODY:

You know who else is cool (if under-represented on the interhighweb)? Serge, the Seal of Death. Now, he's cool... Not hot, particularly. But cool. Definitely cool.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: To what extent is it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 06:59:47 PM ----- BODY:

To what extent is it appropriate when one reaches thirty to still blame one's parents for one's complete inability to relate to other people and form long-lasting and emotionally satisfying relationships? Probably not fair at all. I should stop, really.

When I think of my parents, I think of that famous line, "With patricide, the parents are never completely free of blame". I've always liked that. I don't know where it comes from.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know what? Sod the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 07:03:50 PM ----- BODY:

You know what? Sod the expense. I'm joining my local gym. Question - is it good to only be able to feel you can take the world on when you feel sexy? What happens when you stop feeling sexy through age? Or when you've got a bit fat and tired? Do you become a recluse and live in a hut? What then, eh? What then?

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Random URLs that I tried STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 07:06:26 PM ----- BODY:

Random URLs that I tried that shouldn't really exist, but do: Burn the World, whatthefuck.com, bored.com.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Musical Juxtapositions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 07:27:00 PM ----- BODY:

Putting all your favourite songs onto an iPod throws up a few interesting juxtapositions. You're happily wandering through Clerkenwell listening to The Sisters of Mercy in a kind of retro-bohemian, Berlin goth style and you're feeling quite self-satisfied in a homo superior "doesn't get enough sun" kind of way, and then Randy Crawford explodes into your ears with a heavy dose of Street Life. I'm just saying it's strange, is all. Not bad.

Strange songs on my iPod:

Get thee to Limewire, my friends, and build your own screwed-up music collective of the weird taste of Tom. For without these songs bouncing around your psyche, you can't hope to understand the depths to which I've plunged...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Right, that's enough bollocks for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2001 07:28:15 PM ----- BODY:

Right, that's enough bollocks for one day. I'm off to a Chanukah party.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Never before did I fully STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/18/2001 02:16:44 PM ----- BODY:

Never before did I fully understand the horrible difficulties of being a great big nasty right-wing facist. And when you get bored of that, there's a new quiz at TCN.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Trabaca is a beautifully designed, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2001 12:08:36 PM ----- BODY:

Trabaca is a beautifully designed, touching site by a young, intelligent and in-the-process-of-telling-everyone-he's-a-poof young man. It's bloody great, and if you don't read it I'll smack you around the face with an articulated truck.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sigh. Another victim of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2001 03:19:04 PM ----- BODY:

Sigh. Another victim of the dot.com disaster - and one that you'd think would be the last to fail. How is it possible that a site that did nothing but show other people's TV adverts free could go under? You'd think that multi-national corporations would be delighted by the free publicity, and by people watching and rewatching the promotion of their products. The campaign starts here to encourage Gap and all the other regular TV advertisers to pay to maintain the site - as they should have been doing so all along...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A recurrent theme at EMAP STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2001 03:38:32 PM ----- BODY:

A recurrent theme at EMAP in recent weeks has been the battle between Cal and I about whether or not Mac Internet Explorer 5 is a good or a bad browser. Seriously. This is the kind of thing that keeps us busy all day. Cal maintains that a browser that doesn't conform to standards is a bad browser. I maintain that IE5 is not substantially worse than IE6 for PCs, and that although it has its problems, it has been lauded as one of the best browsers on the market.

Well now I'm prepared to throw the towel in. Who, in effect, gives a .... when IE 5.1 is out. I'll let you know what I think of it when I get a moment...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the shock of discovering STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2001 08:35:25 PM ----- BODY:

On the shock of discovering a work-ethic, and the horror of realising that this is why you've never made any money: When payment seems in excess of workload, typically I have increased workload to compensate rather than saying "Thank you very much". I don't honestly know what's wrong with me...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Well, tomorrow I depart fair STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/2001 12:53:02 PM ----- BODY:

Well, tomorrow I depart fair London for cold Norfolk, where I plan to spend a week with my family. This will be the longest I have spent with them for about three or four years, so it may end in complete disaster, acrimony and arguments. I have to confess I'm slightly nervous. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing my little brother (now approaching six feet tall aged sixteen) and going to see Lord of the Rings with him. If you wish to buy me a Christmas present, you can - but of course Secret Santa has taken the pressure off you a bit, so don't feel obliged in the slightest.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't think of a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/2001 10:09:06 AM ----- BODY:

I can't think of a single thing to say.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you get bored of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/2001 10:31:44 AM ----- BODY:

If you get bored of dismal re-run Christmas television and Only Fools And Horses TV Specials, then you should go check out the highlights of iamcal.com - a repository of good weblogging content. [Note for the punter who e-mailed me: "repository" does not mean something you insert anally in order to alleviate disease. That word is suppository.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hey look! At work I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/2001 12:00:15 PM ----- BODY:

Hey look! At work I went and designed a site for this guy who works at Heat magazine. Presenting Morning After TV - built and programmed by my glamourous assistant (I'm going to get a smack) Cal Henderson!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The answer to the question STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/2001 04:05:07 PM ----- BODY:

The answer to the question Do you love America? is clear. The answer is that America is a myth that many (but not all) free countries aspire to. The USA itself aspires to be America. But it isn't there yet. So yes, I think I love America. But the USA has a way to go yet... And questioning the USA and making sure that decisions are made democratically and in a fair and equitable manner is a way of aspiring to "America" not a subversive attempt to undermine it.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was on the train STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2001 09:40:05 PM ----- BODY:

I was on the train last night from Liverpool Street to Norwich, and I was sitting opposite this really cute guy. And at the end of the trip I offered him and the other passengers around me the Opal Fruits (sorry Starburst) that I had left over, and he took them, and unlike last time when I did something like this he didn't smile and reveal a massive gap between two of his teeth or have a grating maniac voice - which made the separation all the more poignant for me.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I woke up this morning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2001 09:42:53 PM ----- BODY:

I woke up this morning and it was snowing. And when we went shopping in Norwich, it was snowing. I feel so much more relaxed in Norfolk than I do in London. And weirdly, I feel much in control of my life, and therefore considerably more adult and responsible. To undercut this sensation, I watched Lord of the Rings with my little brother, and bought some more pointless things to give to people for Christmas.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last time Jason asked me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2001 09:47:34 PM ----- BODY:

Last time Jason asked me to do something, he told me I must do what he told me because "I AM THE KOTTKE". I laughed indulgently, as you would. Poor chap's losing it!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is London? London is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/24/2001 09:55:10 PM ----- BODY:

What is London? London is a place a hundred-thousand miles away from here, where all the evils of the world live, and they don't know where I am at the moment, and they can't contact me by phone because it's turned off and has been for days, and they could e-mail me, but I'd probably not pick it up. The world outside Norfolk can go fuck itself for one week. I'm not in the slightest bit interested in what is happening out there.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is Mark going to hell? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/24/2001 09:57:53 PM ----- BODY:

I'm worried about Mark: "One more thing I'd like to record is that today my father implied he thinks i'm going to hell. He explained to me his concern, that he'd like me to be with him when we both eventually die, and he's worried about that not happening, because I study different religions ...now, that's pretty horrible." Of course I'm an atheist, so at one level this would of course sound horrific to me. But I suppose the core question is whether it is worse to believe that your son might not experience an afterlife, or to enforce your beliefs upon them. A horrible situation to be in, for all concerned...

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Problem with Blogger security... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/2001 01:14:24 PM ----- BODY:

For anyone who's an infrequent user of Blogger - be warned, security at Pyra was compromised recently and you should change your server log-in passwords and Blogger user names. You can check out the "sorry" message here and read up about what happened here. [Metafilter discussion about the problems here.]

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oi Cal! I've got something STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/2001 01:19:22 PM ----- BODY:

Oi Cal! I've got something for you to play with! A list apart is looking for people to tell them about Mac IE5.1 CSS rendering bugs. And Lord knows I know you love talking about that!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most successful Christmas presents STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/2001 01:25:38 PM ----- BODY:

The most successful Christmas presents I have given this year have been the dumbest. I gave my brother some chocolate covered crickets and ants and the entire family has been talking about them ever since. Everyone's eaten some. My mother got almost hysterical and turned purple with horror after being forced to eat them by peer pressure. Very entertaining.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: George Bush Funeral Home STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/2001 12:22:59 AM ----- BODY:

Pictures - presented completely without commentary - of a building in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom - just off the inner-link between Gas Hill and Anglia Square. Taken shortly after Christmas 2001 while my mother waited in the car.

Addendum: Please read this later note pertaining to the situation in Iraq.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: george_bush_taster.jpg ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two tiny stories of country-living: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/2001 09:47:29 PM ----- BODY:

Two tiny stories of country-living:

The downstairs loo is out of bounds for me at the moment. Being back in the country has its benefits and its horrors. Prime amongst its horrors is the presence of thousands of bloody spiders. As a child, my bedroom floor was a spider graveyard - two or three spiders would be spotted a week, I'd leap feet into the air, find something aggressive to hit them with and then be too horrified by the corpses to clear them up. Two days ago I went into the downstairs loo to discover that I would be observed by a huge spider sitting half way up the wall. I haven't been in it since. Six hours after meeting my arachnid nemesis my brother went for a pee. He reappeared seconds later saying that he'd have to go upstairs because of the huge bloody spider. At least I'm not alone...

Returning from a film this evening with my brother in the car, we look up at the full moon and notice something neither of us have seen before. Surrounding the moon is a huge circle of difuse light - clean edges on the inside fading gradually to black on the outside. It looks like a huge iris in the sky - electric blue and black. My parents arrived shortly afterwards. Neither of them had seen anything like it before either.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Back in London. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2001 06:07:35 PM ----- BODY:

Back in London.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just installed OSX. First STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2001 10:22:20 PM ----- BODY:

I've just installed OSX. First impressions are remarkably favourable.

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Back to basics: It has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/2001 11:34:59 AM ----- BODY:

Back to basics: It has come to the notice of the autocracy of plasticbag.org that Tom Coates has been remarkably slack in updating and maintaining the site of late. Tempted as we are to fire him and employ someone rather more dedicated to the cause, we have instead decided to force him to undertake a few small projects in the run up to the new year. If you would like to participate in these projects, then you should feel free...

Tom Coates Explains Everything: As someone once said - good content on the cheap... Have you got a question for Tom? Would you like to see your name in sparkly lights? Ask him anything about the world and he will supply you with an answer... Warning: Answer may be incorrect. May cause bleeding. Ask Tom a dumb question

A year in plastic: Are you a long-standing plasticbag.org reader? What do you consider the best bits of crap Tom has written over the last year? If you are incorrect you will experience a small, but noticeable, electric shock. Evaluate Tom's crap

Is Tom's life interesting enough to maintain a weblog, or should he just lie? Yes, it's interesting enough, dammit | Lie to us, you loser | The question is bunk - you leave out all the interesting bits...

Upcoming features: (as soon as I can sort out my scanner and Photoshop...) Pictures of Tom and his brother in the snow! A photo of an amusing funeral home! And a brand new sparkling design for the best Plastic Bag site on the net (apart from plasticbag.com and plasticbag.net)!

----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything 1) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/2001 06:04:54 PM ----- BODY:

Tom Coates Explains Everything

  • 1) JaceLV asked me a very personal question about the size of my undercarriage. The answer is that it wouldn't fit in a pen cap but it would have no trouble fitting into the cargo compartment of a 747.
  • 2) Dan asked me whether or not I was really redesigning my site. The answer is that I have actually already redesigned it (as well he knows) - but that the problem is that I can't get the energy together to finish building the damn thing.
  • 3) Vodkabird was foolish enough to ask me how much wood a woodchuck would chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. I think it would have better things to do with its time. Have a look and tell me what you think...
  • 4) And finally for today, some chap called Graybo asked me, "Are you bored?" - to which the only honest response is that I wasn't until I got your e-mail, old chap... Come on kids... You're not challenging me at all!
  • ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: OSX works remarkably more effectively STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/2001 06:07:37 PM ----- BODY:

    OSX works remarkably more effectively with 440Mb of RAM than it does with 196Mb. Take note children - too little RAM will make your OSX experience a frustrating one.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything 1) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/2001 07:05:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Tom Coates Explains Everything

    1) Bart - if you think of the cat as being at one point in time (a), the transposition of the cat's mind into the mouses body as being at another (b) and their meeting as happening at point (c) - then it seems clear that the cat could not know for certain at point (c) that the mouse he was in fact confronted with was himself temporally translocated and post-sentience-transferral. It wouldn't have happened to him yet. So the only thing you'd be left with was in fact the possibility that the cat might intuit this fact or that the mouse would attempt to communicate with his earlier cat-self. For the cat not to eat the mouse he'd have to place credence in the fact that the mouse was himself after travelling in time - which would be a hard enough concept for me to believe - and I can only assume a cat would have no more luck finding it plausible in every-day life. Plus kudos for being the person with the dumbest question so far!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most wonderful thing in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2001 11:01:26 AM ----- BODY:

    The most wonderful thing in the world? The combination of these keys with a click on a link in IE 5.1 for Macs: Shift & Apple.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2001 11:13:57 AM ----- BODY:

    Tom Coates Explains Everything 1) To Graybo, I answer - I would give my last Rolo to any of the following people, if they were to ask... Peter Harmer, Sigmund Freud, Nick Cornwell, Grant Morrison, David Pannett, Max Thomas, Breckin Meyer, Ivan Massow and a great many others. 2) To Simon I answer: Boxers - since I was fifteen, with a brief dalliance with Calvin Klein Boxer Briefs as a nod to gay fashion - since abandoned. 3) To Darren I answer, if I were ninety years old I would remember nothing about weblogging in 2001 - because I would be too preoccupied with my prostate.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Personal websites are the fanzines STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2001 03:46:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Personal websites are the fanzines of the 21st Century. They're photocopied flyers and stapled together scraps of rubbish, with stolen images, ill-thought out words, tremendously creative in an idiosyncratic way. Interestingly though the aesthetic of most of these sites is either clean and ordered (post word-processing ideology of order) or futurist / high-tech (computer people have a habit of glorifying their culture). Not a lot of cut up and photocopied aesthetics. Would such an aesthetic be an affectation or a celebration?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: With all due respect, Mr STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/2001 06:39:11 PM ----- BODY:

    With all due respect, Mr President...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another New Year's Eve survived. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2002 01:30:37 PM ----- BODY:

    Another New Year's Eve survived.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The yearly Fray New Year STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2002 02:06:50 PM ----- BODY:

    The yearly Fray New Year Special is upon us once more. Twelve stories for twelve months. And you can post your own stories as well. You can see mine here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates Explains Everything Brief STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2002 03:25:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Tom Coates Explains Everything

    Brief answers only this morning - my throbbing head can answer all, but my fingers are incapable of typing... 1) To TomH I say, It takes seventy-three licks to get to the centre of a Tootsie Pop. And for the other question... What do you mean? An African or European swallow? 2) To Nik I say - If I could be anyone else in the world, I wouldn't want to be William Shatner. And the entity which occupies the Shatner body chose him because he had a thing about hairpieces. 3) To Hewligan I say, I have thought about trying to write a couple of novels, but I'm really lazy and disorganised so I can't imagine it will ever happen. I'm not going to tell you the plots, just in case they're not crap, but they are called respectively "My day in hell" and "Prank". 4) To Vaughan I say - you can't ask three questions - that's taking the piss! So you get very small answers with no explanation - 1985, 2004 and because he's very witty and dresses well. 5) To Paul I say - I have no sense of smell, I'm afraid - strange but true - so I will have to go with "burnt plastic". 6) And to Tom Cosgrave, the answer to the question, "Why oh why can't we all take it easy and enjoy ourselves in life and stuff?" is because Niezsche was right and Epicurus wasn't.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Flashback madness. I'm ten - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2002 09:17:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Flashback madness. I'm ten - I'm living in a little village in Norfolk called Belaugh. On Sunday mornings my dad drives to the nearest village (Wroxham) for the Sunday papers. Sunday is the only day of the week that the papers aren't delivered. I look forward to this all week, because it's pretty much the only time that I can guarantee I'll be able to leave my village and do anything interesting (apart from go to school). More importantly, I get my pocket money then, so it's all really exciting.

    This particular weekend, my friend Adam is staying with me. We have remarkably similar tastes, and have been friends for a couple of years, since I started going to the Norwich School after leaving Town Close (where I was really happy). We go into the newsagents and start looking through the comic books. Now I'm sure I bought comic books before that - but I really don't remember then. But I remember reading the comic books I bought that day again and again. And until about an hour ago I didn't remember what they were - and thanks to the internet, here they are! If anyone knows a place in the UK where I can get these, I'd be astonishingly grateful.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Weakest Link with drag STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/02/2002 01:46:26 AM ----- BODY:

    The Weakest Link with drag queens. Whoever thought that up isn't getting paid enough!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally I have Office working STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2002 11:22:21 AM ----- BODY:

    Finally I have Office working again, which means that I can actually do some work. Hurrah.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could the iWalk be the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2002 02:39:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Could the iWalk be the next Apple big thing? PS. Don't believe the hype [Noticeable weirdnesses include discrepancies between colour and black and white screens, the fact that you never see the pen touching the screen, the fact that the text looks like it's been sharpened in some way, the fact that the buttons and jog wheel are so different from the iPod, the sheer boringness of the product, the fact that very few menus are shown flying around (which would be the first thing you would want to get a video of, but would be hard to render). Etc. etc.]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: They're back, and this time STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/04/2002 12:52:03 AM ----- BODY:

    They're back, and this time it's the Second Annual Bloggies. They're currently taking nominations. Last year, plasticbag.org won a couple, making me "Best European Poof". Which was nice! But I wrote less dull crap then, so with any luck this year, someone more deserving will go home with the huge stigma of caring whether or not they're popular and end up being pointed at by friends at the pub and softly mocked.

    Having said that, of course, it wouldn't be sporting if I didn't encourage my readers to vote for me. I mean - it would surely be a pyrrhic victory if people felt that all their contemporaries had already abandoned all claims to the throne. So please, feel free to nominate plasticbag.org for any or all of the following: Best European Weblog, Best Designed Weblog, Best Big Poof (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered) Weblog and Weblog of the Year.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More fun fantasy Apple gadgets: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/04/2002 12:00:38 PM ----- BODY:

    More fun fantasy Apple gadgets: the iPad.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's up with Kottke? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/05/2002 12:39:02 PM ----- BODY:

    What's up with Kottke?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Only the very best web STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2002 12:18:13 AM ----- BODY:

    Only the very best web celebrities get their very own templates on MetaTalk.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weird fact: While there's no STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2002 01:03:04 AM ----- BODY:

    Weird fact: While there's no one in the UK who hasn't heard Kylie belt out "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" or seen her writhe around in a rather poorly assembled sheet, it's almost unheard of in America, where she's released a completely different single. The song, which was part of a particularly virulent batch of memetic song experiments developed in a secret subterranean laboratory, is sure to infect the entire US in a few months time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know a forum's really STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2002 09:48:24 PM ----- BODY:

    You know a forum's really successful when someone spends time developing a little gadget to help you get the ideal username. Presenting the Barbelith Fictionsuit Generator. This is Count ForbiddenLove signing off...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know, just because I'm STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2002 09:50:38 PM ----- BODY:

    You know, just because I'm not posting very much at the moment doesn't mean that I'm not working on exciting plasticbag.org related projects. I just wanted to make sure you understood that.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Songs for never-were and used-to-be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2002 10:04:19 PM ----- BODY:

    Songs for never-were and used-to-be lovers: Something So Right, Everloving, Calling it Quits. There are others, but they're too cheesy.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I hate it when Davo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2002 10:12:27 PM ----- BODY:

    I hate it when Davo goes away for holidays. I feel cheated enough by his sporadic posting. But weeks without it? It's just not fair.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is this what we've STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2002 12:10:50 PM ----- BODY:

    Is this what we've all been waiting for? If so, I'm not entirely convinced at this stage, however happy my hero looks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another Barbelith offshoot: Which 'Lither STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2002 01:11:38 PM ----- BODY: Another Barbelith offshoot: Which 'Lither Are You?. "I don't believe it, you're Tom Coates. The founder. Doesn't post much anymore. I worry about his bandwidth. Your answers suggest a correspondence of 64% to Tom Coates." ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So my first impressions of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2002 07:06:24 PM ----- BODY:

    So my first impressions of the leaked iMac were fairly negative, but as I've seen the specs for the machines and seen them in context, I'm beginning to realise how cool it could be. Be warned, this may actually be the future of computing after all. In the meantime, not a lot more to report from my favourite company - a larger iBook and a new application: iPhoto. My computer is now officially obselete...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Read all about it! The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 12:21:57 AM ----- BODY:

    Read all about it! The new iMac reaches Wired.com.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tasteless comment of the day: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 01:20:35 AM ----- BODY:

    Tasteless comment of the day: Davo: In other news, I now smell like Georgio Armani. Tom: What? Dead?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't be the only STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 01:26:31 AM ----- BODY:

    I can't be the only person in the world who finds bits of Movable Type endlessly frustrating. You try and import two and a half years of Blogger entries, and it chokes almost immediately. Or to be more precise, Pair chokes on it. And it chokes half-way through carefully organised files you've made so that you can import in chunks. And when that happens you can't easily go and find the entries that are part of the last batch, because it can't render the list of entries in its entirety without (surprise) pair.com choking on it. Because you see, there's no 'next page' link on the entries page - instead you have to show all entries.

    And when it's importing from more than one file, it doesn't import them in a logical order that I can see, so you duplicate some file's entries and miss others completely. And when you get too frustrated with the process, and reconcile yourself to using Blogger until you die, and you try to delete the blog you've created, pair.com choke once more, throwing up endless server errors until you finally want everyone surrounding you to die and are spitting chunks and throwing strops. This can't be right. This is all wrong. Surely.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And while I'm at it, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 01:32:33 AM ----- BODY:

    And while I'm at it, I think it's about time I griped about Blogger. It's a wonderful democratic piece of software that I've used without paying a penny since the day it launched (apart from a tiny donation once). I love it. It's changed my life.

    But will someone please explain to me why you can't do a permalink for a day instead of just an entry?! It makes no sense! You have a variable for the archive page's file name. You have date formats that would work well as internal links on a page. Why then is it impossible to put the archive page tag in the date header!? Why doesn't that work!? It should work! And it would immediately increase the adaptability of the service!

    And it would mean we could all make site's that work like Jason's if we wanted to, without killing ourselves fighting with bloody Movable Type, which I also love but is still frustrating me beyond human belief.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If I'm honest, I'm grumpy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 01:34:37 AM ----- BODY:

    If I'm honest, I'm grumpy because I've got toothache again. And everything that follows (although all relevant complaints) is probably borne of dental pain. It's toothache like this that started most of the world's major shitstorms, if you ask me. Certainly at the moment I'd cheerfully fuck the world for some free dental work. Damn you Thatcher for screwing up the NHS dentists.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger is down again. But STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 10:17:18 PM ----- BODY:

    Blogger is down again. But wireless.blogger.com seems to be working just fine!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A time before plasticbag.org... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2002 11:03:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Are you ready to go back in time? Want to read lots of old plasticbag.org crap from before it was even plasticbag.org? Do you miss this?Think every design I've done in the last year and a half has been crap!? Well screw you, mister. Like I give a damn what you think! Or alternatively, check it out!

    I write crap nowadays. I was much more fun then.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The one of my heroes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2002 12:03:50 PM ----- BODY:

    The one of my heroes that isn't Steve Jobs has been interviewed and is his normal dazzling brilliant self. When asked what the world needs now, he replies, "More soldiers".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the cover of a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2002 12:04:47 PM ----- BODY:

    On the cover of a book I'm reading there is this statement: "Triumphs of imagination such as the person you love is 72.8% water". Which made me think - is it a triumph of imagination to visualise the person you love as over a hundred pounds of water, or is it a greater leap of the imagination to look at said hundred pounds of water and decide to love it?

    But the stuff that makes you human is the other stuff. Right? The 27.2% that isn't water. But that's clearly untrue. You might as well say that the person you love is one fifth coal to four fifths water. You'd still be way off. The person you love is a self-organising generated string of information that has mutated and transformed and lengthened and retransmitted itself over hundreds of millions of years. They are the latest holographic representation of a stream of information broadcast from the ancient past. They are the carriers of chinese whispers passed down from a universe of different creatures that have watched the world change - that have changed the world. And they are the only people that carry this message. Now that's something worth loving.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Me? I don't love anyone. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2002 12:06:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Me? I don't love anyone.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Looks to me like Wil's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2002 09:12:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Looks to me like Wil's onto a winner. He's selling personally autographed Next Generation stuff at the moment - and seems to be making a fair amount of money on it. Poor old Wil. Forever labelled by a character he played in an old sci-fi series.

    Speaking of which, he was in the episode of Next Generation that I watched this evening on BBC2. The lines they gave that man must have been enough to drive a young man to suicide. His character was the lamest creature in fifteen star systems. Is it surprising that everyone hated him? Tonight some female character commented something along the lines of, "It's just as well you're cute, Wesley, otherwise you'd be insufferable". If I found him cute I'd be some kinda pervert. So I'm left agreeing with her other sentiments alone. I keep thinking that maybe an older actor might have been able to play these lines in a less annoying way - but I'm not sure it's possible. If you had Wesley for a child, you'd be continually encouraging him to act up. You'd be begging for it. You'd be going, "you want to have sex with a prostitute, son?" or, "Daddy's got some heroin...!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's going to be an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2002 09:15:30 PM ----- BODY:

    There's going to be an announcement tomorrow regarding Blogger. Could it be that we're finally going to have to pay for the damn thing? Could it be that there'll be some kind of increased functionality? Could it be that Ev has found a business partner who's going to splash millions of dollars in his lap to make the service horrifically amazing?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My flatmate is buying an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2002 09:17:02 PM ----- BODY:

    My flatmate is buying an iBook. Just to tease me, you understand. I went into town with her today to decide what she needs. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Have I been in the papers or something? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2002 11:12:33 AM ----- BODY:

    I've suddenly started getting lots of traffic and I don't quite know why. If you've seen plasticbag.org in a magazine or a newspaper or anywhere unusual in an article or something, could you let me know. Thanks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Want to know what was STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2002 12:56:08 PM ----- BODY:

    Want to know what was really going on in the Lord of the Rings? Then read the many secret diaries of the various participants...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now that someone has actually STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2002 05:39:53 PM ----- BODY:

    Now that someone has actually broken the news on a site (rather than just on a mailing list), I think it's time I gave my opinion on the proposed "Premium Blogger" that is rumoured to cost $30 a year. Bear in mind that at the time of posting, there has been no word from Pyra on this app. There's a discussion over at Metafilter, but here's my take on it as posted to UKBloggers:

    "The big question then is going to be do you have any idea about how this premium stuff is going to work?

    I had a long conversation with megnut when she was still with blogger about what their plans were with Blogger Pro - which this sounds very much like - and the big issue seemed to be what you're getting people to pay for...

    For example - are you paying for a premium membership with as many blogs as you like? In which case how do you stop people disseminating the log-in details to run a hundred blogs from the same account? If you ARE running a premium blog - do other people who are allowed to post on the same blog have to pay to use it? Is there a difference between a user who runs fifty blogs each with a thousand posters on each and one who runs one weblog which he posts to every month. Etc. etc.

    "There are many more questions - particularly for people whose sites consist of several blogs bolted together...

    "I'd pay in an instant. Particularly for extra functionality. But I'm interested in what the service will include. I think there are various ways they could go... five blogs perhaps with a maximum of twenty users between them (for example) would be a good system as far as I was concerned. But there WILL be consolidation of individuals using them.

    "Having said that it's still better to have three users paying $10 each than three users paying nothing..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Of course the best thing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2002 01:32:34 AM ----- BODY:

    Of course the best thing about working from home is that you don't have to go outside. And correspondingly the worst thing about it is that most of your stories involve particularly sticky patches on the kitchen floor, the number of cigarettes you've smoked in a day and how you're duvet has got stuck down one end of its cover (even though that doesn't matter because you move so little and drink so much caffeine that you no longer need to sleep).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's a shame, but it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2002 09:47:45 AM ----- BODY:

    It's a shame, but it seems that there will be no Anti-Bloggies this year.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Ev (who's pumping out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2002 10:06:26 AM ----- BODY:

    Via Ev (who's pumping out a resolute 'no comment' on the whole Premium Blogger thing) comes this neat and well assembled Flash-based clock. I'm always extremely impressed when people manage to incorporate a non-computery aesthetic into sites - it's not as easy as it seems.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm a weblogging Dame. Who'd STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2002 01:59:56 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm a weblogging Dame. Who'd have thought it. In more important news, my source at Time Out has given me seven episodes of the new series of Buffy and Angel, so you must expect slightly sporadic updates for the next five or six hours...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wish I could take STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2002 10:11:56 PM ----- BODY:

    I wish I could take sole credit for this, but I can't. As part of my last job at emap - where I was running TCN, I also designed (and co-designed) a couple of sites. The first one, Morning After TV was launched a while back - but now the other one (which I only worked out basic structure, and did the early design treatments for) has now launched at J17.com. That's right, I've been working for Just Seventeen. How cool is that. Major design kudos goes to Denise Wilton, who's responsible for giving my initial designs a substantial face-lift, and huge tech wiggles go to Cal for building, well, all of it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The quizzes that do the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2002 02:22:42 AM ----- BODY:

    The quizzes that do the rounds of weblogs - I must confess I'm not immune to their charms. But I don't normally link to them - I kind of think that they're cheap content. There's no opinion expressed, everyone has seen them fairly swiftly (so there's no real 'you must see this' value) and - well - most of them aren't really that good. However, having said all of that, this one tickled me pink...

    You have a genius intellect and an awesome sense of humor. You can sarcastically put someone in their place without batting an eye. Your only problems seem to be that you have trouble acknowledging your true feelings and you may use your humor as a defense to hide what you are really feeling. But, your godliness overpowers any insignificant flaws you may have. Even if you tend to pass gas during very inconvenient moments. Take The "Which Kevin Smith Male Are You?" Quiz!!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It may be everywhere, but STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2002 12:36:17 PM ----- BODY:

    It may be everywhere, but it's kind of cool...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This won't mean anything to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2002 06:33:36 PM ----- BODY:

    This won't mean anything to anyone outside the United Kingdom, but if on a Saturday evening you get frustrated by Ant and Dec and their band of merry troubadours, then you be aware that popidiot.com is still available...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Geek CSS question re: putting paragraphs 'inline' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2002 02:31:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Geek CSS question: When I'm writing all my blog entries I put in all the paragraph and line break tags by hand. I feel (for some reason) that this makes things much more adaptable. Except of course that I'm evidently wrong since it presents several formatting problems with things like permalinks.

    The first problem is that by definition the permalinks cannot be 'inline'. They have to be placed outside the paragraph tags that I carefully put in each post. Which means that they have to occupy a separate paragraph. In order to get the current effect, I've built in a process whereby Blogger constructs a table around each entry, and I use the first table cell to house the permalink.

    But I'm working on converting plasticbag.org to pure CSS layout and this is presenting some problems. If anyone has any ideas about how I might achieve the effect that I currently have on the site in pure CSS (or just how to fake an inline link), then I'd really appreciate your comments...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt's built a new skin STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2002 02:43:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Matt's built a new skin for Interconnected - designed to be viewable on all kinds of platforms, browsers and screen resolutions.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Most regular Blogger users have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2002 05:51:29 PM ----- BODY:

    Most regular Blogger users have probably seen this before, but here is a clever way to reformat the way that you see your Blogger archives dates. And I have to send out a special thanks to the man who runs the site, Phil Ringnalda, without whom I would have gone insane in my attempts to adapt one of the scripts he hosts...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another day, another reason to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2002 09:55:55 AM ----- BODY:

    Another day, another reason to laugh uncontrollably at how weird people are. There is a newsreader in the UK called Huw Edwards. He's a slightly podgy Welsh bloke. He's got a nice enough accent, but other than that he's fairly unremarkable. Or is he?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And I quote from NTK: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2002 01:36:27 PM ----- BODY:

    And I quote from NTK: "Only a couple of days or so left to get your nominations into the "Bloggies" Second Annual Weblog Awards - and perhaps prevent Metafilter, PlasticBag.Org and - imaginatively enough - Blogger.com from scooping all those $20 PayPal prizes again."

    I should point out that only the supreme winner of the awards receives any kind of prize.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All the votes are in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2002 02:17:48 PM ----- BODY:

    All the votes are in for the first stage of the 2002 Bloggies, so I can only hope that the article, Psychology of Weblogs has been nominated, even if it doesn't receive an award. There's a lot of sense in it - particularly the emphasis on personality, story-telling and the the seeking out of creative and innovative linkage.

    I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from a guy who wanted to know how to increase traffic to his weblog - god only knows why he chose to ask me, but there you go. I'm not entirely sure that my advice was quite what he was looking for, because I didn't give him any revolutionary tips about secret search engine strategies or ways to control and influence the minds of young, hip and trendy scene-setters. In fact I can summarise what I said to him in just a few points:

    1. Search Engines:
      You can get traffic off search engines, but is it the kind of traffic that really interests you? The people who seek your site by running a search about "Sex with lubricated badgers" are going to be disappointed with your thoughts on identifying the gender of the black and white animals. And if you're hoping to catch people who are just looking for a good weblog, remember that there are hundreds of thousands of other weblogs which are just as likely to appear in their search results. My opinion? Don't bother.
    2. Site of the month/day/week etc
      Again - why bother. Most of the sites that give out awards do so to get traffic, not to give it to other people. And if they're easy to win, they're essentially useless, and will clutter up your site with badges and logos and buttons. If they're not easy to get mentioned on - such as Blogger's "Blogs of note", then your chances of getting a link are almost ridiculously small - and frankly would be enhanced by paying attention to the only really important parts of the weblog process... Which are...
    3. Good quality design and content
      It may be dull, but it remains true - if you write good stuff and present it elegantly, then you'll be well read in no time at all. Case in point - Trabaca is a site that I stumbled upon fairly recently. I've got quite entrenched in my weblog reads of late, and don't tend to wander that much. But this site had an immediate visual impact for me - and it stuck in my head because of that. And then I discovered that it was a delight to read. So now it's a regular destination for me. That's the best model for encouraging regular visitors to your site - give them something worth coming to.

    And even though I told myself I wouldn't do this - here are a few ways in which you can up the quality of your design and content:

    1. What's your site about?
      You don't have to define yourself too closely, but if you can identify a spirit or a set of subjects that matter to you or that you have opinions about then you're one step towards developing a weblog that people will be able to relate to.
    2. Branding
      It sounds really corporate, but just think about it for a minute - if you were building a site about hamsters, then you might do something kind of cutesy. If you were building a site about body-building, then you'd probably go for something really macho-looking. If it's about the things you care about then it should have an appropriate look - one that is right for the discussion of the things you care about. Identify colours, images, themes and a name that works for you and is easily memorable. Make the name short!
    3. Opinions
      There are a thousand sites on the net which duplicate the popular links of the moment. Since the appearance of Blogdex, this has started to happen even more regularly. But this is not necessarily a problem unless those links are all you have to offer. What's your opinion of the link? What's your opinion on the story? These are the only things that people can't get on any other site but yours. You may as well play to your strengths!
    4. Story-selection
      You went to the shop. That's nice. You had a cookie. Great. You picked your arse. Excellent. Why are you writing this down? A hundred thousand things may happen to you in a day, or maybe nothing will have happened at all, but there will always be something worth talking about. And for everything worth talking about, there will be dozens of things that you did during the day that no one gives a damn about! Today I went to the loo, took two painkillers for my toothache and drank pink grapefruit juice. Do you give a damn? No.
    5. Good quality writing
      This one's a bit tedious - check your grammar, check your spelling, feel comfortable going back and re-editing posts that don't make immediate sense to your when you re-read them.

    I'm not going to pretend that I do all these things all the time, or that I do them very well. Still - that's my two-penneth. Hopefully you'll find something useful in it.

    Addenda: i) On 'story-selection' it has been pointed out to me that as a weblogger you shouldn't want to always appeal to an audience. I say this doesn't matter - whether or not you want to write about what you find interesting or what an audience might find interesting is up to you. But if neither of you find it interesting, then why publish it? ii) A further aside: Remember that this piece is about how to make a weblog get more traffic - not to make it worthwhile, socially valuable or "good". How you do that is up to you...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Films watched over weekend: A STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/15/2002 01:29:25 AM ----- BODY:

    Films watched over weekend: A Beautiful Mind, The Princess Diaries, Vanilla Sky and Phantoms. Films that I watched this weekend that I would be interested in seeing again: N/A. Worst film I saw this weekend: Vanilla Sky.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the wonderful things STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/15/2002 01:26:33 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the wonderful things about having a little brother who's thirteen years younger than you was that just when you're really supposed to have put childish things behind you, you get the opportunity to do them all over again in the guise of 'playing with the little one'. Which of course meant that my youthful obsession with Lego models managed to exist in a modifed form well into my twenties. Which makes announcements like the Lego Spiderman all the cooler - even as I approach my thirtieth birthday... [via Haddock]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote of the day: "Whoso STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/15/2002 04:04:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Quote of the day: "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist." [Ralph Waldo Emerson]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An amusing moment this afternoon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/15/2002 07:16:36 PM ----- BODY:

    An amusing moment this afternoon - I got an e-mail from my flatmate recommending that I check out the Buffy Swearing Keyboard, humourously suggesting that it was 'made for' our Buffy-obsessed flat. At which point I had to explain that the keyboard in question was made by a guy I used to work with and that the idea of having Buffy speak loud obscenities emerged one morning when we were outside the office having a cigarette.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to get more traffic to your weblog STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/16/2002 12:18:44 AM ----- BODY: I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from a guy who wanted to know how to increase traffic to his weblog - god only knows why he chose to ask me, but there you go. I'm not entirely sure that my advice was quite what he was looking for, because I didn't give him any revolutionary tips about secret search engine strategies or ways to control and influence the minds of young, hip and trendy scene-setters. In fact I can summarise what I said to him in just a few points:
    1. Search Engines: You can get traffic off search engines, but is it the kind of traffic that really interests you? The people who seek your site by running a search about "Sex with lubricated badgers" are going to be disappointed with your thoughts on identifying the gender of the black and white animals. And if you're hoping to catch people who are just looking for a good weblog, remember that there are hundreds of thousands of other weblogs which are just as likely to appear in their search results. My opinion? Don't bother.
    2. Site of the month/day/week etc Again - why bother. Most of the sites that give out awards do so to get traffic, not to give it to other people. And if they're easy to win, they're essentially useless, and will clutter up your site with badges and logos and buttons. If they're not easy to get mentioned on - such as Blogger's "Blogs of note", then your chances of getting a link are almost ridiculously small - and frankly would be enhanced by paying attention to the only really important parts of the weblog process... Which are...
    3. Good quality design and content It may be dull, but it remains true - if you write good stuff and present it elegantly, then you'll be well read in no time at all. Case in point - Trabaca is a site that I stumbled upon fairly recently. I've got quite entrenched in my weblog reads of late, and don't tend to wander that much. But this site had an immediate visual impact for me - and it stuck in my head because of that. And then I discovered that it was a delight to read. So now it's a regular destination for me. That's the best model for encouraging regular visitors to your site - give them something worth coming to.
    And even though I told myself I wouldn't do this - here are a few ways in which you can up the quality of your design and content:
    1. What's your site about? You don't have to define yourself too closely, but if you can identify a spirit or a set of subjects that matter to you or that you have opinions about then you're one step towards developing a weblog that people will be able to relate to.
    2. Branding It sounds really corporate, but just think about it for a minute - if you were building a site about hamsters, then you might do something kind of cutesy. If you were building a site about body-building, then you'd probably go for something really macho-looking. If it's about the things you care about then it should have an appropriate look - one that is right for the discussion of the things you care about. Identify colours, images, themes and a name that works for you and is easily memorable. Make the name short!
    3. Opinions There are a thousand sites on the net which duplicate the popular links of the moment. Since the appearance of Blogdex, this has started to happen even more regularly. But this is not necessarily a problem unless those links are all you have to offer. What's your opinion of the link? What's your opinion on the story? These are the only things that people can't get on any other site but yours. You may as well play to your strengths!
    4. Story-selection You went to the shop. That's nice. You had a cookie. Great. You picked your arse. Excellent. Why are you writing this down? A hundred thousand things may happen to you in a day, or maybe nothing will have happened at all, but there will always be something worth talking about. And for everything worth talking about, there will be dozens of things that you did during the day that no one gives a damn about! Today I went to the loo, took two painkillers for my toothache and drank pink grapefruit juice. Do you give a damn? No.
    5. Good quality writing This one's a bit tedious - check your grammar, check your spelling, feel comfortable going back and re-editing posts that don't make immediate sense to your when you re-read them.
    I'm not going to pretend that I do all these things all the time, or that I do them very well. Still - that's my two-penneth. Hopefully you'll find something useful in it. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/17/2002 10:58:57 PM Addenda: i) On 'story-selection' it has been pointed out to me that as a weblogger you shouldn't always want to appeal to an audience. I say that this doesn't matter - whether or not you want to write about what you find interesting, or what an audience might find interesting is up to you. But if neither of you find it interesting, then why publish it? ii) A further aside: Remember that this piece is about how to make a weblog get more traffic - not to make it a worthwhile, socially valuable or "good" weblog. How you do that is a completely separate article! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jo EMAIL: jo.charman@drkw.com IP: URL: http://tinyjo.livejournal.com DATE: 01/25/2002 12:16:42 PM See also http://www.nobody-knows-anything.com/websuck.html - Why (most) webjournals suck - which is basically agreeing with the points you make and going into a bit more detail in some places. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fairycakes EMAIL: pinkfairycakes@hotmail.com IP: URL: http://www.pinkfairycakes.co.uk DATE: 01/25/2002 12:21:54 PM Thanks for popping in Addenda: i) I do a personal site for me not for traffic. It's my way as a web designer to keep a wee note of my life and I only started doing it cos I found a diary ( the one and only one i ever did) from 1996 and had a giggle reading back - hopefully in a couple of years I'll be able to do the same with my blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jigzaw EMAIL: webwizard@bawls.org IP: URL: http://www.bawls.org DATE: 01/29/2002 05:23:48 PM Amen to that fairycakes! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie Leigh EMAIL: missjamieleigh@aol.com IP: URL: http:// DATE: 01/31/2002 12:44:49 PM Interesting read for sure.... I think my site (without sounded big-headed) is one of those rare sites. I am very proud. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Walker EMAIL: dan@overnow.com IP: URL: http://www.danwalker.ca/ DATE: 02/01/2002 06:21:34 PM The importance of e-mail cannot be overstated. If you want to stay fresh in people's minds, e-mail is the way to do it, as your fans will anticipate your next mail, and people who've forgotten you will be gently reminded that you exist. Put a signup form on your page, get people's e-mail addresses, and mail them stuff. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kaushik EMAIL: kaushikb@hotmail.com IP: URL: http://banerjee.blogspot.com DATE: 02/05/2002 10:18:16 AM I have been struggling with the same question. A few other ideas that may work: -Textads/pyrads/other variations in weblog communities. They aren't terribly expensive. I believe you can buy 9600 impressions in Blogger for $10 and every 1000 impressions in Metafilter for $2. Daypop has a similar rate. The majority of people who go to these places are webloggers and if you have an interesting caption, some people may actually check it out. -Join communities of likeminded people. Your signature on the e-mail messages that you post to any forum is a good way to introduce your weblog. -This helps. -Posting messages to forums like these. Hoping that someone actually reads them and gets so impressed with your brilliant and insightful remarks and they click immediately on your url! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kaushik EMAIL: kaushikb@hotmail.com IP: URL: http://banerjee.blogspot.com DATE: 02/05/2002 10:22:00 AM In the previous post, I meant to reference: http://newhome.weblogs.com/pingSiteForm at 'This helps'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daisy Antonio EMAIL: daisy@alembong.org IP: URL: http://www.alembong.org DATE: 02/06/2002 08:26:45 PM Thank you Tom, for sharing with us your thoughts on increasing traffic. I agree with what you said, about the importance of contents, in terms of attracting audience. having focus, or what you said "branding." Who would not want followers? However, a few can cut to the chase, of bubble vs. meat. The best to you, ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chris EMAIL: nospam@nospam.com IP: URL: http://www.letterneversent.com DATE: 02/11/2002 05:17:45 AM Thanks for the tips! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ghostbusters EMAIL: we@three.com IP: URL: DATE: 02/20/2002 01:57:35 PM you heard me! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tray EMAIL: tla@tracyapps.org IP: URL: http://tracyapps.org DATE: 02/27/2002 11:50:50 PM *nods* posting messages and comments on peoples websites helps... being NICE to the people is always a definite plus (no one wants to visit your site if you tell them off on their webpage... just a hunch.) and then there is always the "threaten your friends with bodily harm until they visit your webpage" approach.. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sistahbeth EMAIL: zabethanne@aol.com IP: URL: http://www.absolutwade.com/bethworld DATE: 03/04/2002 12:09:50 AM i went to the store once AND had a cookie :) I just put stuff up because i can. come by and see me sometime! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KwanYu EMAIL: kwanyu@rrs.at IP: URL: http://kwanyu.shacknet.nu DATE: 03/04/2002 06:57:38 AM Don't forget affiliate programs too, like nodist net and other places, small text adds for everyone in the group, can send plenty of traffic your way. And word of mouth, i've been writing my blog for around a year now, and suddenly i'm getting 500 (uniquie IP) hits a day looking through my site, and they actually stay on it and follow my links out. It's all fairly cool :) TP ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Morteza Habibnia EMAIL: m_habibnia,@yahoo.com IP: URL: http://yahoo DATE: 03/04/2002 02:57:05 PM Dear sir, Would you please send me email and explain your activites for me.We products Cap &Bottle for Mineral water, Oil , Durinks.We need materials for our company. Your fiathfully Morteza Habibnia Business Manager Name's our company ,LAVAN PLASTIC,. Telefax :0098_021_7543357 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bastaard EMAIL: bstrd1@hotmail.com IP: URL: http://bastaard.blogspot.com DATE: 03/30/2002 02:43:01 AM What about posting in this forum? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tristan Tom EMAIL: tristan@tristantom.com IP: URL: http://www.tristantom.com/weblog/ DATE: 04/08/2002 05:09:23 PM Sex sells. Virtually any sexy blog is sure to get traffic. Not that I have an first 'hand' experience with this... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seyed Razavi EMAIL: seyed@monkeyx.com IP: URL: http://www.monkeyx.com DATE: 04/09/2002 02:46:50 AM My weblog is pretty new and not getting much traffic. But it gives me a place to hang my thoughts. Which might be enough... but it'd be nice to get some feedback on my thoughts. Even criticism would be nice compared to the deafening silence. http://www.monkeyx.com/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cohkan's Palace EMAIL: cohkandbaf@msn.com IP: 217.121.112.90 URL: http://cohkan.tripod.com/cohkanspalace DATE: 05/02/2002 04:24:43 PM THIS IS A VERY COOL SITE ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ruy Miranda EMAIL: ruymiranda@globo.com IP: 200.167.240.202 URL: DATE: 05/07/2002 10:46:43 PM Hi, Please can you inform me if a page-blog (a portion of one site) indexed on Google, can have increased its ranking if there is great traffic from different users and no one site with link pointing to them (to the page-blog and to the site where is the page-blog) ? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eric EMAIL: d_dbrett@juno.com IP: 166.90.224.233 URL: http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/ericscrap/ DATE: 05/15/2002 11:41:01 PM this site is awesome ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tock V EMAIL: tock_v@yahoo.com IP: 203.222.88.23 URL: http://tockv.sphosting.com DATE: 07/08/2002 05:53:30 AM I have my own personal webpage, as web design is a hobby of mine, and I'm not getting many hits either. So what? It's a hobby! Anyway, this site rocks ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: seby EMAIL: teiubesc@teiubesc.us IP: 213.154.113.52 URL: http://www.lesbiro.net DATE: 07/21/2002 08:24:41 AM the best ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ryan EMAIL: ryan@ryanisbatman.com IP: 208.141.180.131 URL: http://ryanisbatman.com DATE: 09/28/2002 11:15:42 PM I can't even make a web page, but i have a web journal ;) how's that? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shaz EMAIL: lrpolo@yahoo.com IP: 193.60.221.170 URL: http://starshinebaby.blogspot.com DATE: 10/16/2002 04:30:30 PM another way to get people to visit your web site is to make contributions on other people's websites ie writing articles. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michelle EMAIL: no@thanx.com IP: 80.135.253.206 URL: http://www.vacuity.de DATE: 03/25/2003 11:00:35 AM Thank you for the tipps. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ajit EMAIL: achauhan_ishir@yahoo.co.in IP: 61.11.30.181 URL: DATE: 06/17/2003 12:16:38 PM Hi I want know how i make keywords for a page? suppose I have about us page of my site. how i make a good keywords for this and how i set my phrase. Please tell deeply. Thanks ajit chauhan ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: gambit EMAIL: gambit@aquaba.co.za IP: 198.54.202.2 URL: http://www.aquaba.co.za DATE: 12/30/2003 11:01:07 PM good stuff, adding keywords to a page is simple, you need to use the meta tag in the "keywords" section add your keywords seperated by , Good luck ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fanteja2000 EMAIL: fanteja2000@yahoo.com IP: 68.252.50.195 URL: http://www.fanteja.2webh.com DATE: 03/25/2004 01:31:14 AM i have dang if you dring pink juice :) JUST KIDDING ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rebecca EMAIL: rkshiningtiger@yahoo.com IP: 4.152.192.155 URL: http://www.geocities.com/rkxys DATE: 07/23/2004 01:04:17 AM well, thanks for the tips! i've been blogging for about 8 months...my site doesn't get much traffic, but i'll try out some of the tips. thanks again! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the hazards of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2002 11:09:42 AM ----- BODY:

    One of the hazards of working for a friend (and from home) is that they see nothing particularly wrong with text messaging you at seven in the morning, when you're still comfortably asleep and warm having been up until 2am playing with code. This will have to stop.

    But Danny isn't the only one of my friends acting strangely this morning. The fact that many of my contemporaries have their own personal sites makes tracking their lunacies easier than ever. It's like their affectations, mood swings and quirks are frozen in hypertext amber. Let's see:

    Michael has in the course of a month decided to give up smoking, take up yoga and have various parts of his body shot through with metal. It's like he's becoming the anti-Michael - completely different from the man I knew at University. And he's decided to give up smoking by taking Zyban [Official site]. I'm confused by this turn of events - as a smoker myself I can see the attraction of giving up, I can even understand getting help to do so - patches, gum - these things make sense to me. But there's something about taking medication to ween yourself off a habit that seems strange to me. Shouldn't the remedy match the problem in some way? What happened to willpower?

    While Michael's becoming a highly medicated "my-body-is-a-temple" kind of guy, Matt is beginning to respond to the world as if it were one huge and continual head-trip. In his latest post he's reading a book on the tube when he comes upon the Hebb Hypothesis. The text he's reading goes like this, "Most viable theories of memory require some form of synaptic modification dependent on the correlation of pre-and postsynaptic neuronal firing (which we will denote as the Hebb Hypothesis)." This triggers a chain of intellectual association-making - a kind of magically synaptic corona - in and around Matt's mind. And he launches into one of the trippiest pieces of writing he's produced in months:

    "Outside the feeling of claustrophobia hadn't lifted. I looked up at the blue sky and the buildings and understood what I was seeing what the physical alteration in my machine. Suddenly everything reversed, my brain turned inside-out and instead of clouds and windows I saw the patterns of my brain -- an inverted sphere, the whole universe of my perception as solid brain, and a hole inside, a gap in this solid the exact shape of my old brain, vacant, and me, reflected by the universe inside it, a hologram."

    So Michael's become a pharmaceutical Buddha and Matt's become Techie Jim Morrison. And this has all happened while I've slept. Someone seems to have slipped something into the meme-stream this morning. It's having an effect on everyone.

    I'll end with David and Meg - two successful, well-paid, essentially sober individuals. Surely these two would be immune from any mass-mind-fuck that's going down? It seems not. For they too have been exploring whole new states of being, by carefully detailing their respective experiences of their local mall - the O2 Centre. Now I too am a fan of this establishment - in fact Meg's descriptions of the fake rocks, piped bird noises and plumes of lit water make me feel almost nostalgic. (Aside: the same effect could be acheived with fibre optic cables, keyhole surgery and a large quantity of beer.) But I'm awed by their desire to chronicle these experiences in such detail. It's as if their senses have been enhanced in some way, and instead of seeing fibre-glass and escalator, they're seeing patterms of light and colour - Acid-visions of modern life...

    Is it just me? Am I the only one left with a mundane brain? Am I the only one who can't see the music and feels it passing through me?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Freelance work is sent to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2002 04:57:48 PM ----- BODY:

    Freelance work is sent to try us. It's just designed to drive you mad. Today I've discovered that the £350 that Time Out owe me for writing the gay section of this year's London Guide has been sent to a place I haven't lived in for two years. Two years! This wouldn't annoy me so much if it wasn't for the fact that I worked at Time Out full time for nearly 18 months after I moved from my old flat.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Last night at nine o'clock, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2002 05:07:41 PM ----- BODY:

    Last night at nine o'clock, our flat was struck with a terrible choice. Would it be Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes or Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums? Several nanoseconds later we had settled on the latter - citing only vastly superior quality and entertainment as our reason. Within ten minutes I had turned to my flatmate and said, "Mella, when this gets to the end can we rewind and watch it again?" She assented. But this delightful fate was not to be, as once the film had ended, we found ourselves woefully drawn to the pulsating breasts and buttocks of Baldwin Jnr and Crawford in tits'n'arse cinema car-crash Fair Game...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here are five boring reasons STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2002 09:54:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Here are five boring reasons why the Google effect will not dramatically affect the need for domain names (as is argued in this article). The article argues as follows:

    "The most interesting from a domain-name point of view is this: With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name -- one that a casual Web user would be able to guess -- has practically disappeared."

    I should start off by saying that this statement is of course true. But it's not the same as saying that the use of search engines like Google will radically decrease demand for domain names. Because what he's concentrating on is an individual's attempts to find for the first time a specific type of website or online service by guessing the name. There are many other types of searches, and many other reasons for a domain names existence. Here are a few of the boring reasons I've come up with:

    Boring reason 1: Repeat traffic. If I am an e-commerce based retailer then it does me no good if people only come to my site for a very specific purpose (one product) and then depart never to return, unless of course that's the only product I sell. Because relationships between shoppers and shopping sites are developed over time - the shopper has to trust the company to sell to them. And that means that they have to visit a number of times - each time with a slightly different agenda. Other sites also rely on repeat traffic - even personal site like weblogs operate on the principle that an individual will become involved in reading the content, and return regularly. This actually goes right down to the point where it can be recognised that to a large number of people - finding a site like a weblog through a search engine probably isn't going to be useful to either party. The weblog is unlikely to answer their query like a pure information site would - and is designed for a completely different approach to reading. Memorable site names aid repeat traffic.

    Boring Reason 2: Authority. Do you believe what you read on the internet? All of it? Without question? If so then you are incredibly foolish - because for every light-hearted spoof there is a hate-mongers site or a rampant charlatan. If I search for a page about cancer treatments, I want to go to a site that has a name that I trust - my first point of call wouldn't be to a page on GeoCities. The (right) domain name is like a badge, which affiliates you with the institution that you purport to be from much successfully than merely saying that you're from the FBI or MacDonalds. All sites which have a function that requires a relationship of trust between the parties or which needs to come from a trusted source is more likely to achieve that function with a domain name than without one. A domain name suggests you are who you say you are.

    Boring Reason 3: Advertising and branding. Because repeat visitors and a relationship of trust are so important to most serious sites, advertising and branding has become tremendously important - from the top (Amazon) to the bottom plasticbag.org). Domain names make this process significantly easier.

    Boring Reason 4: How people actually search. The previous three sections have described reasons that domain names remain important. This section goes the other direction, and suggests that while they are important, they have never really been important in the way that Gilmore describes. There are lots of types of searches that people make on the internet. Most of these searches do not fit into the two narrow categories that he elucidates. In fact most of them have never had any relationship to domain names. If you are attempting to ask a question by reference to the internet - you are unlikely to end up at the front page of a site. Once you get past people searching for things like "Hotmail" or "Amazon.com" you are left with searches based on current events, celebrity gossip and searches made to answer all the hundreds of thousands of questions that people want answered. Gilmour makes it sound as if searching had previously been synonymous with the guessing of domain names (albeit much more successful) when in fact guessing a domain has never been a particularly important path to most of the pages on the World Wide Web.

    Boring reason 5: And anyway - doesn't the domain name help the search engine? I'm not going to push this too heavily, as there are now many other factors that a search engine takes into account when it's figuring out the relevance of it's search results - but the presence of a domain name certainly doesn't hurt...

    Let's go back to the beginning and think about it logically. In fact the search approach that Gilmour describes has only really ever worked in very specific circumstances - like when you're attempting to find a company by using it's trading name or when you're searching for generic domain names - like sex.com or bookshop.co.uk. Once you're outside the remit of those particular limited circumstances, his argument loses much of its plausibility...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Domain names & the "Google Effect" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/16/2002 10:00:04 PM ----- BODY: Dan Gilmour has recently argued that the "Google effect" - ie. the fact that Google and other search engines are now so good that they can locate extremely accurately what someone is searching for - will reduce the demand for new domain names.
    "The most interesting from a domain-name point of view is this: With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name -- one that a casual Web user would be able to guess -- has practically disappeared."
    I should start off by saying that this statement is of course true. But it's not the same as saying that the use of search engines like Google will radically decrease demand for domain names. Because what he's concentrating on is an individual's attempts to find for the first time a specific type of website or online service by guessing the name. There are many other types of searches, and many other reasons for a domain names existence. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Here, in a nutshell, are my five reasons why the Google effect will not seriously compromise the take up of domain names: Boring reason 1: Repeat traffic. If I am an e-commerce based retailer then it does me no good if people only come to my site for a very specific purpose (one product) and then depart never to return, unless of course that's the only product I sell. Because relationships between shoppers and shopping sites are developed over time - the shopper has to trust the company to sell to them. And that means that they have to visit a number of times - each time with a slightly different agenda. Other sites also rely on repeat traffic - even personal site like weblogs operate on the principle that an individual will become involved in reading the content, and return regularly. This actually goes right down to the point where it can be recognised that to a large number of people - finding a site like a weblog through a search engine probably isn't going to be useful to either party. The weblog is unlikely to answer their query like a pure information site would - and is designed for a completely different approach to reading. Memorable site names aid repeat traffic. Boring Reason 2: Authority. Do you believe what you read on the internet? All of it? Without question? If so then you are incredibly foolish - because for every light-hearted spoof there is a hate-mongers site or a rampant charlatan. If I search for a page about cancer treatments, I want to go to a site that has a name that I trust - my first point of call wouldn't be to a page on GeoCities. The (right) domain name is like a badge, which affiliates you with the institution that you purport to be from much successfully than merely saying that you're from the FBI or MacDonalds. All sites which have a function that requires a relationship of trust between the parties or which needs to come from a trusted source is more likely to achieve that function with a domain name than without one. A domain name suggests you are who you say you are. Boring Reason 3: Advertising and branding. Because repeat visitors and a relationship of trust are so important to most serious sites, advertising and branding has become tremendously important - from the top (Amazon) to the bottom plasticbag.org). Domain names make this process significantly easier. Boring Reason 4: How people actually search. The previous three sections have described reasons that domain names remain important. This section goes the other direction, and suggests that while they are important, they have never really been important in the way that Gilmore describes. There are lots of types of searches that people make on the internet. Most of these searches do not fit into the two narrow categories that he elucidates. In fact most of them have never had any relationship to domain names. If you are attempting to ask a question by reference to the internet - you are unlikely to end up at the front page of a site. Once you get past people searching for things like "Hotmail" or "Amazon.com" you are left with searches based on current events, celebrity gossip and searches made to answer all the hundreds of thousands of questions that people want answered. Gilmour makes it sound as if searching had previously been synonymous with the guessing of domain names (albeit much more successful) when in fact guessing a domain has never been a particularly important path to most of the pages on the World Wide Web. Boring reason 5: And anyway - doesn't the domain name help the search engine? I'm not going to push this too heavily, as there are now many other factors that a search engine takes into account when it's figuring out the relevance of it's search results - but the presence of a domain name certainly doesn't hurt... Let's go back to the beginning and think about it logically. In fact the search approach that Gilmour describes has only really ever worked in very specific circumstances - like when you're attempting to find a company by using it's trading name or when you're searching for generic domain names - like sex.com or bookshop.co.uk. Once you're outside the remit of those particular limited circumstances, his argument loses much of its plausibility... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First things first, let's link STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 12:00:01 AM ----- BODY:

    First things first, let's link to Matt Jones who showed this to me. The reasons for the link will become clear shortly. There's an interesting trick you can play with referrers which Matt showed me (here). Through use of a few pieces of javascript, you can list the places that people who come to your site have come from. Here's an example:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My thoughts on the Google STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 12:02:15 AM ----- BODY:

    My thoughts on the Google effect have been picked up by Dan Gilmour's weblog on SiliconValley.com.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple do, on occasion, evidence STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 09:48:52 AM ----- BODY:

    Apple do, on occasion, evidence a sense of humour. The fact that they have an entire page on their site (apple.com/myths) about how they're really good actually and Windows isn't really is probably not the best example of it. But they do have one. Honest.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Greetings from Framley... What ho! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 09:58:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Greetings from Framley... What ho! It was last Sunday that I went exploring in my little motor car - I call her Gertie after Great Grandma Jemima's dog! Was travelling through the dang countryside with the top down and a nice pipe firmly wedged in my winsome cake-hole when I ended up at the strangest little town you can imagine... Blasted place looked perfectly normal, but on my arrival I gathered from a friendly barkeep that there had been a facist coup in the nearby village of Whoft! Leaving the public house, I saw my old friend Andy Garcia - apparently getting married to one of the local gels. But shortly before I got close enough to talk to him, he was swept away by the overflow from the nearby fluff floods in St Eyot's. Recognising a clearly disturbed native population, I swiftly slid myself back into Gertie and whirred off into the sunset. I won't be going back to Framley...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy birthday to Cal, Happy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 10:03:09 AM ----- BODY:

    Happy birthday to Cal, Happy birthday to Cal, Happy birthday dear Calvin, Happy birthday to Cal. And many more.... (See you at lunchtime, old chap...)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An e-mail exchange with my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 11:13:57 AM ----- BODY:

    An e-mail exchange with my darling little brother (16 years old), who is currently located at a boarding school near Peterborough:

    Peter: "I am bored and have to do lessons and stuff because I am at Evil Make do work place. I also am bored because I have to have a Retest this afternoon because teachers are mean people who enjoy annoying people......."

    Tom: "I had to go to the Dentist this morning, and they're going to take out one of my wisdom teeth and replace three fillings and put in three new ones. So consider yourself lucky. Am very scared."

    Peter: "HAHAHAHAHAHA that made looking after old people sound fun."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ivan Massow - cute but dim...? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 07:18:52 PM ----- BODY:

    So now Ivan Massow, an old friend of plasticbag.org has gone and done something else controversial. Presumably bored after converting from the Conservatives to Labour, unsatisfied by the controversy concerning the appointment of a financial advisor as Chairman of the ICA, tired of starting and stopping businesses - some successful, some not, bored of being interviewed by Attitude magazine, exhausted by the maintenance of the stream running through his kitchen (apparently) and (more to the point) frustrated by the lack of publicity arising from his resolute refusal to pay for any of the drinks on the few times I've met him out in London (even when I was unemployed), he's now decided to slam conceptual artists. He's a funny chap. Cute though.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm working to deadlines. Which STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2002 11:53:18 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm working to deadlines. Which is fun. As I'm sure you know. And as a result, I have a deal with myself not to do any work on the plasticbag.org redesign until after eight o'clock at night. Which is a shame, since the process of redesigning is - for the first time - an absolutely epic endeavour. I've taught myself the intricacies of some pretty hardcore CSS, I've collaborated with like a professional designer, I've talked with people who have custom build me odds and ends of javascript, I've been teaching myself how to use movable type. I've done huge amounts and the site still only seems to be about half finished. Will this madness never end?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aw. According to the Onion, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/18/2002 10:04:04 AM ----- BODY:

    Aw. According to the Onion, the new iMac wuvs me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You loved Billy Exorcist (1Mb), STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/18/2002 10:18:22 AM ----- BODY:

    You loved Billy Exorcist (1Mb), and you've watched me spin around on a mountain top, Sound of Music style (if you haven't, the button's over on the right). Now it's time for more flash spoofs and movies from Sean Nadeau over at unfilteredfilms.com.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interestingly, as far as I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/18/2002 01:40:30 PM ----- BODY:

    Interestingly, as far as I can tell, the article which revealed some of Ev's plans for Premium Blogger (which was supposed to appear in the Guardian's "Online" supplement) appears to have not been published after all. I wonder why.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you're a London-based web-savvy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/18/2002 01:45:09 PM ----- BODY:

    If you're a London-based web-savvy individual with an interest in contemporary cyberculture then be sure to be in Soho's Golden Square this evening to hear Douglas Rushkoff talk. It should be interesting.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'll go into greater detail STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2002 12:43:41 PM ----- BODY:

    I'll go into greater detail about the talk with Douglas Rushkoff later in the day. But in the meantime, one of the things he suggested was that Attention Deficit Disorder was a disease that gained vast prominence in the US as corporations responded to the threat to advertising revenue that the internet, interactive technology and remote controls posed. Interestingly, I stumbled upon an article this morning in Scientific American that goes directly against this assertion - and which goes to show that it is possible still for people to argue effectively and scientifically against the devices which are funded by paid-for meme propogation and cultural programming. That is - it is still possible for people to fight against television.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A long list of great STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2002 01:13:04 PM ----- BODY:

    A long list of great weblogs compiled purely for my own benefit and with no ulterior motives whatsoever, and certainly nothing to do with stealing ideas for the plasticbag.org redesign or doing a kind of 'state of the weblog nation' thing:

    1. kottke.org
    2. evhead.com
    3. jish.nu
    4. littleyellowdifferent.com
    5. usr/bin/girl
    6. harrumph.com
    7. camworld.com
    8. megnut.com
    9. wilwheaton.net
    10. zeldman.com
    11. rebeccablood.net
    12. plasticbag.org
    13. robotwisdom.com
    14. opinebovine.com
      - née swallowingtacks.com
    15. textism.com
    16. bluishorange.com
    17. obscurestore.com
    18. a.wholelottanothing.org
    19. caterina.net
    20. davezilla.com
    21. notsosoft.com/blog
    22. doc.weblogs.com
    23. dollarshort.org
    24. wannabegirl.org
    25. rupaul.com
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When I was a teenager, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2002 05:45:36 PM ----- BODY:

    When I was a teenager, one of my closest friends was called Glyn. He got married last year and I was invited and it was one of the strangest and most wonderful experiences of my life. One of the things that he used to talk about a lot was the size of the moon. In fantasy art, the big breasted woman riding the massive lizard is always framed by a huge glowing orb - a vast moon, shining down on all of us. He felt let down by the world, I think. He felt that the real moon seemed so small in comparison. He wondered to me once whether there was anywhere on the planet that the moon really could appear that large. Perhaps in polar regions. Maybe on top of a mountain.

    When I visited my family for Christmas, I saw one of the most astonishing sights of my life. Around the moon was a huge corona - a vast circle of light surrounded it - like a massive, pale-blue version of the effect that you get when you squint at a street light. I stayed outside in the code for several minutes. It was amazing.

    A couple of weeks ago I had a dream - most of which I don't remember very clearly. But one thing I do remember is turning around at one point and seeing the moon directly in front of me. As if in a movie I then saw myself - a point-of-view shot slowly backing away from my face. I was clearly amazed by what I'd seen - a vast moon, just above the horizon - so clear it felt like I could reach out and touch it with my fingertips. I remember a huge intake of breath. I felt elated.

    This afternoon I've been watching The Dish - an Australian film about the people who worked at the Parkes radio telescope. These people were responsible for receiving the television broadcast of the first moonwalk, which would then be sent around the world to many hundreds of millions of people across the world.

    Like all people of my generation, I've grown up with the idea that man has walked on the moon. It's become a fact - dry and dusty. Impressive like the steam engine or the first flight - but not awe-inspiring. Watching this film I started for the first time, I think, to get a sense of the scale of this wonder that was accomplished, about the incredible utopian energies that this one act released. And I looked out of my sitting-room window and in the sky above me was a sharp disc of light. The moon has never seemed larger to me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief words about the Rushkoff lecture... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2002 07:08:24 PM ----- BODY:

    Brief words about the Rushkoff lecture: 1) If you are the astonishingly beautiful young man wearing a dark blue jumper with a pale blue and white bullseye on the front, with a tendency to get flushed in the face, then my e-mail address is tom%40plasticbag.org. 2) Before the lecture, Davo was treated to an impromptu performance from my glove puppy and glove bunny. 3) I asked two questions - one about establishing where we look to for definitive information regarding matters that we have no immediate experience of (in essence, "Who should we trust?"), and another about the relationship between individual, community and state. 4) I embarrassed myself in front of Douglas Rushkoff himself by talking loudly about "The Most Important Thing In The World" as we past him after the lecture, and being asked by him what I was talking about, and having to confess that I was talking about cigarettes.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Use Photoshop? Is there something STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2002 07:16:19 PM ----- BODY:

    Use Photoshop? Is there something that you've always thought they should add? Then tell Photoshop Wishlist.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mentioned today in the Guardian's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2002 07:21:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Mentioned today in the Guardian's "The Editor" supplement, the Bloggies, Blogger, metafilter.com, Looby Lu, plasticbag.org and Disturbing Search Requests.

    The supplement also included a list of the top 25 words searched for on Cambridge Dictionaries Online over the last year. Amusingly at the bottom they say, "One word (18th) had to be censored from the list". Anyone want to guess what that word was?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Searches on Google that lead STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2002 01:53:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Searches on Google that lead people to plasticbag.org: "Huw Edwards short arse", "tom strop", "my first is in chicken", "chaos magick minidisc", "cunt kicking clubs", "Melanie Hill I was in love with her Andy Big Brother", "comic rebecca adult housewives", "kpmg evil", "lucid dreaming sex story review".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: To launch, or not to launch... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2002 06:03:37 PM ----- BODY:

    Question: Is it better to launch something unfinished or to wait an indeterminable amount of time and launch it when it's complete (and when you're thoroughly sick of it)? Answers on a postcard.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally, proof (if proof were STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2002 10:05:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Finally, proof (if proof were needed) that the new iMac is modelled on the Pixar desklamp.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My amazing senses have detected STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2002 10:17:52 PM ----- BODY:

    My amazing senses have detected that someone on the interhighweb just called plasticbag.org "somewhat worthy". My big snarky bitch glands are swelling. You know who you are. Just don't expect a link, ok? Oh goddamit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh god. I'm on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2002 10:22:39 PM ----- BODY:

    Oh god. I'm on the panel for the Bloggies. Which means I'm one of the poor bastards who gets to reduce the vast number of options available for voting down to a reasonable number. I'm going to be here all night. The list is huge. Apparently over a thousand people have nominated people this year.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Missive to the masses: Suggestions STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/20/2002 11:04:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Missive to the masses: Suggestions for ways in which you can enhance your chance of getting past the first stage of the Bloggie nomination process (bearing in mind that none of you know you've even got to the first stage yet):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've never been more jealous STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 12:36:00 AM ----- BODY:

    I've never been more jealous of another human being to the extent that I am now jealous of Prol and her new Buffy poster.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Asides from the laborious Bloggie STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 01:05:23 AM ----- BODY:

    Asides from the laborious Bloggie first-stage nomination process: There are a hell of a lot more good Australian and Noozlelandish weblogs around than there are European ones - or at least they are better represented. It looks like there's been a fair amount of self-nomination in the Best Tagline category as most of the first round examples are pretty damn poor. It's also really obvious where large numbers of people didn't nominate anyone - certain sections are epic battlefields of great sites while others are minor spats down the Post Office between Aunt Ada and Mrs Miggins from Ye Olde Tea Shoppe.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let the debate continue: Fifty-two STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 10:19:10 AM ----- BODY:

    Let the debate continue: Fifty-two things they do better in America vs. Fifty-two things they do better in England.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know what's a funny STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 11:50:45 AM ----- BODY:

    You know what's a funny URL? Webugger.com, that's what.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More misheard lyrics: Destiny's Child: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 12:22:38 PM ----- BODY:

    More misheard lyrics: Destiny's Child: Independent Woman, courtesy of that nut at rathergood.com. In person Joel is one of the nicest, most unassuming people you could ever meet. He's really polite and sweet. He looks like he's on some kind of hallucinogen though. All the time.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A couple of weeks ago STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 01:03:40 PM ----- BODY:

    A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from an old friend at Time Out. She was looking desperately for stories of 'dirty sex'. Not sexy dirty, you understand, but dirty dirty. I responded rather half-heartedly with a fairly tame story from my past, and chucked her the names of a few people who I thought might be better suited.

    Five minutes later and there's a ping in my inbox - she's keen on my story, but needs more dirt. So I go into more detail. And then still more detail. Until I finally I've described every excruciating facet of the experience - every smear, smudge and slippery sweaty edge has been depicted in full technicolour horror.

    Next time you're meandering through a copy of "London's Living Guide" and you come across a page full of gross-out sex-horror, pause for a moment. I'll give a small prize to the first person to guess which one is mine...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The last time I wrote STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 01:18:22 PM ----- BODY:

    The last time I wrote something actually amusing was about two years ago - except of course it isn't funny any more because the world's changed so dramatically. If written today, the same post would read, "According to Evhead, Jason is wearing a cool t-shirt with a body tag on the front and an end body tag on the back (if this means anything to you it means that you are a victim of the dot-com crash and are currently unemployable)."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is it the end of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 03:22:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Is it the end of the line for Black Holes?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From a typo made in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 03:29:11 PM ----- BODY:

    From a typo made in an AIM message with Matt Jones that mispelled 'quantum' as 'quantuum' we came up with a concept called the 'quantinuum' - a contraction of quantum and continuum. I thought up a definition on the spot for a laugh, "a continuum of uncollapsed possibility". So then I did a search on Google, only to discover that it's a word mentioned in several places on the web already - particularly in an article called Holic Principle and the relations between Physics data. As a super-intelligent Austin Powers might say, "Quantum topological invariance, baby!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Every time I apply for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/21/2002 07:18:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Every time I apply for a job at the BBC, I think it will take an hour to fill in the horrible online application form, and it always takes me nearly four. And then even though I get lots of interviews, I never get the bloody jobs.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I got the coolest STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 10:02:05 AM ----- BODY:

    Today I got the coolest e-mail from Douglas Rushkoff. Douglas Rushkoff is cool. I like Douglas Rushkoff. Douglas Rushkoff smokes. I want to make Douglas Rushkoff a new website. I bet other people would help.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's very funny. I think. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 10:13:59 AM ----- BODY:

    It's very funny. I think. Or it's really mean. And gross. Or funny. Or gross. I can't decide.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm not going to comment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 11:15:10 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm not going to comment on this piece except to say that I'm horrified. Here's a quote from the it:

    "The US came out of [World War Two] with a deep distrust of European wisdom and European advice. No matter how much older and wiser they claimed to be, they hadn't managed to do what we had ourselves: unite a huge area under a single government and live without war. We fought our Civil War, but that was 140 years ago and we've mastered living together ever since. And it took our meddling and our military occupationÝto make them live together without war."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: According to a card posted STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 12:17:07 PM ----- BODY:

    According to a card posted in my local newsagent's window, Andrew McCarthy has now taken up a new career doing high pressure cleaning with jets of water. Good luck to you, old chap.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is me, by Georg STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 12:40:10 PM ----- BODY:

    This is me, by Georg Bush, "This is my flag. My name is georg bush and I am presidant of america. This is a pitur of me. I get to wear a tie evry day. This is my favourit gun...."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A usability question relating to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 12:46:21 PM ----- BODY:

    A usability question relating to Opine Bovine - the links to various other parts of the site are by way of buttons that look like form elements. I did the same thing with Cal on Morning After TV. There's something strange about them. I can't bring myself to click on them, because they look like submit buttons and part of me is convinced that if I click on them I will in fact be submitting some kind of form. Submit buttons also being generally contentless items, my eyes seem to slip over them on the page - as if they only have a meaning in context. It feels like someone started writing interesting little titbits in the bit at the top of the book page where it normally says what chapter or book you're reading. And they did it half way through the book. Just to confuse you.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A new version of Blogger STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 09:07:13 PM ----- BODY:

    A new version of Blogger is to be revealed tonight. Will all present please report back to the interhighweb immediately afterwards. I thank you.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Davo for producing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/22/2002 09:11:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Davo for producing this startlingly accurate identikit portrait of the cute guy from the Rushkoff lecture. Is this you? If so... mail me!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Details of Blogger Pro have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2002 09:14:49 AM ----- BODY:

    Details of Blogger Pro have been released.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the day has finally STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2002 09:18:56 AM ----- BODY:

    So the day has finally come. I am about to head off to Notting Hill for my dental appointment. One wisdom tooth will be removed. Three fillings will be created. Three others replaced. The horror. The horror.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A highly entertaining comment by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/23/2002 12:21:54 PM ----- BODY:

    A highly entertaining comment by a member of the Conservative party: "We want to be for people and things, not against people and things". Being for things. Now there's a clear message.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God was not an information STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2002 11:05:23 AM ----- BODY:

    God was not an information architect, usability expert or user interface designer. This much can be gleaned from a cursory glance at vatican.va.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Story of a Dental Appointment: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2002 11:20:56 AM ----- BODY:

    Story of a Dental Appointment: I arrived at the dentist fifteen minutes early. I was extremely nervous. On the way up the stairs I lost the little foam cover to one of the ear-buds for my iPod and spent the next ten minutes wandering up and down the stairs (much to the annoyance of the man laying carpet upon them) seeking it out. I'd have done anything to distract myself.

    First came the cleaning and the lecture about not brushing my teeth enough. Then came the rinsing out of my mouth and th little bloody clots that looked fairly frightening against the porcelain. Then the drilling began. After ten minutes of drilling, my jaw felt like it was melting - more from the pressure of being continually open than because of the drilling itself. And after another ten minutes - when I thought it would never end - I was close to collapse. My fingers were tightly clenched, my eyes watering.

    At one point the nurse left the room, leaving the dentist to rather unskillfully wield both drill and suction device. Within moments my mouth was full of liquid, and then it was only a brief inadvertant tap near the back of my throat which made me reflexively shut my jaw - in the process forcing water out of my mouth, where it poured across my face and down my neck.

    The final tooth to be drilled was one of my front teeth - without a mouth to contain the spray, tiny bits of tooth and water cascaded down upon my face like a cool rain. And then finally the drilling was over. The rest of the process was relatively painless - but I left with a euphoric grin on my face - like I'd just experienced an extreme sport that I didn't want to be part of, didn't enjoy, but left me strangely exhilarated.

    I have to go back in two weeks - I'd only had the fillings out - the removal of the wisdom tooth is yet to come...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Much as I am interested STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2002 01:22:25 PM ----- BODY:

    Much as I am interested in Rebecca's new books on weblogging, I have some anxieties about them, which I've spelled out in slightly excessive language in a comment over at jish.nu.

    Basically I think I'm missing the point a bit, because to me the essence of weblogging has been that it's astonishingly easy and quick to set up. So a handbook seems slightly redundant to me. And a history of weblogging seems interesting, but should not necessarily be written by someone doing weblogging - surely 'history' will get confused with a specific culture? Of course I haven't seen the books yet. So who am I to comment? If you'd told me two years ago that anyone would be interested in a book on weblogging and webloggers I'd have thought you were insane. I still kind of think it's a strange idea.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to make hot naked boys out of ASCII text... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2002 05:45:41 PM ----- BODY:

    Stage one: Visit the image to html site. Stage Two: perfect HTML pictures of half-naked boys!. Stage Three: Profit!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The nominations for the 2002 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/24/2002 10:29:47 PM ----- BODY:

    The nominations for the 2002 Bloggies have been announced and plasticbag.org is up for two categories - Best European and Best Great Big Homo. If however you are not planning to vote for me then can I suggest voting for Meg and Ultrasparky respectively. Of course I would rather you voted for me. But hey. You know?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I did it. I finally did it. I finished the goddam redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 01:08:29 AM ----- BODY:

    I did it. I finally did it. I finally finished the goddam redesign. If you find any problems around the site, then let me know immediately - the e-mail address is the same as ever: tom%40plasticbag.org.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Presenting a brief history of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 01:48:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Presenting a brief history of Tom. Ten years condensed into a photo gallery for your horror.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Easing into a new design STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 10:07:47 AM ----- BODY:

    Easing into a new design is like breaking in a new pair of shoes - they may look really nice, but for a while at least, they feel alien and uncomfortable. No doubt as time passes I'll get more comfortable with the redesigned pages. Don't forget - if you find something that doesn't work, just let me know.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the new about page's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 10:17:56 AM ----- BODY:

    From the new about page's gallery, I present The George Bush Funeral Home.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Mr Massow's shit-eating grin... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 11:32:18 AM ----- BODY:

    So my young Mr Massow has gone and done it again. Sometime he's so cool it hurts. He's tacked on a community aspect to his financial services site, and actually had the nerve to stick the main access point behind a great big picture of his face. And he's got the hugest shit-eating smile that you've ever seen in your life. You've got to respect his nerve. Kudos!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So you wanna see the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 01:09:25 PM ----- BODY:

    So you wanna see the first online screen-caps of Blogger Pro? Eh?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And in fashion news... Diesel STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 02:08:49 PM ----- BODY:

    And in fashion news... Diesel is over. Miss Sixty is last year. The future is Dorcus. Dorcus is where I get all my modern-day loungewear. And I'm not alone. Dorcus is the clothier of choice for Bond assassins and early sixties shady government types.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the charge went out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 03:56:33 PM ----- BODY:

    And the charge went out across the land - "One of our own is being oppressed" - and her people woke from their beds and took to the streets all wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the legend, Free Winona Ryder.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Song for a melancholy moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 03:57:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Song for a melancholy moment at home: "One day I'll fly away - leave all this to yesterday. Why live life from dream to dream and dread the day when dreaming ends? One day I'll fly away, fly fly away."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While the European webloggers nominated STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2002 07:39:08 PM ----- BODY:

    While the European webloggers nominated for Bloggies slowly relax in the knowledge that their brilliance has been quietly recognised, the real action is over at the Big Gay camp. While Sparky begs for your vote (so sad...), Ernie howls "Bring it on, girlfriend!" and Choire & Philo sharpen claws and freshen breath, it is left to my good self and redoubtable Jill Matrix to represent the cooler heads - the more adult and responsible side of the race for World's Most Self-Indulgent Homo.

    So whaddya reckon? Will it take me taking my clothes off, keeping my clothes on, a complete change of emphasis towards displaying pornography, secret weblogging gossip, or actual blow-jobs to get you people to vote for me? I wanna be the best damn poof in the whole darn world...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Strange Collisions: Barbelith.com is a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 01:37:09 AM ----- BODY:

    Strange Collisions: Barbelith.com is a daily diversion at MSN.com: "Read Barbelith: Culture, subculture, the underground, and more."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sharp-eyed observers may notice the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 03:24:44 AM ----- BODY:

    Sharp-eyed observers may notice the addition of one tiny syllable to this site overnight. Yes, I've gone professional on your ass. First impressions of the upgraded Blogger are essentially positive. The post-to-future option is extremely interesting - and could be usefully used to help run a schedule as well as for more creative purposes. Draft posts is another useful feature - of course you've always been able to post something without publishing it - but this legitimately provides the possibility of developing content slowly over days or weeks before exposing it to the world.

    Other than that, there are various odds and ends that I haven't had the opportunity to play with yet - from title tags (I have yet to figure out what happens if you display title in the template when you have two years of posts without title tags) to the file upload feature (designed elegantly to allow you to specify where you want your files to go - although it would be good if there was an obvious place in settings where you could specify the default location). More interesting is the stuff to come - the return of the wonderful Blogger Search, archiving by post or by day etc. etc.

    In the meantime - you can talk at greater length about the launch over at Metafilter.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Help debug plasticbag.org: Let's face STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 12:50:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Help debug plasticbag.org: Let's face it, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers. And now it's your turn. The site looks great and seems to work on IE 5+ on Macs and PCs, but there are problems with Mozilla and all kinds of other browsers. So I'm starting a short term mailing list - which I expect no one to sign up for - to help advise me on fixing the site up and making it accessible to as many people as possible. Join Plastic People today - particularly if you are a regular reader and Mozilla user.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Translate your [English language] site STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 03:24:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Translate your [English language] site into English? Well why would you want to do that? Because it's bloody funny [thanks to The Magic Morgan Translatatron].

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few months ago I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 04:21:34 PM ----- BODY:

    A few months ago I was watching an episode of Changing Rooms with one of my flatmates, when she suddenly turned purple and started pointing at the television. A guy was on the show that she'd known at University. She stared awestruck, in mounting astonishment at what was happening on the screen. Months later, I stumble upon his side of the Changing Rooms story detailed in full. God bless the interhighweb.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've got a bit of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 04:24:00 PM ----- BODY:

    I've got a bit of a crush on Paul Baker. But Ultrasparky has told me that he's heavily attached. So unfair. It's relatively hard to meet nice guys when you're not prepared to leave your house, and I thought I'd found me a keeper here. [Addendum: passport photos through the ages]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interested in Blogger Pro, but STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/26/2002 11:59:44 PM ----- BODY:

    Interested in Blogger Pro, but want to see what you're getting for your money? Here are some screenshots for your delectation - as the interface appears on Mac OSX.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is 100k enough? Blogger Pro STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/27/2002 12:49:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Is 100k enough? Blogger Pro now has a 100k per month limit on the posts that you can make. After that stage it costs an additional $3 per 100k to run. initially I was very comfortable with this amount, but having checked out my usage (there is a link on the bottom of the Blogger Pro front page), I have realised that for plasticbag.org alone I have only been under this usage limit once in the last year. If I were running multiple blogs, no doubt the figure would increase dramatically.

    I may be an exception - so I don't want to protest too loudly - but it occurs to me that if I am not, Ev's statement that 100k is "substantially more than the vast majority of bloggers publish - even with multiple blogs - so you probably won't have to worry about it" may be misguided. So I am going to ask people to post up their usage figures for the last year on their weblogs. It's important - I think - that people understand what they are actually paying for.

    Your Blog History
    MonthPost Length% of 100KExtra Cost
    1/2001
    194027%194$3  
    2/2001
    152666%153$3  
    3/2001
    220753%221$6  
    4/2001
    179824%180$3  
    5/2001
    181203%181$3  
    6/2001
    173755%174$3  
    7/2001
    173534%174$3  
    8/2001
    159107%159$3  
    9/2001
    138504%139$3  
    10/2001
    153041%153$3  
    11/2001
    105037%105$3  
    12/2001
    88522%89$0  
    1/2002
    164834%165$3  

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The hot men project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/27/2002 02:59:57 PM ----- BODY:

    Is this cheap content? Yes it's cheap content. Is it exploitative? Yes. Is it beneath me? Yes. Do I debase myself by presenting it on the internet? Yes. But how much does it reveal - the stars you've lusted after? What kind of online history would leave out the celebrities that you've been attracted to? I'm rationalising. I accept that.

    Wes Bentley in American Beauty played out most of the archetypes of startlingly beautiful, strange and self-confident men that hit me like a bullet in the chest.

    While Harrison Ford is confident and cocky, he also has a kind of sheepishness that stops him being just another action star. And Noah Wyle is someone that I heavily identified with when I was thinking of leaving my doctorate - his character in ER was desperate for some kind of success, but felt frustrated in his ambitions.

    Tobey Maguire also has a tendency to play confused but good-hearted people.

    Another two brooding young men - each with a different charm, but both playing good-hearted characters: Paul Rudd and Breckin Meyer:

    In terms of pure physical beauty, you can't go far wrong with Colin Farrell or Alex Dimitriades.

    And we'll end with two men I'm embarrassed to find attractive - Steve Guttenberg and Jason Behr...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Frustration: Today's mood is frustration STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2002 10:19:19 AM ----- BODY:

    Frustration: Today's mood is frustration - frustration caused by still being owed money from Time Out for work I did in October (and spending hours on e-mail and on the phone trying to get it), frustration caused by mounting bills, frustration caused by underestimating workloads, frustration caused by the worry of huge bandwidth bills and sheer panic about the absence of anything resembling full-time work a month down the line...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As Davo has said, if STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2002 12:49:56 PM ----- BODY:

    As Davo has said, if there's one thing that's going to stop me winning "Best Poof" at the Bloggies it's this picture.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Hello, my name is Shetland. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2002 01:42:40 PM ----- BODY:

    "Hello, my name is Shetland. I'd just like to say that I find Biomagnetic K9's last comment extremely offensive, and I think that his ignorant asseretion that sheep aren't able to make purchases as they please is both ill-informed and does nothing to avoid the kind of stereotypes that we sheep have had to put up with. I, personally, would love to get my hoofs of 48 billion dollars." [Does America need to spend $48 billion more on defence?]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the frustration continues... A STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2002 05:47:25 PM ----- BODY:

    And the frustration continues... A good meal after the frustrations of this morning, everything was looking shiny and new - and more important manageable. But it only takes one e-mail to throw everything up in the air again and leave me dealing with potential financial collapse.

    I have a huge overdue bill for web-hosting to deal with at the moment. It was supposed to be paid at the beginning of the month, but uncleared cheques meant that it turned up in my inbox several days later - unpaid. By the time this had happened, it looked like I would have to wait until I got paid the final time for my last full-time job. Although this meant leaving things to the last possible minute, it should have worked - except I didn't count on not getting paid by any of the people I've recently worked for in time for the end of the month.

    In essence this means that both plasticbag.org and barbelith.com may disappear on or shortly after the first of the month - precisely the same time, in fact, that my rent will fail to clear. This is not the right way to live one's life.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are the Bloggies a good idea or a really really bad idea? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2002 10:01:16 PM ----- BODY:

    There are a number of people out there who don't like the Bloggies. A fair number of people didn't like them last year either. Just as a matter of interest, I'd be really interested in hearing some of the reasons people think they're a bad or ridiculous idea. Mail me with your opinions. I'm not saying I'll reply to them all, but I might write something longer about some of the debate surrounding them later if I get some good comments.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Don't waste your time here STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/28/2002 11:04:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Don't waste your time here - go and read something funny.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And another day's mail comes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 09:09:04 AM ----- BODY:

    And another day's mail comes and goes without any money arriving.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pop Quiz - if the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 10:06:49 AM ----- BODY:

    Pop Quiz - if the 1000000000th second of my life will be around twenty past two in the morning of Saturday March 27th 2004 then when was I born? [Useless dates related to your birthday]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not everyone appears to share STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 10:35:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Not everyone appears to share my taste in men. This is of course fine... But rise to the challenge people... Or are you too embarrassed to reveal the lusts of your life in a public space?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What would it mean to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 10:50:49 AM ----- BODY:

    What would it mean to go professional as a weblogger. I've been thinking about this today - would it be possible to get £800 a month from people for weblogging? That's pretty much the least amount of money that I can live on (Londoners would understand). And would it be possible to get that amount of money consistently? Could you make a career out of this stuff? And how would it work? Amazon donations? Tipjars? Paypal subscriptions? And what would be the obligation in return?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It may be less high-tech STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 01:21:52 PM ----- BODY:

    It may be less high-tech than the Segway, but there's a lot to be said for the reinvention of the tricycle.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most interesting contribution to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 01:42:53 PM ----- BODY:

    The most interesting contribution to the debate on the Bloggies so far has to be on Metafirda. She has produced a list of all the categories and ranked each of the nominees by their position on Blogdex. If the Bloggies are just a popularity contest then her theory is that she should be able to predict the winners. I did something similar last year by comparing Oscar winners with their positions on the IMDBs top 250 films.

    Now of course this kind of enterprise is rife with assumptions. The first assumption is that the number of links to a site measures its current popularity. Clearly this isn't necessarily true - links that were popular in the past but haved waned recently will get high positions. Newcomers will not. Unfortunately these figures are all we have to work with - we don't have access to the stats of each and every site on display (and not all of the sites are comparable anyway).

    Nonetheless an analysis of any differences between the results of the Bloggies and Blogdex's rankings should help illustrate the kind of processes that are going on - they should give us a clearer idea of what it is that the Bloggies are measuring and more to the point, whether different categories are more involved than others. For example - while "Best Webring" is almost certainly going to be given to the ring that most webloggers have chosen to subscribe themselves to, "Best Tagline" will probably be voted for people judging the respective merits on the spot. I'd be really interested in seeing a comparative tally of the results with the predictions after the awards - perhaps as a combined Fairvue/Metafirda production. End

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hot naked Mo Morgan action... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 02:19:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Don't forget that you only have a few hours left to vote for me (and not these other poofs) at the Bloggies. And as a little incentive, here's a post-shower picture of Mr Mo Morgan.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Diesel Sweeties just doesn't seem STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 04:14:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Diesel Sweeties just doesn't seem to understand the true existential pain of being an evil robot, relentlessly blunt and unable to fully relate with other human beings. That's the only explanation I can find for their latest offering. On a completely unrelated subject, I'd just like to take this opportunity to apologise to many of my straight male friends.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I can't stop myself linking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 10:20:58 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't stop myself linking to it because it's so wonderful, but at the same time I'm dreading linking to it because I'm scared that the amount of traffic it might get when people realise exactly how cool it is might stop me from mining it to its core. The site is Singing Science Records - an MP3 repository of 50s Atomic Age Americana - songs that explain Friction, songs that explain Rainfall, songs that explain Newton's Laws of Motion. I've already got all of one album, but there's so much more wonderful stuff there to rifle through. A perfectly wonderful site.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't like this game STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/29/2002 11:35:14 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't like this game any more. I don't think I'm Arch, Illicit or Warped!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Looking for Tom Coates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/30/2002 04:53:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Do you know a Tom Coates who isn't - you know - me? If so, send me their e-mail address immediately.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So voting is now closed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/30/2002 05:04:37 PM ----- BODY:

    So voting is now closed on the Bloggies and the results come out this evening at the impossibly late time of 3am UK time. In the meantime, some scamp has put up a rather lo-fi UK alternative at gbloggies.blogspot.com.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Strangest thing that I've said STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/30/2002 11:29:44 PM ----- BODY:

    Strangest thing that I've said to anyone in ages: "I'm stuck in your head like a video camera".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As part of my duties STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/30/2002 11:47:09 PM ----- BODY:

    As part of my duties as Poof Ambassador to Blogdom (my stint as which runs until 10pm tonight [International Fairvue Time]), I have undertaken the mission of finding a same-sex date for a young male weblogger of American nationality, currently residing in Italy. If you would wish to apply for this privilege, then please contact the individual concerned immediately.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This day is turning out STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/31/2002 02:46:55 PM ----- BODY:

    This day is turning out to be one of the weirdest of my life so far. It starts off with plasticbag.org getting the Best European Weblog Bloggie, which is faintly ridiculous but nice enough. It progresses into having my site displayed in an article about weblogging in the Guardian's Online supplement and has so far ended up with a photographer from the Guardian coming to my house and taking pictures of me looking sheepish while kneeling on the floor of my bedroom in front of my computer. Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the awards and particular thanks to Wil Wheaton for not being gay or from Europe.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Our lady of techie queendom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/31/2002 05:07:31 PM ----- BODY:

    It just keeps getting weirder:

    Because the Catholic religion wasn't quite ready for you until just now, we've decided to canonise you [see attached]. As a small token of our appreciation for our new-found object of worship, $10.09 is currently beaming itself to your bank account, via the magic of television.
    All hail the new saint on the block! Dave and Choire

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah well - those of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/31/2002 08:34:48 PM ----- BODY:

    Ah well - those of you who were looking forward to seeing a dumb picture of me in the Guardian tomorrow may have to be patient - or may even be permanently let down. I'm afraid the article looks like it's been held back for a while...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know, I'm fairly sure STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2002 10:06:01 AM ----- BODY:

    You know, I'm fairly sure that this clipping isn't really from a legitimate newspapter! Still, I'm in full media whore mode at the moment, so I can't go by without linking to it. [pertinent links: acerbia.com, not.so.soft]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Seven years after his disappearance, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2002 10:30:40 AM ----- BODY:

    Seven years after his disappearance, the family and friends of Richey Manic refuse to have him declared legally dead.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've been resisting looking at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2002 10:47:23 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been resisting looking at Something Awful's Children's Books feature for a few days now, but finally succumbed this morning. The first page is fairly amusing, but they rapidly improve. Sick, twisted comedy horror for the B3ta generation. [via Interconnected]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vain attempt to exploit current STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2002 10:57:06 AM ----- BODY:

    Vain attempt to exploit current interest in plasticbag.org: Tom is currently looking for permanent employment in the London area, particularly in the editorial and structural development of online publishing ventures and/or online communities. If the nice people from the community department of the BBC are listening - I've applied for one of your jobs and I'd really like it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Must have MP3 of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2002 11:01:52 AM ----- BODY:

    Must have MP3 of the day is "Jesus was Way Cool" by King Missile:

    Lyrics:
    Jesus was way cool
    Everybody liked Jesus
    Everybody wanted to hang out with him
    Anything he wanted to do, he did.
    He turned water into wine
    And if he'd wanted to..
    He could have turned weed into marijuana
    Or sugar into cocaine
    Or vitamin pills into amphetimines
    He walked on the water
    And swam on the land
    He would tell these stories
    And people would listen!
    He was really cool.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The best thing about the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/01/2002 09:00:51 PM ----- BODY:

    The best thing about the Anti-Bloggies is the rules.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The last 48-hours has seen STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 12:48:03 PM ----- BODY:

    The last 48-hours has seen the most extraordinary weather battering the UK. Even safe in Maida Vale, the windows have been rattling and clunking around in the frames. I've made it a mission to go out as little as possible. God knows what it must be like in more exposed areas. When I visited my family over Christmas there was an extraordinary gale blowing - the noise was incredible - and the huge trees in the garden leant and creaked. On the ground it was almost completely still, but you still had a sense of the sheer power of the storm. I don't think there is another weather phenomenon more likely to make you feel at the mercy of huge forces beyond your control...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone is doing it - STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 01:20:44 PM ----- BODY:

    Everyone is doing it - the new advertising craze on the internet is the simple text ad [article]. The idea of non-irritating, low-bandwidth, low-cost advertising is clearly very appealing to web-regulars, but whether or not it will actually prove to be particularly successful as a potential revenue stream is still in doubt. I'm watching this trend with considerable interest - as as far as I can tell, without the targeting facilities of Google's adwords, text-ads continuing success would completely buck convention...

    The trend seems very much to be in the other direction - the most successful adverts that I have observed in recent months have been large and bandwidth intensive (as seen at Wired and Salon. Even Time Out now provides a space for skyscraper-style advertising.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where are the permalinks? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 01:33:59 PM ----- BODY:

    A quick answer to a regular question (most recently posed here) - permalinks on plasticbag.org have been removed temporarily while I try and figure out the best way to implement them within the constraints of the new design without resorting to table tags or making it all look ugly. I am also hoping that Blogger Pro will shortly have a permalink-by-day feature, which I would prefer to use...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 404 to Wayback? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 01:40:18 PM ----- BODY:

    Every link every posted to iamcal.com is here. You know what would be useful? A kind of bridge site between a link and its destination that redirected you to the most recent archive on the Wayback Machine if a request hit a 404 page...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What comes after Farscape? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 01:59:30 PM ----- BODY:

    I've recently been exorcising the lamoid sci-fi geek within me with a regular dose of Farscape, but now the series is over leaving me with no quality space-trash to glue myself to except for ancient re-runs of Star Trek featuring a young and eminently spankable Wil Wheaton. And that's not spankable in the good way. What will I do without the space-opera of Crichton and Aeryn? And will we ever see Crais and Talyn again? Or indeed the rest of the crew of Moya? Or in fact is our hero doomed to float in space forever with nothing but his leather trousers and some NASA industrial lubricant for company?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Free the Mayfair One... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 07:29:24 PM ----- BODY:

    Word on the street is that there will be a "Free The Mayfair One" demonstration outside the ICA on Monday at 6pm. It looks like Mr Massow may be being asked to step down as the Chairman of the ICA just because he called Conceptual Art a great big pile of saggy dad's pants. The potential for an entertaining evening is huge - whatever ludicrous position you decide to occupy.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Headline competition (2000) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/02/2002 10:09:02 PM ----- BODY:

    In August 2000 I stumbled upon a list of amusing headlines - headlines which for one reason or another had rather dubious double meanings. The headlines read as follows:

    For what may very well be completely spurious reasons, I decided that these headlines would be even more amusing with some visual aids to support them - and so I put out a call to the weblogging community of the time. With hilarious consequences...

    "Kids make nutritious snacks" by David Pannett
    "Prostitutes appeal to Pope" by Meg Pickard
    "Include your children when baking cookies" by Brad Morse
    "Chef throws his heart into helping feed needy" by Neale Talbot
    "Minors refuse to work after death" by Meg Pickard
    "Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers" by Jason Theriault
    "Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over" by Marshall
    "Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over" by Meg Pickard
    "Local high school dropouts cut in half" by David Pannett

    Unfortunately there's one entry (never before seen) that I have lost the original contributor for. If you made it, please let me know!

    "Red tape holds up new bridges"
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: headline_taster.jpg ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thatcher's head... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2002 01:23:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Do you have a spare space on your mantlepiece that can support an eight-foot tall, 1.8 tonne marble statue of Margaret Thatcher? If you are inclined to house the Iron Lady's monstrous visage, then raise your hand now.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mr Massow vs. the ICA... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2002 03:57:56 PM ----- BODY:

    Do you need more clarification on the whole Mr Massow vs the ICA debate? The Schmews has all the answers: "Tracey Emin today blasted comments by Ivan Massow, head of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, who said that most conceptual art was "nothing but a pile of old crap" as a deliberate attempt to upstage and leak details of her latest masterpiece "A Steaming Lump Of Shit Wot I Did"."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the grind... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2002 08:51:10 PM ----- BODY:

    Today I will be mostly grinding away at a tedious site build that I've built about a thousand times before and which I'm now getting thoroughly sick of. But I need the money.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it looks like my STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2002 08:54:52 PM ----- BODY:

    So it looks like my landlord isn't looking to extend our lease after the end of April, which essentially means that I'm going to have to find a new flat to live in around that time - and probably new people to live with as Kate and Mella look to be going their own way. Possibly together. Possibly not. The financial consequences of finding a new flat are always unpleasant - as is the whole prospect of finding a new place, which is a process that I despise. And of course it would all be substantially easier if I had a regular full-time job to go to rather than endless freelance work.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A late night ungodly and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/03/2002 11:24:07 PM ----- BODY:

    A late night ungodly and foul mood after eight hours of work on a Sunday evening with two or three more to go, summed up by a Nick Cave song featuring these lyrics:

    Since I was no bigger than a weavil
    They've been saying I was evil,
    That if "bad" was a boot then I'd fit it,
    That I'm a wicked young lady,
    But I've been trying hard lately...
    Aw fuck it... I'm a monster... I admit it....

    La la la la, la la la lie,
    I'm happy as a lark now,
    Everything is fine
    La la la la, la la la lie,
    Everything is groovy,
    Everything is fine,
    La la la la, la la la lie,
    All God's children...
    They all gotta die
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's probably not a great STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2002 12:22:14 AM ----- BODY:

    It's probably not a great sign of general 'having-a-life-ness' when you're sat in front of computer at half-past midnight, hear the 'ping' of new e-mail and start chanting under your breath, "Please be interesting, please be interesting, please be interesting, please be interesting...."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the media blitz continues STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2002 01:28:25 PM ----- BODY:

    And the media blitz continues with an article featuring myself, her from not so soft and that Dan Hon fella over at the BBC: I blog, therefore I am.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Iansie's brief history of Mr Massow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2002 03:37:34 PM ----- BODY:

    It's nice to have Mr Massow to talk about again - plasticbag.org just doesn't feel the same without his regular appearances. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to make the ICA love-in this evening, which is a terrible shame, so I'm just going to have to make do with Ian's brief history of the man himself.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just spent a good STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2002 08:42:36 PM ----- BODY:

    I've just spent a good half-hour wandering around the site of a gay guy who e-mailed me. I've read about his recent attack, and his nerves about his HIV testing. Although I have to confess that I skimmed through his coming-out story and spent rather more time wandering through his photo section...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Having trouble with Blogger Pro? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2002 09:31:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Having trouble with Blogger Pro? Then you need to look at profaq.blogspot.com.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I end today with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/04/2002 10:39:16 PM ----- BODY:

    So I end today with one less tooth than I started it with. That's right - the axis of evil that has been building within my mouth-mountain has finally been excised by the pure democratic might of Mr Moselhi - Notting Hill Dentist and International Man of Mystery.

    After perforating my jaw and palate with a thousand tiny jabs from his anaesthic needle, I found my dentist passing time in my mouth with a little light drilling. This is clearly always a good start to a dental encounter. No smalltalk - straight to business - let's drill something good and proper. A quick filling later, I felt almost relaxed. In fact, if I'm honest, the combination of twelve hours without food, forty gallons of industrial anaesthetic and total terror had left me close to tripping. Which is probably just as well.

    Do you know how they remove teeth? I certainly didn't. I'm sure we all have ideas, but what kind of horrific ideas are they? Pliers? Hatchets? Shovels? Lasers? In fact I'd like to be able to enlighten you all, but the device that went into my mouth bore no relation to any tool I'd seen before in my life. Not even Mr Moselhi's indication that I would probably feel 'considerable pressure' was really much of a giveaway.

    The weirdest thing about the device itself was that it appeared to be designed to be only able to affect the wisdom tooth from the direction of my right ear. This seemed to mean that my mouth had to be forceably relocated about 180 degrees around my head before anything further could be done.

    After about ten minutes of 'considerable pressure', Mr Moselhi looked rather exasperated. I started giggling quietly to myself when he turned around. Like you would if you were stuck in a room with a serial killer and after a few hours you noticed he was wearing pink bunny slippers. He reinserted his mystical mystery device, sighed to himself and said "It doesn't seem to want to leave you!".

    Suddenly hit with the image of a younger Tom being followed around by his faithful tooth 'Toothy', I became psychadelically elated. I could have my own TV series, like Flipper except dental rather than dolphine! Or Skippy, but less marsupial-ish. Bear in mind that my mouth was stretched around to my ear. My mood improvement may not have been noticeable to the outside world.

    "Tom and Toothy, Tom and Toothy"
    "They met at the Dentist's pad!"
    "Tom and Toothy, Tom and Toothy"
    "Toothy drove poor Tommy mad!"
    "Tom and Toothy, Tom and Toothy"
    "They met at the Dentist's spot!"
    "Tom and Toothy, Tom and Toothy"
    "One's decaying, one is not!"

    After several more minutes, Toothy still resolutely refused to be removed from his home. Ah, faithful friend. Even with Mr Moselhi pulling at him in alternating directions, causing my head to move side to side (which I seem to remember finding very entertaining), Toothy wouldn't be separated from me. Until finally poor diseased Toothy was ripped free with a satisfying crunchy noise and displayed to me in a pair of pliers. Half of him was white and shiny and pristene - the other half black and crunched off. Much like that alien in Star Trek. You know the one.

    I sat and admired Toothy for a few moments as my mouth filled with blood and saliva and little bits of ground up tooth. And then I was rinsed clean, patched up and sent on my way, with a final word from Mr Moselhi: "This was not an ... easy ... extraction, " he said. "I think you should go and buy yourself some painkillers". And with this piece of advice lodged loosely into my cloudy mind, I stumbled dazed into the bright lights of Notting Hill.

    The rest of the day has been pretty unusual. Of course my tooth wouldn't stop bleeding, and so I've hacked up dishcloths and wedged them in my mouth, used ice-packs and tried lying down with my head back. After a while (and after observing a nice film about English people breaking the sound barrier and a match of snooker involving a very attractive young man) I finally decided to talk to my mother about how to stop the bleeding. She suggested, and I kid you not, wedging a tampon in my mouth. I, of course, declared her insane immediately.

    I said, "Is that what you used to say when you were a nurse, mother? Take one tampon and call me in the morning?!" For some reason, she laughed. Laughed! As if there were anything to laugh about! It was completely inappropriate. Don't you agree?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Giving Mr Massow a good firm thump... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2002 11:58:24 AM ----- BODY:

    Closer to home, and following the recent spate of publicity that this plasticbag has been getting, Davo has suggested that maybe this quote from Ian shouldn't just be about Mr Massow after all: "It's genuinely difficult to decide whether he's an over-enthusiastic fantasist with a flair for self-publicity, or a charmed boy-wonder who simply needs to learn a few lessons about the way the world works." When I find him I'm going to give him a firm thump.

    Speaking of Mr Massow, the Guardian managed to mention the word "pillock" twice in today's article about him. Poor chap's handled this one a little badly, I fear - I don't think anyone would protest if he said that he thought it was time that the art world readdressed itself to the needs of the general public. But instead he had to go and say that he wished art could just be "nicer". Ouch.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are you nuts? I know, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2002 05:29:39 PM ----- BODY:

    Are you nuts? I know, I know... It's so difficult to tell nowadays. I wish I could provide you with an adequate test online to answer that age-old question, but instead I'm going to present you with some Rohrschach tests, courtesy of the other plasticbag...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've said it before, and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/05/2002 05:41:54 PM ----- BODY:

    I've said it before, and I've said it again - quality is politically unjustifiable. A lack of talent is the only egalitarian way to be - and I have it in spades. So let's celebrate not the artistically great, but the creations that should not have been created - for these are the products of everyman: The 100 worst films of the 20th Century.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ethical dilemma of the day: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2002 11:02:27 AM ----- BODY:

    Ethical dilemma of the day: Compare and contrast kottke.org with obscurestore.com. Do they look similar? Yes. Very. Is this a problem? No - they both work very well and, moreover, were both designed by Jason Kottke anyway.

    I have been thinking seriously about starting up another site recently - a site that I've been thinking about on and off for a few years now. I don't think it would be particularly labour-intensive to maintain and I think it could be useful and would be good for me. Now in essence it's going to be very much like obscurestore.com except with a different subject matter.

    The longer I think about it, the more that Obscure Store has got everything right - they list a few major stories with details, a few lesser ones without - there's a bar with links in it to all the major sources of information on his subject matter. The design is so clean and simple that it almost doesn't appear to be designed at all. Which surely is the mark of truly great design?

    So the question comes down to something as simple as this - when a design has got right to the simple essence of what a 'thing' (in this case a website) is about, then is 'copying' appropriate? Clearly I'd be furious if someone copied plasticbag.org without my permission. Even if they changed the colours and fonts and stuck a different background image in place... I suppose what I'm asking is whether or not Jason has refined the design essence of the weblog down to it's basics in the same way that Amazon has for e-commerce sites. And of course now a great many e-commerce sites (even the largest ones) look exactly like Amazon. I suppose what I'm asking is how much of this design can I steal?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another message from my little STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2002 11:08:48 AM ----- BODY:

    Another message from my little brother:

    I hear from mum that you had to have some teeth out a few days ago and that it really hurt. I have been told to be simpathetic but I am not sure how to be. How much did it hurt and does it still hurt. Can you like talk or have your gums swollen to 3 times there normal size?
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being a multi-millionaire... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2002 11:31:56 AM ----- BODY:

    As of this morning, I'm worth $45,262,148.52 on the Hollywood Stock Exchange. How much are you worth? Not that I'm competitive or anything.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It may be an amusing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/06/2002 03:59:09 PM ----- BODY:

    It may be an amusing cartoon that displays a son's reaction to his father's record collection, but perhaps more worrying is that the clearly teenage boy has never entered his father's private 'back room' before. What sick activities go on behind this family's closed doors?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Anne Robinson of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/07/2002 12:11:05 PM ----- BODY:

    The Anne Robinson of the weblogging world, David Pannett, blows the lid on Genie's appalling customer service. Next week on Watchdog - Pop Tarts that kill.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can someone please explain to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2002 01:43:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Can someone please explain to me why Interconnected isn't read by everyone interested in the potential of online technology and interfaces? It should be. It really should.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As a female friend once STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2002 01:54:07 PM ----- BODY:

    As a female friend once said to me about penises, "It's like carrying a remote control with you all the time on the off-chance that you might want to watch some television." [inspired by Bart]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While watching The Fluffer at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2002 02:21:39 PM ----- BODY:

    While watching The Fluffer at the cinema, Davo and I were struck by some remarkable similarities between the names of some of the characters and the name of Ralph McGinnis, the young man who maintains Lacking in Emotional Circumstances, visited the UK last year and who designed the posters for the film. The main character (for example) is called "Sean McGinnis". There's also a character called Ralph Shifflett. Coincidence? I think we need to be told.

    You can see Ralph's work on the posters for The Fluffer at rs-erections. And I'm sure if you were looking for someone to do some comparable design work in New York, then he'd not protest if I suggested you talk to him about it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The top 25 web personalities STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2002 02:59:17 PM ----- BODY:

    The top 25 web personalities includes some well-known web figures, some tremendous surprises and a good proportion of good sites to bad.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My crushes of the day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/08/2002 08:45:41 PM ----- BODY:

    My crushes of the day are actor Jesse Bradford and punk-rock poof Stephen Trask. The Jesse Bradford pic comes directly from Ultrasparky's personal stash of half-naked celebrity pictures. Let's all give Ultrasparky a warm hand.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm still waiting to get STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2002 11:40:02 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm still waiting to get my rejection letter from the BBC for a position as 'Community Producer' that I applied for a couple of weeks ago. The BBC is clearly an organisation that is designed purely to attempt to break my spirit. Over the last year they've advertised quite a few jobs that have really excited me and I've had more than one interview. But I never get the jobs. I got down to the last two for one of them. But I still didn't get it. Occasionally I wonder if someone I crossed as a teenager has risen to the top of the recruitment department and strokes a large white cat and howls maniacally each time I apply. In the meantime I can only link to amusing mock-ups of rejection letters [mentski.co.uk] in an attempt to keep my spirits up.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Noted adult and husband Matt STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2002 11:52:09 AM ----- BODY:

    Noted adult and husband Matt Haughey and a cadre of friends and co-workers attempt to eat more than eight Saltines in a minute.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From Salon - and meeting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/09/2002 03:57:20 PM ----- BODY:

    From Salon - and meeting a sudden spontaneous need on a Saturday afternoon: Everything you wanted about Memento.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Will Young has won STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2002 12:50:25 AM ----- BODY:

    So Will Young has won Pop Idol. I have to confess that I'm surprised. Delighted but surprised. He's certainly the most likely to be the long-term prospect, he's clearly talented and he's obviously intelligent. But did anyone really expect the British public to go with the most serious contender rather than a young piece of fluff? One final point... I'm not saying anything, but could I just point out that I haven't read a single interview with Will Young that didn't describe his previous lust-objects as 'someone', 'them', 'an ex' and so forth. If someone could find me some more interviews with the young winner of Pop Idol, then I'd very much appreciate it....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There are two posts over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2002 11:29:14 AM ----- BODY:

    There are two posts over at overstated.net which should be fascinating to anyone interested in the social dynamics and interactions of weblogs and webloggers. First there's a list of the web's most effective weblog meme spreaders, and then a list of the most accessible weblogs. Both are based around Blogdex, which coincidentally doesn't seem to be working very well today.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My teenage dreams have finally STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2002 11:32:51 AM ----- BODY:

    My teenage dreams have finally come true - how long I have waited for Steve Guttenberg to have a site on the web - and more importantly to have a whole gallery of pictures of him in various stages of dress and undress. Now if we can find a comparable Michael J Fox site, several youthful ambitions will have been fulfilled at once.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The beautiful Baker boy! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2002 11:43:59 AM ----- BODY:

    The uncomfortably gorgeous Paul Baker finally confesses his crushes: "Mr Clooney, Mr L. Perry, Mr Fraser, Mr Beltran, and (even worse than Steve Guttenberg) Mr Clinton. I also have a bit of a thing for Gina Gershon. Don't ask me why." Paul also appears to have become one of Mr Massow's online whores and gone to see The Fluffer. It's like finding that my long-lost gay twin (who got all the good genes) has been languishing in Northern England all my life.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's time for a purge STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/10/2002 11:57:43 AM ----- BODY:

    It's time for a purge of the links-bin:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Anti-Bloggies have been announced STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/11/2002 11:15:48 AM ----- BODY:

    The Anti-Bloggies have been announced and I didn't win anything. Last year I won, "Best Use of a Blog for Personal Benefit". And in related weblogging news, read the Blogger's manifesto.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Untouched, from the Guardian: "Some STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/11/2002 02:35:24 PM ----- BODY:

    Untouched, from the Guardian: "Some months after they were married in 1933, Clare Smith's husband Jack came home from work and told her that he now knew how 'it' was done. They had been talking about it at work, but it was such a dirty, disgusting thing that he wouldn't tell her. 'We'll wait until there is a nicer, cleaner way to do it,' he said."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big on Musical Theatre... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/11/2002 02:43:49 PM ----- BODY:

    You can't listen to Davo, he comes from a dimension that's big on musical theatre.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Valentines Evil Approaches... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/11/2002 03:21:23 PM ----- BODY:

    That dark and evil day is approaching when nauseating couples drench the world in golden syrup and sashay around showing off their love for one another as if they had licence not to get punched. Which they don't. Thankfully, we have beautiful geeks like Robyn and Dr Love to present ethical and tasteful alternatives: geekout e-greetings.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Good threads on Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/11/2002 05:56:39 PM ----- BODY:

    One of Barbelith's best threads for ages is getting more and more involving - How are you gay?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Separated at birth? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2002 01:41:46 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok, so now five separate people have said that I look like Will from Pop Idol. Most of them have been kind enough to leave out the "older lardier version of...", although it's been implied.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BBC recruitment horror... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2002 01:44:31 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been invited to come for one of four half-day assessments at the BBC, to be followed by a first interview, to be followed in turn by a second interview, all for a job which would require me to be able to start in (just) less than a month. The job excites me - the recruitment process terrifies me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing BunnyCorp... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2002 01:22:00 PM ----- BODY:

    She's finally done it. The ginge from the fringe, the neater B3ta feature! The sap from emap is back! And she presents BunnyCorp! Featuring Deep-fried Bunny! The Company History! And you can end it with tiny pixel pictures of me, Cal, Rob, Joel and... a waving crab...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is this why I'm grumpy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/12/2002 01:47:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Is this why I'm grumpy so often? Excellent. Now all I need to do is figure out why my jaw hurts all the time at the moment.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Glorious absurd questions for Ivan Massow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2002 11:37:17 AM ----- BODY:

    Do you have the energy to talk to Ivan Massow live on guardian.co.uk this afternoon at 2pm? Some of the questions posted so far are gloriously absurd. One of my favourites reads: "Do you hold with these new-fangled modern paraffin light things? Or would you rather use the tried-and-tested candle?" Another absurdist rant ends, "Finally, I've not followed your carreer before but you seem a genuine and nice looking lad, and not a 'hooray'. I wish you all the best in your life. "

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dancing iMac. Yeah, yeah, yeah! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2002 11:53:47 AM ----- BODY:

    Dancing iMac. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Dancing iMac. Yeah, yeah, yeah! I was in Central London yesterday and I stumbled upon one of the new iMacs in a shop on Tottenham Court Road. As usual, it was slightly bigger than I expected it to be, but after a few minutes of play it became clear that it was really well put together. The screen is gorgeous, the angling mechanism smooth and beautifully engineered and - of course - the specifications are substantially better than my current computer.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of my flatmates has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2002 07:08:02 PM ----- BODY:

    One of my flatmates has asked whether Riaz, a friend of hers from America, can stay in our flat for a few days at the end of the month and bring a friend. Unfortunately, the last time Riaz came to stay he was ... difficult .... company for me - and someone I found very hard indeed to deal with. But I don't feel I can protest too heavily after a guest of mine ended up staying in the flat for over two weeks a while back. There's much more to this story than I can discuss in a public place. Which makes it all the more frustrating.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the Oscar nominations have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/13/2002 07:42:28 PM ----- BODY:

    So the Oscar nominations have been announced. I've been holding back from commenting on them until I've had a chance to let my impressions settle a little. And it has to be said that it's a pretty motley selection of movies and performances on offer.

    Films like A Beautiful Mind are always good Oscar fodder - nice worthy biopics which stretch an actor to perform the full range of emotions from serious-and-confused to serious-and-angry. But let's be honest - this is not a life-changing film by any stretch of the imagination. Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge are both strong on spectacle, and as such they're very unusual "Best Picture" candidates. Of the two, Lord of the Rings is the infinitely superior film - I think for most critics Moulin Rouge was essentially a tremendous Victorian folly - glorious in its ambition, and a bit lacking in artfulness and point. I've yet to see Gosford Park or In the Bedroom.

    There's an alternative approach to the coverage of the awards over at the IMDB which might prove interesting to people. And if you get bored of that, perhaps a glance at last year's nominations or the nominations for the year before that will convince you that 2001 will not be considered a vintage movie year...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How unbelievably cool does this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 12:43:17 AM ----- BODY:

    How unbelievably cool does this magazine look? This is post a its first redesign in eighty years, and it still has a wonderful retro-future design feel to it. It feels more like a periodical of sci-fi short-stories or something. I'm in love with it. And if you want to see the kind of wonderful madness that lurks inside it, then it even has a fairly well-assembled site.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't know how accurate STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 01:06:25 AM ----- BODY:

    I don't know how accurate or true any of this is. I wish I knew. I wish I knew who to trust to tell me the truth about such matters. I think we all wish we knew who to trust to tell us the truth about such matters. And in that lies the crisis of modern politics - there's too much for any one person to grasp, and no-one impartial who can keep you reliably informed. Is it any wonder that the voters become disillusioned?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When you are ready to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 01:41:25 AM ----- BODY:

    When you are ready to have a serious conversation about Green Lantern you have my e-mail address - and if you don't, it's tom%40plasticbag.org. Davo sent me this particular parody, mocking the adult comic book fan, and I have to confess that it is funny. Or at least, I imagine it must be if you don't go through the whole thing going, "Wow - I remember Abin Sur - he was cool. And John Stewart. And Guy Gardner. And Jade. And the John Byrne reboot of Superman. And Hal Jordan before he went evil. And Sinestro. And... and... and..." And I imagine it would be particularly funny if you don't finish the article and realise that you missed Kilowog and Arisia and the little chipmunk Green Lantern and the guy who looked a bit like a pickle with lots of arms who used to say things like, "In words of seventeen syllables......." Green Lantern was always my favourite.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Damn you Meg and damn STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 12:21:18 PM ----- BODY:

    Damn you Meg and damn you Guardian! I didn't want to know that I'm part of the Dido demographic. I have thirteen of the albums listed - more if you include MP3s. I feel hearily disgusted with myself and must now immediately listen to the Pixies a thousand times to remind me why I'm cool. If you want to experience the true shame of my CD collection, the albums I have are hidden in the comments of this entry.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Something wonderful from ObscureStore today: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 12:27:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Something wonderful from ObscureStore today: Thomas Ray Mitchell suffers from several psychiatric conditions that include a violent reaction to the words "New Jersey," "Wisconsin," "Snickers" and "Mars," said his attorney, Maria Luisa Mercado. In a statement to police after the March 9, 1999, shooting of Barbara Jenkins, Mitchell indicated that he had wounded her with three bullets from a .38-caliber pistol because she was about to say "New Jersey." [link]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Twenty years of Oscar nominees... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 02/14/2002 05:38:05 PM ----- BODY: Every year I look forward to the Oscar nominations - I like the excitement of finding out who has been put up for the awards. I love the sensation of complete astonishment when great films are ignored and ludicrously over-acted twaddle wins. I love the Oscars because sometimes they're so very right and I love them more because sometimes they can be so very very wrong. This year has been the first year when I have looked at the nominations for "Best Picture" and struggled to find a film that I think deserves to be there. But how to account for such a phenomenon? My first assumption was that it must have simply been a terrible year for movies in general. With such a motley selection of candidates available, what hope was there that they'd be able to find - let alone vote for - a truly great film. But how likely is that to be true? There are any number of alternative possibilities. Firstly that they chose the wrong films, secondly that they chose the right films and that my taste is simply getting worse. And behind this are the larger questions - are the films that get nominated for Oscars today worse than the ones that were nominated ten or twenty years ago? Is there a pattern to the quality of film-making that we can track through the Oscars? Enter a totally redundant project - the compilation of some figures about how good or bad the Oscar nominees had been over the last twenty years. I would see, or be damned, if there was any discernable pattern. And in seeing this pattern - "A Beautiful Mind"-style luminous in the world - perhaps I would see if my suspicions about this year's nominees were correct. Or perhaps, "A Beautiful Mind"-style, I would find that I had been living in a world of horrible unreality and an insane lack of judgment. Over many minutes I decided on a campaign strategy. My comprehensive research (to take place over a boring afternoon before Countdown came on Channel Four) would involve: - 1) Going to the IMDB. - 2) Finding all the films nominated for "Best Film" over the last twenty years. - 3) Adding together all the nominees 'user-ratings' for each year. - 4) Plotting them on a graph. Not brain-surgery, I think you'll agree. And hopelessly unscientific - we have no control group, nothing to compare them to... But interesting nonetheless... What will this reveal about our relationship to Oscar movies or indeed our relationship to the cultural products of other times? I can tell you right now that it will reveal nothing. But it remains fun to speculate about what it might have revealed had it not been such an immediately and obviously flawed experiment. And now the graph.... On the left we have the combined score of all the films released in any given year (the years are plotted on the bottom axis). Since all IMDB user-ratings rate out of 10, the range of potential scores for any given year is 0-50 points. But what are we to make of these results? It seems that quite contrary to my initial expectations, the films that have gained Oscar Nominations have in general increased in quality over the last twenty years. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that all you can deduce is that people have very short memories and rate contemporary movies more generously than older ones. But that still can't account for the horrific drops in quality in the mid and late-eightees... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: You start by trawling IMDB for the Oscar nominees for "Best Picture" over the last twenty years. Then you add together their user ratings and plot it on a graph. Hey presto - an instant pseudo-scientific discussion piece... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 02/15/2002 07:54:30 AM It's curious to note that the graph starts to trend upward (and stays there) right around the time that the Internet started getting popular with the mainstream. The newest thing is always better because it's new...and as far as IMDB is concerned, new started right around 93/94. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: David@publict.co.uk IP: URL: http://www.publict.co.uk/blogger.asp DATE: 02/15/2002 09:27:43 AM It would be interesting to take this further. Get a group of victims, erm I mean volunteers, and make them watch a selection of films from each year. Plot the results and see what happens. Would the most recent films receive higher scores? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Koen EMAIL: koen.kleijn@idtv.nl IP: URL: DATE: 02/15/2002 11:08:21 AM Shouldn't you take some sort of appreciation-inflation into account? Compare the increase in the number of 'mega' art shows - Vermeer, Van Gogh, that kind of thing. Thirty years ago they were exceptional; now they are de rigueur for any major museum and they draw ever larger crowds. Does that mean the paintings have gotten better? Could it be that people simply feel that the importance of 'film' in general has increased, and therefore rate 'important' films higher? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ken EMAIL: kendo2@mediaone.net IP: URL: http://www.gis.net/~kendo2 DATE: 02/18/2002 06:12:54 AM I agree that last year (2001) has had a drought of good films; however, the best picture that I saw in this year's crop was "A Beautiful Mind." It's my SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) for the Best Picture Award. Being that Russell Crowe won the 73rd Oscar for Best Leading Actor in "Gladiator," it seems unlikely that Crowe would win 74th Oscar for Best Leading Actor. Most film pundits, however, would probably agree that the Oscar's are often unpredictable, so who knows? The best film that I saw this year with no (0) doubt--in my mind--is "A Beautiful Mind." The 3.5 stars rating seems correct to my way of thinking. There were no (0) 4 star(s) films this year (2001). My URL has been deleted, and AT&T will soon change my email due to patent agreements. Ken Allison P.S. Make it a "Black Plastic Trashbag." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hewligan EMAIL: hewligan@freshfiltered.com IP: URL: http://www.freshfiltered.com/BrainMess/ DATE: 02/28/2002 08:51:06 PM You could take the rating, over time, as the dependent variable, and then run some simple linear regressions (time series) to see what variables are influencing the dependent. You could include: number of movies released that year, number of reviewers (more reviewers may imply a reduction in the quality of the reviews), cost of movies to make in constant terms, etc..... That way you can try and draw some concrete conclusions about just what is contributing to the trend that is so clearly displayed. Hmmmm, but I guess that may also mean that you have lost all sense of perspective in life and have become an econometric geek. Sorry Mum ... does that mean I have to go back up into the attic already? But it is only 9pm ... Mum!!!! Damn! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: marconi EMAIL: marconi791@hotmail.com IP: URL: DATE: 03/02/2002 11:17:00 PM okay, so this would involve way too much work...but how about this: track down ratings from reviews of oscar-nominated films written when the films came out, and plot them instead. if the consensus among reviewers is anything to go by [and lord knows, i'm not arguing that it is] then you ought to be able to tell whether films are getting worse or better. although the nomination of a beautiful mind for best picture does, on the face of it, seem to indicate that they're definitely getting worse. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: fmoeran@3sb.law.co.uk IP: URL: DATE: 04/10/2002 03:39:58 PM What about comparing the average rating of the nominated films (as at today's critical values) compared to the rating of the winning film (again, as at today's critical values). That could show us how we view the past's assessment of what was best in their day, and give us ammunition for mocking those older than ourselves - which is always a worthy project. We would of course have to delete all evidence of this experiment, or kill everyone younger than ourselves, to avoid the same fate befalling ourselves of course. I chose the latter - they always make me feel fat so there would be a fringe benefit to the entire project. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Demis EMAIL: demis@tomatopatch.com IP: 62.31.64.2 URL: http://www.tomatopatch.com/ DATE: 07/29/2002 07:32:13 PM I think the reason for the curve heading upwards like that could be interpretted a little differently than most of you guys, but similar to the comment about 93/94 being when the net kicked in. Before then, its fair enough to say that most net users were primarily academics, geeks, and on the more scientific / deskbound end of things. With this very generalised group of people, you tend to get a lot of critics as well as mindless "I LOVED IT!" comments, thus the average being lower. Then of course we have the advent of the AOL generation, when people started voting "10" without thinking, just because the film may or may not have had Leonardo Di Caprio in it. Film criticism is out the window, geek chic sarcasm takes up a lesser percentage, and a lot of voters would tend to be more mainstream. And we all know that the oscars are not a pinnacle of independent cinema or thought, so I do think that the gradual rise could more closely be linked to the gradual rise of "mainstream net-users" versus the 'old school' net-users of the cusp of the 80's/90's.... Just a thought. The obvious exception to the rule being "Titanic" - the 1997 entry on the graph. Lets face it : that movie just plain SUCKED, and I knew that the dip in the graph was 1997 even before i squinted and looked ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tony EMAIL: moviesounds@yahoo.com IP: 12.72.60.109 URL: http://www.moviesounds.com DATE: 01/18/2004 08:08:49 AM I wonder if the quality factor would be higher if these films were chosen as best picture instead. 1982: Blade Runner 1985: Silverado 1987: Empire of the Sun 1990: GoodFellas 1994: The Shawshank Redemption 1996: Fargo 1997: L.A. Confidential 1998: Saving Private Ryan 2001: LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings 2002: The Pianist The omitted years were good choices, as far as I thought. But for the record, the biggest travesty the Academy has ever committed was not even nominating "2001: A Space Odyssey for Best Picture." Imagine that. A movie the AFI chooses as one if it's Top 100 films of all time, and it didn't even garner an Oscar nomination for BP. And as for worst travesty for Best Actor, my vote goes for Jim Carrey getting the nomination snub TWO TIMES IN A ROW, both for "The Truman Show" and "Man on the Moon", the latter of which he should have won handily. If the Academy can support a genre-crossover actor like Tom Hanks, why the hell is Jim Carrey getting the cold shoulder by the Academy? Makes me sick. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Look at my graph! It's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 06:49:21 PM ----- BODY:

    Look at my graph! It's a graph about the Oscars! It's a graph with no point. All of these links go through to the same graph!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's Valentines Day - are STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/14/2002 07:01:31 PM ----- BODY:

    It's Valentines Day - are you lost and lonely? Well then it's a terrible shame that I didn't do this earlier. Because I'm considering selling a date with myself over the net on ebay. Would you like to buy me for a meal and some stilted conversation in Central London? Sometime in the first week of March? Then keep yourself glued to your monitor...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I just did a quiz STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/15/2002 04:24:36 PM ----- BODY:

    I just did a quiz at the Guardian designed to figure out how much money you should be earning - it works it out by assessing your IQ. At the end of the test the quiz asked me what I was doing with my life. The quiz told me I was wasting it. And, in fact, that I should be earning about £60,000 more a year than I seem to be at the moment. More annoyingly the instructions for the second round of questions made absolutely no sense at all. So I just answered the same for all of them and hoped for the best.

    You tell me - do these instructions make any sense? "Does the second shape differ in some way from the first shape? Or could the second shape be the same as the first shape?" The possible answers are "Could be" and "no". Is that 'No the second shape does not differ from the first shape?' or 'No the second shape could not be the same as the first shape?' or is that 'The second shape could be different from the first shape?' or 'The second shape could be the same as the first shape?' - whoever wrote the quiz was a bit dumb if you ask me. Now, where's my £75,000 salary?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief history of the Western World... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: History CATEGORY: History DATE: 02/16/2002 02:18:10 AM ----- BODY:

    One day Mesopotamia is assembled out of bits of twig and mud. It is one of the first places we see the 'Indo-European' language group that will split off into India and Europe forming the basis of most Western languages. The first written work of 'fiction' will be "Epic of Gilgamesh" - Mesopotamian critics give it 'One Thumb Up'. Egypt turns up in North Africa. Everyone surprised. While that's going, Greece gets it on - and lots of separate city states turn up. Athens becomes worlds first democracy then thre's a big war with (I think) the Spartans and then another big war with the Persians (although it could be the other way around and one of them might not have happened). Xerxes was Persian. Herodotus wrote about him.

    Then Alexander the Great decides he wants to rule the world and goes a bit nuts bringing Greece, Persia, Egypt, Middle East etc. etc. etc. under his big rule. This is called "The Hellenistic Period". Finally the Romans turn up. They are boring arseholes and no one likes them. But being very organised they build roads everywhere and conquer most of Europe but become gradually corrupt and stretched too thinly. And the Romans ended up being Christians which is kind of ironic considering how many Christians they used as lion-chow. In the end, Goths come and beat them up. Which is not as amusing an image as it sounds.

    Then there are dark ages for a very long time in which most of civilisation sucked arse. Civilisation is left to mad monks hoarding books in dodgy cold monasteries in places like 'lindesfarne'. Things gradually get better and monarchies get better organised - the two are not directly related. Technology gets better - someone invents venereal disease and pointy sticks again. Which is a relief as a lot of people thought pointy sticks had been lost when the Romans went nuts. A little bit later, lots of Europeans go and beat up the Middle East in the name of Christianity. Over a thousand years later, the Middle East remains pissed off. Everyone in Europe gets snotty with everyone else in Europe and there are big fights. Sometime around here people decide that science isn't complete horseshit (very gradually and mostly in Italy).

    European people send out people to colonise the world and send dodgy missionaries with them who introduce the world to the Catholic Church and syphilis. Which is nice. Except some of the people they meet don't want the Catholic Church or syphilis, so they get killed and stuff. Particularly in South America, North America, Africa, the Antipodes and the bits of Asia that hadn't invented pointy sticks yet. Then England goes all Protestanty which no one is particularly thrilled about. Particularly not the Irish who get in a snark with Cromwell.

    America gets all snotty and declares independence. No one cares. It is a dumb country. Americans have wars with themselves for a bit. No one cares. It is a dumb country. Europeans have more wars with each other. No one cares. They're used to it. Freud is born. There are a couple of world wars. Someone invents cool things like planes and electricity and moon rockets. Some of these people are from America which is no longer a dumb country but a fucking scary country. Russia is also a fucking scary country for a bit, but then they let MacDonalds in, so we quite like them now. And on the seventh day Joss Whedon created Buffy.

    THE END (OF ALL HISTORY AS LONG AS YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT CHINA, THE MIDDLE EAST, THE CRUSADES, SOUTH AMERICA, MOST OF ASIA, THE COLONIAL STUFF AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ELSE).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Thursday night I went STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/16/2002 12:19:00 PM ----- BODY:

    On Thursday night I went to see Ocean's Eleven. The film is amazing, Don Cheadle's accent is offensively bad. The whole cinema groaned whenever he came on. First "The Limey" and now this... What did England ever do to Steven Soderbergh!?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God as plot device... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Religion CATEGORY: Religion DATE: 02/18/2002 12:25:58 AM ----- BODY:

    One of the more interesting quizzes I've taken recently examines the logical consistency of one's beliefs about god. I'm a staunch atheist, and have been for over fifteen years now. My ideas consolidated around the time I was Christened in fact - essentially against my will at the late age of thirteen.

    To me 'god' seems such an implausible idea - like a spacial anomaly in Star Trek - something that fulfils a plot function, but seems a bit of a cliché the three-thousandth time it's used to explain why something unexpected happens. People have so much need for a god figure to provide a sense of purpose to life. I don't know if I'm happier for not having a purpose - but I don't think I could have any self-respect if I secretly believed my purpose was a placebo but went along with it anyway.

    The quiz tells me that I'm essentially very consistent in my views about god. In fact it only criticises me in one area - and I actually think it's wrong to do so. The quiz told me, "You've taken a direct hit! You said earlier that God doesn't exist and you claimed that if she does not exist there is no basis for morality. Therefore, you are committed to the view that there is no basis for morality. But now you say that torturing innocent people is morally wrong. But if there is no basis for morality, then you cannot rationally say of any act that it is morally wrong."

    It seems to me that morality is a more noble achievement if it is wrought than if it is given. Just because there is no one to judge us at the end of our lives, does not mean that we don't feel the need to be judged? And if there are standards to judge us by - even standards we just decide to judge ourselves by - then does it matter where they come from? ... whether they come from biology, or from society's inculcation of belief, or from the spread of virulent memes. As long as we've fought to clarify our beliefs, as long as we haven't simply believed what we have been told, as long as we've struggled for consistency and clarity and to do what we believe to be best, then why can't we call that a man-made morality to be proud of - and not less proud of because it's in defiance of a godless, arbitrary universe - but more proud that we have been able to create meaning of some kind for ourselves in the midst of total darkness.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More evidence, if evidence were STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2002 11:52:27 AM ----- BODY:

    More evidence, if evidence were needed that Metafilter's Matt Haughey is a god among men.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An afternoon's MP3 playlist: Michael STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2002 02:28:31 PM ----- BODY:

    An afternoon's MP3 playlist:

    Michael Jackson - "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough", B*Witched - "Hey Mickey", Jamiroquai - "Deeper Underground", Britney Spears - "Oops! I did it again", David Bowie - "Boys Keep Swinging", Grace Jones - "Pull Up To The Bumper", Death in Vegas - "Dirge", Lauren Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)", PJ Harvey - "Good Fortune", Tom Jones & Stereophonics - "Mama Told Me Not To Come", Menswear - "Daydreamer", Ben Folds - "Rockin' the Suburbs", EMF - "Unbelievable", Limp Bizkit - "Rollin'", Madonna - "Music", David Bowie - "Let's Dance", Depeche Mode - "I Feel Loved", Prince - "Raspberry Beret", Nancy Sinatra - "These Boots Were Made For Walkin'", Daft Punk - "Superheroes", Charlatans - "Love is the Key", Daft Punk - "Da Funk", David Bowie - "Modern Love", Ike and Tina Turner - "Nutbush City Limits", Spice Girls - "Who do you think you are?", Dockers - "To Vuo Fo L'Americano", S Club 7 - "Don't Stop Movin'", New Order - "Blue Monday 88", Weezer - "Crab", Hole - "Awful", Salt n Pepa - "Push It", ABBA - "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!", Primitives - "Crash", Death in Vegas - "Aisha", Blondie - "Maria", Smiths - "How Soon is Now?", Destiny's Child - "Bootylicious".

    Now answer me this - am I a cool hipster with a hint of trash or a trash glamster with a touch of cool? I can't decide, I really can't....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In honour of Don Cheadle's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/18/2002 02:56:46 PM ----- BODY:

    In honour of Don Cheadle's "Worst Cockney Accent Ever", I hereby present the World's Worst Cockney Website Translator Ever, which seems to do nothing but add the word "awright?" every two sentences. Appalling. As my flatmate says - "My poor people!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Move along, nothing to see STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2002 12:20:42 PM ----- BODY:

    Move along, nothing to see here: I've got a job interview tomorrow and I'm planning to spend much of the day getting myself up to speed with everything on the internet I think I need to know about. And so my first assumption is that I'm not going to post much. But then again, I am going to be roaming the internet looking for interesting information, and that's not that dissimilar from weblogging anyway...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just as everyone in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2002 12:21:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Just as everyone in the western world has finally succumbed and bought a player - be warned: DVDs are obselete.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Go forth my minions! Perhaps STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2002 12:29:08 PM ----- BODY:

    Go forth my minions! Perhaps you could resolve the biggest gripe that people have about the new plasticbag.org design - the lack of attractive looking permalinks. The problem is code-related - I have always scrupulously placed paragraph tags around each and every one of my posts on plasticbag.org. Unfortunately this means that unless I want my permalinks to sit in another paragraph after or before each post, it's very difficult to format them. What I would really like is to have the permalinks as little floating circles to the left or right of the main content box, but every attempt I make to produce them results in a huge and unsightly gap between posts.

    The Rules:
    - Remember, as post may be more than one paragraph long! You have to preserve the spacing between paragraphs.
    - This whole thing could be done pretty easily with tables, but let's face it - tables are retro-tech. plasticbag.org is almost entirely CSS and your solution should be too.
    - The best solution (shown to me on another site) gets the mother of all links for a week. Something really big and sexy, plus - er... $10 in their Paypal accounts if they have one.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The worst thing about interviews STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2002 05:27:39 PM ----- BODY:

    The worst thing about interviews is how nervous I get and how when I get nervous I fart. Really loudly. Luckily I don't get nervous very often. Or more to the point, perhaps, luckily I don't go outside very much and have no sense of smell.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a book called Running STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/19/2002 05:39:11 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a book called Running Weblogs with Slash. For a little while this confused me. Why would anyone need a book for that? But then - of course, revelation - and I realised that you'd probably need a guidebook as to how to persuade his agent to let him do it, ways to placate him when he got a bit drunk and mad, ways to stop the other members of Guns 'n' Roses turning up at your place of work every twenty minutes asking to scab a fiver.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today is Online Community News STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/20/2002 10:35:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Today is Online Community News day at plasticbag towers. Regular updates through next couple of hours:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It would be excessively harsh STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 01:12:05 AM ----- BODY:

    It would be excessively harsh to say that I hated Occupational Psychologists. But it would not be excessively harsh to say that I don't enjoy being tested by them. Let's leave it at that...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So last night I went STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 11:03:44 AM ----- BODY:

    So last night I went to eat Ethiopian food in a restaurant called Merkato in Islington with the team of people with whom I freelance. We roamed full and free from the menu, as Danny and Polly have both visited Ethiopia and know what to ask for. The food was frankly more unusual than I'd expected - slightly soggy sour pancakes are layered on a big plate and then supermarket-meal sized blobs of strangely bubbly meat-related products are dolloped out upon it. To eat, simply tear off pancake piece and shovel food into mouth with it.

    And yet for all the excitement of the meal itself, the best bit was that one of our party - Neil - arrived at the restaurant at precisely 20.02 on 20/2/02 - a glorious conceit of a date that I commented on loudly at the beginning of my interview to the eyebrow-raisings of my assessors and which has been talked about at length by Mr Kottke.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A rude cartoon found via STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 11:35:21 AM ----- BODY:

    A rude cartoon found via cal. Note that I tried for a while to find a picture of 'Viacal' - the fizzy limescale remover - on the interhighweb. But without any success. Leaving me to think that the world is conspiring to fuck up my jokes today. [Thanks to Gina for revealing that the world has indeed fucked up all my jokes by secretly changing the name of the damn limescale remover while I wasn't paying attention - I present: Viakal]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Firda has created the CSS STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 12:14:30 PM ----- BODY:

    Firda has created the CSS Colouring book featuring several table-less CSS designs for weblogs which you can run off with and adapt to your own sick needs. Firda rules.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: At the time of writing, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 10:54:38 PM ----- BODY:

    At the time of writing, the price of buying someone to come and kick your own ass was a mere $1.75. I wonder if it's more if you want them to beat up other people...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok, so tomorrow afternoon I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 11:48:05 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok, so tomorrow afternoon I should hear whether I got through the whole Occupational Psychologists' testing - first stage of my interview process for the BBC job that I would cheerfully kill for. I'm not feeling very positive about it - in fact I feel heartily ill about it. I'll go into full detail about the horrific experience tomorrow morning, at the moment I just want to pretend it never happened.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't know if you're STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/21/2002 11:58:06 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know if you're aware of this fact - but I'm actually going to be thirty years old in roughly four months and twenty-eight days. I only mention this fact now, because clearly thirty is a big milestone and you'll all want to be saving up so you can buy me a nice big sparkly present rather than the old tat you usually buy me (you know who you are). It occurs to me that if you people actually stopped being quite so useless and each sent me £20 via Paypal a year, then I wouldn't have to get a damn job at the BBC anyway. Which would - of course - be their loss not mine. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I haven't said anything on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2002 11:25:09 AM ----- BODY:

    I haven't said anything on plasticbag.org because I've been convinced that it would add extra pressure on me and that I'd buckle under it - but I seem to have given up smoking. It's been almost two weeks now without a cigarette. I still want them quite badly, but I'm not having them. My ashtrays still sit in front of me on my desk - and they're still full - I feel like if I threw them away that my totem of stubs would betray me and I'd be scratching my way out of the flat towards the local newsagent. It probably wasn't the best time in the world to quit - but hey...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't think Cal is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2002 11:35:42 AM ----- BODY:

    I don't think Cal is talking to me at the moment.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't know where he STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2002 05:25:25 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know where he got the information from, but there's a fascinating piece of writing about being born from exploding stars over at barbelith at the moment. It's a lovely, wonderful and transformative idea - it's also a slightly alarming one!

    Researchers say twin supernovas two million years ago triggered the evolution of humankind. ìThese supernovas would have blown away our protective ozone layer,î says Dr. Narciso Benitez of Johns Hopkins University. ìEarth lost its protection against ultraviolet rays, and for several hundred years the planet would have been battered by intense radiation.î
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy birthday to ickle.org. Now STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/22/2002 09:15:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Happy birthday to ickle.org. Now you are one, what will you do now? Will you grow, oh ickle.org? When you are twenty, will you be angry that you can't be called tall.org? Will you be laughed at down the pub. Oh what will become of ickle.org?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could this be the best STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/23/2002 12:27:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Could this be the best magazine cover of all time? Or is it simply the best thing of all time? Or is it kinda dumb? Der Spiegel

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An otherwise wonderfully fun evening STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2002 11:29:03 AM ----- BODY:

    An otherwise wonderfully fun evening celebrating Luke's birthday ruined at the last minute by the discovery that I've lost my uninsured mobile phone, resulting in me becoming suddenly terrified about the potential cost of replacement.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Proposal for a grant? "Dear STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2002 11:31:25 AM ----- BODY:

    Proposal for a grant? "Dear Dean of Stuff, I work at your University and I'd really like to do a study of the social networks in the Marvel comic book universe. I hope you will understand how important and useful a piece of research this could be. Yours, A. Nut."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Get it while it's fresh STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/24/2002 11:06:29 PM ----- BODY:

    Get it while it's fresh - or more to the point, get it before it's ripped from the internet's bleeding womb by the stainless steel tongs of threatened legal-action... Because Anne Widdecombe is not going to be thrilled about this one...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So strictly speaking, it's now STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2002 01:30:09 AM ----- BODY:

    So strictly speaking, it's now the day when I found out if I'm through to the first interviews for a job at the BBC. We were supposed to find out on Friday, but for various reasons they weren't able to get the information to us. Each interview will be one hour long - and they've allocated three hour slots per job - so that's fifteen candidates in total going through to the second stage. Or at least that's fifteen interviews - I don't yet know whether people will be represented in more than one of the categories. Twenty-four first-stage candidates narrowed down to fifteen second-stage ones - will I be on that list? I doubt it, frankly. I really do.

    I haven't felt so invested in the outcome of a job application for ages - I think it's a job I could do well, and perhaps more importantly, that I'd enjoy - but weirdly I don't think that's why I'm so nervous. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of these psychologists analysing my responses. I have become increasingly convinced that they'll declare me unfit for work in general - and what do you do then? Start a sheep farm? Live in a commune? Take up politics? I'm relatively sure that I can acquit myself well in an interview as well - but my performance in that interview is less important to me at the moment than getting to it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google of the future? "I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2002 12:09:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Google of the future? "I am Google! I find many good things. I find that pair of underwear with the little dice printed all over them. And I watch the tape of you with the life-sized Stallman puppet. These are good unique things. Many keywords and links! My masters will say 'much good job, little robot!' Many searchers will find happy links of Stallman puppet see you! Ahhhh."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: To a user of Internet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2002 12:38:36 PM ----- BODY:

    To a user of Internet Explorer on Mac OSX, the "What Sex Toy Are You?" quiz is a beautiful set of constellations. Oooooooh. Pretty....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wonder how many people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/25/2002 12:47:26 PM ----- BODY:

    I wonder how many people actually don't realise what's behind this card trick. It's obvious right? Addendum For those who have not as yet figured out the trick - none of the second set of cards were in the first set. So whatever you chose would no longer be present...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's crisis of indecision regards STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 02:20:07 PM ----- BODY:

    Today's crisis of indecision regards the BBC. I was supposed to hear from them about this first interview yesterday. But I have not. Does this mean that I can expect a letter from them through the post in a few days telling me not to give up the day ... er ... - or does this mean that the message got lost when my phone was stolen and the SIM card transferred. Or does it mean that they simply haven't had time to get around to it? This whole process has felt like torture and I'm more than slightly frustrated with them for not making it an educational and smooth-running application. But of course I can't be frustrated - because I as yet do not know if the failure of communication is at my end.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got home last night STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 02:38:07 PM ----- BODY:

    I got home last night around 1am, after an accidental curry and caipirinha and slumped immediately into a couple of episodes of Buffy and Farscape. I'm not going to defend my choice of late-night TV - I'm just telling it how it is. Anyway - next thing I know is that it's five in the morning and I'm asleep on the sitting-room floor, and I have that moment of indecision when you think to yourself that just staying where you are would be better than moving to go to bed, but then I gave in to my sedate impulse and lay in bed wide-awake for two hours thinking about all the things I need to sort out in my life.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Even the BBC loves The Strokes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 02:39:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Even the BBC loves The Strokes. Where's your stuffy English public service broad-caster now then? Eh?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have a bloody interview. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 03:18:30 PM ----- BODY:

    I have a bloody interview. I'm not occupationally insane after all. I have been assessed and found stage-one (of three) employable. Everything else is bonus from now on - I always assumed that it was just getting me in a room with people that was the problem. "Ah well he looks good on paper, but in person - eeeeesh...." or "Subject: Tom Coates - Makes inappropriate jokes at assessments about Jamie Theakston's sex life - Do not employ". But it turns out that I'm just not good enough for the jobs - not that I'm mad! What a relief!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question One: Do sites do STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 06:03:58 PM ----- BODY:

    Question One: Do sites do features of weblogs because it guarantees those same articles traffic? I'm increasingly thinking that this is the case - webloggers love the approval of being mentioned in a paper - it makes us feel important (well it makes me feel important, anyway). Question Two: Can someone tell me what the phrase 'so-called' means in the following sentence (taken from this article about weblogging): "For the last two years or so, so-called Weblogs have slowly built a following among Internet users."?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hands up who thinks Andrew STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 07:15:56 PM ----- BODY:

    Hands up who thinks Andrew Sullivan's views on homosexuality are dull, conformist, apologist and retro? That many huh? Ok then. Hands up who cares about Andrew Sullivan's Blogger manifesto? Wow. That few...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am drooling at the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 07:21:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I am drooling at the thought of Photoshop 7 because it will be the first version of the software to run natively in OSX - which means I need never ever use OS9 again. Which will be nice.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guardian Horror... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/26/2002 07:53:08 PM ----- BODY:

    At the beginning of February 2002, The Guardian contacted me about the possibility of an interview. For some ungodly reason the lunatic newspaper had decided that it was thrilled by the idea of listen to me jabber on about any decaying rubbish that fell lifelessly out of my mouth. I dutifully obliged.

    A couple of days later, they asked me if they could send a photographer around to take a picture. I was of course tremendously flattered - although since I hadn't shaved in over a week and since we'd run out of hot water and since the photographer was going to arrive in about thirty seconds, I wasn't entirely comfortable with how I was going to look.

    When the photographer arrived, he was a tremendous friendly mad old guy with thick glasses and thinning hair who asked me to sit in all kinds of strange positions in front of my computer, but never once told me what to do wih my face. By the end of the (brief) session, I was kind of sheepishly grinning in complete embarrassment.

    The photographs he finally decided were the best were e-mailed to me a couple of days later. The article, of course, never actually ran in the paper at all - so they now only exist here online... My moment of fame postponed once more... And frankly it's all to the good as I have never looked so goddamned hideous...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I need advice - if STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2002 12:51:52 AM ----- BODY:

    I need advice - if you've ever looked at a personal ad on nerve.com then I need your advice. I need you to go and look at a lame web-blokes personal ad and tell me if it's completely full of shit or not. The user-name of the bloke whose ad I want your opinions of is '8bit'.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Press Release: Armitage Media is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2002 12:06:57 PM ----- BODY:

    Press Release: Armitage Media is proud to announce the release of the first single by the winner of "Blog Idol", the stunning Tom Coates. The double A-side (titled "Anything is possible / When you're A-list") will be released shortly via Morgan Music (probably). The cover art in all its glory is available for the press here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Human beings are like Microsoft STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2002 03:09:48 PM ----- BODY:

    Human beings are like Microsoft products - cobbled together in a rough evolutionary fashion over many years, prone to collapse, occasional misfunctioning and systematic farting (both actual and metaphorical). If human beings were like Apple products then we'd all be beautiful and we'd probably be able to fly and read minds by now - although it is possible instead that we'd have become almost totally extinct as a species.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Returned to the 'From You STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2002 03:27:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Returned to the 'From You Know Who You Are Department', With Thanks: Say you were at a party with a woman who dislikes you and most of your friends and isn't afraid to say so, and you were chatting to a friend of yours who's just decided to go out with said woman, and you kind of felt the need to know why he was doing it so you asked him, only for her to answer the question several days later in rather twisty-turny grammar on her website by suggesting that she gave the best head in town, wouldn't you reply affectionately that after an exhaustive survey of the male weblogger population - all other qualities aside - her capacity for blow-jobs was considered merely adequate? I know I wouldn't. Because it would be wrong.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's Tom's e-mail address? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2002 03:31:59 PM ----- BODY:

    By the way, just in case you're desperately searching for my e-mail address like the person who keeps writing "Tom has no e-mail address on his page" and "Please Tom put your e-mail address on your page" in the search box, then my e-mail address is tom%40plasticbag.org.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Impressions of late-night TV: 1) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/27/2002 11:39:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Impressions of late-night TV: 1) three people of very different life positions watch an episode of Sex and the City where four people's very different life positions push barriers between them, 2) George Michael goes Blade-runner as a Sexual Freak in the closest thing to a homo mid-life crisis that you can put on screen for even an obscenely stupid amount of money, 3) an acting coach says to one of her model pupils, "You know what you're really saying is that you want to be....." - the student looks blank, then resigned. "Fucked....?" - there is much nodding and wild-eyed agreement - and perhaps the tiniest tear runs down her face. Another model looks like Wes Bentley.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another fun morning - today's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 09:13:05 AM ----- BODY:

    Another fun morning - today's entertainment includes two months notice (along with my flatmates) to vacate my flat, a letter from the bank explaining that I've gone over my overdraft facility and a nice happy bill from Barclaycard.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An e-mail regarding 8bit at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 09:14:25 AM ----- BODY:

    An e-mail regarding 8bit at nerve.com: "I think that 8bit bloke is full of shit. But tell him that if he is ever in need of a woman to bear his children he should give meÝa call."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another day, another review for STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 09:21:08 AM ----- BODY:

    Another day, another review for the BBC, this time for the film Basquiat: "In Hollywood movies, the lives of the great creative geniuses all follow a pretty similar path. From humble origins our hero will struggle and nearly give up. Then they will find themselves a supportive girlfriend or mentor and have some kind of transformative breakthrough. And then finally they become alienated from their friends and experience some kind of 'Great Big Crisis'." I mean, we've all been there, right?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's the fight that would STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 09:27:31 AM ----- BODY:

    It's the fight that would not die - Penguin Books versus Katie.com - the latter site is still fighting about the book that Penguin published about sexual abuse and harrassment over the internet which decided to name itself after her site. I first wrote about this a year and a half ago, but I think it's important that it gets some more press - so spread the world - this could happen to any of our sites - and I don't think we'd have the slightest recourse to the law...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evidence, if evidence were needed, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 10:11:45 AM ----- BODY:

    Evidence, if evidence were needed, that Sparky not only appears to have found himself a bloke, but that he also has very fine taste in men. Even if the guy in question does also look like the lead singer of James.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You have to love Michael STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 02:40:10 PM ----- BODY:

    You have to love Michael Moore, you really do. I mean he's just so on the money most of the time:

    MOORE:Ý Yes.Ý I don't -- look, I don't know what the percentage should be, but I certainlyÝ believe, and I've you heard you say the same thing on the show, that you don't think a company like Enron should go, you know, for four years without paying any taxes.Ý
    O'REILLY:Ý No, it's ridiculous.
    MOORE:Ý Right?
    O'REILLY:Ý It's true.
    MOORE:Ý I mean, that's wrong, right?
    O'REILLY:Ý And a company like Andersen should not be able to split off their AndersenÝ Consulting, move it to Bermuda and set it up there as...
    O'REILLY:Ý Right, but those aren't Americans.Ý Those are villains, OK?
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Davo sends me an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 02:55:59 PM ----- BODY:

    So Davo sends me an article from the BBC about Irritable Male Syndrome which explains how particularly stressful circumstances can make your testosterone drop which could lead to moodiness and foulness. I ask him what he's implying. He replies that I know very well what he's implying and to stop being so bloody irritable....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you're bored of an STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 07:54:34 PM ----- BODY:

    If you're bored of an afternoon and fancy some entertainment, I can more than recommend methylsalicylate. Brooke will help you differentiate your fat mice from your firearms. What more could you ask?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The last time I heard STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 02/28/2002 11:12:34 PM ----- BODY:

    The last time I heard them I was probably about ten, maybe eleven. My dad used to play them in the car. He only had this album, ABBA's greatest hits and The Carpenters. He was not the coolest man in the world, it becomes clear to me... Anyway - obviously I've bought the ABBA and Carpenters album since, but never before have I heard the classic songs from the other album, until now... And I can tell you with complete honestly that Neil Diamond is as cool today as he ever has been!... "Forever in Blue Jeans", "Song Sung Blue" - now that's proper music!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to the wonderful people STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2002 12:08:47 AM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to the wonderful people at Haddock.org, I have finally found a sport that I can get behind. And it is a sport. It's definitely not some homo-erotic thing marketed to a very specific niche market. Oh no. Nothing unsavoury about these pictures! Good healthy fun for all the family! If all of your family is male, and between the ages of twenty and twenty-three. And like body oil.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My interview this afternoon is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2002 11:13:09 AM ----- BODY:

    My interview this afternoon is at four o'clock at the BBC - I'm scared out of my mind, but really quite excited as well. I have all of Barbelith pulling off a piece of chaos magick for me this afternoon - pulling off being the operative phrase here... All I need is some prayer, good will and tremendous positive thinking (oh and to have done my research) before four o'clock and I'm a shoe-in...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Q: "Why are you wearing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2002 12:23:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Q: "Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?"
    A: "Why are you wearing that stupid human suit?" Brrrr. Creepy....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A really good article on STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/01/2002 01:26:07 PM ----- BODY:

    A really good article on community development includes this paragraph: "In order to succeed, a virtual community has to have an affinity -- the answer to the question "what would draw these people together?" It has to present a user interface that doesn't baffle the newcomer, but gives a range of options to the experienced user. Building a social space online does not guarantee that people will inhabit it. It has to have a social infrastructure, including simple written agreements to a social contract governing online behavior and sanctions for transgression. It needs skilled human facilitation. And there must be some plan for bringing a continuing stream of newcomers into the community." Which, in essence, says it all.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: News Shock! Prince Philip mad STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/02/2002 12:07:07 AM ----- BODY:

    News Shock! Prince Philip mad old racist bastard! World reels in surprise.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The only must see thing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/02/2002 06:40:39 PM ----- BODY:

    The only must see thing on the net today seems to me to be Sparky's flat - frankly it's stunning and I want it, but more to the point it's also incredibly well captured in multiple photos. New Boyfriend, gorgeous flat. Sparky must die...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everyone else is linking it, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2002 11:28:26 AM ----- BODY:

    Everyone else is linking it, so why can't we? Today's completely lifted link is The Man Project - a stunning and (apparently) simple looking piece of animation which resembles those cross-section models made by slicing up dead people. The most interesting technical part of it seems to me to be the way in which the figure faces, which appears to change as you move the mouse...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future is Mac Porn. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2002 11:49:39 AM ----- BODY:

    The future is Mac Porn. Don't say I didn't warn you. I stared salivating as soon as I saw the pictures. You can sometimes feel your heart-rate speed-up too. Weirdly I don't think I have this reaction when looking a hot men any more. Tell me doctor, is there something wrong with me?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Proselytising for the computing age STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2002 12:03:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Proselytising for the computing age - Why OSX is the future!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok - I'm not going STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/03/2002 08:26:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok - I'm not going to go into detail about my job interview on Friday, except to say that my friends over at Barbelith certainly played their part in trying to get me a job, while in the process... well I've said too much already! Tomorrow I find out whether I've got through to the third and final stage of the process - which will be an interview in two weeks time. Keep your fingers crossed for me, people...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mr Morgan cannot sleep at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/04/2002 11:10:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Mr Morgan cannot sleep at the moment, so at half-past-one in the morning we met up for a walk around Maida Vale. We broke into Paddington Recreation Ground and talked about Lego and looked through his camcorder at nearby buildings on ultra-zoom. Then I made him a cup of tea and finally chucked him out of the door at 4am.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's an interesting link from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2002 10:49:02 AM ----- BODY:

    Here's an interesting link from a couple of months ago - Jakob Neilson and the BBC Front Page. The BBC redesigned their front page a few months ago, shortly after Neilson released his book - which included an analysis of the old site. Neilson's exercise (mainly useful for people who already have the book), takes you through the concerns that he raised about the old design and shows how many of them have now been resolved. More interesting for the geekier members of the studio audience, but hey.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going to say this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2002 10:50:06 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm going to say this quickly and get it over with. I didn't get the Community Producer gig at the BBC, I am gutted. If you want to make me feel better about it then buy me something.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A good article on the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2002 11:00:39 AM ----- BODY:

    A good article on the state of the American music industry: Looking Grim at the Grammys. I don't know how long it's going to take contemporary culture to figure out, but fragmentation is the new monolith - cultures are separating along the lines of interest groups - and people belong to several over-lapping fragmented cultures rather than to the mono-culture. Technology will continue to get more adaptable and less expensive, and that means that the overheads of running a media operation should now be dropping as well. And that in turn means that a variety of entertainment product - small bands, small films, for small markets - some of which may go huge - should return to prominence. The internet is making people weirder. When will you people realise this?!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm having a minor moment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2002 11:30:02 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm having a minor moment about an article on the BBC's news site which is very interesting and everything, but also completely 'give away the twist why-don't-you'-ish. The article is about the next Harry Potter movie, which makes me think that you probably should only click here if you've already read the book...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sing it with me, children... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2002 11:43:48 AM ----- BODY:

    Sing it with me, children...

    When are you gonna come down?
    When are you going to land?
    I should have stayed on the farm.
    I should have listened to my old man.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the funniest transition STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/05/2002 12:22:24 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the funniest transition pages I've seen in forever - Might Big TV is now Television Without Pity...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The last couple of days STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2002 02:49:16 PM ----- BODY:

    The last couple of days have been fairly strange exotic beasts - the job disappointment as ever knocked me for a loop for a good twenty-four hours. It's always difficult to be rejected, I think, and I wonder if anyone ever really gets used to it. They always say that as one door closes another opens - but this seems to have been happening so regularly recently that after a while you have to start wondering, is this a revolving door? And am I trying to go through it the wrong way? Anyway - a couple of new possibilities have emerged - one of which looks particularly promising. So I guess I'll just have to try and relax and go with the ride for a little longer...

    After lunch yesterday with Cal, Matt and Phil, I ended up wandering around Central London trying t get a bit of perspective on things and finishing off my copy of Moon Palace - which stirred up a lot of thoughts about my father and my (vaguely) impending thirtieth birthday. I went for a brief drink with a friend who was celebrating his birthday and returned home, weirdly satisfied.

    Today I'm in much finer form - I've got lots of work to do, lots of things to think about. Part of the cheeriness I'm feeling has to be due to the gift of Fahrenheit 451 that I received today from an anonymous donor as well as the delightful irony of having Sauron (from the Barbelith Underground) buying me a copy of Lord of the Rings from my wishlist. Thanks to everyone!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh and if you want STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2002 03:02:53 PM ----- BODY:

    Oh and if you want to know what I did on Saturday night, then go and read up about it over at Brainsluice. He leaves out how precisely grumpy I was all evening. That's why he's my best friend.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A while ago I linked STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/06/2002 03:07:50 PM ----- BODY:

    A while ago I linked to an article about old TV shows having new opportunities for product placement because of the potential for digital alteration before rebroadcasting. But it seems that this is only the beginning of the 'touching-up' of the past (for both reasons of 'taste' and money). In a recently rebroadcast movie in the US, underwear was digitally altered and indeed completely added on a young lady kissing Mr Bond. The Smoking Gun has the full story.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: my %guy; $guy{type} = 'underwater guy'; $guy->control_sea; kill $guy, "10 million pounds of  STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2002 01:57:30 AM ----- BODY:

    my %guy;
    $guy{type} = 'underwater guy';
    $guy->control_sea;
    kill $guy, "10 million pounds of 
                      sludge from NY and NJ";

    foreach my $monkey (@monkeys) {
        $monkey->gone(heaven);
    }

    $creature{sky}->suck_into_hole;
    $sky->put_in_hole;
    $ground = 'not cold';
    if ($ground ne 'cold'){
       burn $everything;
       next $turn;
       $mine->too;
    }

    foreach my $monkey (@monkeys) {
        $monkey->gone(heaven);
    }

    $joe->rock($me);

    if ($man == 5) {
      if ($man == 5) {
        if ($man == 5) {
          $devil = 6;
          }
        $devil = 6;
        }
      $devil = 6;
      $devil = 6;
    }
    if ($devil == 6) {
       $deity = 7;
       $deity = 7;
    }

    foreach my $monkey (@monkeys) {
        $monkey->gone(heaven);
    }

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok - I'm in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2002 12:25:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok - I'm in the middle of a big deadline at the moment, so all my thoughts are necessarily truncated. But still - the biggest thing in my head at the moment is my father. He and my mother got divorced when I was two or three and I haven't seen him or heard anything from him since I was about four or five. My mother had a couple of conversations with him when I was about six or seven, but that's it. No more.

    I've never really been even the slightest bit interested in finding out about him - all my friends seemed to think that I should seek him out - but why? What possible connection could I have with this man? At least that was always my position. But now I think it's changing. The easiest way to tell what's on your mind is to see how often you find yourself confronted by it everywhere you look - in the books you read, the TV shows you watch. It's like with theories - if you get attached to a theory about the way the world works, then you see evidence for it everywhere. It's not so much that you're making up the evidence, but that your mind is hoovering up associated material left, right and centre...

    Anyway - at the moment everything I touch seems to be about absent fathers and having a sense of your own history and about memories. Things as random as Paul Auster novels, films like Memento and TV shows like Sex and the City have all (over the last few days) made me think about my past and my parents. And my father particularly. He'd be in his sixties now - he might be dead. I think maybe I just need to know whether or not he's dead. Head's too full of crap today. Will think about this in more depth later - maybe next week.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to the anonymous punter STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2002 12:27:29 PM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to the anonymous punter who bought me a copy of Moulin Rouge off my wishlist! It's very much appreciated, whoever you are. If only I could find some way of translating plasticbag.org into a way to pay my rent each month!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you hadn't guessed from STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/07/2002 03:14:40 PM ----- BODY:

    If you hadn't guessed from a brief visit to his site, Cal is colourblind. Hey - what can be said - I have no sense of smell, he doesn't know how to co-ordinate. We all have our crosses to bear. Unfortunately I'm not as absurdly talented as Cal is, so I can't do something tremendously, world-changingly useful - like make a site which allows you to test various colour combinations to see how accessible your site will be. [Addendum: For those who have asked, Cal is a good friend of mine, and I was merely joking about the colour-schemes at his site. In fact even a cursory glance would demonstrate that the colour schemes are great. And that there are lots of them.]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The best thing about writing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2002 11:04:32 AM ----- BODY:

    The best thing about writing something for a print publication is that you get this wonderful chunky piece of solid matter to look at when it's finished. Yesterday through the post came the 2002 edition of the Time Out London guide - of which I wrote all of the gay section (for my sins), with substantial and unfortunately uncredited help from Davo. If you need to know what there is to do in London, then it really is the best guide available. And if you find any glaring errors in my section, then please keep them to yourself!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The most astonishing thing about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2002 11:10:07 AM ----- BODY:

    The most astonishing thing about being without Blogger for a day is not that I was frustrated or annoyed, but that I found myself writing vast selections of little notes and thoughts to Barbelith and Haddock. It seems clear - I have a pathological need to write reams of crap each day - possibly I write so much to stop myself from thinking...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Too many doctorates in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2002 12:57:50 PM ----- BODY:

    Too many doctorates in the air at the moment - which shouldn't annoy me but does because I feel jealous even though I know I made the right decision to leave mine. Probably I'm freaked because I don't seem to be getting anywhere with all the other shit I hoped to do. I don't rule the world, I don't get paid for running a site that I care about, I'm not David Bowie yet and I don't get mentioned in the papers nearly enough. This whole mood was inspired, weirdly, by Freud Action Figures and somewhat ammeliorated by the fact that I'm speaking at a conference about Virtual Communities in a couple of months - alongside some people who recently interviewed me for a job I didn't get. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Breaking news: Universe even more STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2002 01:10:56 PM ----- BODY:

    Breaking news: Universe even more boring than we all thought. The universe, it transpires, is much like the wallpaper in my bedroom at my parent's house in Norfolk.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the zeitgeist(s)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2002 04:36:56 PM ----- BODY:

    I love pages that keep track of search requests on the internet. Pages like Lycos' Top 50. These give you a real insight into the community of the internet's most obsessive interests. And of course the most interesting thing about them is how many of the listings in the top fifty that you just have never heard of. A community of net users? Where? I see many communities. Of course most of the search terms would be instantly familar to most American teenagers and early twenty-somethings I imagine... Or would they?

    Google's got a page like this too - although it's updated more randomly. But it does have the amusing benefit of pulling out randomly entertaining figures and presenting them as charts. This week, for example...

    By far the most interesting of these little enterprises however is Yahoo's Buzz index - which manages to track both the most searched for keywords, but also to be able to track rapid movers, surges or lapses of interest - and over a vast range of categories as well... Who is the US obsessing about at the moment? Anna Nicole Smith - what movie is the world suddenly more interested in than usual? Er... Willow? Well it can't get it right all the time... Do you know of any other parts of search engines that track information like this? If so, let me know.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Inspired by this mad post STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/09/2002 04:58:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Inspired by this mad post (for which I can only say that the reason is that people get uncomfortable when they have to think of gay people actually having sex as opposed to decorating their spacious apartments), I present:

    Top-Ten-Traits-You-(ie. I)-Like-About-The-Gender-That-You-Generally-Prefer-To-Shag (What it is about blokes I fancy)

    1. They have short scruffy hair that you can breathe through when you're spooning.
    2. They have really nice spine curve from shoulders to bottom.
    3. When men are quite slim and vaguely well exercised, they can kind of sit in these weird positions where all there weight appears to rest on their upper back and where they seem to be triply segmented into chest, stomach, rude-areas/legs - this is the sexiest thing in the world...
    4. Some have really big chunky hands, and some have quite slim, proportioned hands. But they nearly all have hands - which is good.
    5. When they grow a little stubble on their faces they don't look like German athletes, unlike women. In fact they often look better than they do when they're clean shaven.
    6. Men look convincingly mean when they think about sex. Plus you don't have to worry too much about breaking them.
    7. Hot geeky boys get really excited and passionate about weird things that I can identify with. Hot geeky girls get really excited and passionate about weird things that I cannot identify with. Mostly.
    8. Some men have these voices and you can feel the air vibrate when they talk because they're so rich and thick. And you vibrate all the way back through your body whenever they say something, and it's a bit like sun-bathing in sound when they talk. Normally these men smoke too much.
    9. Men aren't supposed to really care that much about what they look like, but mostly they do, but when a guy manages to look great while looking like it was kind of accidental and he isn't entirely happy about it, then they become immediately irresistable. Men do scruffy well.
    10. Defined muscles on the arms and shoulders and down the stomach are just great big invitations for dubious thoughts.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it seems a gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2002 12:13:24 AM ----- BODY:

    So it seems a gay gene runs in the (alleged) resemblance - Pop Idol Will Young has come out. I don't know why he felt the need to make this kind of statement - but more interestingly I don't know why anyone makes statements like these. They're really apologetic feeling - kind of duplicitous-sounding. Surely the best approach would be to say, "Of course I'm gay, you big twonk. Where did you land from - planet totally fucking clueless? Jeez. Next question."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another shock discovery. First the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2002 02:20:18 PM ----- BODY:

    Another shock discovery. First the universe turned out to be really dull, now someone has finally realised that sex is a bit crap too. Is there nothing gripping left in the world? Jesus. Start a weblog already. Everyone else bored of living has...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've just finished reading Fahrenheit STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2002 02:22:16 PM ----- BODY:

    I've just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and there was a part of it that just made me shiver because to me it felt so apposite. I posted it up on Barbelith for discussion. I'm expecting that some people won't find it as apt or as terrifying as I did.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy: Every single night, the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/10/2002 07:57:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Buffy:
    Every single night, the same arrangement
    I go out and fight the fight.
    Still I always feel this strange estrangement.
    Nothing here is real, nothing here is right.

    I've been making shows of trading blows,
    Just hoping no one knows
    That I've been...

    Going through the motions
    Walking through the part
    Nothing seems to penetrate my heart.


    I was always brave and kinda righteous
    Now I find I'm wavering...
    Crawl out of your grave, you find this fight
    just doesn't mean a thing...

    Demon:
    She aint' got that swing..."

    Buffy:
    [pause ] Thanks for noticing...

    Demon chorus:
    She does pretty well
    With fiends from hell
    But lately we can tell
    That she's just.....

    Going through the motions
    Faking it somehow....
    She's not even half the girl she...
    Ooooow!


    Buffy:
    Will I stay this way forever?
    Sleepwalk through my life's endeavour?

    Victim:
    How can I repay...?

    Buffy:
    Whatever...

    I don't want to be......
    Going through the motions
    Losing all my drive
    I can't even see
    If this is really me
    And I just want to be...
    Alive....................."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've only just noticed, which STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/11/2002 11:14:14 AM ----- BODY:

    I've only just noticed, which probably makes me the second worst person in the world after the inventor of spiders, but Prolific.org has redesigned - and it looks amazingly fresh...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How depressing - now we're STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/11/2002 01:34:19 PM ----- BODY:

    How depressing - now we're all going to have to make our sites work properly in Mozilla. How dreary.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Luke for this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2002 11:03:34 AM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Luke for this one - he's pointed me in the direction of a transcript of an interview between Richard Littlejohn - dubious right-wing journalist - and Will Self - dubious left-wing intellectual. My sympathies are of course heavily with the latter ex-heroin-addict. Although I could be alone in that... Here are a few choice quotes from Self vs Littlejohn:

    SELF: It is a 400 page... I've read 200 pages of it and that is a 200 page recruiting leaflet for the BNP.
    LITTLEJOHN: Well, you can't comment until you have read the other 200.
    SELF: Why? Does it suddenly turn into Tolstoy?
    LITTLEJOHN: You'll have to read it and find out, won't you.
    SELF: Well it won't take me long.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There are times when I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2002 11:20:08 AM ----- BODY:

    There are times when I honestly believe that to find out about my life you'd be better reading Brainsluice.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ever since I read that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2002 11:30:32 AM ----- BODY:

    Ever since I read that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck indulged in anal action (I think it was when I was working at TCN), I've been fascinated by the spectre of colonic irrigation. I remember that scene in LA Story well - "Doesn't it just clear our your mind?" bounces the hippy Californian. "Are you sure they put it in the right end?" asks the cynical Steve Martin.

    For a while now it seems my flatmate has been thinking about the idea too and so I suggested with a smile that we go together - experience the thrill of a clean inner butt. However somehow she's always been horrified by the idea of being in a clinic next to each other, with a pipe up our arses, listening to each other crap. I can't quite understand why. Anyway - last night she returned home with news of an article she'd read which finally converted her - in the article a reporter and her photographer went to have extensive and rigorous internal cleaning. When the photographer heard a clunk in a bucket he knew it could only be one thing - the marble he'd swallowed twenty years earlier...

    Today I see that Darren has linked to the article in question and now I'm back to being fascinated and appalled by the idea. What do you think? Should I do it? Full details would of course be posted on plasticbag.org.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Speaking of happiness, you never STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/12/2002 02:30:24 PM ----- BODY:

    "Speaking of happiness, you never thought of mine.... Mentioning loneliness, I feel lonely all the time.... Speaking of Davo, he's in a Noozlelandish magazine..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to a drink STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/13/2002 12:15:59 PM ----- BODY:

    I went to a drink for Meg's birthday last night and Davo took lots of pictures - and I look kind of crumpled in most of them. A good evening was had by most, except those poor individuals who had to listen to Luke and I argue about how to run Barbelith for about three hours...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the amount of links STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2002 10:34:25 AM ----- BODY:

    From the amount of links that my thoughts of colonic irrigation have generated around the net - each one basically amounting to a tacit or explicit do it - I can only assume that either you're all really curious as well or that you think I'm full of crap. The whole High Colonic thing is clearly not just a matter of interest to me. Davo remains appalled by the idea, but Meg and Paul both seemed kind of excited when we talked about it at Meg's birthday. Be warned, there's a practitioner just down the road from me in St. John's Wood. This may actually happen.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You write a few things STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2002 01:36:52 PM ----- BODY:

    You write a few things about colonic irrigation and you end up getting sent huge links to huge images suggesting what it might be like. Thanks again Davo....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I think I'll post one STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2002 03:43:14 PM ----- BODY:

    I think I'll post one thing today that's not related to colonic irrigation. Just the one. Then we can all go on with the poo-fest. Today's game of the day is Make your own mugshot - if you fancy seeing my deluded self impression of myself (it's terrible - I look ten years younger, three stone lighter and much more like David Bowie than is actually the case) then just do a search for a face named 'Tom Coates'. My version of Davo has already inspired pointing and laughing from the Brit-bloggers, so maybe I'm just no good at it. If you feel like doing a version of me (or yourself), then please feel free! I'll mention the best ones on the site...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My favourite suggestion of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/14/2002 03:54:02 PM ----- BODY:

    My favourite suggestion of the day so far comes via brainsluice (again) and is based around me using this banner and my Barbelith Paypal donations scheme to fund not only my own colonic irrigation - but perhaps also the rest of my life... I'm as yet unconvinced by the idea of the sponsored defudging - but I'm open to persuasion. No jokes, please.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Every day I get more STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2002 01:46:12 AM ----- BODY:

    Every day I get more and more aware that when I go to bed there are never any English webloggers left on AIM. In fact there are seldom any East Coast Americans left either. They're either out for the night or fast asleep. I'm left with the San Franciscans and the Los Angelenes...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How can it be true?! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2002 11:49:41 AM ----- BODY:

    How can it be true that the word atheist can be considered too offensive for a car number place? How can anyone justify that? The retrograde push in liberalism, science and popular politics in America is really beginning to alarm me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Daypop's new Wishlist tracker is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2002 12:08:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Daypop's new Wishlist tracker is a genius idea, but also - presumably - quite a profitable one! It's a shame that it seems restricted to Amazon.com customers, rather than the UK audience - but then again that does leave a space for someone in the UK to make some money... Additional features could include recently purchased items - and perhaps a way of grouping wishlists by types of products. Plus it would also be a nice touch to feature a cheap random product that you could buy off one of the wishlists in question. It seems unfair that Daypop should reap all the benefits of our greed!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My first Exquisite Corpse has STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/15/2002 07:12:38 PM ----- BODY:

    My first Exquisite Corpse has been posted. My slice is the third one. I was terrified when I sent it in that it would be embarrassingly bad, but it's come together quite well. I feel quite self-satisfied, suddenly...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Six Months That Changed A STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2002 12:38:48 PM ----- BODY: Six Months That Changed A Year: "Julie Burchill: How I liberated Kandahar with the news that Tony Parsons is a bastard." Terror Marches Backwards: "October 19th: Blair announces support for the US intention to bomb during Ramadan but confirms that out of respect for Islam, all food parcels dropped during this period will be empty."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jason has linked to a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2002 03:43:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Jason has linked to a very handy web presentation on simplicity which I can thoroughly recommend all web creatives to investigate.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a much-linked article at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2002 03:47:04 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a much-linked article at the New York Times at the moment about the future of music-delivery and media - and it basically argues what I've been arguing for quite a while - that it's the Value-Added aspects of music that will be interesting and people will pay for. I've suggested that video, lyrics etc. attached to audio files might be the most obvious, but the article suggests some areas I hadn't thought of - all 20-tracks of a single song could be sold, or bespoke, non-replicatable, productions based upon the acoustics of your room...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A downloaded life... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/17/2002 05:58:16 PM ----- BODY:

    As we wander around the internet, and grab and download files to play with, our computers fill with the assorted detritus of a thousand tiny urges. While cleaning my computer I found a folder called 'unfiled' which contained images that I thought I might use two, three and even four years ago. Just odds and ends. Things that were funny, interesting or beautiful.

    I'd love to put them all online for you to see, but perhaps they'll make more sense as a collage - a scrapbook - a kind of stream-of-consciousness insight into bits of my head over the last couple of years...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I haven't started a fucking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2002 01:06:49 AM ----- BODY:

    I haven't started a fucking meme in ages. It's time for embarrasing online web confessions. Today I will confess to being the man who first created the alt.fan.noah-wyle newsgroup. I rule.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In about eight hours I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2002 01:07:34 AM ----- BODY:

    In about eight hours I start a three month contract with the BBC doing something extremely interesting that I don't really want to go into detail about in a public place at the moment and which almost none of you will ever get to see anyway... I'm scared - to be honest. I know I can do it, but I don't know if I will do it. Which is why I'm awake at 1am in the morning. Thinking.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What the world needs is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/18/2002 08:13:58 AM ----- BODY:

    What the world needs is a Google of porn. Something that unbelievably simple... Pornfinder.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My mother rang up this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2002 03:09:48 PM ----- BODY:

    My mother rang up this morning - she'd seen a job for a Web Producer advertised in the Eastern Daily Press - Norfolk's county newspaper (unlike the Evening News which is for dodgy left-wing city-types). The job paid badly and would have involved working at the BBC in Norwich. I couldn't imagine anything worse.

    The last few weeks - before getting this short stint at the BBC - I've been seriously considering leaving London. There's very little here that really excites me, there's little that would keep me here... Even now I'm unsure that I've got the patience and tolerance to deal with its griminess and greyness. But Norfolk... Perhaps that's too scary even for me...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Paul's back. I think. Which STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/19/2002 03:13:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Paul's back. I think. Which reminds me... How many bloggers can you see?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Breaking news: someone none of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2002 12:47:22 AM ----- BODY:

    Breaking news: someone none of you know has had a haircut. And doesn't it look nice?!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Comic Geeks discuss a 'bris', STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2002 10:07:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Comic Geeks discuss a 'bris', the jewish ritual of circumcision: "You know, they're not as valuable if they don't have the original cover".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I never realised producing a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2002 01:59:20 PM ----- BODY:

    I never realised producing a flow-chart could be so satisfying. I've spent much of the last couple of hours producing my first Visio flowchart and there's something tremendously rewarding about the process. Turning complexity into simple choices, finding a logical sense of development - taking a mess of stuff from all around you and assembling something clear out of it - something with process - something manageable.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For several years now, the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2002 02:50:27 PM ----- BODY:

    For several years now, the 'holodeck' - a place where 'force-fields' and holograms are co-generated to create real-as-life environments - has been a staple of Star Trek storylines. The applications of such a creation - which in theory provides a totally flexible environment - have never really been fully explored. Certain tremendously interesting ideas have been presented - such as using a solid holographic form as the host for an artificial intelligence - but others have been left woefully unexplored - such as entirely solidly holographic (and hence totally flexible and adaptable) space-faring ships. One of the applications that has been explored - albeit in a very slight fashion - is the idea of the holographic interface. While most sci-fi shows have present holographic displays, Star Trek has (once) presented apparently solid interfaces, meshed with pre-existent computers, which were completely adaptable and changed according to the circumstances. What is my point? That one of the first completely light-based interfaces now exists - a projected keyboard that senses how you are using it. The future could be almost completely non-physical interfaces. How exciting is that?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In days to come, when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2002 09:37:57 PM ----- BODY:

    In days to come, when the world's moved on, will older men - wise and bowed with years - move their hunching fingertips and gesture clumsily to their young? "An honest day's typing for an honest day's wage - you young folk don't know you're born.... We had none of this thought-control in the old days...."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warning: Prunes and Flapjack may STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/20/2002 10:05:53 PM ----- BODY:

    Warning: Prunes and Flapjack may be astonishingly good for the constitution, but they are tremendously bad for your relationships with friends and relatives. It appears that it's not only stress that makes me fart like a global thermonuclear war.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So the first upgrade to STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2002 10:55:10 AM ----- BODY:

    So the first upgrade to the iPod appears - they now come in two varieties - one with a 10Gb Hard disk. The interesting stuff for those of us with older, less happening machines, is that there's now a new set of software for it which allows you to hold your contact information on them as well... I'll be doing that when I get home from the office!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know one day I'd STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/21/2002 10:28:13 PM ----- BODY:

    You know one day I'd like to unashamedly sing Neil Diamond's "Forever in Blue Jeans" to someone I think's pretty cool. That would rock in a really lame way.

    Money talks
    But it don't sing and dance
    And it don't walk
    And long as I can have you here with me
    I'd much rather be
    Forever in blue jeans

    Honey's sweet
    But it ain't nothin' next to baby's treat
    And if you pardon me
    I'd like to say
    We'll do okay

    Forever in blue jeans

    Maybe tonight
    Maybe tonight, you and I
    All alone by the fire
    Nothing around
    But the sound of my heart
    And your sighs

    Money talks
    But it don't sing and dance
    And it don't walk
    And long as I can have you here with me
    I'd much rather be
    Forever in blue jeans, babe!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Like Haughey, I'm rapidly approaching STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2002 08:44:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Like Haughey, I'm rapidly approaching my thirtieth birthday - and so, like Haughey, I'm fascinated by the Bill Keaggy: Age 30 project A different photo, each and every day, for his entire thirtieth year. Many of my friends have taken their thirtieth birthday as an excuse to get the hell out of the country. I'm thinking of doing this too - perhaps a trip to LA and San Francisco this summer? I could go and pay homage to the Blog Pioneers...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Amazon listmania has finally STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2002 09:57:07 AM ----- BODY:

    So Amazon listmania has finally hit plasticbag.org - presenting The Best 4AD albums ever - the guitar years, by yours truly.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bizarrely lacking designs of our STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2002 02:49:58 PM ----- BODY:

    Bizarrely lacking designs of our time Verisign can't answer the question - 'how do I renew my domain name'. This is particularly amusing considering the question they suggest you ask them...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On padding problems in Internet bloody explorer... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/22/2002 10:38:05 PM ----- BODY:

    If anyone can find me any kind of documentation on the differing treatment of the paragraph tag on IE for Macs and IE for PCs (with specific reference to CSS, padding and margins), then I'd really appreciate it if you'd mail me. And if you need an example - compare and contrast plasticbag.org on a Mac and a PC. This issue appears to be one of the main problems that must be solved before effective permalinking becomes an option.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Flash fun from the bunny STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/23/2002 11:31:56 AM ----- BODY:

    Flash fun from the bunny that grabs your cursor. And from my dear friends at B3ta comes Britney's naked Cat-a-Phone!. Oh those scamps... I wonder which one was responsible for that idea?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's KPMG-link time all over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2002 08:46:04 AM ----- BODY:

    It's KPMG-link time all over again. Only this time, we're talking about Starbucks. In a piece published at Backwash.com, it appears that a man who posted a link to the coffee company about how good Starbucks coffee was has been hit with a cease-and-desist, and been asked to remove said link forthwith. Last time with KPMG I encouraged everyone in the world to link to them immediately. They're an internet business, and so susceptible to looking like an idiot online. With Starbucks, however, it's a little more insidious. We really don't want to give them any more publicity. So I'm thinking a different approach this time...

    So link to sites that say that they hate Starbucks. Link to articles that explain how crappy they are. And how they're putting people out of business. Link to No Logo's discussions of clustering corporate culture. Spread the meme everywhere you can. But don't link to Starbucks because..... ooooh scary.... they really don't like that. [PS - don't bother linking to Starbucks Sucks because I think it's been co-opted by the man!]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Firstly go here. And when STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2002 02:44:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Firstly go here. And when you've been there and absorbed the true online horror of it all, then go here and explain to me the company I keep!?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a weekend - it STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/25/2002 03:11:31 PM ----- BODY:

    What a weekend - it may sound trivial, but I don't seem to have stopped moving for more than twenty minutes since Saturday morning. I've caught up with friends from University and played with their three year old daugher. I've been to see The Experiment (read more) and roamed around Waterstones with the chairman of the IAB. I've walked through Regent's Park and up to Primrose Hill with Matt Interconnected, met up with Nick and Katy for coffee, ukeleles and jelly-beans, and come home with Katy to watch 24 and The West Wing before having to (grudgingly) abandon The Oscars at 3am in the morning.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It may not be as STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2002 09:03:41 AM ----- BODY:

    It may not be as interesting as what's on Beck's iPod - but just in case you were interested, here's a text file of everything that's on mine at the moment. We will have no clever comments. I'm nearly thirty for god's sake. Give me a break.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'd just like to say STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2002 09:07:35 AM ----- BODY:

    I'd just like to say a tremendous block of cheery thanks to Alan for the Air album that I received last week from my wishlist and to send a stupified by oh-so-bloody-happy face to Stuart - Ganesh on The Underground - for the best present I think I've ever received in my entire bloody life. I couldn't be more grateful if you'd given me Tobey Maguire.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tremendous news: Popbitch godhead mooted STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2002 02:10:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Tremendous news: Popbitch godhead mooted to take over The Face magazine!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fun with a lesbian (sorry, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/26/2002 04:38:13 PM ----- BODY:

    Fun with a lesbian (sorry, L'espion) camera in and around the office as taken by Mr Matt Biddulph of makeashorterlink infamy: See if you can spot me...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Announcing the relaunch of The STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/27/2002 08:53:49 AM ----- BODY:

    Announcing the relaunch of The Barbelith Underground - now with happy sparkly colours, a completely rebuilt back-end courtesy of Cal Henderson and a raft of mostly-functioning new techniques in community self-management that I might write up if I get a moment... Let's just check they work though first...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith and work are occupying STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/27/2002 07:33:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Barbelith and work are occupying most of my waking hours at the moment, so I'll just apologise to the world if you're feeling neglected. Perhaps I can ease your pain with a list of all the ways that you can incorrectly spell Britney Spears.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And suddenly it's Saturday and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/30/2002 01:07:57 AM ----- BODY:

    And suddenly it's Saturday and I haven't posted for days.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So my family have all STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:11:59 AM ----- BODY:

    So my family have all gone to bed and the clocks have changed and I look up out of the window of my bedroom where I'm typing away in complete darkness with my shirt off and my iPod playing Air and when I do I see that the moon's yellow through the mist.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm standing in the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:16:40 AM ----- BODY:

    So I'm standing in the kitchen with my mother and the BBC suddenly switches over to report on the Queen Mother finally kicking the bucket. And we're both drawn towards the TV for a moment, and the atmosphere suddenly becomes slightly tense - like when you hear a friend on the phone and it's suddenly obvious that something bad has happened at the other end of the line because your friend's mood has suddenly changed from face-making to actually interested and worried. And then I say, "About bloody time, frankly!" And my mother bursts out laughing and then looks suddenly serious and then says "I hope that doesn't mean they'll cancel Casualty...." I mean come on - the woman's only been alive this long because she drained 2/3rds of the revenue of the National Health service and because they fed her the blood of teenage virgins mixed with gin four times a day.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm in the car STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:20:26 AM ----- BODY:

    So I'm in the car with my brother talking to him about my mother and father and I say to him that basically my mother's a bit weird sometimes because you never know what's going to make her irritable. It's like sometimes she's campaigning for an argument. And my brother kind of nods and laughs which with most other people would mean that they agreed, but with my little brother generally means that he's not really listening properly. And then we get home and my mother cooks this amazing meal which she calls 'Jamie Oliver Chicken' and afterwards my father looks incredibly happy and satisfied and says, "We don't often eat quite that well of an evening! Thank you darling!" And then for no reason at all my mother goes completely insane and we all stare at her dumbfounded.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We take a brief break STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:22:39 AM ----- BODY:

    We take a brief break from stories of Tom's weekend in Norfolk to suggest that you go and check that Yahoo haven't signed you up for an infinity of spam missives. They had me, and I don't recall agreeing to it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I got some great spam STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:28:10 AM ----- BODY:

    I got some great spam today - it was for naked girlie videos and pictures. It said that it had pictures of young naive girls that had somehow become captured by the evil porn business. It occurred to me that this was both the most highly self-referential porn I'd ever heard of, and also explains why people don't really do anything about those who are being exploited by the porn industry and who really wouldn't want to do it otherwise. It's because the people who watch the porn don't really want to believe that these people are doing it for a career. They want to believe that they started naive and were drawn in and corrupted by the horros of an evil industry. I think it must make it seem more sexy.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So my brother was thinking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:36:27 AM ----- BODY:

    So my brother was thinking about getting a Playstation 2 - and I was left with the responsibility of being as impartial as is humanly possible, while in the back of my head a voice was screaming, Why won't you buy it!? Why won't you buy it?! But instead he decided not to buy anything and I bought £130 worth of clothes and shoes I can't afford with money I don't have. Then later in the day I have the nerve to get subconsciously cross with my mother for the one thousandth time when she comments that I used to spend money like water when I was my little brother's age whereas he won't spend a penny on anything. Bloody woman.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So my brother and I STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 02:41:56 AM ----- BODY:

    So my brother and I originally bonded over The Simpsons, but now we've bonded over Jackass as well. We sat there tonight from 10pm for three hours until 2am (not a typo - work it out) looking at it with a mixture of delight and horror. We can't figure out whether it's the best TV show ever made or the worst piece of crap ever to air on anything ever. Either way we have decided that after school and university, my brother has to become the UK's answer to Johnny Knoxville. Finally my mother would have something legitimate to complain about... She'd be thrilled...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the most interesting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 03/31/2002 10:42:30 AM ----- BODY:

    One of the most interesting conversations on the net is happening over at Powazek.com literally as we speak. Derek's a well respected community-builder and designer with a long-standing committment to the interhighweb - and he's started a rebuttal of the current mantra, "The Web's Got Boring" which seems to be circulating around New Media circles at the moment. You want a rebuttal? Then spot the bloke at B3ta's Female or Shemale! The web rules. Still.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Factfile: Belaugh, Norfolk STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: History CATEGORY: History DATE: 04/01/2002 12:14:28 AM ----- BODY:

    I returned from my parents' place yesterday afternoon. I'd spent much of the day poking around the village - my young cousin had found a bizzare rusty Victorian-style hook in the garden which had set me to thinking. Belaugh - the village in which I grew up - was mentioned in the Doomsday book many many hundreds of years ago. And yet there are still only eighty residents and fifty houses. This number has barely changed over the years. And while only the church remains of the really old buildings, there must be traces of one thousand years of residency all around the place.

    I haven't been in the church in years, even though it's less than five minutes walk from my parents' house. But my mother suggested I went and had a look because there was a small presentation about the history of Belaugh in it. I went and I looked and I was suitably intrigued and decided to dig around on the net when I got home to see what I could find. And this is what I've managed to dig up...

    According to one source I've foung the church was assembled in the fourteenth century but still has some incorporated Norman walls and the old font.

    Two of the best things I managed to find were from William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk - one from 1845 and another from 1883.

    According to these records, in 1845 Belaugh had twice the inhabitants it does today - a massive 164 residents mainly situated in the village, itself located in the middle of "855 acres of rich loamy land, of which 199 are marsh, 647 arable, and seven plantations". The Old Rectory - which I believe was recently put on the market for something ridiculous like half a million pounds was valued more conservatively in those days. "The rectory, valued in the King's Book at £6, and in 1831, at £420 is in the patronage of the Bishop of Norwich".

    By 1881, the population has dropped to 139 - and the church cottages were being rented out for £18 a year. The big news is that someone has noticed the rood screen - which is of particularly good quality (Cromwellians apparently scratched the faces off the figures painted onto it - one classic quote from the time, "The screen hath the Twelve Apostles, their faces rubbed out by a godly trooper.") - and someone's slapped a proper high-pitched roof on it, to replace the thatch that had been there before [See a picture of the church today]. Belaugh has always been a fast moving place...

    Interestingly the Traffords have a very strong presence in the area then as now...

    Belaugh is located on the river Bure and there's a whole page about the navigable parts of the river which includes several rather glorious pictures.

    And to end with a few more images - here's a watercolour of the approach to Belaugh from Wroxham by boat and a victorian watercolour from over the river looking towards the church.

    Additional information: Here's a bit more research that I found online in mid 2003.

    Here's a map from the late 19th Century (1890 I think). Of particular interest to me is calling the bit down by the 'unsuitable for motors' road, "Belaugh Hole". I've also noticed that my parents home isn't on the map yet, which I could probably have found out by asking them, but hey. It's not the only empty area though - the area around Hill Piece is empty, and Sunny Haigh isn't there either, and there are no buildings up on the main Hoveton / Coltishall road. What are there are some building down by the Staithe - obviously pre-existing the current range of buildings down that road. Very interesting stuff...

    More pictures:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: I'm collating all the information I can find about the tiny Norfolk village of 'Belaugh' where I grew up, as part of my ongoing attempt to get some sense of personal history and where I fit into the world both geographically and personally... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J Lund EMAIL: belaugh@netzero.net IP: 64.7.52.98 URL: DATE: 02/04/2004 05:02:44 PM My ancestors were all from Belaugh - so I was really interested to find this site. I have visited it many times and keep hoping a house will come up for sale there - I love it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jeremy Sinclair EMAIL: jezzatwosheds@btinternet.com IP: 81.153.5.62 URL: DATE: 08/02/2004 01:47:09 PM Although I lived in Coltishall, I used to fish from the Gardens of Beleaugh rectory. My father knew the vicar -Reverend William Addison- through the Royal British Legion. Recently while speaking with my mother the subject of Beleaugh and Reverend Addison cropped up and she mentioned to me that he was the holder of a VC. A small amount of research on the net confirmed the name and the VC but nothing else. I wonder if there is any mention in the church records. He died in 1962. Just a little bit of interesting history, I thought. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: After a weekend in Norfolk STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2002 01:16:44 AM ----- BODY:

    After a weekend in Norfolk I've been attempting to get some greater sense of personal and cultural history by researching the history of the village of 'Belaugh' where I grew up. This is what I've found so far... You'll have to forgive the quality of my writing. I'm a little fried at the moment...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: AOL buys Blogs: "You can't STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2002 12:30:18 PM ----- BODY:

    AOL buys Blogs: "You can't really put figures on this," one executive told The Register, "but we think we have 78 per cent of the libertarian news blogs, 91 per cent of the ClueTrain Manifesto fan sites, and 59 per cent of all blogging female arts graduates, many of whom are Virgos," he said. "And the possibilities for vertical integration are endless," he enthused. "No cat will ever go ill again in America again in obscurity."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Riotbeard action... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/01/2002 11:58:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Rumour abounds on the net that Mark from Riothero.com has grown a beard. If you have evidence of this, e-mail immediately.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: iBooks are beautiful, but some STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2002 11:35:39 AM ----- BODY:

    iBooks are beautiful, but some people miss the various colours that you could make them and pine for something a little more extreme than the pearly white that is currently in vogue. And then again, some people aren't content just to pine...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When you start work at STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2002 11:39:23 AM ----- BODY:

    When you start work at the BBC you are given a temporary pass. They take a really unpleasant photo of you with the world's cheapest digital camera and edit it so that it makes you look like you're gurning, then they laugh and show it to their friends before printing it onto your pass. I've seen them do this. It's true. The best thing about the pass is that if you're very special you get given a little clip to put it onto your belt which includes this little mechanism so that you can pull out the pass on a little retractable cable and then let it go and it wizzes back to your waist. I have had much fun with this already. But the best thing about it is that there actually seems to be a culture involved in the wearing of it. I have been reliably informed that only dorks clip it to the front of their trousers. The hip place to put it is on the right-hand hip...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I am muchly loving STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2002 12:24:37 PM ----- BODY:

    Today I am muchly loving the cheek of the awesome Firda and her highly entertaining and completely head-destroying Blogger-parody. And if that bores you, then there's always discovering how Google uses pigeons to rate a page's relevance.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's not going to be STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2002 12:32:54 PM ----- BODY:

    It's not going to be up long, so you should probably go and look at it soon - Queen Mother rises from the dead!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a few really interesting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/02/2002 10:03:23 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a few really interesting debates ongoing at Barbelith at the moment... From the working classes involvement in political struggle, the function of the prison system, queer voices etc, etc. And of course there's always going to be the odd nutty thread. But hey.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Accessing my file... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2002 09:55:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Are you desperate to know more more, ever more about your humble narrator? If so, then you could always check out my file at haddock.org...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It isn't right, it isn't fair... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/04/2002 10:15:29 AM ----- BODY:

    "It isn't right, it isn't fair,
    There were no spaces anywhere....
    I think that hydrant wasn't there..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Faulty Gaydar... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/05/2002 05:04:41 PM ----- BODY:

    My gaydar has always been completly useless, so it's perhaps no surprise that I did remarkably badly at the b3ta gay or straight quiz. It's extraordinarily good fun - and it may tell you something you never expected about Jeremy Paxman!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big in Japan and Russia... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2002 11:18:14 AM ----- BODY:

    So every so often I check my referrers and I see a great big block of them come from a site I've never heard of, so I'll go and check 'em out. And almost every single time they're actually links to my google pornfinder mock-up. Now this would be completely cool except for the fact that absolutely none of referrers seem to be English-speaking. It's become really popular in the Far East and quite popular in (get this) Russia, but the English-speaking world apparently think it's just a bit tacky (evidenced by it only having been picked up by these sites on blogdex). Which of course it is. Perhaps I'm like one of those bands that becomes inexplicably popular in Japan while the whole world looks on in astonishment. Like Shampoo. That's me, that is - the weblogging Shampoo.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Queen Mother Rises From The Dead... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2002 11:21:32 AM ----- BODY:

    It's a shame when parodies have to be taken down, it really is. I mean, I work for the BBC, so I can completely understand why they felt that the Queen Mother Rises From The Dead parody was inappropriate, but it's still a shame. You know? I mean, it was kind of funny.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Subtle, huh? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2002 11:26:39 AM ----- BODY:

    So there's a guy at work who's twenty-two. He's really nice, he's good fun. But for some reason he hasn't twigged on the whole 'Tom is a big homo' thing. In fact I don't think any of them have. Now in almost every single other job I've ever had I've made it fairly clear that I'm a great big homo really quickly, but for some reason I quite liked the completely-not-an-issue thing of not having my sexual preference being discussed even a little bit. So I didn't mention it. And of course now it's getting harder to say anything. Particularly every time the really nice, well-intentioned 22-year-old makes some dumb joke about how he's worried I might be gay because I don't like football much. Very frustrating. I just don't want to embarrass anyone... Sigh...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm a fish... I have no potatoes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2002 11:48:17 AM ----- BODY:

    One of the best things abour working with geeks is that they understand the value of the ludicrous metaphor. Think of it this way: You're building a community site for the BBC, and you have to explain the process of a discussion from germination in someone's mind, to what's put on the final page. You can't do anything intuitive useful like actually discuss real conversations because then you get helpful replies like, "but no one would actually ask a question like that" or "but surely the answer to that one is really obvious?" So instead you have to say things like, "So I'm working at the BBC and I've noticed an lamentable absence of badgers in White City - sort it out!" or "I'm a fish - I have no potatoes - what do I have to do to get served around here?" Geeks understand this intuitively and immediately. Real people look at you funny.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Jewish men and Gentile men... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2002 11:58:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Extracts of an AIM conversation between Dan Brilliant (Jewish, Straight) and Tom Coates (Gentile, Gay) about the merits of Mr Noah Wyle - a conversation that swiftly descends into smut. Tom has just declared (once more) his love for the star of ER.

    Dan: hurray for skinny jews with long sensitive faces
    Dan: er
    Tom: I don't think he is Jewish actually
    Tom: I think he's HALF Jewish
    Tom: and on the wrong side
    Dan: hah
    Dan: jew
    Tom: hahaha
    Tom: fag!
    Tom: er...
    Tom: I wish people wouldn't keep doing that
    Tom: I don't ONLY fancy Jewish people!
    Tom: (although it fucking seems like it sometimes)
    Dan: it's ok
    Dan: jews are very fanciable
    Dan: some
    Tom: Yeah, but they don't understand the increased sensitivity of the uncut knob-end
    Tom: therefore are mostly a disaster in bed
    Dan: but i'd love to be fly on the wall of your psychoanalyst sessions
    Dan: girls also
    Tom: aha!
    Tom: interesting
    Dan: don't understand the difference
    Tom: one you have to stroke with a feather
    Tom: one you have to attack with a sandblaster
    Tom: get them confused and you're in trouble
    Dan: yep
    Dan: getting someone to be that violent with one's schlang is hard
    Tom: hahahahah
    Dan: but necessary
    Tom: I wish I felt comfortable enough to put this conversation up on plasticbag.org

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guess who's coming for dinner... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/06/2002 12:19:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Guess who's coming for dinner. Actually he and I and Davo et al are wandering out for meals and sightseeing over the next couple of days. Very much looking forward to it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One Hundred Moderation Actions?! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/07/2002 11:03:13 AM ----- BODY:

    Ouch. Early morning alarm when I go to Barbelith and discover that there are over one hundred moderation actions that I'm supposed to investigate. One hundred. One hundred. It is a relief to know that if I don't do them, someone else will...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Perl sings "Monkey Gone to Heaven"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/07/2002 11:34:14 AM ----- BODY:

    I'd just like to apologise to Russell of use.perl.org for posting his adaptation of 'Monkey Gone to Heaven' on plasticbag.org without attributing it to him. I don't know whether he'd be delighted or horrified to know that it had been circulated around at least two of the mailing lists I regularly contribute to (without its author being mentioned). Anyway - I hope this link makes up for it a bit. Apologies...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Grotesque Bat Likes Grotesque Twat! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/08/2002 11:53:15 PM ----- BODY:

    You can view the absence of posts over today as shocked silence after having some mad bloke's statement that the Queen Mum liked Ali G hideously confirmed. Grotesque imagery. Oldest of all old beligerent crones liking the least pleasant, least funny and least tasteful privileged North London comedy slummer. This hideous collision is like imagining Hitler making macrame place mats or seeing Bernard Manning doing Atomic Kitten impersonations.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's terrifying really - it's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/08/2002 11:59:43 PM ----- BODY:

    It's terrifying really - it's terrifying that it could take as little as three weeks of sporadic updates to halve the traffic a site gets. Halve! You lightweights. You quitters. I don't know why I bother writing all this guff for you sometimes. It's like your heart's not really in it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's probably quite poor quality STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/09/2002 02:53:50 PM ----- BODY:

    It's probably quite poor quality behaviour to spend your two-minutes' of silence frantically typing. But it was the only moment in the morning when I felt I had any time at all to get anything done. Does that make me a bad man? It was a very quiet keyboard!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The thing I'm most looking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/09/2002 02:54:47 PM ----- BODY:

    The thing I'm most looking forward to reading about on the internet at the moment is Bart's thoughts on London. It was very entertaining meeting him, although he looked a little shell-shocked most of the time. But I'm dying to hear what he thought of it all...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stolen images in the paper... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 04/09/2002 10:51:20 PM ----- BODY:

    Well of course the big news of the day is that although I'm not actually one of the people in this advert, at least I know a fair share of them [found here! oops!]. According to the advert they're exactly the kind of people that are needed for the position of 'sales executive' for Teddington, they understand field sales and have a positive attitude and motivation. Whereas I was under the impression that they were a group of idle webloggers, many of whom have actual proper jobs, and who submitted their passport snaps to an impromptu online collection - little expecting that an unscrupulous newspaper advert designer might whip them off to white-passport-photo-slavery in [pron]AZZER-BUY-JAHN[/pron].

    Let's examine the advert from the top - I don't know who they all are, but I can point you in the right direction for most of them. Firstly is the redoubtable Davo who is leaving us shortly for Noozleland, then comes Graybo who we are reliably informed by a huge thick arrow has a vibrant personality and lots of confidence (despite appearing to be grimly sitting through a particularly implausible and depressing European art-house movie), then there is a clown - which can only be Mo Morgan during one of his summer holiday educational breaks which he spends in clown drag helping misanthropic Irish children to avoid becoming misanthropic old bastards who work for the government. Beneath him is the well-known poet, homosexual and long-dead fop Oscar Wilde, then there's the beautiful Meg Pickard who seems entirely unthrilled about the whole affair over on her site ('in with anger, out with love'), a substantially younger-than-he-is-today Nick Jordan and finally an out-of-work actor who I imagine probably pays the bills ocasionally by getting stints as 'third homicidal maniac' in Crimewatch reconstructions.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On finishing "Lord of the Rings"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/10/2002 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:

    On Saturday I finished 'Lord of the Rings' for the first time. I started reading it almost exactly ten years ago and got about one sixth of the way through it before deciding to 'have a bit of a break'. I'm doing better with it than I am with Ulysses though. The race continueth - after ten years Rachel's still on page 34 while I have roared ahead to a remarkable page 46. I'm reading Emergence now. It's quite an entertaining read. I'm not convinced that much of it is really about emergence and self-organisation, and a lot of it seems to be balanced on some fairly precarious conjecture, but it's certainly good to think with.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Conversations about community... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/10/2002 11:30:32 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the best conversations on the web at the moment about community development is taking place over at MetaTalk at the moment. It's about how to handle the burgeoning size of Metafilter and it's particularly interesting to me, because I had a conversation with Matt Haughey about this a while back (and about our two radically different communities - each of which are facing a similar problem). And it looks like we've been moving in parallel with some of the ways in which we might attempt to resolve these problems as well...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ev on Weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 09:58:11 AM ----- BODY:

    Ev interviewed: "Well, writing a weblog is, in essence, simply writing. So most of the rules of good writing apply -- clarity, articulateness, conciseness. That doesn't mean it can't be casual, or quirky, or unconventional in style. But those who are either practiced writers or who at least take the time to edit a bit tend to be more readable. Also, not being afraid to add your own personality is important. A big part of what attracts people to blogs is their personal nature, as opposed to corporate media, but some people aren't confortable enough to let themselves show, so they tend to be lest interesting than they could be."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Am I unpleasant or not? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:31:25 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm thinking about a new and completely unpleasant feature for plasticbag.org - based around the 'meet' functionality at hotornot.com. Basically I signed up for this ages ago and occasionally get an e-mail in saying that someone wants to meet me. It's all very embarrassing. Anyway - it occurs to me that I could be completely unpleasant and simply link to every single person who expresses an interest in meeting me - thus revealing the true depths of my personal despair...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The History of the BBC STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:47:12 AM ----- BODY:

    The History of the BBC
    It might not be the most astonishing looking site but for those less familiar with the mighty organ of the British media it's an incredibly useful place to start getting informed. I did quite badly in the 1980s decade quiz.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Online Community Report Are you STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:47:57 AM ----- BODY:

    Online Community Report
    Are you a community builder? Are you interested in the latest revenue models for online communities? Well ok, so tht's a bit of a long-shot. I think it's interesting...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jim Bowen 2001 If you're STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:48:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Jim Bowen 2001
    If you're British and in your mid-to-late twenties or above, then Bullseye star Jim Bowen probably occupies a very very special place in your heart. Particularly if - like me - a weekend stay with your grandparents as a child involved a heavy dose of 'nothing in this game for two in a bed' on a Sunday afternoon...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Plague Bored by life? Wish STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:48:38 AM ----- BODY:

    Plague
    Bored by life? Wish you were dead? Live in London? What a shame you didn't live there in 1665 when you could have been one of the 100,000 people killed off by the Great Plague. Channel Four have all the charnel knowledge...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mork and Mindy Mork calling STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:52:48 AM ----- BODY:

    Mork and Mindy
    Mork calling Orson, Come in Orson. This is Mork calling Orson - complete with cheesy music.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is there anything good on the web? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/12/2002 10:53:11 AM ----- BODY:

    It has been mooted recently by a lot of your more fashionable pundits that the web just isn't as interesting as it used to be. I had this discussion with Matt Webb just the other day, in fact. He swore blind that there was no longer anything interesting on the web. Well he was wrong. And I'm going to link to fucking loads of things today to demonstrate exactly how wrong a man can be...

    Street Pornography
    It's probably not quite what you think it is, but it's still awfully good. A collection of captured streetlife - fast, unfocused, weirdly composed (if composed at all). Atmosphere is everything.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: E-mail to Blog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/13/2002 04:33:15 AM ----- BODY:

    Did you know you can now post to Blogger (or at least Blogger Pro) via e-mail?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt: gninrom doog. Tom: ayeh... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 04/13/2002 02:23:30 PM ----- BODY: Matt: gninrom doog.
    Tom: ayeh
    Matt: ?neht thgin tsal gnibbulc tuo og uoy did
    Tom: sey
    Matt: .keew gnol a neeb s'ti .derekcank gnikcuf .htimsremmah ot kcab tnew dna godtoh a tog i
    Tom: elihw a rof decnad dna zratspop ot tnew ew
    Matt: ?uoy fo ynam
    Tom: ?yllaer
    Matt: .skeew gnorw fo kcats elohw a dah ev'i
    Tom: sdneirf rehto s'ovad fo elpuoc a dna em ,ovad ,nomis ,nai - wef a
    Tom: kcul dab
    Matt: ?yadot ot pu uoy era tahw ,os
    Tom: .okraD einnoD dehctaw tsuj ev'I
    Tom: .legnA dna yffuB hctaw thgim won kniht I dnA
    Matt: .taht wonk t'nod i
    Tom: .kniht, ti evol d'uoY .ti ees ot evah ouy hO
    Matt: .raey fo emit siht ta lufituaeb s'ti yltnerappa .wek ot gniog tuoba gnikniht m'i hguohtla
    Tom: ?haey
    Tom: ?gnihtemos ro retal eivom a rof pu eb uoy dluoW
    Matt: ?saedi yna .ees ot gniog er'uoy tahw sdneped
    Matt: .noitaripsni rof kcuts etiuq gnileef ,syawla sa ,tub .oot dnekeew siht nwolcedispu na gnitirw eb ot desoppus m'i
    Tom: .doog eb dluow ti dna flah dna ruoh na rof citats yalp dluoc yeht !seivom gnikcuf eht s'tI - tsirhC suseJ .smlif cificeps ees ot seivom eht ot og ylno ohw elpoep dnatsrednu t'nod yllaer I
    Tom: ?leappa eseht fo yna
    Matt: .looc os era srotca krow fo tuo .dnuora gnignah tsuj sruoloc tnereffid ni pu desserd elpoep .CBSH ni ertaeht teerts looc yllaer emos s'ereht yadot htimsremmah ni :yllatnedicni .gnihtemos ro tra ecnamrofrep emos saw ereht fi ebyam ro ,ot koob a daer dluoc i dna rethgil tib a saw ti fi ti referp d'i .gniht eno ylno gniod ot sruoh elpuoc a etacided ot drah tib a ti dnif i
    Matt: .se htiw taht ees ot desimorp i tub ..xap'k
    Tom: .gniyonna er'uoy dog
    Tom: ?gro.gabcitsalp no siht tup I nac
    Matt: .ekil uoy fi
    Tom: .ekil I
    Tom: ?retal klat .tib a rof etamtalf ees og ot evah I
    Matt: ).semordnilap htiw dnuora gnikcum tsuj ,em dnim t'nod( ?"was i tac a ro rac a ti saw"
    Matt: .puy
    Tom: amanap ,lanac a ,nalp ,a nam a
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Long bony finger-wagging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2002 11:14:58 AM ----- BODY:

    During my short life, I have not found many reasons to want to go around Meg's house and smack her on the back of the knees while wagging a long bony finger at her. But I think this picture may have finally pushed me over the edge.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things other people accomplished... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2002 11:33:31 AM ----- BODY:

    Are you feeling adequate today? Not too many crushing self-doubts? Able to look at yourself in the mirror without collapsing? Then what you need is Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age. Guaranteed to make you realise how bloody pointless you are. Meanwhile, if you want to know what the Queen Mum accomplished in her long, rich and incredibly privileged life then go see this particularly fine flash tribute to her. Guaranteed to make you realise how bloody pointless she was.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is Blogroots? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2002 07:14:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Trailer campaign: What is Blogroots? [Left-to-right: Hourihan | Bausch | Haughey]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Googlematic AIMbot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2002 07:27:37 PM ----- BODY:

    Of course it was all my idea. There we were on the interhighweb - chatting (as is our wont) about his plans to make something truly wonderful using nothing but green paint, tin foil and the leaves of a banana tree. But I said, "No! Why do you waste your time with these things? They are as flotsam. Make me instead an AIMbot that can search Google." And he did.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cal, interviewed... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2002 07:43:06 PM ----- BODY:

    He's the god who coding my crap ideas up and called it Barbelith and the god behind many of today's leading web projects (some secretly - some not so secretly). And now he's been interviewed. I present Cal Henderson.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blutac is smurf-poo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/14/2002 08:25:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Blutac is smurf-poo. You heard it here first.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shamanism in a nutshell... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/15/2002 12:04:51 AM ----- BODY:

    Today on Barbelith: Shamanism in a nutshell (2): "Shamanistic practice has an incredibly vast range of applications including, business, warfare, prosperity, employment, children, love and friendship, all designed maximise the health of the spirit. JanFreya investigates. "

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Largest collaborative structure... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2002 04:42:29 PM ----- BODY:

    So I finished reading Emergence about a week ago, and it's fall of all this conversation about ants and the ways in which they collaborate with one another in order to form huge functioning units, without any of the individual ants 'planning' anything or being 'in charge'. And this morning, what do we see but the largest collaborative venture every created in the history of the world - and it's been made by ants. [Plus: Really cool animated gif from CNN]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New toy! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2002 04:43:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Oooh. Aaaah. I've got a new toy at work.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So in a tiny room STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/16/2002 11:15:08 PM ----- BODY:

    So in a tiny room in the whitewashed lower-colon of London's BBC Television Centre this evening I (and about ten or so other punters who work mostly on the BBC's intranet) got to talk to and ask lots of questions of Chris Locke - of Cluetrain Manifesto / Rageboy infamy.

    I have a whole raft of opinions about some of the stuff that was discussed this evening - some pertaining to my current job working with Greg Dyke's culture-changers at the BBC - some pertaining to some of the casual references to honesty and complete openess in the workplace - and a lot to do with Chris Locke's ideas about trusting people who work for you to work in the best way, letting the people who buy and use your products tell you what they're for and what you're doing wrong, actually empowering them and actually freeing them - because they're going to be free soon enough anyway, and if you don't get with the program, then someone else (the community itself) will. I have a nasty tense feeling down my spine that indicates that I'm horribly bastardising a lot of this. But it's midnight and I'm tired.

    Anyway - quite a lot of his ideas are based around the radical many-to-many communications and publishings of the internet that are resistant to hierarchy and let everyone have their say. But I think the sucesses of the internet that he describes develop specifically because it is a property of the internet that quality and usefulness self-promote. Good stuff is linked to. Good stuff is seen. Useful commentary is read.

    This may seem like an obvious statement. But it's really not. The hyperlink doesn't only destroy hierarchy, it's also the most profoundly powerful meme-spreading tool in existence. You have an idea - a concept - and suddenly anyone in the world can reference it. And if the meme is good and powerful, then it will replicate itself - it will self-propogate via a tiny mental tendril cyber-represented by a tiny piece of blue-underlined text. The idea in miniature, quasi-spreading. Anyway - the point is that such amazingly creative projects arise on the internet (and more importantly can be found on the internet) precisely because many many other projects are not as good. There is an immediate issue of quality of idea, quality of entertainment, quality of entertain- (or inform-) er.

    This means the internet is immediately mediated and stratified. While everyone can communicate - everyone can say something, the interesting people rise to the top and form communities because they are good entertainers, meme spreaders, communicators etc. But the places where Chris is talking about introducing this culture don't have a mechanism built into them which is as simple as the 'hyperlink', and they have additional communication abilities that can submerge interesting conversation, creative working, transformative processes under the person-to-person equivalents of trolling, spam and cracking. If such a transformative way of being is to emerge in the corporate culture space, then a gelling agent must be employed. A structural gelling agent. As 'HTML' is to the web, so the mechanisms of internal structure must frame free-wheeling experimentation and imaginative development.

    In my experience on the net - as in business - there are a hell of a lot of people who haven't got the slightest idea what they're talking about and can't even describe what it is they want to talk about that well. Listening to such people within your organisation voice their opinions doesn't enhance your business any more than pretending to listen to them and nodding sagely and trying to make them feel valued would.

    What's needed is a mechanism that legitimately frees people from hierarchy by allowing the talented, skilled and imaginative operate as clump-formers - seed crystals that become impromptu centres of trust and creativity. Ideas of webs of trust, of individuals relating to one another and becoming friends of friends of friends, of creative enterprises which aren't top-down governed or top-down selected - but are self-selecting for quality - these are the interesting ways to transform your business. And there's an implicit structure there from the offset...

    Appendix: Anyway right at the beginning of his talk, he said that there had been a reaction to something he said in one of his earlier lectures. And it was all about how to get webloggers involved in content creation for big companies like the BBC. And he mentioned that you could get in some of the better writers or people skilled in particular forms of content. And then he mentioned that they could be tremendously useful. And I sat there with a head full of questions - how would they be useful!? Which webloggers was he thinking of? But mostly I wondered if any weblogger really finds it easy to write in the same way in work as out. And I thought probably not - because when larger things are your responsibility other than the vague entertainment of twenty or so London-based-geeks, then you'll probably get slightly more tense about how much of a fuckwit you look... Ends

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tied to the tracks of the Cluetrain STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 04/16/2002 11:39:01 PM ----- BODY: So in a tiny room in the whitewashed lower-colon of London's BBC Television Centre this evening I (and about ten or so other punters who work mostly on the BBC's intranet) got to talk to and ask lots of questions of Chris Locke - of Cluetrain Manifesto / Rageboy infamy. I have a whole raft of opinions about some of the stuff that was discussed this evening - some pertaining to my current job working with Greg Dyke's culture-changers at the BBC - some pertaining to some of the casual references to honesty and complete openess in the workplace - and a lot to do with Chris Locke's ideas about trusting people who work for you to work in the best way, letting the people who buy and use your products tell you what they're for and what you're doing wrong, actually empowering them and actually freeing them - because they're going to be free soon enough anyway, and if you don't get with the program, then someone else (the community itself) will. I have a nasty tense feeling down my spine that indicates that I'm horribly bastardising a lot of this. But it's midnight and I'm tired. Anyway - quite a lot of his ideas are based around the radical many-to-many communications and publishings of the internet that are resistant to hierarchy and let everyone have their say. But I think the sucesses of the internet that he describes develop specifically because it is a property of the internet that quality and usefulness self-promote. Good stuff is linked to. Good stuff is seen. Useful commentary is read. This may seem like an obvious statement. But it's really not. The hyperlink doesn't only destroy hierarchy, it's also the most profoundly powerful meme-spreading tool in existence. You have an idea - a concept - and suddenly anyone in the world can reference it. And if the meme is good and powerful, then it will replicate itself - it will self-propogate via a tiny mental tendril cyber-represented by a tiny piece of blue-underlined text. The idea in miniature, quasi-spreading. Anyway - the point is that such amazingly creative projects arise on the internet (and more importantly can be found on the internet) precisely because many many other projects are not as good. There is an immediate issue of quality of idea, quality of entertainment, quality of entertain- (or inform-) er. This means the internet is immediately mediated and stratified. While everyone can communicate - everyone can say something, the interesting people rise to the top and form communities because they are good entertainers, meme spreaders, communicators etc. But the places where Chris is talking about introducing this culture don't have a mechanism built into them which is as simple as the 'hyperlink', and they have additional communication abilities that can submerge interesting conversation, creative working, transformative processes under the person-to-person equivalents of trolling, spam and cracking. If such a transformative way of being is to emerge in the corporate culture space, then a gelling agent must be employed. A structural gelling agent. As 'HTML' is to the web, so the mechanisms of internal structure must frame free-wheeling experimentation and imaginative development. In my experience on the net - as in business - there are a hell of a lot of people who haven't got the slightest idea what they're talking about and can't even describe what it is they want to talk about that well. Listening to such people within your organisation voice their opinions doesn't enhance your business any more than pretending to listen to them and nodding sagely and trying to make them feel valued would. What's needed is a mechanism that legitimately frees people from hierarchy by allowing the talented, skilled and imaginative operate as clump-formers - seed crystals that become impromptu centres of trust and creativity. Ideas of webs of trust, of individuals relating to one another and becoming friends of friends of friends, of creative enterprises which aren't top-down governed or top-down selected - but are self-selecting for quality - these are the interesting ways to transform your business. And there's an implicit structure there from the offset... Appendix: Anyway right at the beginning of his talk, he said that there had been a reaction to something he said in one of his earlier lectures. And it was all about how to get webloggers involved in content creation for big companies like the BBC. And he mentioned that you could get in some of the better writers or people skilled in particular forms of content. And then he mentioned that they could be tremendously useful. And I sat there with a head full of questions - how would they be useful!? Which webloggers was he thinking of? But mostly I wondered if any weblogger really finds it easy to write in the same way in work as out. And I thought probably not - because when larger things are your responsibility other than the vague entertainment of twenty or so London-based-geeks, then you'll probably get slightly more tense about how much of a fuckwit you look... Ends ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: In which at midnight after a long day at the office, Tom attempts to explain why the transformative effect of the internet on society is not necessarily immediately transferable to business or culture... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AJ Kandy EMAIL: ajkandy@interstarinc.com IP: 207.35.87.240 URL: http://www.faxserver.com DATE: 05/03/2002 03:28:59 PM Ah! what an opportunity! I recently got on the cluetrain myself and recognized aspects of every company i've ever worked for (including the present one) in their anecdotes. It is difficult to suggest that everyone "Blog Now!"...a bit like saying "Let's all be individualists, together!"...but in a practical sense, what can be done is to foster a blog/Usenet type no-holds-barred intranet. If people have blogs, sure, link 'em up. If they don't, well, give them the tools to do so as they wish. What would be useful in a BBC context is to give everyone (not just the on-air personalities, or the shows, but everyone- producers, staff, production people, EVERYONE) access. Too often in broadcast media the site it either becomes the purview of a few web-savvy types, or it becomes hierarchical - where the gates to access are controlled by a bureaucratic minority. If the BBC (or in Canada's case, the CBC) really wants to be a public broadcaster, it should open itself up...if the credits for a show are posted, every credit should be a hyperlink, or at the least a bbc.co.uk email address...every show could have its companion message board and a cluster of blogs and outside links. too often it's ironically easy for the meeja to become isolated from the very public they serve, and opening up in this way means more connectivity, a shorter feedback loop, and hopefully better and more relevant content. (Heck, with the proliferation of broadcast-quality computer editing suites, why not open up the gates to viewer-produced content?) Sure, it can open the floodgates to a lot of useless crap as well..but as your article states, the cream rises to the surface - good things are linked to, people become authorities because of what they know, not who they know or where they went to school.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another goodbye to Davo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2002 12:12:34 AM ----- BODY:

    So tonight I said goodbye to Davo for the third time in three days, and it was just as difficult this time as it was all the others. I can't imagine anything I want less than for him to leave the country. He will be terribly terribly missed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Dance for me disco monster! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2002 11:50:24 AM ----- BODY:

    "Dance for me disco monster! Dance!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can someone explain to me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/17/2002 07:39:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Can someone explain to me how I'm still at work at nearly eight in the evening, pissed on Pimms, working on templates for an internal work process interface for a project designed to make the BBC the best place in the entire goddam universe? Because frankly I'm drunk and not a little baffled by the whole thing...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Overheard this morning - a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2002 11:59:33 AM ----- BODY:

    Overheard this morning - a woman confuses 'backwards-compatible' with 'reverse-engineer', and I wonder - should you have a license to use words as oneupmanship weapons? [Edited to add - could I possibly start a whole new Sarah Jessica Parker inspired column called 'Geek in the City' all about the tremendously amusing antics of new media workers in London. Or would that be totally lame? Vote lame!]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I went to see a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2002 01:20:52 PM ----- BODY:

    I went to see a studio flat today in Marylebone - probably it will be outside my financial limits, but it was astonishingly nice. Semi-separated kitchen and studio with lots of power-points and a long corridor down the side of the building towards the bathroom. Plenty of space for book-shelves down the corridor too. I was shown around by a strange tall birdlike woman - all rapid movements and nervous repetition. She started the tour by taking us to the back terrace garden - a wonderful, calm space unfortunately inhabited by a rather surprised half-naked fat old man with partly-scraped-back white-hair and a kind of tai-chi like serenity. "He's probably a sitting-tenant," said Bird Lady, "Probably been here for years...."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Does this, or does this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2002 02:23:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Does this, or does this not, look like the Best Desktop Ever. There are benefits to this current job.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thoughts on the fronts of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/18/2002 10:57:35 PM ----- BODY:

    Thoughts on the fronts of men's trousers: Many trousers seem to me to be designed to work a little like cod-pieces. The rucking at the front is designed to give an impossibly ridiculous cock-like peak that clearly ISN'T cock, but by its presence distracts from bulges, shapes etc that could be considered cock-like. All men in the world can be divided into those who wear trousers that accentuate their cock or replace it with something larger, or those that wear trousers that manfully withhold themselves. It's uncouth to take your cock out in public. Similarly, it's vulgar to wear trousers that have a sole purpose of cock enhancement. Or such is my opinion...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm sorry, but really. What STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2002 10:18:56 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm sorry, but really. What the hell is Google Answers all about?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cut and Paste Culture: Ok STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/19/2002 10:58:17 AM ----- BODY:

    Cut and Paste Culture: Ok - this is interesting. Or at least I think it's interesting. Or more to the point, I find it interesting. Anyway - I have these two gorgeous computers on my desk - one's a stunning PC, one's a much more stunning iMac. And I often find myself trying to do things on the PC that can only be done easily on a Mac - like viewing .js files for example. On the Mac, you just open it in IE and it displays on screen. The default position for the PC seems to be to try and run it. Very annoying. So I'm working in Frontpage (don't ask) on the PC and I have the javascript open in the browser window on the Mac, and I copy the chunk I want on the Mac, then turn around and pick up a different mouse and try and paste it into the PC. And it doesn't work. And I look at the screen in blank astonishment. This has happened several times and every time I'm surprised.

    So what I'm thinking is, when we cut or copy something from a computer, do we somehow think that we've picked it up physically? Or that we as individuals have kind of copied it to our individual head-space? Or am I just really lame?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is almost impossibly close STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2002 10:07:57 AM ----- BODY:

    This is almost impossibly close to an idea I once had and have never implemented. Mine was dirtier though.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One of the things that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2002 10:20:17 AM ----- BODY:

    One of the things that I talked about in my interview for the role of community producer at the BBC - a job that I didn't get, by the way - was about how the BBC was perfectly placed to be the people who made Microsoft's passport program obselete. I mean, they're not beholden to any corporate interests, they wouldn't be able to sell your details to marketers and they have have the infrastructure and world-wide reknown to get away with it. But I wish they'd get a move on.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today I have a stinking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2002 10:41:39 AM ----- BODY:

    Today I have a stinking cold. I had it yesterday as well. Last night I felt like someone had drained my soul out of my feet. I had nightmares all night as well. But I can't remember any of them. Here are some salient facts you might like to know about colds:

    - Every year Americans suffer 1 billion colds.
    - Exposure to cold weather does not cause the common cold.
    - But cold-causing viruses often survive better in low humidity conditions - for example in the colder months.
    - Using aspirin to treat a cold may make you more infectious as you increase the concentration of the virus in your sneezes.
    - There is no definitive evidence that vitamin C eases or prevents colds.
    - Some people say that Zinc Acetate Lozenges are a clinically proven cold cure. I suspect this may be bullshit.
    - If you take normal decongestants and the like you're less likely to splurt out viruses out your nose. You may spread less colds this way.
    - Drinking milk does not increase green nasal cold goo.
    - Taking Echincea apparently costs a lot and doesn't do much if anything.

    I forget where I found out most of those things. I should probably conclude with a US-style disclaimer: "Warning: May be Bullshit! If you die it's not my fault!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: K10k is back... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2002 12:45:02 PM ----- BODY:

    K10k is back and it's as futuretech and tiny-fonted as ever. Watch as it makes your connection shudder with tiny pixel-goodness. Shiver as your browser struggles to render it. Be awed at its ridiculously high quality. Miss the tiny animated buttons that span round. Be generally very impressed by it, but not that surprised by it. Our rating: Fucking impressive, but not dramatically different.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Responses to a small note... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/20/2002 01:00:51 PM ----- BODY:

    VITAL: Read the responses to A small note from a patriot.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Trabaca redesigned once more... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/21/2002 11:54:02 AM ----- BODY:

    It used to be the staple of weblogging content - the announcement that someone (a friend / a company) has redesigned their site. Then everyone used to run over and point and critique the site in question and have a little think about whether or not it worked or not as a design and maybe make a few pointers. People don't do that so much any more. I wonder why. Announcement: Barty Trabaca has redesigned!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "Blake's Seven" Books... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/22/2002 07:58:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Reasons not to read any Blake's Seven books (as written by members of the original cast - no matter how cool they might have been): Barbelith.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Diary of the Plague Years... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2002 12:10:57 AM ----- BODY:

    Diary of the Plague Years, Day Five: After much careful analysis I can only note that the mysterious semi-liquid is gradually thickening as the days pass, congealing and becoming more solid. And as it does so, my consumption of cold-cure medicines and tissues appears to be declining in parallel. If this can be said to be 'improvement' then I must consider myself 'improved'.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Upgrading Movable Type... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2002 04:35:47 PM ----- BODY:

    In a frustrating hour at work in which I couldn't really do what I needed to do because I hadn't got the application that I asked for many many weeks ago, I decided to upgrade to Movable Type 2.0. And it didn't take long to install. And it was of superb and elegant quality...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From inside the BBC... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2002 05:04:43 PM ----- BODY:

    It's weird being inside the BBC when something like this happens.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Peeping Search Tom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/23/2002 05:32:15 PM ----- BODY:

    You dirty so-and-so. You love it don't you... I know you do. Watching. Not typing. Oh no. Just watching what other people have typed. Mmmmm. Oh yes. That's the stuff... Watching people on kanoodle type in 'teen boy decorating'. Oh yes. Or leering at the WWF Backlash requests at Yahoo! Buzz. Stop stop! It's too much. No more. Don't stop! Tell me Jeeves, are they still looking for the popular bridal website 'Martha Stewart Weddings'? And Metaspy - expose yourself to me! Show me people searching for diseases of the middle ages? Or Hank Azaria? And don't ... ever ... stop ... showing ... me search.com requests for Country French, Hot Rods and Custom Muscle Cars! Eurgh. And I'm spent...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three things about Mulholland Drive... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2002 02:15:44 AM ----- BODY:

    Three things about Mulholland Drive, seen last night with Mr Webb, Mrs Webb, Mr Henderson and some bloke called Tom from UMS. Firstly (of course) The Barbelith Thread. Then the (I fear superior) Metafilter thread. And finally the medium-cool Salon investigation.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ten things to do... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 04/24/2002 11:15:43 AM ----- BODY:

    Rather than call someone a wanker, why not...?

    1) Have a long, slow, luxurious bath! Perhaps buy some expensive body lotions or bubble bath. Make sure it's nice and hot and just sink into it!
    2) Why not get a back-rub? If you're that stressed, a calming back-rub can bring the smile right back to your face for a very reasonable fee.
    3) Treat yourself to something small that you've never been able to justify buying before. Something like a CD or maybe some expensive hair products. It's ok to be good to yourself. It really is...
    4) Book a holiday! Aggression just slips away when you know you've got a holiday coming up. Think of the beaches, or the nightlife, or the food! Don't you feel calmer already?
    5) Why not go for lunch with an old friend? Old friends always like to catch up with each other - and all that chat will bring you right back to what's really important! Don't your problems seem small and insignificant now?
    6) And if you can't go out - why not get some wonderful food brought in! There are many glorious places to order food from in London. Just because you don't have time to appreciate them, doesn't mean you shouldn't have time to appreciate yourself!
    7) Just take the afternoon off. Work's not everything. Perhaps you'd feel better about things if you just got away from everything for a few hours.
    8) A walk in a park is a wonderful way of valuing yourself more and might help you slow down. Smell the flowers! Look at the view! It's not quite a holiday, but it's a good thing to do every now and then...
    9) Or perhaps you could have a picnic with friends? That's several ideas all mixed together. And it's bound to make you feel more content and relaxed....
    10) And the easiest and simple way to make yourself feel better, and calmer and happier with the world? Just drink a few glasses of water, find somewhere peaceful and have a glorious relaxing afternoon nap...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Would you shag...? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2002 11:30:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Soul-searching question of the day: Look into your heart. Would you shag the Sven Snooker Streaker?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big Issue mention... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2002 02:58:16 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't imagine why anyone would be even vaguely interested in reading this again, but I found it online in an old rather badly transcribed form and decided to make it all plasticbag.org style sparky: Matthew Ford writes Read my diary.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On new dumb stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/24/2002 04:22:22 PM ----- BODY:

    There's lots of new dumb stuff around the site today that I assembled last night and 'made live' this morning. I'm not going to actually point you towards any of it though. I'm not sure some of it is very good or appropriate reading. So I thought maybe you people could just wander around the place and read stuff and mail me with your comments, bug reports and the like. In order to pre-empt some of your criticisms, the new plasticbag.org now comes with slightly frustrating permalinks that don't quite work right and are a bit of a fuck-up on Macs, which is depressing. But still. Permalinks. See how cutting-edge I am. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On mail-to-blog problems... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2002 10:08:18 AM ----- BODY:

    And several days after sending the e-mails to Blogger, my mail-to-blog entries finally appear. And have to immediately deleted. Of course.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I love the smell of Photoshop in the morning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/25/2002 03:50:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Another day, another piece of gloriously creative work. You know how it is. You've been there. We've all seen the creative trenches. I love the smell of Adobe Photoshop 7 for Mac OSX in the morning.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gimme your hands. Cause you're wonderful! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/26/2002 03:32:39 PM ----- BODY:

    Oh no love! you're not alone
    You're watching yourself but you're too unfair
    You got your head all tangled up but if I could only make you care
    Oh no love! you're not alone
    No matter what or who you've been
    No matter when or where you've seen
    All the knives seem to lacerate your brain
    I've had my share, I'll help you with the pain
    You're not alone

    Just turn on with me and you're not alone
    Let's turn on with me and you're not alone
    Let's turn on and be not alone
    Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful
    Gimme your hands cause you're wonderful
    Oh gimme your hands.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There is no European viewpoint... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 04/27/2002 01:40:56 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a hell of a lot of simmering resentment pouring out of America at the moment towards Europe and Europeans. Large portions of the right-wing media are full of it, but it's not only there. There seems to be resentment about the temerity of 'Europeans' to dare to comment on US politics or US foreign policy. I'm not going to comment on any of those things except to say that this idea of a one-nation Europe which shares an ideological position is complete bunk. Scandinavia have some of the most highly taxed and yet progressively left-wing politics in the world. Some European countries are incredibly poor comparatively. Some seem naturally right-wing, some left-wing. Many wounds still exist from hundreds and hundreds of years of co-existence. My mother still refers to the French as 'our natural enemy' (however much I beg her to stop). All the national stereotypes still exist. All the old enmities and alliances remain. All the individual national prides and ways of doing things - all the different senses of what is 'naturally right' as well. Referring to 'Europeans' as an unqualified mass is like referring to 'Americans' in the true sense - and intimating that the USA, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and all the other Central and South American states share a clear and unified view of what their continents should be moving towards. The difference is that Europe is gradually moving together, as the Americas move apart... For good or ill, only time can tell...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's better? What's best? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/27/2002 02:03:05 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the most fun and interesting little sites I've seen in ages, whatsbetter.com allows you to rate things in pairs, constructing by association a hierarchy of the best things in the universe. At the moment all your contributions are only added together, so you can see the world's favourite things - but there are a huge number of interesting things you could do with this kind of interface which tie into some ideas I had about a year ago. I really need to talk to Cal.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On imperfect renderings... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2002 12:30:15 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know whether this is something to be proud of or not, but I now appear to have a site that doesn't work perfectly in any browser. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 1st Annual Ninjas vs. Pirates Volleyball match... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2002 12:33:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Round One: Ninjas refuse to tell Pirates where game is to be held. Pirates raid Ninja coastal town, burn it down, get drunk. Ninjas sulk, hiss. Final Score: Ninjas 1, Pirates, 3. more

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Find out the weather wherever you are... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2002 12:42:52 PM ----- BODY:

    You know what's weird? That after decades of weather forecasting, one of the most amazing things on the internet remains that you can check the weather forecast for any part of the world. And for free! And on the BBC! I mean. That's impressive and useful.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everything you know is wrong! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2002 01:31:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Everything you know is wrong! Or at least fourteen things of the twenty-seven things I was asked were wrong: Take the disinformation quiz.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Woomera... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/28/2002 11:56:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Today on Barbelith: Woomera - "Woomera, a former missile testing base in the remote southern Australian desert, houses one of Australia's largest centres for detaining of refugees whilst their asylum claims are processed. Earlier this month, a group of protesters and activists managed to breach the camp's outer skin. 50 detainees escaped. More than two days on, 10 of the escapees remained on the run. Activist Aizura Hankin reports from the scene."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another new Apple product... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2002 11:21:05 AM ----- BODY:

    Another new Apple product - this time it's the eMac - a purely for education model of the iMac. It's kind of a retrograde step in a way, but I suspect that it might not remain education-only for long if people like the look of it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Review me already... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2002 04:28:23 PM ----- BODY:

    Go on then. Bloody review me already.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Davo needs a good wallop... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2002 08:15:43 PM ----- BODY:

    So he's still off wandering around Europe without me, the little stinker. He's still writing those dumb little stories about all the stupid places he's going to. Geneva. I mean. Does anyone give a damn?! Amsterdam? Feh. I've had it with places that Davo's going without me. They all suck. And then he's coming back here for a minute and it will be nice and fun for like a day. Then he's fucking off again. Pardon my language, but the little bastard needs a good wallop if you ask me. That'd keep him in line. Poncey colonials. Poncing off...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The world is ending... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2002 08:18:05 PM ----- BODY:

    The fifth sign of apocalypse is here. My cousin Susanna, known throughout her youth for swearing and changing her hair colour every twenty-two minutes and for sticking things through her ears over the bath and for generally listening to the Cure and growling at everyone - yes, that cousin Susanna - has just joined the committee of her local playgroup... There's only one final sign left to come - the sleeping of the lion with the lamb, and the lamb pulling out a chainsaw and then eating the lion's fleshy entrails. Then it's judgment day. We're all doomed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Harry Potter: Ninja or Pirate? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 04/30/2002 11:26:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Nick: Do you think Harry Potter is a Ninja or a Pirate?
    Tom: I think Harry Potter is definitely a Ninja
    Tom: it's the cloak of invisibility
    Nick: Really?
    Tom: but Ron Weasley is WAY pirate
    Nick: I would have said the relentless good feeling made Harry a pirate.
    Tom: I'm going to categorise EVERYONE into categories of ninja and pirate from now on
    Tom: Kate - ninja
    Tom: Mella - pirate
    Tom: Toby - pirate
    Tom: Nick - ninja
    Tom: Fenner - ninja
    Tom: Tom - ninja
    Tom: Saddam Hussein - pirate
    Tom: Margaret Thatcher - pirate
    Tom: Bill Gates - pirate
    Tom: Steve Jobs - ninja
    Tom: Noah Wyle - pirate
    Tom: Steven Spielberg - pirate
    Nick: Can I post this list?
    Tom: if you want!
    Nick: Nahhh.
    Tom: I didn't think so
    Nick: Half the names mean nothing...
    Tom: pussy
    Tom: - ninja
    Tom: doggy - pirate
    Nick: But you could post a list...
    Nick: Doggy?
    Nick: Oh, right.
    Tom: doggies! SOOOO pirates.
    Nick: That's SO true.
    Nick: My God.
    Nick: Now that would start a discussion, all right.
    Tom: Hahaha
    Nick: And Ninjas are, of course, creatures of the night, subversive, rejecting the male authority...
    Tom: exactly
    Tom: much like...
    Tom: Britney Spears
    Tom: - ninja
    Nick: Subtle rather than confrontational, weaker in a head-on confrontation...
    Tom: actually no. she's a pirate
    Nick: What?
    Tom: close run thing though
    Nick: Thank you.
    Tom: depeche mode are ninjas
    Nick: Yes.
    Nick: Harrison Ford?
    Nick: Pirate.
    Tom: pirate
    Nick: George Clooney?
    Tom: pirate
    Nick: Pirate city....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the middle of a brain-fart... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2002 08:19:33 PM ----- BODY:

    So for some reason, after a tiring but basically successful day, I became totally and utterly consumed by self-doubt and a desire to hack myself into ribbons mentally, and so I did it and then I felt awful and crap and like I was the most useless person in the world, so I used my tactic of making sure that you play music which redirects your mood from passive to active - which made me angry (which was good), and then for a little bit I felt like everyone else was shit, which was a novel shift in perspective, and then I came home and now I want to complain at someone, but I probably shouldn't because they'll think I'm being self-indulgent. Which I probably am. It always worries me when I can't tell. Like it worries me when I don't know if I'm talking too much. Or when I feel conversations spiralling out of hand and I don't know how to steady them out again or withdraw gracefully. Other people have those horrible moments when you don't know how to make your laughs sound genuine, even though they are. Right?

    I don't know why I should feel the need to go through all this palaver. I normally keep my occasional brain-farts extremely private and controlled - and I don't know why I should feel like such a bloody inadequate thirty-year old. Where did all this stuff come from? Is it because I was stuck in a room with people all day, and because I find talking to large groups of people so unbelievably terrifying. What the fuck has happened to me after a year of privacy that makes the outside world so overwhelming at times? And when did everyone get so confident that they were right? And where's the thing in the world that I can be best at that would justify my existence?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to ask someone out on a date... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2002 08:23:30 PM ----- BODY:

    Advice that other people may find amusing, but which today is really sticking in my head: How to ask someone out on a date.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: People post crap, when you're a blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/02/2002 09:58:44 PM ----- BODY:

    People post crap, when you're a blogger
    All sites look crappy, when you're A-list
    Chicks' sites are boring, they are all flowery
    Streets stay outside - where I never go...
    When you blog....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Too much fluff and not enough bum... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2002 08:46:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Review: Too much fluff and not enough bum? I'll show you....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 80% of their campaign promises... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2002 08:57:27 AM ----- BODY:

    An interesting piece of research from the BBC suggests that New Labour have fulfilled 80% of their campaign promises since they came into power. Now, I think we've all felt disillusioned with the Labour party at some point during the last few years, but surely 80% is a pretty astonishingly high figure. Particularly for a country that increasingly believes that politicians don't do anything of value. Unfortunately, such good news is rather undercut by the two seats won by the BNP in Burnley.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On my permalink nipples... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/03/2002 09:00:52 AM ----- BODY:

    Permalink nipples? Oh that's great. Just great. "Click on my permalink nipples, baby..." - "Move your hand over my permalink nipples..." - or perhaps the most disturbing, "Move your mouse over my permalink nipples..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why is Kottke a good weblogger? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2002 09:28:27 AM ----- BODY:

    Why is Kottke a good weblogger? We've all read The Tipping Point by now. He makes messages 'sticky' (I wonder how many other people could have thrown five hundred people at plasticbag.org in a day) - 'permalink nipples' is as close to the most-clickable-link-ever as you could hope to get for an audience of webloggers. He is a true information-gathering maven, operating within a medium that radically enhances his ability to act as a meme-disseminating connector / salesman. And contextually, he was one of the first to undertake the blogging experiment before the explosion of numbers - making him the logical 'founding-father' of the new wave of webloggers. Like it or not, everything Jason says on the internet carries more weight than even your site.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Models of Distributed Community... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2002 09:30:48 AM ----- BODY:

    If I wrote and edited technology stories for a living, I too would make every effort to flog my own weblog. Self-promotion in a tech-culture must be a lot about zeitgeist-surfing. As it is, I nearly have a career path again, suddenly. I'm a community-producer / expert with vast numbers of teeming models for distributed community welling up in my widdle mind.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mr Webb is off the Emerging Tech... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/04/2002 12:18:33 PM ----- BODY:

    So, Mr Webb is off to San Francisco for the Emerging Tech Thing- and I'm putting out an appeal on his behalf - will someone look after him for us? He's too valuable to the UK New Media elite to be damaged... Plus he knows all there is to know about Googlematic Aimbots...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rolling Stone's 50 uncoolest records... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/05/2002 12:50:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Rolling Stone's 50 uncoolest records that you should buy immediately: I am deeply ashamed that I don't own any of them... I used to own Listen without Prejudice, but I gave it away to my best friend's sister when I was seventeen. I maintain that Pet Shop Boys' Actually is a really good record, even though my tape copy of it (which I bought cheap as a knock-off in Turkey when I was sixteen) wore out about a thousand years ago. And although I never had the Barenaked Ladies album, I think my friend Glyn did, and I seem to remember it being played when we drove around the south of England when I was nineteen, camping in fields and by the sides of roads. I do quite want the Weezer record though.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bank "Holiday" Weekend... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/06/2002 09:40:29 PM ----- BODY:

    Bank "Holiday" Weekend:
    Saturday: Work in the office (4 hours), Movie (Panic Room), Drink (2 Mojitos), Meal (New World)
    Sunday: Work in the office (4 hours), TV (West Wing, Strictly Ballroom, Empire Records), Sleep at 2.45am
    Monday: Work in the office (3 hours), Lunch (Dim Sum at New World), Shopping (1 magazine), More Work in the office (4 1/2 hours)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What will be in OSX? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2002 09:01:59 AM ----- BODY:

    So what will be in the next release of OSX? A build-in chat app for one (although I'm not sure that's strictly useful any more), SMS-messaging via Bluetooth phones, a map interface to Sherlock, AI-based spam filtering in the Mail app, an upgrade to Quartz to speed up rendering times. Plus - spring-loaded folders, graphics-tablet functionality, network software, Quicktime 6.... I'm drooling already...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: EU logos and flags... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2002 05:08:20 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know what's more terrifying frankly - that the European Union are considering an eye-bleeding new logo to represent themselves with, or that the logo resembles almost exactly an eye-bleeding site I've just built for the BBC's intranet... [also BBC News]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Plastic bags and history's landfill... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2002 05:12:42 PM ----- BODY:

    What happens when the Plastic Bag is finally consigned to history's landfill. Will the world's antipathy have been rained down on it so hard that the name itself will live through history in infamy? In which case - excellent - no problems there - I can keep the domain name cheerfully! But what if it becomes a name lost in history? What if in two years time no one has even heard of them. People forget so quickly. I know - after all the barbelith was a perfectly cromulent word for 'happy fun place' merely three weeks ago... But today, no one has the slightest idea what it means...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ninja or Pirate? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2002 05:17:20 PM ----- BODY:

    The debate continues... Which is the side to be on? Is it Ninja or Pirate?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An e-mail I sent to Channel 4... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/08/2002 05:39:14 PM ----- BODY:

    An e-mail I sent to Channel 4:

    Dear Channel 4,

    I watched "The Truth about Gay Animals" and frankly I was appalled. I'm a gay man in my late twenties and I was actually looking forward to the program, but it turned out to be the worst kind of rubbish I'd ever seen. It completely disgusted me. The fact is that there's a really important issue there. It's all to do with whether or not homosexuality is perceived as something that happens in nature or whether it's a purely human thing - a thing of choice, of 'morality' rather than something that happens cross-species.

    It may be a facetious thing to have to argue, but a lot of people around the world still believe that homosexuality is an unnatural practice perpetrated by the godless and the evil. Whether or not there is any evidence for different sexualities in other species cuts over issues of sexuality, issues of morality, issues of genetics, issues of society, prejudices of science. Etc. Etc. Etc.

    Scott Capuro in my eyes looked all the way through it like he was bored and frustrated out of his mind and spent a good proportion of his time being cruel to people from previous generations who were taught that gay people were disgusting and evil. The people he was being cruel to - although I think personally that they should probably know better - were nonetheless clearly trying to be as nice as they could, even though they clearly felt uncomfortable.

    I was actually EXCITED by the prospect of this program, that it was on at all! I thought it would be an interesting insight into scientific prejudice, origins of sexuality and the like AND have a few laughs in it. All in all the best kind of documentary. But in the end, I turned off about 2/3rds of the way through in disgust. There was NOTHING to redeem it in the parts I saw. And I was essentially offended by it. I have even written to Channel 4 to complain! I mean - I love Channel Four!

    But this made Channel 5 look enlightened.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My hairdresser lies to me... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2002 12:13:45 PM ----- BODY:

    The lady at the hairdressers yesterday said that the receeding temples look was really hot at the moment and that all the young guys were having their heads shaved in that pattern. But I think she might have been humouring me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If I ring again, will they call the police? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2002 04:34:02 PM ----- BODY:

    How come I keep seeing adverts for flats suitable for single women and none that are suitable for single men? And even when they're not specified as such, how come I keep getting told when I ring up the landlords, "No, sorry, it's for single women only," with a tone of voice that suggests that if I ring again, they'll call the police...?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Getting depressed about London flats... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/09/2002 09:28:07 PM ----- BODY:

    It's at times like this when you really wish you had a digital camera. I went to see a flat today in Mornington Crescent with a friend of mine, and was so horrified and depressed by what I saw that I needed an extremely stiff vodka and tonic. Imagine a room ten feet by twelve feet on the top floor of a crumbling building where not even the banisters are stable enough for you to put any weight on. Stick a bed in this room. Give it a view over the back of some crumbling estate. Add low ceilings, a bathroom big enough to fit a bath in, which they apparently did in the thirties and a kitchen that fits into a cupboard. Imagine the most depressing site you've ever seen in your life.

    I've lived in a lot of places in my life. Some haven't had paint on the walls, some have had damp walls behind the bed. But none have been as soul-destroying as this place. There's no way I could do it. And this is where we find ourselves - in a world where people in London have to be earning forty or fifty thousand pounds a year before they can afford to get a mortgage and where the average wage in London is around half that. And where you pay over £500 a month for the privilege of living in a hole in the ground.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cool things about Apple products... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2002 12:44:59 AM ----- BODY:

    Two things I love about my Apple products. 1) I can wake my computer from sleep and after a few hours I can ask, I wonder how long it's been since I rebooted my baby... And I can check by going to Terminal and typing 'uptime' and it tells me: 12:40AM up 6 days, 15:17, 2 users, load averages: 2.52, 2.67, 2.53. Six days. That's really nice. First OS I've ever had that could make a claim like that. 2) Because today for the very first time I pressed the central button on my ipod while a song was playing and suddenly realised that you can easily skip to any point in the track you're on just by using the jog wheel. I bet everyone else knew that. But still. It's really cool.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to find a flat in London? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2002 12:54:10 AM ----- BODY:

    So how the fuck do you find a flat in London that isn't stupidly expensive. I mean seriously. How the fuck? I'm sorry to resort to swearing but I'm already sick of this process and it already feels like it's completely not ever going to happen and I'm going to be destitute and miserable. I'm so angry I could kill everyone in the world.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ninja Giant Robot or Pirate Giant Robot? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2002 09:19:41 AM ----- BODY:

    Matt Jones isn't ninja or pirate (he maintains). He claims to be a a giant killer robot. When pushed, he was unprepared to say whether or not he was a ninja giant killer robot or a pirate giant killer robot.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do styled form elements look less interacty? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2002 09:34:05 AM ----- BODY:

    I genuinely love the new BBCi search facility. I think the design is elegant - the large tabs are simple but really really obvious and functional, and the whole layout is easy on the eyes and clear. The only thing I don't like is the search box itself. Weirdly, styled the way it has been, it is less obvious to me on the page. It looks a certain amount more graphic-like, and a certain amount less like a piece of browser functionality... Interestingly this is less the case on a browser like Chimera on OSX, which automatically anti-aliases all the text on the page...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BTOpenworld sucks ass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2002 10:26:50 AM ----- BODY:

    Grrr BTopenworld sucks: "We are currently investigating a problem with the BTopenworld mail servers, this is affecting the sending and receiving of E-Mail. Please bear with us as we endeavour to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. Meanwhile we apologise for any inconvenience."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What proportion of your income should you spend on rent? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/10/2002 07:57:58 PM ----- BODY:

    I've heard a lot of different angles on this one in the last few days, so now I'm opening it up to the floor. I once heard someone say that you should pay one-third of your income in rent. That's all I can remember. One third on rent, one third on something else and a final third on something else again. Now of course my first question is whether or not that's supposed to be pre-tax salary or post-tax salary. And today a friend in the US said that you should never pay more in rent than one week's salary. Thus leaving three-quarters for living and saving. So what's true? What's the correct ration to spend on a place to live? Won't somebody tell me!?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Clothing and the abyss... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/11/2002 12:11:28 PM ----- BODY:

    While I should be organising a place to live, I spend the time instead throwing away huge amounts of crap that would be a tremendous hinderance should I ever find a place to live. Among the many things that have gone is the purple t-shirt that a flat-mate once brought home swearing that it would 'really suit' me. So far saved from the abyss is the pair of Abercrombie and Fitch blue extra-huge combats with things all over them that I bought and loved, and only subsequently realised made me look completely ridiculous. And found for what appears to be the first time: my two-sizes too large geniune Nathan Barley t-shirt, which I'm either going to have to auction or give to the T-shirt king.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: David Fincher to be directing MI-3? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2002 11:23:56 AM ----- BODY:

    Will David Fincher - godlike director of Fight Club and The Game, and mediocre director of Panic Room and Alien 3 really be directing Mission Impossible 3? Tell me it's not so!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On things I did instead of the things that I should have been doing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2002 12:00:18 PM ----- BODY:

    A brief list of things that I have been reading today and / or plan to read today after lunch with some very old friends in Primrose Hill and instead of doing what I should actually be doing, which is looking for a bloody flat:

    Weblog Tool Round-up
    In which consensus is drawn that of the various weblog tools and applications, Movable Type is the best. Which (in as far as the article goes) I would probably agree with. Particularly as of version 2.

    Much ado about Blogging
    In which Salon completely miss the point again (along with everyone else) about what the journalistic use of weblogging will be in the next ten years. I could tell you all what it is, but I'm concerned that someone else will do it first and if they do - no huge career for me! More on this stuff later. By the way, if anyone is looking for someone with incredible weblog experience who's a trained journalist with experience in print and web, who also understands design and functionality and is prepared to pay me a fortune to work with programmers to demonstrate what's going to replace the New York Bloody Times, then just e-mail me!

    The Scourge of Arial
    In which this guy argues that Arial is a bad copy of an unfashionable font (Helvetica) and that no one should really be using it any more as it's basically only used by people who aren't very professional.

    Celine Dion fucking evil bitch
    She kills iMacs! KILLS them! This is not the behaviour of a much-loved scrawny songstress. She's supposed to be like sugar and spice, not CDR DEATH. One can only wonder how long it will take an iMac owner to sue the bitch's bony ass off.

    Webmonkey's Guide to PHP
    Having decided that a certain basic knowledge of PHP would not do me any hard - particularly as the Underground is now coded in it - I turn to Webmonkey for help...

    Typecasting
    Are you the kind of person who thinks that when Voyager travels through some space-gas, it shouldn't generate vortices because there is no atmosphere? Are you interested in typography? In which case, this article should thrill you - it did me... In it the author takes you through several major modern movies set in the past and compares and contrasts their use of 'period' fonts. More interesting than it sounds... [and there's still more at fawny.org]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being excited about Spiderman... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2002 11:14:58 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm so excited about Spiderman I might burst. And of course it doesn't hurt that Webb and Jones have both said vaguely positive things about it. What I might take umbrage at - if I were inclined - is the suggestion that "Coates is going to absolutely love this movie, in a really unhealthy way". God only knows what that means, but it either means my adolescent wish-fulfilment fantasies will all be fulfilled. Or I suspect - more accurately - Matt is commenting on the innate attractiveness of geeks.

    Either way, I'm not totally convinced by the world 'unhealthy' - there's too much native alarm in my system about that word. Too many contexts in which it isn't entirely appropriate.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On idiotic pets... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/12/2002 11:42:57 PM ----- BODY:

    In a conversation with a friend about dealing with the little irritations that having to deal with other people can engender, the comment is made, "I think the trick is to be better than everyone else, and then treating them as idiotic pets."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spiderman Meme Recycling... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/13/2002 12:05:54 AM ----- BODY:

    Post Spiderman Meme Recycling: This cartoon demonstrates that all your sexualities are belong to us. Tobey Maguire is the new fetishised male. Geek culture finally got a bit of muscle behind it. And I declare myself to be the first of a new species of sexually aware human - the man who is only interested in shagging nervous geeky visionaries.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whatever happened to Mark Olynciw... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 09:30:28 AM ----- BODY:

    Feature: Whatever happened to Mark Olynciw? Mark was the darling of the weblogging scene. The scamp redesigned hourly, wrote fast witty pithy gems of lunacy. He asked a lot of questions and pissed off less people than became his immediate blog-slaves. I'm told he used to strip every Thursday night on his webcam, but that might be a lie. He had a private weblog for a while, but his parents made him stop doing that. And then he got everyone else in his family completely absorbed in weblogging. And then he stopped. And vanished. Occasionally bizarre photographs seem to place him at rabbinical school in Saskatchewan. But beyond that... No one knew...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Estimates of Income Tax... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 10:36:08 AM ----- BODY:

    If anyone knows a place online where you could type in your income and see roughly how much tax you should be paying (obviously this will be aimed primarily at people based in the UK) then mail me. I'm looking for estimates here, not forms that take three months to fill in and are directly submitted to the Inland Revenue.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In Heaven... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 11:05:23 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm the Pixies' song, In Heaven: "You're mysterious, picky, and a bit aloof. Some people say you have a very cheery personality, but it's hard to say because you mask your emotions behind dark pretenses. You enjoy watching obscure movies and going to plays, but by the end of the day you're usually too wound-up by the ironies of your life to relax."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The ironies of my life... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 11:10:37 AM ----- BODY:

    Today I'm too wound-up by the ironies of my life to truly relax. Flat-hunting is truly the most nightmarish experience that a misanthropic intensely private brooding young genius should ever be forced to endure. The crises of faith about money, the moments of horror about the state in which one might find oneself living. It's all too overwhelming. I now have to find a place within the next two weeks, and today I just said I needed 24 hours to think about a place that costs £910 a month. A MONTH. Along with all the other bills I'd have to pay, that doesn't leave a lot of money for fun and biscuits. It's all too much. I can't cope.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some great articles from BBC News... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 01:43:07 PM ----- BODY:

    Every single day I get loads of spam. Loads. More than I think is strictly normal. Dozens of messages. Every day. And it's very frustrating. But what had never occurred to me today is how many messages I would be getting without the ISPs filtering them at source. But an article at bbc.co.uk has revealed that the spam problem is larger than most regular users think: "The problem is a lot worse than consumers think. A lot of it is filtered out before it reaches them," said Joe McNamee from Euro ISPA (Internet Service Providers' Association).

    I'm regularly startled by the range of fascinating articles on news.bbc.co.uk - and that article on spam is just the tip of the iceberg. In recent days we've seen behind the scenes at Google, the first Segway crash and a survey revealing that Russian businesses bribe more abroad than any other states. Stunning.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do we need a weblog foundation? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 01:44:15 PM ----- BODY:

    The question of the day is do we need a weblog foundation? And it's being debated at this moment over at metafilter.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Yahoo's anti-spam advice... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 10:03:00 PM ----- BODY:

    It's difficult to tell whether it's because they were recently accused of being pro-spam when they automatically defaulted all their web-mail users to the 'receive lots of crap' option, but Yahoo's anti-spam advice is not only very good, but is being publicised via banner ads all over the place.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fix my site! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2002 10:29:19 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. Because I have an infinity of other things that I should be doing instead - including writing a presentation for a conference that's getting remarkably close and move and sort out my next job and pack everything and sort out my taxes and... and... and... - I have of course decided instead to suddenly become serious about resolving the problems with plasticbag.org's rendering on Mozilla. And when I say that I've become serious, what I mean is that I'm hoping desperately that one of you out there will be able to sort out the problem. Amaze your friends, fix a mostly functional CSS-based site!

    Anyway, in order to be able to do this most effectively, I've uploaded the full plasticbag.org Blogger template and you can access the CSS files for the front page and the archives. They're very different. See if you can figure out why... Winning entry will be able to show me a functioning copy of plasticbag.org displaying a couple of entries (over more than one day).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Star Wars. In an hour. Screw flathunting. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2002 12:38:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Guess who's going to see Star Wars! In an hour! On a weekday! Instead of looking for a flat!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Positive feelings about the new Star Wars film... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2002 08:29:02 PM ----- BODY:

    So I went to see Star Wars this afternoon with Cal and Nick and frankly we were very impressed. That's not to say we couldn't gripe - because god knows we could - the dialogue is as bad as it is in all the other films, the plot (such as it is) is swamped by episodic diversions, some of the characters aren't doing what they should be doing (when did Obi Wan get so bloody lame and were Mandalorian Warriors all as naff as Jango Fett) and the whole thing could have been twenty minutes shorter (and each individual episode within it - particularly the battle scenes could have been correspondingly shorter as well). But despite all this, it was really not a bad film at all.

    Of course the horror of the event is that before it had even started the nostalgia kicks in. You think you're going to be immune, but you're there in the cinema and the 20th Century Fox drum-rolls sound and then the Star Wars music kicks in and the logo appears and you're ten again, Star Wars forcibly inserted into your DNA - your reactions as formulaic and robotic as if you were a puppet on a string. Which a lot of men around my age must feel like to be honest. And as you sit there, you're always overwhelmed by hope, expecting it to be shit but unable to accept that it will be.

    But even stripped of decades of obsessive love, this is still a film that you can actually enjoy. There's action and drama and interesting and well-designed aliens and a real look and feel that inspire you to want to believe, and much less offensive ethnic stereotyping and a few (mostly but not exclusively ill-judged) jokes and Yoda.... Well, Yoda kicks butt...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Careless writing costs blog-readers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/16/2002 08:31:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Thought of the day: Careless writing costs blog-readers. Is there such a thing as acceptable losses? Can you reclaim a site for your own idling agenda after it's gone so completely mainstream?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Barbelith: "Fortunate Son"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2002 12:17:16 AM ----- BODY:

    Today on Barbelith, Fortunate Son: In 1999, James Hatfield's book, Fortunate Son was published and almost immediately taken off the shelves amid revelations that its author had once been imprisoned for attempting to hire a hit-man. The book, amongst other things, alleges that George Bush Senior arranged to have his son's conviction for cocaine possession expunged from the records. In May 2001, a month after Fortunate Son was republished, Hatfield's body was found in a hotel room. What is the story behind the story of Fortunate Son? Gavin MacDonald investigates.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being nervous about my flat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2002 07:59:41 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm up, showered and on the net by eight am. I was awake before seven. And I don't have to be at work before one. Why am I up? Because I'm nervous. Why am I nervous? Because I'm going to have to commit to a flat. Why does that worry me? Because I haven't finalised a job yet. Why have I not finalised the job yet? Because I'm being pulled in two directions at once, and each day the pull from one direction or the other seems to increase or slacken off.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I may or may not have a flat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2002 09:38:18 AM ----- BODY:

    So I decide to put an offer on a flat and everything seems to be fine, and then the woman rings up and says that she got it wrong and the place had an offer put on it yesterday afternoon and that they might go for it instead and it's very frustrating and at times like this I think mind may well snap.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Will I get my tiny flat? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/17/2002 12:46:10 PM ----- BODY:

    An endless amount of work awaits me in Marylebone, but I can't go in until I've heard about whether man and wife flat-stealers have declared their endless love for my little flat around the corner. If they've bailed then it's all mine. Mine, I tells ya. Otherwise.... So all the work in the world will have to wait just a few more minutes. Maybe half an hour or so. And in the meantime I'll stay here and play with my OSX mini-app of the day: World Clock Deluxe

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ten things to do at 1am... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/18/2002 09:26:53 AM ----- BODY:

    Ten things you could do at 1am to stop you being bored (dedicated to James Cronin):

    1. Play the 100 greatest online games!
    2. Shave your head!
    3. Comfort nervous young gay webloggers!
    4. Check all your arguments for logical fallacies!
    5. Listen to mobsters!
    6. Print out and distribute guides to the perfect handjob!
    7. Build your very own pixel town!
    8. Download some dumb mp3s!
    9. Read random emerging tech notes!
    10. Go to fucking bed already!
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A cheer for the Rebels? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/18/2002 12:24:10 PM ----- BODY:

    A cheer for the Rebels? A hiss for the Empire? Perhaps no more. Perhaps no longer.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I may have a flat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/19/2002 11:51:17 AM ----- BODY:

    I may have a flat. This is tremendous news. It's a little place in Maida Vale for one person. It's got a little sitting room. It's got a little bathroom. It's got a little kitchen. It's got quite a big bathroom. I'm just waiting for my references to go through, and if they do go through then I can move in next Saturday.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google toy of the morning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2002 08:55:32 AM ----- BODY:

    Toy of the morning is labs.google.com, which is where the arch search engine appears to test out all kinds of natty little gizmos that it hasn't fully developed yet. My favourite toy is Google Sets - where you type in a few words and it tries to guess other things that belong in that set. For Example: You type in 'Tony Blair' and 'George Bush' and you get back Yasser Arafat, Russell Crow and Tiger Woods. That would be the set of 'publicity hungry people' then...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For b3ta: My Fat Lardy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/21/2002 03:06:31 PM ----- BODY:

    B3ta set the challenge. And I rose to it:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Entertaining facts about Telewest... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2002 08:43:05 AM ----- BODY:

    Entertaining facts about Telewest: So I'm moving out of my flat in just a couple of days and I'd like to get cable television in the place I am moving to. However I don't know the postcode of the new place, so I can't easily type it into the little box on their website that tells you if you can get service. That's why I decide to type in my current postcode, which is W9 1LE (try it for yourself - this game is quite entertaining). When you type in the postcode the site politely informs you that they don't handle that postcode, but that ntl do. They even helpfully provide a link through to the page in question where you can type in your postcode again. Except of course NTL deny covering that area too. And they helpfully decide to redirect you... back to Telewest again. The irony has taken my neck in its teeth and is beginning to playfully shake...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Space news of the day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2002 08:53:04 AM ----- BODY:

    Space news of the day is that China are planning to mine minerals on the moon - which seems to me to be 1) a complete waste of money and 2) possibly the coolest thing that any country has done in decades. [Update: Turns out it's not true though.]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Sweet Suite... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/22/2002 05:48:42 PM ----- BODY:

    Tonight I am going to The Sweet Suite for the second time. In case you're unfamiliar with this venue, it was assembled by a coterie of leading London homosexualists including the infamous Mr Big, Boy George and er... We were supposed to get picked up in a big pink limousine outside First Out, but I think my host had to cancel it, which is a shame. Last time I went I became rather over-excited by the range of "Sex and the City" and "Seven Deadly Sin" cocktails and found myself falling over a lot and vomiting much of the following morning. Mr Webb is obsessed with the place. I should be packing.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Online zeitgeisting... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/23/2002 06:48:44 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm catching up a lot with the online zeitgeist today via Daypop and Blogdex, which - if I could still do scrolling marquees I would probably attach a tagline to: EAT THEM AS PART OF YOUR NUTRICIOUS BREAKFAST. Because of this quite a lot of the links that I reference have already been referenced to death. Which is why I'm going to add to the links with commentary and opinion....

    Resurfacing Animosity Awaits Bush in Europe
    The Washington Post has taken what would appear to be a fairly bland topic - the fact that fractures are becoming clearly visible between Europe and America around the 'War on Terror' - and explodes it into an incredibly balanced depiction of the current fundamental differences between the two cultures. As such this article is probably a must read for all English Eurosceptics, American Supremacists and everyone who really doesn't understand that one of the fundamental political divisions in the world today is between collaborative and nationalist approaches. There's a discussion on Barbelith about this discussion too.

    Filepile password up for auction
    Now I've wanted access to filepile for what seems like an eternity, but although I was using it back in the longago, I never actually appear to have registered. And of course now you can't get in for love-nor-money. It says very clearly on the site that it's not that hard to write (as PHP software goes), but god knows I couldn't do it. The fascinating thing about this is that people are prepared to fight for access to a service of information, plus that people aren't prepared to merely share it. This password actually is sellable. I suspect that if it wasn't for the rabid copyright infringement that the site represents they'd have made it into a pay-for service months ago....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing Metalinker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 05/24/2002 03:16:52 PM ----- BODY:

    Another Thinkblank conception (this time co-created by Cal and I) was thought of yesterday and launches in a very beta version today. It's called Metalinker (because now it's retro cool to use the prefix meta) and if you're reading this on the front page of my site, you should be seeing its effect all over the place.

    Simply speaking, Metalinker is a way of connecting weblog posts about a similar subject together. With the simple addition of a small amount of javascript to your page, your completely normal weblog posts are suddenly annotated - each link has placed after it a simple link to Blogdex's list of other people who have referenced the same link.

    It's not a complex idea, but it's quite an elegant one and one we think that gestures towards some of the functionality that a future web might include as standard - a kind of self-referential, reciprocally-linking semantic model that our little toy only skirts around (with all the glamour of an almighty hack). We hope you enjoy it!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the use of Metalinker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2002 12:08:47 PM ----- BODY:

    And the first site (other than me) to start using metalinker is Bottle Rocket Science. Are you trying it out? If so, mail me!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom moves house... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/25/2002 12:10:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Today is big giant moving day. And so updates will necessarily be sporadic at best...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Metalinker abroad... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/27/2002 12:05:33 PM ----- BODY:

    There's another metalinker user over at lifeofsmallbeer.co.uk. And it's been linked over at Nick Denton's site who e-mailed me and suggested that perhaps Movable Type could integrate it into their next release, which is an interesting idea...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I shall never move again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2002 02:04:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Moving house is exhausting beyond measure. Won't someone remind me never to do it again. Last night after work I decamped back around to my old place to help clean with my flatmates. Eight o'clock came and went. As did nine. Then ten and eleven. And finally midnight rolled around. I eventually left the building at 1am and fell into bed sweaty and exhausted. This evening I have to go back again to take final meter readings and hand the keys over. And my new flat looks like someone at a crap factory overloaded the crap storage device and crap went everywhere. I've still not even connected my computer to the net. Mind-destroying. Never again.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Water found on Mars... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2002 02:11:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Water found on Mars
    So now it's more than possible that there was once or is still some kind of limited life on the planet, it's more than possible that human beings will visit the planet. It's more than possible that some kind of semi-permanent presence could be made on the planet too. It's all overwhelmingly exciting.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Conversations about metalinker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2002 02:23:04 PM ----- BODY:

    Other people talking about metalinker: one, two, three, four, five, six. It's weirdly popular in Germany too.

    One of the best comments (and most useful potential features) comes from Webvoice: "This script automates the "other linkers" links I manually add from time to time. However, Blogdex should be an API to make this application more compelling. The metalink wouldn't appear if you're the only one to have posted any given link (I hate links to emptiness,) and the number of other referrals to that link (e.g. [3]) would be more useful than just a link to the list of other links (ain't it getting too meta to make sense?)"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stop saying "but" - start saying "and"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2002 03:52:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Most wonderful piece of positive management arse I've heard in a long time: "Stop saying 'but', and start saying 'and'". And that's a really dumb idea, surely? And moreover you may think it has some positive aspects and how on earth are you supposed to express when something's a bad idea?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Edwardian Country House... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2002 09:27:31 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't be the only person who has been watching The Edwardian Country House religiously. And I can't be the only person for whom a great proportion of the attraction of the show has been Ken Skelton, the Hallboy.

    Tonight's episode was extraordinary and fascinating - collisions between staff and family - collisions between barely 20th and barely 21st Century life - collisions between the head of the household and the wonderful character of the astonishingly proficient, hard-working and idiosyncratic French cook. If this is a series that comes to the US, all Americans among our party should definitely invest the time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dave Winer linked to Metalinker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/28/2002 10:10:09 PM ----- BODY:

    And then the funniest thing happened. Dave Winer linked to Metalinker.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Behind the scenes of "The Edwardian Country House"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/29/2002 12:59:50 PM ----- BODY:

    How cool is this - the second footman from 'The Edwardian Country House' only has his own website. I mean good god. All the behind the scenes gossip and stuff. But no pictures, unfortunately, of the lovely hall-boy. I should stop really. I'll get a reputation. Update: And he's not the only one! Kenny Skelton has one too! [Thanks to Alan Taylor for that one.]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Metalinker on Daypop... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/29/2002 09:41:15 PM ----- BODY:

    And now Metalinker has reached Daypop. Nice.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Billy Bragg on Top of the Pops... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2002 11:07:26 AM ----- BODY:

    Was I the only person in the world who saw Billy Bragg on Top of the Pops last night using long words and singing about modern art and anti-monarchism? The lyrics were full of phrases like 'abstract notions' and the song ended with 'Gilbert and George are taking the piss....' repeated about a dozen times. One of the most surreal TOTP moments of all time I think...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the return of Mo Morgan... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/01/2002 11:08:37 AM ----- BODY:

    Gestures of defiance let down by an inability to carry-through number three hundred and twenty in an ongoing series: MoMorgan.com is back.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Going to see the Breeders... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2002 12:01:51 AM ----- BODY:

    In which Tom goes to see The Breeders:
    I don't go to concerts very often. When I was a teenager I was too lame, when I was in my early twenties I wanted to do it all the time but I only liked crappy indie groups (still do mostly) and so while everyone else was going to raves and stuff I went to occasional concerts by Stereolab and Julian Cope. And then I started teaching undergraduates, so I kind of stopped going. Too old. Felt ridiculous.

    I went to see The Breeders tonight with Cal and had a great time. I last saw them in concert in Bristol about eight years ago and since they haven't really released a lot since then, most of the people in the audience had got all old and saggy with me. Which was quite nice actually. All their songs are two minutes long and don't really make much sense, but they have really nice solid bouncy drums and nice stop-start chunky guitar bits and they smoke cigarettes while playing and giggle at each other and bicker and it's great! And they also played the theme tune to Buffy, which was really odd and then they dedicated a song in which one of the men shouted 'We don't care about you' and then yelled Fuck you!. I love the Breeders.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Breeders' concert... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2002 11:05:39 AM ----- BODY:

    I wasn't the only person I know at the Breeders concert last night. Chris was there too. Let's search the web for some reviews and let's search blogdom for more weblogging Breeders fans:

    Reviews: Village Voice: "The Breeders finally released a new album, Title TK, on May 21. The CD's mere existence is an accomplishment." Cleveland Free Times: "Title TK sounds like a record that could have benefited from an extra yearís wait, and from the fresh insight and creative input that the new band members might have brought with them." Phoeniz New Tims: "When focused, the Breeders can still pump out a hook that actually sticks ó "Has anyone seen the iguana?" the Deals repeatedly intone on "Sinister Foxx." But the rest of TK sounds absolutely shell-shocked."

    Bloggers: Slatch.com: "Friend: So I turn around at the bar and guess who's standing next to me? Me: Who? Friend: Kim Deal."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Sweden whip England's ass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/02/2002 11:58:51 AM ----- BODY:

    Now look - I don't know a hell of a lot about football. And frankly I don't care that much about football either. So this whole 'World Cup' thing is flying rather over my head. But when I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to find this Sweden vs. England thing happening, I thought it couldn't do any harm to leave it on in the background. And now 67 minutes into the game I can't help but notice that Sweden are whipping England's ass. What the hell is that about?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On overwhelming film experiences... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2002 10:20:04 AM ----- BODY:

    Anyone vaguely interested in superhero trash will be delighted to know that X-men 2 sounds like it's going to be one hell of a ride. And speaking of over-whelming movie experiences, I've just seen the Spider-Man trailer on TV for the first time.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Evil advertising whores... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2002 01:29:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Link dump: Evil advertising whores.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Each man kills the thing he loves... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2002 07:08:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
      By each let this be heard,
    Some do it with a bitter look,
      Some with a flattering word,
    The coward does it with a kiss,
      The brave man with a sword!

    Some kill their love when they are young,
      And some when they are old;
    Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
      Some with the hands of Gold:
    The kindest use a knife, because
      The dead so soon grow cold.

    Some love too little, some too long,
      Some sell, and others buy;
    Some do the deed with many tears,
      And some without a sigh:
    For each man kills the thing he loves,
      Yet each man does not die.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's a Right-Rockin' Royal Jubilee! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2002 07:47:59 PM ----- BODY:

    Ricky Martin's going disco-crazy, Brian May's gone guitar-axe-psycho, there are bemused royals all over the place and an S Club member who ate all the pies. There's humour from Lenny Henry, an audience of 200 million people and later in the evening - Rod Stewart (*gasp*), Queen (*not that one*), Tony Bennett (*he's still alive?!*), resident evil Annie Lennox and thirteen thousand teen sensations. It's a right rockin' royal TV jubilee sensation and no mistake. Gawd bless ya Ma'am and your incredibly privileged family too...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God Bless The Queen... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2002 08:50:25 PM ----- BODY:

    I couldn't stop myself. God knows I tried. I spent ages tarting this up more, but in the end I cut all the fluff out of it and kept it to the basics - an image of a modern queen, remembering the bizarre horrors of a history of imperialism and really hard to get into frocks, with a little sex pistols shoved in for good measure. Country remember - fifty years of a sovereign, even a nominal one, isn't necessarily an entirely good thing.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a bloody bizarre evening's STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/03/2002 11:32:02 PM ----- BODY:

    What a bloody bizarre evening's television: The BBC | USA Today | CNN. I only wish I had pictures...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cuter than Queens, more fluffy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/04/2002 10:30:22 AM ----- BODY:

    Cuter than Queens, more fluffy than jubilees, more endearing than a football match against Sweden - it'll take the torch from hotornot.com and run with it: Rate My Kitten!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There's a new version of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2002 06:05:28 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a new version of Metalinker available now that that solves some of the problems with IE on the Mac.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm thuper thanks for asthking, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/05/2002 07:54:15 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm thuper thanks for asthking, all things conthidered I couldn't be better I must thay. I'm a thouth park character as well. I made a little model of mythelf too. I look tho thweet.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've no idea whether this STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2002 01:11:34 PM ----- BODY:

    I've no idea whether this is true or not - I guess people in the UK will see this evening:

    Day 13, 12:50

    If the housemates ever get a task based on their knowledge of geography, they would be advised to steer Jade well clear of answers.

    As Jade woke Spencer this morning, her remarkable lack of geographic nous came to the fore. She may have already consumed a few small alcoholic beverages to toast her 21st birthday, but the following transcript is somewhat tough to comprehend. Starting by asking Spencer what he does for a living, this is bound to go down as a Jade chat that will live with her forever:

    Spencer: "You know you see those people in Venice standing on the back of gondolas, pushing it around?"
    Jade: "They don't do that on the Thames though, do they?"
    Spencer: "No. I don't work on the Thames. I work in Cambridge."
    Jade: "Is there not the Thames there?"
    Spencer: "No!"
    Jade: "Is there a river called the Cambridge river?"
    Spencer: "Yeah, it's called the Cam."
    Jade: "Really? You swear? I only thought there was the Thames. I thought that was the main one in London."
    Spencer: "It is. I don't live in London."
    Jade: "I'm confused. I thought Cambridge was in London. I knew Birmingham weren't in London."
    Spencer: "Would you like to go and tell the group what you just said?"
    Jade: "No..."
    Spencer: "Cambridge is a city."
    Jade: "But we've got a city in London."
    Spencer: "Yes. This city is called London. And there's different parts of it. Cambridge is a city."
    Jade: "Of where? Kent?"
    Jade: "Well England's a country, London's a city, Bermondsey's just a throw-off. Now where are you? What's your country, and what's your things?"
    Spencer: "What country am I from? England. The city is called Cambridge, the county Cambridgeshire."
    Jade: "So not Kent then?"
    Spencer: "Nooooo.... The region is called East Anglia."
    Jade: "East Angular? That's abroad. Is there not a place called East Angular abroad?"
    Spencer: "Jade, have you been taking the stupid pills again?"
    Jade: "Every time people tell me they work in East Angular, I actually think they're talking about near Tunisia and places like that. Am I thick?"
    <<...>> <<...>>
    Spencer: "Well, I hate to say it, but you are."
    Jade: "Cos Scottish and Irish and all that comes under England, doesn't it?"
    Spencer: "No... They come under Great Britain. Scotland and Wales have their own flags. Northern Ireland and Ireland are different."
    Jade: "So they're not together? Where's Berlin?"
    Spencer: "Germany..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some people I know: Mr STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/06/2002 04:15:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Some people I know:

    Mr Webb, who has a website. Phil also has a site. Mo - unsurprisingly - has a site too. Oh gosh, Jones has a site. That was a surprise. I think James has a site as well, but I don't know the URL. Anno doesn't. But she does have a sword (not pictured). Yoz has worked on a thousand different things. Rob was one of the geniuses behind B3ta. Denise is another. And I work with Andrea. She's nice.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: E-mail survey: I'm presenting a STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/07/2002 12:42:47 PM ----- BODY:

    E-mail survey:

    I'm presenting a paper on weblogs in a couple of weeks at a conference and I need you guys to do me a favour. I need people to send me a few basic details about their weblogging experience or their experience of weblogs - really basic stuff - it shouldn't take long. If you're interested then e-mail me on tom%40plasticbag.org and you should get an automatic reply including the questions I'd like you to answer...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I went to see STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2002 12:39:50 AM ----- BODY:

    So I went to see Spider-Man this evening with Cal and Jones. Thoughts: The upside-down kiss is incredibly sexy, I've got to get me a Tobey Maguire, it's great that they've managed to be so faithful to the original plot, somehow it's a bit flat, and Cal speaks too much during emotional bits in films...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger get legitimately grumpy with STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2002 12:41:41 AM ----- BODY:

    Blogger get legitimately grumpy with a weblog for circumventing terms of service.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Finally a solution to the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2002 12:51:45 AM ----- BODY:

    Finally a solution to the ever present problem of Earwax. Or at least someone has found the gene responsible for it. Which is great because I've been on-and-off deaf for the last several weeks, to the extent that I'm waiting desperately for a soho-based ear syringing clinic that was post-poned because of Betty Britain's golden handshake [kind of via Boing Boing]. Damn you seeping ear goo. When will you learn!? With great power comes great responsibility!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: XCOM2002 and TAKING IT OUTSIDE STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 06/09/2002 11:35:38 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't even know where to start on today - I've not felt so mentally depleted and exhilarated at the same time for ages. I've spent the day with NTK and Haddock at Extreme Computing 2002 and the spin-off Take it Outside. I've been on three separate panels and talked so much that the pubs and bars around were full of beasts of burden missing rear limbs.

    Where to start? Perhaps with an explanation - why haven't I mentioned these conferences, why haven't I mentioned these panels on plasticbag.org over the last couple of weeks? I suppose there are a couple of reasons - firstly I was scared, I didn't want to make too much of a big deal about them because I was nervous about being able to do them - it's been a few years since I talked in front of people. Secondly I guess I didn't feel that there might be any reason for people to come and listen to what I had to say - why advertise what might be unbelievably boring? Why draw attention to something that might end badly? It may sound over-cautious, but there are a lot of things that could have gone wrong. Why not take things a little slowly.....?

    Brief piece of scene-setting first: I met up with Cal and Jones at the Starbucks opposite the British Library, and then moved over to the Camden Centre to meet up with Denise from http://www.b3ta.com. Rob from B3ta also turned up after a while, as did James from unfortu.net.

    First impressions are complex and confusing - there's a room full of geeks and weirdos and I feel totally at home. There's a block of hot people and whole racks and tables of strange and exotic people - running stalls with products from the obscure to the mediocre. Spectrums are everywhere. The C64 militia are in evidence. Steve LeStrange (I think) performs on stage. Very odd. After a stiff drink I retired to the pub for the first Take it Outside panel of the day...

    Online Communities: The real world, only worse? with Stefan Magdalinski (moderating), Cait Hurley, Denise Wilton and me. First panel of the day gets off to a slightly choppy start, but for me was the most rewarding of the day. The debates centre around the relationship between virtual and real life communities. The stuff I think I found most fascinating were the debates about where online and offline communities differ, where they are similar and where they could be different.

    Various parties contended that the two were more similar than normally given credit. Others (myself included) argued that differences emerged in stuff like stable identities, verbal and visual conversational cues, the inability to blot people out, the edges of workable communal space, the lack of differences in 'volume' of people speaking as well as in the way in which the relationship between people was solidified through relationships enshrined in software. One of the things I was very keen to emphasize was the possibility of building new political systems via the medium of community software - so in a sense I was very keen to decalre that online communities still had to potential to be radically different from the real world, and might even be better in some ways.

    One of the other angles that was interested was that of moderation and how it's undertaken. Obviously Barbelith was my point of reference here - with it's new sense of distributed moderation being a very early stage towards my long-term objective of moderator-less, hierarchy-less governance in virtual space. But interestingly, although most of us could report experiences with trolling that meant that we felt some kind of comprehensive moderation process was necessary (whether it be top-down monarchist, feudal-moderation-lords, or distributed anarchist-style), B3ta reported a vast amount of traffic (I don't know if I can report the number) along with a remarkable lack of trolling. Jones postulated that this was to do with strength of brand, while I retreated towards my more traditional model of interpretation - that there was something intrinsic to the model of the board and the board software that combines effectively with the subject of the board in order to make an environment that is not conducive to trolling...

    In Defence of Weblogs - grassroots content management systems of the future, or just a load of self-obsessed secret diaries of Adrian Mole? with Neil McIntosh, Ben Hammersley and me. The largest panel of the day for me took me to the main stage of XCOM itself - but seems to have not been a total success, mainly because of problems with the acoustics in the room. From on stage there didn't appear to be much if anything wrong with the sound, but guaging from Cory's piece on his experience of the panel it seems that we were the only ones who could hear it. In fact often I appear to have been arguing totally the opposite to what Cory managed to hear - so I think I'll probably clarify some of the basic positions that I wanted tried to present rather than talk through the whole experience...

    The main questions presented were concerned with the relationship between weblogging and journalism, weblog content aggregation and its potential to be a competitor or complement to news sites, the function of weblogging above and beyond it's ability to reflect boring peoples' boring existences rendered interminably online.

    Consolidating some of Cory's transcript of the piece (concentrating on the stuff that I'm purported to have said) leaves us with this:

    Dave: Aren't blogs desined to cut down repetition? Tom: Some people blog for fun, for self-promotion to pursue a special interest or to stay in touch with a bunch of friends. Dave: Aren't blogs desined to cut down repetition? Tom: No, my tool is designed to connect with with other bloggers with similar interests. You can get 200, 500 opinions on a given subject. Tom: {Cory couldn't make out a word here} There's a need for an editor -- whether it's Slashdot like automation or a human being. My fave: kottke.org.

    Actually a large block of this needs further clarification. My positions are as follows:

    Dave's first piece of devil's advocacy was concerned with the angle that there are too many weblogs producing too much banal and boring content. There's no way to deny (of course) that there's a certain amount of truth to the allegation that there are a lot of boring weblogs out there - my position is that it's like the web itself - there are many hundreds of thousands of sites out there boring to almost everyone or indeed absolutely everyone. But there isn't a shortage of space on the internet - it doesn't matter! You don't have to read them all.

    The tool he refers to is metalinker - a Cal and I co-product. When Blogdex was first launched, I was very resistant to it - I argued then (with some justification) that Blogdex wasn't about loving weblogs, but was instead about allowing people to get links stripped from all the weblogs without actually having to go through the horrible process of reading those weblogs. Increasingly I've begun to think that while that is true, there is an alternative use to Blogdex - a use which encourages linkages between posts made by different webloggers, which allows a debate to spiral over many sites and be trackable.

    One of the other things that Dave suggested as a possibility was that the lowering of the bar when it came to DTP didn't result in thousands of different magazines, but instead a colonisation of the space through cost-cutting at major magazine publishers. The suggestion that weblog 'space' could be taken over by corporations seems to me to be totally flawed - at the most basic level because the cost of distributing magazines remained after the development of DTP - something that wouldn't affect weblogging.

    This brought us around again to the idea of journalists and webloggers competing with one another. Which at the moment is patently ridiculous. However interestingly there does appear to be a parallel at work between the two - vox pops and columns are staples of journalistic work that have significant parallels with weblog culture. I mooted a situation whereby with a combination of the way in which things like blogdex and Google News grouped and gathered news and linkages with the a centralised weblog content aggregation process and some kind of feedback mechanism, you might be able to assemble a site that produced interesting online news commentary in almost real time in a way that might challenge conventional models of news media. Someone from the audience at this point suggested that an editor might be crucial for this process. But it's simply not true. I even used my phrase of the moment in my reply. Algorithms will be editors. Or perhaps editors will be algorithms. Or maybe feedback will be the model that generates fake editors. And maybe it will be personalised...

    Towards a Common-Place Web: online writing and social memory [As part of TakeItOutside] with Nick Sweeney moderating, Giles Turnbull, Karlin Lillington and a visit from Cory Doctorow. The final talk for me again concentrated on journalism and weblogging - and I don't know how useful it was. I'm exhausted this evening - so I think I'll leave writing about it until tomorrow...

    What else? Weirdly it's some of the less loud and vibrant parts of the day that stick in my head. It's sitting on the steps opposite the conference place at the end of the day feeling slightly thin, grey and worn out. It's the conversation with Webb and Phil in the hall while it rained outside. It's the huge bucket of KFC and the frustration of trying to prove something that maybe didn't need to be proven and failing nonetheless. It's going ideas-wild about tube maps on the way home. It's watching the last ten minutes of the Buffy musical with Cal and pizza at the end of the evening. It's thinking about the next conference, in just over a week, at which I have to present a paper only 2/3rds written and still in the ugliest powerpoint format of all time...

    Related links: Onlineblog, Ben Hammersley, XCOM gets slashdotted, Sashinka | If you want to e-mail me about anything discussed over the day (or want to pay me to help develop a weblog aggregation news resource) then e-mail me on tom [at] plasticbag.org | DO YOU HAVE A PERTINENT LINK OR COMMENTARY ON SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY, IF SO LET ME KNOW.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: An attempt to write a huge piece on my experiences of XCOM and TAKING IT OUTSIDE, at which I sat on three panels and left very very tired. ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Moof EMAIL: me@moof.org.uk IP: 217.39.19.141 URL: http://moof.org.uk/ DATE: 06/10/2002 01:17:07 AM Well, I only saw the main hall event and I could just about hear what you were saying. It wasn't so much the hall acoustics, as the fact that there was so much other noise from the stalls that drowned you out. Anyway, something that caught my eye in a newsfeed today is the fact that UC Berkeley are going to start holding classes on blogging (http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,52992,00.html). The people doing this are journalists, or journalism lecturers, which might put a whole new slant on your earlier comments about the cross between the two. But they are certainly valid in the blogging world up to now. I still feel myself that a blog is above all a personal view on life, and I don't think it needs to be particularly brilliant journalism. Sure, if you wish to report news, or add opinion to current affairs, feel free to do so, but trying to pass off a blog as a serious journalistic organ limits you on what you can put in your blog, as you're less likely to feel you can get away with the ocassional short post sayin "ooh, lookee here at this interesting link" or whatever. I liked your (was it yours or Neils? I can't remember) point about the whole "online community" nature of blogs. I only read a certain few blogs about people or things that interest me, with the ocassional foray into other peoples' as and when I come across them. I started off just reading my various uni friends' blogs and branched off from there. Some blogs have a very limited readership, partly because of the subjects covered, or partly because they aren't really well-known. An interesting tangent that I don't feel was explored particularly much is how to advertise yourself to the blog community. I don't think there are any particularly easy ways to spread the word, as I doubt many bloggers coudl afford to pay for advertising, so people need to find other ways of making themselves known. Getting Slashdotted for a particular opinion is one way of going about it, I suppose, but other than that it veguely relies on memme and link propagation, which can make finding good bloggers hard, or can make people starting to blog loose faith as they feel they are hardly getting any readership whatsoever, and so don't feel the need ot put the effort in. Another issue is how to advertise yourself to the world at large, and whether you want to. I'm going to make a confession now: I hadn't heard of you, Neil, or Ben prior to this show. Obviously, you're popular enoguh to have won a prize for your blog, and the other two are popular enough to have been invited up by Dave. I'm not going to ask what makes a good blogger again, as Dave already grilled you with that question, but how does your average Joe Internet Punter manage to find himself reading a good-quality blog? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike Butcher EMAIL: mike@mbites.co.uk IP: 62.30.112.3 URL: http://www.mbites.co.uk DATE: 06/10/2002 12:58:09 PM Sorry. Algorithms can't write cracking headlines. Enjoyed your views in the pub. Mike (not a blogger - as yet) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: np EMAIL: neuro@fsmail.net IP: 209.181.55.224 URL: http://www.neuroprosthesis.org/blogger.html DATE: 06/10/2002 01:50:36 PM Tom I commented in the comments section of Online blog in a discussion with Neil and also on our site. Thanks for responding there and good luck with the new tool. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Makepeace EMAIL: paulm@spam.paulm.com IP: 64.125.129.70 URL: http://paulm.com/ DATE: 06/10/2002 03:29:28 PM offtopic?: While algorithms might not compete with the best of The Sun's headline composers, there's an impressive piece of software generating (writing?) often insightful summaries of news pieces, as 5-7-5 haikus: http://www.headlinehaikus.com/ ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm completely exhausted but have STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/09/2002 11:43:10 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm completely exhausted but have done the absolute utmost I can to write up my experiences today at XCOM and TakeItOutside. I've written so much. And still there is more. You may have to deal with a partial piece of writing...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Question: It contains some of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/10/2002 11:55:19 AM ----- BODY:

    Question: It contains some of the best daily linkage in Blogdom and has been going for years and yet linkmachinego still suffers from a dearth of people commenting on the links that are posted. Why? I don't get it. It's such a cool site.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two days of solid traffic STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2002 10:23:56 PM ----- BODY:

    Two days of solid traffic and nothing to say for myself. My lovely audience are getting a pretty raw deal, if you ask me. I should be punished for my inaction. But I haven't been strictly inactive. I've spent one day working from midday until four in the morning - ably supported my an early morning walk around Maida Vale with Mr Curmudgeon Morgan. I've experienced a solid day of dreaming and designing with the cream of the BBC. And I've had my bloody ears oozed out by an unhelpful male uber-nurse. I have hearing back. The world's a better place because now I can hear myself singing when I'm waiting for the bus.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: XCOM was mentioned on Wired STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2002 10:54:20 PM ----- BODY:

    XCOM was mentioned on Wired today. Oh hang on - noone gives a stuff about XCOM any more. That was days ago. What they care about is that I was mentioned in the same article. Because I'm way more important. European Weblogger of the Year, doncha know. Twice. Was best poof of course. But these things pass...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You know what's depressing? If STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/12/2002 11:29:28 PM ----- BODY:

    You know what's depressing? If Apple made loos, I'd probably buy one.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More mentions of XCOM and STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2002 05:38:02 PM ----- BODY:

    More mentions of XCOM and plasticbag.org: bobzilla, theregister.co.uk.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Crucial XCOM-spin-off related topical news STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2002 06:19:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Crucial XCOM-spin-off related topical news item from Stand.org.uk:

    Post Office To Steam Open Your History File [from stand.org.uk]

    One of the more extreme powers the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) handed out two years ago let government agencies obtain "traffic data" without a judicial warrant.

    Traffic data is best described as the writing on the envelope of a message, instead of its contents. It can be the list of phone numbers you have called in the last six months. Or a full list of Websites you have visited. Or the times you log on, and from where. Or who you e-mail, or what programs you've downloaded, or what newsgroups you read. Or the position of your cellphone last Tuesday at five.

    Because the risk of abuse of this power (there's no judicial oversight - all that's needed is the permission of a suitably high-powered boss), those who could wield it were strictly limited. Only the police, Customs and Excise and the secret services were allowed access to traffic data in the original act.

    Not any more.

    On Friday, the Home Office petitioned parliament to add a vast array of organisations to that list. If their passes, everyone from the DTI, any local authority, the Food Standards Agency, the Home Office themselves (of course), and staggeringly enough, Consignia. The final entry in the list says that "A Universal Service Provider within the meaning of the Postal Services Act 2000" has the same power as the secret services to read your traffic data. There's only one USP in Britain right now, and that's the provider previously known as the Royal Mail.

    If the idea that the fricking Post Office has access to your web logs (access which would cost a competitive company millions, and would probably get them investigated by the Data Protection people), let alone every minor apparatchik on the block, you might want to kick up a fuss about this. It's due to appear before MPs on June 18th, and the Lords a little after.

    How do I find out more?

    Read the Order before Parliament. It's very short (although the list of allowed organisations is very long - two minutes should do it).

    Flick through our quick notes on the original RIPA law. (The notes are based on an earlier draft, so the section numbers are a bit off. But you get the idea.)

    What can I do?

    Fax your MP now. The Order is to be debated next Tuesday, and these things are usually rubber-stamped. Tell your MP which groups you don't want to be spied on by (list them all), and tell him why. Explain what traffic data means (your MP might not now how wide-ranging it is). Explain it in terms he or she can understand - if they're a Conservative, explain how it's government prying into people's lives. If they're Labour, talk about civil rights. If they're Liberal, say what you like - the LibDems are usually down with this sort of nonsense. Ask for a reply.

    It'll take twenty minutes of your time. It'll make a difference. Members of Parliament hate having this sort of wide-ranging power sneaked past them as much as you do. If you're feeling a bit lazy today, you could forward this message to one of your more overactive friends. And then write your letter tomorrow.

    Experts

    If you're a journalist, or want to write a detailed piece for others, you can contact Ian Brown (+44 7970 164526) at The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR). As ever, they were the ones to spot this piece of nastiness first. And if you're feeling flush, for £25 you can join the Friends of FIPR which will get you advance alerts and a warm feeling about these issues.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you want to support STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/13/2002 06:46:50 PM ----- BODY:

    If you want to support the stand.org.uk campaign against the infringement of your rights below and would like to have the text of it on your site, but are perhaps too lazy to actually reformat it all, then you should be delighted - you can simplify the whole process by downloading this text file and cutting and pasting the whole thing into Blogger or Movable Type - available in both 'for lines break enabled' and 'completely formatted for you' varieties.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Toy of the day: A STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/16/2002 05:17:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Toy of the day: A terrifying glimpse into how you can construct my terrible visage out of the faces of otherwise attractive and good-looking young men.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Currently fascinating threads on Barbelith: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/16/2002 05:22:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Currently fascinating threads on Barbelith:

    A solar system resembles ours
    Subordinating science to ideology
    Documentary on US war crimes
    The Tipping Point

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You see one of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/16/2002 05:31:23 PM ----- BODY:

    You see one of the wonderful things about Google is that it has a good block of intelligent people constructing small systems within itself that stop hierarchies getting encrusted with process and allow everyone to come up with nice clean ideas - and to discuss it amongst themselves. I'm thinking of talking to someone at the BBC about something like this - as a process it's lovely - as a technical experiment it's fairly simple and easy - and if restricted to suitably small groups of people, it could have a tremendously energising effect on any company or group of people.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I hate the fact that STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/17/2002 12:44:11 PM ----- BODY:

    I hate the fact that I get so obsessively picky about stuff that I'm presenting to people that I can still be chopping it around twenty-four hours before I'm suppose to present it. I hate that this might mean that I don't get to spend the evening with Davo. I hate that I am having to figure out Powerpoint and Visio like someone from marketing. What a day...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ok so the day of STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/18/2002 09:35:11 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok so the day of the conference finally arrives and it is in many ways as close to a laxative as you can get without going to a pharmacy. The paper is essentially finished - so now my only concerns are how the hell to actually get it to the venue. There are times when using a Mac causes problems. I don't have a laptop, so it will be burn it to a CD and stick it online and hope for the best...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Best and most fun news STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2002 10:49:43 AM ----- BODY:

    Best and most fun news of the day is that friend and colleague James Cronin, one of the people responsible for faxyourmp.com was on television last night, being eighteen different types of government-ass-kicking-cool. You can watch him rule the world if you've got realplayer.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The first version of the STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2002 11:26:56 AM ----- BODY:

    The first version of the presentation I gave yesterday is now online. Titled "Building new communities - Learning from Weblogs", it's about "How weblogs straddle personal and social spaces and the potential implications for developing new communities". You can download the PowerPoint file here: Learning_from_Weblogs_final.ppt.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's quite difficult for me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2002 01:40:54 PM ----- BODY:

    It's quite difficult for me to know whether or not I'm allowed to link to this page. I guess I should probably ask permission first. But I've sent them the actual text that I'd like to write about them. So hopefully they'll get back to me soon and I can put up all my opinions then....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Update on the stand.org.uk campaign STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/19/2002 01:56:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Update on the stand.org.uk campaign to stop firemen rifling through your phone logs... they've only gone and given in already!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Exciting kind-of semantic web news STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2002 12:46:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Exciting kind-of semantic web news of the day comes from Sifry's Alerts [via boingboing.net], who have found a way through SOAP to add related Google articles to the end of any Movable Type weblog post. Find out more.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stage one: The astonishingly cool STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2002 12:53:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Stage one: The astonishingly cool UKBloggers Tube Map (which I maintain is unfinished). Stage two: The Ikea Game (which I maintain is unfeasibly cool). Stage three: Profit? We all love Cal. Particularly me. I think I love him most of all.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: [INSERT] Massive post lost by STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2002 01:23:31 PM ----- BODY:

    [INSERT] Massive post lost by Blogger Pro about the costs of running a community. [/INSERT]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One month from my thirtieth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2002 02:21:12 PM ----- BODY:

    One month from my thirtieth birthday and finally the preparations begin...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So Davo has arrived in STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/20/2002 04:23:06 PM ----- BODY:

    So Davo has arrived in Sparkyland and is now being looked after. Davo will be much missed. He was in London for a few days - just passing through you understand - and we all went out for a huge Chinese meal and then turned up late to a pub quiz at London's unfashionable Retro Bar. Later in the evening back at my place, he and I and our mystery guest for the evening talk about crap and giggle at badly made soft-porn before fitfully falling asleep. Poor old Davo looked knackered. I hope Sparky looks after him, otherwise they'll be trouble...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Via Obscure Store: Man who STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2002 10:55:10 AM ----- BODY:

    Via Obscure Store: Man who had bottomite sex with Llama gets three years in prison: "A weeping Brandon R. Eldred pleaded with a judge for leniency, saying he should be sentenced lightly for his crimes because he was remorseful, had found religion and had changed his ways."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not caring about football is STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/21/2002 11:12:07 AM ----- BODY:

    Not caring about football is a mixed blessing. England go out of the World Cup and of course it's still disappointing because so many people you know do care about it, and you want them to be happy. So you have to try and identify with their pain anyway. Certainly you're not allowed to smile while walking through London. You're supposed to look miserable, or at least kind of flat. Everyone looks at you. Remind yourself - everyone else is kind of depressed. And you're very definitely not allowed to be secretly relieved that the world won't completely stop so that everyone can watch football every two or three days...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks to Haddock for pointing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2002 10:45:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Haddock for pointing me in the direction of this one. Surely someone had to have been aware that there was something vaguely entertaining about calling an association of Plastic Surgeons "baps.co.uk"?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mobile phones embedded in teeth, STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2002 11:11:28 AM ----- BODY:

    Mobile phones embedded in teeth, with tiny speakers transmitting the noise up the jaw-bone into the ear? It's not a particularly new idea, but it's quite an attractive one - and there's a model of what one might look like at the Science Museum in London at the moment.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Cherry Coke... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/23/2002 06:53:14 PM ----- BODY:

    My startling relevation of the day is that if you cut two cherries in half and place them with some ice at the bottom of a glass and pour Coke over the top, then you get a drink that's remarkably like Cherry Coke - except a bit nicer. This has surprised me because I always assumed that Cherry Coke had almost nothing to do with either cherries or Coke.

    Perhaps terrifyingly, there is a hell of a lot of information about Cherry Coke on today's interhighweb of which I will only reference the highlights or the weirdshit. It turns out that Coca-Cola owns half of the world's soft drink market and spends $1.6 billion on advertising - which makes it the world's number six advertiser [link]. In 1913 another company was making a mint cola drink but noticed later on that people were becoming interested in the idea of cherry soda fountain beverages [link]. Although CherryCokeWorld has been taken down (at the request of the Coca-Cola company), you can actually still get into it by skipping directly to one of it's internal pages. Which are - I must confess - weird and alarming. There are other weird cola sites too. Final fact: while Mo Morgan loves Cola-Cola, Cherry Coke makes him want to barf.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy sings for me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/24/2002 10:31:01 PM ----- BODY:

    I must have watched the Buffy musical episode a hundred times. It's funny, it's well paced. There's a lot there to enjoy. I even downloaded the songs and stuck them on my iPod. Which was nice. Now I can wander down the streets singing to myself - completely ignoring the ridicule of my peers and passers-by.

    But increasingly I've become fascinated by two very specific songs on it. The first main song about Going through the Motions and one at the end - Walk Through The Fire.

    I couldn't be more cheesy if I tried - and often I try to be cheesy because it's kind of amusing - but it's horrific how much I find myself identifying with the hackneyed sentiments and overblown clichés within each of these two songs. It's like after a year of continual panic about money, ongoing tensions have been draining from my body. My life is getting better. But as it does so, I'm looking around at what's left around me, and frankly I'm not overly impressed. So much of what I like about myself - the fire, the passion - has been beaten down by the last couple of years, and it's difficult to see how much impact that stuff has until you're given enough space to take stock and look around.

    How can I be exhausted at four? How can I be at home wide-awake at two in the morning, bored out of my mind? Where did the energy go? Why do I feel so disconnected from the ambitions and lives of the people around me who should be my peers... Where's the thing I get to sing about? How do I get it back?

       I touch the fire
       And it freezes me
       I look into it
       And it's black
       Why can't I feel?
       My skin should crack and peel.
       I want the fire back.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Consumer Products... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/24/2002 10:34:45 PM ----- BODY:

    The temptation to find my mojo in consumer products is almost overwhelming, but I maintain that I will not have my whelm bastions occupied by soliders of Digital Ixusdom. No Sir...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warchalking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2002 08:39:24 AM ----- BODY:

    Finally a good idea from Matt Jones - possibly inspired by the recent Doc Searls / Ben Hammersley meet - warchalking. Bluntly put, a set a simple symbols that you can draw as graffiti wherever you find a wireless network - thus making your fellow bandwidth hobos very very happy.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dream Diary... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2002 11:24:38 AM ----- BODY:

    So the other day I was talking to Matt Webb while having some kind of minor panic attack after seeing someone wearing a suit at UpMyStreet.com. That wouldn't normally worry me, except since I was about to sign a contract for the job I've taken with them that I start in two weeks time. An hour after this conversation, Stef would be pouring vodka down my throat. It's complicated. Bear with me.

    Anyway - we backtrack now to the conversation with Matt and he's showing me a site where this guy draws people's dreams and I'm vaguely remembering that I wrote about a dream including characters from Dawson's Creek at some point in the past, and so I did a search for it, and found it today and weirdly it actually even features Matt himself. Which is odd. And I still don't know what it means...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm going deeper underground STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2002 11:31:02 AM ----- BODY:

    I really don't know whether I should be linking to this, but part of me feels that hidden things should be brought to the surface after a while when they no longer have the capacity to hurt anyone, rather than remain hidden interminably. So I'm presenting Cal's completely unauthorised Subterranean Journal of Tom Coates - every post that I've made in the comments of plasticbag.org for the last couple of years. It's a hell of a lot more savage than plasticbag.org normally is. And probably much more entertaining because of it... Be warned: Your sites are not safe! It's the day the comments tags rose from the dead...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Upside Porn... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2002 12:19:23 PM ----- BODY:

    The web's a weird place. No one's going to deny that, I'm sure. But normally you can count on UpsideClown to provide classy and intelligent (if often incomprehensible) writing. But not today... Oh no... Today it's Football Slash Shower Fanfic day apparently. I feel dirty and corrupt and used and ... vaguely horny. God how depressing. Eurgh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Essential Blogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/25/2002 12:44:06 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm not the first person to have noticed that there's a kind of irony about the cover of Essential Blogging being covered in cats. But I can't remember who the other person was. Meanwhile thanks to emptybottle.org for the kind comments about Learning from Weblogs [2.8Mb].

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Metalinker reminder... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2002 12:36:03 PM ----- BODY:

    For those of you still wondering why I haven't got metalinker running on plasticbag.org, it's because of a bug in Mac IE5 that causes the browser to quit if a window is closed that contained a metalinker-enabled site. Since I am primarily a Mac-user and since I've often got plasticbag.org open in a window - this has caused me substantial problems over a reasonable amount of time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warchalking II STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2002 12:39:50 PM ----- BODY:

    News: Warchalking hits the Daypop #1 spot.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Song of the day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2002 01:35:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Subterranean Song Archive: Song of the day today is Things have Changed, by Bob Dylan. The lyrics are inordinately morbid, but there's something about the presentation that appeals to me - it's kind of jaunty. Which is nice.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Coming up for air? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2002 04:15:48 PM ----- BODY:

    So I had a bit of a difficult evening last night, and so when I work up on my sofa at two-thirty in the morning, I pretty much figured that I'd be a bit the worse for wear this morning. But when I heard the call to prayer from my neighbours bedroom through the connecting wall at six-thirty in the morning, I seriously thought I'd go insane. Unable to sleep again, I showered and slumped in front of the TV to pass the time. Except that forty minutes after slumping, I noticed that time had passed two hours and forty minutes. At this point I realised that my watch had stopped during the night and that I was already twenty minutes late for work. When I finally arrived I plugged myself into some music and have barely surfaced all day...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warchalking III... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/26/2002 09:20:21 PM ----- BODY:

    It's all the web can talk about today, and rightly so: Yahoo News on Warchalking.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Damn you BBC firewall! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 10:01:54 AM ----- BODY:

    I decided on Jason's advice to install Kung Tunes - a little app that allows you to upload a file to your server while you are listening to iTunes, so you can tell the world what you're listening to at that very moment. Except of course I can't get it to work through the BBC's firewalls.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On resolve on the face of unlikely allies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 10:23:26 AM ----- BODY:

    In a motion that was originally inspired by the tact-free B3ta Hate-figure challenge but has since turned into something else entirely, I've been wandering around looking at period anti-Hitler propaganda. There's one image that particularly stunned me - Russia, the UK and the US united against Hitler. It's a weirdly frightening poster, particularly because of the total resolve on the faces of the unlikely allies.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jon Pertwee Aerobics STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 02:32:43 PM ----- BODY:

    I've tried many forms of exercise in my short, sexy life - but my favourite by far is Jon Pertwee Aerobics. Simply download the 'throwing shapes' screensaver from bbc.co.uk/doctorwho, install as appropriate, and then mimic the movements of the Dancing Doctor- ideally to something like Dolly Parton's '9 to 5'.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Filth are back STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 04:41:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Grant Morrison's new project, The Filth looks like it's kicking into gear much faster than most of his work. The new previews over at PopCultureShock reveal that it's a book about the people that 'wipe the arse of the world'.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Burning Man STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 04:43:38 PM ----- BODY:

    So I've got my thirtieth birthday in less than a month and I was planning to go to San Francisco with Davo about now, but I ran out of money at exactly the wrong time, so that didn't happen. But now some people I know are talking about Burning Man - which frankly I'd love to go to... But the money, oh the money... Everything's so confusing and expensive...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Playing games with communities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 05:04:35 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a huge and fascinating article by Derek Powazek over on DesignForCommunity.com at the moment that I really want to respond to, but feel that I probably shouldn't until 1) Cal and I have finished Barbelith and 2) I've had more time to digest it thoroughly. In the meantime, why not discuss the article?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You're shit in bed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/27/2002 10:27:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Sometime in the last few weeks, someone did a search on this site for you're shit in bed, which I would like to say narrows it down a bit, but can't.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BTOpenworld suck ass STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/28/2002 09:16:45 PM ----- BODY:

    So I got an e-mail from my ISP today - and boy are they stroppy with me. Apparently on some recent weekends, I've been connected to the internet for twelve hours in a day. Apparently I have to learn how to "use the internet more effectively" or they'll cut me off. I hate them.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warchalking is so over... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/28/2002 09:59:12 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't believe my life has come to this - bragging about knowing Matt Jones to my own goddam cult. I feel all mucky and corrupt. Ah - and I see the backlash has begun. Soon all the world will move at the speed of blog...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Without the aid of Kung-Tunes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/28/2002 10:50:05 PM ----- BODY:

    Without the aid of Kung-Tunes you would not have known that

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Parties are cool STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 02:37:15 AM ----- BODY:

    Just been to a big gay party. Am drunk. Nice people were there. Was taken by particularly nice person. A couple of people hit on me and everyone else was thinking about it, I reckon. Am golden god. Am also drunk. Lewisham is weird. Huge positive vibes to everyone at said party. Particularly James for taking me to said party. And to Dan and Tony, who I'll probably never meet again.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hairytongue.com STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 11:55:42 AM ----- BODY:

    This morning's gentle hang-over has been eased by a lie-in and an ice-cold coke. But more serious hangover sufferers this morning should consider the cures at hairytongue.com - particular favourites include placing ice-packs on your nipples, listen to pounding music and then running to the loo for a number two, giving your grandfather crack and then eating him, and eating a microwaved melange of rice krispies, milk, cheese and chilli powder...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: America - one godless nation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 04:17:58 PM ----- BODY:

    Over at Slate at the moment is a fascinating article about The Pledge of Allegiance: In fact, the founders opposed the institutionalization of religion. They kept the Constitution free of references to God. The document mentions religion only to guarantee that godly belief would never be used as a qualification for holding officeóa departure from many existing state constitutions. That the founders made erecting a church-state wall their first priority when they added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution reveals the importance they placed on maintaining what Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore have called a "godless Constitution."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Rosemary Clooney dies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 04:33:14 PM ----- BODY:

    After I went to Los Angeles for the first time, Kerry - my West Coast correspondent - sent me a tape of songs to listen to. It was a really odd selection of tunes - but most of them I'm still listening to. One song has spread like wildfire - wherever I play it people want to know wht it is - people at work even hum it now whenever it comes on. The song is 'Mambo Italiano' by Rosemary Clooney, who died on Saturday aged 74.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On getting broadband... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 04:56:35 PM ----- BODY:

    Stage One: Yesterday I rang up BTOpenworld - who are cross with me because I use the internet improperly. My plan? Get broadband ADSL. Then no one shouts at me any more. Plus I get to do big downloady things. Except there's a hell of a lot of people telling me that it's trickier than it looks... More information as I have it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why aren't we all superheroes? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 11:28:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Inspired by a recent viewing of Unbreakable and a really frustrating e-mail exchange in which intention and meaning passed like ships in the night comes a complaining rant from the pen of your author: "I thought this bright new future was supposed to be one where we were all super-heroes. I don't want to be a side-kick. I've never wanted to be a side-kick - I've spent most of my adult life trying to prove I'm good enough to be a super-hero of my own! If the choice is side-kick or super-villian, I know which road I'd take... At least people take super-villains seriously..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Faculty of the Invisible College... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 06/30/2002 11:52:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Anyone interested in the kind of people who hang around on Barbelith should investigate Barbeblogs immediately... There's a lot of good stuff out there...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Staking a stick at Matt Jones... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2002 01:50:58 PM ----- BODY:

    More Matt Jones than you could shake a stick at this morning. The most important article being over at the BBC's dot.life section. I've heard that the eyebrows follow you wherever you go. Even to the loo. So be wary. I'll say no more. Slightly less hi-tech and slightly less high-impact is the cartoon over at joyoftech.com which is annoyingly hard to permalink to.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-perpetuating linkwankery part 10450... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2002 02:05:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Observant plasticbag fans will probably have noticed the "How did they get here" box at the bottom of the page - a cunning piece of kit supplied by Stephen's Web. Concept in a nutshell - publically available referrer log - how did people get to this dumb site anyway - that kind of thing...

    Now the interesting part of this whole palaver comes when you have a couple of people both using the system. Let's say - for example - that 0 fresh decided to use it. And let's say - for some unknown reason - that person decided to come to plasticbag.org twice. Suddenly it's on my referrers log. Which means it shows up in the little box at the bottom of the page. Which means that people click on it and go back through to him. Which makes his little box record a referral from me. Which means that the relationship between our two sites starts to become stronger and clearer. People note that plasticbag.org sent twenty-five people to 0 fresh and so come to the site expecting me to have said something. And of course I haven't. But then people reading plasticbag.org see that five or six people have been referred from 0 fresh. So they go to see what all the fuss is about. This relationship is like a link in the mind that gets stronger the more that it is used - but it's a link between Stalin and Anusol. Or any two random things that aren't really connected at all.

    So what am I saying? Is the tool useless? No! Is it particularly useful - well it could be, particularly when there actually were people using it to keep track of explicit references to each other. But in the meantime it could be exploited by anyone linking to any site - as long as they both use the system. Suddenly, there are links that last days without the slightest reason, without the slightest connection. At times like that you have to take control - and that's what I've done. No one's squeezing traffic out of me without me linking to them. But since I can't stop them getting the traffic - I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and sanction it. Hence yet another bloody link to 0 fresh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Speaking of Anusol, You never thought of mine.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/01/2002 02:14:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Speaking of Anusol (and Stalin), I was surprised to discover today that the Piles Advisory Bureau is sponsored by the zinc-filled butt cream. And more surprised still to see that the PAB is currently running a competition to win a Spa visit or a personal CD player... Go figure...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to spot a Highwayman... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/02/2002 01:53:57 PM ----- BODY:

    He is a dandy highwayman? Or maybe he's a New Romantic throw-back? Or maybe he's a bit of gay homosexual? How do you spot a highwayman?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The BBC needs Freaky Babies! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2002 02:00:03 PM ----- BODY:

    It may be hard to believe, but this morning at work I was asked to produce this picture of a freaky baby for a very important BBC event. Turns out they won't need it after all. Which is a relief. But all that work - I couldn't let it all be wasted...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bartificial Additives! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2002 08:24:58 PM ----- BODY:

    It's all shiny and new and designed just for you - Barty Trabaca has remodelled his online pied-a-terre in a contemporary apple green and powder blue combination with some experimental avante-garde typography and a stunningly apropros Mac OSX Aqua style inverted heart motif. Bravissima, Barty... Bravissima...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On launching new projects STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/03/2002 09:09:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Is there anything more stressful in New Media life than launch dates? I've been at the BBC three and a half months and Friday will be my last day working with Greg Dyke's Making it Happen project. During my time with the project I have reorganised and redesigned a static version of their intranet site, developed (with Matt Biddulph) an internal, web-interfaced ideas management system for handling all the ideas about transforming the BBC that come into Making it Happen, and hopefully tomorrow the discussion and community site that I've developed with help from Cal, Denise and current site-editor Andrea Dashfield, will launch. Assuming of course that it's finished. Hopefully we'll get it all polished off before Thursday evening, so there can be one day of functional live excitement before I head off to another new job at Upmystreet.com. Not a lot in the way of rest at the moment...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Boremongering... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2002 10:44:12 AM ----- BODY:

    Word of the day: Boremonger - being someone who in defiance of international treaties commits crimes against humanity of the order of resolutely producing offensively boring content designed to pulp the higher faculties of the brain.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Passed over by the Guardian... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/04/2002 11:57:23 PM ----- BODY:

    Bloody Guardian Unlimited. Unlimited my arse. Limited. Limited in linkybloglove for yours truly. Link to every other bloody weblogger in the universe why don't you. Don't worry about me. It's not that I'm a dirty link slut. Oh no. But really... PS. Congratulations to much-loved young up-and-comer Simon Minor 9th for being mentioned first!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the end of a tiny era... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2002 12:05:05 AM ----- BODY:

    It occurs to me that the job at the BBC that I've just finished might very well have been the most satisfying working experience of my life to date.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google Link mapping application... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2002 12:42:01 PM ----- BODY:

    I think I'm in love with the Google Link Browser. It's particularly good fun when you're playing with weblogs.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My boss's son has a website... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/05/2002 08:36:49 PM ----- BODY:

    I found a neat little site this evening, with a few elegant little touches - become looks rather unassuming, but contains a full version of Connect 4, Pong, a rather elegant font called Feynman, and my favourite feature - the photo gallery that resizes the window to the size of each photo displayed... And the best thing is that I can't tell you how I found the site...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy vs. Osama Bin Laden... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2002 09:08:43 AM ----- BODY:

    So it's Buffy vs Osama Bin Laden - Round one, Ding Ding! Metaquoting from Metafilter: "Any structured intellectual approach to describing this situation ó and planning for it ó is so uncertain that a valid structure can only be developed as an exercise in complexity or "chaos" theory. I, however, would like you to think about the biological threat in more mundane terms. I am going to suggest that you think about biological warfare in terms of a TV show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that you think about the world of biological weapons in terms of the "Buffy Paradigm," and that you think about many of the problems in the proposed solutions as part of the "Buffy Syndrome." [via prol's linkmatic ubermind]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weird irritating Blog top 30... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/06/2002 09:11:45 AM ----- BODY:

    Another annoying top list of UK weblogging: Which UK weblogs are the most popular Internet destinations?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saying farewell to Captain Fez... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/07/2002 12:54:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday was a bit overwhelming. I went for dim sum to say goodbye to Luke, met loads of geeeks in Soho Square, went shopping with Cal and a guy called Paul, returned to Luke in the pub where thousands of webloggers and Barbelites mingled, then Cal and I went to see Scooby Doo which we entirely loved, then it was back to the pub again for a few hours, before a trip for Cornish Pasties with Drunken Matt and Darren before returning to the pub again. So I'm quite tired today. I'm still digesting it all. You will never hear me speak of it again. Farewell Luke! And hello to Prol who was with us in spirit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing Whorechalking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/07/2002 01:54:10 PM ----- BODY:

    First there was war-dialing - where brute force was used to ring hundreds upon hundreds of phone numbers in the hope that one of them would give you access to a computer network. Then came war-driving - where geeks drove around with wifi enabled laptops looking for unsecured wireless networks. And then came Warchalking, where people could mark up in a symbolic language what wireless networks they had find. And by way of a natural process of development, we come to the zenith of all such enterprises - cutting the very heart of the human condition - catering for the most basic of base needs. Introducing: Whorechalking!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On starting at UMS... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2002 10:36:36 AM ----- BODY:

    I feel sick.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Lucky Star - advert, not movie... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2002 12:01:09 PM ----- BODY:

    It purports to be a film trailer. But the film isn't on Benecio Del Toro's entry on IMDB. It has a funky website, but it looks like a car advert. It's directed by Michael Mann, corporate-hunting director of The Insider, and yet it's actually a fucking advert for Mercedes Benz [more].

    It can't just be me that thinks this is really immoral, can it? I mean - surely it's false advertising for a start? There is no product of that name. In fact it's purely designed to make people believe it's a movie and fool people into associating the car with it. It's designed to mislead. Surely that's appalling? That can't be right?

    PS - is this the kind of thing you associate with cool, decent, well-meaning, non-exploitative, intelligent happy brands - or is it in fact utterly duplicitous and foul?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Party in the Park 2... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2002 12:18:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Weblog Party in the Park head-and-shoulder shots confirm that I am no longer the slimmest, nor the prettiest British weblogger. Sigh. Life is cruel.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Scissors, Paper, Stone... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/08/2002 03:48:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Long standing assumption: In the game of 'scissors, paper, stone' unless informed of the tendency of men to choose scissors on their first attempt, most men will tend towards choosing scissors on their first attempt. Scissors having psychological attractions for men, apparently, that are above those of paper and stone - considered perhaps passive or weak materials. Research on paper, scissors, stone: The First International RoShamBo Programming Competition [via Boing Boing]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A history of the ancient world... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2002 03:30:13 PM ----- BODY:

    So I was in Borders today, kind of looking for some kind of decent contemporary history of the Ancient World, because for some reason I never really managed to fit together some of the periods that I studied when I was more academically inclined, and it occurred to me that it might be nice to be able to answer some of the damn questions people ask me about (particularly) Roman civilisation. But they didn't have anything, so I left empty-handed...

    ... only to arrive back at my gorgeous computer to be confronted with the weblog of Julius Caesar - so entirely a great idea and so entirely an entertaining and well-designed site...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Blogchalking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/09/2002 11:20:47 PM ----- BODY:

    What the hell is wrong with you people? Whorechalking is way funnier and more useful than fucking blogchalking.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New York Mac Orgy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2002 12:01:11 PM ----- BODY:

    It must be the coolest Mac party of recent memory - the free-for-all Lapdance (to be held next Thursday in New York). Sponsorted by Wired, it will take place at Remote Lounge, a "digital entertainment lounge" in the East Village. I'm so jealous I could vomit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Upmystreet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2002 03:03:35 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm approaching the end of my first week at upmystreet.com and so far I've mostly experienced a substantial degree of culture shock. It's so quiet here. The main noise is far-away typing and air conditioning. My normal exuberant wit feels very out of place here. There's almost no opportunities for loud disco dancing at all. And no blonde girl to wave at from an upstairs balcony...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 30 days to a more accessible weblog STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/11/2002 03:44:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Yet again, I'm probably the last person in the world to have noticed this - but Haughey has found a profoundly useful and important site that tells you How to make your weblog (and by extension your website) more accessible.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The web is over STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/12/2002 04:01:53 PM ----- BODY:

    If you've ever read upsideclown.com, then the only thing you need to know is tha the web is over - print is back.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dreams STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2002 09:05:12 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok so I just had a dream that I was on a bus and I saw an huge poster on a bus stop which was blue and the name of a friend at the top with a picture of the friend kind of reclining at the bottom. I remember being suprised and remarking to the man on the bus with me that I knew the guy in the picture. I got a bit of a glare back. I guess he wasn't very impressed. Weirdly this part of the dream was way more interesting that the bit where I had sex with Tom Cruise on a big bed on the ground floor of Selfridges.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the midst of cameras... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2002 09:39:09 AM ----- BODY:

    In an important defence against the erosions of privacy and the introductions of a surveillance culture - as well as in an acceptance of the gradual erosion of copyright - we acknowledge Hacktivismo who are shortly to announce a new protocol for anonymous, secure, private file-sharing.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Broadband STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2002 09:46:32 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm supposed to get my broadband today. Fast interhighweb access 24/7 from my very own living room. Will anything in the world ever be safe from my rampaging eye? Will I now be able to download all those huge OSX updates without being cut-off after half-an-hour? Only time will tell.

    Updates: Broadband rocks. Am thoroughly enjoying it. I can now tell the world that the yet-another-sequel to Halloween looks really bad.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Birthday STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2002 09:52:17 AM ----- BODY:

    So I was having a conversation with Matt Webb about my upcoming birthday when I will be thirty years old, and I said to him, "How do you think I can mention my birthday and link to my wishlist without seeming really cheap and mercenary?" And he said, "Since when did that stop you?" And you know what...? He was right...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Spiderman won't make you gay STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/13/2002 10:39:06 AM ----- BODY:

    What the hell is it about the world that makes the word 'gay' so intrinsically funny to people? Currently doing the rounds: Spiderman will make you gay. I've got very very mixed feelings about this. I don't think it's overtly homophobic, but then I'm pretty comfortable with being a poof. The more I look at it, the more I think that it's the kind of thing that drives young teenage poofs further into the closet, prolonging years of misery and giving kids at school yet another way to be vile to each other. What do you think?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Your password's too short STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 12:22:59 AM ----- BODY:

    Without Haddock I would never have stumbled up this one: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords . [via James]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dodgy people in the world STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 12:53:52 AM ----- BODY:

    There are some dodgy people in the world, with an exciting range of sexual interests that are more or less unfathomable to me. And then I'm sure that there are some things that get me off that probably would seem like the actions of a Martian to many other people. And then there are very very weird people. Warning: Less funny than excruciatingly gross!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Amazon Recommends.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 08:40:28 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't have gay spending habits. This is the only assumption that I can come to. After going diligently through all of Amazon.co.uk and adding and rating all the things that I own, the DVD recommendations page for 'Erotica' shamelessly tells me that I need a DVD which will explain how I could better pleasure a woman. In my experience pleasuring a woman actually isn't that hard - a Selfridges voucher normally works quite well. It's quite satisfying to see videos called The Lover's Guide - What Women Want and click firmly on the little button underneath that reads 'not interested'!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More fun with Amazon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 08:57:34 PM ----- BODY:

    So there's this new feature on Amazon.co.uk where you can buy two things together that are apparently connected for a slightly lower price. It's a really neat little feature that tries to determine what kind of things would interest you and encourages you to buy them together. Except it's a little too good at it's job I fear - buy "An erotic love story packed with stunning young men - for the gay man" and Amazon thinks very carefully about your interests and preferences and promptly spits out Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Too wonderful... What a combination... I wonder if his parents know...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One final word on Amazon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 09:40:21 PM ----- BODY:

    Issues of sexuality aside, it occurs to me that there are a variety of things that it would make a hell of a lot of sense if Amazon knew about you in order to better suggest products. The easiest example? Mac vs PC. Why don't they just ask me? It would make things so much easier.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was a teenage twenty-something... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 09:56:07 PM ----- BODY:

    So if I was going to be writing an autobiography anytime soon I think I'd call it I was a teenage twenty-something. I've come increasingly aware that I'm an awful adult. I'm just useless at it. When I meet people I think are sexy and interesting and fun I become a relentless teenager - my voice bounces up two octaves, I say dumb dumb things (if I can think of anything at all to say) and I immediately forget all the things that I'm proud of that I've accomplished and instead concentrate on how incredible and astonishing the other person is. You're supposed to get over this stuff when you're fifteen or something...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Thirtieth Birthday Project STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/14/2002 11:07:37 PM ----- BODY: BEFORE WE EVEN START: Buy me a bloody birthday present already! On the 19th of July 2002, I will be thirty years old. But with only a few days to go I find myself confused about it. It's a milestone, clearly - but a milestone of what? Does you life change - or is it going to end up being exactly the same - just moreso? What should I expect from it? What should anyone expect from it? So what I'm suggesting is this... Rather than me writing a whole piece about the experience - why not open it up to everyone? Why not get everyone of you who has turned thirty to post their stories? Why not get everyone of you who knows a good site or joke or piece of information post it for all of us to see? Then in the years to come (!) other people who are completely bloody freaked out about the whole thing can have all this wonderful stuff to make them feel better or worse... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Rather than me writing a whole piece about the experience - why not open it up to everyone? Why not get everyone of you who has turned thirty to post their stories? Why not get everyone of you who knows a good site or joke or piece of information post it for all of us to see? ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.232.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/15/2002 01:32:04 AM To start things off - here is a picture of a man who has just turned thirty... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: iana2@mac.com IP: 203.134.44.133 URL: DATE: 07/15/2002 02:12:38 AM Well the pic's interesting, because if you were counting the silly years in the mode chinoise, you'd ALREADY be thirty (remember womb time?) So dearest, what you can glean from this is just how little it all matters. Relativity will get you in the end. Go out and get laid for chrissakes ;-P ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: teddy EMAIL: teddy @handbag.com IP: 213.1.45.2 URL: DATE: 07/15/2002 02:14:33 AM "If you haven't turned rebel by twenty you've got no heart; if you haven't turned establishment by thirty you've got no brains!" (Kevin Spacey) 'A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.' H.L. Mencken ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave EMAIL: djanka@mindspring.com IP: 216.175.115.67 URL: DATE: 07/15/2002 05:55:20 AM Thirty‰qthe promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. -- narrator Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, ch. 7 Actually it's not that bad at all. It's like Christmas in a way: the drama is all in the build up, while the actual event isn't that big of a deal. And so far, my 30s have proven to be infinitely better than my 20s. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mikejla@btinternet.com IP: 195.102.146.4 URL: http://troubled-diva.blogspot.com DATE: 07/15/2002 10:55:10 AM My twenties were, in many ways, aspirational. I was still trying to construct the person I thought I wanted to be. Turning thirty, I abandoned the faux maturity and started acting like I damned well pleased. This was very liberating. I wouldn't go back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: g r e g EMAIL: at0mized@earthlink.net IP: 65.179.201.166 URL: http://www.atomized.blogspot.com DATE: 07/15/2002 12:55:16 PM What the last guy said! As a symbolic threshold, it's a perfect opportunity to shed undesirable elements from your life and get on with it as you always meant to. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 132.185.132.13 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org/ DATE: 07/15/2002 03:46:30 PM The main thing I learned about turning thirty was to avoid bookshops. Bookshops. Avoid. Do not go to bookshops. Do not step inside bookshops. The reason? Well, the books, frankly. Specifically, the 3 for 2 sales. Browse through these particular piles of novels, and you will see title upon title of thirtysomething trash. I don't need to list the authors, because we all know them. These books are uniformly depressing - mostly because they feature people having supposedly crap post-thirty lives - but they're not! You read them and end up thinking, "Hey, cool life! Wish mine was like that!" And then you get drunk on very cheap vodka. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buni EMAIL: stuart.unitt@ntlworld.com IP: 62.254.0.7 URL: http://www.bunitt.blogspot.com DATE: 07/15/2002 04:45:06 PM You can ask any one of my friends what I was like in the build up to last 4th May, my 30th b/day. I was saying more often than not that I was really looking forward to my thirties, that everything I had worked hard for during my twenties would make for an excellent foundation for everything I wanted to do in my thirties. Now that I've been 30 for a couple of months, I can see personal changes occurring very gradually. I am shedding youthful pursuits that don't mean that much to me anymore. Related to that, I've even shed a couple of people whom I found myself normatively moving away from as we no longer have so much in common. I'm enjoying myself, basically doing things that I want to do, defining who I am and will be for the next decade. Good luck, Buni ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek M. Powazek EMAIL: dmp@fray.com IP: 64.174.47.196 URL: http://powazek.com DATE: 07/15/2002 05:59:39 PM Here's a vintage {fray} story that may be of use: the big three-oh. There are quite a few posts to keep you busy, too.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matthew EMAIL: bliss322@yahoo.com IP: 205.152.57.135 URL: DATE: 07/15/2002 07:35:48 PM two good things about turning 30: 1. you get to go through the spanking machine - a gauntlet-esque celebration where you crawl under everyone's legs (they're in a line) while they paddle the shit out of your bottom -- whooo big fun 2. noone can tell you "no" during the entire year (rolling calendar). I made this rule up myself, but i've insisted that my friends stick to it and so far it's working out, mainly because they're all younger and will be expecting to get their respective 'year of whiny demands' as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chela EMAIL: chelablog@hotmail.com IP: 154.5.231.219 URL: http://chela.blogspot.com/ DATE: 07/15/2002 11:56:24 PM Celebrate it, man. When I turned 30 I threw myself a salon evening, and made my friends come and sing or recite or perform in some other way. They were all terrible, but I was impressed that they even tried. I performed too, and was possibly the worst of the lot, but dammit, I took the risk. Your thirties are about finally becoming the person you've always thought you could be but were afraid to reveal to your friends and family. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: pete@bugpowder.com IP: 217.41.7.225 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 07/16/2002 01:29:28 AM Turning 30 two months after you (sept 19). Just split up with my girlfriend this weekend and about to move out of our flat. My job's getting easier by the week and I'm treading water and want to move on. There should be an opportunity to do so soon. I've just realised how many friends I have and how important they are to me, and not in a soppy, mournful way but because I think I've finally realised that I'm actually alive. Bring it on. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jon EMAIL: jonathan.r.hope@strath.ac.uk IP: 130.159.248.44 URL: DATE: 07/17/2002 02:04:07 PM I'll be 40 in September, and my 30s have been the best decade of my life: more in control; able to pick and choose which fashions and fads to throw myself into without worrying about getting it wrong; the people I've slept with have been more sorted, better at sex, and more fun to talk to before and after; plus my 30th birthday was the best ever - till my 37th (and I hope, my 40th). I could do without the grey pubes and the two-day hangovers mind you... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lyssa EMAIL: lyssa@bitch.org.uk IP: 195.92.168.167 URL: http://bitch.org.uk DATE: 07/17/2002 02:38:58 PM I turned 30 on Saturday 13th July. Best birthday I've had for a long time. I worried in a vague way about being 30 for a while before, feeling as though I *ought* be to worried about it, more than actually having a reason to worry. This is possibly connected to a relative who, at my 21st birthday ball, intoned in my ear, "Enjoy it while it lasts, because 30 comes awfully fast." Boy was she right - where did my twenties go? Now it's been and gone. Nothing has changed, I still don't have any wrinkles, I still drive too fast, I still swear too much and I'm still single. Rar. Bring on the thirties. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graybo EMAIL: graybo@grayblog.co.uk IP: 172.181.16.177 URL: http://www.grayblog.co.uk DATE: 07/18/2002 04:25:14 PM You will *feel* more sorted, even if your life may not actually *be* any more sorted. It's a strange sensation, but it works. Quite liberating. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven EMAIL: nutcote@nutcote.demon.co.uk IP: 212.228.251.128 URL: http://www.plep.org DATE: 07/18/2002 07:50:12 PM Tom, I turned thirty last month, and took a long trip to New York and San Francisco to celebrate. It was great. It felt more like a coming of age than my 18th or 21st birthdays... One thing I have noticed, which shows itself in several different ways, is to do with feeling more positive and less stressed... more capable, almost. The time leading up to it was a little stressful, in terms of assessing 'how well I'd done' so far... now it's over, it feels good (and so far, better than being a twentysomething). Sorted. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ian (blogadoon) EMAIL: ian@iansie.com IP: 193.237.236.2 URL: http://www.iansie.com/nonsense/blog.html DATE: 07/19/2002 05:26:15 AM I remember my thirtieth birthday (sorta) I remember my fortieth birthday. And I remember my fiftieth birthday, too. With each one, I moved further away from the urge to stamp my feet, throw myself on the carpet and scream ..."but it's so unfair." And nearer to appreciating that the more living I do, the more I find out about myself and what makes me special. Now I look back on my thirtieth birthday and wonder "just what was I celebrating exactly?" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: steven EMAIL: nutcote@nutcote.demon.co.uk IP: 195.50.100.20 URL: http://www.plep.org DATE: 07/19/2002 07:18:49 AM Oh yeah, happy birthday. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pei EMAIL: serein@sic.per.sg IP: 128.243.220.22 URL: DATE: 07/19/2002 12:24:21 PM Happy Three-Oh Birthday Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jules EMAIL: jmmanno@juno.com IP: 63.169.100.113 URL: http://lotus29.diaryland.com DATE: 07/19/2002 04:55:47 PM I've been 30 for almost a whole year now (31 on July 28th!). The actual birthday had me stressed because I felt like I had wasted the last half of my 20's doing whatever I wanted, with the intent to "someday" be doing something "real." Whilst friends got married and had babies, I was still dating my now husband. It all felt like I had years to go before having to start being a "real grown-up." Then...BANG!...30! It made me wonder what the hell I thought I was doing with my life. As the months after the birthday ticked by the stress lessened, but for the first time I have the sense that if I'm planning to do something, I better start now. I finally (after 7 years) married the boyfriend, but as far as career (not sure) and family (not yet) go, I'm still working on it. So hopefully the advice of some of the older people that posted here, is correct; that your 30's are much better. At least, maybe people will stop treating me like someone right out of Uni that couldn't possibly know what she's talking about. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joanne EMAIL: joanne@full.co.uk IP: 217.35.163.116 URL: DATE: 07/22/2002 12:25:28 PM 30. Thank god. You don't worry so much, you don't care so much. You don't have to pretend so much or try so hard. You might start looking after your skin a little better and it will probably take you longer to recover from a night in the pub. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jerwin EMAIL: jerwin@2xy.org IP: 66.185.85.81 URL: http://www.2xy.org DATE: 07/23/2002 01:54:10 AM I turned 30 eight months ago. I'd rather be 20. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: nickdock@clara.co.uk IP: 134.146.9.20 URL: http://www.theubiquitoushub.com DATE: 07/29/2002 03:15:03 PM I turned thirty on the 24th of July - I took a pill or two and ended up thinking I was James Brown and danced till dawn. But how does it feel? Give me a few months and i'll let you know ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lissa EMAIL: Herman_melissa@hotmail.com IP: 199.230.26.129 URL: DATE: 07/29/2002 06:33:37 PM Its when I realised that people who looked really old to me felt more or less the same as they always had inside, and that the same thing had low and behold happened to me. And that maybe I was never going to "arrive" at that grown up life I was expecting, so I may as well stop worrying about trivial stuff and enjoy life. Oh yeah - and if I worry about trivial stuff, that's just me so I don't mind too much. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: tc_stephens@hotmail.com IP: 210.48.107.19 URL: DATE: 07/30/2002 03:14:02 AM There's no need to attribute any significance to turning 30 at all if you don't want to. For example, you must have come across one of those terminally pedantic people a couple of years ago who insisted that the new millenium didn't actually start until 2001. Same thing here: you're actually in the last year of your twenties. What's more, with advances in nutrition and medical research in the West, life expectancy is on the whole about 15 years longer than it was a generation ago. So in terms of emotional and personal development, you're entitled to push things out proportionally, which means you've effectively only just turned 23 and a half. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Riley EMAIL: ri_ley@btinternet.com IP: 212.134.36.251 URL: http://www.spittoonsandsabres.com/our_birthday/ DATE: 07/30/2002 01:25:50 PM When I turned 30 I experienced two things which I'd not had before. A birthday cake, infact several, and a birthday party....see URL.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah Heidt EMAIL: Sarah@SarahHeidtPhotoCraft.com IP: 207.75.181.220 URL: http://www.SarahHeidtPhotoCraft.com DATE: 07/31/2002 07:53:33 AM I'm just 33 and I cannot remember anything about my thirtieth birthday. Not how I celebrated, not what I received, not what I even thought about it. But I had already had my first child by then and all my anxiety about getting responsible and being biologically beside-the-point were taken care of when I became a parent. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dorian EMAIL: loaf@isness.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.isness.org/dory/ DATE: 07/31/2002 02:01:47 PM I'm thirty. come to my party. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Dolan EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 217.36.3.77 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism DATE: 08/04/2002 03:21:01 PM On the day I turned thirty, I found out my boss (who'd been ill in hospital with something brain-related) was unlikely to be returning, so I needed to take over trying to run things. So in a very real sense I had responsibility thrust upon me on that very day. Which I responded to by getting riotously pissed. I think it's an illusion though - at around late-28, you start turning all that experience into wisdom and become less of a nob. At 30, you kind of know you're still going through that stage and have a bit of room to manouvre. At 32, that's it, you're stuck that way forever. That's when you should have a party with the few friends who are still prepared to tolerate you... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul B EMAIL: bakerjp@exchange.lancs.ac.uk IP: 194.80.32.11 URL: DATE: 08/09/2002 02:08:46 PM I was 30 this May. It ended up being a very low-key affair. A couple of friends came around that night, but that was just a co-incidence because it was the only night that was free. We watched Cecil B Demented and had pizza. I wasn't bothered by being 30 at all. I've achieved what I want to achieve in my 20s, but I was starting to feel like I'd overstayed my welcome as a 20-something anyway. I read somewhere that by 30 people's personalities are pretty much stabilised. And I hope that's the key to being 30 - stability. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shannon EMAIL: athalome@yahoo.com IP: 172.146.193.116 URL: DATE: 08/09/2002 11:04:19 PM I turned 30 on March 26. Mainly I remember crying in the car and being frustrated with myself for not keeping tissue in the car. I remember my father's 30th birthday. He would have had soemthing in his car to wipe his eyes and blow his nose with, not that he would have ever sat in his car crying. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christian EMAIL: christian_0@hotmail.com IP: 194.203.138.155 URL: DATE: 08/15/2002 10:35:59 AM Turned thirty last Monday. Can't think of anything to say about it at the moment. I'll think of something while I'm on the treadmill at the gym I joined last Tuesday. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jeanie EMAIL: jeanie@ruby-online.co.uk IP: 212.19.85.146 URL: http://www.ruby-online.co.uk DATE: 08/23/2002 10:44:06 AM I turned 30 on August 8th. I kept looking in the mirror expecting to look or feel dramatically different as people said I would but the same reflection looked back at me. The one thing that I've thought about more, in my 20's I always said I'd have kids when I was 30, now that's here I'm just not sure any more. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vicky EMAIL: gretcheng@lycos.co.uk IP: 62.7.81.63 URL: DATE: 08/23/2002 07:18:28 PM I went off the rails a bit the year I turned 30, but it was 2000, so I think it was some sort of Millenium-related weirdness. No actually I think it was just a reaction to realising I wasn't where I thought I'd be at 30. So I went a bit mad, drank far too much and eventually came down and sorted my head out. Now I have some direction and know who I am and think your 30's are way better than your angsty 20's. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Fiona EMAIL: fifibella@lycos.com IP: 194.130.252.1 URL: DATE: 08/28/2002 04:08:11 PM When I was 30 I had a huge party and invited everybody I've ever known (about half came). I got so drunk on cocktails that I forgot about being 30 aand had an excellent time. It was so good, I did it this year when Iwas 31. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Crisp EMAIL: jonastep@hotmail.com IP: 61.223.154.211 URL: DATE: 09/02/2002 03:19:12 PM I forgot... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbieeeee EMAIL: bobbiesalthouse@mac.com IP: 138.88.42.136 URL: DATE: 09/10/2002 07:03:11 PM I can't even remember when I turned 30, that's how unimportant it is now. I turned 50 last year and that's pretty mind-boggling. The important thing is to live each day, and not to be bound by arbitary limits such as age and your perceptions of it. Geologically speaking, if you are alive, you are young. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbieeeee EMAIL: bobbiesalthouse@mac.com IP: 138.88.42.136 URL: DATE: 09/10/2002 07:03:58 PM I can't even remember when I turned 30, that's how unimportant it is now. I turned 50 last year and that's pretty mind-boggling. The important thing is to live each day, and not to be bound by arbitary limits such as age and your perceptions of it. Geologically speaking, if you are alive, you are young. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lori EMAIL: lalexander72@hotmail.com IP: 209.102.103.16 URL: DATE: 09/19/2002 10:42:46 PM HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Today's my birthday too (September 19, 1972)! I woke up at midnight and started a mural in my hallway of the story of my life (up until now). It occured to me I have a long life ahead of me and not much wall space. Life is good. And from what all the 30 somethings I know - it only gets better. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: patricia EMAIL: info@lunanina.com IP: 165.121.65.56 URL: http://lunanina.com/musings/ DATE: 01/19/2003 02:23:47 AM In 45 days I'll finally be 30. I've been waiting for this day since I was in my teens. Back then I hated not being taken seriously just because of my age and I wondered at what age I would stop feeling like a child playing at being a grown up. I chose 30 for some reason. I don't expect my 30th year to fix things or for people to magically start treating me differently. I'm just happy that the 14 year old in me finally gets what she's wanted for so long. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Agnes from Marseille EMAIL: aberthoz@hotmail.com IP: 193.117.220.101 URL: DATE: 03/31/2004 09:30:40 AM Well... I am about to turn 30, in 3 days exactly. I have been talking about it for the last 6 months as a great thing I wanted to celebrate like you'd celebrate a great event. However, the closer I was coming to the date, the harder it was for me to become concrete about it, not because I gave up on the idea but I was wondering what exactly I wanted to celebrate. Myself? The achievements of my first three decades? Well, they are not great so far. My life is just as normal as anyone else. After more thoughts, trying to be less morose, and less egocentric I found a reason to celebrate it: My friends and my wonderful boyfriend. I have achieved at 30, love, friendship, trust and consistency. They are so important to me and I donít know where I would be without them. So thatís what I am going to celebrate with them! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Heathers for fun and profit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/15/2002 01:41:11 AM ----- BODY:

    Best film of the eighties - Heathers - contains a variety of cool quotes. But the shooting script puts an entirely new spin on some scenes. Worth reading for the sheer number of classic lines...

    HEATHER MCNAMARA
    Look, heather left behind one of her
    Swatches. She'd want you to have it,
    Veronica. She always said you couldn't
    accessorize for shit.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whedonesque launches... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/15/2002 11:40:19 AM ----- BODY:

    Cool Buffy link of the day comes courtesy of Prol and friends who have been working on Whedonesque for ages now. It's a discussion board of the Metafilter tradition - only concerned with nothing but the products of Joss Whedon - Buffy creator. Good show, people! Good site! And destined to be huge...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wishlist on Blogdex STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/15/2002 01:14:27 PM ----- BODY:

    For some unfathomable reason, my wishlist has suddenly hit #17 on Blogdex despite only having been linked to by me. It occurs to me how much fun it would be to get my wishlist to #1 on Blogdex, plus how much extra loot I'd get for my birthday. Which would be cool. So charge your glasses ladies and gentlemen and link today - ideally using this exact phrase: It's Tom from plasticbag.org's Thirtieth Birthday Wishlist Bonanza! Or some crap like that...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's crap about the web... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/15/2002 06:20:10 PM ----- BODY:

    You know what's crap about the web? People no longer propogate my memes when they're really shit, just because I tell them to. What's that about? Jeez, people. How often do I have to explain this relationship to you? I write dumb crap up here every day, and you're supposed to do my bidding without question in return. It's not bloody difficult! Shall I write it down for you in capital letters on little bits of paper you can carry with you?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I broke my spork STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/15/2002 11:35:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Kind of grumpy this evening. I went to see a really lame film with Cal which was really really funny, but that I got all mournful in the bus on the way home. I think it's cos I broke my plastic spork at lunch-time. Maybe it was like a symbol, like they have in books that chicks like. Or something. One thing cheers me up - that tomorrow I can reveal to Cal that Anthony Hopkins character in the movie we saw was called 'Gaylord Oaks'.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Six feet under is fucking Dallas, ok? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2002 12:25:32 AM ----- BODY:

    Why the hell hasn't anyone apart from me noticed that Six Feet Under is like the indie Dallas it's ok to like? I mean you've got the good natured, idealistic, scruffy one and his nervous, edgy, spiky partner. You have the mother who's the head of the family - the dead oppressive father in the background. And we finally know why JR was such a bastard and why he had to muck around with so many women - desperately trying to prove that he's not a repressed poof left in charge of the business. And there's even another company trying to take them over. All you need is the Funeral Barons Ball!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The weather in Norfolk STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2002 08:47:25 AM ----- BODY:

    For all those interested - this is what the weather's like in Norfolk for the next five days.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A working definition of 'ming' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/16/2002 10:54:20 AM ----- BODY:

    A word much used in the UK at the moment is 'ming'. Not the Chinese dynasty - and not the intergalactic warlord either. But it's a word that's in fairly common usage at the moment and it's also a word that has yet to hit America - which it may never do. And you'll never understand how funny Whorechalking is if you don't know about it:

    ming Verb. To smell or look unpleasant. E.g."Oooh, mings in here! Who's farted?" [A dictionary of slang]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google interface takes over the world. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2002 12:02:24 PM ----- BODY:

    You know what's interesting? That a few years ago everyone was emulating Amazon and Yahoo! when they thought about designing e-commerce and information directory-based sites - but nowadays everything looks so much better when it looks like Google.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What if you held a big weblogging competition and nobody came? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2002 12:25:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Idle thought of the afternoon - What if you held a really big weblogging competition and nobody came?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Steve Job's Keynote Speech STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/17/2002 08:06:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Bigs news of the day has to be Steve Job's Keynote speech. A world of monkish zealots turns New York-wards for two hours of self-congratulation and wonder. The chips they put in our heads are working better each year. Soon Steve will be able to talk to all of us through naught but mental telepathy.

    There's a hell of a lot to talk about in what he came up with today - some of which I'll be talking about as the evening progresses. But to give you a flavour of my thoughts on the day - and to give you a laugh - the first thing I'll do is put up a transcript of a keynote-paralleled AIM conversation held in real time over the two hours of the speech between four people with significant interest in our lords and saviours, Apple. More entertaining perhaps than strictly useful... [watch this space]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Guardian Best British Weblogger Award STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2002 09:25:24 AM ----- BODY:

    The news of the day is that the Guardian are running a Best British Weblogger award, which I'm going to link to with the words 'a bloody stupid idea' because then maybe that'll get onto the front page of Blogdex.

    Things to consider:
    Would a weblog called 'Everything the Guardian gets wrong' be likely to win? Or how about one that wasn't really a weblog at all, like b3ta? How about one that was completely made up - utter, complete lies? And what would happen if webloggia simply refused to take part (which is my secret hope)? There don't seem to be any criteria for these things... More likely in time, each and every bloody site would turn into fellatetheguardian.com. And for the purposes of those of you who came in late What if you held a really big weblogging competition and nobody came?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A public response to Neil McIntosh STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2002 05:05:16 PM ----- BODY:

    A reply to Neil McIntosh of the Guardian's Online section - who I don't hold fully accountable for the concept I'm only prepared to refer to as 'a bloody stupid idea' (and I advise you to do the same). Neil suggested on a publically available mailing-list that when I suggested that the Guardian's motivations for a weblogging award might not be entirely altruistic that they were much more likely to generate traffic for webloggers than the other way. He also thinks (as I do not) that webloggers won't prostitute themselves for attention and that the event is rather like the Guardian's first book award. I have replied as follows:

    "Thanks for replying so thoughtfully Neil."

    "Before I start, I'm going to state right off that when I talk about weblogging, I'm generally talking about the most common kind of weblog - there's a bit of their life in there, a bit of their interests, a few links, some thoughts or monologues etc. I think most of it applies to varying extents to the other things that people do as well, but maybe not all..."

    "Taking your last post first, I think there is a sizable difference between the first books prize and this - in that the authors in the first books prize are professional writers who write both for art's sake and for money. They are, in a sense, already prostitutes, already 'in it for the money'. That's fine, we all have to make a living!"

    "But this simply isn't the case for the vast majority of webloggers, who are doing it out of love, out of having a space to express themselves - and often a place to put their lives out in the open. In the process these people are often exposing themselves in quite significant ways. There seems to me something profoundly wrong with asking people to compete in such an environment. At some level it's inevitably a competition of self-exposure - it's asking people to take the space that they've used to talk openly and honestly about their thoughts and their interests and often their lives not because it's a valuable and profound space for them to communicate, but to compete against their friends for money!"

    "Obviously there's also an aspect which is about popularity, and being read and your opinions listened to as well. But if you look at the opinions that matter to people, it's mostly not celebrities or media figures. In many ways, for a large number of people, they're almost the enemy! They're relics from the past where for the most part we are kind of the future - the future where everybody is a superhero! Where we all get a slice of the cake, a bite of the cherry. And more importantly, there's a real feeling that these people most often don't understand what we're doing anyway! We've seen people like this for years - it's all PR blurb and airbrushed skin. I don't think that's what the weblogging publishing revolution is about! Make them start their own weblogs! (Jen excepted, she's so blog)"

    "I suppose what it comes down to is this sense of WHAT IS A WEBLOG FOR? When you talk about book prizes - then you're really talking about a product that is made for the consumption of audiences - press is important because you sell more copies, good reviews are fundamental because you sell more copies, prizes are good because they allow you to make a living. The book itself is something created for the people who are going to buy it. But significantly at least one aspect of running a weblog is to have a place for yourself, that means something to you. It's a place that's not supposed to be for sale."

    "If you asked people "How do you feel when you lie about your life on your weblog", you'll probably some really mixed answers, but a decent number of them will express that this is something that makes people feel really uncomfortable and untrue to themselves. There's a bit of a confessional in it, there's a bit of a the personal diary in it, there's a bit which is about having an artifact of your life and thoughts which you can keep with you."

    "This feels to me too much like selling out, too much like old trees. You say it's the choice of the blogger themselves, but is it really? Who can turn down the possibility of winning £1000 for what they do everyday anyway? And of course that's going to affect how people post. Did you not watch the Bloggies at all? Everyone played up to their audiences. It was almost the point!"

    "Anyway - I'm getting a bit heated now, and I have so much work to do that I'm going to back off now. But I would like to say that I've already had conversations with people yesterday and today who 1) don't understand how something like this can even be judged, 2) don't find the idea of the competition particularly palatable or in the spirit of why they took up - or continue to do - weblogging but 3) feel rather disgusted with themselves that they probably will enter, because the potential exposure is too irresistible and the potential financial reward vaguely intoxicating. It's also already drawn out the competitive instincts in a few people too - seriously - you may not believe it, but it's evident behind the scenes."

    "I hope that's all vaguely clear and not too lunatic or nuts. Obviously I'm not talking for anyone but myself and everything I'm describing could just be my interpretation of the conversations I've been having. Everyone else may very well disagree with every single thing I've said."

    "PS. You're absolutely right - the Guardian has done lots to promote weblogs, which I think we're all - or at least those of us who've been mentioned in them :o) - are profoundly grateful. And clearly no individual weblog is going to double the traffic to the Guardian's weblog or to that part of the site. But I think you're being overly demure when you say that this will send substantially more traffic to the weblogs concerned than it'll receive itself. I think we can expect this to be metafiltered, probably slashdotted, potentially b3ta'd (which I believe to my horror has tens of thousands of e-mail subscribers and is one of the most highly trafficed websites in the country now) - quite apart from the sheer number of links it'll get on weblogs."

    "For good or ill - intentionally or unintentionally - this will generate a substantial amount of traffic for the Guardian's site... It may not have been a motive, but I think I could pretty much guarantee that you couldn't buy the number of page impressions you'll get out of this by paying for £2000 of banner ads!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ban the Bl*gging Guardian STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/18/2002 05:22:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Do you think the weblogging competition is kind of tacky? Have you said so on your site? mail me and I'll link to the post!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fuck me, I'm thirty years old STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/19/2002 12:01:25 AM ----- BODY:

    Omigod, I've just turned thirty.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Overwhelming birthday wonder STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2002 10:52:12 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm rather overwhelmed by what's been happening over the weekend, so I'll just start by saying how happy I am, what wonderful friends I have and link to Meg's account of Saturday night.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Denise bakes Tom a cake STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2002 11:20:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Awesome thanks to Denise for baking me this tiny pixel cake!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On having superpowers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2002 11:28:01 PM ----- BODY:

    I think my superpowers are my friends, who are lovely and wonderful and make me able to do all kinds of cool things that I couldn't do by myself.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You've got mail. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2002 11:48:25 PM ----- BODY:

    I got two e-mails about my birthday that were important to me this year. One from someone I didn't expect to hear from, another from someone I really hoped I'd hear from. So one of them is really cheery - and you have to wonder why. And the other was really sober and you think, should it have been? I think maybe people are like songs. Some songs have a huge impact on you - they make you happy, they make you sad, they make you shake your head around so hard that I think maybe your brain gets all small like balled-up white bread bouncing around your skull. But you never know whether a song you used to love will make you dance or leave you cold - or just make you think of something dumb you once did which makes you smile. Some people only listen to dumb songs . I wonder - do you choose your taste in music or does it choose you?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Holding onto the feeling STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/21/2002 11:56:28 PM ----- BODY:

    I kind of can't stop writing. Everything's all smooshie. It's all daze and blurry soft-focus. Not drunk soft-focus, but kind of happy internal trashy soft-focus. Like a bad novel's cover. I've got all these little pictures in my head - sunsets, Pimms, cartwheeling friends, Cossacks, kebabs, candy floss, boating irishmen, big bearded men with scrambled egg, handfulls of goat-feed. And when I think about them everything just feels really kind of warm and wonderful. And I know it's a feeling that's not going to last, because I can feel some edges already. But god I had a wonderful time.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What happened to your gas supply, Tom? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 12:01:16 AM ----- BODY:

    Oh shit! I completely forgot to write about this, so I'm going to do it now, while I'm all full of blog-love. On Tuesday I came home after work to change for a dinner thing, except when I got home I couldn't get in. The gas board had come around, broken into my flat, taken the gas meter, changed the locks and left! The last tenant hadn't paid their bills and information about me hadn't got to them yet. So for quite a lot of last week I was washing in kettle-boiled water out of a really big saucepan that I don't think I'll use for entertaining any more. Plus no heating or cooking facilities either. I really should get that sorted out!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Onlineblog defends the Best British Blog awards... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 08:57:41 AM ----- BODY:

    As a brief aside before I get all excited about my lovely birthday weekend again (which I've no doubt is boring the world to death), I should probably return to the issue of the Guardian 'Best British Weblog' award - which is currently being defended over at Onlineblog.com. I feel a bit sorry for Neil, actually, because clearly the intent behind the event is completely altruistic - but as anyone who has participated in things even vaguely like this in the UK knows, the only thing you can guarantee about throwing something large and full of implication before webloggers is that you're going to get a fair amount of stick for it. Someone somewhere isn't going to agree with it, or think it misses the point, or is prepared to fight about it. It's just a shame that this time the person throwing a strop has to be me... Increasingly though I'm wondering if there is enough groundswell of support to make a sufficiently large statement by not entering. By itself a weblog is a tiny tiny thing, mostly incapable of generating any kind of change. But weblogs are jumping off points for memes, and memes in blogspace can be all powerful. But if the meme doesn't travel... Perhaps a better idea would be to enter the competition on the understanding that there is the tiniest possibility that it might give you a platform to explain why you think the whole thing was a bad idea in the first place in the most public and outspoken way... Although that could just be an attempt at rationalisation...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More about my birthday... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 09:02:16 AM ----- BODY:

    Contrary to popular reports, my thirtieth birthday in Norfolk was not a weekend retreat for a cabal of elite webloggers. Quite the opposite in fact - I invited Mo Morgan for god's sake! But there were webloggers there because I have friends who are webloggers. So thank you to Mo above, Cal, Matt and Meg and Paul for trekking across country to keep me company. Paul has written up his side of Saturday evening here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogroots STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 09:12:10 AM ----- BODY:

    I've had my first interaction with Blogroots.com today - which I knew was on the horizon, but had somehow completely managed to miss the launch of. It's a metafilter-style board in structure (except that it has a nice category feature that reminds me of Whedonesque) - and it's all about weblogs and weblogging. It's quite an interesting project in and of itself, but of course I came in at this thread - which is about (you guessed it) the Guardian's weblog award...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Writing badly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 09:15:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Today ladies and gentlemen, I will mostly be writing like a barely-literate hack with no grasp of the English language and a tendency to create long, convoluted sentences with little structure, pace or glamour.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Story of a wonderful weekend STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 09:54:19 AM ----- BODY:

    Birthday in a nutshell (I'll complete the post over the day):

    Thursday 18th July
    Midday: There's a tube strike in London so I'm working from home. The plan is to write a spec for a project at my new job at UpMyStreet, pack everything I need to take to Norfolk with me and then hop onto a train - having organised my gas problem at some point during the day.
    4pm: The spec is still far from complete. I am starting to sweat.
    8pm: The spec is still far from complete. I am starting to sweat.
    10pm: Have a freak out about the spec. Far from complete.

    Friday 19th July
    12am: And suddenly, with the spec still far from complete, it's my birthday and I'm thirty. I send a few e-mails and text messages, go for a little walk around outside and feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
    2am: The spec is still far from compleete, but I've done enough for one day. Haven't managed to get to Norfolk yet, but I'll do that in the morning...
    7am: Wake up exhausted like someone has dumped a bucket of cold water on my face and look around frantically. Check my watch which has been broken for the last two and half weeks. Yes, it's still broken. Scrabble around for bags and clothes and things I have to take to Norfolk.
    8am: Everything's packed, but do I take a shower? I have no hot water, after all - not until the gas is fixed. Decision made on spur of moment - damn the shower. Run outside and wait for bus.
    8.30am: Bus still hasn't arrived. I now have an hour to get to the train station.
    8.45am: The bus just drove past fully loaded with people.
    8.55am: Arrive at tube station having given up on bus. Am carrying huge bag of crap. Tube station is closed due to flooding.
    9.05am: Arrive at other bus stop, hop onto bus - surely everything will be ok now.
    9.30am: Have moved about ten minutes walk down the road. Old ladies are lapping us. They've literally walked around the world once while we've been in this queue.
    9.40am: Get off bus and walk to nearby tube station. Pay for ticket and walk through barrier. Take off iPod headphones. A message comes over the tannoy, "There are no southbound services on the Bakerloo line at the moment". Swearing, I turn tail and get back on a bus.
    9.50am: God it's hot on this bus.
    10.00am: Arrange to meet Nick C. and drive up with him from Primrose Hill as whole public transport thing is slowly destroying my mind.
    10.25am: Bump into old friend at tube station. Declare that I am thirty. He's older than me. Feel like I've joined a club.
    10.40am: And we're off to sunny Norfolk!
    11.45am: Nick and I are driving around in the sun and it's really good fun and we're talking and really enjoying ourselves. I keep getting nice text messages from friends, and then - while driving through Elveden - I get a phone call from Gideon in St. Petersberg wishing me a happy birthday which is so entirely cool.
    2pm: Arrive at my parents' place in Norfolk kind of sweaty and exhausted. Which makes it sound like we arrived at orgasm rather than a nice house in the countryside, but we really didn't. We lounge around for a while, I show Nick around the house and the village, we have a drink, get cleaned up and wait for the first people to start arriving...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Internet Magazine think I'm funny STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 06:40:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Now this is funny: search Google for 'a bloody stupid idea'. And how did I find out about that? By reading this very entertaining little article at Internet Magazine... I'm kind of surprised - I don't want this to seem like a campaign - I'm just trying to explain why I think the Guardian competition isn't really in the spirit of weblogging and encourage people who think the same to say so. If you want to enter, you won't get lynched!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thanks STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/22/2002 09:47:46 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the most gob-smacking parts of my birthday weekend was when my web-chums circled around me and, separating me from the flock of non-geeks, herded me gently but insistently into the conservatory. There they revealed to me that there had been a huge behind-the-scenes conspiracy going on for some weeks to get together enough money for me to get a digital camera. My eyes got a bit weird and scared when they told me this. Wider and weirder when they told me about this and mentioned who had contributed...

    Well today I went with Katie and Mo Morgan to a little camera shop in North London and bought a little Ixus V2 with the ill-gotten gains, so finally you can expect a decent amount of pictures on plasticbag.org. It was really surprisingly exciting and I felt all weird but kind of nice about it. Well anyway - I'm going to e-mail everyone independently, but I thought I should do it all publically too. So lots of thanks to:

    While I'm at it - thanks to Ms Hourihan for her instructions on how to destroy the world with computers - and to the other couple of people who sent me stuff from my wishlist - but didn't put their names in!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sucking on a Marseille Fig STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2002 12:51:30 PM ----- BODY:

    So this guy at work is in a band called the Marseille Figs, and he's been sending me a couple of links through the day. It's kind of Pogues-Blues-Bluegrass with a bit of a sense of humour. I'll probably get lynched for that. Anyway - if you want to hear the kind of thing he plays then I'd recommend Wreck of the Old - and if you like that, he'll be on ResonanceFM.com this evening.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Useful articles on communities and moderation STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/24/2002 04:13:32 PM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Warchalking on the BBC STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2002 10:26:33 AM ----- BODY:

    If you've been as fascinated by the whole warchalking thing as most of the geeks on the web seem to have been, then you'll be delighted to know that there was a piece on the BBC's Six O'Clock News about it yesterday - if you've got Realplayer, you can still watch it. It only vaguely misses the point - which is a significant improvement on most mainstream media...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anita Roddick Fact of the Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2002 12:50:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Amusing fact about Guardian Best British Blog award judge Anita Roddick. She's supposed to be running her own site, except if you want to write to her the only e-mail address you can use is staff@anitaroddick.com. Thanks to Mr Morgan for that one (and for looking after my flat while the gas man came).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things I don't really care about STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2002 01:21:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Things that other webloggers are talking about today that I don't think are very interesting:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: plasticbag.org RSS STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2002 03:40:32 PM ----- BODY:

    If you have a use for it, then you can now get an RSS feed from plasticbag.org at http://www.plasticbag.org/rss/plasticbag.xml. And why should you want such a thing? Well one good reason is because if you're on a Mac you could read the whole site through NetNewsWire Lite instead of coming to this dumb page every day. It's a bloody wonderful little application - try it immediately if you can...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tufte nonsense STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2002 06:19:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Fertile customers of plasticbag drivel-log - would that I had time to chat! But for the first time in over a week I have hot running-water at home and I'm so excited I might ... wash myself! And I have a lot of self-cleaning to do - because after seeing these stunning Tufte-related diagrams I'm covered in a thick glutinous layer of human drool.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Metafilter's bizarre text ad celebrates 'suicide girls' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/25/2002 08:55:29 PM ----- BODY:

    I've just experienced the first text ad that I've actually wanted to click on. More than that, even - I've just experienced the first text ad that against all the odds I did click on. What did it say? "Suicide girls - punk/goth girls. read their blogs, see them naked." That's got to be the best advert ever. Even if you're a poof. And much respect must go to metafilter - even when it takes ads for porno, it's got to be stunningly well-designed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates in NetNewsWire syndications export shock STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/26/2002 06:20:12 PM ----- BODY:

    If you're a Mac OSX user (and as such probably using NetNewsWire all over the place since I recommended it a couple of days ago), then you might be vaguely interested in seeing who I'm currently reading! And if you've got NetNewsWire you can directly import it!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: .cock STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 11:48:09 AM ----- BODY:

    So it occurs to me that if the Cook Islands formatted their top-level domains in the same way as the UK does, then you could get a site which would end in .co.ck - which shouldn't really completely amuse me, but somehow does anyway. If Austria did it you'd get co.at - which isn't anywhere near as funny, but is a bit like my last name. If Canada did it and Lao People's Democratic Republic did it too, and you combined them you'd get the name of a leading soft-drink manufacturer and the core ingredient in cocaine. Germanians would be speaking in co.de. In South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands you'd be able to hear the co.gs turning when you visited their sites. All Lithuanian guns would be co.lts. While Morocco would be in a co.ma. In Niger they'd have ice cream co.nes. Probably that would make Peru so jealous that they wouldn't be able to co.pe anymore. There are many more potential ones on this page, but I'm at work so shouldn't be buggering around...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom is in the Guardian, because Tom fucking rules... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 11:57:10 AM ----- BODY:

    So if you fancy a laugh go and get your lardy arse over to the Guardian where you can read all about My New Media. It was done over the phone - which was a bit weird - and as such is dribbling with the kind of weird rhythms that stick out like badgers in ice-cream in my spoken voice. But it's also been edited down quite a bit which is why some of the comments don't really make all that much sense... I might expand on the questions later in the day if anyone's interested - and thanks to Laura Barton for putting me in there in the first place!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BBC in Lemmings but with poofs shock STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 03:18:29 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. Have you ever played 'Worms'? Were your tiny blobby creepy crawlies just a little too heterosexual? Did you hanker for some exploding thong action? Do you need a rolling tranny to bitch-slap your Village People friends? Then check out Gaylords - a b3ta-style flash game in which one or two poofs can take on lots of robo-poofs. And who is the genius behing this endeavour? Would you believe it's Auntie Beeb?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On posts I don't have time to write STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 03:33:56 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the terrible terrible (oh the pain) crises of weblogging is that when you have anything to write about in your life you have no time in which to write about it. So summaries of posts that I wanted to write but didn't have time would probably be:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guardian debate has dodgy introduction... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 04:03:40 PM ----- BODY:

    So at the end of last week I entered into an e-mail debate with Simon Walden from Guardian Unlimited about the Best British Blog award. The debate was supposed to be a public way of voicing some of the concerns about the award that I've been hearing from people around the community as well as my own relatively strong feelings on the subject. I was approached because I'd made the loudest stink about the whole thing, I think, rather than because of any other criteria.

    Well I'm reasonably happy with how the debate itself turned out - and in fact it's now online at the Guardian in full. I'm less thrilled with the introduction that they've written to go on top of it, which characterises me, slightly unfairly I think, as a grumpy curmudgeon trying to spoil all the fun, rather than someone who thinks that the Guardian acted inappropriately. Still, never mind...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: All Consultants are scum STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 07:20:18 PM ----- BODY:

    I have an almost overwhelming urge to buy this mug - except it's got to be so expensive to ship cross-atlantic. Are there no caféshops (!) equivalents in the UK that are any good!?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Dorian's Freaky Eye... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/29/2002 10:30:47 PM ----- BODY:

    It's probably not worth going into this in great detail - particularly as I don't specifically know the detail. But the salient facts are: 1) Dorian came from someone and they'd done something to his eye. 2) His eye looked really really freaky. 3) I had a new digital camera and really really wanted to share. In related news Dorian was thirty today which makes him a soul brother to me in every way.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom is greatly disgusted with life STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2002 12:17:55 PM ----- BODY:

    So you're given a choice between thing A and thing B.
    And thing A and thing B are as nice as can be.
    And there's nothing you know that will help you, you see...
    How do you decide 'tween thing A and thing B?

    Thing A has the glamour, the style and the verve.
    Thing A is the best if you have got the nerve.
    But that man who came asking and begging on knee.
    He talked and he talked of the cool of thing B

    Thing A was unsure, but then suddenly not.
    Now that thing's the thing that the other thing's not.
    But you already decided that B was for you.
    Whatever dear reader should our hero do?

    He went with his heart which said "you must be true",
    To back out on whim is the wrong thing to do.
    And integrity means that you can't just decide,
    To laugh at the man to whom 'yes' you'd replied...

    A month gone and what's wrong? Do you feel you were had?
    Has thing B that was promised so good gone so bad?
    And if it is peace that you're trying to find...
    Thing A would have driven you out of your mind.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Royal Norfolk Golf Club STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2002 04:52:17 PM ----- BODY:

    So my dad is seriously into golf, and plays all the time. He's been into golf for years. I used to try and play a bit, but I was completely bloody useless at it, so I don't do that any more. Anyway - my mother is a 'lady member' of the golf club - or at least used to be. I think she got bored of it. Anyway - the 'lady members' are very much there on sufferance. They don't get to go into most of the bars, they don't get to play on Saturdays and they are generally ridiculed by most of the proper members. But not any more! It now turns out that the golf club won't get a drinks license unless they let women in as full members - and that means with full voting rights. It's only a few decades late, but it's still a step in the right direction...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ten signs you're being 'whipped' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2002 05:36:07 PM ----- BODY:

    So I was like talking to a friend at work and I asked him if he wanted to come over and play Halo all evening with Cal and I and he said he couldn't and I said he was like totally whipped or something and he didn't know what that meant so I like entirely showed him.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fuck it, I give up STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 07/31/2002 11:50:41 PM ----- BODY:

    Matt Jones's site is currently on fire. If you're reading anything about the net at the moment, you should be reading that and not whatever infantile ramblings I'm preparing of an evening.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Head like a field STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/01/2002 12:23:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Today my head feels as woolly as dozens of sheep. Ideas kind of have to fight for space next to smelly mutton and can't make themselves heard over the relentless soft bleating from every direction.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Peter Mandelson STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2002 11:05:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Now like him or loathe him, Peter Mandelson is Labour (and hence probably has his heart roughly in the right place) and a poof. So he can't be all bad. More to the point, he's clearly a very media-savvy gentleman with a certain flair for the dramatic and a not-entirely-shit web presence. Perhaps unsurprisingly the site skips over some of the more controversial aspects of his involvement with the political system, but remains essentially an extremely well-crafted piece of informational publishing.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's tacky, it's crass, it fits nicely up your ass STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2002 12:05:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Sometimes I think that I'm just like this poor (spoof) gentleman. So to make me feel better and superior, I sent the man concerned a little $1 donation. And the e-mail address the money is sent to? savemyhands@yahoo.com!

    On a related issue - I asked Matt whether it would be a bad idea to get a t-shirt printed that said 'AIM me if you want a shag' with my AIM name after it. And he said, nope.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In Which Tom Has Trouble Comprehending Kottke STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2002 12:15:52 PM ----- BODY:

    I fear I may be alone in being utterly confused about Jason's latest post about Andrew Sullivan. The sheer number of similes swimming around the place like laser-mounted sharks in a very small pool make, erm, those sharks, erm, get cramped and laser each other or something. One thing is clear though - Jason uses the phrase 'self-congratulating hogwash' about the ludicrous Andrew Sullivan and as such is very much my hero and ally.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Upsideclown 2002 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2002 05:18:58 PM ----- BODY:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On dumb linking policies STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/02/2002 11:42:33 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm known for having little patience when it comes to dumb linking policies. Just in case you're not remembering the whole dumb-linking thing - this is when a company like KMPG says KPMG says you have to get permission before you're allowed to link to them. It's dumb. It's a policy. It's about linking. Are you with me yet? Anyway - lots of other people think this kind of thing is dumb too. And someone's founded a weblog about it. That's kind of cool.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Towards a genealogy of weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2002 06:10:00 PM ----- BODY:

    So when they come to write the history of weblogging - will there be much evidence of the inter-relationships, the hidden parallels and links that lie between webloggers? One of the nicest things I've seen in ages, and potentially a really interesting and useful site, BlogTree.com is trying to assemble a weblog genealogy of inspiration - who inspired who to start a weblog? I've often said that the two people who got me really excited about the true potential of the web were Jason and Derek, but looking back to my first ever entries on the site, I see that Meg Hourihan was an early influence as well. You can see my 'Pedigree' if you're interested, or if you want to participate yourself: Who inspired you to start your weblog?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Addendum to a genealogy of weblogging STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2002 06:17:59 PM ----- BODY:

    PS. In a conversation with Matt the other day about 'generations of weblogging' inspired by a post on sashinka.blogspot.com Matt made the stunning comment that 'first generation webloggers' basically means anyone who started weblogging before you did, while 'second generation' means you and people you consider your peers. So even though I've been weblogging for three years (nearly) I consider myself a second-generation weblogger after Meg, Jason, Evhead, Camworld and Memepool.

    But now of course that's no longer true - you can measure your generation - it's simply how many generations you are below the founding godhead of weblogging as detailed on Blogroots. And don't be starting to fool yourself here - everyone was inspired by more than one weblogger - and the generation you belong to will be the one younger than the youngest one of your influences. So Jason may be your father, but if I'm your mother then you're third generation at best. Got that?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If I were a bell... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/03/2002 07:05:26 PM ----- BODY:

    If I were a bell Dinah Washington
    [being a song that makes me feel happy]

    Ask me how do I feel
    Now that we're cosy and clinging
    Well sir all I can say is if I were a bell I'd be ringing!
    From the moment we kissed goodnight
    That's the way I just gotta behave,
    And if I were lamp I'd light
    Or if I were a banner I'd wave.
    Ask me how do I feel,
    Little me with the quiet upbringing
    Well sir all I can is if I were a gate I'd be swinging,
    And if I were a watch I'd stop popping my spring
    Oh and if I were a bell
    I'd go ding dong ding dong ding.

    Ask me how do I feel
    From this chemistry lesson I'm learning
    Well sir all I can is if I were a bridge I'd be burning!
    Well I knew my morale would crack
    From the wonderful way you looked
    Boy if I were a duck I'd quack,
    Or if I were a goose I'd be cooked.
    Ask me how do I feel?
    Now that we're fondly caressing....
    Pal if I were a salad,
    I know I'd be splashing my dressing....
    Or if I were a season I'd surely be spring
    And if I were bell,
    Say if I were a bell
    If I were a bell I'd go ding dong ding dong ding!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark's in town... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2002 05:51:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Long term weblog enthusiasts may remember a precocious web-brat called Mark Olynciw, who used to run the site riothero.com. Well turns out he's in London again and I'm going to see him this evening. What fun!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mark in London (2000) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/04/2002 06:06:23 PM ----- BODY:

    Last time Mark was in London (sometime in the year 2000), Katy from kitschbitch.com and I went to meet him and his mother and his friend Vance. Katy and I took Mark and Vance to wander around Soho...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: mark_taster.jpg ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Guardian's Best British Blog Award STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/04/2002 06:22:27 PM ----- BODY: In July 2002, the Guardian announced that it would be running a Best British Blog award with a prize of ‰Ì1000, to be judged by a group of judges ranging from Anita Roddick to Jen Bolton (ex of threadnaught.net). Immediate reactions from around British weblogging were very mixed. Some people thought the competition was an amusing diversion, but quite a sizeable group thought the awards process was a strange and kind of ridiculous idea that would do little for webloggers or weblogging. I was quite outspoken about my feelings towards the competition - and for this reason (and because I'd been the lucky recipient of the Bloggies' "Best European Weblog" award - I was asked to participate in an online debate with Simon Walden, representing the Guardian. The transcript of this debate is below - or you can view it on guardian.co.uk if you'd prefer... The transcript: To: Simon Waldman
    Sent by: Tom Coates
    When Simon introduced this competition he said that the Guardian had quickly embraced personal publishing. he's quite right - the Guardian has probably done more to encourage people to start their own weblogs than any other organisation in the UK. But I think it has now moved from supporting a grass-roots movement to attempting to appropriate it. If weblogs are valuable at all, they are so because they give people a place to talk about whatever they want, however they want. Your weblog could be an intimate, personal space to get advice about your burgeoning sexuality, a frequently updated news feed about software development, or a soapbox to declare your extreme political views. The thing that unites all these people, however, is a certain authenticity of voice - these are real people talking openly about the things that matter to them. In my opinion, pitting such radically different and very personal sites against one another undermines that authenticity, just as it demeans the motivations of the people who created them. But more importantly, it seems to me impossible to judge and unfair to do so. Is one person's life trauma a better read than another's thoughts on contemporary politics? And should we really be delighted that some cod-celebrities and old-tree hacks are setting themselves up to be the judges of our communities? I'll be voting with my feet and boycotting the contest. To: Tom Coates
    Sent by: Simon Waldman
    Tom, Your description of what makes weblogs so valuable shows the sort of eloquence and intelligence and I would expect from someone who has already won several awards for his weblogging activities (we'll come to them in a minute). But, I think your reaction against our competition lacks some of your usual clarity of thought. Yes, "pitting different types of weblog against each other" isn't easy - any more than comparing comedies and thrillers in the Oscars, or classical music and drum and bass in the Mercury prize - but it isn't impossible, and it certainly doesn't undermine blogging. After all, it has been done before - remember? You are the proud owner of the title "European Blogger of the Year" according to the Bloggies. This award similarly pitted different blogs against each other - right across the continent. So are you saying it is all right to do this all the way across Europe, but not across Britain? Or would you like to hand your awards back as a matter of principle? This competition is the result of our respect for the movement, not an attempt to appropriate it. We would no more try and appropriate blogging than we'd try to herd cats, juggle jelly and push water uphill at the same time. We have almost 180 years' history as a radical newspaper. Representing and promoting diverse and minority voices is something we have done for decades, regardless of the medium. This is why we - including many of those you dismiss as "dead-tree editors" - find weblogging so exciting, and why we are looking and will continue to look for ways to support and promote it. We've had hundreds of entries. Shame you're not among them, but we'll survive. To: Simon Waldman
    Sent by: Tom Coates
    Of course you'll survive - a well established newspaper like the Guardian isn't going to be affected by the groans of motley, partly washed web enthusiasts. Unfortunately, the weblogging world doesn't have 180 years of history behind it - and as such is much more vulnerable. Your two points - that prizes like this are common in other media, and that my protests are hypocritical - reflect (I think) a misunderstanding about the nature of personal publishing. The things that make weblogs special and different to other media are exactly the things that make large-scale media awards for them redundant. Weblogs are not (just) written to entertain audiences, but are also spaces where people can talk openly about their lives. Asking people to compete in self-revelation, to play up to the cameras, seems wrong to me! Webloggers aren't prostituting themselves for cash. In fact one important aspect is to have a place for yourself, somewhere personally important. Asking people to expose themselves for cash seems wrong to me! Most webloggers form friendships with both readers and other webloggers. An external body encouraging competition between friends also seems wrong to me. And the Bloggies? They're incomparable. It's a tiny event that no one takes seriously, with negligable prizes, and which has little interest to anyone outside weblogging. But most importantly, it's an award in which every participant, every judge and every voter is a weblogger or weblog reader (and an equal) rather than an inexpert "real-life big name", whose qualifications and ability to judge remain totally suspect. To: Tom Coates
    Sent by: Simon Waldman
    Tom, I'm not going into a judge-by-judge defence of our panel, but we wouldn't have chosen them if we didn't think they were perfect for the task. They are all keen webloggers or readers. Most have been involved with the net for the best part of a decade. They are all very able and, thankfully, willing to judge. Your suspicions are ill-founded. I respect the personal nature of personal publishing. This is why we are not forcing anyone to enter, nor are we allowing people to be nominated against their will. If some people see their weblog as something for themselves, or a small group of friends, they have nothing to fear from this competition. However, what is wrong with people wanting to raise the profile of their blogs, and have the chance of earning some money at the same time? We just want to promote and reward the best British bloggers, if, and only if, they want to be promoted and rewarded. And, judging from the number of entries we have had, it seems there are plenty who do. Moreover, our assessment of "best" includes all the values that you hold dear - particularly authenticity. "Playing up to the camera" will not be appreciated. This is hardly a large-scale media award. We have put in place a decent (but still reasonably modest) cash prize, not because we want people to prostitute themselves, but because we think anything less would seem mean. We think it is a perfectly fair reward for the amount of effort that anyone has to go into to keep up a decent blog. I can see what you're afraid of. I just don't think that we're it. When News International discovers weblogs, don't worry, I'll be there fighting it with you. To: Simon Waldman
    Sent by: Tom Coates
    I think at this point I should make clear that I don't believe that the Guardian is intentionally exploiting weblogs or that they are consciously aware of the potential damage this could do to a community in its infancy. I have total confidence in Lloyd Shepherd, the Guardian's chief producer at Guardian Unlimited when he said recently: "It's all good clean fun. We didn't do [the competition] to wind anyone up - we were trying to raise the profile of British blogs as well as our site. It's supposed to be a win-win situation". But despite this I think you're being disingenuous when you say that you want "to promote and reward the best British blogs, if and only if, they want to be promoted and rewarded". Your prize is called "The Best British Blog" award - and declares itself to be an attempt to find that mythical beast - even though many British weblogs are boycotting it on principle and even though the criterion of "the best" actually means the personal feelings of a very limited and unrepresentative group of people. Perhaps with a less outrageously presumptuous name - "The Guardian Weblog of the Year" maybe - it would seem less arrogant. Perhaps with prizes that appealed to people who were in love with the medium (creative software or training or even an experience worth writing about) it would seem less out of touch. Instead, the Guardian has declared itself an arbiter of weblogs - it has moved from being a paper that delights in participation in a community to one that feels it has the right to be the judge of it. It's time for the Guardian to stop promoting weblogs from the outside, and instead start actively helping the community from within. There are many ways it could be constructive - from sponsoring a real-life British weblogging event to providing new ways for weblogs to interact with each other or with the Guardian's site. Can't we put this ludicrous contest behind us and do something more useful with our time? To: Tom Coates
    Sent by: Simon Waldman
    Tom, One of the prime reasons we embarked on the competition was to help start the debate about how a traditional media owner such as ourselves can engage with a movement that is in many ways the very antithesis of traditional media. So, your suggestions on how we might improve the competition in future years, or get further involved with the weblogging community, are very welcome. The start, I hope, of an ongoing dialogue. If changing the name from "Best British Blog" to "Guardian Unlimited Weblog of the Year", or something similar, would help win you and others over, then we're happy to consider it (it's not quite as snappy, but it'll do). We did consider different prizes, but in the end, we decided to stick with cash as we felt it was better to let people decide what to spend it on themselves, rather than trying to second guess people's needs and wants. Our favourite idea was a "Supermarket Sweep" at PC World, which we thought would be good fun, but a little pricey - (and yes, we did debate whether webloggers would really want to buy from PC World). At the end of this flurry of emails, I hope you can see that our intentions were good, even if you disagree with our actions. The cash we have put up, the senior executives we have put forward as judges, the space we have given to it both in print and online are a sign of respect for the weblogging community, not an attempt to lord over it. I think we both agree on what makes weblogging so wonderful. I like to think that over the next year - long after this competition is over and the winner has blown his or her winnings - we will embark on a number of initiatives that might help it stay that way. All the best, Simon ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: I've been quite outspoken about the Guardian's Best British Blog award - and for this reason I was asked to participate in an online debate with Simon Walden, representing the Guardian. ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carla Scarlett EMAIL: carlasdomain@hotmail.com IP: 209.246.111.250 URL: http://memo.antville.org DATE: 08/05/2002 01:01:39 AM For the past five years or so, as I read the various journals, diaries or now commonly called "blogs" I would encounter on the internet, I could hear and identify with the true, unfiltered voices of the various writers who wrote from the heart. What I found within many of the entries was a totally uncut style of writing--writing which was personal, direct, bold, raw. These writers didn't seem to care much about whether they had "hits" or not to their pages. To them, writing was a means of expression, and they wrote to their heart's content.. Audience or not, they wrote what they felt. The subject matter varied from the philosophical to the mundane. The more mundane, the more interested I became and I began to feel a certain sense of "knowing" the writer on a personal level. Many a time I found myself aghast at some of the personal details these writers exposed about their lives--drug use, fighting sicknesses such as Cancer or AIDS or their revelations of family issues or other domestic crises. Often, the writers tried in earnest to convey bravery in a matter of fact tone, but fear spoke volumes instead. To the unsuspecting reader of a random journal entry, there was no apology given, yet, there was an unspoken agreement that if one didn't like the writing one could always leave. Often however, the various sites were sprinkled with things such as a favorite dish, color, book, video, game, a piece of clothing and what not. Most importantly however, ratings did not seem to be utmost on their minds. They did not beg or advertise that people leave comments or feedback. Times have changed. The trend is now commonly called "blogging." I have come across really good blogs. Unlike the diaries and journal of the past, these have a certain feel, sound and look of "newness" to them-- an air of freshness. The designs are more eye-catching and they involve you and compel you to read on. The tone is still very serious, direct and matter-of-factly although terminology--hooch, hoe, bitch, etc.-- sometimes slip in. Additionally, biographical notes identifying the writer usually appears in the menu now. The writings while they are still variously about about what one does, see, hear and how one feels; about sex, boyfriends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathes, buddies or spouses, these days reveal a sense of distress, loneliness--the "blues"-- and are often either scarcastic, sentimental, bitter, boastful or naive. Above all, many are warehouses for links. Don't have anything to say? populate the space with links to this and that friends' blog, but reader beware, for the next link you click on might lead to another blog with less to say and steeped in links. In recent weeks a blogger's contest ensued on blogger.com for charity--a noble cause. Now, with this competition the Best British Blog Award, I can only expect that bloggers will be fighting between themselves-- what I have to say is better than what you have to say! or I am the best! and in so doing, will be defeating the whole purpose of the "medium" as you put it, as one of personal space and freedom of expression. Admittedly, such a competition might at best, raise the profile of the various entrants; at worst, it will and I can't say this any better than you Tom: "undermine authenticity." Blogs are not meant for competition purposes for just what is really being judged? The writing style or the content? or is it the design, or the substance of the person's life conveyed in the blog? I ask a similar question to Tom's, is the self-exposed detail that one person shares about his or her life more or less important than another's? It eludes me as to how the various blogs will be judged and under what criteria. Perhaps it is my ignorance that stands in the way of supporting such a contest and if it is, educate me, give me thy knowledge. Peace! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: deej EMAIL: dj@sassylad.co.uk IP: 217.207.226.210 URL: http://www.sassylad.co.uk DATE: 08/05/2002 02:46:08 PM I've recently been cajoled into submitting my little collection of wibblings and rants to the Guardian best british blog competiton. I'm fully expecting the entry to fall flat on it's face, but it's always worth trying. The concept of "best *british* blog" does confuse me somewhat... two of my favourite reads are in America and Norway, and yet they're not going to count. Why should it just be a british thing? I am however hedging my bets quite firmly on it being a london based blog that wins. I've got a theory on that one, which at some point in the near future I might expand on: but until then we'll call it a hunch. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dicky EMAIL: rich@clagnut.com IP: 193.82.96.102 URL: http://www.clagnut.com/ DATE: 08/15/2002 02:49:13 PM Tom argues that the compo goes against the essence of blogging; that we shouldnt be judging peoples outpouring of thoughts, emotions and ideas. On the face of it, this may seem a sound objection. But those of us in the blog community judge web logs all the time; there are some we visit regularly and others well visit once and never return to. We are inherently making judgments on subconscious or conscious criteria  we love /loathe the design, the tone of voice, the insightful writing, the links, the dog photos. We have our own (maybe mental) lists of blogs which are good and forget about blogs which are poor. Is The Guardian not just bringing this into a public arena? Yes, the judging will be highly subjective. A blogger constantly slagging off the paper or the competition judges is surely less likely to win. But I find it hard to believe that people will be tailoring their blog content in an overt attempt to impress the judges; its certainly pretty sad if they do. I do concede that folks may pay more attention to their blog  keeping it updated more regularly, may be even checking the spelling  not really such as bad a thing. You can position your cynicism of The Guardians motives anywhere you like from a benign celebration of British blog culture, to a shallow attempt to get more readers and ad impressions, but I for one will be entering the competition. Not because I think I could win, or even that I want to (‰Ì1000 aside) but because I want more people to read my blog. Thats pretty much what its there for. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 62.255.32.6 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 09/10/2002 12:13:51 AM Seems to me the transcript highlights the fact that this is not a right/wrong debate. Rather, that there are different viewpoints, valid in their own terms. I like blogs, but I also like movies, books, art etc. and they have 'competitions' which are equally subjective and ideologically questionable. The blog is unique because anyone can do it, but I don't think that makes it singularly 'special'. I'm sure there are many artists, writers etc who object to their competitions, because they offend their idea of artistic or literary integrity. I don't think there's any 'appropriation' here - it just couldn't be done because the web is so vast, democratic and anarchic, and I'm sure the G. recognise that. A competition about content that is often personal is a little strange, but I'm glad to see that 'playing to the camera' is both recognised and not appreciated. I see valid points here on both 'sides'. I suspect that some entrants will also have ideological objections, but entered the event for practical reasons - just like the hypothetical artist. Seems to me that's what the G. want to provide for. It's a bit of game, and I suspect most people realise the 'winner' may or may not have real value since who can define what that is? There probably are a few useful criteria - like the authenticity cited above. But entering, winning, not winning, does not directly equate with value or worth. Someone may derive great benefit from personal publishing and yet may not have a popular blog. So who is the judge? In those circumstances, outside opinion is irrelevant. But that doesn't mean it follows, therefore, that a competition is best avoided. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: HomeOfficeJoey EMAIL: HOJ@homeofficejoey.com IP: 212.219.59.222 URL: http://homeofficejoey.blogspot.com/ DATE: 02/25/2004 03:33:34 PM God, I didn't actually disagree with the Guardian awards till I read this, now I'm unsure on the grounds that this Simon guy is totally patronising: "Your description of what makes weblogs so valuable shows the sort of eloquence and intelligence and I would expect from someone who has already won several awards for his weblogging activities" I trust Tom was suitably flattered to have recieved such an accolade from that well-known, "radical" newspaper, The Guardian! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Employment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2002 04:21:38 PM ----- BODY:

    So I found my favourite poem online again today - I talk about it every so often on this site - it's called Employment and it's by George Herbert. It's a strange poem - not particularly cheery, full of references to a god that I cheerfully secularise when I'm reading it - but somehow a call to action, and an acceptance of a fundamental desire to do good works.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Welcome to Princeton STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/05/2002 06:43:18 PM ----- BODY:

    True or not - this Princeton Acceptance Letter is such an unbelievably gorgeous and funny piece of design that you'll need it to be real.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Proposal for a new relationship between weblog and mainstream publishers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 08/06/2002 11:21:41 AM ----- BODY:

    The Situation:
    Imagine, if you will, that a prominent web magazine had decided to start hosting Weblogs. Imagine if shortly afterwards another prominent online publisher said they were doing the same. And then imagine if rumours abounded that they weren't going to be the only ones. And then imagine that you had been talking with a representative of a major UK newspaper who revealed to you that - if only for a short while - they too had been thinking of hosting weblogs on their site. What would you think? Would you think 'what a wonderful thing for the medium'?

    The Problem
    Well of course it's entirely possible that it would be a wonderful thing for the medium - but it almost certainly wouldn't be a particularly wonderful thing for the publisher! Think about it for a moment - most people who become committed to weblogging eventually choose to set up a site of their own somewhere - sometimes with a domain name of their own - often with a design that's resolutely their own. The logical consequence of this (surely) is that after a while any site that offers free weblogging with little flexibility in design or personalisation will eventually be abandoned by the dedicated. And in their wake nothing a but huge wasteland of tumbleweed blogs and - dare I say it - unreadable sites. How does that reflect well on boston.com? Or Salon?

    The Reason
    It doesn't take a genius to gather what is happening in corporate world at the moment - weblogs are 'in' - they've finally stopped being fashionable, and so are suddenly now becoming acceptable to the mainstream. Your executive at BigPublisher.com suddenly thinks that weblogging is the heart of the internet - the web finally fulfilling its promise. And of course they're right... But does understanding the importance of weblogs and weblogging correspond to understanding how an information publisher should relate to weblogs and weblogging? I would say no....

    The Solution?
    I'm not going to claim to have the definitive answer to how (say) the BBC should interact with the 'revolution in personal publishing' (which is, I might add, the longest bloody revolution ever, I think) - but I have got a couple of suggestions. And they revolve around not trying to usurp the common space that weblogs exist in, but in developing ways of cementing and building upon the interactions between those two very different beasts - mainstream and personal publishers.

    Conclusion: So here's my challenge to large online publishers: rather than admiring the medium and trying to reincorporate it into your traditional models, why not respect what makes it different - the sheer volume of people doing it, the sense of link-filtering, the personal comments and ideas that it generates - and work to make the relationship between mainstream and personal publishers a symbiotic one borne of mutual respect for what makes us so different (and yet complementary) to one another? [Comment on this post]

    Addendum:
    I don't want people to think I'm talking about Blogspot sites here - which fill a valuable niche in providing cheap or free presences for people who wish to be creative without investing large amounts of cash (but which - fundamentally - can be stripped of advertising, corporate branding and completely personalised).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mainstream Publishers & Weblogs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/06/2002 11:35:36 AM ----- BODY: The Situation: Imagine, if you will, that a prominent web magazine had decided to start hosting Weblogs. Imagine if shortly afterwards another prominent online publisher said they were doing the same. And then imagine if rumours abounded that they weren't going to be the only ones. And then imagine that you had been talking with a representative of a major UK newspaper who revealed to you that - if only for a short while - they too had been thinking of hosting weblogs on their site. What would you think? Would you think 'what a wonderful thing for the medium'?

    The Problem: Well of course it's entirely possible that it would be a wonderful thing for the medium - but it almost certainly wouldn't be a particularly wonderful thing for the publisher! Think about it for a moment - most people who become committed to weblogging eventually choose to set up a site of their own somewhere - sometimes with a domain name of their own - often with a design that's resolutely their own. The logical consequence of this (surely) is that after a while any site that offers free weblogging with little flexibility in design or personalisation will eventually be abandoned by the dedicated. And in their wake nothing a but huge wasteland of tumbleweed blogs and - dare I say it - unreadable sites. How does that reflect well on boston.com? Or Salon?

    The Reason: It doesn't take a genius to gather what is happening in corporate world at the moment - weblogs are 'in' - they've finally stopped being fashionable, and so are suddenly now becoming acceptable to the mainstream. Your executive at BigPublisher.com suddenly thinks that weblogging is the heart of the internet - the web finally fulfilling its promise. And of course they're right... But does understanding the importance of weblogs and weblogging correspond to understanding how an information publisher should relate to weblogs and weblogging? I would say no....

    The Solution? I'm not going to claim to have the definitive answer to how (say) the BBC should interact with the 'revolution in personal publishing' (which is, I might add, the longest bloody revolution ever, I think) - but I have got a couple of suggestions. And they revolve around not trying to usurp the common space that weblogs exist in, but in developing ways of cementing and building upon the interactions between those two very different beasts - mainstream and personal publishers.

    Conclusion: So here's my challenge to large online publishers: rather than admiring the medium and trying to reincorporate it into your traditional models, why not respect what makes it different - the sheer volume of people doing it, the sense of link-filtering, the personal comments and ideas that it generates - and work to make the relationship between mainstream and personal publishers a symbiotic one borne of mutual respect for what makes us so different (and yet complementary) to one another?

    Addendum: I don't want people to think I'm talking about Blogspot sites here - which fill a valuable niche in providing cheap or free presences for people who wish to be creative without investing large amounts of cash (but which - fundamentally - can be stripped of advertising, corporate branding and completely personalised).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Mainstream publishers seem increasingly to be letting their readers start weblogs on their sites - but is this really the best way for them to connect with the personal publishing revolution? ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian@iansie.com IP: 193.237.236.2 URL: http://www.iansie.com/nonsense/blog.html DATE: 08/06/2002 06:25:57 PM Hooray, a chance to agree with you at last. But (there will always be a but) I think there are even simpler measures that publishers can take to encourage blogs to link to them. Like: do NOT use frames Like: do NOT require registration Like: DO structure your file-set in a transparent and predictable fashion etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill EMAIL: billblog@mermaniac.com IP: 64.175.32.215 URL: http://www.mermaniac.com DATE: 08/06/2002 07:53:12 PM Well said, and I think your solutions are dead-on. The one wild card in the equation is Salon's announcement that it will eventually charge a fee of $40/year for bloghosting. If there is a huge influx of cash, it's possible that we might see Salon loosen up and do some interesting things with blogs. I think a "what the web is reading" tool would be a natural for Salon, for example, and Userland is already building tools to create a Salon blogging community. The reality, I'm afraid, is that there won't be very many users eager to pay for the privilege of producing a Salon-branded blog, and that any money brought in will immediately go toward other departments of Salon which are hemorrhaging cash. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TomD EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 217.34.78.120 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism DATE: 08/07/2002 08:16:57 AM I suspect that ultimately the way that (say) the BBC will incorporate weblogs is pretty much the same way that it incorprated good webpages. Hire some of the people involved and get them to bring their audience with them. It's a model that worked in the early days of the web, and before that with any form of creative talent. Standup goes Open Mic->Club booking->Radio->TV, for example Personal publishing a threat to journalism? No, it's a sandpit (albeit a very highly featured and well connected one) where the good people can choose to sell out or not... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil EMAIL: plasticbag@getintofilm.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: DATE: 08/08/2002 03:06:02 PM So salon will charge - they have to, they're a business. BUT, given the huge civic benefit that widespread, simple, cross-platform access to weblogs & community spaces would give the UK, why does the BBC not treat this as a new definition of public service for a networked age? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Dolan EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 62.255.64.5 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism DATE: 08/08/2002 11:37:37 PM I guess because they don't need to be involved? It's kind of wierd, because I know they've got all this anti-competitive stuff in their charter, but there also seems to be an attitude of 'if we don't *need* to be involved in it for it to be a success, and it's more likely we'll cock it up, why should we be?' that seems to be coming out recently. Makes a change from the big-red-rock-eater days... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seyed Razavi EMAIL: seyed@monkeyx.com IP: 62.231.146.14 URL: http://www.monkeyx.com DATE: 08/09/2002 10:50:58 AM I thought buying community sites as a means of increasing your readership was a pointless exercise. It seems weblogs offer little more for the commercial publishers. Plus aren't weblogs just op-ed pieces mostly, with links thrown in? I can understand their own staff having weblogs on the company's site by why would they buy other weblogs or host them? Probably just a fad that will pass. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Dolan EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 62.255.64.5 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism DATE: 08/16/2002 01:53:18 AM I don't think they'll buy online real-estate. They'll just buy people. They know how to do that. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpt from an interview with Grant Morrison STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/06/2002 11:51:03 AM ----- BODY:

    From a new interview with Grant Morrison: "The time of lo-fi weirdness is almost upon us. This is when everyone has to open up their heads and spill out their personal shit for all to see, without trying to catch the trend. I think the current focus on craft will shortly be replaced by a focus on integrity and uniqueness." Remind you of anything? [Thanks to Darren for pointing this out.]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it's that Buffy time of the month... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2002 10:45:51 AM ----- BODY:

    So it's Weird Buffy News time of the month again at plasticbag.org as once more I prove exactly why I have such trouble finding guys prepared to date me...

    Didn't I hear something about Sarah Michelle Gellar quitting?!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This guy on the road kind of looked at me funny... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2002 10:57:13 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok. So I don't want to sound paranoid - because that would never do - but I was walking down Oxford Street this morning and this really tall guy with fluffy hair looked at me, did a moue of recognition, half-smiled/half-laughed and kept walking. It could have been a moue of ridicule rather than recognition - obviously the first thing I did was check my hair wasn't too bad. But it was fine. Or kind of fine, anyway. He can't have been moue-ing at that? Surely?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it's all change at Blogroots... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/07/2002 11:32:10 AM ----- BODY:

    Blogroots - which started as a metafilter.com style-board with a very narrow focus has gone through a bit of a transformation in the last 24 hours - and now celebrates a new look, a bit of promotion for the book that it's connected with and two major new features - an 'about blogroots' weblog called RootsNews and a BlogPopuli section which is ostensibly for trackback syndication via Movable Type, but which allows you to manually ping the site (which essentially amounts to you being able to self-blog threads you've written that you think are interesting). The site looks great, and is gradually coming into its own as a community and information-sharing resource...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are you looking for Lord of the Rings on DVD? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2002 01:54:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Everyone I know seems to want to own Lord of the Rings on DVD and yet no one I know is buying it. They're all waiting for the four DVD set that's coming out in November. I'm no exception. But if you are looking to buy yourself a copy - the cheapest place I've seen them in the UK is at Dixons, where they are £16.99. This compares with £19.99 at Virgin. Should you care...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My first public and scary experience of homophobia STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2002 02:04:32 PM ----- BODY:

    I had a really nice evening last night. Really cool. But I don't want to talk about that. What I want to say is that wandering through Soho last night I experienced my first public piece of badgering because of being gay. First ever. I don't mean by this that I've never had people wander past a bar I've been at and shout stuff in - because I have. And I don't mean by this that I've never met people who don't think that being gay is evil or stupid or disgusting, because I have.

    But this was the very first time ever that I've actually experienced a group of people outside name-calling and being physically intimidating and aggressive. Except they weren't really that intimidating at all. The whole event was startlingly stereotypical - but also very brief, and - I think - easy to rise above. You can almost understand it - insecure teenagers trying to assert their heterosexuality to their friends, trying to look hard. It's a bit sad, but not particularly worrying.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If it's so bad, why does it feel so good? On Spy Kids 2 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2002 02:11:29 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't be the only person desperate to see Spy Kids 2. When Spy Kids came out no one would see it with me. I'd say, "but it's Robert Rodriguez!". But they wouldn't listen. Davo wouldn't go. Meg wouldn't go either. No one. So in the end time just passed and I didn't get to see it until I picked it up in a sale one day and thought it was absolutely wonderful. I showed it to Cal as well, and I think he liked it too. I'm very much excited by the sequel. But will anyone come and see it with me?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oompa Loompa STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/08/2002 04:10:16 PM ----- BODY:

    I've had the tune in my head all day and I haven't been able to get rid of it - so why the hell not just give in to those darker impulses - why not revel in the wisdom of tacky inappropriately-amusing over-moralising tiny badly-painted people?

    Gum chewing's fine when it's once in a while
    It stops you from smoking and brightens your smile
    But it's repulsive, revolting, and wrong
    Chewing and chewing all day long...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barbelith goes to RSS... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2002 12:09:35 PM ----- BODY:

    Probably the most useful newsfeed that the world has yet seen - you can now get get Barbelith RSS-feeds, which can be restricted to any individual forum or groups of fora, and can be organised by most-recently-updated as well as by most-recently-started threads... While I'm on the subject - I've started a fairly tendentious thread on the board at the moment, which I'm concerned sounds misogynist. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblogger Frustration 101 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/09/2002 12:16:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I hate it when the one thing you really want to talk about is the one thing that you know you really shouldn't talk about - the one thing that you entirely can't talk about. It's Weblogger Frustration 101 stuff though. I should really know better. When your online friends become offline friends (and almost family), when your offline friends and family finally get themselves connected, then the range of your conversational material becomes immediately more limited. To the person concerned - you should know who you are - I very much hope you're having a good time and look forward to talking soon.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ellen Fleiss is my hero STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2002 10:58:54 PM ----- BODY:

    So we're sitting at work the other day - the assembled table-age consisting of myself, other Tom, Dan, Phil and Dorian - and someone's watching the Apple Switch commercials, and then finally hits on the awesome wonder that is Ellen Fleiss. All through her (apparently) stoned dialogue we're awestruck with wonder. I keep expecting her to say the word 'borked', but I don't think she ever does. At the end she says, "I'm Ellen Fleiss and I'm a student" and the only reply you can really come up with is, "Well duh!". I mention all of this because apparently she's becoming quite the cult figure at the moment - hence (and here I'm liberally ripping off Wired for the thousandth time this month): the fan site, the other fan site and the caféshops store. (I'm not going to link to Metafilter because they get linked to too much anyway.) When I grow up I want to be Ellen Fleiss!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My poor iPod STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/10/2002 11:10:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Oh tis a sad tale, the tale of tiny wee iPod. iPod the daring, iPod the brave - now iPod the battered has gone to its grave. Or not to its grave, but maybe to the gluemill - for iPod now only kind of works now. I don't know why - I don't know whether the gentle shocks poor iPod suffered were what pushed him over the edge, or whether it was the scratch, scratch, scratch of keys against his face. Oh why did I mistreat him so? No more than normal use, I thought, but now he's beaten down and broken and I feel so bad.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm conflicted by the wonder of our weapons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2002 01:39:09 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm in the market for some threadless action. I need those t-shirts/posters/things. Oh yeah. There's a particular poster I'm very keen on. But can a young metropolitan homosexualist really get away with naked ladies on his wall - however phallic the imagery? I declare myself officially a crap poof. Bring me the style, panache and hair of a glamour-man post-haste. I'm turning into middle-aged hetero-mulch before mine own eyes.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wishlists for schools and charities STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2002 01:55:58 PM ----- BODY:

    Now this is a good idea - Wishlists for schools and non-profit organisations. I wonder if there's something like this for schools and organisations in the UK. It would be great to be able to donate something specific to a school that actually has a tangible benefit to someone. Cared about English - donate a novel you loved. Cared about Computer Science - donate a text-book or a piece of useful software...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Alarming quotes from "Public Relations Society of America" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2002 10:14:42 PM ----- BODY:

    Here are a two particularly alarming quotes from a piece from the Public Relations Society of America site, from the article: Pitching Blogs: Latest Type Of Online Media Vehicle May Provide Valuable PR Opportunities

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Olynciws in London... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/11/2002 10:41:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Well riothero appears to be back and functioning - and with its rightful owner at the helm. It's diffucult to tell whether or not his meeting with Matt and I was what pushed him back into it or not. Here's the pictorial fruit of three meetings in London.

    The first meeting in London takes Mark, Matt & Es and I to Balans Café in London's fashionable Soho. First impressions are that Mark looks much more like a Spanish waiter than he used to...

    We managed to catch Matt in a rare pensive mood at one point in the evening. Matt's hair is unstyled and his t-shirt comes from threadless.com.

    No doubt I was saying something exceptionally funny in this picture, although god knows what it was. Note how my face looks all inflated and weird in this picture as if I'd just turned thirty and turned into mush on the spot.

    I made Matt take lots and lots of pictures of me on this evening in a vain attempt to get one that didn't make me look like a drooling octogenarian. All these attempts were hideous failures. He will be punished...

    We had so much fun we all completely lost track of the time. We all get to the tube late, and miss our trains. Matt makes sure that Mark gets a cab back to his hotel. Later Mark will give me some money to give to Matt and I'll spend it all on drink, drugs and wild wild women. But don't tell Matt, ok?

    Tuesday lunchtime and it's time to hang out with Mark and his mum in Jonathan's on New Oxford Street, near Holborn. A lovely time is had by all (I hope). At one point, almost symbolically, a plastic bag is blown in from the street. Thankfully, no riots or heroes follow it in...

    In which Mark looks sheepish for the camera... He'll thank me when he's all old and crusty.

    The final picture is a bit of a farce, frankly. Last evening in London for Mark, I try to get some people together at the last minute and kind of fail, I get rained on so my hair goes all wonky and horrible and I'm all grim and sticky and tired and insane looking, we think about going to see a film but there isn't really a film to watch, so we kind of mill around a bit. We try to take ONE good photo of us sitting in a café - after about a dozen and some very dirty looks, Mark holds out his arm and snaps us from a distance. We both look a bit stupid, frankly, but it's the best of a bad lot...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Translating with a Russian Accent... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2002 04:06:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok - first things first - today I noticed in my referrers for the first time an article about the 2002 Bloggies from what appears to be some kind of newspaper or magazine in Russia. Now my first instinct was to declare it immediately cool and pass swiftly on. Except then I remembered that Babel Fish might do a translator for Russian. Travelling swiftly across I discovered almost immediately that I was in fact correct - and one translater later I have a fully readable - if vaguely nonsensical - article bouncing about in front of my bonce.

    But what is this? Does Babelfish translate with an accent? For in Russia they don't have weblogs - they have veblogs. I know this to be the case because I won Best European Veblog. And Mr Wheaton? Well, if you can make sense of the fact that he is credited as 'Sewed Shyueaton Reinforced-concrete pillbox No', then you should be delighted to hear that the awards he won were, "Veblog of year, the very same the most ridiculous of veblog, the very same best American veblog, the very same the best motto of vebloga, the very same best promoushen of vebloga". Which is, you know, nice...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Independent vs. Rogue States STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/12/2002 05:43:26 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm not going to comment on the Independent article that talked of regime change in the rogue state of the USA, except to say that it's very definitely the closest thing to a must-read on the net at the moment.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Fat State of Blogdom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/13/2002 08:29:27 AM ----- BODY:

    It's quite hard to reach my keyboard from the floor where I have been rolling around in glee for several hours now, delighted by the fact that Blogdom has declared itself more concerned with Domino's Pizza charging for delivery than nuclear detente or censorship. Sometimes you've got to love Blogdex. If you need to know the lard-arses that are terrified by the end to free carbohydrate delivery, then you should check out Blogdex's list of sources.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why you don't really need to buy "We've Got Blog" since you can get it all online for nothing! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/14/2002 10:33:31 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok, before I start this one, you're going to want to bookmark this entry if you're even vaguely interested in weblogs, and it'll be much easier to both bookmark and read if you click through to the archived entry which (through the magic of CSS) is formatted all differently and excitingly for maximum clarity of reading...

    If you were interested in reading - but uninterested in paying for - the collection of articles printed in the book We've got blog (which includes an introduction by the esteemed Rebecca Blood), you may be surprised to realise that almost all of the pieces within it are freely available on the interweb. And don't worry - most of them are just as interesting online as they are squirted onto paper. Even Joe Clark's Deconstructing "You've Got Blog" is as irritating online as it is off - perhaps even more so.

    Here's the full run-down for anyone interested...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Popbitch factoid #1 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2002 08:13:40 AM ----- BODY:

    Another day, another stunning factoid from the popbitch people: "Newark is the only town in the USA which is an anagram of Wanker".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Cross-Cultural Associations: Hygiene, Flattery and the term "Blogrolling" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2002 03:29:35 PM ----- BODY:

    What follows is the definition of a word that is relatively well known to webloggers across the world at the moment, that has been taken up quite quickly by American webloggers, but has strangely not been taken up as quickly by people in the UK.

    \Blog''roll'ing\ n. [apparently coined by Doc Searls]
    1. The placing of links in a semi-permanent sidebar-style form from one weblog to another, initially designed to be a short-cut for the creator of the site, which has subsequently become a place to demonstrate admiration, mutual respect, link-flattery and a tacit appeal for a return link of some kind.
    2. The practice of individual webloggers to link repetitively and flatteringly to the posts and comments of their friends and online favourites.

    Here is the word that 'blogrolling' is supposed to be a pleasant corruption or extension of - a word which one assumes is more familiar in the US than in the UK:

    \Log''roll'ing\ n. [from Dictionary.com]
    1. The exchanging of political favors, especially the trading of influence or votes among legislators to achieve passage of projects that are of interest to one another.
    2. The exchanging of favors or praise, as among artists, critics, or academics.

    What follows is the word that most English people will assume the word 'blogrolling' is a pun on - a word that is as utterly familiar to us as our own names and a word that casts a considerably less high-brow aspect on the whole 'blogrolling' phenomenon.

    \Bog''roll n.
    A slang term for toilet/lavatory paper - derived from the use of the word 'bog' to refer to the water closet or 'bathroom' in the United Kingdom - being a soft or semi-abrasive absorbent material with the specific purpose of removing excess faecal substance from one's bottom after excretion...

    Inspired by Been 'blogging'? Web discourse hits higher level.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Best of British - Nostalgia and Television STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/15/2002 08:51:33 PM ----- BODY:

    There are times when the BBC does something well. And when the BBC does something well it does it very well. Take their online title sequence archive for example. Loads of famous RealOne-Up-The-Wazoo-ed TV show memories from the last one million billion years. Most of which I remember - since I am ludicrously, stupidly, absurdly old. Key favourites - and memory-inspiring moments include:

    Other memorables: Box of Delights, Butterflies, Bergerac and Battle of the Planets.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom takes a huge link-dump STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2002 11:52:27 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been collecting links for a few days now - things that I have really wanted to talk about, but just haven't had time. So rather than get weighed down by them, consider yourself lucky - all the links, none of that bloody burbling preamble that you normally have to suffer... Be warned - what follows is jotter-style commentary at best - and completely without style or class...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: iCal STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2002 11:22:07 PM ----- BODY:

    For reasons I don't really want to go into at the moment, I'm looking for screencaps of iCal for a little project I'm working on. If you're unfamiliar with the application, it's Apple's new calendar application that you can download for free (once you've installed MacOSX.2). E-mail me, if you find anything...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On London Underground STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/17/2002 11:39:16 PM ----- BODY:

    London's Underground system is as frustrating as it is iconic and vital. It's the world's oldest underground system, it's teeming with people whenever it's open - which (ironically) isn't as often as it should be. The tunnels are too old and small to allow the trains to have any kind of air conditioning, and it's prone to radical over-crowding. Daily use of it drives most Londoners to a state of vengeful apoplexy several times a week - standing up next to some sweating warthog of a man, crammed on platforms like self-canning sardines. So perhaps it's hardly a surprise that all over the tube at the moment are these extraordinary adverts...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An Englishman in Moscow STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism DATE: 08/18/2002 07:51:40 PM ----- BODY:

    I think we'll start with a little background... Several years ago when I first moved to London, I stayed with an ex of mine who lived in Belsize Park with his boyfriend of the time. They had a spare room, and I had nowhere to live, so all-in-all it was a fairly amicable arrangement. My ex worked on the science desk at the Economist. One evening - fairly close to the point where I was about to move out and get my own place - he pulled me outside to ask my advice about something. He'd been offered the position of a foreign correspondent - in Mexico. I was, of course, thrilled for him and stunningly jealous. He didn't know whether or not he should take it. But of course he should. I knew then that I'd miss him a lot, and I miss him still.

    From the first moment he left the country he started sending back these group mails about what he was getting up to abroad - and to be completely honest I tended to delete them unread. They were ok reading, I guess, but I didn't like how impersonal they were. But as time progressed they got more and more interesting. At a certain point I remember talking with him about this over AIM and suggesting to him that he should really start a weblog - that the life of an Englishman in Mexico City must be fascinating to so many more people than the group of close-ish friends his e-mail termed 'The Privy Council'. But he never really agreed with me. Nothing was done.

    A few months ago he revealed to me that he was leaving Mexico and moving to Moscow, again learning the language as he went, moving to a country where he knew no one at all. What a challenge. I'd have been terrified. But this time he's finally got his act together, and while he hasn't started a weblog, he's done something that's more suited to sporadic updates - he's started a broadcast-style mailing list about what it's like getting familiar with living in Russia - a mailing list that anyone can join...

    You can go weeks without receiving anything, but increasingly they're little gems of culture-shock, written unpretentiously and honestly. Here are some example chunks:

    On crashing his car
    "I shall spare you the rest, except to note that whereas a typical British or American police car probably carries a GPS system, video camera and one or two computers, a typical Russian one merely has three radios of which one does not work; and that when a Russian traffic policeman is dealing with an accident, he stops two passing drivers at random and ropes them into to take all the measurements of the scene and then sign the diagram, so that there are independent witnesses."
    On finding a flat
    "Marklen, my temporary Man Friday, recovering well from the bump on the head I gave him in the car crash, explains that Muscovites renting out property do not widely advertise it because they are afraid that someone will come along, kidnap them and take over the premises. So we had to hire an estate agency."

    Sign up today!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the discovery of a new word... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/18/2002 11:06:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Metaspore n. A bastardisation of the word 'Metaphor' with semantic cross-over with the concept of the 'meme' - the metaspore being a violently self-propogating meme with particularly little interest in the survivability of its hosts, with propogation being of such a speed and virulence that conceptual spread is maintainable even though long-term prospects of communication disintegrate when the meme spreads globally. An example of a highly dangerous meme could be the suicide cult, or the concept of teenage suicide itself (cf Micronesian suicides in Malcolm Gladwell's 'Tipping Point'), while the most obvious contemporary candidate for status of 'metaspore' might currently be global capitalism in its full environment-damaging form.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Curing Mo of Sinful Pride STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/19/2002 12:06:09 AM ----- BODY:

    There's a weblogger of some reknown called Mo Morgan. Mo has created a useful resource for webloggers which is very much worthy of a link. I heard about this resource because Mr Morgan sent me an instant message mentioning that if I wanted to blog it, I could. He insisted that I didn't have to link to it, or anything. Just that I could. So I asked if he wanted me to blog it. And he replied, "Not particularly. But if you wanted to, you can." So I kind of leant back and said, "So you don't want me to link to it, then?" And he come right back with, "No".

    So what's going on here? Clearly Mr Morgan did want me to link to the resource in question. But it appears he's too proud to actually ask me to do it. I pressed and I pressed - just ask me I said, and I will link to it. But he consistently replied, "No". In fact by the end of the conversation he said, "No - Please don't link to them..." So if Mr Morgan mentions his new resource to you, you know what to do... Let's cure him of this sinful pride - make him beg...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Incidence of Weird Shit in Maida Vale STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/19/2002 05:34:29 PM ----- BODY:

    A few months ago I moved house. I was living on Morshead Road in Maida Vale and I moved to a thirties block of flats on Shirland Road. Anyway - various things happened to me when I moved into the new flat - things that I had to spend time while at work sorting out. Things like my gas being cut off and my locks being changed. Annoying stuff. So I'm at work and this woman hears me talking on the phone about my block of flats and comes over and says that she lives there too - although she's just about to move out. We have a laugh about it - it's funny, it's a nice little coincidence, and then forget all about it. Until today I hear her on the phone and she's moved into my old flat on Morshead Road. The exact same flat. Possibly even the same room.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On lyrics of genius... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/19/2002 05:57:59 PM ----- BODY:

    Some songs make you burst from sheer weight of emotion. Some make you want to dance like a coked-up electro-shocked duck in the mating season. Some, on the other hand, are dripping with ludicrously stunning lyrics... It's even more fun reading them when you haven't got a clue what the song is...

    1 Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
    Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
    I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
    Rode with us to Memphis
    And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he'd done
    2 I drank the portion she offered me
    I found myself on the floor
    Then I looked into those big green eyes
    And I wondered what I came there for....
    3 There was this boy who had two children with his sisters
    Who were his daughters, who were his favorite lovers
    I got no lips, I got no tongue
    Where there were eyes, there's only space
    I got no lips, I got no tongue
    4 Well you can't live with em
    Or without em
    You never really know a thing about em
    It's hard to believe that all that's there...
    is a rag and a bone and a hank of hair...
    5 The ladies buy their ice from me
    They dig my fast delivery
    They love the way I move about
    I don't make a mess
    I get in and out...
    6 Hey goombah, I love a how you dance a rhumbah
    But take a some advice paisano
    Learn how to mambo
    If you gonna be a square
    You ain't a gonna go nowhere
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm Federal Agent Jack Bauer, and this is the hairiest gearstick of my life. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/19/2002 06:20:54 PM ----- BODY:

    "Right now, fruit pastilles are plotting to carve runes on a forking brogue. My Tipp-Ex bottle is darkly-dressed, and Penny Blacks that I work with may be rotten. I'm Federal Agent Jack Bauer, and this is the hairiest gearstick of my life." Genius Surreal 24. And now for your complete vialog: Darren, via Sore Eyes via As Above.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the launch of Haddock Blogs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2002 12:23:08 PM ----- BODY:

    Update-monitors of yesteryear beware - the dark-times have come for your kind. For Phil Gyford has shown the way of the future with Haddock Blogs. It's a very simple premise - a web-based interface that collates the various RSS/RDF feeds from a group of weblogs and assembles a contents page from them that updates each and every hour.

    The potential for this kind of first-stage weblog content aggregation is huge - particularly for interest or social groups. Haddock being, in this case, a community of friends based around a mailing list. But you could do the same thing for all weblogs with an RSS feed if you wanted, or use category fields or clustering to form highly focused sites about anything from Buffy to PGP...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: He went home, so they could live happily ever after, 2000 miles apart STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2002 12:44:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Of all the terrifyingly heart-breakingly funny cartoons I've seen on Salon, Cold Pursuit is probably the one I identify with most. It's the story of two people in love with each other who individually conspire not to be with one another. My favourite line: "Which made him wonder why she had never succumbed to his indifference".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a night of bad-sleeping... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2002 02:33:01 PM ----- BODY:

    You can arrive home at eleven exhausted and drained. You can try and watch TV for a while and fall asleep during the horrific climax of an episode of one of your favourite TV series. You can stay asleep on the sofa until three in the morning, and then stumble awake to find your hall has been flooded by the dodgy tap in your bathroom. You can mop it up half-heartedly and robotically before wandering bedwards. You can lie awake in bed for two hours unable to sleep, before finally succumbing a little before six in the morning. And then you can wake in a panic because you think you're late for work, only to find that you've only been unconscious for an hour. You can get up and try and watch the end of the TV show you were watching the night before and doze off in the middle of it. Just don't expect to feel so hot the next day. Okay?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On my obsession of the month... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2002 02:44:57 PM ----- BODY:

    Above and beyond the lustful need for a new iPod (mine is bashed and broken and lying in the basement of secret branch of MicroAnvika with Joe the iPod Man) is my need, my craving for Jaguar - the upgraded version of MacOSX. I've been reading reviews and watching the countdown for several weeks now. Someone asked me a while ago how long it was until it came out. I knew this figure to within one hour. Sad, it's true. But all these new features: iChat, Mail, Address Book, Rendezvous and iCal...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Behold I am the City Creator, maker of tiny pixel empires... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/21/2002 05:43:11 PM ----- BODY:

    From earliest times when man first scraped pointer cross pixel, the goal of all humanity has been the creation of almighty empires of pixels - vistas of microscopic blocks of brightly coloured light coming together to form perfect tiny universes populated by oddly chunky tiny little people. As harbinger of the wonders to come came eboy's pixel palaces - but finally we can all scratch out our little piece of tiny heaven out of light itself... Presenting CityCreator.com - a creation of Cal and Denise. Bow down, ye new Gods of the unantialiased - and bear witness to the dawn of a new age...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Public and Private - thanks to Matthew "Muscle" Webb... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/22/2002 01:14:28 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm prone to ramble - so let's start with the link: Public and Private - random unposed portraits of people taken on the corner of Edgware Road and Marble Arch. The site is beautifully designed, simple and elegant and the photos are of the highest quality and tremendously poignant. Perhaps it has a special significance for me because I travel through this part of London every day on my way to work, switching wherever appropriate between buses 6 and 98.

    By way of meta-commentary - thinking about the process of choosing a link to post - I think it's worth saying that I planned initially to post this link yesterday but I decided that it might spoil the impact of Cal and Denise's amazing City Creator, so I managed to restrain myself. Is this tactical blogging? Is it immoral? It's difficult to tell. Clearly there's a value in the as-it-happens authenticity of weblogging.

    As a further aside - this constitutes yet another link I've borrowed (stolen) from the wonderful Matthew Webb - who manages to post significant gems like this in parallel with commentaries about RSS/RDF aggregation and links about the wonders of anal bleaching - links that I've followed up myself on the interhighweb to uncover a particularly fascinating post to an agony aunt on anal advisor which includes the lines:

    "Several people have written to me asking me about skin bleaching in the anal area. First, let me assure you that the way your ass looks now is perfectly normal; in most people, the puckered flesh of the anus is naturally a few shades darker---or a slightly different color---than the rest of their skin."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "What have you done Erik?" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2002 10:17:31 AM ----- BODY:

    "Doesn't it wake you in the middle of the night. The feeling that someday they will pass that foolish law and come for you and your children? Take you all away?" Ladies and gentlemen, the X-men 2 trailer. 'Nuff said, true believer...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On how I actually felt really quite bad for Wil Wheaton STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/23/2002 11:17:17 AM ----- BODY:

    When Wil Wheaton started weblogging, I though it was great. I loved the fact that the culture of weblogs allowed us all to enter a world that - for the most part - remains completely invisible to the general public - a world of faded celebrity, auditions and call-backs. I loved the fact that he actually seemed to be a pretty decent bloke and that he had a sense of humour and a sense of perspective. I got quite excited when I heard he was going to be in the next Star Trek movie - he's my age, he's exposing himself on the net - I kind of felt weirdly like one of my peers had made good again.

    After a while, I moved on to reading other sites - Wil runs a very popular site, it's not like he needs my patronage, and there are so many people out there to connect with, however fleetingly. But I was drawn back today by a fragment of news - that his scene had been cut from the movie - and read his commentary on the phone call he received, and it's actually just really sad and poignant and weirdly affecting. Be strong, Comrade Wheaton. Soon thirty will come and the weight will be lifted and your perspective will change and all will respect and admire you. It happened to me. Kind of.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How the internet saved me from all my worst fears STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/26/2002 07:20:38 PM ----- BODY:

    The glorious Andy Pressman of beautifully designed Oh Messy Life! infamy has posted a picture of a singular poster. The poster reads, "Then it hit me, I'm not going to be famous, I won't get to be a rock star, I am going to be stuck on the payroll doing work that doesn't interest me for a very long time". And it reminded me of something I posted eighteen months ago which read:

    "It's slowly beginning to dawn on me that I'm never going to be famous, I'm never going to be truly exceptional, or lauded over - I'm never going to travel to the moon, I'm never going to kill someone, I'm never going to gazelle on stage. This may be one of the most crushing realisations of my life"

    But I was wrong. These are the words of the old world that we all used to live in. The world before the internet, before weblogs, before we realised the truth. In the future we will all be superheroes if we want to be. This is a distributed world - a world in which the barriers to flight have been lifted. You don't have to be a multi-millionaire to make your mark, you don't have to have all the luck in the world to rise up from your origins and hold your head up high. This is the post-American Dream - to live in a world in which you can get the respect you deserve simply by posting rubbish to the internet, by talking about your interests, your dreams and your interests. The man who made that poster has already proven himself wrong. His words, his image have been ripped from the streets of New York and broadcast into the ether. Hundreds of people have already seen it across the world and taken his words and thought about their lives. An impact has been made. And, like the impacts that we all make online, it should be celebrated. So this is my clarion call, here is my manifesto. Throw away the doubts that bind you. Shed your bodies and celebrate what makes you unique and important - all the stuff that helps you sleep at night - and take to the net. We need you. We love you. We want you. Nothing else is important.

    Addendum: Thanks to Matt Jones for the related conversation over AIM that ended with us agreeing that an ISP with built in weblogging functionality and a low bandwidth limit could do worse than use the slogan: "In the future everyone will be famous for 15Mb".

    Related: Wired On the size of the weblog nation

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: WARNING: HALF BAKED AND BADLY WRITTEN ---> On having official work policies on weblogs and weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/26/2002 09:12:52 PM ----- BODY:

    Anyone who's worked in any kind of office at any point in their lives has probably had to sign a contract or a piece of paper that outlines what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behaviour in the office. As part of this often comes a short edict about 'abuse of the internet', which generally is taken to mean downloading child pornography or not getting any work done at all because you're busy playing 'Go' on a network with someone in Japan. If you abuse the internet, you will get fired.

    Of course abuse of the internet is a fairly loose term, which as yet doesn't have a consistent meaning between jobs. I remember an article in the press in the UK a few years ago which held that a woman who booked a holiday during her lunch break at work could be fired for abusing the internet. Most of us who live at least a third of our lives online reacted with a certain amount of horror to that. After a while, the net becomes an extension of your head, or your hands, or your ears or your eyes. Being separated from it in a working environment becomes ridiculous. The capacity to chat to a coworker on AIM about a work-related matter becomes normal - as does the ability to ask a friend in another country for a link about icon design.

    And then you get to the weblog, which may prove to be the latest thing to be legislated around: via blogroots comes this fairly reasonable policy on weblogs. It's a balanced view of them - carefully measuring both the need of businesses to cover their own asses and the need for individuals to feel they have online free expression. Unfortunately, while it is eminently pragmatic, that doesn't mean that it's actually morally right. Something that seems eminently clear to me is that the needs of business impinge on the rights of the individual to have a life 'outside work' a hell of a lot more than they should...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: MacOSX.2 and BtOpenworld STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2002 12:15:22 AM ----- BODY:

    Warning: If you are an OSX user in the UK who is using BTOpenworld's broadband service and is thinking of upgrading to Appe's latest operating system OSX.2, then be aware that the Alcatel SpeedTouch USB modem does not work with Jaguar and you will be left without any kind of web access. There are no functioning drivers for the Alcatel modem compatible with OSX.2, and no information on when there will be. I have discovered this to my cost, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

    BTOpenworld have also helpfully declared that they no don't even support OSX ("It'll work, but we can't give you any help on it and stuff"). I'm eager to spread the word on this one - and I'm also eager to be a bridge for any updates people might have. Mail me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Insane ADSL update... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2002 01:13:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. The latest news for BTOpenworld customers struggling with broadband access via crappy alcatel modems is that you might just as well stick your thumb up your ass for all the help they'll provide at the moment. In the meantime, according to a helpful correspondent who is high up at a Mac print-publication, Hermstedt ADSL modems (around £139) come with fully working OSX.2 drivers. Which is a nice if expensive solution. Equally expensive but apparently the solution if you're planning to use Airport is the solution that Matt Webb suggested to me - buy an ethernet router of some kind and stick it between the Alcatel modem and the computer. Apparently this will help...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On BTOpenWOE STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2002 03:29:26 PM ----- BODY:

    A brief ADSL related aside. Are you having problems with BTOpenworld? Then you need to know about btopenwoe.co.uk.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On RSS feeds / CSS and Jason's Kottke's redesign of NetNewsWire STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2002 03:56:44 PM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday I posted a substantial rant on kottke.org about the role of RSS feeds and readers. Here's an excerpt: "Perhaps this is one of those times when we all realise that the potential uses for an adaptation of the technology exceed what people designed it for. RSS feeds are the palm-friendly templates that we've never all designed for, they're the truly cross-platform designs for the site that open up issues of accessibility for people using alternative readers because of blindness.".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So if you're going to sell your soul down the river for £25 and a box of liquorice allsorts, you'd better get your bloody move on... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2002 05:51:41 PM ----- BODY:

    Over the last few weeks I've become the semi-official online promotional orifice of the Guardian's Best British Blog competition, and with just over a week and a half to go, it's time to remember - if you're planning to sell your soul down the river for £25 and a box of liquorice allsorts, you'd better get your bloody move on...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BTOpenworld and ADSL - the news is good... Kind of... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/27/2002 08:37:44 PM ----- BODY:

    [Note added September 21st, 2002: There is apparently a new driver - version 2.0 - that is available for users of MacOSX. It's available here. As of this date I haven't tried it, because I'm too nervous that it'll bugger up my connection. If you have tried it, let me know how you got on with it via e-mail.]

    Firstly an apology to both my regular readers for going on about my problems with BTOpenworld and Alcatel's SpeedTouch USB ADSL modem. Placing this information online may seem annoying to many of you, but the wonders of the internet and Google mean that if I get it online it will never die and can help people for months to come. That's one of the other wonderful things about the internet and modern search engines - knowledge can once again become something that is added to by each and every person on the planet co-operatively without fear of it being lost. Or at least that's the theory...

    So to start off with here's the good news - it seems there is a fix for the 1.6 version of the Alcatel drivers for OSX Check your current version numbers, because if you are using older ones then you'll have no luck with this fix. The latest versions can be downloaded from from SpeedTouchProfiles.com. These drivers don't work in and of themselves, but apparently can be made to work by altering 'version number format and matching', whatever that means. You can read the whole fix here: It takes a froggy to tame a frog!!

    Now for the bad news. The fix is almost totally incomprehensible to me and looks like it's likely to remain so for quite a while to come. If anyone can walk me through it, I'll do whatever it takes to bring you pleasure in your life. In the meantime, the site you need to know about if you're having any problems with running Alcatel's ADSL on MacOSX is run by Antonio Strijdom.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shock news from the technology and entertainment industries... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2002 08:01:07 AM ----- BODY:

    Take a seat. No really, sit down. You're going to be shocked by this. Sony have decided to stop making Betamax VCRs! I know! I know! Who saw that coming?!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One for the non-geeks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2002 12:10:20 PM ----- BODY:

    We're seeing the acronyms everywhere at the moment - RSS & RDF. They're becoming icons of webspace like HTML and CSS. But interestingly, unlike HTML and CSS, almost no one seems to know what they stand for. So to clarify - and obfuscate - in the same stroke, let me reveal to you the wonder of geek naming conventions. RSS stands for 'RDF Site Summary' of all things. And RDF in turn stands for the the elegant and punchy, "Resource Description Framework". Aren't you glad you know that?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a heartfelt gesture of thanks towards Mr Matthew Webb, underappreciated OSXpert STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/28/2002 03:01:39 PM ----- BODY:

    [Note added September 21st, 2002: There is apparently a new driver - version 2.0 - that is available for users of MacOSX. It's available here. As of this date I haven't tried it, because I'm too nervous that it'll bugger up my connection. If you have tried it, let me know how you got on with it via e-mail.]

    [Note added September 1st, 2002: If you are looking for solutions to your ADSL/Alcatel/Jaguar problems, then I would take Mr Webb's advice and read this extremely helpful guide to upgrading your drivers]

    Several years ago, when I was still doing my postgraduate work in Bristol, I had a friend called Louise who was very into the healing arts of Reiki. I'm not a great fan of alternative medicines - I don't dismiss them out of hand, but I'm a sceptical man. Something has to be plausible for me to advocate it. Louise and I went shopping one day, and returned back to my flat exhausted and grumpy - and my feet were killing me. At this moment - slumped in my sitting room - Louise asked me a very strange question. She asked me, "Would it freak you out if I said I could make your feet feel better from right here over the other side of the room?" My eyebrow stretched so high I thought it might never come down again...

    Bear with me, because I'm coming to the point. All regular visitors to plasticbag.org over the last few days will be familiar with the problems I've been having with the ungodly enemies BTOpenworld and Alcatel. But my story has a happy ending, and it's all to do with the wonders of MacOSX.2. Last night, you'll recall, I discovered that there was a fix for the Alcatel drivers that was floating around on a discussion board. A fix which, although it would work, was beyond my technical expertise.

    Enter Matt Webb who sitting comfortably in his house in Hammersmith sent me a message via iChat. He suggested that he might be able to fix my ADSL drivers from the other side of London. Would this freak me out? Absolutely. But I went along with it. First I determined my IP address from my network preferences panel. Then I turned on 'remote access' in the sharing panel. Then I made Matt an account on my computer and gave him administrator privileges. This took two minutes. And then, while we chatted, he connected to my computer with SSH through my modem, fixed all the files through Terminal, gave a bit of a smiley grin and told me it was finished. We signed off, I restarted my computer with all the cables plugged in - and now I have a fully working broadband connection.

    Now I don't really know who to celebrate here. I've got no idea whether or not something like that would have been possible on a standard Windows installation, I've got no idea whether the instructions given were particularly clear or ludicrously complicated. I don't even know whether this is something that Matt feels completely comfortable doing, whether he fixes things like this every day Lone-Ranger style... What I do remember is that old line from science fiction, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Now this is the way to go about winning a bloody stupid competition... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2002 10:23:55 AM ----- BODY:

    "If it were up to a public vote, a la the bloggies, I most certainly wouldn't win, but with a panel of judges I've definitely got a chance. Of the eight judges, I've sent five of them a mince pie in the post, and I threatened Anita Roddick with throwing rocks at customers of the local Body Shop unless I get her vote. This one's in the bag." [Lawrie Malen]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On professional weblogging and BBC Scotland... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2002 02:30:58 PM ----- BODY:

    So it looks like Meg Hourihan's article about professional weblogging was prescient. BBC Scotland is the latest organisation to try their hand at corporately sponsored personal publishign (of a kind) with the launch of Scotblog. It's a fairly strange site mixing stories of particular interest to Scots with very personal musings on postcards. Is this really what Meg meant, I wonder? At least it's a change from the Guardian's useful but dry link-based site. [via Darren]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being "Blast from the past" time on plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2002 04:37:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Barely inspired by this very boring looking article which I couldn't be bothered to read, I've spent a good twenty minutes trying to uncover The Ten Secrets of a Successful Website - a much much less boring microsite bashed together by Jason Kottke when he was doing cool creative things with 0sil8.com rather than being godfather of weblogdom. Here's a particularly choice quote:

    "When dealing with a web site, especially a corporate web site, branding is the most important thing. Therefore, the logo has to be the most visible element on the site. That means it has to be on every page, preferably in the upper lefthand corner of the page. the logo must also be large... Set your screen to 640x480 resolution and make sure the logo takes up a quarter of your browser window. Of course, this means that the content will be pushed down the page a little. Don't worry, content isn't that important and people will find it if they really want to. And again, if you can animate or make your logo 3D, that will increase its impact even more."

    And while I was at 0sil8.com I thought I'd better mention some other classic Kottke that you young folks were probably too busy sniffing glue and having underage sex to have seen the first time around:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sex is a bit shit really... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/29/2002 05:03:08 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. Sex. I mean - why? I mean, let's be honest - It's a bit shit isn't it. I mean it's not like computers? It's all unreliable and irritating. Ok maybe it's like computers running Windows... People only pretend to like it anyway so they can fit in. It's like Eastenders. No one wants to watch it, but if they don't, how the hell are they going to have anything to talk about at dinner parties? Sex is exactly the same. And I don't watch Eastenders. PS. Anyone who decides to burst my bubble on this one is going to get a smack...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We are all plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2002 03:09:43 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't be the only person who's in awe of how good plasticbag.org is. Each and every day that Tom fellow (what a looker!) writes extraordinary - self-promotingly - witty garbage about all many of things that I don't give a damn about. That's got to be seriously hard work, right? I mean, talent like that doesn't just fall drunk out of trees, now does it? Well here's your chance to prove how common and banal a skill weblogging really is! I'm calling this one "We are all plasticbag.org" - write a post in the style (if there is one) of this here site. Make it funny, crappy, elegant, pointless, artful, wondrous - awe-inspiring even. Best ones get posted on this here hallowed Indian burial ground...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ho! Mr Hammersley! Excellent article, old chap! Take a bow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2002 03:39:34 PM ----- BODY:

    My XCOM co-panellee Ben Hammersley has finally done something useful with his time, other than write huge tomes on RSS, co-create Warchalking, figure out when his dogs were born and wear that bizarre murderer-style hat. He's written a good introduction to Newsreaders for the Guardian. It's a fluff piece obviously, but it's nice good fluff because we all agree with it. Like candy floss. If you're interested in subscribing to plasticbag.org you may be looking for that foul little orange button with 'XML' written on it. But you won't find it, because it's bloody horrible looking. Instead you can find the feed here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "You're a congressman's son! Why didn't you stomp that hippie?!" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2002 04:09:12 PM ----- BODY:

    If you liked Spider-Man, you'll love.... The Amazing George W.: "My father's downfall is my fault... Now I know... With Power comes Responsibilitude..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've got that Friday feeling STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2002 04:36:50 PM ----- BODY:

    Damn it. We've all been so good - working hard all week, trying to make a meagre crust to take home to our children, animals and additional dependants (adopted and virtual). I think we deserve to cut loose a little - don't you? Punk style? So here's my guide to ways to get completely over-excited about the dumb work week's ending in fire and sparkly bits. Viva Las Weekend!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cooler than you. Cooler than your heroes. The Web Pong Cometh. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2002 05:19:09 PM ----- BODY:

    If you've got something to smack your gob with, keep it handy. You're going to need it in a moment. When beautiful sword-fighting deviant geek goddess Anno Mitchell showed it to me, I wasn't prepared. My gob was left empty and unsmacked for several agonising seconds. You're going to want to be prepared for this. But before we start, remember these simple instructions - the 'euh' button will stop the wonderful thing happening and make everything good and normal again. The keys you are looking for are on your number pad: "8" and "2". Are you ready? Can you contain your excitement? Then experience the Awesome Ungodly Full Screen Explorer-Based Cross-Platform Pong Extravaganza. Don't say I didn't warn you...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If the BBC can't get it right.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 08/30/2002 08:01:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Now I've started using 'titles' to my weblog posts, but if you're not reading the site through some kind of RSS feed you won't know what any of them are. I'm not keen on breaking up the flow of my posts on the main site though, so let me spell it out for you just this once... The title of this post is If the BBC can't get it right...

    Now the BBC runs a number of mailing lists. Once I signed up for one of them when I was trying to keep up with one very specific aspect of what they were doing. The list I signed up to was called 'Communicate'. I'd like to provide a link to the page in question, but I can't find it on the site anymore. Anyway, after a while I decided to unsubscribe and so followed the link on their site to this page. I filled in my information and got this reply:

    Thank you for requesting the Communicate Newsletter. You will receive 3 information emails, and only need reply to 'Confirm Subscribe' to begin your subscription.

    1. Majordomo Results
    (There is no need to reply to this email - it is just to advise you that your email address has been used to subscribe with us)
    2.Confirm Subscribe
    (You MUST reply to this message by simply clicking the 'Reply' & then 'Send' buttons in your email program)
    3.Welcome to Communicate
    (This message is to welcome you to the Newsletter, please retain it for your future reference)

    You'll notice - of course - that this is welcoming me to the newsletter. Humph I thought. Maybe they've got the copy wrong. But no. I continued to receive the newsletter. So I followed the other instructions relating to signing off the list. Let me spell this stuff out:

    "If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter or have received it in error, please click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/communicate/newsletter/news_unsubscribe.html or send a blank email to majordomo@lists.bbc.co.uk stating 'Unsubscribe Communicate' in the subject line (keep the rest of the e-mail blank)."

    Ok, well I tried the first one, so I thought I'd try the second one. Only to be sent (immediately) a reply that went like this...

    "This message shows the result of status of your request to subscribe, unsubscribe, or alter your subscription to one of the BBC's mailing lists.
    **** No valid commands found.
    **** Commands must be in message BODY, not in HEADER.

    Hmm. Interesting. So that information was just wrong then? Note at no point around here is there any e-mail address that I could use to contact anyone directly if I actually can't get the damn thing to work. And the BBC isn't a small organisation. There must be 40,000 or more people working for them at any one time. It's not beyond the bounds of reason that I might never figure out who to contact... Anyway - I'm fairly sure I've tried this other approach as well - with the commands in the 'proper' place, and that it didn't work either. But I'll try. Again.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being a 'workshy fop' STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2002 03:07:56 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm not one for the constant tracking of page impressions, but I do check my stats every couple of days to find out if anyone's crouched behind an Ice Rink whispering about me behind my back. Once you reach my level of web celebrity you have to be careful about these things. You wouldn't understand, I'm sure. Anyway, because of a recent upgrade in the kind of reporting facilities I have, I now know the search terms that people are using to come to my site. Now of course everyone else has had this ability for years. I used to have it too. Sigh - those heady days of youth... I'll never get them back now...

    I'm commenting on this recently regained ability because I keep getting referrals from people who search for Workshy Fop. Turns out I'm the third most visible fop on the planet according to Google. What an honour. Clearly this too is an honour that most of you have little chance of even beginning to aspire to. But if you want to see if you even rate, might I suggest submitting your picture to Am I a Workshy Fop or Not?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wonder if I have Candida STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2002 03:15:25 PM ----- BODY:

    A while ago I went on a low-carbohydrate diet to try and lose some weight. And although the diet itself was borderline impossible to maintain, I did find that my skin cleared up, I stopped farting all the time, my moods radically stabilised and I felt much more energised and up for stuff. Now I've been reading about Candida and I'm thinking, "Hmm well that all sounds remarkably familiar..." I should go to the doctors really...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On getting a fake tattoo STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2002 04:04:04 PM ----- BODY:

    I went out last night to G.A.Y. ostensibly to see have a dance around and get drunk and watch the Sugababes, except I got a bit depressed and cynical quite early on in the evening and spent a couple of hours glaring at half-witted poofs all desperate to pair off as quickly as humanly possible. So instead, my friend Nick and I wandered off and got fake tattoos sprayed onto our aging flesh. Here's mine:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Notting Hill fucked up my fucking life again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/01/2002 11:08:07 PM ----- BODY:

    You don't want to watch Notting Hill. You really don't. But it's on television and it's so bloody sticky and although you know it's kind of going to make you want to kill everyone if you catch more than a moment of it, if you do catch a moment of it then it's got you in its massive drooling fangs and it won't let go - by god - no. But I don't want any of it. I don't want the crappy friends with broken bits, and I don't want the Aryan Nation version of West London. I don't bloody Ronan Keating howling in my sensitive earbits. And most particularly I don't want the godawful shame of getting really emotionally involved in it - and worst of all the hideous embarrassment of suddenly wanting one of those least fashionable of all things... A bloody boyfriend. It's a phase. I'll get over it. Godammit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Nationalism and Masculinity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2002 08:49:28 AM ----- BODY:

    I started a thread on Barbelith yesterday called Crises of Modern Western Life in which I suggested that the two fundamental crises attacking Western identity at the moment were crises of nationality and crises of mascunlinity: "Both are fundamentally linked in some profound ways that I'm not sure I'm able to articulate - but are to do with ways of deriving pride or self-respect from some aspect of self-definition. I was wondering if anyone felt they could extend some of this thinking in a useful direction - suggest some linkages, some failures in my thinking or perhaps some other crises that my subservience to colonial middle-class hetero-patriarchal values may have forced me to put under some kind of erasure... " I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A murderer's web confessional? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2002 10:47:01 AM ----- BODY:

    A boy who bullies other kids at school gets hit by a car. Under the pretence of helping him, one of his previous victims drags him roughly to the curb, and while 'trying' to get him into the recovery position keeps pushing his body around until he's convinced that he's broken his neck. The boy dies shortly afterwards. The previous victim gets away scott-free. Or does he? First things first, because the neck-breaker decides to brag about his actions on Kuro5hin.org, triggering debates on both Kuro5hin and Metafilter about what should be done should the story prove to be true. And in the process they've named the individual concerned and posted the local police department's telephone number.

    This situation brings all those fundamental weirdnesses of the internet right back to the fore in my mind - the freedom of expression presented gives you access into the minds of people that were previously completely invisible to you. And sometimes that's unpleasant, scary even. But what's the truth here? Who online can know? Is this a talented fantasist's rantings or an error in judgment by a remorseless man who believes still in the myth of total online anonymity? Is he sitting at home in Cornwall cold-sweating like a pig, or is he ice-cold, suited and booted at work? It's difficult to know what to think, except that either way it smacks slightly of sociopathy...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rip the heads off the puppies, you puppy-hating bastard you... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/02/2002 02:05:34 PM ----- BODY:

    They're pink and they're asking for it and frankly you'll be all too willing to oblige. It doesn't seem to hurt the little bitches either... Pink exploding-head doggies courtesy of Anno.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BBC newsfeeds for all! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2002 02:29:33 PM ----- BODY:

    Newsreaders like NetNewsWire - like web browsers - get more and more useful as more resources come online that they can read. Which is why it's such tremendously good news that BBC News has now released a public beta of an RSS feed to the general public. Thanks to Matt Jones for this one.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the bankrupcy of music STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 09/03/2002 03:01:23 PM ----- BODY:

    In the spirit of the Royksopp video for "Remind Me" comes a new infographically inspired video for a song by Legowelt. As videos become more and more spectacular and sophisticated (Michel Gondry's work being particularly astonishing), I increasingly begin to wonder about the music that they are being attached to. Surely the songs cannot cost that much to assemble or perform? Certainly nowhere near as much as the videos must cost to make. Has the promotional device outstripped the product in creativity and artistic value? More at Barbelith

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's September, godammit! Where the hell is my iSync!? Where the arse is my iCal!? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/03/2002 05:47:18 PM ----- BODY:

    Apple have been teasing us too long. I bought OSX.2 and frankly it's lovely (took me a while to adjust, but now I'm in heaven). But what about iCal? What about iSync?! They say they'll be released in September. But it is September godammit?! Where the hell are they!?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On not entering the Guardian's Weblog Competition... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2002 01:07:11 AM ----- BODY:

    With a little under three days to go until the Guardian's Weblog Competition closes, I'm now looking for British webloggers who didn't enter and aren't planning to do so. If that describes you (for whatever reason), then e-mail me and I'll let you in on what I'm scheming.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The "Not the Best Weblog" Project STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 09/04/2002 11:58:57 AM ----- BODY:

    What is it?

    The "Not the Best" project is really simple. It's a tiny piece of code that post or stick in your template that will add the "Not the Best" box onto your site. The box includes a link to every British weblogger who decided not to participate in the Guardian's Best British Blog competition. If you didn't enter and you send in your site's URL, we'll add it to the box and it'll be updated on everyone's sites immediately.

    How do I add the box to my site?

    Here's the code you need to cut and paste... You can put it on your site as a normal post in your weblog, or you can add it to your template. Whatever makes you feel most comfortable...

    <script language="javascript" src="http://www.plasticbag.org/files/misc/bestbritishblog.js"> </script>

    Here's what it looks like at the moment...

    What are the benefits to me?

    On one side it gives you a chance to say publically and to the most number of people: 'Best British Blog - not for me'. But more positively it also means that everyone gets to meet other people who feel the same way as them. And it might introduce new people to your weblog...

    Why are you doing it again?

    When the Guardian announced that it was going to run the Best British Weblog competition there were a wide variety of reactions. Some people were delighted and entered immediately. Others thought it was a slightly weird idea and entered anyway, others (like myself) thought it hadn't really been thought through properly and wasn't necessarily a good thing for webloggers and weblogging in general.

    As we approach the announcement of the winner of the award it seems like the perfect time to celebrate some of the curmudgeons and grumps that (for whatever reason) decided not to play... And to waggle a friendly nose-finger at the Guardian in the process as well. Hence the "Not the Best" project...

    But before I go any further I think it's only fair to make it clear that anyone who has entered should feel that they have all of our best wishes. Good luck to you in the competition! And well done in advance if you should win. This isn't about making other webloggers feel bad in any way.

    Everyone who didn't enter the competition had a different reason for doing so. Some people just thought they didn't really have a chance of winning. Which is valid! Some just felt uncomfortable competing, others thought it was a popularity contest, some just didn't understand the criteria that you could use to judge this kind of thing. Whatever your reason for not entering - altruistic, idealistic, jaded, bored or forgetful - you should feel able (welcome even) to participate...

    So enjoy the variety of sites that decided fame and fortune were not for them - and if you want to join in the project yourself, remember - just stick this line of code on your site, and then e-mail a link to tom [at] plasticbag.org and I'll add your site as soon as possible...

    <script language="javascript" src="http://www.plasticbag.org/files/misc/bestbritishblog.js"> </script>

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: On one side it gives you a chance to say publically and to the most number of people: 'Best British Blog - not for me'. But more positively it also means that everyone gets to meet other people who feel the same way as them. And it might introduce new people to your weblog... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 62.31.64.2 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 09/04/2002 03:30:00 PM Then you could have a competition to find the best of the blogs which didn't enter the competition... the possibilities are endless. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gene EMAIL: anon@winklepickers.com IP: 195.92.81.250 URL: DATE: 09/04/2002 04:17:52 PM Seeing as a large proportion of people who submitted their blog to the competition probably did so not thinking they would win, or agreeing with the idea, but rather as yet another quick and easy chance to publicise their weblog, I would say what you're doing here is the perfect response. Getting a link right there on some of the most popular weblogs in the country is exactly what those people would love - and exactly what you're now giving to all the people who resisted. It's like a form of poetic justice isn't it. Good work sir! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dug EMAIL: dug@pumpernickle.net IP: 213.123.251.139 URL: http://www.donkeyontheedge.com DATE: 09/06/2002 01:15:31 AM Surely entrance to bbwl shouldn't preclude entrance to wbwl -- I 'd like to win best, most average and worst... The whole concept that my random musings and opinions are better or worse that anyone else's random musings and opinions is just plain silly (which I'm assuming, is your point). Keep up the good work:-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stephen Downes EMAIL: stephen@downes.ca IP: 24.231.19.84 URL: http://www.newstrolls.com DATE: 09/06/2002 03:23:32 PM Hiya, we polled our readers and the seven who felt it worth responding generally agreed that we are not the best British blog. Could have something to do with the fact that we're not British. Anyhow, we posted the box, but it's too wide. Could you narrow it by a half inch or so? Thanks. Stephen Downes, CTO, NewsTrolls http://www.newstrolls.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Leonie Gold EMAIL: leonie_gold@yahoo.co.uk IP: 158.152.135.129 URL: http://innercityproblempage.blogspot.com/ DATE: 09/26/2002 09:58:22 AM Well, don't say 'I told you so'. Thick-as-mince here thought I might get somewhere in that competition by at least *trying* to do something a bit different with the blog format. Why did I waste my time not giving my views in Iraq, opinions on movies and listing what I'm listening to this week? Why did I bother thinking that trying to help and entertain people through an interactive medium was a good idea and moved the blog idea on a bit from personal wank? (present company excepted...) For the moment, mine is a grassroots free blogspot-hosted blog, for certain good reasons, so there's no cute graphics. And problem pages are a girly thing, aren't they? Stupid, stupid me. OK. Sour grapes over. I was learning from scratch, so the design is somewhat primitive. Going to redesign & re-host soon :-) Thanks for your good work. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: This is 'not the best' blog in Britain STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2002 04:17:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Did you decide not to enter the Guardian's weblog competition? If you didn't, then why not participate in the Not the best project - a small pod list of people who decided not to take part for whatever reason. You can stick the pod on your site really easily, and if you didn't enter and want to be listed on it then you can do that too. Have fun with it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the pronunciation of Ancient Greek... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2002 05:23:40 PM ----- BODY:

    I spent years learning Ancient Greek at University. If challenged I can spout off the first few lines of Euripides' Bacchae (my favourite tragedy) in a deep and rolling voice - a suitable voice for the god Dionysus who speaks them. But of course no one really completely knows for certain what it sounded like when it was spoken out loud... People have researched phonemes and attempted to reconstruct accents and pitch and rhythms from the intensive application of philology, but no one really knows. Still, it's fascinating to listen to some of the examples you can find on the net. Here's some Homer (Iliad 18, 39-96), some Aeschylus (Agamemnon 503-537) and some Plato (Symposium 172ff) from this site, which also includes some astonishingly weirdly assembled Ancient Greek Music. And all because I wanted to know whether 'noos' was pronounced 'no'os' or 'noose'.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Subjective Best British Weblog (after kevan.org) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/04/2002 05:42:25 PM ----- BODY:

    Inspired by kevan.org's comment about the Guardian award: "The whole thing seems dangerously adjacent to a World's Greatest X mug - pointless when presented by a panel of strangers, but quite meaningful and interesting if someone I know is explaining their reasoning. So I'm hereby forging meme #1 of the Subjective Best British Weblog competition, inviting people to nominate their current favourite and tell the world why. No prizes or vote-tallying, just a meaningful signpost to somewhere worth going." Agreed!

    Unfortunately my subjective Best British Weblog is a secret one that a friend maintains and that I'm not allowed to link to. But my second favourite is probably interconnected.org - mainly because Matt writes things that often are just beyond my technical expertise, and he's almost never flippant or clumsy with language, but thinks through what he wants to say carefully and thoroughly. But most importantly because he's got a kind of weird visionary streak that means that you pick up on some of the frantic energy that motivates him through his writing and it helps you think more imaginatively as well... And as far as I'm concerned, that's what it's all about...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Five search requests from the last five hours... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2002 12:15:21 AM ----- BODY:

    There are many ways to find a site. These are some of the ways that people found mine in the last few hours...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No more songs about letters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2002 03:30:53 PM ----- BODY:

    I bought an album by the Bangles when I as about fifteen in the late eighties, and it had a song on it called "Return Post". And I listened to it again the other day for the first time in ages and it occurred to me that it's probably one of the very last songs of its kind - a song about love letters and the postal service. It will no longer make any sense at all in a few years time... Read the lyrics

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Utterly mercenary Tom wants some fucking cash for all his hard goddam work... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/05/2002 03:49:52 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't find the link or I'd post it. If Jason had a search box it would have been easier to find. But I know that it's true. I know it. I remember it clearly - Jason asking someone to sponsor his site in exchange for an iBook. Now I once won an Anti-Bloggie (apologies for Google cache version) for being an unbearably mercenary and foul human being that craved money with a passion. But if that's so true, how come I never thought of getting people to paypal me donations (see related Wired news article) to buy myself a laptop with? I mean, there was a time last year when I was going to auction off dates with myself on ebay to pay the water bills. I'm supposed to be shameless. Well anyway, I've bloody thought about it now and no mistake... Keep watching the skies.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aimee Mann returns (and no one saw fit to tell me about it) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2002 10:53:38 AM ----- BODY:

    I don't know what's worse - that Aimee Mann should have just released a new album or that no one saw fit to mention it to me. If I wasn't such a crumbling wreck of proto-senility of course, then I'd have known about it etherically, like all "young people" do about the things they care about. Aimee Mann's always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me - the icon of the emotional and insecure female singer-songwriter being a bit of a Big Gay Cliché and everything. But over time I've come to accept that you're allowed to listen to music like this and still retain some grasp on your masculinity if you balance it with a good heady dose of the Sex Pistols, The Pixies and some relatively hardcore dance stuff. Quite how this meshes with my current Bobby Darin obsession escapes me...

    In related linkage, it's worth checking out Aimee Mann's new site - it's all a bit Flash-heavy, but it's quite stylish and includes large amounts of well-assembled audio clips and the like - plus it looks (although I don't believe it is) partially designed by Daniel Clowes of "Ghost World" fame.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "That link again, it's Mr Kottke..." STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2002 12:10:29 PM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Neal, Nico, Steve and Grant (among others) for pointing out how useless and inexpert a wannabe web savant I am. The post in which Jason prostitutes himself for a few hundred dollars worth of fine fine Apple product is here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A fascinating piece on the relationship between orality and literacy and journal-writing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2002 12:20:46 PM ----- BODY:

    "Even in a personal diary addressed to myself I must fictionalize the addressee. Indeed, the diary demands, in a way, the maximum fictionalizing of the utterer and the addressee. Writing is always a kind of imitation talking, and in a diary I therefore am pretending that I am talking to myself. But I never really talk this way to myself. Nor could I without writing or indeed without print. The personal diary is a very late literary form, in effect unknown until the seventeenth century (Boerner 1969). The kind of verbalized solipsistic reveries it implies are a product of consciousness as shaped by print culture. And for which self am I writing? Myself today? As I think I will be ten years from now? As I hope I will be? For myself as I imagine myself or hope others may imagine me? Questions such as this can and do fill diary writers with anxieties and often enough lead to discontinuation of diaries. The diarist can no longer live with his or her fiction. " (Orality and Literacy, Walter J Ong, Routledge1982)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guardian "Best British Weblog" closes today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2002 12:59:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Whatever my personal opinions of the prize - the Guardian's "Best British Weblog" prize closes today. Good luck to everyone who entered! I secretly want Matt to win (nobody knows that though - don't spread it around) because I think he'd be completely surprised and geniunely touched. But whoever wins, enjoy it! (And to anyone who thinks that they might win, go and read Meg's piece and make sure that your house is in order before everything goes ballistic.) Raise your glasses one and all to the wonders of Webloggia!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy: Once More With Feeling (available on Amazon.com not .co.uk) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2002 03:37:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Very little to say about about this except that you can't get it in the UK yet... Buffy, The Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Trivia about Bryan Adams STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2002 11:25:59 AM ----- BODY:

    Interesting fact: In the summer of 1969, Bryan Adams was precisely nine years old.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How gay is Captain Nice? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2002 02:05:41 PM ----- BODY:

    How gay is Captain Nice? He's my hero... (courtesy of TVParty.com)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On putting on an old suit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/07/2002 11:19:26 PM ----- BODY:

    There's nothing that reminds you more about the evolving (expanding) nature of your own body like an old suit. I only have one suit - it's a lovely brown/grey number that I got when I first moved to London five or six years ago. At the time it was a snug fit, but over the years snug appears to have become closer to vacuum packing than clothing. I wouldn't mind so much if it was a development forward, but it appears to be a development sideways, which is very much the last thing I was expecting... If it continues at this pace I'm going to be infinitely wide and just as deep as I always was. I'll be like a huge huge two foot thick piece of man-paper. And then nothing will fit me. The shame, the shame...

    So here it is, me in my suit with the worst tie in the world, busting out all over with some of the most ludicrous hair I've ever managed to cultivate. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Unable to comment on our own revolution? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 09/08/2002 03:19:13 PM ----- BODY:

    There's an article in Internet Magazine this month about weblogs and weblogging which starts with these words...

    Weblogging - what's it all about? A bunch of losers prattling on about what they had for breakfast and pretending they found links that Memepool unearthed eons ago? Or the new hope, coming up from the grassroots, for a Web counterculture that's finding itself increasingly drowned out by large corporations? Don't know? Want to find out more? Then read this survey of the blogging world by Kim Gilmour. [Their emphases]

    Let's get the stuff that might undermine my argument out in the open straightaway. Yes - I found this article because someone e-mailed me about it. Yes, there is a screenshot of plasticbag.org in it. And yes, plasticbag.org is listed in the section called Essential Blogs as well, along with Microcontent News, BlackbeltJones.com, Megnut, Scripting News, Swish Cottage, Not.So.Soft and Wil Wheaton Dot Net. I don't think this is particularly relevant to what I'm going to be talking about - but you may disagree.

    Right. Back to the beginning then. Let's look at that opening paragraph for a moment. Firstly let's take issue with the site that's mentioned prominently - in fact let's point out that Memepool is in fact a weblog. It may be a weblog pioneer that predated blogger, but it remains a weblog. This is just a minor gripe. I have no major issue here.

    More interesting is the statement about weblogs as the 'last, best hope' against 'large corporations'. And here's where the irony of the whole article comes very clearly into focus. Because as you read the article - which (among other things) ostensibly is describing how personal publishing is a work of resistance by the little guy against the homogeneity of mainstream media - it becomes very clear very quickly that the only people that they've talked to for this article are representatives of corporations, business and mainstream media. And all of these representatives have some kind of vested interest in weblogs and weblogging. In fact while the emap publication talks a lot about the utility of weblogging, the fun of weblogging, even the egos of webloggers at no point does it believe that webloggers have the intelligence or authority to actually have a legitimate opinion about their medium.

    This is probably the right point to drag in our old friend Simon Waldman from the Guardian, who in fact does have a weblog of his own, although it's hardly what he's known best for. Simon is very definitely a weblog enthusiast, someone I don't believe is interested in 'exploiting' weblogs, and someone who earnestly believes in the power of the revolution in personal publishing. Interestingly he's also the man behind the Guardian's Best British Weblog Award. And he's also the man that in our recent debate said this:

    "This competition is the result of our respect for the movement, not an attempt to appropriate it. We would no more try and appropriate blogging than we'd try to herd cats, juggle jelly and push water uphill at the same time."

    Now I'm more interested in gesturing towards the attitude of the writer of the article than I am at Simon. But nonetheless, for someone who states publically that he doesn't want to appropriate blogging to be quoted or referenced seven times during the article - talking about everything from the nature of weblogs as democratic publishing through to the ethics of impartiality online - seems more than a little ironic. I don't want to pick on Simon, because if he's been asked for his opinion then why on earth shouldn't he give it, but not once are the questions of integrity, pretensions to journalism, cliquey-ness etc ever addressed to the people who are in the best position to comment - political webloggers, personal webloggers, warbloggers, techbloggers.

    In fact if we collate the people who are quoted in the article (in a 'for this article' way rather than the scant quarter sentences ripped off from someone's site) we come up with this:

    So here's my conclusion, and this isn't true either of all publishers (the Guardian is a welcome exception here) or mainstream media groups, but I think it is true of many. Despite their protestations to the contrary, most mainstream publishers who say that weblogs represent a new democratising of the media still lapse into talking to figures with substantial 'authority' in the 'real world' rather than webloggers themselves. It seems that even though we represent a 'counterculture that's finding itself increasingly drowned out by large corporations', the mainstream media is still more prepared to go to representatives of these businesses and corporations when they want an opinion about personal publishing. It seems that when talking about personal publishing, mainstream media still doesn't credit webloggers with the intelligence, integrity or ability to even comment on their own revolution...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: In which - taking as an example a recent article from Internet Magazine - I make a claim that despite their protestations to the contrary, most mainstream media outlets still don't credit webloggers with the intelligence, integrity or ability to even comment on their own revolution... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: gert.blog@REMOVE.brixton.fsworld.co.uk IP: 195.92.67.69 URL: http://gert68.blogspot.com DATE: 09/08/2002 11:24:49 PM I agree with the main thrust of your article. I would like to add that I find it refreshing that the writer has included you, Meg and, er, Swish. I say that because I get so bored reading articles about how blogging is all about Andrew Sullivan and Instpundit etc etc, and how it's a way that people can have shouting matches take on the mainstream media in discussing matters of world importance. I see a variety of sites where people have a bit of fun, or work through mental health issues; sites where amateurs like myself discover we have the ability to maintain a (small) audience and thus maintain the discipline of writing. Most of all, it's a learning experience. For me, learning about HTML, learning how to write for an audience, and, most of all, learning about myself. I find the connections fascinating: how I discover sites that lead me to others, and how I find my readers commenting on sites that I believe they found via me. And I'm just one of the little people. I think an analogy would be to describe the digital camera solely in terms of what it does for photojournalists etc, without discussing what it does for the millions of amateurs who have changed the whole way they take photographs, and even look at the world around them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seyed Razavi EMAIL: seyed@monkeyx.com IP: 62.231.146.14 URL: http://www.monkeyx.com DATE: 09/09/2002 03:54:54 PM It may be that for a publication to reach non-bloggers it has to have non-bloggers acting as guides. This is not atypical of the way media treats any specialist pursuit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.133.47 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/10/2002 12:16:57 AM That's true and a completely valid point. But then again, it's also good journalistic practice (speaking as an ex-journalist) to actually interview some of the people you're talking about as well. You do a feature about people who collect bottle-tops, you talk to some of the people who collect them... Even if it's in passing! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 62.254.64.6 URL: DATE: 09/11/2002 10:33:31 PM Mr. Coates will admit, though, that another print publication went straight to his door when asked to get some suitable comments on the whole weblog phenomenon. It's an absurdity that people essentially rehash previously-written works down to the lowest common denominator, in terms of the sources regarded as primary, but Danny O'Brien nailed it with his 'four waves of media' thing... ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kim Gilmour EMAIL: kimg@internet.emap.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: http://www.internet-magazine.com DATE: 09/27/2002 05:14:25 PM Thanks for taking the time to read and "analyse" my article! I did believe that Evan Williams was a truly representative blogger - despite the fact that yes, he did develop the Pyra software - and Steve Bowbrick is a web pioneer with his own blog (the URL of which should have been mentioned in the article). The angle of the story was more on the media organisations that may see blogs complementing their commentary. I, perhaps wrongly, assumed that doing a box-out on essential blogs so that people could see for THEMSELVES what they had to say was sufficient. One could even argue that because certain bloggers thought the Guardian's blog competition was a "bloody stupid idea", then why should they even care about being involved in a feature about them in the first place? :) I should point out that I interviewed Simon, Steve and Evan a couple of weeks before the Guardian even announced that they were doing a weblog competition (and they happened to be half the judging panel!). "D'oh!" was the word to spring to mind! I did attempt to contact a few of the other weblog pioneers, and indeed I have even tried to email you on a couple occasions about blogs, but no reply. Last of all, if you'd emailed us about your apparent "lack of voice" in the article, we would almost have certainly included it in our mailbox section. Hopefully, next time we mention blogs, you and your peers might like to be more involved. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Allain EMAIL: hallaow@iprimus.com.au IP: 210.50.56.185 URL: http://hallaow.2ya.com DATE: 11/25/2002 04:39:14 AM I see weblogs as a way of "Time Capsuling" (is that a word?) information and to let anybody that wants to make the effort what is happening in your life, business or study. So I guess we could use it to help other people (in the study sense), make contacts and (if your desperate) sell products. It's a better way of talking to everyone over the internet because emailing has become of the years an advertising tool where people trash mail they suspect is spam ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not the Best British Blog (part er... thousand) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2002 03:44:18 PM ----- BODY:

    Because the deadline for entries has now passed, I've temporarily dropped the 'Not the Best' box down to the bottom of the page. When the winner is announced, I'll bounce it back up to the top for a few more days before we all move on to more interesting and dynamic new projects...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is it wrong for a homosexualist to heavily identify with Bruce Springsteen? I think it must be. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2002 09:01:17 PM ----- BODY:

    It's difficult for me to justify my current enthusiasm for Bruce Springsteen. He's hardly the firmest young boyband dominated Gayland, nor is he the current hipster dance music sensation that the digiterati are wolfing down. And he's so entirely unrepresentative of the music that I normally listen to. But there's something strangely compelling about it...

    I get up in the evening,
    And I ain't got nothing to say,
    I come home in the morning,
    I go to bed feeling the same way.
    I ain't nothing but tired,
    Man I'm just tired and bored with myself.
    Hey there baby, I could use just a little help...

    You can't start a fire,
    You can't start a fire without a spark,
    This gun's for hire,
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark.

    Message keeps getting clearer,
    Radio's on and I'm moving 'round my place,
    I check my look in the mirror,
    I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.
    Man I ain't getting nowhere,
    Just living in a dump like this.
    There's something happening somewhere.
    Baby I just know that there is...

    You can't start a fire,
    You can't start a fire without a spark,
    This gun's for hire,
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark.

    You sit around getting older.
    There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me,
    I'll shake this world off my shoulders.
    Come on baby the laugh's on me...

    Stay on the streets of this town,
    And they'll be carving you up all right.
    They say you gotta stay hungry,
    Hey baby, I'm just about starving tonight.
    I'm dying for some action,
    I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book,
    I need a love reaction,
    Come on now baby, gimme just one look.

    You can't start a fire,
    Sitting 'round crying over a broken heart,
    This gun's for hire,
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark.
    You can't start a fire,
    Worrying about your little world falling apart,
    This gun's for hire,
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark.
    Even if we're just dancing in the dark.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I'm watching the Lost Boys and thinking to myself, "Is it just me or did people look properly hot back then?" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/08/2002 09:26:47 PM ----- BODY:

    It might just be the sexual equivalent of geese imprinting on badgers they're brought up with, but I'm watching the Lost Boys and thinking to myself, "Is it just me or did people look properly hot back then?". Young people nowadays just don't have the big hair or substantial shoulder pads of yesteryear. Where's today's Bobby Ewing, I ask myself. Nowhere I can see...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is your site inaccessible to people in China? If not, why not? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2002 10:14:36 AM ----- BODY:

    China has recently been blocking access to a whole variety of sites across the world, including BBC News and Google. Now you can test to see if your site has been blocked. Plasticbag.org remains non-threatening to the culture of China. Which is a terrible shame... The temptation to start summarising and heavily quoting huge blocks of BBC articles is almost overwhelming... [via Jones]

    So at work today someone said that they didn't want the dictator of Iraq replaced with some American glove puppet. But I say it all depends on which particular glove puppet is set to rule in his place. I vote for the ex-pets.com sock puppy...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the strange timeliness of Matt Webb's posts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2002 06:56:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Anyone looking closely at Haddock Blogs might have noticed an interesting trend in Matt Webb's recent posting to his site. He seems to post precisely twice a day - at ten in the morning and at three in the afternoon. Each and every day. Since Friday. Which is interesting, because I happen to know for a fact that Mr Webb is in fact on holiday this week, which leads me to suspect that secretly he's automated the whole posting process in some cunning and as-yet-to-be-divulged way. Which makes me think - he's posting more regularly at the moment than when he's here, and everything is of equal quality to his normal posts. So in many ways, it's almost better that he's not actually here...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In the Navy! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/09/2002 11:55:57 PM ----- BODY:

    So anyway the story is short and lacking in pith. So you're just going to have to go along with it, relish the pictures and move on with your lives. My co-worker Mr Gyford went to Burning Man. He and his group of messy degenerate friends decided to go in full seafarers garb. Along the way I got to try on a uniform. It's ridiculous, but I took pictures anyway.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rejoice, ye users of OSX.2! For the great iCal cometh! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/10/2002 11:04:29 AM ----- BODY:

    While it's downloading, I have a few scant moments to say to the world - rejoice! For the iCal cometh...!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's difficult to know what to say today... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/11/2002 05:45:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Half a world away from Ground Zero, London is on alert today - worried about whether we might be the targets of some kind of commemorative attack. But these are exaggerated fears. Alerted security forces probably make this the safest day to be in a large city since 9/11 itself. And in and around these tensions the same things go on in our lives. Daily things. Little things. Like me picking up my iPod from the repair shop. Like having been stuck on the bus for hours this morning. Like how beautiful the sky looks today. Like how I overslept because I was loath to wake from a longing but desperate dream and how it's stayed with me all day. And I'm ashamed because these are the things that have been in my mind. And not the world-breaking, heart-shattering weirdness of a year ago today...

    For obvious reasons it's difficult to know what to write about. I thought about (belatedly) making the whole site monochrome, as Yahoo has done. I thought about long pieces of writing about Infoshare or maybe writing about where I was - what I was thinking - on that early afternoon last September. Except that my first reactions when I heard about the planes was one of complete disbelief - humour even. Who knew that the plane was a passenger jet and not a tiny one-man prop plane? Who knew (who wasn't near a television) that it was a terrorist attack? Who knew so many people would die... I don't want to think about that again.

    I've thought about what I should write all day (and for much of yesterday as well). I can't think of a single thing that I could convey a thousandth of what needs to be said. Everything would be gestural at best - facile, empty. Everything would be inelegant - although maybe that's the only kind of thing that would make any sense today anyway. Maybe our thoughts should be large and savage and potent and overwhelming. Maybe they should be as large as they can while there's time for them to be so, before we have to get on with the business of living in the world again.

    The only thing I can think of that comes close to being meaningful is a quote from the novel of a much wiser man than I. In Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake a world suffers a calamity and no one knows how to deal with life when it's over. A man walks around telling people, "You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to be done". There's a sentiment to take with you. Look around you now. Think about the world in which we live. And think about the sense of closeted safeness that most of the Western world felt one year and one day ago. And say it with me now, to yourself and to the regimes and leaders all over the world from London and the US, from Afghanistan to Iraq, "You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to be done".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hello Kitty 40,000 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2002 05:59:36 AM ----- BODY:

    While working (playing) with a new template for a site that I work on - designing, in fact, a complete "Hello Kitty" skin for it if I'm forced to be honest - I stumbled upon one of the most glorious images I've seen in a long long time. In a universe gone mad, will Kitty and her crack troops be able to bring a deathly order back? Hello Kitty 40,000

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here's something wonderful for September 12th... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2002 10:23:53 AM ----- BODY:

    Dorian, the guy I work next to at an UnnamedMediaService is having a baby! He didn't tell anyone for ages, and then he kind of mentioned it surreptitiously over AIM. When I turned over to look at him, he had the biggest grin on his face and a kind of conspiratorial wiggle in his eyebrows. A bit like he'd done something wrong at school that he was actually really proud of. Mischievous, maybe? It's difficult to describe. He looked like he was going to burst any minute - like literally explode. I think it's the coolest thing that's ever happened to anyone. Ever. And already there are baby pictures to gawk at... From nine weeks to thirteen weeks... And he's putting more up soon...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Over a year after the web goes wild, popbitch catches up... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2002 11:38:33 AM ----- BODY:

    I feel absolutely unbearably bitchy for doing this, but really... A full year after the web goes wild for it, popbitch's latest newsletter catches up with the faked moonlanding site...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meme Overload... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2002 12:34:54 PM ----- BODY:

    No! I am Spartacus...

    Addendum: Don't buy this album. I have no idea whether or not it is good or not. But the challenge went out and I had to rise to it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Steve Jobs IS Agent Triple (OS) X... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2002 02:59:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Steve Jobs stars as Xander "Triple (OS) X" Cage, the notorious underground thrill seeker and computer visionary who until now has been deemed grumpy by the press... Download the full wallpaper today!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On B3ta, homophobia and teen suicide STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 09/13/2002 02:44:30 PM ----- BODY:

    The post below may be edited through the day. I have written it in a blaze of fury and irritation, and the language, grammar and spelling has suffered as a consequence.

    What the fuck is going on with B3ta? Each and every week there's the same range of crap jokes - the crap jokes that we've come to love - but increasingly one of those jokes each week seems to be about stupid funny gay people and how freakish, stereotypical and generally funny they are. I'm not going to deny that sometimes their jokes are really funny, and I wouldn't comment in the slightest if it was a relatively rare occurrence - no one wants to live in a world where people can't make any kind of tasteless jokes at all - but this really seems to be becoming some kind of obsession. And the excuse that I've heard is that it's just 'schoolyard japery' - stuff that doesn't really mean gay at all - like the idiots who wander around the place saying, "Marriage is so gay" - is just bullshit. At a certain point you have to look at the kids who grow up in these schoolyards - gay kids - who are surrounded by anti-gay sentiment each and every day. As a child, you don't even have to know what being gay means to know fairly early on that it's not something you're supposed to be - that it's bad and wrong and shameful. And b3ta is not only sanctioning this culture in schools, it's fucking promoting it and extending it to adults!

    Let's start with a bit of a survey of the first few 'gay offerings' by B3ta I could find. If you know any others, let me know.

    And by way of juxtaposition, a couple of years back I wrote an article On Homophobic Bullying in Schools. Let's just see what kind of effect 'gay' jokes can have on kids...

    In November, an inquest heard that a 15-year-old choirboy had been found hanged in his bedroom. Darren Steele had been left at home watching Neighbours by his mother when she went out for the evening. When she returned she found him dead. A note by his body explained that he had killed himself because of the bullying that he was suffering at school.

    Darren had been bullied because other students thought he was gay. At the inquest, his friends explained that he had been regularly taunted as a 'gay boy' and a 'poof' because of his interests in drama and cookery. Over the previous five years he had been systematically punched, verbally abused and even burned with cigarettes by other students. He never told a teacher.

    His mother's statement reads: "I saw Darren kneeling on the far side of the bed. His face was blue. I went downstairs screaming 'my son is dead'."

    There's more if you can stomach it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One final additional comment about B3ta... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2002 11:38:48 AM ----- BODY:

    Following on from yesterday's rant about B3ta, I just want to add that I didn't make this post to the b3ta board (they managed to spell Barbelith wrong for a start) but that the responses from some of the board's regulars weren't exactly heartening... I like my nice liberal forum much more...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Barty Trabaca comes out to his parents... And I was there when the letter arrived... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2002 11:54:38 AM ----- BODY:

    And just to show that good things happen as well, and that being an unruly poof isn't entirely about stropping around the place causing fights - Bart from Trabaca has had the best news. He decided to come out to his parents by sending them a letter. He's been agonising about it on his site for months and he's been absolutely terrified about their reaction, but in the end he sent a letter and yesterday received a reply from his father saying that they were still best friends and that they're keen to come and visit him over the weekend and make sure he's ok. Which is totally, perfectly the best possible thing they could have done. They understood what a big deal it was to him, and completely want to make him feel connected and loved. Bloody genius people.

    I was online and chatting to Bart when the letter arrived, and he got a bit freaked so I rang him up (in New York) and we chatted. It was so nice hearing how happy and relieved he was. Good on you, old chap. You've earned your spurs, you're in the union, you've got your license to practise...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blo.gs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2002 01:32:12 PM ----- BODY:

    It's been around for a while, but I've never really commented upon it. Blo.gs sems to take over where weblogs.com left off a while ago. You can visit random sites, browse blogs and most importantly track your favourites. The site doesn't render particularly well on a Mac, but it remains fairly useful...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My brush with a Pop Idol... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2002 11:03:39 AM ----- BODY:

    This couldn't happen in America. Not where they have proper pop-stars who live the lifestyle - wandering between parties and premieres with coke, drink and sexual fluids oozing from their noses. Americans know how to do things properly when it comes to stardom. Except with Anne Robinson. And Simon Cowell. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

    Our evening begins, strangely enough, with a discussion between Simon and I about the state of the music industry. As bands get more and more prefabricated, and the audience they're being pitched towards gets younger and younger - isn't there a chance that the music industry is gradually pushing itself unsustainably towards blander, less 'relevant' music? How long until rhythm, lyric and melody themselves are completely sacrificed to firm, tanned boys pouting at the camera in full-on pre-teen sex-free idol-porn? Only time will tell.

    Simon and I were in town to catch up with each other and watch The Bourne Identity, which was empty but diverting. And when it ended we went our separate ways. Him trainwards back to Guildford, me to the Number 6 bus-stop on Regent's Street. And it's clearly the bus-stop of stars, because number one recording artist and third-place Britney-murderering PopIdol Darius was also milling around there with a group of friends... After a while they wandered off, just giving me time to send a few apparently-interested-in-a-kind-of-ironic-way-but-actually-quite-excited text messages to a few dozen friends, acquaintances, co-workers and complete strangers, before my bus arrived. Truly - mine is a life of true glamour...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Best British Weblog... An update... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2002 11:44:34 AM ----- BODY:

    So it's four days until the winner of the Guardian's Best British Weblog is to be announced and interesting new facts are emerging about how it's being conducted and the attitude of (at least one of) the judges. Via Quinquireme I came upon Bowblog - which is the site of Steve Bowbrick, one of the Guardian-elected arbiters of our huge online community. He talks a bit about the Not the Best Project in vaguely completely-missing-the-point kind of terms, but I'll pass swiftly over that. What I won't pass over are these particularly stunning statements:

    "I think the competition will prove to be a real validation for the new form and, I hope, a springboard for the weblog's leap into the mainstream."

    And my particular favourite:

    "It's always difficult to see your clever, groovy, pioneering passion popularised but I'm certain that even the elite would prefer the visibility and influence that competitions like this will provide to obscurity and irrelevance."

    Is there anyone out there who runs a site who feels that weblogs really need validation any more? Three years after they exploded, with hundreds of thousands of sites in the world, talking on every subject possible? Is it really the Guardian's place to give you permission to feel good about your medium? Bugger off. And looking around the room again, I ask you all - do you really think that the Guardian's able to rescue us all from the 'obscurity and irrelevance' that we're apparently all languishing in?

    Some more interesting information can be gleaned from these couple of posts - the judges have received a list of 'dozens' of weblogs. Clearly this doesn't amount to everyone who entered - when I met Simon Waldman he told me that several hundred people had entered. So who's been written off the list before it even gets to the judges, and on what grounds? Who the hell is actually judging this thing?

    I'll tell you what - next year make the name less tendentious, conduct the competition openly and honestly, and don't be so bloody full of what you can do for us - stop treating it as something that a superior grown-up media organisation is doing as a favour for the little tiny people - and maybe some of this year's grumpy 'refuseniks' won't be able to claim that this is more about co-opting our revolution than it is about promoting the medium... Do that, and I might even enter... In the meantime, I'm going to completely agree with Quinquireme when she says... "Look mate, you've totally missed the point. You're not validating us, we're invalidating you!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meanwhile, it looks like everything didn't go as well for Bart as he'd hoped... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/15/2002 10:08:55 PM ----- BODY:

    And while people tell me that there's still some battles on B3ta's mailing list about my post the other day, across the Atlantic a young gay man who's had enough trouble in his life already is now having to deal with post-coming-out fallout from his parents. Bart did the deed a couple of days ago and their first reaction seemed really positive, but since then things have gone downhill. I feel awful for Bart - completely awful. I think it's terrible that the world can make it so difficult for young gay men and women. And I just cannot understand how anyone can try and stop accurate information being distributed to parents and children. Or why any religion, society or political persuasion would want to make gay teenagers' lives any more difficult than they already are. It scares and - frankly - disgusts me.

    My own experiences of coming out were very different from Bart's. In the early nineties, there was no internet to be a first point of call. I had no contact with any other gay people or impartial information of any kind except for a late-night television show. That show was literally the only thing I had in the world that told me that there were other people out there who were like me. And to be honest, they weren't really like me - they were very politicised, very scary looking people. It wasn't until my year out before University that I came out to anyone, and that was undertaken in a pretty half-assed way. He didn't even realise I'd done it for weeks. It just kind of happened in the background. And it took me until my first year at University to come out to anyone else, and it was a few years after that before my mother and I had the fateful argument that ended with me telling her what a bloody difficult woman she was and that, by the way, I was a big homo.

    If there are any teenage gay guys out there who are having trouble with their parents, then you could do much worse than send them information about PFLAG. They may sound a bit worthy, but they're really good decent people. I had the honour of arranging an event at my old university with some people from the English branch. They were amazing. There's a really good PDF that's worth downloading too: Our Daughters and Sons: Questions and Answers for Parents of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered People. And feel free to e-mail me if you want to have a talk about anything...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google doesn't jump to the pertinent anchor on a page... I wonder why not... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2002 12:44:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Less than a rant, more than a query - today I'm interested in the way Google handles links to pages which contain internal anchors. For example, if you do a search for 'Greg Dyke' on my Atomz powered search facility, then you get this exact link, whereas Google if presented with a similar search term (but not exactly the same as Google clearly won't rate me quite as highly), then you get this page returned. The difference? One has picked up the internal anchor on the page and the other hasn't. Is there any particular reason why Google doesn't leap to the relevant internal anchor? Is it to do with the specifics of weblog content?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Daypop remains down, culture-whores and link-vultures everywhere turn to Blogdex for solace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2002 12:55:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Odd link of the day - Daypop is out of action at the moment - it turns out it was out of disk space. But while it's being fixed, it turns out you can visit the archives to find out what were the most blogged-about sites from any day in the last several months. On my thirtieth birthday, for example, the daypop top 40 was obsessed with Amazon Light, the relaunched iPod and the damn Guardian Best British Blog competition. In the meantime Blogdex is mostly still up and running if you're still suffering Daypop-withdrawal.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you want to know what it's like coming out? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/16/2002 03:13:37 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know if this is going to have the same impact for people who haven't gone through it, or worried about going through it, as it has for those of us who have. But if you want a fairly accurate picture of what coming out to a parent feels like for most people, then this excerpt from a BBC TV Series 'Diners' will provide it. The important things to notice here are Paul's nerves and vague mishandling of the process (he's clearly sheepish and embarrassed), the heartfelt emotion by his mother and finally his look of confusion and worry - he's just plain scared - at the end... It's not hardcore, it's not violent - it's two people in a restaurant talking. But it's still difficult and upsetting viewing...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are weblogs and webloggers sexist and homophobic? I say, no! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/17/2002 05:15:07 PM ----- BODY:

    So the question of the moment is Are Weblogs Sexist? It's a stunningly weird thing to argue for such a medium - where anyone can have their say and link to whatever and whomever they wish. But I suppose it's possible to argue that the community favours, and tends to link to, posts by men - although I think it's untrue. Someone in the same thread argues that gay webloggers are also almost invisible, but that goes directly against my personal experience, so I find it difficult to take seriously. In fact, in a discussion with Cal a while back, the suggestion was mooted that gay men particularly might be over-represented in our little community - particularly in the UK. My personal feeling is that this again is unfounded, and that it's merely our ability to be open and visible that makes us so evident. However, if you're really looking for a lesson to learn from all of this, then could I suggest is that we should all keep aware of how easy it is to be parochial when you're writing about your life. Something that's comprehensible to the widest amount of people will probably also be more interesting for them.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is iCal a forward-thinking blogtool for meatspace? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2002 12:49:00 PM ----- BODY:

    So last night, while as glued to Forever Young as you legitimately can be, I had a long involved AIM-conversation with Ian Betteridge about whether or not iCal is a meatspace blogging tool. His argument was that the sharing of information about oneself freely on the web constituted weblog-like behaviour. But I maintain that the publishing of calendars is a very distinct creature, as separate from weblogs as a project plan is from a teenage confessional...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's showbiz wedding time at weblog central... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2002 02:55:58 PM ----- BODY:

    "And it's finally official: Meg and Paul are getting married! This is of course genius news about two friends of mine that I think are wonderful and totally adore. It's enough to inspire you with hope and cheery feelings way in excess of anything generated merely with amphetamines and alcohol. Good on you kids..."

    "it's also an event that will resonate through Blogdom, whether they like it or not (and they damn better bloody like it because I can't stop shouting about it everywhere I go). I've already put in two or three begging calls to be official reporter for blogdom - but don't expect pictures, because I think they're going to Hello! magazine. I remain concerned that I might be called to play the role of (old) maid of honour or bridesmaid - but I take heart in the possibility that Davo may have to return to England to stand beside me in a crimplene frock."

    "But at this time of happy wonderings, ladies and gentlemen, let us not forget those who have been laxer about their nuptials. While Meg and Paul's news warms the cockles of all our hearts, will now a world full of expectant webloggers now turn their wiggling eyebrows and pointed expressions San Francisco-wards?"

    "This is Tom Coates, reporting live from Los Angeles for the Weblog Entertainment Network..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh god - not more books on bloody weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2002 03:40:07 PM ----- BODY:

    First we had The Weblog Handbook , then We've Got Blog , then We Blog (all of which I've read or am reading). Then there's the O'Reilly Essential Blogging, which I haven't read yet - and now Blogging by Biz Stone and Blog on by Todd Stauffer. Is there really a market for all of them? So far, I'm embarrassed to confess, the one I've enjoyed most has been Rebecca Blood's Weblog Handbook, which actually managed to remind me what it was that drew me to weblogs in the first place. Personal and engaging with a clear and almost kindly voice... Much recommended for beginners, and worth reading for those of us who've been around the block a few times...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: NetNewsWire Pro Features Announced... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2002 02:08:59 PM ----- BODY:

    Mac-users and weblog enthusiasts have generally been pretty stunned by how neat and useful NetNewsWire Lite is at keeping them up to date with what's going on around the web. It's like a combined update list and weblog reader that sits on your desktop and fills everything with light and wonder. (Of course there's a huge battle going on behind the scenes about the future of the RSS format, but we'll pass swiftly over that.) Recently, there's been talk of a Pro version of the software that you'd have to pay for, and to be honest I've been suspicious - it's such a nice elegant little application - it doesn't feel like anything is missing from it at all... But having seen this list of pro features I'm drooling... Weblog editing, filters, different views... Mmmmm....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: False alarm! Weblog competition winners announced this time next week... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2002 02:10:51 PM ----- BODY:

    A brief thanks to the crew at onlineblog for letting me know that the Guardian Best British Blog Award is to be announced this time next week...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nokia brands warchalkers "Thieves" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2002 02:26:55 PM ----- BODY:

    So Nokia have declared the practice of warchalking to be a "simply stealing" according to an article at the BBC: Wireless hitchhikers branded as thieves. I'm beginning to feel quite a lot of sympathy for Matt Jones on this one - as time passes, it's increasingly clear that he's the figurehead of the 'movement' whether he likes it or not. And the mainstream media is more often than not mischaracterising the issue at hand, scaremongering to put it bluntly, making it seem like the action of insane terrorist cracker types, rather than community-minded liberals.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Skies, sites, time and boredom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2002 09:03:34 PM ----- BODY:

    I wonder - if weeks pass when you can't think of anything to write on your site, if you have months where the most pleasant thing you can imagine is looking at the sky, if you're vaguely content, but time seems to pass at a tremendous rate and nothing seems to happen. Does all this mean that you're really living your life to the full?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm the only gay eskimo in my tribe... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2002 10:44:22 PM ----- BODY:

    You'll laugh, I know. You'll think it's funny. You won't understand the true pain behind such a song. The longing, the pain. I may die. Hang on a minute, I need a lie-down. Oh that's better. So sing along with me, cigarette lighter held high. I'll be with you brothers and sisters - tears streaming down our faces as we remember our northern cousins... If you laugh, I'm coming around your house and I'll punch you in the face...

    I'm the only gay Eskimo
    I'm the only one I know
    I'm the only gay Eskimo
    In my tribe
    I go out seal hunting with my best friend Tarka
    But all want to do is get into his parka
    I'm the only gay Eskimo
    In my tribe
    Well me and Nukflukchukbuk
    We both like blubber
    But me I've got this crazy fetish for rubber
    I'm the only gay Eskimo
    In my tribe
    And the seals they sing....
    [Full lyrics]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: ONE: A very short Space Odyssey... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/19/2002 11:17:54 PM ----- BODY:

    "What's the problem, HAL?"
    "I think you know the problem, Dave. I've gone nuts."

    Micro-linkage saves lives. Remember that. And this mighty micro-linkage comes from the massive mouth of the Minor 9th. From monkey bone to lunatic space computer, you need to see the epic: One. A Space Odyssey [filmed entirely in Legovision].

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Speedtouch USB release driver 2.0 for OSX.x STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/20/2002 01:32:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Apparently I turn up quite high in the search results for grumpy users of Alcatel's Speedtouch USB ADSL modem. That would probably explain why, when they released a new version (2.0) of the driver for MacOSX (where previous drivers have - at best - a spotty record), I received an e-mail informing me of the fact, and asking if I'd publicise it. I'm delighted to, of course, but I'm too nervous to actually install it just in case I lose my connection again. Has anyone out there in not-a-big-wuss world installed it and run it with Jaguar yet? If so, e-mail me and tell me how it went and I'll then inform "the world". WARNING: Tom's world may be smaller than yours.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My favourite search request in a very long time is... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2002 03:05:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Today's top classy search that led to the door of plasticbag.org: What to do in London when you have a bored girlfriend that doesn't know what she wants to do...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There are three asides to every story... Being the worst post ever on plasticbag.org... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/21/2002 09:42:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Matt Webb never links to weblogs. Ever. Except when they're talking about some ludicrously complicated piece of where-RSS-will-be-in-20-years-ery, or something ludicrous-mac-rumour-with-a-utopian-edge-ish. He certainly never links to any funny weblogs. That, it seems, would miss the point.

    Aside (1) on the rhetoric of webloggery. You know full well I'm about to say something to the effect of "Matt Webb has just linked to this really funny weblog". Bear with me. Go along with the pretence that I'm about to do something so revelatory that you'll implode with pleasure and surprised. It'll make me feel better. I promise.

    Aside (2) on being facetious. When I was about eleven I said something really really similar to the line above in an essay about something or other at school. And my teacher read it out in front of the whole class and said I was facetious. And none of us knew what that meant, and I've carried it with me as a scar for the rest of my life and it still brings pain to my heart when I think about it. So let's pretend for a minute that I'm not being facetious, and maybe in that way I'll get over that minor childhood trauma.

    Aside (3) on what facetious means. Definitions of facetious according to dictionary.com include, "cleverly amusing in tone", "characterized by wit and pleasantry; exciting laughter; as, a facetious story or reply" and "playfully jocular; humorous". In retrospect, I don't think he was using the word correctly, as it seems to be quite a good thing to be. Learn this lesson well, children. Teachers know jack shit.

    So anyway, against all the odds, Matt Webb has just linked to this really funny weblog. Or at least he claims it is funny. I haven't actually looked at it and don't intend to either. Because this whole preamble was a way of excusing the fact that I'm about to link to a really funny weblog. Didn't see that coming, did you. Ha.

    Unbrokenglass.com is about the institutionalised dating misadventures of a young Jewish woman - and she's had many. I'm not entirely up on my Jewish dating practices (or indeed any dating practices), but it appears that there's some kind of precursor to computer dating that forms a significant component of Judaic cultural life. Without fear or shame of being pointed at down the pub for being the saddo who put the personal ad in the paper, you are set up with a variety of men or women (depending, note, on your own gender - and not your personal preferences) and then experience the wonder of eating food, chatting amiably and surrupticiously chewing off your own arm over the course of the evening. Eating food, chatting amiably and chewing off of one's one arm being the only three components of the dating experience I've as yet experienced. And your Rabbi helps too, which is nice.

    Here's a choice quote from unbrokenglass.com: "I have to say that the guy who approached me had a phenomenal likeness to Bart Simpson. Very American-like of him really. I mean, he was short, blond, his hair was exactly like Bart Simpson's, big round eyes complete with squeaky yellowish voice and manic smile. I wanted to make a joke about it but I very tactfully decided to shut up."

    God what an awful, overwritten post this is. I'm turning into a right hack.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If this truly is the future of Google news, then the project I've been trying to persuade people to undertake for the last six - eight months is dead. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/22/2002 12:51:31 AM ----- BODY:

    According to Google Blog there's potentially a new front-page emerging for Google News. The current page can be viewed at news.google.com, and its apparent replacement is here.

    To be honest, this news doesn't fill me with the love and happiness that you might expect. About six months ago I thought of something that has probably been thought of many times in the past. It was a kind of news site that used things like Daypop and Blogdex to determine what was timely and interesting to people on a per-link basis, which could then be pulled together using something like Google News to a by-story list and which could then be attached to commentary from the weblog community directly on the page. It would be like having a world of columnists and op-ed writers ready not only to collectively decide between them what was newsworthy, but also to directly comment on the stories on the same page as the story was displayed. It would be an immediate vox-pop. A gauge of a huge community of divergent interests... That's when I started to get excited, because essentially you'd be talking about a site that allowed anyone in the world to write a comment piece on breaking news stories.. And this extended right past webloggers themselves to mainstream writers. And if you could figure out a way of organising micro-payments you might be able to read the thoughts of academics, actors, writers, thinkers from all over the world - along with your friends, the people who share interests with you, the democratically expert... This would be the place where a world of webloggery demonstrated that being mainstream didn't mean individuals writing like 'proper professionals', where a journalist could equally be conceived as the person who was nearest to the event when it happened. Where the sheer value of hundreds of thousands of webloggers could be condensed and purified and injected straight into the world's new media bloodstream.

    Most importantly, although I knew that other people were thinking along similar lines, no one actually seemed to be doing anything about it. I talked to friends about the idea and how useful and cool it could be. Some were intrigued, some bored - as you'd expect. I wrote the whole thing down and pitched it in the general direction of people who might be in a position to allow me to develop a system as part of my working life. And now Google News is so close to the first stages of something I really wanted to be part of, and I feel like I did when I was in the middle of my doctorate, watching the dot-com boom happen all around me, knowing that wonderful things were happening elsewhere that would fascinate me, but that I had to accept I wasn't able to be a part of... It's terrible to have invested so much of yourself in an idea only to see it go ahead without you. Even if you're hardly the first person in the world to see the potential...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Paralysed by choice... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/23/2002 03:45:57 PM ----- BODY:

    Today the new Beck album was released. It had multiple covers. But which one to buy? Which is the right one? Which is the authentic cover and which are knock-offs? Which one expresses my desire for authenticiy most effectively? Which one declares, "I'm not interested in posing, I'm here for the music"? Which one is the most ostentatious? Because I don't want that one. Which one will date the most? Which one is iconic and which are ludicrous? How do you make these decisions, these simple decisions, when there's nothing to choose between them? How long can you stand in front of the counter in HMV paralysed by choice? At what point does indecision, does the inability to act at all, become legitimately frightening?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On reading the British Government Dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/24/2002 03:58:36 PM ----- BODY:

    I hereby declare my intention to read through the British Government's much promised dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, which is freely available from a number of different governmental and non-governmental sites. [Download the PDF (428kb)] This document is supposed to clarify why some kind of action against Saddam Hussein is of the utmost importance. However, I'm about a third of the way through John Pilger's The New Rulers of the World, and am increasingly suspicious of Governmental motivations (both in the US and UK) with regard to this conflict. I've downloaded the document, and will be posting my ill-educated and worthless opinions of it as I proceed.

    Foreword: The document starts with a two page foreword by Tony Blair which details the particularly unusual circumstances surrounding the release of the document. He states that the document is based on the work of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The material it collects is normally secret, and it is apparently "unprecedented for the Government to publish this kind of document". The introduction further states that Mr Blair believes that it demonstrates without doubt that Saddam Hussein (referred to regularly as simply "Saddam", which seems odd to me - as if he'd refer to the US's government as "George") has continued to build weapons of mass destruction. But he also states:

    "I believe people will understand why the Agencies cannot be specific about the sources, which have formed the judgements in this document, and why we cannot publish everything we know. We cannot, of course, publish the detailed raw intelligence."

    This is both totally expected, and utterly frustrating. Because at heart it leaves the document as inevitably a set of assertions. Assertions presented without substantial back-up or evidence. And although of course everyone understands why such information can't easily be published, it unfortunately leaves the door open for doubt and suspician over its validity.

    Finally, a comparison from the introduction. Tony Blair: "Saddam has used chemical weapons, not only against an enemy state, but against his own people." American researchers John Mueller and Karl Mueller (from Pilger's book): "Economic sanctions have probably already taken the lives of more people in Iraq than have been killed by all weapons of mass destruction in history."

    From the Executive Summary: When it comes to summarising the position of the document, the Executive Summary is brief, clear and startling reading. Whether or not it accurately represents the situation is of course inevitably a matter of faith in the legitimacy and accountability of our leaders. If it is accurate, then it is fairly chilling. The first three points detail what presumably amounts to previously public information about Iraq's continued development of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The fourth point outlines what are perceived to be his attitudes towards these weapons, while the fifth asserts there is evidence that the regime is covering up new developments in them.

    The sixth is the most startling point. It outlines a set of judgements or predictions about Iraq, which include that they have a wide range of protocols, mechanisms and military arrangements for the use of chemical and biological agents, developed mobile laboratories, tried covertly to acquire materials for nuclear devices including attempts to get "significant amounts of uranium from Africa", illegally kept and further developed long-range missiles and learnt how to conceal sensitive equipment and documentation from inspectors.

    The seventh point is merely a statement of the source of these judgements, the eighth a statement that Iraq are breaking the law, the ninth a statement that declares the risks of keeping Hussein as leader, and the tenth declares that Iraq funds its programs via illegal activity with an income of $3 billion in 2001.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy returns to television. Americans don't realise how lucky they are... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/25/2002 08:36:03 PM ----- BODY:

    So Buffy returns with its seventh, and potentially last, series. And as usual Americans will see it now, people with cable or satellite in the UK will see it in January, and the rest of us will have to wait until the box sets come out or it comes on terrestrial. Which will probably be (at the earliest) next August. In the meantime, the only scraps of information that we can get over this side of the pond are stories on sites like Whedonesque. It's a cruel, cruel world we live in...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And a full eight hours after I started the coding, plasticbag.org's redesign is... incomplete STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2002 01:53:11 AM ----- BODY:

    As those of you who aren't reading this site through the medium of NetNewsWire have probably already noticed, plasticbag.org has gone through a bit of a redesign. This one, for perhaps obvious reasons, is called kottkesque and is pure CSS once more. Unfortunately, despite me having worked on it for the last eight hours, it's 2am and it's still incomplete. I decided - against my better judgement - to do quite a lot of the building on this one while the site was live, because I hoped I'd work faster and get the damn thing done. And that has mostly worked.

    Known bugs at this stage include:

    If you've noticed any errors on the pages that aren't part of the above list, then mail me (including details of the error and a screen-cap if possible) and I'll endeavour to sort them out as quickly as is humanly possible - ideally within the next twenty-four hours. I know this isn't the most professional of behaviours, but hell - it's my personal site, I can do what the hell I like. I'll also be undertaking some general tweaking over the next few days, as well as (hopefully) putting up a gallery of screenshots from previous incarnations of the site. If you're one of the people who found the old site unmanageable, then welcome back. And if you hate it and it makes you cross, then find someone who you don't like in real life and give them an earful on my behalf. I'm off to bed. Good night!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Guardian's Best British Blog award is announced... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2002 10:16:16 AM ----- BODY:

    ...and the winner is ScaryDuck. For those of you who came in late, the Guardian have finally announced the winners of the Best British Blog competition. Congratulations to everyone who was shortlisted - particularly the winner Scary Duck and my particular favourites: LinkMachineGo, Anglepoised, Blogjam, Gina Snowdoll, Interconnected and Minor9th. Over at Metafilter there's a thread to discuss the resutls, where I promise - I will try to behave. And if you want to explore the range of weblogs that didn't enter (and some of their reasons for not doing so), then you should investigate The "Not the Best" Project.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 101 interesting facts about bruises... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/26/2002 10:01:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I've got a huge black bruise on my leg. It's the size and colour of an over-ripe plum. I don't know where it came from. In fact all I do know is that I didn't get it through doing anything fun. But enough about my complete lack of a sex life - today I'm here to tell you where bruises come from.

    A bruise or contusion is caused by some kind of knock or bump to the skin. The soft tissues under the skin are full of tiny blood vessels called capillaries. When you bash yourself, these rupture and spurt out red blood cells all over the shop. This is bad. When your body starts to metabolise these cells - literally reabsorbing them - then the bruise will go through a series of colour changes - from red to purple, purple to blue/black, blue/black to green, green to yellow before finally turning a browny skin tone. This colour means the injury is nearly completely healed.

    Smurfs are blue - but don't leap to the conclusion that their skin is simply bruised all over. In actual fact Smurf skin is naturally blue. It would therefore be wrong to assume that they are experiencing serial physical abuse of any kind. If you think about it carefully, you will realise that you have never seen a yellow, black or purplish Smurf, which you would expect if their skin colour was a result of being bashed around by callous human beings or Gargamel.

    Many types of people have blue skin which isn't the result of being beaten up. My favourite non-bruised blue people are The Blue People of Troublesome Creek who intermarried so much that they had loads and loads of children with blue skin. Sometimes people think that Nightcrawler has blue skin, but I'm reliably informed that it's actual fur. Whether or not he is bruised underneath the fur is between him and his God.

    Some people find bruises and being bruised really really sexy. They're a bit strange, but much less strange than the people who like to pretend to be furry animals or robots. And way less strange than people who find squeezing spots or watching footage of nuclear bombs to be trouser rocket-launchers (or whatever the girl equivalent is). If you like sexy bruises, then you're probably in the top-left corner of this map of fetishes.

    I believe that if you pick up the magic key in Bestiality and build up enough experience points fighting the kobbolds around Furverts, then it's possible to completely traverse the map, building up a number of exciting STDs in the process, before coming upon the Orthopaedic Braces in the citadel of Medical Bondage. Watch out for elves. Especially the ones interested in Messy Fun. But I'm wandering off topic...

    There are a lot of pictures of bruises on the internet. I found lots and lots via Google images. Some of them are really grim and upsetting. But sometimes they're quite funny. These two guys have bruises and are quite funny, for example. And this guy's bruises are really impressive. If I was going to have a bruise that didn't hurt much to get and looked really cool, I'd get some like his. I wonder, what kind of bruise would you like most?

    If you like bruises or are interested in bruise-related issues discussed above, you can find out more about them here:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom's subconscious reveals him to be going insane... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2002 08:43:54 AM ----- BODY:

    I was woken by a tiny trollish man this morning, regailing me with stories of how his 'cubby hole' was flooded by something emerging from my flat. I stood there dressed in nothing but a towel on with my head all clumpy and slow while he insisted that I must have just had a bath. I should be grateful really - he woke me from one of the most unpleasant dreams I've ever had.

    I was in a place that resembled a huge, brightly lit locker room. It was as if they'd removed the gym from the building and made it all into a locker room. Some of the walls had mirrors on them. I was there for a shower of some kind. A huge institutional-looking man led me to my locker, which was a strange shape - deep and wide, but only about three inches high - and in it was were two packages that looked like they contained the towels you get at Chinese restaurants to freshen up with after eating. I didn't know what to do with them initially, but under the steady, relentless gaze of the institutional man, I gradually I came to understand that one of these towels was saturated with some kind of soapy chemical substance, and the other removed it. You were expected to strip naked, rub yourself down with it and then use the other one to 'rinse' yourself. The institutional man said that sometimes the first part of the body that you touched with the towel sometimes reacted badly with the chemicals and would swell up - and he recommended using it on my chest as that would be less noticeable or dangerous. He did this bluntly - aggressively - like I didn't really have much in the way of choice. I stripped off, took the towel and started wiping myself with it, but immediately started to feel strange and dizzy. Walking to a mirror I saw that some parts of my skin had ruptured under the pressure of the chemical towel - particularly on the side of my body - and that I was slowly become covered with substantial bleeding holes. And that's when I woke up, with a weird troll-like man lurking outside my door, obsessed with flooding. What a way to start the day...

    In unrelated news, Alan Storm has informed me that being bitten by a purple fly can turn Smurf's purple. Note - this is very definitely not the same process as normal bruising.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Trawling through the archives... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/27/2002 11:20:25 AM ----- BODY:

    I spent a little time trawling through plasticbag.org's archive this morning, and came upon this post, which I think has to be one of the best things I've ever written:

    Time and need are connected in some strange extravagant way with one another. The more desire you feel, the longer seems the time you have to wait to see it fulfilled. The harder you exert a pull, the further you seem to have to strain. Relationships between people can be measured by their perceptions of time. "I haven't seen you in ages," he cries. "I seem to see him all the time," she complains.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I was in bed when they broke in... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/28/2002 11:00:00 AM ----- BODY:

    [This post was written on Saturday 28th September 2002 in a notepad on a train to Huntingdon, following the break-in at my flat in London, and transcribed onto plasticbag.org the following afternoon.]

    It's not been an easy week. I suppose that's what I should start by saying. It's not been an easy week. I didn't expect the man in my flat. I didn't expect some other stuff either. But mostly it was the man in my flat that threw me.

    I'm going to a wedding. Maybe that's where I should start. Simon is marrying Adele. I've known Simon since I was sixteen. We met at school. And he's getting married in Bury St Edmunds. Today (Saturday) in fact.

    Typically I've not been very organised. It wasn't until Wednesday that I'd organised a hotel. And it wasn't until yesterday that I knew what train I would be taking. And only last night did it occur to me that my suit needed cleaning. And it was quite late in the evening before I finally twigged that my late-night dry-cleaners weren't going to have enough time to get it clean before they closed.

    Old faithful memory came to the rescue with an epic scheme - I would fill the bath with hot water, hang the trousers above it and close the bathroom door. The magic of steam wouldn't clean them, of course, but it might get the creases out. And so it did. But it left them slightly damp.

    My flat is small and kind of hectic and I live on the first floor. For the Americans amongst us, who don't know the concept of 'ground floors', you should read that as, "I live on the second floor". So to help my trousers dry a little, I opened a window a couple of inches to let a bit of a breeze in. And then I went to bed.

    To get to Huntingdon this morning, I had to get up fairly early. So I set my alarm for seven-thirty. But for some reason I woke up before that - just before seven in fact. And I knew immediately that there was something wrong. I could hear noises and I was surprisingly cold. My first reaction was that there was someone in my flat - but how often do you get that kind of momentary paranoid thought when there's really noone there? A noise, some wind - or maybe a book falling over or some paper rustling. You don't take it seriously if you're an adult. I turned over and tried to get some more rest.

    But it was no good. I was nervous and I didn't know why. I turned on the TV in my bedroom and caught some news, and then pulling on a towel I got up and wandered into the sitting room.

    And there was a man in it - almost halfway out of the window wearing a blue baseball cap, a two-tone blue hooded fleece, dark skin, startled eyes and my DVD player under his arm.

    He bounded down from the window and sprinted around to the road at the front of my building. I pull open the front door and chased him into the street - barefoot, wearing a towel at seven in the morning. But he was too fast and was wearing proper shoes. A man with a van nearby told me to get in and we chased him. He'd abandoned the players somewhere and was walking calmly down a nearby street. Jumping out of the van, I ran after him, but he turned a corner and when I got there he had gone.

    I'm writing this on a train to Huntingdon, and I'll type it up when I get home tomorrow. Around me are hills and countryside - England at its best. It's a beautiful morning. I've spend over an hour talking to the police and driving around West London estates with an officer, trying to identify the guy. He was nowhere to be seen. I've lost my DVD player and my new X-box. And worst of all he stole the camera that all my friends clubbed together to buy me for my thirtieth birthday has been taken as well. That he's managed to spoil that memory for me - even a little - is more upsetting than almost everything else.

    He left some dirty handprints on the window frame. He got his hands dirty climbing up the drainpipe. I had to leave there so that they can try and get some fingerprints off them sometime in the next couple of days. Then I can start trying to scrub them off. But I think that even if I get rid of all visible traces, that mark of vulnerability that he's left on my home will remain for a long time to come.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Forty-eight hours later STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2002 09:59:30 AM ----- BODY:

    I left for Simon and Adele's wedding on Saturday morning, and had a quite extraordinary time. I'm not going to go into too many details, except to say that it was the first part-goth wedding I'd been to, and I met some really nice and interesting people. The most bizarre aspect of the whole day was probably that I sat next to a charming woman called Joh at the dinner and we got on really well. It wasn't until I got home that I realised that she had a weblog - and moreover a weblog that linked to me! But she didn't recognise me, it seems, because she refers to me in her post about the event as 'Some-Bloke Tom'. It's a small blogging world.

    But of course in the back of my mind the whole time was my flat and the break-in. Would I notice that anything else had gone missing when I returned? How would I feel about the place generally - would I feel safe? Had the guy returned while I was out? Would he?

    The most horrible part of the day was when I returned home. When I got back to London I seemed to find an almost infinite amount of ways to avoid coming back to my flat. And when I did I was shaking. I was surprised by the strength of my reaction. Over the weekend I'd sifted through all the things that the police had said to me - in particular that the burglar may have returned several times over the night. And when I got home I noticed that the dirty hand-prints that described the passage of the thief through my flat went right up to my open bedroom door. Not only did he know I was here, but he'd seen me sleeping. He'd been in my bedroom. And he still proceeded to quietly return to the sitting room and work his way through my personal belongings.

    The fingerprint people are supposed to arrive sometime this morning, and I've had a phonecall from the police asking if I'd come in and look through some photographs. But it's forty-eight hours since I last saw the guy. I don't know if any identification I could make would be even vaguely accurate. I felt weird enough as it was driving around the streets, being directed to stare at every young black man we passed. I don't know if I could live with myself if I made a false identification...

    While I was at the wedding a friend of mine said that he has at the front of his address book the words, "Don't phone home for sympathy". He said that it was the role of parents to be angry at you for anything that happened. It would always be your fault. But I felt unsafe in my own flat by myself, so I needed to talk to someone. My mother's first reaction was exactly what I expected. She said I was a twit for leaving the window even slightly open. But she calmed down after that, and after a long conversation, I think I actually felt slightly better about everything...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When the crime scene investigators arrived... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/30/2002 03:52:51 PM ----- BODY:

    When the crime-scene investigors arrived, it was like a real-life TV show. Just like on the show there was a man and a woman. They had a certain banter going between them. They had boxes within boxes of powders, tapes, plastic-sheets and cutting equipment. They looked at each and every handprint. They covered my windows and window-frames in powders and pulled off fingerprints with strips of rigid sticky-tape.

    The whole experience was strangely reassuring. The woman laughed with glee a number of times at the stupidity of my burglar. From within the flat alone she managed to get distinct fingerprints for each and every one of his fingers on both hands. She also managed to get a clean shoe-print. And when they saw the drainpipe that they'd climbed up, she sounded so astonished and triumphant at the sheer number of clear prints she found that I couldn't help but feel better about the whole thing. Now all I have to do is clean the whole flat from top to bottom and find some way of buying some new stuff that doesn't involve having a large insurance pay-off (I have no contents insurance at the moment).

    Find out more about Crime Scene Investigation and Forensic Science:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wide awake, 4am... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/01/2002 12:07:23 PM ----- BODY:

    You think you're fine with everything until you wake up at 4am convinced there's someone in your flat again. Last night I went to bed at a reasonable hour with all the windows in the house closed and locked. All but one - the tiny one in the kitchen which no one could fit through which gets rid of the smell of unwashed dishes. But that didn't stop me waking up with a start at 4am convinced that there was someone in the flat. And I wasn't comforted by looking out all of the windows, walking through all the rooms and turning on most of the lights. This is going to take longer than I'd thought...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the tube strike in London... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2002 08:26:54 AM ----- BODY:

    So today is the second tube strike in London in a week. As of 8.30pm last night, the Tubes shut down, and they won't reopen until tomorrow morning. This leaves cars, cabs and buses as the only options for getting into the centre of town. And of course they're completely overwhelmed with extra demand. Getting into Central London today is essentially a waste of time. If you don't believe me, then read the BBC strike survival guide or wander through a huge list of London traffic web-cams.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's journey to work (through the medium of cams)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2002 08:49:22 AM ----- BODY:

    Well I'm planning to work from home this morning, and make a stab at getting into town around lunchtime. But if you want to experience the full London going-to-work experience, then why not follow my bus route with me through the medium of cams?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yesterday's paranoid episode went something like this... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2002 11:08:23 AM ----- BODY:

    Without a DVD player, I've been reduced to watching episode after episode of Buffy on video. So I'm in my flat with the lights off and all the windows closed when I hear a noise outside. And yet again, I'm immediately up at my windows, scouring the darkness outside - expecting at any moment for a face to loom up in front of me, trying to get into my home. I wander around the flat checking all the windows and turning lights on so I can check the room, then turning them off so I can see outside more easily. It's about twenty minutes before I can sit down again...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's worse than we thought... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2002 03:13:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Received via e-mail this morning along with the caption, "It's worse than we thought". I've got no ideas about it's origins, but it's pretty entertaining...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Return of Donnie Darko... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/02/2002 11:32:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Almost a year ago I went to see Donnie Darko at the London Film Festival. I wasn't expecting a lot before I went in, but I adored it. I eagerly waited for its arrival at the cinema, but it never arrived. It was given a fairly low-key release in the States, and then vanished without a trace. When I wanted to get a copy on DVD, I had to get it sent to me from Japan.

    But now it's coming to London. The reviews are appearing, and they're pretty sensational. There are tiny stickers dotted all around the underground. Cal even saw a trailer. Time Out's written about it (but they haven't put the article online, so unfortunately I'm unable to link to it). People are calling it the best American movie of the year. It's still going to get a low-key release, and I doubt it'll do hugely well in the mass market. But I'm practically panting at the opportunity to see it again on the big screen...

    From the Sight and Sound review: "Boiling the plot down to a few lines, or even to the 400-word synopsis that appears elsewhere in this issue, risks making the story's knotty skein of incident sound either trite, ridiculous or incomprehensible. But here we go anyway. The bulk of the movie follows a timeline in which its title character (hungrily played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a disturbed teenager who appears to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, is led by visions of Frank, a man in a fake-fur suit and nightmare rabbit mask, to commit a series of crimes while sleepwalking in his small town in 1988."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: MIT OpenCourseWare Launches... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2002 10:32:05 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been exploring MIT's OpenCourseWare site - a collection of full lecture notes, exams and assignments which allow you to be trained in a number of MIT undergraduate courses. At the moment, two courses particularly interest me - Problems of Philosophy (very much in the Anglo-American tradition, but interesting nonetheless) and the rather more challenging Laboratory in Software Engineering, which I suspect would be utterly beyond me. There isn't a huge range of courses online yet, but I have a feeling this could be an extremely significant and important move that really has the potential to empower and educate people.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future is kottkesque... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/03/2002 11:40:58 AM ----- BODY:

    When plasticbag.org went kottkesque (which I somehow insist on pronouncing kot-key-esk rather than the more plausible kot-kesk) I was concerned that I'd be taken apart for being unoriginal, or for even stealing his design. But at the same time I felt comfortable asserting that, after considerable thought, the design of kottke.org was simply the most elegant solution to the formatting of weblogs. And now it seems to be catching on: Gas Giant reveals upcoming design...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Clay Shirky on being paid for weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 10/03/2002 05:05:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Clay Shirky on Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing: "This destruction of value is what makes weblogs so important. We want a world where global publishing is effortless. We want a world where you don't have to ask for help or permission to write out loud. However, when we get that world we face the paradox of oxygen and gold. Oxygen is more vital to human life than gold, but because air is abundant, oxygen is free. Weblogs make writing as abundant as air, with the same effect on price. Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing."

    Key-point summary (all of which I agree with) for those without the intellectual stamina to read a short article on the web:

    There's only one line I don't agree with - "the people who have profited most from weblogs are the people who've written books about weblogging". In fact I suspect these people have made almost no money at all, unless they've been added to University book-lists. More likely, the people who've made money are freelance web-savvy journalists publishing for mainstream press...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Functioning Quantum Cryptography "within seven years"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2002 08:54:20 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been fascinated with cryptography since I first used PGP - and more fascinated still since Cryptonomicon explained to me how cryptography worked. I've never read a book that gave me more information on contemporary cryptographical techniques - which is probably why it was classed as a munition for a while in the US (and therefore couldn't be exported).

    Today there's an article on BBC News (Light Holds Key to Uncrackable Codes) which reveals that significant progress has been made on Quantum Cryptography - the most significant benefit of which is that if a decryption key is intercepted, then the act of observation changes it. This means that it's immediately apparent to the 'legitimate' parties that the key should be changed.

    But to a certain extent, the article confuses me. I had assumed that most people and governments would be using some variation on public key encryption. This kind of encryption works on the assumption that it's much easier to multiply numbers together to provide a huge key than it is to work out from that key what numbers were multiplied together. Because factoring is so difficult mathematically, it's also pretty much the holy grail of contemporary cryptanalysis.

    With public key encryption, each person has two keys - a public one that can be disseminated freely which is used to encode messages that can subsequently only be decrypted by the private key. Think of it this way - the process of encrypting is like the process of multiplying together two large prime numbers - quite easy. But the process of decryption is like trying to work out what those original numbers were - a process which takes such a huge amount of computer time that it's functionally impossible to figure out (without the private key). Which such a system there's no benefit in keeping the public key secret, and no reason to circulate the private one. So I suppose I'm curious as to the benefits of Quantum Cryptography in it's current form. Quantum Cryptanalysis, on the other hand....

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Not the World's Funniest Joke... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2002 12:17:48 PM ----- BODY:

    Not the World's Funniest Joke: An Alsatian went to a telegram office, took out a blank form and wrote: "Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof." The clerk examined the paper and politely told the dog: "There are only nine words here. You could send another Woof for the same price." "But," the dog replied, "that would make no sense at all."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bill Clinton, Salon and the "Labor" party of the United Kingdom... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2002 04:28:04 PM ----- BODY:

    Is it insulting? Probably not. Is it frustrating? Very definitely. Bill Clinton has given a speech to the Labour party conference in Blackpool - and it's a good speech. A bloody good speech. So good, in fact, that it's been transcribed completely for Salon.com. But all through the transcription, one thing sticks out like a journalistic sore thumb. Time and time again, the article changes the name of the British left from the "Labour" party to the Americanised "Labor". It's probably been done with a spell-checker by some half-arsed intern, but still... It's unforgiveably bad journalism, laughably poor sub-editing, and atrocious proof-reading. Is it any wonder that people think America is insular and isolationist, if major press institutions can't even be bothered to put in the ten seconds of effort it would take to spell the name of our governing party properly? If I could find an e-mail address, I'd send in a complaint.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fame Academy comes to TV... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/04/2002 09:11:58 PM ----- BODY:

    The TV show's up before the site is, although it seems the site is appearing before my eyes. I've only watched about half an hour of it - I mean, proper television came on and I had to turn over. That's right ladies and gentlemen, Fame Academy has come to television. And already I have a favourite, Ainslie is a fluffy little star in the making. Although he can't dance for shit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Empire reviews "Donnie Darko" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/07/2002 09:52:35 AM ----- BODY:

    Empire reviews Donnie Darko: "On a shadowy, non-existent street in Weirdsville, USA, first-time writer-director Richard Kelly lives next door to David Lynch and Greg Araki. In order to keep up with the neighbours, he has crafted his own magnificently bizarre hybrid of suburban paranoia and apocalyptic teen angst... Although this feature debut is a little lighter and less artfully obscure than David Lynchís best work, Donnie Darko is nevertheless a mini-masterpiece that marks the arrival of brave new talents in Gyllenhaal and Kelly. Cult glory surely beckons. Five Stars."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a statement of design irritation with train tickets... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 10/07/2002 10:09:12 AM ----- BODY:

    Over the weekend I went to visit my younger brother, Peter, in Oundle where he goes to a boarding school. My parents came as well - they picked me up from Peterborough train station and we all went out for an extremely pleasant lunch in a pub called The Pheasant, somewhere between Kettering and St. Neots. But this is not what I want to talk about today.

    As I have said, I travelled to Peterborough by train. This involved me buying a set of two train tickets, each one of which was about a quarter of the size of a piece of A4 paper - if that sheet was cut into four horizontal strips. For some reason this shape really reminded me of a piece of design work in Edward Tufte's extraordinary book on information design, Envisioning Information. In this book, one of the projects he explores is the creation of train timetables - how to keep them clean and clear and informative. And (you may be ahead of me here), the best example of a well-designed timetable he comes across is approximately the size of one quarter of a sheet of A4 paper - if that sheet was cut into four horizontal strips.

    More often than I care to recall, I've travelled somewhere with a return ticket, with little or no idea as to when my returning train is likely to depart. Particularly with tickets that are 'open' returns, it would be profoundly useful to have that kind of information with you. So why on earth isn't it printed on the back of the ticket? A bespoke return time-table assembled with all the information about the kind of trains you can travel on, your likely date of return etc. would be a godsend, and presumably not a particularly difficult thing to develop. My question, then, is why doesn't this exist already?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Worst (and best) performing MPs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/07/2002 01:12:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Wouldn't it be interesting to know precisely which Members of Parliament didn't bother to respond to their constituents? Like - say you ran a service that helped people fax their MP, and you added a feature that let people say if they'd had any response fourteen days afterwards... And then you collated it into a big table of performance data? And then you found Iain Duncan Smith, Peter Mandelson and Boris Johnson at the bottom of it? Wouldn't that be interesting?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Labor redux... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/07/2002 01:35:17 PM ----- BODY:

    And four days after I e-mailed pretty much everyone at Salon about the appalling lack of journalistic skill evident in the repeated mis-spelling of "Labour" (the political party, not the noun) in their transcript of Bill Clinton's speech in Blackpool, they still haven't fixed it. Here are some examples again:

    "Bill Clinton electrifies a British Labor Party conference with a more sweeping vision for global peace and progress than the current president has been able to muster."
    "Former President Bill Clinton delivered the following remarks before the Labor Party Conference in Blackpool, England, on Wednesday."
    "New Labor, this government, has not allowed that dichotomy to occur in Great Britain. "

    But if you look carefully, someone's got it right in the caption of the image at the top of the page - "Former President Clinton speaks at the Labour Party annual conference in Blackpool, England, Wednesday". If you would like to remind the news team of Salon that basic fact-checking remains an important part of their jobs, then feel free to e-mail: news@salon.com, Joan Walsh, Ed Lempinen, Eric Boehlert, King Kaufman or Michelle Goldberg.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Darkorama... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/07/2002 04:09:54 PM ----- BODY:

    I had lunch with Cal, which isn't unusual. I'm always having lunch with Cal. Like almost every day. Today - on the way back to the office - we saw poster after poster for filmic obsession Donnie Darko - flyposters, mainly. I peeled it from the side of a phone booth and stuck it on my chest as we walked down the street. It's by my desk now.

    I'm so excited I may well burst. The net's full of Darkorama at the moment - from the thread on Barbelith. to the audiogalaxy article, right through to the find out which Donnie Darko character you are quiz. I should get paid for the amount of promotion I'm doing for this film. If you're out there 20th Century Fox, I still really need an iBook.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Homicide and Suicide statistics across the world... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/08/2002 09:25:32 PM ----- BODY:

    A few days ago I was startled by this chart of homocide and suicide statistics across the world. It's a surprisingly difficult chart to interpret - the disparities between regions are extraordinarily large and only really lend themselves to suggestions of massive cultural difference.

    For example, in the Americas for every 100,000 deaths - 19 are homicides and eight are suicides. In Europe, on the other hand it's the opposite story - many less homicides (eight) and many more suicides (19). The Western Pacific and Australia is littered with suicides but has an almost non-existent homicide rate, and it seems that the Eastern Mediterranean is the least violent place to live - less than thirteen people out of every thousand die violent deaths - from both suicide and homicide. And men world-wide are more likely than women to die both at their own hands and at the hands of others.

    But where are such differences coming from? Is the lack of homicides in Europe an effect of strong gun laws? And if so what is the reason for the high suicide rate? Is it a factor of comparative comfort of living or is it instead that those who die from homicide in the UK would find themselves pursuing a violent death in the US?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In praise of the sub-optimal solution... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 10/08/2002 10:06:17 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's an interesting trend - an increased incidence of people praising the ill-designed. Firstly let's start with a post at new favourite weblog diveintomark.org. In a long post about RSS called In praise of evolvable formats, he states:

    "RSS 0.9x and 2.0 are the Whoopee Cushion and Joy Buzzer of syndication formats. For anyone who has tried to accomplish anything serious with metadata, it?s pretty obvious that of the various implementations of a worldwide syndication format, we have the worst one possible. Except, of course, for all the others."

    As all of us who have been watching RSS know, there are now three main competing standards - (Dave Winer's favourites and personal missions) 0.91 and 2.0 and the alternative 1.0. The three standards fall into two main groups that share many features, but have some remarkable differences as well. These differences are generally beyond my technical expertise, but seem to be polarised between 'messy, unrigorous and evolving' and 'clean, complex and relatively static'. Mark continues:

    "Designed formats start out strong and improve logarithmically. Evolvable formats start out weak and improve exponentially. RSS 2.0 is not the perfect syndication format, just the best one that?s also currently practical. Infrastructure built on evolvable formats will always be partially incomplete, partially wrong and ultimately better designed than its competition."

    The other interesting post on these lines comes from Matt Jones. He cites an interview with Don Norman in which is stated: "The Internet has been successful, but it could have been designed better". Jones' retort? "Arrrgh! The internet is successful precisely because it was engineered to be 'good enough', it's strength is that it is suboptimal; and, most importantly, doesn't stop people designing it better."

    I'm vaguely fascinated by these arguments. I like this idea of the useful fudge that doesn't try to be the most elegant and functional solution, but is evolvable. But I'm having trouble geting a grasp on the precise criteria for developing such solutions. One answer might be in attempting to design simple systems which have the capacity to inter-relate and which can be removed and replaced like components - components which don't necessarily all have to co-exist to make a useful product. Another might be the holy-grail of creation on the internet - open standards which allow many people to add their minor creative addition to the mix - inspiring in turn subsequent developments - pushing creativity. A final one might be the simplicity of the governing rules of the system - or perhaps even something as simple as the ability to generate something functional with the most limited set of instructions or components. Or perhaps I'm completely missing the point?

    Addendum: I had an interesting conversation with Matt Webb following this post, of which this was my most significant contribution: "There's an interesting paradox in play when you start talking about the best things being suboptimal, when in fact what you're actually saying is that the various criteria of optimality are simply not what they are perceived to be by people operating in a traditional product-oriented mode. Nonetheless I like the concept of aiming towards suboptimality - it kind of reminds me of the suggestions of postmodernity that the Enlightenment project is directed towards closure and hygenic perfection - the clockwork universe - a model that can conceive of no place for things outside itself and attempts to reduce those things to irrelevance - when in fact when you push the model to its absolute limits it collapses in on itself leaving nothing at all..." "

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wired.com redesigns... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/11/2002 10:27:44 AM ----- BODY:

    For the last two or three years, I've had Wired.com as my default homepage. I find that I glance through the main articles every time I open a browser window, and that this keeps me essentially up to date with most of the must-know goings-on in tech, net and science news. I never buy the magazine. I've cited the site as an example of the very clearest web production, with unobtrusive branding, clearly formatted articles and a good sense of how to write for the web.

    None of this is likely to change... but despite their redesign, not because of it. That's not to say that it's bad - because it's not. And when all the errors around the place were fixed (the permanent horizontal scroll-bar on Mac IE 5 that is the consequence of a 100% width div, the frequent SSI errors, the weirdly formatted advertisement tag that you can't quite tell is intentional or not), then it'll look classy and will be fairly usable.

    But there's still stuff that seems strange. We're still stuck with the bloody terralycos bar, which looked roughly out of place on the old design and looks mind numbingly terrible on the new one. There's major navigation / advertising creep, pushing the content full feet down the page. The colour scheme - ice blue, black, white and lime - screams retro-tech, but it also screams 'cheap use of the colour-invert feature in Photoshop'. The advert, which has grown inhumanly large, sits really uncomfortably on the page.

    And most importantly, the place where they put the actual content seems to have been shrunk and de-emphasised radically - with all the emphasis (and an unnecessary amount of space) dedicated to the fluffier aspects of the site. A more cynical man might connect that change of emphasis with the incredibly limited amount of articles currently on display...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kitten Rock-Star Transpectacular... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2002 01:14:53 PM ----- BODY:

    Pub-rock kittens sing Independent Woman - another meisterwerk by Joel Veitch. The kittens have previously performed such epics as Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, Fell in Love With a Girl by the White Stripes and John B's We Like the Music. Kittenmania sweeps the globe...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I've said it before, and I'll say it again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2002 06:55:19 PM ----- BODY:

    I've said it before, and I'll say it again... If you're cold and you are shamed, lying naked on the floor, then bloody get up and put some clothes on. I have a sneaking feeling that might help things a little...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You tell me you've got everything you want, and Marianne Faithful can sing? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/12/2002 09:28:39 PM ----- BODY:

    According to a TV show I've just been watching, the Beatles' song "And Your Bird Can Sing" was a dig at Mick Jagger's relationship with Marianne Faithful. If it's true, it's too wonderful for words - and has completely reinvigorated that song for me. But although it's extremely entertaining, I can find no evidence for it on the internet. Please let it be true... Please!

    Tell me that you've got everything you want
    And your bird can sing
    But you don't get me
    You don't get me

    You say you've seen seven wonders
    And your bird is green
    But you can't see me
    You can't see me

    When your prized possessions
    Start to wear you down
    Look in my direction
    I'll be round, I'll be round

    When your bird is broken
    Will it bring you down?
    You may be awoken
    I'll be round, I'll be round

    You tell me that you've heard every sound there is
    And your bird can swing
    But you can't hear me
    You can't hear me

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Riding along with the Internet Bookmobile... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/14/2002 10:06:20 AM ----- BODY:

    Riding along with the Internet Bookmobile: Michael Hart is one of those people who straddle the line between visionary genius and obsessive nutcase. "You know that episode of "Star Trek," when they look in the computer to find some 20th century book that tells them what to expect when they go back in time," Hart says. "How do you think those books got in the computer? That's me."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Chicken with its head cut off... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/14/2002 10:28:19 AM ----- BODY:

    So why the paucity of updates? Why the off-the-cuff, commentary-free nuggets that I've been feeding you lately? There's a couple of reasons, none of them serious. Firstly, the community project I've been working on at work went into its first stage of testing at the end of last week, which meant everything got a bit hectic. Hopefully I'll be able to show some of it to the outside world in the coming weeks, but in the meantime it's nose/grindstone time.

    I thought I'd be more creative on the weekend but it turned out that my thinking-coherently gland, having been radically over-stimulated last week, kind of went into shock. So I spent most of the weekend watching The West Wing, while sorting through papers and bills (total cheques written out - £2001.94). My beautiful computer stayed mostly quiet in the corner of the room.

    There are other reasons. Other things to do. I'm supposed to be writing a piece on the ways in which mainstream media interacts with weblogs. I'm supposed to be talking to Cal and Denise about (at least) two different spare-time-projects. And I'm supposed to be thinking of what I can do to celebrate this weblog's third birthday, which is in a little over two weeks. It's all very exciting, but my tiny brain hurts...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anyone need to practice their Italian? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/14/2002 03:51:40 PM ----- BODY:

    There's an interesting weblogs-related article up at 24ore.com. Except it's in Italian: » un contagio da Blogs. Oh and except I only think it's interesting because when I ran it through babelfish it came up with loads of incomprehensible stuff and the line:

    "We make the case simpler than a person who starts a Blog writing of its life or its interests", explains Tom Coates, expert of Weblogs.

    Which is, you know, nice. Still that doesn't resolve my fundamental problem - my desperate need to know what the badly translated phrase, "In this way, via continuous superimpositions, detailed lists are formed interest community, than they become rich to vicissitude", means. Amongst other things...

    So what I'm thinking is how incredibly cool it would be if someone needed to practice their Italian to English translation abilities and was prepared to stick an English language version somewhere on the interhighweb...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Wired.com redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/15/2002 09:40:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Today, under the direction of Phil Gyford, I stumbled upon a fascinating interview with the man behind the redesign of Wired.com - a design that I am gradually warming to. There are parts of the design that annoy me profoundly - particularly on the front page (the unnecessary width of the left-hand column and the eye-straining colour combinations are especially irksome), but one thing I can't fault them on - they've used valid XHTML and CSS, pushing the standards for the web ever forward. I tend to forget how scary such a move is for companies, who suddenly may find their site looking ugly in Netscape 4.x. I suspect I forget this because many weblogs - myself included - have been designing without tables for over a year now (although I never can be bothered to finally drag myself that extra foot over the finish-line and properly validate). But then it's easier for us. Fluffier. More trivial.

    Anyway, before I get over-excited again, here's the interview with Douglas Bowman of Wired news, and a little quote to whet your appetite: "I remember one project for Lycos where we had nested tables 10 levels deep. I counted them myself. It wasn't that every level was absolutely necessary to reproduce the intended design effects. But each table ensured the flexibility we needed if certain modules and pieces of content appeared or disappeared. When you get to that point, the amount of markup you have to sift through to find anything becomes ridiculous. Until this redesign, Wired News wasn't even using CSS to style the content inside tables. The sheer amount of redundant <font> tags inside every cell was probably enough to double file size. "

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Willow mentions "Google"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2002 01:24:54 AM ----- BODY:

    So it's official. In the episode of Buffy broadcast in the States this evening, Willow will mention the practice of "Googling" for a name. And it will be funny. And lo, Google will be iconic.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Badman productions (don't say I don't do anything for you, Seany...) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/16/2002 11:26:24 PM ----- BODY:

    One of my esteemed occasional-hosts in Los Angeles, Sean Nadeau, has finally assembled a site for all the astonishing flash animations he's done for all kinds of weird people, including The Flaming Lips. Best thing he's ever done? Tom does the Sound of Music.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: High Court Hang-Ups STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2002 02:47:22 PM ----- BODY:

    High court hang-ups:

    Counsel: Now, Mr Chrysler ñ for let us assume that that is your name ñ you are accused of purloining in excess of 40,000 hotel coat hangers.
    Chrysler: I am.
    Counsel: Can you explain how this came about?
    Chrysler: Yes. I had 40,000 coats which I needed to hang up.
    Counsel: Is that true?
    Chrysler: No.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Websites on Buffy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/17/2002 05:19:22 PM ----- BODY:

    A couple of days ago I posted about Willow mentioning Google on Buffy, and how cool that was. Exact exchange was, I believe, "Have you tried googling her?", followed by Xander's shocked, "Willow, she's only seventeen!"

    Ahem. Maybe you had to be there... Anyway - in the course of the episode, when in fact they google the girl in question, they stumble upon her site, where they find what can only be described as some bloody awful poetry. The site was visible on screen for a few moments. And here's the extraordinary bit - it actually exists and is online: Cassie Newton's Poetry and Paintings. There's a thread on Metafilter all about it as well...

    I had a conversation with a friend a short while ago about how similar this was (in some ways) to the AI game concept that Spielberg and Dreamworks dreamt up. Dan (the friend) and I, discussed whether or not the Buffy universe would be a suitable place for a game of the same size and scale as the AI one. Was it rich enough? Was it varied enough? Does it have enough scale, shape or granularity? And the answers, as Dan says, are clearly yes.

    The question then is where or when you could launch such a thing - what potential benefits it could accrue for Joss Whedon and/or 20th Century Fox. The most obvious use for such a game would be as a parallel story structure to any potential Buffy-related movie, or as a long-teaser campaign for a Buffy-universe TV series. But I wonder - would there by any way in which an online Buffy game could emerge that paid for itself? Or are these kinds of games destined to be classy, intelligent and engaging promotional materials alone?

    PS. Should Mr Whedon and the Buffy creators be interested in such a venture, I know exactly which people should be developing it - and one of those people should be me. My e-mail address (on the off-chance), remains tom%40plasticbag.org.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Buffy Online Gaming: Some Assembly Required? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/18/2002 10:23:32 AM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday I was talking about a Buffy-universe immersive online game - whether it could hope to make any money and whether or not it could hope to be successful or interesting. Since then, the debate's really taken hold - particularly on the sites of Dan Hon and his brother Adrian - both of whom were involved to varying degrees with the cloudmakers that was responsible in large part for the community that grew up around the AI game. The sheer scale and intelligence of their responses is quite beyond my ability to summarise, so instead I thought I'd link through to the individual posts in as-close-to-chronological order as I could manage, which brief thoughts as and when they occurred to me:

    I can't emphasize enough how interesting Dan's first post above is, or how insightful it is. Read immediately. Useful stuff...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cut-up musical culture... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 10/18/2002 11:19:57 AM ----- BODY:

    Every medium for transmitting music brings with it new practices for listening to it - and these in turn filter back into the way we interact with it, categorise it, manipulate it. The earliest ways of transmitting music were memory and repetition - music at this stage was simple and rhythmic and easy to transmit (think nursery rhymes and folk songs) or was not designed to be played the same way twice - rhythmic drumming tropes playing off each other - again and again... Sheet music required musical literacy, access to instruments and - in the popular fora at least - very clearly separated the music (what's written on the paper) from the rendition - the same songs might appear in versions for brass, piano, strings, woodwind, etc...

    Recorded music brought with it a whole range of new issues. Transmission was now conducted at the level of rendition rather than the iconic 'music' level. But whole new ways of categorising music came along with the requirement of 'grouping' music into artist or theme, and placing it on two sides of plastic to be packaged as a product. And as the amount of product grew, the need for popular sense of categorisation emerged - was this rock 'n' roll, or bossanova? Tapes were more portable and resilient, but also bizarrely a backward-step in accessibility - gone was the random access mode of the record-player's head. CD's brought that back, and in the process removed the need for each side of an album to feel like a coherent entity. Albums ceased to be structured around two arcs that would last twenty minutes (records), moved past the longer side-structures of tapes (each side lasting potentially up to forty or fifty minuts) and settled on a CD format in which the listening experience is uniform, discrete and self-contained. Seventy-eight minutes played end-to-end created different listening arcs. And the randomise function? Songs began to be removed from the album-context, to be viewed once more as individual entities. But they weren't fully removed - after all, a listening experience randomising one album still limited what music you might hear next - a Beck album will only have Beck tracks on it. No matter what order you decide to hear them...

    The resonance we feel, the response we have, and the way we categorise and separate different songs and different types of songs is fundamentally linked to the medium through which we hear them. Which is what makes the experience of listening to music through something like an iPod so extraordinary. Many of my friends migrate whole albums over to their MP3 players - and continue to listen to them as separate blocks, chunks of music. But I don't understand this at all. My approach was immediately to treat my music collection as categorisable only by the fact that these songs all to a certain extent are 'mine'. As my co-worker Dorian has commented - they are linked in as much as they are some kind of soundtrack to my life...

    This produces some astonishing cut-ups - songs thrust together that don't seem to be belong together on paper, but which flow together extremely well when you're listening to them. Take this morning's passage into work for example:

    There are at least six separate genres in that short selection, but by dint of 'rescuing' them from their context and placing them together in sequence, the specifics of those genres - the things that keep the separate if you will - merge and smear. What becomes pertinent is increasingly what unites them - a taste, a sensibility, a listener - and I think this is increasingly why sampling culture and artists like DJ Shadow find themselves working in a genre-less space, and why such a space is likely to increase radically. The walls are tumbling down - and do we have technology to thank? Or blame, for that matter? And what will be the next push in media transmission to extend the tendency even closer towards fluidity of use?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In praise of skies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/20/2002 02:13:00 AM ----- BODY:

    You don't get to see a lot of sky when you live in a city like London. For the vast proportion of the time the sky is an adjunct to your life. It's outside your frame of reference. It's barely relevant in fact. It's the thing above the buildings, but only because there's got to be something above the buildings. For the vast proportion of the time you're surrounded by walls.

    I feel different when I'm in the country now. There's more sky there, and it tends to take centre-stage. I've come to love the sky since I've lived in London - because I miss it, I suppose. Sometimes you catch glimpses of it - the sun sets down Oxford Street when you're standing near Holborn, and the walls become a frame for the sky for a moment. I feel like I'm straining my neck. In the country, the sky pushes down on the earth. It keeps everything in perspective. How can things seem important when there's streams of colour in every direction as far as the eye can see? And the clouds hang in strips, or build like islands. And the sun ruptures through it all.

    One of the most transformative experiences of my life was to do with skies. I was driving towards Bristol from London and it was raining everywhere. It was just before sunset, but it seemed like the night because the clouds were so thick. The air was more water than air and it was very difficult to see anything. And then for a few moments the sun came below the level of the cloud, and the sun was pink and red, and literally everything turned pink. The clouds lit up pink from below in all directions, the road was wet and reflected pink upwards. Every particle of water in the air caught the light and glinted and flashed. It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life.

    When I went to Los Angeles to see Kerry and Sean, we went to the pier. And we saw Tyne Daly from Cagney and Lacey. And there was a man on the pier with a bubble-blowing machine. And when the sun set over Malibu, I think I nearly cried because it was so beautiful. And I think Sean and Kerry thought I was a bit soft, or a bit insane.

    There are times in the city when the buildings seem to high, they seem to block out the sun too much. They get in the way. Then the things that happen around us lose their perspective. They grow out of proportion. They're huge. Their shadows are huge and cold. And then the relationships that have frayed and fallen apart seem spectre-like, inhuman. And the future seems formless yet empty - like it's on a reel or tape loop, like it's the skipping sound of a CD gone wrong. And then you take comfort in your friends, such as they are (or great as they are), and wait for something new to happen.

    I saw Gideon and Nick today. We shopped for coats. I talked to Matt Webb over AIM, and met up with Kelly to celebrate her birthday. I met four new people today. Two were women, two were gay. I spoke to Danny on the phone, and tomorrow we're going to see XXX. And I e-mailed my other Nick to see if he wanted to join us. And then there was the text message conversation with someone I've only recently been back in contact with. I've got a presentation to prepare and a sitting-room full of cold curry and empty drink cans. And a younger brother who means more to me than anything else in the world.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Doonesbury! Weblogs in Doonesbury! Dude, we're establishment already... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/21/2002 10:34:36 AM ----- BODY:

    So what does it mean when weblogs get into Doonesbury? Are we still radical (if we ever were)? Are we established now? Must the world bow down and worship those (me) who have been weblogging for a very very long time? Is Oprah next? As Murray Lachlan Young once said about fame - "Who's my guru? Where's my hamster?"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Doonesbury Day Two... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/22/2002 12:25:38 PM ----- BODY:

    This is going to get old quite quickly I think. Not the cartoons themselves, but the fact that I'm planning to link to the new one each day for as long as they're about weblogs and weblogging: Doonesbury Oct 22 2002.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A piece of writing from a book about Baudrillard pertaining specifically to Nietszche and history... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: History CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 10/23/2002 11:31:25 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been re-reading a little book on Baudrillard because it's the only thing that fits in the pocket of my brand new coat (excessive money spent - we'll say no more about this). In it I've stumbled upon a section about Baudrillard's relationship to history and his debt to Nietszche that really appeals to me. It goes like this:

    Friedrich Nietzsche, in his Unfashionable Observations of 1874, criticised historical inquiry in his time for making the present look just like another episode, and the creative acts of individuals humble by comparison. It burdened individuals with more knowledge than they could absorb; it encouraged a resigned relativism because change implied that the present was unimportant; and it generated irony and cynicism because it engendered a sense of late arrival..."

    When I was doing my doctorate I got really excited by a passage in Forster's Maurice - it's a fairly iconic passage used in a lot of scholarship in a fairly throwaway fashion. In it, the character of Dr Cornwallis, teaching young undergraduate men (including our hero) says of a piece of translation that they are about to undertake, "Omit: a reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks". I remember thinking this was extraordinarily radical considering how we now approach history. Current academic practice is one of dislocation - people in the past were nothing like us. They are incomprehensible to us by the standards that we generally operate by, and we have to hygenically and distantly analyse their behaviour with none of the emotional outbursts and resonances that we might use to examine contemporary matters.

    This is considered true in basic historicist approaches, but even more true in historicist approaches to literature, where the assumption seems to be that one of the implicit acts of criticism is some kind of model-making of the minds of the audience (or author) of a work. Only by understanding the people do you understand the work. Personally I always thought this was a highly dubious intellectual move - particularly when undertaken in an absolutist fashion. Too many questions emerge from this kind of behaviour: Whose is the mind? Who does it represent? What about divergent readings from the period? Does it idealise a particular kind of reading or intepretation? Is the mind that we use to understand the text simply itself generated by us from the text itself?

    Similarly there are problems with a complete lack of historicism, of course. It would be delightful to think that one could try and force a modern mind through a text without any historical information whatsoever, in such a way that they were encouraged to think about the text purely in terms of contemporary society - but it's simply not possible. The mind constructs a fictional world as it reads - it contextualises, it tries to fit disparate and apparently nonsensical elements together. The practice of reading a work removed from historical context is simply an exercise in the conceptual reconstruction of that period. And this is never more true when you're thinking about texts in other languages, where even basic comprehension the text requires a reconstructive leap.

    So why is the statement in Maurice so challenging? Because it amounts to a statement that texts from outwith your cultural frame of reference aren't just there to be examined analytically and distantly, nor even merely to undermine your assumptions of 'normality' and push you towards total moral relativity. Instead they can have very real and potent social and political effects. They are inevitably political, weapons / devices with no function other than to stimulate, entertain and use in argument and discussion to forward a case, a goal, a political end...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Who's afraid of community participation? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 10/23/2002 11:01:12 PM ----- BODY: There's a fascinating post about the emergence of the UK Weblogging Community at notsosoft.com at the moment. One of the tools that has strengthened relationships between UK-based webloggers (of which there are several - pubs being a significant one of them) has ceased to function - the GBlogs Update Tracker has shut down so that its creator can concern herself with (considerably) more important creative work. But does the removal of a tool signal the end of a community project? And was UK Weblogging's emergence as an active and vibrant interconnected community ever a project? The most interesting aspect about some of the debate that has ensued in the responses to Meg's post is how uncomfortable people seem to be with the concept of being part of a "community" at all. Also fascinating is the assumptions of what participating in a community involves. The assumption seems to be that being a member of a community is something chosen, something that involves heavy participation, and something that requires each of its participants to be friends with one another and socialise. These aspects of participation are almost held up as spectres - huge achievements that one would have to wish to overcome in order to participate. I can't tell whether it's because we're English or because we're bedroom-bound webloggers that being part of such a community seems to terrify so many people. It could be just the reification of individuality that has brought us to this place. But I think it's unfounded. And I think it's unfounded because this sense of community is artificial and overblown... Let's look at a couple of examples - when people talk about the local community of people in a village do they mean that (1) they all go drinking with each other all the time, or (2) that they are familiar with each other's existence, may know each other (sometimes only by several degrees of separation) and share a vague vested interest in their local environment? I would contend it's the latter. And when people talk about the 'gay community' or the 'Jewish community', they're not referring to individual social groups of friends, but instead to a roughly shared set of goals, aspirations, interests or cultural principles. In web circles, community has come to mean different things. Mostly we think of specific sites or services designed to create communities, like Habbo Hotel, Metafilter or Barbelith. If we push ourselves we might extend this to Usenet groups or even Instant Messager communities or e-mail. But fundamentally these are tools for helping communities to germinate, develop and extend themselves - not the communities themselves. Just as the communities themselves are not necessarily defined by drinking with one another, or by believing exactly the same things. Do all members of Metafilter go drinking with one another? Do they all participate to the same extent? In fact what community represents, what community is is something much looser than a definition surrounding the activities that the members undertake with one another or the tools that they use to communicate with one another. These can be sidelines in fact - at best, they strengthen the bonds - maybe they make possible communities between people who would not be able to form them otherwise. But that's all... I do consider myself a member of a community of UK webloggers. And I feel that way because we all have something in common - a shared experience maybe, or a desire to learn from one another, an interest in other people who validate our 'hobbies' or maybe it's just because what matters to one of us is more likely to matter to other ones of us. I don't share my politics or my sexuality with many of these people. Nor my gender, many of my interests, my ethnicity or my obsession with Buffy. I also consider myself part of an online community of webloggers in general - an ever-growing group of people who share certain things with me, including the fact that they might be at home writing a huge post at eleven o'clock at night, or that they feel a need or a desire to express themselves. I also consider myself part of a community of gay webloggers, and gay people on the internet in general, and in fact gay people in general. And then there are the communities surrounding the issues of design that I'm interested in. And the communities of people who are interested in Buffy. Some are communities which manifest themselves through geographical proximity, closely shared values, friendships, sex even. With other communities there will be none of that at all - simply a shared characteristic, or chromosome, or interest. We're all members of hundreds - thousands even - of different overlapping communities all the time. Some are tiny, some are huge. Some are more important to us than others, but all are important to an extent. And it's nothing to be ashamed of! ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: The most interesting aspect about discussing "UK weblogging culture" is how uncomfortable people seem to be with the concept of being part of a "community" at all. Perhaps more fascinating still are the assumptions of what participating in a community involves... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 80.225.50.46 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 10/24/2002 03:57:16 AM So, unless I'm really tired and whatever I'm reading isn't making any sense whatsoever, what you've done is taken Meg's basic premise and expanded upon the definition of the word 'community'. I myself hate the word. It's really not a nice word. It may not be the worst word out there, but it's pretty bad. It reminds me of the local 'special' school (and the associated childhood insults); the 'rebel' teenagers who smoked and stayed out late - 'ooh, what would the community think?'; of fuddy-duddy Neighbourhood Watch schemes; of badly mis-spelt Church newsletters; of ridiculous politically-correct tabloids references to 'asylum-seeking foreign refugee scum'; of the silly woman next door who is wary of the 'ethnic minority' family down the street. So, yeah. I guess 'community' is a fitting word for what we have: we have the politico-warbloggers; the uninformant who links to mainstream news sites while completely missing the point of the story told; the blatant stereotype I've shoved in just because I'm putting my side of the argument; religious propaganda spreaders who ping and abuse; the camgirls; the 'nerdy' kids who pay no attention in school and thus learn computers better than the rest of us because their heads are emptier. The gblogs list is like a street; you click on one member of the list, and it's like knocking on someone's door. You can tell that this is an open community, because most people don't require you to have a key - there's no registration process on most blogs, almost never need to register to read what's being written. Tch, eh? Like my Grandmother always said - life was better when you never had to lock the doors properly and the neighbours always popped over. I knew her wisdom would come in useful somewhere. Or maybe it's just a fledgling community - more like the cavemen who hadn't figured out how to roll the rock in front of the door yet. Following that analogy, in a few hundred net-years of evolution, you'll have to be authorised for a 'key' to get into a blog. And the super-classy ones - like a five star hotel - will want you to pay. Would you lock up your blog to prying eyes if you could? But anyway - that's besides the point. Forgive me, it's 3AM. I could argue about whether or not that it's a true community, but what there is, is art imitating life, because this is an artform made out of people's lives, on the whole. Blog my thoughts onto my site, and, although visitors may not like what I are saying, they tolerate it - just like how anyone from my 'real' 'community' can make a judgement on me based on walking past my house and how it looks - because, just by viewing my site, they are coming into my personal space. Then again, they might throw paint on my windows if they don't like what I say to them. To be honest, I feel like the rowdy neighbour in the blog 'community'. No-one pays me any attention in the street, I don't often talk to anyone and I don't expect them to talk back. Doesn't mean I'm going to give up my space, though, because I own it and I'm paying for it (hmm, does this make blogspot users the rental tennants of the 'community'? Do they give up and move away quicker than the rest of us would? Maybe, when they haven't invested in their own domain name home). 'Community', in essence , is a show of respect. IRL, it is being able to live side by side, whether the two sides agree or not, or even talking to each other or not. The same applies online - one blog can't force another off the web (like how the average neighbour can't often force the next door dwellers out) and whether or not I am interested in the person writing or topic of discussion, doesn't mean I have to 'come in for a cuppa tea' every day - I just log off and keep walking past from then on. Unless I don't want to. I acknowledge the prescence in some way, even if I don't like it. Frankly, I'm always seeing names in lists of blogs that I'll never click on just because I don't like the name, or the address, or whatever. I'm picky. Yes, it's my own fault. More importantly, does this all show that webloggers are stuck in one place in this big old internet thing? Can you weblog and not keep cropping up amongst the same old lists of sites? Because the whole linking phenomenon makes that idea kind of impractical. If I could stop people from linking their site to one of my posts, would you? If I could tell google not to spider my words, would I take that option? Yes. I would. So I'm probably not a member of the so-called community. I'm sure that other people probably wouldn't act so drastically. Maybe they see themselves as part of a community. Like Buffy fans, say, as opposed to Buffy watchers. What does this make me? A nethead who doesn't like blogging? An anti-sociopath who doesn't get on with his neighbours? Ooh, that's close to the bone. So that's why I reckon that there's a blog community. And it's also why I'm not a part of it, or more like someone who's stuck in a twelve month lease in a part of town he doesn't like, but not for any aesthetical reasons. So why am I here? Like, say, living in Paris, I like the history, I like the potential, but I can't be there full time because I don't know the language and I wouldn't make any sense. Sorry, I've been rambling. And it's late. Worst. Post. Ever. And so on. Feed me back if you think I've made any points whatsoever. Next up: 'Blogging - it's more like speech writing than diary-writing, innit?' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren EMAIL: darren@timemachinego.com IP: 217.34.92.238 URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/ DATE: 10/24/2002 09:27:05 AM The Gblogs Update Tracker isn't dead. It was only resting.... http://www.timemachinego.com/ukblogs/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gina EMAIL: gina-snowdoll@rocketmail.com IP: 213.2.158.19 URL: http://gina-snowdoll.blogspot.com DATE: 10/24/2002 11:13:20 AM The word "community" has been hijacked into meaninglessness. Witness the media's favourite post 9/11 expression: "the international community". There is no such thing! It is an oxymoron. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/24/2002 05:31:21 PM I don't think that's strictly fair. It's oldest root we know of is communis, the latin for 'common' which was used as the basis for the word communitas - meaning fellowship. This travelled through Old French towards the middle english 'communite', meaning citizenry. In fact the usage of community as something that only refers to tight-knit groups of geographically and socially friendly people is relatively new. The usages which include things like comunities of similarity, communities as representing segments of society or between those sharing common interests are far older - congruently as old as those that refer to groups of people as political entities... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: john.furnival@btinternet.com IP: 195.92.194.18 URL: DATE: 10/26/2002 09:42:19 PM The idea of a web community (virtual) is built on the principal of hope. It's the hope (of webloggers, e-commerce, IRC, message boards etc.) that all individuals will interact. In 'built communities' planners, architects and politicians have attempted, over time, to build communities on hope ' they hope people will live together, interact, communicate, bond, equalise and most importantly trust each other. In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries wealthy industrialists in the UK like Hartley (Jam), Leverhulme (Soap) and Salt (Milling) created and built urban villages to house their workers. These 'visionaries' saw the value in creating communities and providing welfare ' good housing, sanitation, churches, schools etc. They gave something ' hope, and got something back - commitment. The individuals involved in these communities were unique in that they had something 'in common'. The experiment in the UK of 'high rise' and of New Towns to solve 'inner city' problems of the 60's 70' and 80's has shown that by artificially bringing people together to create 'new communities' failed. Many of these new communities have now degenerated and represent some of the most socially dysfunctional areas in the UK. The social cost to this generation has been huge. To be member of a 'virtual' community (I think that is the best way to describe it) is different, - it's one of personal choice. It's about the choice of wanting to belong, to share ideas and it's the creation of an on-line personality. This is its dynamism. One of the greatest issues for 'virtual' communities is one of trust (apart from security of financial transactions). Trust is developed over time ' you trust your parents, your teachers (well some of them), your neighbours (well some of them), and your friends (well some of them), your ISP, your server? - trust is earned. Virtual communities are instant and therefore nature transient. They 'evolve' organically by referral (I've even read today about 'referral marketing') by links and by email. There is no need to build relationships. No need for commitment. No need for dependency. Just state your case and move on. No need for trust. Or is there? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike d EMAIL: imperialdoughnut@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.168.165 URL: http://imperialdoughnut.blogspot.com DATE: 10/29/2002 11:10:33 AM I'd like to belong to 'the community' but to tell you the truth whenever I've tried I've been shunned. Be it on message boards, the Yahoo! list, I've even spent countless hours hunting down and persuading people to partake in my local Blog Meetup (Liverpool) but to no avail. Your blog was the very first British one I found (early 2000) and to some extent it gave me the inspiration to do my own. I've had my blog for 2 years now and I love it to bits, so much so my mind works totally in blog posts. But I feel I have more connection with Bloggers living just about everywhere else but blighty. Not to sound like a moaning teenager, despite being one, but I just don't get respect. Apart from being the stereotypical nostalgia-lovin' angst-ridden student I have no domain, my pseudo-essays are on relatively immature topics and I do not recycle the same topical drivel that everyone else does. It the eyes of the so-called pioneers that can only equal 'crap'. The way some 'a-list' bloggers reacted to Scary Duck being crowned top blog (a competition I was short listed in - and as only one of 4 free hosted sites) underlines this. Perhaps this elitism only exists in my head but I'm not the only one who sees the UK Blogging community split into classes... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lawrie EMAIL: lawrie_malen@yahoo.com IP: 172.181.50.59 URL: http://www.gaijindesign.com/lawriemalen/index2.html DATE: 11/01/2002 01:22:39 PM community schmommunity... buffy rocks! and in light of this, i am going to submit the word 'schmommunity' to collins, the dictionary people. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stuart EMAIL: hg@hydragenic.com IP: 194.200.135.68 URL: http://hydragenic.com DATE: 11/01/2002 03:40:06 PM Tom - I think one of the most interesting aspects of this discussion, which you touch on briefly above, is the lack of a clear distinction between "community" as something quite high-level & conceptual and as something more pragmatic & tangible. To elaborate: the same word can be used to refer to "the internet community", "the weblog community", "the Blogger community", "the UK weblog community", "the London weblog community", "the London blogmeet community" or "the webloggers who drink in the Coach and Horses pub in Soho at 5:17pm every Tuesday night community". When the same word covers the whole spectrum from macro- to micro-, differences of opinion are inevitable. I suspect that some people feel that they aren't part of a "weblog community" because they don't link, they don't read (m)any other sites, they don't meet other bloggers, etc. They might not be open to the more abstract notion of "community" (commonality?), which potentially includes them whether they like it or not. James - you can tell Google not to spider your words, plus most other well-behaved search engines too. Do a search on "robots.txt" for more information - it's an easy process. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Perry de Havilland EMAIL: PdeH@libertarian-samizdata.net IP: 81.5.146.53 URL: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/ DATE: 11/19/2002 02:23:02 AM Another thing that limits the notion of a 'community' of UK blogs is many blogs are really doing very different things. Journal blogs, Tech blogs and Pundit blogs, well, not quite 'never' the twain shall meet, but certainly not very often. I have hosted three 'Blogger Bashes' in London at which about 20-30 folks turned up representing 7 to 10 blogs (eight of my blog's contributors live in or near London). Yet they were all politically oriented pundit blogs and hardly any of us knew any Journal or Tech bloggers, both of which actually out number us pundit bloggers by quite a margin. We are all in our own ghettos and I am not sure that really matters all that much. I probably have more common interests with a US, Canadian or Australian pundit blogger than a London Journal blogger who might live around the corner from me to be honest. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A screen-cap from earlier today... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/23/2002 11:40:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Taken by young Jamie Cronin, this screen-cap from earlier today will forever preserve the day when the train from London-South Wales was delayed by a large inflatable hamburger on the line...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On participation in online communities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/24/2002 12:04:06 AM ----- BODY:

    So I was reading a post at Meg's site called You - yes you - at the back: you may not talk in class. Best post title ever. Anyway... That's not the point. I had a comment to make about it, so I went and started to write it, and then next thing you know it's about a year and a half long and still incomplete. So like a fairly large seedling, I decided to transplant it to my site, intially for the normal part of the site, but then - you know what - it got even larger, so now it's stuffed like an embarrassing piece of furniture in the attic of my site:

    Who's afraid of community participation?
    The most interesting aspect about discussing "UK weblogging culture" is how uncomfortable people seem to be with the concept of being part of a "community" at all. Perhaps more fascinating still are the assumptions of what participating in a community involves...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Remember.... You're a FAG... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/24/2002 09:32:27 PM ----- BODY:

    I probably shouldn't be posting this, but Davo sent it to me when I was at work, and I nearly spat my drink across three quarters of the office. God only knows the intention of the person who created it. God only knows if it's supposed to be silly or hurtful... But when sent from poof to poof, it's like being in on the funniest joke ever...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the horror of warblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 10/24/2002 11:48:31 PM ----- BODY:

    This is a difficult post to write. It's difficult because I've avoided writing it for far too long. It's difficult because it forces me to face some things that I've tried to pretend weren't happening. And it's difficult because it undermines my faith in humanity and forces me to give up some of the illusions that I've desperately operated under for several years now.

    About one year, one month and two weeks ago, the World Trade Center in New York was destroyed. All around the world, people looked on with horror at what was occurring. And before all the recriminations started, before the rhetoric became overwhelming, before the civil liberties were eroding, and before dissent became unpatriotic, there was this bizarre moment of pause, of stunned silence. And in that moment, there was a remarkable unity of feeling and purpose around the world. It was only when we all opened our mouths again that everything went to hell.

    It was in this moment of shock that webloggers first started broadcasting their tiny, newly-vulnerable voices into blogspace. Some talked of their experiences of being in New York or of the feeling of vulnerability that all Americans suddenly felt - a vulnerability they'd never felt before. Some responded with exclamations of disbelief or anguish. But I think a large number couldn't say anything at all - how could one say anything valuable in these moments.

    Most of the people I know in the UK who ran weblogs didn't know what to say or do. There was nothing that could be expressed that would be useful - nothing that could be done but sympathise from a distance. Many of us felt utterly powerless and yet desperate to do something. We came up with a project at the time that I think did some good. But then it's really impossible to tell.

    In most of this stuff, most of us tried to be impartial, non-confrontational and politically of a space that wouldn't offend people who had just lost friends and family. That was the most important thing in the immediate aftermath - the orphaned, the widowed, the bereaved. As it should have been. Not political point-scoring or the use of those deaths as justification for military action. No flag-waving or advocating of interest groups that needed a say.

    It would be months later before I would become aware of the phenomenon of the warblogger - months where information had filtered out gradually, where stances had calcified and battle-lines were beginning to be drawn. I started to notice politically radical statements appearing with semi-regularity on some people's sites - and entirely new sites appearing out of nowhere advocating extreme universalising positions of every kind - evil muslims, the hypocrisy of Europe, the righteous thunder of America...

    To my shame, only once did I make any kind of stand. I sent an e-mail to Stephen Den Beste about (what I considered to be) his overblown anti-European rhetoric - and he responded. I got a fair amount of short-term fallout in the form of highly unpleasant e-mails and comments posted on people's sites. And I think at the time I decided that several things should stop me continuing with any kind of debate on these issues in public. Some of these I think are still valid, some of which I now think I could characterise as cowardice or laziness, nothing more...

    The fact is I believed warblogging in its most hawkish, blood-hungry mode to be the short-lived rantings of extremists - and not representative of American online communities or weblogging communities in general. And because of this, I've got on with talking about the things that I personally find manageable or stimulating, and have kept far away from discussion of wars in Iraq, or bombings in Afghanistan, or racist violence in Europe and America, or the way all these events have been cynically used for party political ends, or the way in which state-sanctioned warfare is being transformed into a continuous enterprise just as civil liberties in all areas are being slowly limited. I haven't said a word about the level of irony I felt when it became clear that Hollywood's grasp on file-sharing technology meant more to most people than the fact that people were being held illegally across the world.

    I've kept my mouth shut through all of this stuff. And I'll probably continue to keep it shut, to be honest. But I needed an outburst today because of the stuff that I've been forced to come into contact with recently - the verbal attacks against Anil Dash for example - appal me beyond measure. I feel actual physical sickness at sites declaring whole religions to be at fault for the actions of tiny groups of often pooly-educated poor extremists. And this is the tiniest tip of the ice-berg.

    I don't know how to say it in any other way except to say that as an episode in web history, I personally believe that Warblogging has been shameful, horrific and a stain on us all. The escalation of warblogs is a disaster for development of personal publishing, and a crippling blow to the individual integrity and worth of weblogs and weblogging. This whole media - a media which was supposed to be about freedom of expression, allowing everyone to have a voice and a space to talk openly and honestly - has turned increasingly into the worst kind of soapbox punditry, witch-hunting and as a platform for violent warmongers and nationalists. And I'm afraid I feel partly responsible...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Looking for people to try out new community project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2002 11:31:00 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm looking for people to try out a new community project that I've been developing at work. It's a completely new way of organising message-boards and I think potentially it's quite exciting. If you wish to participate or are interested, then e-mail me at tom%40plasticbag.org - it's going to be of most interest to people who live in the UK...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A summary of Doonesbury Day Five: Weblog Gibberish (and links to the episodes you might have missed)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2002 02:31:25 PM ----- BODY:

    October 26 I've had it with Linux! Regime Change has failed! Let's think inside the box, people! It's time to put the pedal to the paradigm! Join a sleeper cell, then quit and turn everyone in! Got war? Is our children learning? Mark my words, so you can find them later!" That's right... I am Jenny McTagarthy, Girl Pirate! (You may have missed how big is my fan-base and a crush on Jenny...)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the insecurity of Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/25/2002 11:04:10 PM ----- BODY:

    First things first - here's a quick (rough) timeline of what happened from my perspective:

    So where does this leave us? It leaves us nervous, I think. It leaves us with less faith than before that it's safe to leave the collective writings of years in the hands of a centralised service like Blogger. What would be lost if 700,000 people lost days, weeks, months or years of writing at the same time? Significantly I think if there was an import / export facility to Blogger that would allow people to keep their own back-ups, then this would be less of an issue. In the meantime, I'm afraid I have to confess that while I'm very impressed by the speed of Blogger's reaction, I'm not overly impressed by the stuff that they've written about the experience. I think it's important that someone explains to us why we should not be worried by this hack on an archive of content that - after all - was created and belongs to each of us...

    Further reading: Slashdot.org, Anil Dash, Quicktopic thread, Blogger Status.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the responsibility of linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 10/27/2002 01:12:26 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok. Right. This is where things start to get interesting. Firstly, a metaphor. Imagine if you will a solar system - let's make it a binary system with planets that fly around it. Watch the suns move around one another. Watch the planets move around the suns. Watch the moons move around the planets. Watch their stable arcs cascading around one another. The reason they do this? We all know the answer - the various entities have an influence on one another that we call gravity... This influence, exerted by each and every participant in this system, is what keeps the system stable. If the gravity was dramatically lower, the celestial bodies would fly off from one another into deep space. If the gravity was dramatically higher, the celestial bodies would collapse in on themselves, forming one body - a symbolic monolith...

    Let's move in a different direction for a moment. Must we as liberal individuals believe in a world that gives each and every opinion equal weight. Are all views equally "valid", "worthwhile", "right"? And where does this leave us when we vehemently disagree with the tactics that people promoting these views start to use? And where do we end up when the views we must consider "valid" are precisely those views which don't believe other views to be "valid", "worthwhile", "right" and are prepared to say so, and/or do something about it.

    This last assertion is one of the simplest paradoxes of liberalism. But it's not a model worth operating with. And here's where the solar system comes in. Because a world in which we - as individuals or groups - are unable to extert any kind of pressure on anyone else for doing what we believe to be wrong resembles a solar system without gravity - an immediate explosion occurs, critical divergence, utter lack of stability. And a world in which we - as individuals or groups - are able to extert total pressure on anyone else for doing what we believe to be wrong resembles a solar system with absolute gravity - an immediate imposion occurs, monolithic thinking, totalitarianist repression, totally lack of motion, inertia, death.

    The weblog space is a space that bends under the pressure of traffic and influence. But mostly it bends under the strength of reputation (earned by "good work" or unearned by association and / or tacit sanctioning by those who have done "good work"). And I now believe that as an individual operating responsibly in this sphere, I have to be aware of any and all potential abilities I have to legitimately (ie. without lying, cheating or unfairly manipulating the situation in any way) exert whatsoever influence I might have in order to stop what I perceive to be morally wrong, corrupt politics, cheap argument and potentially warmongering. (And yes - if you're beginning to catch on - I am again talking about warbloggers). I think I've come up with something that I believe to be appropriate action in these circumstances, and it's to do with the responsibilities of being linked to...

    At the moment one very specific site is in my mind. This site, which I will not link to, links to a considerable number of intelligent and interesting people. Many of whom don't share the politics or attitude of the man in question. Each one of these people is in a situation to act in such a way that would demonstrate their profound disagreement with those views simply by dint of their link being on his page. What I'm suggesting is that there is a power that comes with being linked to - and it's a power that one should not only be aware of, but should feel the responsibility to employ - whether by sending a simple e-mail askind the link to be removed ("I do not wish to be associated with the bile-ridden drivel on your site"), or more proactively and campaigningly by using an .htaccess file or something similar to serve up a page which declares that you refuse to be associated with the views of the person whose site you've just left.

    It's not a lot, I know, but it's the first thing that I can think of that actually represents some kind of weblogging 'direct action' - some kind of (almost negligible at the individual scale) gravitational influence that can be exerted by a site to act in such a way that it makes itself known as protesting without driving additional traffic to the thing they're protesting about... And the best thing about it is that it's entirely non-violent, non-flaming, non-confrontational. It's a kind of passive politics - refusal to participate - refusal to allow yourself to be referenced - a bizarre kind of work-to-rule... The power of the inbound link should not be ignored...

    PS. To clarify, maybe I can give a couple of examples... Let's say a site links to yours that is homophobic - not a specific link to a specific page, but rather a general blog-rolling style link. To mention that site - to link to it - will promote their agenda, give them more page impressions, more people reading the crap they write. So what you could do instead is use an .htaccess file to shunt them through to a site that debunks myths about being gay.

    Follow-ups:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to fill a 5Gb iPod... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 10/27/2002 10:57:46 PM ----- BODY:

    So here's what the thing would be if I were really bored and absurdly anal on a Sunday early-evening... As an iPod early-adopter, I may be the last person left in the Western hemisphere with a mere 5Gb to fill. And I've ripped nearly 12Gb of my own albums onto my computer. So I clearly have a problem here - how do I choose what to put onto it? Of the 2822 songs currently on my Mac, only 535 songs have yet to be rated (star ratings out of five - rating songs is the new 'alphabetising my record collection'), and these include several new albums I've bought recently along with some older stuff that I don't really want to write off just yet, but at the same time can't really say that I've demonstrated much inclination to listen to either...

    There are several considerations - one being the highly frustrating way that the iTunes randomise function only randomises the first time you make a playlist - so you can't have one list that changes dynamically. This is highly frustrating.

    Quickly - some dumb figures: 5 star songs: 281, 4 star songs: 991, 3 star songs: 691, 2 star songs: 286, 1 star songs: 38. In principle the scoring mechanism that has evolved works like this - I would not be averse to listening to at any time any song that gets three to five stars. Two star songs are an irritation. One star songs are just irredeemably awful. One star songs are mostly from Moby's "18" or represent the most self-indulgent of The Magnetic Fields' oeuvre... Other considerations to bear in mind - classical music is interesting, but not always ideal for listening to on the bus or down the street, I add new music all the time and wish it to be represented on my iPod before I have had the chance to assign it a rating, humourous songs often become less humourous after a fairly short amount of time. There are many many other criteria in play here as well - so many in fact that ideally I would need someone to do some comprehensive analysis on the subject and return to me with a set of criteria that one could use as a basis for evolving appropriate smart playlists. Here's my attempt so far...

    This feels a bit Open University-esque. It's an almost total waste of weblog space as well. Except that I am serious - if someone out there has done some research into these things I'm sure that a company like Apple would be interested... A default 'my music collection' playlist that intuited what kind of things you actually wanted to carry around with you (with whatever obscure algorithm it used) would probably be quite appealing to some people...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Regarding the responsibility of linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/28/2002 10:47:10 AM ----- BODY:

    An excerpt from an e-mail I sent yesterday - partially adapted for publishing on plasticbag.org- explaining why I think we need a campaigning or protest tool in excess of the simple publishing of opinions - perhaps along the lines of my proposed inbound link strategy...

    Basically, I'm trying to work out if there is some kind of direct action or demonstration that one can do within the blogosphere other than simply express one's opinions. I'm looking for another approach because of this double-bind: if you link to a person with extreme views in order to debunk them, then to an extent you're actually promoting them - you're sending traffic to them, you're giving their views a certain legitimacy. But if you don't link to them, and you don't publically talk about them, then aren't you like the man who lets evil flourish through his inaction? What's the right thing to do?

    I'm certainly not trying to set up rules of governance of the internet or regulate it - I'm just suggesting that if free speech is the only political tool at our disposal, then we'll inevitably end up with people having to shout more and more loudly in order to be heard at all. The ambient volume therefore just escalates and drowns out more nuanced, less absolutist or dogmatic attitudes. It should be possible to express ones dissent (or horror) with some kind of silence, sit-in or direct action - something maybe a bit like the Beatles returning their MBE's to Buckingham Palace...

    Obviously this is not to say that the specific tactics I suggested are necessarily appropriate or the right way to go, but I think the motivation behind the idea is a good one, and I'd be interested in anyone else's suggestions...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: London poster inspires a total lack of confidence in the world... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/28/2002 02:59:14 PM ----- BODY:

    I've had issues with the levels of surveillance that are appearing in the UK for quite a while now. When I lived in Hampstead I remember remarking that there was no point between my front door and my desk at work where I was not on at least one camera. Every so often someone decides to celebrate the terrifying amount of cameras around us all and hey normally do that with a poster telling us all how safe we are now that we're continually examined. Just recently a new poster started appearing around London, and frankly it's terrifying beyond measure. It looks like the cover of a 1950s alien-invasion novel, and drips with the sentiments of 1984's Big Brother posters. But it's difficult to know what to complain about - the poster itself is more than a little distasteful, but at least it's triggering a little alarm from liberal parts of the country. Without it we'd probably accept this stuff without a second thought...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh for god's sake... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/28/2002 04:36:45 PM ----- BODY:

    With regard to the people who are slamming my comments on 'the power of the incoming link' [1 & 2] - could I just clarify that I was not talking about Stephen Den Beste... The theory - that the non-specific warblogger that I've referred to recently was Mr Den Beste - was first taken up I think by Flit and has now spread to a number of other sites, including Instapundit and Bitchpundit. Each of these sites has its own particularly charming stance on what I've said. But it's all based on a false assumption, I'm afraid, because I wasn't talking about him at all... As such I'm going to take Flit's statement at face value and accept that the misunderstanding was not intentional and accept his pre-emptive apology...

    There are a few things that I clearly still have to clarify... I'm talking about individuals having a different way to campaign for what they believe in - whatever 'what they believe in' might be. The fact that I'm left-of-centre clearly informs the things that I feel strongly about - the things that I'm prepared to campaign for. But essentially all I'm looking for is a way for a community of individuals to have more influence - more, but equal influence - on each other because I think that there have to be campaigning techniques that operate in addition to argument or debate... If you're not convinced by the techniques I suggested, then that's ok... I'm not trying to present a fait accompli...

    One of the things that people have talked about is how I'm trying to restrict people's freedom of expression so that only people who agree with my particular brand of politics can be heard. This is simply, bluntly, once and for all, just wrong. I believe that everyone should be able to stand up for what they believe in - I'm just suggesting a way in which people can do that. The approach I've suggested might be hideously flawed, but it doesn't stop the individual concerned writing what they want on their site, nor does it stop anyone else linking to them. So i can't see how it interferes with their freedom of speech at all, or how it isolates them. All it does it give some people a public way to register their protest without writing about it (and thus in a way promoting it) on their own sites.

    I've had a lot of feedback on some of this stuff, and it's been fairly mixed - the more sober stuff has been the most interesting - some people view it as a useful and poweful kind of protest, others think of it as against the idea of the web as a discursive space, and others think that such a view gives legal credibility to people who want to control incoming links to their commercial sites. Some of these I agree with - some of them I don't... I've been less thrilled with the responses from people whose level of argument has been to criticise my teeth though or who describe anything they don't agree with as "Saudi-Arabian-style". My favourite one of these comments though has been the one that describes me as having, "a serious inferiority complex when it comes to learning from [my] moral and intellectual superiors." I quite liked that one...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the usurpation of a screening of Donnie Darko... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 10/30/2002 11:25:21 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't even count the amount of times recently that I've written about the movie Donnie Darko. I'm obsessed by it, it's clear. But now you have the chance to get obsessed with it too, and I'm going to help you do it. No, I'm not going to pay for it. No, I'm not going to rub your ears and hold the popcorn while you watch it. Instead I'm inviting you all to come and see it with me, and with all the other loony friends that I've got that happened to be available on the same night. And the night? Tomorrow. Halloween.

    Well that's actually slightly innaccurate. In fact what's actually happening is that Barbelith is inviting you to experience Donnie Darko Movie Madness tomorrow night. We're going to claim the whole cinema for cool people, nice people, fun people - you know... my people. I'm totally serious about this.. It's a great film and you're all more than welcome - you're expected to attend. And after the movie? Some kind of drinking, I should think... Yes definitely... A drink. Maybe several...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A weekend in Norfolk... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2002 11:50:24 AM ----- BODY:

    A weekend away from London is one thing - a weekend with the family is quite another. You never know whether it'll be pleasant or nightmarish. Will it end with smiles or scowls? It was nearly a disaster before I even arrived. The trip across London was a nightmare in rain and public transport, and I missed my train by thirty seconds. The next train was double the price, and some bloody woman who had claimed two seats glared at me when I asked if I could sit down for the two hour journey... Halfway through the journey - an hour away from Norwich, I took a picture of Colchester station...

    The following day we decided to go to the beach. My memories of the North Norfolk coast basically revolve around my step-father trying to get me to swim in the North Sea and it being cold and rainy. So I was a little grudging about the plan, but we all piled into the car nonetheless and drove north...

    My suspicion had evaporated by the time we reached Brancaster. The day was beautiful, and the sky - the thing I miss most of all in London - was, well, everywhere. My mother and brother wandered off in one direction...

    ... while my father took the dog off for a bit of a paddle ...

    The beach was almost empty - there was a couple playing with a kite, and some people walking a couple of dogs on the horizon. But for the most part, there was nothing for miles around us in every direction... Even looking away from the beach...

    My brother has an incredible throwing arm. He can launch a tennis ball into orbit, throwing at least twice as far as any of the rest of us can manage. Our dog - Tango - loves this, and will run backwards and forwards for hours and hours, fetching ball after ball...

    At the high-water mark, the beach was crunchy with shells...

    After a while we stumbled upon some mud-flats... It's easy to walk on mud-flats for about twenty seconds, and then all the grippy parts of your shoes fill with clay and crap, which makes the soles of your shoes feel like huge slippy pats of butter, only black...

    Some of the mud-flats rise up into creases by some kind of weird natural process. If you get close to them and photograph them close-up, they start to resemble hills, mountains and canyons...

    Anyway - no walk can last forever, so we turned to head back to the restaurant, only to be confronted by one of the most beautiful skies I'd ever seen...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the third birthday of plasticbag.org... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/2002 12:14:04 PM ----- BODY:

    On Friday morning, plasticbag.org reached the age of three years old. It seems like a fairly major milestone to me - maybe three years is the time when you begin to think to yourself, "Is this actually something I'm going to be doing for the foreseeable future - maybe for the rest of my life?" A scary thought...

    If you're interested enough - and god knows why you would be - you can still read the first weblog post I ever made over a thousand days ago... A thousand days... It would be good to be able to say that I'd posted almost every day of that time, but since I've just bunked off for almost a week, I think that might seem a bit cheeky...

    So what's happened over the last three years? What have I accomplished? I've met loads of new friends. I've gone from starting work at Time Out to being Production Editor of their website, through to unemployment, helping out on TCN, working on an education site for Europeans and Ethiopians and building a community for the BBC. Now I'm at UpMyStreet.com. I've had a couple of different relationships - mostly disasterous. I've sapped around quite a bit - as if there was a storm-cloud perpetually around me, and bounced around like a puppy for much briefer, but much more memorable, amounts of time.

    I've written an awful lot of crap on my site, but I've also written odds and ends that I'll always be able to keep and look at and be proud of. I've also pissed any number of people off. Which probably suggests I'm doing something right...

    So where to go from here? God knows. I'd be lying if I said I never got bored of thinking of something to offer up to the world each day. I do. Show me another three-year vintage weblogger that doesn't feel that occasionally. I don't think the future will contain as much about my personal life, because I think after a while the more you write about something, the thinner it gets... It's like you wear it out. After a while you want something that's just for you - that's yours alone and that you share with no one. I've already been writing less and less about what I do away from the computer... So I think the future probably lies more in the ideas that I have, or the opinions that I need to express. Maybe that's the direction that weblogging itself will be taking as the huge Blogger Boom generation of the last two years settles down and tries to find a sense of purpose for their sites - a reason to keep writing every day. I can only hope that'll be interesting enough to keep you guys sticking around...

    In the meantime, thanks for coming and I'll see you all in three years time... xx Tom

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblogs and Journalism (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 11/05/2002 11:05:29 AM ----- BODY: Last month - along with many other people - I agreed to participate in a questionaire about the relationship between weblog publishing and online journalism. I'll be putting my responses online as I finish each major section of the questionaire. Today - it's about my personal experience of weblogging... 1a) Can you give some details about how long youve been writing your weblog, how much you write, whether anyone else contributes to it? I've been writing plasticbag.org for just over three years now. I write something almost every day, to the extent that I've probably only missed thirty or forty days in total over that period. No one else contributes to it - except in the form of friends suggesting links to me or me sourcing links and/or things I wish to talk about from other sites (at which point, where possible, credit is given). Guest-blogging - where someone takes over your site while you go on holiday - is something that I've never understood or allowed to happen on plasticbag.org (although I have on occasion guest-blogged for other people). 1b) What motivated you to start? Has your motivation changed? The motivation to start was a desire for novelty - nothing more or less. Three years ago there wasn't any kind of inter-weblogging 'culture' of any kind. At the time, I was much more interested in assembling little projects or micro-sites and seeing if people came to them. Occasionally I'd make a stab at something larger - like The Bomb - but I'd never really thought of (or even heard of) weblogs. When I bought my first domain, I put some of the sites that I had developed on some subdirectories, but I didn't have anything to put on the front of the site. I think I managed somehow to get exposed to evhead.com or kottke.org (I was a complete follower of Jason's 0sil8.com work, which I still love) and through them found Blogger. At that point I think I literally went, "Well why the hell not stick this up... It's quick and easy and it doesn't particularly matter if no one looks at the damn thing..." Within a couple of months it was the busiest thing (in terms of page-views and in terms of the response I was getting over e-mail) I'd ever done. My motivation for running the site has changed a lot over the years. Initially I think the freedom of being able to talk about your life completely freely and without any anxiety that anyone you know will ever find out was tremendously liberating. I think a lot of people who start off with weblogging as a form of personal publishing feel that way. But that's almost inevitably doomed, since unless you're very isolationist and incredibly careful about your identity, at some point your on and offline lives inevitably merge to some extent. You tell a couple of friends in real life, or people you meet online start to become more important to you. At some point you have to start acting with a bit of discretion. I think for many people (and I count myself among them), even if you didn't start your site as a way to have 'a voice' of some kind, that soon becomes the reason to maintain it. People feel pretty disenfranchised from the world around them - mostly their voices - their opinions - don't really matter in the slightest. Weblogs - for good or ill - make people feel that they're being listened to - that their opinions matter. If that was all they did, then I'd say that was enough - but sometimes these opinions are actually useful or well-informed or reflect a kind of expertise you don't often see in the mainstream media - and then you're actually doing something useful that helps the world or pushes a creative process further. 1c) How has your weblog changed, in style or content, over time? I've answered many of these questions above, but clearly yes. Graphically it's changed a lot - the design has gone further into the background, but more importantly the content has changed from undirected rantings to a less personal and more commentary/ideas-based type of writing. I feel I've moved from writing a diary or journal to writing a kind of fragmentary column. Other people manage this transition (if they make it) in different ways - some, like Meg from NotSoSoft have shifted from diary to a kind of lifestyle / creative writing column. 1d) Has blogging changed the ways or extent that you relate to public events and issues? Yes. Absolutely. Totally. In the sense that if an event seems particularly significant to me, or I think I have something to add to the debate surrounding it, then now I feel I can write something about it - something that might have some meaning for someone other than just myself. The sense of political impotence is reduced - there is finally something to do that's between talking about it to friends and going on a march! I think it's really that simple. That's not to say that you can or will always react to every news story that comes along. A huge number of webloggers just didn't know what to say or do when the World Trade Center came crashing down. For all the people talking about their experiences, there were others who couldn't put finger to keyboard - didn't feel qualified or entitled to comment... But at least these are now personal decisions. We can choose when to be silent... Next: Ideas of weblogs as journalism ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: In which Tom publishes his responses to an e-mail survey about the relationship between weblog publishing and online journalism. Part one is about my personal experience of weblogging and my motivations for writing... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brenda EMAIL: brenda@brendastardom.com IP: 217.70.64.232 URL: http://brendastardom.com DATE: 11/28/2002 01:48:02 PM This was interesting to find. I began my site as an online extension of satirical or not-so-satrical radio reports I did in the 80's. I have a real news background, but I hate mainstream news. I'm embarassed by the beginning posts, but I'm getting back up to speed, finding myself writing a column, very politically slanted, but written in a way that causes a laugh and some long hmmmm's. I view it as a column, as there's nothing about my personal life. It's about world issues taken from another angle, but somehow I've gone into bloglandia, blogs linking to me and that's really flattering to the point of my wondering what I'm really doing. I guess it depends. Column, blog, whatever, as long as the message gets out there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@turbonerd.com IP: 63.239.99.187 URL: http://www.turbonerd.com DATE: 01/06/2003 08:26:08 PM I've wrestled with this question myself over the years, and my site's gone through several iterations and designs as I've tried to make sense of juat what it was I was trying to accomplish with it. Suddenly I find using the word "column" to describe it clarifies things substantially. Thanks. =) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Weblogs and Journalism (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/2002 11:12:56 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been asked to participate in a survey about weblogs and journalism and, since it's quite a detailed survey inviting lengthy responses, I've decided to put my replies online as a series of micro-articles. The first one goes up today, and is mostly concerned with my personal relationship to weblogs and my reasons for maintaining one...

    On Weblogs and Journalism (Part One)
    People feel pretty disenfranchised from the world around them - mostly their voices - their opinions - don't really matter in the slightest. Weblogs - for good or ill - make people feel that they're being listened to - that their opinions matter. If that was all they did, then I'd say that was enough...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Barbelith, cameras and going to Norfolk... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/2002 11:11:54 AM ----- BODY:

    More observant plasticbag.org punters may have noticed that there's been a new addition to the gallery: A weekend in Norfolk.

    Some of you might be wondering how this happened... "How did Tom," you might ask, "take all these lovely photographs of Norfolk beaches and skies when his camera was stolen only a few weeks ago?"

    Losing my camera really upset me. It was bought for me by some of my closest friends and some of my favourite web people - really really sweet friends who clubbed together for my thirtieth birthday. So when it was stolen it was as if someone had smeared mud all over one of my favourite memories. I was gutted.

    Anyway - time passed and then suddenly out of the blue without any warning whatsoever I found a paypal payment for $400 in my inbox complete with a link to this web-page. All my friends on Barbelith had clubbed together to replace not only the camera, but to claim the memory back as well... I'd had absolutely no idea whatsoever - they'd conducted all their business on an invisible Barbelith ghost thread!

    So now I have a twice-bought camera saturated with happy memories of my thirtieth birthday and valued friends - only now it's enhanced by an incredible act of charity from a group of lovely Barbelites... You couldn't have asked for a better gift...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing... UpMyStreet Conversations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 11/06/2002 05:29:42 PM ----- BODY:

    So I can finally tell the world what I've been working on for the last few months - and in fact, more to the point, I can finally try and get some of you people to try it out.

    UpMyStreet Conversations is a new kind of online community site for the UK. In some ways it's almost anti-web. Where the web has "traditionally" been about uniting people on the basis of shared interests no matter where they live in the world, this site takes as its first assumption that people who live nea one another already have at least one shared interest - their local environment... But this interest is increasingly not catered for - people in cities are talking less and less to one another. In fact most of us barely communicate with our neighbours at all. And the vasy majority of the social spaces that we all used to share have been dismantled or evaporated. So how can we expect communities self-organise? And how are they expected to join together politically? How can they protest about problems where they live?

    So this is the cool bit - it works on a really simple principle that scales and adapts really well to changes in posting. And while it's geographically based, it's not based on legislative or government boundaries. And a lack of population density doesn't mean you'll be sitting in an empty board with no one to talk to, either, because the posts you see reflects your local population density...

    Well anyway... I'm not going to go into too much detail at the moment, because it should be pretty self-explanatory and i want to see how people engage with it... Let me know what you think...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple news, oh Apple news, oh sweet sexy Apple news... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2002 02:40:55 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been thinking of buying an iBook for well over a year now. Well over. Maybe like two years or something. And now Apple have announced that they're dropping the prices (substantially) and upping the specs a bit. And the lust is overwhelming. I genuinely need one now. It's like a craving. It's beyond a craving. It's like a biological urge. I'm like a salmon being pulled upstream by an instinct so strong that I'm prepared to risk being pulled out of the river on a small piece of string, be gutted, coated in breadcrumbs and fed to some over-bited inbred Appallachian teen hairdresser-wannabe. That's how much I need one.

    In related news, Anakin Skywalker tired of the Jedi's blue-sword-of-death and decided to switch to a more idiosyncratic and stylish brand, Apple have released a Powerbook that could outrace Superman and also burns DVDs, and I really really want an iBook.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Americans and America... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/2002 05:44:22 PM ----- BODY:

    So we wake up to a world in which G.W. Bush has more power than ever, which is not a world that feels any safer to me. Across the world the rather resigned expectation is that the USA will be even less interested in the views of the international community than before - even as a new book is published that aims to explain to Americans why the world isn't entirely thrilled by the behaviour of their government:

    How the world sees Americans
    "I was surprised that people were really able -- and I heard this repeatedly -- to distinguish between America and Americans. There's America in the sense of the official government and the military. That official face of America in the world is not very well liked. And then there's Americans -- the people of the country, the ideals of the country, our popular culture. It was quite a sophisticated view, I thought, considering that they are very far away. Yes, America is in their face all the time, but the part of America that is in their face is that official part. They were able to still say, but you know, we love Americans and we love what you stand for. I heard that over and over again from all different walks of life and all different parts of the world."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some of my favourite UpMyStreet Conversations STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2002 10:02:43 AM ----- BODY:

    UpMyStreet Conversations is starting to pick up now, which means that I can start directing people to some of the best and most useful threads that I'm finding on it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Awesome Clay Shirky... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 11/08/2002 07:07:44 PM ----- BODY:

    So Matt Webb and I went to a talk-followed-by-panel held by the iSociety people today. The feature performance was the awesome Clay Shirky, with support from a variety of charming panelists, including weblogging's own Matt Jones.

    The panel was essentially about the next level of community software and community sites online. Interestingly, though, the word "community" was almost totally unused through the whole occasion. Perhaps for reasons I don't as yet understand, that word has become suddenly unfashionable. Instead we were talking about "social software".

    But the nomenclature is essentially trivial. Clay's talk was extraordinarily fun for me, because he was working over areas that I've been thinking about and working around for the last couple of years now - how do we take community functionality and sites to the next level, what parts of our assumptions and utopian dreamings about online community must we give up, and what should we keep in mind while designing the interactions for the next five-ten years?

    I've got my own theories about a lot of this stuff - much of which I'm going to try and assemble into 'publishable' form over the weekend. In the meantime, here's a micro-summary of Clay's piece:

    1. We live at the beginning of a third golden age of social software.
      1. E-mail
      2. IRC / MUDs / MOOs / Usenet
        (The Web erupts here, but is primarily a publishing medium rather than an interactive one)
      3. Now Weblogs / Wikis / Trackback / Jabber & Groove / Slashdot-style collaborative filtering
    2. But where will we be in 5-7 years time?
    3. Blocks to the development of next-stage communities
      1. We have the wrong historical models and exotic "extremist" ideologies:
        1. The suggestion that the web should represent a shift or collapse in "identity"
        2. The need to prove purity of 'online culture' by foregrounding immersive MUDs and MOOs
        3. Assumption (because of scarcity of humans online) that we would be using this technology to meet people we didn't know offline
      2. We have the wrong assumptions about real-life groups:
        1. We assume that a group is the same as a collection of individuals
        2. We assume (utopian) that membership should be totally open
        3. We assume that a group should be able to function the same with ten people or ten million people in it
    4. We are ill-served by the current metaphor of architecture and space, instead we should consider the construction of social software as like building a ship:
      1. Ships are places where people come together
      2. ... but they come together in order to get somewhere
    5. Groups tend towards self-sabotage, they do so because behind every "sophisticated" workgroup ostensibly designed to accomplish a specific goal, "basic" group strategies are secretly persuing very different ones. These are
      1. helping people to find mates
      2. identifying and uniting against enemies
      3. venerating or idolising a figure, institution or ideology.
    6. Clay's suggestion for improving social software:
      1. Design social software that is half-space and half-tool (help people figure out when they've run aground or accomplished something).
      2. Make the formation of a constitution a fundamental part of creating a community space.

    This concept of "constitutions" is something that's very close to my own concept of the politics of social software - something that I'm working on writing up at this very moment and the first part of which is apparent in the way Barbelith hangs together...

    More: Matt Webb i) writes about the day and ii) publishes his plain-text notes.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For the love of God, won't someone listen to... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/2002 09:21:14 PM ----- BODY:

    If you're looking for the intelligent post, you need to skip straight past this one, because I'm only mucking around in it. Okay? Anyway... I know I'm a big whore when it comes to getting stuff through my sites. It's not something that I'm proud of (he lied), but it seems to be the case. But really - I don't want to be greedy! I know when to stop with the begging. But having said that, of course, it's always possible that I'm a vile, scheming, greedy bastard who thinks, for the love of God, won't someone listen to Jeremy?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Suggestions for an application to auto ID3 things... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2002 10:00:50 AM ----- BODY:

    You know what would be incredibly useful? A little application that you could run on a whole batch of MP3s that tried to work out what they are based on length and any text that was in the ID3 tags. So you'd grab all your MP3s that weren't fully tagged up and you'd chuck em all in a folder. You'd get your ID3alizer and set it to work. It would have song length information and a set of search terms that it could run against each one of them (derived from whatever dysfunctional tags you had to work with, if any), starting with the artist. It would then present you with a screen that had the current ID3 tags on the left and the suggested replacements on the right with a simple 'Is this correct? Yes / No' set of functioning criteria. If it wasn't correct, it'd just suggest the second alternative. Stick a track preview button on the same screen (to remind you what the track is if you've forgotten) and you'd have an incredibly useful little application.

    Useful related links: CityofSound says: "Sounds like it might work nicely as a brute-force, lo-fi (cheap!) alternative (or precursor) to the collaborative-expert-based service I outlined previously."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the simple joys of designing favicons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2002 07:10:18 PM ----- BODY:

    There's no need for favicons. No need at all. They're normally badly designed, they extend page design into the application itself (which I think is probably wrong) and they make your favourites menus all messy. Nonetheless, they are extraordinarily good fun to design - tiny little micro-branding-projects in 16x16 pixels that don't take long and can be strangely satisfying. All this I discover years after everyone else of course. You can see the new favicons on this site, Barbelith and on the never-was-finally-build project, filmsoho.com...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The history of one of the main UK weblogging communities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/2002 09:39:32 PM ----- BODY:

    I've just stumbled upon a fascinating piece by Dan Hon which goes into considerable detail about the way in which the UK weblogging scene evolved a community of sorts - a community that not every UK weblogger is a part of, but a community of and for webloggers anyway. To my knowledge, this is the first time this micro-history has been written down and published on a site and it may be of interest to anyone who cares about the ways in which stuff that happens online solidifies into matter and then collapses into real-life communities. One of the most interesting aspects of the article is that it posits that often the community (or the potentiality for community) radically predates the tool or forum used to facilitate it. Related posts: I talk about what it means to be part of a community | Meg writes about community versus community tools.

    From Dan: "Would anyone say that a community existed? Possibly. Maybe not quite just yet. What you would be able to say, though, is that there existed an arbitrary set of people, say, people who write blogs and live in the UK, who were on the tentative cusp of actually starting to talk to each other on a regular basis - they hadn't yet got organised."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Absolute Bottom 50 Urban Legends... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2002 11:48:01 AM ----- BODY:

    The Absolute Bottom 50 Urban Legends (number 17): "This buddy of mine who works in San Francisco - he knows this guy who worked for a DotCom company that wrote a business plan, broke even, cut costs, and is on the road to profitability!" [via Mr Webb]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God Bless You, Mr Vonnegut... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2002 12:12:45 PM ----- BODY:

    One of my favourite authors is Kurt Vonnegut. One of his favourite authors is Kilgore Trout. Kilgore Trout is what Kurt Vonnegut would be if life was a ludicrous joke and reality was one of Kurt Vonnegut books. Kilgore Trout writes stories. Mostly they're quite short. And thanks to a link from a nice chap on Metafilter you can now read all of Kilgore Trout's stories without the laborious time expenditure of reading Kurt Vonnegut's short, devastating and brilliant novels. My favourite goes like this:

       In 2BR0TB [Kilgore Trout] hypothecated an America in which almost all of the work was done by machines, and the only people who could get work had three or more Ph.D's. There was a serious overpopulation problem, too.

       All serious diseases had been conquered. So death was voluntary, and the government, to encourage volunteers for death, set up a purple-roofed Ethical Suicide Parlor at every major intersection, right next door to an orange-roofed Howard Johnson's. There were pretty hostesses in the parlor, and Barca-Loungers, and Muzak, and a choice of fourteen painless ways to die. The suicide parlors were busy places, because so many people felt silly and pointless, and because it was supposed to be an unselfish, patriotic thing to do, to die. The suicides also got free last meals next door.

       And so on. Trout had a wonderful imagination.

       One of the characters asked a death stewardess if he would go to Heaven, and she told him that of course he would. He asked if he would see God, and she said, "Certainly, honey."

       And he said, "I sure hope so. I want to ask Him something I never was able to find out down here."

       "What's that?" she said, strapping him in.

       "What the hell are people for?"
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On iBlog and the potential of an Apple-designed desktop weblogging iApp called "iJournal"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/2002 12:51:26 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know whether to be delighted or grumpy about iBlog - the new weblogging software package for Mac OSX. I'm delighted because I've been thinking about how you might develop something very much like it. And I'm grumpy because I've been thinking about how you might develop something very much like it. Do you see how that works? In fact, I spent a good couple of days working on a design / concept mock-up of how I thought such an application should work. This work is now essentially useless. Still never mind.

    Nonetheless, here are some of my thoughts about desktop weblogging applications:

    For more debate and discussion e-mail me or post a comment to the Blogroots thread, which I will check on regularly...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Gore Vidal Observer Article in full... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2002 01:16:24 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm posting a link to the Gore Vidal Observer article that was published a few weeks ago. At this point I'm going to take the cowardly option and declare up front that I'm not posting it because I either agree with it or disagree with it - in fact, on the vast majority of key points I'm far from able to confirm or deny any of the facts or opinions stated - but simply because I have as yet not seen it published anywhere online. Again - it may have been put online by someone weeks ago, and I may have simply missed it. So here it is: Gore Vidal on the enemy.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being drier than the driest thing ever... (On Gore Vidal)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2002 04:25:46 PM ----- BODY:

    This relates to my earlier post today, particularly with reference to the Gore Vidal article which a friend and colleague was reading out loud to me. The friend concerned finished reading out a particularly horrifying bit and then said, "And it's Gore Vidal... Gore Vidal!" At which point, for some reason, in a completely flat and apparently innocent tone - with nary a trace of eyebrow flicker, I replied, "I rather think that gay people should restrict their opinions to interior design and clothes and leave matters of international politics to heterosexual men, don't you?" The fraction of a second of stunned silence was truly transcendent.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Web design masterclass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/12/2002 05:00:53 PM ----- BODY:

    So I've been being all creative recently. First I redesigned Venusberg.org for Dan, and then Phil and I helped out Mr Webb with his CSS. Designing Dan's site was particularly interesting for me - it's my first design that's based entirely around typography (although of course that doesn't mean that some of the typography isn't rendered as an image). Mostly I'm very happy with it, except a few irritations have crept in - there aren't enough date formats for me in Blogger, so that doestn't look as classy as I might have liked - and there are some irritations with the way it translates line breaks as well that meant I couldn't do the half-em paragraph breaks that I wanted. But otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it and I hope he will be too... My favourite part? The font for the logo is based on the letters at the base of Trajan's column...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you wear clothes? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2002 03:28:32 PM ----- BODY:

    This was pointed out by a friend of mine. It seems now that Amazon is so worried about offending it's naturist clientele that it refuses to even imply that all its customers might be wearing clothes. More worrying is the concept that you can buy unclean underwear from the web's largest online store. And perhaps more disturbing still is that the customers who buy this stuff are the same customers that decided to buy Licence to Kill on DVD. The image of Bond-watching, clean-underwear-sniffing, spy-lovin' naturists is almost enough to put me off my fascinating daily workload...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which I respond to a huge post about social software with a huge post about social software... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 11/13/2002 11:29:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Must-read interaction/community techblog of the moment is City of Sound, a site that I found initially via the Slipknot be-hoodied Matt Jones. Our two otherwise independent vectors of interest have recently collided quite heavily around MP3s, list-making and social software, with - I think - some quite interesting results. Our latest interaction is around the issue of social capital - which is a current hot topic of debate around government and online community circles, and which I've been working on (in a kind of weirdly indirect way) on UpMyStreet Conversations. Dan (the author) has taken me to task quite reasonably about this statement that I made recently:

    "(P)eople in cities are talking less and less to one another. In fact most of us barely communicate with our neighbours at all. And the vast majority of the social spaces that we all used to share have been dismantled or evaporated. So how can we expect communities self-organise? And how are they expected to join together politically? How can they protest about problems where they live?"

    In Dan's response he suggests that technology has already started to rebuild these communities of geography and that I was being over-dramatic to talk about all communication in cities being in a process of freefall decline. He is of course, completely right - and I have gone into astonishingly dreary detail over on his site in response. In fact when I clicked 'submit' it occurred to me that I'd written so much that it might have made a better post on plasticbag.org - so I'm going to append it below in full. Forgive any typos or bad grammar - I'll have a second look at it tomorrow and fix the most obviously horrific mistakes...

    Actually you're completely right, but I think if we look at these things in terms of their recent history alone we might lose some perspective. I'm going to go for a bit of a trip on a hypothesis-rocket now, so please bear with me if it seems based on completely anecdotal and speculative evidence - I'm about to read Putnam's "Bowling Alone" about the decline in social capital in the States. Maybe that that point I'll be in a better position to talk about this stuff...

    At this thing on social capital and social software that I went to the other day with Matt Webb from Interconnected.org people were talking about this decline in interactions in cities and urban spaces. People were debating the reasons for it, the connections between take up of "virtual online communities" and "interest communities" and the like - and some were in fact debating the existence of such a decline.

    I'm going to contend that there has been such a decline in interactions and the extent to which we know our neighbours, but I'm going to argue that this isn't an effect of technology like the internet - it's an effect instead of technologies like television, technologies like the car and having a more mobile work-force. I'm also going to argue that it has something to do with population density and the impermanence of habitation for some people. So essentially I'm pushing this decline back over the last hundred years or so, rather than the last ten years. And I wouldn't want to argue that everyone has experienced it either - I grew up in a village in the countryside where everyone knows everyone. So it's not universal. But I think certainly in urban spaces it is a very real fact...

    From what you've written above, it looks like my statements have been interpreted to mean that I think such a social decline is an inevitable effect of the technologies we've been using and that UpMyStreet Conversations represents (finally) a solution. But actually that's miles from what I think. What I would argue is that rather than exacerbating the social decline, the internet (unlike many one-to-one communication technology) has finally started to reform the social fabric - to bring back communication between people on the basis of interest groups (and what could be a greater interest group than people interested in the area in which they live - now available to people without the social danger and anxiety of actual and immediate physical interaction). In fact I think I'd argue that the take up of this technology - of the community stuff of the internet - reflects a gap in our lives - a need for it - that previous decay in social capital has created.

    In a nutshell... Social interactions based on neighbourhood have been deteriorating for decades - particularly in highly transitory urban areas. New technologies have connected us with huger, but more distributed interest communities, and have recently begun to facilitate and enhance those limited local geographical interactions that we still have left. And there is now a tremendous human need left unfulfilled that we can now meet. And UMS Conversations is one way for us to help do that... I think..
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a short post to compensate for the really long one - with the express purpose of giving Cal something to read, since I know he gets bored easy.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2002 11:37:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I finished reading Elements of Typographic Style a couple of weeks ago now, and I've not stopped raving about it since. It's truly a stunning book - a bible of technique - that encompasses the whole range of typographical behaviours from the appropriate use of hyphens, the most functional and effective page layouts through to a detailed examination of elements of individual type-faces, glyphs and the art of being respectful to the writing you are type-setting... More importantly, I think it gives a degree of insight into a man's belief in the integrity, intelligence and quiet dignity of artisanship - which is something that may sometimes seem inflexible and uncreative, but which is a sure mark of absolute and total quality. Very much recommended.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On writer's block... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/2002 11:43:53 PM ----- BODY:

    You'd never know it to look at the amount of writing I'm currently pumping through plasticbag.org at the moment, but I'm currently experiencing a fairly alarming creative block. I have three pieces of longer writing on the go at the moment - three pieces that are addressing issues that I often write about on this site (the relationship between personal and mainstream publishing, the relationship between weblogs and journalism, and the implicit politics of the discussion board). None of them are going well. Each and every one of them is in my head in an essentially complete form, but there's something between my mind and my fingers that is interfering with their transcription. This is yet another one of the reasons I left academia - because the process of writing became a painful and difficult one - a situation rife with angst in it's literal Old High German sense... Eurgh...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Tom's Ten Tip Top Tunes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/2002 12:40:03 AM ----- BODY:

    Ten Tip Top Tunes for Tom: Being a list of songs that I'm listening to over and over again at the moment and which if you had less conscience and were prepared to (immorally) steal music through some kind of file-sharing application, you should probably download immediately. Bearing in mind that I couldn't countenance such behaviour obviously.

    1. Lonesome Tears, by Beck
      The most played song I own (says Mr iTunes), Lonesome Tears has been played about a gajillion times since Sea Change was released last month. Best song on the album. Wonderful.
    2. Temptation, Heaven 17
      I miss power pop like this - escalating chords in this song quite alarmingly resemble the end of Lonesome Tears. I always wonder if the woman who belts out the twirly bits was brought in afterwards to spice up a slightly boring song or not...
    3. Nutbush City Limits, Tina Turner
      Because post-Ike Tina Turner may have been a great big-haired 80s power balladeer, but 70s Tina Turner was a spiky hardcore edgy song-belter with enough spine to scale many a dinosaur.
    4. Poplife, Prince
      Liking Prince only became a crime when Prince's music became criminally awful. I'd suggest this was when he started thieving from temples. Personal opinion of course - many people like his crapper work. Nonetheless, there's got to be a place in life for Pop Life. Because life it ain't too funky. Unless it's got that pop.
    5. Top of the World, Shonen Knife
      You know what's great? Happy Japanese Punk-Pop Pixies singing bouncy Carpenters' songs with quite bad accents. Kurt Cobain loved Shonen Knife. And then he killed himself.
    6. God Save the Queen, Sex Pistols
      The most tuneful and iconic of the Sex Pistols' ouevre is just a bloody good laugh when you're in the lift by yourself in the mornings (carrying your green soya smoothie with spirulina to your creative desk-job - sigh...).
    7. Get Free, The Vines
      "I'm gonna get free, I'm gonna get free, Ride into the Sun." For some reason this and Randy Crawford belting out "Someday I'll fly away" have been stuck in my head for the last few holiday-free months.
    8. The Killing Moon, Echo and the Bunnymen
      Donnie Darko biking down a moutain road in the early morning light cracking through the branches as 80s indie icons get cruelly kissed as the sky's all hung with jewels. Fate, up against your will. Through the thick and thin. Whatever...
    9. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
      This boys too young, but he's not too proud, to be singing these Elton John inspired blues. Back to the howling old owl in the woods. Hunting the horny back toad. I've finally decided my future lies beyond the Yellow Brick Road.
    10. I'd Love to Change the World, Ten Years After
      From a film where liberal intellectuals kill all the right-wing bastards they can, until they meet the ultimate bastard, who then persuades them not to kill him, before killing them and becoming a satanic President of the USA. Everywhere is freaks and hairies, dykes and fairies... Good film...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another image sent to me from Davo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/2002 11:19:20 AM ----- BODY:

    So again - I don't know if this image is accurate or whether it's a piss-take, and I can't tell whether it's offensive or incredibly funny. It's probably doing the rounds of e-mail at the moment so I'll apologise straight-off if you've seen it dozens of times before. But whether it's true or not, thanks to Davo for sending me an image of this receipt - apparently given to someone who'd ordered a Bacardi Breezer...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why do I waste my time with this shit when I could... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/15/2002 12:33:45 PM ----- BODY:

    I think there must be nothing I'd rather do at the moment than pop over and spend a couple of nights in Paris with Jason and Meg. Money and time are stupid things and annoyingly scarce.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it's fast approaching "that time of the year" again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/15/2002 01:11:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Well it's swiftly approaching that time of the year again - and that means it's time for Cal, Denise and I to throw open the doors of Secret Santa 2002!

    "The idea of Secret Santa is very simple - you pull a name out of a hat and buy that person a present. Your name is in the hat as well, so someone buys you a present too! Everyone gets a present! Everyone's happy!"
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where's the urge to change the world gone? Where's the idealism? Where's the naÔvety? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 11/15/2002 08:20:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Over my life I've found myself motivated by music more than almost anything else. That push that the right song can give you more often than not is the thing that shoves my mood or sensibility forward. It's a spiritual kick up the arse. It's music as mood-enhancer - music as engine for mental change and transformation.

    At the moment, I look around and I see a lot of routine. A lot of people doing a lot of things that they've done before. A lot of people (myself included) travelling around and around like a needle in a record. The opportunities to jump out of this routine seem only to be skips between tracks, silences before the next song starts. They're not enough. Does a life change itself by going on holiday? Does a person become a better person by taking a break? Maybe the thing to do instead is to keep forcing yourself back to your work - even the work that we seem to skip over or fall exhausted from. Perhaps especially that work. Maybe the work that we do - that we do for ourselves or for the things that we believe in - is the life-transformative thing. Particularly when you don't have a partner to get in the way. Particularly when it's unlikely that you're going to have a child.

    It's a weird conversation for a Friday night, and it's inspired by something even weirder. It's inspired by a kind of semantic implosion and a confluence of pop-culture imagery. It's inspired by the monotony of yet another year of BBC's Children In Need Telethon. It's inspired by the upcoming appearance of the people from Fame Academy on that telethon - people with actual talent and ability whose aspirations and dreams are being turned into marketable products (isn't that worse in a way - that it's not their talent that's for our consumption - that it's their hopes?). And it's inspired above all by listening to - for the first time in ten years - a bone fide musical relic of the early 1990s - Tears for Fears' Sowing the Seeds of Love.

    Bear with me, because this is a serious post about a vaguely dumb song. And I think it's importantt. This trivial anthem - this vaguely silly, backwards-looking, cod-Beatles anthem - matters to me now in a way it didn't at the time. It's a song about action - liberal action - designed to be an way of energising people who want the world to be something to be proud of. It's a call to examine your morals, your interests, your creativity. And while it's utterly lacking in muso credibility, it does something that most liberal heart-felt songs don't do - it points towards the possibilities of a better future rather than wallowing in the problems of the present. It's trivial because it's idealistic. But it's brilliant for that reason to. Or maybe not brilliant - maybe it's just nice that it exists...

    Hear the line: High time we made a stand and shook up the views of the common man. It sounds patronising, but in my heart I have to accept I believe it. If you're a worried man - then shout about it. Open hearts - feel about it. Open minds - think about it. Everyone - read about it. Everyone - scream about it ! I believe that too. [More lyrics]

    The band that wrote the song basically split as a result of writing it. It was too intense, too committed a process to be an easy ride. The man who cared most about making it clean and pure - even if it was saturated in spritzes of pop imagery- had to care too much about the song if it was ever going to be finished to his satisfaction - if it was going to be a something worthwhile. Something not "for sale". And whether you think the final result was crap or not, it was not routine - it was inspired by genuine feeling, a sense of need, of aspiration and of almost fanatically hard work... I wonder to myself - do we need someone now - whether in the micro-culture of weblogging, or in the greater creative world, or even in centre-left politics, to put that work in? I'm beginning to think so. We need a new ethic of creativity - or a return maybe to an ethic of transformative creative responsibility. And maybe that can start with the creative individualism of webloggia.

    I'm going to end this rather epic post about trivial music, responsibility and the ethics of creativity by talking about another song - and pointing towards a kind of approach to our creative endeavours that has the capacity to break us out of our routine and our creative ruts - to help reinvigorate us all politically and productively. It's called "Emile" by Pressure of Speech. It's not a pop-song. It wasn't released as a single. Instead it's a bit of an odd little piece of music with some reading over the top of it by a man callled Emile de Antonio from a documentary about his life called Mr Hoover & I. It's got some stunning phrases in it about creativity and responsibility - insights that I think apply to all aspects of our lives, but are perhaps particularly potent when looking at weblogs:

    Perhaps the only thing that's worthwhile is to make something that isn't really for sale, except on your own terms - which is "I made it. It's true. If you don't like it, to hell with you. I want you to like it, or I'd be crazy, but I'd rather be crazy than have you like it because it was false - because it was what you wanted from me instead of what I wanted..."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let's play movie catch-up with your host... Tom Coates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/16/2002 10:47:25 AM ----- BODY:

    Three comments about films...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the book of Internet Revelations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/16/2002 12:18:25 PM ----- BODY:

    This might come as a bit of a shock to some of you, so sit yourselves down. From the book of Internet Revelations: "It is possible for a website to have a function to users above and beyond the making of interesting or pretty graphs out of its usage statistics".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple and the Pirate Everyman STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 11/17/2002 06:06:03 PM ----- BODY: "Don't Steal Music" says the sticker on the top of every new iPod - a 5-20Gb Firewire hard-disc with built in MP3 player. But is Steve Jobs' Apple being disingenuous? Because from the outside, their entire operation seems built around helping information to be free - every effort is being made to make software and music and imagery as easy as possible to create, copy or disseminate. And why? Because they're in the hardware business... Let's go back to first principles here and quickly scout through some of Apple's offerings. First things first - computer hardware. Apple have done a huge amount to popularise and demystify the writable CD/DVD culture, with almost all of their computers coming with either a CDR or Superdrive as standard. The functionality for such devices fulfils a double function - as a storage media for backing-up or transporting large files or as a way of printing media hard-copies - CD duplicates, home-made DVDs. Now the software that supports it - iTunes is just an MP3 player with a few bits of fluff on it. But it is a good MP3 player, and more importantly it's a non-proprietary, non-copyright enforcing, song-organising MP3 player. While default players on PCs use technology like Windows Media, iTunes very specifically sticks with the most popular, least controllable and most readily available form of music format. iTunes makes the process of ripping CDs incredibly simple - and that doesn't only mean your own CDs, it means any CD you get close to. And in order to stop the use of these MP3s to be restricted to your computer (even if they might sound great with your high-quality Harman/Kardon speakers), you can also take them anywhere you want with your iPod. iMovie and iPhoto meanwhile may not allow you to rip DVDs to your computer, but they operate on the principle that if you get digital footage onto your computer it should be as easy as possible to edit them and burn them on convenient media. Create, edit, burn, distribute. Now to software distribution - OSX's disk-copying software (released as standard) makes it simple to take full images of any install media you have and keep them on your computer. Or burn them to CD and give to your friends. Or put them online. Or distribute them however the hell you like. But none of this is unique to the Mac platform or to Apple as a company. So what is it about the way that Steve Jobs operates that sets Cupertino apart? In order to answer this you have to look at their own software offerings. From operating system through all its consumer applications, Apple actually doesn't seem to particularly care if you pay for them or not. The vast majority (iTunes, iSync, iDVD, iMovie, Mail, iChat etc) are completely free. The odd one - like Quicktime - consists of a free element with a small upgrade cost. Some, like the software upgrade to OSX.2, seems like quite an expensive pay-for software option (�Ì90), but can easily be copied and distributed on CD-R without ever having to type in a software registration key. It's only at the professional end of the software market where Apple asks for money, and even then that doesn't seem to be there only reason for selling the software. The fact that major music-software companies can be bought up by Apple - companies that then immediately stop selling the PC versions of their product - makes it clear that the financial aspect of the deal is almost secondary. They're simply (for the most part) not interested in selling software. And this vision extends even further to the way they write their software now - OSX.2 is based on an essentially free form of Unix, iTunes stores all its information in XML, iCal uses a publically formed standard way of holding calendar data. In every area, Apple has pushed away from proprietary software technologies and restrictions and moved towards the creativity, interdependance and freedoms of open standards. Apple has tried - wherever possible - to live by the adage that information wants to be free. It's decided not to fight this aspect of information but instead encourage it, help it to be free. And in fact try to make it as free as possible... The reasons for all this, of course, are that - for good or ill - at the moment copyrighted material and intellectual property are endangered and cornered beasts anyway. As yet no-one really knows the effects of this development, but I think it is clear to all concerned that (whether or not it is really happening at the moment) the gradual increase in technology, bandwidth and storage capacity provides an enormous potential for simply routing around traditional media-distribution outlets. Whether this will hurt the entertainment and software industries is as yet unclear - because as yet they mostly haven't even tried experimenting with different types of consumer-interaction - but whether it hurts them or not, it will certainly have an impact. In my opinion Apple sees such battles as essentially over already, and has moved in a completely different direction. Why try to sell the intellectual property itself when you can simply sell the best platform for distributing it? Why worry about software sales at all - when you can work instead on making it so that people have to buy your hardware to use it? And why consider one off payments on products when you can move towards getting people to pay for services (like .mac - the value of which is directly related to the number of free applications that gain more value when you pay your yearly fee). Apple is one hundred percent ahead of the game here - so far ahead, in fact - that it's completely unable to say it loud and clear. That's why they have to keep saying again and again, "Don't Steal Music", when everyone knows that they're only doing it to cover their own backs. The fact is that they know that however much money is being made through the selling of software, music and copyrighted material, the future isn't in protecting the trade routes - it's in making everyone a pirate... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: "Don't Steal Music" says the sticker on every new iPod. But is Apple being disingenuous? Because no other platform in recent history has done as much to help information (and entertainment media) to be easy to create, copy or disseminate... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus Wetherell EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.154.81 URL: http://www.freontech.com DATE: 11/19/2002 08:14:17 PM Interesting article, the majority of which I agree with strongly, with a couple of minor caveats: "The fact that major music-software companies can be bought up by Apple - companies that then immediately stop selling the PC versions of their product - makes it clear that the financial aspect of the deal is almost secondary." A little disingenuous - surely the reason Apple cease PC support is a longer-term move to drive musicians to buy Apples and thus increase Apple's market share in that sector, which I would call a definite financial reason ;) "In every area, Apple has pushed away from proprietary software technologies and restrictions and moved towards the creativity, interdependance and freedoms of open standards." I agree with this statement for the most part, with the distinct exception of the Quicktime player, which while based on an industry standard, certainly doesn't count as an open standard. How come I still can't download a Quicktime codec to use in my choice of video playing software? Answer: because Apple aren't keen on the idea of a user being able to use a freeware player to do what it costs money to do in QuickTime - such as play a movie in full screen mode! This does seem to be at odds with the other recent trends in Apple's free software releases, so I'm hoping that will change... I would say that Apple may be appearing - in the short term - to be playing a dangerous game by providing tools that could be used to facilitate copyright infringement. However, I also suspect they will be moving to cosy up with the music and film industries ala Microsoft and hitting Apple users with the same kind of Digital Rights Managements (DRM) "features" that Microsoft are busy fitting Windows Media Player up with. In fact, as I have to download most movie trailers in Quicktime format, I'm inclined to wonder why the movie industry would be making Apple its partner in such ventures unless they had some kind of "understanding". (Conspiracy theorist? Moi?). I also wonder how long it is before we see Apple bringing out their own specification of Microsoft's Palladium technology. Palladium - broadly speaking a technology to facilitate DRM at the hardware level - is going to be implemented on PCs within the next ten years. It would be nice to think that in the near future, Apple could potentially capitalise on this and emerge as a "free media rights" platform when such technology on the PC prevents PC users from saving anything onto their hard drive that Microsoft doesn't want there. The question is, will Apple end up implementing their own version of Palladium? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike Gerhardt EMAIL: blog@mikemedia.com IP: 43.231.251.196 URL: http://www.mikegerhardt.com DATE: 11/20/2002 01:28:07 AM I'm pessimistic that Apple will continue to maintain such openness when it comes to digital media restrictions. Sooner or later, I fear, they will succumb to pressure from other, more powerful business interests. That said, now is the time to buy Apple hardware and to take good care of it. As computer systems get more restrictive, "classic" hardware from a brief period of freedom could become a great thing to have. I'm betting that 2003 will be a banner year to invest in Apple hardware. One thing I'm curious about is how Steve Jobs feels as a corporate leader straddling the two worlds of hardware and content (Apple and Pixar). He must have some heated discussions with Michael Eisner. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew M. EMAIL: apfmara@sandia.gov IP: 134.253.26.12 URL: DATE: 11/20/2002 06:56:33 PM This article is way off. Although Apple hasn't yet taken the draconian closed standards DRM measures that Microsoft has to monopolize the distribution of media content, casting Steve Jobs as pro media piracy seems absurd considering he is also CEO of Disney's most successful moviemaking wing Pixar. Seems to me that Apple is making ease of use paramount to their strategy, while Microsoft is content to continue to erode fair use rights in favor of monopolizing several industries through key buyouts and threats of burying opponents through leveraging existing monopolies, flooding the marked with temporarily cheap hardware, or litigation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dorian EMAIL: loaf@isness.org IP: 217.39.37.74 URL: http://www.isness.org/lofoto/ DATE: 11/20/2002 07:35:37 PM I see your point, but I think it's more to do with petty piracy. I think that real pirates use better machines to copy things: link |link these are small examples. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anthony Hunt EMAIL: hunt_anthony@hotmail.com IP: 217.155.102.66 URL: DATE: 11/20/2002 09:57:08 PM Yeah interesting... but I think you got one thing wrong. Sure, the future isn't in protecting trade routes. But it's not in making everyone a pirate either. It's in making everyone a creator. In economic circles it's called democratising the media industry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ry Rivard EMAIL: rivard@braxtonian.com IP: 66.118.81.35 URL: http://www.braxtonian.com DATE: 11/21/2002 04:53:29 AM Apple isn't going to win over market share by controlling content and limiting access to its applications, like Microsoft is doing. Instead it can only attract new users and new developers by keeping things open. It doesn't have the advantage of the masses only the advantage of being open, free and right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cappy o EMAIL: captainobvious@example.com IP: 144.136.231.38 URL: DATE: 11/21/2002 02:03:27 PM Just a nitpick -- the i* apps aren't free, they are included in the cost of the operating system, or even the hardware in Apple's case. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jerome EMAIL: jchh@sfsu.edu IP: 130.212.234.47 URL: DATE: 11/22/2002 05:43:13 PM I'm a bit confused by your petty quip above simply because they sound as if they're coming from an extremely disgruntled, Microsoft-controlled British PC user.Yet I still feel compelled to address some points you've made simply because they seem untrue, misleading and "disingenuous" in their own right: Here are my thoughts to your thoughts: I'm sure you agree software based on open source having open standards is the way to go as your own site, "Powered by Moveable Type" is donationware, which is how many in the open source world acquire funds. Interestingly though, I don't see "Tom Coates" or "plasticbag.org" anywhere on the Moveable Type donor list (though you've probably contributed $$ anonymously, I'm so sure). Why rip Apple for embracing this same concept with iTunes, or why rip iTunes for being flexible? By your statement "iMovie and iPhoto meanwhile may not allow you to rip DVDs to your computer," you are agreeing that Apple has not made it as easy to burn and distribute DVDs. So are they making users into pirates? Please be more realistic: Apple did not create Napster, Kazaa, Hotline or LimeWire; those who use those services - independent of OS or hardware - seem to be the ones with whom you really have contentions. So why is Apple solely to blame? Lastly, the iPod as of yet is not able to download mp3s without a host (i.e. desktop computer). It's Sony who's making their mp3 players capable of connecting to and downloading straight from the internet! That and Sony's mp3 players so far are NOT Mac compatible. Who's making pirates now? I don't mind critiques of Apple or of their practices because I like the open source movement and will support it. But to suggest Apple is the only one in the game trying to earn money while you neglect the fact Microsoft owns more than half of the desktops in the world seems to be extremely myopic journalism. I would like to see a re-write of this article taking into consideration more factors than just Apple which adversely affect copyright and intellectual property protection. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dead_Ed EMAIL: dead@no.no IP: 24.219.16.118 URL: DATE: 11/22/2002 06:49:41 PM Also, I would say that Sony itself is more "straddling the fence" when it comes to the DRM conundrum. Sony makes lots of computers and also (directly instead of indirectly like Pixar) makes lots of movies and other copyrighted media (Sony Music group etc.). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan EMAIL: nathanst@yahoo.com IP: 67.118.188.50 URL: DATE: 11/22/2002 07:15:49 PM By your argument, you make me into a pirate because I use a Mac. Just because I can break the law, doesn't mean I do. Do we blame car manufacturers for making cars that can go fast, when the speed limit is so much slower? Ultimately, it comes down to the responsibility of the user. If they want to steal software/music, they are going to do it regardless of the platform they are on. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mark12b@yahoo.com IP: 216.254.1.146 URL: DATE: 11/22/2002 08:35:56 PM Apple makes music easy to rip and burn, which is *not* piracy. They make it easy for me to convert my CD collection to an iTunes jukebox (and maybe carry that collection around with me), and that's not piracy either. In some circles, downloading music illegally must be so common that folks think "everybody does it." But I don't know anyone who does (seriously). It's pretty easy to avoid, *especially* if you only use Apple products. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.45.55.62 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/22/2002 09:15:25 PM Some of the responses to my piece above are surprising to me - because I tried fairly hard throughout the piece to not actually express my opinions about whether or not this 'piracy' was a good thing or not. Or whether or not it's even relevant whether it's a good thing or not - because essentially I don't think that it is. What we're calling piracy here is just one aspect of a larger movement - where information of every kind travels, spreads and is used, manipulated and transformed in the best and fastest way possible. I think Apple is helping this world come into being at the moment, while companies like Microsoft and Sony are trying to work against standards, towards proprietary models and to restrict that speed of movement. It's fairly obvious to me that Apple are going along with open standards for the same reasons that Linux have - because if you make things open you have nothing to lose, only market-share to gain. Which is why I don't necessarily believe that they'll be pushing this agenda forever - but even if they don't, there will always be a manufacturer, a software or operating system developer or an application developer who gets the same kind of satisfaction from helping information be free... I don't think it matters whether we like it or not and I don't think it even matters if it's morally right or wrong either. In fact the only thing that matters is... is it the future? I tend to think that it is, and that one aspect of this is that copyright and intellectual property are going to experience some kind of change whether we like it or not... A couple of replies to people: Yes people pay for the iApps when they buy the hardware (even if you download them separately) - but that was in fact part of my argument... They become an incentive to buy the hardware rather than a product to buy themselves. Which is what I said - Apple sells hardware! No - I don't make you a pirate when you buy a Mac. Individuals choose to pirate software or music and I'm not recommending it or saying that it's something that I believe in. I do think it's a side-effect of the greater shift in play here though... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven James May EMAIL: crt@hotmail.com IP: 68.5.212.72 URL: DATE: 11/22/2002 09:30:20 PM There exists no entity on earth that possesses the power to "make anyone a pirate". That is a personal, ethical choice on the part each of us. It is not the job of Apple Computer or Microsoft to police our computers. It is their job to make great functional products. It is an absurd statement to suggest that any product manufacturer wants people to break the law. It is BEYOND ABSURD that Apple Computer feels the need to post 'DON'T STEAL MUSIC' on their iPod. Could you imagine buying an automobile that comes with a big red sticker that reads: 'DON'T RUN OVER PEOPLE'? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Baldur Bjarnason EMAIL: kvasir@unishade.com IP: 194.117.133.198 URL: http://www.unishade.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi DATE: 11/23/2002 07:33:26 PM Interesting. I wrote up a short post on this earlier on my blog but I think I may have been a little bit too hasty in quickly judging this to be another one of those "copyright is doomed" pieces. Well, it is, but it is also more. The point about Apple's business strategy being different from most other corporate computer companies is a good one. It is a strategy that democratizes content production and distribution. What I disagree with is the idea that copyright is in some way a "cornered beast" today. If it is a cornered beast, then it has always been cornered. Ever since Dickens raged against the Americans for copying and distributing his books without paying him his due. The movie industry is making more money than ever. We have more television channels than ever. And the music industry has only seen around a ten per cent drop is sales (caused mostly by mismanagement, a bona fide economic slowdown as well as the fact that most of its products are rubbish). If we would have seen a forty per cent drop in music sales, as well as a corresponding drop in film industry profits, in a healthy economic climate, then, yes, copyright is an endangered beast. But a year where the film industry sees record profits and the planet's most 'pirated' movie (Spider-Man) shows record profits, all in the middle of a budding depression? Don't think so. You are right about how the changing technology fundamentally alters the way we approach media and content. I just haven't seen any evidence, yet, that this is endangering the concepts of copyright and 'intellectual property'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.132.186 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/23/2002 09:08:04 PM Well that's the huge question isn't it - is this kind of technology hurting the entertainment industries or not. Personally, it seems to me that at the moment it probably isn't. Whether it will is another thing completely. As technology has escalated it has moved towards the most free and simple means of distribution. This brings up the most basic aspect of economics - if a product is not scarce, it can have no cost. If we are to accept that this kind of technology will become increasingly available, increasingly cheap and increasingly mobile, then don't we also have to accept that the capacity of companies to charge for it will decrease in proportion? That is - at least - if they continue to approach their business in the same way. The traditional approach to dealing with a lack of scarcity is to provide a service around its delivery, a higher quality product or a means to do something new with it (like help make it portable). Open Source software companies make their money out of helping to support people using the software. People who sell bottled water are essentially providing portability and an 'enhanced' quality to something that all Western people can get their hands on pretty easily and unbelievably cheaply... God only knows what the model will be for music or video (movie theatres, in my opinion, will remain profitable for as long as they continue to offer the incredibly scale and quality of their productions), but it seems undeniable to me that they'll need a new model in due course... Two more things: There's a nice piece at the BBC here: Efforts to stop music piracy 'pointless' which was found by Doc Searls ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anonymous EMAIL: na@sorry.com IP: 203.109.254.57 URL: DATE: 11/25/2002 12:11:16 AM This stems from the eventual idea that computers will end up the controlling applience for all the household appliences. with that in mind you can look at the computer from the following angle: - Do you pay extra for the software in your Stereo with it's digital tuner, and programmable/random track selection for CD's - Do you pay extra for the software in your DVD player with it's ability to play encoded movies onto your TV screen Those are the 2 most obvious places software is used in appliences yet the cost of the software within them is never listed seperately when you go to buy the applience. Apple are seeing computer's heading the same way (and have done for a very long time). Another itme to think about, IBM once said something like, there is no money in the software. They said this about the time Microsoft was asking to write DOS for them, in the short term, IBM clearly wasn't right, but perhaps they were right in the long term? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Stringham EMAIL: dougstringham@mac.com IP: 12.254.141.203 URL: DATE: 11/25/2002 12:52:32 AM Software companies are NOT the judicial branch of the U.S. governement... nor any other government that I'm aware. So... instead of doing legal intervention with spyware, encrypting, etc. leave this to the proper authorities. Even the feds can't come into my home without a proper warrant that must be proved up in front of a judge. So why does Microsoft and other companies assume that they can? Not promoting piracy, but I'm certainly against the 'big brother' aspect of certain software and operating systems that are out and are currently being developed. Whatever happened to freedom? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bopuc EMAIL: me@here.com IP: 65.94.121.115 URL: DATE: 11/25/2002 03:45:31 AM 1- I have at this moment a 20Gig library of MP3s, 99% of which come from the 'net or friend's CDs. My computer is plugged directly into my stereo and I have an iPod for when I'm on the move (car stereo or headphones). A dream come true: all my music, anytime anywhere. 2- Everybody is always talking about music and movies when copyright is mentioned. Ironically many of the journalists and pundits are published authors... I want what I just described above about "my" music to also apply to TEXT media... I want every book I have ever read (and have yet to read) in digital format (preferably in some XML/PDF form) and fully searchable at all times. Writers think it's hard to make a buck now? Just you wait! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: A Random Gent EMAIL: as@as.as IP: 216.209.132.96 URL: DATE: 11/25/2002 07:35:39 PM I am the most angry person I know. The reason being that I have never pirated *any* software. I don't have *any* copied CDs or MP3s. I don't have *any* movies taped off HBO or whatever. I *DO*, however, tape my CDs to play in my car tape deck. I *DO* want the right to burn my own legally purchased CDs to my computer and play them on an MP3 player. I am absolutely infuriated because the RIAA's "anti-piracy" crap strikes at the heart of the legitimate user more than at the pirate. The pirate will hack their stupid protected CDs and will go about their business unfazed. I, the legitimate user, will find that my Shakira CD will crash my computer if I try to play it, and there is no way for me to keep my hands clean and still enjoy my purchase. I will be forced to use illegal patches, hacks and cracks to enjoy my legally-purchased music. I am being FORCED to become a pirate in order to enjoy my fair-use rights. The very people who claim to be against piracy are forcing me into it. And I will go the RIAA one further: I will happily become a pirate as a protest if it goes any further. I have about 550 legally purchased CDs, lots of rare stuff and imports, and I guarantee that every single CD will find their way onto the net just to spite these people. I have never done ANYTHING wrong to these people, and yet they are coming down on me without reason. It's bad enough that they "obsoleted" my extensive record collection, and refuse to reissue the majority of my albums on CD. They are a bunch of greedy corrupt thieves. As you can tell, I have recently lost all respect for the recording industry. I'm going to buy USED CDs from now on, and CDs from independents where possible. They're forcing me to become anti-establishment. It's just not right what they're doing. I don't have a Mac, but I am thinking of "switching". The more I hear about Apple's ideology, the more I like them. If they are the system of "pirates" and the free, then that's definitely where I am going. I've had it with Microsoft, the DMCA, and the RIAA, and they haven't even started to put the pressure on yet. I'm not contributing to a fascist nightmare police state. No way. I watch as the government wipes our rights and freedoms away like they were a mistake and am eerily reminded of pre-WWII Germany. Bush is following in Hitler's footsteps far too closely for my taste. There's no balance in the world anymore, and this anti-piracy movement is actually a small sliver of the larger anti-freedom movement. Be afraid. The world is a' changin', and it's not for the better. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 216.40.48.20 URL: http://www.freontech.com/default.asp DATE: 12/23/2002 01:39:10 PM As it seems to tie in with at least some of what is being said here with regards to MP3s and piracy, I thought I'd mention a recent article in The Register which compellingly suggests that recent record sales have fallen, not due to piracy, but because of a reduction in the actual number of releases by the record companies. Oh, and sorry for the boorish length of my initial post, if I could edit it I would, believe me... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: PHREK EMAIL: yeah@right.net IP: 24.247.4.187 URL: DATE: 03/27/2003 05:22:36 PM Seems to me, your RESEARCH is quite incomplete ... Quote: "Apple is one hundred percent ahead of the game here - so far ahead, in fact - that it's completely unable to say it loud and clear." --- Surely you jest !? Seems that "Wintel Users" are the Veterans in this arena ... Search google for "WAREZ" (Name given to things Pirated) The RESULTS might just suprize you ... Hmmm Seems that PC Users indeed CORNER the perverbial market ... How could this be ? Perhaps the Apple Users are Using their Harware/Software and Rebelious ways to FEED the booming Wintel WAREZ MARKETPLACE !? Get a grip ... Sounds like a jealous rant to me ... Invest in a new iMac G4 and quit-yer-bithcin' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 12/03/2003 01:21:48 AM In response to the first comment... QuickTime is very much an open codec. Absolutely any application in OS X can take advantage of Quicktime - it's built right into the Mac OS. And as far as I know, the same is true on the PC side. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andreas EMAIL: andikeller@gmx.net IP: 217.2.53.20 URL: DATE: 01/26/2004 09:18:21 AM Hello Tom, your article is great in many ways it casts light on current trends and movements towards the end of copy.right. From the other comments I feel that most of your critics haven't got your point. But what is next? Lets look even a step further: With the fall of copyright patents will be next. Without patents, commercial research will cease while research at universities will become the single leader for innovation. Young people (20-30) will spend their most creative phase not in making money but in doing research which will become public domain immediately after (consider it as a way for a career jump-start for inventing cold fusion at age 25 and making it public domain). What will this mean? Research will explode, because with every knowledge freely available it will become terrifically easier to comine existing things into new things. We are at the dawn of a great age: the information age. And as Tom pointed out, companies will not be able to stop this information from being free. So Apple is going the right way: It is relying on hardware sales, not software(=information)-sales and will thus ultimately succeed. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We raise our hands to the strange phenomena.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2002 01:59:18 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm wandering through my referrers and I come across an exact replica of all the content of my site only on livejournal. And I think to myself - why that's a little strange. And it has comments, which my site doesn't. So in many ways it's actually better. It's been pulled out of my RSS feed as far as I can tell. I wonder - is this automation happening with other people as well? And who is the sinister presence behind the scenes that pulls the strings? Update: What a funny old world - Culprit / Punter found and all is well with the world...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being one of my favourite rhetorical tropes.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/2002 04:24:40 PM ----- BODY:

    I knew it had a name - and I've been trying to remember what that name was for years. I've asked friends, family, professionals, experts - but evidently my friends and family weren't studying rhetoric and the experts and professionals were experts and professionals in completely the wrong fields. But I now know the name for the rhetorical trope where you mention by omission ("I won't mention the prime minister's predeliction for brandy - or bring up (yet again) the chancellor's fetish for ladies underwear"), and that name is... paralepsis. [Find out more about rhetoric]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The future is fridge magnets... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2002 12:20:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Never let it be said that Bill Gates has lost his touch. I mean certainly the man responsible for Windows and Office can't really be blamed for the fact that everyone hates his company. Nor is he directly responsible for the X-box not selling at all. Nor indeed can he be held to account for completely not noticing the potential of the internet. No, I think it's clear that Gates is a man with a mission - a true visionary genius. Which is why I'm prepared to forgive his obsession with the tablet PC and celebrate instead the concept that will take the Western World firmly into the 21st - maybe even the 22nd - century: Smart Fridge-Magnets!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On two articles pertaining to the entertainment industry and piracy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2002 12:46:17 PM ----- BODY:

    I've read two articles today about the ways in which the entertainment industry is interacting with computing and the internet - and unsurprisingly both touch on issues of piracy. The first article (Fox Exec wants help ending piracy) is about Peter Chernin's upcoming speech at Comdex. He's expected to argue that restricting the reproduction of copyrighted materials to end piracy would also reinvigorate the tech economy. The other article (Online casting calls snub Apple) is from c|net and is about the way in which media and entertainment companies are passing the Mac platform by in favour of the wider distribution of Windows-based technology. And here's a quote from Apple themselves:

    Apple's Schiller said the company is not concerned about losing out on the next generation of digital media services, noting that current industry-approved offerings are barely out of the gate while others are on thin ice legally. "We don't want to evangelize products that encourage illegal behavior," he said.

    If you don't mind me saying so (and I hope you'll forgive me for being so harsh) both of these people - Schiller and Chernin alike - are talking absolute and total bollocks. In fact it's never been clearer that in terms of conventional models, the entertainment industry and the computing industry are working directly at loggerheads here. Piracy in its current form is both the result of, and increases to be promoted by, rapid technological take-up and change. The desire to download a movie or a selection of MP3s is one of the things that lies directly behind the popularisation and take-up of broadband technologies, and everyone knows it. Similarly burning music, storing music, playing good quality entertainment products - all require decent hardware, and moreover encourage the purchasing of more or higher quality hardware by bringing the computer in to an ever more central entertainment role in the home. Who do they think they're kidding?

    Meanwhile Apple claim to be avoiding encouraging illegal behaviour? Then why have they made an entire operating system and way of interacting with media products that has made illegal behaviour - or to put it another way, behaviour that is not copyright-centred - easier than ever before? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Further to my post about Apple and piracy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/19/2002 04:15:50 PM ----- BODY:

    Further to my post earlier today, I've decided to release an only mostly-finished article I've been writing about the ways in which Apple computers seem to me to be almost facilitating piracy - and in my opinion rightly so... Please forgive me if it seems slightly hackneyed and if you find any blatant inaccurracies or spelling mistakes mail me and I'll correct them immediately...

    Apple and the Pirate Everyman
    "Don't Steal Music" says the sticker on every new iPod. But is Apple being disingenuous? Because no other platform in recent history has done as much to help information (and entertainment media) to be easy to create, copy or disseminate...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oxford Street between Oxford Circus and Bond Street tubes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/20/2002 04:11:45 PM ----- BODY:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Six hours of buses, trains, walking and waiting... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/2002 09:15:02 PM ----- BODY:

    3.30am Finally go to bed. Have been working for fourteen hours with only an hour break for Celebrity Big Brother. Autopsies have gone on in the background. 6.45am Alarm goes off. Get up, shower, shove loads of files online, check e-mail. 7.30am Leave flat. 8.10am Fight through rain and buses - arrive at work, print out loads of things. Twitch. 8.50am Leave for Holborn tube, run to get onto train. Fall over, hurt leg. 9.00am Bakerloo line not working. Get out and catch bus. 9.30am Arrive at Paddington for ten o'clock train. 10.10am Train still not boarding... 12.00pm Train supposed to arrive in Cardiff. 12.45pm Train arrives in Cardiff. 1.10pm Arrive at BBC Cardiff. 2.00pm Start presentation. 3.30pm Finish presentation. 4.00pm Leave BBC Cardiff. 4.50pm Train leaves for Paddington. 7.00pm Train arrives at Paddington. 7.30pm Arrive home. Sit in dumb, slack-jawed silence watching Home Front in the Garden in my overcoat. 9.00pm Write blog-entry.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I want to get myself for Christmas... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/2002 05:45:02 PM ----- BODY:

    If I thought for one minute that I would be able to get any credit from anyone (knowing as I do how inexplicably dodgy my credit rating appears to be, I would sign up for this in a moment. Particularly as I could get my darling little iBook (hear how it calls my name) for just £183.17 a month... Drool...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today on Barbelith: Autopsy - Spectacle or Science? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2002 11:46:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Today on Barbelith: The Autopsy: Spectacle or Science?:

    The first public autopsy in Britain for 170 years was greeted with reactions almost as predictable as the process of the postmortem itself. But why have the medical establishment and the media been so squeamish? Brooke Magnanti investigates.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On traffic... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/23/2002 11:54:36 PM ----- BODY:

    So three times in recent memory, plasticbag.org has experienced fairly substantial increases in traffic. The first time was when a conflagration of warbloggers decided to take me to task about something I'd written about the power of the inbound link. This post was widely misinterpreted - even to the extent of being mentioned at the Revenge of the Blog Panel in the States by Glenn Reynolds as an example of "people not clear on the concept" (although the context of the transcript is a little unclear as to what concept in particular he's referring to). But even though it was misinterpreted, it still sent a good few people to my virtual door - even if they were mostly brandishing fiery torches and threatening to burn down my castle.

    Shortly after this came the incident at Blogger when (thanks to Phil (and indirectly to the current Pyra crew) I found myself in the unenviable position of being able to alarm and terrify two-thirds of blogdom with my scare stories about random hax0rs with world-destroying uber-weapons.

    And in the last couple of days, my piece on Apple and the Pirate Everyman (which was widely given rousing yeah and so whats by friends of mine before I put it online) has been picked up by Macintouch.com, Doc Searls and CafÈ au Lait (among others). And again, as a result - a short-term surge in traffic.

    It's always nice to get more traffic to your site - it's nice to be read. Makes you feel like you're not completely talking into the ether. But at the same time it's also weirdly paralysing. When something on my site gets picked up by a large new audience that haven't had any experience of me before, I tend to feel a bit overwhelmed and confused by it all. I can't think of anything to say when there are (new) people watching. I get stage-fright - glued to the spot by expectant eyes. Or maybe it's more complex than that. Maybe I feel embarrassed when the politically active come to read a political post and find instead a poem about iBooks. Maybe I feel still more embarrassed when the Mac Gods and Open Source Pioneers end up wandering through my site on the days when I want to write about the huge amount of crisps I have in my kitchen cupboards.

    Sometimes I think it would be much easier to write a site - you know - about something...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why are there less overtly political left-wing or centrist weblogs? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 11/24/2002 07:32:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Are there less left-wing or centrist political weblogs than right-wing weblogs? And if so... Why? It's a sentiment I've heard a lot in recent months, particularly in relation to the warblogging phenomenon. If it is true, I have some theories as to why it might be the case - but I have little or no evidence to back them up with. And without evidence I have to accept the possibility that a substantial block of personal presumption and prejudice may be behind them too.

    One of my theories would be to do with the inherent lack of absolutism and black-and-white ideology in liberal (in the British sense), centrist and left-wing thinking - particularly after most hard-line socialist and communist projects have tended towards failure. I would suggest that a suspicion of one-on-one narratives of cause and effect and a general belief in some kind of cultural relativism makes it very difficult to produce rhetoric of a kind that is most suited to weblog writing (or for that matter political-rally-style speeches). I'd say also that many right-wing weblogs are more than comfortable with the so-called realpolitik approach to politics and the world which looks towards (above everything else) the preservation of friends and family and a certain way of life. Real-politikal approaches never pretend to be considering all the possibilities or possible ramifications of their approaches, generally because (the argument goes, and it's relatively convincing) the more nuanced and sensitive a policy is, the more it is crippled from accomplishing its stated aim. The Christian right could be seen as an extreme example of this kind of move towards simplicity (rather than pragmatism). For some hardline individuals on a great number of issues there simply is no room for debate or a multiplicity of opinion at all. Could this be one reason why weblogs - with their short, punchy and easily-digestable blocks of rhetoric have been ideally suited to right-wing arguments?

    Another argument is purely historical. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, I think it's fair to say that fear and aggression towards foreigners and some ethnic minorities probably increased in America. I say this only because of the reactions of some of the people who were there at the time and some of the subsequent reports - the Canadian whos parents were Iraqi who was deported from the States to Iraq, the Indian friend of mine who experienced harrassment, the weblogger whose ethnicity was continually in question. If (understandably) the disaster moved popular sentiment to the right (which it seemed to) and if at the same time the disaster was one of the things that pulled people towards weblogging, then it's hardly surprising that weblog-space suddenly lurched heavily towards the right.

    Why this hasn't self-corrected over time is a more complicated matter, but I can say from personal experience that the sheer number and moral certainty of current right-wing webloggers is intimidating (occasionally terrifying). This in itself would not be a reason to avoid debate, except that (as is often the case with most organisations and affiliations of people) some of its more extreme members are not only vocal (as they should be), but are aggressive and quite prepared to demonise those that don't disagree with them. I know several people who talked about politics only to find themselves targetted by these people and who now avoid the whole debate.

    So is the reason for the lack of left-wing weblogs due to intimidation by the right, is it just a function of recent history or is it simply because those on the left find the medium too narrow for the politics they'd wish to discuss? Or are there other reasons? I'm interested in anyone's opinions of this matter, so if you post something about it please don't forget to let me know about it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few things that are interesting me at the moment... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2002 07:43:23 PM ----- BODY:

    Manifestos, Disclaimers, Bills of Rights, Constitutions, Codes of Practice (voluntary or otherwise). A lot of these things are filtering through my mind at the moment. Here are some examples:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The favourite films of the Celebrity Big Brother Contestants... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2002 09:02:04 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok, I don't want to be scathing. I really don't. But on the site for Celebrity Big Brother you can find out the favourite films of the various contestants. Some of them aren't particularly surprising - Anne Diamond likes Some Like It Hot and Les Dennis is a bit of a fan of It's a Wonderful Life. They make a certain amount of sense. And it also makes a certain amount of sense that Sue Perkins (who unrelatedly and incidentally comes from Planet Lesbolia) might be a fan of All About My Mother.

    On the other hand do we really believe that boy-band wash-out Mark Owen is really obsessed with Life is Beautiful? Or that the all-over cosmetically enhanced Melinda Messenger finds The Royal Tenenbaums more thrilling than boob jobs? And even if we're being generous enough to buy them, do we for a minute think that hard-man gold-toothed Drum'N'Bass star Goldie - the man who has spent four days in comedy wigs and goggle-eyed specs - is really obsessed with watching Magnolia over and over again?

    I'm being a snob. I'm going to hell. A few more celebrity factoids: Mark Owen it seems is an obsessive fan of renowned homosexualist Rufus Wainwright and Anne Diamond loves Star Trek and looks terrifyingly like my old academic supervisor. How exciting is that.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On bits of train stations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2002 09:54:05 PM ----- BODY:

    A trip from London to Cardiff and back - and just think of all the things that I could have experienced! And what did I experience? Almost bloody nothing. Train to Cardiff. Cab to BBC Cardiff. Talk for a couple of hours. Can to train station. Train to London. Tube back home. So what did I take pictures of? Bits of bloody train stations...

    Firstly - a few bits of Paddington's roof - the newer parts that is - the curves, the lights. It's elegant and wonderful.

    Other bits of the roof have this tremendously arcane quality - god knows when this part of the roof was assembled, but look at it - it's like the membranes of a insect's wing! A huge, crumbling, monstrous wing!

    Those struts and panes - structural and elegant - lines slim and piled upon one another - half scaffolding and half greenhouse. This station - halfway towards Cardiff - really appealled to me...

    The light in Cardiff in the early evening was honey-coloured and smooth. It's all tiles and smooth banisters - architecture that was designed to weather well and last. You can tell that it's struggled with the pressures put upon it - but it feels lived-in, homely - and weirdly British...

    A pure and elegant vanishing-point - lines disappearing into the distance, segmented into blues, blacks, reds and yellows. A stunningly beautiful image from Cardiff station...

    Back in London - and like an image directly out of the Industrial Revolution the monstrous carcass of Paddington stretches before you. You can almost smell my exhaustion. To home. And to bed!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Winston Churchill is the Greatest Briton... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/2002 11:19:39 PM ----- BODY:

    According to slightly dumb BBC TV programme and the voting whims of a country of BBC TV watchers, Winston Churchill is the Greatest Briton ever. The case for his superiority was put by the ever charming and smart Mo Mowlam. But watching the programme, one has to wonder... Did she have a special relationship with the cigar-chewing curmudgeon? Could they be related? There is a startly resemblance...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hideous Apple Security Breach... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2002 04:46:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Righto. This isn't going to do my campaign for Apple to give me an iBook gratis any good at all. Still - never mind. It has to be done. So I'm wandering cheerfully through my referrer logs and I find a weird referral from a site with Apple in the URL. I follow the link to find a little article posted about my recent Apple rant. Then I realise that not only am on an Apple site, I'm actually already logged in as a young gentleman called Jared Foster who is taking part in the Campus Rep Program at Florida University.

    But how can this be? Surely Apple wouldn't be storing crucial login information and passwords in the URL? Except they have. And it's not like it's a little site containing no important information. In fact by the time I realised what was going on, I'd already seen a lot of information that should be very carefully protected. Now - if I wanted to - I could have access to all of Jared's personal information, his timecards, the contact details of loads of people at Apple and - moreover - trade secrets on the Campus Rep Program and also the confidentiality agreement that everyone who participates in the program has to sign.

    Now I'm a tremendous fan of Apple's computers and software and wish nothing but success to them. I've been promoting Apple's stuff here on this site for years simply because I love it. But this is a fairly horrifically substantial security breach for a company like Apple to countenance. And I think that it should be brought to the attention of the public.

    Follow-up: I've been talking to some people with greater knowledge of security than me, and potentially this is a problem that has been caused by a security flaw in the browser that the person used who was followed the referral link to my site rather than an Apple security issue. Clearly this would leave Apple relatively free from blame in this matter. I personally would also be relieved. More information as I have it - certainly I have no interest in lambasting Apple for a problem if it is not their responsibility...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bringing the scale back... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/2002 11:30:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's something I've been thinking about that that ties into Joel's idea that an e-mail service that charged one cent per e-mail would help counteract spammers. I've been thinking about the scalability of user-functionality online. From the position of a user the process of sending e-mail scales reasonably well - or at least it basically scales linearly - the incremental cost in effort for each e-mail being dependent only on the elegance of the software you have to automate your e-mail sending process. Adding a financial aspect to sending e-mail doesn't change the nature of the curve, but it does raise the incremental cost (albeit only financially).

    Now there are a variety of reasons why (for example) you'd want to send lots (thousands or tens of thousands) of e-mails, but the main reason will probably be advertising or spam - kinds of e-mail which are generally perceived as an abuse. In fact I would hazard a guess that it becomes increasingly likely that someone is abusing the system the more e-mails they send. (Incidentally - what shape do we think the curve of numbers of e-mails sent vs. numbers of people sending them would be?) So we're in fact not interested in stopping people sending spam, we're interested in discouraging people from sending large blocks of e-mail generally...

    Essentially what many systems online need - the systems that are prone to abuse that is - are graphs of 'difficulty of use' that are exponential - start almost flat and then escalate heavily afterwards. I think this could be true for e-mail (although I suspect it would be impossible to implement outside of a closed system) but also for related processes like posting to message boards or creating online identities... Wouldn't it be ideal if it was tremendously simple to send up to a hundred e-mails a day, slightly harder to send the next hundred and almost impossible to send ten thousand? We're not used to thinking in this way, because the dot-com explosion was all about scale and size and making everything work at large-volume and making everything easy for users. But there's a difference between clarity of function and purpose and ease of use. Maybe there are processes that should be harder generally - and more specifically maybe there are processes that should become harder the more they are used...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: By way of response to Cory Doctorow.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2002 05:29:57 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't have comments on my site - or at least I do have comments on my site but not on my daily ramblings because I don't want the responsibility of maintaining them. I'm not always going to have the time to read them. I'm not always going to have the time to make sure they're working properly... Cory Doctorow wanted to reply to my post from Monday but couldn't find a place to do it effectively. As a result he posted his response to Matt Jones' site. I hope he doesn't mind, but I'm going to replicate it here so that I can respond to it properly...

    "Now there are a variety of reasons why (for example) you'd want to send lots (thousands or tens of thousands) of e-mails, but the main reason will probably be advertising or spam - kinds of e-mail which are generally perceived as an abuse. In fact I would hazard a guess that it becomes increasingly likely that someone is abusing the system the more e-mails they send."

    This is why every one of these proposals that I've seen so far net out with a system where the very wealthy and powerful can afford mass communication, and the poor cannot. The ability to send alerts out to very large groups of people is the ability to have a functional democracy. EFF, Greenpeace, ACLU, CDR, NTK... There are thousands of good and worthy advocacy and information resources that send out tens of thousands of messages at a go, using the same tools spammers use. Popular speech never needs defending. When mass communication is given back to solely the rich and powerful, the Internet's promise of samizdata, of Journalism 3.0, of real liberation, is eroded.

    Joel's idea was that if you spent one cent per e-mail then spamming would become uncommercial. Cory in turn suggests that this would mean that only the rich could send mass e-mail and that this would effect grass-roots democractic practice online. Straightaway one has to question whether or not anyone should be able to send mass e-mail the way that spammers do - whether it be for a noble cause or not. We already have a low-budget tool that is designed for mass publishing, and that tool is the web - ultimately democratic in that people can publish on it whenever they want and given the extra advantage of being immediately an opt-in way of viewing content...

    But ideal usage and practical implications are different things - clearly it is wrong that those with money should have much more power to abuse the processes of e-mail than the poor (and I think that you could make a fairly easy argument for abuse here in that there seem to be few legitimate applications for mass e-mail that couldn't be undertaken elsewhere). But even here we have a problem, because such an issue would only be a problem with a linear curve, while I was talking about the advantages of providing systems that scale badly - and exponential curves. With these the incremental cost would be disproportionately high at higher volumes - someone with twice as much money to spend would very definitely not have twice the power...

    Moreover, and I think most importantly, I was using Joel's proposal as a jumping off point for the concept of exponential graphs of 'difficulty of use' - not money. Rather than thinking of incremental cost, I was thinking of incremental effort. Think of it like juggling - two balls are relatively easy, three or four within most people's grasp, five or six is the work of masters, while twenty would be practically impossible. In terms of web usability, think about the effort involved in maintaining multiple identities on a discussion forum... Essentially there is none. You might have to post every six months in order to stop your account being deleted, but that's about it. As a result there are lots of empty accounts used by abusive people to post anonymously or harass people, evading all attempts to ban them. If you could strengthen the link between user and user-name (without having to make it a one-on-one solid link) then you'd be a long way towards being able to have some impact on these problems. One of the ways you could do it is to find a way to make maintaining one user-name relatively easy, two slightly harder, three much harder and four or five an unmanageable feat of inhuman endurance... In effect, the effort involved in user-name maintenance would scale exponentially...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Matt Haughey on Digital Restrictions Management.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2002 05:46:18 PM ----- BODY:

    If you enjoyed (or hated) my piece on Apple and the Pirate Everyman, then you might find Matt Haughey's piece on Digital Rights Restrictions Management interesting:

    Whatever replaces Windows XP will be forever married to this type of technology. Sure, open file formats like ogg vorbis or mp3 will stick around, but Microsoft, movie studios, and the record industry will push Windows Media Player and Liquid Media formats as hard as they can, releasing their works only in formats with DRM baked in.

    Addendum: And there's another article over at Mac Musings called: Copyright, Common Sense and Fair Use which is not entirely disconnected from my thoughts on Apple's lack (so far) of DRM...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another response from Cory Doctorow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2002 11:34:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. I've had a response from Cory Doctorow about what I wrote earlier today and in the spirit of adequate redress (so it doesn't look like I'm controlling the media where we're debating), I'm just going to post it in its entirety so that people can read it and then direct everyone over to Matt's site where you can see my reply (and any subsequent comments that Cory's interested in making) in context and on a level playing-field...

    Unfortunately, I can't reply to you on your blog, Tom, so here's my response: Whether we're talking about money or effort or difficulty is irrelevant. A computational tax (hash-cache) or an effort tax both translate into an advantage for those who can lay hands on additional resources (i.e., the rich) at the expense of those who can't. There is no scarcity here. This is an amazing and unprecedented occassion in human history: plenty. A commons that is nonzerosum. We need new tools for managing such a commons, but tariffs that create scarcity where none exists are like "fixing" the problem of high-speed travel by putting horseshoes on railroad engines.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Flash navigation systems... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2002 11:37:16 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't really approve of sites that use Flash for primary navigation, but if you're going to do it then make it as classy as this. And while you're there you can read the article on Mobile Weblogging which isn't total bunk.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the differences between syndication and publishing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/2002 11:59:04 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm partly linking to Mark's article about the differences between syndication and publishing on my site so that I don't forget to read it tomorrow when I'm more conscious.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two Lord of the Rings links before bed... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2002 12:11:30 AM ----- BODY:

    Right-ho. I'm off to bed in a minute, but before I go I thought a couple of nice Lord of the Rings links might compensate for all the obsessively technical stuff I've been forcing down your throats recently. So let's start with a fascinating article about the CGI involved in producing a cinematic version of the Battle of Helm's Deep and end with the first review I've seen of the Two Towers - and it's a five-star one at that...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You don't know... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2002 10:00:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Matt Webb has been away on holiday for almost a week. But you couldn't tell, could you? His alien tentacles have created tiny robot typing minions to write content for him while he's away. He's also assembled this other device that means that you can create new content out of old ropey bits of crap that you have lying around. Not that he's using that at the moment... Not that you'd know though. It has occurred to me that I could just start running all my content again from just over three years ago until now and that the only thing that would give it away would be that some of the links wouldn't work. Not that my life's really repetitive or anything, or that nothing's really changed in three years or that I need a boyfriend or anything. I don't know why you'd think that. Furthest thing from my mind. Sigh. Actually, I'll tell you one thing for nothing while you're reeling from the lack of web-related content... One thing has changed over the last three years. Now everyone I lust after has a long term partner. Age is a terrible thing. Never get old, my children...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh the humanity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/2002 11:24:46 PM ----- BODY:

    I work with this guy. He's wearing a jelly ring on his nose. It's got "Lord of the Rings" branding on it. Earlier today I tried to draw a little red patch on his hair with a white-board marker when he wasn't looking.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What was said... And what was meant? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/29/2002 11:37:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I met someone for lunch today. And he said I wasn't like he was expecting at all. He said I seemed more naive than he'd thought I'd be... Which I think was a compliment, but I'm not quite sure... He said I was taller than the person he'd mistaken for me in the pub with the barbie-dolls on the walls, which I think was a compliment but I'm not quite sure... He wasn't quite like I thought he'd be either. But he was charming, intelligent and very good company.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found images... One for the geeks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/2002 11:42:22 AM ----- BODY:

    The first in a series of found images - stumbled upon without significant context... This one being for the geeks in the audience...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The XML feeds of everyone I read via NetNewsWire... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/2002 04:02:59 PM ----- BODY:

    For anyone who uses NetNewsWire or a similar rss/rdf reader or is interested in the sites that I read on a daily basis - here's a complete list of the feeds that I check each day: ( blogdex: recent ), BBC Technology, Ben Hammersley, BlackBeltJones Work, BoingBoing.net, CityofSound, diveintomark.org, ext | circ, Google Weblog, Google News Search: Gay, Hypermedia and Virtual Communities, iamcal.com, Interconnected.org, kottke.org, LinkMachineGo, LoFoTo, maccentral, megnut, metafilter, minor 9th, Mo Morgan, Radio Free Blogistan, Rushkoff.blog, Scripting.com, tomalak.org, Wired, Write The Web. Or you can download the whole list.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A picture of Tom, yesterday... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/2002 05:10:54 PM ----- BODY:

    My friend Fenner is getting married, and he's having a stag weekend abroad that I can't go to. So he and I met up with mutual friend Nick yesterday to kind of see him off. We went to Nick's club, which was closed. And then to a restaurant that Nick chose, but then rejected because there were no hamburgers. Eventually we found a Mexican place with cocktails. So I drank quite a few, and we talked of lasers in the Antarctic, mermaids with irritated nipples and the benefits of the "Breakfast Margarita", a glorious concept that puts pink grapefruit juice into the standard recipe making it eminently suitable for calming the nerves before that early-morning meeting. Not that I'd ever do that, obviously.

    When we finally parted company four hours later, I was a little drunk and excitable. I met another Nick in Soho and we wandered up to the Yard, where this photo was taken. Then it was off to the cinema to see L.I.E. where I managed to embarrass Nick by pointing at people (before the film) and saying in a stage whisper, "Do you think he's a paederast? No? How about him? He looks like a paederast..." Some people have no sense of humour... Oh and I saw a guy in a bar who made me double-take. So if you were out in Rupert Street yesterday evening and you were wearing a grey t-shirt with a kind of laced-up front and you have a little beard tuft in the middle of your chin, then Hello, my name is Tom - can I buy you a drink? is what I meant to say...

    Tom Coates 2002

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Chanson D'Amour... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/2002 06:46:21 PM ----- BODY:

    Presenting for your delectation the laughably awful lyrics of an atrocious auditoriy nightmare by Manhattan Transfer that is so sublimely awful that I might even decide to have it played at my funeral. That would be a sight. My parents sitting there with their eyes all open, trying not to snigger. My grandmother looking horrified at the indignity of it all. Chrissy in the back row giggling like a madman... So with no further ado.. Chanson D'Amour...

    Chanson d'amour, ra da da da da, play encore.
    Here in my heart, ra da da da da, more and more.
    Chanson d'amour, ra da da da da, je t'adore.
    Each time I hear, ra da da da da,
    Chanson, chanson, d'amour.

    (Sax solo)
    Ra da da da da
    (Sax solo)
    Ra da da da da

    Chanson d'amour, ra da da da da, je t'adore.
    Each time I hear, ra da da da da,
    Chanson, chanson, d'amour.
    Every time I hear
    Chanson, chanson, d'amour
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On democracy and online community... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/03/2002 02:45:52 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's a really useful piece of writing by Robert Putnam, author of the astounding Bowling Alone about the decline in social capital in America:

    Anonymity and the absence of social cues inhibit social control - that is, after all, why we have the secret ballot - and thus cyberspace seems in some respects more democratic ... Research has shown that on-line discussions tend to be more frank and egalitarian than face-to-face meetings ... Some of the allegedly greater democracy in cyberspace is based more on hope and hype than in careful research. The political culture of the Internet, at least in its early stages, is astringently libertarian, and in some respects cyberspace represents a Hobbesian state of nature, not a Lockean one. As Peter Kollock and Marc Smith, two of the more thoughtful observers of community on the internet, observe, "It is widely believed and hoped that the ease of communicating and interacting online will lead to a flourishing of democratic institutions, heralding a new and vital arena of public discourse. But to date, most online groups have the structure of either an anarchy [if unmoderated] or a dictatorship [if moderated]"

    This is particularly relevant to the ongoing debate I'm still having with Cory Doctorow and to my thinking about the inherent politics of message-boards and online communities.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bottle-necking and diseconomies of scale.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/03/2002 11:59:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's a not-particularly-good example of how diseconomies of scale can interfere with the practices of those who would abuse the network and transform it into something it was never supposed to be - a broadcast medium... The BBC News article Computer viruses face slow down (a couple of days old now) talks about how creating bottle-necks in the network can interfere with the spread of computer viruses. A virus is - I suppose I could argue - a weird entity that changes bits of the network into broadcast nodes, eventually bringing it all down as a direct consequence...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How micro-fame will make people undertake more tiny miracles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 12/04/2002 12:18:23 AM ----- BODY:

    Why would someone built a model of the Enterprise out of Lego? Or perhaps I should ask (because I spent most of my early teenage years building Lego models of TV and movie space-crafts and vehicles) why would anyone decide to make a scale model of the Enterprise, investing considerable money and effort in the process and putting detailed pictures of the whole process online? I think the answer would be something like micro-fame.

    Before this weird online culture fusion called the internet happened, individuals were forced to seek the approval of their peers by conforming or by accomplishing things that their real-life friends and family thought were valuable. This low-level success was based on a narrowly focused set of criteria set by your upbringing, your neighbourhood, your school or job... And if you wanted to take it further then you were forced to somehow breach the membrane that separated the 'ordinary' from the 'famous' - something that only the incredibly talented or incredibly lucky could do...

    This made the world relatively predictable - relatively safe. Ideas were constantly created and constantly abandoned as ever, but there was the continual encouragement of environment not to be one of the people who did anything 'odd'. The internet has changed all that. There's now an audience for the strangest and smallest little projects. All the disconnected people around the world who might find a Lego Enterprise cool are suddenly connected up. It's worth making that tiny little thing you thought would be quite cool once, it's worth writing the dumb ideas down that you thought no one would ever listen to. Because the odds of finding people who will care about them, will gel and relate to you, will celebrate your idea or project and make you famous (tiny-fame, micro-idol), is radically improved. The future will be full of dumb projects, tiny ideas, silly concepts - each celebrated by their own bespoke fan-base... And human creativity will have taken a massive leap forward...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the manufacturing of scarcity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/04/2002 12:58:52 AM ----- BODY:

    I really want to write a proper response to this piece on randomchaos.com which discusses the ethics of 'manufacturing scarcity'. But I've been meaning to write something thorough and intellectually satisfying for days, and nothing's coming. So I'm just going to concentrate on a couple of key points...

    Scott says: "Difficulty should never be created. All work should increase ease (in a general sense, work should be self-destructive). I say this because this is the only path toward what seems to me to be an obvious ideal of work being optional." I think I'd have trouble arguing with the sentiment - but there are problems with relating it directly to these circumstances. Take the use of the word 'difficulty' - if making one thing harder really does make many hundreds of thousands of other things easier (in the case of e-mail for example), then collectively the weight of 'difficulty' on the community is lowered. We make it hard for people to burn down their houses by fitting smoke alarms and using flame-retardant foam in furniture. This makes it easier for people to live without burning their houses down. We make it hard for people to have their debit/credit card PINs stolen, by making a decision not to print them on each and every connected piece of paper connected with banking. All around us are products and services dripping with usability decisions based around making certain uses easy by making others harder...

    Scott also says: When Tom says the lack of scarcity of avatars is a consistent problem for community spaces, he is wrong. The inability to associate avatars with real people is the problem, and Tom is wrongly assuming that scarcity is the only way to create this association. Actually that's also a profoundly interesting question. One of the things that the internet was particularly celebrated for when it first went mainstream was this ability to shed your identity - to be more anonymous. By forcing people to directly associate identity with avatar, then privacy becomes a huge issue and people find themselves unable to talk freely or honestly. I believe the function of the online community-builder is to locate the particular and unique benefits of online communication and celebrate them - while at the same time not assuming that every aspect of online communication is of benefit. When I talk of scarcity, I'm actually talking about the labour of maintaining them - an identity should be an effort to use. That effort should be negligible for the maintenance of one identity, but substantial for the maintenance of more than one.

    Example time... Take for example the simple interaction of logging-in and logging-out of a site. Let's assume that a computer will have only one browser on it and that only one user can be logged into the site from that computer at any one time. Imagine a circumstance where the process of logging-in is extremely time-consuming, but the user that is logged on will remain logged on indefinitely afterwards. The cost of maintenance here is a one of transaction of 'logging-in'. But if that user is trying to maintain two identities, that 'effort' increases dramatically. Each time he or she wishes to switch identities they have to go through the whole logging-in process. If the process took an hour then a user with one account will spend one hour logging in. Ever. A user with two will spend one initial hour logging in and then an additional hour each time they wanted to change identity. Make it so that you have to post once a week or your account expires, and you add one hour of work each and every week for each account that a user has. Immediately, it's just much easier to maintain one...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief gripe about Technorati.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2002 01:05:28 AM ----- BODY:

    I know it's not finished yet and everything, but Technorati still hasn't figured out that plasticbag.org is a weblog or that plasticbag.org, www.plasticbag.org and plasticbag.org/index.shml are the same page. I just want to have my own little 'Cosmos'. It doesn't seem too much to ask..

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Announcing the first, and probably only, product of Barbelith Interviews... An Evening with Grant Morrison... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/2002 01:16:13 AM ----- BODY:

    New today - there's a huge slab-like rambling tome of an interview with Grant Morrison over at my other major ongoing project (barbelith.com). Here's a sexy quotable:

    "The space in The Invisibles, the idea of reclaiming space is based on Situationist ideas - I'm interested in the idea of re-empowering the imaginative city and making detournements through the architectural spaces; that was a thing my friends and I used to do a lot. And cameras; because obviously they're the real colonisers of space just now, social space, they're keeping the homeless out of the multiplex shopping centres, they prevent 'bad things' from happening to it, there are more and more of them all the time."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New stuff on the right-hand menu... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2002 11:59:53 AM ----- BODY:

    I've added a couple of nice little things to the right-hand menu of the site today. You can now talk to people who live near me and work near me via UpMyStreet Conversations. The site's progressing quite well - there are more conversations every day and new uses for the software keep emerging. Some people are just asking about areas they are moving to, debating London's new congestion charges or complaining (at length) about layabout teenagers - but others are using it to answer very specific questions or even just to meet new people. I'd love it if UK webloggers decided to put a link to their local areas on their weblogs - I think that could really make it a useful and interesting place to relate to your local geography... But I guess I'll just have to wait and see if that takes off...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: There are too many funny facts in this article for me to be able to take it seriously... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2002 12:26:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. I can just about buy the idea that you can use soundwaves to cool things down, and that you might be able to assemble a fridge that operated by those principles. I can almost buy the idea that two researchers are using "enormously loud sounds to keep their chiller cabinet cool". And I'm grudgingly prepared to accept that one might be able to convince people that, "the sounds pumped through the Penn State fridge reach 173 dB, tens of thousands of times more intense than any rock concert". But you have to start laughing when you read that a fully functioning acoustic fridge has been launched into space. And you're going to look stunned and giggly when you're told that "sounds of 165 dB would cause a person's hair to catch fire from the frictional heating caused by air undergoing such intense compression and expansion"! [BBC News | Thermoacoustic Research at Penn State University]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On my failings as a geek... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2002 12:28:35 PM ----- BODY:

    If I was a better geek, this article on XFML at diveintomark.org would be fascinating, illuminating and revelatory. Instead I stare at it in desperation, terror and confusion as the words change and resolve themselves in front of me to read, "Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb". This is not the kind of thing I'm supposed to admit in public.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If you need a baking sheet then it counts as cooking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/2002 11:04:51 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm a master of the pre-packaged culinary treat. You get it in a packet. You put the packet in the oven. You take the packet out of the oven. You have lovely food. It's that simple! So as I'm sure you can imagine I was horrified to discover that the Lemon Chicken I purchased from Sainsbury's required a baking sheet. You have to remove the chicken from the packaging, place it on a baking sheet and then add the sauce shortly afterwards. But if there's a baking sheet, then it counts as cooking. And if it's cooking food rather than magic oven food - where's the pleasure?! It's an invasion. I feel violated. I'm exhausted.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yet again manufacturing scarcity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/06/2002 12:06:14 AM ----- BODY:

    In the interests of fair exposure, I'm going to link back to Scott's response to my response to his comments on my thoughts about manufactured scarcity, although I'm going to have to leave a more thorough response for another day as I have much to digest and process on other issues today. In the meantime, I'm just going to make two small points. When he says:

    People in modern China (or even in a future America where the government has been granted broad control of its citizens) may have a valid desire to maintain anonymity online that is clearly more important than my annoyance with spam. (Capital letters my own)

    This was in fact my initial point - that one can't strip anonymity from the net without destroying much of its power for the disenfranchised. Hence when we're assembling our micro-community structures online, we work to build a way of interacting that celebrates as much of the power of the web while simultaneously working to stop some uses of that power that could cause that community to collapse in upon itself completely. The nature of the web, web programmers and free software / open source projects (and indeed the market itself) means that there will probably not soon be a monopoly on community technology that stops people simply choosing another form of software to declare their home if the one they are in fails to meet their needs. That is probably the best place to resolve this debate - in net citizens' interactions with, choices between (and accomplishments enabled by) various types of community software.

    I don't see how Tom's example system could prevent a user from sitting at a single computer all day creating identities and then passing those identities around to other computers -- assuming it can even prevent a computer from doing the same.

    Again - it wouldn't at all. But in my initial rough gestural example, the logging-in process would be time-consuming - which would mean that very specific speed bumps would be placed between new identity creation and new identity posting. This could radically slow down the amount of new users that someone could effectively maintain per computer. It's a question again of difficulty - you do not have to make something impossible in order to stop it happening - you simply have to make something not worth the energy, time or money that you'd have to invest. That's how public key cryptography works - not by making it impossible to break the code, but by making it take impossibly large amounts of time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A terrifying excerpt from Richard Stallman's website... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2002 12:14:28 AM ----- BODY:

    From Richard Stallman's (creator of the free software movement and the man behind GNU which is itself at least partially behind Linux) website:

    I'm a single atheist white man, 49, reputedly intelligent, with unusual interests in politics, science, music and dance. I'd like to meet a woman with varied interests, curious about the world, comfortable expressing her likes and dislikes (I hate struggling to guess), delighting in her ability to fascinate a man and in being loved tenderly, who values joy, truth, beauty and justice more than "success"--so we can share bouts of intense, passionately kind awareness of each other, alternating with tolerant warmth while we're absorbed in other aspects of life. My 19-year-old child, the Free Software Movement, occupies most of my life, leaving no room for more children, but I still have room to love a sweetheart. I spend a lot of my time traveling to give speeches, often to Europe, Asia and Latin America; it would be nice if you were free to travel with me some of the time.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The only thing worth watching on the internet... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2002 02:19:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Everyone in the UK pays a license fee for their television which means that we can have a high-quality public-sector television broadcaster: the BBC. The BBC also has the most-popular site in Europe. And yet while I'm delighted that it's there, and don't begrudge paying the organisation, there have only really been two things that I use them for - BBC News (TV & web) and Fame Academy. Well now there's a third reason to pay the license fee: BBC Kitten Cam. Tiny kittens, real-time, 24 hours a day (although at night it tends to be completely dark)...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 100 Greatest Gay Britons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2002 04:35:53 PM ----- BODY:

    If I had to choose the gay men that I consider to be worthy of the 100 Greatest Gay Britons poll that is happening over at Naked Blog, I would probably make sure that the following were among them: EM Forster, Alan Turing, Siegfried Sassoon, Cary Grant, Dirk Bogarde, Morrissey and Neil Bartlett.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No! No! It's a sin against television! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/2002 09:49:16 PM ----- BODY:

    This will mean nothing to the people who come here to read rambling usability articles, or stuff on social software - or even the few people who come to hear me ramble on about what happens after-hours. This will only make the slightest sense to those few people in the world who are obsessed with Fame Academy, or more specifically Ainslie. Will the world please explain to me how David, the self-satisfied little pop tramp with a potential career as long as his butt-hair could possibly beat Ainslie? I mean, sure... Ainslie can't really sing in tune that well... And yes, he has a tendency to get all worked up and run around like a lunatic, and coat himself in mud, and hide in cupboards... But at least he's not a wanker?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Danger! Danger! High Voltage! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 12/07/2002 09:50:07 PM ----- BODY:

    Prepare to have your world widened - for Meg is right - the song (and video) for Danger! High Voltage by the Electric 6 is about to colonise your consciousness and redefine music for you for the next twelve months. It's going to be huge. The following images will be burned into your retinae. Await the coming..!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Towards a way of measuring a stale paradigm... (ps. needs an edit which I'll come to later) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 12/07/2002 10:36:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Let's start by positing the idea that Thomas Kuhn is right when he talks of paradigm shift - that ideas don't simply change slowly over time, but instead occasionally move with seismic speed, size and repercussions. That the progression from Newton to Einstein could never be accomplished piecemeal, but had to happen by an instantaneous leap.

    Let's split this concept in two directions which will interact with it differently - that it's not only theories that can operate in this way, but also products. Let's think for a moment why a theory reaches the point where one can tell a paradigm shift is about to take place... Normally it's because a large-scale incongruity of data appears that seems to contradict the theory. Small scale contradictions emerge all the time - and they can be treated as exceptions (or more precisely circumstances where the theory is unlikely to fall down, but where it seems likely that there is more going on than we are able to perceive initially). But the more minor contradictions that emerge, the more special circumstances that appear, the more likely it is that someone will try to resolve them with a higher level theory that will encompass more of them...

    What's the equivalent for products? I would argue that the mark of a stale paradigm - one in which there is significant need for a paradigm shift - would be one in which one (or both) of two things happens. Firstly branding could emerge as the most important aspect of the product itself - with a complete absence of reasons to distinguish between two products (since both accomplish precisely the same function) then the arms race moves into pure marketing. This is a significant difference between products and theories, in that there can be two products that are essentially identical (or functionally competing for the same mindshare in the same area) in which neither can in and of itself ever be dismissed on any grounds other than taste.

    The second (and more interesting) aspect might be that the product would experience non-essential feature-creep - the complementary opposite (mirror-image) of the flaws in the theoretical paradigm - minor issues with the way they are used or interacted with that are resolved by the partial dilution - or working around - of the initial paradigm. Thus a product might evolve hundreds of secondary features, none of which are crucial to its use, and which are mostly used by very niche audiences or by all audiences on very rare occasions. A side effect of this might be a market saturated with apparently radically different solutions to the same marginal problems, none of which achieve any apparent dominance simply because none of them have enough of an edge over any other.

    Classic examples of stale paradigms? Shoes (evidence is branding and redundant feature-creep), Word Processors (evidence is redundant feature-creep) and Community websites (evidence is massive feature-creep [cf. Infopop's Ultimate Bulletin Board] and a recent proliferation of subtly different community applications, none of which have achieved paradigmatic dominance).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three Stories of The Invisible Poof... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/2002 11:16:57 PM ----- BODY:

    So the story goes like this... A friend of mine who used to work at The Express is talking with some friends in the office. She happens to mention me in conversation. A passing acquaintance of hers stops with a start... "Tom Coates?" she asks... "You know Tom Coates from Time Out?" My friend nods... The acquaintance gives a disapproving look... "I've heard things about him," she says. "He's supposed to be incredibly homophobic..."

    You have to laugh. But then you also have to stop for a moment and look around nervously. How did I get here? My tendency to jokingly call other people poofs has got me into considerable trouble in the past, although my habit of referring to myself a great big poof has got me out of just as many... I always assume that the joke is understood - that people get that because I have strange trouser-feelings towards other men, I can say the word 'poof' when other people can't... As a result it feels strangely liberating, and weirdly a bit like it's challenging some entrenched conceptual positions somewhere down the line... So in one way, I suppose, it's a statement of personal resolve with a little bit of overt confrontationalism thrown in for good measure.

    More interestingly, perhaps is the way this kind of behaviour acts as a weird kind of bonding agent between traditional advantaged (straight) and disadvantaged (gay). I don't know if it's a collusive, mutually-useful, atmosphere-reducing strategy though or whether it's all that and also a weird kind of selling-out. Does it buy into or even support our culture's nervousness about the potentially sexualised aspect of man-to-man friendships? [check out Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet if you're interested in this stuff]

    Here's another example for you... An old (straight) friend once looked mischievously towards me just as I beat him in an argument and said - in the most school-boy style that he could manage - "Yeah, well maybe, but you're ... a big homo!" After I'd spat my drink out of my nose, and howled in delighted outraged glee, I did the only thing I could do in the spirit of the occasion - I said, "Am not! Take it back! Take it back! You're a big gay homosexual..." As I look back at this I can see more clearly than ever that this episode was basically a disavowal of any sexual component that might exist in our relationship. The fact that each of us felt capable to declare in turn, and comfortably, that we weren't big homos - even when we both knew quite clearly that one of us was and was pretty comfortable with it - was evidence that our relationship had become easy, comfortable and free. But at the same time, in retrospect you wonder if this is an appropriate way to structure your sexual identity.

    When I look at my relationships with gay men, they're strained at best. I have a few very close gay friends in London - many less than I had in Bristol. Some are close as family to me, some of these ponced off to New Zealand and deserted me and I don't see why I should forgive them. But while I've always found overly heterosexual posturing tedious, after a flirtation with gay identities, I've also come to find the trivial assembly of scene-based identities in London deeply irritating - even repulsive. There's more honesty in the basic down-and-dirty sex that happens continually around London than there is the posing and posturing of the gay scene. Or at least so it seems to me at the moment.

    I suppose, at thirty, I'm finding myself at a weird crossroads. Am I a self-hating gay man who finds himself unable to feel anything but repulsed by the community of my fellow poofs? I don't think so.. But there's something wrong, somewhere... Else why would I feel so invisible? Why would my sexuality have deteriorated so fundamentally in importance to me. Most people I meet don't know I'm gay. Many people who read this site don't know I'm gay. Despite being best poof in the world once, significant gay sites have just not even noticed my man-friendly tendencies... But this is wrong! They should know. It's important to me. Maybe the answer comes from another story... I'm walking down a street with a straight friend of mine, and we're watching the hot boys walk by, and I'm lamenting my lack of relationship (for the thousandth time) and asking if they thought I was just criminally fucked-in-the-head and they reply... "Tom, I don't know how to say this, but I hope you'll take it as a compliment... I don't think you're in the slightest bit fucked up about being gay, I think you're fucked up about everything else..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Social Software Summit in New York... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2002 12:03:25 PM ----- BODY:

    It continually upsets me that things like the Social Software Summit in New York happen and that I don't get to go to them all. Hearing Clay speak on areas very close to my heart in London recently was tremendously useful and interesting, and I find it intensely frustrating that there are debates ongoing around the world that really matter to me that I can't attend. Hence my need to buy an iBook, hide in Norfolk and finally assemble some of my thoughts into a publishable form...

    P.S. That's Matt Jones on the left there. And aren't there are a lot of Apple laptops in concept-forming-land...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Unwedding of Ultrasparky... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/2002 12:12:05 PM ----- BODY:

    Of course the most important news in blogdom at the moment is the upcoming big gay wedding of Sparky and the Rooster (thanks to Google Images for those photos). I can't say congratulations enough! I'm stormingly jealous as well - Dan is a wonderful sweet man who I've met once or twice now, and Rooster is... well... really hot. [proper pictures of the lovely couple (you're looking at number one and two on that page)]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom mentions that he's just started his first Wiki... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/2002 11:04:53 PM ----- BODY:

    Little to say except that I've spent some of this evening working to install my first ever Wiki using UseMod. I've got a very specific project in mind - getting a group of less-than-totally-tech-savvy community members to get together and assemble their own FAQs, site history and help files. Adrian Hon's recently got something similar going with the Metafilter Wiki which I'm very impressed with. This feels extremely interesting and experimental - very much like weblogging did three years ago - but as far as I can tell Wikis already have a weight of history building behind them. I'll keep writing about how the project appears to be going (but I'm not planning to link to it from plasticbag.org just yet).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First thoughts on Wiki STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/10/2002 01:37:52 PM ----- BODY:

    A few thoughts on Wikis:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Dan Hill's "Adaptive Design" Piece... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 12/10/2002 02:07:41 PM ----- BODY:

    I still haven't completely formed my opinions on the recent IA seminar on "Adaptive Design" I attended (Dan Hill from cityofsound speaking). He's put up the presentation along with some notes which should make the whole process rather easier. The one thing that I know stuck in my head throughout the whole thing was that there was a regular appeal towards building adaptive sites with an architecture that allowed experiementation and adaptability. There were a few more people talking about component-level systems like Lego as well. They too kept talking about the simple rules of the system that governed the use of these blocks. Everyone seemed to think that the job of the designer was the development of rules and components within self-contained sites. I kept thinking of Operating Systems and the Internet - universal computing machines lying behind the scenes forming an architecture. And then I started thinking of Applications and Sites as the components within these machines. In a sense we're already designing components within a larger open system - allowing individuals to assemble their own 'machines' (which amount to their interactions with computers). Maybe we're getting this all wrong - maybe we shouldn't be looking at the products we make and trying to componentise them still further. Maybe we should just look to simplify what each function does and have them hang off one another by using standard formats and useful proceedures for interoperability...

    I'll give you a quick example. Blogger is a way of storing content in a particular format. It can feed that information out as e-mail, html and rss. The e-mails can be sent to me to be viewed on my e-mail client, or they can be sent to Yahoogroups where they can be displayed out of context or repurposed to be sent out to large groups of people or in a digest format. The HTML can be viewed by a web browser (of which there are several different types including speech browsers, braile browsers etc) or pulled into databases (a al Blogdex and can also be printed out to be carried around with me, or put into a palm pilot, or screen-capped and adjusted. RSS feeds can be read by applications like NetNewsWire or by IM programs like Trillian or they can be aggregated (as on Haddock Blogs) or they can be put into databases and reused. Each one of these is a component. Each one of which is something that a user decides (or decides not to) use in assembling the magic "machine that makes things happen" (ie. their person computing space). So maybe that's what we should be concentrating on - single use (or simple use) applications or sites that do something very well, can be removed or replaced from the processing chain of information. Maybe that's adaptive design. Maybe it's got nothing to do with us making the architecture at all. It's already there.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Only a few Secret Santa hours left... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/2002 04:53:52 PM ----- BODY:

    With only a few hours to go, this is just a last minute reminder that Secret Santa 2002 closes in a couple of hours. Get there quickly before the Elves get irritable...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The dream I had a couple of nights ago... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/2002 11:42:27 PM ----- BODY:

    So in the dream, my mother is putting powder-blue mascara onto my eye-lashes. But it's all clumpy and grotesque - like water thickly mixed with blue flour. She's convinced it's a really good idea. I'm not horrified by the concept, but I'm also relatively unconvinced it's going to work.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An introductory guide to Keynesian Economics... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/2002 12:01:15 AM ----- BODY:

    A link without an origin, I found this explanation and background to Keynesian economic analysis a few days ago, but couldn't think of enough commentary on it to make it worthwhile. In the end I retreat to the anecdotal. I did Economics A-level at school. I was quite bad at it, and the teacher told my mother than I was bone-idle. I don't think I'll ever forgive him for that. I have a picture somewhere of Ben and Julian standing by the window with teenage hair and school-uniforms. And even if I lost the photo, the image would stick in my head regardless.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out mentions Whorechalking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/2002 12:09:44 AM ----- BODY:

    So for a couple of days now I've been staring blankly at the plasticbag.org secret statistics page, trying to work out why around four thousand people each day have decided to wander around Whorechalking. So it turns out it gets a tiny irony-free write-up in Time Out London this week and that loads of people want to read all about this weird salacious new way of recommending prostitutes (and geeks) to one another. Print media is so dead it's not even funny.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While cleaning out my virtual closet I found... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/12/2002 12:38:51 AM ----- BODY:

    While doing a routine purge of my computer I stumbled upon three graphs made to illustrate the difference between an increased marginal 'effort' cost and an exponential one. This is a flashback to a now old argument about whether or not usable systems should scale badly in order to counteract large volume-abuses of a system.

    If this graph shows the effort needed to accomplish a certain number of things on a normal website...

    Then this one would show what would happen if the accomplishment of each 'thing' required extra effort - say if it required a small additional amount of financial cost...

    The problem with that system would be that your ability to abuse through volume is directly proportional to how much money you have. The rich (effort or financial) get to flood the system however they want. But a system that self-consciously scales badly in terms of user effort would look more like:

    I don't really want to comment on it any further, but I thought it might illustrate the concept I was talking about a few weeks ago.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On finally buying an iBook... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/2002 11:38:07 AM ----- BODY:

    Right. It's done. Finally. The wait is over. Almost eighteen months after I first swore that I'd sell my soul if someone would give me an iBook, I've finally snapped (like a twig in a blender) and actually gone and bought one. So I'm now typing this weblog entry on the keyboard of a 12" 800Mhz G3 iBook with 640Mb of RAM and a 32Mb Video card. Bow down in jealous awe.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The history of woot, whoot and w00t... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 12/14/2002 12:08:33 AM ----- BODY:

    Inspired (a long time ago) by a conversation with Matt Webb and Dive Into Mark's History of the tilde, I started researching the history of the exclamation w00t and it's two parallel analogues woot and whoot. Then I got hideously distracted and my plans to write the definitive work had to be abandoned. So instead, you'll have to make do with this graph of the incidence of the three different terms on Usenet over time - figures courtesy of Google Groups' search results pages...

    There's a larger version of this graph available here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few thoughts on Jason Kottke's post on HIV... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 12/14/2002 11:27:50 AM ----- BODY:

    I suppose this is an example where a politically neutral examination the transmission of a viral entity through a network suddenly takes on a huge weight of real-world issues and commentary and ends up looking totally different. Jason Kottke has written an intelligent post about the spread of HIV through the gay community outlining some of the areas that one would have to examine more fully before it would be possible to make a statement like: "Although he was considered part of a high-risk group, HIV is host agnostic. With just a slight twist of events, the virus could have first found its way into the straight communities of North America."

    All well and good, except that analysing anything to do with as emotive and politically volatile as HIV or 'gay culture' - however indirectly - may end up accidentally buying into some of the language and unspoken ideologies that have been weighed against same-sex relationships. I'm just going to highlight a few of the unspoken assumptions and issues that I see emerging from Jason's post - while appreciating as I do so that it clearly wasn't his intention to say anything politically dodgy.

    Jason asserts of Gaetan Dugas, alleged Patient Zero within American soil: "since Dugas was a homosexual, he probably got it from another homosexual who got it from another homosexual, etc. By the time it got to Dugas, AIDS was probably already established in the gay community; he just accelerated its progress." Clearly being in a high-risk group (gay men having unprotected anal sex with a variety of partners) it is likely that he would have contracted the disease through his relationships. But the assertion that since he was gay he caught it from other gay people doesn't follow and gets dangerously close to supporting the 'gay plague' position that was prevelant when I was a frightened teenager growing up in rural Norfolk. In fact he or one of his partners may very well have contracted it from another person or species of animal of sexuality unknown. More importantly large numbers of people contracted the disease through infected blood transfusions or by blood contact via injury.

    And if he did contract it from another gay person that doesn't mean it was established in the gay community. If it was a disease that jumped species, then it's just as plausible that he contracted the disease from a gay member of the 'farming' community. All these community structures have frayed edges and bleed into one another.

    Which brings me to another point of argument, the stereotype of a community of 'promiscuous homosexuals' as if this group existed world-wide as a uniform monoculture. Actually instead this community was to a large extent culturally isolated among a particular metropolitan liberal west coast culture of gay men - and even then probably amounted to just the most visible and socially active component of the gay people in that area.

    This gets even more complicated when you bring time into the equation as well - because it's not promiscuous homosexuals that spread diseases - it's nothing but particular exchanges of bodily fluids - and in the age of the readily-available condom, that translates to the statement that it's ignorance and lack of information that spread diseases (not the gender or sexuality of the people concerned at all). I know for certain that there's a generation of gay people today who have loads of sex with a large variety of people but manage to do so while being very much less likely to contract or spread STDs simply because they are more careful.

    Which brings us right down to the crux of the matter - when Jason asks whether the partners of straight people are "more or less likely to spread the disease through their own promiscuity than the partners of promiscuous homosexuals" he makes at least one implicit accidental move that throws his whole post into question. Because if we are isolating homosexuality as a risk-factor in the spread of veneral disease then we also have to consider that gay women are far far less likely to contract or spread HIV than almost anyone else. Because the issue here is not that promiscuous homosexuals spread disease, it's that people who have had unprotected anal sex are more able to transmit HIV than other people - whether they be straight, gay, men, women or anywhere in between...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: While I'm doing the gay thing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2002 11:54:09 AM ----- BODY:

    While I'm doing the gay thing, and more to remind myself than anyone else, here are a few of the stories that I got this morning when I did a search for 'gay' on Google News - just to show the battles are not yet won and that there is still a weight of prejudice and misinformation that must continually be fought...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The next couple of weeks.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2002 12:29:33 PM ----- BODY:

    So it's coming up to Christmas and all over blogdom people's sites are juddering a bit as they try to balance work, Christmas shopping, party-season-stuff and seeing their families. Personally I'm planning to go at least partially offline for a couple of weeks, catch up with my reading and try and assemble some coherent writing out of some of the ideas I've been having recently. This having been said, I imagine that posting to this site will probably slow down considerably in the short-term, but everything will be back to normal and bright and sparky early in the New Year... Assuming - of course - that I ever recover from seeing Greg Dyke dancing to Dee-lite's Groove is in the Heart at a Christmas party a few days ago...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jesus Christ... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/2002 12:46:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Oh for god's sake. There isn't a Santa Claus. It's your parents. They do it all. Ok? I mean, come on... How thick are you people?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being increasingly unimpressed by Technorati... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/2002 10:30:37 AM ----- BODY:

    For an automated service that does little more than aggregate a few useful tools - most of which were already present in sites like Blogdex - Technorati is surprisingly clunky and weirdly formed. I mean, for a start it has somehow managed to come to the conclusion that my site hasn't been updated for the last ten days. That doesn't seem entirely likely to me... If only Mr Morgan would pull his finger out...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New picture on the Mirror Project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/2002 11:39:27 PM ----- BODY:

    When I decided to put a new picture of myself up on the Mirror Project I decided to write a little text to accompany it. The text is stunningly anodyne:

    My daily trip to work involves me getting the number six bus from Elgin Avenue. The bus travels down towards Warwick Avenue and the around towards Edgware Road.

    Being on the bus is peaceful and productive - normally it's the only time when I'm away from computers and keyboards. I tend to take the opportunity - like so many other Londoners - to read a book and listen to some music...

    On this morning, the air was clear and fresh and the light was bright. I sat right at the front of the bus, and found myself looking at myself clear as day in the reflection. Behind the glass - a black screen. Behind the screen - the driver... Behind me you can see other people on their way to work... You can see other buses too...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two submissions to ETCON 2003... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/2002 12:22:46 AM ----- BODY:

    So I've submitted two proposals for ETCON 2003 - one on 'Personal and Mainstream Publishing' and one on 'The Despotism of Social Software'. I have no idea whether or not they'll be even vaguely interesting to the parties concerned, but I guess I'll find out soon enough...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On receiving anonymous presents via Amazon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2002 10:34:52 PM ----- BODY:

    So today I received a packaged from Amazon which I thought was my Christmas shopping arriving, but it wasn't. It was a gift for me from my wishlist. I haven't opened it yet, but I don't think it's my Secret Santa because it looks quite big and expensive. Which makes me wonder, who was it? Did you send me a gift? If so let me know who you are (either now or after Christmas Day) so I can thank you. In the meantime, I hope everyone's having a lovely run-up to Christmas...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yesterday was a very good day... (written shortly before going to sleep last night) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/19/2002 10:35:28 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm sitting in the single bed that I sleep in when I'm visiting my family and the floor is covered in wrapped and half-wrapped presents and I'm trying to remember when I last had such a genuinely nice day. I woke up to hear my parents gently bickering with one another, and my mother's frantic hoovering. But by the time I'd got downstairs, they were practically out of the door - off to do some Christmas shopping. My brother and I chatted for a while and then flicked through the vast amounts of music channels that Sky provides before finally assembling coats and gloves and going out ourselves...

    Eleven-thirty and we're wandering through John Lewis and Debenhams making rude comments about the slow people and the people with really bad hair. And we're trying to think of presents for our mum and one of our grandparents and that particularly annoying cousin - and sneakily buying each other presents on the side when we think the other one is kind of looking away. And we find something really cheap in the sale at Habitat that we can give to that awkward person who's impossible to buy for and it's a complete fudge and we don't care.

    And then we go to the cinema - me swearing like a trooper at any car that tries to get in our way - my brother getting slightly over-excited. And we have to go to the top floor of the car-park where the light's really bright and strong because there are so many other people around. And we're going to see The Two Towers because we've both been excited about it forever and we go and see it and it's pretty good but not as good as it should have been but we're still kind of awed by the battle of Helm's Deep.

    And we're driving home picking apart the bits of the film that we don't like and we give it marks out of ten and then compare notes about the coolest characters and the biggest changes to the plot and the whether that character was taking the micky and whether Orcs should sound like characters from "On the Buses" and whether Ents would really be like that, and although we're not sure that the film was as good as we would have liked, our conversation is probably better fun than any film could ever be.

    Back at home mum and dad are grumbling at each other in a kind of amiable background noise kind of way, and they let my brother put on the cricket because he's not at home that much and so can get away with murder. And we show them the presents we've bought other people and then I go and grab the cheese that I'd bought in London a couple of days previous from where it's being stored in the cellar and we sit in front of the fire and open the packages one by one and everyone in the family sniffs them and makes appreciative noises.

    And then my brother and I go upstairs with my mother and start wrapping up presents on my bedroom floor. My brother decides to tease my mother a bit and so I join in and it's one of those occasions where if we got it slightly wrong we'd get lynched, but we didn't so it was tremendously entertaining. And we're looking through the presents that we bought for no one in particular and now have to decide who to give them too - like the Paul Auster book or the tiny bottle of lemon after-dinner liquer and trying to work out who would love a present like this, before my mum goes and finishes the toad in the hole while I'm checking my e-mail and then we all have a huge meal.

    Whereupon my brother and I are abandoned in the sitting room with hundreds of TV channels and a roaring fire, and we watch loads of music videos and discuss the history of new metal and then watch Tom Green and Monica Lewinsky and then turn off all the downstairs lights and go to bed... What a nice day...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the augmentation of human social networking abilities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/19/2002 11:05:32 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been reading Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, by D.C. Englebart (Stanford, 1962) and there's this really interesting paragraph in it that I think is true:

    The process of developing this conceptual framework brought out a number of significant realisations: that the intellectual effectiveness exerxised today by a given human has little likelihood of being intelligence limited -- that there are dozens of disciplines in engineering, mathematics and the social, life and physical sciences that can contribute improvements to the system of intellect-augmentation means: that any one such improvement can be expected to trigger a chain of coordinating improvementsl; that until every one of these disciplines comes to a standstill and we have exhausted all the improvement possibilities we could glean from it, we can expect to continue to develop improvements in this human-intellect system; that there is no particular reason not to expect gains in personal intellectual effectiveness from a concerted system-oriented approach that compare to those made in personal geographic mobility since horseback and sailboat days.

    Anyway this got me thinking about social software and what it's relationship was to this kind of intellect-augmenting philosophy and I suppose I came to the conclusion that the objectives of social software were to do with the cyborgisation or augmentation of human beings. In particular I thought of that the functions of social software were threefold:

    1. removing the limitations placed on social contact by external factors such as language and geography.
    2. compensating for the overloads that this removal of limitations might generate.
    3. uncovering and improving on the mechanisms that people use in their social interactions with one another - making rational decisions about which are still appropriate and which can be replaced by software or technology.

    I have to think about this a bit more fully, but I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wonder if the Bloggies are going to happen again this year? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2002 09:33:01 PM ----- BODY:

    No real reason. Just wondering. Does anyone know if the Bloggies are happening again this year?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For essentially the same reasons STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/2002 10:04:59 PM ----- BODY:

    For essentially the same reasons that I paid Blogger money to go pro, I will certainly be buying NetNewsWire Pro when it is finally released. The beta has just been put online and I'll be downloading it as soon as I'm near a decent web connection. The lite version is such a staple part of my daily life now that it would be churlish not to help fund further developments. If only there were a decent PC version for those less Mac-fortunate...

    I'm trying out the posting functionality now - and frankly I'm very very impressed. This could totally transform the way I write as well...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Tiny imperfections... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/2002 11:46:24 PM ----- BODY:

    There's the smallest imperfection on the track-pad of my iBook. It's atom-sized, it's a mote - a tiny little piece of dust that's unremovable and feels like a microscopic coarseness when I run my index finger over it. It irritates me more than I can possibly explain. And my feeble attempts to rub it down or remove it with my fingernail make me scared that I'm going to wreck the pad or put a huge scratch across it. I can't do anything about it though, and it's clearly not reason enough to take the machine back. So I'm hoping that expurgating my irritation on the weblog page - venting my repressed micro-rage - will allow me to get back to loving the rest of my beautiful and awesome machine. And if that doesn't work, maybe buying an Airport card will...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On copy-protected CDs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/25/2002 11:11:55 AM ----- BODY:

    So I got my first copy-protected album this morning as a gift for Christmas. Or at least I think it was copy-protected. My first reaction? I'm going to have to take it back. My main places for listening to music? On my iPod, my home computer playing through my stereo (how else can you get massive amounts of tracks played randomly?) or on my iBook. I still buy CDs - in fact I buy loads of them. But as a rule they get ripped to my computer and then stacked neatly on a shelf never to be played again. As far as I'm concerned, CDs are a content-delivery system (like software coming on CD-ROMs), not a media to be played...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What kind of weird inspired genius would buy me a present like.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/25/2002 11:23:17 AM ----- BODY:

    What kind of weird inspired genius would buy me a present like this? That's not to say it wasn't an inspired choice - because I always get very excited when Diarmuid proceeds to spend my licence fee on a nice garden for someone else. He does such beautiful work. He's a proper designer. Not like that hack Llewellen-Bowen. Oh no. When they work together you can feel the friction between classy designer and hack...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why does the BBC hate the shows it buys? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/25/2002 11:59:06 PM ----- BODY:

    So you're a massive public service broadcaster that employs roughly forty thousand people, running a number of national and international TV shows and radio stations as well as having the most trafficked website in Europe. And you buy some American TV shows to show as part of your output. These shows have a substantial fan-base. Why on earth would you abuse them so terribly!? When there was an episode of this popular TV shows that was nominated for an Emmy - an episode I might add that was particularly celebrated and considered to be a particularly special one - what would you do? Would you hack it to death and then completely neglect to advertise it - even after postponing it for two weeks so you could show the bloody snooker? Why does the BBC hate the shows it buys? Why doesn't it buy stuff it has faith in and then treat it accordingly? Stunningly irritating.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My extended family is full of insane freaks who buy me dumb fucking Christmas presents... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/26/2002 12:03:18 AM ----- BODY: Now comes that part of the year when you rush out and buy those odds and ends that you hoped you'd get for Christmas but didn't because no one in your family really understands the real you - no matter how many times you try to explain it to them. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Pepys Diary Project and the clotting of the memestream... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 12/27/2002 07:04:48 PM ----- BODY:

    The word/phrase 'lazyweb' (which I believe was coined by Matt Jones) refers to the way in which if you describe something you'd like to exist online then someone else somewhere else will build it for you. But what do you call it if you never mention it and yet someone builds it anyway? The meme-stream is getting thicker, I think. Congealing. Clotting.

    Well anyway - that's my theory for Phil's stunning creation of the Pepys Diary Project - which is a far more elegant, thorough and well-built creation than I could ever have conceived of - let alone built. It's essentially a republishing of the diaries of Samuel Pepys - an incredibly prodigious and thorough London-based diarist from the 1660s. He wrote over ten years worth of diaries - which including descriptions of the black plague and the Great Fire of London. Essentially each entry is to be published in 'real-time' weblog-format from this coming January 1st. And it comes complete with the ability to add 'annotations' which hopefully will be a place where people can collaboratively research and explain what's going on in each entry... All in all it's a stunning piece of work...

    When I was thinking around this area I did a lot of research into the possibility of finding decent journal-based or diary-based out-of-copyright material - but there's a surprising shortage of it. It seems that the form of the journal or diary is very much historically contingent. It's a recent form of self-expression. Here's a piece from Walter J Ong's "Orality and Literacy" which I posted a few months ago on the matter:

    "Even in a personal diary addressed to myself I must fictionalize the addressee. Indeed, the diary demands, in a way, the maximum fictionalizing of the utterer and the addressee. Writing is always a kind of imitation talking, and in a diary I therefore am pretending that I am talking to myself. But I never really talk this way to myself. Nor could I without writing or indeed without print. The personal diary is a very late literary form, in effect unknown until the seventeenth century (Boerner 1969). The kind of verbalized solipsistic reveries it implies are a product of consciousness as shaped by print culture. And for which self am I writing? Myself today? As I think I will be ten years from now? As I hope I will be? For myself as I imagine myself or hope others may imagine me? Questions such as this can and do fill diary writers with anxieties and often enough lead to discontinuation of diaries. The diarist can no longer live with his or her fiction. " (Orality and Literacy, Walter J Ong, Routledge1982)

    Still - you'd think that there would be a great many diaries that were in the public domain - ie. published between the seventeenth and roughly the late-nineteenth / early-twentieth century. But if there are, it seems impossible to find them. The most evident one available is Dracula, which is available on Project Gutenberg [Dracula by Bram Stoker] and essentially operates as a set of several arch and wordy journals. The length of each of the entries makes it far from ideal. In fact most of the material that would be ideal for weblog republishing comes much later. I'd be thrilled to be able to put the Diary of Anne Frank online, for example, and I think it could be a tremendously powerful and valuable thing to do. But that's unlikely to be available for quite some time to come...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: RaÎlians claim they've created the first human clone... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/2002 07:35:29 PM ----- BODY:

    In an article on the New York Times' website, Religious Sect Announces the First Cloned Baby [via Scripting.com]:

    RaÎlians are followers of RaÎl, a French-born former race-car driver who has said he met a four-foot space alien atop a volcano in southern France in 1973 and went aboard his ship, where he was entertained by voluptuous female robots and learned that the first humans were created 25,000 years ago by space travelers called Elohim, who cloned themselves.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Using Airport to connect a G4 Mac and an iBook (connected to the net via BT ADSL)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2002 12:03:11 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm looking for advice (and/or links) on how one might go about sorting out the wireless networking of one G4 desktop Mac and one lovely sexy-new G3 iBook (both running OSX 10.2.3), the former of which is currently connected to the interhighweb via an Alcatel USB ADSL modem and BT Broadband. Some of the possibilities that I've been presented with so far:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the ethics and responsibilities of running a web-site... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 12/29/2002 12:32:29 PM ----- BODY:

    The ethical and legal problems that occasionally Google is confronted with are essentially the same as any site run by any individual or business: Do I have an obligation to the people who use my site? How do I reconcile that with legal considerations? How do I reconcile that with my personal need to make money (either from my site or without my site interfering with that process)? A recent (but already well-linked and not particularly new) article in Wired - Google vs. Evil - talks about the kinds of decisions that have been made in what must now be the world's most useful search-engine company. If only all online enterprises were as angst-ridden and committed to self-examination...

    The company's growth spurt has spawned a host of daunting questions that no data-retrieval system can easily answer. Should Google play ball with repressive foreign governments? Refuse to link users to "hate" sites? Punish marketers who artificially inflate site rankings? Fight the Church of Scientology's attempts to silence critics? And what to do about the cache, Google's archive of previously indexed pages?
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Among my other Christmas presents was a salutory reminder... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2002 01:38:33 PM ----- BODY:

    Over Christmas I was given some Clinique for Men eye-firming lotion and hair-gel, some soap, some Armani scent, a novel about Heroin addiction and a book called "How to be Alone". Add this to the wedding I went to yesterday and increasing status as 'weird-fifth wheel' at my friend's and colleagues parties and gatherings (those that I'm still invited to) and all I can do is thank god that I have work that I enjoy. Where's my tiny house in the countryside with my labrador and chunky jumpers? Bah. Humbug.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a lack of fearlessness in man to man contact... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 12/29/2002 09:01:05 PM ----- BODY:

    So through the magic of a constantly updating Google News RSS stream to NetNewsWire1, today I stumbled upon a piece in the Orange County Register called Manly Images. It's an article about how John Ibsen - a researcher into early photography and masculinity - has discovered that men before the 1930s were much more intimate with one another:

    "From the dawn of photography before the Civil War through the 1920s ... it was customary for two or more American men to visit a photographer's studio to have their portrait taken together," he writes. "Posing for the photographer, the men would often drape their arms nonchalantly around each other and would sometimes hold hands." These days, he notes, a more common way for adolescent men to spend time together is to go to the movies on a Saturday afternoon - and even then, they are likely to sit with an empty seat between them.

    Immediately I was reminded of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's concept of the relationship between homosocial relationships and homosexual relationships. She argued that man-on-man friendships have been structured around the continual disavowal of any gay component - that the neurotic denial of any sexual component either was recently or has always been one of the most significant structuring principles of society's conception of how men can relate to one another. And indeed, if you read the article further, this is one of the assertions of the article itself.

    This new reticence, he noted, coincided with the introduction of a new way of thinking about sex. "The notion of people having a specific sexual identity is a modern notion. People weren't nearly so much inclined to think of sexual identity before the late 19th century," he says, noting that the word "homosexual" comes from a German word that was coined only in 1869. But in short order, homosexuality and homophobia came to be intertwined with the concept of masculinity and what it means to be male.

    But if men used to be more comfortable with one another's bodies and the physical expression of affection, could they be so again? It's quite possible that this comfort was directly connected to the invisibility and complete suppression of concepts of homosexual relations. Or it could be that there simply wasn't as much anxiety associated to such relations. But I'm afraid I think that it's more likely that having a free and non-disenfranchised gay community probably means (at least in the short-term) a greater degree of anxiety for straight men. Until - that is - we move even further from the stereotypes and the repression and find a place where people no longer feel ashamed even to be suspected of being gay...

    Note 1: Courtesy of voidstar you can get a bespoke Google News RSS-feed via this incredibly simple basic format: http://www.voidstar.com/gnews2rss.php?q=gay&num=15 - where in this case 'gay' is the word I want regularly updated news about...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Schott's Original Miscellany... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2002 09:31:52 PM ----- BODY:

    I initially had a few reservations about Schott's Original Miscellany. After all, wasn't it just one of those funny fact books that people with knitted loo-roll covers place in the toilet? But when you see it - when you get your hands on it and investigate its pages - everything changes. It feels wonderfully archaic and traditional in a really reassuring way - the paper is good quality, the binding is luxurious, the art resembles the woodcut work of Eric Gill. And the facts within it aren't just funny trivia - they're actually significantly useful piece of information, fragments of literary interest, selections of philosophical quotes. Maybe it's just a trivial little book to help make the self-satisfied middle-classes feel more witty and interesting... But it doesn't matter. I'm a fan...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Move along. Nothing to see here... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2002 09:52:43 PM ----- BODY:

    If you believe I have a reputation at all, then sit comfortable while I abandon all claim to intellectual expertise, skill or insight and instead link to this really nice picture of Tobey Maguire which makes my heart-rate pick up pace and my vision get all weird and blurry...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the winner of Yahoo!'s Person of the Year is... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/2002 10:54:40 PM ----- BODY:

    And the winner of Yahoo!'s Person of the Year is George W Bush, which I'm sure has come as quite a surprise to anyone not living in the USA. Whatever one's personal opinions, I think it's quite likely that the rest of the world would find such a 'victory' inappropriate, unlikely, completely out of the blue. I would love to be able to have the figures at hand, but from my impressions of the media in my country and the general consensus of general opinion that one absorbs in day-to-day life, the vast majority of the world has a radically different view of him. The worrying thing about this is less that there is a radical discord between public opinion on this issue in the US and the rest of the world, but that it can only be a sympton either of a radical cultural divergence between the US and the rest of the world or between the coverage of the leader in the media. Here are a few articles from BBC News that I think hint at some of the international impressions...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And I have to confess, now even I think the world has gone insane... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/2002 03:11:43 PM ----- BODY:

    The weirdest quote of the day comes from Anne Widdecombe about the weirdest, least pleasant and most ludicrous story of the day. She said, "Jesus Christ said suffer the little ones to come unto me, not that they should be eaten for public entertainment."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And the Bloggies are back... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2003 11:14:30 PM ----- BODY:

    So the annual weblog awards voted for by the community and for the community have come around once more. It's Bloggies 2003 and there are strange new exotic categories for nominations and brand new opportunities for scampery and fun. A couple of things to remember: (1) Davo and Luke now very definitely are eligible in the Best Australasian category, (2) if you really want to be exposed to loads and loads of new weblogs then it's best to be a judge if you can (I'm not going to be this year), (4) plasticbag.org will be quite comfortable being nominated in these categories: Best European, Best GLBT, Best Designed, Weblog of the Year or Best Article or Essay (if you can't find any good ones you could always nominate the article in the Guardian which talked about the differences between the Bloggies and the Guardian Best British Weblog award). I'd even cheerily take a Lifetime Achievement Award off your hands if you were drunk enough to proffer it... (5) Other good weblogs you should look towards over several categories are cityofsound.typepad.com, interconnected.org, ultrasparky.org, BoingBoing.net and (particularly for the geeks) diveintomark.org. All very much recommended for very different reasons...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Happy New Year... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2003 11:49:49 PM ----- BODY:

    So the New Year has started, and while we may not have the most to look forward to economically or politically, but personally I feel it's started well. Movies and drink with friends, Indian meals, Chinese meals and many movies (including Chicago) have capped off a very pleasant holiday period, which - for me - well and truly ends tomorrow when I return to work full-time. It's all had a slightly crippling effect on my wallet, though. So I doubt there'll be much partying or many expensive lunches for the next few weeks. But I'm not letting that stop me get WiFi'd up the wazoo! That's the most important tech thing for me to do at the moment...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the 'nagging artificial girlfriend'... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/02/2003 10:31:52 PM ----- BODY:

    You couldn't ask for a better quote, really. You can almost hear the tone of voice as he said it. The former soldier was talking about the new robot that can sense emotions, and which is designed to be a companion to combatants in the field. And what did he say?

    "Speaking as a former soldier, the last thing I would want is an artificial girlfriend by my side to nag me about how I am feeling while out in the battlefield," said John Petrik, corporate communications officer at the Office of Naval Research. [Wired News]
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The neighbours of the siege in Hackney... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2003 03:57:28 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the largest news stories in the UK at the moment is the ongoing siege in Hackney. A man is holed up in a flat with a hostage and a gun and has been for several days. Some of the neighbours have been evacuated from their homes or put under armed guard until the situation is resolved. Normally these people would be distant figures for me - our only connection the one-way cordon of the television set keeping us apart. But not any more. This is the age of the internet. So local residents are now talking to one another and to the outside world via UpMyStreet Conversations: "This is literally up my street". It's a fascinating on-the-ground view of everything that's going on in the area, and if you have any questions for the locals, that's where I'd go to ask them...

    Further reading: trueboy.blogspot.com | iWire

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Dead Ringers and Doctor Who... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2003 04:24:06 PM ----- BODY:

    While doing a search for something completely different, I stumbled upon the Dead Ringers team doing some Tom Baker Doctor Who pranks. The first one I listened to, and probably my favourite, has the impressionist ringing up the real-life version of Tom Baker to discuss problems with K9 on his home-world of Gallifrey... Highly entertaining...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Mr Morgan... Long will he be missed... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/03/2003 11:22:13 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know if his decision to take his weblog down is final or whether he's just having a short break, but either way Mo Morgan's weblog will be much missed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quote from Jonathan Franzen's Why Bother? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 01/03/2003 11:38:45 PM ----- BODY:

    A quote from Jonathan Franzen's Why Bother? (from his book of essays How to be Alone) that I think is interesting in that it presents a different perspective - a tangential perspective perhaps - on the loss of social capital that is described in Putnam's Bowling Alone:

    "Superficially, at least, regionalism is still thriving. In fact it's fashionable on college campuses nowadays to say that there is no America anymore, there are only Americas; that the only things a black lesbian New Yorker and a Southern Baptist Georgian have in common are the English language and the federal income tax. The likelihood, however, is that both the New Yorker and the Georgian watch Letterman every night, both are struggling to find health insurance, both have jobs that are threatened by the migration of employment overseas, both go to discount superstores to purchase Pocahontas tie-in products for their children, both are being pummeled into cynicism by commercial advertising, both play Lotto, both dream of fifteen minutes of fame, both are taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and both have a guilty crush on Uma Thurman."

    Another quote from the same collection (only this time from the essay Imperial Bedroom) casts an unconventional eye over the issues of privacy in the 21st Century. There's much here to respect, if not agree with:

    The "right to be left alone"? Far from disappearing, it's exploding. It's the essence of modern American architecture, landscape, transportation, communication, and mainstream political philosophy. The real reason that Americans are apathetic about privacy is so big as to be almost invisible: we're flat-out drowning in privacy.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Being a rant about - and to an extent a caricature of - some of the excesses of the Social Software movement... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/06/2003 05:00:00 PM ----- BODY:

    The Excesses of Social Software: There's a post over at Matt Jones' site at the moment concerned with attempts to define and discuss social software [Defining Discussing 'Social Software'] and I find myself reacting to it in a completely unexpected way. Social software of one form or another has formed the core of most of the stuff I've worked and played with for the last several years, and I expected myself to find this resurgence of interest in these kinds of interactions fascinating and useful. But there's something about the abandonment of concepts of 'online community' and the complete rejection of familiar terms and paradigms like the message board that worries me. [more ...]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The excesses of "Social Software" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 01/07/2003 12:06:21 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a post over at Matt Jones' site at the moment concerned with attempts to define and discuss social software [Defining Discussing 'Social Software'] and I find myself reacting to it in a completely unexpected way. Social software of one form or another has formed the core of most of the stuff I've worked and played with for the last several years, and I expected myself to find this resurgence of interest in these kinds of interactions fascinating and useful. But there's something about the abandonment of concepts of 'online community' and the complete rejection of familiar terms and paradigms like the message board that worries me. There seems to be a bizarre lack of history to the whole enterprise - a desire to claim a territory as unexplored when it's patently not. And more importantly a remarkable lack of implementation and experiment around the place. Where are the projects that people are assembling and playing with? Where's the experience in running communities? Where's the actual engagement in how people operate with each other in online environments...

    The other aspect of the whole situation that I find interesting (to go off at a tangent) is this repeated assertion that social software, message-boards and the like, are over-complex paradigms that confuse the general public. A phrase I've heard a lot recently asserts that when we build these social spaces, these tools or devices - these workflows of human interactions - that we should always remember that we're not building them for us. There seem to be two assumptions operating here - that the general public are profoundly stupid and that (because they have as yet not noticed this fact) designers are probably pretty thick as well. In my experience neither is true (although to be fair neither is strictly false either).

    This phrase - not for us - is being used a lot at the moment about types of site (like message boards and instant messaging applications for example) that already have a significant amount of history and precedent behind them - types of site that have at least partially 'gone mainstream'. But rather than adapt and evolve these sites (firstly making them simpler or removing extraneous functionality and then taking these simpler sites and adding new struts or concepts into them) the urge seems to be to abandon them completely and build something new - something that this time will be simpler and more effective than all the other paradigms that have fallen by the wayside already. And what are we likely to end up with after all of this process has been conducted? Sites that fulfil many of the same functions (if not exactly the same functions), but which fulfil them via completely new paradigms that have been designed rather than evolved - meaning that they're sites that people are now forced to try and understand from scratch with little or no precedent to rely on. And these paradigms normally cannot adapt with the increasing demands of users or their increasing web savvy. To make a specious analogy - when you give people a space-hopper rather than a bike with training wheels, you can't really be surprised when they never graduate to the bicycle in adulthood... The bicycle in this example being those forms of interaction that have spontaneously emerged out of the web's memespace and proliferated naturally and easily across the web - sites like the message board or the weblog or even the Wiki have done...

    That's not to say that innovation isn't important because clearly it is, but the innovation must come with the realisation of how to fulfil a need - and to do that we have to look at how those needs have been met to date and where there's scope to bring our insights to bear. In Clay Shirky's inspired piece that touched on the failings of early community software he talked about the assumptions that had led us to our current unsatisfactory 'social software' (this was before the definition of social software became victim of the urge to split it so commensurately from earlier, more familiar 'community' definitions). And he came up with these problems:

    All these assumptions were led by a fascination with the extreme possibilities of technology available at the time rather any investigation of what people were likely to - in the long-term - actually want or indeed functionally be able to do. The current hysteria reminds me very much of this attitude, these errors of first-principle and this disrespect for history and observable characteristics of how human beings actually seem to behave. It would be a terrible shame if the potentially functional, interesting and intelligent uses of social software were delayed by an explosive interest in fashionable concepts1 followed by a ten year trough of frustration - abandoning individual web-users and independent creative types like the webloggers, message-board implementers and wiki-owners to quietly (and unfashionably) get on with it like they've been doing for years...

    Notes: (1) I'm sorry, but Slashdot.org is not an emergent system. It's just not. That's a facile analogy...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: What is it about "Social Software" that is starting to worry me? Is it the abandonment of concepts of 'online community' and the complete rejection of familiar terms and paradigms like the message board? Is it the increasing lack of history? Or is it the desire to claim a territory as unexplored when it's patently not? ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sunir Shah EMAIL: sunir@sunir.org IP: 24.43.17.245 URL: http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?SunirShah DATE: 01/08/2003 03:14:09 AM I wouldn't worry so much about the shifting sands of fashion. There will always be the quiet undercurrent that continues to develop the better answer. While history has shown this does not necessarily mean the better answer wins, on the Internet at least we have the advantage of keeping our efforts persistent for longer periods--proviso we try--and that means maybe one day we can ratchet ourselves forward, even in the long now. It gives me great satisfaction to believe that MeatballWiki will still be around in fifty years after all today's blogs have died. When I started MeatballWiki almost three years ago, my goal was to create a holistic pattern language of social interaction. I started by cataloguing the historical uses online. I've since learnt that the rather short history of online communication speaks only very little--an important little, but little nonetheless--towards the problem of how to improve social interaction with the network. By studying the history of human interaction, I think we could learn a lot more about the future than by studying our imaginations. Human nature is about the only thing that hasn't changed all that much in five thousand years. Anytime someone says to you that everything is going to change, they're of course lying (to you or to themselves). Sometimes it's exciting to believe you're at the cusp of the future, but we're always at the cusp of the future. I heard today that Albert Camus pointed out that the best way to contribute to the future is to give everything to the present, and I have to add the corollary that the only way to give everything to the present is to understand how we got here. I say the "post-WELL" environment we are in now in 2003 is a simple return to daily life. And speaking of which, I have some hacking to do on UseModWiki's new translator, so no more waxing eloquent. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.42.110 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/10/2003 09:25:19 AM I went to a lecture recently where Richard Stallman was talking about copyright in the digital age and he started by saying one really interesting thing. Basically it can be summarised as: Changes in technology do not change fundamental ethics, but ethical decisions may have radically different consequences in context. ie. Ethics remains the same but the way in which technology brings some elements to the fore or pushes them back into irrelevancy depends on technology. It's very easy to confuse our current historical mode of 'being ethical' with the underlying nature of 'being ethical', because while the former is a child of the latter, they are very much not the same. I think the same is probably true about 'being human'. If we can dislocate ourselves up and out of our preconceived notions of human behaviour then we might be able to find a 'deep grammar' of interaction that allows us to make more transformative technologies... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@heyotwell.com IP: 128.83.231.83 URL: DATE: 01/10/2003 05:36:23 PM "If we can dislocate ourselves up and out of our preconceived notions of human behaviour then we can..." As if this urge was itself a new idea. It's so critical for designers, programmers, or whomever to realize that new technologies don't confer on us any special perceptive abilities; i.e., if those who've come before us in many fields haven't been able to "dislocate" themselves out of their own preconceived notions of human behavior, why in the world would we be able to do it? (Unless you're thinking of someone in particular?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.137.254 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/11/2003 08:04:37 PM First things first, I'm not claiming any new ideas or insights here - I'm just combining them in different ways or bringing them to the attention of new and emergent communities. Secondly, I think the point I was making was that there's a tension between contingency and essentialism - and that that's what we explore. You say that 'if those who've come before us in many fields haven't been able to 'dislocate' themselves out of their own preconceived notions of human behaviour, why in the world would we be able to do it', but I would argue that that process has actually happened many hundreds of thousands of times over the years. It's the sense of being able to pull ourselves out of PRECONCEIVED ideas that I'm talking about - not dislocating ourselves from 'being human'. The hope is that we work around the facilitation of fundamental human instincts and skills - we work to augment those, facilitate those interactions and help compensate for an overload that such a process might engender. But we can't' confuse our current perception of the limits or instincts of humanity - which will tend to be inherently meshed in with our understanding of our place in relationship to current technology and culture - to what the actual potential might be. A comparable example - a few hundred yeras ago it was believed that human beings couldn't survive when travelling over 30mph. The fact that those perceived limits were innaccurate does not undermine the fact that the human body does have limitations. What those limitations might be (and how they might be changed, compensated for or removed) is essentially why we are here... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Steinberg EMAIL: steiny@barrysworld.com IP: 62.3.68.52 URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com DATE: 02/27/2003 12:55:44 AM Here here, Tom! The point you've made picks up on one of my most consistent complaints about non-technical new-technology evangelists - the fact that they're often guilty of throwing entire maternity wards out with the bathwater because they're not sufficiently knowledgable about issues they're dissing. Discussion groups like emint agonise about how to make online communities functions smoothly. They realise that a single button placement can be the difference between an easy, enjoyable forum experience with a vibrant community, and a nightmare that you give up on in 15 seconds. Those who are more ignorant of the issues assume that any problem they once had logging into a bulliten board was in fact symptomatic of a heretoforth unnoticed structural flaw in the whole of BBS systems! Which then (handily) signifies the need for a new paradigm! And a new book! So, as you rightly suggest, the idea then spreads that the current generation of technologies 'isn't easy enough for the big time'. Instead we need new technologies which, unsurprisingly, are SO COOL that can only be expressed using lots of words like 'paradigm' and 'holistic user experience'. This is because the writers really don't have a clue how to make it work, or even how to keep an IRC chan with 5 people in it interested. Meanwhile, the real builders of the next generation - such as the authors of vBulliten or upmystreet.com , just keep quietly improving their products, drawing people in, integrating, ammassing and expanding, slowly involving more and more real web users. They've already captured a huge proportortion of all the people online looking for any kind of help or assistance with any kind of issues - no small feat. Let's be honest - we don't need a totally new kind of social software. We just need steady improvement to what we have, and more channels of access to it. The ideas are already so good they've transformed the lives of people engaged deeply in online communities. They will keep doing so if we don't abandon the path of incremental improvement in favour of the pursuit of radical bollocks. PS: For a completely analagous situation - check out the foul mouthed rant I added as a comment to the end of this post about an 'intellectual' view of gaming. http://www.theisociety.net/archives/000448.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William Blaze EMAIL: not@today.com IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 04/10/2003 12:23:54 AM Great observations, I've been bothered by some of the same things. There seems to be a serious regression in the conversation quality now that people spend all their time blogging instead of talking on boards and lists. Posted more on my site. And of course that's a perfect example of one problem with blogs, they are structured to fragment the conversation onto dozens of sites, making it hard, if not impossible, to follow along. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: trolls EMAIL: trolls@donthaveone.org IP: 142.177.79.135 URL: http://en.wiki.oekonux.org.uk/Troll-friendly_wiki DATE: 05/31/2004 05:35:08 PM The troll-friendly wiki is one of the best proposals for how to deal with political excesses of fascism among social software sysops. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In a little less than 20 minutes, it's Steve Jobs Keynote time at Macworld... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2003 04:50:17 PM ----- BODY:

    In a little less that twenty minutes, it's time for the January Steve Jobs Macworld Keynote speech. This is the speech that sets the scene for the next year of Apple products - heck, it's the speech that announces most of them. As usual, the rumour sites have been going insane, with the most plausible suggestions coming from Think Secret. As usual, the relevant clump of people at work will be watching the whole thing over Quicktime and making sarcastic comments to each other over iChat.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live Blogging of MacWorld... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/07/2003 05:14:54 PM ----- BODY:

    And here's where I will be live-blogging Macworld as I watch it over Quicktime in real-time.

    All in all, it's been a pretty astonishing MacWorld - with some seriously good kit up for sale. I don't regret getting the iBook though - the only comparable product that I'd be interested in is the miniature Powerbook, and i don't think I'd have been able to afford it anyway. Next time. Next time.

    I hope everyone's had a good MacWorld! And I'll post again when I've had a bit of rest!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One more thing.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2003 07:18:23 PM ----- BODY:

    One more thing as I download my new Apple browser and look towards the pub:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Guardian and UpMyStreet Conversations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/09/2003 09:45:54 PM ----- BODY:

    There's at least one clear analogue for the process of (1) getting exciting by a work project, (2) getting completely involved in said work project, (3) going at it like a mad badger and (4) collapsing exhausted afterwards. And the afterglow is at least equally pleasant. Today UpMyStreet Conversations finally comes out of beta and has been launched to the world at large by an article in the Guardian: The Square Mile. We've worked on a few small-scale UI tweaks over the last few weeks and we think that we're getting closer to making the apparently simple concept easy to use and communicate. There area couple of tiny ones to come - but they're really enhancements and should emerge over the next week or so. I doubt anyone will notice them but me.

    The process of developing the UI and functionality of the site has presented some particularly interesting challenges which I've been mostly responsible for working through - along with Dan Burzynski (back-end programmer), Dorian McFarland (front-end programmer) and Stefan Magdalinski (who thought up the idea in the first place). Throughout the process my particular aspiration was to make it almost so obvious to use that people completely ceased to notice how novel it was. This involved paring down the message board functionality to its simplest core and concentrating on fully understanding the very distinct issues that a geographically-organised board might engender.

    For example - most discussion boards operate with time as a major axis. This is so common that it almost doesn't occur to people that it could be done any other way - new 'topics/threads/conversations' sit at the top of the page, and either (1) gradually deteriorate in importance through time (Metafilter, Slashdot.org, Plastic - where the content to be discussed is timely and has a limited shelf-life) or (2) move to the top each time they are updated. Time has been the main way that all message-boards have come to be directed - and so removing it as the core organising principle of a board presents profound challenges to users. Core concepts evolved - the 'here/now' bar reflects the co-dependency of the two axes of geography and time - as you increase the time-scale you are investigating the more threads become visible across the country. This means that your ten nearest threads are likely to be very close to you. As you decrease the time-scale to short periods, the conversations become fresher, but (since they are selecting from a diluted stock) more geographically distributed. Our concepts of tracked threads as well also hopefully balance this desire to keep it simple and comprehensible while essentially building in a completely different view of the site on offer...

    So that's it - that's Conversations Version 1.0 - and I think we're all quite proud of how it's turned out. And I'll be more proud still if it continues to be useful and interesting to people...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rejected by ETCON... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2003 02:54:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Well there's bad news and there's good news. The bad news is that at least one of my papers for ETCON has been rejected, which means that since (essentially) I've already written the damn thing, all I need is for Cal to get the project that I was going to publish it through organised and then I can put it online. That is the good news - just some minor editing and rewriting required. And possibly some more conceptual and mock-up work. In related news, the other paper I submitted a proposal for (the big scary one that I've been thinking about for months) has yet to be rejected. So there is still hope remaining. Although not necessarily much...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Steve Guttenberg is gay... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2003 04:01:52 PM ----- BODY:

    So Steve Guttenberg is gay. Except of course he probably isn't gay. That bit might have been made up. Or an error, maybe. On my part. Don't sue. I wish Steve Guttenberg was gay, because I had such a huge crush on him when I was fifteen. Not that that's why I think he's gay. Not that I do. Certainly not. Don't sue.

    The reason I (don't) think Steve Guttenberg is gay is this article about him: Steve Guttenberg Takes on Rear Ends, Leonard Maltin, And Directing. The first thing I thought when I read this was are these journalists mocking Steve Guttenberg by saying that he's gay? and the second thing I thought when I read it was are these journalists trying to communicate that Steve Guttenberg is gay because they know he is and he won't say it out-loud? Not that he is gay, you understand. Don't sue me.

    Anyway - here are the things in the article that make me think that they're trying to horribly mischaracterise Steve Guttenberg as being a big homo. First there's the phrase "takes on rear ends". No comment. Then there's the fact that the movie he's doing is about straight men and gay men living together. Then there's this exhange: iW: By the way, before we hang up, do you want to share any personal information. I have no idea if you're single or married? Guttenberg: Just single. iW: Single and available? Guttenberg: I don't really talk about it.

    Plus, you know, he has a blonde golden retriever called Sandy.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you want compulsory ID cards in the United Kingdom? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/10/2003 05:48:37 PM ----- BODY:

    Do you want compulsory ID cards in the United Kingdom? I would hazard a guess that you don't. If that's the case then get over to stand.org.uk now and do something about it:

    Hands up everybody who's really excited about the introduction of universal Identity Cards for every man, woman and child in the country! No? Well, that can't be right. Lord Falconer says that in one of the widest ranging consultations conducted by a government, they've been fair swamped with positive endorsements of the Government's Entitlement Card plans.

    With just a few days to go before the end of the consultation, the Home Office is saying that overall the public's reaction is hugely positive.

    The cynics amongst you might comment that that's because the only people who have been really gee-ed up about downloading a 13MB PDF (here's the HTML version we knocked up), scrutinising its every word and then writing up their fascinating points of view are those with an axe to grind about ID cards in the first place. Like the IT companies who are desperate to sell the government a brand new solution. Or the civil servants who've been hankering after this massive simplification of their dozens of databases for decades. Or the private companies like credit agencies who would dearly love to have a single ID to store all the data they're collecting on you.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Pete Townsend, Child abuse and Child pornography... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2003 06:30:19 PM ----- BODY:

    The appalling nature of child abuse and the unpleasantness of child pornography notwithstanding, this article on Pete Townsend seems to me to highlight how cultural hysteria around these issues is leading to some extraordinary legal situations. 1300 people arrested for visiting web-sites - even grotesque and disgusting ones? How does that work?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the lazyweb - iTunes remote... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2003 08:17:54 PM ----- BODY:

    So I have an iBook. And I have a desktop computer. They are both Macs. My desktop computer is plugged into a stereo amplifier. I use it to play mp3s that I've rippped from my ample music collection. But mostly I use my lap-top for everything now. My home computer is nothing but a grotesquely powerful wireless networking bridge and jukebox. But I'm getting increasingly frustrated because I want to be able to control my jukebox from my main computer. From my laptop. My first reaction to having wireless networking is that I should be able to use my laptop as some kind of remote-control. I need a bridge a way of interacting with my main computer - something that will let me control iTunes long-distance... I hereby invoke the lazyweb...

    In related - posted-after-the-fact - news, I'd like to thank Euan for pointing me towards iHam on iRye (above), which is one of the best applications with a chronically stupid bloody name I've ever used. I am now comfortably sitting on my sofa wirelessly connecting to my desktop computer and completely controlling iTunes. I will be able to do this from any room in my ludicrously tiny flat. Including my bedroom. While I'm in bed. All in all, excellent stuff. And in related news, Matt Webb has pointed me towards the iTrip - an achingly gorgeous little piece of kit that you plug into your iPod. The iPod then broadcasts the music it's playing in such a way that it can be picked up by any nearby FM radio. Stunning. I must have one...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief list of some interesting articles I've read today: STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2003 12:20:44 AM ----- BODY:

    A brief list of some interesting articles I've read today:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the possibility of using web-navigational schemes to communicate data rather than site-structure... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 01/12/2003 01:10:50 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm two-thirds of the way through my second Edward Tufte book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Now, before your eyes glaze over and you start skipping over to one of those proper weblogs where they talk about sex and disastrous relationships and the movies they've been to see recently, I want to try and convince you that the books of Edward Tufte are fun and interesting. I have no obvious reason to read them - I'm not a statistician and I don't work with graphs - and yet I find them endlessly pleasurable. I suppose there are several reasons for this , although some of them might be unexpected. Firstly, they are books which are intellectually stretching without being wordy or incomprehensible. They immediately open up realms or spheres of engagement with the world and with the information in it that are normally hidden from people. Secondly they are profoundly sensual experiences. Printed on high-quality paper, mixing textures between covers and cloth and sheet - these are quality publications. The typography is beautiful, the diagrams are never less than beautifully rendered - and occasionally they are simple beautiful diagrams, charts and the like. And finally they have the charm of the Schott's Original Miscellany (in that they contain as asides blocks of utterly unexpected information and background) without the handicap of being about nothing... In fact all of Tufte's books are satisfying because they exude the care of the artisan or the craftsman - someone with a profound expertise in, and love/respect for the process of creation of quality. In this respect his books really remind me of Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style, another book that beautifully expresses passion and expertise based around a respect for quality.

    Which is probably why, when I was reading The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, I was so surprised to come upon a paragraph that was so completely alien to the practices of web clarity and usability. In it, Tufte states some beliefs that have long-since been rejected from web design - ostensibly because they are smack of elitism and are impractical - even costly. He states, in effect, that we shouldn't forsake complexity just to communicate with our audience. Here is a brief quote from a much larger section of the book concerned with novelty and different paradigms of information-presentation:

    Moreover, it is a frequent mistake in thinking about statistical graphics to underestimate the audience. Instead, why not assume that if you understand it, most other readers will, too? Graphics should be as intelligent and sophisticated as the accompanying text.

    The section concerned is a lot longer and more detailed than the quote above, and is fundamentally about revealing complex and large amounts of information through graphical means - rather than about navigation or layout. But it's still interesting to me. He talks about how most diagrams used in the national press (if compared with those used at schools and colleges) are of a pre-adult level, and that we shouldn't allow this to happen. We should respect the intelligence of our audience. The comparison with the title of Steve Krug's brilliant web usability book Don't make me think! (much recommended) couldn't be more striking.

    So what is it about web navigation and site structure that means we should treat our users as idiots while infographics are allowed to treat their viewers like grown-ups? Unfortunately the answer is ultimately extremely simple - infographics are designed to transmit useful information and that information is the final goal of any interaction with them. This isn't true of web-navigation. Web navigation is designed to structure and communicate information about how to find different information. Web-navigation (and my doctoral supervisor in Bristol is literally turning over in her tenure as I say this) is for the most part nothing but meta-information - no one (except web UI professionals) visits MSN.co.uk for the information communicated by the navigational scheme. It's fundamentally uninteresting.

    But this does not necessarily have to be the case - it seems to me eminently possible that we might be able to generate a hybridised system whereby web navigation actually itself holds valuable information - much like Tufte demonstrates the axes of a graph can be redeveloped to carry additional information about the data that they frame (I'll see if I can find a visual representation of this as soon as I get a moment). I have at this time no sense of how one might go about doing this (except through a cascading series of inter-navigating graphs) but there seems to me to be a certain amount of potential in this line of investigation... More on this later (perhaps)...

    Addenda: How to pronounce Tufte (after kottke.org).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On 'doing a Kottke'.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2003 09:30:06 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been getting really behind with the stuff that I want to write on plasticbag.org recently, which probably explains why when I do write something it's fairly hardcore and intensely thought-through rather than a piece of conversational life-fluff. So I'm going to experiment with Jason's remaindered links approach for a couple of days until I feel I've caught up with the world, although I don't think I'll do it for long, because I'm not convinced that anyone reads or clicks on lists of links. Nevertheless there is a value to the process, if only in that my link to them (like everyone else's links to them) constitutes a micro-vote on the utility of the article or resource in question, aiding Blogdex and Daypop reflect the mood of the web-community and helping Google serve the best possible search-results to its visitors...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On doing nice things for other people... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2003 05:27:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Three things. A) The first thing is that I'm going to send you all over to Sparky's house and remind you to make a donation to Sparky and Rooster's Big Gay unWedding - which you should be able to find a link for half-way down the page on the left. Congratulations again, guys. I only wish I could come over and congratulate you both in person. B) Mr Kottke's advertising his wares in his window again, so if you're looking for someone with considerable talent who concentrates in clear, simple, user-centered design, microcontent, and the writable web then you should aim yourselves towards his updated portfolio. C) A Friend and secret-trash-professional has launched themselves blogwards at Trash Addict and you should go and investigate immediately so that the novelty doesn't wear off...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the first two weeks of 2003... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2003 11:56:13 PM ----- BODY:

    So what have you seen in the first two weeks of 2003? Shortly after New Year I travelled up to Suffolk to visit a friend who had rented a cottage by the sea for her thirtieth birthday. The weather was stunning and we got to walk on the beach.

    The morning after the night before we travelled around a bit, ending up wandering around the astonishingly intact Orford Castle.

    While wandering around the village we found several restaurants serving fish and an amazing place that smoked fish and cheese and hocks of ham, and you could watch them doing it (and take photos).

    And when we returned to London it wasn't more than a few days before the weather had changed completely, and blue-skies and ice-cold winds had turned into huge flakes of snow. Here's the view from my back window:

    I'm quite happy with the stuff I've done and seen so far this year. If it's all of a comparable standard, I think I'll be quite satisfied...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On what I've seen and where I've been since the beginning of the year... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2003 12:03:45 AM ----- BODY:

    Since I don't talk nearly enough about the trivia of my life on the site any more, I thought I'd briefly allude to my trip to Suffolk and put online a scant few of the pictures I took when I was up there. I think they came out quite well: The first two weeks of 2003.

    Orford Castle

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I wonder what would happen if I went looking for fights? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2003 12:29:37 AM ----- BODY:

    Often as I'm taking the bus home of an evening, I pass a man who looks a bit like a dynamic middle manager standing on Oxford Street near to John Lewis talking about God very loudly through some kind of 'voice-enhancement-device'. I found him profoundly annoying. From my position he's just standing up there advertising a way of life that seems to be based around the abandonment of a sense of moral responsibility and condemning people whose lifestyles don't fit the model of Middle-Eastern propriety two thousand years ago. It seems a bit weird to me. I keep wanting to go up to him and say things like, "I commit the sin of buggery!" Even though I very seldom do and when I do I don't like it very much. Or maybe, "I do dirty things with men!" Which I do slightly more often and quite enjoy, but doesn't seem entirely immoral enough. Or maybe buy him a novel or something. So that he has something else to do instead of shout at me all day.

    But actually I have a lot of respect for the poor chap. He's established some things he believes in and he probably gets a fair amount of aggro but still he's prepared to stand up and do his bit. Occasionally I look around my own soap-box by the side of the road, and check my voice-publishing equipment and wonder what on earth to talk about - even as I know there are a million things I'd like to say. In fact, worse than that, I find myself backing away from confrontation even about some of the things I believe in strongly. I had real trouble writing about Martin Sheen leading the anti-war protest in Los Angeles the other day because I was genuinely proud of him, proud to know that a man whose work I enjoy has the fire and the energy and the commitment to stand up and be counted. But when it came to writing about it, I became immediately timid. I kept qualifying things - we should respect his actions even as we might not necessarily agree with them - he was a great man whether or not you thought his cause was just. So I'm feeling a bit ashamed of myself today, and I'm thinking to myself, "What if I didn't back down on issues like these?". I'm even thinking, "I wonder what would happen if I went looking for fights..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: For the pre-school psycho in your life... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2003 02:38:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Are you children never satisfied? Do you find yourself buying them ever more toys that they seem to discard almost immediately? Do they have a strange menacing glint in their eyes that you find ungodly? Terrifying, even? Then get them one of the new range of toys from John Lewis. Guaranteed to keep them quiet!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do you want to know if you're happy (but already know that you're lazy)? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/15/2003 05:08:24 PM ----- BODY:

    A few weeks ago there was an article on the BBC's site called The Formula for Happiness which explained that scientists had somehow managed to work out precisely the right way to calculate how happy someone was based upon several core criteria of their lives. This story has been picked up by boingboing.net and ran yesterday. But if you don't want to go through the whole palaver of calculating the whole thing by hand (as indeed I didn't) you can now go and have it calculated for you by DotCode's Calculate your happinesss.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You need a good connection for this one... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2003 03:22:55 PM ----- BODY:

    A good connection to the interhighweb and a love of computer games is all you need to appreciate the Jackass of X-Box gaming: Warthog Jump by Randy Glass. With only a few dozen grenades, a few dead marines and a rocket-launcher, Randy catapults Halo's Warthog transports into the air in elegant studies of gaming pyrotechnics. Highly recommended and highly entertaining. Much improved if your sound is on, and the download is about 20mb, so not for the modem-users among you...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the increasing distance between Europe and the US... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2003 04:38:14 PM ----- BODY:

    Two hundred-thousand people have voted. And the response should be at the very least sobering for the American and British governments. The question asked: Which country represents the greatest threat to world peace in 2003?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On why I didn't sleep well last night... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/18/2003 09:31:36 AM ----- BODY:

    The dream - the recurring one - is the one where I go back to school after my degree to do more A-levels, and have to wear the same school uniform and am older than everyone else, but because I also have to hold down my job as well, I'm hardly ever there and then the exams come around and I'm terrified that I'm going to fail. The interesting nuance in the night of trauma that I just experienced was that I was doing an A-level in a language & literature class in something like Ancient Aramaic (or even Greek - which I'm supposed to be able to read) with only one or two other people, and the person in charge of teaching me, and who was sitting in the exam room with us was Stefan Magdalinski, my boss at UpMyStreet.com. He was oddly inscrutable, like he knew what all the questions were. He kept smirking in a (mostly) kind way. Drove me insane...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Observations and Speculations on Music STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/19/2003 08:35:05 PM ----- BODY:

    I spent much of yesterday in a strange venue - a converted public toilet. In front of a Hawksmoor church near Spitalfields market in London is a small glass structure - probably no more than 7ft x 7ft x 14ft. It's surrounded by a set of wrought iron railings. If you were looking for a meeting venue or a bar, you wouldn't notice it. But in fact it's just the top of a staircase that goes into an underground structure. Underground there's a new bar and a set of decks, but there also remain traces of public-sector tiling. The roof above is concrete struts with glass tiled pavement slabs forming hundreds of mini-skylights that let in a certain amount of greyish London light... I was in this public convenience for a short brainstorming session about music websites, the music industry and ways in which people go about discovering new music they like. Lots was discussed and I've been letting it settle in my mind to see if I can come to any general conclusions. So far my insights into the music industry have been limited to:

    Conclusions: If music companies can weather the intermediate period between the limited, cable-utilising bandwidth of today and the potential multiple-computer + networked appliance households of the future (indeed if they can help facilitate such a world) then they could still survive and develop brand-new channels which could facilitate a faster and more immersive use of music generally. Increases in bandwidth should mean that there is little or no advantage in storing information locally rather than on some kind of server over the internet - and this should apply equally with music files. Wireless networking and always on internet connectivity could mean that music is streamed to where you are rather than downloaded as well, but until that happens, perhaps some form of 'syncing' between client player and online resource could occur. This allows access to your music via any platform wherever you are - and all those geek-pertinent records about what you're listening to and how.

    Functionally if could work a little like this: The record company has a relationship with several different online music providers. The punter registers with any one (or several if they wish) music providers. There is no fee for being a member, no subscription at all. They then input their registration information into their smart stereos, their smart portable players, their phones, their laptops - whatever. Via a computer or via any interface on any of the smart machines, new music can be bought via the music provider for whatever market conditions suggest is an appropriate price (I would suggest in a world where a CD cost around ten units of currency that a download of the complete album should cost around five or six while an individual song from the album (assuming ten tracks) should probably cost one full unit. The song can be 'sold back' to the distributor / record company at any given time for half the current sale value (which will clearly drop over time). The provider takes a cut of the money made to reflect their running costs and the quality of their service and the record company takes a cut which it distributes back to the artists concerned. Any machine which has the password and user information of the centralised owner can play their centrally stored songs. The 'stream' or 'sync' - whatever - only works on one machine at any one time (or you can buy more than one license if you want), but a number of different streams or syncs can be active on any one machine at any one time (ie. if you go to a party and you want to bring some music with you, you just add your logon to the player at the party. Bingo - double the songs available to you. This also means that on your iPod or your home stereo you can have a number of accounts from rival competing distributors of music (say HMV / Amazon / Virgin for example) who compete on price and service. From your perspective, though, you just have one repository of songs...

    If you heard a song you liked on the radio or at a friends party too, they would be able to 'give' it to you easily by picking it up and sticking it in your files (if they wanted to transfer ownership and stop listening to it themselves), or they could just tell you its name - or you could click on 'buy this song' and put in your account and password information wherever you were and it would be added to your account centrally. At the nominal cost per song (according to my working price structure above at current rates, an album would probably cost about ‰Ì7 and a single song around a pound) and the capacity to sell it back / throw it away and recoup up to half of that cost later, there would be little incentive to find a cheaper mechanism - particularly as you'd lose out on the always accessible nature of a centralised distribution.

    Songs that you own on CD already or as MP3 could be played on the machines in question but could not easily distributed between the various appliances you own. Effectively, they are stored locally - or if someone wishes to set up a service allowing you to store them centrally and play them as a separate channel (like one of the normal distributors above) then I'm sure you'd have to pay for the service.

    I want to make clear that I'm not particularly interested in the moral questions around this particular distribution mechanism. It doesn't seem to me to even be pertinent whether capitalism is moral any more - particularly not in these circumstances. What I am attempting to outline is a way in which record companies might be able to approach making money by giving people real incentives to buy from them by improving the functionality, accessibility and utility of the music-listening experience rather than by trying to shut down technology that they don't approve of.

    This is clearly a rough piece of straight-out-of-my-head thinking which could clearly do with a tighten up and an edit. I may improve it and edit it over the coming days. Any changes I make will be commented on in the source code

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Being a long list of observations about the ways in which people are starting to use music and its relationship to computing practice generally, with some thoughts about how the music industry should be working in the longish-term... ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Toby Slater EMAIL: mail@tobyslater.com IP: 62.190.233.173 URL: http://www.tobyslater.com DATE: 01/20/2003 06:51:24 PM Very interesting piece. The functionalities you suggest are of course possible and have been championed before, most notably by DRM companies. But personally I think it's a pretty complex vision of the future, and one which I imagine would require limiting rights-management technology to work. Why not have music and movie copyright owners charge all companies which profit from digital media - notably ISPs and p2p networks such as KaZaA - and allow them to distribute the material online either on an advertising-supported or a subscription basis? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/21/2003 11:37:09 AM You say that it's a complex version of the future, but it's no more complex than Record company / distributors / retail outlets / consumers at present - and the current system requires you to change type of media and tranfer things between respective 'clients'. Well the problem with advertising is that it just doesn't work particularly well - there's simply no market at the moment - and it's an unstable foundation to lay the future of an industry upon. Secondly, you might be able to get Kazaa to pay money to distribute digital content, but how are you going to get Gnutella users? The free networks are likely to expand and redevelop in highly distributed and difficult to manage ways. If you use MP3s or equivalent file formats then copying is inevitable. The only way you stop people copying and using free networks is by offering them functionality above and beyond what they can get from MP3s they've downloaded. And it seems to me that the logical way to do that is to capitalise on the slightly-less than completely simple job of having your music with you all the time, detached from any physical media you own, music that can be updated and changed wherever you are through a wide range of different clients. Music that can - in fact - be bought and sold really easily as well... While you're on the move. Wherever you are. For as long as you want it. I don't see any problem at all with letting people download MP3 versions or rip or distribute MP3 versions of the songs in this model, because they'll simply not easily be transferable to you central repository - they'll still be stuck on your MP3 player or your home stereo rather than on your mates computer or your mum's stereo or in the car - wherever you happen to be... Anyway - apart from the conclusions I came to, do you have any comments on the observations in the first part of the piece? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Resurrecting "You've Got Blog"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/19/2003 10:31:29 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't quite believe that we're doing the rounds of You've Got Blog again. But ever since diveintomark.org linked to it, I've been getting a new batch of referrals coming through to plasticbag.org - presumably from people who haven't read it before. The reason I'm going to put my boot in again is because I still think it sits like a kind of poisonous lump of spite in the middle of webloggery and it really needs to be addressed. It takes many things that are obvious and have always been obvious and casts them in the most negative light possible, and at the same time it makes some assertions that are just plain ludicrous and can be proven to be wrong.

    Joe calls this statement evidence of the incestuous nature of weblogging: ìThe other people who have blogs... read your blog, and if they like it they blog your blog on their own blog.î He digs at this statement as if it were evidence for insularity, disconnection, power-mongery - playground politics, essentially. But what he's pointing out is a wonder of weblogging, not a failing of them. The reason weblogging has spread so far and so fast is because people who read them end up starting them. Weblogs are a viral medium of expression, spread by contact with webloggers. In fact, the worst case scenario for weblogging would be it it had become just another medium for some privileged well-paid people to talk to the general public. Everyone who likes weblogs should have one of their own. That's the whole point.

    "Counterblogging fails the test of novelty two ways: The links arenít fresh (theyíve been traded back and forth like saliva in a kiss) and no new events from bloggersí real lives are depicted." Again the assumption is that each weblog is a micro-publishing empire in and of itself - designed to communicate only to non-webloggers. But one of the strengths of weblogging is that each weblog can act as part of a massive, distributed multi-threaded conversation that goes on all around the web. And as to links not being fresh - well people choose what they link to - no one is coerced - and the more the link is posted, the more the community indicates that the link is important. This importance is almost a kind of aggregated voting - which is helping Google help to get 'important' or pertinent articles seen more widely and read by more people. It's not ideal yet, but it's really getting there. That's the whole point.

    Joe says about the A-list: "Finally, independent confirmation of an obvious fact that is self-servingly denied by the Weblog aristocracy itself: Despite no appreciable difference in the ìthoughtfulnessî of their respective Web criticism, some Webloggers are superstars." Since when was it news that some weblogs get more traffic than others? Some sites get read more than others because people enjoy reading them, because they're consistent, because the people who write them have a special insight into what's going on in the world around them, because they've been around longest. Whatever. There is no accounting for this interest, except by saying that people are interested. This is obvious. What's also true is that if you do something good or great or write well or are particularly interesting then anyone can get people interested. And because of the increasing size of the weblog community (or communities) there are ever more people to become interested as well.

    Joe says about the 'publicity stunt' of the little-girl-on-a-bicycle, "That clearly was not the intent, but the effect was the same, highlighting the incestuousness and insularity of the crËme-de-la-blogging-crËme." He says, "The girl-on-a-bike prank was the rankest example yet of the mutual admiration society of the Weblog intelligentsia, deploying multiple identical coded messages ... just because they could." Without wishing to go into detail about the event - my part in which is still slightly embarrassing to me - that's simply untrue. But the fact that people might use their sites to communicate stuff to their friends, families or loved ones - perhaps subtextually - doesn't mean that there's a cruelty or incestuousness behind the scenes. It might be possible to argue that at certain times certain webloggers have had significant influence, but most webloggers seem to become pretty immune to influence after a while. Independent people choose to post and do whatsoever they wish. And quite right too.

    Joe points out that most people write in order to be heard. Yes. I think to an extent that's true. Most of us, in our daily lives, don't really get listened to very much - not our opinions, not our beliefs. Weblogs give us a space to speak and be listened to. Some people will only be heard initially by a very few others. Some who have been around a while or have written something particularly interesting, insightful or entertaining will be heard by thousands. But writing to be heard isn't the same thing as writing for an audience. Writing for an audience suggests you're betraying yourself for popularity. Writing for the web should be - and I think mostly is - about allowing people to present themselves as honestly as they feel comfortable with. And seeing what kind of reaction they get...

    Next point - Joe slightly later says that "If youíre not an A-list blogger, you will stay off that list forever." This is simply untrue. Firstly it posits this weird clique of webloggers who everyone adores. Which is untrue. Which has never existed. But more importantly, if you look at lists of popular weblogs - the ones that are most linked is probably the best measure - you continually find that (among some of the old faithfuls) new ones have emerged continue to emerge and reach prominence. Even diveintomark.org (which is fast becoming one of the web's favourite reads) started a full year and a half after plasticbag.org, nearly three years after Jason's and a full seven months after Joe's article. Weblogs come and weblogs go - some start well-read, some become well-read and may others cease being read at all.

    Joe's final point is that everyone who ran a weblog - and was A-list - has loads of cash and is heavily involved in the internet scene. Lucky bastards is heavily implied. But it's simply untrue. When I started my site I was unemployed or temping as a secretarial assistant in London. When my site started getting popular I was working inputting film production credits into quark documents on a freelance basis that could have ended at any time. I was responsible for all films that started with the letters P-Z. I did 4,000 films in all over six months. I earned little money, and when I finally got a permanent and stable job being an Editorial Assistant on timeout.com, I took a pay-cut. And I was far from the exception...

    So there you are - an article that has a certain hideous potency in weblogging circles has little of substance within it. It's one huge over-dramatisation of one man's issues and irritations which has very little relationship to reality. The fact that it's caused irritation and controversy is no reason to believe that it 'hit close to the mark' - in fact it's irritating because it's so profoundly not close to the mark. As an attempt to describe the varied people who undertake weblogging and the ways they interact with one another, it's bitter, it lacks faith in human nature and it mischaracterises many well-intentioned people. Hopefully, this limited rebuttal will help limit some of its damage...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The plasticbag.org second link-dump... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/19/2003 11:00:33 PM ----- BODY:

    Being a set of links that I don't have either the time or the inclination to write up properly, even though I know no-one will actually click on any of them:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Robbie Williams supports prostitution and organised crime... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/20/2003 06:01:59 PM ----- BODY:

    So Robbie Williams supports prostitution and organised crime? Well - according to the culture minister Kim Howells, he does... And why? Because he supports 'internet piracy'. After all, as we all know, music distribution online is all about making lots and lots of money - so much money that organised crime had to get in on the act! I suppose it's more than we could hope that anyone in power would actually get the internet enough to understand which things are likely and plausible and which things are just scaremongering and stupidity. Here's a quote from Mr Williams:

    Williams, speaking at a music conference in Cannes, is reported to have said:"I think it's great, really I do. There is nothing anyone can do about it. I am sure my record label would hate me saying it, and my manager and my accountants."

    And here's a corresponding quote full of stupidity from Kim Howells:

    "In saying that piracy is a 'great idea', Williams is doing the work for international gangs involved in drugs and prostitution who find music piracy an excellent way of laundering their profits."

    I would suggest that you e-mail him or fax him explaining internet piracy to him - explaining that no one makes any money from it - but of course he doesn't have a website or an e-mail address. I was then going to suggest that you send him a fax, but unfortunately faxyourmp.com is down because one of the volunteers who runs it has the builders in. Quite why such a core service isn't supported by the Government remains a mystery...[Read more idiocy at Google News]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to contact Kim Howells and tell him what a plonker he's been... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/21/2003 04:02:42 PM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Matthew Davis, George Wright and Tim Duckett for writing in with various e-mail addresses for Dr Kim Howells, the Minister for Culture who so resolutely confused music piracy online with drug-dealing and prostitution and in the process declared that Robbie Williams supported international gangs and terrorism. If you wish to have a go at explaining to the gentleman in question exactly where his logic went wrong, his address is kim.howells@culture.gov.uk. Here's my e-mail. Try as I might, I couldn't stop myself sounding smug and superior...

    Dear Doctor Howells,
         I was disappointed to notice that you recently conflated internet piracy of music (as 'advocated' by Robbie Williams) with the selling of fake CDs, videos and tapes. They are - as I'm sure you've now been informed thousands of times - completely different issues. The most significant difference is that not even record companies have found any ways yet to sell music online and make money out of it - which is clearly untrue about physical media. That criminals could have exploited this non-market as a way of laundering their profits is at best unlikely and at worst ridiculous.
         The kind of piracy that Mr Williams was talking about is conducted by members of the public putting songs online (either through peer to peer technologies or simply on the web) for other members of the public to download. While this is clearly a morally questionable act that's been debated in the press over and over again, there doesn't appear to be any way to make any money out of it whatsoever. This fact is known to the many millions of Britons who have used applications like Napster to download music.
         That the government I voted for could be quite so clueless about things like this - particularly in the area of culture where intellectual property issues, copyright and digital distribution are huge emerging issues - is frankly terrifying to me! Perhaps you should find some way of keeping yourself informed about such matters before standing up and making a fool of yourself (and by association me for voting for you).
         Yours faithfully,
         Tom Coates
         http://www.plasticbag.org
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being nominated for 'Best Designed Weblog'... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/22/2003 12:18:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Well the nominations have been announced for Bloggies 2003 and this year I've not been nominated for either "Best Poof" or "Best Eurotrash". It's always a terrible shame when people who do so well in childhood fail to live up to their early promise, don't you think? Nonetheless, there is cause for celebration! Of all things, plasticbag.org has been nominated for the category of "Best Designed Weblog"!

    My co-contenders in this category include Snazzykat, Neurotic Fishbowl, the gloriously lovely Loobylu -- subliminal: she eats babies and kicks puppies - you don't want to vote for her - plus anyway she's far too good -- and the frankly intimidating thinkdink. Obviously I don't hold out tremendous hope for victory, but that won't stop me pulling out my bull-whip and looking threatening until you agree to go and vote for me...

    Typically, of course, such a nomination couldn't have come at a worse time. There are small oddnesses creeping in around the site which you probably haven't noticed yet, but will shortly. Something is stirring beneath the placid exterior of plasticbag's webloggery that may give you pause to wonder, "What on earth is he up to?" Trust me, it's nowhere near as exciting as it may initially sound. More later...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Genius, the Expert and the Christmas Turkey... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/22/2003 03:15:52 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't believe we ever needed more reasons to love Kurt Vonnegut. But if we did need more reasons, Matt Webb's extended quotation from the Vonnegut book Bluebeard would certainly suffice. In the excerpt, three types of people are outlined who must be present during any kind of intellectual revolution: the Genius, the Expert and Christmas Turkey. Sometimes you have to wonder if any industry has ever been more full of the third type than the web industry:

    The third sort of specialist is a person who can explain anything, no matter how complicated, to the satisfaction of most people, no matter how stupid or pigheaded they may be. 'He will say almost anything in order to be interesting or exciting,' says Slazinger. 'Working alone, depending solely on his own shallow ideas, he would be regarded as being as full of shit as a Christmas turkey.'

    In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell called these people "Mavens", "Connectors" and "Salesman" and we all bought his book and called him a genius. Go figure.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Link-dump in extremis... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/22/2003 10:16:42 PM ----- BODY:

    According to Mr Webb and Mr Gyford (with whom I work), it is inappropriate web behaviour to have four full lines of bookmarks in your Mozilla toolbar, all waiting to be properly written-up and posted to your site. Probably less appropriate still are the eleven tabbed browser windows I have open as well, each containing something I'd like to talk about in more detail. So - because it remains vaguely fashionable, and because I'd much rather go and play Black and White - I'm going to do yet another link-dump. Don't hate me. I'll come up with some proper content one day. I promise...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the strange priorities of 8 mile... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/23/2003 11:03:41 PM ----- BODY: There's no denying that 8 mile is a perfectly serviceable bit of cinema. And there's no denying that it packs a few punches and that Eminem himself pulls off a perfectly adequate performance. And the world that is represented is compelling and mostly realistic. But I have to confess, as I looked at the seriousness with which they approached the combative rap scenes, I found myself unable to fully grasp why these were quite such big deals. It's two grown men calling each other names in rhyme, surely? It's artful and creative - gutsy even - but at no point did you get the feeling that these were battles of life and death. And weirdly, in the background, the threat of eviction and homelessness with a small child to look after seems almost trivial... Strange priorities... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two degrees from Al Gore... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/24/2003 12:01:28 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a conversation that I'd love to have been party to: Douglas Rushkoff spends a couple of hours with Al Gore. And in his post about it, Rushkoff has the charming naive enthusiasm of a teenage crush. And by all accounts with good reason:

    But still, I could imagine him back in the dorm room, sitting up all night with the rest of us and dreaming about how things might be - if we were ever in charge. With Gore, much more than Clinton, we almost got one of us in there. This was an inspiring thought to me, until I realized that this might be as close as we ever get

    I've had a couple of minor collisions with Douglas Rushkoff in my life. I e-mailed him once about our mutual crush Grant Morrison, and managed to keep a conversation going online for a few days about The Bomb and whether or not he was doing a treatment for an Invisibles movie. And then a few years later Davo and I went to see him speaking in a café in Golden Square, where I desperately wanted to speak about a dozen times and finally squeezed out one rather hopeless question before becoming distracted by a cute bloke.

    Nevertheless, I consider this to be one degree of association between us - the same solid degree of separation that would exist if we had shagged like bunnies or grown-up together in Arkansas. Diseases I had that day may have infected him. It's possible. Which means that Al Gore could have been en-common-colded by me once-removed. If the disease lay dormant for just over twelve months and only sprang into action at the hint of uncharismatic but otherwise cool presidential candidates. We're practically brothers.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Undesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 01/26/2003 03:44:57 PM ----- BODY: Much to my delight, there's a picture of plasticbag.org in an article on "Undesign" in this week's copy of Graphics International: Lo-fi Allstars. If you want to see the article in context complete with images, then you have to download the PDF. There's something really nice about having your design genius recognised in a professional magazine, even if said genius is a tarted up hand-me-down from more serious and well-trained individuals. You know who you are. Having said all that, there is something that I'd like to take issue with. The article seems to be conflating two completely different concepts of design, and in the process is doing a disservice to both. Firstly there's the kind of design that is undertaken by someone like Jason in the design of his weblog - a form of design that he's recently posted about. This kind of design derives from allowing the content to take centre-stage, simplifying the rest, cleaning away anything that isn't necessary and leaving people with a simple and clearly branded content delivery system. Being flash with design, he suggests, rather misses the point. I totally agree with his strategy here (and so I should - I've ripped him off enough). It's a strategy that reminds me very much of craftsmen, artisans and the like - a respect for your medium, a desire to do something clean and clear and elegant that fulfils its purpose practically and effectively. This is a school of undesign that is dripping in the craft of design. It's almost ur-design or even deep-design, in the same way that people have searched for years for 'deep' grammatical structures in language. What it isn't is slipshod, dirty or inelegant. On the other side of the scale is the work done by Rob Manuel of b3ta in the promotion of a do-it-yourself, scrappy, "shit is good" aesthetic. I used to work with Rob and I know he feels very strongly - and again, I think, correctly - that the more polish you put on a visual joke then the more likely it is that the humour is lost. He aims for characterful and exciting pieces of work above all - get it done, get it out, if the joke's good then it'll thrive. It's a design strategy that can only work in terms of content, though - not structure - and if you step back and look at how b3ta as a site is structured - both in terms of Information Architecture (if you can say something like that about b3ta without being slightly ridiculous) and overt navigation - then it's a supremely elegant interconnected mesh of simple pages. And the design for the pages themselves concentrates - just as much as Jason's work does - on being clear, non-invasive and well-branded. So if you're coming into this field fresh from the outside world, and you want to get involved in the new weblog-chic (yet again) then keep this in mind - a good site must necessarily be well-designed. It's designed to be a clear and unobtrusive content-delivery mechanism with no sharp-edges and no confusing bits of functionality. It's designed to clearly communicate the structure of a site and the nature of a brand. This takes work and is simply not the same thing as making something look pretty. It's only in the content itself that you can play - and even then some content is perfect for 'born sloppy' approaches (humour and horror for example), while other content (news content, financial reports) still have to look authoratitative... [If you're interested in reading still more on this issue, I've had another stab at explaining myself over at marketingfix.com]. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.155.150 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/02/2003 04:24:47 PM For anyone who's interested, there's an good follow-on from the Graphics International article on Undesign over at 37signals. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The first form of writing native to the web....? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/26/2003 03:51:53 PM ----- BODY: I've heard it before and I know it's not a particularly stunning thing to say, but I still feel a weird rush of pride and enthusiasm when someone says something like this: "Weblogs are arguably the first form that is native to the Web. They emerged from two key elements of the Web: hypertext and the ability for anyone with an Internet connection to create a Web page." [NY News] ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bon mots about Trackback... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/27/2003 12:39:28 AM ----- BODY:

    A select few AIM bon mots about trackback from the last 24 hours or so that demonstrate that I have absolutely bugger-all idea what I'm doing on the internet and should probably go back to sheep-herding or something like that - something that's not as intellectually taxing and that I can't be so resolutely, systematically bad at:

    "Question: Is trackback a pile of fucking arse that makes no sense whatsoever and doesn't do what it says on the tin except in the most circuitous and ludicrously bad way possible?"

    "How Trackback works in a nutshell: So linky article links to linked article then the linky thing sends a little note to the linked thing saying I'm trying to link to you and the linked thing goes So the fuck what? and the linky thing asks Didn't I do this right? and the linked thing goes No, you don't use the actual URL you use a magic different one that you don't know and can't easily find automatically unless you understand weird magic code and the linky thing goes You're shitting me and the linky thing says No."

    "Trackback isn't new-fangled, it's just bad-fangled."

    "Someone said to me that the what of trackback was genius even if the how was terrible. I want to suggest that the same holds true of a brick that you claim can travel faster than light."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Final thoughts on the Bloggies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/27/2003 09:15:32 AM ----- BODY: I think it would be going over the top to say that the web has been rocked by suggestions that a group of Texan webloggers have 'gamed' the Bloggies. After all, the awards are very clearly niche-interest and geeky. More than that, even - they are supposed to be trivial - fun. In fact I think the reason they're not uniformly despised is because of the innocence that surrounds them - an innocence that was the main reason why participating and being nominated was such a pleasure. These are your geeky peers. This is what they think. So you have to ask why on earth would anyone want to game them? It just makes the whole event, which is supposed to be a kind of weird coming-together of webloggers, just feel like every other kind of award ceremony - a scrabbling for adulation with no shame, no solidarity, no sense of community. It's a shame. I understand Nikolai's resistance to getting involved at this stage, but just for the record this is what I think should happen. Firstly, the people who have block-voted should have their sites removed from the nominations. Secondly, the votes they cast during the judging process should be discounted. Thirdly the list of five best sites that emerges from this filtered judges' list should be merged with whatever's left from the current five nominations. And then voting should begin again. It would probably mean a few more people in each category - maybe up to eight in some - but I think it's the only way to handle it appropriately. Let the community decide. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is a Designer? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/27/2003 04:50:28 PM ----- BODY:

    From What is a Designer? by Norman Potter:

    "In the field of product design, the professional extremes might be said to range from studio pottery and textile design at one end of the spectrum to engineering design and computer programming at the other. This is a very broad spectrum and clearly there are serious differences at the extremes. In the communication field, a similar spectrum might range from, say, freehand book illustration, to the very exact disciplines of cartography or the design of instrumentation for aircraft."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Celeste EMAIL: celeste@daymakerfreeserve.co.uk IP: 195.92.168.170 URL: DATE: 01/28/2003 08:32:55 PM I'll go back to figuring out how on earth to install Moveable Type now. I wish I understood computers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlotte potter-powell EMAIL: charlotte.potter-powell@univ.ox.ac.uk IP: 129.67.23.154 URL: DATE: 10/26/2003 05:54:38 PM I don't see the value of this particular quotation. As far as I understand it the more important principal which Norman Potter lived by was one of humility as a designer and as a person. As a maker he hoped to be sensitive towards tools and inherent properties of materials,to teach, to make useful and beautiful things for a wider community and for their own sake, and to avoid the pretensciosness, elitism and egotism whcih might sometimes be part of the design world. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I don't really want to talk about it... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/28/2003 12:25:46 AM ----- BODY: I went to a tanning salon. Obviously I'm ashamed of myself, but it was that or fill in my tax return. I thought to myself, "You know what I'd like to do? I'd like to go to a tanning salon!" Because that's the kind of thing you do on a Saturday in January.... Obviously. The salon in question was almost empty - there was just some skinny-looking gay bloke hiding in a booth around the back and the one-hundred-year-old grandfather who minded the counter. My choice - "Fifteen minutes of irradiated cancer-creation, please!" The crumbly old geeker looked at me like I'd landed from space - as if it was possible that I'd accidentally just asked him for his prostate in a jar without realising it. "I should think ten minutes would be enough for you," he murmured with eyebrows wiggling. So I grudgingly conceded and stood in my light-giving booth like it was some kind of alien hot-stuff storage-tank on my way to Planet Sex. Afterwards I felt disappointed. I looked in the mirror and thought, "Well that didn't do any good". It wasn't until later that evening that I was forced to realise that - evidently while I wasn't looking - someone had decided to colour in all of my body with a pink flourescent highlighter pen. It took another twenty-four hours for the upper layers of my facial epidermis to emigrate in search of more fertile farmlands and less harsh weather conditions... But it doesn't matter. There's no need for anyone to ever find out that I secretly look like a cross between The English Patient and a recently broiled lobster underneath my shiny shirts. And if anyone asks I can just say, "I don't really want to talk about it..." ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How has Blogger changed your life? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/28/2003 10:49:26 PM ----- BODY: This post marks the end of a personal era. Over the last three and a bit years I have religiously written something into Blogger almost each and every day. From late 1999, when I'd been in London less than a year, to getting my job at Time Out, to my disasterous relationships, through my period of limited work, right around to my stuff with EMAP, the BBC and UpMyStreet - Blogger has been with me. It's been to conferences with me, it's been to Los Angeles with me (twice) and New York with me (once). It's seen me make any number of dumb personal websites, been with me when I watched the Twin Towers collapse. It's sat beside me as I witnessed global news events and dumb websites involving kittens. Blogger has helped me make any number of great new friends (so many in fact that I'm bound to leave some out accidentally). Today I say goodbye to Blogger and Blogger Pro. I've finally come to a decision. I've finally made the leap to Movable Type. It's a strange sensation - knowing that I won't be seeing that comforting black, blue and red site each and every day. My reasons are probably clear to most people so I won't go into them - I couldn't be critical of the service if I tried. It's done so much for me - and for remarkably little in return. So instead, to say goodbye, I'm going to use one of the new features available to me and ask you all to raise your glasses and answer the question: How has Blogger changed your life? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: david@queermusings.com IP: 12.238.235.133 URL: http://www.queermusings.com/ DATE: 01/28/2003 11:11:17 PM I would have to say that Blogger has given me a chance to feel like I'm doing more to improve life in America. I've always been politically active in the sense that I would write to different political figures. Blogger has offered me the opportunity to encourage others to do the same. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charlie B EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.182.81.92 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 01/28/2003 11:43:00 PM Tom - why do only a few of your postings have a comment facility -- or am I missing something really obvious? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Dolan EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 62.255.64.6 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism DATE: 01/29/2003 12:03:41 AM It got me going. It helped me find a voice. And then, once I'd found it, I ran like hell from the sandpit and went to MT. (Er, and the fact I've singularly failed to say anything deep or profound *since* I changed to MT is neither here nor there). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shauna EMAIL: shaunybear@yahoo.com IP: 168.132.10.51 URL: http://pussycat.shauny.org DATE: 01/29/2003 12:20:24 AM Blogger sucked me in with the pretty colours, starting out as something to pass the time at a very very dull job and ending up making me remember what a kick you can get out of writing. Tom, importing your archives must have been fun... so many years of posts to give bloody titles to! Heh :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/29/2003 12:41:03 AM I'm not planning to put the comments onto all my posts. I feel weird enough letting people comment on my work-related stuff, let alone the stuff where I drone on about my flat being a mess or my hair needing a cut. And yes - importing everything into the site was far from entertaining... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: pete@bugpowder.com IP: 81.132.79.187 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 01/29/2003 12:44:02 AM When I first used Blogger it scared me but I soon got the hang of it. It was probably the first web-ap (other than email) I really used on a daily basis for my own site creation. Without it I wouldn't have built up two sites and a significant audience for both. It also started my learning curve - I would never have started using MT without it. While I don't use it now I'm ever so grateful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rebecca EMAIL: nerdygirl@nerdygirl.com IP: 64.65.138.193 URL: http://www.nerdygirl.com DATE: 01/29/2003 01:09:00 AM I used to do everything by hand, which made archiving a huge pain. Blogger takes care of that for me, leaving me more time to... er... sit in front of a computer and not update my archives by hand. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@mistercrunchy.com IP: 146.115.115.224 URL: http://www.mistercrunchy.com DATE: 01/29/2003 04:29:09 AM I had a vague idea about doing regular updates on my website. I'd never even heard the word "blog." Finding and delving into Blogger was like a Christmas morning that lasted three weeks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: yb EMAIL: bradford@youngbradford.com IP: 66.81.222.87 URL: http://www.youngbradford.com DATE: 01/29/2003 05:23:00 AM I never had the discipline to sit down, pen to paper, and write out my thoughts. Blogger made doing that easy. It has also brought new jobs, celebrity interviews, and several real-life journalist jobs. It has also consumed way too much of my time. But who is counting? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Euan EMAIL: blaven@mac.com IP: 217.155.42.151 URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/ DATE: 01/29/2003 07:35:02 AM Like yb I have tried and failed to keep a diary countless times but Blogger made it easy and fun to jot down my thoughts. It gave me a way of having a voice and a way of chucking my ideas out into the world. I started up just before 9.11 and it felt particularly important at the time to try to make the world a better place. Also like yb the networking aspect of blogging has been amazing and resulted in me getting to know and meet the guys who wrote Cluetrain within months of starting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ralph EMAIL: ralph@rs-erections.com IP: 67.121.84.106 URL: http://www.rs-erections.com/wb/lec.html DATE: 01/29/2003 08:39:51 AM Because of Blogger... and barbelith... I kissed a sweet, neurotic British boy on a Sunset Blvd. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 01/29/2003 10:21:24 AM Because Blogger allowed me to produce a website when I knew less than a handful of HTML tags; because it appeared to me - and still does - to be resolutely non-geeky (Moveable Type is great, but it's geeky); because it allowed me to find a place to put my words each day; because when I started using it there was a little sense of a Blogger "community"; so many reasons, really. Like you, when I switched from Blogger to MT, it did seem rather like the end of an era. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 217.35.47.20 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk DATE: 01/29/2003 11:25:00 AM When I started using Blogger a couple of years ago, I knew two or three html tags; now, having learnt the rudiments of web design by endlessly tweaking my blog template, people are actually giving me actual money in return for making websites (I still have difficulty believing this). So, yeah, Blogger has changed my life a fair bit, in that it gave me a new hobby to obsess over which has now turned into a tiny corner of my career. That said, I just switched to Moveable Type too... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ohad EMAIL: ohad@NOSPAMtellinglies.org IP: 212.179.239.207 URL: http://tellinglies.org/nomad/ DATE: 01/29/2003 12:08:10 PM When I found out about blogger I was a young soldier with a passion for writing, until then, all of my writing was done on my grey notebook which I always carried. When I found out about blogger, I started publishing to the web, then, being a native Hebrew speaker (and writer) I managed to make blogger work in hebrew and started one of the first Israeli weblogs. Blogger helped me become a better, more popular writer, it's simple yet genius interface has contributed more than any other website or software to developing the creative, personal & warm side of the world wide web. Thank you, blogger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 198.142.148.141 URL: http://grudnuk.com/vm/ DATE: 01/29/2003 12:22:23 PM Blogger changed my life because, even though I've hardly ever used it, it's given me a whole bunch of people to point to and laugh at. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 01/29/2003 01:18:11 PM (Although I don't use blogger) weblogging has changed my life because before it, my life was full of meaningful and complex crap. Now I get the opportunity to enrich my living experience with a load of useless tat many times a day. It helps to keep me from thinking too much. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lubin Odana EMAIL: lubinodana@hotmail.com IP: 194.80.32.11 URL: http://trashaddict.blogspot.com/ DATE: 01/29/2003 02:01:20 PM Blogger is an important stop-release for me. It allows me to rant on about unimportant topics or random thoughts in the deluded belief that people 'out there' might find them interesting. It means that people who interact with me on a daily, real-life basis don't get bombarded with this, but that I have an oulet all the same. I also feel on the periphery of a community, but what's new there? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Emma EMAIL: Leathercondom@yahoo.co.uk IP: 195.92.194.18 URL: http://www.leathercondom.blogspot.com DATE: 01/29/2003 07:47:30 PM I say things on my weblog that I would NEVER say in real life. Blogger is an alternative universe for me, where I am allowed to be myself without fear. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: megnut EMAIL: meg@megnut.com IP: 24.193.88.35 URL: http://www.megnut.com DATE: 01/29/2003 09:44:54 PM Well goodness, where to start? It distracted the company I co-founded from what we were initially trying to build -- a project management application -- and sent us all on a crazy journey that continues to this day. Seeing people use it, love it, and berate it, makes me happy, sad, and proud all at once. If it hadn't been for Blogger I wouldn't have worked with the brightest people I've ever worked with, I wouldn't have met my boyfriend, I wouldn't have met more than a hundred other people I've met through my site and weblogging. It still breaks my heart that I'm not part of it sometimes, but I'm glad to see it continue. And more than anything, I'm happy people have found so much value in it. PS. Tom, you should change the preview template for comments, it's coming up as the default and not in your site design. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/29/2003 11:13:40 PM Ah. Right. So what you're saying is that my switch to Movable Type is a bit of a clunky fudge that seems slightly underprepared for? You'd not be wrong - there seems to be a bug with either Blogger or Chimera that means if you edit the template it completely empties all the tags of all the useful information they contain. When you publish - boom - your site is all crappy-lookin'... Guess who did that the other day and decided to push through his half-assed plan without check it all through properly... D'oh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: vonb@xs4all.nl IP: 145.58.4.54 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 01/30/2003 09:15:23 AM I'm not sure if Blogger has changed my life, apart from the people I've met through the act of blogging. But I've always done my growing up in public. Writing awful poetry in the schoolpaper, working for fanzines, connecting with people world wide through music fan dom, writing with 30+ pen pals. I was always part of some underground community. These days the numbers are bigger, the audience wider. But it's not been a personal change for me. (Can I just say that I want to take the plasticbag.org design to my bedroom and worship it on my knees? It takes Jason's idea and exploits it to the max. Love it.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/30/2003 09:35:50 AM Oh go on then... You can say it if you have to... You brought flowers too? Oh, how sweet! But really, you shouldn't have! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan Behrenshausen EMAIL: ectoman@epix.net IP: 166.66.162.64 URL: http://www.stillnotcool.com DATE: 01/30/2003 01:18:09 PM Blogger now = food. When I'm hungry, I experience an almost subconcious sensation that drives me to the refrigerator, or causes me to pipe up and ask "Hey, when's lunch?" In much the same way, Blogger has engendered and consequently is satisfying a similar need. When I am panged with the urge to write, I now almost unknowingly think: 'I should jot this down for the blog later' or 'Wouldn't that make a great entry.' To not write later is to starve. Like some of my other appetites, my lust for Blogger has become insatiable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: a.huff@me3dia.com IP: 64.221.68.161 URL: http://www.me3dia.com DATE: 01/30/2003 08:05:39 PM Although I made the switch to Movable Type myself about nine months ago, Blogger is where I started. It gave me a method and an opportunity to write every day with the knowledge that there'd be an audience (however small). My writing has improved thanks to this whole weblog thing, and that's great. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seth Werkheiser EMAIL: sethwerkheiser@oddpost.com IP: 206.67.182.211 URL: http://www.buzzgrinder.com DATE: 01/30/2003 08:56:50 PM I started out with PHPnuke, then thankfully, after too many headaches and dreaming in PHP code I switched over to Blogger. It was refreshing to see content handled so easily. To be able to tweak a date or a font color for everything with just a few clicks. I moved onto Movable Type as well but Blogger was a great place to start. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 80.225.76.58 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 01/31/2003 02:47:13 AM I wonder how many people signed up to blogger because of it's funky logo and main site? Call me shallow, but (at least) half the reason I bothered was because the site design was so lovely back at the end of 1999/beginning of 2000/whenever I first discovered blogger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: steef EMAIL: steef@solearabiantree.net IP: 128.239.111.224 URL: http://www.solearabiantree.net/blog/armadillo.html DATE: 01/31/2003 01:52:17 PM To paraphrase Lewis Black: Blogger™ is the best — and worst — thing about democracy. It's the best because anybody can post anything to the web. It's the worst because anybody can post anything to the web. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pat EMAIL: pat@fieldmethods.net IP: 68.49.159.224 URL: http://blog.fieldmethods.net DATE: 01/31/2003 06:04:20 PM It may seem a little over the top to put it like this, but I didn't really think the internet was personal at all until Blogger showed up. In fact, I didn't really think there were *any* normal people on the internet until Blogger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 02/03/2003 12:09:11 PM I forget where I heard about Blogger, but being the curious type (and intrigued by the whole blogging scene), I checked it out about a year ago. It didn't take much to convince me to sign up, but unfortunately and for no apparent reason, I could never get the damn thing to work. As a result of my frustration, I spent months searching and testing all the CMS programmes I could download over a dial-up connection. Then, one day, I stumbled across your fantastic site during my research and it inspired me to try out and use MT on a personal domain that has been parked for three years. As for the question: 'how has Blogger changed my life?', well, it made me realise that usually the best way of getting what you want is to do it yourself... ----- PING: TITLE: Link dump... URL: http://WWW.simonwaldman.co.uk/archives/000021.html IP: 213.232.71.149 BLOG NAME: words of waldman DATE: 01/29/2003 06:05:51 PM Have been ill for a few days, enough time to browse the following, but not to comment on them. Wired: ----- PING: TITLE: How has Blogger changed your life? URL: http://www.dashes.com/links/archives/20030126.php#004943 IP: 64.26.0.108 BLOG NAME: anil dash's daily links DATE: 01/30/2003 05:26:54 PM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/01/how_has_blogger_changed_your_life.shtml ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Building Trackback into plasticbag.org... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/29/2003 05:48:26 PM ----- BODY: A few days ago I wrote a post on trackback and how incomprehensible it was. And then I got two or three more people to explain it to me and it turns out I understood it all along. The reason I was so dumbfounded was that it seemed like such an unlikely and ungainly solution. It was almost as if someone had written documentation for the process of 'Opening a can of beans with a banana'. You understand the objective (you must open the can of beans), you understand what a banana is (yellow, pointy, looks a bit like a winkie) and you understand what a can is (tuna and beans come in them). And yet when you try to bring all three elements together, fundamental connections just don't seem to be being made... Anyway - the concept is now firmly embedded in my psyche. And just like everyone else with trackback enabled, I have been thinking about how to show off my new functionality and how proud of it I am. So where to start? As with any other design process you try to work out what the thing that you're trying to design actually is. And that's when the shock bit happens - you realise that trackback is an automation of the process of saying, "So and so is talking about this post!". That's all. Nothing more. And you realise that when you write those words on your site, you never consider it to be something that consitutes a discrete kind of technology at all. In fact, it's not anything different from the stuff you normally post... This interests me a lot. It seems like the way we've come to build trackback into the our sites works on the principle - first and foremost - that for the purposes of the weblog reader it does constitute something additional - value- / functionality-added. But it's not! In fact the only reason we're segregating it from the body of our posts is because it's got a different name. Most of my site is comprised of 'includes' of one kind or another, but I never feel the need to draw attention to that fact. And I don't think one should do that with trackback either. So here's how it's going to work. This site is totally Trackback enabled (or at least I hope it is - I haven't tested it very much yet). But you won't see a trackback URL for hand-pinging anywhere - if you can see it operating - if you can see the gears spinning - then as far as I'm concerned, the design has failed. Every trackback ping will be presented as if it were part of the post it's linking to rather than an appended piece of information. And that's not just on the individual post's page, but also on the index page of plasticbag.org itself. Obviously this places restrictions on the amount of information that I can display wiithout de-emphasising the rest of the content too heavily, but I think its the best approach. And the best thing? Hopefully you'll never see the word 'trackback' on this site again... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: liz@itcs.com IP: 129.21.217.20 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 01/29/2003 09:21:07 PM You probably should update your archive templates to show the trackback entries, instead of just the main index page. Otherwise the trackback links aren't available to anyone who goes directly to the entry, and disappear entirely once the post "scrolls off" the main page. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/29/2003 10:41:52 PM Which templates are you talking about Liz? As some of you have probably already noticed, the monthly archives aren't really working properly yet. Or they're working properly but they're not in the relevant templates yet. But the trackback pings should be visible on this page... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nando EMAIL: nando@[DELETE_ENTRE_COLCHEIAS]obarquinho.com IP: 200.193.27.82 URL: http://obarquinho.com/nando DATE: 01/30/2003 12:02:48 AM Now you're talking! It's weird, but you were also right when you wrote your first impressions about trackback, because while it was only a generic routine link in the bottom of every post, its purpose was pratically invisible. when you open the door and let the content show itself, gotcha. it hardly seems what it was as a single trackback link. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: liz@itcs.com IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 01/30/2003 12:08:18 AM If you go into the templates page in mt management, you'll see the list of index templates, and below that, a list of archive templates. If you select the "Individual Entry Archive" template, you can add the same code to it that you did on the main index template. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: liz@itcs.com IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 01/30/2003 12:09:21 AM Ah...but just noticed that you've already done it. :-) Never mind... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JoeyT EMAIL: invalid@invalid.net IP: 200.193.27.82 URL: DATE: 01/30/2003 01:10:09 AM What's the URL I must ping to trackback your post? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mark@cheap-date.org IP: 4.17.253.125 URL: http://www.cheap-date.org/journal/ DATE: 01/30/2003 05:49:02 AM Hmm, I kind of like how you arranged the Trackbacks, Tom -- less clicking and thinking for the reader. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/30/2003 09:31:31 AM Joey - I think the point of what I'm saying is that I'm not going to put that URL publically on the site anywhere. You can use auto-discovery and then that should work. Or alternatively you can dig around in the search code and try and find it if you want... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 01/30/2003 10:09:08 AM It's a very nice implementation of Trackback - looks nice and minimal. I'm not sure I like getting rid of the Trackback URL though. Yes, it's ugly and dumb but some people use it and it seems that you're making Trackback less useful just so it's a bit prettier. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 01/30/2003 10:12:03 AM In fact, it now occurs to me that the Trackback link could/should be hidden behind a link, rather than printed in full all ugly-like on the page. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this sooner... I'll do it on my sites when I get a moment. I guess the downside is that hordes of people who don't understand Trackback might try clicking the link, which will do nothing... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/30/2003 11:13:36 AM But won't that take you just to a page with an error message? There don't really seem to be any good implementations at the moment that don't have some kind of cost associated with them. My feeling is that this is one of those circumstances where the prototype implementation gains ground and becomes established when it just shouldn't. Trackback becomes a complete (albeit clunky) thing - complete unto itself - with auto-discovery. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nando EMAIL: nando@DELETECAPSobarquinho.com IP: 200.193.27.82 URL: http://nando.obarquinho.com DATE: 01/30/2003 11:33:50 AM Yes, auto-discovery is the only and perfect answer to Tom's concept. JoeyT: I've tried to ping the post permalink and it didn't work, you got to set auto-discovery on. I'm thinking maybe it would be nice to put a box in the blog telling the blog is full trackback enabled but you have to set auto-discovery on. Tom: thanks for you idea, I'm starting using (and testing) your solution on my blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 217.34.78.60 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 01/30/2003 04:09:09 PM I'm with Nando: there needs to be some sort of indication that trackback is there, and not everyone will want to turn autodiscovery on... I've ended up setting my site to display any trackbacks at the end of the post, but left a trackback link in place for people who need the url. which is a bit of a mess... ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Trackbacks URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/archives/003955.html IP: 217.199.170.171 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley.com DATE: 01/29/2003 06:07:30 PM Tom introduces Trackback. He's confused now. Just wait...just wait... ----- PING: TITLE: trackback integration? URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/archives/000310.html IP: 129.21.21.1 BLOG NAME: mamamusings DATE: 01/29/2003 06:12:51 PM Tom Coates expresses frustration with the role and nature of trackback technology, and says that he's designed his site to ----- PING: TITLE: Is it working? URL: http://www.nicomorgan.com/2parchives/001161.php IP: 66.11.162.232 BLOG NAME: My 2p DATE: 01/29/2003 06:17:01 PM The real question is: Is it working? ----- PING: TITLE: Another site I need to check out further URL: http://www.engel5.net/weblog/archives/2003/01/187.php IP: 203.194.209.197 BLOG NAME: AYM - Weblog DATE: 01/29/2003 06:26:41 PM He's decided to wrap Trackback into his site so completely that you never see it because "if you can see it operating - if you can see the gears spinning - then as far as [he is] concerned, the design has failed." Amen. ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback Integration URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/000284.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 01/29/2003 06:47:21 PM A good point about the way trackback ought to be an 'invisible' feature is made at Plasticbag.org. (You might need ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback, metacrap and semi-latent semantics URL: http://dannyayers.com/archives/000747.html IP: 66.70.189.63 BLOG NAME: Raw Blog DATE: 01/29/2003 08:07:54 PM An interesting post at Plasticbag.org. Trackback has been enabled there, but "...if you can see it operating - if you ----- PING: TITLE: PlasticBag on Trackback URL: http://obarquinho.com/nando/memorias/2003_01.html#003857 IP: 66.33.197.8 BLOG NAME: wowblog! DATE: 01/30/2003 02:49:53 AM Tom Coates do PlasticBag colocou o trackback no ----- PING: TITLE: Next lesson URL: http://www.nigelhammersley.co.uk/archives/003962.html IP: 217.199.170.171 BLOG NAME: Nigel Hammersley DATE: 01/30/2003 05:16:17 PM OK so now i know how to put links into my blog text and Ben has added trackback though i ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback URL: http://www.frownland.com/article/152 IP: 209.68.2.4 BLOG NAME: Frownland DATE: 01/30/2003 11:59:15 PM An elegant Trackback solution ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback: A nice implementation URL: http://thetimesink.net/2003/DCB030127.html IP: 12.81.22.114 BLOG NAME: The TimeSink DATE: 02/01/2003 07:30:05 AM ...wherein the author implements a very nice version of the same trackback element he was questioning a few days before. ----- PING: TITLE: I don't know much about Trackback... but I know what I like. URL: http://WWW.simonwaldman.co.uk/archives/000033.html IP: 213.232.71.149 BLOG NAME: words of waldman DATE: 02/05/2003 08:15:57 AM I don't really understand Trackback. There, I said it. I feel much better now. Well, I sort of understand it...but ----- PING: TITLE: Plastic TrackBack URL: http://refugio.f2o.org/archivos/000494.php IP: 63.237.54.244 BLOG NAME: El Refugio DATE: 03/13/2003 11:40:25 PM Siguiendo los consejos de Tom Coates acerca de los trackbacks en Movable Type hice algunas modificaciones a la forma en ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The weblog them. The weblog us. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/31/2003 07:04:07 PM ----- BODY: Once more into the breach. We're riding back into familiar territory, only this time we're doing it with a different purpose - to provide a different perspective on One Pot Meal's piece on A-listers and the rest of us. First the figures. Yes it's true - some webloggers get more traffic than others. In fact I think it's quite likely that the popularity of weblogs will follow some kind of weird Power Law - as (it seems) does everything else these days. By this I mean for every weblogger there is who gets a thousand page views a day, there are probably a thousand who get one. With thousands of weblogs being created each and every day (and most of us not reading thousands of new weblogs a day), it seems clear that something is happening along the way... Is it a function of the medium that means that some will be well read and some will be invisible? And did you have to be there at the start to be one of the 'elite'? Is it a fact of life that some sites will be "popular" while most languish. Have we recreated yet another celebrity subculture? But what does it actually mean to be popular in blogspace? There are hundreds of thousands of active webloggers across the world. If you cut off the hundred with the most traffic then the rest of us probably get between ten page-views and a thousand page-views a day. It may seem like a radical difference, but what is it compared to the hundreds of thousands that many medium content sites get each day? Or the millions that the world's most popular sites get? It's worth reminding ourselves that individually pretty much every single weblogger is effectively invisible to anyone outside our community. Bluntly although I may get a hundred times the traffic that you do, that still might only constitute an extra 990 pages served. That's a number that would barely register as of interest to any commercial operation. If BBC News lost that many readers tomorrow, it would probably never notice. So what's my point? Individually most webloggers are as nothing to the world at large. With the exception of reputation-building experts, weblogs are powerful only in aggregation. But we are powerful, we are impactful, we are important when those clumps emerge - where people agree with one another - when concepts, thoughts, missions, campaigns, disputes, ideas bubble up to the collective frontal lobes of the hundreds of overlapping communities that webloggery constitutes. This is not a medium that's been built to make some famous and keep others down. The technology defies that kind of elitism by dint of its very existence. And the people who seem within the community to be our 'heroes', our aspirational 'greats' - well mostly they're nothing but visible citizens of blogspace - like the people who sit on parish councils, or the people on the PTA or the people who go to book groups. Celebrities? I don't think so. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/31/2003 07:18:08 PM Going back and reviewing this piece in more detail subsequently, I find I'm not totally convinced by the way I argued it, even though I still agree with my conclusions. I think fundamentally, the piece of information that I should have included but which I left out, was that this so-called set of 'A-listers' who seem to be so solid and impenetrable a group are clearly not. Else how could the warblogging community thrive so quickly and effectively? And people like diveintomark.org or Aaron Swartz have become well-respected and enthusiastically linked-to representatives of the culture very swiftly as well. There's something weird about this whole thing for me - as if weblogging actually was still thought to be the monoculture that it probably was three years ago when there were only a few dozen people doing it. However much the 'charts' may say otherwise, we're really not in competition with each other for traffic and respect. At worst we're at competition with ourselves to write compelling content that's of value to other people. And that seems ok to me... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: steve EMAIL: s@onepotmeal.com IP: 151.199.44.103 URL: http://www.onepotmeal.com DATE: 01/31/2003 07:43:38 PM Thanks, Tom. Your point about the flexibility of 'A-listers' as a category, especially the example of warbloggers, gets exactly at one of the points I was trying to make. Namely that there are multiple and flexible routes to success (assuming, for purposes here, that we define success as visibility). And while I think that there are ways in which power and influence online compare to offline--ie, some people have weight to throw around--I don't think it's as simple as 'person X is popular, and they have the power to decide whether person Y succeeds or not'. And, as you say, it's all success in a particular, fairly insular sphere. I have to admit that I feel a bit guilty about heading 'once more into the breach': I was really thinking in hypotheticals and concepts, but through my own (perhaps poor) choice of examples it's being read as commentary on specific people far more than I meant it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 195.92.67.68 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 02/01/2003 12:19:36 AM Call me blinkered if you like, but I think I'm proud to say that I only ever briefly recognised what constituted an A-list (if indeed, such a thing exists) - and that would be back when I first started blogging and was (briefly) interested in the "blogging community". These days, I wouldn't know what an A-list blog was if the writer came up and repeatedly slapped me round the face while shouting, "I'm A-list! I'm A-list!" And that makes me happy. Too often, I find that the hugely successful bloggers write to pander to their audience, rather than writing what they want to say. I don't want to read writing that simply exists for the common denominator - we can get that from thousands of other media sources. I read weblogs for the essential individuality of each writer. Oh, and the line: "individually most webloggers are as nothing to the world at large." I couldn't agree more. To use a somewhat more American phrase, I really think it's time that blogging got over itself already. The navel-gazing is fast turning into sickening narcissism. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/01/2003 12:47:28 AM I quite like narcissism! More seriously though, I do think these things are worth debating and I'd almost like the encourage people to think quite carefully about what they're doing when they blog. This is the first technology that's really facilitated many thousands of people to 'broadcast' their opinions into the ether in a semi-permanent fashion and while no individual weblog is particularly important, I do think that these hundreds of thousands of people joining in could be demonstrably significant in changing the way in which mainstream media operates with the general public. But I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clay Shirky EMAIL: clays@panix.com IP: 141.149.59.247 URL: http://www.shirky.com/ DATE: 02/01/2003 03:27:26 AM Jason is right. Diversity + preference = inequality, and the greater the number of people in the system, the greater inequality. That's not sociology, that's math. The element of time is also vital. The warbloggers appeared in a much sparser ecosystem than the one that exists today, for example, so new entrants becoming part of the 5% of the blogosphere that accounts for 50% of the traffic will have a harder time. I'd also dispute that "no individual weblog is particularly important." Instapundit, boingBoing and andrewsullivan.com _are_ particularly important. Check your own traffic some time, and you will see that the distribution from other weblogs is _also_ a power law. If what weblogs do -- putting things out there for people to read -- is good, then doing more of that is better, and some sites do more of it, a lot more, and that gap is increasing, not decreasing. "Mainstream media" is just a synonym for "stuff I'm already used to." As we get used to weblogs, they will become mainstream media too, and will take on the trappings of mainstream media. They will have an above-average effect on traffic, they will not be able to link to everything that comes to their attention, they will have to implement processes to decide what is 'blog-worthy', and when that happens, as a result of their success, the people whose work is deemed non-blog-worthy will start bitching about how they have become like the mainstream media. And they will be right. Mainstream media is not the way it is because it's run by dolts. Its the way it is because as audiences scale up, center-to-edge connections continue to rise, but edge-to-center and edge-to-edge connections don't (and can't). This is happening, today, to blogs, and 2 years from now, some of the current A list and some new entrants will be full-fledged old-media-like _channels_. Glenn and Andrew are already close to that now. -clay ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon Baas EMAIL: wlc540@yahoo.com IP: 66.72.233.237 URL: http://www.jonbaas.com/weblog.html DATE: 02/01/2003 07:49:09 AM You all have some good points, and I agree in general... (sans too much philosophical talk for right now I am insanely tired, and probably would not even know what I am typing in the first place.)... Diversity is what weblogs are all about. Myself, I've been successfully blogging for almost a year now, and I really don't care if I have a thousand people a day reading my blog or whatnot. Blogs are about individuality, creativity, ...a look into the mind and observations of another human being. The exchange of opinions, observations, and the intermingling of individual personalies is what makes this world go round. It's about humanity, and since we're all human (or at least I would hope so...) there is much we can learn from each other, even if it is not earth-shattering. I've become a regular reader hear at plasticbag.org, and I can honestly say this, I am learning much from my readings of this blogging individual. I am amused, intruiged, compelled, and even sometimes in disagreement... but, afterall, in a society of freedoms which we enjoy so, isn't that what blogs promote. .... I'm proud to be a blogging individual, and eager as always to share my insight and personality with those interested in reading. (Ha... ok, who knows how much sense that prolonged comment made. I can be very philosophical, but I guess it's not easy at these levels of fatigue... ok... bed time.) Regards, A seriously tired blogging individual, Actor/ Artist, -Jon Baas ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/01/2003 12:22:51 PM Clay - obviously I bow to your expertise in these matters, but I'm not sure I agree. In my original version of this piece I do have a chunk about the hundred most popular weblogs and how special rules might come into effect at that level, but it seemed half-hearted and clumsy so I left it out. Here's where I disagree - mainstream versus personal publishing first. They're clumsy terms and I accept that - perhaps I could describe them better as centralised versus distributed publishing. But terminology aside, I think there are a number of qualitative differences between the two, one of which is just obvious - that the weblog of an individual represents that individual and is the work of that individual, rather than the conglomeration of works by a variety of people, rather than a clumping together of sources under a banner of brand. It doesn't sound like much, but it is - people's interests change, their emphasis changes, their relationship to work changes - a weblog can never hope to be as stable and reliable a long-term product as a newspaper or television station. People take holidays. Newspapers don't. A close analogy might be the celebrity-based TV comment show or the newspaper column - but shows come and go, newspaper columnists change perspective. A weblog doesn't match with a channel, it matches one of the things that can be put into a channel. The fact that they're interesting to people might in fact be based on the fact that they're not the same as old established media channels. They might reflect the Tivo / MP3 era of componentised media blocks that people assemble to meet their own needs and values as they want...

    Secondly the network that lies behind the individual weblogs remains of crucial importance. The links and commentary and stories that circulate through blogspace have to start somewhere and be picked up by a hell of a lot of other people to manifest strongly enough to jump species and escape from weblog-circles (or to reach the most trafficked sites). We become exposed to the maximum amount of potent memetic material as a direct result of the size of the network that is looking for this material - and even the least read weblogs have a weight there. It is the connections between all individuals individuals that matter here. The size of each individual is important, but it is less important than you'd think.

    A couple of examples, which I think also demonstrate some of the differences between the distributed and centralised, personal and mainstream... (i) There's the power of the incoming link - that one might be a low-traffic site that links to a high-traffic site with a pertinent point and the high-traffic site notices the impact in the referral log and chooses to respond in kind with a link and a reference. This is the oldest and most widely established way of distributing memetic material from the smaller to the larger weblogs. It happens everyday and it works. (ii) And while referrer logs depend on the amount of through-put traffic to make an impact, link-tracking functionality and trackback don't - Blogdex, Daypop, Technorati all base themselves around a uniquely democratic and distributed system of establishing the value of a piece of micro-content. Everyone's vote is equally important, equally valuable. And each may contain legitimate commentary. Trackback - for all its flaws - is also a uniquely democratic piece of kit that (once you've got past the legitimately tricky expertise barrier of figuring out how it works) builds two-way links that mean that the most-trafficked still have an honest relationship with the least trafficked.

    The whole system has emerged in such a way - and continues to emerge in even more of away - as to assert the individual value and significance of each microcontent 'vote', and not only to assert it but to make it reciprocal - to partially redistribute the traffic. As ever, it seems, the technology tries to make the world as quickly moving, as resistant to entrenched power structures and as close to nodal networks as it can...

    Finally, I want to have a few words about the power of aggregation and aggregated content. This seems to me to be fundamental. As far as I can tell the next big shift in weblog-tech is going to be the site that brings the best writing from webloggery to the surface in the most timely and organised fashion possible. It seems to me to be directly related to processes and algorithms like Google's - as seen in action on Google News - which themselves work on the basis of microcontent votes - gestural links and clustering derived from the decisions of hundreds of millions of active net users. And it seems to me to be related to the idea of prominent webloggers not being channels, but content for channels. Aggregated weblog content, either bespoke for individuals (cf. desktop aggregators like NetNewsWire or developed Blogdex style to provide the net's best take on the very best links and commentary available each day - these seem to me to be the next stage models of channels. Modular sites that compete with one another to provide the best mix or the most accurately interesting information each and every day seem to be the wave of the future. And this is what I mean by us being potent and powerful together - the links that leap the species are the ones that achieve massive currency in weblogdom - the ones one everyone's sites. That's the power we have to harness and I think it's a power that dwarfs Glenn Reynolds or Jason Kottke and will continue to do so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/02/2003 11:41:03 AM Clay - one other thing in your post that I really disagree with - you say this: "If what weblogs do - putting things out there for people to read - is good, then doing more of that is better, and some sites do more of it, a lot more, and that gap is increasing, not decreasing." In my experience of weblogging, you get more people reading you if you write relatively short pieces of good quality and insight than you do if you write lots. In fact, it might even be said that there is a fairly small saturation limit that people feel about getting content from any individual weblogger. People often read weblogs for the diversity of opinion and if you find your daily reading time increasingly colonised by one particularly fiesty writer, you end up skim-reading or getting bored of them. And interestingly, the most successful memes can be those that are just given time to be taken up. The more time a post is in a position of importance at the top of your site the more likely it is to be linked, the more likely it is that it'll reach that early tipping point and spread from one or two sites to blogdom in general and the more people will end up reading it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Hartung EMAIL: lakefxdan@aol.com IP: 172.163.94.7 URL: http://www.lakefx.nu/ DATE: 02/03/2003 05:51:21 AM Tom: good job on the numbers. I checked the blogging ecosystem, as good a metric for the "first hundred" as any, and the first blog I found after #100 that had a public counter was Virginia Postrel -- whose extreme tracker daily average is 1044. But I would agree with you: although the ecosystem list has a number of old-school early bloggers on it (you're at #90), it also has some recent stars. Many are in the instapundit orbit of political blogs, but still others are not. Creative Commons, a relatively new project, is at #15 (which isn't strictly fair, perhaps, given its linkback nature by default). By the way, the number of linkbacks required to remain on the list of 500 seems to rise by about one a week; it's now at 50. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Henry Copeland EMAIL: henry@pressflex.com IP: 24.91.228.56 URL: http://www.blogads.com/weblog DATE: 02/03/2003 02:16:46 PM Clay's argument that 'the blogosphere is elitist and will soon become mainstream media' contains two generalizations that should be untangled. a) Yes, Clay is probably right that 5% of the blogs will always account for 50% of blog traffic. But it is wrong to talk about "The" blogosphere. We'll certainly have hundreds of blogospheres, each with its own elite and power law distribution. And we don't need to worry about stasis any time soon. These new spheres will be emerging for a long time. Glenn Reynolds obviously won't be the hub for French bloggers, and BoingBoing won't be the hub for evangelical Christians. New bloggers will invent and serve new spheres. b) Clay suggests that because mainstream media is elitist (ie governed by the power law), all elitest media is mainstream media. "As we get used to weblogs, they will become mainstream media too, and will take on the trappings of mainstream media," he says.

    Sure the blogospheres may each display elitist traffic distrubutions. But Clay's equation of blogs and mainstream media elides the many traits -- links, chronology, personality, blogrolls, 95% lower overheads, Google-friendliness, trackbacks -- that make blogs different from (and subversive of) today's dominant media, aka "mainstream media." Lumping the two classes of media together is like declaring, 1.5 million years ago, that "homo erectus shares traits with the ape, so we can safely ignore their differences." What makes blogs unique? I'll advance the argument that a key difference between blogs and today's media is corporate structure. As media organisms, blogs have shorter life-cycles, smaller metabolisms and are run by flexible egos. Up against the old, thick-shell, high-burn, multi-cell media organisms, the blog is an ideal candidate to evolve and exploit new media challenges. Weird, subversive, new things will come to pass. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/08/2003 07:59:28 PM I don't know whether it was this conversation or another that inspired Clay to write Power Laws, Weblogs and Inequality, but either way it's a very interesting and well-researched development on some of the thoughts we've been investigating here... ----- PING: TITLE: great clay shirky comment on the weblog power law URL: http://www.dashes.com/links/archives/20030126.php#004964 IP: 64.26.0.108 BLOG NAME: anil dash's daily links DATE: 02/01/2003 06:32:12 AM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/01/the_weblog_them_the_weblog_us.shtml ----- PING: TITLE: Untangling the strands URL: http://WWW.onepotmeal.com/blog/archives/001187.html IP: 64.71.137.114 BLOG NAME: OnePotMeal DATE: 02/03/2003 02:35:18 PM In follow up to my post about online power and influence, and the many inciteful comments added here in my ----- PING: TITLE: To the winners...the spoils URL: http://WWW.simonwaldman.co.uk/archives/000046.html IP: 213.232.71.149 BLOG NAME: words of waldman DATE: 02/11/2003 04:27:18 PM Some very interesting writing this week about the concentration of traffic/ links onto a very small number/ proportion of blogs ----- PING: TITLE: Glocalisation disguised as Personal Publishing URL: http://randgaenge.net/2003/02/01.html#a1229 IP: 81.223.242.209 BLOG NAME: thomas n. burg | randg”nge DATE: 08/18/2003 01:07:00 PM Weblogs sind ein weiterer Weg der Glocalisation ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs and power laws URL: http://www.kottke.org/03/02/weblogs-and-power-laws IP: 24.123.114.130 BLOG NAME: kottke.org DATE: 06/22/2004 10:08:15 PM Many systems and phenomena are distributed according to a power law distribution. A power law applies to a system when large is rare and small is common. The distribution of individual wealth is a good example of this: there are a very few rich men and... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: iPhoto 2 and iMovie 2 are now available... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/31/2003 08:20:50 PM ----- BODY: Just in case you haven't heard yet - iPhoto 2 and iMovie 2 are now both available for download. I'm off to get my copies now and if I have anything pertinent to say about them, you can be sure I'll post about it... In the meantime, if anyone has any criticisms or thoughts on how they've been improved / debased, feel free to write a comment below... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Greg EMAIL: greg@consequently.org IP: 203.20.229.2 URL: http://consequently.org DATE: 01/31/2003 11:24:38 PM One thing which looks like an improvement in iMovie -- I am able to import QuickTime .mov files directly as clips. (Just drag them from the finder into the clip window.) I'm 95% sure that you couldn't do that in previous versions. You needed to use QuickTime Pro to convert them to DV files before importing. This makes things lots more convenient for me. (My little digital camera makes .mov files.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.16.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/01/2003 12:10:45 AM I was talking to Matt Webb about the integration with iTunes and he told me that he thought it was fairly half-hearted. But I was playing with the slide-show feature in iPhoto and I have to say I thought it was neat. I was impressed at how quickly I could assemble a nice piece of Christmas schlock with a bit of holiday music and a few pictures of the family. It's silly and trivial, but it's nice. More impressive is the way iPhoto has been sped up so that it's actually worth using regularly... I haven't played much with iMovie yet though... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: robert cowan EMAIL: rbcowan@sympatico.ca IP: 65.95.186.211 URL: DATE: 09/25/2003 03:15:02 AM Where is the download for iMovie 2 for OS9.1? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Superfast Superfunny Extrapotent Linkfun III STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/31/2003 09:54:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Being a list of (relatively) recently-found funny and/or weird links that are too insubstantial to write anything critical or interesting about and that have been piling up in my 'do something with' box for quite a while, only to be released on a Friday evening in an almost sexual explosion of trivia and spontaneous uselessness:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Signing away your rights in perpetuity? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 02/01/2003 12:33:09 AM ----- BODY: First things first, Creative Commons is a great idea that I thoroughly approve of and plan at some point to participate in. But I'm being a little more reserved about it than other people seem to be. And the reason? Whether or not I wish to exploit the rights afforded to me by copyright, I'm anxious about the concept of giving them up in perpetuity. Here's the thing. Webloggers are - by nature, perhaps - faddish people. The memes that spread around the net are often spread by webloggers. Other than e-mail, weblogs are probably the most effective down-home meme-spreaders on the planet. Hence we have blogchalking, son of warchalking, we have googlism, we have the Friday Five. We have Blogger Code and we have quiz after quiz after quiz. People are XHTML 1.0 compliant, and then they're not. They're transitional, then they're strict. They're three-column. Then they're kottke-esque. All these memes are transient and reversable. Change your code, change it back. New design, change it back. Put up a meme, take it down or apologise for it. Muck it around as well, change it, adapt it, rerelease it into the wild. But Creative Commons isn't like that. It's not reversable. You're giving up rights (that maybe you shouldn't have - I'm not in the mood to debate that) forever. You're retroactively putting (to a greater or lesser extent) all the work associated with your site in the public arena. And there's no way take it back. Legally you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Now the chances of someone wanting to do something with the content on most weblogs is pretty limited. And the Creative Commons people are brilliant people who have developed a way of giving up only the rights that we're individually comfortable with. And moreover we tacitly allow people to participate in a fairly loose and unenforced honour-code version of copyright every day - that's the commenting and copying, the cutting-and-pasting that is part and parcel of writing in a style that is always at least partially scholiastic in nature. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't participate if you're sure that's what you want to do. Far from it. Jump in. Just be sure you recognise the scale of what you're doing before you display the notice. It's possible that a decision made on a whim on a Thursday afternoon at the pub could come back to haunt you later on... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mac EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.145.130.165 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 02/01/2003 12:31:01 PM i recently licensed the copyright of my site under a creative commons licence, but i thought long and hard before doing so. i didn't want to throw my work willy-nilly into the public domain, but on the other hand i wanted it to be open for others to explore, replicate and quote freely from as long as i am credited. (sure, as a proprietor of a low-traffic blog that's pretty narcissistic of me, but that's one of the reasons i started a blog in the first place, the whole 'look at me!' factor.) regarding the web, i think this is fair. as to whether i would license say, a book or a screenplay under a creative commons license? that's a different question, one that i'd have to think harder and longer about. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dawn EMAIL: dawn@drivingwithdawn.com IP: 209.178.190.72 URL: http://www.drivingwithdawn.com DATE: 02/01/2003 10:06:07 PM I have also been debating whether to license my site under a Creative Commons license. I would like to because it seems like such a cool idea, but what stops me is the fact I don't understand copyright issues at all. (scary, isn't it?) I do plan to participate, but I'd like to understand exactly what I am getting into before I join. (which is funny because I'm usually so impulsive...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Armin EMAIL: spam@grewe.co.uk IP: 217.35.43.141 URL: http://www.ministryofpropaganda.co.uk/ DATE: 02/01/2003 10:56:34 PM Thank you for putting my nervousness about this into words. I went to Creative Commons several times and looked at all the different licenses. Every time I left without selecting a license, thinking I'm not sure about this and don't want to do it just because everyone else is doing it. Oh, and you forgot geo-url in your list of memes going around ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Betteridge EMAIL: ianb@well.com IP: 80.3.64.5 URL: http://www.ludicrous.org.uk DATE: 02/02/2003 05:15:19 PM Ummm... actually I think you're missing the point about Creative Commons. You're not giving up copyright, in any sense: You still own your copyright material, lock, stock and barrel. CC is all about giving other people a license to use your work in a way that's useful, but which doesn't stop you doing anything with it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.155.150 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/02/2003 06:06:10 PM I want to clarify again that I'm not against the Creative Commons project - in fact I'm an eager exponent of it. I just want to make sure that people know what they're doing when they sign up to it. You're quite right of course - obviously you can do anything you want with your own material - but what I'm saying is that if you say that other people can use your material for commercial purposes, then in essence you can't then withdraw that permission subsequently should you change your mind. The material that you've placed in the public sphere can't realistically be taken be taken back. It may sound like a trivial point and obvious to everyone - but I'm not sure that all of the people who take on the creative commons license are aware of that. I just want them to go into it with their eyes open, comfortable with the idea that they're entering a long-term relationship with 'the commons'. Having said all of that, if I am wrong and this is not the case, I would appreciate any clarification you might be able to provide... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: heather EMAIL: heather@jezebel.com IP: 64.174.47.195 URL: http://www.harrumph.com DATE: 02/03/2003 01:06:36 AM "You're retroactively putting (to a greater or lesser extent) all the work associated with your site in the public arena." Actually no. With the Creative Commons license, it's not blanket coverage. You can pick and choose what elements you put online that are covered by the CC license. While I've covered everthing, had I wanted to, I could have selected day by day what photographs would be covered. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.151.49 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/03/2003 08:52:09 AM Still, most people seem to be slapping the license onto their sites without a care in the world - and it's still true that the photos you open up to use cannot have those restrictions placed back upon them again, isn't it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: heather EMAIL: heather@jezebel.com IP: 64.174.47.195 URL: http://www.harrumph.com DATE: 02/03/2003 02:00:50 PM Without a care in the world? I'm not privvy to the thought process involved with everyone's decision, so i can't say whether or not they slapped a license onto their site in this manner. In my own case i went back and forth for abouth three weeks. And the restrictions, you're most likely correct. Why don't you ask a few people instead of assuming we're all sheep? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/03/2003 03:23:51 PM God, I'm sorry Heather - I didn't mean to sound snippy. The whole point of my post was to express my worry that a lot of people weren't necessarily putting a lot of thought into their decisions to put their work into Creative Commons, which is unsurprising, I think, since so many disposable memes pass through the blogging sphere. I certainly wasn't trying to say that everyone hadn't thought it through, or that it was a bad thing for people to do. I wasn't trying to imply that people were sheep at all, I was just trying to make sure that people who were thinking of entering into it thought through the implications. That's all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anna EMAIL: kookymojo@yahoo.com IP: 62.189.82.155 URL: http://kookymojo.blogspot.com DATE: 02/05/2003 11:12:05 AM I have to agree with you, Tom (and Mac). I work in the copyright "sector" (as it were), so I at least have some knowledge of licensing issues, but I know that the subject of copyright and IP alienates and confuses a lot of people. I was initially hesitant to add a CC license to my site until I had considered and reconsidered the ramifications (not just of my site, but on the internet as a whole, actually). There's also my personal problems with the majority CC's approach coming from an American perspective and American law. This is an issue I have with much of the internet, since such a large proportion of it is approached with the American perspective rather than an international one. But I'm not sure how it's possible for the CC to get around that, short of hiring legal advisors from every single country in the world... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On moral ambivalence and heroism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/02/2003 04:00:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Kurt Vonnegut - the writer of Slaughterhouse 5, my favourite book of all time - finally joins my rogues gallery of personal heroes. I'm not sure it's an honour that he'd aspire to, or even accept - particularly given the company he's going to be keeping - but he doesn't get a choice in the matter. It's my list. If he doesn't like it, he can write his own damn list...

    He joins a motley group consisting of Steve Jobs, Grant Morrison and Sigmund Freud - all of whom I think are aware of the sheer complexity of life and living, the difficulty of operating morally within the world, and who strive nevertheless towards some kind of positive constructive change, significant or profound insights or the building of elegant and beautiful things. These are probably the only ethics that I understand. These are probably the only beliefs that I can stand behind.

    To my knowledge, none of my heroes are women and none of them are gay. This could be a failing of the world, a failing of myself or a failing of women and gay people.

    Of the four, Kurt Vonnegut is clearly the most overtly politically motivated - but he stands for a form of humanism rather than for sectarian or party politics. This doesn't mean he's not prepared to lay into our leaders and representatives in government or big business. Quite the opposite. Here's an extended quotation from a recent interview with him:

    I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d?etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka 'Christians,' and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or 'PPs.'

    To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete?s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

    And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

    What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can?t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody?s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

    The most important part of this quotation for me is the part marked with italics. As I look around me at the very vocal parties trying to make the complex moral issues surrounding an attack on Iraq seem simple and obvious, I feel repelled. There are people on every side using cheap argument and charged sloganeering to steer public opinion. There are people on "both" (as if there were only two possible approaches to any problem) sides appealling to patriotism, or to deep-seated prejudice of every kind, or appeal to people's self-interest or on their nervousness and sense of vulnerability.

    Which brings us back to heroes. We choose figureheads to represent our interests or our beliefs. We choose to give respect to people whose arguments convince us, or who have knowledge and experience that we think is important or relevant. Each of us makes miniature heroes out of our politicians when we support them, or the experts that we quote when we're defending a position.

    If I have any advice for anyone who's reading this and still doesn't know where to place their support in this and any other political situation - how to choose your heroes as it were - I would say this and nothing more. The people who present conflicts like this, decisions of this scale, as either / or situations entered into because there are no other options (be this in defence of war or against war - or any other debate) - these are the people who we should be suspicious of. Because they're the ones for whom all debate has been shut down, they're the ones who couldn't be persuaded that their position is wrong if you had all the evidence in the world. They're the ones who have positions that are fait accompli, that they'll defend and fortify - bringing arguments and figures to bear individually as if they were tanks or planes, selecting whatever information suits their position at any time.

    Living isn't about anything, but much of the process of wandering through life requires us to make difficult decisions - to try and work out what the best thing to do is in difficult circumstances where there are a variety of perspectives, where no side is completely free of stigma or shame, where pragmatism tells you a different thing from your beliefs. People who would hide these decisions from you, take these decisions from you, who would treat you as children - they don't deserve your respect, let alone your adulation. These people are not to be trusted. Do not allow yourself to be spoken to as if you were a child or an idiot by the people you chose to govern you unless you're prepared to have them make terrible decisions in your name. Because however many heroes you might have, you don't have to wake up and face them in the mirror in the morning.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@NOSPAMgroc.org.uk IP: 195.92.198.75 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog/ DATE: 02/03/2003 01:41:59 AM I picked up on being wholly suspicious of left/right either/or black/white thinking from having an interest in the works of Edward De Bono. He points to it as a massive failing at the heart of western education. It's all down to everyone having a reluctance to do any real thinking - in fact the whole formal education is geared to shutting down the whole process of questioning. Instead people are taught how to defend arguments -the best of them can swear that black is white and that the Earth is flat. Which of course has nothing to do with searching out answers or whether what their arguing about is right or wrong. Just that their eloquence wins out. You can see it expressed at it's worse in our own Parliment -left wing vs right wing with no other choices allowed. It's a frightening thing. We really need to start outgrowing this nonsense. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anti-Americanism versus Anti-Europeanism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/02/2003 04:48:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Presented with limited commentary, two articles about the relationship between Europe and America. One from the Washington Post (Politicians With Guts) that makes the stunning suggestion that a continent of states should make decisions on international politics based upon whether or not they owe the United States a favour for helping out in a war that ended sixty years ago, while simultaneously somehow suggesting that any disagreement with American foreign politics is tantamount to setting-up death-camps:

    By using the word "generosity," they even implied that Europeans might now owe the United States a little generosity in return ... Britain's most gifted scholars sift through American writings about Europe searching for signs of derogatory "sexual imagery." In Paris, all the talk is of oil and "imperialism" (and Jews). In Madrid, it's oil, imperialism, past American support for Franco (and Jews).

    The other article is from the New York Review of Books (Anti-Europeanism in America) which talks about the stereotypes of the European:

    Europeans are wimps. They are weak, petulant, hypocritical, disunited, duplicitous, sometimes anti-Semitic and often anti-American appeasers. In a word: "Euroweenies." Their values and their spines have dissolved in a lukewarm bath of multilateral, transnational, secular, and postmodern fudge. They spend their euros on wine, holidays, and bloated welfare states instead of on defense. Then they jeer from the sidelines while the United States does the hard and dirty business of keeping the world safe for Europeans. Americans, by contrast, are strong, principled defenders of freedom, standing tall in the patriotic service of the world's last truly sovereign nation-state.

    And gets to the crux of the issue:

    Anti-Americanism and anti-Europeanism are at opposite ends of the political scale. European anti-Americanism is mainly to be found on the left, American anti-Europeanism on the right. The most outspoken American Euro-bashers are neoconservatives using the same sort of combative rhetoric they have habitually deployed against American liberals. In fact, as Jonah Goldberg himself acknowledged to me, "the Europeans" are also a stalking-horse for liberals. So, I asked him, was Bill Clinton a European? "Yes," said Goldberg, "or at least, Clinton thinks like a European."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: barry EMAIL: mail@bloggy.com IP: 66.108.223.98 URL: http://bloggy.com/mt/ DATE: 02/02/2003 06:58:27 PM William Pfaff has a great column in the IHT on this topic. I particularly like the fact that he points out one reason the Europeans try to avoid war: They have experienced it in ways the U.S. has not. Europe and America: Some know more about war ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah EMAIL: sarah@leto.co.nz IP: 203.96.111.237 URL: http://leto.co.nz/ DATE: 02/02/2003 07:20:08 PM Anti-Americanism, Anti-Europeanism, it's so much easier to attack stereotypes than it is to debate the issues isn't it? Find yourself a straw-man and a match and everyone will be so absorbed in the ensuing fire that they don't notice what's actually going on around them. Of course, everybody knows New Zealanders are infinitely morally superior... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 62.254.64.6 URL: DATE: 02/02/2003 09:12:10 PM There's a great deal of media indoctrination on both sides, as you might expect, particularly when it comes to the 'war debt' argument that Europe should blindly accept As has been noted, not simply by the left, the US sat on its hands in the name of individual freedom from September 1939 to December 1941, and previously, from June 1914 to 1917; US losses on the WW2 battlefield were much lower than those of most European (and Asian) nations, with no mainland civilian attacks, and nothing like the devastation of either the Somme or Gallipoli or Stalingrad or... etc. In short, the last time Americans were killed en masse on home territory was when they were killing each other in the 1860s. My attitude towards war is coloured by my grandparents' cultural memory of WW2, and by the historical legacy of the generation before that, and its experience of WW1. It's vindicated by that experience. As for Kagan's particular piece of dreck, which is particularly distasteful for its waving the anti-Semitism shroud in the way that only Americans can: it's worth noting that he doesn't pay attention to the fact that at least three of the signatories of that particular letter have questionable pasts: the PMs of Poland and Hungary were Politburo apparatchiks, and Berlusconi is a crook with neo-fascist tendencies. (The Danish and Spanish PMs are also right-wing populists, the former being especially good at bashing immigrants. Gosh, where have we heard that before?) Moral courage? My arse. 'Pettiness and insecurity'? No, not really: just the feeling that while Blair would need Dyno-Rod to extract his tongue from George Bush's behind, other leaders in Europe have captured the continent's mood and are actually fulfilling their mandate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: frizzy_logic@hotmail.com IP: 193.195.0.102 URL: http://frizzy_logic.blogspot.com DATE: 02/03/2003 12:00:57 PM Thanks for those links. Kagan and Garton-Ash have obviously been at odds for some time. I take it that the sneering reference in Kagan's WP article to 'Britain's most gifted scholars sift through American writings about Europe searching for signs of derogatory "sexual imagery".' refers back to Garton-Ash's NYRB piece. Garton-Ash himself refers to Kagan's 'influential' paper Power and Weakness in Policy Review. Notice we're back to the dualism with which the issue seems to be plagued. Not quite as simplisticly offensive as 'you're either with us or against us' but for me perhaps even more worrying for being less crass. As far as the 'debt/gratitude' issue is concerned, my father talks about the debt Europe owes the US as a result of the Marshall Plan which helped rebuild Europe after the second World War. I do not agree that this act, which demanded no recompense, should now act as a moral pressure to make decisions some might regard as immoral. Whether the plan was motivated by altruism, enlightened self-interest or a clearly-focused eye on the main chance, it is interesting to compare that initiative with US efforts at 'nation-building' in Afghanistan: see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2405191.stm for instance - there are many more. Thanks for prompting me to organise my thoughts a bit on this (specially since my site's down and I can't do it there!). ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Smoking and the smoking gun... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/03/2003 11:55:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's another intriguing article from the New York Times: Ah, Those Principled Europeans. Here's a stripped-down outline of the article in question:

    Point-by-point, then. European governments are not the people who put the issue of GM food on the international agenda. In fact many European governments - including the British government - have been traditionally in favour of genetically-modified products. It has been (in order) green activists, some parts of the media and finally the general population that brought this issue to the forefront of politics. They are the ones that campaigned the display of this kind of information. Government had very little to nothing to do with it. Anti-American sentiment has absolutely nothing to do with it.

    I've dug around a bit and it does seem to be the case that there is more smoking in Europe than in America. But this difference doesn't seem to be as extreme as the New York Times article suggests. The best place I found for comparative statistics (that also illustrate differences between the member states of the EU) was The World Health Organisations Tobacco Atlas from 2002. While the number of male and female smokers in Europe were generally higher than in the United States, this wasn't uniformly the case and several key European countries had fewer smokers than the US. Particularly interesting were the maps of comparative cigarette consumption [PDF of World-wide Cigarette Consumption]. According to this measure, most European countries are in exactly the same band of smoking intensity as the US and Canada. A few are heavier smokers. A few smoke less. These hardly seem to be figures that one could use to support a systematic theory of European hypocrisy.

    smoking_map.gif

    So i) the labelling of GMO wasn't done because of America-bashing, but because of green activists and ii) the differences in smoking habits between the EU and the US aren't that dramatic. What we might then go on to point out is that labelling something as a GM crop - although it might conceivably add to the cost of producing foodstuffs - is not necessarily designed to stop people buying it, just to allow consumers to make that choice for themselves. There's an awful lot of stuff that you are required to put on food labels in the EU [EU Food Laws] - from whether a product contains nuts, through to lists of ingredients, through to basic nutritional information. It doesn't necessarily follow that making sure products are labelled with pertinent information makes them sell any less well. Otherwise none of us would buy cheap, high-calorie foodstuffs.

    The second half of the article - where the analogy is drawn between European smoking habits and their refusal to give total assent to a war with Iraq - contains some interesting statements, many of which may contain some elements of truth. Clearly - as the article states - there are good reasons for not going to war. There are always good reasons for not going to war - the most significant of which is that people have a tendency to get killed. Secondly it seems entirely likely that there are people in Iraq who wish to depose Saddam Hussein. There were lots of people who wanted to depose him during the last Gulf War, and who in fact rose up against him. And yes - it seems likely that many European countries are uncomfortable with the idea of any country acting unilaterally against another without the assent of the international community. These things are almost certainly true.

    But just like with the perceived motivations for European decisions on GMOs and smoking - there are some tenuous logical bridges being built. Firstly a disagreement with unilateral action is not anti-American - it is simply that America is the one contemplating unilateral action - just as it happens to be America that supplies a good proportion of the world's GM food and technology. Secondly, the existence of dissident groups within a country is not necessarily enough reason to suggest deposing its leader, nor is it a guarantee of support should one invade. George Bush Senior tried to persuade the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam Hussein. He succeeded, they did. And they were left exposed when the west withdrew from the region subsequently. Whether they'd be as comfortable to rise up again isn't entirely clear...

    Finally, the logical problem comes down the statement that the Europeans are being forced into morally bankrupt pro-Iraqi positions by their selfish resistance to the American (and British) position. But in fact there are no European leaders who would stand up and defend Saddam Hussein. None. But nor are there many convinced that the proposed invasions would radically improve the situation of people across the world or the lot of the Iraqi people - who (we are reminded) are also victims in this situation. In fact it's the polarising of the debate into "You're either with us or against us" rhetoric from the States and from American media that is pushing Europe more steadily and defiantly in opposition. The sensation that they are being pressured to attack rather than persuaded to attack is - and should be - profoundly discomforting. For if all positions other than the one advocated by the United States come to be perceived as by dint of their opposition intrinsically immoral, then the whole world's in a pretty bloody dangerous space...

    Addendum: This article has been discussed by a wide variety of different sites from all sides of the political spectrum. I want to openly deny at this stage an allegiance with either the pro or anti-war lobbies. I have yet to fully make up my mind about the need, the expediency, the pragamatics or the morality of a potential conflict. What I have made up my mind about is that it's too bloody serious an issue to let people sloganeer, to have individuals try and shut down necessary debate or to dismiss opposing viewpoints as the products of selfish, diseased or un-Christian degenerates. Thousands of people are likely to be killed as a result of this action - it's immoral not to agonise over whether it's the right decision or not.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Hon EMAIL: ec@danhon.com IP: 195.92.168.169 URL: http://danhon.com/ec/ DATE: 02/04/2003 12:23:49 AM About smoking and the labelling of GMOs: one other way of approaching the requirement of labelling is that it empowers the consumer. Leaving aside all arguments that consumers won't choose GMOs anyway (in that case, you have to persuade consumers that GMOs are safe anyway, and should be doing a better job), consumers right now are aware of the risks that smoking entails. The time has gone by of those who smoke without knowledge of its effects. Conversely, unlabelled GMO foods take that choice away from the consumer. In effect, the government is saying that you don't have a choice, that it doesn't matter. I would much rather that governments and corporations spent their money persuading consumers that GMOs were safe (honestly, mind), than legislating that consumers were to be denied the choice at all. That, if anything, smacks more of a nanny state. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nando EMAIL: nando@DELETECAPSobarquinho.com IP: 200.193.27.82 URL: http://obarquinho.com/nando DATE: 02/04/2003 01:03:33 AM GMOs affect not only the person who choose to be affected, but all biodiversity around the specific GMO, including several microorganism, vegetal and animal communities. And, honestly, it's too much lifes being (bad) affected because of so little research, experience and public clarification (and all this unjustified worry). To smoke is a problem of the smoker that affects only other people when in public places, period. I'm in (South) America. I think it's a matter of intelligence, caring, respect and law. It's not a matter of prejudice or anit-this or anti-that. And when I see a well known newspaper like the NYT publishing something like that I wonder if the USA isn't becoming completely neurotic. Point by point: + Europeans, GMOs and Smoking: 1) Europeans are right, this is consciousness, respect and caring for nature and people. 2) Joke. 3) Joke. Offensive one. 4) Bad research. Bad argument. --- + Europeans, America and Iraq: 5) This is a war obsessive psyque: why always have to talk about DEFYing? 6) America doesn't have a clue of dictatorial leaderships around the world, they're only momentarily aware of what's going on Iraq now and by the eyes of their one media. 7) Joke. 8) Joke. Complex one. 9) Too much judgement, too much accusing, so little mirroring, so little respect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Todd EMAIL: toddius@livejournal.com IP: 151.204.118.237 URL: http://www.livejournal.com/users/toddius/ DATE: 02/04/2003 01:22:02 AM Perhaps it should be mentioned that the Friedman piece linked to is an Op-Ed, not a news story. Quite a different proposition. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 62.254.64.6 URL: DATE: 02/04/2003 05:18:38 AM The best critique of the Friedman op-ed (as others have said, one of his sloppiest yet) is that he's hoisted on his own non-sequitur: his arguments for war in Iraq are coherent, but have nothing to do with the arguments adopted by the Bush administration.

    Tom: you devoted far more time and thought to your reply than Friedman did to his piece. (From reading it, the op-ed seems like it was knocked off in an airport departure lounge or hotel room somewhere to meet a tight deadline.) I'm of the Bill Hicks opinion: don't over-analyse it, just say 'piece of shit!' and move on.

    ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.151.49 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/04/2003 09:05:22 AM Obviously you're both right, but at the same time it appals me that we don't hold people's spite-filled opinions to the same standards of accuracy that we do news articles. Op-Eds are supposed to be the things that help us make sense of the sea of data that we're confronted with. Innaccuracy like this shouldn't be encouraged or countenanced. Still - it's the last political article I'm doing for a while, so that's something... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 02/04/2003 12:12:13 PM And, let's not forget that the EU is currently going through the process of implementing some of the most stringent anti-smoking advertising laws we've ever seen; laws that will actually cost large sums of money in industries such as sport. To be honest, I think the political chasm between the US and Europe are spreading to the point of being irreconcilable - especially when media coverage loves to hype up the atlantic divide. It's a difficult, and dangerous, thing to watch unfold in front of you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil Mc EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 62.254.128.6 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 02/04/2003 12:14:54 PM Tom - Your own analysis is clearly more carefully thought-out than the piece itself - all credit to you. But I'd disagree with your last point in the comments about op-eds' purpose. Yes - the best ones (IMHO) explain, analyse, argue. But, as with anything in a newspaper, they could also be there to provoke, inflame, outrage or entertain. I suspect this one - given its tone - falls into the latter category, and could be dismissed as being a bit of froth, albeit quite provocative froth. Or a piece of shit, of course. Either way, I'm sure the NYT op-ed editors will feel it has achieved its purpose. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/04/2003 12:29:33 PM I still think that people have a responsibility not to spread disinformation or to lie. I wouldn't necessarily want to legislate to stop them doing so, but I think they should be taken to task - shamed even - when they do so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 02/04/2003 12:43:21 PM "A responsibility not to spread disinformation or to lie" ... Especially when they regard themselves as highly as the NYT. It's cheap. Unfortunately it's also effective. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil Mc EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 62.254.128.6 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 02/04/2003 02:30:48 PM I sense the author gets things wrong through lack of understanding, research or care, rather than through any deliberate attempt to misinform or smear (that would require a higher level of craft than is on show in the piece to do that). And (Bobbie) it's obviously an important right for writers to make an arse of themselves in public, just as it's a right for the rest of us to pick them up on it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nickie EMAIL: distraction@free.fr IP: 62.10.10.196 URL: http://distraction.free.fr/ DATE: 02/04/2003 03:14:27 PM Yes, it was clearly provocation, and could almost be appreciated in its heavy sarcasm if it wasn't published in times like these... and then, one thing is sarcasm, another misinformation and lies, indeed. Tom, your critique is excellent, and so much better informed. Just one very minor point, re: the food labelling for GMO's: I wouldn't say it was mostly "green activists" pushing for those laws on labelling - though you do actually say it's also the people, but "not the governments"... well that's not entirely true, of course the UK is more in favour of GMO's in general than other countries in Europe, but not because of the respective positions on the US policy, it's just that the UK is more in favour of anything to do with biotech (the UK is even the only country in the world, actually, to have approved of genetic manipulation of embryos, which unless I'm mistaken even the US is against).

    Basically, the EU has put out directives based on its own principles and regulations in the field of agriculture and foods in general, so on the one hand, yes they took in the concerns of both environmentalists - which includes also Green political parties sitting in Parliaments, not just activists from NGO's or looser groups - and also took in the consumers organizations concerns, as well as motions from many non-environmentalist political forces. But those directives are also a natural consequence of the pattern of laws on foods established by the EU, which started out by regulating a lot of things about health requirements in food processing, even before the GMO issue came up. Like you say, there's tons of labelling! But it's only fair, because with the mad cow scandals in recent years, and previous lack of controls on the origin and security of foods, on their compliance with health regulations, it's actually a lot more logical to have strict requirements on labelling, at least, within the EU system. In the US, all beef is local, you don't even need that kind of strict and thorough labelling, you know where it comes from, and if it's imported I believe it also says so very clearly, that's required by the FDA, which is also extremely strict on the kinds of food that can be imported in the US, possibly even stricter than the EU. Point is, if you're eating non-imported 100% American foods, you can be "sure" that what you're eating is ok because it will only be sold after it's checked as compliant to FDA standards. (Aside from the GMO issue, I mean). Whereas in the EU you got 12 and soon-to-be-more countries, with very different standards and regulations and practices of food making prior to the EU laws, so these laws were required. I mean, there's a lot of controversy on EU directives even on that, sure, but the labelling itself is possibly the best thing they did. It's really a forced interpretation to see it as "anti-American", and the GMO issue is a matter of consumer choice indeed. Plus, the risks Friedman glides on so slyly... it's not actually true there's "no proven risks" - there's not even enough studies on humans yet! There's a lot of controversy over how GMO crops affect the soil and plants and foods growth themselves, though, based on studies indeed. But that's another matter.

    Sorry for lengthy addition. I really appreciated your logical, reasoned distinctions. Very fair too. There'd be a lot of criticism to level at European governments, they have indeed behaved very contradictorily in this issue on Iraq, but there's no need like Friedman does to take it to new levels of xenophobia on entire populations. Seems for some now the "Europeans" are just as collectively despicable an enemy as the "Islamofascists", eh... it's a bit mad, isn't it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nickie EMAIL: distraction@free.fr IP: 62.10.10.196 URL: http://distraction.free.fr/ DATE: 02/04/2003 03:22:39 PM ... and sorry, I thought the paragraphs would be broken up, eh. I'd have kept it shorter. Nick Sweeney: true! but it's even better when someone else takes the time to debunk that kind of thing properly. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/04/2003 03:44:42 PM Sorry about that design 'feature' nickie - I get concerned that people lose visual track of who's said what if there are paragraph breaks in at the moment, but I'll go and add a couple manually into your last post to make it sit more easily on the page... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nickie EMAIL: distraction@free.fr IP: 62.10.10.196 URL: http://distraction.free.fr/ DATE: 02/04/2003 04:00:38 PM wow, thanks, Tom, well beyond the call of duty as they say. I'm too prone to lenghty posts, unfortunately. Oh, and my apologies to you for talking about the EU/UK difference on GMO like... you weren't actually in the UK! I hadn't sussed that out yet. (by the way, love the design of this site) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 02/04/2003 04:43:39 PM Good point, Neil: if writers were not allowed to make an arse of ourselves in public, where would any of us be? When I said cheap and unfortunately effective, I mean that opinion-forming commentary and punditry does not have to rely on facts if it can use commonly-held supposition and conjecture instead (and that exists on the web even moreso than in print). but the NYT considers itself a quality paper, so I'm surprised that they let someone lash off something quite so lame. (and I think par marks would definitely be good in longer comments, Tom.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Emma EMAIL: Leathercondom@yahoo.co.uk IP: 195.92.194.18 URL: http://www.emmad.blogspot.com DATE: 02/04/2003 07:49:45 PM The whole point of being a newspaper journalist is to get your facts right. If not, what are you getting paid for? You may as well write a novel. On a much smaller scale, the writer of the opinion column in my local paper talks bull every week, completely contradicting the factual articles sharing the page, which infuriates me. It doesn't matter if it's an opinion based piece, if the facts aren't correct then it's just lazy journalsim and shouldn't be printed - because there's always someone out there who's going to believe it and appreciate the ammo. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 212.67.114.42 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 02/04/2003 09:39:38 PM It's not entirely true that newspaper journalists are paid to get their facts right. Subeditors are paid to get journalists' facts right. It's an entire cottage industry built out of the inability of a single person to do their job properly. Columnists are paid to annoy you. Who cares if they get the facts right? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mitch EMAIL: mitchtemporarily@hotmail.com IP: 130.102.42.97 URL: DATE: 02/05/2003 08:02:56 AM No! It's immoral to engage in agonizing when it's so clear that war is {wrong|right}. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/05/2003 12:59:28 PM It has come to my attention that the source I initially used for the figures about the numbers of deaths in the Second World War come from a potentially dubious source. The site hitler.org claims to give an "impartial" and "unbiased" view of the Third Reich. Although I have no evidence that its scholarship is anything but solid, the possibility exists that the site might represent, or at the very least be seen to represent, an apologia for the crimes of the Nazi Regime in Germany. So while I'm not in a position to argue with any of the figures they have supplied, I have decided to seek alternative figures from a more widely respected source. I have changed the relevant link within the text of the piece above to reflect this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dennis EMAIL: dennismlee@hotmail.com IP: 128.42.25.97 URL: http://www.falsecognate.org DATE: 02/05/2003 04:20:26 PM Not that this was really the main thrust of the post, but I'd just like to say that the EU directive mandating the labeling of all food items with greater than 0.9% GMO content is a de facto ban on GM foods. This is due to the environment in the EU towards GMO. Various lobbying groups are rabidly against GMO, and have managed to convince the uneducated public that GM is bad, flying in the face of all available scientific evidence.

    The terrible thing is that the general populace is content to regurgitate soundbites as fact and really doesn't care to take the time to learn the truth. For example, why should purified vegetable oil be labeled as GM? There's no DNA or protein left in it! Anyway, education is the key, but no one seems to want to be educated... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/05/2003 05:08:16 PM Dennis, I think most of the issues people have with genetically-modified foods are more to do with anxieties about them being grown in the wild, cross-breeding with other crops, growing out of control or spreading insect resistance and the like to other crops. There are other issues that some consumers have with the particular politics or economics of the companies that patent entire species - but most commonly it's the environmental issues that are the concern. The genetic material of the food in the shops is less the issue than the risks associated with growing it in the first place. And while there are cases cited of allergens from nuts being introduced into other foods by genetic modification, I don't think anyone apart from the most clueless of people believe that by eating genetically modified foods they'll turn into weird hybrid people or anything like that. My personal feeling is that if there are a decent number of people who feel that they have ethical or social or economic objections to buying genetically-modified produce, then they should have the option to refuse to sponsor it. They can only have that option if they are told whether or not it is GM or not. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/ DATE: 02/06/2003 12:53:32 AM Thanks for a carefully considered, point-by-point analysis of what is ultimately a loose collection of anti-European stereotypes woven into a sometimes amusing narrative. I'd have to agree with Emma, such writers should try their hands at novels instead. Unfortunately, the average reader tends to believe that everything on the page is "news" or "fact" (I'll bite my tongue and leave corporate-owned news media politics out of this), so what you see is Joe Average repeating the editorials as fact without actually looking at the arguments presented, which is all an op-ed piece really does. Thanks, Tom, for waiting to cast your war vote. I have an opinion on the issue, but I agree... with so many lives at stake on both sides, to cheer mindlessly for or against war is to oversimplify the issue. Choices in which human lives hang in the balances on both sides shouldn't be simple. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/ DATE: 02/06/2003 12:53:58 AM Thanks for a carefully considered, point-by-point analysis of what is ultimately a loose collection of anti-European stereotypes woven into a sometimes amusing narrative. I'd have to agree with Emma, such writers should try their hands at novels instead. Unfortunately, the average reader tends to believe that everything on the page is "news" or "fact" (I'll bite my tongue and leave corporate-owned news media politics out of this), so what you see is Joe Average repeating the editorials as fact without actually looking at the arguments presented, which is all an op-ed piece really does. Thanks, Tom, for waiting to cast your war vote. I have an opinion on the issue, but I agree... with so many lives at stake on both sides, to cheer mindlessly for or against war is to oversimplify the issue. Choices in which human lives hang in the balances on both sides shouldn't be simple. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tor EMAIL: dealpas@justice.com IP: 66.108.55.188 URL: http://unsub.blogspot.com DATE: 02/07/2003 07:17:28 PM In defense of Friedman's comments regarding smoking, while it may be true that smoking in Europe, especially France and Germany, occurs at exactly the same rate as in the U.S. (but couldn't WHO have broken it down by state? the U.S. has states bigger than most european countries - would be a little more accuate IMO), *secondhand smoke* is much more of a problem in Europe than in the US. Friedman perhaps wasn't explicit enough about the differnce between people who smoke and second hand smoke, but I think that was his point, given his comments about needing a chest x-ray. Sure, not labeling GMO foods takes, to some degree, choice away from the purchaser (it *is* possible to find out who uses GMO and avoid those manufacturers, it is just more difficult than having a handy little warning on the can) - but second hand smoke takes that choice away from everyone in the restaurant or movie theater, which is far worse. I think his point is valid - why get your panties in a bunch about GMOs (which was driven by the media looking for the next "Oh my GOD, your food is going to KILL you!" story more than anything else) when every time you go out to dinner you inhale the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes, which *will* kill you. Should we go to war? I dunno, I see points on both sides. I don't think that the europeans are being honest about their reasons for avoiding war, any more than the Bushies are being honest. But there is a knee-jerk reaction among the left in the U.S. that tends to side with the europeans no matter what, and I'm not ready to get on the bandwagon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nickie EMAIL: distraction@free.fr IP: 62.10.20.95 URL: http://distraction.free.fr/ DATE: 02/09/2003 09:24:52 AM Dennis: the labelling is in no way a 'de facto ban on GMO foods', it's just labelling, not a health warning like on cigarettes, which still sell a lot anyway, and make a huge business also for US companies. This is not about US or not US, and has no relation to the war issue - tor: you have a fair point there. There's a tendency to knee-jerk reactions also among the left in Europe to side against the US no matter what. The anti-US position at the political leadership level is only France and Germany really, and its a battle of interests mostly, but most tend to assume it's about ideals. ----- PING: TITLE: Tuesday links URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000375.shtml IP: 217.158.168.16 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 02/04/2003 01:49:15 PM Blah, blah new iMacs sci.space.shuttle's Columbia Loss FAQ 1.4 which you should read if you think real life is ----- PING: TITLE: No smoke without fire URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com/archives/000355.php IP: 64.21.147.60 BLOG NAME: politX DATE: 02/04/2003 04:52:18 PM An interesting, though fatally flawed, op-ed piece in the NYT: Ah, Those Principled Europeans. Basically, it's claim is that Europe ----- PING: TITLE: The Right to Peaceably Assemble URL: http://www.mpwilson.com/uccu/2003/02/04.html#a703 IP: 67.86.120.154 BLOG NAME: The Universal Church Of Cosmic Uncertainty DATE: 10/25/2003 11:29:36 PM Now this bends my brain around a post... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief history of Muzak... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/04/2003 12:37:32 PM ----- BODY:

    So here's an interesting fact for you... 'Muzak' - that most despised of all musical genres - isn't in fact a genre at all. Nor is it a derogatory term or insult - it's actually the name of the company that thought of the idea of playing canned music (to soothe the dangeourously rebellious instincts of factory workers) in the first place. The Muzak company is still going to this very day - its name derives from the combination of the word 'music' with the name of the company's founder's favourite company, "Kodak". [Thanks to Fenner for the link.]

    "When Gen. George Squier patented the transmission of background music in the 1920s, that is music from phonograph records delivered over electrical lines, he soon found out that it not only soothed the minds of his workers, it enhanced their production. What the general never knew is what his idea would become circa 1998: Muzak. All 2,000 employees, all 250,000 subscribers and all 80 million listeners worth."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Useful links for commercial web publishers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/05/2003 11:28:51 AM ----- BODY:

    Today's very serious and unflighty link-dump consists of three stories of particular interest to commercial editorial sites - particularly those that started as print ventures and have transferred some (or all) of their content to the web. Not the most fun set of links for anyone else though - I got really involved in print-to-web transition stuff and concepts of editorial publishing online while I was working at timeout.com a few years back

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Uk Weblogging's two new flavours... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/05/2003 04:51:12 PM ----- BODY: I should have posted about this before Christmas, but I got distracted and disorganised and forgot all about it. If you're a weblogger in the UK, and you want to meet and talk to other UK webloggers, then you might like to know about UKBloggers. It started as a mailing list for webloggers in the UK and has now split into two distinct sections - a weblog discussion list and a social list for chatting and mucking around. As a parallel announcement, there is a bit of real-life weblog aggregation happening this Friday evening at a pub near Great Portland Street tube. Likely candidates to be present include: Cal Henderson, Meg Pickard, Mo Morgan, Matt Webb, Nick Jordan, Michael Leigh and myself. The evening is currently expected to get going around 7.00pm and you can find all the details on the social list. Hopefully we'll see you then... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Construction Time Again URL: http://www.doyoufeelloved.com/blog/archives/2003_02.html#000106 IP: 66.33.193.54 BLOG NAME: Do You Feel Loved? DATE: 01/26/2004 10:32:37 PM Don't be alarmed by the silence that has preceded this post, and the silence that will follow it... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Acts of War... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/06/2003 09:23:06 PM ----- BODY:

    There are two links I've seen on the net in the last couple of days that fill me with terror and foreboding. And I mean this literally - lying in bed awake at three in the morning worrying about what the world will be like in five years time. Time and time again I run through the various arguments for and against a war in Iraq - and time and again I find myself unable to take a position on the events themselves. But what is increasingly obvious to me is the terrible nature of the rhetoric and reasoning emerging from some quarters of the States at the moment. For this war - if it is coming - to have any legitimacy, then these arguments need to end straight away. Any war - if it comes - must be seen to be happening for the right reasons and to be seen to be being done for the right reasons as well.

    The first link was on the site that I've spent the last few months building at UpMyStreet. On the community part of the site there was a conversation started called Selective Memory Loss: Germany & France. In this piece an American citizen argued a case I've heard quite frequently recently - that because of their action in the Second World War, Europe (particularly Britain and France) owe the United States a favour and should therefore support their war against Iraq.

    The horror of this argument must surely be clear to everyone? Wars must not be entered into because of pressure from other countries or debts from the past. They must surely be entered into only because the war seems to be the unpleasant responsibility of the people concerned - that not to enter into war would be itself unethical. If the French and the German people - and their leaders - genuinely believe that a conflict in Iraq is not a moral enterprise, then they have no choice but to refuse to engage in it - even to try and stop such a war happening. And if America or Britain objects to such resistance, then it is their responsibility to persuade, to convince, to make the case.

    The other article is even more terrifying. A representative of the Pentagon declares France to be 'no longer [an] ally' of the United States. Here's a quote from the article in question:

    Perle went on to question whether the United States should ever again seek the endorsement of the U.N. Security Council on a major issue of policy, stressing that "Iraq is going to be liberated, by the United States and whoever wants to join us, whether we get the approbation of the U.N. or any other institution."

    I would think this quotation would speak for itself. Unilateral action on the basis of overwhelming superiority of power rather than a certain degree of international consensus is the very model of a dictatorship. And the idea that the most powerful country in the world essentially gets to do what it wants unchecked in the world is terrifying beyond measure. It may seem ridiculous to Americans, but I think quite a lot of Europeans are beginning to wonder what would happen if America turned its attention our way... It almost makes you pine for the Cold War...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/ DATE: 02/06/2003 09:42:36 PM It's terrifying to me as an American, as well. The presumption of a select group of leaders in the United States that the U.S. can act on its own power with "whoever wants to join us," simply because the U.S. believes itself to be the most powerful country in the world, is terrifying. Not only (and you're right on this, Tom) is it the very model of a dictator's behavior, but also because even an extremely powerful country with a select ally or two can still be readily defeated if most other countries feel compelled to do so. For the world's sake, I hope it doesn't come to that. (Can you imagine how many lives would be lost in, for example, U.S. & Britain versus Asia, Europe & Africa?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.151.49 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/06/2003 10:08:08 PM This is going to sound really trashy, but I keep thinking about that episode of the West Wing where President Bartlett wants to reign down hellfire after a plane is shot down with a friend of his aboard. Leo McGarry defends a 'proportionate response' in attacking the country that attacked the plane, saying to him, "We are behaving the way a superpower ought to behave. You think racheting up the body count's going to act as a deterrent?.... So my friend, if you want to start using American military strength as the arm of the Lord, you can do that. We're the only super-power left. You can conquer the world like Charlemagne. But you better be prepared to kill everyone and you better start with me, 'cause I will raise up an army against you.... Of course, it's not good. There is no good. It's what there is. It's how you behave if you're the most powerful country in the world. It's what our fathers taught us." [A Proportionate Response] I think that's all the world wants from the US - a proportionate response - and I'm sure we'll get it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lashlar EMAIL: lashlar@whisperingwords.net IP: 202.188.198.223 URL: http://www.whisperingwords.net DATE: 02/06/2003 10:56:31 PM There is a part of me, bitter and angry and feeling betrayed by this present American government, that hopes that if America invades Iraq, that the rest of the world rises up at last and shows the United States that it may be a superpower, but if the nations of the world unite, it can be brought down. I hope that if America decides to pull a Nazi Germany on the world, that Russia and China, Africa and Europe, go toe to toe with America and Britain and not stop until they've brought America down to its knees, the way Nazi Germany was brought down. Because frankly, the America of the present resembles Nazi Germany to a frightening extent, and I mourn the loss of the America that my father knew, when he went there as a stranger in a strange land, from a country newly liberated by America's insistence on Britain's divestment of its colonial possessions. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jen EMAIL: uberchick@uberchick.com IP: 208.33.155.252 URL: DATE: 02/06/2003 10:59:17 PM While it's terrifying to see the political leaders of the U.S. engage in totalitarian discourse, but it's even more daunting that the average citizen is adopting the same discourse. A frighteningly large number of people are just as intoxicated by America's strength in global politics and economy as their megalomaniacal leaders that they quickly forget the grave consequences that could arise from this. Woe is the day that the freedom with which they are able to voice their opinions is jeopardized because they've paved the way for even more extreme leaders to take their seats. As unlikely as this may seem, it's gravely sobering to see an increased prevalence in the type of reasoning portrayed by the two articles mentioned. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.151.49 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/06/2003 11:36:53 PM Just for the record - I've deleted David's post about the relationship between the Hawks in the American government and Judaism / Israel. I've done this for two reasons, firstly because it could easily be considered anti-Semitic, secondly because no evidence was presented to support it and finally because he didn't put an e-mail address or website URL on the post concerned. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 80.225.56.193 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 02/07/2003 06:36:53 AM I don't support a war, but do think that the internet - and, hey, TV too - is responsible for so much mis-information that it's no wonder that any right-thinking person has their doubts about what our leaders are getting us into. I'm sure if you took a step back from the links and stories that are spread around - and just concentrated yourself on straight news conferences or transcripts, say - you'll find that Bush and Blair aren't saying or supporting much of what the bloggers, 'pundits' and newscasters are claiming that the pair are saying and supporting. Hopefully that would work, anyway. So, to shove all that into a sentence: it's the clueless idiots who run the internet/media who scare me more than Bush and Blair. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlie b. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.183.156.41 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 02/09/2003 03:34:09 PM I cannot agree that the US is behaving in a manner which can be appropriately be likened to or described as "dictatorship", or that there is any moral or historical rule that requires states to submit their understanding of their own national interest to an international body before they can act on them. It is in the nature of states, and a necessary condition of their existence, that they must be free to do whatever is necessary to proect their people, according to their own understand of that. It is absurd to insist that the United Nations, with many members that actually are dictatorships, and the Security Council (which includes China and Syria, as well as Russia) is politically, morally or militarily entitled or equipped to control the foreign policy of the United States. It is, of course, distressing to find that there is a state with the power to do much as it wishes, something that has not been true since the the sixteenth century. But hurling silly invective around won't change that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/09/2003 07:08:38 PM Much as any citizen of a country cannot act in any way that they see fit in order to do what they believe is in the best interest of their families (we would not expect a court to look favourably on a man who executed people because he 'believed them to be a threat') - nor is a country on the international stage able to act in any way that it feels is appropriate without regard to the views of the rest of the international community. The whole point is to stop rogue states doing tremendously damaging things. We expect that of Iraq. We expect that of the United States. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlie b. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.179.169.74 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com weblog DATE: 02/10/2003 07:25:39 AM I am afraid that there is no basis in history or theory on which to base the claim that the "international community" (what is that precisely?) has legitimate authority to control the actions of individual states. While courts do indeed deal with the actions of individuals who might act according to their own notions of right, rather than the law, this is not true of states, and the analogy is inappropriate. There is no world government (and the United Nations certainly is not one) nor is there an international law, except to the degree that nations individually agree to it, and voluntarily abide by it. I would be interested to read the sources, in philosophy or international law, that establish any basis for the claim that states have permanently surrendered their claims to sovereignty to an international body; and the means by which that international body enforces its will against that of individual states. Claims about the so-called "international community" are simply personal opinion dressed up in a vocabulary that pretends to authenticate them. "We expect that of..." Who is "we"? And how do they arrive at their decisions and seek to enforce them? Not by any process comparable to the domestic courts of law. It is worth examining the history of the United Nations to see what it was intended to to, and what it has done. The Security Council is structured so that any of the permanent members (which included the soviet union when that state existed) may block the wishes of the others. As a result the actions of the great powers are formally protected from any interference by any supposed "expression of the will of the international community". On that basis the United Nations stood by saying and doing nothing while the soviet union did as it wished in eastern europe. The only reason it was possible for the United States to obtain United Nations approval for action in korea in 1950 was that the soviet union, in a fit of pique over other matters, was boycotting the Security Council. If a resolution condemning the United States for any of its actions was proposed at any time in the future, the United States would be completely within its rights to veto it. Even if the United States stood alone, there would be no legal basis for coercing it. The only thing would be to expel it from the United Nations, and that would simply ratify a permanent disjunction between one state and the rest. It would not happen. The idea of recourse to the general assembly (full of the most odious dictatorships on earth) to coerce the United States would be equally absurd. Further, since the United States provides the budget of the United Nations, i am not sure how it would function without it. So by what authority does the United Nations pronounce on Iraq? To exactly the extent that the great powers (and not the "international community") permit. If the structure of the Security Council allows countries that are not great powers to block the wishes of the great powers, they will be ignored, sooner or later. The accord reached over Iraq in 1991, when it invaded kuwait, was possible only because the soviet union was disintegrating, and no longer able to exert its accustomed influence -- and the United States was willing to do the fighting. Had any state on the Security Council stood up for Iraq (or against the wishes of the United States) the United States and others would have had to have acted without United Nations approval, or allowed Iraq to get away with it. Had, for any reason, the United States declined to to the fighting for the United Nations, it would not have had the power and the resources to do anything itself, and nor would any other member of the "international community". For information, the United States has never acknowledged any international constraints on its sovereign powers, and did not join the League of Nations in 1920. It is worth looking into the likely fate of the United Nations without the United States. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dallas Patterson EMAIL: nye@fidalgo.net IP: 66.218.194.39 URL: DATE: 03/17/2003 07:48:30 PM Indeed, the United Nations has no right in law or treaty to deny Kuwait, the United States, Great Britain, and their other allies the right to act in their self defense against breaches of the peace, acts of war, and continuing threats to peace and security committed by the Saddam Hussein Regime of Iraq. Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations guarantees these nations the right to use armed force as a means of compelling Iraqi compliance with international law and the United Nations resolutions. The Coalition nations are required to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council, but there is no requirement in the Charter of the United Nations for the Coalition nations to refrain from using armed force while the United Nations remains unsuccessful at compelling Iraqi compliance. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Casting the microcontent vote... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/06/2003 11:24:08 PM ----- BODY:

    Today's microcontent votes - to be recorded in turn by Blogdex, Daypop and Google (thus resulting in a certain increase in the statistically measured 'worth' of the linked-to artifacts in the world-wide infosphere) go to..

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Are epidemics bad for your blog? URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/07.html#a506 IP: 212.198.60.13 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/07/2004 08:29:51 PM Still in rude and frosty vein, I buried myself deeper in my lunchtime reading, after shaking his hand, when Andr ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On cramping and burning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health CATEGORY: Health DATE: 02/09/2003 02:02:48 AM ----- BODY: Massive stomach cramps that double you over in pain. Acidic excretia that burns as it's released. It's past midnight now, and so I'm in the fourth day of my bodily rebellion. The initial putsch subsided on Friday, but stray contingents believe their cause still has a chance of victory. They fight on. The front moves forward. The front moves back. And the body politic reverts to biochemical anarchy. That came from there? Some people revel in illness, some people fight against it. I just get bored. You need a nearby spouse or mother to make the experience of illness worthwhile. Otherwise - without someone to be ill towards - you're left with nothing whatsoever to do. Concentrating on anything swiftly becomes impractical. TV shows get repetitive and dreary. It's like being at work with nothing to do and no one to talk to. That is - of course - if your job happens to be 'Crapping for England'. I've been out, it's true. I went to meet some webloggers on Friday night. I had breakfast with Matt and Cal on Saturday morning. Because you work on the assumption that you're probably getting better. Because you don't think it's still going to be going on later in the day... The films are the good bit. The being in bed when you can't sleep late at night, letting them flow over you. The gentle films with fields in them. The ones with quilt-making and home-cooked foods. The sweatless pornography of domestic wholesomeness that's so desperately appealing when you're feeling a bit sorry for yourself in your pigsty of a flat. I like the films. They're nice because they're distracting and they make you think of nicer things - important things. Maybe just fragments of images - like kisses for dares in crappy pubs, like cool air in the night with a view over the city, like a body in the blue light of a cross-road streetlamp when the curtains aren't quite closed properly. I suppose there's a need for the mysterious when you're reduced to belching piles of squirting pouches filled with lurid liquids... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: No But... URL: http://www.leto.co.nz/labyrinth/000353.php IP: 219.88.241.226 BLOG NAME: (leto) DATE: 02/09/2003 05:02:38 AM I just feel really bad now. Here am I complaining about a wee bit of bottom tenderness when poor Tom has been reduced to "belching piles of squirting pouches filled with lurid liquids..." It all sounds terribly uncomfortable. But undeniably amusing. In... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The blocked and the unblocked... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/09/2003 10:16:39 PM ----- BODY: Typically - just as my body decides that it no longer has any need for any form of valve, sphincter or fluid control mechanism of any kind - my ability to write has been confronted by what can only be described as an enormous blockage. I have all these things I want to write about and no idea whatsoever about how to approach writing them. It's as if - shock of all shock - digestive collapse can make you think about things other than writing crap for the general public. What a strange idea. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Trackbacks and Simple Comments... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 02/10/2003 08:47:30 PM ----- BODY:

    I posted a while back about the artificiality of treating Trackbacks as something distinct when we were developing the design of our weblog pages. I wrote at the time:

    " ...the only reason we're segregating [Trackback] from the body of our posts is because it's got a different name. Most of my site is comprised of 'includes' of one kind or another, but I never feel the need to draw attention to that fact. And I don't think one should do that with trackback either."

    My assumption was that Trackback should be incorporated into the bodies of one's posts. They should appear in context on the front page of your site as if they were always part of the post they were attached to. In this way, I felt, they could be elegantly assimilated into the flow of formless and unstructured content that constitutes a 'post' rather than being assigned or allocated a piece of typological real estate to sit within.

    Another particular anxiety of mine was the way that one structured the link-text when one had so many specific types of information and functionality to hang off the link. Assuming that (in defiance of Movable Type's standard templates) you're not prepared to commit the sin of navigational pop-up windows, then link-text becomes a significant problem. One inevitably seems to end up with the unstructured (overstructured?) permalinks of the kind that can be seen at benhammersley.com. Because all the information pertaining to a post is to contained on the same individual archive page, each link to that page has to carry the date of that post, a link to its permanent URL, it has to gesture to the existence of comments functionality, and separately to Trackback functionality. It also has to make it clear that you can see these comments and Trackbacks and that you can add to them. And it has to tell you the number of Trackbacks and comments as well. Link-text overload.

    The metaphor of the link is of a connection between a word/phrase and a document - the word simultaneously acting as the link origin and a description of the destination. This relationship often gets stretched under the weight of weblogging, but shouldn't have to bear the burden of so many ostensible destinations... By pulling the trackbacks into the body of the post itself, I hoped to be able to strip that element from the links - there would no longer be trackbacks / permalink (entry) / comments, but just the more manageable and self-explanatory entry (mine) and occasionally comments (everyones).

    Recently I came across Simple Comments - which is a Movable Type plugin that clearly responds to the same anxieties of UI, but which attempts to solve them by moving in the other direction. Rather than incorporating the trackbacks into the body of the post, Simple Comments attaches them to the comments facility. It's a very neat solution to the issue, but I think it's misguided. My main reason for concern? Rather than ending up with a discrete post followed by a readable interchange between interested parties (an asynchronous conversation through time, all contained on one page and with a clear means of response - much like you'd get in a thread on a discussion board like Barbelith), you end up with a set of responses interspersed by decontextualised and truncated posts from other sites. As a result, I think the tendency is to encourage a form of interaction where the visitor responds to the initial post itself, rather than participating in an ongoing conversation or debate.

    Your visitors will learn nothing - because nothing emerges - from the simple ability to express their opinion about your initial post. An actual community though - whatever content it may hang off - is another matter entirely. Active and significant discussion can emerge - people can express their opinions about one another's arguments, finding interesting ideas and running with them, developing them further. It might not be the kind of interaction you might expect on a site designed to help you express yourself, but while it might cause problems of its own, it's a good deal more satisfying and constructive an interaction than simply soliciting (positive or negative) criticism...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/10/2003 09:09:09 PM I'd just like to apologise at this point to anyone who's thinking, "What a bloody cheek! He's only had comments for the last ten minutes". Before you get rightly riled, I should just point out (really briefly and humbly) that I've been working in building online communities for ages now. So I'm not talking complete bollocks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.56.21 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/me/lostpages/ DATE: 02/11/2003 12:47:45 AM Simple Comments has two flaws, and too me they're pretty large. First, you can read the entire comment while the trackback on the other hand is only presented as an excerpt. The point of the trackbacked entry might not get through in this tiny allocated space because it can be much much longer. This is because comments and trackbacks are two separate entities all together, and they should be kept that way. Otherwise the trackback serve no purpose at all. The second flaw is a direct result of the way it is presented: the value of a completely different entry is reduced to that of a comment. It is as if it has no real value outside the "original context" and that is a very false presumption. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 06:09:25 PM I'm not sure that trackbacks 'serve no purpose' when used this way, Niklas (although I wouldn't necessarily intermingle them with comments myself). You might want to read this blogroots thread... http://www.blogroots.com/comments.blog/264 ...where pb wishes for a way of automatically 'bringing back home' all the comments we leave around the web to one place, our blogs. (A lot of us do something of the kind myself sporadically and by hand.) Trackbacks are a step in that direction: using them, our words can sit on our own sites *and* serve as a comment on someone else's. That's valuable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 06:11:03 PM Oops. Sorry, Tom. Got an internal server error the first time, hence the double-post. Do your magic comment-deleting stuff... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 06:18:56 PM And I forgot to delete a redundant use of 'myself'. But on the plus side, your post now plays host to my very first trackback ping. Crack open the champagne, yawn indifferently, etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stavrosthewonderchicken EMAIL: stavrosthewonderchicken@hotmail.com IP: 211.226.32.99 URL: http://www.emptybottle.org DATE: 02/12/2003 10:20:50 AM I've got a few beers in me, I'll have to admit, but I think you've helped me understand one of the things that's been bugging me about the way that trackback, cool as it is, is being used on most sites. I was going to implement SimpleComments soon myself, but I see (through beer goggles) that I probably want to do something else with the way trackbacks are integrated into stuff. Still not sure what that might be, but that's alright. Thanks, Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/08/2003 01:29:48 PM No problem. Glad to be of help! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary LaPointe EMAIL: lapoint2@msu.edu IP: 204.39.86.21 URL: http://garylapointe.com/mypointe/ DATE: 10/01/2004 03:39:19 PM I like the idea of merging them for several reasons:
  • It's one less item I have to list in entry.
  • People don't have to look at both to see what people think. I have one advantage, I don't get many of either so it's not a big issue for my readers to have them mixed. I may even display them in two seperate columns so that they are both there but there are still distinct differences... Gary PS - And when I am doing a trackback, I post twice (1) with info that will make my trackback be more useful and (2) again so the message is a little more structured.
  • ----- PING: TITLE: Yakshaving URL: http://husk.org/blog/arch/yakshaving.html IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: chaff DATE: 02/11/2003 10:46:26 AM I've added comments and a full RSS feed (at index_full.rdf). Knock yourself out. ----- PING: TITLE: More on displayng Trackbacks URL: http://www.dellah.com/orient/2003/02/11/more_on_displayng_trackbacks.shtml IP: 193.195.59.250 BLOG NAME: From the Orient DATE: 02/11/2003 12:22:55 PM Tom Coates has incorporated any Trackbacks he gets into the body of his post (as an unordered list). He came ----- PING: TITLE: The Machine That Goes Ping URL: http://speedysnail.com/2003/02.html#000420 IP: 203.30.194.13 BLOG NAME: speedysnail DATE: 02/11/2003 06:16:11 PM Despite the concerns raised by Tom Coates and his readers, I might implement SimpleComments here to merge trackback pings into the comments box, if only because the unloved 'tb' link ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three small site changes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/11/2003 10:59:07 AM ----- BODY:

    Because I never tire of boring people stupid with little tweaks and quirks around the site, here's an update about three small changes to the way the site is operating:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 11:43:21 AM A big improvement on the Comment form Tom... but surely one of the radio buttons should be selected by default? The HTML specs state that sets of buttons should always have one selected and from a UI point of view it also makes sense. For some reason tabbing from the "Homepage" input field takes me to the "Weblog" link at the top of the page, rather than the next element in the form. I've *no* idea why that is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 11:44:56 AM Oh, and I notice you've got rid of the Preview button. Any particular reason (I'm sure there is!)? On Pepysdiary.com I changed the templates so that at first there is only the Preview button, no Post, to force people to at least have a brief look at what they're posting. It's dramatically cut down on the number of posts with errors. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 11:48:12 AM And another thing Coates! Why does this form not pay any attention to my linebreaks? There should be one after that exclamation mark above. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/11/2003 11:52:40 AM Phew! There's a set of comments to respond to. The tabbing thing might have something to do with my attempt to implement accesskeys, which I will investigate further. You're quite right about the radio buttons, which again I will investigate further. And I reformat the comments to get rid of line breaks because unless you're writing a bloody essay it's more important to me that it's really clear where your comment starts and ends than it is that you get to have line-breaks installed... That one's proving unpopular but I don't care! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/11/2003 11:57:42 AM You know the weird thing about the comments on this thread was that I was literally on my way to turn them off when I saw Phil's explosion of insights. I'd just thought to myself, "Well no one's really going to care about that stuff..." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anna EMAIL: kookymojo@yahoo.com IP: 62.189.82.155 URL: http://kookymojo.blogspot.com DATE: 02/11/2003 12:10:10 PM I noticed the "On this day" feature a couple of weeks ago; think it's a great idea! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/11/2003 12:38:33 PM I've noticed that on the conventional MT comment interface the 'Remember Me' checkbox is always unchecked, even if your details have been remembered. You have to remember to check it each time or else it's going to forget your details when you post a second time. I've been meaning to fix this dumbness using PHP (easier for me than fiddling with Javascript). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: megnut EMAIL: meg@megnut.com IP: 24.193.88.35 URL: http://www.megnut.com DATE: 02/11/2003 03:04:47 PM One major peeve (and I don't know why the MT template doesn't do this by default): you should indicate which fields are required (name and email but NOT URL). Also, when one tries to submit the post without a name, the "Comment Submission Error" page is still in the default MT design. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Casey Bex EMAIL: caseybex@soon.com IP: 81.86.245.111 URL: http://www.1heluva.com/cgi-bin/join.cgi?refer=23911 DATE: 02/11/2003 07:31:08 PM I'm just laughing at the arguements over the comments! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/11/2003 07:55:08 PM Yes - again - you're quite right. I'll work on those straight away. The Content Submission Error Page is a real annoyance that is to do with me having installed MT on my barbelith domain. While every other page works fine, the comments pages seem to demand to use the Barbelith URL. Very upsetting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: me@cloudsoup.com IP: 62.31.64.2 URL: http://www.cloudsoup.com DATE: 02/24/2003 07:30:59 PM Tom, v applaud your interest into accessibility. Might you be interested in using your much-visited and highly-linked plastic bag to push the issue a bit? ----- PING: TITLE: alterations URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/02/alterations.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: macdaraconroy.com DATE: 02/19/2003 06:39:07 PM If you're a regular visitor you may have noticed a few subtle alterations to the appearance of this site. Nothing ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The end is nigh for clumsy irony... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/11/2003 11:15:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Dame Edna EverageOk. Here's a funny one for you. Dame Edna Everage - that woman who is you know actually a man (sorry if I spoiled that for you) and who makes a living by saying really funny offensive things that satirise Australia, the nouveau riche and the terminally classless - that same Dame Edna Everage manages to crack a joke in a Vanity Fair column suggesting that a reader shouldn't bother to learn Spanish because there's nothing worth reading in it - and it's the language of "leaf blowers" and "the help". Rather than finding this an entertaining satire on the kind of ludicrous self-involved people who actually think such clap-trap, Latina magazine gets into a big strop about it (via Gawker) subsequently forcing poor Vanity Fair to actually apologise. It sure is a sorry day for clumsy irony.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 67.30.211.37 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer DATE: 02/12/2003 04:05:19 AM You mean they (VF) actually apologized? Behold the power of the new minority! Or perhaps they were afraid of the cartels (and I am Colombian, so there). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phil jones EMAIL: interstar@postmaster.co.uk IP: 200.163.2.206 URL: DATE: 02/12/2003 03:23:25 PM Serious question : Why should we expect Latina magazine to know who Edna Everage is? Or be able to differentiate her from her crass stereotype just based on an (in character) interview? In a small cosy culture we can expect everyone to know these things and realize what the shade of irony is going on. But in a global culture, perhaps we can't lazily assume this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/12/2003 03:45:54 PM Well, to be fair, Edna Everage has had a high profile presence in Ally McBeal for a couple of years on American television, and the magazine seems to be aimed at English-speaking American citizens. Moreover Edna Everage was being featured in Vanity Fair - a fairly high profile American Magazine - which suggests that she's not exactly unknown. And even if you're prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they might not have known who she was, it would be only appropriate to find out who she was before suggesting that she was the kind of person that she was clearly parodying... I mean, she is a man in pink hair wearing diamante bat-wing sunglasses - it's not entirely beyond the bounds of reason to think that she might not mean to be taken seriously..! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: razorhead EMAIL: razor@razorhead.co.uk IP: 62.190.225.122 URL: http://ulterior.razorhead.co.uk DATE: 02/12/2003 07:14:05 PM imagine if In Sickness and in Health crossed the pond. Ouch. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 62.31.71.100 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 02/13/2003 12:19:24 PM Oh I don't think for one moment that the people at Latina are offended - they're just jumping on the publicity bandwagon. And why not? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Evelyn EMAIL: evaelyn@hotmail.com IP: 12.42.30.130 URL: DATE: 02/19/2003 11:11:32 PM I believe that the spanish speaking community deserved this apology. I've never seen or read a magazine in spanish insulting or making offensive comments towards the americans, or people that speak foreign languages. We deserve respect as any other human being. We help americans to build their businesses in latin communities, so we believe our language should be respected as well. Language should be a matter of communication and useful to unite not to break us apart. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.19.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/19/2003 11:29:00 PM But I think that's the point - the magazine didn't make any offensive comments about Spanish-speaking people. The magazine put in an advice column written by a comedian / drag act. It's not supposed to represent actual opinions any more than when Tenacious D talk about themselves as 'changing rock history'... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Evelyn EMAIL: evaelyn@hotmail.com IP: 12.42.30.130 URL: DATE: 02/19/2003 11:57:19 PM I just hope this will become a thing of the past soon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rose EMAIL: sweetstuff4204u2@aol.com IP: 152.163.189.132 URL: http://www.geocities.com/rosie_rose420 DATE: 02/20/2003 10:42:44 PM Tom are you really that gullible? You are clearly missing the reason why Edna's response had such an impact. Comical intent or not, it was offensive, whether anyone knew who he/she (Edna) was anyone could quickly perceive this person as a moron. I'm sure "they" (we) felt offended at first, but researched before jumping into conclusions that would cause such controversy, I did so anyway, and I'm sure others did too.. common sense. Hispanic people, a lot of the time are portrayed as "the help" and or "leaf blowers" in the media and to have a distinguished magazine such as Vanity Fair depict that kind of bigotry, is rather shocking, when Latino people are the second largest minority in the United States (not to mention America was possibly founded by a man of Spanish decent, as evidence exhibits, its history my friend).. But I'm sure you've read that... If something like this was directed to the African-American community, things would have been alot more chaotic, boycotts wouldn't be questioned, and their apology wouldn't have been so dry. Prior to this VF made a good move when a distasteful comment about blacks was brought up, it wasn't published(http://www.hispaniconline.com/pol&opi/readers_response_maldonado.html). Yet, Hispanic people ask for an apology and they recieve something along the lines of "Yeah.. Sorry, about what Dame Edna said".. Obviously not wanting to take responsibility. Why is it taboo to crack jokes about Blacks, yet its funny to joke about Asians, Jews and Latinos, ect.? Shouldn't every group receive respect? There's also a differnce between written humor and spoken humor. Tone and taste is a sententious part of good comedy. Get Real. By the way, I came upon this site while searching for articles on the topic. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.19.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/20/2003 11:38:26 PM Rose - I greatly appreciate your insight on this matter. But I think I have to make it clear that I'm not unfamiliar with the idea of jokes or slurs based upon prejudice and stereotype. After all the most commonly used insult used in British schools at the moment is 'gay'. I'm in no way advocating racist slurs any more than I'd advocate anti-gay rhetoric - I think such behaviour is intolerable. But that's also why I have to say that I think there's an over-reaction here. Dame Edna is a character - like a camp matriarchal version of the UK's Alf Garnett. Her comments are a satire on stupid white people, not an insult to Spanish-speaking people! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rose EMAIL: sweetstuff4204u2@aol.com IP: 152.163.189.132 URL: http://www.geocities.com/rosie_rose420 DATE: 02/22/2003 10:42:10 PM Well Tom, a lot of the time comedians use personal opinions and life experience or enforce the silly opinions of others in their material. Perhaps Barry uses this Edna character as a means of expressing his own views, thinking no one will mind because its "Edna" who is the idiot. But then again, I might be analyzing her/him/it too deeply. The fact is, his reponse could have been written differently, perhaps pointing out the negatives of the French or German, why single out the Latino community? I agree, the entire issue is being exaggerated, but maybe its about time "the help" shows a little pride. I'm sure things are different in the U.K. my engish friends have tons of insight they've shared. But in the US Hispanics take the back seat, haven't complained till now, just continued washing their white employers arse's to earn a rather pathetic living. It's Bollocks I tell you! or is it Bullocks... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rose EMAIL: sweetstuff4204u2@aol.com IP: 152.163.189.132 URL: DATE: 02/22/2003 10:47:08 PM Response, English.. typos irk me.. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microcontent Voting... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 02/12/2003 12:02:37 AM ----- BODY:

    Definition of Microcontent Voting: A recent trend in weblog circles, the "microcontent vote" has emerged from several historical contingencies. In particular, the increasing use of tools like Movable Type has encouraged the posting of longer, more involved pieces of writing - writing fit to occupy a fully independent web document in and of itself. Due to a scarcity of time, this excess of wordy posting necessarily leaves the weblogger enervated and recumbant - in turn leaving a considerable number of interesting links uncommented upon - uninvestigated. The most logical band-aid to this increasing problem of weblog exhaustion? 'Remaindered links sections' (unordered lists of links with little or no commentary) and even 'linklogs' have emerged - secondary weblogs attached like small cleaning fish to the huge gills and gnashing teeth of weblog monsters like kottke.org, Anil Dash and interconnected.

    The value of these dedicated linklogs or multi-link posts is debatable. It seems that it would be relatively rare for any individual to follow these lists with the same interest and joie de vivre with which they might follow the 'main' site. It would not be beyond the bounds of reason - in fact - to argue that no one actually clicks on the links contained within them at all. But perhaps their utility isn't based around their presence on the site in question... And maybe that utility isn't for the readers of that site at all...

    One of the most obvious reasons for their use is that they represent relatively cheap content for weblog authors. Other than the intellectual labour in finding the material in the first place, little effort is required to post it to the weblog in question. Commentary (if any) can be sparse and pithy. The second obvious (and connected) reason for their use is that they represent a quick way of getting interesting links published upon one's site. They are a speedy enterprise. Both of these depend on the crucial final point - that they represent links that the author believes should be seen but has not the time or the inclination to write about further.

    As such - the 'linklog' or the 'remaindered links' post represents nothing more clearly than a simple statement on the quality (or the newsworthiness) of the links in question. It is nothing more or less than a vote that "this is worth reading". And these votes are increasingly being collated by sites such as Popdex, Blogdex and Daypop - transforming the mindless daily drudge work of weblog-worker-bees into a neatly ranked link-honey of utility and joy to all...

    The novelty of the link upon your site is no longer the issue - the issue is merely is it good? If you answer honestly, then the community itself can decide what's worth reading. Every citizen of weblogland has the right to the microcontent vote. They have the right to use them and the power to do so. And the power carries right through the weblog indices into Google's indexing and from there into the browsing experiences of everyone throughout the world. Use your votes wisely. For Microcontent Votes are Power.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 02/12/2003 12:10:54 AM I actually don't worry about being highly ranked or the worlds most popular blogger. I could make my site much more popular if I did certain things and talked about certain topics but that would violate the reason I have my blog. It is not a matter of selling out it is a matter of being true to your own voice. I tend not to link to and write about stuff on Blogdex or Daypop unless It directly affects me and I have something to add. I am actually trying structure my site more like a Zine than a blog. I would like to see more reviews and articles than fluff about me and my life. I guess I am more inspired to create an off-kilter magazine-like creation than a 100% autobiographic narcissistic masturbatory weblog. Not to say that those are bad and all weblogs are autobiographic narcissistic masturbatory or to say that it is a bad thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/12/2003 12:14:56 AM That's really interesting, but I'm not convinced it's particularly related to what I was writing about - which was the increasing way in which weblog writers are using their sites (consciously or otherwise) to cast votes about which links are interesting, newsworthy or just good quality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Erik Benson EMAIL: erik@mockerybird.com IP: 207.171.180.101 URL: http://erikbenson.com/ DATE: 02/12/2003 01:04:36 AM I agree that it's possible to debate that links offered in quick link lists may be of less value to the reader, but I personally don't think that's necessarily the case, for a couple different reasons:

    1) Link lists can be updated more easily, and therefore may be updated more often. The value created by freshness may outweigh any value lost in the quality of the link.
    2) Even if it doesn't outweigh the value lost, all content on a page doesn't necessarily have to have the same value--the author's design of the page should factor in this imbalance and put the most valuable content in the most prominent place, and the least valuable content somewhere less prominent, like the sidebar.
    3) We cannot assume that making things easier necessarily produces content of lower quality (isn't that the same accusation that weblogs have been fighting since day one?)--otherwise the weblog that provided the best writing would be built with weblog tools that were the most difficult to use (and a program that required you to scan in hand-written pages, converting it to text might replace Movable Type for aspiring writers). It's just as easy to link to quality articles and provide valuable commentary through a link list as it is to post an entry of the same quality, maybe easier. It just needs to be more deliberate than before, since the restrictions have to be self-imposed rather than imposed by the tool.
    4) I would argue that it's probably not even necessary to make this comparison of quality. If advantages and disadvantages are present, the function of link lists will eventually shift to take advantage of those advantages--one possible shift could be in their replacing the use of browser bookmarks. Several times I've linked something really quickly and come back later to respond to it more fully.

    I may have read into this a little too deeply, but it's something I'm thinking about at the moment. I've also started to think of my weblog as a collection of buckets for content that wants to be delivered at different speeds. How far can we push convenience, and will that only make us more aware of the need to put restrictions on ourselves in order to produce quality content? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/12/2003 01:19:46 AM I think you're overplaying the extent to which what I've written is supposed to be a criticism. As my latest post suggests, I'm not anti-linklogs at all. But I think there are interesting questions emerging around them, the main one of which being is anyone actually clicking on them? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anita Rowland EMAIL: anita@anitarowland.com IP: 207.202.198.171 URL: http://www.anitarowland.com/ DATE: 02/12/2003 01:22:30 AM "no one actually clicks on the links contained within them" I do call up Anil's links (in the search pane) and check them out most days, if I haven't already seen the targets. The snarky tool-tip titles make it fun. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Erik Benson EMAIL: erik@mockerybird.com IP: 207.171.180.101 URL: http://erikbenson.com/ DATE: 02/12/2003 01:37:27 AM Yeah, I figured I was, but I got on a roll and couldn't stop. :) Regarding the microcontent voting angle, I know that Cameron (from blogdex) is interested in creating a parser that can distinguish permanent links and temporary links (ie, the difference between a blogroll and a mention in an entry), which would let him then assign different weights on entries depending on link type. This could become interesting, because then it would be necessary to decide whether or not a permanent link was worth more or less than an entry in a post (probably less since it's not as indicative of a conversation that's occuring), and these link lists could provide an extra wrench in the gears. Yes, I think there are definitely some interesting questions emerging. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fabio sergio EMAIL: fabiosergio@freegorifero.com IP: 62.13.170.12 URL: http://www.freegorifero.com DATE: 02/12/2003 09:31:36 AM I had approached the theme of "linklogs" a little while ago, from a very similar perspective, basically as one of the results of the "always-on" nature of our tools and (thus) lives. Fascinatingly enough I had also linked it to recent considerations around "power laws" and the effect they have on "competition" in the blogosphere(s). Tom is now talking about links=votes, which adds a new interesting twist on the plot... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 02/13/2003 12:08:47 PM In these days of huge blogrolls and a list of daily reads as long as your arm, any blog is effectively a 'link dump', whether the links are all in one post or split up into several entries posted over the course of the day. If you only visit a particular blog once every day or two, you're confronted with the same plethora of potentially interesting links to explore, whether they're separate main blog entries with extensive commentary, a single link-dump main blog entry, or a string of brief links trailing down a side-bar. As for whether anyone is clicking on them, it depends. If it's a blogger I trust, I trust them to exercise as much editorial care in their link lists (whether as a link-dump post or as a side blog) as they would in an olde-style blog post of a single link with one-liner commentary. If I've got the time, I'll click on everything in a link-dump post; if not, maybe just the ones that look most interesting. It's the same problem at MeFi these days - every post has become a link dump, and who has time to check every link in them? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kati EMAIL: blog@idared.net IP: 213.46.246.84 URL: http://www.idared.net DATE: 02/14/2003 10:06:46 AM As for "is anyone actually clicking on them?" Yes, i am! In the past few days i have clicked on at least 4-5 of kottke's sidebar links, just because the link text made me curious. (and other times at other blogs - but this is the one that immediately comes to my mind) I don't think sidelogs and linklogs are useless, if there is other stuff in the blog that makes you read it, there is a chance that - when you're done reading the main content - the list of links on the side will tickle your curiosity a bit and you'll at least skim them and maybe find one or two worth to check out. That's what happens with me anyway. ----- PING: TITLE: Tom deconstructs Microcontent Voting URL: http://suckahs.org/links/2003_02.php#001596 IP: 64.247.12.144 BLOG NAME: Suckahs Daily Bookmarks DATE: 02/12/2003 12:42:28 AM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/02/microcontent_voting.shtml ----- PING: TITLE: Why I LinkBlog URL: http://www.paranoidfish.org/notes/2003/02/12/1311/index.html IP: 217.175.234.42 BLOG NAME: paranoidfish.org/notes DATE: 02/12/2003 01:38:51 PM Lately, I've realised that the real reason I keep my linkblog going is the effect it has on my main weblog... ----- PING: TITLE: Link Logs and Such URL: http://www.ordinary-life.net/blog/archives/001599.php IP: 209.50.252.235 BLOG NAME: Ordinary-Life.net DATE: 02/12/2003 07:18:25 PM I've been doing this for awhile. Nice to help start a trend. I just happen to use a yahoo directory-like script to make it very easy for me. ----- PING: TITLE: Readings URL: http://www.qpalzm.org/archives/000052.html IP: 217.163.9.108 BLOG NAME: qpalzm.org DATE: 05/02/2003 03:52:37 PM Following the lead of kottke.org remaindered links, interconnected.org mini links, plasticbag.org micro content, and whatdoiknow.org enjoying, qpalzm.org will soon have a rolling links section. This is kind of like a home for links that you want to sha... ----- PING: TITLE: Le magasin du dollar de l'hyperlien... URL: http://www.afroginthevalley.com/archives/000026.html IP: 149.99.191.76 BLOG NAME: A Frog in the Valley DATE: 02/07/2004 06:17:26 PM Hyperliens ý louer, c'est le titre de mon nouveau linklog...... ----- PING: TITLE: Subtlety URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/subtlety.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 02/12/2004 04:05:48 PM Two problems, two solutions, and a trite conclusion: The problem with links, in the context of weblogs, is that they... ----- PING: TITLE: Are epidemics bad for your blog? URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/07.html#a506 IP: 212.198.60.13 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/07/2004 08:30:03 PM Still in rude and frosty vein, I buried myself deeper in my lunchtime reading, after shaking his hand, when Andr ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cosmic Polling Booth, I praise thee... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/12/2003 01:12:11 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dumb Theories about Buffy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/12/2003 09:52:32 PM ----- BODY:

    So how do I do this without spoiling things for people in the UK who don't know what's going to happen? And how do I do it without sounding like a total dork? How - in fact - do I talk about Buffy Season Seven (as being shown in the States at the moment) without giving too much away? It's a tough one, certainly. Perhaps an impossible one... Nonetheless, I must take my strength from the example provided for me by my televisual heroine! Battle on against all the odds! Fight for what is right! Kill all the vampires! Um.

    Ways in which Tom increasingly resembles Xander Harris:

    Ways in which Tom increasingly resembles Andrew:

    Dumb Theories about the End of the Series:

    Other ways I could humiliate myself in front of my weblogging peers:

    I think maybe it would be for the best if we just forgot I ever wrote this post. Let's all just move along. Nothing to see here. Just too much caffeine and not enough good TV.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.197.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/12/2003 10:25:02 PM I'd just like to say at this moment that I will definitely return to writing proper posts about like tech stuff and social software and the like in a minute. I'm really a very serious and grown-up individual. Good at parties. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/ DATE: 02/12/2003 11:40:17 PM Buffy's pretty grown-up and serious. Well, maybe not, but there are plenty of elements in the show for the grown-up and serious. (Or perhaps, as a Buffy fan, I'm just trying to rationalize/rationalise it.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: avril EMAIL: PunishPunacc@aol.com IP: 172.139.89.71 URL: http://my-infatuations.net/saint DATE: 02/13/2003 12:11:44 AM I agree with everything you said but I think Buffy dies and Dawn goes on to be the slayer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: RobertWrayUK@aol.com IP: 62.252.0.5 URL: http://www.robertwray.co.uk/ DATE: 02/13/2003 01:35:21 AM Ummm, Tom, Buffy rocks! (As does Angel, but purely because of David Boreanaz.) Have you seen the Angel episode entitled "Spin the Bottle"? And more to the point, does the phrase "Hello Salty Goodness" mean anything? PS. Wasn't Glory just a gay icon? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: snowgoon[@]bigfoot.com IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 02/13/2003 09:11:04 AM I think you should post anything you like, spoilers and all. Of course I don't watch Buffy (or Angel) so I don't really care one way or the other. Oh and don't try and blame these things on caffeine, that's my excuse! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lubin Odana EMAIL: lubinodana@hotmail.com IP: 194.80.32.9 URL: DATE: 02/13/2003 09:44:30 AM I have a shameful secret. I think I am the only person of my peer group who doesn't "get" Buffy. I've watched it on numerous occasions, but I just can't get into it. Maybe I was put off forever by watching the Luke Perry film Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the early 1990s. Still, at least it's saved me hundreds of pounds in not buying all those boxed sets. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: hilary EMAIL: hcperkins@yahoo.co.uk IP: 132.185.132.12 URL: DATE: 02/13/2003 09:58:51 AM I say break out the baby pictures and go for broke. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.57.143 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/me/lostpages/ DATE: 02/13/2003 11:05:19 AM Bah! Money sereves no purpose unless spent in a rightious way. And what can be better than buying boxes of Buffy? The show, not the actual character. While it is Tom's site and all, I'm thankful that he thinks of us poor bastards who haven't seen more than season 6. And I agree with John. Reading posts about Buffy is much more fun than reading "Oh no, I think there will be a war in five minues. [five minutes later] Twelve minutes I mean. [and so on " for a few months. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/13/2003 11:47:35 AM Lubin! You can call yourself a trash addict and you don't like the original Buffy movie?! That film is an inspired classic that my friends and I watched with absolute delight when we were teenagers. Here's a trivia question for you - can you name two Oscar winners that were in that film? Here's a clue - don't put much faith in Donald Sutherland... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: katy EMAIL: katy@kitschbitch.com IP: 129.67.65.91 URL: http://www.kitschbitch.com/ DATE: 02/13/2003 01:56:01 PM Inspired by the original buffy movie, I have now indoctrinated every wannabe thespian in Oxford to do the "how funky is your chicken, how loose is your goose... So shake your caboose" dance as part of their warmup. it's fucking genius. Oh, and never mind the baby photos, I've got a couple of pictures of Tom that are super-embarassing! Bribes sent to the address below.... just kidding, love you really ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joh EMAIL: joh@bluejoh.com IP: 80.3.64.5 URL: http://bluejoh.com/abyss/ DATE: 02/13/2003 04:06:37 PM Personally, I'd love to see the 'plasticbag.org Comic Relief Special'... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: patricia EMAIL: info@lunanina.com IP: 165.247.95.65 URL: http://lunanina.com/musings/ DATE: 02/19/2003 04:55:34 AM I don't know what it says about me that I truly believe "That's sooo five minutes ago" is just about one of the best movie lines ever written. And the hairstyles. Let's not forget the bangs. Just those high, spiky things were enough to inspire fear into many a vampire I'm sure. Or at the very least, anyone who cares about the ozone layer. ----- PING: TITLE: No matter what he thinks, he\'s not as fat as Xander URL: http://www.24weblog.com/index.php?p=31 IP: 217.163.9.108 BLOG NAME: 24weblog.com DATE: 02/13/2003 12:03:30 AM Weblogger Tom Coates has posted a good article to his site concerning a certain TV series and how to write about it, whilst not spoiling the plotlines for a UK audience. Unfortunately, it's all about Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and not '24', but... ----- PING: TITLE: Ways in which Tom... URL: http:///archive/atf/2003_02.inc#002797 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: After the Floods DATE: 02/18/2003 10:57:43 PM Ways in which Tom (who has "Dumb Theories about Buffy" resembles Giles: 1. He is a sexy love god. ----- PING: TITLE: No matter what he thinks, he's not as fat as Xander URL: http://www.24weblog.com/2003/02/13/12.02.28/ IP: 217.163.9.108 BLOG NAME: 24weblog.com DATE: 01/18/2004 05:03:38 AM Weblogger Tom Coates has posted a good article to his site concerning a certain TV series and how to write about it, whilst not spoiling the plotlines for a UK audience. Unfortunately, it's all about Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tove Jansson's Moomins STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/13/2003 11:48:30 AM ----- BODY:

    Recently, in a visit to Covent Garden's fashionable Magma graphic design store, my eyes found themselves irresistably drawn to a reprint of a Tove Jansson Moomin picture book from the late 1950s. The book - called unselfconsciously The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My [cover] - tells the story of how young Moomintroll stumbles upon Mymble, whose mischievous daughter has become lost in the wilds of Moominvalley. Each page is a stunning piece of design and artistry conveying an incredibly atmospheric - and uncomfortably scary - world. I bought the book immediately - there's work inside that reminds me of the woodcut artist and typographer Eric Gill. This is not the kind of childrens book that people seem to make any more.

    There aren't really enough really good sites about Tove Jansson or the Moomins online - certainly not that convey the full impact of her artwork - but I've compiled a few useful links for anyone who wants more of an introduction to her work:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Valentine's Day Link Massacre... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/13/2003 11:38:43 PM ----- BODY:

    It's the day before Valentine's Day, that most accursed of all days. Accursed for all time because of the way the saint in question was beaten with clubs and beheaded for worshipping the 'wrong' super-powered fantasy figure. The same day of disaster and terror that saw the gangland executions of seven mobsters in 1929. This day of poisonous snacks and symbolically ripped-out bodily organs. Like the Roman Saturnalia only without any of the fun and with a hell of a lot more Meg Bloody Ryan, is there really anything worse than Valentine's Day?

    Well I can't make the stupid day go away, but I can distract you with frivolous trivia and trashy links!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: How I Feel About Valentines Day URL: http://www.queermusings.com/archives/003179.shtml IP: 209.239.41.29 BLOG NAME: Queer Musings DATE: 02/14/2003 09:22:44 AM While Garry shares my feeling about Valentines day and used the fewest words possible to describe it, Tom over at ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why I didn't go on the Stop the War march... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/16/2003 12:06:26 AM ----- BODY: Today 750,000 people in the UK converged on London to take part in the "Stop the War" march. And here - if such a thing is possible - is where I try to put into words my reasons for not being one of them. Pretty much everyone I know from work went on the march. Many other UK webloggers marched too. Friends of mine of every political persuasion were there. But I wasn't. Why? I keep asking myself what holds me back. Why don't I feel able to throw myself behind such a huge and popular cause? It isn't because I'm a fan of Saddam Hussein. That's for certain. And it's not because I believe that the US has no interests in the area that it's trying to protect. And I know that I find the rhetoric of many pro-war people terrifying - designed to incite fear, hatred and a sense of revenge. And the links between Al Qaeda and Iraq? Speculative at best. We probably have more obvious and stronger links with these organisations. After all, someone worked to keep the USSR out of the Middle East... In my heart I think the reason I'm not standing up with everyone else against this war is because I think there are two very separate issues that need to be detached from one another and I think I've been scared that this march conflates them. To start off with, I don't have any reason to be against a "moral" war - if indeed this is one. Indeed, I would not even be against a pragmatic war. We may be have been the ones who put Hussein where he is today, we may have sold him the weapons, we may have propped up his regime, we may have interests in the area - but if he poses a threat, if his regime is bloody and dictatorial, then this makes us more responsible, not less. If anything something should be done because we fouled up so atrociously in the past. What I am against, and I think it's something that I share with a good proportion of the people on that march today, is the feeling that the United Nations is an institution that shouldn't be bullied, dismantled or circumvented. Fundamentally, if I'm against anything here, it's the rejection of the checks and balances of the international community. If you're having problems with the way they do things, then you try and change the minds of international community, or you work to change the institution in a way that makes it work more effectively. You don't get to ignore the law just because no one can stop you breaking it. There's too much to be lost - a world of stability that we're still nowhere near, but which we've been fighting for over the last six decades. More, even. It's the noblest goal I can think of. But it has to be a world of stability that we reached through reaching a consensus, and not by imposing our opinions - our values. I've had the news on in the background all day, and a good proportion of the people on these demonstrations don't seem to be protesting war at all. They just want a war that's conducted in their name - if it is proven to be necessary - to go through the proper process, to be undertaken as a solemn responsibility of an organisation that represents all the major peoples of the world. That's all. If I'd known that this morning, I think I might have joined them... ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dorian EMAIL: loaf@isness.org IP: 217.35.149.239 URL: http://www.isness.org/dory/ DATE: 02/16/2003 12:10:53 AM I hear you Tom (although I'm not *completely* with you :o) ) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: mike@barkingmoose.com IP: 68.83.36.242 URL: http://www.barkingmoose.com/ DATE: 02/16/2003 01:01:55 AM Very well said. What's getting lost in the shuffle in all this building up to war is the role the US (and UK) had in creating Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in the first place. Until there is some sort of honest dialogue about dealing with these root causes, I gotta say I'm not too optimistic about what will happen after the smoke clears in Iraq. And the way things are going in Afghanistan, I don't think those types of concerns are unfounded. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Julian EMAIL: julian_griffiths@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.32.6 URL: DATE: 02/16/2003 01:18:07 AM For someone so edgy regarding "warblogging", your latest posts have been some of your least annoying and most compelling reads (I mean that very nicely). You put into words almost exactly what I feel. I'm not adding to discussion here, I know - just agreeing with you. (Which isn't to say I haven't enjoyed your site for the last several years -I have- but I am compelled to simply nod my head in this instance.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eric J EMAIL: ericj@webraw.com IP: 24.165.169.147 URL: http://www.webraw.com DATE: 02/16/2003 02:06:00 AM Well said. Your comments have helped me to solidify the very fluid opinions I have about whether war with Iraq is a good or bad idea. I work in the news business and believe me when I say, every single person in our business believes we are going to war and frankly, want it to happen because war is good for news. My main problem with the reasons is why now? Why give Saddam a pass for several years and suddenly draw a line in the sand? What you said about working to change the U.N. from the inside is probably the most brilliant and common sense thing I've heard about this whole issue. Here in the USA when crazy, gun-toting militia men want to 'change' America we argue that it's best to do it through our flawed legal and judicial system. If they don't like that then elect people who will support their ideas. America should do the same with the U.N. Change the U.N. to make it more effective. Ok, now I'm just repeating what you said but I'll wrap this up by saying that I have this gnawing suspicion that this whole thing is an elaborate bluff. Maybe it's wishful thinking, I dunno. But only time will tell. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: david@queermusings.com IP: 12.238.235.133 URL: http://www.queermusings.com DATE: 02/16/2003 04:28:04 AM All of this makes me wish that Clinton was still in office. In a recent interview with Katie Couric on the Today show (http://www.msnbc.com/news/871318.asp?0cb=-214136125) he talked about it is important for us to go through the proper channels of the UN. He also said that it was important for us to look determined for war versus eager for war. I think that's the problem Bush and to a smaller degree Blair seem eager for war. I don't know if I agree with Clinton when he said that we don't need another UN resolution to go to war. I do agree with him when he says we have to give the inspectors time. My favorite part of the interview was ìI donít think the president needs another Security Council Resolution, as a matter of international law. I think politically, if he could get it, it would be great. For the simple reason that, if we had to go without another UN resolution ó if we had to go and European powers or Russia or China are vocally opposed to this, then there will always be the suggestion that this was, in effect, a pre-emptive strike. I know the administration has said pre-emptive strikes may be justified in some places. But weíve never done that. And democratic powers normally wait to get hit before they hit. On the other hand, if it is the UN, carrying out the UN mandate, and weíre doing this because for 12 years he has defied the UN mandate to disarm, that is not a pre-emptive strike. Itís a police action designed to protect the world from chemical and biological weapons." Sorry for the long post, I probably should have done my own, and trackbacked to you... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh On EMAIL: josh@futurefarmers.com IP: 68.164.31.227 URL: http://www.theyrule.net DATE: 02/16/2003 05:39:57 AM Tom, The UN does not represent the weight of world opinion. I wish there was something that did. What it represents in my opinion, is the interests of the richest and most powerful people in each of the constituent nations. And to be more precise, it only really gives force to the five permanent members of the security council. One look at the Ivory Coast, should tell us that they are not acting out of a humanitarian desire, but rather in their own self interest. Where real justice, and change will come from is an organized and committed public. I am I am thinking of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam anti-war movement et al. We should also remember the 100 000's of Iraqis who have died as a result of the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the UN. After two administrators of this program quit in disgust and dispair, it should tell us something. No doubt there will be more opportunities to make this decision, next time I hope you march, because we are the checks and balences for the international system! And it is wayy off kilter from my perspective! Take care... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh On EMAIL: josh@futurefarmers.com IP: 68.164.31.227 URL: http://www.theyrule.net DATE: 02/16/2003 05:40:20 AM Tom, The UN does not represent the weight of world opinion. I wish there was something that did. What it represents in my opinion, is the interests of the richest and most powerful people in each of the constituent nations. And to be more precise, it only really gives force to the five permanent members of the security council. One look at the Ivory Coast, should tell us that they are not acting out of a humanitarian desire, but rather in their own self interest. Where real justice, and change will come from is an organized and committed public. I am I am thinking of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam anti-war movement et al. We should also remember the 100 000's of Iraqis who have died as a result of the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the UN. After two administrators of this program quit in disgust and dispair, it should tell us something. No doubt there will be more opportunities to make this decision, next time I hope you march, because we are the checks and balences for the international system! And it is wayy off kilter from my perspective! Take care... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 195.92.67.66 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 02/16/2003 11:34:26 AM Oh, I know exactly what you mean, Tom. I'm sure that your thoughts were also the thoughts of a good many people on the march yesterday. But then, for the sake of clarification, I guess you have to say 'Stop the War' rather than 'Stop Rushing Towards War Without Going Through The Proper Channels and Getting the Full and Unequivocal Backing of the UN First'. This morning, on quiet reflection of yesterday's events, I remain more impressed (stunned? surprised?) that in these politically naive and disinterested days, the UK can actually mobilise millions of people to actively march in protest about something. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian@humphrey78.freeserve.co.uk IP: 80.192.208.92 URL: DATE: 02/16/2003 01:49:40 PM It is pleasing to see some sense written. The reason that masses marched was because they feel left out of politics and the media does not inform them. It is easier to march and talk about 'morality' than to recognise continued contempt by Iraq for the UN and actually do something. The UN is a talking shop and stringing out decisions an international disease. People only react to directly personal involvement and then look for simplistic solutions on single issues. It is always easier to appease than take action. To expect the UN to suddenly become effective after 50 inglorious years is naive. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian@humphrey78.freeserve.co.uk IP: 80.192.208.92 URL: DATE: 02/16/2003 01:50:24 PM It is pleasing to see some sense written. The reason that masses marched was because they feel left out of politics and the media does not inform them. It is easier to march and talk about 'morality' than to recognise continued contempt by Iraq for the UN and actually do something. The UN is a talking shop and stringing out decisions an international disease. People only react to directly personal involvement and then look for simplistic solutions on single issues. It is always easier to appease than take action. To expect the UN to suddenly become effective after 50 inglorious years is naive. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian@humphrey78.freeserve.co.uk IP: 80.192.208.92 URL: DATE: 02/16/2003 01:51:11 PM It is pleasing to see some sense written. The reason that masses marched was because they feel left out of politics and the media does not inform them. It is easier to march and talk about 'morality' than to recognise continued contempt by Iraq for the UN and actually do something. The UN is a talking shop and stringing out decisions an international disease. People only react to directly personal involvement and then look for simplistic solutions on single issues. It is always easier to appease than take action. To expect the UN to suddenly become effective after 50 inglorious years is naive. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.147.67 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/16/2003 04:19:17 PM But that's why what needs to be done in these circumstances is look at the problems we're having as a reason to work for the empowerment and restructuring of the UN so that it is able to make decisions like this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.84.223 URL: http://www.freontech.com DATE: 02/16/2003 07:03:00 PM Tom, I agree with your final paragraph: I think you misunderstood what a lot of people went on that march for. I was there. It consisted of a broad coalition of ideologies and people from all walks of life, whose sole unifying banner was that they didn't want to see an invasion of Iraq. Beyond that, opinions of people I spoke to differed greatly - some "never" want war waged, some "not yet". But what a turnout. And what a great stand for the will of the people. Short of sabotaging tanks and overthrowing the UK and US governments, I think there is little more that the average subject or citizen can do. To pretentiously paraphrase Shakespeare: those against the war who stayed in bed should feel a little bit ashamed, and hold their manhoods/womanhoods (delete as appropriate) cheap that they didn't march with us on that day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlie b. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.180.29.27 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 02/17/2003 01:38:26 AM I found your comments very interesting Tom, and the responses to them. I don't want to repeat my earlier views about the rights of nations to act in their own interests. It is also the case that people and peoples may wish to see collective action for a common purpose, and to do that through a super-national organisation. The two principles are not at variance, and part of the problem in discussing this subject has been a failure (by governments and commentators) to distinguish national interest, national policy (which might include agreements with other countries), and international requirements. All are operative. However, with respect to the structure of the UN, it is out of the question that the operative principles of the organisation will change, and the countries that take part in the UN process do not leave their national interests and policies behind when they assemble on East 42nd Street. They will all use the UN to defend and advance their national, regional and alliance interests. Thus, as we know, France is seeking to bolster its international importance, and to move Europe away from the US and towards a more coherent bloc of which its is leader. German leaders are seeking to hold on to power after absolutely disastrous, mandate-shattering domestic elections, by playing the one card they have left. Russia is very concerned about the prices its own oil will fetch (central as it is to all its plans), and about is numerous contracts with Iraq. The idea that the arms inspectors need more time is a blind. What are the inspectors to have more time to do? To find concealed weapons (that would trigger UN action)? Or to "control" and "contain" Saddam. The latter I assume. The trouble is that everything the inspectors do (and remember how hard it was to get Saddam to accept them in the first place) depends entirely on the massive US and UK military presence that has been built up in the region. Without it, would there be any cooperation at all? How soon would they be forced to leave? How would Saddam be controlled then? Is it likely he can be trusted without the threat of coercion? Even then, what of the poor Iraqi people? (and I so agree with what you say about tnat) The issue therefore appears to me not to be about the policy of the UN (about which there can be argument, discussion and agreement) but how it is enforced. Any threat of military action depends on the US, the only country with the men, equipment and money to do the job. We cannot surely ask the US to keep a force of 250,000 permanently stationed in the Gulf, at its own expense. There has to come a time when it will be used or not. But I did not receive that message from the protest marches. They did not say "WAR: Not now, but if and when it becomes necessary". No. They said "America=Evil" and "Bush=Hitler" and "War=Oil" and No War, and Make Tea Not War, and No Attack on Iraq. If Bush and Blair followed the demands of the protesters they would immediately disengage all armed forced and remove them from the Gulf. THEN what would the UN do? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlie b. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.180.29.27 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com/ DATE: 02/17/2003 01:39:29 AM I found your comments very interesting Tom, and the responses to them. I don't want to repeat my earlier views about the rights of nations to act in their own interests. It is also the case that people and peoples may wish to see collective action for a common purpose, and to do that through a super-national organisation. The two principles are not at variance, and part of the problem in discussing this subject has been a failure (by governments and commentators) to distinguish national interest, national policy (which might include agreements with other countries), and international requirements. All are operative. However, with respect to the structure of the UN, it is out of the question that the operative principles of the organisation will change, and the countries that take part in the UN process do not leave their national interests and policies behind when they assemble on East 42nd Street. They will all use the UN to defend and advance their national, regional and alliance interests. Thus, as we know, France is seeking to bolster its international importance, and to move Europe away from the US and towards a more coherent bloc of which its is leader. German leaders are seeking to hold on to power after absolutely disastrous, mandate-shattering domestic elections, by playing the one card they have left. Russia is very concerned about the prices its own oil will fetch (central as it is to all its plans), and about is numerous contracts with Iraq. The idea that the arms inspectors need more time is a blind. What are the inspectors to have more time to do? To find concealed weapons (that would trigger UN action)? Or to "control" and "contain" Saddam. The latter I assume. The trouble is that everything the inspectors do (and remember how hard it was to get Saddam to accept them in the first place) depends entirely on the massive US and UK military presence that has been built up in the region. Without it, would there be any cooperation at all? How soon would they be forced to leave? How would Saddam be controlled then? Is it likely he can be trusted without the threat of coercion? Even then, what of the poor Iraqi people? (and I so agree with what you say about tnat) The issue therefore appears to me not to be about the policy of the UN (about which there can be argument, discussion and agreement) but how it is enforced. Any threat of military action depends on the US, the only country with the men, equipment and money to do the job. We cannot surely ask the US to keep a force of 250,000 permanently stationed in the Gulf, at its own expense. There has to come a time when it will be used or not. But I did not receive that message from the protest marches. They did not say "WAR: Not now, but if and when it becomes necessary". No. They said "America=Evil" and "Bush=Hitler" and "War=Oil" and No War, and Make Tea Not War, and No Attack on Iraq. If Bush and Blair followed the demands of the protesters they would immediately disengage all armed forced and remove them from the Gulf. THEN what would the UN do? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chloe EMAIL: chloeincommunicado@watermelonpunch.com IP: 199.224.94.247 URL: http://www.watermelonpunch.com/ DATE: 02/17/2003 02:37:50 AM This is very much how I feel. Though I'm not for a war... It DOES have a lot more to do with feeling bullied, embarrassed, and inappropriate. The people in power in the U.S. these days rarely seem to adequately or accurately represent this American. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Frank [American] EMAIL: frank@fperkins.com IP: 67.86.58.242 URL: http://www.fperkins.com/news/ DATE: 02/17/2003 03:06:42 AM Wow.. someone wishes Clinton was back in office. In desperate times, we need a man with absolutely no morals. As another one of your astute readers pointed out, the march wasn't for peace, but rather an anti-American march. Bush=Hitler? Does anyone with a half a brain not realize that SH has been a dictator since 1979? He was elected with 100% of the vote in his last election. I guess nobody caught the CNN special about the Iraq citizens that protested against the govt and were taken away and never heard from again. We deserve the right to defend ourselves and we will do it, with or without the UN. Since when does France represent the common man's point of view? France is afraid that if they make a stand toward terrorism they will be the target of future attacks. I may have lost my mind, but didn't they have one of their oil tankers hit by terrorists? I'll leave you with this. "America is often said to be a 'hyper power,' yet our actions are repeatedly frustrated by an endless train of objections and obstacles. America has fought distant wars to defend whole continents from a succession of aggressors, but the beneficiaries of the safety we have ensured often devote their energies to impeding our efforts to help others," Hyde said. "We shoulder burdensome responsibilities for the benefit of the entire globe, but too often we must do so alone." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kenny EMAIL: lopati0@lycos.com IP: 24.125.21.109 URL: DATE: 02/17/2003 04:58:20 AM yeah, i'm kind of ambivalent too :) so are iraqis! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: mike@coffeecorner.org IP: 66.140.131.93 URL: http://www.coffeecorner.org DATE: 02/18/2003 03:13:56 PM Spot on, and I agree fully. (I was only in the march long enough to get back to my hotel. Ack.) Here's the crux for me: I agree that the UN should not be flaunted or ignored as an international body. But who is doing the flaunting? Iraq, for its continued lack of compliance with declarations? The UN, for not enforcing the consequences of those declarations? Or the US, who has rushed headlong to enforce its will before the UN can decide? I don't mean to spin that question towards any particular answer. Frankly, I think it's a bit of all three. But that's the main difference I've seen (re: the UN) between Europe and the US. Over here, it's Iraq that ignores the UN. Over there, it's the US. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam EMAIL: miserablebastard@hotmail.com IP: 80.1.26.113 URL: DATE: 02/19/2003 12:42:51 AM I'd feel more a lot more comfortable with a war against Iraq if it had UN backing, and it would have been hypocritical to march against it. Can someone tell me what interests the UN was protecting in East Timor and Kosovo? ----- PING: TITLE: Why I didn't go on the Stop the War march... URL: http://suckahs.org/links/2003_02.php#001620 IP: 64.247.12.144 BLOG NAME: Suckahs Daily Bookmarks DATE: 02/19/2003 12:17:38 AM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/02/why_i_didnt_go_on_the_stop_the_war_march.shtml ----- PING: TITLE: The day in pictures URL: http://www.thehighrise.org/weblog/archives/2003_02.html#000617 IP: 212.187.158.99 BLOG NAME: thehighrise DATE: 01/19/2004 06:56:48 PM Pictures are worth a thousand words, or something like that, so if you don't want to read the reports of... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Google buys Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/16/2003 12:17:31 PM ----- BODY:

    The only news today in the blogosphere is that Google has bought Blogger. I have an almost infinite amount to say about this subject, but it doesn't look like I'm going to have time to say it for a few days. Apologies...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sonia EMAIL: 9@lifeintheday.co.uk IP: 12.82.65.30 URL: http://lifeintheday.co.uk DATE: 02/16/2003 06:22:00 PM This has got to be the most random thing I've heard today. I still don't know what my opinion of it is, though ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/17/2003 11:44:34 AM I have to say I think your feelings on the matter are shared by the majority. Everyone's relieved that this probably means they won't go bust for a while. And everyone's delighted that it'll probably mean that Blogger Pro functionality improves and continues to develop. What other implications it might have... Well, I guess we wait and see... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bart EMAIL: bart@trabaca.com IP: 212.27.35.146 URL: http://www.trabaca.com DATE: 02/17/2003 01:27:53 PM I take it that Google will eventually integrate Blogger and/or vice-versa and am wondering what this could mean for non-Blogger weblogs. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: deej EMAIL: dj@sassylad.co.uk IP: 217.44.92.212 URL: http://www.sassylad.co.uk DATE: 02/18/2003 08:02:41 AM I can't help but feel it's a bad idea, I'm not sure why yet but everything that google has done recently seems to be a step towards the dark side of monopoly - and the takeover of blogger is just another step... I'll be moving over to my own CMS as soon as my blogger pro subscription is up. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven EMAIL: sprice2@worcestershire.gov.uk IP: 193.128.154.24 URL: DATE: 02/18/2003 02:10:36 PM http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2775249.stm The BBC's take on the whole 'Blog' situation. It may enlighten those of you who have yet to catch up with the events mentioned in this post. ----- PING: TITLE: øGoogle compra Blogger? URL: http://ALT1040.com/archivo/000326.shtml IP: 205.214.88.56 BLOG NAME: ALT1040 DATE: 02/16/2003 06:01:39 PM Al parecer Google comprÛ Pyra, la compaÒia que hace Blogger. No hay mucho que decir, no es noticia confirmada, no hay nota de prensa. Solo un artÌculo en un weblog, un post en metafilter y un comentario muy extraÒo de Ev. Si es cierto, desde maÒana en ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On people who can't smell... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health CATEGORY: Health DATE: 02/18/2003 04:41:24 PM ----- BODY:

    Last night I cooked myself a meal on my gas hob. This morning, on the way into work on the bus I became convinced that I hadn't turned the gas off. I had to get off the bus halfway through my journey, find another bus and return home to check. Fourteen hours had passed.

    For most people this kind of situation would be unthinkable. If the gas was lit - how many times would I have had an opportunity to notice the flames? If the gas was not lit, how strong must the smell get? How obvious must it have been? Except, of course, that (along with all my other freakishnesses) I have no sense of smell. Or if I do, it's so ludicrously truncated and ineffectual as to be useless. The signals that other people take for granted just aren't present for me.

    For the most part, I'm highly suspicious of gas appliances, although it's practically impossible to find a rental flat without them. And if you don't believe that it's a real issue, then I've got an example for you. When I lived with my ex-flatmates Kate and Mella, on at least two separate occasions they returned to the flat to find it stinking of gas. On one occasion the cooking flame had been blown out by a breeze and I simply hadn't noticed. Not getting any heat from the hob, I'd simply assumed it was off. The flat, slowly but surely, had been filling with gas (with me in it) for getting on for fourteen hours. I'd had a terrible headache all day and had no idea why...

    Here are some interesting facts (and links) about (and for) people who can't smell (which is known as Anosmia):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nigel EMAIL: grabcopy@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.168.164 URL: http://www.audiolympics.blogspot.com DATE: 02/18/2003 09:20:05 PM I have returned home from the Thelwall Viaduct every day for eight years to switch off my gas. Every day I am 24 minutes late for work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 130.15.205.179 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 02/18/2003 10:08:02 PM My sister has no sense of smell too - thanks for the links, I'll forward them her way. She's been to see countless specialists, been put on special diets, etc, but nothing seems to do any good. She still makes me smell her clothes for her before she goes out to make sure they don't stink :p ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: gert@madmusingsof.me.uk IP: 81.152.99.36 URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog DATE: 02/18/2003 10:34:59 PM My Aunt lost her sense of smell in a car crash about 40 years ago. She is now 82 and my cousins have started worrying about her, and gas (and alcohol, but that's another story). Not unreasonably, she points out to them that she has survived 40 years without smell. I can smoke in her flat. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marc EMAIL: marc.bohlmann@epost.de IP: 80.138.144.182 URL: http://www.bagofgoodies.de DATE: 02/18/2003 10:47:10 PM Mmmmm ... shouldn't that gas appliance turn of the gas, once the flames goes off? At least that's what they do here in Germany. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 195.92.67.75 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 02/18/2003 11:40:38 PM Just lately, I've become utterly convinced that my bouts of extreme tiredness are due to my gas boiler being unsafe. It's just above my bath, and I have been known to stare at the flame through the little window to see if it's burning too orange or yellow, and not enough blue. In truth, I'm probably just a mild hypochondriac who should get out more, but if no one hears from me for more than three days, please call the following number ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: frizzy_logic@hotmail.com IP: 194.217.194.138 URL: http://frizzy_logic.blogspot.com DATE: 02/19/2003 12:11:02 AM I had almost no sense of smell for as far back as I can remember and was deeply paranoid over the personal hygene issue. Anything else wasn't a problem and it was a considerable advantage in some chemistry lessons. My sense of smell suddenly and disconcertingly became (initially almost unbearably) acute during the early stages of my second pregnancy and hasn't diminished since. But is it true what people say about the acuteness of senses of smell and taste being linked? Because I didn't notice any sense in my sense of taste, which I had always regarded as being fine. I don't, by the way, in any way suggest pregnancy as a cure for anything, let alone anosmia. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian A EMAIL: istrada@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.68.3 URL: http://northbysoutheast.blogspot.com DATE: 02/19/2003 02:11:28 AM So when you got back, had you actually left the gas on? Have you tried strategically placed signage, like say, at the front door, over your pillow etc? Kind of like mobiles that you have to dodge with the message "Have you turned off the gas you smelly bastard?!" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kurisuchan EMAIL: perretperret@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.194.13 URL: DATE: 02/19/2003 03:12:17 AM I find that my sense of smell is particulary acute when I have a bad hangover... which wasn't always welcome when I lived in a squat in Hackney. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vicky EMAIL: v@vb.otg IP: 195.92.168.171 URL: http://www.vodkabird.org DATE: 02/19/2003 07:00:38 AM I can empathise with the having to return home to ensure that the gas/iron/whatever hasn't been left on - until one day I actually did leave the iron on all day, and what do you know? The house was still standing. I think it's a case of as you get older you trust your memory less. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: arseblogger@arseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.170 URL: http://www.arseblog.com DATE: 02/19/2003 07:50:41 AM Might I suggest you invest in a canary, or some other kind of small bird, and leave it perched in the kitchen, in close proximity to your gas hob. All you need to do in the morning is check and see if the bird is still alive. If it's lying flat on its back on the bottom of the cage, chances are you left the gas on. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: gths@flat-earth.org IP: 203.164.7.157 URL: http://grudnuk.com/vm/ DATE: 02/19/2003 07:55:58 AM This reminds me of that silly old vaudeville joke about the dog with no nose: "How does he smell then?" "Terrible!" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/19/2003 10:55:59 AM Typically - obviously, even - I hadn't left the gas on at all. The flat was perfectly intact and non-explosive. I felt like a bit of an idiot, and even more of an idiot when I had to explain why I was forty-five minutes late for work. Still... Never mind... Better that than a huge explosion decimating my neighbours... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 02/19/2003 11:54:46 AM Is it true that a lack of/diminished sense of smell is more likely to be a 'male thing', in a similar way that 1 in 4 men are colourblind? Only most men I know can't tell sour milk when it's way past its best, like my partner who always sniffs the milk bottle, even if he's just watched me open it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/19/2003 12:04:13 PM Yup - apparently it is much more common in men than women. God only knows if there's an evolutionary reason for that or if it's a side-effect of something else... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven EMAIL: sprice2@worcestershire.gov.uk IP: 193.128.154.24 URL: DATE: 02/19/2003 04:58:45 PM When you consider that your taste can only differentiate between sour, salt, sweet and bitter and that your smell sense makes up for the rest, I find it hard to grasp the idea of not being able to know what things smell like. Bacon butties for one :p You know what they taste like, but can't enjoy the smell of them. Damn shame, that one. Are there people out there with similar problems but related to no taste (and I don't mean what they wear/listen to/the people they hang out with - or any other oh-so-humourous comments)? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Linda Razzell EMAIL: linda@batwing.co.uk IP: 62.49.31.155 URL: DATE: 02/20/2003 12:32:44 AM I am confused - smell and taste are said to be linked but my partner, who has a dangerous lack of ability to smell (gas, bad food etc )also has a most acute sense of taste, far greater than mine. He was once a chef, and a very good one. I have only known him to identify a smell twice in twenty years - one was pine disinfectant and the other, drains! How can this be? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven EMAIL: sprice2@worcestershire.gov.uk IP: 193.128.154.24 URL: DATE: 02/20/2003 09:16:22 AM With regard to Linda's post "...smell and taste are said to be linked...". The aspect you have to consider is the loss of one sense greatly enhances the others. We all know that when someone loses their sight, the other senses, in particular, Hearing try to compensate for the loss and in most circumstances do so admirably. Therefore, there must be some link with loss of smell (a key sense) and the increase in sensitivity of the taste buds. The human body works in mysterious ways... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: ieatspamfortea@minor9th.com IP: 62.252.0.5 URL: http://www.minor9th.com DATE: 02/20/2003 10:51:32 AM This is a bit freaky - I only read this post this morning, but last night I dreamed that I blew up our house by leaving the gas on. Having said this, I think it's mainly to do with the fact that Transco are building us a moat / putting in new gas pipes outside our house... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 218.173.146.34 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 02/28/2003 02:05:48 AM first, i want to say how happy i was to read this post. while i do have some sense of smell, i have very little. it's not something i was even aware of until i was about 20 years old. since then, i've realized that my food preferences are much more texture-oriented than those of most people. i wonder, is this true for other anosmiacs? (i'm so excited to finally learn the word to describe this condition!) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: latha EMAIL: steelhearted@indiatimes.com IP: 219.65.91.48 URL: DATE: 05/21/2003 09:06:43 AM I have no sense of smell ever since I remember. Will it affect my child if I conceive? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Blue EMAIL: jjbeckman@bigpond.com.au IP: 144.139.163.77 URL: DATE: 12/04/2003 01:12:50 AM My sense of smell is non existant. I have no memory of ever being able to smell. It wasn't until I was 9 or 10 that I realised I couldn't smell. I was staying with my cousin & couldn't resist putting on some of her nail polish. Even though I hid my nails, she still knew I had it on. I asked her how she knew & she said she could smell it. It does cause me some problems. I have recently bought a house with a gas stove & am a bit worried about leaving the stove on etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Florence EMAIL: www.florrence1984@yahoo.com IP: 216.78.51.137 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 12:46:38 AM I have not been able to smell almost for a year now. That scares me terribly. I wanted to know if there is any treatment to restore my sense of smell. I have tried taking zinc, but it didn't work. Please let me know of any suggestions of how one sense such as a person's sense of smel can be restored if possible. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nicole toombs EMAIL: the1uvbeenwaiting4@yahoo.com IP: 66.56.205.227 URL: DATE: 01/12/2004 12:52:35 AM i am only 17 and ive never had a sense of smell. i fear that when i am to move out on my own that i'll leave my gas on constantly and being a smoker will light myself up in flames. does anyone know of any operations or helpful things i could to do possibly be able to smell again? thanks a million ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: helena EMAIL: punjabi@hotmail.com IP: 82.43.210.7 URL: DATE: 01/25/2004 07:18:35 PM i have no sence of smell, or touch. I have learnt to get used to it. I think these people should get used to the way they were born too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: robert EMAIL: mrthey@lycos.co.uk IP: 195.195.164.218 URL: DATE: 03/02/2004 04:24:40 PM Hi everyone, My name is Robert Potts. I am a communication student currently researching anosmia for my final project. I am very interested to hear form any anosmics about their experiences of everyday life. Especially congenital anosmiacs conception of what smell actually is, as they have never smelt. I am interested to meet people who might wish to participate in a documentary that explores the loss of the sensory dimension of smell. I am interested to hear from anyone and willing to start correspondance that may help to raise awareness or promote communication between anosmiacs. If you could indicate what country or town you are in this would be greatly appreciated. Yours faithfully, R ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Thekken EMAIL: thekk_suk@yahoo.com IP: 167.206.189.62 URL: DATE: 03/05/2004 03:15:37 PM Anosmiac, I've finally figured out the word to describe my condition. I'm 28 years old, I figured out when I was pretty young that I can't smell a thing. I remember having blocked nostrils all the time and as a matter of fact I still do. Whenever I tell someone that I can't smell they ask me "what!!?? then how do you taste?" I've never felt that smell had anything to do with taste, I do enjoy my food like everybody else but the truth is "yes I can't smell". I knew that this was a disability, but didn't think that this was serious and common enough to be attributed a name, stupid me. Certain points mentioned by some contributors are absolutely true in my case. I dab myself with cologne, deodarant, use mouthwashs' all the time... keep a ready supply of mint on me, all due to the cardinal fear of being unhygienic. My wife does my scouts job of giving me a sniff now and then to see everything's alright. I never thought something was amiss until today when I came across this forum and a chance stumbling on to some related websites. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gail EMAIL: gailmccall@reachone.com IP: 216.177.228.116 URL: DATE: 04/14/2004 03:00:00 AM This is the first that I ever heard of other people that can't smell. I had surgery last month (3/4/04). My doctor diagnosed a brain tumor by my lack of smell. Everything went well, but I had concerns about not smelling. My concerns are the same as everyone here. It helps to know a little about what other people do to get by too. There are lots of reasons for not smelling. So thanks for the learning experience. Also, I find no connection to lack of smell and lack of taste. I find in my case that I try to taste more to compensate for not smelling. I have people around that help with hygene and safety issues. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa EMAIL: snoogie_woogie@hotmail.com IP: 65.33.51.87 URL: DATE: 08/03/2004 04:59:21 AM I'm 27 I've never had a sense of smell. I've always been okay by this, I forget most of the time. Tonight I started reading about it for the first, anosmia, and it has gotten me thinking. Does it affect my memory? Being sexually attracted to certain people? Would I act differently if I could smell? Would I be more confident in public? I put on deodorant 3 times a day, used to have friends pick out perfume for me, and occassionally forget that it is bad and clean the bathroom with the door closed. The other day I spent an hour staining an interior door before realizing that I should open the windows. I'm amazed that wood and strawberries (before they are torn open) have a smell. Robert, if you are still out there I'd be interested in corresponding with you for your documentary. I'm from the US. And for you other people with anosmia, please share more details about your stories! The are so good to hear. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Judi EMAIL: justjudim@telkomsa.net IP: 155.239.105.35 URL: http://telkom DATE: 08/15/2004 09:07:40 PM my friend has anosmia and I feel so sorry for her because I cannot imagine a life without being able to smell! In this day and age, surely this condition can be treated/cured? She does not have a tumor, is not sick/asmathic or have sinus problems, she just cannot smell! She can differentiate between sweet/sour/salty tastes only. Her doctor said she has Calman/ Kalman disease???? I cannot find info on this? Anybody out there who can tell us about this? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marta Kay EMAIL: mkm221@zoominternet.net IP: 146.186.63.229 URL: DATE: 10/21/2004 04:18:00 PM I had a severe brain injury which in turn I was told that my scent valves were crushed this was in 1991. Is there anything that I can do to mend this, not being able to smell has many disadvantages ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BBC News redesigns... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 02/19/2003 12:50:32 PM ----- BODY:

    The newly redesigned BBC news launched last night - the redesign being an attempt to keep the basic UI and architecture of the site intact while bringing its design in line with the rest of the BBC. The most substantial change is the shift from a 640px to an 800px wide layout, which has some clearly positive consequences. The available space for the articles themselves is now substantial, but not so wide that your eyes have trouble finding the beginning of the following line. However, the redesign isn't perfect, and if I was forced to pick holes with the way it has been restructured they would be:

    What are your thoughts on the BBC News redesign? Leave a comment here and then head over to the discussion taking place over at Metafilter.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anthony EMAIL: afinucane@o2.ie IP: 62.254.167.3 URL: http://antoglitterball.blogspot.com DATE: 02/19/2003 01:20:09 PM I really like the BBC site, but the only downside I can see in the new version is that it doesn't validate to HTML or XHTML. I would have thought that the beeb would have been aware of the importance of such validation for accessibility issues etc. But all in all it's a great site. Yet again the beeb surpases the rest. [Also have a look here for some web designers views to the new look!] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anthony EMAIL: afinucane@o2.ie IP: 62.254.167.3 URL: http://antoglitterball.blogspot.com DATE: 02/19/2003 01:20:36 PM I really like the BBC site, but the only downside I can see in the new version is that it doesn't validate to HTML or XHTML. I would have thought that the beeb would have been aware of the importance of such validation for accessibility issues etc. But all in all it's a great site. Yet again the beeb surpases the rest. [Also have a look here for some web designers views to the new look!] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: buttercup EMAIL: buttercup@kaius.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: DATE: 02/19/2003 01:23:54 PM Tom said: "but I wonder what it looks like with text-zooming on or unorthodox font-sizes." Not that they've used resizable fonts. Their reasoning is a little shaky on this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2778423.stm ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: marcus@neverthink.com IP: 216.40.52.20 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 02/19/2003 01:32:49 PM I can't believe that in 2002 they've replaced the old design with another fixed-size table-based layout. BBC News is a site that clearly lends itself to a liquid layout with CSS positioning. Ngh. That aside, first impressions are good. Information is more clearly laid out and generally more visually accessible than before. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 02/19/2003 01:45:39 PM I have mixed feelings about it. Like you, Tom, I think the double column layout decreases the 'prominence' of news items, although I don't think it's really correct to assume they used to put the newest story on top. I don't like the features bar across the middle (I think it breaks the flow). And I also think that the site simply looks like it has less news on it, whether that's true or not. But comparing it to some other news providers, it's still fairly successful and the new layout works fine on my machine, so I can't be too nasty. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 192.146.136.129 URL: http://www.gaygeeks.org DATE: 02/19/2003 01:51:52 PM Yuck! The new look is awful; headlines with no detail behind them. The new look is suspiciously similar to cnn.com, but less readable. And CNN isn't exactly the model to be following at the moment anyway: it is losing ground heavily to Fox news (www.foxnews.com) which has a website with more detail about more headlines on its front page. This is the nail in BBC News' coffin for me; I already thought their previous format was too heavy on images and sensational junk, and switched to the Times (www.timesonline.co.uk) which has lots of detail. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/19/2003 02:39:36 PM Re: validation... it doesn't help that they have no encoding type and their DOCTYPE line isn't capitalised correctly. So the W3C validator can't even tell how to validate the page. They seem to have cunningly set the page width to be two words wider than my browser window. I like the extra width for reading stories but I don't like the two columns of headlines on index pages. They're both the same weight and importance so my eye doesn't know where or how to browse. With a single column there's only one way - down. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/19/2003 02:41:05 PM And Jesus, credit me with some intelligence and let me use paragraphs in my comments will you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/19/2003 04:39:58 PM Just a reminder to some people... If you want to say something off-topic, then could you please do it by e-mail rather than on the site. Thanks very much. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://bobzilla.co.uk/weblog DATE: 02/19/2003 05:55:50 PM Ooh. Saucer of milk! Back on topic (ahem) I don't think *detail* is necessarily the key, but clarity. I just don't really know what to look at when I load the BBC news page any more; nothing particularly stands out to my eye. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 213.52.140.99 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 02/19/2003 09:08:19 PM No matter what you think of Fox News or its website, remember that it's not news - they deal in 'fair and balanced' opinion, not news. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: blog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.32.6 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 02/19/2003 11:04:18 PM First of all, I like the design; in general, it's a huge improvement over the previous incarnation, which was showing its age. V3/800 is more elegant, cleaner and more in keeping with much of the rest of BBCi's pages. Secondly, whilst the design is obviously finalised, you should allow some leeway for transition and adaptation to that design on the first day of the new look. The issue you raised re: white space down to the central content bar is one staff are aware of and will certainly overcome. I don't see much of a problem on the index as it stands now. I don't think anyone is disputing that the top story plus the lower two continue to constitute the top three stories in the news agenda. If there is one thing, however, it's the reduced prominence of stories below this placing (ie. top right, flowing to bottom left depending on index), which don't now carry a standfirst in addition to their new, smaller type size. But generally I'm wholly supportive - the new layout allows for much more promotion of material and is a great leap forward after many months of work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: denise EMAIL: hello@styledeficit.com IP: 62.30.114.135 URL: DATE: 02/20/2003 08:02:41 AM I agree with Bobbie. Looking at it from the most basic level, nothing stands out and i don't know where to look first. The central column on all the pages seems to bash into the column on the right. The kerning on the right compared to the text in the centre also seems different and it's just too much detail trying to compete with the main story. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 62.171.198.5 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 02/20/2003 10:45:28 AM Ah. I couldn't care less. I read it via RSS! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bart EMAIL: bart@trabaca.com IP: 80.11.117.166 URL: http://www.trabaca.com DATE: 02/20/2003 11:57:43 AM I was actuallly thinking the same thing Seldo said about the new design now being CNN-esque. The primary reason why I go to Salon.com for news is that there's one column that lists all the important headlines one after the other in chronological order. I'm always rather frustrated by CNN.com because it's nearly impossible to tell what's new and what isn't. I'd have to go through all the individual categories (World, U.S., Entertainment, Technology...) instead of just one. Salon does use multiple columns, but they're clearly divided into navigation, current news, and a less-frequently updated features columns. I also noticed that the new BBC site didn't ask me if I'm in the UK or not, but that could just be because there's a cookie on this computer (I'm at my school's computer lab) that I'm not aware of. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@magnetbox.com IP: 209.98.64.2 URL: http://www.magnetbox.com DATE: 02/20/2003 03:01:33 PM The comment I am wondering about is this "as a result, there'll be less scrolling" quote from the editor. Are they basing the user's desire to not scroll on some sort of real data or testing, or is this a hunch or decision made by a designer/boss? Will there be a "Glass Wall 2: Electric Boogaloo" that goes into details such as their usability issues? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@magnetbox.com IP: 209.98.64.2 URL: DATE: 02/20/2003 03:06:18 PM In regards to sending off-topic things via e-mail, I have an off-topic thing, but I literally cannot find your e-mail address anywhere on your site. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Conaghan EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 02/20/2003 03:07:50 PM I've knocked out a quick example of how this could look over at The Copydesk. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: systemattic@mac.com IP: 213.210.21.170 URL: DATE: 02/20/2003 05:03:03 PM RE: CNN-esque redesign. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't BBC News Online originally modelled on CNN.com? It seems that there's always been a resemblence between the two and this latest redesign is merely the Beeb following suit. ----- PING: TITLE: Posh Frock URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000414.shtml IP: 217.158.168.16 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 02/19/2003 02:21:20 PM BBC News Online launches its redesign. It's wider. Tom weighs in, as does Metafilter. Oh, and this was amusing: hi ----- PING: TITLE: ÿ…ÿ±ÿßÿ‚¤å ÿ¨ÿØäÿØ ÿ®ÿÆÿ¥ ÿÆÿ®ÿ± ÿ®¤å.ÿ®¤å.ÿ„¤å URL: http://i.hoder.com/archives/006317.php IP: 64.21.12.2 BLOG NAME: Editor: Myself (Persian) DATE: 02/19/2003 07:00:39 PM ÿØäÿ¥ÿ® ÿ®ÿßÑÿßÿÆÿ±á ÿØäÿ¾ÿßäÜ ÿ¨ÿØäÿØ ÿ„ÿßäÿ ÿÆÿ®ÿ±¤å ÿ®¤å.ÿ®¤å.ÿ„¤å ÿ®ÿßÑÿß ÿ¢ÖÿØ. ÿØÿ± Ž©Ñ ÿ®á Üÿ½ÿ± ÿÆàÿ® Ö¤å’Äåÿ¢¤åÿØ àѤå ÿ±ÿßÿ„ÿÿ¥ ŽÜÜÿØ ŽÜäÿ¾ÿ¥ ÿ±ÿß ----- PING: TITLE: Here is the News URL: http://musak.curnow.org/entries/000802.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 02/23/2003 03:59:45 AM The BBC has redesigned its news website. To me, it is one of the best news sites around and all done without any advertising. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thursday Microcontentage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/20/2003 06:14:54 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a great big thing in my head at the moment - all conceptual and wiggling - that I've been trying to write all day. So far, no luck. I'm stuck about two-thirds of the way through. So to pass the time, here's a few links from around the web that I've been meaning to write up for ages.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Ostrich of Journalism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 02/21/2003 03:43:51 PM ----- BODY:

    God what a stupid article. What a profoundly stupid article. I mean let's not even start with the condemnation of Google as the closest thing to an online Superpower, because while there may be some truth to it, at the moment it's pretty much just unsubstantiated scare-mongering. But reopening the 'weblogs as journalism' debate again? Now that really is stupid. Particularly if you're not going to make any effort to look past the obvious towards a slightly more nuanced and intelligent reaction. For god's sake, internet expert, push it a little further.

    "Blogging is not journalism. Often it is as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion. Without editors to correct syntax, tidy up the story structure or check facts, it is generally impossible to rely on anything one finds in a blog without verifying it somewhere else - often the much-maligned mainstream media.

    Now I have no interest in getting involved in this "are they" / "aren't they" debate - except to repeat my scandalous assertion that in fact news journalism is etymologically a subset of "journalism" - ie. journal writing - making news journalism in many ways a 'special case' / subset of weblogging. But I have to be honest, the idea that the limit of this whole debate could be 'are weblogs going to replace journalism' - well it pisses the crap out of me. Because while some journalists are sitting around complaining about about how you can't trust anything you read unless it's had an editor to correct the grammar, the actually interesting and significant debates are being totally ignored.

    These are the debates about what effect an empowered and vocally reactive readership might have on journalism, or the debates about the implications of the huge traffic peaks that can happen when all of webloggia turns your way. These are the debates about how incredibly useful and important it would be to gauge statistically which news stories actually do matter to people, and what it means when hundreds of thousands of people decide to take the news they've been given and do something with it - push it further, do their own research - on occasion refusing or challenging the initial piece. How would that change the job of a journalist? What effect would that have, will that have, in two / five / twenty years?

    In fact while these journalists are busy shoring up their own defences neurotically against the unlikely threat of freelance weirdos like myself putting them out of a job, they're studiously resisiting every opportunity to actually interact with this huge distributed community.

    This kind of facile superficial reaction would be totally acceptable if it came from well-established print journalists unfamiliar with what's emerging online. But from technology journalists it smacks of disgruntlement, paranoia and a profound refusal to think past the most obvious conclusion they come to. These are individuals who have been told by some idiot at a dinner party once that their industry is under attack and have decided it's time to put these "upstarts" in their place.

    The whole thing is based on a really simple misconception - they keep viewing each individual weblog as if it was competing with the New York Times. But instead of doing that, they should be looking at how hundreds of thousands of (proper media) readers have completely shifted from passive reception of news to repurposing it, commenting upon it and - on occasion - challenging it... If they don't do that, if they don't shift from building defences to looking for the opportunities, then they really are going to be put out of a job - not because they've been squeezed out by other webloggers, but because some other companies (maybe even that tiny Google start-up everyone's talking about) will find some way to do it first and do it better...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: ry1@caspianpublishing.co.uk IP: 217.150.100.73 URL: DATE: 02/21/2003 05:06:10 PM C'mon, your over-defensive attitude towards "print journalists" just makes your case look weak. I'm a magazine editor and the reason my readers can trust me more than you isn't because I'm published on dead trees and you glide effortless through the ether, unbounded by conventional ties and in connection with the power of the hive brain. They trust me because I spend all my time investigating the very specific topics they're interested in and I have very few chances to say things to them (once a month), so I only say the most interesting things, not everything, whether I've thought it through or not. Which in this case, you haven't. Tsk, talk about tarring us all with the same brush... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/21/2003 05:34:09 PM Ok - you couldn't get more illustrative of my point here. Firstly, I'm not in any way 'tarring you all with the same brush'! I specifically talk about how this article is stupid and evidences a lack of thought about the relationship between weblogs and mainstream print media, that 'some journalists' don't know what they're talking about, that it's something that technology journalists should have thought about in more depth. Secondly, I've delivered papers on this very subject to several institutions, including the BBC, so caricaturing my engagement with this issue as 'gliding through the ether' or suggesting I'm not thinking it through seriously is profoundly misguided of you - and, I might add, exactly the kind of 'we don't need to bother about this stuff' attitude that infuriates me. Thirdly, to suggest that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to journalists is just untrue - I'm an ex-journalist with training and experience in both online and print writing and editing. Finally your personal attempts at 'thinking it through' has managed to miss the entire point of my piece in the first place, which is that weblogs individually aren't journalism - that question's boring and trivial (and frankly old). But by saying 'weblogs aren't journalism' and leaving it at that, the arguments about what it is and how it could be useful or interesting to mainstream publishers are ignored. And there's a hell of a lot of scope there - scope that Google have noticed, even if you haven't... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@longmans.net IP: 62.190.236.241 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 02/21/2003 05:36:21 PM The irony of this simplistic BBC article is that a large part of it is lifted straight out of an article that did the rounds of the blogosphere a week or so ago, and which goes uncredited. At least most bloggers have the courtesy of acknowledging their sources. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/21/2003 05:50:06 PM In addition, I believe google-watch was set up by someone whose attempts to spam google were suppressed, leading to a subsequent court case in which Google's position was supported. The man who wrote that mantra last week clearly has an axe to grind. The fact that the BBC article reuses its arguments so naively is, I'm afraid, very definitely not the mark of someone undertaking careful, thorough research. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: arseblogger@arseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.170 URL: http://www.arseblog.com DATE: 02/21/2003 07:14:19 PM and you glide effortless through the ether That would be 'effortlessly'. Thank god for sub-editors, eh? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: david EMAIL: david33@yahoo.com IP: 66.168.231.50 URL: DATE: 02/22/2003 08:18:00 AM Hmm, I thought the article was dead on, and your reaction to it seems to support my opinion. Thanks for the link. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 62.31.71.100 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 02/22/2003 10:43:23 AM Very well put, Tom. I particularly like the way you distinguish between individual weblogs and the aggregation. If there's anyone left who still doesn't understand the difference then they really aren't trying. I too have written extensively for the national press, and I find, frankly, that the two main things editors are interested in are that (a) your piece isn't libellous, and (b) you've spelled proper names correctly. "Mistakes" (if any) simply provide fuel for the letters column! I see commentators such as Burchill (high on opinion, low on hard content), as being probably the first to go, as this is already a very successful branch of weblogging. I think "effortless" is OK for gliding. Poetic. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: websurfing@frostbytei.com IP: 67.34.83.82 URL: http://frostbytei.com/sight/ DATE: 02/22/2003 05:43:44 PM As Peter said, very well put. Your article itself was a perfect example of how webloggers use their medium to challenge the news out there. Sad some people can't grasp that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben James EMAIL: ben@blogtastic.com IP: 80.193.54.123 URL: http://www.blogtastic.com DATE: 02/22/2003 07:46:56 PM The reaction to Thompson's article has made me think... The blogosphere is more than just a network for the passage of news and thought; it's a growing, evolving creature which is passing the test of natural selection with flying colours. We all know how quickly and strongly blogging is growing, and here we're seeing how well-adapted it is to fending off intellectual attack. The blogosphere is a well-oiled, distributed yet closely connected, self-regulating yet intellectually frontier-pushing, thought machine. Traditional journalism is not extinct; it still serves important purposes. But blogging is far from being confined to a niche. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.44 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 02/23/2003 12:47:19 PM I think youíre expressing a personal and specialised interest which doesnít have a wider factual basis. You wonít change the power established journalism has with an etymological fine point, and I doubt if blogging will either. Your words are more rhetoric than fact. Specifically, who are the ìempowered and vocally reactive readershipî who do their own research? Itís a great idea and I wish it were true. There are a few about, but not many. As with the WWW, so with blogdom: the signal to noise ratio is quite high and most blogs revolve around relatively trivial content or specialised personal interests. Why would a journalist or media house be interested in interacting with that, especially when their research is generally far more rigorous? They have the time, the contacts and the resources. Most blogs are a different kind of activity. Theyíre like an interactive personal column, and thatís what theyíre good at. I donít think thereís an attitude of ëputting upstarts in their placeí, because the establishment has nothing to fear. I think thatís a personal comment thatís not generally applicable. Repurposing and challenging the established news? Again, great idea and I wish it were happening. But itís not; thatís not what most blogs do, except maybe in a very cursory way like a conversation in a pub. The aggregation thing is an interesting point but Iím not sure it fits your idea because what, exactly, is aggregated? I donít think itís an ideological or political force. I sense that itís more about fashion than critical thinking. Enthusiasm for blogging is one thing, but it has to be based on facts rather than (laudable) ideals that are not borne out. When the ënet first appeared people had a similar kind of aspiration ñ it was going to transform society etc. It didnít, and it rapidly became a commercialised medium. I liked those original ideals ñ I still do ñ but on the whole, they are not borne out and I have to acknowledge that fact. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel Brandt EMAIL: info@google-watch.org IP: 24.206.82.97 URL: http://www.google-watch.org DATE: 02/23/2003 05:19:11 PM Tom Coates has it wrong. Google Watch was started by me. The guy who got penalized by Google is from SearchKing. There is no connection between us. A journalist would have checked out something like this, but bloggers don't bother. My phone number is on my home page, along with my email. Bill Thompson's piece is right on. Even if he was partially inspired by my site, so what? He gave Google Watch a link in the sidebar. Even if he didn't, I'd have no problem with his piece. He speaks the truth, and that's all that matters. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.124.106 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/23/2003 10:08:16 PM Apologies Daniel - it's true I have no evidence to link you to the SearchKing gentleman. I wouldn't write something like that in the body of a piece without checking it thoroughly - it was ill-judged of me to not be as thorough in the comments... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: systemattic@mac.com IP: 80.194.214.174 URL: DATE: 02/23/2003 11:10:17 PM Daniel, while Tom may have got his facts wrong, it seems that he's right to suggest that 'you have an axe to grind'. Is it true that the motives behind your Google Watch site are not to seek the truth for the benefit of all web users, but to discredit Google and its technologies as a personal revenge against Google giving you a lowly PageRank? If this is the case, then your plan is working, and just when bloggers are unsure over whether the Google/Blogger deal is a good or bad thing, it couldn't have been executed at a better time. I wonder if Bill Thompson was aware of your motives when he appropriated your accusations into his piece for the BBC, or maybe he didn't bother to check. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel Brandt EMAIL: info@google-watch.org IP: 24.206.82.97 URL: http://www.google-watch.org DATE: 02/24/2003 02:05:08 AM The Salon piece was an ambush. Most of my interview with the "reporter" was about my privacy concerns with Google, which turned into an article that was mostly about how "Mr. Anti-Google" doesn't like his rankings. For a better piece about what makes me tick, try this link: www.pressaction.com/pablog/archives/000839.html My main site, www.namebase.org, does okay in Google. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://bobzilla.co.uk/weblog DATE: 02/24/2003 12:24:58 PM Well, the article seems to be something of a bash-out if you ask me: it's really two different pieces (both of which seem half-baked) that really have little in common. Firstly, the writer seems miffed about people saying 'blogging is the new journalism'. As both a journalist with a national UK newspaper and a regular blogger over the past two or three years, I am so tired of this argument that I've worn myself out. Blogging *relies* on journalism; blogs don't (and can't) challenge news media; they can't even give you much of a lead on breaking stories (especially since they draw their breaking news from traditional platforms). As for Google's 'power' that's another thing entirely: something worth investigating, of course, but surely worth investigating more thoroughly and with dedication - not swiftly and simply. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Thompson EMAIL: bill@andfinally.com IP: 80.1.205.171 URL: http://www.andfinally.com DATE: 02/25/2003 08:21:57 AM It's been fascinating to see the discussion generated by my BBCi article. I'm sorry that Tom thinks I'm profoundly stupid, but (as you might expect) I disagree with him :-) Couple of minor points: I did bother to research Google Watch, Matt, because that's what I do. But just because someone is against something doesn't mean that their claims should be discounted, and I was disturbed by the almost entirely complimentary coverage of Google online. I've written a lot about privacy policies and the difference between the US self-regulatory approach and the EU model. I prefer the EU model, and I think that Google should be accountable for the data it holds about me and millions of others. Someone has to start challenging the sacred cow. As for blogging, I admit that I knew that what I wrote was going to stir things up, but I was provoked to re-enter the debate by the frankly silly things that were being said about Google buying Pyra. I teach a class in online journalism (yes - I get to infect young minds with this stuff too!) and we'd had a long discussion about the question, so I'd been mulling it over. However I agree entirely with Tom that there is a far, far more interesting debate to be had here - as long as we can agree on the distinction between what happens on sites like this and what happens on Guardian.co.uk, BBCi and other sites. And yes, of course this includes more than just news journalism. I'm interested in how journalism changes and in looking for opportunities rather than building defences. I have felt for some time that 'blogging' is as contested a term as 'new media' and one that has outlived its real usefulness. The range of weblogs, the different motivations of those writing online, the capabilities of the tools used, all mean that there are as many ways to use a blog as there are to use a piece of paper. Some will use print to publish well-researched news stories that threaten the powerful, some will write pamphlets, others lies and libels. We do not have to treat it all alike, and I'll stop doing that in the hope that everyone else does too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 02/25/2003 04:03:09 PM Ok Bill, but we're all dying to know your thoughts on this: If blogging isn't journalism, why is your column at BBC News called 'Bill Blog'? I take it you don't class yourself as a journalist then? ----- PING: TITLE: Proper Journalism URL: http://frownland.com/article/164 IP: 209.68.2.4 BLOG NAME: Frownland DATE: 02/21/2003 05:01:17 PM Bill seems to be suggesting that if you don't work for the BBC or a big publication then the opinion you express in your weblog isn't informed and therefore worthless. ----- PING: TITLE: That old blogs vs journalism debate URL: http://WWW.simonwaldman.co.uk/archives/000073.html IP: 213.232.71.149 BLOG NAME: words of waldman DATE: 02/22/2003 01:14:31 PM Bill Thomson has written a piece for the BBC about Google being a bit too powerful. I've written something similar ----- PING: TITLE: Storm/ tea-cup scenario URL: http://WWW.simonwaldman.co.uk/archives/000083.html IP: 213.232.71.149 BLOG NAME: words of waldman DATE: 02/26/2003 04:55:26 PM Had Bill Thompson proposed giving Saddam Hussein a Nobel Peace Prize, he would have probably been given an easier time ----- PING: TITLE: Bloggingens betydelse: optimisterna URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/001277.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 02/27/2003 12:47:45 PM En av flera reaktioner p Bill Thompsons artikel om Google, denna gÂng kritisk: "the idea that the limit of this ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why Content Publishers shouldn't host weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/23/2003 11:29:03 AM ----- BODY:

    This is a post about why mainstream content publishers shouldn't host weblogs on their sites - and the special circumstances under which they might be able to make it work. Firstly the reasons why they shouldn't do it:

    Now the special cases - the ways to approach something like this if you're determined to do it:

    1. There's value and utility in the information you can glean out of a database of people's weblog posts. These can help inform editorial decisions and make it possible to spot emerging news / public interest stories. This information (and the multiple ways it can be used within your site) is simply valuable. If you have an established brand, you are more likely to be able to get a decent amount of it.
    2. Probably the best way to implement it after this stage, then, is to use an associated brand and publicise it heavily on your main site. That way you're putting in that element of distance that stops you being quite so heavily associated with what is written, while still reaping the benefits from it...
    3. And to counter natural migration from your service (indeed to capitalise upon it and monetise it) then:
      1. Firstly, make it possible for your webloggers not only to leave, but also to come back. People resent being put into a position where they are 'trapped' into using only one personal publishing tool, and may publicise this as a reason not to use the service in the first place.
      2. Secondly, give them a clear upgrade path - give them various levels of functionality which they can move between. You can try and monetise this if you wish. If the functionality is good enough, people will pay.
      3. Thirdly, use the fact that your running a high-profile publishing business as an opportunity to reward the weblogs you host that you think are particularly good. This is a hell of an incentive to be 'one of the fold'.
      4. Fourthly, not only don't try and force people to stay within your design and branding, but make it possible for people to migrate from the branded presence completely. Many webloggers will want (at some point) to purchase a domain name of their own and get more powerful server functionality and access, but many won't know how to approach this kind of stuff. If you can build mechanisms to keep this process as simple and as easy as possible, then you can keep your webloggers happy, keep them using your service, and in the process get a cut on the price of the domain name, charge for the enhanced hosting (or the removal of adverts, if you've used them) and you still have access to the content they're producing.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 195.92.67.65 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 02/23/2003 12:02:00 PM I'm speaking purely from an editorial, rather than a technical, point of view - but I think one of the special circumstances under which mainstream content publishers *should* host blogs (although I'm much against the idea too) is if they can provide something that others do not - plug a hole in the market, as it were. I think (and here's the biased bit) that the BBC, as a public service corporation, should be expected to do that - see, for instance (and cue even more bias) the BBC's weblog on what's happening in and around disability and the media. Who else is going to do something like that? (oh, http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/weblog/ since you ask) Personally, I'd like to see the Beeb doing more weblogs that cover 'unpopular' and less immediately fashionable areas. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.124.106 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/23/2003 12:30:15 PM I think I'm specifically talking about content publishers hosting weblogs for the general public (like Blogspot). I think mainstream publishers using weblogs as a cheap form for journalists to publish niche interest stuff is a really really good idea. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Brake EMAIL: david@davidbrake.org IP: 62.30.164.182 URL: http://blog.org/ DATE: 02/24/2003 09:05:11 AM I can see no reason whatever that a media organization should host weblogs - at least not for journalistic reasons. You say, "there's value and utility in the information you can glean out of a database of people's weblog posts. These can help inform editorial decisions and make it possible to spot emerging news / public interest stories." - but you can get that simply by encouraging your journalists to keep up with the blogosphere out there. No need to host it yourself. The only exception would be someone like the BBC who might host weblogs not for journalistic reasons but to fill a gap for public interest reasons. Blogger/Blogspot seems to be doing a pretty good job of that though and thanks to Google they will probably do an even better job in future. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://safersex.org DATE: 02/25/2003 06:17:55 AM I think it is safe to say that vested interests make such a scheme at least, beneficial. Both the vendor and the client have a vested interest in the initiation of the relationship. The vendor gets a downstream client to receive the vendor's data and the client gets the opportunity to use weblog tools and the access to the "community". After that the issue becomes managing the relationship. The vendor has the more strenuous position and so must excert more effort to maintain a relationship, and potential upstream revenue. I would suggest that it is the job of the vendor to actively maintain that relationship. If the vendor chooses not to actively maintain that relationship then they have no business, at least to my understanding, in getting involved in the blog space in the first place. As Tom points out, the clients' relationship is far more malleable. In fact over time there will be classes of bloggers which must be matched with the appropriate tools sets. If the vendor can maintain such tool sets and incentivize to the needs of the writer then the vendor may maintain his downstream. As an example, Amazon has quite a vested interest in hosting blogs. One of the most popular topics in the blogosphere is books and music. If Amazon were to present a space for hosting weblogs along with a tool set that fully supports the wealth of data available in Amazon's databases, quick and easy referal linking to books and other products with full access to sales reports, accounting, access to periodic review copies, complete outline support, etc. it stands to reason that the needs of writers and the needs of the merchant will coincide. Surely now you can come close to what I describe using a combination of interfaces built for google or amazon with what the firms have made available to developers. But if Amazon were to use their own team to build tools upon which writers can ply their trade it could prove to be quite beneficial to both parties. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Monday Morning Linklog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/24/2003 06:46:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Depressingly, at some point it looks like I'm going to be compelled to go for the full separate link-log option, but at the moment you're just going to have to make-do with the annotated lists that I slap up every so often...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Monday Morning Linklog... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/515 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 02/26/2003 04:26:57 PM plasticbag: "The 'Top Blogs' thing is more notable for the internal Google-style weighting system - the more heavily linked-to a weblog is, the greater its 'page-rank' and in turn the more effect its links have." ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Google's trademark... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 02/26/2003 04:59:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Over on kottke.org at the moment there's a piece by Jason on Google's response to verbing. The story goes like this - there's an entry on Wordspy for a the verb to google. Google decided to respon to this entry by sending a letter telling them that they shouldn't publish stuff like this because it dilutes their brand. Jason's comment?

    "That letter from Google is a bluff, an example of a corporation using their significant corporate resources (i.e. time and money) to make individuals - who generally have neither time nor money, relatively speaking - do what the corporation wants them to do, regardless of legality."

    Unfortunately in this particular case, I believe that Google are in the right and Jason is incorrect. The problem is not particularly one of Google trying to force the little-guy into acquiescing. In fact Google have to go through processes like these to stop their brands becoming normal parts of language. When you're trained as a journalist, you're told that you have to capitalise brand-names. If you don't, the company concerned is forced to write to you requiring you to make it clear that it's a brand. If it doesn't do so - and cannot demonstrate that it's done so, then the word can be associated with any product at all. Classic examples are things like Hoovers and Frisbees - they're synonymous with the object themselves, but they have to be routinely defended otherwise Hoover (the company) loses the right to the brand name - and anyone on the planet can market a vacuum cleaner as 'a hoover'. If Google don't protect their trademark and it entered general speech, then there would be nothing legally to stop altavista renaming themselves altagoogle, or Google search.

    At least that's the way it works in UK law as it pertains to journalists. I'll try and find some more information on this subject shortly.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Thursday morning URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000432.shtml IP: 217.158.168.16 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 02/27/2003 12:27:34 PM Blah blah new iPod rumours Via Brad, Vaguely Right and D-squared digest, the latter of which pokes fun at... ----- PING: TITLE: Suck It Like A Hoover: URL: http://www.fauxhemian.dk/archives/000229.html IP: 193.88.12.35 BLOG NAME: There Is Nothing To Not Be Amazed At DATE: 02/27/2003 01:41:28 PM Jason Kottke has interesting comments on a letter sent to Wordspy regarding their entry on Google as a verb. Wordspy ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm voting LIBERTY X... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/26/2003 10:27:22 PM ----- BODY:

    So Project Stupidly-Long-Post about this iWire post is taking much longer than I'd expected, and work's suddenly started taking up my mental space for the first time in a month or so, and I've been trying to get some stuff finished for Ben Hammersley and my door's being fixed (long story behind that one connected to an earlier post of mine). And basically this all adds up to a busy little Tom who can't think of things to write on his site. Except he's been collecting things he does want to talk about, and rather than discard them, he's going to do another linklog. But he's going to do it shamefully and in full recognisance that he's basically shirking his intellectual responsibilities to the world. And with the shirking of intellectual responsibilities in mind, let's jump straight into...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let them hate as long as they fear... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/28/2003 10:47:05 AM ----- BODY:

    Excerpts from John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation sent to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell:

    Dear Mr. Secretary:
         I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart...
         The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been Americaís most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.
         We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners.
         We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has ìoderint dum metuantî really become our motto?

    For those without the benefit of a Classical education, oderint dum metuant means Let them hate as long as they fear. You can read this letter in full at The New York Times.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: "oderint dum metuant" URL: http://obarquinho.com/nando/memorias/2003_02.html#003952 IP: 66.33.197.8 BLOG NAME: wowblog! DATE: 02/28/2003 12:31:41 PM Abaixo, trecho da carta de ren™ncia que o... ----- PING: TITLE: Pressure From Within URL: http://nslog.com/archives/2003/02/28/pressure_from_within.php IP: 66.111.66.231 BLOG NAME: NSLog(); DATE: 02/28/2003 03:26:31 PM Our current Dubyament, errr, government doesn't seem to care what the population thinks, or what the rest of the world thinks, so maybe they'll respond to some pressure from within. From John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation to Secretary of State... ----- PING: TITLE: A selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction URL: http://www.oddverse.com/2003_02_j_archive.txt#001685 IP: 212.187.158.87 BLOG NAME: Oddverse DATE: 03/03/2003 04:29:34 PM Via plasticbag.org, I'd like to draw attention to John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Excerpts below: The policies we are now asked to ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The return of the Bangles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 02/28/2003 11:17:44 AM ----- BODY:

    The Bangles are back! And the Thriller-like corpse of my trashy, teenage self has risen from the dead and is doing a little dance inside me. I mean - it's the Bangles! I had my first major crush while listening to the Bangles! I wrote off a car while listening to the Bangles! I was the person who bought the Susanna Hoffs solo record! They're core to my adolescent and pre-adolescent self. And it's not only me! The first song my little brother recognised on television was Eternal Flame (the only Bangles song I hated). He used to call it "One Eye" because there was a big eye at the beginning of the video. I think he still kind of likes it. He certainly wasn't keen on Atomic Kitten's version (I think he felt it was sacrilege).

    I mean, look at them! They're iconic! There's the cool depressive one on the left that you actually believed could write songs. She was responsible for "Following", the weird stalker anthem that I loved when I was fourteen. Then there's Susanna Hoffs, who was kind of tiny and pixie-like and all my straight male friends really wanted to shag. And then the lead guitarist who looked a bit too much like the prom queen to be taken seriously. And finally the weird blonde drummer who looked a bit like a man in drag. How much do they rule?!

    I once owned the Bangles Greatest Hits video that I bought when I was about sixteen. But we had this party in my second year at university - a party in which we had to call an Ambulance because someone got alcohol poisoning - and then someone stole the stereo and then someone set fire to the television and that spread to the videos that were placed nearby. No more Bangles video. Sigh.

    And now the news is that they've got a new album coming out and it's bound to be terrible (even though I swear that their other albums are all really really good) but obviously I'm going to buy it and stick it on my iPod and try to look cool when people ask me what I'm listening to. And I think they're coming to London to play live. And I really want to see them, but I bet no one will go with me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: 2003-02-28 15:17:29 URL: http://www.theplasticcat.com/links/included/archive/2003_02.html#000608 IP: 212.187.158.83 BLOG NAME: The Plastic Cat Links DATE: 02/28/2003 04:37:35 PM Hot wet celeb virgin teen pussy just click here now. The sexy secrets of the male multiple orgasm. Freak out some Economists. Plasticbag salutes The Return of the Bangles! All my memories of primary school trips play with Eternal ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: High Octane Link Fuel... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/28/2003 04:15:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Fill your browser with your link-fuel and let's Easy Rider information interstate 666. Feel the breeze in your hair - fluff-links for the quasi-hip:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the avoidance of harm... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/02/2003 11:16:00 PM ----- BODY:

    There's some fascinating stuff around about the relationship of depressive illness to strategies of harm avoidance:

    Clinical depression is associated with two modulations occurring simultaneously and chronically, dysphoria and the generalized stress response. Dysphoria is a modulation that is part of the harm perception/avoidance axis. This is an emotion we all feel when we perceive a futility in our current behavior and experience disappointment. In contrast, we experience anger and aggression when the disappointment is perceived as being caused by an external source. When the disappointment causes dysphoria, the modulation shift increases behavioral inhibition, increases anticipation of harm, increases harm avoidance, increases introspection, decreases exploration of the environment, decreases reactivity to external stimuli, decreases appetite for food and decreases sexual appetite.

    In short, it coordinates functions that allow us to retreat, introspect and to redirect our efforts in a more effective direction. In this instance, dysphoria facilitates adaptation to disappointment. [mentalhealthandillness.com]

    I like that. Dysphoria faciliates adaptation to disappointment. Lots of interesting things fall out of investigations like these, but this sense of harm avoidance is the one that interests me most - that the depressive personality and the introverted personality are heavily connected. That the wallflower reacts to disappointment, attributed internally. Fascinating stuff.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Dysphoric URL: http://paulfrankenstein.org/archives/000573.html IP: 166.84.153.98 BLOG NAME: Frankenstein DATE: 03/03/2003 04:51:14 AM A very interesting piece I found over at plasticbag: On the avoidance of harm... It also sounds depressingly familar. Pun intended. ----- PING: TITLE: Introversion and mental health URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/archives/000073.html IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: frizzyLogic DATE: 05/10/2003 03:22:38 PM Something that has been exercising me greatly over the last few days is this post by Tom at plasticbag. The entry quotes from, and has a link to, a "magazine" called Mental Health and Illness. Tom finds the article he... ----- PING: TITLE: Introversion and mental health URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/archives/000073.html IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: frizzyLogic DATE: 03/10/2004 08:57:37 PM Something that has been exercising me greatly over the last few days is this post by Tom at plasticbag. The entry quotes from, and has a link to, a "magazine" called Mental Health and Illness. Tom finds the article he... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sunday night celebrity countdown... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/02/2003 11:39:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Being a brief list of the celebrities that I've come into fleeting contact with over the last month or so. The gentle reader is expected to bear in mind that said celebrities are unlikely to be of the stature of your major Hollywood Oscar winner, since most were spotted milling around Covent Garden, Soho or Piccadilly Circus...

    So there you go. My last month's celebrity encounters. Anyone spotted anyone more interesting?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Moof EMAIL: me@moof.org.uk IP: 202.74.168.5 URL: http://moof.org.uk/ DATE: 03/03/2003 06:45:53 AM Well, I spotted a person who was apparently the Australian equivalent to Julian Clary walking in the Sydney Mardi Gras parade with some SecuriDykes making sure he wasn't being encroached upon, but I only know that was him because the ladies either side of me told me. I have strenuously avoided meeting any Neighbours stars, despite being given the opportunity, while in Melbourne. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Reid EMAIL: reid@explodingfist.com IP: 65.211.22.135 URL: http://www.explodingfist.com DATE: 03/03/2003 09:39:52 AM Last Saturday I found myself running next to James Nesbitt in the gym and the Tuesday before that I saw Daniel Beddingfield in my local Sainsburys. It was obviously a good week for celeb-spotting in East Dulwich. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.45.255.241 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 03/03/2003 01:20:12 PM Just nipped out for a sandwich and saw former rapper and sometime footballer, John Barnes, walking down Pall Mall. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Plums EMAIL: lickmyplumsbitch@yahoo.co.uk IP: 172.179.85.88 URL: http://www.plumshome.blogspot.com DATE: 03/03/2003 06:37:45 PM Last week seemed to be Chris Eubank week. Saw him twice. This is, admittedly reasonably common round here, but both times he was driving his giant metallic blue truck, now much improved by having the words 'Blair and Bush: integrity not war is the solution' painted on the back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 03/04/2003 11:32:14 PM Nope. But since you mentioned the Bangles, I did want to let you know that my husband is friends with their road manager. If you want to add them to your "celebrity encounters" list next time they're in London, let me know--we can probably help. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/05/2003 11:52:57 AM Well patently I'd like that more than anything else ever, but at the same time I'd be completely star-struck and weirded out by it, so maybe it's not such a great idea... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Donna EMAIL: donna_232@hotmail.com IP: 81.135.43.98 URL: DATE: 09/20/2003 11:41:11 PM Not really a comment, I just wanted to know if dainel beddingfield had a personal email address,just wanted to knoe if anyone knows where too get it... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger & Pyra redux... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/03/2003 11:05:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Keen-eyed new media news spotters will have seen the article this morning, Google takes the plunge (by Bobbie Johnson) about the search engine company buying Blogger. Bobbie got some comments off me, a couple of which made it into the piece. Here are the rest of my comments, should you be interested:

    (1) What do you think has made Blogger so successful: why did you choose to use it?

    Blogger was a sideline for Pyra originally - they made it for themselves to play with and I think that shows in the first product. It was really basic but it was extremely easy to use, incredibly practical and - most importantly - it allowed you to publish your weblog through to your own personal web-space on the web, wherever that might be. There were web professionals who had written their own little content management systems, of course. And there were these centralised journalling and weblogging sites for people who just wanted to write stuff, but there was nothing that really catered for that sudden influx of new web-obsessed netizens, eager to find things online, keen to build things and desperate to play with the new medium. Plus this was the time that everyone was starting to buy domain names that they didn't have anything to do with.

    (2) How do you think it contributed to the growth of weblogging in general?

    Of course it's impossible to say in retrospect, but I think it was Blogger's feature set, simplicity and general amenability (combined with the spirit of the time) that really got people playing with these tools in the first place. I'm not sure it would ever have sparked off to the degree that it has without their involvement. It's no accident that Blogger is still the largest weblogging concern running - even though it doesn't have anywhere near the features of many other systems it's still one of the most self-explanatory, simple and bluntly effective tools out there. Without it I would be surprised if the community would have developed to be even a tenth of the size...

    (3) Do you think there are any surprises in store for Blogger users?

    Terrifyingly, I don't think there will be any surprises at all. And that's not because they won't do anything, but because thousands of webloggers all started talking about the stuff they could do at once - sorting wheat from chaff, thinking up applications, new toys, horror stories, business plans - basically just fun things to do with weblogs and Google working together. I'd be surprised if there were any thoughts about the future of Blogger that hadn't travelled several times around the hundreds of thousands of weblogs that are out there. But that's ok! Because some of those ideas were pretty damn cool...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bart EMAIL: bart@trabaca.com IP: 212.27.35.146 URL: http://www.trabaca.com DATE: 03/03/2003 03:50:42 PM My very first blog was through Blogger and what got me to start it in the first place was just how easy it was. Fill out a simple form and boom, you can start blogging. I didn't actually stay with Blogger very long since I was learning PHP at the time and wanted to try making something on my own with PHP/MySQL (which I still use today...), but Blogger's definitely great for those first steps. Do you think this is it for Google's blogging aquisitions? Because I can't think of any other popular service that hosts blogs on its servers like Blogger does, but you'd think there'd be lots of competing ones by now. And if Blogger really is it for Google, then it seems to me like their options are extremely limited unless they do in fact end up doing something that favors Blogger bloggers over non-Blogger bloggers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Big Gay Linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/03/2003 08:45:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. Next year I want to be a Best Gay Chap nominee again. Do you understand me? I'm not satisfied with just being known for my design skills. I want to be the world's best homo. I know I don't talk about it very much, but that's just because being gay is really boring, not because I'm not any good at it. I'm really good at it. I'm the Leonardo Da Vinci of Big Gay Shit. Am I convincing anyone? I should stick to talking about weblogs really. At least then I know what I'm talking about...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrea EMAIL: andreatam@shaw.ca IP: 24.76.102.58 URL: http://mildlyobsessive.com/ DATE: 03/04/2003 07:15:20 AM i will nominate you for best gay chap if you only wear purple, and share your collection of george michael cds. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/04/2003 09:02:03 AM Horror of horrors! I have no purple clothing of any kind, and the one George Michael tape I once owned I gave to my friend's sister when I was seventeen because it was quite bad. Sigh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mikejla@btinternet.com IP: 217.205.37.3 URL: http://troubled-diva.blogspot.com DATE: 03/04/2003 11:15:43 AM Yeah, but Tom - you've already been Best Gayer once. No point in re-visiting old ground, is there? After all, plasticbag.org is so much more than that. I suggest instead that you try and collect the set. Buy a webcam! Move to Canada! Start a new "secret" weblog! Sell merchandise! Write more humourous stuff! Write more political stuff! Actually, I vote for: write more political stuff. I like it when you do the political stuff. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Luke EMAIL: luke@captainfez.com IP: 203.18.241.5 URL: http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ DATE: 03/05/2003 03:38:49 AM You mean I have more George Michael than you do? Ye gods. Maybe I'll get nominated for best straight-acting not-quite-there-yet blogger? That's what people I used to work with thought, anyway. Must've been the George. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/05/2003 08:34:18 AM Luke! No! Tell me it isn't true! You've been corrupted by the firm thighs and novelty facial hair of George Michael!? That's terrible! (turns on Liberty X) Well at least I know I'm cool... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ethical Weblogging Part One STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/04/2003 04:55:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Update: Wednesday March 5 - The text of this post has been slightly edited and adjusted in an attempt to tighten up and clarify my argument. I believe that my position is essentially the same, but you are advised that some of the comments that follow this post were responses to an earlier version.

    With Blogger's acquisition by Google, the weblog space has changed more fundamentally than I think any of us had previously realised. The main impact of that acquisition is not faster servers or a better weblog infrastructure, it's that marketing and public relations firms - always more brand-conscious than perhaps they should be - have noticed Google turn our way, and (carefully following the integrity-based brand's line-of-sight) have finally noticed us... "What is this new grassroots phenomena?" they seem to be asking - as if the press hadn't written about almost nothing else on the web for the last three years, "... and how can we get it promoting Dr Pepper?"

    First things first - why should they care? They should care because there are hundreds of thousands of weblogs out there - and they're all connected to each another, spreading information and ideas around the web at tremendous speeds. The bums-on-seats factor is huge - get something on Metafilter and you can guarantee thousands of views. Get it on b3ta, tens of thousands. Get it on Slashdot, hundreds of thousands. And that's not including the impact of the thousands of personal sites. Nor does it include the people who read those sites, pick up links and e-mail them to their friends, to their bosses, girlfriends and mums. Weblogs are becoming the natural meme ecology - almost as good at spreading ideas as e-mail but with one particular advantage for marketeers - their sole raison d'etre is to point people at other web pages. They are almost inherently a tool for rating and promotion. They are public opinion made manifest. In fact the only mystery is that marketers haven't been trying to exploit them before...

    Doc Searls has argued that this incursion by marketeers will be routed around - like so much censorship or damage - by the distributed nature of weblogging. I'm less convinced, and the reason I'm not convinced is that to a lesser - and mostly unacknowledged - extent, weblogs have already had their integrity 'corrupted' - we're already advertising things for companies in return for money. The most common and widespread form of integrity-reducing advertising we are undertaking are Amazon referrals. I'm not taking a high-ground here - I often place them on my site when I've bought something that I thought was particularly good, or wanted to reward an artist I like. We don't tend to think of them as interfering with our credibility or compromising our integrity - but we make more money if we write in a way that puts more Amazon links into our sites, and we make money if those links are recommendations....

    The 'Project Blogger' approach is a simple and effective one - you make webloggers (members of the public) feel important and special as 'in the know' opinion formers. You ask for nothing in return because that could be perceived as pressure. Inevitably this will be something that people sign up to believing that there's no price to pay. Except they've been given expensive and cool things by a marketing organisation - so there's always the pressure of a threatened withdrawal. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and you pay with the soul of your site - the place you've carved out as a place of personal expression becomes yet another platform to sell rich teenagers Nike shoes...

    There's a really good article about weblogs as marketing devices over at chronotope at the moment which I think drags a lot of the issues into the light of day. There does seem to be a perceptual difference between the analysis of weblogs from outside and attempts to manipulate them or direct them through advertising or promotional approaches. The people behind this campaigning strategy honestly cannot seem to see how their work might deform or debase the integrity of individual sites, and I suppose we couldn't expect them too. But this does seem to me to be the crux of the issue - that as soon as advertising enters the space of personal publishing, integrity becomes questionable - the particular authenticity of weblogs and diarist content becomes under threat.

    So now that the marketeers and public relations people have turned towards us - what are we to do about it? The idea that weblogging would need any kind of united sense of ethics hasn't previously been very palatable to people, but I think that's changing - Nick Denton has made some very sensible comments on Blogger Freebies that try to clarify what an individual's responsibilities might be considered to be and he in turn links to Mitch Ratcliffe's Ethics and Blogging and Rebecca Blood's piece on Weblog ethics. In turn Rebecca mentions Dave Winer's position from quite a while ago. There's a resurgence of interest in the rights and responsibilities of the 'good' weblogger, which I think should now probably be opened up for debate and discussed at greater length.

    So what do you think? What are the particular ethics of writing a weblog? Is it possible to preserve your integrity while taking advertising?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: david@queermusings.com IP: 12.238.235.133 URL: http://www.queermusings.com DATE: 03/05/2003 01:54:42 AM Does an Amazon referral really reduce the integrity of a weblog? I would say yes if someone wrote in a fashion that allowed them to include one or two referrals in every post. It does make me rethink the practicality of having separate pages set up for some of my favorite items that I've purchased through them. There are other ways to reduce your integrity that I think makes a reader feel more pressure to either submit to the will of the writer, or just stop reading the weblog. For example, there was one weblog that I read on a regular basis, until the writer started ending every post with a Paypal link. He was pretty clear in is "request" for donations. He pretty much stated, "donate or I'll stop posting." I think with anything it is in how it is approached. I actually pulled a link from my weblog due to the writer decided he wanted to join every referral program available on the net. Were as myself, and the other blogs that I link to, use referral links sparingly with no real expectation of making money from them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/05/2003 08:47:52 AM Now - I'm a regular Amazon affiliate, so I don't want to push this position too hard - but there is a clear qualitative difference here. If you are an affiliate, the implication is that you chose to link to Amazon rather than 1) an alternate e-commerce site and 2) rather than a non-commercial site. So straight-away you are essentially selling your links for the possibility of financial reward. And inevitably you leave yourself open to the possibility that people will believe you to be prostituting your opinions in order to get money. Now the fact that we don't generally consider these people to have no integrity is probably because everyone does it and no one really makes any money out of it. How much integrity can be bought for thirty quid a year (if you're lucky). I kind of disagree with you on the donations thing, though. I mean - it's a clear corporatisation of weblogging, and you're right, it does say, "I'll stop if you don't pay me", but at the same time it leaves the person concerned beholden only to the readers not to people who want to sell shoes to the readers. Of all the approaches to financing a weblog, it's probably the least morally troubling to me - although it's clearly a bit tacky... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.174.122 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 03/05/2003 09:06:20 AM Every time I come across an Amazon referral link in a weblog, it does make me shudder slightly. It's an endorsement of the product that goes beyond just saying "hey, this is really good" - it says "hey, this is really good, and I get paid money if you buy it". Suddenly the weblog has a QVC element to it. I agree, it doesn't necessarily mean much if the money earned is unsubstantial - but it's still commercialisation by stealth - a banner ad without the banner. What I'd really like to see is some honest figures detailing how much the most-read webloggers make out of Amazon referrals; I think that would aid the debate one way or another. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Fogde EMAIL: john@warhol.dk IP: 80.63.126.65 URL: http://fauxhemian.dk DATE: 03/05/2003 01:49:11 PM I think if you want to make money on your weblog you should go for it. The only problem I can see is if you don't make it perfectly clear that you're sponsored by whatever companies have thrown money your way. Because it will most certainly alter (or taint) the way you start writing and your readers should know that you're no longer able to be objective on certain products. The plugs you give to products, articles, and websites are now influenced by a paycheck and not necessarily by what interests you, so if you don't inform your readers that you're being paid you are misleading them. Personally, I don't think this will be a problem to most webloggers. Most weblogs have small audiences and won't be approached with endorsement deals. But that doesn't mean some of the more popular ones won't be offered money to mention stuff. And if that happens it would be nice if people made it clear now that if you aren't honest about these things your readers will object. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cobb EMAIL: cobb@mdcbowen.org IP: 4.47.0.173 URL: http://www.mdcbowen.org/blog DATE: 03/06/2003 08:13:14 AM A writer writes. A blogger blogs. I'm a writer posing as a blogger. Having been a writer posing as a poet once, I've had my share of contempt for writers who write to be paid. But I don't see the problem because I have seen the most incredibly depressing thing, which is sad, tired, people browsing the discount section of decrepit bookstores parsing useless words. There are few things that are more pathetic than the feeling of desparation a writer feels when he has nothing to say, knowing everything he wants to say has been said before better, and nobody cares about that anyway. This is the feeling elicited holding the weight of a five hundred page novel on sale for fifty cents. If the blogosphere disappeared tomorrow, would it be missed? Only if some of those words belonged to you. If nobody ever tracked back, would you still write? If there were no comments section, would your soul float into the ether just the same? The fate of the blogosphere is the same as the fate of bad literature. We are going to have to get used to the idea that digital creations are cheap. People napster up our verbiage because they have disposable attention, but they don't pay much do they? Feel the pain of obscurity. It's good for you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/06/2003 09:45:48 AM Well frankly I think you're talking rubbish. If the blogosphere disappeared tomorrow, I'd miss it terribly - and not because my words disappeared, but because all the people whose work I read would no longer be there. Nor would the friends that I had made while weblogging. This is not a debate about readerships or fighting obscurity, and nor is it anything to do with the particular tools one puts on one's site. I put trackback on this site about a month ago, but managed the previous three and a half years cheerfully without it. I put comments on my site at the same time. Let me say this again: this debate has nothing whatsoever to do with how many people read weblogs and whether they're obscure or not - it's to do with how we decide whether to trust the weblogs that we choose to read. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stuart EMAIL: smudie@blethers.com IP: 213.11.117.254 URL: http://www.blethers.com DATE: 03/06/2003 10:23:17 AM In my opinion, taking money from the Man in doesn't necessarily compromise your blog; it's more a question of how often you do it, and to what extent you're honest in what you write. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fugu EMAIL: fugu@blowfishnet.info IP: 62.202.92.30 URL: http://www.blowfishnet.info DATE: 03/06/2003 02:49:08 PM The media industry has to solve this problem on a daily basis: On the one hand ads help newspapers survive on the other hand if the papers are too much tied up with the public relationship bussiness they loose their readership's trust. On the long run this is most damaging to the revenue. Blogosphere faces the same challenge and their are two ways out of the catch-22 situation: No money-making with your blog or full declaration. Who is paying? Why and how much? That's it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.174.122 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 03/07/2003 09:18:54 AM If you start using your hard-won trust and credibility as a blogger as a means of earning money (however small the amounts), then it will to some extent tarnish your credibility in the eyes of a given percentage of your readership. Simple as that. The numbers involved are arguable, but I think that's the bottom line. Anyway, who needs to make money out of blogs? I thought these were supposed to be for fun. Why not just make no money at all and retain full credibility, instead of lessening that trust by taking payola from Amazon et al? If it really does boil down to £30 a year in commission, I think I'd rather not have that £30 and feel righteous (if not downright smug) in my utterly uncommercialised integrity. (I could go on, but I don't want to fill up somebody else's space with my meanderings, so I'll continue this on my own blog). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Ireland EMAIL: tim@bloggerheads.com IP: 195.92.168.169 URL: http://www.bloggerheads.com/ DATE: 03/07/2003 10:01:28 AM Please pardon the necessary linkfest... I think there's a a sustainable future in weblog marketing if it's addressed correctly. I also foresaw the coming of the clueless. I know it doesn't necessarily make me psychic, but it's why I published the following articles last year and made damn sure they would get found: http://www.google.com/search?q=weblog+marketing It's also why I'm doing this: http://www.bloggerheads.com/raging_cow/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Bell EMAIL: me@gavinbell.com IP: 132.185.132.12 URL: http://takeoneonion.org DATE: 03/07/2003 04:30:28 PM I had similar thoughts to this, over the past few weeks, I've only recently started a weblog , and have been observing my behaviour, I started writing quietly on my own for a month or so. Once I had a public blog, I thought that I'd want to recommend books to friends and family, so I setup a Amazon associate account. I noticed that I'd be tempted to write about a book I read sometimes just to link to it in the hope that someone might buy it and i'd offset my hosting costs. I've resisted and only linked to books etc where I genuinely have enjoyed or think the author is great. Hence no banner ads or blatant electronics promos, my website is my thoughts, not a catalog. One of the things I noticed was the benefit I was providing to amazon in terms of better deep links into their site. It struck me that I was probably doing more work than I was getting in return from sales in a purely monetary analysis. So why do I continue? partly because I want to tell people about books etc I've read, but if I tell them then they might want to read it, so amazon provide a service by selling the book I'm talking about. To paraphrase the cluetrain, if our weblogs are a conversation and conversations are about the exchange of information. Sometimes I can't share the information because it is a book or a film, so I link to a source for the product and I happen to make a small percentage on the linking. I guess it is a fine balance, you can see if someone has a book for sale every link, or has lots of banner ads, so you can read the commercial activity of the author. We are quite attuned to product placement having seen countless examples of it since the soaps started. Yet it is reasonable for a website host to make some money, if it has no direct cost to the person who buys a product. I'm less clear about the paypal or amazon honour schemes, but can see they have their place for some people. I suppose implicit advertising is harder to track, if the fact that I talk about Apple is reasonable, what happens if I have an Apple Store affiliate, does this make me a bad blogger ? On a different note this micro economy does provide a mechanism for amazon and google to aggregate us and thus look at higher level population stats, they can analyse the incoming clicks and do trend analysis for ads or offers. So if we as a body didn't use amazon or google then they'd lose a good source of market intelligence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: incoming@scotlandsoftware.com IP: 80.194.144.39 URL: http://www.scotlandsoftware.com/blog/ DATE: 03/09/2003 05:34:03 PM Didn't see any way to trackback, so I've posted a follow-up to Tom's comment on my own blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: shandy_w@hotmail.com IP: 80.47.200.162 URL: DATE: 03/09/2003 05:51:37 PM I've noticed that Amazon is quoted by everyone. In the interest of ethical blogging (and this is a bit of mental gymnastics), why not support your local economy by linking to an independent bookshop that delivers internationally. This would support diversity in a field of commerce increasingly strangled by the corporate giants and perhaps ensure that the bookshop around the corner that's great to browse around doesn't go under. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chutney EMAIL: chance@myirony.com IP: 170.140.17.6 URL: http://www.myirony.com DATE: 03/12/2003 09:13:20 PM Yet another response at http://www.myirony.com/archives/000258.html. ----- PING: TITLE: calm URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/000070.html IP: 66.216.124.46 BLOG NAME: theonlyjuan.net DATE: 03/05/2003 03:58:14 AM Today was more pleasant than those before it. Nothing particularly bad happened, the weather was reasonably nice, and I even ----- PING: TITLE: Product Placement In Weblogs URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog_archives/individual/2003/03/product_placement_in_weblogs.shtml IP: 80.71.2.160 BLOG NAME: Never Think DATE: 03/05/2003 11:34:18 AM Project Blogger is a new marketing initiative whereby companies can harness/subvert weblogs in order to have their products mentioned. ----- PING: TITLE: Ain't Singin' For Pepsi Ain't Singin' For Coke: URL: http://www.fauxhemian.dk/archives/000233.html IP: 193.88.12.35 BLOG NAME: There Is Nothing To Not Be Amazed At DATE: 03/05/2003 03:21:58 PM If you're the type of person who knows his overs from his wickets then this is the game for you ----- PING: TITLE: Ethical Blogging URL: http://nslog.com/archives/2003/03/05/ethical_blogging.php IP: 66.111.66.231 BLOG NAME: NSLog(); DATE: 03/05/2003 10:47:03 PM I read four articles yesterday (1, 2, 3, 4) about the "ethics of blogging." I'll be blunt: I think it's a bunch of hooey. If... ----- PING: TITLE: That difficult advertising phase... URL: http://WWW.simonwaldman.co.uk/archives/000097.html IP: 213.232.71.149 BLOG NAME: words of waldman DATE: 03/06/2003 12:19:34 AM Quite fascinating watching this debate over blogs being used as marketing tools (thanks Tom for such a comprehensive round up). ----- PING: TITLE: The Big Picture URL: http://www.emptybottle.org/glass/003173.php IP: 64.21.37.2 BLOG NAME: EmptyBottle.org DATE: 03/07/2003 03:09:27 AM Tom at plasticbag.org pulls together several things that I've ranted about in Apoplectic Poultry Mode here recently (and that people ----- PING: TITLE: Ethical Referral Links In Weblogs URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog_archives/individual/2003/03/ethical_referral_links_in_weblogs.shtml IP: 80.71.2.160 BLOG NAME: Never Think DATE: 03/07/2003 11:07:10 AM This post is an extended version of a comment I've written on the still-raging debate over at plasticbag.org about the ----- PING: TITLE: blogging and the ethics of affiliate stores URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000053.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 03/07/2003 04:53:44 PM In response to an article on plasticbag.org about the ethics of weblogging, I posted a reply, which I'm extending here. I feel similarly about the creeping commercial activity on websites that are ostensibly uncommercial. Consider this post my declara... ----- PING: TITLE: stuff on blogging URL: http://www.epersonae.com/snapping/archives/000253.php IP: 216.40.212.43 BLOG NAME: Snapping Links DATE: 03/08/2003 03:36:14 AM various thoughts about the business and ethical implications of weblogging.... * Blogging for fun and profit * ethical weblogging part ----- PING: TITLE: Commercial Free URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/03/commercial_free.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 03/10/2003 09:29:54 PM Should Blogs carry advertising? ----- PING: TITLE: Blogging, ethics, and moolah URL: http://www.myirony.com/archives/000258.html IP: 209.217.36.5 BLOG NAME: MyIrony.com DATE: 03/11/2003 07:28:08 PM Earlier I talked about the conflicts between two pro-globalization movements: globalization-from-above and globalization-from-below. The blogosphere is clearly a protagonist in the globalization-from-below movement. With Google buying Blogger and Dr. P... ----- PING: TITLE: Blogging, ethics, and moolah URL: http://www.myirony.com/archives/000258.html IP: 209.217.36.5 BLOG NAME: MyIrony.com DATE: 03/11/2003 08:35:28 PM Earlier I talked about the conflicts between two pro-globalization movements: globalization-from-above and globalization-from-below. The blogosphere is clearly a protagonist in the globalization-from-below movement. With Google buying Blogger and Dr. P... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs, Watchdogs, Democracy URL: http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/philosophy/000152.html IP: 66.246.57.2 BLOG NAME: philosophy.com DATE: 03/12/2003 03:18:30 PM Some dicussion about the meaning of weblogging in the light of the possible impact of the market has been kicking around as I result of this postby Tom Coates and this post n by the Happy Tutor I would like to connect this discussion to John Quiggin's ... ----- PING: TITLE: Monday's No Fun, Tuesday's The Same: URL: http://www.fauxhemian.dk/archives/000282.html IP: 193.88.12.35 BLOG NAME: There Is Nothing To Not Be Amazed At DATE: 06/16/2003 10:57:45 PM I recently mentioned that American comedians of Middle Eastern decent were beginning to joke about life in the US after ----- PING: TITLE: Viral marketing, coming soon to a blog near you URL: http://www.blethers.com/weblog/archives/000537.php IP: 217.163.9.30 BLOG NAME: Blethers.com DATE: 04/07/2004 11:19:57 PM Simon Waldman (whose site I discovered only last week and who has some very interesting thoughts on the philosophy of blogging) writes today about the use of blogs as marketing tools. I was particularly intrigued by Project Blogger, in which... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In lieu of content... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/06/2003 11:41:50 PM ----- BODY:

    As a result of one of the most profoundly tiring days I've had in a very long time, please accept this link-log with my apologies. I'm so exhausted I feel like I'm melting into goo. Back to your regularly scheduled programming tomorrow morning:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Value Judgements on two kinds of networks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 03/08/2003 12:12:07 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't have the expertise or the discipline to dive into this as fully as I would like, so I'm just going to sketch out a few thoughts which maybe someone else would like to pick up and run with.

    There are two articles currently doing the rounds that both talk about the value and utility of being part of the networked world, and what it means to participate within it. The first is about the internet - it's called World of Ends and it's by the inspired Doc Searls and David Weinberger. The second is about international politics and it's called The Pentagon's New Map and it's by Thomas PM Barnett.

    The first article - Doc Searls and David Weinberger's - was immediately something I felt a desire to rally behind. It's states what we have come to perceive as the obvious facts about the internet: that it can't be controlled, that it should exist without governance, without regulation, that it routes around 'damage', that the internet consists of an agreement, that no one owns it, that everyone can use it, that everyone can add to it, that trying to deform the network lessens its power - lessens its democratising utility. I agree with all of this stuff.

    The second article filled me with immediate distrust and discomfort. It's about countries which are disconnected from the 'network' of globalisation. Here's a quote:

    "That is why the public debate about this war has been so important: It forces Americans to come to terms with I believe is the new security paradigm that shapes this age, namely, Disconnectedness defines danger. Saddam Hussein’s outlaw regime is dangerously disconnected from the globalizing world, from its rule sets, its norms, and all the ties that bind countries together in mutually assured dependence."

    This is a paean to the power and value of globalisation as a force for good. He continues:

    Show me where globalization is thick with network connectivity, financial transactions, liberal media flows, and collective security, and I will show you regions featuring stable governments, rising standards of living, and more deaths by suicide than murder. These parts of the world I call the Functioning Core, or Core. But show me where globalization is thinning or just plain absent, and I will show you regions plagued by politically repressive regimes, widespread poverty and disease, routine mass murder, and—most important—the chronic conflicts that incubate the next generation of global terrorists.

    There seem to be some significant parallels that could be drawn between these two models of global scale-free networks that call into question the appropriateness of our (my) judgements about both globalisation as a democratic / capitalist process and the internet as a communications / publishing process. There's a collision here that I feel the need to investigate.

    For me, the freedom and lack of regulation of the internet was an obvious goal - inevitably positive - while the spread of globalisation represented something tremendously powerful, but also threatening, difficult and dangerous. While the internet seemed to dismantle hegemony, globalisation also seemed to support it - promote it. But by seeing them in parallel, depicted simply as analogous networks that operate on protocols, some of my value judgements about each of them seem to be spreading to infect the other.

    My anxiety about globalisation as a hegemonising power is now spreading into my feelings about the internet - could the power-law aspect of the internet that I've not previously had issue with actually not be analogous with multinational corporations doing terrible soulless inhuman things across the world. Rather than being analogous, could they in fact be the same thing? Could the infiltration of globalisation's spread through the world be the same 'liberating', equalising, opportunity-producing phenomenon that I've believed the internet to be?

    There are other weird connections or analogies that can be drawn between the two articles / systems - some of which seem to collide with my argument or rephrase it or push it in a different direction. But each one of them seems to be to point towards something out of my reach at the moment. One analogy seems weirdly to be between disconnected states that constitute a threat to the network and to the very organisations that seem to be behind globalisation - large corporations who push for proprietorial behaviours in an interconnected space. Compare and contrast:

    Think about it: Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are pure products of the Gap—in effect, its most violent feedback to the Core. They tell us how we are doing in exporting security to these lawless areas (not very well) and which states they would like to take “off line” from globalization and return to some seventh-century definition of the good life (any Gap state with a sizable Muslim population, especially Saudi Arabia). If you take this message from Osama and combine it with our military-intervention record of the last decade, a simple security rule set emerges: A country’s potential to warrant a U.S. military response is inversely related to its globalization connectivity.
    "Remember, though, that if you come up with a new agreement, for it to generate value as quickly as the Internet itself did, it needs to be open, unowned, and for everyone. That’s exactly why Instant Messaging has failed to achieve its potential: The leading IM systems of today — AOL's AIM and ICQ and Microsoft's MSN Messenger — are private territories that may run on the Net, but they are not part of the Net. When AOL and Microsoft decide they should run their IM systems using a stupid protocol that nobody owns and everybody can use, they will have improved the Net enormously. Until then, they're just being stupid, and not in the good sense."

    In this model, a fundamentalist state is kind of like a Microsoft or an AOL trying to spread propriety in the interconnected, protocol-based space. In trying to defy or censor or 'improve' the architecture to fulfil their needs they simply threaten the existence of the network in the first place. Except that the network is too huge and too integral to everything to be threatened. Terrifyingly / wonderfully / confusingly the network routes around it. Or does it? Am I losing my mind?

    I'm far too close to my own mental collision at the moment to know if I'm hallucinating connections that don't exist or if I'm merely stating the obvious. It seems to me that I'm not - it seems to me that there has been clear lines drawn between them and us through books like Naomi Klein's No Logo that I think are probably at least more problematic now. If only to me. Anyone got any thoughts? Can anyone shoot me down? Or push it further?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mac EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.161.109 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 03/08/2003 02:56:46 PM I do need to sit down and think about this some more, but on the fly, it seems to me that the connection between the two pieces you discuss is more coincidental, or complimentary, rather than anything else - especially regarding the concept of globalisation. In the pages of 'Fences and Windows' Naomi Klein herself talks about the difference between the (positive) globalisation of society (activism via the internet as one example) and the Big Bad Wolf that globalised capitalism appears to be. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@only.org IP: 62.254.64.6 URL: DATE: 03/08/2003 03:39:43 PM It's a straightforward distinction between the cultures of top-down and bottom-up connectivity. Barnett's 'Core' comes as a tentacular incursion, binding all that it touches to a rule set that may allow for 'strictly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty', but does so by exerting classic ideological control: dissent is framed and often denuded within dialectic. (Consider the response of the US media to the anti-war protests.) Also, Barnett is engaging in a fair amount of 'correlation-equals-causation' thinking. It doesn't sit well with a couple of critiques: the one noting that the conditions of his 'Core' actually create the 'Gap' as a necessary antithesis(and as a kind of mirror image) because markets function on a principle of friction, arbitrage opportunities. The other noting that what he's proposing is not so much emergent 'network space', but the fabrication of emergence, which is nothing of the kind. It's a false dichotomy: or, at best, a crude attempt to separate conjoined twins. Anyway, Deleuze and Guattari are your friends here, in their talk of 'smooth' and 'striated' spaces. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doc Searls EMAIL: doc@searls.com IP: 68.6.46.246 URL: http://doc.weblogs.com DATE: 03/08/2003 08:32:08 PM The Pentagon's New Map is nothing less than a hugely rationalized blueprint for the American Empire. It articulates, in the lucid language of a single author, what the committee that wrote The National Security Strategy of the United States of America could only mumble in fuzzy bureaucratese. And for that we should be grateful. It lays out very clearly our country's agenda in the world today.

    That agenda operates on what George Lakoff calls Strict Father morality:

    The use of the word ?evil? in the administration?s discourse works in the following way. In conservative, strict father morality (see my Moral Politics, Chapter 5), evil is a palpable thing, a force in the world. To stand up to evil you have to be morally strong. If you're weak, you let evil triumph, so that weakness is a form of evil in itself, as is promoting weakness. Evil is inherent, an essential trait, that determines how you will act in the world. Evil people do evil things. No further explanation is necessary. There can be no social causes of evil, no religious rationale for evil, no reasons or arguments for evil. The enemy of evil is good. If our enemy is evil, we are inherently good. Good is our essentially nature and what we do in the battle against evil is good. Good and evil are locked in a battle, which is conceptualized metaphorically as a physical fight in which the stronger wins. Only superior strength can defeat evil, and only a show of strength can keep evil at bay.

    In the strict father model, which constitutes the conceptual underpinnings of conservatism, Lakoff says,

    Life is seen as fundamentally difficult and the world as fundamentally dangerous. Evil is conceptualized as a force in the world, and it is the father's job to support his family and protect it from evils -- both external and internal. External evils include enemies, hardships, and temptations. Internal evils come in the form of uncontrolled desires and are as threatening as external ones. The father embodies the values needed to make one's way in the world and to support a family: he is morally strong, self-disciplined, frugal, temperate, and restrained. He sets an example by holding himself to high standards. He insists on his moral authority, commands obedience, and when he doesn't get it, metes out retribution as fairly and justly as he knows how. It is his job to protect and support his family, and he believes that safety comes out of strength.

    In other words, this model is predicated on the fact (not just the idea) that the world is a dangerous place (which it is). It is somebody's responsibility to make the world safe. The Bush Doctrine is a direct expressoin strict father morality, felt keenly by the administration of the only government in a position to exercize it.

    Look at the White House web page, and you see Strict Fatherhood all over the place. There's Our Dad himself, George W., playing the part, sincerely, even convincingly. The top concern is national security. This plays out in executive orders and proclamations about homeland security, the Iraqi threat and the rest of it. It's all there, more vivid than it ever was under Ronald Reagan.

    Lakoff says the liberal counterpart of the conservative Strict Father model is the Nurturant Parent model. Like conservatism, liberalism and its concerns proceed from a model of the family, though quite a different one:

    The primal experience behind this model is one of being cared for and cared about, having one's desires for loving interactions met, living as happily as possible, and deriving meaning from one's community and from caring for and about others. People are realized in and through their "secure attachments": through their positive relationships to others, through their contribution to their community, and through the ways in which they develop their potential and find joy in life. Work is a means toward these ends, and it is through work that these forms of meaning are realized. All of this requires strength and self-discipline, which are fostered by the constant support of, and attachment to, those who love and care about you.

    The key difference is that the liberal model, the Nurturant Parent model, proceeds from the fact (not just the idea) that the world is a good place (which it is).

    I point all this out more to make sense out of the Pentagon Map than to explain World of Ends. It seems both David Weinberger and I subscribe to Nurturant Parent morality, which I guess means we're liberals (though I think of myself as an odd species of nurturant libertarian). That nurturant streak, I think, suits us tempermentally to understanding the Good Place nature of the World of Ends we call the Net.

    But World of Ends is not a political statement, but rather it's a technical and economic one that folks from both political wings should find agreeable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Bennett EMAIL: richard@bennett.com IP: 12.210.33.189 URL: http://www.bennett.com DATE: 03/08/2003 09:21:27 PM With respect, Doc, "World of Ends" is more a political statement than a technical one, because it severely misstates the nature of the Internet, as all your critics have pointed out. On your other point, most of the world is really not a Good Place, because most of the world's people like in poverty, privation, and oppression. The best path to a better life for the majority of the world is the adoption of American-style capitalism and secular, representative democracy. In the Cold War era, America supported dictators if they served our needs in the fight against Marxist authoritarianism. Now that the Cold War is over, American influence can be used - and should be used - to promote the dissemination of America's liberal values throughout the world. Believers in your Nurturant Parent (really Nurturant Mother, because it's feminist ideology you seek to propagate) model have to admit that the United States is the prime example of a feminized society. By bringing other nations into this orbit, the Bush Doctrine increases and enhances nurturant values, it doesn't stunt them. If you really believe in these values, and value consistency, you have to support the Bush Doctrine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 62.254.64.6 URL: DATE: 03/09/2003 06:56:32 AM The best path to a better life for the majority of the world is the adoption of American-style capitalism and secular, representative democracy.

    One would hope, indeed, that the USA might adopt a version of capitalism that's not 'American-style': that is, one without its Enrons, corporate welfare and federal pork, all of which currently must make Adam Smith spin in his under-tended grave. And also that it might adopt a secular, representative democracy that abandons the influence of the religious right, and such undemocratic obsolescences as the electoral college: which was, after all, set in place in an era when the political class was white, middle-class property owning males, and the masses could not be trusted with a hand in the process?

    Isn't it a truism that nurturing parents should want their children to do things better than they themselves did? Or that nurturing parents should be able to guide their children away from the mistakes that they made, and continue to make because they're old and set in their ways? Isn't an aspect of the American dream that the next generation should succeed where the current generation failed? In fact, Doc is right: the US has too often played Dickensian Father rather than Nurturing Mother.

    Now that the Cold War is over, American influence can be used - and should be used - to promote the dissemination of America's liberal values throughout the world.

    Again, they might well be best promoted in the USA itself. Unless you mean such dissemination as the selective funding of community health organisations in the developing world based upon whether or not their have any involvement in the provision of abortions.

    By bringing other nations into this orbit, the Bush Doctrine increases and enhances nurturant values, it doesn't stunt them.

    As we shall see by the nurturing power of high-explosive over Iraq.

    If you really believe in these values, and value consistency, you have to support the Bush Doctrine.

    If you really think that, you can only be a supporter of the Bush administration. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/09/2003 11:10:08 AM Thanks, Doc. Your statements about the familial models of American politics really have helped me get a better grasp on the way the US is being run at the moment. But to bring this discussion right back to first principles again, I'd like to take issue a bit with your line: But World of Ends is not a political statement, but rather it's a technical and economic one that folks from both political wings should find agreeable.

    The problem is that the argument you present states that these are facts of life inbuilt into the very architecture of the internet - and that to fight against that architecture for whatever reasons (however couched - morally, ethically, politically, financially) is foolish, doomed and also (to an extent) a bit wrong. The problem I have is that the same arguments are made about the global financial markets - that there's no place for regulation, that pure laissez faire economics and the pure spread of interconnected international capitalism represents an unfettered good. Now I don't know your politics - you may also believe in the power of the completely unfettered market. But that clearly is a political decision, and I think - to an extent - those politics are reflected back onto your view of the internet.

    Certainly that's the position I find myself in - believing one thing with relation to the global network of the internet and another with regards to the glocal network of the market. I suppose, to bastardise my 'pain' slightly - I'm looking for someone who can explain to me why it's OK to hold such different opinions, or where the qualitative difference exists that would allow me to reconcile them... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doc Searls EMAIL: doc@ssc.com IP: 68.6.46.246 URL: http://doc.weblogs.com DATE: 03/09/2003 02:49:55 PM I'll admit to a political agenda for World of Ends, to the extent that we do want it to influence legislation and regulation (in a mostly libertarian direction, fwiw). A question: Who among us here likes the DMCA? Who wants to see Hollywood tell Intel how to make its chips and Dell how to make its PCs? Who wants the telcos and cable companies to keep building out the "last mile" of the Net as an asymmetrical plumbing system biassed for entertainment? Who wants companies like AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft to continue making non-interoperable instant messaging systems (or longs for the days when email systems couldn't send messages to each other)? Who wants to see the feds continue protecting the telcos, the record companies and other walking fossils from the new facts of market life in the far more connected world the Net has made? Who wants to see more, rather than less, federal regulation of wireless networking such as wi-fi? Who wants to see fewer frequency bands made available for free and open wireless networking? Probably none of us. Are we going to sit on our hands and watch quietly while Hollywood, the telcos, the cable companies, the media giants, Congress and regulators continue to treat the Net like something that needs more limitation, more regulation, more industrial protection? That's what we're up against here. And that's what World of Ends is about. I'm sure Dr. Weinberger and I made mistakes with it. (Hey, it's still a draft.) But if it contributes to a better understanding of the Net, especially by those whose misunderstanding causes the most damage, it will have had some measure of success. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/09/2003 03:40:13 PM Well none of us want those things. But then again, I don't like the idea of companies employing sweatshop labour in the Far East. My question remains - is regulation of the freedoms of the global economy analogous in any way to regulation of the freedoms of internet? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Bennett EMAIL: richard@bennett.com IP: 12.210.33.189 URL: http://www.bennett.com DATE: 03/09/2003 09:54:49 PM Some of us do want some of those things. The Telcos will sell you symmetric DSL for a certain price, and they will sell you asymmetric DSL for a lower price. This is because the Telcos are businesses, not charities, and it costs them more to provide you with symmetric service. If you aren't going to use the symmetric service, and most people aren't, why pay for it? The "World of Ends" would deprive people of their choices in how they spend their connectivity dollars, and that's unacceptable. As a technical description of the Internet, how it works and how it got the way it is, The "World of Ends" is flat wrong in almost every respect. It appears that you've decided to employ the Big Lie technique in order to advance your agenda regarding all these political issues. That may not be the best way to go. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/09/2003 10:24:27 PM At this stage I think it's only appropriate to start warning people that I've only got a limited interest in being the host to a discussion about the legitimacy of the "World of Ends" document. Nor do I have a particular interest in being the host to a debate between "hippies" and "the right". What I have put up for discussion is simple - is there any value in the analogy between the internet and global capitalism. If there is value in it, then let's unpack it. If there isn't - show me why there isn't... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Bennett EMAIL: richard@bennett.com IP: 12.210.33.189 URL: http://www.bennett.com DATE: 03/10/2003 04:01:03 AM The Internet is like Global Capitalism in one significant respect: they're both good things that promote progress and freedom. Of course, the fact that they're good things isn't to say that they're perfect things, or that certain aspects of both shouldn't be regulated.

    The Internet has a problem with spam, and it has a problem with enabling terrorist and other illegal organzations. These problems need to be addressed somehow.

    Global capitalism probably spreads the junk aspects of American and European culture to the far reaches of the planet, and it's probably not good that kids in Borneo wear Arrowsmith tee-shirts, listen to Brittany Spears, or find support in Jacques Chirac's anti-American droolings.

    That being said, there certainly are some similarities between attempts to regulate the Internet and attempts to regulate global commerce - both tend to be misguided, because they're undertaken by people who don't genuinely understand what they're dealing with. But isn't this the nature of regulation in all of its forms? Somehow we muddle through.

    ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chrislunch EMAIL: chris@feeshes.freeserve.co.uk IP: 63.137.144.2 URL: DATE: 03/10/2003 04:20:35 PM To return to Tom's question directly (and to gingerly step into one of the best comments threads I've seen for ages on a blog) then there are strong analogies between the internet and global capitalism, but they are not as immediately and clearly divisible as we seem to be arguing here. The best analogy is the one you make earlier, where you make the connection between the internet and free markets. Both are unrestrained system, but systems that rely upon understood protocols to function. The internet, as Doc et. al. point out, is not in itself politicised. But, the minute Doc put pen to paper, it became politicised in the way that he frames and describes it. The internet is not libertarian. The internet is not despotic either. But, the uses that the internet is put to can make it either - Microsoft and AOL successfully use its protocols to create walled garden nation states, whereas other software uses the internet as a global commons. In the same way, the railway systems of the world have performed a similar function. Whilst, on the one hand, early railways brought connectivity and work to rural communities, the tracks were also used to export a political message deep into those communities themselves. The network, in the hands of the crap private rail companies in the UK, becomes dysfunctional and despotic. But, in the hands of the wonderful French or Japanese libertarian, public companies, the railway becomes a wonderful public service. Chris. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phil jones EMAIL: synaesmedia@postmaster.co.uk IP: 200.163.2.77 URL: http://www.synaesmedia.com DATE: 03/11/2003 09:57:50 AM I'm looking for someone who can explain to me why it's OK to hold such different opinions, or where the qualitative difference exists that would allow me to reconcile them... For me the difference is this. On the internet we only care about the overall, statistic properties of the system. If a packet gets lost, no problem, send it again. Packets are dispensible. The global economy is different because we care that the individuals have rights and dignities which we must respect. If a kid goes hungry, that may be a good thing from an overall perspective. But we have a moral obligation to treat this as a failure of the system. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Steinberg EMAIL: steiny@barrysworld.com IP: 62.3.68.52 URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com DATE: 03/12/2003 12:00:51 AM Good show, Tom. It is glad to see another digerati, fully inculcated in the myth of 'the value neutral internet' finally come of age. Global capitalism and the internet have lots of things in common. a) They're both networks that do rather more good than harm - but they still do plenty of harm. b) They both manifest classical liberal values, but (crucially) these have evolved from very different sources. In the case of the internet these were a side-effect of the technical requirement of getting it up and running. In the case of capitalism they evolved more directly from political philosophies of governance. c) Regulation can be beneficial for each, and too much regulation will definitely be harmful to either. Doc would disagree with the first part of this, but I would posit that WC3 standards are a form of light touch regulation from a non-governmental source. They're certainly analagous to lots of non-compulsory standards designed by all sorts of offline government regulators. What I'm saying here isn't rocket science. It is just to point out that a big, powerful network of any kind is going to embed certain values, and have negative effects as well as positive ones. But saying this still sometimes seems to come across as a kind of herecy. It's almost as bad as suggesting that perhaps the blogosphere isn't actually that good at filtering really important ideas (shock!). But that's for another day... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saturday Night Linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/08/2003 06:53:23 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm still reeling from writing that last post in a blast of confused and desperate-to-get-it-out-there enthusiasm. And I still have no idea whether it's total bunk or not. So I'm going to throw out my linklog for the evening and leave it at that. Tomorrow I may write about any of the following things that have been going on:

    But all that's for tomorrow. Tonight, you must simply accept limited microcontent votage with a little snide commentary. This is what's going down:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The first sign of the googlopalypse? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 03/09/2003 05:53:43 PM ----- BODY:

    It's the first sign of the apocalypse - Google is throwing up errors all over the shop. I've checked with a few other people to see if it's happening with them too. My favourite response was from Matt Haughey who essentially said that he couldn't really chat at the moment since he was currently onstage at SXSW doing a panel on online journalism with JD Lasica, Dan Gillmor and the guy from crabwalk.com. But yes, he'd just noticed it too...

    google_bork.gif

    Of course everyone's first assumption is going to be that Ev broke it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fugu EMAIL: fugu@blowfishnet.info IP: 62.202.93.203 URL: http://blowfishnet.info DATE: 03/10/2003 08:17:22 AM We've had a great deal of buzzing about the Blogger/Google thing. The people in favourite of the deal were talking of more reliability... Now to come to the point: Im maintaining a blog powered by Blogger (not hosted there) and I am not able to change the templates of my blog at the moment. Could it be that Google's troubles are somehow connected with the problems of Blogger? Would be interesting to hear more on this story. ----- PING: TITLE: Broken Google! URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000441.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 03/09/2003 06:33:55 PM The sky is falling; Google is breaking (17:47 GMT 9 March 2003) with the following error message: Server Error The... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fresh and fertile Monday linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/10/2003 12:15:35 PM ----- BODY:

    You know, really, if you think about it, it's totally ok just to steal links from Popdex, Blogdex and Daypop because you're still only going to steal the good links and that helps everything self-filter even more effectively. Or something...

    More later in the day when I've had another stab at finishing my long piece on weblogs as conversation.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Bli effektivare! URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/001309.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 03/10/2003 02:06:32 PM N”tet kan vara ett svart hÂl, tidsm”ssigt, och ibland undrar jag om man inte fick mer gjort med penna och ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Doughnuts, Wifi, e-democracy and Section 28... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/12/2003 12:12:12 PM ----- BODY:

    I wonder if it's converting to Movable Type that means that I find it so hard to write. I wonder if it's the fact that each entry gets its own full page to sit-upon that makes me nervous about short posts or fragments of life-commentary. I get this anxiety that I won't be able to think of enough to say to warrant a full stark blank white page. And if I know I've got enough to say, then I get angsty because writing then becomes this significant job of work that really should take second-place to something more work-minded...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Tom pondersponders if it's Movable URL: http://www.ludicrous.org.uk/mt/archives/000343.html IP: 212.227.119.10 BLOG NAME: Technovia DATE: 03/13/2003 12:23:45 AM Tom pondersponders if it's Movable Type. I think it's just the time of year. I've definitely noticed that a lot ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Will Blogdex fix it for me? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/12/2003 11:51:05 PM ----- BODY:

    Right. I'm on a mission. I'm wacked out on Dr Pepper and dog-related endorphins, I've just watched Mission Impossible on TV and I've got at least three posts I want to get written by eleven o'clock. Let's be honest with each other for a moment - I'm not going to get any of them done if I fanny around 'thinking' about them or 'trying to get the spelling right'. So let's get on with it, shall we - starting with an appeal to the godhead of microcontent voting... "Please Mr Blogdex (if you haven't done so already) could you fix it for these links to get absurdly popular?"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A wifi hypothetical... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/13/2003 11:39:55 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a hypothetical situation for you. Let's say that there's a Starbucks in the high street. Let's say that this Starbucks runs a wireless network in association with T-mobile. And let's say that they charge for access to this wireless network. Now let's say that above this Starbucks is a flat. And let's say that in that flat is a geek. And let's say that this geek is running his own Wifi node, that he leaves open to the general public and advertises on something like consume.net. So the average customer to Starbucks has two options - the pay-for service supplied by Starbucks or the free one run by the guy upstairs.

    Now here's the thing - how long do we think it would be before Starbucks tried to shut him down? Days? Hours? Minutes? And why do I get the feeling that they'd probably be successful in doing so? This seems to be a situation that's likely to crop up in the next six to eight months or so (if it hasn't done so already) so I'm interested - what would the legal implications be?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren EMAIL: darren@timemachinego.com IP: 132.185.132.12 URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/ DATE: 03/13/2003 12:15:33 PM I don't see how Starbucks could shut down the hypothetical geek legally -- the two nodes could co-exist in the same building on different frequencies so it's not like he's stopping customers using the expensive starbucks node. Starbucks do have an advantage -- they can advertise their services to their customers but I suspect the average wifi consumer will learn to scan for different networks and choose the cheapest one. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jez Higgins EMAIL: jez@jezuk.co.uk IP: 62.30.55.88 URL: http://jez.jezuk.co.uk/ DATE: 03/13/2003 12:28:53 PM I agree. What's is the crime and where's the offence? It might not be a geek in the upstairs flat, of course. It could be the place across the road - which might be a lone geek shut in his garrett or, perhaps, more likely some big company that hasn't (or doesn't) secure its WAPs. As more and more people start using wifi, there could be any number of WAPs covering that lucky coffee drinker. Are Starbucks (or whoever) going to try and face them all down? "This is my shop, and I don't want you're filthy radio waves in here?" just isn't enforcable in law. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@neuromantics.net IP: 217.154.6.98 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net DATE: 03/13/2003 01:12:22 PM This shortly isn't going to be a hypothetical situation for me (and others i presume). I've been running xmthmkt.net for a year now. I imagine nothing much will happen, however I'd like to bet I'll have a better signal strength (thanks to the meter tall 10db antenna in my living room window) so auto connecti clients are liekly to jump straight on mine. Another problem could turn out to be abuse: If someone unleashes a virus via my node do i get in toruble? If someone surfs or serves some child porn from my node (unlikely in starbucks, true) do i get in trouble? If I transparently monitor traffic do i get in trouble? Could turn out that these issues may close open privately owned networks anyway, with fear of legal nastiness doing starbucks lawyers job for them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/13/2003 01:33:07 PM I wouldn't be so sure that Starbucks can be relied upon to operate so fairly - or that the courts would necessarily support the independent trader in these matters. I've been talking to Matt Webb about this stuff, and he says that he thinks I'm too late - that this kind of thing has already taken place. I'm doing some research online to see if that's true, but at the moment all I can find is this geek.com article in which it is claimed that Starbucks have damaged the connectivity of a local free wifi network by pushing their own network in the same part of the spectrum... I'll post more if I find out anything else... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jez Higgins EMAIL: jez@jezuk.co.uk IP: 62.30.55.88 URL: http://jez.jezuk.co.uk/ DATE: 03/13/2003 02:58:04 PM Starbucks or MacDonalds or anyone else may not be relied upto to act fairly or reasonably, but that's not what you asked. In the article geek.com article you cite it's the free provider who are taking Starbucks to court, not the other way around. Regardless of the outcome, I don't see that case would have any bearing in the country, though. Is your question another manifestation of the Property or Commons question? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AR EMAIL: andrew@yellowcandy.com IP: 217.36.9.68 URL: http://yellowcandy.com DATE: 03/13/2003 08:26:01 PM I've been wondering about this recently, as well... I think this is likely to be an issue here in the UK sooner than in the US, after the T-mobile pricing structure is publicised (£47/month for unlimited access! More than twice what I pay for home ADSL...) in the next few days. Also, T-mobile has been very careful not to test market the service anywhere near university housing here in Oxford, which means essentially that it's not being tested here at all. Will there also be conflicts with the new pub-connectivity/ McDonald's (!) connectivity? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pete EMAIL: monkiboi@monkiboi.net IP: 80.177.96.252 URL: http://www.monkiboi.net DATE: 03/14/2003 01:57:34 PM I'd never considered this (primarily because i don't use wifi) but i presume each wireless node would (could) fall under the same guidelines that ISP's have to follow. i say this because essentially both allow access to the internet so they fall under the same catagory. i don't think Starbucks could legally challenge another ISP (operator) on the basis of electomagnetic radiation. possibly electomagnetic interference but that would only apply if the geek node happened to operate on the same frequencies. Starbucks would surely have to prove that their system is being degraded by the interference for this to work. i think it would be easier for Starbucks to install EMC shielding in the ceiling of the coffeshop thereby disabling access to the geek wifi node from within the shop. of course that may be considered anti-competitive and we all know where that kind of thing leads to. does anyone else keep writing Startbucks? just me eh? ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/03/13 12:33 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=1861 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 03/13/2003 01:14:27 PM A Wifi Hypothetical ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Coates is also asking URL: http://www.mikel.org/arch/2003_03_09_mikelarch.html#004521 IP: 64.56.239.34 BLOG NAME: mikel dot org | Michael Boyle's weblog DATE: 03/13/2003 03:52:57 PM about the implications of a private citizen operating an open WiFi network in an area where a company like Starbucks is trying to sell access in his post entitled, "A wifi hypothetical." If any of the readers of this site have information on this quest... ----- PING: TITLE: WIFI 4 FREE URL: http://8letters.co.uk/weblog/old/2003/03/index.html#003201 IP: 209.68.2.52 BLOG NAME: 8letters: Weblog DATE: 03/18/2003 02:37:53 PM Tom poses a hypothetical question about WIFI and Starbucks. I read about this a few weeks ago and have to ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A microcampaign to turn on autodiscovery... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/13/2003 02:22:21 PM ----- BODY:

    1) Key Problems with Movable Type. If you're a Movable Type user then you probably share a few key experiences with me. To start off with, you've probably mis-spelt it Moveable Type more than a few times. You've probably chortled to yourself as you realised your mistake. How foolish you've been. Ha! The other thing you've probably done at some point is scratch your head to the point of bleeding about this whole "Trackback" malarky. I know I have. I know because my outboard brain tells me so.

    2) Solve the Trackback confusion by turning on 'Autodiscovery'. One of the most confusing aspects of the whole Trackback debacle is this idea that a different URL is used to ping for trackback than the URL that you use to visit the post itself. This aspect of the relationship is essentially very simple, but it's quite hard to explain and so remains essentially incomprehensible to many web-users. So it's important wherever possible to not draw attention to this process - in fact to conceal its workings as much as possible. The best way to do that is by encouraging the use of autodiscovery. Autodiscovery works like this - when you post something that includes a link to a trackback-enabled weblog, your version of Movable Type goes and has a look at the trackback-enabled weblog's page and tries to find the trackback URL associated with the thing you're linking to. Then it pings it. Nice and easy. You don't have to know the trackback URL (which means they don't have to display the trackback URL anywhere as well). It also means that there's no clunky manual pinging process. It's all nice and neat and self-contained and (more importantly) easy to explain to punters. So why don't you go anc check that autodiscovery is turned on right now...

    3) Trackback manners. In fact, I think there's probably only one set of circumstances where it's not a good idea to use auto-discovery, and that's the same set of circumstances when it's not appropriate to use Trackback at all. As far as I'm concerned there are at least two of these. Firstly, there's when you don't accept trackback pings yourself. Frankly, if you're not prepared to maintain your place in the embedded conversation, then you don't deserve to participate at all. The other circumstance when you shouldn't enable Trackback at all is when you're maintaining a pure and commentary-less link-log - like the side-panels on kottke.org or anil dash. I think it's important to try and remember what Trackback is for and what it's not for - it's not supposed to be simply a way for you to get a link to your site on highly-trafficked weblogs (although clearly that's what some people use it for). It's supposed to be a way of maintaining the links between posts in such a way that the thread of a conversation can be maintained. If you're not contributing to the conversation in any way, then there's no need for you to use Trackback. In fact every time you do so, you slightly diminish the utility of Trackback and the likelihood of people following the links therein...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: mboyle@mikel.org IP: 198.80.25.76 URL: http://www.mikel.org/ DATE: 03/13/2003 04:01:49 PM Don't want to ask too much of you, but... It would be a great service if you wrote up a "how to" describing how you got trackback to work as you did (with the sites inline like that). The popup window business is practically a trackback killer for me - in addition to being yet another template to keep up to date, I've had about enough of popup windows of any kind. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/13/2003 04:30:27 PM Would it help if I just posted up a copy of my template somewhere? I should do a proper write-up, but I've got so many other things I should be doing (to earn money) instead... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: mboyle@mikel.org IP: 198.80.25.76 URL: http://www.mikel.org/ DATE: 03/13/2003 04:46:20 PM That would be great. Like you are, I am busy, and like you were, I am totally perplexed by trackback in general. I get the final product, I just can't visualize the process. The way you've simplified the presentation of the links is a great leg up, and seeing how that happened in the code would probably be plenty. Thanks in advance. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 216.40.52.20 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog/ DATE: 03/13/2003 05:27:24 PM I've got Trackback autodiscovery turned on, but actually implementing Trackback into my own posts is proving to be a pain in the arse (and thus meanining I unintentionally fall into your "lazy no good blog leeches sucking readers off my traffic" category). If you did share the secret of a transparent Trackback set-up, that would be a great service to the blogging community. There doesn't seem to be anything else on the Internet explaining it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mac EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.161.102 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 03/13/2003 07:38:27 PM i was initally flummoxed by trackback when i started using movable type just over a month ago, but i figured it out by doodling a diagram on a scrap of paper. maybe that was easy for me because i studied some logic at university. once i realised that the trackback code could be pasted into my individual post template without any hacking or similar tomfoolery everything worked fine. maybe that's what confuses people, the fact that since trackback has its own neat little separate template and pop-up window thingy, most users fear they'll break it if they try to modify it for their own needs? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 81.132.189.201 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 03/13/2003 08:25:46 PM My one reservation when it comes to autodiscovery is that it applies itself every time you rebuild an entry, which means you end up repeatedly pinging whoever you've linked to when you delete a comment or fix a mistake. (Unless there's some setting I've missed in Movable Type?) Other than that - the more invisible the process the better, although I've merged trackbacks and comments (with the SimpleComments plugin) which maybe confuses matters further... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 195.92.67.209 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 03/13/2003 10:58:29 PM Of course, not that I don't think that Trackback is a superb idea and all that, but what if - like, well, me for instance - you're a blinkered and insular weblogger who never writes the sorts of posts that anyone in their right mind would ever consider linking to or, indeed, tracking back to? For anyone with far too great an idea of their own importance - so probably like most bloggers - there's nothing more dispiriting than a whole line of zeroes in brackets running their way down one's beautifully-designed web page (mental note: must get out more). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: gths@flat-earth.org IP: 203.164.8.31 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 03/14/2003 01:02:12 AM I had autodiscovery turned on for about the first month I had the MT setup, and it made the posting procedure as slow as a wet fortnight. So I turned it off again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JimmyT EMAIL: mail@lehopictures.com IP: 216.232.58.138 URL: http://www.lehopictures.com/the_joint/ DATE: 03/14/2003 01:43:39 AM Well, I've tracked to you, autodiscovered a link which I assume is your trackback log or something, and now I wonder if this is working or not... I can't find your trackback log for this post!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/14/2003 09:00:57 AM To Jimmy - I incorporate my trackbacks into the posts themselves - they're appended to the end of the entry (sometimes the page needs to have another comment added for them to show up properly). To Vaughan - we the same is true - lots of my posts don't get any trackbacks at all, but because I incorporate them directly into my post, you never see any zeroes anywhere. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 03/14/2003 11:39:17 AM I explained trackback to a friend a while ago as an automated version of emailing someone to let them know you'd posted a comment on an entry of theirs, and having them insert an 'update' link at the end of said entry to say that you'd commented on it. Which makes me wonder what the point of having it is at all. As an automated system, it's open to the sort of advertising abuse you point out (although the blog author can always delete such pings if he or she wishes). Worse, it gives the *appearance* of conversation when actually there is none. If a blog receives a stack of pings, it looks as if its author is engaged in a 'conversation' when actually they're just being used as a high-profile bulletin board. If they were truly engaged in a conversation, they would be *talking back* in a separate post or comment on their blog, and would be dropping links to other blogs into that conversation as a matter of course. Automating this process may relieve blog authors of any sense of obligation to hold up their side of the conversation. If they don't want to hold up their side of the conversation, that's fine, but to give the appearance that they are simply by hosting a bunch of trackback links seems a little misleading; and if they go further than hosting the trackback link by actually commenting on it, well, isn't that the sort of 'manual linking-back' that trackback is supposed to replace? I can see trackback making sense in group blogs like MeFi where there is no single author being engaged in conversation; I can even see it making sense in high profile blogs where a community grows up around a single-author blog whose members want to talk among themselves with or without the blog author's involvement (although surely comments boxes are sufficient for that; you can link to your blog posts in a comment if necessary); but it makes no sense as a replacement for the blog author actively taking part in a cross-blog conversation. The only argument for it might be that a trackback ping is more discreet than a direct email, a cough behind the hand rather than an outright request for recognition and response; and that seems ridiculous. Those on the receiving end of a ping know that it was deliberately sent by another human being seeking their attention (or free publicity); how is that more discreet than a one line email saying 'Hi, I liked your post on XYZ, you might like to read my response here...'? A couple of days ago I finally got around to changing my trackback system to mimic yours, Tom - trackbacks embedded at the end of posts (though not relying solely on autodiscovery as you recommend). But today I'm pulling the whole thing out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mikejla@btinternet.com IP: 217.205.37.3 URL: http://troubled-diva.blogspot.com DATE: 03/14/2003 11:57:48 AM This is a bit like the offside rule in soccer, isn't it? "No, look, it's really simple, honest - let me run it past you one more time..." My head hurts! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 03/14/2003 12:12:21 PM Hi, members of the plasticbag.org community (and Tom, who receives this comment in an email automatically). You might like to read my comment on Tom's post here: http://speedysnail.com/2003/03.html#442 ...although it's actually just a slight rewording of my comment above, broken up into proper paragraphs. Trackbacks? We don't need no stinkin'... etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon Curnow EMAIL: jon@curnow.org IP: 213.235.7.195 URL: http://musak.org DATE: 03/14/2003 02:35:56 PM There's a useful thread on the Movable Type support forums on to include trackbacks in your posts - I used it and it worked fine. http://www.movabletype.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=3e71e6d14c4affff;act=ST;f=18;t=8952;hl=trackback+and+include Also, I'm sure my instance of MT only pings the trackback with the first publish and not at each rebuild. But I'll have to look into that ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://bobzilla.co.uk/weblog DATE: 03/14/2003 02:37:07 PM oh, the irony! "it's not supposed to be simply a way for you to get a link to your site on highly-trafficked weblogs" ... followed by a half dozen trackback links from relatively random sites... it's almost, dare I say it, like some Comic Relief wheeze. I don't mean to be so naughty, sorry, but it's Friday and I want to go home... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@ordinary-life.net IP: 67.87.47.14 URL: http://www.ordinary-life.net DATE: 03/16/2003 12:26:59 AM Bobbie, all the sites seemed to discuss the pros/cons related to this post and its ideas. Some where shorter like mine but all seemed fairly relevent. I purposely made sure I added at least some content in response to plastic bag, mostly agreeing ;). I really think that's the most you can expect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.81.74 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 03/22/2003 11:15:04 PM I just installed TrackBack on to my Drupal installation, and it all works fine. I've even put a link to my site from MetaFilter. Traffic-me-do! I think it's one of the coolest things ever, actually. ----- PING: TITLE: Trackbacks, spam and conversations URL: http://husk.org/blog/arch/trackbacks_spam_and_conversations.html IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: chaff DATE: 03/13/2003 04:43:11 PM Ruminations on trackbacks after 2lmc goes ping crazy. ----- PING: TITLE: Auto discovery URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/archives/006238.html IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: mad musings of me DATE: 03/13/2003 07:28:09 PM I'm consciousthat I'm slightly breaking 's rulesTom's rules by not really contibuting much to the debate. I like the idea ----- PING: TITLE: Plastic TrackBack URL: http://refugio.f2o.org/archivos/000494.php IP: 63.237.54.244 BLOG NAME: El Refugio DATE: 03/13/2003 11:42:54 PM Siguiendo los consejos de Tom Coates acerca de los trackbacks en Movable Type hice algunas modificaciones a la forma en ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback madness URL: http://www.lehopictures.com/the_joint/archives/000034.html IP: 139.142.244.21 BLOG NAME: The Joint DATE: 03/14/2003 01:39:32 AM This is me trying to figure out how to use trackback and wouldn't you know it but plasticbag.org has just posted about it. So now, as the theory goes, and I have autodiscovery clicked on, MT should figure out that... ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback Usage URL: http://www.ordinary-life.net/blog/archives/001683.php IP: 209.50.252.235 BLOG NAME: Ordinary-Life.net DATE: 03/14/2003 02:48:02 AM An interesting discussion of TrackBack over at Plasticbag. I mostly agree with the sentiment. Though I don't think there always has to be a full blown conversation happening. It really depends on how you use it. You can include the full post as a comme... ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback, phpBB, etc. URL: http://www.brockerhoff.net/bb/viewtopic.php?p=354#354 IP: 200.165.20.202 BLOG NAME: Stochastic Aleatory Ontological Expostulations DATE: 03/14/2003 04:08:12 PM ...In related posts, Tom Coates at Plastic Bag is campaigning for trackback autodiscovery. I'm amazed how many Movable Type weblogs don't have this turned on; trackback is certainly a hard feature to grasp, even though MT does make it quite easy... ----- PING: TITLE: Track Back URL: http://8letters.co.uk/weblog/old/2003/03/index.html#003196 IP: 209.68.2.52 BLOG NAME: 8letters: Weblog DATE: 03/16/2003 07:36:25 PM Tom discusses TrackBack - I've had it switched on for months but have seen very little point in it. I ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/05/15 12:56 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2474 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 05/15/2003 02:40:44 PM NNW wishlist ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/06/12 15:29 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2727 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 06/12/2003 03:52:00 PM extensions in urls considered harmful ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the meltdown at the Guardian... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/14/2003 01:51:10 PM ----- BODY:

    Mad outbursts in national newspapers are like the rays of sunshine glinting through the storm clouds of international news. It's lovely to be able to sense the person who wrote the news, and get a sense of his or her vibrant perspective on the events they're writing about. It adds interest to information that you might otherwise wish to totally disregard. Like for example information on Cricket! So let's turn towards today's cricket report on Guardian Unlimited. It starts reasonably enough:

    "It's really simple: India are already through, New Zealand have to win."

    But then it goes a little pear-shaped:

    "Meanwhile, have you ever thought what sort of life is this and what the hell am I doing boarding a train for Moorgate at 6.30 In the morning and then standing around for ages waiting for a tube while staring at a sign telling you that if you wait for four minutes you can board a train to Uxbridge I'd rather wait four hours for a journey with the Grim Reaper quite frankly and then you get to work and then there's this and I know the cricket's good and all that but I've got out of the wrong side of bed this morning and in any case it's not as if I'll write a cracking match report and then get rewarded by being sent on a wonderful assignment around the world because I'll be very surprised if any of my bosses will read any of this let's be honest they won't although on the other hand that's probably just as well.."

    And that's before the weblog-style grumpy commentary kicks in! I mean - classy, fascinating comments emerge like, "Asger Kring works for a Copenhagen media company that publishes several newspapers. "Do you want me to inquire whether they are looking for an over-by-over commentary guy?" Yes. Yes. YES! YES! YES!!!! Not that I'm desperate or anything." By the ninth over, people are writing in with their improvisational 'hit the keyboard with your fists' comments:

    "I must have a different keyboard-banging technique from Leonard," types John Kirby with his big fists. "I get 'ytcdskljojnvds.lkzsedli;j un fesalmjni vfesa;lmija;mju fceiv faewj;omivrewaomiu; svfeomijuhlvesmu;oilgvrstmjloivtrseomiju,' which looks rather like Finnish."

    God, my sides would be shaking hard as Shakin' Stephens if it wasn't (as Matt has pointed out to me) potentially a 'wacky' Red Nose Day thing. Wouldn't that just drain all the life out of it? Like all the life out of it? I hate Red Nose Day. It's so desperate and tiring and forced. And they think they're being so cool and down with the kids. Grrr. Wankers.

    Addendum: Worth reading the comments on this one - you might learn something. I certainly did.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Steinberg EMAIL: steiny@barrysworld.com IP: 62.3.68.52 URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com DATE: 03/14/2003 02:16:54 PM Wouldn't it be ironic if this meme created the backlash that finally put the bullet in the dying beast of Red Nose Day? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://bobzilla.co.uk/weblog DATE: 03/14/2003 02:32:45 PM Actually they're like that all the time, Tom. It's got nothing to do with Red Nose Day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil Mc EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 194.205.4.1 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 03/14/2003 02:39:15 PM Tom - I'm disappointed you didn't read the very similar antics during the World Cup last summer, when some of their commentaries were much more interesting than the matches themselves... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mwmc01@yahoo.co.uk IP: 207.121.103.5 URL: http://www.londonmark.blogspot.com/ DATE: 03/14/2003 02:47:31 PM The Mexico v USA game is a particularly classic minute-by-minute and was quoted by Gary Lineker as part of the BBC coverage of a later USA game. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: azeem EMAIL: azeem@azhar.co.uk IP: 213.208.108.177 URL: http://azeem.azhar.co.uk DATE: 03/14/2003 03:15:00 PM Dude it is a conspiracy. No doubt about it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/14/2003 03:22:31 PM Neil, I really don't think you should be disappointed as such - my knowledge of sport and sporting commentary is far from complete but that's because of a total and abiding lack of interest, not because I'm being slack! Can it really be true that they write like that all the time? I hope it's true, but I fear I will never again be in a position to check... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: deej EMAIL: dj@sassylad.co.uk IP: 217.44.92.212 URL: http://www.sassylad.co.uk DATE: 03/14/2003 03:23:18 PM If it gets taken down it's available here to chuckle at: http://www.sassylad.co.uk/blog_stuff/guardian_capture.htm ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil Mc EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 194.205.4.1 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 03/14/2003 04:12:16 PM Tom - really, it is. Their commentaries are worth reading even if - like me - you have no interest in cricket. One of the few things on the web (apart from Winer in full flow) that's likely to inspire a hearty guffaw. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/14/2003 04:56:28 PM For those of you who aren't aware - Neil works at The Guardian and helps to maintain a site at OnlineBlog.com - so I guess he's probably pretty trustworthy. I think this is highly entertaining though, since I've been sent the link by independent people about fifteen times since 1pm, none of whom saw it on my site and all of whom believe the Guardian to be pushing its correspondents to the point of insanity! It's clearly doing the rounds of the internet, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most-read episode of that particular stroke-by-stroke column ever! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@mac.com IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 03/14/2003 05:21:31 PM I agree on two points: 1) sport commentaries are better than the actual event, 2) wearing a hairy red nose and deeley-boppers *is* desperate and tiring and forced, but spending an hour and a half of work's time attired with such gizmos and ending up with over £50 in small change has got to be worth the effort...hasn't it? Ah well, suit yourself... ~; p ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren EMAIL: darren@timemachinego.com IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/ DATE: 03/14/2003 05:23:55 PM Yeah, I remember some of the commentary from World Cup 2002 very well... 'It's a berth in the last eight of the World Series for the States, and you can't say these jocks haven't deserved it after a superb offensive display. Germany await: there'll be a hell of a lot of towel-flicking in the locker room tonight. Actually, despite my tedious riffing, this needs to be said: the US have been worthy winners today. And many apologies to Beau Giles from San Francisco, who has sent me an email with the subject heading: Dude, you're totally harshing my buzz, man.' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.52.69 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/me/lostpages/ DATE: 03/14/2003 07:36:40 PM Really. This Red Nose Day is even more incomprehensible than Cricket, and being a furriner my mind wasnít created to ever truly get Cricket in the first place. But sport commentaries can be rather fun. I too have zero interest in any sport, but I still read the Hunter Thompson piece on ESPN.com. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stephen Dunn EMAIL: stephen@cuica.co.uk IP: 193.115.130.232 URL: DATE: 03/14/2003 07:43:57 PM Trust me. I work at the Guardian, and this was not a "Red Nose Day" prank. This stufff is run of the mill for their regular minute by minute coverage. So less of your "grrrr Wankers" sneering, thankyou! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: jerimm@essex.ac.uk IP: 213.107.224.5 URL: DATE: 03/14/2003 07:49:36 PM Did this remind anyone else of Complicity by Iain Banks? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/14/2003 08:07:24 PM Surely this takes liberal self-hatred a little far though? Plus also - does everyone work at the Guardian? Why don't I work at the Guardian, that's what I want to know... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil Mc EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 62.254.128.6 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 03/14/2003 08:37:54 PM Tom - you mean you *don't* work at the Guardian? Damn - I'll never visit again :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben Hammersley EMAIL: ben@benhammersley.com IP: 62.128.179.3 URL: http://www.benhammersley.com DATE: 03/14/2003 09:07:38 PM I work for them, but they don't let me in the building. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CATFUNT EMAIL: paul@liketv.com IP: 81.77.133.249 URL: http://www.catfunt.net DATE: 03/14/2003 10:27:43 PM I wrote for The Guardian when they had Shift-Control which just makes me old. It was the days when Paul Robinson would write about getting a haircut. I guess that makes him a pre-blog blogger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CATFUNT EMAIL: paul@liketv.com IP: 81.77.133.249 URL: http://www.catfunt.net/blog DATE: 03/14/2003 10:27:59 PM I wrote for The Guardian when they had Shift-Control which just makes me old. It was the days when Paul Robinson would write about getting a haircut. I guess that makes him a pre-blog blogger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan Sanderson EMAIL: jonathan@quernstone.com IP: 62.252.224.6 URL: http://www.quernstone.com DATE: 03/14/2003 11:59:40 PM Of course, there's a long tradition of bizarre and amusing cricket commentary; Test Match Special has never been particularly po-faced, from Johnners corpsing, through 'The batsmans' Holding, the bowler's Willie,' to discussion about fruitcakes sent in by listeners. Cricinfo's coverage also has its wittier moments. I thoroughly approve of the Guardian's contribution to the corpus, having heartily enjoyed it on many occasions. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan Sanderson EMAIL: jonathan@quernstone.com IP: 62.252.224.6 URL: http://www.quernstone.com DATE: 03/14/2003 11:59:59 PM Of course, there's a long tradition of bizarre and amusing cricket commentary; Test Match Special has never been particularly po-faced, from Johnners corpsing, through 'The batsmans' Holding, the bowler's Willie,' to discussion about fruitcakes sent in by listeners. Cricinfo's coverage also has its wittier moments. I thoroughly approve of the Guardian's contribution to the corpus, having heartily enjoyed it on many occasions. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org IP: 195.92.67.74 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org DATE: 03/15/2003 01:51:29 AM I don't work for The Guardian either - but after the week I've had (check the media sections), I'd very much like to. Gissa job. I could do that. Go on, gissa. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: frizzy_logic@SPAMLESShotmail.com IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://frizzy_logic.blogspot.com DATE: 03/15/2003 03:56:51 PM The sports bits are the only parts of the Today programme worth listening to. Red nose day - even my totally teleholic 8-year-old couldn't take more than four minutes of it and [gasp] turned the television off himself. Once-in-a-lifetime experience. Or perhaps annual experience. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bobbie EMAIL: bob@bobzilla.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 03/18/2003 05:04:41 PM So, out of all the comments above, nine of them are from Guardian employees or contributors. Erk! ----- PING: TITLE: Journalist loses plot, finds Web site URL: http://azeem.azhar.co.uk/archives/000481.php IP: 195.82.99.3 BLOG NAME: azeem.azhar.co.uk DATE: 03/14/2003 03:02:47 PM Ok. Cricket can be dull but sometimes a writer's frustrations creep out. Perhaps a little too vehemently. Still, he makes... ----- PING: TITLE: Guardian Cricket Writer Comes Unstuck URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/03/guardian_cricket_writer_comes_unstuck.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: macdaraconroy.com DATE: 03/14/2003 10:16:55 PM The link for this piece might not be live for long, so I've copied the best bit for everyone to ----- PING: TITLE: Guardian Writer loses it URL: http://www.mcshasta.com/blog/archives/000280.php IP: 216.110.36.12 BLOG NAME: mcshasta DATE: 03/20/2003 10:34:59 PM The Guardian Unlimited is the UK's most popular online newspaper. They always have well written articles and seem to have ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Has B3ta been spammed? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/14/2003 07:28:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Apologies: I don't know for how long it has been the case, but the game is now loading for me in a separate window - this could have been a change at their end or a browser bug at my end. Please disregard all that follows.

    Every Friday, b3ta send out their newsletter - a newsletter that goes out to many thousands of people and is known world-wide. The newsletter contains links to fun things made by B3ta people as well as to cool things send in by members of the public...

    Except this week it's different. The b3ta newsletter contained a link to a game described as follows:

    ">> Stroke the Kitty Game <<
    "I've made a new game", writes Jibbed, "I've
    named it Kitty Stroke. The cat needs your help.
    She's in dire need of some serious stroking
    action. Stroke that cat as if your life
    depended on it." TIP: The aim of the game is
    to follow the cat with your cursor. Great.
    http://www.magic-carpet.freeserve.co.uk/thb/kittystroke.html

    When you click through to the page, however, the game isn't there at all. It has been replaced with a button that claims to launch the game, but instead launches an affiliate link to Sky Digital. Also on the page is an advert for OneTel. Now, as far as I can make out, there are two explanations for this state of affairs. 1) The people at the other end changed the page "accidentally" or 2) The people at the other end decided to co-opt the mailing list and use it as a cheap and easy way of making some money.

    Which leaves us with the question: Given that we don't want our cool mailing lists and independent bits of cool and homegrown content usurped by unscrupulous idiots - how do we make sure that they make no revenue out of this? Presumably neither Sky nor OneTel wish to have their affiliate programmes abused in this kind of way...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: spanky_spangler@hotmail.com IP: 62.49.23.237 URL: http://www.thisispull.co.uk DATE: 03/15/2003 12:24:36 AM I for one am dubious.... a previous issue of the newsletter has headlined viral stuff they've made for hula-hoops and lastminute.com in the same issue. I think b3ta has begun imploding - the messageboard is getting more clogged up with crap all the time, also some traces of latent homophobia... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: b3ta@b3ta.com EMAIL: b3ta@b3ta.com IP: 217.39.79.34 URL: DATE: 03/15/2003 01:51:08 AM We have no idea. We posted the link in good faith. After the newsletter went out the link changed. We have changed the web copy of the newsletter accordingly. See here. http://www.b3ta.com/newsletter/issue80/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.152.58 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/15/2003 09:23:26 AM Thanks Rob - it's as I suspected - someone out there seems to have tried to abuse the good faith put in them by the B3ta crew to make a little money. So now - how do we stop these people making money out of it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Meg EMAIL: spam@notsosoft.com IP: 62.3.109.33 URL: http://www.notsosoft.com DATE: 03/15/2003 10:50:52 AM Hmm. I clicked on the link in the b3ta mail at about 6pm, and it went through to the game. By the time you posted the rant above, it had indeed changed - but the game still actually loads, in addition to the Sky affiliate thing - in case you're desperate to play, it's here. My guess is that someone submitted it, then once it appeared in the newsletter, saw the opportunity to make some cash to offset their costs. Not very bright, but hardly grand larceny. And it's not that good a game anyway... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wolfie EMAIL: wolfie_paranormal@hotmail.com IP: 172.182.243.64 URL: http://www.1heluva.com/cgi-bin/join.cgi?refer=23030 DATE: 03/17/2003 10:32:33 PM Well expressed :o) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Danil G EMAIL: granstream@tiscali.se IP: 217.209.176.94 URL: DATE: 03/21/2003 12:00:36 AM Still can't get it in latest Mozilla/1.3 - if I don't cheat. Don't bother, I'm fine under most circumstances.. Possible reason, however. From source code: embed src="file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Jon/Desktop/kittyStroke.swf" There's an outer tag that should be OK, but Mozilla like their quirky Gecko (i.e., trying to imitate "IE compliance," I guess.) Apologies: And whatever pertinent means?! I'm sorry if I wasn't.. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A Singular Lack of Integrity? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 03/16/2003 08:03:53 PM ----- BODY:

    On the news now, a correspondent reported from the Azores where the pro-war-in-Iraq lobby have been meeting. She said something I found startling. Apparently at several points during the last few months it had looked like the UK/US position would get upwards of nine/ten votes in the Security Council. That was until France declared its intention to use its veto. At this point the other countries saw no advantage in voting to approve a war that couldn't happen anyway - and which might cost them an election. Almost to a man, they changed to a no vote.

    I've expressed repeatedly my anxieties with any upcoming war with Iraq - that while it's clear to me that Saddam Hussein is an unpleasant man who should be removed, the route that I believe has to be taken is one of international collaboration. I do not believe that any country or group of countries should be able to act internationally (unless they have directly and individually been provoked) without at least the vaguest assent from the international community. My opinion has been that, should there be failings in the United Nations, then it is the job of the world to change the United Nations, not to disregard it.

    But my whole position has relied on the integrity of the people concerned. If countries act in an honourable way, then I have respect for their opinions. And I've argued to defend the assumption that people are acting honourably. I have continually argued for France's right to express its dissent from the opinion of the international community. And I've been hostile to the possibility that France or the United States should try and bargain with, threaten or buy the votes of any other country on the Security Council or across the world.

    But where is this integrity, exactly? France has crossed the line a couple of times. The United States and the UK have demonstrated that they're not averse to a little bullying as well. And now we hear that the votes of the rest of the Security Council depend only on what they think will play well with their electorates. Our world is run by monsters and hypocrites and if I could retire from it, I would.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Frankenstein EMAIL: paulf@panix.com IP: 66.108.225.89 URL: http://paulfrankenstein.org/ DATE: 03/16/2003 09:07:40 PM It is a truism among students of international relations that all foreign policy is driven by domestic politics. What you're seeing is the inevitable expression of that axiom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.43.124 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/16/2003 09:59:38 PM I think that's a difficult statement to justify, because it encodes two very different ideas in one - firstly, that one works internationally 'in the interest of one's country' and secondly that one does things to secure an electorate. The first is clearly true, and probably should be. You represent the interests of the people who elected you first and foremost, responsibilities that are only restricted by international treaties. The second is often true but not always (why otherwise would Blair be so pro-war when his country is not?), and is what I have issue with. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 62.254.64.6 URL: DATE: 03/17/2003 12:29:30 AM The line that Chirac said he'd veto in all circumstances is bullshit. Obviously, Jack Straw doesn't feel the need to translate the 'ce soir' bit of Chirac's statement. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: frizzy_logic@SPAMLESShotmail.com IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://frizzy_logic.blogspot.com DATE: 03/17/2003 01:27:07 PM The six current non-permanent members of the UN Security Council are Mexico, Chile, Pakistan, Guinea, Angola and Cameroon. I do not know much about Chile, so leaving that aside Mexico is the only country among them which has held anything that could come within radar range of a democratic election within decades. I know for certain that the human rights records of Guinea, Angola and Cameroon are among the worst in the world. I also know that the "economies" of Angola and Guinea rely heavily on oil production - which has considerable US investment. Cameroon hosts the outlet of an enormous oil pipeline which brings crude from Chad to the sea. These countries do not have an electorate to represent or worry about, they are monstrous self-perpetuating oligarchic kleptocracies. When it becomes clear that a veto-wielding nation (France) is going to scupper the resolution then the others are in the annoying position of no longer having leverage (financial and political) over the US and can, by way of compensation, curry favour with other interest groups. There really is no such thing as a free lunch. America is becoming the imperialist power of our age. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phil jones EMAIL: synaesmedia@postmaster.co.uk IP: 200.163.2.77 URL: http://www.synaesmedia.com DATE: 03/17/2003 02:14:54 PM Could be the other way round. The other countries *never* wanted to support the US, but felt pressure to do so. Once France has signalled it's determination to veto, the pressure is off these countries. They can do what they *really* wanted without it being their fault that the US doesn't get what it wants. France is acting as lighting conductor for US rage. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phil jones EMAIL: synaesmedia@postmaster.co.uk IP: 200.163.2.77 URL: http://www.synaesmedia.com DATE: 03/17/2003 03:04:19 PM Could be the other way round. The other countries *never* wanted to support the US, but felt pressure to do so. Once France has signalled it's determination to veto, the pressure is off these countries. They can do what they *really* wanted without it being their fault that the US doesn't get what it wants. France is acting as lighting conductor for US rage. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: frizzy_logic@SPAMLESShotmail.com IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://frizzy_logic.blogspot.com DATE: 03/17/2003 04:10:48 PM Re my earlier post - got my guineas in a knot... oil-based economy is Equatorial Guinea. For Guinea (Conakry) please substitute "mineral rich devestatingly poor country enmeshed in regional conflicts". Or, better still, ignore me entirely and read (which you probably have done already) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2835913.stm, the last para being the saddest. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charlie B. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 137.205.8.2 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 03/18/2003 01:34:09 PM qB should certainly be ignored, since (s)he informs us that "the six current non-permanent members of the UN Security Council are Mexico, Chile, Pakistan, Guinea, Angola and Cameroon." The UN Security Council in fact has 15 members. In addition to those listed by qB there are Spain, Bulgaria, Germany and Syria. Nor is ignorance of the political development of Chile an excuse for sweeping it into absurd generalisations about representative elections. Why anyone might or might not have done something when they are no longer obliged to do so is a speculative irrelevance. The point is that there is no basis for engaging in discussion of any aspect of voting on a resolution if one of the possible desired outcomes has been precluded. However, all this aside, I am completely bemused by the sudden aversion to domestic public opinion influencing foreign policy: I thought that that was precisely the goal of all demonstrations (especially the one last month in London) against the war. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charlie B. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 137.205.8.2 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 03/18/2003 01:59:11 PM I should add with respect to Mr Cook that the Prime Minister demoted him from Foreign Secretary immediately after the 2001 General Election victory. Mr Cook's principal responsibility as Leader of the House of Commons became reform of the House of Lords, but the Prime Minister contradicted his proposals and ensured that no further action would be taken on the issue before the next Election. Mr Cook's career is over as long as Tony Blair remains Prime Minister (which Ms Short's is not). If Tony Blair should, by any chance, fall from power, then the most effective -- possibly the only possible -- challenge to Gordon Brown to succeed him would need to come from someone outside the Cabinet, who bears no responsibility for the war policy. Mr Cook has always nurtured ambitions to be Prime Minister, and his resignation now (quietly, but carefully prepared over the last few weeks) is an astute move. Indeed, if Mr Cook, as a senior and capable figure, is to be the focus of left-wing and anti-Blair organising, it is important that HE, and not Ms Short, should be the big resignation. No doubt that it why she was denouced for "grandstanding" last week, and why she has been perhaps persuaded to stay in the Cabinet. Mr Cook simply has to appear principled and measured, and allow his henchmen and other supporters to do the work for him with MPs. Not too difficult a task when the back-benches are full, after 6 years, of grude-bearing failed ministers, sacked or let go by the Prime Minister. I noticed that Frank Dobson was sitting next to Mr Cook when he made his Commons statement (and patteed him when he sat down). Mr Dobson was a hopeless Health Minister (responsible for much of the mess the NHS is still in) and was sacrified, most unwillingly, in the London Mayoral elections which Ken Livingstone won. The leader of the anti-war rebel MPs (and the man who praised Mr Cook so lavishly on the TV) is Chris Smith -- another absolutely hopeless minister who got the push. Indeed, Mr Cook's supporters are headed by a pretty dreadful bunch of has-beens, and it is that fate which Mr Cook is desperate to avoid. Oh, did I mention principles? No? There might be one or two conveniently sprinkled around. But not enough to emulate unless you have something to gain by doing so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/18/2003 02:00:49 PM It's a fine distinction to be drawn, clearly - but we know that governments have more information than the general public. If it's a moral issue, then it's the role of the government to try and do what it believes to be best and to try and get the public behind it. If it fails to get the public behind it, then it's still susceptible to their subsequent voting at the next elections. Essentially, then - one responsibility of government is to reach out and persuade the people that they know what they're doing. Backing away from that responsibility because - in this case - there's no practical way of getting the thing done seems to me morally suspect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paolo EMAIL: blackpencildesign@hotmail.com IP: 65.92.188.193 URL: http://www.blackpencildesign.com DATE: 03/21/2003 05:30:35 PM The real issue of contention is, should anyone be going to war with Iraq? It is clear that Saddam's regime is morally courrupt. It is clear that given half the chance, Saddam would surge his borders to envelope as much oil producing land as possible. It is also clear that many of his people live in constant fear and that true democracy does not exist to them. What is not clear is why the United States and its so called "allies" would suddenly be concerned with the lives of Iraqi people. How many of the pro-war populace care(d) about Rwanda, or Cuba, China, Korea, etc.? It upsets me to see so many people swallow the selling job that the Bush administration has been spouting about the 'just cause' of this war. Here is an exerpt from an article titled, "What is the war's 'brand strategy'?" -By Lou Marano that best describes what so many are falling for. "[Tracey]Riese said that in 1776 American colonists transformed the Revolution from a contest between powers to a struggle for "liberty" by enlightened citizens. The Civil War, which began as a struggle between two economic systems and constitutional interpretations, took on new meaning when Abraham Lincoln reframed it as a battle for the soul of a nation 'conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.' " With the right sugar coated topping people will swallow the most foul things. ----- PING: TITLE: Big Things Stirring URL: http://www.ordinary-life.net/blog/archives/001701.php IP: 209.50.252.235 BLOG NAME: Ordinary-Life.net DATE: 03/19/2003 02:48:23 PM kottke sums up the war which comes as close to my thinking as I've seen so far. Tom Coates also has a well worded opinion that strikes me as well thought out. Because Opinions are like... well you know, here's mine.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Clutter on your desktop... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/16/2003 10:27:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Clutter is my favourite new OSX toy. It starts off as a tiny little window that links in with iTunes. While you're listening to music, it pops online and grabs cover images from Amazon. Now that - in and of itself - is quite entertaining. But then it gets really good. You can drag the covers off onto your desktop and pile them up like there were CDs on your floor. And when you want to listen to an album, you just double click on the cover. iTunes then makes a bespoke playlist and starts playing it straight-away.

    There's a couple of really interesting aspects to this. Firstly, there's this nostalgic yearning for groupings of music in album-like shapes. Many of us using toys like the iPod have got used to thinking about the future of music as being song-sized - componentised. It feels kind of weird to start playing with albums again. But then again, maybe the rampant componentisation that we're currently experiencing is a push too far - a utopian idea of totally fluid information chunks that will prove to be illusory and against the best interests of human beings. It could be that the 'album' is about to enjoy a resurgence. I'll tell you one thing for nothing - the predictable and consistent noise of an album is much easier to work to than the on-the-fly "Greatest Hits Of Your Life" approach...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: The units of music URL: http://www.bentbacktulips.co.uk/archive/2003/03/17/the_units_of_music.html IP: 64.235.242.129 BLOG NAME: bent back tulips DATE: 05/11/2003 11:43:58 PM Visual art is often lost on me. However, the photographs of Jean-Luc Bénazet, which I happened upon by chance, held me captivated for a full half an hour, just looking through the intriguing tangle of landscapes, portraits[1], architectures and,... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sunday night / Monday morning STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/16/2003 11:11:31 PM ----- BODY:

    We all need things that are good to think with - interesting or fascinating questions that are worth exploring. Here are a few interesting questions people around the world have been asking this week...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In support of Robin Cook... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/18/2003 12:17:28 AM ----- BODY:

    For those Americans amongst our company who may not know who he is, Robin Cook was, until this morning, Leader of the House of Commons. He was a high-placed member of the British cabinet, and an ex-Foreign Minister. Today he resigned in protest at what he believes to be the inappropriate rush to go to war without the support of our international allies. He gave a rousing and intelligent speech in the House of Commons that has been circulated on all the UK TV stations, and which received a standing ovation from his colleagues. I can't as yet find a transcript online, but I've found a RealAudio version from the BBC. I advise everyone to watch it. Addendum: Here's a transcript of the speech from the BBC.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Bush: "You have 48 Hours" URL: http://www.mcshasta.com/blog/archives/000281.php IP: 216.110.36.12 BLOG NAME: blog DATE: 03/18/2003 02:06:31 AM President Bush just finished his announcement to the US and the World. He basically stated that Saddam is indeed a ----- PING: TITLE: Robin Cook URL: http://www.leto.co.nz/labyrinth/000431.php IP: 219.88.241.226 BLOG NAME: (leto) DATE: 03/18/2003 09:28:39 AM Where I stop being banal for a minute. Only a minute mind. The resignation of Robin Cook was mentioned on the radio a number of times this morning, but without knowing much about British politics, and Robin Cook in particular, it was hard to get a sens... ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/03/18 08:33 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=1907 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 03/18/2003 11:36:06 AM Robin Cook's resignation speech ----- PING: TITLE: If a door is closed, karate chop it open. URL: http://www.alttext.com/archives/03/03/030318.html IP: 24.123.114.130 BLOG NAME: Alt Text DATE: 03/18/2003 06:19:46 PM If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud. This, and more advice can ----- PING: TITLE: The Iraqi Problem URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/03/the_iraqi_problem.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: macdaraconroy.com DATE: 03/18/2003 08:30:52 PM I haven't really posited anything here about the current situation in the Middle East. This is because, in part, I ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My nights are headache grey... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/20/2003 05:15:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Two nights in a row I've left work with a burnt-out grey headache. Desperate-need-for-a-holiday time is here, and thankfully Actually-going-for-a-holiday time is rapidly approaching. But more on that later. More rested today - my head spinning a little, but with bits of brain no longer oozing from my ears - I can start to bring sense to the memeworld around me. Panic no longer. For I am back...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Statistics and job interview URL: http://www.bentbacktulips.co.uk/archive/2003/03/21/statistics_and_job_interview.html IP: 64.235.242.129 BLOG NAME: bent back tulips DATE: 05/11/2003 11:37:43 PM Every so often you come across a metaphor or a turn of phrase that catches your eye and dials in directly to your mental circuits - Tom Coates' phrase "a burnt-out grey headache" caught my attention, because I've never quite... ----- PING: TITLE: Statistics and job interview URL: http://www.bentbacktulips.co.uk/archive/2003/03/21/statistics_and_job_interview.html IP: 64.246.52.17 BLOG NAME: bent back tulips DATE: 09/28/2003 07:45:28 PM Every so often you come across a metaphor or a turn of phrase that catches your eye and dials in directly to your mental circuits - Tom Coates' phrase "a burnt-out grey headache" caught my attention, because I've never quite... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Bangles at the Shepherd's Bush Empire... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/21/2003 01:43:42 PM ----- BODY:

    Now, somewhere between fifteen and twenty years ago, I was a singular fan of the Bangles. I had all three of their albums, from the weird and vaguely unlistenable first one, through the poppy second album through into the lush soft rock third album. I hated Eternal Flame (still do), but loved songs like "Following", "Glitter Years", "Crash and Burn" and "Be With You". I will make no apologies for this. I get pleasure from them still.

    Last night I went to see The Bangles in concert with friends Francesca and Es. I went to see The Bangles in concert and not only was it really good fun, it was also a really good concert. Of course my initial assumption had been that it would be a vaguely tragic occasion - some kind of ludicrous nostalgia-milking exercise for the nearly-middle-aged. But while there was no shortage of the middle-aged in the audience, the band themselves didn't look in any way out-of-place, out-of-fashion, self-indulgent or flabby. No - they were clearly a sharp and capable band up for having a very good time while rocking like pop-rock bastards...

    When I was a kid, it never even occurred to me that I'd get to see them live. And when I booked the tickets it never really occurred to me that the whole experience would be so full of resonance and weird, trashy, idealistic, teenage emotions. Now, having seen them live, I realise that I've fulfilled a teenage dream that I didn't know I had. And while it's not without a hint of embarrassment, I feel bloody wonderful. If you get a chance to go and see them in concert, then go. I think you'd be surprised how much fun you'd have...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New ideas for sit-coms... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/21/2003 09:51:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Does anyone remember this TV series? It had like six "friends" - three 'boys' and three 'girls' -and they kind of lived in this really obvious set in New York and the friends who were boys were Dorky/Slutty, Dorky/Sarcastic and Dorky/Mass Murderer and the friends who were girls were Sassy/Obsessive, Sassy/Self-Obsessive and Sassy/Certifiable? God, you're got to remember it! It was huge about eight years ago... You remember? It was called "Friends"? Maybe it wasn't on TV where you come from. Anyway - the point is, that somehow I just caught an episode of it - it's still on TV! - and goddam is it terrible. Absolutely excruciatingly awful.

    So anyway, I'm talking to Kerry - you remember Kerry, he's my chum in LA - and we're trying to work out why anyone ever watched that show "Friends", and we're trying to think up brilliant alternatives and I think we've done terribly well:

    Pitch One: My first suggestion was a bit of a doozy - basically it's a sit-com about hot naked gay men making out - What's not to love?! When you think about it it's a miracle that no one's thought of it before. Location ideas? Fraternity house shower room maybe? Kerry suggested a wrestling team theme - but that's no good. As I explained to him, US wrestling teams wear weird wrestling outfits. You have to have grown up with them to associate them with lustful feelings - no one else in the world understands that particular weird fetish. And foreign markets are so very important nowadays - you don't want to make a show that people in New Zealand think is lame, do you? I mean, do you? Essentially, the only truly international sit-coms - maybe the only truly international TV shows - are the totally naked ones. I mean - check out Oprah - do you really think that her show would have been popular in Kazakhstan if she'd been wearing clothes?
    Pitch Two: How about a sit-com in which Shania Twain is brutally murdered in a different way each week? It's got loads of potential catchphrases and running jokes. Each week she could start singing some power pop piece of ... art ... and then - right in the middle - an anvil could fall onto her head, or she could look down and realise that she's been pushed off a cliff. It would be like Kenny in South Park, but infinitely more satisfying. And think of the potential for spin-offs! I mean just off the top of my head I can think of "Death to J Lo!" and "The Hideously Thrilling Regular Decapitation of Christina Aguilera!"

    You know - I'm wasted working in community software. I should be working in Hollywood! They know how to reward visionary geniuses out there. I mean - look at Joel Schumacher! He gave Batman nipples!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.59.175 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/me/lostpages/ DATE: 03/22/2003 11:28:58 AM You know, I would believe that it was possible to find a problem with the naked concept, and eventually I got it. Of all the people in the world, I never want to see the majority of sit-com stars naked. I would have to poke out my eyes to escape the horror. But some sit-coms in the nude? Hey, I'm all for that as long as they cast them properly. I don't say quit your day job, but take a small vacation. Go there. Give us gold to watch -- amongst other things. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Maritn Conaghan EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 03/22/2003 12:34:01 PM You would love to have seen Mark Millar and Grant Morrison's sitcom submission to Jonathan Ross's company a few years ago. It was for a series of one-off pilot programmes that were allegedly made in the 70s, but could never be aired because they were so offensive. One was called 'Knickers in a Twist' - a sort of version of The Good Life, with the Briars and Kendall characters running a brothel next to an uptight Penelope Keith character. Another was called 'Kiss My Royal Arse', which followed the exploits of a different member of the Royal Family every week, following their disbandment, as they try to re-integrate with common life. Each episode would portray a series of disastrous jobs for people like Prince Edward, ending with a sacking for the hapless Royal and a two-fingered 'Citizen Smith' style salute to the audience followed by a shout of "Kiss my Royal Arse!". Another one was similar to Father Ted (way before FT was commissioned), but I can't remember the details - something about a bunch of priests getting a nun pregnant, forcing her to get an abortion, only to discover the terminated baby was the second coming of Christ. They had an idea in there similar to Love Thy Neighbour too, but I can't remember the specifics. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lubin Odana EMAIL: lubinodana@hotmail.com IP: 194.80.32.10 URL: http://trashaddict.blogspot.com/ DATE: 03/22/2003 01:54:19 PM I like your naked gay men sitcom idea. I think it should be set in a generic urban gay village that nobody ever leaves, and the 6 main characters should be played by the same buff tanned 19 year old actor - the only way to tell them apart will be by slightly different hairstyles or clothing. The show could be called "Clones", and there could be some other characters who'd also be stereotypes - a politically-aware lesbian with spiky blonde hair (possibly mixed-race too), someone plucky in a wheelchair, and a flamboyant black drag queen called Miss Ebony Tease who proffers sassy words of wisdom and a padded shoulder to cry on. It will show on BBC3 and be hugely successful. In fact, I patent it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/ DATE: 03/22/2003 04:44:34 PM Didn't the BBC do that one already? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.33.63 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/22/2003 10:40:30 PM Thank God for Lubin! Who else could have researched such matters in such detail: "The loves and lives of the residents of Dyke Street. It looks a bit minimalist and has characters called Bev and Mandy, and they hang out at a bar that has a pool table and drink pints and play on fruit machines so if you're middle-class you'll probably be horrified at how common everyone seems." [link] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@NOSPAMgroc.org.uk IP: 81.132.145.140 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog/ DATE: 03/24/2003 02:06:50 PM If that was to ever happen I think I'd develop instantaneous terminal internalized homophobia and die on the spot. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sic code EMAIL: jenny_johnson_ca@hotmail.com IP: 207.88.76.143 URL: http://www.sic-naics-codes.com DATE: 03/25/2003 10:52:26 PM I watch Friends all the time. I love that show, it's so funny. I thought it was a new show. ----- PING: TITLE: frienatical zealot? URL: http://www.lifeintheday.co.uk/archives/000005.html IP: 66.246.54.225 BLOG NAME: Lifeintheday DATE: 03/29/2003 08:52:01 AM Tom Coates paints quite an accurate portrait of one of my favorite things, and I find it hilarious. Please note... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are you sure? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 03/21/2003 10:53:18 PM ----- BODY:

    I went to see Richard Dawkins talk at the Douglas Adams Memorial Lectures a couple of weeks back. Dawkins was introduced by Stephen Fry, who quoted Niels Bohr in saying, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum mechanics hasn't understood it".

    I'm not going to be talking about the war much for the foreseeable future, but you'll probably notice a dramatic increase in the blackness of my humour. I should think the cynicism index will probably peak in fairly short order too. In fact, my only piece of advice to people on both sides of this issue is an analogue to Bohr's comments - anyone who is 100% sure of the morality of their position with regard to the war in Iraq probably hasn't understood the issues involved. Be prepared to have your mind changed. Remain open to new ideas. Protest / Advocate only what you really believe to be true... In the meantime, here are a couple of war-related links that are barely about the war at all...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.50.80 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 03/22/2003 10:51:41 AM Douglas Adams - the last true genius to inhabit this Earth. Now, where did I leave my digital watch? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marc Bohlmann EMAIL: kaisersosa@gmx.net IP: 80.138.191.186 URL: http://www.bagofgoodies.de DATE: 03/22/2003 01:02:36 PM Indeed it can be troublesome to argue about this war and it can be even more troublesome to justify your own position, which is why I stick to what I really belive in: that dealing with your problems in a violent, military way is backward. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlie b. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.179.44.206 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 03/22/2003 11:59:05 PM Tom, you are very right. I was given a moderately strong upbraiding in the "Making Light" comment box for underestimating the potential for damage to the Kurdish people of a Turkish invasion when the war began. I said I was not convinced (though I felt worried). I must now admit that I was wrong. I did not give the issue nearly sufficient credence or weight. To admit error, or change with self-examination and thought is, I hope, some evidence of open mindedness. I have seen you do it, Tom. But there is also an awful ignorance of fact, and from his article in today's Guardian that ignorance is something Prof Dawkins wishes to entrench. He is a disgrace to his own brilliance. ((Oh, and well honoured in the breach, Marc!) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tristan EMAIL: tristan@souljacker.net IP: 62.64.225.242 URL: http://www.impavidus.net DATE: 03/23/2003 05:47:40 PM given your interest for stats and so on, i thought this might interest you, it's a questionnaire on Iraq which shows you how everybody 'voted,' it's better than i make it sound, ho hum. hello from manchester ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neave EMAIL: paul@magneticn.co.uk IP: 212.135.204.146 URL: http://www.neave.com/ DATE: 03/24/2003 04:09:53 PM I've been trying to get my head around all of this war-in-Iraq thing and I've come to the conclusion that I can't come to a conclusion about it. Points being:
    1. War is wrong.
    2. Saddam is wrong.
    3. Killing is wrong.
    4. War and Saddam kill people.
    5. Blair has a brain.
    6. Bush doesn't have a brain.
    7. The media overwhelm us with conflicting information.
    8. We can't possibly understand this situation as well as the government.
    9. And that's scary - we have to rely on Bush and Blair.
    10. We don't trust the media, Bush or Blair.

    So what do we do now? Good question. Sit on our hands or take to the streets... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Coulter EMAIL: dhc50@netzero.com IP: 192.135.122.2 URL: DATE: 03/24/2003 10:19:22 PM Sure it's easy to sit back and say war is wrong, but what happens to the inocent people who are suffering under a tyrant. Will talking to him help? Maybe he needs to be given a time out. Maybe a week in Las Vegas will help. Only a fool would belive that talking to someone like Saddam, Hitler or Stalin would accomplish anything. The only thing the understand is force. Evil men rule when good men sit on their "morales" and do nothing! I will be suprised if you post this since it appears you only post those in line with your view. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Coulter EMAIL: dhc50@netzero.com IP: 192.135.122.2 URL: DATE: 03/24/2003 10:19:44 PM Sure it's easy to sit back and say war is wrong, but what happens to the inocent people who are suffering under a tyrant. Will talking to him help? Maybe he needs to be given a time out. Maybe a week in Las Vegas will help. Only a fool would belive that talking to someone like Saddam, Hitler or Stalin would accomplish anything. The only thing the understand is force. Evil men rule when good men sit on their "morales" and do nothing! I will be suprised if you post this since it appears you only post those in line with your view. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.33.63 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/24/2003 11:02:48 PM Well then I'm delighted to prove you wrong. Your argument is facile and ridiculous and exactly the kind of thing I've been talking about. I don't have any doubt whatsoever that Saddam Hussein should not be in charge of Iraq, but you'd have to be facile to think that's the only issue involved here. I repeat - if you think you have it pegged to 100%, then you don't understand anything - from our desire to have Hussein removed and the world's anxiety about action without international sanction, to our fears about international terrorism and our anxieties about post-Hussein reconstruction. I won't be part of anyone's cult - pro or anti. I have no interest in walking in step with a group, so please feel free to take your rhetoric elsewhere... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christina EMAIL: movingatescapevelocity@hotmail.com IP: 68.159.205.178 URL: http://livejournal.com/users/blacklynx DATE: 03/27/2003 08:09:03 PM Major word. You are one dude who knows where his towel is, ne? ;) Seriously, I don't think anyone I've talked to seriously about this war hasn't expressed misgivings no matter what side they fall on. Personally, I am pro-war at this point, but as you said, that doesn't mean I have no qualms about it at all. In fact the only thing I am 100% sure about is that I wish there was no need for a war at all. ----- PING: TITLE: Are you sure? URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/616 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 03/22/2003 09:30:24 PM plasticbag: "I'm not going to be talking about the war much for the foreseeable future, but you'll probably notice a dramatic increase in the blackness of my humour." ----- PING: TITLE: More Words on the War URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/03/more_words_on_the_war.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: macdaraconroy.com DATE: 03/23/2003 05:25:15 PM ...anyone who is 100% sure of the morality of their position with regard to the war in Iraq probably hasn't ----- PING: TITLE: More Words on the War URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/03/more_words_on_the_war.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: M. Ellis Conroy's OM&TR DATE: 08/25/2004 02:13:53 AM …anyone who is 100% sure of the morality of their position with regard to the war in Iraq probably hasn’t understood the issues involved. Be prepared to have your mind... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Designing for extreme readers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/23/2003 03:35:02 PM ----- BODY:

    So a mainstream news site is often comprised of many hundreds - thousands - of individual news stories. These stories are mostly designed to fit into a pretty clear taxonomy which reflects "what the news site is for". This taxonomy is normally pretty clearly defined and normally has a pretty wide top level (the items that deal with the news alone are divided up into anything from seven to twelve sections - world, business, science, politics etc). Articles may be faceted or sit under several headings (heterarchical organisation), but the taxonomies concerned are fairly clear (often inherited from org-charts derived from parallel print products - but never mind, eh?). This kind of taxonomy results in the need for left-hand navigation (it's simply difficult to put large lists horizontally on a page). This kind of navigation, in turn, is well-suited to the kind of readers that a news site tends to get - people who have an ongoing relationship with the publication in question (ie. they knew of the site before they went there) and are therefore prepared to browse the site because they came to it as a specific first port of call for a kind of information or to answer a specific question.

    Weblogs are very different beasts - particularly those weblogs which are based around single-entry archives. Firstly, they don't tend to have clearly definable taxonomies. Some may - but they are the exception, and tend to be the more professionally oriented. So there's no need for large navigational structures or organised heterarchies. Weblogs are also not first port of call sites when you're trying to answer a question or get a specific kind of information. They are specifically designed to be feeding out information as and when the publisher wishes, and not in direct response to anything going on in the world outside. You cannot guarantee that Jason's site - on any given day - will provide you with all the news you need to know about any subject. Nor is the site organised to make the finding of entries on a specific subject matter as simple as possible. This is not a flaw in Jason's site - nor is it a flaw in weblogging in general. It's simply the way the form is structured.

    In fact, while news sites are a coherent whole into which individuals dip themselves, weblogs have two very different types of readers with two very different forms of interaction. Firstly, there are those with a long-term association or relationship with the person / site in question. Secondly, there are those who are directed to a specific internal page by a link from another weblog or via an unfortunate (or inspired) search request. These extremes are more radical than a news site. On a weblog, it's entirely possible that someone might find themselves on a specific internal page without having the slightest idea of the context of a post whatsoever - or anything about the site in question. This will be still more true about a site that allows people to publish individual entries to individual pages - like Movable Type.

    Essentially, while a substantial group of readers are treating your site as an ongoing narrative centred around the presence of a singular human author, many other people are seeing nothing more than an infinitesimal slice of your content. For all they care, your weblogging application might not be producing one coherent site at all - in fact to any individual member of this second audience, your weblog will consist of just one of dozens / hundreds / thousands of bespoke self-contained and only loosely connected one-page sites that all happen to share a design. One of them might see "What Tom Coates did at the pub last night", one might see "Niels Bohr and the War in Iraq", another "Extreme Readers and Weblogging". This group further breaks down into two groups - the group that might be persuaded to hang around for longer and those who came for information and information alone.

    Most weblogs are designed for the weblog-literate - who you might want to lure across the rest of the content on your site by supplying them with previous / next links or calendars ,or by illuminating your (probably fairly haphazard) taxonomies through displaying lists of categories. But the average member of the general public will understand the page that they find themselves upon only if you supply context - above and beyond that supplied by a standard news or article based website. They need to be able to assess your trustworthiness, they need to be able to estimate the value of your writing. They also need to be able to figure out precisely what kind of writing it is.

    So here are a few recommendations to webloggers who wish to be comprehensible to these readers:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: gjw EMAIL: gjw@despammed.com IP: 129.127.41.28 URL: http://the-fix.org DATE: 03/23/2003 11:55:19 PM For a while I have been considering placing some kind of explanatory text on my individual archive pages. Since I moved from my own PHP-based system to Movable Type, I have had a dramatic increase in people searching for an obscure topic in Google, finding it on a 2 year old archive page on my site, and leaving a comment asking for help with the problem. Often these comments are written in language that suggests they believe my website is a help form or discussion board, not just my own random links. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dawn EMAIL: dawn@drivingwithdawn.com IP: 209.178.191.136 URL: http://www.drivingwithdawn.com DATE: 03/23/2003 11:59:35 PM I've often thought about the visitors who come to the individual entry pages of my site via search requests. Like most webloggers, I do include main navigation on every page. This navigation includes a link to my "about" page. I also list my categories on these individual pages. However, after reading this, I wonder if I too should place a little bit of explanatory text on my individual pages. People probably don't know what the heck my categories mean (even though I try to make them as self-explanatory as possible), nor do they click on my "about" link so they know what the heck they stumbled across when visiting my site. I don't even do that on my home page -- now I am wondering if I should. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Xavier EMAIL: xavier@exit13.f2o.org IP: 138.88.114.135 URL: http://exit13.f2o.org/blog/ DATE: 03/24/2003 04:52:07 AM I'm in the process of redesigning my blog right now with Movable Type and one thing that I'm trying to address off the bat is the problem (if it can be called a problem) of users stumbling across individual archived entries of mine. Usually they are not part of a bigger scheme although sometimes I have been known to issue series, so I am including on each page a little bit about my site so that users don't have to click through an extra link to find an "about me" page and can get a more basic understanding of where all the stuff they're reading had come from. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neave EMAIL: paul@magneticn.co.uk IP: 212.135.204.146 URL: http://www.neave.com/ DATE: 03/24/2003 12:07:22 PM Wow, you don't half go on about not a lot. How about a brief summary for each blog, that way we can get to the gist of entries quicker without having to skim read the lot. (As you can guess, I have not read this article at all but gave a cursory glance at the title and started to prattle on in the comments section, hence contradicted myself entirely.) We live in the MTV generation, where people have less-than-goldfish attention spans. Get to the point! Life's too short. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.rog DATE: 03/24/2003 01:34:23 PM Weird one this, Neave. A fair few other people have e-mailed to tell me this piece was particularly useful for them. I tend to think it's a bit overlong as well, but then we're not always the best judges of these things. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 216.40.52.20 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 03/24/2003 04:53:17 PM An important issue, perhaps, but a ridiculously easy one to address. I have "Weblog" written at the top of my weblog, and "Weblog - Individual Entry" written on each individual entry page. Anybody who doesn't have the presence of mind to click on the "About" link to find out more about the weblog author should probably be kept away from sharp objects like computers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@noemail.com IP: 195.92.168.174 URL: DATE: 03/24/2003 05:08:09 PM If I ever see another weblog entry about weblogs I'm going to jump out of the fucking window ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/24/2003 05:55:22 PM To be fair, Dave, this weblog is partially about weblogs - although I understand your frustration. Often when at news.bbc.co.uk, I become overwhelmed by the irritating number of apparently impartial factual and timely pieces of writing there... Damn them! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.159.249 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 03/24/2003 09:03:23 PM (Tee hee to the both of you). One thing I would say, as a point of constructive criticism - I don't think the red links overlay very well on the blue background. The red bleeds quite badly on my screen, anyway. I'd suggest black and underlined or something similar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kennedy EMAIL: kennedytaylor@yahoo.com IP: 64.246.11.20 URL: DATE: 03/24/2003 09:15:32 PM I'm with Neave on this one. It continually baffles me why anyone with such an obvious interest in weblog usability would continually hector their poor readers with the kind of interminable prose that you do. You've got an excellent grasp of matters concerning layout and navigation - and you've obviously got a much better than average grasp of the English language - but your communication is continually apalling, the worst kind of academic babble. This is the Internet. Brevity is vital. Clarity is key. You get neither here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 03/25/2003 12:30:13 PM Are weblogs really that difficult to fathom for the uninitiated? To be honest, I think the terminology surrounding weblogging is more baffling to newbies rather than the the stucture of the content itself... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 62.58.35.2 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 03/27/2003 04:06:25 PM "This is the Internet. Brevity is vital. Clarity is key." Speak for yourself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/27/2003 04:30:34 PM No offense, Kennedy, but you're talking about a specific kind of writing designed for a very specific type of audience. This post was clearly designed for a different group of people than much of my other stuff - it was more directly aimed at Information Architects and the like who may be taking weblog-style posts into the mainstream. As to 'this is the internet, brevity is vital, clarity is key' - well brevity is always important - clarity is always important. But precision is just as important - and for this particular audience on this particular subject precision, explanation and context trumps brevity. On a related note - plasticbag.org remains my personal site. I answer to no-one, so I write precisely as I wish to and however I feel is appropriate. My readers (both of them) also have no obligation to keep reading the site and yet do so anyway. I must be doing something right... ----- PING: TITLE: The Weblog Manifesto--A Response URL: http://www.myirony.com/archives/000272.html IP: 209.217.36.5 BLOG NAME: MyIrony.com DATE: 03/24/2003 12:58:19 AM Worried that Google's acquisition of Blogger is a bad omen for the world of weblogging, Mark Anderson at the American Sentimentalist launches a salvo calling for new thinking among his fellow webloggers. Even though it is still a draft, Mark's well tho... ----- PING: TITLE: Peer Influences URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000467.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 03/26/2003 02:57:28 PM Thanks to Tom's prompting, I've tidied up the design of the two weblogs here, ext|circ and ext|linklog. Text is now... ----- PING: TITLE: news vs. the blogs URL: http://www.vervelab.org/archives/2003_03.html#000093 IP: 162.42.208.240 BLOG NAME: verveblog DATE: 03/27/2003 07:22:16 AM really great article on the differences in organizational structures and resulting design implications of news oriented sites vs. individual weblogs. a very coherent articulation of an issue i didn't even know i was struggling with. a singular absence ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogroll revisited... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/24/2003 02:21:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm slowly and systematically working my way around plasticbag.org, sorting out the weblog sidebar. I'm trying to find the best ways of helping the site to explain itself on each and every page - without compromising cross-site and inter-post navigation. It may sound naff and unremittingly tedious to you, but I'm finding it intensely satisfying. As a side effect of this process, I've decided to have a hack at the part of the sidebar that deals with my favourite weblogs. This is now almost a direct copy of my NetNewsWire subscriptions, which means one of two things - either everyone's getting an RSS feed, or I'm gradually ceasing to read people without them...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Observation on the Trackback "How To"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/25/2003 02:09:04 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know what it is about Trackback that makes it utterly impossible for anyone to explain it well. Certainly the How Trackback Works (from cruftbox.com is a scruffy but noble attempt to make it comprehensible to people. But I think it's going to fail because it explains the process before it adequately explains the concept. I think it has another failing too: it concentrates on explaining the mechanical and clunky 'do it by hand' approach of getting trackback URLs and pumping them through the 'pings' interface. No-one's going to get it until everyone's using autodiscovery.

    Ben and Mena Trott's version (Trackback for Beginners) is well-written and comprehensive, but essentially incomprehensible. I think it's because it doesn't concentrate on explaining the core uses of the functionality (get person x to automatically link back to me when I post something about them), but instead tries to go right back to first principles. Personally I'm not only not interested in someone Trackbacking my site simply in order to get a mention, I'm actively against it and don't think they should be mentioning it - let alone promoting it. On a weblog (at least) there's got to be reciprocity of some kind otherwise it's going to be the most-spammed feature in online history.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 216.40.52.20 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 03/25/2003 02:24:46 PM I guess this is my cue to repeat my plea that you share your secrets to a transparent TrackBack link setup with us TrackBack simpletons! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/25/2003 02:38:30 PM Yeah, I know, I know. I'm just so horribly behind at the moment that I barely have time to scratch out my daily witterings... I'm thinking about it. Honest... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 03/25/2003 04:39:32 PM I still don't see how autodiscovery improves the 'trackback as self-promotion' situation, or the lopsidedness of trackback 'conversation' between high-profile bloggers and low-profile bloggers. All it does is shift the burden of pinging from the human to the machine. What's the net benefit of automating what is essentially an act of sending a message from one person to another? Most automated email is, after all, spam; how would a world of widespread autodiscovery trackbacking avoid that fate? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/25/2003 05:09:28 PM Well trackback clearly has two effects - first thing it does is encourage people to link to you and discuss your posts, because they will get a counter-link in return that will bring people back to their sites. Whether that's good or not isn't really relevant. The second thing it does is encourage people to follow on a post they've read onto another person's site - automatically, all the time... That seems to me to have one really obvious benefit - that "low-profile webloggers" get the opportunity to write something that will be seen. I don't know how long it will be until Trackback becomes totally spammed into oblivion (certainly trackback management stuff will probably appear in the next year or so) but I think autodiscovery makes several things easier (finding the URLs to ping without having to actually look for them etc) and a few things harder (just deciding to go 'check me out' on someone else's site). I remain unconvinced that trackback is going to change the world, but if we're going to try it out then it only makes sense to try and get people to do it properly... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: michael@cruftbox.com IP: 204.128.192.72 URL: http://cruftbox.com DATE: 03/25/2003 05:17:43 PM scruffy? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/25/2003 06:24:06 PM Eep. Busted. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 03/25/2003 06:42:50 PM Bloody autodiscovery, eh? ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: omit EMAIL: timothompson@yahoo.com IP: 209.217.166.66 URL: DATE: 03/25/2003 09:25:09 PM As you said in another post about TrackBack(I think), the name "TrackBack" gives no help as to what its function is, which is "comments from other websites". I think it just needs a better name or description because its purpose is not self-evident without explanation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anil EMAIL: anil@dashes.com IP: 66.108.7.149 URL: http://anildash.com/ DATE: 03/26/2003 09:24:59 AM Tim, TrackBack does a lot more than just comments from other websites. TrackBack's a protocol, and remote comments, as you've described, are one of the things it can do. It can also say, "I have a post that's relevant to the topic your site is aggregating information on." Which is pretty cool, too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/26/2003 12:09:09 PM I don't think there's any doubt that Trackback can do loads more than the basic core use that we're all starting off with. But the issue here is how to get people using it at that very basic level and explaining it to them in a way that they'll understand. The people who can understand the various other uses of Trackback aren't really the people who need instruction on it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 03/26/2003 01:41:02 PM On Anil's point about its other merits: don't get me wrong, I can see the value of trackback for dealing with *automated* sites, or for large, community sites that feel less 'personal' because of their size. Automation can even be useful on a personal site, as Matt Haughey has shown by pinging song info from WinAmp to his blog. But automating the process of saying 'hello, I wrote about your post' is not going to be particularly attractive to everyone. And this ties in with exactly this issue of selling trackback to the masses. Why should we assume that people don't 'get it', and that this is why few use it? It's been around for a while now, after all. What if they do get it - the main selling point of remote commenting, that is - and just don't think it's particularly useful? If the main value of trackback turns out to be, in fact, its value in updating automatic aggregation services, or alternatively its value as an internal blog-management tool (the way Matt's using it), then it's being sold in the wrong way. An alternative might be to present it as an aggregator-pinging service, and have an option in MT configuration to switch autodiscovery on *for specific sites* (which the user nominates, perhaps adding their URLs in the same way they add entry categories), with the assumption being that those sites will be high-profile blogs or portals. But this would still leave the door open to trackback spam. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: omit EMAIL: timothompson@yahoo.com IP: 209.217.166.66 URL: DATE: 03/26/2003 08:54:17 PM Yes, Anil, I know what you're talking about (like sxswblog or austinbloggers.org), and that usage is valuable as well. Perhaps that should be given a separate function or nomenclature, even though it's the same technology behind it. Once people see what Trackback can do, I think there is an "aha!" moment, especially with aggregation services, which are really cool. People want to know what they can do with trackback, not how it works. "Oh, I can link my comment to his post?" or "If I check this box, my post will show up on this blog as well as mine?" This relates to Tom's earlier comments about transparency--the gears should not show. For example, if you use a permalink, shouldn't your post ping the person's site you're linking to? By using the permalink, you're saying, "I am specifically commenting on those specific comments on that person's site." I suppose this is known as autodiscovery. This gets to the heart of a Movable Type problem--one which may limit its ability to become the leading blogging tool for the masses. Like Greymatter before it, it is a geek tool. Endlessly customizable, configurable and scriptable--but to do this, you have to have a lot of knowledge about scripts, PHP, server configuration, etc. Out of the box, it is not user-friendly (to the point where you have to pay somebody to install it or else cruise forums, consult friends with technical know-how and spend a lot more time with it, just to get it to do most of the same things you were already doing with your previous Fisher-Price blogging tool). There's too many steps necessary to do anything in MT. I like the page for downloading the new Madonna mp3, where it says, "There is no step 3. Three steps is too complicated!" Yes, it is. Even for blogging tools. A problem with Trackback's lack of adoption is the fact that Blogger has not integrated it (and despite it being outre among many bloggers, Blogger is still the tool of the blogging masses). As for the spam issue--maybe a site's owner (or members) should have the ability to approve or deny trackback pings, perhaps by an approval process (site owner receives an email saying "so-and-so has pinged your site. approve or deny?") or a Slashdot-style vote-up or down process. ----- PING: TITLE: Trackbacking made simple URL: http://raravis.net/archives/000012.php IP: 204.215.189.243 BLOG NAME: Raravis | Uniquities from the world of wonder... DATE: 03/25/2003 04:31:48 PM This post in itself is a Trackback, I'd thought I'd let you know. I have many a time tried to explain the principle of Trackbacking, but to no avail, so for those of you who simply don't understand it, here... ----- PING: TITLE: TrackBack Tom URL: http://nslog.com/archives/2003/03/25/trackback_tom.php IP: 66.111.66.231 BLOG NAME: NSLog(); DATE: 03/25/2003 06:12:05 PM Tom Coates made me wonder how long TrackBacks will exist before they become useless and spammed, just like our inboxes. My own thoughts also include... ----- PING: TITLE: TrackBack for beginners URL: http://brilliantcorners.org/archive/2003/03/trackback_for_beginners.php IP: 63.151.147.106 BLOG NAME: Brilliant Corners DATE: 03/25/2003 11:44:49 PM In response to the recent discussion over what TrackBack is, Six Apart has provided "A Beginner's Guide to TrackBack." It does a pretty good job of explaining TrackBacks in a general sense, but it doesn't completely cover the reasoning of why it should... ----- PING: TITLE: Don't Hide Your TrackBack URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/03/dont_hide_your_trackback.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 03/27/2003 01:15:58 AM Don't hide TrackBack - make it obvious ----- PING: TITLE: testing! URL: http://www.rainbucket.com/log/archives/000026.html IP: 80.177.94.180 BLOG NAME: rainbucket dot com DATE: 03/29/2003 02:54:38 PM this is my first trackback.. wooo! ----- PING: TITLE: TrackBack to the source URL: http://brilliantcorners.org/archive/2003/04/trackback_to_the_source.php IP: 63.151.147.106 BLOG NAME: Brilliant Corners DATE: 04/09/2003 08:31:44 PM Last week, I posted a link on MetaFilter which pointed to the "poetry" of Donald Rumsfeld. I rarely post anything to MeFi since I often come across the good links and stories after they've already shown up everywhere else. Anyway, I had this great link... ----- PING: TITLE: Trackbacking made simple URL: http://bluegrooves.net/archives/2003_03.php#000010 IP: 66.246.28.241 BLOG NAME: bluegrooves || in pink DATE: 09/03/2003 10:56:02 PM This post in itself is a Trackback, I'd thought I'd let you know. I have many a time tried to explain the principle of Trackbacking, but to no avail, so for those of you who simply don't understand it, here... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Good things to do with noises... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/25/2003 02:35:52 PM ----- BODY:

    Noise. Where would we be without it? Trapped in a sensory-deprivation tank, perhaps. Maybe - at a push - in space (although we'd have to not have any air-tanks or helmets or anything to experience the absence of noise, and I don't know what the auditory effects of boiling blood, near-absolute zero temperatures and explosive bodily decompression might be)...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Badgers are funny URL: http://www.guydickinson.com/sheep/archive/000670.html IP: 217.206.220.106 BLOG NAME: a clever sheep DATE: 03/25/2003 08:45:59 PM On plasticbag.org, Tom was describing some Good things to do with noises... One of the items he mentioned was SpeechGear's ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief thoughts on e-mail newsletters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/25/2003 10:39:58 PM ----- BODY:

    The site for the Text E-mail Newsletter Standard is a well-intentioned and intelligent attempt to develop some standards for plain-text e-mail newsletters. It only falls down because the accessibility-conscious design strategy they've taken doesn't seem to be actually very easy for the non-visually impaired to read. I'd be really interested in the opinions of the b3ta and popbitch crews on this subject - they've made readable plain-text e-mails an artform (although screen-reading the ascii logos must be excruciating). cf. Stef's comments on screen-reader browsers.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The sky over Primrose Hill... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/27/2003 09:55:33 PM ----- BODY:

    A couple of weeks ago I went to visit a friend in Primrose Hill. On the way over the bridge across the train lines I saw a beautiful sky. I like skies. You don't get to see them enough in cities.

    primrose_hill_sky.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: NetNewsWire Strawpoll... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 03/27/2003 10:46:41 PM ----- BODY:

    Inspired by a terrifying conversation with Dan Hon in which he revealed that he had 135 subscriptions strapped to his groaning copy of NetNewsWire, I decided to do a bit of a straw-poll. Not enough people were available online for me to do it properly though, and I'd had quite a lot of caffeine so I got quite impatient, so here are some unsubstantiated rumours glued together with some implausible guff

    Spies situated on the shiny pinacle of nearby Trump Towers have spotted Meg Hourihan striding through "The Internet" with roughly thirty subscriptions in NetNewsWire yapping after her like tiny dalmation puppies. But our insiders think that more is going on here than meets they eye... Could she be reading many more sites via bookmarks?

    The mysterious shadowy figure of Anil Dash is said - shockingly - to have rejected the one true church of NetNewsWire and to have narry a subscription at all. Indeed, he's recently seen cavorting with old-style "browsers" in a down-town speakeasy filled with cookies and bookmarks.

    Your humble editor can only confess to around forty subscriptions - several of which are also not strictly 'read' as such, while several other people... {blah blah blah... time passes} ... with a stoat where the sun don't shine. But enough about that particular mystery weblogger...

    Back to the issue at hand, the quest for the Ultimate Subscriptions Champion was proceeding apace. Throughout my investigations, the great mythical moon monster of Captain "Zeitgeist" Doctorow kept cropping up. Could this silver surfer of the cyberspaceways be an RSS man-mountain? One of our sources claimed he had in his secret underground lair a massive installation of NetNewsWire linked by thick fibrous cables to three hundred or even more subscriptions, each of which would be downloaded freshly each day! Such dastardly decadence! Sadly, the truth is a little more prosaic - after e-mail contact, Cory has confirmed that he's only attached to around 120/130 sites... Our winner therefore remains - undefeated - Dan "Bandwidth" Hon - whose every crippling refresh breaks the very fibre of the internet underfoot. All hail him, for he is the geek of all geeks...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/28/2003 10:25:07 AM Updates from the masses! Cory writes in to compensate for his NetNewsWire inadequacy by claiming that he has i) a couple of hundred sites that are set to poll once a week using pineapple and ii) an hourly e-mail from infominder looking for updates on another 100 sites as well... Possibly, though, he's just trying to look cool in front of Ben Hammersley who declares Dan Hon to be "a girl" - citing his own concurrent two hundred and twelve subscriptions... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Bridge EMAIL: tom_bridge@mac.com IP: 65.206.93.10 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0116463 DATE: 03/28/2003 02:40:55 PM Brent Simmons has 147 subscriptions according to his interview with MacSlash. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rainer Brockerhoff EMAIL: rainer@brockerhoff.net IP: 200.165.21.195 URL: http://www.brockerhoff.net/bb/viewtopic.php DATE: 03/28/2003 04:44:06 PM I'm at 165 currently, this includes some dozens of news sites where I usually read only the headlines. I wish NetNewsWire had some built-in system to help me track which subscriptions should be dropped, but I've been unable to come up with suggestions that don't raise immediate objections... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Baio EMAIL: log@waxy.org IP: 4.38.40.97 URL: http://www.waxy.org/ DATE: 03/28/2003 05:01:47 PM I have exactly 50 subscriptions at the moment. Pretty lightweight compared to you people. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill EMAIL: b@brilliantcorners.org IP: 63.250.222.254 URL: http://brilliantcorners.org/ DATE: 03/28/2003 06:17:12 PM I have 57 weblogs in my Syndirella aggregator, which I use only occasionally. I still read many sites that don't provide RSS feeds (i.e. Diaryland and Pitas users), so at this point the news reader just isn't an ideal solution to reading websites. Still waiting for a better alternative. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: George EMAIL: george@allaboutgeorge.com IP: 208.142.153.36 URL: http://www.allaboutgeorge.com DATE: 04/06/2003 05:02:44 AM 106 and climbing ... ----- PING: TITLE: There she goes again URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000469.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 03/28/2003 08:27:09 AM Via Brad, Edward Tufte examines a PowerPoint slide. Brilliant. Rich Baker on Genes, People and Languages. Every few months,... ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/03/28 09:47 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2022 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 03/28/2003 09:51:13 AM Yoz on DST ----- PING: TITLE: 99 read buh-logs, floating on my TiBook screen. URL: http://www.allaboutgeorge.com/retro/000460.php IP: 66.33.197.204 BLOG NAME: ALLABOUTGEORGE.com DATE: 04/01/2003 11:27:45 AM Flash the message, something's out there.So, yes, a certain blogger's optimism and a little industry on my part have led... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: George Bush Funeral Home... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/27/2003 11:13:32 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a page on this site that's recently been getting a fair amount of traffic. It's a page in the gallery which includes pictures of an establishment in Norwich, Norfolk called the George Bush Funeral Home. I don't know how I feel about this. I took the pictures a couple of Christmasses ago after September 11th but before any massive pro or anti-war demonstrations were happening - and way before Iraq was even back on the international agenda. I'd seen the building years before of course - on my way back from school when I was a kid - only suddenly becoming a source of black satisfaction when George Bush the first got into power and when the first Gulf War was underway...

    I don't get that feeling any more. People linking to those pictures in 'approving' terms' seems cheap to me. Tacky. Glib. It's not an image that helps people think in different terms about anything. It doesn't give people any more context or an understanding of any larger issues. It's too easy an image to be 'decent' (in the moral sense). I feel more and more that a grasp of this issue must be fought for, worked at. What's black humour in times of dissent becomes propogandist in times of war.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah EMAIL: sarah@leto.co.nz IP: 210.86.77.18 URL: DATE: 03/28/2003 12:47:59 AM Just my opinion for whatever its worth. Why don't you include the text of that post on the page with the photo on it? People are using something you've created in a way that you're not happy with. Point that out. Let them know what your motivations were when you took the picture and how you feel about it being used as propaganda. If it's something that's really bugging you then make that clear. But ultimately though, you can't control people and you can't be responsible for the way they think and act. Sometimes you just have to let go. Use your energy on the people that actually matter to you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: martin EMAIL: martin.belam@currybet.net IP: 80.189.17.50 URL: http://www.currybet.net DATE: 03/28/2003 01:53:59 AM i am having a similar issue where my post about dolphins and sea lions being trained for use in the gulf from january is getting hit a lot now it is happening. i posted an image from the news wires [which is being widely published now] as an addendum to the post, which led to it being linked to by people thinking it was comedy or photoshoppery, which has led to people leaving joke comments on the post. and i don't know what to do about it either. i don't want to delete the comments [free speech, liberty, and the values of a connected world], but people are linking to the image out of context, and stealing my bandwidth. so aside from rotating the filename of the image every eight hours i'm stuck with it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah EMAIL: sarah@leto.co.nz IP: 210.86.77.18 URL: DATE: 03/28/2003 02:58:47 AM Martin - there is an article at scriptygoddess which explains how to use .htaccess to protect your images. You might find it helpful in your situation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scaryduck EMAIL: scaryduck@fastmail.fm IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://scaryduck.blogspot.com DATE: 03/28/2003 11:23:07 AM Tom --- OK, I'll own up linking to those pics, but I've linked to the page rather than the pics themselves, so you can see the context they were posted in. Besides, that also gives the visitor the option of staying around and seeing the rest of your site. As for people ripping off your pics, I'm sure there's some sort of remote linking device you can use. This sounds suspiciously like the "deep linking" argument that's been doing the rounds for some time. All the best - Al ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: arseblogger@arseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.170 URL: http://www.arseblog.com DATE: 03/29/2003 02:34:35 PM Tom, I think you're taking it too seriously. George Bush Funeral Home - haha. 5 seconds of laughter, no big thing in the great scheme of things though. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When e-mail clients attack... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/28/2003 10:20:51 AM ----- BODY:

    This probably couldn't be any more trivial, ridiculous or infantile. But - just occasionally - OSX's Mail.app's tendency to truncate e-mail subjects and place an ellipsis at the end of the line has unintentionally funny side-effects...

    truncate.gif

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Playing linklog catch-up... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/28/2003 12:20:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Lots to get through this morning - all the stuff that I've meant to talk about in greater depth but haven't had time to do so... Apologies to all concerned for trivialising your hard work...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/03/27 14:04 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2014 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 04/03/2003 03:34:58 PM buffer overflow attacks ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is Trackback? (part one) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/31/2003 08:29:37 AM ----- BODY:

    As part of an (hopefully) ongoing series - here's the most very basic introduction as to what Trackback can do. This is not a study of how it is done - and it makes certain assumptions that I'll go into in an upcoming lesson (assuming I get around to it) - but I think it might be enough to get that basic first point across to people who are confused by all the other stuff it can do...

    You can also download this image as a .pdf what_is_trackback.pdf. This diagram was created in the awesome OmniGraffle - a product of the Omni Group. I plan to use it loads more from now on...

    Addendum: This is not supposed to be directed at the average weblogger of a few months standing. This is just for those newbies who've not managed to see it in context enough or who don't find the name particularly descriptive.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 03/31/2003 05:00:03 PM ...my Mum loves you... ~: ) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Reader EMAIL: reader@read.com IP: 81.86.207.221 URL: DATE: 03/31/2003 05:43:12 PM Hmmmnn, not at all condescending. Maybe you could tell us all how hyperlinks work now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dawn EMAIL: dawn@drivingwithdawn.com IP: 12.42.51.28 URL: http://www.drivingwithdawn.com DATE: 03/31/2003 07:56:44 PM The basic functionality of trackback I understand. However, I hate having a (usually empty) trackback link after every post. The way you display your trackbacks is much more elegant. How do you do it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@noemail.com IP: 195.92.194.12 URL: DATE: 03/31/2003 10:55:08 PM I don't understand at all ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.28.129.84 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/31/2003 11:12:37 PM Dear "Reader" - if I was writing for a completely non-web-savvy audience, I would explain hyperlinks. In this case, this is designed to be written for a non-blog savvy audience. So there you go. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JimmyT EMAIL: mail@lehopictures.com IP: 216.232.58.138 URL: http://www.lehopictures.com/the_joint/ DATE: 04/01/2003 12:38:03 AM Amazing all this trackback madness lately. You'd think by now we'd all have it, but I guess it is a little complicated. Someone needs to start a trackback blog or something to show the creative ways people are using the technology, beyond the basics. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pete EMAIL: monkiboi@monkiboi.net IP: 80.177.96.252 URL: http://www.monkiboi.net DATE: 04/01/2003 12:08:00 PM as someone who finally understood what 'trackbacks' were only a few months ago i wish someone had bothered to do something like this when the idea first came out. the name doesn't really help either. 'off site comments' would have told me a lot more than 'trackback' could ever hope to achieve. not quite so snazzy though is it? there's also the fact that not everyone uses MT or whatever blogging tool that incorperates trackbacks so there's no incentive for some to really get to grips with it. but while i now understand trackbacks i still fail to see the point of them. instead of having a post with a number of comments that i can follow i now have to follow the trackbacks, which have their own comments, on which the original poster may also have added something to. then once i've finished i have to return to the original page, try and pick up the thread and then go to the next trackbacked link. i must be *really* missing something here!? sorry to go slightly off topic on the last bit tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 04/01/2003 01:18:13 PM I think TrackBack has potential, but only once people realise that its true value lies in the form of 'further reading' or 'see also' type links, rather than just using it as a means of saying..."Oh look, Tom's written another article on his site today..." and blatantly getting a link back to their own site for not a great deal of effort to them or worth to the reader. I like the idea of TrackBack, but won't be bothering following TrackBack URLs if the latter perpetuates. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Choire EMAIL: choire@eastwest.nu IP: 172.203.73.142 URL: http://www.eastwest.nu DATE: 04/01/2003 06:09:33 PM I actually do believe that trackback is one of the most important innovations in the way we use the web (or at least, how we may use it in the future), The problem is I have a hard time caring enough to install it and make it look like something I would use. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 212.238.82.186 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 04/01/2003 08:06:05 PM So I'm using Phposxom as a blogging system, which does not have trackback and I'm wondering if and how I could use trackback manually? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pete EMAIL: monkiboi@monkiboi.net IP: 80.177.96.252 URL: DATE: 04/01/2003 10:11:26 PM s3d: i agree. some people seem to see trackbacks as a euphemism for 'increase my google rating'. i've even seen trackbacks where the trackback consisted of a 'look at this' type link or a quoted passage from the original post. surely it's the blog equivalent of spamming comments and chatboxes with 'hey everybody. come visit my site!'. if it was a form of further reading then i think it would be fine. in fact it'd be great. but it's not. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 198.173.142.227 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 04/01/2003 11:45:59 PM Martin, The Moveable Type people have a standalone trackback implementation, which can be adapted for use with Blosxom and variants (incl. PHPosxom): http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/ I use it with Blosxom, but I'm not familiar with PHPosxom, so I couldn't tell you how to integrate it exactly. You might take a look at some of the work Matt Gemmell has been doing on Thistle (which started life as a variation on PHPosxom). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy EMAIL: andyfaeglasgow@yahoo.co.uk IP: 130.209.241.223 URL: DATE: 04/15/2004 10:49:30 PM RE: Misuse of trackback Surely people gain a link back to their site simply by including their homepage in the appropriate field? What is the point of putting an additional trackback? Andy ----- PING: TITLE: Trackbacking made simple URL: http://raravis.net/archives/000012.php IP: 204.215.189.243 BLOG NAME: Raravis | Uniquities from the world of wonder... DATE: 03/31/2003 09:02:57 AM This post in itself is a Trackback, I'd thought I'd let you know. I have many a time tried to explain the principle of Trackbacking, but to no avail, so for those of you who simply don't understand it, here... ----- PING: TITLE: TrackBacks Tough to Understand? URL: http://nslog.com/archives/2003/03/31/trackbacks_tough_to_understand.php IP: 66.111.66.231 BLOG NAME: NSLog(); DATE: 03/31/2003 01:35:20 PM I don't understand what's so difficult to understand about TrackBacks, but this surely wouldn't clear it up if I was confused. TrackBacks are links to... ----- PING: TITLE: What is Trackback? (part one) URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/650 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 03/31/2003 04:58:17 PM plasticbag: "This is not a study of how it is done - and it makes certain assumptions that I'll go into in an upcoming lesson (assuming I get around to it) - but I think it's enough to get that basic first point across to people who are confused by all... ----- PING: TITLE: do you understand trackback? URL: http://www.rainbucket.com/log/archives/000046.html IP: 80.177.94.180 BLOG NAME: rainbucket dot com DATE: 04/01/2003 12:34:17 PM And this is where i argue why trackbacks should be explained. I have to say that even though i am not a newbie to blogging, i am a newbie to MT and having a blog at my own domain. In... ----- PING: TITLE: trackbacks for the newbie... URL: http://www.bgmccollum.com/home/archives/000010.html IP: 12.129.211.120 BLOG NAME: as if i care to comment DATE: 04/03/2003 04:24:19 PM plasticbag.org | weblog i was once a newbie. ive since been enlightened. i just found this quick explanation at the link above. included in the article are links to other articles about trackbacks. i wish everybody used them...... ----- PING: TITLE: On Trackback Abuse And A Possible Solution URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog_archives/individual/2003/04/on_trackback_abuse_and_a_possible_solution.shtml IP: 80.71.2.160 BLOG NAME: neverthink.com DATE: 04/26/2003 08:39:47 PM (Note: I was in the middle of replying to Adrian's thoughts on Trackback abuse, when I realised that what I ----- PING: TITLE: UserLand Trackback Test URL: http://weblog.kimberlyblack.com/archives/000051.html IP: 162.42.210.236 BLOG NAME: Navigating Business with Technology DATE: 07/25/2003 08:37:56 PM So what the heck is a TrackBack and what is it used for? Read the MT manual's definition page for TrackBack. Here's SixApart's specification for it. A couple of different definition pages here and here (Tom Coates). Here's a working... ----- PING: TITLE: Trackbacking made simple URL: http://bluegrooves.net/archives/2003_03.php#000010 IP: 66.246.28.241 BLOG NAME: bluegrooves || in pink DATE: 09/03/2003 10:55:55 PM This post in itself is a Trackback, I'd thought I'd let you know. I have many a time tried to explain the principle of Trackbacking, but to no avail, so for those of you who simply don't understand it, here... ----- PING: TITLE: The meaning of trackback URL: http://cradle.mine.nu/archives/2003/10/20/1658 IP: 216.67.227.157 BLOG NAME: Wingie's Cradle DATE: 10/20/2003 11:55:24 AM Been getting a lot of Trackback® Pings lately. To my disgust, a lot are not including links to my entry. To me, its like free links for them. Is Trackback® that hard to understand? As Tom Coates put it in... ----- PING: TITLE: About Downing Street Says URL: http://www.downingstreetsays.com/about.html IP: 132.185.240.122 BLOG NAME: Downing Street Says DATE: 03/01/2004 11:04:18 AM ----- PING: TITLE: Why is Orrin Woodward Blogging? URL: http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2004/07/why_is_orrin_woodward_blogging.php IP: 209.61.185.17 BLOG NAME: Quixtar Blog DATE: 07/29/2004 03:23:48 PM Why has Orrin Woodward, leader of the Quixtar group Team of Destiny, started a blog? This is the same man who struggled to limit access to formerly public articles. However, now he's publishing a blog, one of the most open and candid forms of communica... ----- PING: TITLE: Whither trackbacks? URL: http://www.magpiebrain.com/archives/2004/09/20/trackbacks IP: 193.111.201.129 BLOG NAME: magpiebrain DATE: 09/20/2004 10:21:42 AM So lets look at the figures. Number of posts: 272. Number of comments: 506. Number of trackbacks: 12. Spot the odd one out? Trackabcks have been enabled since virtually day one of this blog, and have been surprisingly underused. I’m... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Slashdot and Conversations STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/01/2003 05:57:35 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm a bit of an enforced holiday at the moment. Evidently I've been getting too crazed with work as last week my boss started passing me notes saying things like "You need a holiday" and "Get out of my company". So it's ironic that after all those months of carefully tending UpMyStreet Conversations that it should be the first workday that I'm out of the office this year that the site gets Slashdotted.

    I haven't had a chance to read through all the comments yet but mostly people seem interested in the concept of geocoding content generally - with Conversations itself getting fairly limited coverage. Nonetheless I'm hoping for a few insights here and there... It's a pity that Slashdot's audience is so US-centric, of course - since the site is designed for people who have UK postcodes. Most of the people who come via Slashdot won't be able to participate in any particularly meaningful way.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apposite but Innaccurate... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/03/2003 01:36:02 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a quote going around the internet at the moment that's widely attributed to Julius Caesar - and it's tremendously rousing and potent and apposite. Unfortunately, I've seen no evidence whatsoever that it's not also total bunk.

    "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From the Financial Times this morning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/04/2003 10:51:10 AM ----- BODY:

    From the Financial Times this morning: UpMyStreet.com in Administration

    "Upmystreet.com, one of the pioneers of the UK internet sector, yesterday followed many of its long-gone peers into administration as financial pressure led the company to file for protection as it sought a buyer. Tony Blin-Stoyle, founder and managing director of the company that provides local information to users, said the company had chosen a "prudent course of action" that he hoped would give it time to find a buyer. "We have filed for admini-stration, but still have time as we are fully solvent while looking for a buyer," he said. Upmystreet developed a reputation for high-quality database technology that made use of the internet's ability to link people with information relevant to them and won a string of awards. Its website links consumers to postcode-based information such as council tax rates, house prices and local businesses, while its commercial services help business and public sector bodies organise their web-based information. The group, owned in part by News International, BSkyB and NM Rothschild, earns annual sales of about £2m but has suffered from the media and technology slowdowns."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wants: song by Denice Williams, featuring Jekyll and Hyde? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/04/2003 11:08:29 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm back in London now, looking around me suspiciously and thinking about what to do next. But the first thing I want to do is resolve an issue that's been driving me insane for about three years now. When I was a kid, my mother used to listen to fairly terrible cassettes in the car on the way to school - this must have been somewhere between 1981 and 1985. She had this album in the car and it was kind of Motown and it had a song on it which I really liked. Mum swears it was by Denice Williams. All I remember about it was that it had a line about a guy seeming to be like Jekyll, but actually being like Hyde. You see - clearly a quality song. Anyway - does anyone (i) know what the name of said song is? (ii) know where I could get a CD or decent quality MP3 of it?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 216.40.52.20 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/04/2003 12:43:30 PM I'm bored at the office, so I thought I'd take a quick scoot round Google. Amazon sells a variety of Deniece Williams albums (Deniece being an apparent alternative spelling to Denice)- if you want my advice, if you can't come up with a specific song title, either buy them all (ulp), or search them out with Kazaa et al. You might strike gold. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: prince april EMAIL: secretprince@patrickwolf.com IP: 217.155.44.153 URL: DATE: 04/07/2003 06:49:02 AM there is a serge gainsbourgh song about dr jeckyl and mr hyde... it is an amazing song... kinda motowny... check it out mr tom. x p.a ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Paralepsis (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Language CATEGORY: Language DATE: 04/05/2003 11:16:11 AM ----- BODY:

    One of my favourite words is paralepsis (I've even talked about it before). It's a word from the ancient study of rhetoric and it essentially means that you state loudly the subjects that you're not going to talk about - in the process bringing what you're omitting into the forefront of people's consciousness. Here's an example:

    "Let's not get bogged down here... Let's pass swiftly over the vicar's predeliction for cream cakes. Let's not dwell on his fetish for Dolly Mixture. Let's not even mention his rapidly increasing girth... No no - let us instead turn directly to his recent work on self-control and abstinence..."

    It's an immensely satisfying and highly entertaining piece of verbal fun, even if it is also a bit of a blunt instrument. Paralepsis is a collision of statement with intent - it presents itself both as an obvious paradox and as the extension of language's ability to use fragments of fact to allude to larger and more involved passages or narratives - the paralepsis is a signpost that there's more going on here than the person's in a position to talk about, even as he or she talks about it. It's an insidious move as well as a revelatory one, and it reveals one of the greatest difficulties of speaking the truth - that even if one doesn't lie one can easily mislead. This is the terrible sin of 'lying by omission' - of using carefully selected and accurate information in such a way that totally mischaracterises the situation in hand. And an extension of that is the way self-censorship tries to stop individual people making connections of this kind. We all need a weird kind of internal paralepsis, perhaps, to make those connections that we don't want to make out loud - or perhaps we feel we can't...

    Which is all, in its way, merely an introduction to one of the most blatant, glorious and important use of paralepsis I've seen in my life. From the Onion: I Should Not Be Allowed To Say The Following Things About America...

    P.S. For the Americans amongst us, "Dolly Mixture" is a peculiarly British kind of sweet that traditionally you would buy in small paper bags by weight from large glass (or later plastic) bottles held behind the counter. I can find little about their origins online, but I believe they got their name by being small enough to look like food for dolls' tea parties and the like. Shamefully, they are a personal favourite.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Two problems solved, and a new one URL: http://www.quernstone.com/archives/000134.html IP: 66.33.197.11 BLOG NAME: Jonathan Sanderson's Weblog DATE: 04/05/2003 01:34:38 PM I have new glasses. Oh yes, I can see again, and it's a slightly disturbing experience. My right eye in ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Self-Correcting Blogosphere... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 04/05/2003 12:55:21 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm going to be playing catch-up for a while here - picking up on things that I would have written about except I took a holiday (never again). First things first, let's have a gander at this article: Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed... in 42 days (on 'The Second Superpower'). This is an extraordinary piece of work that manages to merge legitimate concerns with some of the most neurotically paranoid reasoning I've ever seen. The argument is simple - the phrase "The Second Superpower" originally referred to "World Public Opinion", but because someone subsequently wrote some politically castrated techno-utopian article with the same name (and said article got taken up by some 'significant' webloggers) if you now do a search on Google for the term, you find no trace of the original meaning. All that remains is the knock-off.

    The article seems to ascribe this change to a kind of weird A-list cabal of webloggers. This is true in that a certain group of people who are much-linked-to have linked to the article in question - that's reputation-based rankings operating to save us from people writing "The Second Superpower" three-hundred times in their meta tags. Unfortunately it's also rubbish in the sense that - as a vast conjoined semi-self correcting connected network of webloggers exists - all it takes is one Register article (picked up in turn by other webloggers) for this problem to self-correct. People get so tense nowadays... And about so very little... In the meantime, let's all raise a glass to you, oh gloriously self-correcting blogosphere...

    More on this subject:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 04/05/2003 12:59:54 PM I mentioned a while back on The Copydesk that there's now probably three world superpowers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Any minute now... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/05/2003 07:31:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Any minute now I'm going to have to launch into a huge tract about social software - about the good things and the bad things, about the cult that's emerging around the term (with all it's requisite ecstasies and rites of initiation), about how much the way people write about it reminds me of how people used to write about the internet before it became saturated with hype and the companies came and grew and then exploded in shards and collapsed upon themselves taking many good people with them. At a certain point, I might even have to mention that there's a tremendous power here, but that it's an extension of / redevelopment of / repurposing of earlier insights made by people making MOOs, MUDs, bulletin boards, message-boards and wikis and how I love working in it but I'm scared of the way people are talking it up and I wish people would build more brilliant things rather than talking about it. And then inevitably - shortly afterwards - I'll probably write something more about it myself... It's not like it was with my other baby. Weblogging grew gradually and properly and organically through the interactions of real people. This one's being increasingly owned by the wrong people.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: falling in with the wrong crowd? URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/archives/000414.html IP: 129.21.21.1 BLOG NAME: mamamusings DATE: 04/05/2003 08:13:36 PM Tom Coates writes about "social software": I love working in it but I'm scared of the way people are talking ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some more thoughts on social software... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/05/2003 10:36:14 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm going to take the unusual approach of linking through to a comment I've made on someone else's site. The comment is flawed - it's full of typos and errors and gets a bit over-excited every so often - but essentially I stand by most of it - particularly this part which is about the relationship between research/debate and hands-on experience running an online community:

    From my response to 'Falling in with the wrong crowd'
    "Thereís a pretension around our work that says that weíre scientists - but mostly weíre not - weíre artisans. We build things for people to use. We build things that extend the abilities of individuals in one way or another. As such people who work in this field should be doing apprenticeships as much as they should be doing research. They should be managing a community, understanding the tensions and the collapses, noticing the problems and the benefits, seeing where people get stuck and where they need to get stuck - where they need structure and where that structure will kill them."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz Lawley EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 04/05/2003 10:57:12 PM What I was trying to say in my post--and my comment to my own post (could this get any more convoluted, I wonder? no, don't answer, I already know it can)--is that I think you're setting up a false dichotomy here. One of the things that a lot of people don't realize about the school where I teach (RIT) is that it takes the apprenticeship idea pretty seriously. All of our students in IT are required to do a minimum of three quarters of co-op work. And most of the people teaching in our program have "walked the walk" before "talking the talk." The reason I feel as though I'm a good place to talk about--and do research into--things like online communities is that I have indeed been a part of them for so long. From local BBS communities (where I met my first husband) to Fidonet echoes (where I met the second); from BITNET listservs to Yahoo! Groups, from CompuServe CB Simulator to my 7-digit ICQ ID...I figure I've earned my stripes as a participant. (Heck, I was participating in Michigan's online conferencing environment--CONFER, I think it was--back when you were still listening to Deniece Williams in the back seat of your mom's car. :-) The fact that I'm now in an academic environment shouldn't mean that my credibility as a participant goes away. What I'm striving for is better partnerships. Give my students co-op experiences...and I'll give you back people with the technical and social skills to build the tools that you're imagining. And yes, I know I sound defensive. It's hard being the ivory tower scapegoat sometimes. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.142.40 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/06/2003 10:26:59 AM Don't for one moment think that I don't know that! While playing online (which I started doing a mere ten years ago now - probably making me a bit of a newbie) I was also trying to complete my doctoral thesis in Freudian concepts of identification, lesbian and gay theory, ancient Greek tragedy and screen theory. I'm more than familiar with both the resentment of the implication (and the concommitant anxiety) that one is safe in an academic ivory tower. But I think the important thing for me to repeat is that when I talk about my anxieties surrounding emerging conversations in social software, I'm often talking about people who haven't had that level of engagement - certainly not in the position of a builder or a community leader - and certainly not for any decent period of time. My knowledge of how your students work is highly limited, so I wouldn't want to make statements like that about them - and nor would I want to make absolutist statements - as long as someone is talking sense, I don't give a damn whether they've walked the walk or not. In Delphi, the oracle stood on top of a pit of fuming scents and burning substances and went into an ecstatic trance from which she'd reveal the future in a form of pre-Christian glossolalia - speaking in tongues. She'd use words either without or stripped of all meaning which would be interpreted subsequently by high-priests and reported as a glimpse of "the future". The way people are using fascinating and interesting theoretical developments (and newly popularised concepts like smart mobs, distributed networks and the like) often feels to me like a similar process - the words are stripped of all context and insight or meaning, and are pulled into discourse in order to convey a sense of hipness or 'now'. It's a weird and uncomfortable place for someone like me to occupy suddenly... Ach. I'm droning. Basically - (i) lots of good discussion going on, (ii) but everyone's getting too caught up in language and hipness and needs to be dragged back down into tiny micro-building projects (iii) otherwise the whole enterprise will combust, taking this opportunity for the pushing-forward of human collaborative and/or social working and flushing it down the loo... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz Lawley EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 04/06/2003 03:09:05 PM I think, at the end of all this, we're in pretty close to the same place. I agree, the micro-building needs to happen. What I'm encouraged by, however, is that nearly every discussion I've been involved in on this topic (including the much-maligned "emergent democracy" group that Joi pulled together) has been very cognizant of this. The "wouldn't it be nice" rhetoric has a constant drumbeat of "we need to *build*" accompanying it.

    (Just tried to put in line breaks...will see if they take.)

    What you're talking about is exactly what I'm trying to do with my students...I feel like I've got this golden opportunity to take all this enthusiasm and skill that's passing through my classroom and turn it in the direction of these projects. So my reading and participation in these discussions is all targeted towards making things really happen.

    The grant that Alex Halavais and I submitted to NSF is also geared toward making things happen, and getting the developers and toolmakers to talk to the researchers to talk to the content experts (folks like you and me, who have lived in this world, not just studied it). I doubt it will get funded--didn't have enough time to work on it, or to schmooze the program manager--but the concept is there, and if NSF turns us down we'll look elsewhere to move that project forward.

    All of which by way of saying I understand your concerns, and see them as valid--but I'm less pessimistic than you are right now, because I'm seeing so _much_ movement towards actual building and not just talking/writing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross Mayfield EMAIL: ross.mayfield@socialtext.com IP: 67.112.122.207 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0114726/ DATE: 04/07/2003 08:46:05 AM Learn by doing and do by learning. Learn and do what's new. ----- PING: TITLE: Don't just natter about social software, build something URL: http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/001050.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: BookBlog DATE: 04/06/2003 05:22:06 PM Tom Coates on the discussion to code ratio. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Remaindered Links (after Kottke)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/05/2003 10:38:09 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. So I'm back in London and I'm struggling to get back up to speed with what's been going on in my absence. It's terrifying how much can happen in a week. It's terrifying how behind you can feel... Keeping hold of that sensation - where you're actually riding the crest of the meme-stream is becoming an ever more difficult way of passing the time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Megnut illustrates why blogging matters URL: http://theanswergrape.com/aweeblog/mt/archives/000415.html IP: 66.96.128.113 BLOG NAME: Weeblog DATE: 04/07/2003 11:45:53 PM Megnut's powerpoint presentation defining blogs to the initiated. She also details how they pull writing out of the book metaphor ----- PING: TITLE: A latterday Athens URL: http://www.bowblog.com/archives/000348.html IP: 212.62.7.51 BLOG NAME: bowblog DATE: 04/08/2003 12:29:08 AM So UpMyStreet, apparently a latterday Athens peopled entirely by cool, fun people has Gone bust. Even NTK suspended sarcasm for ----- PING: TITLE: Megnut illustrates why blogging matters URL: http://theanswergrape.com/aweeblog/archives/000977.html IP: 66.96.128.113 BLOG NAME: WEEBLOG DATE: 07/15/2003 11:16:36 PM Megnut's powerpoint presentation defining blogs to the initiated. She also details how they pull writing out of the book metaphor and well on our way towards content creation free of wordcount worries (via Plasticbag.org) Some of these points are very... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On an unsettling dream... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/06/2003 11:08:46 AM ----- BODY:

    I had a weird dream last night. In the dream, something apocalyptically odd had happened. Pollen from space, perhaps. Or a Tipping-Point style collapse where an idea or a chemical or a radio wave or something finally hit such a level that it generated utterly pandemic effects - spreading throughout the entire human population in a matter of moments. About a third of all the people on the planet suddenly became utterly obedient and suggestible - satisfied simply to serve - all apparently good-natured and pliable. One by one they'd kind of imprint on unaffected people around them, doing basically whatever they said. Initially, all the non-obedient people were horrified. They wanted their friends back, their relatives. There was research and work to try and get them back to normal. But gradually the non-obedient began to get used to it. Newly obedient people were gradually stripped of their good jobs and started to happily help out the people they were imprinted on - doing smaller jobs, littler things, menial tasks. Gradually though, the non-obedient people started to feel darker temptations, secretly and shamefully relishing the power and the opportunities it afforded them. Gradually the obedient people came to be seen as less than human, and - because they didn't fight back, and didn't express pain - were gradually and regularly physically abused, sexually violated and essentially enslaved. Gradually the world fell into two castes - the mainstream of humanity who could express any desire they wanted on their human 'pets' but who had a dark hint of discomfort and shame to everything they did, and a submissive and willing underclass. No one knew whether inside each member of the underclass was a fully conscious human being screaming in protest or whether they were as they seemed - docile, placid, unfazed. One of the people I like most in the world had become an oppressor...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: On an unsettling dream... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/683 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 04/07/2003 09:42:42 PM plasticbag: "Newly obedient people were gradually stripped of their good jobs and started to happily help out the people they were imprinted on - doing smaller jobs, littler things, menial tasks." ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hydra - a brief experiential review... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 04/08/2003 12:34:47 AM ----- BODY:

    So Mr Webb and I have been playing with Hydra for a couple of days, trying to find uses for it and trying to get other people engaged in its use (with the hope that in the process we'll come to some decent first-stage conclusions). Standard disclaimer here - all decent insights are collaborative in origin, all mistakes entirely my own.

    First things first, for those of you who have come in late - what is Hydra. Essentially, it's two (or more) people fiddling with the same document from two different computers at the same time with each being able to see what the other is doing. If you're on the same network, then you can find documents to work on over Rendezvous. Otherwise (if you know your IP and are not trapped behind an unforgiving firewall) you can join with documents over the net.

    Our first impressions weren't entirely favourable. It may have been easy enough to connect to a shared document, but once there - what to do? We found ourselves using the first document in a peculiar inscribing way - kind of writing on it an ongoing discussion but in a non-linear graffiti kind of style. It reminded me a lot of those pictures you do when you're a child where you draw a plane and then another plane and then you draw a missile coming from one plane and then you draw it hitting the other one, and then you turn that plane into an explosion and then you draw a little man in a parachute flying down to earth...

    Starting a document from scratch, it seemed, was to be an almost impossible enterprise. The document itself kept getting lost within our debate about it. Later we would adopt the slightly odd approach of having two shared documents open at the same time - one as our newly discovered chat-graffiti-wall, the other for actual work on a document. The Apple key depressed with the ` made a relatively convenient way to skip between windows. But even with this approach in place, it became difficult to find a way of pulling the first initial strands of a document together. It was almost like you needed a separate scratch-pad incorporated into the program so you could push a piece of work a certain amount down the line towards completion before exposing it to your colleagues...

    Working with code or mostly finished documents was a hell of a lot easier and more productive - and I think this is something we'll probably find ourselves doing again in the daily course of our work. Keeping the two window model (one for debate / one for editing) we played for a while with a weblog post - amending it as we felt appropriate - bashing it more cleanly into place. The most useful feature here (weirdly) was one of the most simple - the ability to select a piece of text with a sweep of your cursor and then go, "that bit there needs a change" or "I love the turn of phrase" in the other window. That simple act of gesturing to a passage was tremendously liberating.

    Finally Matt pulled the HTML source of a standard plasticbag.org page out and slapped it in the window - which turned into a debate about embedded RDF and Trackback. We could have been using it to understand why a page wasn't rendering correctly or to debug or debate the correct syntax in any individual spot - or even (if we used a more literary or commentative text) simply as a medium for discussion - like being able use a laser pointer to signal a dubious passage and have your colleague know exactly what you were talking about even though he was on the other side of the room / city / planet...

    First Impressions: I still can't quite decide whether Hydra feels like a tiny niche application with some surprisingly significant uses or whether it should be considered a slightly clunky prototype of something almost world-changing. Certainly I'll watch it with considerable interest and I recommend it to anyone interested in collaborating online...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: capn@capndesign.com IP: 24.168.0.112 URL: http://www.capndesign.com DATE: 04/08/2003 03:55:49 AM When you guys were talking about highlighting text, I thought about the benefit of this in cyber-meetings (a meeting where people are in various different locations). If normally you would hand out some kind of spreadsheet or other document, you could instead use Hydra. Then people could all make realtime changes or additions or add questions. Also, you could have a minute-taker using another documents to take notes. I haven't had to do too many meetings of this type, but I feel like it could be very useful here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.orgß DATE: 04/08/2003 10:33:30 AM There's a really interesting and good quality response to my review here. ----- PING: TITLE: http://sippey.com/recentlybrowsed/#000414 URL: http://sippey.com/recentlybrowsed/#000414 IP: 64.91.232.71 BLOG NAME: recently DATE: 04/08/2003 01:32:17 AM tom coates on collaborative editing (through a review of hydra)... ----- PING: TITLE: It's only in your head you feel left oute URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000487.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 04/08/2003 08:54:18 AM Absolutely amazing Honda ad (4mb Quicktime mov)--the one with the stuff that hits the stuff that hits the stuff--and... ----- PING: TITLE: Hydra rears another head... URL: http://www.mobileentropy.com/archives/000232.html IP: 82.35.40.2 BLOG NAME: Mobile Entropy DATE: 04/08/2003 10:05:38 AM Tom's been looking at Hydra. I agree with his conclusions that it's best reserved for finishing things off or discussing something that's already complete but due for a review. I've not written code in anger for some years now, and certainly not as par... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wotchadoin' World? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/08/2003 12:54:08 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been making diagrams. Don't ask. I've been making diagrams. I'm in love with Omnigraffle and I don't have time to post about what I'm thinking about because I'm too busy making diagrams about it. Hopefully I'll hit some kind of legitimate plateau soon though and the diagrams will all coalesce with the stuff that I've been meaning to finish for ages and suddenly there'll be loads of longer pieces from me appearing about Trackback, about Micro-paradigm shifts as a metaphor for online discussion, about social networks and the like... In the meantime, it's brief link-log orgy time again - today mostly about online publishing work...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Excerpts: Baudrillard, "The Transparency of Evil" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/08/2003 01:16:20 AM ----- BODY:

    A couple of interesting thoughts from Jean Baudrillard's The Transparency of Evil (Verso 1990)

         And why does terrorism exist, if not as a violent form of abreaction in the social realm?
         The most stiking thing about events such as those that took place at the Heysel Stadium, Brussels, in 1985, is not their violence per se but the way in which this violence was given worldwide currency by television, and in the process turned into a travesty of itself.
         'How is such barbarity possible in the late twentieth century?' This is a false question. There is no atavistic resurgence of some archaic type of violence. This violence of old was both more enthusiastic and more sacrificial than ours. Today's violence, the violence produced by our hypermodernity, is terror. A simulacrum of violence, emerging less from passion than from the screen: a violence in the nature of the image ...
         Another remarkable aspect of a happening like this is that it is in some way expected. We all collude in the anticipation of a fatal outcome, even if we are emotionally affected or shaken when it occurs. The Brussels police have been criticized for failing to avert the explosion of violence at the Heysel Stadium, but what no police could ever guard against is the sort of fascination, of mass appeal, exercised by the terrorist model. (p.75)

    From a different article in the same book:

         The high degree to which AIDS, terrorism, crack cocaine or computer viruses mobilize the popular imagination should tell us that they are more than anecdotal occurrences in an irrational world. The fact is that they contain within them the whole logic of our system: these events are merely the spectacular expression of that system. They all hew to the same agenda of virulence and radiation, an agenda whose very power over the imagination is of a viral character.... (p.57)
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In Internet Magazine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/08/2003 01:14:40 PM ----- BODY:

    The wonderful weirdness of print publishing schedules means that the latest issue of internet magazine contains a news story about Google buying Blogger - a full five weeks after the story broke online. It's got a few comments from me in it - which I think always greatly improves a publication - but even apart from my individual wisdom, the article itself is pretty cool. But enough about them...

        Tom Coates, author of the opinionated Plasticbag weblog (www.plasticbag.org) said webloggers themselves have been sorting out the Web's content for some time. 'There are a million webloggers out there, all writing stuff and linking to things in neatly organised and timely chunks,' he said.
        'Webloggers are collectively, hyperactively and accidentally making sense of the Web. So it's not so much about categorising weblog content as it is about using them to categorise everything!'
        Coates said he doubted that there'd be a Google News of weblogs, but thought that their links would be used to "add value" to existing news coverage. "Putting some of the good weblog posts at the end of conventional online news reports might bring that kind of context and grass-roots reaction back into online news," he said.

    God knows if I did say all that. It sounds pretty good though, so I'm not going to protest. I even agree with most of it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Are we making sense of the web? URL: http://www.wallposter.net/archives/webology/000033.php IP: 66.246.81.109 BLOG NAME: Wallposter DATE: 04/09/2003 06:07:24 AM Tom Coates, of plasticbag.org fame, is in this month's Internet Magazine talking about Google's recent acquisition of Blogger. The following... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On America, Science and Fundamentalist Christianity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Science CATEGORY: Religion CATEGORY: Science DATE: 04/10/2003 11:59:21 AM ----- BODY:

    Probably the one thing I understand least about America is its relationship with religion. American is a country that (i) is particularly known for not being hide-bound by convention in science or business and (ii) often demonstrates an astonishing (and often laudable) amount of bombast and rule-breaking in both domestic and foreign-affairs. How then can it be that so many elements of American life can be held so firmly under the sway of religious fundamentalism?

    You'd think this kind of thing would be more of a problem for countries like the UK - old European powers whose organisation includes no inbuilt distinctions between church and state. I mean - look at the facts - in the UK, the monarch is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The same woman is also the country's Head of State and has been for over fifty years. The UK also has - by law or convention - several representatives of the Church of England in our Upper House (The House of Lords), although there is considerable discussion ongoing about whether they should be there or whether all religions in the country should be represented.

    But in fact the UK's religious right has radically less power within the country than in the US. Presidents of the United States essentially have to be church-going Christians. Church-going in the UK is simply considered a bit odd. We have anti-abortion campaigners just like in the US, but nowhere near as many and nor are they so overtly religious. And while it would be naive of me to say that there are no schools in the UK in which creationism or intelligent design are taught, I can't find any evidence that it's even mentioned in the UK's National Curriculum or that any religiously-tinted competitors for evolution are presented as of equal plausibility.

    It's the effects of religion on science, I think, that most appals me. I don't believe - never have believed - that science is a completely value-free space. Decisions are made every day about what to study, who to study (and what not to study as well). Initial hypotheses are almost necessarily built upon assumption, intuition and the influx of current mainstream political consensus. But the idea that challenges to theories like "evolution" can circumvent the entire academic peer-review and testing process by way of the courts - inspired by people who want to find ways to equate the world with their religious beliefs... Well, it's scandalous! Totally, utterly scandalous!

    The Guardian is running an article in its new Life section today on exactly this subject: The Battle for American Science. It's this article that part-inspired me to write about this subject today. Here's a quote from it:

    Critics speak with similar alarm about other theories that have been getting a new airing recently, on Aids and abstinence and global warming, for example - theories presented as rival scientific ideas asking only for a "fair hearing". "It's a very good rhetorical strategy, because it appeals to the very American sense of openness and fair play," says Miller. "But there's something called the scientific process, you know - involving open publication, criticism, and rejection of things that aren't convincing. We don't teach both sides of the germ theory of disease and faith-healing. Evolution isn't in the classroom because of political action or court decisions. It's in the classroom because it made it through, it stood up to scrutiny and became the scientific consensus. It fought the battle and won."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: david EMAIL: david@parmet.net IP: 24.45.113.166 URL: http://www.parmet.net/david DATE: 04/10/2003 01:17:51 PM One thing you have to understand about the US... for most of us our ancestors came here because of religious persecution in Europe. They came here because they wanted to practice their religion openly without the proverbial heavy hand of gov't watching over them. The thing I think most Europeans, at least the ones I know, fail to grasp is that the First Amendment doesn't us free from religion, it just makes us free from the gov't telling us to practice this or another religion. It's a bit abstract and I'll freely admit we're all still working it out after 225 years and we usually don't get it right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: contact@grahamazon.com IP: 208.57.45.144 URL: http://www.grahamazon.com/glog/ DATE: 04/10/2003 04:11:30 PM Like David said, I think it's partly historical. You tell Americans they have the right to say what they want, practice what they want, print what they want, and we go off the deep end--just like we eat and consume excessively, we practice religion excessively, too. If the First Amendment did't specifically say religion, but just implied it, I don't think there'd be so many fights to get Creationism or prayer in schools, or such fervent support of it. You give Americans a right, and we'll exercise it until we're blue in the face. We'll pray until our knuckles bleed. It's party cultural, too. A lot of Americans view the US (albeit subconsciously) as loved by God, or even Righteous. Hell, we're taught that: "In God We Trust;" "One Nation, Under God;" "God Bless America." Somewhere along the line our earlier leaders thought that America was created as a Godly place. And there's not as much support for higher education in the US either, for many reasons, which I think leads to more people being very religious. It's anecdotal, but most of my friends at least *believed* in God before they went to college. The third part is social/governmental: besides the New Deal era, when government work programs and benefits helped Americans during the Great Depression, we don't have a great history of providing a good safety net for our citizens. Europeans--even Canadians--have a much more decent level of social programs, from health care to child care to maternity/paternity leave. Part of that's the American notion of the Puritan work ethic and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." In the US, you take care of yourself, you don't look to anyone else. Asking for help is considered shameful. So when you fall on hard times, who do you look to for guidance and help? Not the government; it doesn't have the programs or tax base to help you. Not others; you've got too much pride for that. But will help you and always will? God. So, with the increasing (and ever-existing) level of social and economic stratification in the US, where the top 1% owns 21% of the wealth, and the top 10% owns 65% of it, there's going to be a lot of hard times for the majority of the people. And thus, a lot of people are going to be looking for Someone's Help and Love. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 130.15.205.179 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 04/10/2003 06:04:37 PM You should give a read to Wired magazine from a few months ago. Pretty much the whole issue was dedicated to the Science vs. Religion debate. It's available online here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: nick_3141@yahoo.co.uk IP: 213.106.35.33 URL: DATE: 04/10/2003 09:45:37 PM In economics American conservatives have an essentially Darwinian vision: the perfect society can best be built by unfettered "red in tooth and claw" competition between individuals; central control, planning and intervention by the state (even through welfare or healthcare) always fails. In biology, however, there's a 180-degree turn. Here, its competitive Darwinian forces which must fail, Stalinist central planning (by God) which is necessary to achieve biological perfection. You wonder if they can see the contradiction between their "don't tread on me" attitudes to government, and their Kim-Jong-esque personality cult approach to religion... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William Blaze EMAIL: williamblaze@abstractdynamics.org IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 04/10/2003 10:18:17 PM I think its also important to remember that American is essentially a country divided. Take a look at the last election results, Gore won the east and west coasts while Bush took the center of the country and the south coast. Religious fundamentalism sits squarely into the territory won by Bush. Head to Boston, Portland, New York or San Francisco and you'll find a situation pretty akin to Europe. Nebraska, that's another story. Of course there are pockets of the coastal America scattered through the interior, Austin, Bolder, Chicago... Interestingly both the computer industry and the entire entertainment industry (movies, music, art, advertising, etc) are headquartered on the coasts. A bit telling perhaps? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Laidley EMAIL: wlaidley@shaw.ca IP: 207.194.198.106 URL: DATE: 04/10/2003 11:59:16 PM Caveat emptor: I look at the US from the outside, not the inside. Last summer I drove through the states of New York and Pennsylvania. For a while I was trying to find something to listen to on the radio. I could locate weak signals that were interesting - but they would rapidly fade away. There were lots of strong signals: and each one of them was a religious station preaching hell fire and damnation. I wasn't in the heartland by any means. There was an article in the New York Times a while ago telling the story of an NPR (National Public Radio) station forced off the air by a religious station that had a better understanding of how the FCC worked. The religious right has the money and time to get what they want. In an related/unrealted vein: something like 25,000 Baptist missionaries from the US have announced that they will be setting up shop in Iraq. Pouring gas on fire I guess. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William Blaze EMAIL: williamblaze@abstractdynamics.org IP: 64.175.236.85 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 04/11/2003 10:31:55 PM Bill, people in Pennsylvania have a saying about their state. "In the east is Philadelphia, in the west Pittsburgh, and in between there is Alabama". For those not familiar with US States, Alabama is a southern, "bible belt" state that's about as fundamentalist (and racist) as they come. You don't need to get far from the coast to experience the effect. 20 miles or so inland and you are into redneck fundamentalist territory. But a huge percentage of the US population lives in those 20 miles bordering the ocean. NY, LA, SF, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, DC, Seattle, Baltimore and Portland are all coastal. And one of the worst parts of US style winner take all democracy is that 50% of the time you are going to be governed by someone whose ideas you oppose. And yes the right wing, including the religious part of it, is far better organized then the left at this point in US history. Sad stuff. Going to take us a long time to erase the scars that Bush takes such glee in inflicting on the international community. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eric collier EMAIL: pec9557@aol.com IP: 198.81.26.76 URL: DATE: 02/29/2004 03:20:47 PM Bill--While the rest of the civilized world seems content to go with the flow of history, that is, into the future, we Americans seem to be determinedly regressing--scientifically, philosophically, religiously. I do not have a coherent theory to explain this, but I, as an American, find it accutely embarrasing. ----- PING: TITLE: This explains it all URL: http://www.brockerhoff.net/bb/viewtopic.php?p=398#398 IP: 200.165.20.63 BLOG NAME: Solipsism Gradient DATE: 04/10/2003 02:40:46 PM ...as for me, I believe that being superstitious brings bad luck... ----- PING: TITLE: gray skies frowning at me... URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/000095.html IP: 66.216.124.46 BLOG NAME: theonlyjuan.net DATE: 04/12/2003 06:57:56 AM It's funny that in a city run by short-sighted Puritans, my biggest complaint is usually the weather. Until Friday, the ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Perspectives on UpMyStreet... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/10/2003 12:59:37 PM ----- BODY:

    A few days on, here's what the media and webloggia thinks about UpMyStreet (where I have worked for the last eight months or so) going into administration:

    In related news - some of my co-workers are prudently updating their CVs just in case the worst does come to past and the company doesn't find a buyer.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/10/2003 04:51:02 PM Thanks to Phil for pointing out in his track-backed post that there's a really good piece about UpMyStreet by Mike Butcher that's really worth reading too - even though it makes a few tiny mistakes along the way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 04/11/2003 12:34:44 PM Damn, sorry to hear that, Tom and co. Hope you all land on your feet. ----- PING: TITLE: More UpMyStreet URL: http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2003/04/10/more_upmystreet.php IP: 213.161.64.78 BLOG NAME: Phil Gyford DATE: 04/10/2003 02:53:12 PM Coverage of the continuing UpMyStreet administration and analogies for Administrators. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's Friday, it's 10.30am... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/11/2003 10:48:07 AM ----- BODY:

    Time for another massive explosion of satisfying link-goo to get us through the last wheezing gasp of quite a difficult week:

    1. "War is over, if you want it..." - and we should all now be focused on the creative and productive work of rebuilding the broken governments of Iraq and Afghanistan. In an unrelated move, the BBC announces that Killing Badgers 'not the solution';
    2. In the running for the worst game-show idea of all time: Pepsi's win-a-billion game: "An unusually dexterous monkey" will do the picking, says executive producer Matti Leshem. "It's the ultimate slap in the face to evolution: the fate of a billion dollars will be in the hands of a monkey.";
    3. The US might have the fattest people in the world, but the UK has the best snack-food and don't you forget it. Introducing snackspot.org - the slashdot of the teenage lust for sugar, fat and monosodium glutamate. Sample article: Confirmed Sighting: Bob the Builder's Cheesy Toolbag
    4. Could this be the most entertaining range of novelty S&M-wear ever made? bitch, dog, slut;
    5. And finally... As OSX update 10.2.5 is finally software updatable, Apple announce a brand new product...
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Wiki Biography project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/11/2003 03:02:26 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. This is a bit of an experiment in how bored people can get on Friday afternoons as well as a bit of collaborative editing fun. It's also a way of avoiding having to do anything myself. Basically, I want you - the weirdos who are are dumb enough to read a weirdo who is dumb enough to write about stuff on the internet - to help me write my one-page site biography. It may sound self-indulgent, but I don't care - I can't write the damn thing myself, I've been trying for days.

    First things first - here's the current page on the site. It used to be a hell of a lot longer and self-indulgent and then I got uncomfortable with the level of information that it contained about some parts of my life. This came to a head when a fairly prominent warblogging site decided to do a competition in my name (The "Tom Coates Award for the Most Bloodthirsty Warblogger" or something). I edited the text right down to the simple paragraph we see today:

    Anyway - since I decided to put up a link to that page from - essentially - every page of the site (as a way of explaining myself, I suppose), that simple paragraph doesn't cut it any more. So I've co-opted a page on the Barbelith FAQs Wiki for a bit of collaborative writing.

    To make this an easier / more entertaining process, I'm going to be available via AIM for the next few hours under the handle stinkbadger - so if you have any questions or want to ask anything, then you can just ask me directly!

    I know it's kind of a dumb idea, but I've been pulling my hair out for days over this - I just don't know how to write the damn thing. Probably, no one will be interested. If it works, I'll stick up the text (along with the names of anyone who I know worked on the thing in question) up on the site as soon as I get a moment. And if it doesn't? What's the worst that could happen? A few people get exposed to a Wiki. Not the worst thing ever...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On cheery things... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/11/2003 06:37:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Let's end the working day as we began it - with a few lists of cheery links to help us wind down...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meta-kottke... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/11/2003 11:32:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Because you turn around for a moment and he's gone and posted another dozen links (and because - if I'm honest - I'm seldom resistant to repurposing his work), I present "Meta-kottke: Reading the remaindered so you don't have to" (filtered from Jason's recent remaindered links bin):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Register Refutations... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 04/12/2003 02:53:24 PM ----- BODY:

    A week or so ago I wrote a little post called Oh Self-Correcting Blogosphere. It was about an article at The Register in which Andrew Orlowski managed to mix a few half-facts with some general paranoia to assemble the spectre of a censorious and manipulative cabal of either webloggers or Google managers.

    Orlowski's gone off on another one this week - and this one's considerably more ludicrous than the one before. This time - in the article Google washes Whiter - he's protesting that his previous article has been hidden from people who search for the word "Googlewash" on the search engine:

    "Google has made its own statement on the 'Googlewash': by making The Register story that coined the phrase disappear from its search results. Not all the search results, mark you, but a very specific one. When you search for the word "Googlewash" (as at 9pm Pacific Time last night) around a hundred results are returned by default. Our story, which is where the word was coined, isn't among them. We found it, eventually, but it was very difficult."

    The stunning problem with his hypothesis (which was - if you remember - that his article has been censored by Google) is that if you click on the very first link offered then you are immediately directed straight to the article in question. All that's happened is that - for some presumably totally obvious reason - Metafilter's article about Googlewashing gets higher prominence. Whether that's because Metafilter has a higher page-rank and gets linked to more often generally or whether it's because people linked to this particular discussion with more apposite keywords (like 'Googlewash' for example)- well I don't know. What I do know is that if Google were trying to hide Orlowski's 'revelations', then they've made a ludicrously bad hash of it. And if he were looking for censorship, perhaps he should be looking comparatively, since anyone with half a brain can find his article more easily through Google than via altavista or overture or alltheweb.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.53.76 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/12/2003 03:35:09 PM To be honest, I think you're exaggerating the claim that Orlowski originally made - which was essentially that a small-ish number of well-read weblogs often feed selected links down to a larger number of lesser-read weblogs, causing a mushrooming effect which will quickly result in an imbalanced PageRank that biases whatever "side of the story" is being cascaded down the blogosphere. The only flaw was that in the case of the "second superpower" definition, the original definition in the NY Times was only available via paying $2.95, which meant it was unlikely to get many links. His general point stands though. I agree that his new rant is rather more half-baked. It's no secret that Orlowski has exhibited antipathy towards weblogs in the past, but I generally find his acidic style rather refreshing compared to the usual "it's the new revolution" bollocks most publications seem to parrot. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Hon EMAIL: ec@danhon.com IP: 195.92.168.163 URL: http://danhon.com/ec/ DATE: 04/12/2003 04:02:49 PM To the extent that I believe Orlowski's original claim wasn't without much merit in the first place, his second article really does mix in the hyperbole, paranoia and first-class reporting that we've come to expect from the Register, or at least, his articles in general. Perhaps the Register has realised that Orlowski is their very own Dvorak. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: martin EMAIL: martin.belam@currybet.net IP: 80.189.16.135 URL: DATE: 04/14/2003 01:10:49 AM if i had a pound for every time i had read an article by someone claiming that google was censoring them or was biased against them, whilst clearly demonstrating that they have no knowledge of how google's update cycle or spidering or algorithm works, i would have found a rich internet revenue stream indeed ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phil jones EMAIL: synaesmedia@postmaster.co.uk IP: 200.163.2.112 URL: http://blahsploitation.blogspot.com DATE: 04/14/2003 06:37:26 PM I see today that the no 1 result is this : http://www.schoolblogs.com/dawn/ Although I think its a good blog, I can't believe it's really getting more links than Orlowski's article or a Metafilter discussion. So I wonder if Google is now using some notion of *recency* in it's PageRank algorithm for blogs. Is Dawn getting these hits because she posted more recently? Does Google forget high ranking sites where the subject changes? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phil jones EMAIL: synaesmedia@postmaster.co.uk IP: 200.163.2.112 URL: http://www.synaesmedia.com DATE: 04/14/2003 06:38:21 PM I see today that the no 1 result is this : http://www.schoolblogs.com/dawn/ Although I think its a good blog, I can't believe it's really getting more links than Orlowski's article or a Metafilter discussion. So I wonder if Google is now using some notion of *recency* in it's PageRank algorithm for blogs. Is Dawn getting these hits because she posted more recently? Does Google forget high ranking sites where the subject changes? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@blogtastic.com IP: 82.42.155.60 URL: http://www.blogtastic.com DATE: 04/14/2003 11:20:52 PM Orlowski assumes that his article should have the highest relevance to the search term because he coined the phrase. But how the heck is Google supposed to know that? Does Orlowski expect PageRank to keep tabs on the chronological order in which search terms appear on different pages? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 04/15/2003 05:07:21 PM I think I smell a major Google backlash on the horizon. I've just posted a topic about Google caching content from people's websites without obtaining a copyright license from the originator..... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One for the Mirror Project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/13/2003 06:16:05 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a road in the middle of London called Oxford Street. It's the main thoroughfare for shopping in the capital. One night on my way home I spotted an exotic advert - a actual pair of trousers apparently suspended in water. It was dark, so the lights inside the advert seemed to make the bubbles blown in from the bottom glow like tiny jellyfish as they crept and teemed around the pockets and the button-fly. I took a picture to try and capture the atmosphere but in the process got a ghostlike image of myself on the left of the frame. Beneath my face you can see fragments of red lettering - the upcoming-bus-times displayed behind me on the bus stop... I've submitted it to The Mirror Project, of course...

    mirror_trouser.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How to do Trackbacks like plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 04/13/2003 06:36:10 PM ----- BODY:

    This is for a very narrow niche audience, but if you are one of the two or three people who have expressed an interest in how plasticbag.org embeds Trackback links at the end of each entry then here's how you do it. Only a limited amount of computer magic is undertaken. Basically on both the main index template for the site and the individual template for each entry (and any other archiving templates you want to use), I insert this code directly after my <$MTEntryBody$> tag:

    <MTEntryIfAllowPings>
    <ul style="list-style: none;">
    <MTPings>
    <li> &rarr; <$MTPingBlogName$>: <a href="<$MTPingURL$>" title="Trackback from <$MTPingBlogName$>"><$MTPingTitle$></a></li>
    </MTPings>
    </ul>
    </MTEntryIfAllowPings>

    Don't forget, in order for autodiscovery to work when someone else does pings your site you have to make sure that you've included the <$MTEntryTrackbackData$> tag in your template. I don't know if there's a restriction on where it can be placed. I just stick it directly after my <MTEntries> tag.

    Remember: Most of the archive templates will not automatically rebuild every time you get a trackback ping, but they will if they get a comment - so either leave the your comments on or run a rebuild every few days just to make sure that everything's kept up to date.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil Ringnalda EMAIL: philringnalda@barrysworld.com IP: 12.45.56.134 URL: http://philringnalda.com DATE: 04/13/2003 08:00:18 PM Heh. No wonder you're a fan of autodiscovery rather than exposing the TB URL - I'd never looked at yours before. I still think autodiscovery will be the death of TB, though: if every ping is the result of someone intentionally saying "I think people who read that entry should read mine, so I'll either start with a bookmarklet from his page, or copy-and-paste the TB URL from it" then when you read an entry you are interested in, it's worth your time to also read the entries that pinged it, while if everyone turns on autodiscovery, the bulk of the pings will be from "Tom is a genius. Read [link]this[/link].", and people will quickly learn that it's not worth the trouble to look at them. Which is hardly on-topic. Do you find that showing pings on the archive pages, but not rebuilding them when pinged, gives you more multiple pings? At least in the early days, people would send a ping, then go look at the pinged page to be sure it showed up, and if it didn't they would keep pinging until it did. I suppose hiding the ping URL, together with 2.6x logging actual ping errors, would cut down on that somewhat. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cunt EMAIL: cuntycunt@cunt.com IP: 195.92.168.174 URL: DATE: 04/13/2003 08:19:15 PM "but if you are one of the two or three people who have expressed an interest" Surely you exaggerate? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.157.44 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/13/2003 09:40:49 PM So - Mr Cunt - which particular branch of Energis do you work in? Are you really based in Birmingham? And you're on their POP network I see... I wonder what your employers would say if they were provided with some of your recent posting activity, the IP address that you were posting from and the time you posted it. They've even been really helpful and provided me with a nice e-mail address ( abuse@energis.com ) that I could use to get in touch with them. I'm doing this to make it clear that you're almost never as anonymous as you might like to think you are, and that perhaps in future if you're planning to slap the word 'cunt' around someone else's site, you might have the courage to do so under your own name... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.157.44 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/13/2003 10:06:56 PM Phil - yeah - my trackback URLs are a bit nightmarish. It's the same problem I have with the preview functionality in comments - they both use the URL of the domain I have MT installed under. Also, in order to use Pair's CGI processes to their best extent, I have to use cgiwrap, which makes the URL even longer and more disorganised. It's very frustrating. You have a point with trackbacks coming from small asides - but I think that might be a problem with the MT UI more than anything else. Pretty much everything else is set as a preference at a global level, but can be over-ridden on individual posts. But not pinging - you can't say on an individual post you make "don't make this ping everyone". The other point I'd make is that since people can ping without actually linking to the post in question (if you use the manual process) there's phenomenal potential for individuals to abuse things or to build connections where none should rightly exist. At least autodiscovery makes links necessarily reciprocal (if you hide the manual process). Not to say that it can't be gamed of course - but that it puts a barrier in place... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 213.208.105.111 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 04/14/2003 12:47:19 AM You can get round the problem of the trackback list not updating dynamically if you're using PHP by including the trackback CGI script in the page, eg: include("$MTCGIPath$mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=$MTEntryID$"); (I left the angle brackets off the Movable Type tags so they don't disappear in this coment). I don't know if this works with .shtml? The downside is a bit more server overhead as the CGI is run each time your page loads. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: tim@psionic.nu IP: 63.191.33.81 URL: http://psionic.nu DATE: 04/14/2003 03:29:24 AM You are the biggest trackback queen, ever! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/14/2003 09:44:41 AM Humph! I'm just trying to be helpful! It took me ages to get my head around it, and I assume that other people might like some help as well - so I talk about it occasionally. I'm gonna come around your house and whup yo ass now... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.163.180 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 04/14/2003 08:07:30 PM I, for one, thank you for the excellent public service. I actually understand Trackback now, in a practical sense anyway. And thanks for the code fragment - I can make my own a bit better. Now if only people actually tracked back to me... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nando EMAIL: nando@DELETECAPSobarquinho.com IP: 200.102.27.4 URL: http://www.obarquinho.com/nando DATE: 04/16/2003 03:05:46 PM Well, i've prayed for you to post this exact code on Plasticbag when you first post about the trackback subject, but it was a so-obvious request that I thought maybe you didn't want to reveal some well-written code. ;) So, I wrote one by myself. And now you appear with the whole thing! But it's okay, it was good to check if all things are alright with mine, and they are (my code has just one little thing different, I believe it's MTPingID tag). Thank you for your post and for the open-source blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.66.23 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/16/2003 05:17:33 PM Cheers for sharing this Tom. I think it's an invaluable piece of blogging community service. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alan EMAIL: alan@oddverse.com IP: 193.120.120.2 URL: http://www.oddverse.com DATE: 04/17/2003 12:32:32 PM I'd like to say thank you. I can't remember if I added my voice to those who asked you for this or not, but I meant to. Thanks anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 04/22/2003 04:24:01 PM Once I saw the 'TrackBack light of day' (thanks in part to yourself), I decided to implement them in the same way as you have. However, I had no real idea as to whether it had worked or not, as like MacDara, I too have the same problem of not getting reciprocal links back to my site. I'm so glad that you decided to put up the code though Tom, as now, by seeing that my coding is identical to yours, at least I can confirm that it's not me (for a change)... ~; ) ----- PING: TITLE: Rebuilding individual archives when pinged URL: http://philringnalda.com/blog/2002/12/rebuilding_individual_archives_when_pinged.php IP: 66.33.196.43 BLOG NAME: phil ringnalda dot com DATE: 04/13/2003 07:44:04 PM How to hack Movable Type to rebuild individual entry archives when a TrackBack ping is received. ----- PING: TITLE: It's about time... URL: http://www.mattweiler.net/archives/000543.shtml IP: 66.33.197.10 BLOG NAME: mattweiler.net DATE: 04/13/2003 11:25:37 PM OK, I think I have TrackBack set up now, thanks to Tom's directions on how he implemented it. Happy now, ----- PING: TITLE: Relacionados... URL: http://ALT1040.com/archivo/000401.shtml IP: 205.214.88.56 BLOG NAME: ALT1040 DATE: 04/19/2003 09:10:57 PM He hecho ciertas modificaciones a lo largo de todo el sitio, la mayorÌa cuestiones de programaciÛn y cuestiones legales que para bien o para mal, ahora son necesarias. He modificado sobre todo, el diseÒo de las p·ginas de posts individuales. Una de las... ----- PING: TITLE: On Trackback Abuse And A Possible Solution URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog_archives/individual/2003/04/on_trackback_abuse_and_a_possible_solution.shtml IP: 80.71.2.160 BLOG NAME: neverthink.com DATE: 04/26/2003 08:30:43 PM (Note: I was in the middle of replying to Adrian's thoughts on Trackback abuse, when I realised that what I ----- PING: TITLE: o setup file constrÛi um ser e um ser humano se constrÛi toda vida URL: http://www.meltoni.com/000718.html IP: 207.153.127.8 BLOG NAME: at meltoni.com DATE: 07/11/2003 02:29:33 AM com um nome pomposo (juventude - mudanÁa cultural, novas mÌdias e empoderamento: mares que jovens e adolescentes "navegam"), o semin·rio me enganou muito bem. o conte™do publicado para a divulgaÁ“o tambÈm fez um Ûtimo serviÁo, e no final - despenquei... ----- PING: TITLE: when will i reach the sky? URL: http://www.meltoni.com/000719.html IP: 207.153.127.8 BLOG NAME: at meltoni.com DATE: 07/11/2003 02:43:58 AM um dia enviei um mail ao chuck com o subject 'the world keeps reaching you', e ontem ele utilizou este mesmo subject ao me escrever. ao ler 'you are every bit the wunderkind mena trott is, in my book' -... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Don't write off Conversations as a geek toy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 04/14/2003 10:57:04 PM ----- BODY:

    So there's an article in the Guardian today about UpMyStreet. The article is called Street Plight and aims to understand why the company is in administration. Now generally, it's a pretty flattering article - and a fairly accurate one - but there are odds and ends that are a bit annoying. Nonetheless I've decided that I'm going to look on the sunny side and concentrate on phrases like "Upmystreet is full of brainy types" and "[UpMyStreet Conversations is] a bit like a pub". Yes. I think I'd much rather concentrate on those than the the rather less flattering "Technical people become dazzled by their own wizardry" and "Frankly, you could have more scintillating conversation with a curtain".

    Sigh. It's no good. It's not working. So here goes. Here's why Clint Witchell'ss comments on Conversations are unfair:

    One - it's unfair to take the conversations in any one particular area and claim they're representative of the whole site. Like every other community, Conversations is only as interesting as the people who participate in it, but unlike any other community - every area gets a different degree of participation. Certain parts of the country are beginning to explore the uses of the site and get involved in serious debates. Other areas are using it to chat about local news and to find local tradespeople. Other areas aren't using it at all. It's early days. All I can say is that if you don't like the conversations that are ongoing in your area at the moment but you can see the potential and value in a site that could help your neighbourhood engage with local issues - then don't just sit there complaining and feeling superior - start a conversation and see what kind of responses you get!

    Two - Conversations is a new product for UpMyStreet and it pushes the ways the site can be used into completely new areas. One of our aims was to try and develop the relationship between UpMyStreet and the people who use come to it - to make people more regular visitors and power users at that. I think we've had a certain amount of success with this kind of work, success that I think will grow as people get more used to the idea and start to use the site in different ways. It's a process of development that aims to move people from simple information finding into treating the site as a bridge into their local neighbourhood. But we're not all the way there yet. These things don't necessarily happen overnight...

    Three - just because you can't see obvious commercial uses for the forums software doesn't mean that there aren't any or that we haven't thought about it seriously! If we get the opportunity, you'll see exactly what we're talking about and all the commercial/charitable/political uses for the technology, but at the moment - unfortunately - we're all a bit distracted trying to keep body and soul together! Bear with us! Have some faith!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Alexa rankings vs site traffic... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/14/2003 11:07:00 PM ----- BODY:

    There was a slightly weird article in the Guardian a few days ago about UpMyStreet & MyVillage that I don't really have an opinion about. But it inspired an interesting response from Tomski's weblog where he talks about several interesting ways of estimating site traffic as well as an interesting suggestion about the way traffic could be plotted against alexa rankings to see if any predictable curve emerged...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: web site traffic URL: http://www.stuck-on-me.ch/weblog/archives/2003/04/16/web_site_traffic.html IP: 217.162.32.153 BLOG NAME: stuck-on-mobile-e-com ;-) DATE: 04/15/2003 11:03:31 PM via plasticbag i found an interesting summary about web user statistics by tomski: claimed user stats: tricks of the trade with hints about using alexis rankings, google statistics and checking forum activity for a non-audited site ...... ----- PING: TITLE: ABCe auditing of web stats URL: http://www.nicomorgan.com/2parchives/001215.php IP: 66.11.162.232 BLOG NAME: My 2p DATE: 04/16/2003 10:15:11 AM Tomski has written an interesting piece about this Guardian article and the subject of estimating site traffic by other means. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Emerging Man... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/14/2003 11:37:16 PM ----- BODY:

    As of this coming Thursday I'm heading to California (San Francisco first, then Santa Clara for Emerging Tech, before returning to SF) for a total of twelve days of intense West-Coast mind-expansion. I've not looked forward to anything quite this much in years - although the difficult situation at UpMyStreet is obviously preying on my mind and for a while made me think that I might not be able to go...

    While I'm in the States, I'm keen to drench myself in everything interesting that's going on in the industry as well as meet all those people who (at the moment) I only know online. If you'd like to meet up while I'm in the area - either socially or professionally - then drop me a line at tom [at] plasticbag [dot] org. Oh. And Webb's going too.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.124 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com DATE: 04/15/2003 12:19:42 AM Shame you are not coming to Seattle. I would buy you a latte at the first Starbucks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tomcosgrave EMAIL: tom@tomcosgrave.com IP: 193.120.42.100 URL: http://www.tomcosgrave.com DATE: 04/15/2003 11:35:47 AM Have a fantastic time! Say hello to Messrs. Powazek, Arthur and Haughey, should you see them! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thinking about iChat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/16/2003 10:21:27 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been thinking a bit about instant messaging clients since I submitted my IM contacts to Buddyzoo. In order to upload my buddy lists I had to switch from iChat - my default messaging client - to AIM. For the first time in months I remembered how useful it is to produce groups of your contacts. I really miss that piece of functionality.

    Anyway - around that point I started thinking about how iChat could handle groups like AIM, and I starting thinking about the power of having multiple buddy lists held in multiple windows. What would it be like if your AIM contacts could be picked up and dragged between multiple iChat windows - one for your friends, one for your co-workers, one for your family etc. You'd still only have one AIM account, of course, but it would be represented differently.

    Perhaps - if you didn't like multiple windows for each semantic group - you could dock them together - producing bespoke metagroups like "Friends and Family" versus "Work". Maybe the places where the windows fused could become handles that allowed you to resize each pane individually.

    And then I started thinking about the other effects that could have - what if each window handled login information separately? What if each one used the inbuilt AIM buddy-blocking system on-the-fly so you could spontaneously decide to disappear from the world of your work colleagues while staying online with all your friends and family. Or the other way around? It's surely just an interface tweak? What do people think?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/16/2003 10:50:00 AM I wish I had more time to mock this one up. I'd particularly like to be able to assemble an iChat window that used the resizable pane-dividers that you see used in NetNewsWire and iCal and to spend some time working out how you might show that one chunk was online while the other was off... I don't know if I've explained what I mean very well either. If anyone can think of a better way of representing what I'm talking about, then please feel free to link to it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gabriel Radic EMAIL: gabrielradic@timbru.com IP: 80.65.224.34 URL: http://www.timbru.com/b2 DATE: 04/16/2003 11:31:08 AM GREAT ideas! You should submit these to the fire developers! http://fire.sourceforge.net/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom EMAIL: tajmahal@fneh.net IP: 131.111.8.96 URL: http://tajmahal.fneh.net DATE: 04/16/2003 11:51:20 AM Selective Invisibility shouldn't be too hard to go; ICQ has had "invisible" (I can see you but you can only see me if I talk to you) for years, but I don't think it could be assigned to individuals. What happens when contact groups overlap? Friends-who-are-at-work, say? You'd have to be able to set priorities ie "Friends" takes priority over "Work", but other than that, it's a good idea. I've often longed for selective invisibility, but the multiple tab/window/pane/whatever interface finally makes what's going on obvious through the UI. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/16/2003 02:17:53 PM I don't think you'd have to do that at all - if people were in two groups and one was visible and the other was not, then it would just default to the one that was open. That should be the easiest way to do it. Then you could easily make a group called 'acquaintances' or something that you kept mostly inactive unless you were feeling particularly social... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom EMAIL: tajmahal@fneh.net IP: 131.111.8.96 URL: http://tajmahal.fneh.net DATE: 04/16/2003 04:02:48 PM Hmn. I was just worried that defaulting to what's open/what's on top might get a bit confusing - not for when you have people in multiple lists, but just in terms of users. Unless, of course, it was only POSSIBLE to have one list open at once, it had to be an active task to change them, in which case you're right, that method probably is the best way of doing things. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lily EMAIL: gob@exnext.com IP: 24.123.8.243 URL: http://anomalily.snotrocket.org DATE: 04/16/2003 04:41:34 PM Easy enough to do so: trillian ( http://www.trillian.cc ) allows all the fixes that you speak of. Trillian pro even has the group block feature, as well as being on away message but able to still talk, or being "idle" but still able to speak, so you could still talk to your friends whilst away and idle, and your co-workers wouldn't know the least of it. And it does this with 5 different messengers (as well as multiple accounts for each, if you wish) in a single interface (AIM, Y!IM, IRC, ICQ, MSN) -Simply brilliant, really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.66.23 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/16/2003 05:26:57 PM Microsoft Messenger has the essence of this functionality too (group categories that can be expanded/contracted at the click of a button). "Group blocking" can easily be done with a plugin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.66.23 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/16/2003 05:28:35 PM Microsoft Messenger has the essence of this functionality too (group categories that can be expanded/contracted at the click of a button). "Group blocking" can easily be done with a plugin. But yeah, Trillian is The Bomb for power user IMing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom EMAIL: tajmahal@fneh.net IP: 131.111.8.101 URL: http://tajmahal.fneh.net DATE: 04/17/2003 11:14:07 AM Trillian is good. Trillian is my friend; I don't have Pro but the plain one does for me. Sadly, it's not available on OSX for Mac-users like Tom. I think Fire and Proteus are the only multiple-protocol clients atm for OSX. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron EMAIL: aaron@601am.com IP: 65.223.172.162 URL: http://601am.com DATE: 04/17/2003 04:35:28 PM I use trillian and and have multiple screen names for mulitple groups (one for web friends, one for real friends, one for work)... I can log off from one group or another if I don't want to be bothered. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Illtron EMAIL: chris.coleman@illtron.com IP: 63.163.108.98 URL: http://www.illtron.com DATE: 04/20/2003 06:51:33 PM One thing that I'm *dying* to see in iChat is the option *not* to integrate with the Address Book, at least as far as the names in the buddy list is concerned. I have a lot of people that have multiple AIM names, and depending on which name someone might be using, it might signal whether or not I should talk to them, and on which name I should talk to them. Say Joe Smith is my friend, and he has two names, one is "josephsmith50," and the other one is "beergod5000," I might want to know which name he's signed on as, so that I can tell if he's a work or home, for example. I like the Address Book integration, because it means I can potentially email someone and get their correct contact information from the Address Book, but it causes some confusion. A simple preference that gave me the option of showing a user as their real name or their AIM name would be sufficient, but iChat has so many problems, and lacks so many features that I doubt I'd see this any time soon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: garz EMAIL: rozoge@hotmail.com IP: 200.42.74.99 URL: http://www.garz.com.ar DATE: 07/03/2003 08:54:35 PM Do you know if it is possible to use Trillian Pro phone/webcam comm with ichat users counting on the ichat-AIM compatibility? Gracias! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Amy EMAIL: someone@somewhere.net IP: 24.149.17.157 URL: DATE: 07/09/2003 02:53:41 AM Hmm.. I switched to iChat, but I agree with Illtron that it's lacking too many features. I don't care so much about the group thing (which is added in the update)... but I have a lot of friends with more than one screen name, so I'd like to see maybe a way to add several screen names on one address book card, and then some way to distinguish (sorry cant spell) between them on your buddy list. Some other things I'd like to see added are: 1) I want to be able to make a profile!! 2) I wish custom colors/fonts would show up when you're talking to people using AIM, because my friends all see black on gray in Times New Roman or Helvetica (blah!) 3) I think they should make it possible to change font size in a chat window.. and for that matter.. it would be great if you could change colors and font in the chat window too (maybe the background picture too?) I'm a big iChat fan, but i REALLY hope they make some of these changes soon... im not too big on the idea of switching back to AIM! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pat Chase EMAIL: chase47@comcast.net IP: 66.30.42.192 URL: DATE: 12/26/2003 04:18:11 PM I got a new iMac computer for Christmas. My daughter logged into iChat and set herself up to connect with friends at school. When trying to set up my account - my Buddy List appears but it still has my daughter's name at the top of the list. How can I change the "Log In Name" to my name?? I have looked everywhere!! I'm concerned because I don't have her on my buddy list anymore - when I tried to add her as a buddy, there was an error message saying I use that as a log in name. I don't think I will be able to communicate with her once she is back at school. Any help would be appreciated!! ----- PING: TITLE: iChat and AIM URL: http://nslog.com/archives/2003/04/20/ichat_and_aim.php IP: 64.226.43.134 BLOG NAME: NSLog(); DATE: 04/20/2003 04:56:53 PM Tom Coates talks about iChat and some improvements he'd like to see made. First he talks about how iChat lacks groups (something I use in... ----- PING: TITLE: iChat Likes and Dislikes URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/1672 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 04/09/2004 09:11:08 PM Following on from the writings of Tom Coates' and Erik Barzewski on iChat, I thought I'd put up a post of likes and dislikes of iChat AV... iChat Good Things: Looks very tasty. Customisable away messages. Rendezvous is very cool. AV stuff, if you ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Voyage to San Francisco... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/17/2003 11:32:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. So Mr Webb and I have arrived in the States just as San Francisco's weather appears to be at its very nicest. We're (or I am) a bit bowled over by the nine-and-a-bit hour flight, so I'm going to leave you with some samples of the pictures I got of ice-flows and frozen oceans in our travels across the Arctic Circle...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: US TV is weird... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/18/2003 07:35:06 PM ----- BODY: How can it be that I only watch American television and yet there is nothing on American television that I want to watch?! Last night (and this morning) I've been compelled to convert to Christianity, forced to ask my Mormon neighbour about something, overheard lots of celebrity gossip and been informed by middle-aged housewives who talk in soundbites about the better call rates of certain long-distance providers. In the middle - somewhere - was an episode of Digimon that seemed utterly incomprehensible to me. There was some wrestling too which was supposed to end at one time, but just kept going. I think. It's probably just a problem of navigation or context - I have absolutely no idea where to get the television I enjoy watching - no idea how to watch the TV I see. None, whatsoever. In the end, we found ourselves watching The Antiques Roadshow with Hugh Scully on PBS. Phew! What a relief! ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Brief notes on San Francisco... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/19/2003 06:38:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Right. So there's no hope of me getting everything down as it happens, and I'm not sure I'd want to - there's a fine line between making an experience last by writing about it and eroding the memory by putting it into words. But I'll summarise briefly in lieu of actual weblog-content. On Thursday when we'd arrived, Webb and I mooched around some local malls before walking apocalyptically huge distances around San Francisco just to drink it all in. Yesterday we had breakfast in diners and wandered around book shops and met up with Ben for lunch.

    He then joined our merry band and we went for dim sum in Chinatown before joining up with Cory for sake cocktails and beer from a fat lady who hadn't heard of Caipirinhas.

    From sake we went for burgers and beer (no burgers for me though) around Cory's area - then a quick pass by Dave Egger's pirate shop (closed) via Castle Doctorow, before a cross-town exhausted cab ride to Audium where we sat in the dark in a room full of suspended speakers and listened to weird hallucinogenic music. After alienating the performer by talking about how the noises in the performance were clearly of a distinct period, we went on for further cocktails (still no Caipirinha - compromised on Mojito) with Chris Collaborative-Mapping (who we met in the dark place and was obsessed by Hello Kitty) before stumbled exhausted back to the hotel and thence to bed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: April 19, 2003 10:40 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/030419.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 05/04/2003 03:46:07 AM Matt Webb (Interconnected) and Tom Coates (Plastic Bag) are visiting San Francisco (they're both English), and blogging about it. They seem to regard the U.S. much as we might regard Mars. Visit both their sites for some interesting perspectives... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: San Francisco is calling me ... home? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/19/2003 07:28:36 PM ----- BODY:

    So the other day, Webb and I were having a conversation on top of Nob Hill about San Francisco. He has subsequently posted it to his website and Michael Sippey in turn has posted it to his (good post). While looking out across this city of massive structures, hills and trees we suddenly realised that San Francisco looks like one massive game of Sim City. Or more plausibly that Sim City was clearly based upon San Francisco. The structures are so familiar - the way the hills and the roads intersect is so similar. I wonder if that's why it all seems so comfortable and familiar? Are we responding so positively to San Francisco because it feels like what we think cities are supposed to be like? If so, why on earth do all the Americans we meet seem so desperate to get out of here?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.145.132.137 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 04/19/2003 07:40:44 PM Would the 'far-away hills are greener' idea have anything to do with it? For example, I don't understand how anyone would want to move to Ireland, because I can't stand it here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Frankenstein EMAIL: paulf@panix.com IP: 66.108.225.89 URL: http://paulfrankenstein.org/ DATE: 04/19/2003 08:01:50 PM Well, the cost of real estate in San Francisco might have something to do with it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.156.122 URL: DATE: 04/20/2003 11:48:18 AM Because the poor sods only get two weeks hols a year. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: todd EMAIL: toddski@barbaloot.com IP: 12.236.253.41 URL: http://www.toddski.net DATE: 04/20/2003 05:50:26 PM There are two distinct types of people in San Francisco. People who absolutely love the city and those who despise it (usually the latter are from the east coast.) I go through periods when I want out but then I'll get to the top of a hill, see the most amzing view and know that I'll never leave. Welcome to SF, I hope you will love it as I do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: mang@x-pollen.com IP: 64.172.56.107 URL: http://x-pollen.com/ DATE: 04/20/2003 08:59:37 PM a lot of people moved to the SF bay area ("barea") for the wrong reasons in the last few years. many of those people are leaving or have left. nick denton has some spectacularly wrongheaded posts on the subject, calling it a braindrain and mistaking the malls of san jose for the flavor of the entire region. i suspect he never once set foot in oakland during his carpetbaggery years here. that said, the real estate nightmare is indeed atrocious. i may be renting this little house below 580 for the rest of my life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed EMAIL: ed@edrants.com IP: 12.99.104.155 URL: http://www.edrants.com DATE: 04/23/2003 05:26:50 PM Itching to get out of here? Not me or the San Franciscans I know! The City, complete with its initial caps implying a title, is a bit like a cult movie: it has a small but loyal audience. If you get hooked in and you're one of the mighty handful, then it is almost completely impossible to leave. With every repeat viewing, you're dying to find another nuance, another weird detail that you weren't aware of before. The strength of San Francisco is such that it single-handedly convinced me not to move to L.A. about three years ago. (I don't know any other city on earth that could talk me out of a major life decision.) There is still, as xian suggests, a good deal of people who remain here for the wrong reasons, who not only cannot understand but will not understand, who seem to get off on debasing the hell out of a first-class metropolitan area. They came here for lucre, they left when the money ran out. You would never find these people patronizing a local band at Bottom of the Hill, nor would you find them at the Indiefest. You would never find these people outside of Jamba Juice, oxygen bars, Rite-Aid, and all the other silly upscale suburban stuff you can find anywhere else. San Francisco is a better place without them. :) ----- PING: TITLE: Getting used to this spring weather, I think URL: http://www.allaboutgeorge.com/a2g/archives/000488.html IP: 66.33.197.204 BLOG NAME: ALLABOUTGEORGE's a2g DATE: 04/22/2003 04:31:36 PM "Gaming the city"? S.F. don't stand for Sim F'in City!"You know, you'd see a movie set in the future, after the world has been bombed out of existence, and only a few people are left and you realise those few people are white. I thought, wait a minute,... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microcontent Votes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/19/2003 07:54:34 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm frankly a bit exhausted today, so I'm taking the opportunity to have a sit down in the hotel and sort through everything that I need to get done before Thursday. This includes - of course - working through everything that I need to have read on the web in the last couple of days:

    God I'm so far behind. You turn your back for a couple of days...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Embrace your Tiki Overlords... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/19/2003 11:10:23 PM ----- BODY:

    So here's the plan (if you're in the mood and in San Francisco): Mr Webb and myself are going out for a night of Tiki Madness, surrounded by swimming pool, fake tropical storms, house band and cocktails - from around eight this evening at The Tonga Room. It's the only place to be this Saturday night...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Are you ready for the Tiki? URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/archives/004569.html IP: 217.199.170.171 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley.com DATE: 04/20/2003 01:34:37 AM I'm going, Mr Coates is going, so is Mr Webb. If you're in San Francisco, so should you. Where? The ----- PING: TITLE: Emerging Tiki Gods URL: http://www.whump.com/moreLikeThis/link/03442 IP: 216.36.66.183 BLOG NAME: More Like This WebLog DATE: 04/20/2003 02:29:28 AM ----- PING: TITLE: Embrace your Tiki Overlords... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/740 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 04/20/2003 05:24:46 PM plasticbag: "So here's the plan (if you're in the mood and in San Francisco): Mr Webb and myself are going out for a night of Tiki Madness, surrounded by swimming pool, fake tropical storms, house band and cocktails - from around eight this evening at ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tiki Brilliance... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/21/2003 07:36:50 AM ----- BODY:

    Ok. A certain substantial amount of fun was had in the Tonga Lounge last night. God knows whether I can remember enough about it to write anything of value, but in attendence were Mr Webb, Mr Hammersley, David Galbraith, Marc Canter and Bill Humphries. Thanks to everyone for a very enjoyable evening. We shall meet at the Tonga Lounge once more...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Subtle signage in San Francisco... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 04/21/2003 08:54:30 PM ----- BODY:

    The area we're staying in isn't the most salubrious. Even the cabbies talk about it as a 'bad area' (just before they ask me questions about the National Health Service). Today as we came back to our hotel, about eight homeless people had set up a camp under a shop awning opposite and were listening to "What if God were one of us?" on a stereo held together with string. It was both sad and unsettling. Probably one of the only things in the minus column during our stay in San Francisco has been the sheer amount of homeless people we've seen...

    Our hotel is incredibly nice though - particularly for the money. And they have a really good grasp of effective signage...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for a future generation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/21/2003 09:31:10 PM ----- BODY:

    I've given this post a pretentious title because I can never think of what to call these semi-regular link-log updates and there's only so many ways you can use the phrase "Microcontent Vote" before someone tells you to get off your damn hobby-horse already.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Baa, Baa - I'm a sheep... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/21/2003 09:35:39 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm off to SC for O'Reilly Emerging Tech Conference on Tuesday. I'm going against the grain this year by taking my iBook along, "blogging" in "realtime", and taking digital photos of people. If there's a box, I am out of it. If you're attending as well, stop by and say hello...I'll be the guy with the iBook and digital camera.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: I'll be the guy with the sunglasses and the straw hat URL: http://memewatch.com/thelist/archives/000318.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Meme List DATE: 04/22/2003 07:20:39 PM I thought this Anil Dash weblog entry looked familiar: I'm off to SF for O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference on Tuesday. I'm going against the grain this year by taking my laptop along, "blogging" in "realtime", and taking digital photos of people.... ----- PING: TITLE: Two peas in a pod. URL: http://www.anoasis.co.uk/archives/000041.html IP: 216.65.62.100 BLOG NAME: An Oasis DATE: 04/24/2003 03:35:02 PM Both anil dash and jk are off to SF for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. Seems they're gonna be twins 'cept one'll have an ibook, the other a laptop. Hmmm, Update - Tom at plasticbag is doing it too... It's... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Insane Link-frenzy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/22/2003 03:18:33 AM ----- BODY:

    One of my windows in Safari is full of tabs - so full of tabs that I can't actually find the stuff I want to work with without closing them. And Safari doesn't have a neat "Bookmark all tabs" option like Camino, so I have to bloody bookmark them individually. Except I'm not going to do that, I'm just going to post the damn things to my site and let God sort 'em out later...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: James Marsden is a wanker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/22/2003 06:21:10 PM ----- BODY:

    In the latest Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue, which I swear to god I buy because of the pictures of the clothes, there's an interview with James Marsden. In it he is asked the question, "Based on your fan mail and people who approach you on the street, who would you say is your fan base?" He replies:

    Well, since X-men, I can add comic book fans, but before that I'd say young women between 10 and 24 and probably every gay man in the universe. Straight men all think I'm a pussy. I gotta tell you, if it wasn't for gay men, I'd probably own a carpet cleaning business. I'm very popular with the gay community, which is lovely. There are plenty of people out there who have no clue who I am, but I have never met a gay man yet who didn't know who I was. It's great!

    This - ladies and gentlemen - is what pardens for an enlightened attitude these days. Just think - all of us gay men lusting after James Marsden! How lucky we are to have someone as pretty as him to unite around! How we love him. I think we should all change our political identity to being Marsdosexuals! Maybe wave banners! Ah, we're so loyal and friendly and loving. Much like Labradors! Wouldn't we make such good pets? I'm going to say this once and once only - James Marsden, it's not only straight men that think you're a "pussy" and I think it's a bloody sorry state of affairs if your kind of patronising, self-obsessed idiocy represents the world that gay people have battled for over the last few decades. You can take your "mad props to all the gay men out there" and you can shove em up your butt.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel EMAIL: qx2x@hotmail.com IP: 152.20.172.24 URL: http://www.somagod.net DATE: 04/22/2003 08:17:38 PM We're here! We're Queer! And we love James Marsden! ummm, yea, right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: smoo@minor9th.com IP: 62.252.0.5 URL: http://www.minor9th.com DATE: 04/22/2003 09:19:06 PM James Who? Oh, there's his other assumption down the shitter... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chutney EMAIL: chance@myirony.com IP: 24.98.143.90 URL: http://www.myirony.com DATE: 04/23/2003 03:18:59 AM I went to high school with "little Jimmy Marsden," and we all thought he was a pussy too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 194.117.133.84 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 04/23/2003 09:00:20 AM Like Simon, I've not heard of the man either. But I really didn't find those remarks offensive - just a bit narcissistic maybe. But then, what kind of man becomes a fahion model? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Dave EMAIL: TheDave@TheDave.com IP: 212.187.236.200 URL: DATE: 04/23/2003 04:02:42 PM Well I've just interviewed James Marsden and found him to be a very unassuming, personable young man. Plus he's doing his damndedest to bring Preacher to the big screen so Big Up his Good Self. Gay fanbases didn't come up, but to be honest he struck me as more of a housewive's favourite. But then what would I know? I'm a notorious heterosexual... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net DATE: 04/23/2003 04:30:08 PM ditto Funny, I thought I knew who he was, but after reading all the comments, I searched for his name on Google, and I was completely wrong. (I was thinking of "James Marsters.") Oops. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@theonlyjuan.net IP: 65.27.232.152 URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net DATE: 04/23/2003 04:31:02 PM ditto Funny, I thought I knew who he was, but after reading all the comments, I searched for his name on Google, and I was completely wrong. (I was thinking of "James Marsters.") Oops. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.132.217 URL: DATE: 04/23/2003 11:53:21 PM I think you should lighten up over this Tom - his agent obviously has him well-versed in never underestimating the value of the pink pound (or dollar, as the case may be). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/24/2003 12:37:21 AM Not a chance! I'm fed up with this convenient courting of the pink pound - I don't want to be equal just because I'm financially valuable! More importantly, if someone's saying totally misguided and uniformly sterotypical things about you then it's wrong and it should be pointed out - even if they're "nice". Maybe particularly so. Damning with faint-praise... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.179.204 URL: DATE: 04/24/2003 12:16:48 PM Well, he did say *probably* every gay man in the universe. He's only speaking from his own experience. Anyway, this pink pound thing... this sort of thing happens to *all* of us all the time. If marketing/PR people stopped targeting the gay community it would set a precedent for them not to target any other group. The courts would be full from Land's End to John O'Groats - and beyond! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Dave EMAIL: thedave@thedave.com IP: 212.187.236.200 URL: DATE: 04/24/2003 02:15:34 PM Actually, *I've* never yet met a gay man who didn't know who I was either. That's because I only know one Gay Man - and somebody else introduced us!!! In other news, how far do you think they'd get referring to the purchasing power of the Asian Community as the Brown Pound? I don't think it would do very well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 04/24/2003 03:23:24 PM Wouldn't a better comparison be more like the 'Tandoori Pound', or have I completely misinterpreted the point? This guy's response (whomever he may be, as I'm still clueless) just smacks as someone who's never met anyone gay, i.e. no-one's introduced themselves to him with the tagline: "and I'm gay by the way". Having been told by some cigar-smoking PR man that that's who his fanbase is, he just doesn't seem capable of handling the thought of it. It's a bit like someone I know who harps on about how lovely their friend's disabled son is..."oh he really is...an angel you know"...because they can't really handle the fact that in their opinion he's 'not normal'. OK, so maybe striking an analogy between the gay community and people with disablilities wasn't such a good idea, but the point was well intentioned even if the execution was poor...apologies to all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlotte EMAIL: bitch@hotmail.com IP: 212.120.96.243 URL: DATE: 06/15/2003 05:26:44 PM I love james marsden and he's not a pussy! he is the most hansomest guy in the world! so all you son of a bitches out there shut up about him! hes famoes,and your just jealous cause you will never become as famoes as him! your to low for him! hes much better then all of you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zedro EMAIL: P_Marchy2@hotmail.com IP: 82.37.34.206 URL: DATE: 08/08/2003 02:35:36 PM Yeah, but we can spell Charlotte. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlotte EMAIL: xcharlyxgirlx@hotmail.com IP: 212.120.96.243 URL: DATE: 09/06/2003 06:13:20 PM I love james marsden!! he's the best!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: charlotte EMAIL: xcharlyxgirlx@hotmail.com IP: 212.120.96.243 URL: DATE: 09/06/2003 06:13:30 PM I love james marsden!! he's the best!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kate EMAIL: noneya@aol.com IP: 205.188.209.70 URL: http://none DATE: 09/15/2003 09:52:57 PM Um its James MARSTERS not Mardens! Get it right! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Veronica EMAIL: sexyplayboydiva@hotmail.com IP: 207.236.63.4 URL: DATE: 11/10/2003 02:44:19 PM someone told me that James Mardens is gay i know baz i saw him with man and doing things with them like kissing , huging and more will just liek to let u know bye ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Laura EMAIL: l_spaza@hotmail.com IP: 195.93.34.8 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 03:08:49 PM I think his comments demomnstrate him exaclty for what he is; and 29 yr old guy just trying to keep everyone content in the somewhat turbelent, unreal world of Hollywood, i have to say that people in the limelight really ought to be more catious about who and what they talk about, but cum on he's human... give him a break... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: lauraspotswood@aol.com IP: 195.93.34.8 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 07:54:43 PM You can't be in a position where kids are gonna look up to you, and exploit it!Fuck his human! we all fckin r! it doesn't give him a special 'Fuck-up pass' just cos he's been in a few flicks. I agree with Peter, those comments certainly aren't meant to be offensive, the guy admits himself for fucks sake that he's a pussy, nah he certainly doesn't sound like the type who'd wanna start anyfing. He just oughta think before opening his pretty boy gob in the future ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arthur EMAIL: artb50@comcast.net IP: 69.141.31.69 URL: DATE: 06/01/2004 08:07:21 PM James Marsden has it all. Not only is he physically beautiful, he's talented. He's not a Hollywood type. He's got a pretty wife and young son. The fact that he loves and is grateful to his gay fans should endear him more so to the public. He really didn't say anything to be critical of. I praise the guy. My one wish for James: superstardom. Thanks for letting me opine! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Emerging Tech 2003 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/23/2003 08:05:17 AM ----- BODY:

    125x125.gif So on Thursday I'll be delivering a paper at O'Reilly Emerging Tech called "UpMyStreet Conversations: Mapping Cyber to Space". The paper, which I have co-written with Matt Webb and Stefan Magdalinski, will be mostly about the basics of how Conversations works but will also include a more rigorous investigation of three areas where geocoded communities present new challenges to developers of social software.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is industry evil? A response to Rheingold... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 04/23/2003 05:03:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Howard Rheingold - who is speaking at this very moment on stage in Santa Clara - just said that companies would like the get us back into the role of "Consumers" rather than "Users". He says:

    "Consumers passively recieve what is broadcast by a few. Radio, TV, movies, recorded music. Users actively shape media, create as well as consume, link together for collective action: PC, Internet, Web."

    I'm not sure I buy this. I don't think companies have any interest whatsoever in specifically trying to define people's relationships with media, they're simply trying to protect their businesses. Defining the relationship is simply a means-to-an-end. This negative spin sounds too much like conspiracy theory to me. I think we have to find a way of convincing companies that their financial interest is in being at the forefront of some of these technologies - and I think (to an extent) some of the technologies we are trying to get into the common sphere will be lost or banned along the way. Yes - it's a combative matter - it's like in a court or in the political process - it's important that both sides are able to put their opinions and debate and extend their arguments - but it's not a black & white, "Good vs. Evil" thing. Ignorance versus Knowledge maybe (other people might say that it's Business versus Communism, of course)...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/23/2003 05:06:34 PM He's also argued that people would volunteer money for artists if all music was distributed through peer-to-peer technologies. I'm not sure I buy that either! I think it's utopian thinking to believe that people would pay for things that they don't have to - that they're not expected to... It's possible, of course - tipping is a good parallel here - but tipping has a social pressure attached to it, a physical and personal interaction at the heart of the financial exchance. You can easily be shamed. You'd need stuff like that built in to the system to make that happen... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/23/2003 05:10:24 PM A really nice quote from Rheingold's piece: "Social Capital that's just leaking into the air now could be captured and put to work for us." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: Tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/23/2003 05:14:36 PM Rheingold has been talking about the need for reputation modelling in distributed networks - is this ideology of 'trust' really useful? Isn't it just the codification of standard social interactions - the enhancement - the prosthesis of social advantages... Is Reputation too narrow a word for getting a 'sense' of a person for 'knowing' them...? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/23/2003 05:24:20 PM He's also talked about a lot of interesting stuff about handheld equipment being attached to barcode readers which in turn connect to the internet - providing information about products and their background whensoever you want to find it out. Lots of interesting things that could emerge around that. If it was just food products in the supermarket then there's stuff about getting background on the companies that make them, but also stuff about good recipes, detailed information, databases that amend and record your intake of various substances (Atkins diet tracker?). Good blocks of material there alone. There could be possible side effects - could you find a piece of music online by getting the barcode and searching for it online? wander into a shop, scan your CD barcode and coded music online is found as if by magic and downloaded through a proper P2P thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ry Rivard EMAIL: ry@braxtonian.com IP: 63.146.245.238 URL: http://braxtonian.com DATE: 04/23/2003 05:45:21 PM (I hope this post isn't just for your comments but,) He is wrong, the difference between a 'user' and 'consumer' is just one he makes up, it's a malleable distinction people can use as they wish, and he's found his own use, which seems to be wrong. There may be some slight distinction, but what he's trying to draw isn't really some ideological gulf between being passive and active but instead just illuminating that people who want to be passive and watch TV and listen to music are so bored by what's being offered (monotonous, repetitive, homogenized crap--not to mention redundant adjectives), so they are creating their own content [often to the same morose, unentertaining effect). OK, maybe he didn't say that, but if you turn on TV you'd agree. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: michael sippey EMAIL: michael@sippey.com IP: 67.125.76.169 URL: http://sippey.com/ DATE: 04/23/2003 08:28:58 PM Is Rheingold just willfully ignoring the term 'customer,' which in my experience with large Fortune 500 firms is how they usually refer to their, um, customers? It's inherently more respectful than 'consumer,' and in my experience marketers at these companies due tend to have a good deal of respect for the customers who keep the lights on... It sounds to me like he's practicing semantics toward his own ends. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: blog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.32.6 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 04/23/2003 11:44:58 PM But he seems so obviously correct. There is absolute integrity in the distinction between passive consumption and active use, except insofar as "use" of a product signifies its consumption anyway. I definitely think many companies have an interest in maintaining the conventional "consumer" dynamic -even if only a semantic definition, a production line model makes it easier to sell to a mass audience. Granted, there are companies whose aim is to sell to "users". Let's make a third category, "creators"... recent emerging technologies like digital cameras, DV cameras are sold as being enablers of creative impulses... "Go create". Here, the distinction between consumer and user blurs - but only so far as the consumer electronics market by now knows very well how to market its wares for users but, all the while, shift and package them via those conventional consumer avenues in place so well already. So, do companies have a self-interest in returning "users" to "consumerdom"? Yes and, increasingly, no... no because they are now adept at defining the latter in the sales pitch of the former. That means those companies retain a primacy of authority which only the completion of the new mass (produced) media revolution can truly usurp. Or something. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pod EMAIL: root@neuromantics.net IP: 62.30.157.202 URL: DATE: 04/24/2003 12:22:42 AM Too optimistic by half - both Coates and Rheingold on different sides of the same coin. Corporations are, by their nature about making money. That is the system and the mindset they work within. Because this system forms the structure (most) people live within, people will continue to be consumers. The fact that a few people on the edges of the broader society think or hope that things will change, changes nothing. Users, consumers... doesn't matter. The market will (and is beginning to) poison free exchanges. We have not seen them in full effect yet, but we will. The corporations have hardly begun, and are hiring the brighter young things they need to fulfill this goal now. Be secure in the knowledge that the little tastes of user orientated freedom we have had over the past few years will not be the last, however there will not be an opening of the floodgates either. Do as you are told, or you will be told what to do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.124 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 04/24/2003 08:29:15 PM Steve Jobs once said: "You go to your TV to turn your brain off. You go to the computer when you want to turn your brain on." ----- PING: TITLE: http://sippey.com/recentlybrowsed/#000485 URL: http://sippey.com/recentlybrowsed/#000485 IP: 64.91.232.71 BLOG NAME: recently DATE: 04/23/2003 08:30:28 PM coates on rheingold... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New Blogger & New Movable Type... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/23/2003 06:02:00 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. Finally it looks like Blogger is going to start catching up with the rest of the weblogging applications that have been developed or have been enhanced over the last couple of years. You can read all about Dano at new.blogger.com. First things first - they've been working on the interface. Here are a couple of (presumably rough - some low-fi) interfaces for the new system - which clearly aren't designed to look their best on a Mac. Still - never mind, it's early days:

    While we're at it - perhaps with less mass-appeal (but I guess we'll see), keep an eye out for TypePad - the new Six Apart venture that's supposed to be a turnkey version of Movable Type - kind of like Blogger, but more powerful. [Typepad stuff via kottke.]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 12.229.54.187 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 04/27/2003 01:36:31 AM Movable Type Pro is what I can't wait for. I have a good Blog friendly hosting ISP so TypePad is a step back for me. But I can't wait to learn more about MT Pro. ----- PING: TITLE: a webcam for my brain URL: http://www.meltoni.com/000429.html IP: 207.153.127.8 BLOG NAME: at meltoni.com DATE: 04/23/2003 07:32:27 PM a idÈia de que a informaÁ“o e os indivÌduos s“o inevitavelmente, e sempre, partes integrantes de ricas redes sociais - È notÌcia hoje - o TypePadô foi oficialmente divulgado. a mais nova ferramenta "personal publishing service" da histÛria dos... ----- PING: TITLE: Introducing TypePad and Dano URL: http://www.mcshasta.com/blog/archives/000300.php IP: 216.110.36.12 BLOG NAME: mcshasta DATE: 04/24/2003 12:04:44 AM Just two days ago Blogger unveiled their new updated, streamlined and "better-fied" blogging system, dubbed Dano. I'm pleased that they've ----- PING: TITLE: updates to blogging platforms URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000133.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 04/25/2003 05:33:57 PM Congratulations to Ben and Mena Trott, who are SixApart, the people behind Moveable Type which powers this site, have got funding and are launching a new hosting service called Typepad. Ben Hammersley got the scoop and wrote about it in The Guardian. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hydra, Biological Computing and EricÝBonabeau STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/23/2003 09:34:51 PM ----- BODY:

    Right. I'm going to keep amending this post as I think of things to say and get other things done. I'm in the middle of a talk with Tim O'Reilly at the moment (how cool is my life), but I reckon I can concentrate on two things at once and talk a little bit about the last presentation I was at (Eric Bonabeau on Biological Computing). Or in fact - rather than talk about Eric Bonabeau's talk, I'm going to talk a little about playing with Hydra and how around ten separate geeks collaborated to try and annotate and comment upon a discussion in real time... But first things first - the incredibly messy (and extremely entertaining to write) set of notes on the talk in question:

    Right. What you can't see on this document is which pieces were written by which people - and that's a terrible shame because all that extra information that could be of use just vanishes when you save it to a disk. More to the point, it makes it really hard to demonstrate when it's worked really well and when it's fallen apart. So in this particular case I've done a set of screen-caps to illustrate what's been going on:

    More later (hopefully) on the experience of writing (messily and collaboratively) with Hydra. Addendum: Here's a screen-cap of the participants all colour-coded as of the end of the eventhydra_tray.gif

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.165.98 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/24/2003 07:10:49 AM Why not just use an IM client that logs conversations in a text file either natively or via a plugin, with the contributors all in the same conversation? That way, you get the real-time contribution factor, with the added bonus of being able to see who said what. If you used Microsoft Messenger you'd also have a communal whiteboard for everybody to express ideas graphically too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rhapsodie EMAIL: mistress@rhapsodic.org IP: 24.237.104.243 URL: http://rhapsodic.org DATE: 04/24/2003 05:34:39 PM It would seem the colors are difficult to pick out who said what - there are four variations of blue/purple and two greens. Perhaps it's merely the screenshot? ----- PING: TITLE: Emerging Technology Conference URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog_archives/individual/2003/04/emerging_technology_conference.shtml IP: 80.71.2.160 BLOG NAME: neverthink.com DATE: 04/24/2003 07:35:18 AM Plenty of well-known bloggers seem to be attending this week's O'Reilly conference on social software and all that jazz in ----- PING: TITLE: Hydra, the story unfolds URL: http://www.mobileentropy.com/archives/000242.html IP: 82.35.40.2 BLOG NAME: Mobile Entropy DATE: 04/24/2003 10:58:56 AM Tom continues to lead the way in putting Hydra through its paces. His latest exploits, at ETCon, have highlighted something I was discussing when attempting to convert someone to Hyrda's charms the other day; it all gets lost when you save. So, should ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vignette from ETCon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/24/2003 08:04:16 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm hiding in the Speaker's Room with Vee McMillan - trying to get my stuff printed out for my paper (T minus one hour, fifteen minutes) and this woman comes into the room saying that she thinks she really wants to see Clay Shirky and she doesn't know where to go to see him. And Vee says that she thinks it's almost over and the woman looks a bit flustered and says that actually it doesn't matter, she just really wants to see his face. Vee tells her where to go. She leaves. Excited. Groupie? Fan? Mother? The world needs to know...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "UpMyStreet Conversations: Mapping Cyber to Space" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/24/2003 11:10:06 PM ----- BODY:

    So. A bit delayed. Sorry to all concerned. I'll post later about the experience of delivering a paper at Emerging Tech later, when I've had a chance to assimilate the whole experience, but if you're looking for the PowerPoint presentation then here it is: UpMyStreet Conversations: Mapping Cyber to Space (5.7Mb). The paper was cowritten by myself, Stefan Magdalinski and Matt Webb.

    "Mad props" to Webb by the way, who somehow managed to keep me sane through the whole thing and forced me to finish writing the thing by suggesting he might cause me physical pain - I'm a bit euphoric so I'm going to say that he's one of my favourite people in the world at the moment. If people notice any hideous typos or mistakes through it, then let me know and I'll amend it straightaway.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Steinberg EMAIL: steiny@barrysworld.com IP: 62.3.68.52 URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com DATE: 04/25/2003 01:54:24 AM "If people notice any hideous typos or mistakes through it, then let me know and I'll amend it straightaway." Looks great. You might want to take out the line about Tim O'Reilly being a CIA employed crack dealer, though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/25/2003 03:09:13 AM If anyone's looking for more information on this stuff or wants to see the imagery that we ran before the presentation, then check out Stef's commentary. Hopefully now he'll be getting some sleep and stop sending diagrams across the Atlantic! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Morrissey EMAIL: jersey@spies.com IP: 64.121.10.42 URL: http://www.parasitic.org DATE: 04/25/2003 07:28:09 AM Great presentation, Tom! I loved the content and your delivery. I especially liked that you discussed the problems you ran into, possible solutions, and the solutions that you adopted, rather than just the polished final product. Very helpful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Brake EMAIL: david.brake@journalist.co.uk IP: 62.30.164.182 URL: http://blog.org/ DATE: 04/25/2003 09:45:11 AM A good presentation, but had I been there I would have asked about a third axis for grouping - subject. There is no way to group threads by subject. I know there are lots of subject-based messageboards already out there but what if UMS for whatever reason is your main message forum? I suspect it would be useful to help to organise people's thoughts (and to help cross-regional activism, for example) if there were some way of overlaying subject groupings on postings as a filter. What do you say to that? I take it you considered it at some point... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.44.177.155 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/25/2003 04:34:06 PM Grouping by subject is something we thought about right at the beginning of the project and I was initially very keen on. We had a very simple model as well - we'd just replicated the board as many times as we wanted and name each one differently. The integration would all be done at the side of the UI. But to put in different subject areas would have resulted in a more sparse data-set and in turn would have resulted in people losing that sensation of locality... In the end - at least to start off with - we figured that wasn't a particularly good idea... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 217.155.193.216 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 04/26/2003 03:35:19 AM Hey Tom, in that good-mannered, free-spirited nature of the web, I'd like to donate two phrases for your, and anyone else's, non-comercial and commercial, or whatever, use. They're rights-unreserved and about as creative and common as you'd like. Beg or steal, I care not. If Metafilter is discussion based on time (in a way), could we call it a 'timeblog'? And therefore, if upmystreet is discussion based on place, is it therefore a kind of 'placeblog'? If most weblogs are based on time, and therefore a timeblog, could a weblog be based on the reader's place and display different info depending on that? Like how Jason Kottke put that special version of his site up for people accessing it from the conference? Or how the BBC gives you two different home pages depending on where you tell it you're from? Does that make sense? It's probably been done before. Maybe people can expound upon it now I've typed in this rambling nonsense. Still, I like the pair of names I thought up in my stupor... ----- PING: TITLE: From the margins of the writable web URL: http://undergroundlondon.com/antimega/archives/000082.html IP: 216.218.167.2 BLOG NAME: anti-mega DATE: 04/25/2003 12:31:21 AM Before anything. Meg rocks. Hard. I totally agree with her direction. Rah! From the margins of the writable web Meg Hourihan www.megnut.com/speak/etcon are webloggers self-absorbed and navel gazing? no, we pull things into the centre and analyse. the w... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More Hydra transcripts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/25/2003 03:03:21 AM ----- BODY:

    It's like the Unkle track says, "We had access to too many, uh, too much money. Too much equipment, and little by little we went insane". Here are two more text-transcripts done collaboratively over Hydra from this afternoon's sessions:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The motherships have landed... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/25/2003 05:24:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Driving around Santa Clara is like being inside an episode of Stargate - it's like there's a flat desolate alien landscape all around us that's being used as a massive landing strip for these huge monstrous mother-ship style buildings. Each building has a brand that's sharp and occasionally scarily authoritarian in appearance - like the flags for an alien regime. I keep thinking that there are lizard creatures inside that have come to dominate the earth. Around the monstrous motherships (our hotel is one), all these smaller buildings are littered around - like cleaner fish around a whale, or like the tents and mud-structures that surround the huge architectural beasts of pyramid-like tombs. They're subservient buildings, housing creatures with no other purpose than to serve the whatever-the-fuck-it-is that is living its domineering life in the bowels of Network Solutions or Globix or...

    When I see them in our rare trips outside the building, I never feel certain that there won't be a terrible rumbling and shaking with smoke and dust everywhere and they won't just lift off to find a new world to colonise and destroy. It's kind of arcane and beautiful in a 'beauty of the bush-fire" kind of way. I love it here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Emotional History of the World... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/25/2003 05:50:11 PM ----- BODY:

    The difference in atmosphere in the keynotes between the guy from Google and the guy from Microsoft is tangible. When the guy from Microsoft talks, there's scepticism - hostility even. There's a sense of outrage when he doesn't know what a GPL is, frustration when mentions that he things 'things built by committee' are messy. The only clap he gets is for mentioning that he hates the PowerPoint paperclip... The guy from Google gets a clap within the first ten minutes for mentioning that he likes the way that his site does search-query spell-correcting. It's immensely satisfying, but it makes you wonder what impact gut emotional reactions have had on the history even of the most ostensibly rational industries, technology and computing - ...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com/chronotope/ DATE: 04/25/2003 06:24:22 PM It is rare in academia in the US to find that this is emotional attachment/aversement of a candidate and/or his topic/stance does not dictate how far he/she goes in a program. If your committee feels you are a fool or full of shit it often doesn't matter how well you make and support your argument. The same could be said of many areas, as you so well point out in this case. It extends into other areas as well. I completely disagree with the dumb fuck prez we have here in the US about most anything. But even if his arguments about invading Iraq made any sense whatsoever it would be difficult to take any of it seriously since he is, in comparison, an apparat for Microsoft. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt21811@yahoo.com.au IP: 203.13.126.19 URL: http://michaelsblog.com DATE: 04/26/2003 11:27:07 AM Everything that Microsoft says and does can be attributed to making more money. GPL, Open source etc make it really hard for organisations like Microsoft that produce products and not services to make money from. The Opensource ideal is about not charging for something that is infintitely copyable at almost no cost. Interestingly, I think Google is heading toward monopoly status and their conferences my have an air of hostility about them all too soon. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More Hydra Collaborative Annotations STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/25/2003 11:42:07 PM ----- BODY:

    I think when you're born you maybe get a discreet amount of mental storage and then maybe when you've used up that amount of storage then maybe it all seeps out of your ears or something. This is a really good way to prove that we're not all living in a huge simulation - no computer system could hold all the information and resonance that's being jammed into my brain at the moment. I need someone fat to sit on my head so that I can keep the lid down.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lance Arthur's cat ate my foot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/26/2003 11:37:32 PM ----- BODY:

    So I was at a party and Lance Arthur was there, and I was really looking forward to seeing him and then he was wearing clothes that made him look ... different somehow and I didn't recognise him. That's so terrible. I felt totally stupid. Anyway - to cut a long story short - we were staying at Leslie Harpold's flat last night and she was looking after Lance's cat because Lance was going away, and his cat savagely attacked all of us during the night and so - in a weird way - I guess I've paid for my crimes!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Alan Kay, Speaker... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/27/2003 12:36:06 AM ----- BODY:

    alan_kay_yesterday.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You've got The SARS STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/28/2003 09:12:05 AM ----- BODY:

    A final night in San Francisco - we fly back tomorrow afternoon - spent with Matt Webb and Ben Hammersley. We meet up at Union Square outside Victoria Secrets and wander through a long tunnel to an off-beaten-track part of Chinatown where we have large and amazing portions of various nice foodstuffs. Matt uses the phone to try and contact a mutual friend who's in town. The owner asks us if we are from out of town. And when we're not paying attention she gets some anti-bacterial wipes out of a drawer and carefully cleans the phone receiver from top to toe. As we leave the restaurant we tease Webb accordingly. "You've got the SARS, you have."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple on iPods... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/28/2003 06:30:36 PM ----- BODY:

    The best commentary I can find on the Apple keynote about the iPods and the Apple music service is here. I'm going to talk more about this later, but in the meantime go and find out all the cool / scary news...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick Smale EMAIL: nick_3141@yahoo.co.uk IP: 213.106.35.33 URL: http://nicksmale.blogspot.com/ DATE: 04/28/2003 07:30:35 PM "The iTunes Music Store is only available in the U.S." Oh. How disappointing... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris Adams EMAIL: chrisdaggimoh@mac.com IP: 62.30.146.158 URL: DATE: 04/28/2003 08:26:38 PM Interesting enough so far, but no news on indy labels that I can find yet. Would be lovely to be able to sell your own music via the sytem too. Doubt the big 5 labels would have allowed that though.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.162.249 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 04/29/2003 06:59:49 PM Why would indie labels want to get involved with such a service anyway? Most of them seem perfectly happy to provide free downloads of songs, knowing that majority of the punters they cater for will pay for the albums, etc. (Look at Epitonic.com, for example.) And besides, the concept of the album (as opposed to the concept album) is still very much alive in the non-mainstream, whereas it died some time ago in teeny bopper world - downloading a bunch of songs at a dollar a pop and burning your own CD just isn't the same as buying an actual album, or even a label compilation. Indie labels and the underground in general are still very much in love with the tactile and the tangible; it's much more than just liking a song, it's understanding the context in which it lies, the effort that was put into it, etc. Maybe I just feel differently about music than the majority of people, but I'm surely not the only one. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 66.7.23.31 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 04/29/2003 10:43:00 PM Here are a few reasons why the indie labels would want to get involved: 30 second previews of every single song. A cut of the price of every song downloaded (Apple is currently paying the big five labels $.65 from every dollar). And a retailer who has no incentive not to stock infinite copies (e.g., digital copies) of their records. Find a local store, or even a place like amazon, that can afford to stock more than 2 copies of the less-selling stuff - you can't. this is an opportunity for a truly level playing field - every song in the system, whether it's big label or indie, gets 30 seconds to grab a customer. We should all be lobbying Apple hard to add this... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 66.7.23.31 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 04/29/2003 10:43:24 PM Here are a few reasons why the indie labels would want to get involved: 30 second previews of every single song. A cut of the price of every song downloaded (Apple is currently paying the big five labels .65 from every dollar). And a retailer who has no incentive not to stock infinite copies (e.g., digital copies) of their records. Find a local store, or even a place like amazon, that can afford to stock more than 2 copies of the less-selling stuff - you can't. this is an opportunity for a truly level playing field - every song in the system, whether it's big label or indie, gets 30 seconds to grab a customer. We should all be lobbying Apple hard to add this... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: macdara@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.165.171.197 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 04/30/2003 07:06:51 PM Those are some fair points. I guess I was coming at the question from the perspective of many indie labels not just existing but also flourishing _outside_ of the mainstream music industry (and therefore, why would they need a helping hand if they can do fine on their own). But if Apple could open this market to a new audience without the indies being exploited in the process, it should in principle be a good thing. It hasn't always worked like that - remember the grunge years - but this _is_ a different era, I suppose. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Infinite Jest... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/30/2003 12:31:13 AM ----- BODY:

    In which four dorks go and commune with the mothership in the immediate post-Emerging Tech period:

    Picture of Tom outside Apple

    Picture of Jones outside Apple

    Picture of James outside Apple

    Picture of Webb outside Apple

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dorian mcfarland EMAIL: loaf@isness.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.isness.org/lofoto/ DATE: 04/30/2003 11:38:48 AM ha! you big geeks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sonia EMAIL: 9@lifeintheday.co.uk IP: 12.82.81.242 URL: http://lifeintheday.co.uk DATE: 05/02/2003 04:58:17 AM Look at those studs! Adorable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt@actuality.co.uk IP: 194.128.126.2 URL: http://blog.actuality.co.uk DATE: 05/14/2003 10:43:37 AM Mmmm, infinite fruit loops. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Emerging Fallout... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/30/2003 12:45:16 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm back in the UK, and it's half-past midnight and I feel as fresh as a daisy despite only having slept for about half an hour in the last thirty-six... My mind still feels like it's got too much Emerging Tech stuff in it that I need to digest, contemplate, post about, link to, think about and (hopefully) get into fights about - but I don't know when I'm going to get the chance to do it. So in the meantime, I hope people can forgive my fragmentary writing - it's simply reflecting the state of my mind... Over the next few days, expect massive catch-ups on what's been going on elsewhere around the world, random pictures being displayed completely out of sequence as-and-when the urge takes me, discussions about the stuff we talked about in Santa Clara as well as the stuff that has crept blinking from my mind over the last couple of weeks. Also expect griping about the state of my financies, anxieties about the future of UpMyStreet.com, the posting of a just-in-case CV/resumé and as many of the intelligent brain-scrapings as I can muster over the next few days (before they go stale)...

    If I say nothing else about the whole experience, let me say this: If you are working on something innovative or cutting-edge or interesting - anything with wider implications that you think could matter to anyone else - and you feel that you're lacking a community of engaged and interested peers to connect with and relate to, then you should seriously consider going to Emerging Tech 2004. In the meantime, I think it's about time those of us in the UK persuaded Danny O'Brien to start another XCom (for the altogether scruffier UK alpha geeks and their fans). See you all next year!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rob EMAIL: strongrob@hotmail.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: DATE: 04/30/2003 06:09:51 AM Man, i hate to say but after reading "Emerging fallout" you remind me of people i've meet who had consumed large amounts of LSD over a long period (ie. > 400 mircograms/day for more then a week), you sound confused and fragmented but not paranoid (at this point). Avoid the watercooler at work and only drink out of sealed containers you can be sure of, and i'm sure you'll be fine in a weeks. Keep it sunny side up. CheerS rob ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.207.236 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/30/2003 08:55:28 AM Ha ha. I think you've managed to capture my state of mind pretty much exactly. Whether it's ETCon fallout, jet-lag or whether I have simply evolved beyond simple human language - well I don't know yet... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's the time zone? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/30/2003 12:59:09 AM ----- BODY:

    I know it's trivial, but there's a really nice new feature on Re:invigorate's free stats package that displays the time-zones that your readers come from by way of a pretty decently designed piece of simple mapping. Obviously it might not match up to the high expectations of my boss {smiley with tongue out}, but I think it's pretty cool and pretty interesting. (I've reduced it slightly in size below so that it fits the page, so forgive the slight fuzziness of it all.)

    time_zones.gif

    Addendum: If only it could tell my body what time zone it is...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: It's all in the timing URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/archives/000011.html IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: frizzyLogic DATE: 05/09/2003 05:42:36 PM Yesterday I waxed lyrical about the new time zone map provided by the excellent Reinvigorate stats service. Today I see Tom Coates of plasticbag has similarly posted his own map. What I find interesting is that he has comparatively few... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple music catch-up... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/01/2003 12:36:41 AM ----- BODY:

    So a couple of days on since Apple's big music announcement - what's the reaction been like? Here's some of the most interesting hardcore commentary:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Ugly Wiki? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/01/2003 01:25:10 AM ----- BODY:

    So the rumour is that Wikis are ugly. Lots of people seem to agree and a good few seem to be cheerfully prepared to engage in the debate. And I'm going to put myself on the line here and say that if any of you were thinking about offering me a job or something and are likely to get cross with me then I'm sorry but I've got to do it... Isn't it obvious that it does not need to be this way? There's no rulebook that says that Wikis have to look the way they do - no creationist spark of godhood that came down from on high and declared this particular appearance of editable websites the perfect one. This statement - that just because there's a bit more of a barrier to architecting a 'prettier' Wiki means that they are inherently ugly - seems to me to be astonishingly strange. It's like blaming evolution for someone's misapplied make-up...

    Now I'm not a man who begrudges the visceral / visual aspect of design. I think things should be as beautiful as they are usable. But it's facile, surely, to compare the functionality and potential utility of two different (and potentially incredibly flexible) products and leave with the conclusion that you just like the prettier one!

    "I've seen a sneak preview of an edit-this-page type of outliner that Marc Canter is working on, and I like it a lot better. Why? It doesn't hurt to look at it, mostly. Silly? Maybe. But I know I'm not alone."

    I think there's a an underlying theme behind a lot of reviews of this kind and it's a rather old fashioned idea of fixed and stable products. The Wiki is considered a thing that works in a way, rather than a rough accumulation of various versions of the same rough concept - each of which has some benefits and some failings. Each of which could be nothing more than the first stage in a longer and more fruitful path of evolution. Each of which could be stripped down to its core and integrated with other sites - small bits of meme DNA grafted into message-boards or weblogs or even more static editorial pages. There is no product to review with finality- there is no here here (as Gertrude Stein might have been misquoted). So we dig around and we take what we like and we make new things - some will bed down and spread, others will not. Many will be spliced with each other once more...

    No doubt in the future - now everyone is looking in their direction - Wikis will be even more flexible (or perhaps less flexible but more powerful or easy to use) than they are today. There are an infinite amount of potential developments - incremental or catastrophic - that we could be discussing. And in the meantime, yes, someone could probably find a way of making them prettier as well. In fact, I hope they do. But while we're waiting for someone to do that (or doing it ourselves, in fact) - can't we just try and bring the debate up a notch?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz Lawley EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 05/01/2003 02:37:13 AM Pushback at last. Hallelujah. I really thought I'd get a lot more response like this one when I posted...and was surprised by the chorus of agreement. Clearly I hit a nerve. But...there were some very interesting things that emereged in the comments thread, and in some of the discussions elsewhere--like the social software alliance mailing list, for example, where there's been a spirited and interesting discussion about voice and culture and style and collaboration in the context of wikis and blogs, and Joi Ito's blog (link), where there's been discussion of why perceptions of wikis differ so much. Sometimes a big discussion can be started most effectively through mention of a small--even trivial--thing. That seems to be what happened here, which is a good thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz Lawley EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 05/01/2003 02:42:34 AM Ooops. Just noticed you linked to Joi. Sor-ry. (Would be nice to be able edit one's comment as easily as one can edit one's blog, don't you think?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 62.171.198.7 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 05/01/2003 02:22:42 PM Wikis work, and don't need to be designed. But the option is there to design them as you want to. They are inherently simple pieces of software and therefore can be customised to whatever design you want. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@neuromantics.net IP: 62.30.157.202 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net DATE: 05/01/2003 07:22:34 PM Of course they need to be designed. I would dearly love to be able to roll out project-centric wiki's across a corporate-client extranet but the standard of presentation is one of the big stumbling blocks here. After one failed attempt at doing this, I'll be holding back until it becomes 'movable type easy'. Which is a shame. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MarkDilley EMAIL: markdilley@umich.edu IP: 68.43.98.33 URL: http://markdilley.2ya.com DATE: 05/02/2003 07:47:25 AM Tom Coates and Tom Morris, you both have said what I feel about wikis. Liz, would be nice to be able edit one's comment as easily as one can edit one's wiki, don't you think? ;-} Best, Mark ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sunir EMAIL: sunir@sunir.org IP: 24.43.17.245 URL: http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?SunirShah DATE: 05/02/2003 10:55:05 AM I always laugh every time I read some so-called smart guy whine about how ugly wikis are because they use the default font or something equally ridiculous. If the diligent had concerned themselves with analysis like that, the World Wide Web would have never made it past interlaced GIFs. That being said, comments about the interface are another thing entirely. It may or may not surprise you, but there has been a lot of thought that has gone into interface design for wikis. That doesn't mean that they're perfect, of course. Work continues. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JonathanSmith EMAIL: jonathan.w.smith@att.net IP: 24.24.86.16 URL: http://nodomain.example.org DATE: 05/02/2003 02:21:52 PM Some of the thoughts to which Sunir (of Meatball Wiki and InterWiki) may be referring can be found on Ward's Wiki. That being said, UseMod is one of the plainer janes among WikiEngines. I would echo the paulpod need of MovableType easy style in a WikiEngine. (To complete another circle) LizLawley mentioned the JoiIto blog. There also is a discussion similiar to this one on JoiItoWiki except Join uses the term ButtUgly. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sunir EMAIL: sunir@sunir.org IP: 24.43.17.245 URL: http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?SunirShah DATE: 05/02/2003 11:25:43 PM It should be noted that UseModWiki is plain by design, not for lack of effort. We like to keep our FeatureKarma off the floor. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.158.108 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/03/2003 08:43:31 PM I have to say Liz, I get the impression that you wrote that post simply to get traffic for the Many-to-many weblog. While I have no doubt that it worked, I'm frankly a bit disappointed by your tactics. It's a bit too much tabloid journalism trolling for my liking, and I care about this stuff and would like to try not to let the discussion get diverted unnecessarily into trivial argument... I feel kind of ridiculous and a bit embarrassed for having fallen for this kind of strategy and - in the process - a little less likely to listen to your opinions in future. I'm sorry, but it just seems a bit cheap to me... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.com/personal/ DATE: 05/06/2003 11:18:51 PM This seems unnecessarily harsh Tom. Unless you'd seen the same demo (of Marc's thingy) that Liz has, how do you know they are not comparable? And if they are compar*able*, what's the problem with preferring the better looking one merely because it is better looking? (Even given certain differences in functionality.) I could disable the css file you use for this site, but I don't because I think it looks nice. And I'd rather use something that looks nice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.235.192 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/07/2003 12:42:23 AM I can't believe I finally got you to post a comment to my site and that the first thing I've done is make you angry with me! It's great and terrible at the same time and I feel a bit awful and guilty. I don't want to sound aggressive, I really don't, and I know I can come across that way in writing, so I'm going to apologise straight off for that both to Stewart and to Liz - but at the same time I think it's important to remember that Liz has already declared herself spoiling for a bit of a debate around this ("Pushback at last. Hallelujah." - her words). Back to the issue at hand though - I think if they were comparable kinds of products - ie. a wiki was a thing that existed in one state as produced by one company rather than being a generic term for a range of different products (and each self-organised, run and adapted by different groups of people) then such a comparison would be totally reasonable. But we know there are varieties of wikis around, different styles of running them and ones that look different as well. In fact the only unifying aspects of wikis are the 'edit this page' functionality and the inbuilt version control. The fact that Marc's thing isn't called a Wiki is probably reason enough to believe that it has technical / infrastructural and UI differences of some kind - and the fact that it's also called an outliner is a bit of a clue too. So if we're assuming that we're talking about the future of social software rather than the present and we're also working on the principle that they way these products look is probably the easiest possible thing about them to change (much easier than how they work), then it seems to me that our responsibility is towards judging them in terms of what they do, noting the failings in appearance separately and then trying to encourage people to tart up the one that works best, rather than choosing the one that's just been best tarted-up... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 05/08/2003 03:17:32 AM So, Stewart pointed me back here to see the latest comments. (Say, can I ask why you don't want line or paragraph breaks in comments? It made that last one a good bit harder to read...) I was more than a little hurt by your comments about me above. I most certainly did not write the original post "simply to get traffic." I wrote the post because I thought it was worth saying. In fact, I was a little worried about posting it because I knew that it might not be received well by people who are heavily vested in wikis as a business tool (in particularly, I thought it might be bad form to post it on M2M when Ross was one of my co-authors). In the end, I decided to post it despite my fears because I really hoped that if people disagreed it would set off a useful debate or discussion. That's why I was initially so happy to see your post--while I didn't agree, I really did want to see the kinds of rich and interesting discussions that ended up happening here, in the comments on M2M, and on Joi's blog (among other places). But there's a big difference, I think, between welcoming pushback and "tabloid journalism trolling." You're not the only person who "cares about this stuff." At the end of the day, I really don't give a rat's ass about traffic--I don't track it, I'm not motivated by it. I care about the ideas, and the engagement, and the exchange. And I care, too, when someone unfairly accuses me of shoddy behavior--and does it in such a public way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.118.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/08/2003 09:38:27 AM In which case - you have my immediate apologies, Liz - the only reason I commented is because I had got the initial impression from your first post above that the existence of a debate was more important than any substance that could be gleaned from it. As such, my first reaction was one of embarrassment and frustration that I could be gamed so easily. But all that changes immediately if you are more interested in the substance - and I think I can accept you on your word! So - I'm terribly sorry - it was an immediate and visceral reaction that I withdraw whole-heartedly. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 05/09/2003 12:12:33 AM Thanks, Tom. Apology accepted. The criticism only stung because I really respect your writing and ideas. Glad we can move on. ----- PING: TITLE: Wiki's aren't ugly URL: http://cecil.cac.psu.edu/archives/000021.html IP: 128.118.2.15 BLOG NAME: Jeff Mace DATE: 05/02/2003 09:25:51 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | The Ugly Wiki? I have to agree with Tom, there isn't a reason that wiki's should be ugly. Actually, I would like to make the distinction between the wiki structure and the wiki pages. I don't... ----- PING: TITLE: wiki fashion URL: http://www.dykesdodigital.org/archives/000137.html IP: 209.133.45.85 BLOG NAME: <dykes.d().digital> DATE: 05/04/2004 07:12:55 AM mir, this made me think of you - this blog post is defending wikis against the accusation that they are... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: User name epithets... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/01/2003 03:58:27 PM ----- BODY:

    I find the way in which communities self-organise totally fascinating - almost as fascinating as I find those situations where communities fail to self-organise. I always wonder what went wrong?, when really I should be asking what went right in the successful communities. It's not at all an obvious thing that if you give people a highly structured space which truncates whole swathes of interactions that they'll all turn into a utopian group of productive, collaborative citizens...

    On Barbelith Underground - a community that I've been running for years now (with development help from Cal Henderson), we decided to allow everyone to change their displayed user-name as and when they wanted. Obviously confusion emerged initially as unhelpful people changed their handles at the drop of a penny. But gradually a consensus emerged - core identities became acknowledged but with florid epithets all around them. So a man who started as Tannhauser moves towards Haus as his core identity, with his name displayed on the board as (currently) The little Haus in the Priory. Each user seems to find a phrase that they identity with (in time), but then they recontextualise it as and when they want...

    In Ancient Greek poetry, poets used epithets to make names fit the metrical patterns they composed within. So Hera became "White-Armed" in one place, and "Ox-eyed" elsewhere. Dawn (Eos), when she appears over the battelfield can be - but does not need to be - rododaktylos (rosy-fingered). These were stock-phrases, but they were also highly descriptive. Sometimes they reflected local variations in cultic origins or stories. But they all represented interesting and different facets of the divinity, hero or commoner...

    If I was building Barbelith again, I wouldn't recommend totally flexible displayed-user-names. But I'd want to capture some of the variety and richness of the world of the epithet. I'd get people to express a core identity (Haus, for example) from the beginning, but I'd also let them change their epithets (before and after their names) on the fly as and when they wanted to... It's a simple way with members of a long-standing community - to pay respect to the way that human beings (over time) can be many things and yet also always themselves...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adam EMAIL: za0@bigfoot.com IP: 81.100.44.80 URL: DATE: 05/01/2003 05:03:43 PM Hi. I guess your proposed solution is very much like instant messenger platforms which maintain independence between an individual's username and their screen name. Every user can change their screen name as they wish -- but their username is fixed for the life of the account (for example, with Yahoo or MSNM it's user@somewhere.com or with ICQ it's a unique number). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/01/2003 05:16:41 PM Not really - the important thing is to make people identifiable to one another as well as to the system itself. So it's kind of like having a login name of Haus and then being able to choose what comes before and after it - so you could be visible as "The Haus of Cards" or "Dougie "Hauser". Everyone knows who you are, but you have boundaries of self expression around it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anita EMAIL: anita@rainbucket.com IP: 80.177.94.180 URL: http://www.rainbucket.com/log DATE: 05/01/2003 06:11:32 PM On MUDs you usually keep the same [character] name, but are allowed to change the title displayed after it, and you can also change other attributes. In comparison to MUDs, i find other communities like chat-rooms and most message boards 'dodgy', because people can make up new identities and change their names as they please. I prefer consistency. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.207.236 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/01/2003 11:47:55 PM That's a very interesting comment and one that ties in very well with my ideas surrounding how social networks are handled in games versus how they're handled in more discussion-based fora. Thanks for that... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: taj EMAIL: tajmahal@fneh.net IP: 131.111.8.103 URL: http://tajmahal.fneh.net DATE: 05/01/2003 11:59:41 PM The MUD I played on for a while allowed "prefixes", eg, a character called Fleet, who had acheived the level of Necromancer, was displayed as "Fleet the funky Necromancer", "funky" being her prefix. This MUD, though, did not allow players to define their own prefixes; they had to choose them, and then a wizard (admin) would apply it if they thought it suitable. Thing is; players had to promise to stay in character. If they were "sneaky", they should play sneaky, and use the ACT functions to act sneaky. So a degree of in-characterness was required BY the prefix, and at the same time character was provided by the prefix. Bit of give and take. Prefixes were also fixed, not flexible, but I liked the idea that you had to live up to what you'd chosen rather than chopping and changing as some of us do on Barbelith. (Incidentally, Fleet also had a suffix; when in a room with hir, the line "Fleet the funky necromancer is here, with a huge afro" would bne displayed. She remained in character rather well.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 05/02/2003 02:36:35 PM On the whole, I hate it when people can change their names to something completely different without reference to the original. I too like at least a modicum of consistency...or at least some natural form of evolution. I have found that people usually like to shorten their names/screennames as others do it for them. I'm actually really bad at condensing peoples names to just one or two characters. In fact my own screenname 's3d' originally came from a chat room avatar I chose randomly one day called 'sea dreamer'. The '3' appeared for a forum that didn't allow for spacing and then I ended up condensing my own name anyway. It comes with its many drawbacks though, as I frequently get approached by gamers and 'l33t' who insist on talking gibberish at me. For the record, my name is Sam, I have a life (if only a very small life) and I do not communicate with the mothership more than once a week... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Writing a Hydra Conference Template... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/02/2003 01:14:51 AM ----- BODY:

    During the second-to-last presentation I attended at ETCon, I decided it was about time to try and drag the format of the collective annotations into some kind of order. There's a certain amount of pleasure lost by overly structuring these things, but it was beginning to become clear that some people had such different levels of collaborative expertise that having a workable template to start off with might actually be a tremendously useful first step. I think I would expect any group of people who used Hydra regularly to swiftly find their own best model of working. But in the meantime: Hydra_Conference_Template.txt

    Anyway - I thought I'd go through some of the basic decisions I made in producing this first draft. If people want to take it stage further and work to adapt it more or push it in a different direction, then they should feel free to do so...

    I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of anyone who has actively used this template in a conference situation. It's simple, but I think it's clear and hopefully some other people will find some utility in it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Hydra Template Released and Explained URL: http://www.kittyjoyce.com/eric/log/archive/000564.html IP: 66.33.197.13 BLOG NAME: ...pickhits... DATE: 05/02/2003 12:59:03 PM Tom Coates has posted an exegesis and copy of the collaborative notetaking template he came up with during ETCon. As ----- PING: TITLE: Hydra - not a programmers' editor after all URL: http://www.mobileentropy.com/archives/000251.html IP: 82.35.40.2 BLOG NAME: Mobile Entropy DATE: 05/09/2003 10:33:52 AM Jack Schofield notes Hyrda's prevelance at ETCON (and iSociety comments too). It's interesting to see how quickly people stopped thinking of Hydra as a way to edit code (I've tried using it for PHP but it's a bit slow on my ageing G4) and starting to u... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: London from the air... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/02/2003 01:27:38 AM ----- BODY:

    When flying back over London, Webb took this picture with my camera... At the bottom, the Millennium Dome. Towards the top-right, Canary Wharf...

    London-from-the-air.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Photo of East London URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/archives/006415.php IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: mad musings of me DATE: 05/02/2003 07:54:59 AM Tom has published a picture of London from the air.... I'm impressed ----- PING: TITLE: Birds Eye URL: http://WWW.ablogslife.com/archives/000571.html IP: 212.187.157.242 BLOG NAME: A Blog's Life DATE: 05/02/2003 08:42:19 AM Seeing Tom's aerial picture of London reminded me I'd taken one too when coming back from Japan last year. ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/05/02 09:49 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2362 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 05/02/2003 10:07:00 AM London from the air ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Just look away... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/02/2003 08:13:13 PM ----- BODY:

    This post isn't meant for you people. Just go on - sod off. It's important that I have some kind of record of this stuff for the years ahead when I'm all old and insane and bitter and... Hmm... Sounds an awful lot like now, actually...

    I'm going to end with two appeals - could anyone who's out there who got pictures of ETCon stick a link to them in the comments (below) and while we're at it - there's been talk about how many women were at the event. It's a legitimate question, but I'd be equally interested to know how many gay men and women were there... If you want to make yourself known, there's a whole lotta comments facility just begging to be used...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.73.87 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 05/03/2003 03:16:49 PM my raw photos of the event (yes, i know I have a redeye/brightness problem): http://www.undergroundlondon.com/photo/etcon2003/etcon2003.html some of which feature aforementioned Coates and the rest of the London cabal. And yes, I am most definitely gay. c. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.158.108 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/03/2003 07:06:08 PM Here are some getting-to-ETCon pictures by one of my travelling companions, Mr James Cronin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 05/06/2003 12:54:32 PM I took a handful of photos. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Andrew Orlowski is a weblogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 05/03/2003 09:24:33 PM ----- BODY:

    So a few days ago William Gibson announced that he was giving up weblogging (at least for the moment) because he had a book to write. Wired talked to him about it:

    Gibson began his weblog this year in early January. He has posted entries on an almost daily basis, barring sporadic periods when he has been on a reading tour for his latest novel, Pattern Recognition. Gibson is currently winding up the book tour in Ireland and Britain. Once it is over, he'll end the weblog, he says. "I have to go do whatever it is I do, to find the next novel," he said. "Writing novels is pretty solitary, and blogging is very social." Fans have flocked to the relatively reclusive author's site for insights into his novels and for his crisp observations on a plethora of topics.

    So to summarise - he enjoys weblogging, finds it useful and interesting, enjoys the contact with his readers, who also enjoy reading his site where he makes 'crisp observations on a plethora of topics'.

    Noted Register troll Andrew Orlowski had a rather different take on the whole thing, however. While lauding Gibson's skill as a writer to hyperbolic levels, he decided to give his opinion about his second-favourite author's decision:

    Gibson told Lillington that the daily confessional might ruin his creative process. He's quite right to think so. He's an artist, which means he collects and refines ideas over time, and has a gift for organizing his language to maximal effect. Put another way, he chooses his words carefully, and he chooses the contexts in which they will have most impact. (Optimizing compiler writers will understand what we mean - blabbing webloggers probably won't).

    Now obviously I don't have any interest in pointing out that Gibson specifically talks about starting up his weblog again after writing the book, and that he's found substantial value in it. There's no point in debating the finer points of journalism here, because Andrew's piece actually has no journalism in it at all. At best he writes Opinion editorials - writing that drips with his own personal (and I believe ill-thought-through) opinions and vengeful grumpiness towards the weirdly elitist, powerful, Google-manipulating (and yet trivial, impotent and babbling) cabals of weblogging culture.

    Intriguingly this leaves me looking at his piece with a newfound insight - because it seems to me that the natural home of personal opinion of this kind on the internet would seem to be the weblog rather than an online magazine. In fact, if you look at it closely, it's difficult to work out if anything really is different between the stuff that Andrew writes on the Register and the stuff that I write on plasticbag.org. When you come right down to it, what is the difference between the way Andrew presents his opinions and the opinions of the tens of thousands of webloggers around the net?

    I can only see three significant differences. Firstly, Andrew's weblog is published on TheRegister.com - which purports to be a 'serious' publisher. Secondly, he probably gets paid for it. And finally, most webloggers I know are rather better at spelling and grammar than he is.

    In fact - rather than just declare Andrew a weblogger, I think we should go further. Andrew's writing style, hawkish vocabulary, obsession with his own interpretation of events and unwillingness to listen to opposing viewpoints seem to me almost totally comparable a very specific subset of weblogging. It's terrifyingly similar to the rabid opinion-mongering seen in warblogging's least salubrious ghettoes (the subset of that noble faction that continually puts ideology before evidence and force of argument ahead of plausibility or logical debate). In fact, let me make this totally clear - not only is Andrew Orlowski a weblogger in all but name, he's also not a very good one...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 12.252.202.45 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 05/03/2003 09:57:17 PM Yeah, that's pretty much the same thought I had upon reading Orlowski's Gibson article. What separates The Register from most weblogs is almost purely an issue of presentation--put it in a reverse chronological stream instead of a newspaper-style format and I don't think it would be out of place on anyone's blogroll. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mad William Flint EMAIL: mpwilson@earthlink.net IP: 63.13.131.4 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108194/ DATE: 05/04/2003 06:49:51 AM Very well said. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Erik J. Barzeski EMAIL: erik@barzeski.com IP: 68.64.90.87 URL: http://nslog.com/ DATE: 05/04/2003 02:03:58 PM And yet you continue to talk about him, quote him, link to him. Sensationalists live by creating sensation, but they need readers to do so. You're playing right into his plan. I never read Orlowski articles.That's far more harmful to him than blabbing about him. Search my site for Orlowski (http://nslog.com/orlowski) and you find nyet. Orlowski is just following in John Dvorak's steps. No news there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.142 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/04/2003 02:18:22 PM I think there is a difference here. If he was a weblogger, I wouldn't be bothering - but there's this perception that he's a sensible and intelligent journalist commenting on the world around him - which he patently isn't! I think it's important that his complete lack of credibility is exposed, and if I had the time to compile a list of all the articles he's produced recently with refutations and comments from the people he's talked about I would. It's irresponsible journalism at best... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rusty EMAIL: rusty@kuro5hin.org IP: 24.198.180.85 URL: DATE: 05/04/2003 03:54:15 PM I know Andrew pretty well. We had him over for Thanksgiving dinner when I lived in SF. So I'm kind of in the middle of the whole thing. What's strangest about all this controversy is that I think all the bloggers I know would get along like gangbusters with Andrew O., and vice versa, if everyone sat down and had a beer or four. He's a smart guy and (normally) a very good reporter, though I'm kind of puzzled by the latest crusade. I feel like I know generally what he's trying to say, but I don't think he's doing a very good job of getting it across. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.65.140 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/04/2003 04:39:28 PM I wrote this elsewhere a while ago: "Having read Orlowski's various blog-related articles in recent times I get the impression that he thinks a lot of bloggers are self-important no-nothing assholes. And to be honest, he has a point. The only problem is that he tends to make this point by being a self-important no-nothing asshole, writing opinion piece posts that would look great in a blog but which are mistakenly represented as 'news reports'. Slightly ironic, that." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: gummi EMAIL: gummi@meettheg.com IP: 82.65.112.199 URL: http://meettheg.com DATE: 05/04/2003 04:47:27 PM I don't think Orlowski is a troll for his opinion. I have noticed his articles becoming more and more like a weblog post, with obligatory links to books/movies or music he recommends. A subtle joke? His tirades on Google, Bloggin' and the new Apple music service are in the best traditions of a 'soothsayer'. A little criticism now and then might be a good corrective. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.142 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/04/2003 05:39:47 PM I'm far from convinced that it's a joke - subtle or otherwise. And I should make it clear that I have no interest in defending the worst excesses of webloggia either. There are a fair number of extremely high profile people that I think have a tendency towards irresponsible and self-inflating behaviour. I'm sure I'm not perfect in that regard either. I just think quite a lot of Andrew's latest stuff has borne such a negligble resemblence to reality, seems so knocked-off, badly researched and generally just wrong that I think it's ironic - terrible, even - that he can call himself a journalist. I'm sure he's a lovely chap - I've had a few pieces of correspondence with him in which he's been nothing but friendly and civil - he even wanted to meet up with me while I was in the States. But his work is anything but friendly and civil - in fact it seems good for nothing but bile! And I'm not the only one who thinks so ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: gummi EMAIL: gummi@meettheg.com IP: 82.65.112.199 URL: http://meettheg.com DATE: 05/04/2003 06:27:44 PM The O'Reilly post is understandable, Orlowski's 'Scientology" comment was a bit below the belt. but I don't see where the argument is going. If it were possible to engage Orlowski in a debate you might get somewhere, mudslinging is not going to help. Well, maybe a little. I don't want to appear cheeky, if someone can point out where his facts are badly researched that would be great, or is it just common knowledge and pervasive in the ether. Aside from that, most of his work is loaded with opinion and I get the impression that the 'Googlewashed' incident triggered something which he should run with. It might be horrid reading, for some, but I think he's going somewhere with these tirades and I'm sure he (and the readers) have no clue where it is. It might be fun when he gets there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.65.140 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/04/2003 07:06:57 PM I'm inclined to agree with gummi; Orlowski could be going somewhere with this stuff. I enjoy reading his articles - even when they're exceptionally wide of the mark they have all the morbid curiousity of a journalistic train wreck. And from what more informed people say, I think it's very likely that Orlowski affects a deliberately controversial persona when he writes the more inflammatory stuff. But the fact remains - El Reg should be marketing the guy as a columnist rather than a news reporter. Suggested title: The OrlowBlog. Or The 'SkiBlog. In homage to that godawful BBC BillBlog thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: fleagle@x-pollen.com IP: 64.160.52.224 URL: http://x-pollen.com DATE: 05/05/2003 03:27:08 AM back to Gibson, I was tremendously sympathetic to Wm's plan to stop blogging when finding his next novel, and I sometimes wonder whether blogging is helping or hurting with my own longer form fiction-and-other-kinds-of-writing efforts. Someone more clever than I might contrast Gibson's concerns with Doctorow's oft-stated ideas that blogging helps him develop his novels. Since Cory is co-writing a sci-fi short story in public, using MT, at this time, it's clear that he is a kind of writer who does not fear the old strangling the baby in the crib thingie. I may be more old-school in that regard myself, seeing my new ideas (about fiction, mainly) as fragile and in need of privacy during their formative years / weeks / hours. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Moof EMAIL: me@moof.org.uk IP: 80.58.41.107 URL: http://moof.org.uk/ DATE: 05/05/2003 02:15:50 PM I can just see it now, last year we had Dave Green versus weblogdom in Xcom. I think it would be excellent to get a few webloggers, some google hackers, and Orlowski on the same table for another Xcom-style discussion... ----- PING: TITLE: Who gets helped by de-blogging Google? URL: http://www.deadparrots.net/archives/blogging/0306who_gets_helped_by_deblogging_google.html IP: 63.247.131.76 BLOG NAME: The Dead Parrot Society DATE: 06/09/2003 06:58:25 PM I'm certainly not the first person to roll my eyes at Andrew "I Can't Remember How Search Engines Work, Because I Hate Blogs So Much" Orlowski. In the wake of his columns on Google's "blog noise problem," others have already explained why search engine... ----- PING: TITLE: Andrew Orlowski ditches TrackBacks URL: http://www.padawan.info/weblog/andrew_orlowski_ditches_trackbacks.html IP: 212.180.126.177 BLOG NAME: padawan.info DATE: 10/14/2003 06:21:55 PM I guess that if Andrew Orlowski continues his compulsive, almost monomaniac (he sometimes writes about useful stuff) bashing of weblogs,... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shaving's for girls... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/03/2003 11:09:52 PM ----- BODY:

    shavings_for_girls.jpg

    Shaving your facial hair is, as they say, for girls... And before you start - I do not look like a tramp, and I'm trying to get more sleep...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Apple, music & piles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/03/2003 11:32:57 PM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Minipayments? URL: http://soreeyes.org/archives/000459.html IP: 195.149.39.8 BLOG NAME: Sore Eyes DATE: 05/05/2003 08:58:32 PM Apple's new music store (which isn't selling to customers whose credit cards show a non-US address, unfortunately) is charging just US$0.99 per track. As anyone who's followed the long story of the quest for a viable micropayments system knows, credit ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Maxicontent votes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/04/2003 01:06:43 AM ----- BODY:

    My browsers (both Camino and Safari) are now totally drunk on information. They're so full of tabs and bookmark-bar stored links that they're sluggish and clumsy and unresponsive. So in an attempt to help them back to a semblence of normality, I'm going to stick two metaphorical fingers down their collective throats and help them vomit up their linky goodness all over the blogosphere in the form of a massive blast of microcontent votage:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Webb 2000... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/05/2003 12:35:02 AM ----- BODY:

    While we were in San Francisco, my Webb 2000 started to act up a bit. So I did what anyone else would have done, I went to the depot to see if I could get him fixed. Turns out there was very little wrong with him - he just needed a quick mental service. That's the problem with these high-powered models. You get tremendous speed out of them - great power - but the parts wear out so quickly. While I was there I checked out some of the other models available, but although there was no obvious difference between any of them, I found I'd grown rather attached to mine. So I just got him some coolant, and we went back to work...

    many_robot_matts.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Webb2000 URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/archives/004636.html IP: 217.199.170.171 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley.com DATE: 05/05/2003 10:17:18 AM Tom's Webb2000 has gone astray. Quite distressing, considering the high quality of workmanship that goes into such things. ----- PING: TITLE: The Webb 2000... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/798 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 05/05/2003 04:01:32 PM plasticbag: "So I did what anyone else would have done, I went to the depot to see if I could get him fixed." ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Steven Pinker and the Perfectibility of Man... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Science CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/08/2003 01:16:24 AM ----- BODY:

    There's fragments of a paper in my head. I need to find ways of noting this stuff down that doesn't collide with my writing on this site. It goes back before Clay, to a place of darkness that is somewhere around the edges of some work I did in classics about a million years ago around constructivist and essentialist views of human nature and history (of which there is much written). Arts disciplines normally concentrate on that which makes the past a different place - alien and weird. Science concentrates on what is permanent and unyielding. The questions are always relational - is science skeletal to humanities meat (or meat to skin maybe)? Are the bones of science demonstrated to be brittle by philosophical poststructuralist critiques? Or are the relativisms of cultural studies shed like the masquerading shell of a scientific Terminator?

    So this is the point where I talk about Freud and my interest in models of the mind at that abstracted level - that it's maybe 'unscientific', but it's still essentialising (just at a different level). I delivered a paper on anachronism and identification in Aristotle and Freud a million years ago at a conference in New York. I can't remember what I said - and I finished it on sheets of hotel stationary while inhaling the minibar, so I'll probably never find a useful copy of it anywhere either... Maybe there's stuff that's permanent - maybe we just accept that. I believed that then and I think I believe it now... Interesting, but not obvious questions these - whatever you may wish to believe...

    So Steven Pinker's on TV and he's talking about the perfectibility of man and that sense of a "Blank Slate" that he writes about in his latest book of the same name. And he's talking about stuff I already knew, but I don't know where from - the association of the political left with ideologies that deny human nature as something fixed and permanent (which explains to me the resistance that feminism always had to Freud and reminds me of an incredibly brief and nerve-wracking conversation that I had with Alan Sinfield [profile] back when I was an intellectual before I became an artisan). He said that Freud was "bad for gay people". Same thing. Is essentialising philosophy bad for the left? Anyway - and Pinker is also talking about the right's acceptance of natural humanity - that the right operates on assumptions that society works around and in concert with fundamental humanity (greed, acquisition, ambition, competition) while the left abstracts out - tries to find ways to make the world more fair by denying or suggesting we change human nature... [cf Juliet Mitchell's earlier work]. That this ideology of human perfectibility can be considered to lie behind China's revolution and communist ideology (for example) which considered people malleable enough to be transformed into good non-competitive, collaborative citizens.

    And anyway - so I'm back to thinking about Clay again and how much my personal ideologies of community development and the value of social software coincide with his, but that at the same time the statements that he made at ETCon (that I missed, but which were extensions of comments that I've heard him say before) are not obvious - "groups act against their own interests" is a statement that needs contextualising. And that although we may feel comfortable asserting it, the ways in which studies of this kind are phrased and the fact that they are based on statements of limited cultural or historical difference between individuals - of an essentialised abstracted almost timeless humanity - might be correct, but are also implicated in much larger battles about the nature of identity and what it means to be human, and what is permanent and what can change. That difference between human groups is obvious and pronounced in many areas of hierarchy and interaction - as obvious as the similarities and that the line between what is human nature and what is acculturation or interpolation/relationships with language is not and may never be entirely clear. Which is not to say that it's not appropriate to use research of this kind as the basis for social software work - simply that the very principle that we balance out inbuilt human limitations with prostheses and band aids (this is very much core to one of the senses of social software that I'm most comfortable with) is potentially wrapped up in a much larger and scarier and less morally or politically obvious debate than we tend to acknowledge...

    This may make no sense to people who aren't me. It's messy enough to be only vaguely useful for me - gestural vocabularies, messy arguments and references are all I can offer... But maybe it'll help me feel less uncomfortable with some of the collisions between my current and previous occupations...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brendyn EMAIL: bwa5099@it.rit.edu IP: 129.21.41.181 URL: http://www.rit.edu/~bwa5099/blog/ DATE: 05/08/2003 01:25:51 AM Thanks for providing a high quality blog, Tom. I've been looking at it for a couple weeks and it's awesome, both design wise and linguistically. Thanks for providing it and making it available to read. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.118.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/08/2003 01:51:29 AM Also wanted to add that when I talk about people asserting "groups act against their own interests" I'm not suggesting that Clay is stating something without references or without evidence - just that research into behaviour patterns like this and disciplines like behavioural psychology are based on the very principle that human nature is essentially unchanging within and across communities... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.com/personal/ DATE: 05/08/2003 02:51:03 AM Great point about the prostheses leading into big debates. If I recall correctly, there was a section in *Civilization and its Discontents* (bringing it back to Freud) about machines as prostheses, but I hadn't really thought about social computing applications (sorry!) as social prosthetics. I will ruminate on this and the relation to moral and political issues (though I suspect that Anne Galloway has already worked all this out ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chrislunch EMAIL: chris@feeshes.freeserve.co.uk IP: 63.137.144.2 URL: DATE: 05/08/2003 09:17:25 AM Ooh - I wrote my master's thesis at Sussex Uni on Freud, Civilisation and its Discontents, and online identity. The bit of the essay you're looking for, Stewart, is where Freud ruminates on how technology distances and yet reunites us with our family, and ourselves. The quote is something about how it's a marvel of technology that his daughter could phone him when she's gone on a long journey (but boat or car) to say she's arrived safely, but that it's a tragedy of technology that modern transport can put so much distance between them. Avital Ronell does this best - using this exact chunk of Freud - in her excellent a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803289383/qid%3D1000035343/sr%3D2-3/104-7557750-5996744">The Telephone Book. She goes on to suggest we play a kind of fort-da game with ourselves on the telephone, and that when we hear the echo of our own voice on the end of a long-distance call, we experience this sense of a subjectivity somehow out their in the technology itself - an other that exists outside of ourselves. In my thesis I picked up on this and, by mixing it with the usual Deleuze & Guattari theory, the usual post-structural stuff and the then emerging cyberculture stuff, and with heavy reference to Gary Allen Fine's Shared Fantasy to look at how individual and social identities in online worlds were created, managed and shared. Man, it's almost Proustian to have this blog entry trigger all that long-dead thinking . . . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anne EMAIL: anne@purselipsquarejaw.org IP: 64.230.104.46 URL: http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org DATE: 05/08/2003 09:03:10 PM Thanks Stewart - you make me sound like such a keener ;) Actually, I think Tom's hit the nail on the head with his comment: "the very principle that we balance out inbuilt human limitations with protheses and band aids ... is potentially wrapped up in a much larger and scarier and less morally or politically obvious debate that we tend to acknowledge." Yes!! And I think we need to spend a bit more time trying to figure out the implications of certain models of social computing ... And Chrislunch - The Telephone Book is brilliant! It's so nice to see it mentioned in these discussions ;) Cheers. ----- PING: TITLE: Antibes URL: http://www.nicomorgan.com/2parchives/001228.php IP: 66.11.162.232 BLOG NAME: My 2p DATE: 05/08/2003 12:55:37 PM Antibes. mmmm. This page includes the memorable phrase:"Russia's new barons such as the model Cindy Crawford". Elsewhere Tom continues to... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My working definition of social software... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/08/2003 12:34:15 PM ----- BODY:

    A while ago I wrote about a potential definition of social software based around Englebart's theories of augmentation. Shortly before I went to ETCon I was talking about related issues with Will Davies of the iSociety and included (in my comments) a revised version of that definition, which I have since revised still further. So then, this is my current rough working definition of what it is I'm talking about when I'm talking about social software.

    Social software is a particular sub-class of software-prosthesis that concerns itself with the augmentation of human social and / or collaborative abilities through structured mediation (this mediation may be distributed or centalised, top-down or bottom-up/emergent). Social software augments these abilities by:
    1. Removing the real-world limitations placed on social and / or collaborative behaviour by factors such as language, geography, background, financial status, etc;
      [This can also be seen as the basic aspiration of first-generation online discussion software as well as the gist of the world-changing hyperbolae of the press during the dot com years]
    2. Compensating for human inadequacies in processing, maintaining or developing social and / or collaborative mechanisms - in terms of information overload, generating appropriate filtering mechanisms, building in solutions to compensate for reptile-brain activity, developing structures that are immune to blame-culture, recrimination etc. This in particular can be seen as the replacement of the inherent limitations of geography (1 above) with mechanisms that generate parallel senses of 'similar, different', 'near, far' etc. This also includes feedback loops and the like;
      [Some of the more interesting work that people have been talking about already sits in this area - particularly Clay's work on groups when he's quoting Bion.]
    3. Creating environments or distributed tool-sets that pull useful end results out of human social and / or collaborative behaviour - for example, generating software that facilitates human creative processes in groups, structuring the process (or having the process emerge through apparently unrelated interactions) so as to have a distinct and productive end result;

    That's probably as close as I've got as of yet... Any thoughts?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jen EMAIL: jenrundall@nospam.yahoo.com IP: 212.219.139.4 URL: http://www.globaljen.com DATE: 05/08/2003 01:53:17 PM Seen the article in the Grauniad today? (link) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Howard Rheingold EMAIL: hlr@well.com IP: 12.236.148.30 URL: http://www.smartmobs.com DATE: 05/08/2003 06:02:46 PM Several people sent me pointers to this, so I thought I would offer a few resources for those who are inclined to look at the historical roots of this new phenomena. First, I applaud the reference to Engelbart, because the social aspects of computer augmentation was very much on his mind as early as the 1950s. I wrote about that in 1985 (link). At that time, and in many conversations since then, Engelbart stressed that his originally framework for augmentation included "humans, using language, artifacts, methodology, and training," although most emphasis by most people in the intervening decades has been on the visible part, the artifacts. In that sense, the emphasis on social software today is (or ought to be, in my opinion) a reminder that the real capabilities of augmentation lies not in the hardware or software but in the thinking and communication practices these tools enable. Of course, in 1993 -- hard to believe it was a decade ago, I wrote about the Well, BBSs, Usenet, Muds, IRC, etc. in The Virtual Community. So much verbiage has flowed around the notion of "community" in this context that it doesn't make a lot of sense to rehash it now. I would only note that when a particular group of people uses social software for long enough -- whether it is synchronous or asynchronous, deskbound or mobile, text or graphical -- they establish individual and group social relationships that are different in kind from the more fleeting relationships that emerge from task-oriented group formation. Although the enterprise of Electric Minds is long forgotten, I talked a lot about "the social web" in 1986-87. The original conversations are gone, but a snapshot of Electric Minds exists here. http://www.abbedon.com/electricminds/html/home.html In 2001, I updated "The Virtual Community" with a new chapter that went into detail about the community debate and brought in the notion of social networks (here) and three years ago, Lisa Kimball and I wrote about the advantages to enterprises of establishing Online Social Networks (here). And of course many others from the social sciences, political science, and the technology side have studied and written about the way people use computer-mediated communications in teams, group formation, and social networks. Certainly, we have much more to learn. And I applaud the reinvigoration of interest in a phenomena that popped up just as soon as people could send email to distribution lists (HUMAN-NETS was one of the oldest: link) I think the emerging field would do well to acknowledge and build on this earlier work. Something new is happening, truly, in terms of the kinds of software available, and the scale of use. But in many ways, this something new would not be happening if many people over many years had not coded, experimented, socialized, observed, and debated the social relationships and group formation enabled by computer-mediated and Internet-enabled communication media. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.111.42.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/08/2003 06:17:47 PM Definitely - from my perspective the concept of social software is either an extension of the work in online communities that has been done over the last several decades or an attempt to recontextualise that work in light of several intriguing leaps of some kinds of socialising software into the semi-mainstream. The field is looking more creative now than I think it has since the web achieved dominance in the early 1990s when the internet gradually came to be associated more with publishing than with interaction and social activity... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rick Thomas EMAIL: rickpb@evenview.com IP: 66.32.83.99 URL: http://www.toggleworld.com/ DATE: 05/08/2003 06:29:22 PM Augmentation is a tool analogy: we seek to increase our leverage, to channel our power. But social software should also refer to process interfaces that subsume the mere individual, like elections or the economy, or say, software that indexes our online presence and reports a (false) consensus while we remain passive. Social software might not remove any limitations on behaviour or compensate for human inadequacies, but only acknowledge or take advantage of them. I agree with your values for design goals, but if you want to harness emergent processes your definition should be neutral with regard to personal control and include the possibility that such processes may be blind. (Blind from the process point of view; to have unseen influences from ours.) This is important as the phenomenon grows: as we become "fully delegated" to processes we can't comprehend. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Howard Rheingold EMAIL: hlr@well.com IP: 12.236.148.30 URL: http://www.smartmobs.com DATE: 05/08/2003 07:01:06 PM The tool analogy that Rick points out is worth keeping in mind, because it does condition the way we think. Nardi and O'Day point out in their book, "Information Ecologies," that computer-mediated communication and other computer-aided activities are seen differently if they are regarded as a tool (one grasps tools and wields them) or a medium (one or many use a medium as a channel for social connection or information exchange) or an ecology (read what they say about it here. for more detail, but they briefly note: "We define an information ecology to be a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment. In information ecologies, the spotlight is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technology.") Engelbart's original goal was to find ways for humans to better solve the complex problems that our own civilization, knowledge, science, and technology have created for us. In 1950, he saw that these problems were growing more and more complex. So he saw computers and screens and voice media as part of an entire "ecology," although he didn't use that term (and of course it wasn't in common usage then) that would enable teams of people to work together more effectively. He didn't really talk about emergent effects, but his emphasis on "bootstrapping" came from his conviction that when people work with new symbol-manipulating media, it changes how they think and communicate, and their changed thinking and communication can, if properly supported, lead to improved media and practices. He's still talking about that necessity today (bootstrap.org). In that regard, I think the emphasis in the social software movement today on affording emergent social phenomena is an important complement to the more engineering-design oriented approach of bootstrapping. The two approaches, ultimately, need to integrate. BTW, I thought some more about my first post here, and blogged it here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anne EMAIL: anne@purselipsquarejaw.org IP: 64.230.104.46 URL: http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org DATE: 05/08/2003 08:55:13 PM Thanks Tom for the interesting post - and I did begin to comment on it this morning, but might add a few thoughts here after reading Rick's and Howard's comments. Engelbart's idea of augmentation is indeed a tool or engineering analogy - but one that specifically advocated a functional systems approach to humanity in terms of increased efficiency and productivity. In this respect, not only was it meant to help us solve problems we had created for ourselves, it also naturalised the notion that efficiency and productivity are among the ultimate goals of civilisation. And clearly, that sort of thinking is historically and politically located within capitalism and industrialisation. (Arguably, Engelbart's own history of growing up during the Depression and later working within the military industrial complex greatly influenced his models for computing.) I think we need to be very careful about assuming that technology (objects-in-themselves) can "remove limitations" or "compensate for human inadequacies" - here is where Nardi and O'Day's ecological metaphor becomes more useful as it repositions technology within broader socio-cultural spheres of interaction - since some of these limitations and inadequacies can just as easily be advantages and strengths. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon Lebkowsky EMAIL: jonl@weblogsky.com IP: 63.246.164.194 URL: http://www.weblogsky.com DATE: 05/08/2003 10:08:29 PM I agree with your practical analysis, Anne, and I think we should be careful not to create unrealistic expectations for social technologies. What has changed - I think via the evolution of the weblog - is the sense that conversations were encapsulated by technology (inside forums, chat rooms, etc.). We're beginning to build technologies that expose conversations. We're evolving a more public social ecology. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.118.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/08/2003 10:13:26 PM Anne - I think you're right of course, but at the same time one of the wonders of the current spate of thinking around this area is that there are a wide variety of different collaborative models emerging at the moment - there's some really fertile thinking happening. And I think that - at least at the broad-strokes levels that we're operating with at the moment - the utility or otherwise of various human attributes that we consider inadequacies at present will emerge in this space of play... Broadening our sense of the implications of our models is enough for me (if only because I'm not sure that any of us get to decide which technologies will manifest or leap into the mainstream). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lance Rose EMAIL: elrose@well.com IP: 165.247.28.165 URL: DATE: 05/09/2003 02:37:52 AM This "social software" business seems to be one of those ill-understood hodgepodges that mean anything that the speakers variously want it to mean. For instance:
       - a continuation of the BBS cultures chronicled in Boardwatch magazine last decade before it became an ISP trade rag. Except note that those cultures were not driven only by discussion board s/w design, but also by conection and networking regimes, connection speeds, "local dial-up" geometries, etc., etc. "Software" per se, as computer code, played only a part in this, and was not determinative of things overall.
       This was a "social, network-and-computer-mediated environment", not a "social-software mediated environment." No one designed around all the non-software elements via software only. It just didn't work that way then, and can it really work that way now?
       - I don't generally participate in discussions here. I note a rather chilling feeling of "software" as some kind of intentionally designed add-on to the human mind, and a lot of grandiose notions of manipulating dynamics of groups of human beings.
       Why not do things more simply? e.g., If there is some problem with holding three way conversations in standard linear form, (as opposed to the possibility of some sort of "trialectical" form), AND if people are fascinated by the possibility of being able to hold such conversations in more entertaining ways, then just design discussion software to support that functionality, and let the rest of it develop (I hate this word, but will use it anyway) "organically", in a continuous-feedback development process.
       It's the difference between "possibility-opening" design, and "possibility-determinative" design. The former is like life itself. The latter is the same old humanoid hubris, as if living beings could be encapsulated in small bubbles of ideas.
       - Why aren't traditional architects at the forefront of this field? They're the ones who have studied this topic to death. Or, if you want to say this is really about technology and media effects, then where are those working in the tradition of McLuhan?
       - How about bringing the work of Henri LeFebvre into this discussion? I haven't read "The Production of Space", but it's theme - architecture as a reflection, and implementation, of the structure of society - would seem to be on point. His last work, "Elements of Rhythmanalysis" brings his approach to rhythm as reflector and determinant of society, and should be available in English next year.
       - This grandiose vision of designable "social software", without benefit of being fit into the larger historical and world patterns that (believe it or not) engulf "the computer phenomenon", runs the risk of being so conceptually tunnelvisionized that it could easily result - quite apart from whatever the narrow "intention" might have been - in all kinds of new constrictive human control regimes.
       - Last note: I saw a comment of "productivity" and "efficiency" as primary goals. Huh? Efficiency at doing what? Nature does not even work that way. Those of God's creatures/species that survive in any given environment (yay, I connected with the "ecology" theme) are not necessarily optimized in terms of the aspects of efficiency and productivity of their bodily operations. Those aspects work "well enough for survival", but not necessarily one whit, jot or tittle better.
       With better energy sources/distribution (i.e., what if cold fusion worked, etc.), I doubt any of us would be heard uttering "productivity and efficiency", except for the artists . "Productivity and efficiency" are not goals, they are never more than a measure of constraints. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lance Rose EMAIL: elrose@well.com IP: 165.247.50.5 URL: DATE: 05/09/2003 06:20:16 AM Sorry about that double-post. When I posted, the site came back at me with some sort of "server error" page, which is what prompted me to post again. Is that "server error" response a normal feature/bug around here? Anyway, let me repeat: the Architects are all over "social software" already. It's what they do every day. The designs of public spaces shape the worlds of the people who move through them. Everyone builds internal models of these spaces, as a natural concomitant of the need to move through them without crashing into things too often. These rigorously constructed models then create the basis for shared perceptions in a shared social world. These models of physical 4D spaces are models in software - the software of mind and language, at the practical level. Architects have worked this field forever and a day. One reason I bring this up is that the work of architects as "social software" designers has been relatively benign over the centuries. Not absolutely benign, of course not - just today, in a book on Frida Kahlo, I noticed a comment, attributed to a mid-century Marxist, that Frank Lloyd Wright was "against the people" because his expansive, low-set building style spread people out over the land. But compare this to the sort of "social software" being bandied about here, where the action of psychological cues on the minds of users hunched over their screens can be used to hit fairly deep neurological buttons, fairly directly. This is a highly determinative molding of the brain-computer interlock, locking us into tight perceptual loops. It reminds me of the 2nd X-Men movie that I just saw: we are each Professor Xavier, powerful of mind but nonetheless helplessly lost in delusion, because sitting right behind us in his own wheelchair is Jason Stryker, architect of the software environment within which Professor X is trapped. All that said, back around '92 or so I was fascinated by the possibilities of differently shaped online discussion areas. And even, what it means for such things to have "shapes." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.118.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/09/2003 09:56:04 AM Lance - I don't think it's at all obvious that architects are doing the same job as a social software designer - unless you really are pushing the metaphors of 'social spaces'. That's not to say that they don't have an input here, but I can think of a variety of other kinds of designers that work with the interactions of more than one person simultaneously - politicians and game theorists for example. When we talk about efficiencies or inefficiencies - often we're talking about very specific cases where there is a clear goal. If a piece of software is designed to facilitate decision-making - say - then you can structure it to force steps along the way. This is no more arcane or ludicrous than having an election system to decide our political leaders or having an agenda for a meeting. I think we do ourselves a disservice if we conflate social software design with architecture while leaving out people working in HCI, CMC, group psychology, politics etc... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anne Galloway EMAIL: anne@purselipsquarejaw.org IP: 64.230.104.46 URL: http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org DATE: 05/09/2003 02:12:14 PM Jon - good points, thanks. And while I agree that a more public social ecology is emerging, it is a public like the Greek agora, a forum for only some members of society ... Also, without wanting to be too picky ;) I might suggest that technologies are not exposing conversations as much as they are helping to create them. Tom - you are, of course, right to point out the variety of possible approaches - there's some brilliant work being done! And it has always, and only, been a small group of scholars interested in the more "meta" implications ... I'm just grateful that the question has been asked in any form ;) Because the history of computing is so intimately connected to cybernetics and cognitive (psychological) models, the social and cultural are often overlooked. And Lance - actually I didn't say anything about efficiency and productivity being the goals of social software ;) I brought it up in relation to Engelbart's work and historical understandings of "civilisation" ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lance Rose EMAIL: elrose@well.com IP: 165.247.28.71 URL: DATE: 05/09/2003 04:22:27 PM I've gotta leave it to the master of ceremonies (the MC) about who I (or anybody else) am "doing a disservice" to (or as any MC would say today, "dissing"). That rhetoric makes this whole thing look like "we're in on the "ground floor of a Gol. . . . den Opportunity", as in The Producers.
       [As an aside, why hold this highbrow discussion of "social software" using a discussion board system that can't even deal with line breaks or paragraph breaks???? Thoughts need to be bent and changed here to handle the lack of paragraph breaking.]
       As to architects - frankly, I think you guys are doing THEM the disservice. Software dudes retreating behind invisible, yet opaque, walls of software system design to proclaim themselves the grand designers, while abandoning a tradition of social space design measured in thousands (yes, that's thousands) of years. It's the kind of "now is all that counts" social/historical amnesia that plagues everything these days, especially in California . In the meantime, defensive maneuvers aside, how many politicians and game theorists have looked to the traditions of architecture for material on designing social software? How many of you have done so? I submit that those who do gulp from that fountain may get the competitive edge within this Golden Opportunity.
       Here's some more social software: language itself. Primal, primordial Language. It programs us, it gives us our mental worlds, and in many cases, we never escape its total control. Those designing "social software" are at great risk of designing within their own unquestioned presumptions about language. So the subject of social software design (isn't it interesting how we refer to these people as "subjects", while they're really being perceived and treated as if they're "objects"?)
       We end up with levels and levels of illusion. The illusions of our biology; the illusions of language; the illusions of the family; the illusions of the tribe; the illusions of organized religion; the illusions of the print-propagated ideas of civilization; the illusions of mass media/virtual reality; and now, the illusion of social software design. That's a veddy, veddy grand layer cake, Monsignor. I'm lost in the frosting. How about an illusion decoder ring? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris Corrigan EMAIL: chris@chriscorrigan.com IP: 209.148.247.96 URL: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/osweblog DATE: 05/09/2003 07:40:52 PM I'm pretty new to this stuff, but as a facilitator of Open Space Technology meetings, I'm really interested in the way face to face networked conversations handshake with social software. Coming at the problem from the other side maybe? I've posted some more thoughts with links that work here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.45.255.241 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 05/10/2003 12:16:57 PM I've put up some thoughts, not so much about this, but inspired by it... iSociety ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon Lebkowsky EMAIL: jonl@weblogsky.com IP: 63.246.164.194 URL: http://www.weblogsky.com DATE: 05/10/2003 12:36:46 PM Wow, Lance, you're definitely on a roll here. My own sense of 'social software' is that it emerges from a realization of something you and Howard and I have known for years, that the real value of computer networks is in their ability to bring people together and facilitate collaboration.
       For the half decade or so from '93 to '98, on Internet as facility for publishing, for commerce, for data interchange - you rightly noted that the 'net is not a medium, but an environment in which many kinds of media may exist at the edges. To extend your architectural metaphor, this new - or I would say renewed - emphasis on social software seems to me to focus less on structured space ("buildings") and more on open space (the agora, as Anne mentions above). Developers in this space aren't looking for ways to manipulate - they're creating more and better ways to connect and collaborate.
       And you really can break paragraphs here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.118.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/10/2003 02:26:57 PM Lance - I think you'll find that a hell of a lot of people are working with architects on this kind of thing. No one disputes the value that architects can bring into this field. On the other hand, there are a lot of false assumptions that they can bring in as well. We may use spatial metaphors a lot, but they are metaphors, we may talk about cyberspace, but you know full well that that space isn't the same as physical space. I repeat - suggesting architects have an obvious superiority when it comes to designing non-spatial, non-geographical ways of helping groups of people interact with each other socially is not obvious. Otherwise architects would be designing political systems, designing meeting agendas, designing teleconferencing equipment and the like.
       Dealing with your aside for a moment - the reason we are having this discussion here on this part of my weblog is because in this case I started the conversation. The reasons that it doesn't work in quite the way you want it to are several-fold - firstly because Movable Type which I use to run my weblog isn't absolutely perfect in every way, and doesn't run perfectly on my server. Secondly, I don't have the time to design and build bespoke solutions to all my weblogging needs. Thirdly, because for a variety of reasons, I've turned off several of the options concerning formatting. If you want to insert line breaks or paragraph breaks at the moment you have to do it manually - but I'd ask you not to. And links also work - but I'd rather people wrote them in HTML than cut and pasted them into the page.
       Finally, and importantly from my perspective, while I have a significant - and long-term - interest in the cultural effects of online community work / social software, I don't believe that a single paradigm is likely to emerge, nor do I think that building a piece of social software is commensurate with developing an over-arching software-mediated-state online. As such, I have a certain amount of faith in the ability of people to create a wide spectrum of interesting models that will either catch on or not catch on - perhaps concentrating on different fields or kinds of interactions, perhaps interoperating with each other (and perhaps not). Perhaps here we have another example of the differences between physical architects and social software designers - when the former builds something they know that it's going to have a massive and singular impact on a large number of people and those around them for the next thirty to three hundred years. If it doesn't work - if it imposes an unliveable and oppressive ideology on the people within it - then it's disasterous. The product cycle in software is much faster and more fluid - the unworkable paradigms collapse through lack of use, the workable ones multiple exponentially and immediately with little replication cost. Let's build things we believe to be of value to people and see which ones they take hold of and use... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shawn EMAIL: root@127.0.0.1 IP: 206.228.112.148 URL: DATE: 05/11/2003 09:41:02 PM what's this reading of *Production of Space* that nobody's read? I dug around for my copy but must have sold it--forgive me, I had to eat. At the time I was into Bourdieu, so if you happen to pick up my old copy somewhere, the underlined passages should articulate with his (Bourdieu's) theory of practice. IIRC the book's not about architecture as a profession or architects per se, but rather it's more of a Marxist/Structuralist reading and preliminary deconstruction of the relations embodied in built environments. Think of Panofsky's seminal Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism, updated and focused on everyday kinds of spaces. Lance, it's good of you to admonish the designers of social software to question their assumptions about language. What are yours? Here's one of mine: Language is essentially about relations; the best metaphor for that is the metaphor. Architecture and tool use and ecosystems are interesting metaphors for the software designer, but in and of themselves they may be uninteresting and safely disregarded when they are not needed. Now Bush's memex that H. Rheingold wrote of is sounds neato, but it ain't going to keep people from talking about works they haven't read or grossly misread or partially misread and completely misremembered; and, more crucially, it's going to take a long time for the memex to realize its potential and overcome the limitations stemming from the relations of production characteristic of print capitalism. Yeah, I'm whining. But think about it. What's keeping us from hyperlinking Lefebvre? Well, we can of course, but what we get is fragmentary and not ideal, not Bush's ideal to be sure. The problem for the developers of social software is how to deal with the hyperfragmentation of cultural memory, whether to work in the marginal spaces of print capitalism, where communities do indeed emerge, organically as it were--but what are their properties, their temporal and spatial spans?--or whether to focus on more "authentic" nascent communities that presumably will form the basis of knowledge systems in the latter half of this XXI Century. Because the social dynamics are not the same, and neither is the code. I think you can come up with your own examples from the blogosphere, bloggers who link to subscription services, the colonial outposts of the print media, and who may themselves be employed or peripherally involved in print media, vs. forums where information flows more freel--and the noise! Either way, the need is to develop tools, architectures, environments that sustain and nourish coherence, knowing that in the not too distant future this will be taken for granted and need not be remembered. (Losing my point....) Peace out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Oliver Wrede EMAIL: owrede@khm.de IP: 80.141.79.3 URL: http://owrede.khm.de/ DATE: 05/13/2003 12:07:14 AM Social software is a self-referential term if software is to be a placeholder for ways to communicate. Isn't a social structure explicity defined by communication?
       Social software is a technology-driven conception although it tries to overcome this techno-centrism (a paradox). The definition Tom Coates created is very technology-driven in the sense that it implicitly artiulates criteria for progression in the field that are very "engineering"-like: ... removing limitations "placed on behavior" ..., compensating human inadequacies ..., creating tool-sets ...
       Many people pointed out that social software seems to be a new term for things well known for many years. I feel reminded about the discussion about virtual reality (a paradox again) when researchers had to learn that illusion of reality has always been a strategy to mislead (or convince) - even in nature (yay, I made it to the ecology mark as well!). The only news was the computer here.
       So if we want to get to the point, we need to ask what the computers role in this play other than supporting social activity that happens (luckily) in this or that form anyway.
       Just speculating:
       One question that comes to my mind is if it could be the other way around: Is it maybe true that we already have passed a barrier where the computer is not the tool for being social, but rather we already (involuntarily perhaps) aquired ways of being social that can be computed and processed by electronic devices? In other words: If it doesn't compute it won't construct the social reality? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Annie EMAIL: ag@hotmail.com IP: 67.98.3.185 URL: DATE: 05/13/2003 10:02:38 PM Very good discussion! My question, what is the best social software out there right now (ie. Open Space Technology, ItsNotWhatYouKnow, etc) and how long do you think it will be until people really embrace this technology? The difference between just a couple years ago and now is huge, but IMO no where near where it could be 5 years from now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.199.63 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/13/2003 11:39:15 PM I have to say that I'm really not particularly convinced that software is by its nature communicative. Does Word communicate with anyone? Does the software inside my VCR or oven or the software that runs nuclear power plants? I don't think this is a tautology at all - I think it's quite clear that social software as a phrase (which is a phrase that I've had some issues with) refers to a subset of softwares which facilitate or mediate social contact. As to the 'engineering metaphors' - well I don't really have a problem with that either - I have a grounding in philosophical / theoretical models of the mind. People have been using these kinds of metaphors and they continue to do so today in almost every analysis of how people's minds operate and how they interact with one another. Effectively, when you're talking about building tools then you talk in terms of pragmatics - what can it do, how does it work, how does it interact, what are its implications etc (because if something doesn't do something that either benefits a person or satisfies a need in them, then that something will fairly swiftly be thrown aside). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rick Thomas EMAIL: rickpb@evenview.com IP: 66.32.87.84 URL: http://www.toggleworld.com DATE: 05/14/2003 02:56:24 PM Hi Tom, *Defining* social software turns out to be a challenge. I reread your definition with this question in mind: "Is an accounting system social software?" And yes it falls square in the middle of your definition. And the definition's still not general enough to cover all the historical points, current inititives, and future scenarios mentioned above. And those are just the practical problems! Maybe a definition is fundamentally impossible because the process is continuous with the human invention of human language in evolutionary time. Not to give up on useful characterizations, but why seek an abstract definition when what you want is given simply by a fuzzy set of cases: Social software includes things like weblogs and other messaging software with a similar structural footprint. Then describe the ongoing ferment of design ideas; the ideal of universal cooperation; the social process of invention.... Maybe you have started writing a book and just don't know it yet. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.199.63 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/14/2003 03:06:06 PM I actually would have only limited angst at someone's attempts to fit accounting systems under the social software umbrella. In fact I think many workflow-related software-mediated processes would sit quite comfortably on some kind of spectrum within it. I think one could probably make a case for there being a difference on emphasis - that the social and collaborative component was very much further down the list than the software's other objectives, but I'd still not quibble that much. I'm very keen on computer-mediated workflow and its relationship to some of the community stuff we build. I think there's a lot of potential in investigating that further... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rick Thomas EMAIL: rickpb@evenview.com IP: 66.32.80.8 URL: http://www.toggleworld.com DATE: 05/17/2003 04:50:48 PM Here's an interesting overview with some definition aspects to it ... http://www.darwinmag.com/read/050103/social.html Also, good luck on the search! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rick Thomas EMAIL: rickpb@evenview.com IP: 66.245.19.30 URL: http://www.toggleworld.com DATE: 05/18/2003 07:29:21 PM FYI - Here's an article with some interesting social software definitions: http://www.darwinmag.com/read/050103/social.html?action=print ----- PING: TITLE: Someone who knows what he is talking about! URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/archives/000838.html IP: 81.21.68.14 BLOG NAME: The Obvious? DATE: 05/08/2003 02:14:26 PM Tom Coates who knows more about building useful collaborative tools than most has posted a really useful definition of Social ----- PING: TITLE: Definition of Social Software from Tom Coates URL: http://theoblogical.org/movtyp/archives/002448.html IP: 66.102.133.10 BLOG NAME: Movable Theoblogical DATE: 05/09/2003 12:02:56 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | My working definition of social software... I had seen this and followed some of the links,  without being aware that this "field",  although not in and of itself new,  was being described with this new, in... ----- PING: TITLE: Of beer and chocolate URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/archives/004667.html IP: 217.199.170.171 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley.com DATE: 05/09/2003 05:44:13 PM The future of web services, geo-location data and 3G: Up My Street Pub Crawl. Smart mobbing, British Style. Talking of ----- PING: TITLE: Setting Definitions URL: http://radish.hosted.doosh.net/steiny/archives/000002.html IP: 213.253.43.5 BLOG NAME: Premise DATE: 05/10/2003 01:20:58 PM Steiny's guide to setting definitions ----- PING: TITLE: interesting tech link catchup URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000153.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 05/13/2003 11:51:48 PM Catching up on a range of interesting things I've seen, sort of a quick brain dump. RSS for weblogs Ben and Mena of moveable type try to move rss from new syndication to a more blog aware format interesting proposal from headmap ----- PING: TITLE: Six degrees of separation URL: http://www.tokerud.com/movable_type/000012.html IP: 216.168.37.73 BLOG NAME: tokerud's technology treats DATE: 05/14/2003 06:32:34 AM It's not new news in the world of science and the world at large that we are all connected by six or fewer degrees of acquaintance with anyone else on the planet, but here on the Net, social software is... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: UkBloggers discuss... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/10/2003 12:03:31 PM ----- BODY:

    For anyone out there who is interested in another avenue for the discussion of weblog culture - particularly in the UK - I can particularly recommend the UK Bloggers Discuss list at the moment...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The pure unadulterated Joy of Linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/13/2003 02:25:46 PM ----- BODY:

    For a variety of reasons that I'll go into later in the day, I've not found myself able to post for a good few days now, so I think I'm going to get myself back into the swing of things by a quick block of back-to-basics weblogging. All that follows is simple, entertaining and fun. Nothing intellectually stimulating, nothing ideologically threatening, nothing (indeed) about social software. Just good quality linkage:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: The pure unadulterated Joy of Linkage... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/827 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 05/13/2003 03:03:21 PM plasticbag: "For a variety of reasons that I'll go into later in the day, I've not found myself able to post for a good few days now, so I think I'm going to get myself back into the swing of things by a quick block of back-to-basics weblogging." ----- PING: TITLE: Public spirited URL: http://WWW.ablogslife.com/archives/000610.html IP: 212.187.157.242 BLOG NAME: A Blog's Life DATE: 05/13/2003 11:16:23 PM Generate your own pub crawl with UpMyStreet. Who says I don't have your Best interests at heart? Via plasticbag. Oh, ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: ###Tom For Sale### STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 05/14/2003 09:30:00 AM ----- BODY:

    As many of you know, UpMyStreet.com - the company where I have worked for the last ten months - put itself up for sale a few weeks ago. Many of my co-workers prudently put their CVs online at that time, but for a variety of reasons, until now I've not done so. Yesterday a deal was finally struck which sold UpMyStreet to uSwitch, but unfortunately the other company's offer was not for the entire organisation (cf. Stefan's comments).

    As a result - effective immediately - I now find myself looking for a new project to work on. Ideally, I'd be looking to be developing some new social software or community projects (either public-facing or within organisations) or to work around personal publishing and user-generated content. However, I'm also open to possibilities in other areas, so if there's something you'd like to discuss with me, let me know...

    If you have any questions, suggestions or are looking for clarification on anything, then please don't hesitate to contact me directly - My e-mail address is on my CV.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Todd Sattersten EMAIL: toddandamy@yahoo.com IP: 65.31.95.145 URL: DATE: 05/29/2003 05:20:11 AM Hi, I stumbled on to your site through I think a series of blog links. I have been reading over the past couple of weeks. Your knowledge of web communities interests me. I have an idea that I am trying to validate. And I am interested in your thoughts and if you are aware of it having been tried on some other form. I believe there is a potential community in small business owners and part time consultants. The idea being that owners would present cases (problems) about their business and solicit recommendations from the community at large. I am tapping into an idea that Rob McEwen used at his company Goldcorp (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/59/mcewen.html). I am also thinking about the research marketplace that has been created on Google Answers (answers.google.com). My idea is for a set fee, owners could post a case. Anyone could download the case and offer a solution. The best solution(s) are given/split the majority of the fee. The strength of the community is business owners getting problems solved with the knowledge of the entire community. I should also mention that I believe there is a set of people who would love to read business cases and offer solutions. That is the short version. There are mechanisms that would need to be created and details to work out. My question is if you are aware of any such coummunity now and what you think would be important in the success of such a community. Thanks, Todd Sattersten Milwaukee, WI USA ----- PING: TITLE: Once in a lifetime offer! Employ today! URL: http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2003/05/13/once_in_a_lifeti.php IP: 213.161.64.78 BLOG NAME: Phil Gyford DATE: 05/13/2003 10:39:31 PM Not one, but two wondrous web talents are available for work. Hurry along, don't miss your chance! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's happening at UMS... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/15/2003 10:57:33 AM ----- BODY:

    I've just been reading the Media Guardian's piece on uSwitch buying UpMyStreet. Obviously closest to my heart is what they're going to be doing with Conversations, which I think many of us believed was only the beginning of what we could do around geocoded community features. I'm delighted to hear that they're still going to running it - even developing it further - although obviously it's disappointing not to be part of that process...

    The site, which has 650,000 unique users a month, recently launched a message board service called Conversations that allows neighbours to contact one another. Mr Salmon said that this area would also be developed in order to get people to return more often. "I want it to be a site that people go to every day in the same way they would the BBC or a financial news site," he said.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Remodelling... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/16/2003 02:08:09 AM ----- BODY:

    While I have the opportunity, I'm trying to get a few things done around the site. I've removed the files section of the site (which is where I used to put all my longer pieces) and I've put those posts back into the rest of the site. And to make it easier to find them (and some other stuff from around the weblog that's worth preserving), I've created a best of... section that is essentially a categorised guide to stuff that other people might actually find useful.

    I still think there's some woolliness around the edges, and please god don't read the introductory copy on some of the category pages - it's bloody terrible. But at least this now does mean (for example) that I can start pointing towards the social software or the personal publishing parts of the site... And no - I've not planned for separate RSS feeds yet, so don't even ask...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How do we find information in the Blogosphere? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/16/2003 12:59:08 PM ----- BODY:

    It has become almost a truism in critical examinations of the Blogosphere to talk about how - with the explosion in weblog numbers - it becomes difficult to find the best insights on any given subject. I first came into contact with the clear expression of this idea in an article called Scaling Clay Shirky but it's recently been pretty much everywhere...

    I believe that there are some legitimate concerns in these sentiments, but I think fundamentally they miss the point - it's my opinion that replication of content online and a massive increase in the number people posting about a specific issue does not constitute a problem for the blogosphere, but instead one of its most significant advantages. In fact I'd go further and say that where there are problems, these can be resolved by simply speeding up the self-organising mechanisms that are implicit within the blogosphere, which is, I think what sites like Daypop, Blogdex, Popdex and Technorati are currently doing, albeit in a reasonably primitive way. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today I'm just going to talk about How do we reach 100% information saturation on any given subject in the blogosphere without reading anywhere near 100% of the weblogs in it? Or to put it another way: With everyone posting lots, does the system help me find the good stuff?

    Let's start off by aggregating all the possible insights about a given subject from all the weblogs that specifically refer to it. This total aggregation will represent 100% of the information available on the subject in the blogosphere at a point in time.

    If information was distributed evenly throughout webloggery and weblogs were read randomly then take-up of information would be linear and stable - in order to get 100% of the insights, you'd have to read 100% of the weblogs.

    Linear gradient

    [In this first graph I've plotted on the left the amount of information that you've managed to assimilate versus (on the right) the percentage of the weblogs that you'd have to read in order to get that amount of information - in the very specific special case that information is distributed evenly and randomly. The features of this "special case" will gradually be removed over the rest of the article. Another point I should perhaps clarify is that I've tried to conceive of the bottom axis as also including the order in which one reads the weblogs - that should become clearer through the article...]

    However, we know it to be the case that information will not be distributed evenly throughout these weblogs. Many weblogs will contain limited information of any kind. Some will contain a lot. Many will contain replicated information that could easily be found on other sites.

    Graph reaches 100% earlier

    In this graph, ignore for the moment the dotted lines on the left. they represent nothing but the uncertainly fo the beginning of the curve. This diagram takes into account that weblogs have different levels of insight withint them, and that information is often replicated (either by active memetic spread or because the insights are simple and common). In the vast majority of cases then - even given that you're still reading weblogs in a totally arbitrary order - it's likely that you'll get extremely close to the 100% saturation point a significant way before you've read 100% of the available weblogs.

    In practice - again assuming that you were reading the weblogs in a random order, it would be impossible to gauge the particulars of the curve that led up to the near-as-dammit-to-100% information saturation point. A sample curve would probably be organised in a series of steps - with gradual accretion of insight being the normal, but with occasional significant massive leaps also occurring.

    The line becomes a series of progressive steps

    Now - all these models have been based upon the assumption that the order in which the weblogs are read will be random. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Some weblogs are clearly more likely to be read - this is not necessarily purely based upon the value of their contributions, but it's not completely distinct from such valuations either. It would probably be fair to say that on average well-linked-to sites are more likely (albeit perhaps only incrementally) to contain insight than sites which are not linked to at all. Secondly, if someone does produce content of value and insight on any specific subject, then it is more likely to be linked to - which in turn increases the likelihood that an individual will visit the site in question.

    Both of these criteria suggest that (in our attempts to reach the 100% insight threshold) we will be more likely to be initially directed to high-insight sites than low-insight sites. This changes our graph substantially.

    The graph starts strong and levels off close to 100%

    It seems likely, in other words, that even if there's a limited tendency for sites with more insight to be read first - then the information accretion would be remarkably steep initially and the level off dramatically close to the 100% saturation point.

    Hypothetical conclusions: For any given body of information on weblogs, no matter the rate of replication of information or the number of people who post exactly the same comments, close to 100% of the available insight can be reviewed by reading a disproportionately small number of sites - sites that will - as a rule - be among the first that they stumble across through their normal browsing and research patterns.

    Related Hypotheses perhaps worth exploring: (1) The larger the number of posts about a subject (and hence the more likely replication) the smaller the proportion of those sites that need to be read in order to have reviewed close to 100% of the available insight. (2) The size of the available insight will increase as the number of posts about a subject increases (although perhaps not in linear proportion).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@timzilla.net IP: 217.40.202.232 URL: http://www.timzilla.net DATE: 05/16/2003 01:22:18 PM An interesting line of argument - but I'm not sure that it follows directly that the quality of the insight can be related to the number of links in a effect-and-cause way. There's the possibility once a site has reached a certain threshold of popularity, it becomes a link-well, and the number of new links becomes a function of the number of old links, and so on. If everyone links to Plasticbag or Scripting News, is that a measure of the quality of insight contained therein (present company excepted :-) or just that these sites have effectively become blogging portals? What effect do the blog mavens have on the overall distribution? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chrislunch EMAIL: chris@feeshes.freeserve.co.uk IP: 63.137.144.2 URL: DATE: 05/16/2003 04:41:32 PM The problem is in the special case that you state right on the first graph - that information is distributed evenly and randomly. Information isn't distributed evenly - what is useful or popular rises to the top, and obscures what is hidden beneath. Blogs amplify this by linking not on the validity of the source and the verity of the information, but out of personal interest and delight - and long may it be so. But this weighs more in the favour of 'popular' information rising to the top as opposed to 'useful'. Therefore, if there is a problem with searching blogs for useful insight, it's that, as a collective of editors, blogs aren't very good at the job - certainly worse that the editors of encyclopedias anyway. But - that's not why I go to most blogs, in the same way I don't read Hello! for it's excellent financial coverage. Chris. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 129.67.22.110 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 05/16/2003 05:02:23 PM I really like this analysis of how the size of the information pool needn't be an obstacle. I know you're talking more about how the information is inherently organised and therefore accessible, but it's relevance rests on the premise that weblog readers are, on aggregate, information-seekers. It is likely that much broader motivations such as community-membership or opinion confirmation may underlie their reading choices. I suspect there will be a strong element of the latter: people will go to weblogs containing information they already know in order to have their own opinions endorsed by people they respect. I wonder if it would be possible to form some aggregate weblog consumption theory. If we could conceptualise how people actually pick their way around the blogosphere we could form some really exciting conclusions, and explain a lot of observed internet phenomena. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nico EMAIL: nico@nicomorgan.com IP: 194.143.175.209 URL: http://www.nicomorgan.com DATE: 05/16/2003 05:09:57 PM I think that I want to partly echo what Chris is surmising. Blogs can be obscured form the searching process even if they have shown great insight, insight which would have been much linked to had that blog been an already popular blog. But why does a blog become popular? Surely it can be for all sorts of reason: humour, technical knowledge, specific interest (e.g. social software) and so on. What happens if a relatively unknown blog is the one with the killer insight? Won't the popularity of other blogs - for all the wrong reasons in this case - obscure the insight offered by this unconnected one? Likewise I think the theory is sound if blogs are good at keeping themselves connected. If all the relevant feeds are listed on the aggregation sites and the blog portals know about them. If not, good insight can be missed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 129.67.22.110 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 05/16/2003 05:10:12 PM I really like this analysis of how the size of the information pool needn't be an obstacle. I know you're primarily commenting on the inherently organised nature of the information in the blogosphere but there's another premise, namely that weblog readers are, on aggregate, information-seekers. This doesn't necessarily hold. Much broader motivations such as community-membership or opinion confirmation may underlie reading choices. I suspect there will be a strong element of the latter: people will go to weblogs containing information they already know in order to have their own opinions endorsed by people they respect. I wonder if it would be possible to form some "aggregate weblog consumption theory", starting from a broad concept of the motivation of a reader. If we could conceptualise how people actually pick their way around the blogosphere we could form some really exciting conclusions, and explain a lot of observed internet phenomena. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: ry1@caspianpublishing.co.uk IP: 217.150.100.73 URL: http://realfinance.blogspot.com DATE: 05/16/2003 05:31:57 PM I think I agree with Gareth. I'd add that the notion of "100% of insights" is a bit odd, too. In fact, it seems a bit pathalogical that anyone would *want* to know what *everyone* thought (or what all the thoughts were) about a given subject. It gets me thinking about the tyranny of technology, and the fact that I start to feel like I *ought* to exhaustively research what other people think. When, of course, that's a bad thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.238.199 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2003 06:21:37 PM Firstly I think I have to clarify to Chris that I only start from the hypothetical thought experiment that information would be distributed evenly and randomly throughout weblogs. In fact each graph is designed to show what happens when you bring in aspects of the observable world in - firstly that some information is heavily replicated and then that certain sites will contain more insight than others. The statement that people operate in webloggia because of social instincts and popularity is also true, but the question is not whether people link for social reasons, but whether on average insightful stuff is linked to more often than the non-insightful stuff. If it is, then it's always going to be nudged towards the front of the curve... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.238.199 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2003 06:40:24 PM Richard - the question I'm trying to answer here is a relatively simple one. It's a direct response to this quote from the iSociety piece: "A predictable pattern soon emerged. In no time at all there were far too many commentary posts for anyone to read them all. Compounding this is the fact that with so many posts appearing on small, poorly linked sites, many comments were repeated. And each person who posted in ignorance something already said elsewhere muddied the waters further." The point of this article is to demonstrate only that you don't need to read all the articles about any given subject because you'll find the best ones relatively quickly and that redundancy isn't a problem (they're less likely to get linked to, but they're correspondingly easy insights to find). That's all I'm trying to say really, that by a few simple processes, the weblogging system self-organises itself... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Fagan EMAIL: fagan_m@hotmail.com IP: 64.231.201.36 URL: http://www.faganfinder.com/me/ DATE: 05/17/2003 02:05:46 AM Very interesting. The curve is definitely true. Now that I use a newsreader, I read many more blogs than before. The amount of information I receive isn't proportional to the number of blogs, though. I find that the more blogs I read, the less "efficient" my input is due to blogs carrying stories that they heard about on other blogs. Nothing wrong with that of course, this is how the blogosphere filters content, and I think it works great. The network of blogs and also the blog indices (Daypop, Blogdex, etc, see here ). Publish, then filter (link). This also relates to the idea of hubs and authorities. Authorities know stuff. Hubs link to people who know stuff. Both are important roles, and it is also possible to be both simultaneously. Finding information in the blogosphere on topics is an interest of mine. I wrote a little about this on faganfinder. Also on my RSS page (link) I list resources for finding topical RSS feeds, some of them being cross-blog. The Internet Topic Exchange (link) tries to aggregate topics by bloggers opting-in on a post-level. Waypath and Blogging Headline News both try to organize blog posts automatically. The former by how posts relate to each other, and the latter by organizing posts into topics. Easy News Topics (ENT) (spec here ) is an interesting new development in this front. K-collector (link) is making use of this new data and the future looks promising. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Taran EMAIL: solardoc2001@yahoo.com IP: 209.94.195.35 URL: http://www.knowprose.com DATE: 05/17/2003 11:48:00 PM Ahh, but the context of the query for information is just as important as the relevancy of the information acquired. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 05/18/2003 03:30:18 PM I agree with what Gareth said earlier, in general, people aggregate and link to blogs which provide affirmation. In terms of an intellectual discourse this can lead to sterility, I think it's a predictable in human nature to avoid certain content which may make people feel bored or uneasy. In one of graphs (no. 3) the cumulative effect of linking to information that's been endorsed, or validated, allows one to avoid the these 'dismissed' blogs. It may be worth while considering a more robust approach, using a non-linear cooperativity fit as the key off, statistical weighting of the data is allowed. In a simple closed system under equilibrium conditions (a tenuous assumption but you have to start somewhere), consider the individual surfing for content as the target, S/he comes across content which they like, internally the blog has further linkage to other content, the probability of s/he continuing to that content and creating a cycle of repetitive information gathering is positively coupled. Even if s/he doesn't follow through on the link, if they agree and like the content the information is indexed and effects their browsing experience. There is also the negatively coupled effect, you see content, it's indexed as either bad, ill-informed or crazy and that weblog is consigned to a vacuum. There's an additional category here, involving discourse, you could come across a weblog which you've previously endorsed and suggests a different site for information that is insoluble with your current mindset. Therein lies the challenge to assimilation of information, we could call it heterotropic linking. You then come up with another statistical model within the current model which classifies this effect, etc. etc. If would be interesting to take virgin weblog surfers, across a broad demographic, and monitor their behaviour. Give them no edict except to find and surf weblogs and bookmark their favourite sites along the way. Weight this information with the cooperativity curve and their social or political affiliation and you might just get the predictable result that Gareth talked about. Now there's a number for it. ;) Of course, the experiment is tainted because we're forcing web surfers who have no prior knowledge (by choice?) of weblogs to analyse this content. There are controls for these scenarios. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: wannaknow EMAIL: it@all.com IP: 62.2.186.219 URL: DATE: 05/22/2003 09:11:36 AM So, which are the sites to read? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.45.255.241 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 05/23/2003 01:41:01 PM Like it. But one question remains unanswered. Does the vertical access represent facts, perspectives, or truth? Your legend says information, which sounds like fact. But your text says 'insight', which sounds more like perspectives on truth. Alternatively, it could be that in the end their is 'truth'; a right answer which is either true in some a priori sense, or true because it is accepeted as the dominant interpretation. My take is that your systems works very nicely for facts - the facts of a story can be gathered quite quickly by linking around. It works less well for perspectives, because these are cumulative and change over time. It doesn't work at all for truth, because as someone else commented, the idea of 100% truth is rather odd. How 'bout that? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.134.37.200 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/23/2003 03:17:06 PM I think I should make clear that I'm certainly not talking about truth. I'm talking very specifically - in this case at least - simply about unique pieces of information or opinion. I'm suggesting that if a dozen webloggers write about something, you only need to read (say) five of them. If you read any more than those five, you'd just be being told stuff you'd heard already. ----- PING: TITLE: http://sippey.com/recentlybrowsed/#000522 URL: http://sippey.com/recentlybrowsed/#000522 IP: 64.91.232.71 BLOG NAME: recently DATE: 05/16/2003 07:59:23 PM scaling clay shirky... ----- PING: TITLE: Why we need better blog navigation URL: http://azeem.azhar.co.uk/archives/000646.php IP: 195.82.99.3 BLOG NAME: azeem.azhar.co.uk DATE: 05/17/2003 03:55:01 PM Tom Coates pulls together a nice theory on how to find information on Web logs: Hypothetical Conclusions: For any given... ----- PING: TITLE: Blogologue URL: http://randgaenge.net/2003/06/03.html#a1689 IP: 81.223.97.30 BLOG NAME: thomas n. burg | randg”nge DATE: 08/06/2003 10:07:48 PM

    Lilia hat die Liste angelegt. Elwyin Jenkins hat eine Blog-Lawine losgetreten und das in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Einerseits versucht er den Weg/Prozess/Verlauf einer Blogstory empirisch (d.h. wie ensteht ein Story, was braucht es dazu =

    ----- PING: TITLE: Blogologue about blogologue URL: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/05/27.html#a629 IP: 130.89.167.145 BLOG NAME: Mathemagenic DATE: 08/10/2003 02:16:39 PM

    Several related stories [via many in my news aggregator]

    1. Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story:"cit"Through a study of 45 blogosphere stories, Microdoc N...

    ----- PING: TITLE: plasticbag.org | weblog | How do we find information in the Blogosphere? URL: http://www.rolandTanglao.com/2003/05/17.html#a4373 IP: 216.232.31.144 BLOG NAME: Roland Tanglao's Weblog DATE: 09/15/2003 11:49:29 AM (SOURCE:"corante_social")- A bold hypothesis! I would like to think it's true. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Cat in the Hat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/16/2003 08:25:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Tom Coates

    This is essentially a vague attempt to make it look like I'm not the most boring person in the world who only ever writes or thinks about weblogs, social software and work.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doobs EMAIL: odobea@hotmail.com IP: 63.225.83.117 URL: http://odobea.dotfaf.com DATE: 05/16/2003 09:31:22 PM Oh me gosh! I've been searching for that hat! Where on earth did you find it? I gotta know, I gotta know, I gotta know!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 217.39.24.127 URL: http://www.interconnected.org/home DATE: 05/16/2003 09:32:36 PM What well-lit nostrils you have. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jb EMAIL: jontyb@mac.com IP: 217.215.102.95 URL: http://homepage.mac.com/jontyb/weblog/index.html DATE: 05/16/2003 10:51:02 PM Hey, isn't it that guy from Jamiroquai? Jay kay? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Clark EMAIL: joeclark@joeclark-pas-de-spam.org IP: 64.231.79.224 URL: http://joeclark.org/weblogs/ DATE: 05/17/2003 02:45:09 AM What lovely secondary sexual characteristics you have! Best... photo... ever. And if I'm not mistaken, that's a hell of a neck. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: istrada@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.68.22 URL: http://northbysoutheast.blogspot.com DATE: 05/17/2003 06:24:47 AM It didn't work! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.238.199 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/17/2003 10:03:29 AM Er. Why... Thank you. I think! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 192.146.136.129 URL: http://www.seldo.com DATE: 05/17/2003 10:36:59 AM And of course, considering you're looking for a job right now, what better way to advertise that fact than by posting of a picture of yourself looking like a homeless bum? A master stroke... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.238.199 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/17/2003 11:08:06 AM Do you really think it's a bad idea? I was sitting here thinking that I'd written too much really long stuff about social software and weblogging recently and that maybe it would be a good idea to remind everyone (including potential employers) that I am basically fairly normal. But now I'm all angsty! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: celeste EMAIL: celeste@bilblio.nildram.co.uk IP: 81.6.221.217 URL: http://www.coastaltown.nildram.co.uk DATE: 05/17/2003 03:48:29 PM Aww don't be angsty, any decent potential employers will appreciate knowing you're a well rounded human, and not the most boring person in the world. That photo does make you look like Badly Drawn Boy though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dorian EMAIL: loaf@isness.org IP: 80.212.164.187 URL: http://www.isness.org/dory DATE: 05/17/2003 11:14:46 PM ooh I took that one! don't you think a bit of context would have gone down well with that one tom-san? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Elin EMAIL: elins@mit.edu IP: 24.61.47.194 URL: http://www.zoomscope.com/blog DATE: 06/14/2003 08:43:43 AM I think you should turn your writing into a book on social software. Then forget looking for work. Fame would come to you and you would tour the world, speaking your heart's chords on your favorite topic. Thatz what I think:-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: Dave@Massstarmusic.co.uk IP: 212.162.224.11 URL: DATE: 08/13/2003 01:17:23 PM Jesus - I thought I was bored when I typed on google 'most boring topic ever' it brought up this site...you must be so proud... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is the UK falling behind? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 05/18/2003 06:20:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Everywhere I look at the moment there are people working in the same areas as me going to conferences and festivals. God I'm jealous. They're going to BlogTalk in Austria or they're going to Digital Genres in Chicago or they're going to Reboot in Copenhagen. But apart from my desperate overwhelming desire to go to all of these events (particularly after the world-expanding experience of ETCon) there's only one thing I've really noticed about all these events. Absolutely none of them are happening in the UK.

    But it's not only conferences that we're lacking. With a few limited exceptions, I think that the UK is beginning to fall behind (or is not moving fast enough to catch up with) the US in talking and developing the kind of thing that is being discussed at these events. Weblogs are a trivial but obvious example. The States has developed a certain amount of respect for the possibilities of the form, to the extent that acclaimed journalists feel comfortable starting weblog-style sites. And these sites seem to be gaining widespread core appeal from the rest of the country - weblogging has gone mainstream in the US so quickly and effectively so that it's almost commonplace for writers of an equivalent standard to Julie Burchill to start their own sites.

    In the UK, the only major newspaper to talk about weblogs in any ongoing or serious fashion is The Guardian. In the States (and in the international news media - ie. International Herald Tribune TV) it seems much more widespread. In the States' tech community (ETCon for example), weblogs are also fairly central to people's research into how information technology and the internet are affecting people - how potentially they could empower them (or - on occasion - discussing whether they're disempowering them). Both AOL and Microsoft are working on - or rumoured to be working on - weblogging tech.

    There's a lot less of this stuff in the UK, and I think it's a terrible shame, since we should be in a much better position than the rest of Europe to be at the head of this trend (since weblog software and weblogs themselves are often English-language). There's a hell of a lot of potential for business around this stuff as well - so why isn't it happening here! In fact there's a whole exciting new raft of people thinking about, talking around and working in these areas, and none of it appears to be happening here in the UK... I think maybe that's beginning to get me down...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jb EMAIL: jontyb@mac.com IP: 217.215.102.95 URL: http://homepage.mac.com/jontyb/weblog/index.html DATE: 05/18/2003 09:58:21 PM In Scandinavia the national presses are beginning to kick in too. Dagbladet (Norway) recently started their own blog, although it's not particularly good at the moment. But they've put a lot of press into promoting the blog aspect of their site. In Sweden, Dagens Nyheter keep writing about blogging but there's very little happening online. Yes, it seems the Brits are behind things but even over here in Sweden where we have an incredible amount of people with access to broadband, there's not _that_ much happening. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 65.95.114.140 URL: http://www.fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 05/19/2003 12:49:47 AM Nothing happens in Canada. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chris f EMAIL: webguy@perculaclown.net IP: 24.167.250.249 URL: http://www.perculaclown.net DATE: 05/20/2003 05:15:03 AM Dont feel so bad. I made it to Comdex here in the states once never to return again. All my friends go to all the cool conferences but alas I am just a cubicle monkey. great article! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.125 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/21/2003 06:29:18 PM There's a pretty epic discussion happening on the UK Bloggers lists about this at the moment, should anyone be interested... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@bloggerheads.com IP: 195.92.168.164 URL: http://www.bloggerheads.com DATE: 05/22/2003 03:29:39 PM We're pretty far ahead in the political weblogs stakes. Lots of good commentary sites and one genuine in-a-seat politician. It may not sound like much, but it's more than the US has done. So there. :oP ----- PING: TITLE: Frustrationen utbredd URL: http://mymarkup.net/blog/archives/001474.html IP: 62.20.1.132 BLOG NAME: mymarkup.net DATE: 05/18/2003 08:05:01 PM Tom Coates ”r ocks frustrerad, –ver att bloggar inte h”nder i Storbritannien: "[...] I think it's a terrible shame, since... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The End of Days... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/20/2003 12:36:49 AM ----- BODY:

    I've just seen the final episode of Buffy. Here is my initial response:

    I don't really know what to say, because I've kind of been excited about the whole thing but also kind of dreading it, because it would have to be good, really - it would have to be good *enough* to be a fitting end to all that had gone before, and I think it was. I really think it was...

    I'm delighted Angel came in and got out of it so soon. I'm delighted that they didn't push the Angel / Spike conflict and I'm really glad that finally, at the end of days, they let things lighten up - to return to the simplest elements.

    Buffy's realisation is interesting and unexpected. You get so used to these bits of lore that you forget that someone had to think of them eventually - be they man or god - and that things can can be remade differently...

    There were a lot of people they could have killed for cheap effect, but they didn't. The deaths were gruesome but valiant. Anya has never been more glorious. Almost unmourned though, which was a bit creepy...

    Andrew survived. He should and he did. He's there to show that there's nothing simple about redemption. It's not just throwing yourself in a pit. Buffy's always been better than that. And the little girls all around the world... Awesome touch. Really nice.

    Spike. Spike. Spike. They needed more Buffy subtext and explanation of this stuff, but he was still pretty awesome. And I don't know as yet whether that means the move to Angel is a con or not. Certainly he's never been more glorious. It makes me wonder about the vampire with a soul thing from Angel. Is his story over?

    Willow the White, Xander and Dawn in the corridors. Shopping. Malls. School Buses and Slayers. It might not have been the ending that we dreamed of, but only because some parts (small parts maybe) weren't dreamable about. And if you were worried about the scale of Willo's tiny evil temple last year - then you're not going to be let-down this year. This is pretty damn huge...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Highly unoriginal thoughts about mobile devices... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 05/21/2003 07:09:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Notes from a conversation with Dan Hill pertaining (in particular) to address books on mobile phones. I make no claim to their originality or their novelty. Almost certainly they're on page six of a really well known influential book that I almost certainly should have read by now...

    Thought one: The mobile phone address book as a web of trust. This is really trivial, but it's also really powerful - the telephone numbers in your mobile phone all identify actual people (however you decide to encode the metadata of their names). The telephone number is like the unique id number that you give a field in a database. So what does it mean if a pair of phones have each others numbers in their address book? Doesn't it imply a relationship? Perhaps even a similarity? Maybe it even means that you're more likely than average to like each other? So if you pinged every phone that's got internet access (and the phone was happy for you to do this) you could pretty easily make a social network map of pretty much everyone in the country. This is not a new idea.

    Thought two Self-assembly address books. So you've lost your phone and with it you've lost all of your numbers. So you ring up two or three of your friends and they amend their record to your new number and you add their numbers to your phone. Then you trigger the 'fix my address book' trigger and sit back and watch. Your phone pings your friends' phones. Their phones ping their friends' phones. Everyone who has your old number in it is informed of your new number, and they ping your phone and build in the reciprocal links. And those people who appear most interconnected between the groups of friends you've mentioned are also added to your phone. An instant sense of your social network. An instant way of grabbing your local space... This is probably not a new idea.

    Thought three Distributed 192. 192 was (until very recently) the telephone number for directory enquiries in the UK. You ring it, tell them the name and address of the person you're looking for and they give you a number. Brilliant. Except if you don't have their address of course. And it costs money and stuff. And it doesn't work with mobiles. So what if instead of doing that, you typed in a search term, "Coates" into your phone and got it to ping everyone in your address book, aggregate the results and display them to you. Wouldn't that be easier? I don't know whether this is a new idea or not. I would doubt it.

    Thought four Collaborative work over mobile phones. So you've got a web-of-trust and you have a communications medium. So basically that's friendster then with a rather more intensive old-skool version of instant messaging (let's call it "speech"). I wonder if there are people out there working on social software for phones. Or maybe social software that doesn't actually have much of a human interface at all, something that's really collaboratively sense related. Like a cyber-pet with two buttons that you can press - one if you really like a place and one if you really hate it. And then that's geocoded and shared through your web of trust (because you're similar to people you know). When you go into a place that everyone dislikes, your cyberpet freaks out. And if you go to a place that everyone likes, it starts to purr pleasantly in your pocket... I bet someone has thought of that as well...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.36.132 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/21/2003 08:08:17 PM At the moment I can run Microsoft Messenger and even post to my blog via my phone. Admittedly this just conventional desktop social software migrating to handheld devices, but they definately gain something in mobility. Not sure about the privacy/spamming implications of your address book ideas, but I think the collaberative work one has wings. Modifying an existing mobile IM client and incorporating a whiteboard/wordprocessor surely wouldn't be too hard. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@timzilla.net IP: 213.123.115.142 URL: http://www.timzilla.net DATE: 05/21/2003 08:19:34 PM Does it even have to be a mobile-based application? My phone syncs with my desktop, so anything that's in my phone is also sat in a database that's addressable from a web client. If my contacts database could ping your contacts database through some kind of a trackback mechanism, wouldn't that have the same effect? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian A EMAIL: istrada@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.68.29 URL: http://northbysoutheast.blogspot.com DATE: 05/22/2003 01:16:21 AM My phone bailing out of my bike one stormy night and becoming MIA was such a liberating experience - I've now been free of the "who's cell's that" shuffle for way over a year! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nico EMAIL: nico@nicomorgan.com IP: 194.143.175.209 URL: http://www.nicomorgan.com DATE: 05/22/2003 10:04:49 AM I particularly like Thought 2; that would make my life a lot easier in those situations where I drop my phone over the side of a boat... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@andrewbarnett.com.au IP: 203.29.225.246 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0116932/ DATE: 05/22/2003 01:02:27 PM I like them. Except for the fact that they'll cost us a mint in charges. A little while back I wondered if it was possible to hack mobile phones to form a huge distributed network p2p without routing through the telcos: http://radio.weblogs.com/0116932/2003/04/10.html#a58. Yeah, I know, not very realistic. But an interesting idea. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jim Hughes EMAIL: jim@feetup.org IP: 80.234.128.135 URL: http://www.feetup.org/blogger.html DATE: 05/22/2003 02:01:34 PM Funnily enough I know a few people working on stuff along these lines (and further) right now! There's nothing wrong with being "unoriginal" I think it amplifies the point that this stuff is both desirable and necessary. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.35.67.85 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/22/2003 07:28:10 PM Andrew, re: P2P on mobiles: a French start-up also had the idea of running a P2P network on mobile phones (though via a method not quite as ingenious as your idea, I suspect). Sadly their version of P2P would be telco-controlled and more about sharing ring-tones than doing anything much useful. (Via an old Register story.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mm EMAIL: me@maxmelchior.com IP: 81.86.64.30 URL: http://maxmelchior.com/blog DATE: 05/23/2003 06:10:58 PM The "social network map of pretty much everyone" sounds scary. Who would see this map? How would they use it? Maybe I've misunderstood how automatic these mechanisms would work, but they seem to eliminate all the social stuff: knowing who's interested in who, the joy of giving useful information, the creation of mutual obligation, etc., etc. How about automatically deleting contacts that you don't call enough or that you haven't introduced to enough of your other friends? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rob EMAIL: strongrob@hotmail.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: DATE: 06/04/2003 09:06:27 AM Just a quick three points: 1: People generally move in large groups 2: in any 100 people there ussally more then 4 weirdos 3: One size never fits all ----- PING: TITLE: Highly unoriginal thoughts about mobile devices... (from Plasticbag) URL: http://www.timzilla.net/archives/000132.html IP: 212.227.127.39 BLOG NAME: TimZilla DATE: 05/21/2003 08:23:03 PM They might be unoriginal, but they're still bloody good ideas. Does it even have to be a mobile-based application?   My phone syncs with my desktop, so anything that's in my phone is also sat in a database that's addressable... ----- PING: TITLE: New technology ideas URL: http://thekagys.com/ckagy/weblog/archives/000240.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: Just Some Thoughts... DATE: 05/25/2003 02:03:41 PM plasticbag.org | weblog Notes from a conversation with Dan Hill pertaining (in particular) to address books on mobile phones. I... ----- PING: TITLE: social software / mobile phones URL: http://undergroundlondon.com/antimega/brain/archives/000130.html IP: 216.218.167.2 BLOG NAME: the anti-mega outboard brain DATE: 05/27/2003 12:08:00 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | Highly unoriginal thoughts about mobile devices... *cough* ahem. *sits on hands* ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pair.com and MT comments... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/22/2003 11:40:59 PM ----- BODY:

    After a large number of protests from users of this site, I'm going to have to open up my comments-related problems to the floor. But first things first, I want to talk really briefly about pair.com - a hosting organisation that I honestly can't say enough nice things about. They're reasonably priced, helpful and have been genuinely reliable over the last few years. I've still got the Barbelith Underground running on a pair server, and with remarkably few problems... But there has been one thing that they haven't been particularly ideal for: hosting Movable Type based sites.

    In fact, my problems with running Movable Type on Pair kept me using Blogger for about a year longer than I'd expected. Pair have this kind of time-out running on cgi-processes that effectively means that (unless you know to run everything through cgiwrap) any decent-sized MT operation (say saving a new post) may cause the system to throw a wobbly. And you can forget importing large number of posts from other systems. I had months of trouble with that.

    I want to make it clear that once I did install the site through cgiwrap, I didn't have any trouble - so in a sense my only gripe is that Pair are different enough from other hosts in the world to require you to go through a different installation process. I can't exactly blame them for that. And other people's experience of their hosting may vary from mine, of course...

    Anyway - back to my problem. I've got MT running cheerfully on Pair's servers now. It's all very smooth - except in one particularly difficult area. Everyone who uses my site realises quite quickly that I've got a problem with comments. In fact, often when someone attempts to post a comment to the site, they get returned a Server 500 error. In fact normally the comments have been saved and it's just the weblog page that isn't rebuilt. But people don't tend to realise this, so there's routine multiple-posting. It's profoundly annoying. Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how I could fix this problem. Is it something that I can do to make it less likely to happen? Or do I need to go and attack Pair with pinking shears?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William Blaze EMAIL: williamblaze@abstractdynamics.org IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 05/23/2003 12:38:58 AM Hmmm, I have the same problem, and I'm using Dreamhost which is actually the MT recommended host. Joi Ito has mentioned similar problems with trackbacks. Are you using the default Berkeley DB? I think it might be a big part of the problem, but so far I've been too lazy to switch to MySQL. DailyKos a high traffic political blog that routinely has multiple 100+ post treads had similar issues that were mostly solved by switching to MySQL. The other side of the problem is in the MT templates themselves. I use MT-RSS Feed, which transforms RSS feeds back into html links. When some of those RSS feeds are broken the probability of getting those 500 error increases dramatically. In fact I don't think I've gotten a single one since I cleaned out the bad feeds. Perhaps there is something in your templates slowing things down? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William Blaze EMAIL: williamblaze@abstractdynamics.org IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 05/23/2003 12:42:55 AM Interesting, just got the 500 error and an indication of the comment shows up on the main page but doesn't actually show up when you click. Are you getting these errors when rebuilding normally? Seems like the problem might be in the actual comment template. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William Blaze EMAIL: williamblaze@abstractdynamics.org IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 05/23/2003 12:48:48 AM One last thought, it seems like the BCC On This Day, is the only thing different between the comments and the main pages, perhaps its the cause of your troubles? PS. the Remember personal info doesn't appear to be working. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian w EMAIL: brian@joannou.net IP: 68.36.83.118 URL: http://www.joannou.net DATE: 05/23/2003 01:04:48 AM Pair told me immediately upon signing up years ago all about using cgi-wrap and how the reapers work. Did they leave you hanging? That's a pity. I've read recently (last six months or so) that they've decreased the terrifying efficiency of the reaper bots, allowing more RAM & CPU time for processes, though. A glance at the MT user forums turns up many, many mentions of 500 errors on all sorts of hosts; I don't get them on my (much much much lower volume) MT setup at all so I don't think they're pair-specific. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: alan EMAIL: alan@gliff.org IP: 66.67.210.120 URL: http://www.gliff.org DATE: 05/23/2003 03:49:07 AM Give the mySQL version a try. The first time I used MT I was using the berkly DB version and gave up when I ran into similar problems. When they released the mySQL version I gave it a go and havn't had any trouble since. Of course your milage may vary. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: mike@barkingmoose.com IP: 68.54.154.124 URL: http://www.barkingmoose.com/ DATE: 05/23/2003 04:04:26 AM I had similar problems last August shortly after upgrading my account with pair and moving to a different server. I was assured that it had nothing to do with the server I'd been moved to, and that my scripts were being killed by the reaper because they were using too much memory. Running them under cgiwrap was one option to solve the problem, but that same week pair was upgrading to FreeBSD 4.6 STABLE and support told me that would almost surely fix things. I never reinstalled under cgiwrap, and the errors did go away. I've also since switched to mySQL and am seeing even better performance. Pair has always been very responsive and I've never had a problem last more than a day or so, so I'm optimistic they'll get this sorted for you. Keep us posted. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.85.142 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/23/2003 04:35:09 AM If none of that works, perhaps you should bite the bullet and switch to different hosting for plasticbag? Zen are jolly good, although my current favourites are Xsession, who are quite small but have splendid features such as unlimited transfer bandwidth in their standard hosting package. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil Ringnalda EMAIL: philringnalda@barrysworld.com IP: 12.45.56.133 URL: http://philringnalda.com DATE: 05/23/2003 06:17:26 AM It requires quite a bit of patching MT, but the very best thing you can do is install Sean Willson's rebuild type mod. It lets you say when to rebuild each index template: new entry, trackback, comment, or combinations. For instance, right now when a comment is saved, it rebuilds both of your RSS feeds, even though there's nothing comment related in them. The other big thing you can do to speed things up and please the reaper is to avoid MTArchiveList like the plague. Especially without an archive-type, the way it is in the default "Master Archive List" template, it's the real killer of rebuilds, because the way it works right now (Ben's working on improving it) is to just merrily load up every single entry into memory. So if you can shuffle all your MTArchiveList-containing template code into a separate template that you include with SSI, and then use the rebuild type mod to tell MT to only build that template when you save an entry, chances are very good that all your comment and trackback troubles will go away. I went eight months averaging around one failed comment save per day (gee, thanks DreamHost), but since I put in the rebuild type mod, I haven't had a single failure (knock on sysadmin heads). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil Ringnalda EMAIL: philringnalda@barrysworld.com IP: 12.45.56.133 URL: http://philringnalda.com DATE: 05/23/2003 06:19:27 AM (Content free comment, hoping to trigger a rebuild that will include my previous, 500-ed comment). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 194.109.220.178 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 05/23/2003 06:34:56 AM I was on pair with U2log.com and had to move because of the reaper thing. I moved to Dreamhost, who then tightened things up and gave me the same problems. Then pair changed their reaper policy specifically to accomodate MT users. So I moved the site back again. U2log.com runs with around 10,000 comments as we speak. I've got them mostly switched off now for other reasons, but with the MySQL thing installed they were running pretty smoothly and error 500 probs were reduced to a minimum. And I'm not even using the cgi-wrap option. I'm on eite.pair.com - I think there are differences between servers too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: steve@oclipa.com IP: 217.39.218.12 URL: http://www.oclipa.com/blog.html DATE: 05/23/2003 06:35:02 AM I've got a similar problem at work since they upgraded the version of Apache on the web server. It turned out that my perl script was producing a warning message which was overrunning a buffer somewhere. Solution: remove the "-w" switch to turn of the warnings. (I could have fixed the error message of course but that is a long story...) Apparently the version of Apache they loaded either has tightened up it's error tolerance or has a bug... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 194.109.220.178 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 05/23/2003 06:35:47 AM I was on pair with U2log.com and had to move because of the reaper thing. I moved to Dreamhost, who then tightened things up and gave me the same problems. Then pair changed their reaper policy specifically to accomodate MT users. So I moved the site back again. U2log.com runs with around 10,000 comments as we speak. I've got them mostly switched off now for other reasons, but with the MySQL thing installed they were running pretty smoothly and error 500 probs were reduced to a minimum. And I'm not even using the cgi-wrap option. I'm on eite.pair.com - I think there are differences between servers too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.125 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/23/2003 09:18:57 AM I think I am using the MySQL version of the site, actually. I don't have any trouble with rebuilding large blocks of the site - only with the comments facility - everything else now works perfectly... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.125 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/23/2003 09:33:45 AM I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for being so helpful. I found Phil's post particularly illuminating, and tried turning off a few of the automatic index template rebuilds. I didn't think these would have any impact (I was under the impression that not all index templates were rebuilt anyway when you posted a comment), but turning off a couple of them appears to have had a tremendous effect. Most comments now seem to be going through without any trouble... I'll keep everyone informed if this continues to work... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Crème de Webloggia... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/23/2003 11:21:46 AM ----- BODY:

    The last week and a half or so has seen me in fairly odd headspace - I've been pursuing a number of work-related leads, talking to substantial numbers of intriguing people and helping out friends with projects large and small. I have a number of forms I have to fill in and a number of phone calls I should be making. I have - of course - a number of bills to pay.

    All this being the case, I've not had a chance to post as much as I would normally like. I've got a piece on the boil that I want to try and get out over the weekend if possible, but in the meantime you're going to have to make-do with scraps.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jesus! Won't you people stop for a moment?! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/23/2003 10:56:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Jesus! What's wrong with you people at the moment? I don't have time to talk about all the cool things out there, let alone all the things that just tweak my interest. Damn you for making me linklog. Damn you to hell and back...

    Blogs-Clogging the net?

    Entertainment

    Geek Stuff

    Design Stuff

    There are too many sources for this stuff than I can actually count - but almost all of them will be on my list of weblogs on the right. If you liked this stuff, I'd very much recommend you wander through them at later leisure...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Next generation URLs URL: http://obarquinho.com/nando/memorias/2003_05.html#004161 IP: 66.33.197.8 BLOG NAME: wowblog! DATE: 05/27/2003 04:13:36 PM Towards Next Generation URLs, ou como limpar endereÁos... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Discussion and Citation in the Blogosphere... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 05/25/2003 12:51:05 PM ----- BODY:

    A few days ago a stunningly interesting article was published on Microdoc News called Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story which aimed to look at exactly how a story or discussion moved through weblog space. I've been thinking along similar lines for a while now - at least partly as a way of articulating my problems with the iWire Scaling Clay Shirky piece. I've been trying to put down on paper why I think the iWire assertions are incorrect and to develop an alternative model of how discussion can occur usefully through the 'blogosphere'. In fact more than that - I wanted to illustrate why I believe the system works to actually generate better discussion than a simple discussion board - by (on average) helping to hide the bad content and making it easier to find the good content. I most recently wrote something that gestured in this direction (How do we find information in the blogosphere?)

    The Microdoc News piece is particularly illuminating because it's dragged some actual examples into the fray. After examining 45 "blogosphere stories" they found four kinds of posts and a relatively predictable pattern of their usage, with an initial weighty post generating an explosion of smaller fragmentary reactions, commentaries and votes (cf Casting the microcontent vote). These posts are then aggregated or collected into another weighty post, which itself might have the potential to push forward the debate. Their four example posts are:

    1. Lengthy opinion and molding of a topic around between three to fifteen links with one of those links the instigator of the story;
    2. Vote post where the blogger agrees or disagrees with a post on another site;
    3. Reaction post where a blogger provide her/his personal reaction to a single post on another site;
    4. Summation post where the blogger provide a summary of various blogs and perspectives of where a blog story has got to by now.

    I've been working in similar directions as this - in an attempt to resolve the questions, "Can you have good discussion across the blogosphere?", "What is the nature of that discussion?" and "How does it differ from message-board conversation?". And I think the answer lies - yet again - in going back to the beginning and looking at the way the web in general (and weblogs in particular) operate like an academic citation network.

    The origins of the web are highly academic in origin. So it's hardly a surprise that the combined use of hypertext and discreet blocks of content comes to mirror academic citation in research papers. Apart from a few wry-eyebrow-raising academics, I think most of us would agree that the idea that useful debate cannot happen in academic discourse is patently absurd. After all, the vast bulk of academic research in both the humanities and sciences is published as part of an ongoing conversation involving statements and citations.

    The weblog sphere has taken on a great many of the characteristics of the distributed academic community's citation networks - just at a much smaller, faster and more amateur level. Consensus can emerge (briefly or otherwise), reputations are made (deservedly or not), arguments occur regularly (usefully or otherwise). Nonetheless, discussions do occur, they do progress and they do reach conclusions. But it's happening at a granularity of paragraphs rather than articles. It's happening at a scale of hours rather than months.

    The Microdoc article could easily have been written about citation networks in academic literature. And when we realise this, then lots of other things become clear too. The answers to my earlier questions are beginning to come into focus. And they remain basically simple answers too:

    So here's my suggestion of how we can usefully conceive of discussion occurring across the blogosphere (and I think it's a model that's practically explicit in the Microdoc article, so forgive me if it's boring). We should think of it as a kind of micro-paradigm shift - a kind of hyperactive academia, where discussion moves forward in discontinuous chunks - with an initial weighty post articulating a position that is then commented upon, challenged and cited all over the place. But the debate doesn't move forward until someone manages to articulate a position of sufficient weight and resonance to shift the emphasis of the discussion to their new position.

    The weight of these debate-structuring posts can often be measured in terms of aggregated insight - in which case it's a purely progressive model - an individual synthesizes all the interesting comments made by everyone else and pushes it slightly further, generating a new baseline from which the conversation can continue. On occasion, however, it would still be possible that an individual's reputation would be weighty enough that everything they say defines the scope of the debate - that smaller dissenting voices would not be heard - and the debate would be carried behind a leader of some kind. And of course there are the times where a debate fragments or polarises, where more than one of these structuring posts occurs roughly simultaneously, or with radically different views - bifurcating any debate. Nonetheless, debate remains a series of discontinuous leaps, structured by impactful posting.

    Here's a diagram that I think illustrates how I think discussion happens between weblogs:

    This ties in well with my previous article on finding information in the blogosphere. Because the smaller posts with negligible insight, voting or replicated insight are less likely to be linked to, then they're also less likely to be read. And yet their value remains - they represent the arbiters (in a distributed fashion) of what should be being read. The posts that one is directed to most quickly are these structural posts - places where some kind of micro-paradigm shift has occurred.

    I'm going to end now with a bit of a brief discussion about the differences between this kind of debate and the kinds of discussion that one finds on message-boards. I'm going to start off with a comparative diagram:

    On the left, you can see a normal piece of discussion - as it would occur on a threaded message-board. In this example, the top post is the first, the second post cites the first, the third also cites the first while the fourth cites both the third and the second but not the first. In this debate there is no filtering mechanism of any kind. If the second post is entirely off-topic or contains spurious information, then it remains very clearly in the context of the thread. And if that thread is linked to from elsewhere, there can be no simple evaluation of what posts are considered more worthwhile than other1 - the thread is either good or it is not.

    On the right, you can see a simplified diagram of the passage of a discussion through a citation network. If there are filtering mechanisms functioning through the community (in our case people choose who to link to based on whatever personal preference they wish to express) then the most important structural posts will self-locate towards the middle, generating a clear (almost linear) movement of discussion from first principles towards a conclusion of some kind. The conclusion itself may never be met - consensus may never be fully reached - but positions with regard to this evolving dominant narrative will be reached by everyone. Those posts which are merely "I agree" or "I disagree" will be filtered from the public consciousness, even as they have fulfilled a valuable function in directing people towards the next structural post in their debate.

    So - what does this all mean? In essence I'm arguing that debate across weblogs self-organises in a pretty useful way. But I'm not going to pretend that it operates perfectly or that we can't do anything to improve it. However, it seems to me that rather than bemoaning the things that make debate across weblogs different, we should be trying to grease the wheels of those mechanisms. It's my personal belief (and one that I've expressed before) that things like trackback and Daypop work so well because they are specifically building upon - enhancing - the mechanisms that make webloggia operate effectively in the first place. If you're looking for more specific suggestions, then I think that a balkanisation of blogdex would help different those mechanisms work more effectively within smaller communities with different and more distinct interests. After that, I have no idea. That's where you people come in...

    Footnote: (1) Obviously Slashdot has made gestural moves in this direction, but there are some interesting differences between the way the distributed community of webloggers evaluate one another and the way it is handled on Slashdot.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.125 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/25/2003 01:32:00 PM I'd just like to apologise to everyone for bashing out such a large piece and then not proof-reading it before putting it online. If I notice any errors I've made, I'll correct them later in the day. If they're substantial, I'll point them out in the comments... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 05/25/2003 01:47:03 PM Scientific or academic discussions are 'usually' based upon research that has gone through a process of peer review. There are a few examples where this has been flawed, but the peer review process is a rigorous criteria for a discussion. Blogs are self-edited, in the majority of cases, but can still make or state policy or opinion. In that sense, the discussions you talk about are similar to the actions of political think-tanks. The discussion of an idea leads to the experiment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.125 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/25/2003 01:58:24 PM Yes - there are clearly some differences between the way people publish on weblogs and the way in which papers are published. One obvious difference would be that most people who publish in the academic sphere are a priori going to be experts of a certain level. But in a sense these don't create significant problems - peer review is still undertaken in weblogging, albeit at a later stage. Who you link to or choose not to link to, which articles you find interesting or are within your expertise - these constitute a form of peer review, as indeed does the presence of occasional experts who can more easily write the next structuring post - a post that could demolish your arguments systematically, and would be inevitably be linked to by people interested in the same subject.
       I suppose what I'd be arguing here is not that the parallels are exact but that they are illuminating and "good to think with". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.41.125 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/25/2003 02:03:20 PM Sorry - additional stuff - the think tank stuff is really interesting. Thanks for adding that. The other thing I wanted to point out to the world at general is that just because there is a barrier to entry in academic circles doesn't mean that all academics are equally good or that they all contribute something useful to the debates they participate in. We all know that this is not the case - the question is, given a block of people commenting on the same thing, will some of their work be considered better than others, get read more and end up being structural parts of the debate as a whole. I would argue that this clearly happens and that the same mechanisms work for weblogs, only with a much larger sample group of varying abilities and insights... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 05/25/2003 04:01:18 PM The idea that webloggers, by linking and comments, are in effect reviewing the publication of that view or opinion is warranted. A person or organisation can publish a body of work and be prolific, but if they're not cited in the wider sphere of what they're trying to influence or comment upon, then the idea exists but is not popular - the idea itself may be without merit and is an additional subclass, there are lots of bad conclusions published in science but rarely bad data (unless it's fabricated or reviewed in a incestuous way). The problem lies in what the opinion hopes to do, once it's published the idea falls or dies by linking. This doesn't necessarily mean the idea is badly thought out or wrong. There is an abundance of scientific work which goes completely ignored but adds to a critical mass of 'data'; in pure research this may go unnoticed, eventually that work is acknowledged and subsequently, decades after the fact, it's capitalised upon. In the websphere this information is effectively lost because a Google-like repository only responds to links which have been made to the article, reciprocity makes a big difference here. In science, you not only deal with the peer review but the repository is openly available and never fluctuates. The publications are static. The think-tank analogy is important, even in that case, thoughts and views have to published in a centralised, freely available manner. Additionally, a brain-trust only appeals to people who think the ideas resonate with their own. This adds another layer of filtering which can stifle open debate. I look upon weblog opinion as influential in the realms of web technology and content management systems - I don't wish to denegrate other categories by their absence, I'm sure my opinion on those isn't interesting. In essence, since there's no weekly Journal of Web Technology, blogs (could) help to fill that void. Even though the review system you outline is severely limited to the number of people who can see the content - internet, computer, time etc. - the biggest hurdle is to find the weblog and hope the latest entry has something worth saying to you. I do hope this all makes sense in some way :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: susan mernit EMAIL: smernit@aol.com IP: 69.3.199.37 URL: http://susanmernit.blogspot.com DATE: 05/25/2003 04:19:10 PM Thanks for the diagrams and the great piece... I have been working my way through this one and your posting really helped... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jebni EMAIL: jebni@bigpond.com IP: 203.34.164.10 URL: DATE: 05/26/2003 01:16:57 AM You've got to stay off the OmniGraffle, man, it's like, *crack*. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross Mayfield EMAIL: rossmay@earthlink.net IP: 67.112.122.92 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0114726/ DATE: 05/26/2003 10:35:59 PM Bravo. I would comment further here, but its a discussion board. I'll save people time and rely on a blog post to be filtered for importance. http://www.corante.com/many/20030501.shtml#36644 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fabio EMAIL: fabiosergio@freegorifero.com IP: 62.13.170.12 URL: http://www.freegorifero.com DATE: 05/28/2003 09:12:48 AM Interesting thoughts Tom. You might want to check the comments to a post on (of all things) Matrix Reloaded, over at Kottke's. What I think is peculiar is that your considerations still perfectly apply: if you take the time to read through all 260+ (and counting) contributions you'll encounter the very same patterns you describe. An original interpretation of the movie (main post), echoed by another similar one (major response), followed by scattered chatter (micro-votes), collected in a weighty post (aggregator) and so on. Even more fascinating is that over time hubs (thought leaders) have clearly emerged ("Spoon Boy", "Brian"), with other strong voices taking the debate further and the rest adding random thoughts to the conversation. Jason has seemingly decided to "relinquish control" in this case, and the child space has taken a life of his own, inheriting implicit rules from its parent. Clay Shirky and object-oriented programming fans should be proud. A fascinating fractal-like case of scale-invariance, the micro mimicking the macro? Or simply an ecosystem starting to show its underlying patterns? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.113.68 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/28/2003 09:27:08 AM Thanks Fabio! This actually reminds me - I've been waiting now for someone to write up a piece on, "The Matrix as Social Software" and no one has! It's either going to be a satire or a biting critique, I think, but I'm really surprised no one has done it yet... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave davison EMAIL: ohd3@aol.com IP: 67.121.76.113 URL: DATE: 05/29/2003 12:52:51 AM Steven Downes OL Daily provided the link to your comments on discussions in the blogosphere - I found your use of graphics very helpful - supporting the view that good diagramatics help deliver a message with more impact - especially if the graphics can depict the "passage" of the discussion from initial post to final summary and serve as a map for late comers who would like to catch up quickly. Have you thought of leading with diagrams or other graphics to gain earlier understanding of the context of your remarks and your point of view on other subjects - or possibly using a well-designed set of graphics as a map to the whole subect of blog-based discussions? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nancy White EMAIL: nancyw@fullcirc.com IP: 206.63.251.155 URL: http://www.fullcirc.com DATE: 05/29/2003 04:34:21 AM Thanks for the thinking and sharing, Tom. (And I second Dave's comments about the visuals, though I would suggest there are many other patterns in discussion board conversations!) What do you think are the facilitative aspects of conversations propagated through blogs - either intentional or "accidental?" For example, you mention summarization (which I would consider a facilitative action). Fabio suggests that the facilitative action can be moved through the group. Your thoughts? (I say this as a person interested in facilitative aspects of online communication, either by a "facilitator" or by a group itself.) THANKS! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: hector vila EMAIL: hvila@middlebury.edu IP: 140.233.69.55 URL: http://manila.cet.middlebury.edu/educare/ DATE: 05/29/2003 03:52:57 PM We're experimenting widely with blogs in academe @ Middlebury College. What you say, Tom, makes a lot of sense to me, particularly since we have students creating their own blogs (http://manila.cet.middlebury.edu/introcreativewriti/stories/storyReader$20), but really only discuss ideas and topics on the "motherBlog," if you will. This lends itself more to the traditional threaded discussion which you so keenly represent, above. We're going to try and move to a more "blogCentric" model, again as you diagram above. We're running a very interesting course on Irish Literature and Film this Fall ('03), so we'll try it there and see how we manage. Thanks for the valuable insights! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee EMAIL: lee@leelefever.com IP: 68.166.55.125 URL: http://www.leelefever.com DATE: 05/29/2003 05:36:57 PM Tom and all, Thanks for the interesting post and ensuing discussion. I too think there is merit in the idea that blogs can create valuable discussion. Here's one way I think about it... I can see the blogosphere as a big online community/message board that is made up of self-managing interest groups. The members may not have the insular relationships that are built inside communities, but the context of discussions between bloggers can be even more rich. Unlike most message board users, bloggers consistently link to their blog as their "profile". This enables a particpant to find much more personal context in discussion by having quick access to each participant's blog site- which can be a very personal experience. I think that a blog working as a "profile" can add something special to blogosphere discussions by giving each blogger a rich representation of themselves and context to their posts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 62.31.71.100 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 06/04/2003 01:53:31 PM Much food for thought, as ever, Tom. A couple of points: What if there are no paradigm shifts? An example would be Where is Raed? for which there tended to be only one comment... "It's marvellous, go see." Might this evolve in more of a "daisy-fractal" than your "linear-with-petals" suggestion? Secondly: No disrespect intended, but Mr Kottke's commentary on Matrix Reloaded is hardly earth-shattering. Yet it currently has over 400 comments. The reason for that huge (in blog-terms) response owes nothing to the original commentary, but everything to the large pre-existing readership, imo. It's acting not as a "blog-with comments" so much as a straighforward message board. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JJ EMAIL: jj@merelo.net IP: 150.214.191.24 URL: http://blojj.blogalia.com DATE: 06/24/2003 12:44:44 PM For some weird reason, I can't print this story. I get only the first page, and also cut. A ready-for-print option would be _very_ handy. ----- PING: TITLE: Blog Discussion and Citation URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/blog_discussion_and_citation.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 05/25/2003 06:12:47 PM Tom Coates weighs in with a great analysis of discussion and citation in the world of weblogs, seeking to refute... ----- PING: TITLE: Citeringsm–nster i bloggosf”ren URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/001474.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 05/25/2003 09:09:15 PM Tom Coates analyserar diskussionskulturen i bloggosf”ren och j”mf–r den med den akademiska litteraturens citeringsm–nster och konsensusbyggande. (Fast med en betydligt ----- PING: TITLE: Productive Debate in the Blogosphere URL: http://www.burningchrome.com:8000/~cdent/mt/archives/000152.html IP: 216.9.146.10 BLOG NAME: Glacial Erratics DATE: 05/26/2003 12:41:57 AM [http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/05/discussion_and_citation_in_the_blogosphere.shtml Discussion and Citation in the Blogosphere...] [nid 0000R7] [http://www.plasticbag.org Tom Coates] makes some excellent and lengthy comments comparing debate i... ----- PING: TITLE: Bad Boards Make Bad Comparisons URL: http://journurl.com/support/users/admin/index.cfm?mode=article&entry=442 IP: 63.151.45.1 BLOG NAME: Big Damn Heroes (Tech) DATE: 05/27/2003 11:44:46 AM Tom Coates offers a better-than-average look at the way message board discussion compares with blog-based discussion. Unfortunately, his well-considered conclusions are weakened by a faulty initial assumption. Like most folks, Tom seems to have an over... ----- PING: TITLE: Common Sense = "Big Thinker" URL: http://nslog.com/archives/2003/05/25/common_sense_big_thinker.php IP: 64.226.43.134 BLOG NAME: NSLog(); DATE: 05/28/2003 04:04:43 AM I don't write about some things because I consider them common sense. For example, a post detailing the effects of calling someone a bad name... ----- PING: TITLE: Blogs and Forums URL: http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/000252.html IP: 12.96.164.198 BLOG NAME: Unbound Spiral DATE: 05/28/2003 06:56:32 AM Tom Coates article "Discussion and Citation in the Blogsphere" is a must read for anyone thinking about the impact of blogging on threaded discusssions.  Great diagrams and analysis.  What made this post particularly relevant for me it I'm tr... ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/05/28 10:13 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2585 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 05/28/2003 10:21:50 AM Common sense eq big thinker ----- PING: TITLE: The Disanalogy between academia and the blogosphere URL: http://radish.hosted.doosh.net/steiny/mt/archives/000005.html IP: 213.253.43.5 BLOG NAME: Premise DATE: 06/01/2003 06:02:43 PM Allegedly inspired by something I wrote, Tom Coates has been writing a series of articles about the power of the blogosphere to filter and sustain good quality productive discussion. Using as few words as possible, I am going to attempt to respond.... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs und Borg - der Weg eines Meme URL: http://randgaenge.net/2003/05/27.html#a1670 IP: 81.223.97.30 BLOG NAME: thomas n. burg | randg”nge DATE: 08/06/2003 10:04:59 PM

    Spannende Diskussion rund um plasticbag.org. Wenn man vom Paradigmenwechsel eines Thomas S. Kuhn abgeht und mittels der Emergenztheorie ein Verst”ndnis aufzubauen...

    ----- PING: TITLE: Blogologue URL: http://randgaenge.net/2003/06/03.html#a1689 IP: 81.223.97.30 BLOG NAME: thomas n. burg | randg”nge DATE: 08/06/2003 10:07:37 PM

    Lilia hat die Liste angelegt. Elwyin Jenkins hat eine Blog-Lawine losgetreten und das in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Einerseits versucht er den Weg/Prozess/Verlauf einer Blogstory empirisch (d.h. wie ensteht ein Story, was braucht es dazu =

    ----- PING: TITLE: Blogologue about blogologue URL: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/05/27.html#a629 IP: 130.89.167.145 BLOG NAME: Mathemagenic DATE: 08/10/2003 02:16:29 PM

    Several related stories [via many in my news aggregator]

    1. Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story:"cit"Through a study of 45 blogosphere stories, Microdoc N...

    ----- PING: TITLE: Blogosphere Story Dynamics : Interesting Reads URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2003/05/27.html#a126 IP: 202.68.150.4 BLOG NAME: Conversations with Dina DATE: 08/10/2003 02:32:01 PM Some interesting follow up on the Microdoc News Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story ----- PING: TITLE: The Linear Flow of Discussion in the Blogosphere: the need for alternate takes and summarization URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0106698/2003/05/30.html#a147 IP: 208.229.228.133 BLOG NAME: Connectivity: Spike Hall's RU Weblog DATE: 08/27/2003 03:07:02 AM Summary: Tom Coates' site , "plasticbag.org" has social software relevance and eye appeal. ----- PING: TITLE: Lesestoff URL: http://huminf.uib.no/huin303/camilla/arkiv/000128.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: Camillas blogg DATE: 09/24/2003 04:00:40 PM Har lest litt og skal lese mer p f¯lgende artikler i forbindelse med en eventuell oppgave om weblogger: HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS av Richard A. Bartle Discussion ans Citation in the Blogosphere p Tom Coates blogg... ----- PING: TITLE: Ned to stop gathering info URL: http://huminf.uib.no/huin303/camilla/arkiv/000224.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: Camillas blogg DATE: 10/28/2003 04:18:46 PM Social Capital of Blogspace - ecosystem. Sirkelfigur m nettverkene. Ecosystem of Networks -kommentarene gÂr mer inn p horisontal og vertikal akse i politiske/sosiale/kreative nettverk. Microdoc News, Bloggning News: Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story Bo... ----- PING: TITLE: Blogs vs Forums URL: http://www.podbaydoor.com/archives/001144.html IP: 63.247.142.216 BLOG NAME: The Pod Bay Door DATE: 11/15/2003 06:23:46 PM :: Geoff and I gave a presentation on Thursday afternoon called biblioBLOGS: Building Blogs and Sharing Information. During the session, we were asked about the difference between blogs and online forums. This is something I've thought about in the pas... ----- PING: TITLE: discussing misbehaving URL: http://huminf.uib.no/huin303/camilla/arkiv/000246.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: Camillas blogg DATE: 11/19/2003 10:55:24 AM I'm back, trying to turn my mind from qualitative research and qualitative interviewing (thesis in one of the courses i take this semester) to blog discussions and categorization again(thesis in the other course). Today, the blog figuring on top of... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblog conversations are flows in a river delta URL: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/03/04.html#a1110 IP: 130.89.167.145 BLOG NAME: Mathemagenic DATE: 03/04/2004 02:23:10 PM Together with Aldo de Moor we are working on analysis of weblog conversations. ----- PING: TITLE: Are epidemics bad for your blog? URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/07.html#a506 IP: 212.198.60.13 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/07/2004 08:30:13 PM Still in rude and frosty vein, I buried myself deeper in my lunchtime reading, after shaking his hand, when Andr ----- PING: TITLE: Discussion in the blogosphere URL: http://www.efios.com/blog/2003/06/03.html#a69 IP: 24.132.249.21 BLOG NAME: It's all about people and networks DATE: 05/04/2004 03:23:41 PM This came in the email the other day from Debby Kilburn. ----- PING: TITLE: Lesestoff URL: http://huminf.uib.no/huin303/camilla/arkiv/000127.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: Camilla DATE: 10/21/2004 09:30:54 PM Har lest litt og skal lese mer p f¯lgende artikler i forbindelse med en eventuell oppgave om weblogger: HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS av Richard A. Bartle Discussion ans Citation in the Blogosphere p Tom Coates blogg... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On parallels with academic citation networks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 05/28/2003 09:13:37 PM ----- BODY:

    As ever when I've written something long and vaguely serious, I can't think of anything to talk about for days afterwards. So to try and break me back into the writing habit, I'm going to talk a bit about the response that Discussion and Citation in the Blogosphere has received. As NSLog() has pointed out, it's not the most revolutionary of posts, but I think sometimes it's still important to state what we believe to be obvious - either to have it challenged or because other people don't find it obvious. I think both types of reaction have taken place in this particular case.

    (1) A few responses to comments

    I'm going to start off by looking at a couple of the comments that I received about the piece. Jumping right in, these were (1) that I didn't talk about the kind of indented hierarchical threaded-discussion boards (in which discussion can take a much more non-linear approach than my diagram suggested) and that (2) my diagram of micro-paradigm shifts was too neat and doesn't mirror reality (Microdocs).

    Firstly I'd like to say straight-away that they are - of course - both right. Real-life is always messier than abstractions, and I could never hope to have talked about all the kinds of online discussion boards that exist.

    In the case of the indented-threading models - all I can say in my defence was that the piece I was trying to write wasn't so much about the directionality or linearity of message-board discussions, but more about the filtering mechanisms implicit in the system. Another commentator) also pointed out that some message-board systems allow trackback on individual posts. Here I can only say that there's a certain degree of bifurcation going on there - I can't see a way in which those people within the social system of the board itself can help the filtering process for strangers, except by moving outside it and linking to it from outside (say from a weblog). And he also talks about weblog / message-board hybrids - which again I can only say that I wasn't specifically familiar with. There are a lot of interesting models for online fora - and I hope people forgive me for concentrating for the most part on the one that the most people are familiar with... I think the most important thing that I want to say about this stuff is that I was definitely not undermining the importance of message-board technology in community-building. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool advocate of message-boards and have been playing with some new models in moderation and administration over at Barbelith Underground for several years now.

    As regards my diagram being too regular and not reflecting reality (again cf. Microdoc's diagram of this debate)- where they see difference - I see considerable similarity. Let's call those posts that have one or less inward link "supporting" posts, and all those with more than one "structural" posts. If one does this, then even at this early stage it's clear that only a couple of posts are driving the discussion forward. At the moment the debate has bifurcated (I specifically mention that as a possibility in the last post) - and no doubt one of those will be taken further by a subsequent structuring posts at some point. While the reality will always be messier than the abstracted diagram, I believe that (if we give the debate time enough to develop) the two diagrams will come to look more and more similar.

    (2) On parallels with academic citation networks

    Now I'm going to turn to another common response to the post. A few people have argued that (i) the existence of peer review mechanisms and (ii) an expertise-based barrier of entry makes academic filtering mechanisms very different from weblogging ones. I've seen this position articulated on a few sites - particularly 2lmc, commonplaces and a comment by Ross Mayfield on Many to Many - but I'm going to concentrate (yet again) on the response from Microdoc because it's the most succinct and clear:

    There is a substantial difference between writing an academic paper and having it published in comparison to blogging. In the academic world, I write a paper, have my peers review it, and then I submit it for publication where it may go through another review process, and eventually be published and it is from that paper that has two or three reviews that people will cite in their papers. That is, the academic paper is already "authorized" or "reviewed" and therefore has some weight already.

    This is certainly true - there is a substantial barrier to entry in writing academic work. You have to be (to an extent at least) an expert in your field before your words will be seen by the rest of the community. And that means you also have to be an expert in your field before you can cite another article as well (although you don't have to have the same level of expertise in the field of the article that you've cited).

    But once you are inside that community of people, what then? Articles are not cited an equal number of times and nor are they given same value within the community - these mechanisms of citation and linkage appear to occur in almost exactly the same way as within weblogs. Individual scholars choose who to cite through a complex balancing act of who they wish to credit to, who directly inspires them, who they have to employ to back up their arguments and which articles have achieved such value and ubiquity that you can't have a discussion about a given subject without citing them (this last one is more common among graduate students persuing a doctorate). Some of these citations consist of nothing more than a vote - a gesture that the article concerned is pertinent to a discussion. Often articles (or books) crystallise a discussion and are treated as a baseline from then on.

    Essentially - the only difference that having barriers to entry into the community makes is that the criteria for judging whether a piece of writing is worth linking to may be different. The mechanisms, however, remain identical. Certain articles get cited, others do not. Discussion happens in a series of discontinuous leaps - sometimes collapsing back onto itself, sometimes bifurcating - with the community self-filtering the good stuff to where it's most likely to be seen.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 05/28/2003 10:29:40 PM You don't have to be an expert to publish in the academic field, Mendel was a monk and his work had a profound influence. My example is a little facetious since it's increasingly unlikely to happen again, although you get the odd surprise, Lorenzo's Oil. This argument works to your advantage. Once inside the community you accurately depict the nature of citation, but there's an element of 'consensus' which comes into play. If you 'try' to publish and deliberately avoid a well executed piece of previous work (controversial or no) you will be corrected, the review process helps the argument prior to publication. Simple facts will be represented no matter what your conclusions may be, there's an internal equilibrium. This mechanism is absent, to a large extent, in bloggin'. If it exists you have to crawl through countless comments and trackbacks (if any) to understand what's being said. Very cumbersome. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fabio EMAIL: fabiosergio@freegorifero.com IP: 62.13.170.12 URL: http://www.freegorifero.com DATE: 05/29/2003 11:42:54 AM It is important to distinguish between the quality of blog-based discussions (Tom's original point I reckon) and the quality of the experience in following them. Current tools/services are great to support contribution to a discussion/conversation, but they are to say the least lousy in enabling people to follow it as it unfolds. Imagine entering a room filled with people, a party. Ongoing conversations would be clearly visible from groups of people chatting, their tone of voice giving away the seriousness of the topic; even tacit information flows could be probably spotted through the body language of the participants. This scenario can be a good metaphor of an academic environment, you need to be "invited" to the party to participate, before you speak you better understand who's the owner of the house, who are his best friends and so on... In DataSpace this level of (social) visibility is totally missing, leaving people wishing to participate the unmerciful task of filling the gaps and metaphorically "looking everywhere" (including under the carpet) to check if there's anyone talking they might have missed. The good thing is that everyoneís invited. To raise the quality of the discussing experience we need to merge and fine-tune tools such as ThreadsML or Topic Exchange, and take advantage of new and existing tricks to create positive feedback loops. On top of that I'd add that integrating something like FOAFnaut would be a much-needed augmentation. My humble take is that when some of these services will have had the time to become easy to understand and use (trackback being neither at the moment), with standards hopefully emerging, we might see a convergence of "blog-like" and "threaded" services, inheriting the best of both worlds. An UberComm tool, with social-software-like enhancements to boost. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Perry de Havilland EMAIL: pdeh@NOSPAMsamizdata.net IP: 81.5.146.53 URL: http://samizdata.net/blog DATE: 06/01/2003 03:18:37 AM The trouble with blog-forum hybrids is that whilst most articles which produce heavy commenting will digress off the topic set by the lead article as the commenters engage in private dogfights, the threading of comments actually encourages this digressive process as the format itself add legitimacy to commenters going off into side-huddles-of-the-willing. Of course whether or not this is a bug or a feature rather depends of how you see blogs philosophically. Personally I see the difference between blogs-with-comments and forums as rather more profound than many seems to think. To my mind they are optimal for quite different things: a forum is more interactive and free ranging, lending itself to running exchanges centred only loosely around a unifying core that tends to be set by the nature of the forum as much as the first post from which the threats sprang... a blog-with-comments however is far more focused on the lead article upon which the comments are being made, and anything (to my mind, at least) which distracts from that focus on the article is a bug, not a feature. In short, a high degree of free ranging interactivity that a forum's threaded format offers is and should to my mind be sacrificed on blogs to retain more control and thematic focus (control-by-moderation is a separate issues independent of formats). Of course opinions vary, but bloggers do need to think about how format can actually influence the nature of their ability to set the terms of debate and hence maintain quality and focus. As that is exactly what I seek to do on the blog I manage, I intend to avoid threaded comments but obviously other bloggers may have other priorities and objectives. ----- PING: TITLE: Blogologue URL: http://randgaenge.net/2003/06/03.html#a1689 IP: 81.223.97.30 BLOG NAME: thomas n. burg | randg”nge DATE: 08/06/2003 10:07:55 PM

    Lilia hat die Liste angelegt. Elwyin Jenkins hat eine Blog-Lawine losgetreten und das in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Einerseits versucht er den Weg/Prozess/Verlauf einer Blogstory empirisch (d.h. wie ensteht ein Story, was braucht es dazu =

    ----- PING: TITLE: Blogologue about blogologue URL: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/05/27.html#a629 IP: 130.89.167.145 BLOG NAME: Mathemagenic DATE: 08/10/2003 02:16:45 PM

    Several related stories [via many in my news aggregator]

    1. Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story:"cit"Through a study of 45 blogosphere stories, Microdoc N...

    ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Mind Palace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/03/2003 10:44:03 AM ----- BODY:

    A few things that I'm taking the time to place inside my mind palace - as ever mostly culled from my favourite weblogs and news sources (see the Weblogs panel on the right):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stop bitching. Make it better. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/03/2003 05:50:06 PM ----- BODY:

    The main problem I have with the weblog-related positions of professional writers like Bill Thompson and professional trolls like Andrew Orlowski is that we've had all these debates so many times before. Debate around A-list cliques has existed for years - as have comments that weblogs are ultimately trivial. It was over three years ago now that A List Apart published Fame Fatale - and that wasn't the first article along those lines. Some of the pieces had more justification than others. Some had little or no justification at all. Mostly, in time, people just changed their minds. We've walked around these particular avenues and alleyways several times now, each time accompanied by a new group of people who consider themselves slightly higher up the food chain.

    It would be different if they accomplished anything. If Orlowski was working to improve weblog culture or pull it in a positive direction, then there would be value in that. If Bill's work was trying to rectify inappropriate imbalances in the social system that has emerged, then we might actually be getting somewhere. I don't think there's a single weblogger who thinks that there's absolutely no scope for improvement. But instead what happens is that legitimate concerns get pushed aside by florid rhetoric and high dudgeon, debate gets polarised, until eventually everyone gets bored and weblogging continues pretty much as it did before. Only this time with permalinks! Or comments! Or automated blog-rolling!

    And the steady take-up of weblogging seems undeterred by these debates. People still continue to start weblogs faster than people stop writing them - there are now (by conservative estimates) hundreds of thousands of regularly updated sites. And with AOL and Microsoft rumoured to be getting in on the act, along with new ventures by Blogger, Movable Type, 20six (etc.) it looks like there's going to be a hell of a lot more weblogs started in the next few years.

    I think it's now time that people started to face this fact. That whether or not they like it (whether or not any of us like it), weblogging is not something that's going away in the next couple of years. Having an 'anti-weblogging position' is no longer even vaguely a 'real-world antidote' to unfathomable and unwarranted 'weblog hysteria'. It's just really unhelpful. It doesn't accomplish anything. So you want my advice? Work to make it better or sod off. If you think there's really a legitimate problem in the way that weblogs operate between each other then try and suggest a solution, try and suggest some things that are likely to be taken up and worked with by the extended community. Or think of something better than weblogs! That's got to be a more creative, positive and useful way of interacting with the world than sitting on the sidelines and bitching... Surely?

    This piece was grumpily forged in the comments of the iSociety's weblog.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 06/03/2003 06:30:46 PM I have no idea about the history of the blog critics, reading between the lines, Orlowski's comments show a wit, sarcasm and intellect which deserves more than being assigned as a troll. I believe he's not anti-blog. He actually praises them. His last article about weblogs says as alot about a level of quality and navel-gazing in blogdom. It's not so far fetched to think he's fullfilling the role you ask for, except he has no blog, just a column which has no trackbacks, comments and further interaction, unless you email him of course. As for Thompson's comments, what was so bad about his criticism on the 'social software' discussion? In my mind, he's adding a few pointers and praises the level of writing from those involved. Surely the level of criticism for a phenomena is indicative that it has some meaning and 'possible' influence, and some people would like to add their tuppence in that direction. Take the criticism as a compliment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy EMAIL: andy@andyproject.com IP: 217.39.124.85 URL: DATE: 06/03/2003 06:43:56 PM Well said ! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.41.173 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/03/2003 06:45:10 PM Hear hear! I chatted briefly about this post here. And you do bring up some very good points. For every creative, interesting use of weblogging there is always some bumjuggler out there ready to mindlessly criticise. And that's where the Orlowski's and Bill Thompson's come in. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 195.92.168.165 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 06/04/2003 12:47:54 AM I'm amazed you bothered to respond to this. I stopped reading the drivel Bill spouts a long time ago, until people started referencing his nonsense on their weblogs - usually in anger to whatever tripe he was bashing out. When he last took an ill-informed swipe at weblogs and social software, I posted a rant in response, but I wished I hadn't bothered. I only noticed this article when I checked Jason Kottke's site out the other day, and I didn't even read the whole thing. Best not to. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.45.42 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/04/2003 01:22:04 AM Orlowski's comments show a wit, sarcasm and intellect which deserves more than being assigned as a troll. I notice you don't include faithfulness to reality on that list. More than troll, perhaps - less than journalist certainly. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 192.146.136.129 URL: http://www.seldo.com DATE: 06/04/2003 02:05:27 AM I think the view that there is a lot of self-satisfied back-scratching in the blogging community is not unfounded. I think another well-founded view is that some people spend altogether too much time talking about blogging itself rather than blogging something original (present company excepted, Tom -- most of the time you talk about interesting things only peripherally related to blogging). I think the distinction between "journalist" and "blogger" is the same as between "professional" and "amateur" in sports -- i.e., the only difference is that some get paid. I think some people -- and this includes you now, Tom -- lack perspective on what blogging is, and how significant it is. Blogging is journalism with comments. It's not a world-shaping new social movement, it's not even a particularly new or exciting application of technology. Blogging is just the natural progression of personal web pages from "pictures of my cat" to more interesting content, and as the number of mature/experienced web authors has risen, so has the number of interesting personal sites. That's good, but it's not earthshaking. And yes, blogs have comments, and yes they link to each other and they backtrack and pingback and permalink, but that's nothing more than back-scratching, nothing special. I blog all the time, and I'm proud of what I'm written, but I'm proud of it because of what I've written, not because I wrote it into a blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.55.231 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/04/2003 02:46:08 AM "I think the distinction between "journalist" and "blogger" is the same as between "professional" and "amateur" in sports" And the other distinction is who enjoys it more? Bloggers do it for fun, journalists do it for money. The 'job' aspect of it probably diminishes their enjoyment of it, while the ability to post what you want, when you want and without the hindrances of publishing deadlines and screaming editors, or a need to stick to house style or political alignment (especially in the US... eg. Fox News) probably makes blogging a welcome relief. It's media, on the writers terms (no sticking to rules) - and thanks to the wide variety of choice, and the usefulness of RSS readers, to the convenience of the reader. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.6.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/04/2003 10:43:44 AM Seldo - I think you're wrong about a few things. Firstly, everyone knows weblogging software isn't technically difficult. Secondly, weblogging is not the same as journalism - there are a variety of criteria that differentiate us from them. One of them is that they have access to all the resources of journalism and the other is that the individual is subordinate to the power of the brand and all that implies - fact-checking, the ability to fire people who don't write compelling, accurate or newsworthy copy. These are important mechanisms for newsgathering that individual weblogs lack. There are types of journalism that correspond more obviously with weblogging - the newspaper column, the opinion editorial and occasionally the written feature - but we should be careful in our comparisons. Weblogging may correspond to types of journalism - it may even be a form of new journalism (there may be different mechanisms at work) - but it is IN NO WAY that they map onto one another directly. Now as to the importance of weblogging - well we're not really in a position to tell yet. When I started there were a few hundred webloggers. Most. Now there are half a million. In four years. And not only are there half a million of them, they are aggregatable, there are connections between them. They may seem trivial to you, but think of it this way - if you could poll half a million people world wide each day as to what they thought the most important issue of the day was, wouldn't that be useful? Certainly there is potential here for something profoundly useful, even if not profoundly important. We'll see in time... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: russell higgs EMAIL: familyofbreath@ratservers.co.uk IP: 62.60.57.62 URL: http:www.conformandobey.co.uk/blog.html DATE: 06/04/2003 01:06:49 PM i'd compare the importance of blogs with the equal importance of reality tv. we are living through the most insidiously conformist of times right now. an age of off-the-peg lifestyles and information that tends to eclipse the chances for home grown 'individuality' to take root. trendy and fashionable are the new conservatism. this, combined with the thoughts and actions of the past 100 years, creates a deep need to be able to access and view each other right down to a nose-picking level. we need to know about diverse human realities. secondly the professional /waged mass media tends to be populated by a singularly middle-class social agenda. its arguable that 'cyber celebrities' also tend to be middle-class, having the financial good fortune to be able to be technological pioneers. but generally mediums such as blogs and reality tv are capable of disseminating non-middle class conversations and perspectives. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The FCC, Weblogs and Inequality... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/04/2003 11:44:46 AM ----- BODY:

    I can very much recommend Clay's latest piece: FCC, Weblogs and Inequality to anyone who's even vaguely interested in either FCC regulation of the airwaves or the nature of inequalities in webloggia. I'm afraid I'm going to spoil the ending for you, because I think it's particularly pertinent to some of the recent discussions we've been having:

    The one incoherent view is the belief that a free and diverse media will naturally tend towards equality. The development of weblogs in their first five years demonstrates that is not always true, and gives us reason to suspect it may never be true. Equality can only be guaranteed by limiting either diversity or freedom. The best thing that could come from the lesson of weblog popularity would be an abandoning of the idea that there will ever be an unconstrained but egalitarian media utopia, a realization ideally followed by a more pragmatic discussion between the "diverse and free" and "diverse and equal" camps.

    My only issue with the piece is that the concept of equality is reduced to equality of audience/readership/influence and only briefly alludes to equality of opportunity.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In love with radio 4... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 06/05/2003 12:06:45 AM ----- BODY:
    "The history of mankind in the last three hundred years has been punctuated by major upheavals in human thought that we call scientific revolutions - upheavals that have profoundly affected the way in which we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos. First there was the Copernican revolution - the notion that far from being the centre of the universe, our planet is a mere speck of dust revolving around the sun. Then there was the Darwinian revolution culminating in the view that we are not angels but merely hairless apes, as Huxley once pointed out in this very room. And third there was Freud's discovery of the "unconscious" - the idea that even though we claim to be in charge of our destinies, most of our behaviour is governed by a cauldron of motives and emotions which we are barely conscious of. Your conscious life, in short, is nothing but an elaborate post-hoc rationalisation of things you really do for other reasons."

    So starts the BBC's Reith lecture series for 2003 - broadcast a couple of months ago on BBC Radio 4. The topic of the lectures was "The Emerging Mind", and they were delivered by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. They make for fascinating listening and are very much recommended.

    But perhaps more impressive than the lectures themselves is that every single one of them is still available for download on Radio 4's site. And they're of eminently listenable quality, even if they're in RealAudio format. And it's not only the Reith Lectures that are online - in fact, almost every radio programme played on the station in recent months remains available. And there are a hell of a lot of those programmes covering all the major subject areas - all ready to be listened to on demand. Here's some to be going along with: News, Drama, Comedy, Science, Religion and History...

    If I sound over-excited, it's because - bluntly - I am. I've never been a devoted acolyte of the station, but now I can easily cherry-pick precisely what interests me it's becoming easier to see the appeal. For example - what other station would have a weekly programme dedicated to the history of ideas? And would that programme routinely have in such figures as Steven Pinker or Adam Philips and Malcolm Bowie for round-table debates. What other station would manage to have two separate series about interesting numbers: 5 numbers and Another 5 numbers - as presented by Simon Singh.

    I know I'm coming into this late. I know that everyone else in the UK is going to look at me funny and point out that I should have been paying more attention several months ago. But dammit! I'm as impressed by this as when Pathe News put all its archives online.

    P.S. If anyone can remember which writer it was that first described Galileo, Darwin and Freud as thinkers who decentred man from his view first of cosmology, biology and finally from his view of his own mind, then can you let me know. It's driving me mad...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Buttefield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.com DATE: 06/05/2003 12:42:00 AM I like that Simon Singh. I ended up with an autographed copy of Fermat's Last Theorem (picked it up at Heffer's the day after he had been by to talk and sign) and thought is was one of the best pop science books I'd read. Re the idea in your post-script: I first heard that in a conversation at ETCon, but don't remember who said it now. Maybe you? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.75.165 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/05/2003 01:22:45 AM Welcome to the slippery slope of Radio 4. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian a EMAIL: istrada@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.68.77 URL: DATE: 06/05/2003 01:42:25 AM I knew this would happen once you crossed the threshold of thirty. Expect recipes and gardening on plasticbag real soon now!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: qB@DELETEfrizzylogic.org IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org DATE: 06/05/2003 09:25:27 AM Several months ago? I think that should be years ago! Welcome to the fan club. Re Seven Pinker, no big deal. Self promotion is his greatest talent. If you go to his website you will see ample evidence of his devotion to the BBC along with most other media outlets in the developed world. On the page called "engagements" or something similar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 06/05/2003 10:29:01 AM I was involved in the process for setting up the Audio on Demand service at BBCi (I look after Radio Scotland online's broadcasts). It was no mean feat - and the infrastructure required for it is huge - not to mention the bandwidth needed. But it is a fantastic service, and attributed to a massive increase in visitor traffic to BBCi as a result. Just wait until television programmes are available on-demand..... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the other BBCi martin EMAIL: martin.belam@currybet.net IP: 80.189.21.62 URL: http://www.currybet.net DATE: 06/05/2003 11:35:12 PM ....i thought we were keeping that a secret ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eanws EMAIL: ean@walkersmith.net IP: 200.83.95.234 URL: http://www.walkersmith.net/bl0g DATE: 06/06/2003 02:02:18 AM I live out in Chile, I am an expat, and well having access to Radio1 and 4 out here is a godsend. What I am waiting for is the TV to be browsable in the same way, I imagine the tech is there, just not the business model. It would be something I would pay for. I like the comment about over 30, I too have reached that old age. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: gert@REMOVEmadmusingsof.me.uk IP: 81.152.99.29 URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog DATE: 06/06/2003 01:07:36 PM This weekend it's imperative to keep a check on the growth in the garden. the mixtur eof rain and sunshine ha smade the plants, bushes, grass grow. Don't forget to dead head the roses. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anne Galloway EMAIL: anne@purselipsquarejaw.org IP: 64.230.115.204 URL: http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org DATE: 06/06/2003 03:28:15 PM Two thoughts. 1. Over here, NOVA ran a great documentary called From Ramachandran's Notebook, which, of course reminded me of Oliver Sacks' books. Damn interesting. 2. While I hear it is not as stunning as 20 years ago, the CBC still produces really good stuff and their archives are brilliant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dustin EMAIL: oneman@onemansopinion.org IP: 209.234.76.206 URL: http://onemansopinion.org DATE: 06/08/2003 08:15:00 AM I believe it was Freud who humbly suggested that the three greatest scientific revolutions were those that decentred humanity: Galileo (or was it Copernicus?), Darwin, and Freud himself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/08/2003 10:18:55 AM You know - part of the reason I asked the question was because I had a sneaking suspicion that that was the case. I used to study Freud so I have a lot of his words swilling around in the back of my head at all times. I wonder what that means - it's interesting that Ramachandran decided to quote it as fact. More interesting still that he actually fouled up the begining of that lecture by saying that after those three, the greatest revolution was going to be the revolution of why humans behave the way they do. I think Freud may have been surprised to find out that his revolution wasn't anything to do with the mind... I'm going to assume that the quote - if it is indeed from Freud - is probably in his introductory lectures to psychoanalysis. I don't have them with me in London though - so if anyone can find them, I'd really appreciate it... ----- PING: TITLE: In praise of Radio 4 URL: http://www.rousette.org.uk/mt-static/blog/archives/000325.html IP: 64.21.37.2 BLOG NAME: but she's a girl... DATE: 06/11/2003 07:13:14 PM You are all probably thoroughly fed-up with me wittering on about Radio 4, but I had to note the special feature about the station in the Radio Times. There's a picture of Stephen Fry on the front—looking blissful—with the quote, "It turns ... ----- PING: TITLE: The bare-faced cheek of it! URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2003/06/07.html#a168 IP: 212.198.0.94 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 08/15/2003 08:57:07 AM It is really nice to catch up on other people's web-logs again. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cherry and Almond Cake... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/06/2003 09:43:28 AM ----- BODY:

    For some unknown reason I spent much of yesterday evening cooking a Cherry & Almond Cake. The finished product is a little burnt around the edges, but is extremely nice. Maybe a little too sweet...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On tiny interface imperfections... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/06/2003 08:30:32 PM ----- BODY:

    I don't know whether it's because I spend time working on user interfaces or whether it's because I'm profoundly anal, but the smallest imperfections in consistency in a UI can drive me mad. Weirdly, the large ones don't affect me so much - I suppose because large UI problems make applications essentially unusable. But those small ones... Nnngh... They're like specks of dust in your eyes that makes you weep with frustration, or the solitary grain of sand in your sandwich that sets your teeth on edge...

    So while the debate rages around the internet about failings of iSync 1.1 - with people complaining about bugs, problems with firewalls, lost data - I'm secretly delighted. One of the most profoundly annoying (and infinitesimally tiny) design inconsistencies in the application has finally been removed. I can sleep again at last!

    In Mac OSX, you can choose to have shortcuts or indicators for a variety of applications sit in your Finder menu bar. Next to the system clock you can have battery power indicators, volume indicators, iChat status indicators, Airport reception indicators... The list goes on. Each one of these indicators is (by default) a black symbol placed onto the aqua-style textured background of the bar. When you select one of them, a menu drops down from it, the background for the icon turns blue, and the icon itself turns white. Except for iSync! This one remained black - with a small aura of white around it. It drove me insane.

    Now though - today - with iSync 1.1 slowly sputtering and crashing over the sheer weight of my Safari bookmarks, I'm at peace at last. They've fixed it! The rollover is clean and simple. It looks right! It fits! Now all I have to do is find a way of sanding off the tiny imperfection in my iBook trackpad.

    Which tiny imperfections drive you insane?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Interface details... URL: http://www.mobileentropy.com/archives/000277.html IP: 82.35.40.2 BLOG NAME: Mobile Entropy DATE: 06/09/2003 12:21:33 AM Tom ponders an important question, often asked by those who spend their days working on interface design: I don't know whether it's because I spend time working on user interfaces or whether it's because I'm profoundly anal, but the smallest imperfecti... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Other people's RSS feeds... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/06/2003 09:58:17 PM ----- BODY:

    A few things that drive me insane about some other people's RSS feeds which make the experience of reading their posts via a newsreader like NetNewsWire less simple, pleasant and consistent:

    1. Excerpt-only RSS-feeds...
      Now before I start, yes I know that RSS feeds were originally designed to simply place site headlines on other people's sites. I think we can also hold as axiomatic that there are probably problems with the large-scale delivery of RSS feeds. And yes - I do appreciate that there are problems in tracking the number of meaningful times a page has been viewed via an RSS reader and that there are consequences in ripping blocks of writing unceremoniously from their individual design contexts. Even know all of this, I think I can say with reasonable authority that providing full entries in your RSS feed has become a de facto standard (and those places that haven't done that unilaterally are increasingly supplying multiple feeds). Providing full feeds makes it possible for people to easily sync your most recent content to their computer (if they're using a desktop app) and read it in completely different places - like on the train or in the bus). More importantly, for those of us who read most of our regular sites through a newsreader, it's just profoundly annoying.
    2. Not linking to comments (if enabled)...
      Not everyone can have comments on their sites. Not everyone wants comments on their sites. If they can and do want comments on their sites, they might not want them on every entry. Help us out! If there are going to be comments on your entry, then find a way to show us through your RSS feed. The code I use to include a link to the comments in my 0.91 RSS feed (for example) is: <description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$> <MTEntryIfAllowComments><![CDATA[<p><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#comments">Read the comments</a></p>]]> </MTEntryIfAllowComments></description>
    3. Citing the number of comments after each entry...
      This may seem counter-intuitive, but think about it. Every time your entry changes, my newsreader picks up those changes and marks 'read' entries as 'unread'. This is really useful if there's been an update to that entry, but less useful if it's going to happen every single time someone posts a new comment. Particularly if you subscribe to a number of different sites (or you're tracking something like Jason's Matrix Reloaded thread
    4. Only putting in two or three recent entries...
      I may only get the opportunity to catch up with my subscriptions once a day or maybe even once every couple of days. If you're only going to show me the most recent two or three entries on your RSS feed, then it's more than possible that I'd come to my reader to discover that every article on your feed remains unread. But what about the ones that have already dropped off? How will I ever know they exist unless I make a special effort to come to your site to check? And if that's your hope, then give it up - more likely I'll just never know that post existed.
    5. Making the link attribute refer to the site you're talking about rather than the permalink for your entry...
      Again - I don't care which is right and which is wrong. The de facto standard for the link attribute in your RSS entry should be its permalink on your site (if at all possible), otherwise an internal anchor to the specific post on your site's front-page. If you take this second option could you please make sure that the front-page of your site has the same number (or more) of entries on it as your RSS feed...

    I should point out - there's an arcane quality to the mechanics behind RSS feeds and RDF that I understand only gesturally. If I've said something profoundly stupid, then I apologise straight-away... This post was partially inspired by the release of a new RSS reader: Shrook [via Tesugen].

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: shrook@fondantfancies.com IP: 62.254.128.6 URL: http://www.fondantfancies.com/shrook/ DATE: 06/07/2003 12:51:10 AM Hi, I'm the author of Shrook, and this is going to sound like an advert, but I hope you find it interesting too. Shrook supports guid tags which mean the entry isn't identified by its content, which means problem 3 goes away. I wish they were more common, they solve other problems too. Also Shrook can hang on to old entries which helps with problem 4, though not if you've been away a while. All of your points were definitely worth raising though, and thanks for linking me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/07/2003 02:36:02 PM Hi Graham - no I don't think it sounds like an advert. Thanks for coming and giving us your perspective. While we've got you here though - can I ask you a couple of questions about Shrook? 1 Why "Shrook"? 2 Do you think that by having "refresh when clicked on" option might cause site owners problems by increasing their RSS traffic even more than before? 3 I'm particularly interested in why you chose to use the drawer for listing weblogs rather than incorporating it into the interface in three-panes like NetNewsWire? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: shrook@fondantfancies.com IP: 62.254.128.6 URL: DATE: 06/07/2003 06:11:36 PM 1. Shrook was the name on a random headstone in an episode of Dark Angel. I thought it was a cool word and I never thought of anything better to call it. 2. Not really - by default it's set to only check links if the channel is just about to be checked anyway (there's an option in preferences for how out of date the channel needs to be before the check when clicked thing kicks in). Anyway, if channels support conditional downloading, bandwidth becomes much less of a problem. I also have a plan to reduce checking bandwidth enormously, but it's a bit of a secret for now. 3. Because Mail looks much meater than NNW. NNW's single window feels really bulky and restrictive, and horizontal and vertical dividers don't look good where they meet. It seemed like the logical thing to do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 62.3.68.52 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 06/08/2003 05:38:04 PM I admit, i know nada about RSS. But i have me a reader, having finally found one which isn't awful for the PC (Newz Crawler, if you want to know). And the intriguing thing is that on my reader, about half of the plasticbag posts are restricted. Thus the On Camden post doesn't show except for the title, but i do get a lovely picture of the cherry cake. The RSS post doesn't come up either. This fits a patterns of other sites - some have all there posts readable in window, some have some, and some have none except excerpts. So 3 questions. 1. How do I make sure all posts appear in window, so i can do it for my sites? 2. Whats going on with yours? 3. Is this all something to do with PCs not working as well as Macs for this? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/08/2003 06:29:25 PM When you say restricted, what precisely do you mean? It's quite possible that my site's RSS feeds don't validate properly - I'll check into that immediately. Is it the same for both of them? In the meantime, I'll have a word with Mr Hammersley. I can't believe there still aren't any decent newsreaders for the PC though, so it might very well be my fault... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 62.3.68.52 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 06/08/2003 06:46:16 PM Rembering at all times that i'm a fumbling novice, and could be making some elementary bungle, what happens is pretty much what i said. In the text window, some of the blog posts appear in full, with pictures and so forth, while others get nothing but the title. So, On Camden, you get the headline, a link to the story, and a link saying "read the comments". On but on the others (Tom Coates family fun, your clay post) you get the lot. 9 out of the 15 posts i have are blank, with the rest giving the text in full. Most of the sites on the reader, though, just give links, and you have to open the site in window. Our iWire site works like that. On the other hand, Kevin Werbach's post all come up in full. So. Is it something to with how the blog is set-up (i.e. difference between MT, Blogger, Radio, etc) or is it the way i've set up the reader? I'm quite in the dark..... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Meehan EMAIL: dave.meehan@orificeworld.com IP: 195.166.133.63 URL: http://www.orificeworld.com DATE: 06/08/2003 09:14:38 PM I think what RSS contains depends on where you come from. If its about syndication, then its 50/50 whether you syndicate (i.e. distribute content that other sites/applications can consume) the whole content or just an excerpt. If you desire the reader of the syndicated content to come visit your site for a 'fuller' user experience, that suggests that you give an excerpt or teaser that draws them in. If they aren't interested, they won't cause you extra bandwidth. If you are just 'putting it out there' then you are not so interested in attracting people to your site specifically, and therefore you should include all of the content for an entry. Lets face it, blogger are probably the most prevalent users of RSS feeds at the moment. Bloggers use RSS feeds because it allows them to identify which of the many other sites they are interested in have changed since they last viewed it. Given that bloggers like to provide solicit and give feedback for posts, and that RSS doesn't have the ability to include feedback information, you need the viewer to come to the site to provide that feedback. Therefore, for the blogger community, RSS really only needs an except, or possibly just a headline (although my personal opinion is that the headline must be descriptive enough to allow the viewer to know if they are going to be interested in the post, and therefore an excerpt is probably the best approach). I don't think there is a 'correct' definition of whats in an RSS feed, as long as the timing is right. It depends on the producer and the consumer. My feeling is that feeds are simple notifications, not another way of presenting whats on my site. It does nothing for my bandwidth if I put all my frontpage content into a feed that gets checked every hour. As for the number of entries, this is about timing. As my site content is about the now, once entries go over a certain age they become less relevant. I imagine (although I might be wrong) that most RSS consumers go for some sort of scheduled update - either they let the reader check and notify them, or they read on a regular basis. As a result, my feed contains as many entries as I've created in the last week. If someones going to subscribe to my feed, I assume that the last week is about as relevant as they need. Just putting the last 10, 20 or 50 entries in the feed assumes nothing, other than that you can't define your audience or the relevance of your writing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/09/2003 12:30:03 AM I'll agree with your last point - I think it's quite easy to say that 3 posts is too little, even if it's harder to say what's 'enough'. Your first point I have more trouble with. Certainly webloggers do use RSS feeds as update monitors. But because of the fragmentary nature of weblogs, it's actually quite time consuming to visit lots of sites even if you know they have updated. Let's put it this way - since I got NetNewsWire, I now read about five times as many weblogs a day. I find it much easier to keep track of, less time consuming and that allows me to do more - if people don't just put in excerpts. That's the point of sale thing - that people who are reading your site find it easier to read you - they're more likely to read you - if your full post is in your RSS feed. If you don't like that, or you don't think people need the whole thing, then give them the choice! Provide two feeds! The bandwidth issue is important though and needs to be addressed as soon as we can... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joshua Kaufman EMAIL: web@unraveled.com IP: 198.30.78.235 URL: http://unraveled.com DATE: 06/10/2003 02:59:50 PM Note: RSS 2.0 has a comments element, which some RSS readers support. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chrissie EMAIL: chrissie@chezchrissie.co.uk IP: 62.64.202.57 URL: http://www.chezchrissie.co.uk/ DATE: 06/11/2003 10:27:55 PM Well, I'm a total dunce about RSS feeds. But this interested me a bit. I picked something up here: http://www.fortysomething.ca/mt/etc/archives/002174.php -- I don't think this does precisely what you mean, but maybe close. My feed is http://www.chezchrissie.co.uk/index.xml ... how does it work for you? Any changes or improvements you could suggest? I really haven't got a clue what I'm doing! But I have noticed a couple of people accessing my site with a feedreader, so I would like to provide the best, flexible content I can. Thanks for making me think. My head hurts, but thanks. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: cdent@burningchrome.com IP: 216.9.146.10 URL: http://www.burningchrome.com:8000/~cdent/mt/ DATE: 06/11/2003 10:55:53 PM I have to disagree with you on point number 3. I want to know how many comments are available on any given entry, and I want to know that an entry has new comments. Adjusting the title of the entry with the number of comments is a dirty way of doing this, but it works. Comments end up being lost, hard to find, generally something too much other than than the actual entry unless some method of tracking is provided. And that's a shame. We are trying to have conversations here, right? So I've implemented what I found in Stewart Butterfield's RSS. I rather like it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 24.211.176.220 URL: http://diveintomark.org/ DATE: 06/19/2003 07:09:17 PM Re: RSS readers for Windows. I've heard insanely great things about FeedDemon from beta testers. Not publicly available yet though, maybe by the end of this month. http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/ ----- PING: TITLE: RSS feeds and their care URL: http://www.charleshartman.org/mt/archives/2003/06/07/rss_feeds_and_their_care.html IP: 66.33.208.8 BLOG NAME: charleshartman.org DATE: 06/07/2003 08:28:32 PM This bit from plasticbag.org inspired me to update my RSS 1.0 feed and add a RSS 2.0 feed, both with full entries… I had been meaning to change them for some time, but I kept putting it off because my... ----- PING: TITLE: Competition in "RSS Reader" land URL: http://www.inluminent.com/weblog/archives/competition_in_rss_reader_land.php IP: 12.96.164.15 BLOG NAME: inluminent/weblog DATE: 06/09/2003 05:50:27 AM You know, competition is good for the consumer, or at least that's the argument the government used against Microsoft a ----- PING: TITLE: Consejos para un mejor RSS URL: http://ALT1040.com/archivo/000464.shtml IP: 205.214.88.56 BLOG NAME: ALT1040 DATE: 06/15/2003 06:33:15 PM Tom Coates de Plasticbag.org publicÛ hace unos dÌas un excelente artÌculo llamado "Other people's RSS feeds..." con 10 excelente consejos para mantener un mejor archivo de RSS. Personalmente, creo que hay 2 consejos importantes que se deben de consider... ----- PING: TITLE: Bad RSS URL: http://singletrack.org/~randal/blog/archives/000142.html IP: 199.181.107.213 BLOG NAME: blog^2 DATE: 07/31/2003 10:49:26 PM Last week I went and registered NetNewsWire, the undisputed king of OSX RSS readers. This basically means that it goes... ----- PING: TITLE: Making RSS work URL: http://www.zeromachine.com/archives/000053.html IP: 216.218.194.56 BLOG NAME: I Kill Spies DATE: 08/01/2003 07:33:15 AM What is RSS? What IS RSD? BlogSpace RSS FAQ RSS Explanation from "FaganFinder" Infoworld's RSS service Clients AmphetaDesk, a RSS reader Syndic8, a listing of a bunch of syndicated blogs List of RSS Readers from OurPla.Net BlogSpace RSS Reader List Se... ----- PING: TITLE: Bad RSS URL: http://singletrack.org/~randal/blog/archives/000142.html IP: 199.181.107.213 BLOG NAME: blog^2 DATE: 08/02/2003 02:01:01 AM Last week I bought NetNewsWire, the undisputed king of OSX RSS readers. This basically means that it goes out and... ----- PING: TITLE: shey.networking: feed upgrade URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000236.html IP: 129.41.37.46 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 09/26/2003 09:14:00 PM Saw what the shey.net feed looked like on a PC using a random Mozilla Extension and were shocked... so we made some updates. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates' Family Fun Hour... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/07/2003 12:39:26 AM ----- BODY:

    Having been woken up from my post-unblocking-drains late-Friday-night sofa-doze by a bored Los Angelene, I shall pass time by casting a few web-pebbles into the memetic voting urn. I will make the links fun and not all about work stuff. I promise.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Camden's tube redevelopment... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 06/07/2003 03:01:19 PM ----- BODY:

    The plans for Camden Town's proposed tube redevelopment have been around since the end of last year, and I imagine debate has raged in the area. I've only just stumbled upon them though. My only real issue with them is that I wish they'd found a way to incorporate some of the current facade into the new building. Parts of London already feel characterless and inhuman - I can't help feeling that those early twentieth century tube station designs are almost iconic now, and that their loss would be a terrible shame...

    camden_station.jpg

    What do you guys think? Is it more important to preserve the identity of a city or to look to the future? Is Camden moving in the right direction?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/07/2003 03:09:00 PM Oh and a quick addendum for those people who actually live in the area who are interested in the wider impacts - there's the beginnings of a really interesting discussion over at UpMyStreet. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.76 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 06/07/2003 03:34:26 PM I'm by no means a Prince Charles type, fervently railing against any modern architecture - but on first glance that proposed building looks absolutely *awful*! Why do they want to put what looks like some sort of glass and steel monstrosity in the centre of Camden Town, where it will fit aesthetically about as well if you dumped a small portakabin in the middle of Stonehenge? Ugh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@neuromantics.net IP: 62.30.157.202 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net DATE: 06/07/2003 05:42:05 PM If it means not having to fear catching the plague when travelling to Camden, then all the better. Filthy, filthy place, even for the Northern Line. More of a shame is losing the goth-tastic electric ballroom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/07/2003 05:44:47 PM That's certainly true - but I suppose my more general question remains - should they have tried to preserve some of the facade of the old underground in some way, or is that just nostalgia? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: psignose@netscape.net IP: 212.113.164.99 URL: DATE: 06/07/2003 11:01:09 PM I guess they should... renewing the space without killing the classic station entrance would be a nice move. There's a new apartment complex in Lisbon, where there used to be a very old, and well known, factory. They kept the original factory facade up to the 2rd floor, building in glass a modern structure from there. It looks prefectly normal from ground, and better when looked from above. And about Camden, that building seems way to modern to fit on that environment. Hope it's just the CG giving that impression. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 06/08/2003 12:39:53 AM To tell you the truth, I think people will just be happy to see the station in full use! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 65.49.50.242 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 06/08/2003 01:46:26 AM I think it's possible to meld modern architecture and technology with more traditional and historic styles - and I'm very surprised that more designers and architects don't try to do this. For example, my university has buildings dating back to the 1860's - really old and beautiful limestone buildings. However, all new buildings are still built in the same style, using the same limestone. Sure they look newer and more modern, but they maintain a certain consistancy with all the other buildings in the area that really makes the campus looks beautiful. Urban planners take note. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@neuromantics.net IP: 62.30.157.202 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net DATE: 06/08/2003 03:16:07 AM I think what I meant to point out is that Camden is not a particularly nice place - never has been. The fact that it has some "old" functional, semi-industrial architecture doesn't really mean much, and London, England even more-so has to realise that keeping things for the sake of keeping them, old or otherwise is not always the best avenue. Especially tube stations, which to be frank should be invisible anyway, or at the least, well signposted holes in the ground! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: FranÁois EMAIL: apprentice@padawan.info IP: 212.198.0.94 URL: http://www.padawan.info/ DATE: 06/08/2003 11:50:44 AM Paulpod: hopefully not everyone think that of subway stations, otherwise the Paris subways and its beautiful Guimard's 1900 entrances would be destroyed by now. But may be that explains why the London subway (compared to Paris) is an underground nightmare. Tom: if enough people are able to see and articulate what existing elements in the present building constitute a part of the local identity, then you have something more constructive than nostalgia or "the new buidling is ugly" complainst, which do not really help. More on this here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AR EMAIL: andrew@yellowcandy.com IP: 217.36.9.18 URL: http://yellowcandy.com/brio DATE: 06/08/2003 02:35:46 PM I'm with paulpod on this one-- Camden is not a very aesthetically pleasing area as it is now, so I can't imagine that this new facade will do any harm. It also might provide a reason to visit the area that doesn't involve shopping for: (a) a bong, (b) a tattoo, or (c) teak. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.139.226 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/08/2003 02:51:41 PM I think Parkway is nice, and it's nice up around the canal/river. And even the bits that aren't pretty still have a pretty clear character to them. I don't think anyone doubts that Camden needs some work done it to make it a good place to live and work and visit again. I suppose the question is - is this the right way to do it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Deek EMAIL: dxg999@email.com IP: 81.106.192.223 URL: DATE: 06/08/2003 06:36:18 PM Why not speak to CABE (www.cabe.org.uk). I'm sure they would be interested in getting an opportunity to comment on the planning application, if they haven't already done so. Their Design Review comments have a *huge* influence on the ability to these sorts of schemes to get through planning. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paul EMAIL: paul@liketv.com IP: 81.77.137.72 URL: http://www.catfunt.net/blog DATE: 06/08/2003 07:11:04 PM Camden station was never a classic tube station for architectural reasons but always had a great emotional resonance for me that I associate in my mind with the feeling of emerging from a great big dirty hole in the ground. Stepping from the dark to the bright light at the top of the escalators (This was before I moved to London in the early 80s so I'm allowed to be romantic about it). If any tube station ever deserved to feel like it had been dug out by hand it was Camden. It was also one of the few stations that would be staffed with ticket collectors (in the days before barriers) simply because there were so many fare dodgers getting off there. Nowadays Camden is pretty much permanently on my list of no-go places/areas along with Islington, Cafe Rouge, All Bar One (any of them) but that's another topic (and there are lots more of them). Finally, the new proposed building looks like it's in keeping with the Camden Sainsbury's which, when it was first built, looked hugely modernistic to my mind - probably because from the pavement you could see in and watch people shopping, an activity that was usually concealed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Denise EMAIL: hello@styledeficit.com IP: 82.43.34.105 URL: http://www.styledeficit.com DATE: 06/08/2003 10:51:39 PM Difficult one this, I am in two minds. On the one hand the proposed designs look awful. Oversized for the area and like it's been dropped on Camden from the sky by a passing plane. I also love the red brick underground stations as they are part of an interesting history of the London Underground. On the other hand... preserving a city's identity is a difficult one. A huge proprtian of London is taken up with Victorian buildings, but we are not the Victorians. Where is our identity? If we fight to preserve everything, what mark will our generations be making for the future? It doesn't mean we should destroy everything from the past but we shouldn't be so afraid to take a stand. If Gaudi hadn't made any bold moves for example, Barcelona would be alot less interesting architecturally. We can still design for the present, while respecting the past. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mwmc01@yahoo.co.uk IP: 57.66.49.133 URL: http://www.londonmark.blogspot.com/ DATE: 06/09/2003 01:28:50 PM I believe that the designs for the new station are awful. I know that the station has to be redeveloped because the ticket hall area and access to the platforms are far from good, but this seems to have been considered as only equally important as the potential commercial benefits of being able to add office space above the station. The new design does not even remotely fit in with the rest of Camden High Street, Chalk Farm Road, Kentish Town Road or Camden Road and will, as you can see, dwarf the other surrounding buildings. I agree that the station is hardly a classic example of tube architecture but if the designers are set on replacing it, then surely something more keeping with the area would be better than this attempt to bring Canary Wharf-style design to Camden, irrespective of whether it fits with the area. The current station is far from perfect, but at least it has character, which this bland, uninspired new design signally fails to achieve. I'd prefer something a little less 'high-rise-out-of-the-box'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Fraser EMAIL: jamesfraser1982@yahoo.co.uk IP: 193.119.20.134 URL: DATE: 08/29/2003 11:03:55 AM I think it is an absolute disgrace that Camden tube station is being redeveloped into that monstrosity of a building. London will soon turn into one of those cities which has absolutely no individuality or character.I cannot comment on the state of the actual transport system itself and i understand that if a new station must be built then so be it but Camden of all places does not need a station that would look dull in the heart of Milton Keynes.People live and travel to Camden because it is Camden.It has its own character and atmosphere. The plans for the new station would defeat the whole point of its own existence.Knocking down the Electric Ballroom is another disgrace.It is a landmark in the heart of Camden which has stood for many years and been the venue for many an important band.Perhaps we could replace it with a sign that reads-"we are capitalist pigs who discourage anything to do with culture,inspiration,individuality,freedom of thought,personality,optimism etc.We are dull heartless humans and you shall do whatever we tell you to do." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: alix EMAIL: alixcotton@orange.net IP: 212.137.57.25 URL: DATE: 02/04/2004 03:59:52 PM I generally have to agree with people that the building is totally out of keeping with the character and appearence of the area.. however i am probably biased as i always lean towards historic architecture and have a love for old buildings. i suggest some sort of peoples revolt because no amount of web-chat without direct action will change the fact that they are the plans, thats what the building will look like because the powers that be have made their decision. stop talking..start acting. ----- PING: TITLE: Preserving a city's identity URL: http://www.padawan.info//preserving_a_citys_identity.html IP: 212.180.126.185 BLOG NAME: padawan.info DATE: 06/08/2003 11:41:56 AM A propos of a project of tube redevelopment in Camden Town, Tom Coates asks if it is more important to... ----- PING: TITLE: Today's Theme: Architecture URL: http://www.kuboid.com/archives/000030.html IP: 212.73.244.51 BLOG NAME: Kuboid DATE: 06/08/2003 11:00:57 PM Even though there's all this work I've been complaining about, I still ended up spending the entire morning browsing the internet. There was a definite theme to what turned up. Via Arcspace.com I came across Prince Charle's ramblings on architecture,... ----- PING: TITLE: On Camden's tube redevelopment... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/934 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 06/08/2003 11:26:52 PM plasticbag: "Parts of London already feel characterless and inhuman - I can't help feeling that those early twentieth century tube station designs are almost iconic now, and that their loss would be a terrible shame..." ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wow, that hit a bit close to home... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/09/2003 10:51:58 AM ----- BODY:

    Celebrating the 30,000 word point, Cory posts a 2,000 excerpt from his upcoming book /usr/bin/god (thanks to The Link Machine]:

    "You're the kind of sneering, creative, self-important 'consultant' that sucked the economy dry. You're a carpetbagger, Mason. You're a phony. You have a Humanities degree. You know the gag-lines from last night's South Park, but you can't write code from stubs. Wherever there's an entrepreneur with a great idea and a little money, there you are, like a tapeworm, eating the company out from the inside. I've seen a thousand of you, Mason, and there's no more place for you in the Valley. Go find another industry to pick on, and get the fuck out of mine." He delivered this all with a wet smile and a charming crinkle in his eye and only the veins standing out in his neck mirrored the hostility of his words.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reactions to "The Blank Slate" (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Science CATEGORY: Science DATE: 06/09/2003 04:12:24 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm currently reading Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate - recently published in paperback. Even though I'm only a fraction of the way through it, I can already recommend it. Part of me is prejudiced, of course. During the time I was failing to complete my doctorate, I spent a lot of time working with Freud. Many people are rightly suspicous of Freud - I would argue that you can't employ his work effectively if you are not suspicious. You have be prepared to investigate some of the cultural baggage of his period and to be aware of some of the science and philosophy that has emerged since he died. But whether you're suspicious or not - I asserted then and I still assert now that there is more value in having an explicit model of the mind to play with than to generate a fresh bastardisation on the fly every time you approach a problem which involves human agency. I suppose that's why I'm quite keen on this quote:

    "The interplay of mental systems can explain how people can entertain revenge fantasies that they never act on, or can commit adultery only in their hearts. In this way the theory of human nature coming out of the cognitive revolution has more in common with the Judeo-Christian theory of human nature, and with the psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud, than with behaviorism, social constructionism, and other versions of the Blank Slate. Behavior is not just emitted or elicited, nor does it come directly out of culture or society. It comes from an internal struggle among mental modules with differing agendas and goals."

    If I get a chance later I'll stick up a reaction paper I gave internally at Bristol University years ago about Haydn White's The Content of the Form. It's related. Honest.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: david@cloudsoup.com IP: 81.135.11.4 URL: http://www.cloudsoup.com DATE: 06/13/2003 02:24:53 AM It seems your infatuation with Freud is spoiling a good read for you. No real psychologist of any worth pays much attention to Freud. In University courses the Psychologists do psychology and it's only the poor English undergrads who try to use Freud seriously. Pinker is no exception. He said: "[psychonalysis] was grounded in Lamarckism, nineteenth-century hydraulic models of the mind, and Freud's idiosyncratic beliefs ... the hypotheses from evolutionary psychology are testable and routinely tested, whereas Freud's were notoriously unfalsifiable." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.195.60 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/13/2003 08:49:03 AM Thanks for your comment. It was Karl Popper who originally wrote about how Freud was not writing science because psychoanalysis was unfalsifiable. Interestingly Popper also said the same things about Darwin's theories of evolution. In fact, I wasn't writing to defend Freud in any methodical way, I was writing to celebrate the use of a universalising model rather than social constructivist theories of the mind, which I would have thought would have been an approach that you would have approved of. I also think - by the way - that you're confused when you use Alan Sokal as a rebuttal to my comments (elsewhere), since (although I don't particularly like his approach - one journal isn't the same as an entire tradition of thinkers, philosophers and critics) I think I was basically agreeing with some of his thoughts around this area - particularly that many of cultural studies/philosophies social constructivist ideologies can be terribly dangerous and unscientific. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Stafford EMAIL: t.stafford@shef.ac.uk IP: 143.167.73.14 URL: DATE: 06/13/2003 11:33:29 AM Excuse me for for butting in...But does it matter if a theoretical framework is unfalsifiable? I can't think of any theory as broad as Darwinism or Freudianism that could be falsified directly. Surely the important thing is falsifiable hypotheses derived from the uber-theory, and then the uber-theory is refined or degenerates (a la Lakatos). It would be nice if evolutionists and evolutionary psychologists were a little less triumphalist - it opens us up to misdirected criticism (e.g. from creationists). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Carter EMAIL: rlc@gruts.com IP: 212.126.144.12 URL: http://www.gruts.com/darwin/index.php DATE: 06/15/2003 09:28:55 AM In later life, Popper changed his mind about Darwinism and decided that it was falsifiable after all. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Five asides... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/09/2003 04:37:08 PM ----- BODY:

    Five asides:

    Bugger it, I'm adding another couple because they're just too damn good:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Regelbaserad kommunikation URL: http://mymarkup.net/blog/archives/001690.html IP: 62.20.1.132 BLOG NAME: mymarkup.net DATE: 06/09/2003 07:04:50 PM Lustigt experiment, BumpList [via: plasticbag.org]. Det fÂr bara plats 50 personer p e-postlistan samtidigt, s n”r en ny person anm”ler... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Butts, blackjack, broadcast and... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/10/2003 02:41:33 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm not sure why I'm bothering collating this set of links, because you'll all flick through the first article, click on the realplayer movie of rectal endoscopy, watch in awed silence, howl in terror and grossed-out intrigue at the end and then leave and never come back to my site. Nonetheless:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@dozing.org IP: 217.39.215.231 URL: http://www.dozing.org DATE: 06/10/2003 03:16:29 PM Just wanted to recommend the Evoke digital radio. I've had one for eight months now, and it's worked just fine. Only negatives are the lack of an option to power it by battery, and the single speaker. If you hook it up to a hifi, however, it sounds great. Of course the other negative is that most of the stations on it play the same crap you get on normal radio, but once you start listening to 6Music and BBC 7 you'll wonder how you live without them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.195.60 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/10/2003 03:40:09 PM Can I ask you a question about that radio, since I've got you here? Presumably you haven't bought the extra speaker for it, which I understand, since it is a bit of an unnecessary expense. But what I really want to know is could I set it to wake me up with a bit of Radio 4 or would I have to reach over and turn it on? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@dozing.org IP: 217.39.215.231 URL: http://www.dozing.org DATE: 06/10/2003 04:55:21 PM Though there's an accurate clock sent with the radio signal, there's no alarm. I compensated for this by using one of those timers you can get for turning on lights when away on holiday. I have an old analogue one with pins to set the time (to go with my steam powered toaster and wind-up computer), but I think you can timers with digital displays these days. And no, I haven't got the extra speaker - seemed a bit expensive for what it is, to me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.195.60 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/10/2003 05:33:25 PM It's vaguely scandalous that they can sell something with a clock in it and not have it be able to have a timer set on it. It's such a weird piece of functionality to take out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@dozing.org IP: 217.39.215.231 URL: http://www.dozing.org DATE: 06/10/2003 07:36:27 PM Whoops - I might have been a bit misleading there. The clock isn't actually part of the radio, but part of the text sent with each station, along with bit-rates, current song, news headlines, and all that fun stuff. (How nice it is to have a conversation about the finer points of digital radio. Believe it or not, I don't often get this opportunity in real life. But don't worry, I'll stop now.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: :: jozjozjoz :: EMAIL: joz.joz@verizon.net IP: 163.192.21.4 URL: http://www.jozjozjoz.com DATE: 06/10/2003 07:50:59 PM rectal endoscopy? I think I'll pass on that link. But thanks for sharing! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@longmans.net IP: 62.190.236.241 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 06/11/2003 06:09:09 PM I've had a Pure Evoke since Xmas and it's lovely. Don't worry too much about the clock element. It looks great, sounds great, and it re-introduces you to the idea that you can channel surf on the radio. I haven't bought the extra speaker for it. I've never really felt the need. The only weird thing I've found is that digital radio has a couple of seconds' delay, so if you move between two rooms with the radio on (and one is analogue), you get a sense of deja ecoute. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrea EMAIL: cucumber@mildlyobsessive.com IP: 142.179.109.88 URL: http://mildlyobsessive.com DATE: 06/11/2003 06:12:12 PM i can't seem to process anything you wrote past "is the rectum is a cinema" link. now i'm just going to keep thinking about it without clicking on it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 192.146.136.129 URL: http://www.seldo.com DATE: 06/14/2003 03:24:32 AM What, and Tom isn't on the list of A-list bloggers? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.134.55 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/14/2003 10:11:03 AM Well of course not! I'm not A-list, I'm Old Skool. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Permalinks and Paradigms... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/11/2003 09:56:27 AM ----- BODY:

    There are some things that become so ubiquitous and familiar to us - so seemingly obvious - that we forget that they actually had to be invented. Here's a case in point - the weblog post's permalink. I mean - let's think about it. The problem was that a weblog's front page is by far its most visited page. This is the page where everyone actually sees your content (or at least it was until the creation of RSS feeds). But it's not possible for someone to effectively bookmark or link to that particular entry on that page, because shortly it will scroll off the bottom. Added to that, bookmarks operate at the level of pages, not posts. So how do you handle that? How can you make it possible for people to link to something with a higher level of granularity than just the page? Moreover, how can you get them to link to something that's not actually on the page you're looking at?

    I remember when permalinks were invented - or at least, I remember when the concept was applied to Blogger weblogs in roughly its current form. After some digging around, I've found Paul Bausch's post on Blogger's weblog from March 2000. In the post, he referred to them just as "permanent links" - I believe it was Matt Haughey who coined the term 'permalink', but I could be wrong. I've researched both their sites, but I've found little commentary about them...

    When permalinks first emerged, I was highly dismissive of them. I felt really uncomfortable with how hacky they seemed. Late-1999 / early-2000 was quite a creative time for people making weblog-related toys and paraphenalia. The concept of the permalink had all the signs of being equally useless and badly thought-through. For a start, it required yet more clutter on the weblog-page. The designer in me railed against them. But more than that, they seemed to be a kind of weird abomination - a sin against what links were there to do. Clicking on a permalink didn't take you anywhere, you just ended up roughly where you were before, only in a more stable form. Sometimes (assuming you were already inside a site's archives) clicking on a permalink would even take you to the same place on the same page you were before. At the time I honestly didn't believe that they'd take off - that anyone would use them. But of course they did...

    But why did it take off? What was so important about the permalink? It may seem like a trivial piece of functionality now, but it was effectively the device that turned weblogs from an ease-of-publishing phenomenon into a conversational mess of overlapping communities. For the first time it became relatively easy to gesture directly at a highly specific post on someone else's site and talk about it. Discussion emerged. Chat emerged. And - as a result - friendships emerged or became more entrenched. The permalink was the first - and most successful - attempt to build bridges between weblogs. It existed way before Trackback and I think it's been more fundamental to our development as a culture than comments... Not only that, it added history to weblogs as well - before you'd link to a site's front page if you wanted to reference something they were talking about - that link would become worthless within days, but that didn't matter because your own content was equally disposable. The creation of the permalink built-in memory - links that worked and remained consistent over time, conversations that could be archived and retraced later. The permalink stopped all weblog conversations being like that guy in Memento...

    And yet no one seems to remember much about their creation. At the time they were a tiny paradigm shift in a tiny community of committed web-weirdos. No one thought that they might be one of the fundamental structuring principles of half a million sites. And so no one's really written about them. No one's really researched their creation. And no one's given Paul Bausch and the Blogger crew the mad props they deserve. It's probably time we did something about that...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 62.3.247.98 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 06/11/2003 10:03:11 AM Interesting thoughts... I can't remember permalinks not being around. I guess someone must have been using them before Blogger decided to spend time on implementing them -- I wonder who used them first? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 145.58.4.51 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 06/11/2003 11:03:52 AM I remember at the time (before the term 'permalinks' was coined) I suggested to the team at Pyra they should build 'persistent references' which is a term I picked up from the CMT we used at work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 06/11/2003 01:20:14 PM Hear, hear. I'm sure you'll find older forms of the concept in different sorts of sites, though - at least this concept of wrapping an explicit link to an a-name tag around the tag itself, creating a link that seems to 'go nowhere'. I used it in my online novel in mid-1999, placing bookmark icons in each natural break in a page so that readers could return there without having to scroll through. So the appearance of permalinks in blogs didn't seem as unusual or discomforting to me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.119.7.90 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ DATE: 06/11/2003 05:03:56 PM I found this post on my site from early March 2000, where I proposed a hack for blogger, so that permalinks worked on the index page. After I wrote this up, pb coded the variable (or whatever it was called) so that real permalinks could happen. I think people think I made up the term because I started using it at MetaFilter. here's a typical page from that time, thanks to the archive.org. I believe I had them going a few months earlier, but this was the first reference I could find at the archive. I distinctly remember hearing the word "permalink" somewhere else and using it on MetaFilter. I used to get a steady stream of questions asking me if it was ok for others to use the term and I always said yeah, sure I didn't make it up anyway. I can't recall where I first heard it or saw it in action (kottke's site might be the first use, dunno who called it a permalink). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.119.7.90 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ DATE: 06/11/2003 05:12:34 PM Also Tom, you breezed by one more key fundamental thing permalinks allowed. In the weblog book I contributed to we repeatedly state how blogs are built on a post paradigm instead of a page paradigm that the web was originally built upon. I really think permalinks made that distinction clear and allowed the by-post model to blossom. It made every contribution to a site behave like a distinct unit that could be linked to, quoted from, and extracted. It is funny how we don't even think about it anymore. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.119.7.90 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ DATE: 06/11/2003 05:17:51 PM btw, here's Kottke's reference to when he added permalinks ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rick Thomas EMAIL: rickpb@evenview.com IP: 66.32.87.205 URL: DATE: 06/11/2003 06:21:38 PM Two observations - The more initial scanning of weblogs is done in an aggregator, the less multiple posts per page format matters. Short posts don't require navigation. For long posts the reader may as well go directly to the permanent page. Soon "permalink" may just be, well, "link". - Why don't comments have permalinks? Seems to me the short bolt-on history of weblogs has lead to a Ptolemaic system centered on the "post" while the greater conversation is relegated to epicyclic hacks like comments, Trackback and ThreadsML. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anil EMAIL: anil@dashes.com IP: 68.173.25.187 URL: http://anildash.com/ DATE: 06/11/2003 07:04:43 PM According to some of the things I looked up recently, Caroline's prompt is what caused the postID to be implemented by PB as permalinks in Blogger. So Caroline was definitely the inspiration and I see PB as being the father of permalinks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anil EMAIL: anil@dashes.com IP: 68.173.25.187 URL: http://anildash.com/ DATE: 06/11/2003 07:06:21 PM (I mentioned this the other day here.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anil EMAIL: anil@dashes.com IP: 68.173.25.187 URL: http://anildash.com/ DATE: 06/11/2003 07:07:10 PM Oops, bad URL. Try this: http://waffle.wootest.net/iron/anil_dash.php ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jesper EMAIL: jesper@lindholms.com IP: 217.215.91.19 URL: http://waffle.wootest.net/ DATE: 06/11/2003 07:58:46 PM Anil beat me to it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lock EMAIL: mail@lockhartsteele.com IP: 64.59.61.194 URL: http://www.lockhartsteele.com DATE: 06/11/2003 08:29:58 PM In the Random Footnotes to History Department, there's an Evhead post from October 2000 about the PermalinkñTimestamp Merger: "To make way for the comments icon, I got rid of the permalink icon and made the timestamp the permalink. I think this is a good idea that will hopefully become rather standard so people will know to look for it and blog publishers won't have to clutter up their design with "link" after each post." Which begs the important question: has time become any more permanent in the years since? (Or, alternately, what comments icon?) In any case, vive la revolucion! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart!@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.com DATE: 06/11/2003 08:30:27 PM And while we're at it, a link to me cracking wise about Kottke's permalinks back in April of 2000. Back then I actually thought that XLink and XPointer would happen sometime in my lifetime and we'd be able to link to arbitrary nodes inside of documents on the web. Ha ha, jokes on us. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: megnut EMAIL: meg@megnut.com IP: 68.161.96.99 URL: http://www.megnut.com DATE: 06/11/2003 08:37:21 PM "what comments icon?" Ah yes, for a brief time Blogger had comments in the first version of Blogger Pro (Q4, 2000). They were hosted on Blogger.com and loaded via JavaScript on a site. They were unstable and basically unusable, and thus disappeared, never, it seems, to return again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Clark EMAIL: joeclark@pas-de-spam-joeclark.org IP: 64.231.160.110 URL: http://joeclark.org/weblogs/ DATE: 06/11/2003 10:00:07 PM It's not quite true that "[n]o one's really researched them." Tantek and Pilgrim have written on the topic. http://tantek.com/log/2002/12.html#blog20021231t1332 http://tantek.com/log/2002/11.html#blog20021128t1352 I am now following their advice and using rel="bookmark" on everything, for example. And many Weblogs do have permalinks for comments-- Cf. Pilgrim again. Remember, the fragment identifier id="", which can go on essentially anything, is your friend. The Web is made up of fragments (small, loosely joined); _id_ lets you identify them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Pilgrim EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 24.211.176.220 URL: http://diveintomark.org/ DATE: 06/11/2003 10:21:06 PM It should be noted, for the record, that Netscape 4 does not recognize id attributes as anchors, only name. This has not stopped me from relying on id almost exclusively, even in HTML 4. It should also be noted that id attributes can not validly start with a digit, but name attributes can. And finally, at the risk of spinning this discussion into the flaming pit of blogospheric hell, when did UserLand tools support the equivalent of permanent links, and what did they call them? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cam Barrett EMAIL: camworld@camworld.com IP: 24.239.152.74 URL: http://www.camworld.com DATE: 06/11/2003 11:31:11 PM I just checked my old archives. I wasn't using "permalinks" for each post but I was using anchors for each day's posts because I was storing my archives in a monthly format back then. Looks like I started doing this January 2, 1998 when I moved to a new site design. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pb EMAIL: pb@onfocus.com IP: 12.203.56.79 URL: http://www.onfocus.com DATE: 06/11/2003 11:40:14 PM I went back and looked through archived email to see if I could track down more information. Apparently, permalinks was seen as a *minor* improvement and barely worth comment. We were working on so many features at that time that were much more complicated...remote editing, something called an item bookmarklet, getting the flood of new blogs into the directory ;). It's too bad the orignial Blogger forum is gone, that probably has the story. I think it's tough to credit any one person for any Blogger feature--Pyra was an atmosphere of ideas. It was created by everyone working there, and from listening intently to ideas from people using Blogger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Clark EMAIL: joecalrk@pas-de-spamjoeclark.org IP: 64.231.160.110 URL: http://joeclark.org/weblogs? DATE: 06/12/2003 02:54:11 AM Actually, the W3C spec sez: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#adef-id ("Note that this attribute shares the same name space as the id attribute.") http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/links.html#adef-name-A Then: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/types.html#type-name ID and NAME tokens must begin with a letter ([A-Za-z]) and may be followed by any number of letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"), colons (":"), and periods ("."). According to this, those lovely Blogger anchors are invalid. We knew that already, of course, and it could have been fixed three versions ago. (Let's see how the autoformat daemon handles this much pasted text.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kari EMAIL: myshirtisyellow@hotmail.com IP: 204.198.30.216 URL: http://paladin.entwined.org DATE: 06/12/2003 03:27:57 AM i wasnt blogging back in 2000 so i definitely dont remember the creation of permalinks. but i am amazed that someone even thought of inventing them. they are very useful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: VeerChand Bothra EMAIL: veer@blogstreet.com IP: 202.149.212.198 URL: http://www.blogstreet.com/ DATE: 06/12/2003 08:31:33 AM Although not related to history of permalinks, this article at BlogStreet talks about how the majority of blog apps / tools still deny their existence. The point made in Blog Post Analysis is that blog-posts and not just web-pages are the fundamental units of weblogs. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stavrosthewonderchicken EMAIL: stavrosthewonderchicken@hotmail.com IP: 61.83.137.167 URL: http://www.emptybottle.org DATE: 06/12/2003 12:37:17 PM Tangential : I love you guys (no, really) but you _are_ funny, thinking so earnestly about who first made that evolutionary cognitive breakthrough and pushed it to the next level by contracting the words 'permanent link' to 'permalink.' Whoever it was, they better build some statues of him or her someday, by golly! (Shoulders of giants, I know, I know. I'm just being snarky...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.195.60 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/12/2003 12:52:19 PM Hmm. I think that's being a bit mean, actually. I think for some of us it's more like nostalgia. So there you go - I said it out loud - doing a weblog then was different to how it is now. Not better or worse, but different - it was a small hobbyist activity. I think there's an extent to which many of us have feelings of nostalgia for a period when pretty much everyone knew everyone, when someone starting a new weblog was a cause for celebration and when we all started to realise that something cool was actually happening. Give us old timers a bit of a chance to grumble on about how there's nothing good on TV any more, eh? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stavrosthewonderchicken EMAIL: stavrosthewonderchicken@hotmail.com IP: 61.83.137.167 URL: http://www.emptybottle.org DATE: 06/12/2003 12:56:51 PM I don't mean to be mean, honestly. I'd have stuck in some smilies, but, well, you know... Grumble on, old-timers! We wouldn't be here, having all this fun, doing all this mad crap, without you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Bevin EMAIL: pete@petebevin.com IP: 216.130.212.111 URL: http://www.petebevin.com/ DATE: 06/12/2003 02:31:53 PM Ummm, Slashdot was doing permalinks several years before Blogger was invented. If your data structure treats the Post as a first class object, then it's reasonable to write a function to display a Post on its own page - and given that function, you might as well link to it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: megnut EMAIL: meg@megnut.com IP: 68.161.96.99 URL: http://www.megnut.com DATE: 06/12/2003 03:57:22 PM I'm not sure that's the same thing Pete. The distinction of the permalink isn't that each post can be displayed on its own page and therefor have a URL. It's that each post is a discrete object -- with its own link -- within the context *of* a page. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Winer EMAIL: dwiner@cyber.law.harvard.edu IP: 140.247.216.71 URL: http://www.scripting.com/ DATE: 06/12/2003 09:31:26 PM Mark, permalinks came into Manila along with News Item Oriented sites in May 2000. The feature was patterned after Slashdot. Brent Simmons did the work. Look at this page, scroll down to Beer. About flames, the best way to avoid them is not to start. Have a nice day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stuart Ian Burns EMAIL: feelinglistless@btopenworld.com IP: 81.131.84.212 URL: http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/ DATE: 06/12/2003 10:50:26 PM I actually began my blog without permalinks even though they were available because I wanted to keep the feeling of time passing of not going back. But as the months plodded on I realised that some of the writing I was most proud of was being lost in the archives (and in some ways still is ... Blogger still won't recreate the actual pages for the eight months worth of work from last July to the end of this February). So I when I decided to link to some representative entries on the front page it was obvious and clear that I'd need to add them in, and I'm pleased I did. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Bernstein EMAIL: webmaven@lvcm.com IP: 68.104.53.59 URL: http://www.michaelbernstein.com DATE: 06/12/2003 11:25:54 PM Dave, unless I'm misreading the News Item docs, the URL of the News Item isn't intended to be a permanent link to the posting itself, but a link to something the posting is about, correct? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Theo H EMAIL: theohonohan@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.67.66 URL: DATE: 06/16/2003 07:38:01 PM Hang on a second, though. In the first paragraph, you say "it's not possible for someone to effectively bookmark or link to that particular entry on that page, because shortly it will scroll off the bottom." That's only if the blog URL doesn't change. A better fix than permalinks would be to make http://blog.com/ redirect to http://blog.com/timestamp. That way, bookmarking -just works-. This doesn't require fancy server stuff either -- a META redirect in the document will do it. Your first instinct was right, I think. Permalinks, as currently used, are a grotty hack. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Bernstein EMAIL: webmaven@lvcm.com IP: 68.104.53.59 URL: http://www.michaelbernstein.com DATE: 06/17/2003 02:47:10 AM Redirection from http://blog.com/ redirect to http://blog.com/timestamp has it's own problems though. It means you can't ever bookmark the front page of the site (at least, not without rewriting the bookmark). It also means that you're assuming that a timestamp (which will presumably display the postings in reverse chronological order for that day, and use a named anchor to point to a specific posting in that day) is functionally equivalent to all uses of permalinks, which is definitely *not* the case. Many weblogs use the permalink as a unique URL for the individual posting, and don't include any other postings in that view. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.119.7.90 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ DATE: 06/18/2003 04:47:30 PM It looks like Manila didn't have real permalinks until Sept 19, 2001. Previous to that, they were all funky, pointing at general titles instead of each (often unrelated) element beneath, like a true permalink should. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Bernstein EMAIL: webmaven@lvcm.com IP: 68.104.53.59 URL: http://www.michaelbernstein.com DATE: 06/18/2003 11:55:06 PM Matt, that's the right date for item-level permalinks, but according to Dave's post today, he's had top-level blue arrow permalinks since June 18th, 2000. The anchors don't seem to be working too well for some reason, though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.119.7.90 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ DATE: 06/19/2003 07:05:36 PM Right, Michael, that's why I called his title and date permalinks funky. For example, look at this random day from 2000 on his site. The first 5 or 6 posts have no title, so there's no way I can link to the third paragraph and link down (which is unrelated to things above and below it). True permalinks treat every discrete chunk as a discrete object, and Manila has that today, but didn't until Sept. of 2001 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew A. Schneider EMAIL: matsch@sasites.com IP: 24.206.105.230 URL: http://www.purpleslurple.net DATE: 07/10/2003 06:29:45 AM Try PurpleSlurple for granular addressability on-the-fly: http://www.purpleslurple.net. In fact try it on this page: http://purpleslurple.net/ps.php?theurl=http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/06/on_permalinks_and_paradigms.shtml Then thank Doug Engelbart for the granular addressability concept as implemented on computers (circa 1968). Perhaps conceived earlier by Ted Nelson. I suppose some monks get credit for the idea when they started numbering the paragraphs of the Bible. ----- PING: TITLE: Permalinks URL: http://prolific.org/archive/atf/2003_06.shtml#006038 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org (atf) DATE: 06/11/2003 11:11:06 AM plasticbag.org: On Permalinks and Paradigms.... I vaguely remember taking part in discussions / suggestions developing the brandnew Blogger and I... ----- PING: TITLE: L”nkbarhet ”r grejen URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/001522.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 06/11/2003 11:26:50 AM Den eviga diskussionen om vad blogging egentligen ”r forts”tter, denna gÂng i ett inl”gg med vidh”ngande kommentarer hos F–rvetet. F–ruts”gelse: ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Coates digs up URL: http://www.mikel.org/arch/2003_06_08_mikelarch.html#004567 IP: 64.56.239.34 BLOG NAME: mikel dot org | Michael Boyle's weblog DATE: 06/11/2003 02:31:59 PM some history and commentary on Permalinks and their creation: "At the time they were a tiny paradigm shift in a tiny community of committed web-weirdos. No one thought that they might be one of the fundamental structuring principles of half a million s... ----- PING: TITLE: Purple Number Paradigms URL: http://www.burningchrome.com:8000/~cdent/mt/archives/000172.html IP: 216.9.146.10 BLOG NAME: Glacial Erratics DATE: 06/11/2003 06:49:44 PM Tom Coates [http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/06/on_permalinks_and_paradigms.shtml comments] on how the small revolution of permalinks brought about a paradigm shift in personal publishing. He makes several points on the value of a permalink that... ----- PING: TITLE: permalink missive URL: http://www.charleshartman.org/mt/archives/2003/06/11/permalink_missive.html IP: 66.33.208.8 BLOG NAME: charleshartman.org DATE: 06/11/2003 07:21:07 PM Tom Coates @plasticbag.org has a thoughtful new entry on the history and importance of permalinks. Having set up a blog just a few months ago I remember being confused by the concept for a bit, then having an “aha” moment.... ----- PING: TITLE: history of permalinks URL: http://www.dashes.com/links/archives/20030608.php#006420 IP: 64.26.0.108 BLOG NAME: anil dash's daily links DATE: 06/11/2003 07:21:39 PM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/06/on_permalinks_and_paradigms.shtml... ----- PING: TITLE: history of permalinks URL: http://www.leuschke.org/quick/archives/2003_06.html#002623 IP: 66.33.193.51 BLOG NAME: leuschke.org links DATE: 06/11/2003 07:54:54 PM once again, traceable to Blogger / Kottke / MetaFilter ----- PING: TITLE: everyone talks permalinks URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000143.html IP: 129.41.37.44 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 06/12/2003 03:34:12 AM Tom opened up a nice discussion thread on the origin of permalinks, and lots of folks have weighed in. I... ----- PING: TITLE: Acticipating the PermaURN URL: http://www.libraryplanet.com/archives/2003/06/13/index.html#002352 IP: 207.44.176.9 BLOG NAME: LibraryPlanet.com DATE: 06/13/2003 05:02:20 PM When possible, use a permalink, at least; an URN is even better. Remember that linking can be faster than searching.... ----- PING: TITLE: What's so special about Permalink? URL: http://blog.fiorile.org/fiorile/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/me/meditating/pm5.2003-06-14_1.writeback IP: 203.204.132.96 BLOG NAME: Ë…ØÈÇäÁöÑÈáéËä± DATE: 06/13/2003 06:55:14 PM Schee 這幾天寫的東西很能引起一些想法。 我覺得奇怪的是, Permalink 有什麼好 大 ----- PING: TITLE: Simple Guide to the A-List Bloggers URL: http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/000506.php IP: 202.186.64.91 BLOG NAME: Screenshots... DATE: 06/16/2003 04:24:31 AM A-List bloggers. These are the real elites. Or what you will get when this bunch of bloggers are put together: Dave Winer, Doc Searls, Dan Gillmor, Howard Rheingold, Joi Ito, Chris Locke/Rageboy, Esther Dyson, Chris Pirillo, Ben and Mena, Adam... ----- PING: TITLE: The Permalink URL: http://www.sharkbitten.com/archives/2003_06.php#000126 IP: 209.239.39.65 BLOG NAME: Sharkbitten DATE: 06/16/2003 12:03:37 PM One of the things that make the blogosphere so interesting is the fact that you can follow a conversation pretty easily throughout it's various participants'... ----- PING: TITLE: Permalinks. URL: http://www.simiandesign.com/blog-fu/2003/06/001648.cfm IP: 64.5.44.150 BLOG NAME: Blog-Fu DATE: 06/16/2003 03:35:21 PM Tom Coates has written and collected some good stuff on Permalinks. The history of the permalink, and why they evolved. And why they’re good. Nice collection of links to other sites as well.... ----- PING: TITLE: Celebrating Permalinks URL: http://www.diversionz.net/archives/001540.html IP: 66.246.23.2 BLOG NAME: DiVERSiONZ DATE: 06/16/2003 03:44:13 PM I don't get much comments, or trackbacks, but I found this to be an interesting post on how Permalinks have ----- PING: TITLE: A brief history of permalinks URL: http://theanswergrape.com/aweeblog/mt/archives/000590.html IP: 66.96.128.113 BLOG NAME: Weeblog DATE: 06/16/2003 11:37:46 PM Explaining permalinks is far more difficult then I'd imagined. Hopefully something like this history of permalinks will make it easier... ----- PING: TITLE: The Ws of weblogging URL: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/06/16/the_ws_of_weblogging.html IP: 209.61.183.90 BLOG NAME: dive into mark DATE: 06/17/2003 03:40:39 AM Sam Ruby has kicked off a fascinating discussion to distill the technical aspects of weblogging, in The Anatomy of a Well-Formed Log Entry. ----- PING: TITLE: Nine and a half liters of filtered water per workweek. URL: http://www.allaboutgeorge.com/a2g/archives/000538.html IP: 66.33.197.204 BLOG NAME: ALLABOUTGEORGE's a2g DATE: 06/21/2003 01:23:51 PM Who let the permalinks out? I want everyone to have an equal experience, sure, but I want it to be everyone having my experience, not me going to back to having everyone else's experience. My RSS feed is funky, sez There Is No Cat's Funkidator (via Phi... ----- PING: TITLE: Permalinks URL: http://www.jjsbooks.net/blogs/archives/000522.html IP: 161.58.167.52 BLOG NAME: Blogging DATE: 07/03/2003 10:47:44 PM Permalinks -- links to the individual filed copies of posts to a "blog" or similar website -- have a history... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs and Permalinks: Reflecting Back URL: http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2003/06/18/weblogs_and_permalinks_reflecting_back.shtml IP: 205.162.100.16 BLOG NAME: Brainstorms and Raves (Blogger import) DATE: 07/06/2003 07:12:07 AM Tom Coates of plasticbag.org wrote an interesting article last week On Permalinks and Paradigms... exploring how permalinks work, who coined the term 'permalink' and how the permalink started in the first place. Just as interesting to read is the comm... ----- PING: TITLE: A brief history of permalinks URL: http://theanswergrape.com/aweeblog/archives/000994.html IP: 66.96.128.113 BLOG NAME: WEEBLOG DATE: 07/15/2003 10:35:39 PM Explaining permalinks is far more difficult then I'd imagined. Hopefully something like this history of permalinks will make it easier for me to conceptualize and therefore explain to others.... ----- PING: TITLE: Saturday, June 14, 2003 06:57 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/030614.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 07/22/2003 11:22:06 AM For you blogging connoisseurs, Tom Coates ponders permalinks...Scoble links Vonage, a new phone service which offers unlimited calling within the U.S. for $40/month, over the Internet. You essentially use your broadband connection as a gateway, and... ----- PING: TITLE: On Permalinks and Paradigms URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0123486/2003/06/12.html#a174 IP: 24.218.229.154 BLOG NAME: root.cellar DATE: 08/08/2003 11:09:57 PM

    plasticbag.org On Permalinks and Paradigms... ...

    ----- PING: TITLE: Links on Social Software, Blogging, Wikis and their Applications URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2003/06/12.html#a142 IP: 202.68.150.4 BLOG NAME: Conversations with Dina DATE: 08/10/2003 02:44:58 PM Today is 'click 'n link' day after yesterday's soul searching ! ----- PING: TITLE: A Brief Note on Permalinks URL: http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/2003/08/17.html#a515 IP: 64.69.94.168 BLOG NAME: Thinking Chaos, Thinking Fences DATE: 08/17/2003 07:04:07 PM Each entry on this site ends with a date stamp, comment and trackback links and a little foot: . ----- PING: TITLE: On Permalinks and Paradigms. URL: http://www.rolandTanglao.com/2003/06/11.html#a4564 IP: 216.232.31.144 BLOG NAME: Roland Tanglao's Weblog DATE: 09/15/2003 12:02:24 PM (SOURCE: plasticbag.org | weblog | On Permalinks and Paradigms... ----- PING: TITLE: Masing for Congress? URL: http://george.hotelling.net/90percent/local/masing_for_congress.php IP: 65.42.38.35 BLOG NAME: 90% Crud DATE: 10/06/2003 04:11:45 PM I'm not ready to throw my massive political machine behind him yet, but Hans Masing is running for Congress. There are several things that I like about him, he's an underdog and so I immediately have sympathy. He supports small... ----- PING: TITLE: anchors away: on permalinks & comments URL: http://www.ashladle.org/archives/000145.html IP: 64.106.166.5 BLOG NAME: alembic DATE: 10/15/2003 12:19:05 AM I was reading an essay by Tom Coates in which he makes the case that the seemingly ìtiny paradigm shiftî of that linking functionality introduced by ìa tiny community of committed web-weirdosî managed to bring on a revolution in the... ----- PING: TITLE: HALFAGLASS - A blog and a book about wine URL: http://www.vaneats.com/2003/12/18#a2325 IP: 64.71.134.138 BLOG NAME: VanEats DATE: 12/19/2003 06:22:47 AM I like HalfAGlass 's approach to wine. ----- PING: TITLE: Tormentoni URL: http://blogs.it/0100214/2003/06/11.html#a879 IP: 80.181.46.134 BLOG NAME: 4 Banalitaten DATE: 12/21/2003 12:23:22 PM Un reperto: l' invenzione del permalink. ----- PING: TITLE: What the h*ck is MP Rating? URL: http://mprating.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/2/15/20550.html IP: 207.178.248.9 BLOG NAME: MP Rating DATE: 02/15/2004 06:20:06 PM MP Rating will rate Canadian Members of Parliament. We will start with the three candidates for the leadership of the ... ----- PING: TITLE: What the h*ck is MP Rating? URL: http://mprating.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/2/15/20626.html IP: 207.178.248.9 BLOG NAME: MP Rating DATE: 02/16/2004 05:56:27 AM MP Rating will rate Canadian Members of Parliament. We will start with the three candidates for the leadership of the ... ----- PING: TITLE: Citations URL: http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/000395.html IP: 63.247.134.231 BLOG NAME: Keywords DATE: 02/25/2004 03:29:04 PM Scott Sommers discusses some of the shortcomings of the Social Science Citation Index. I would add that the problem goes beyond the fact that the index is so incomplete, or that the user interface can be frustrating and difficult to use: I think it is ... ----- PING: TITLE: What is a Permalink? URL: http://www.elise.com/mt/archives/000281what_is_a_permalink.php IP: 64.62.225.2 BLOG NAME: Learning Movable Type DATE: 02/29/2004 07:14:25 AM If you are new to Movable Type and/or weblogs you may have encountered the term Permalink and wondered (as I did when I first read the term), what the heck is that? On Movable Type, a Permalink is simply a... ----- PING: TITLE: History of the Permalink URL: http://bigsea.rev9.com/2004/03/03#a155 IP: 24.225.32.9 BLOG NAME: BIGSEA DATE: 03/03/2004 06:02:07 PM Wondering what a permalink is? Here's a good weblog post that describes what they are, what they do, and why they are important. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Weblogging Links... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/12/2003 11:08:45 AM ----- BODY:

    A few interesting links about weblogs that have emerged recently (including a few about new-favourite-subject: permalinks) - many of these links taken from Many to Many:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/06/12 15:29 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2727 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 06/12/2003 03:42:51 PM extensions in urls considered harmful ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Burning the name of god... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/12/2003 12:32:15 PM ----- BODY:

    So there's a guy outside the back of my flat who has lit a bonfire against the back wall of my building. The flames are licking up the wall. There is a large empty courtyard behind him. But no - the bonfire obviously has to be lit on the building. I asked him what he was doing with the whole "lighting a big fire against my building" thing. He evidently thought I was reacting entirely strangely about his completely legitimate arson attempts because he looked quite surprised by my question. Maybe he's been setting fire to things for about ten years and no one in England has felt able to comment before. "I'm sure he'll go away eventually dear... Just grin and bear it, eh?"

    So anyway, it turns out he's trying to getting rid of paper "with the name of god on it" and didn't want to be disrespectful by putting it in the bin. He thought he'd best light the bonfire against my building (flames licking up the wall) during the day, "because [he] didn't think people would be at home", so clearly it would be less inconvenient for them. Unless of course they got home and they didn't - you know - have a flat any more. I was terribly polite. I asked him if he knew what he was doing, he asserted he did. I looked a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't want to be rude. So I came back inside and left him to it. Funny old world.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: some people URL: http://www.vervelab.org/archives/2003_06.html#000130 IP: 162.42.208.240 BLOG NAME: verveblog DATE: 06/13/2003 05:30:35 AM there is just no explaining some people. i mean, really. what can you say to somebody like that? um, please don't burn down my house? yeah, that'll work.... ----- PING: TITLE: back burner URL: http://oskarn.org/archives/000540.html IP: 213.161.64.78 BLOG NAME: oskarn DATE: 06/14/2003 01:10:32 AM oskar is back! but you'll have to wait awhile for pictures. In the meantime people are setting fire to things. This is quite a coincidence given that Oskar spent the day puking up mucus and cheese after our immediate rear... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On rapid constitutional change... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 06/13/2003 12:21:17 PM ----- BODY:

    Beat this Americans... 1,400 years after the post was first created, the role of the Lord Chancellor in the UK has been abolished. And, for the first time in hundreds of years, the political establishment and the judiciary have been forcibly separated from one another. This - obviously - is a tremendous move and almost certainly a positive one. My only anxiety is the speed of the shift and the way it doesn't really appear to have been the result of any public debate. We will soon have a supreme court. Who knew? [Thanks to Michael for the link]

       Tony Blair revealed a renewed thirst for radical constitutional reform yesterday when he swept aside 1,400 years of history by abolishing the post of lord chancellor and setting up a new US-style supreme court in place of the law lords.
       The prime minister will also set up an independent judicial appointments commission, a reform resisted until very recently by Derry Irvine, who quit the government yesterday after six years.
       The reforms, the product of a long Whitehall battle, bring about the much-demanded separation of powers between the judiciary and politicians.

    I'm really interested in a debate about this subject - is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it being pushed through? Where's the debate?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.45.255.241 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 06/13/2003 02:17:18 PM Well the position had been deemed 'illegal' by the European Court of Human Rights... Where's the debate, you ask? It happened about 250 years ago when Montesquieu first wrote about the separation of powers. Tony Blair has obviously moved from the Bible, through the Koran, and come stumbling across 'The Enlightenment'. At this rate he'll be discovering socialism before the summer's out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pogo EMAIL: pogothemonkey@talk21.com IP: 213.123.222.75 URL: http://dearie-me.blogspot.com DATE: 06/13/2003 04:01:56 PM I'm gobsmacked. First I've heard of it - there hasn't been any debate at all, or at least nothing covered by the papers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 06/13/2003 04:18:17 PM We could go a bit further in the timeline to Sir Thomas More and his resistance to Henry VIII. There was a small 'debate', at that time, about the role of Lord Chancellor. We all know where that embarrassing situation led. Rapid change is perceptive at best, can the government slowly remove the Lord Chancellor from his position? Does public debate (not papers and politicians) influence the government? I suppose the government will do what's best for the people, they always do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 81.132.244.120 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 06/13/2003 04:58:07 PM I think the no debate issue is a red herring. Falconer is Lord Chancellor, and the Government have stated that they want to abolish the position -- but it has to go through the usual path for legislation, being approved by the Parliament etc. The new department is quite a dramatic way to announce this intention, but at least it might stop judicial reform dropping into the same black hole Lords reform has. (Possibly... could this reform be clearing a bottleneck to what the Government want to do to the House of Lords?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 06/13/2003 05:26:00 PM Yep! Tossing the Lord Chancellor allows for greater 'flexibility' to reform the House of Lords. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 66.7.23.31 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 06/13/2003 08:23:47 PM I'm not as well versed in this issue as I'd like, but I envy you all a bit today. We could use some constitutional reform here in DC. Yes, we've got a Supreme Court, but look what they did to us in the 2000 election... unfortunately, even when there's something as flawed as our electoral system, the tendency here is to treat our Consitution like a religious text; it's barely 200 years old, yet we're averse to ever changing it, and it allows all sorts of reprehensible things to perpetuate. On the other hand, I suppose there are some pretty daring people in our government... or is brazen a more appropriate word? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.83.122 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/14/2003 12:51:50 AM Holy crap! Just like that? Although I support judicial independence from the executive and legislative brances, Blair really could have asked the Commons first, you know, our democratically elected representatives? Or are we following the American lead of deciding that democracy is archaic and not important for a Modern Britain (whatever one of them is...). If in doubt, just ask Tony. He even knows where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 06/14/2003 01:59:31 AM Lord yes, get rid of that anachronism as soon as is humanly possible (in my humble lawyerly opinion). I had no idea the Executive and the Judiciary were so entangled over there! New Zealand can hardly talk though - we're going through a debate over a proposed Supreme Court, which would break ties to the Privy Council and see the Attorney-General appoint directly to the bench. I'd like to see a Commission here too - sounds like a bloody good idea. This article [ad viewing req'd] on two possible vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court (while being pretty lefty) shows how dodgy the whole situation can get. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ned EMAIL: ebb8@wincoll.ac.uk IP: 212.219.8.189 URL: DATE: 06/14/2003 01:13:18 PM Incidentally, 1,400 years is PR invention. The royal chancellor didn't have any kind of legal role until about 1100, under Henry I, and even then it's a bit debatable. Before that he was just a secretary. ----- PING: TITLE: On rapid constitutional change... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/958 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 06/13/2003 05:38:18 PM plasticbag: "And, for the first time in hundreds of years, the political establishment and the judiciary have been forcibly separated from one another." ----- PING: TITLE: Judiciary in the UK URL: http://www.thirdsuperpower.com/previously/2003/06/20/11/15/index.html IP: 207.44.176.9 BLOG NAME: Third Superpower DATE: 06/20/2003 03:57:36 PM 1,400 years after the post was first created, the role of the Lord Chancellor in the UK has been abolished.... ----- PING: TITLE: Sleepless after a trip to the Street URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2003/06/14.html#a174 IP: 212.198.0.94 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 08/07/2003 12:13:12 PM

    How am I expected to sleep?
    It's only partly the food, which was a mistake. This I had learned by 2:30 am, when dangerous internal movements finally took a decisive turn.

    Odessa Street was tonight more like the "cour de mi...

    ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Ten Commandments of Weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/14/2003 10:26:42 AM ----- BODY:

    Being a feeble transcription of some things that seemed really funny once over lunch with Cal, and which we tried - and failed - to get Webb interested in.

    The Ten Commandments of Weblogging

    1. I am the log of the web. You shall have no other blogs but me.
    2. You shall not make for yourself other weblogs on other content management systems and look at them and get all wistful and think about changing to them instead.
    3. You shall not mention dodgy weblog CMSs in the same breath as proper ones like Blogger and Moveable Type. Bloxsom is not a proper weblogging system. It's a potato.
    4. Remember the Bloggie nomination day. For it is truly a holy day and if you don't remember and self-nominate and vote for yourself lots of times and get your friends to do so too, then you're probably screwed. But be careful, 'cos if Choire finds out you're in serious shit.
    5. Honor your blog-father and your blog-mother at blogtree.com - or get blog-smacked-around-the-head by Dave Winer.
    6. You shall not murder the English language (or whatever language it is you speak) just because you're l33t. Particularly not if you're a teenager. Especially not if you like Linkin Park.
    7. Thou shalt not commit weblog-adultery with other people's hard-earned links unless you carefully mark them with a "via" credit. The same applies to their girlfriends, boyfriends and members of their immediate family.
    8. Thou shalt not steal your design (except from Kottke).
    9. Thou shalt not lie on your weblog (seriously, that's bad).
    10. You shall not covet your neighbour's domain; you shall not covet your neighbour's html, nor his homemade CMS, nor his hosting arrangement, nor anything that is your neighbour's. Except maybe his traffic.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 67.40.128.236 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 06/14/2003 06:04:01 PM Blosxom not a "proper" CMS? Works great for me--I can't think of a single thing that I would like it to do that it doesn't! Honestly, that sort of sentiment really reminds me of people in the Java world who think that you're not doing "real" Java unless you're doing Enterprise Java. The problem with this idea is that it ignores the fact that not every business needs a behemoth three tier distributed system. Similarly, some of us really don't have much of a need for a system like Moveable Type. And I'm saying this as someone who develops software and works with databases and the web day in and day out. It's not that I can't hack it with Moveable Type--it's just that I really don't see the point of having a complicated system with a database backend simply to post little bits of text to my personal website. I know you were probably being tongue-in-cheek there, but I just think it needs to be said that simple does not necessarily equal bad! If more people realized that, I think there'd be a lot fewer failed IT projects out there :-). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Denny Henke EMAIL: denny@mediaco-op.org IP: 68.18.201.163 URL: http://mediaco-op.org/cgi-local/blosxom.cgi/denny/ DATE: 06/14/2003 07:45:32 PM i'm with buzz. i've been using blosxom for 4 months now and it works like a charm. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy EMAIL: andy@andyproject.com IP: 217.39.140.211 URL: DATE: 06/14/2003 09:52:10 PM Very amusing. So many people have a copied the Kottke layout. Its structure has almost become a common trend. Good or bad thing? I don't know! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.50.106 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/15/2003 03:56:46 PM Drupal - the one true CMS. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eric J EMAIL: ericj@webraw.com IP: 204.78.62.36 URL: http://www.webraw.com/blog/ DATE: 06/16/2003 07:08:38 AM Science has theorized that for all matter there is an equal amount of anti-matter. It is my belief that this is also true of Web design. For every Kottke ripped design there are an equal number of anti-Kottke designs. I call this the Bizzaro-Kottke Theory. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 62.58.35.2 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 06/16/2003 08:38:24 AM One thing Blosxom doesn't do is properly handle edits of already published posts, since it shunts them to the top of the blog again. Phposxom doesn't have this problem and is almost perfect for my needs. I never understood this need to give credit, especially when the link you're crediting for is more than 2 layers removed for you. As for stealing of design, I was actually going to "steal" your design, or at least let it inspire me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 198.173.142.227 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 06/16/2003 03:46:29 PM Martin, This is no longer a problem with Blosxom, as long as you use the entries_index plugin. That definitely used to be a frustration of mine, but not anymore. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cal EMAIL: cal@iamcal.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: http://www.iamcal.com/ DATE: 06/16/2003 05:51:32 PM As tom sort of explains, we came up with these about 6 months ago (maybe longer). At the time bloxom was not a worthy CMS. ----- PING: TITLE: Laugh of the Day URL: http://www.differentstrings.info/archives/002571.html IP: 66.33.208.24 BLOG NAME: different strings DATE: 06/18/2003 09:06:45 PM Plastic Bag.org has deigned to share with us the Ten Commandments of Weblogging. Very funny, and pretty dead on, too. Damn. Makes me wish I was good a humour writing, you know?... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Helsinki at midnight... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/15/2003 10:05:26 AM ----- BODY:

    helsinki_at_midnight.jpg

    Caption: Helsinki at midnight.
    Currently: Nervous about Aula Meeting of Minds 2003.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cameras communicating with Cameras... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 06/16/2003 09:06:45 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a dumb idea about digital cameras. Let's imagine a world in which everyone has a camera - and they carry them with them all the time. Say - for example - that they're built into mobile phones. Right. Now you add in a sensor to each camera that means that they can communicate with all cameras within a narrowly focused area that corresponds with the area about to be captured within the viewfinder. Right. Now every camera includes information about how the person who owns it "feels" about various uses of their images. They can say, "I don't feel comfortable with you distributing this image to your friends" or "Don't take pictures of me" or whatever. Maybe even "no close-ups". This information is thrown out to any camera that tries to take a picture of you and this has an influence on how the picture can be easily used.

    So - for example - if I were a private nervous person who didn't want photos taken of me at all, then I could set my camera to a 'leave me alone' mode. If someone tried to take a picture of me on a "normal" setting, then they'd find that their camera simply wouldn't work. They'd keep pressing the button, but would be presented with error beeps instead. They'd have to actually switch to a "rude" mode in order to be able to take a photo. And if you didn't want it to be distributed, the phone would just stop you forwarding it to other people - again unless you were prepared to switch into a "rude" mode. Could be fun...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: Nick@nickcornwell.com IP: 82.35.39.254 URL: http://www.nickcornwell.com DATE: 06/16/2003 10:55:48 AM Aiee... Global Surveillance by network... Each phone revealing where you were, each photo time and location-stamped... Like the satellite-governed toll system for major roads currently being proposed, once such a network existed, surely police and other agencies would want automatic rights to use the information... Yuck. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom EMAIL: tajmahal@fneh.net IP: 131.111.8.96 URL: http://tajmahal.fneh.net DATE: 06/16/2003 11:25:38 AM Isn't this a bit like those devices for dating in Japan? Where you set your device to a level of "interest", and then when someone of a similar level of interest is around, it beeps or something? I forget the specifics, but it's basically the same. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@fords.co.nz IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.smellycaravan.com DATE: 06/16/2003 01:45:40 PM I think there was a Virtual Pet concept at one stage that would beep if someone else owned a pet and was in your vicinity... Cellphones would have to either become implanted or alot smaller, because not many people carry them absolutely EVRYWHERE at all times, and how many major companies would use the principles of this new network for Protection of Digital Rights Management, i.e. No Sharing of Music, Videos, Pictures etc, unless your phone/pda is set to a certain frequency/mode. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 217.34.110.253 URL: DATE: 06/16/2003 05:13:29 PM Can I take it one step further. I want to 'recruit' every camera in range to take simultaneous photos of my subject (at my cost, of course) and transmit them back to my camera/server/repository. Now I can assemble a full 3-D view, or see around the corner, or just make use of the different features on different cameras. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.36.152 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/16/2003 07:48:31 PM And completely destroy the fun of candids? Oh well, have fun - I'm sticking with film! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 138.88.165.149 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 06/17/2003 09:03:11 AM Perhaps the camera can also contain pre-set photoshop settings, like, "I prefer to appear 2 inches taller," "Set my transparency to 20%", or the sure-to-be-popular "nictating eyelids." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 65.49.50.242 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 06/18/2003 12:42:35 AM Would there be a "don't take photos of me when I'm naked and don't know you're spying on me" mode? Oh wait... if I'm naked, then I presumably wouldn't have my cell phone to tell yours to sod off... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@turbonerd.com IP: 68.66.64.172 URL: http://www.turbonerd.com DATE: 06/18/2003 03:02:56 PM Antipopper's post raises a good point, though -- a strong extension of the idea, I think. I doubt anyone should worry about being seen by some global network of cameras (after all, we're already in public), and if we're in public, we should assume we're being seen. I don't like having my picture taken without my knowledge, but dammit, how else would we ever have been able to get such wonderful pictures of our beloved president picking his nose or falling off a Segway? Priceless! And alas, captured in what would surely have been Rude Mode. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mark EMAIL: mark@nodalpoints.org IP: 132.185.132.14 URL: http://www.nodalpoints.org/blog/ DATE: 06/18/2003 03:29:18 PM what a concept, a camera being used to 'stop' someone taking your picture. I know you could embbed the 'intelligence' into pretty much any device, but the idea that it is the camera that would tell other cameras if it was ok to take their picture or not is kinda interesting. also what if i had an agent, suppose my camera sent yours a message, saying that you could take the picture but here are the details of my agent and here is my image usage agreement... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan B. EMAIL: ectoman@epix.net IP: 206.245.146.3 URL: http://www.stillnotcool.com DATE: 06/18/2003 04:25:51 PM The idea reminds me a bit of Pox -- a toy that, after a bit of research, seems extinct. The idea was brilliant, however. The toys were a next-gen digipet one trained and grew from a digital cocoon. Then the trainer simply carried his pet about town. The toys recognized other Pox and entered into battle. Pox on Amazon ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Janne EMAIL: janne.jalkanen@ecyrd.com IP: 212.90.75.97 URL: http://www.ecyrd.com/ButtUgly DATE: 06/18/2003 09:51:39 PM Hm. To me this sounds like the live version of "plugging the analog hole" that the music industry was so enthusiastic about a while ago. You know, embedding DRM circuitry on every A/D converter, so that anything that you were not allowed to take a picture of, or to record, would be recognized and the camera/recording device would not work. Isn't this like treating your own public image as a copyrighted work? :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.39.241 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/18/2003 10:14:35 PM Ok. This is interesting. Yes - to some extent, this is exactly like treating your appearance as a copyrighted work. Totally. So it gets difficult and maybe wrong (unnecessary control built into technology to stop people doing things) if the rules are unbreakable. It's supposed to be a thing to help people determine appropriate social behaviour but code is more powerful than social moray - it's just as easy to make something binding as to make it optional. So all I can say is that it would be in the best interests of everyone to make it vaguely like DRM only functionally unenforceable, but that once created I couldn't legitimately predict with 100% certainty whether or not it would stay optional... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve Hunt EMAIL: steveh@illnation.com IP: 213.219.28.246 URL: http://www.illnation.com DATE: 06/19/2003 02:58:10 PM It's a weird paradigm isn't it? I don't want my photo taken by anyone, especially if it's unsolicited. And the 'gaydar' for phones system you mention seems like a great solution. But as in the case here in the UK, of the woman who had her rape recorded via camera phone, when does my requested invasion of privacy stop, and the need for my attackers to be captured on 'camera' take over...? I actually find this quite depressing. ----- PING: TITLE: polite mobs URL: http://www.antipopper.com/blog/archives/000089.html IP: 216.194.64.190 BLOG NAME: /// antipopper DATE: 06/16/2003 01:13:56 PM Tom Coates has an funny idea: ubiquitous personal digital cameras that form local wireless networks within the viewfinder's line of sight. Using such technology, these devices would have reactive settings (like "no photos!") that would enable people to... ----- PING: TITLE: Tu veux ma photo ? URL: http://perso.all-3rd.net/manu/blog/archives/000081.html IP: 193.252.199.77 BLOG NAME: blog out DATE: 06/17/2003 03:56:47 PM Tom Coates, de plasticbag.org, imagine un monde dans lequel chacun aurait un appareil numÈrique sur soi. Un monde o˜ cet appareil deviendrait une petite partie de nous. le rÈsultat est assez rigolo, en mÍme temps qu'effrayant. Pour faire plaisir ý... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A pier into the sea... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/16/2003 03:58:58 PM ----- BODY:

    A pier at a business retreat near Helsinki.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A small request to Six Apart... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/18/2003 06:43:35 PM ----- BODY:

    So here's a tiny thing that I'd be really interested in seeing in a subsequent version of Movable Type. It's so small it's barely worth mentioning - particularly as the proper search function has now been integrated. But nonetheless it would make my life slightly more simple.

    When I'm editing an entry, I'd just like a link that would take me to the current live version of that post. That's all. Just a link which would allow me to bounce out of my MT installation to see what it looks like live, without having to battle to find it amid nearly four-years of almost-daily posting... Obviously, this is also an indictment of the terrible way I currently have my search engine configured. But I just think it could be useful and it should be pretty easy, I think...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Timothy Appnel EMAIL: tima@mplode.com IP: 68.36.33.219 URL: http://tima.mplode.com DATE: 06/18/2003 07:54:25 PM I think you're correct, it shouldn't be that hard to implement as a link or additional button on the edti entry screen. I would also like to add my own "so little its not worth mentioning" feature -- the preview of an entry is rendered with the primary template is will be displayed in. I get a lot of "false positives" in the MT entry preview that my own template would disagree with. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian w EMAIL: brian@joannou.net IP: 24.136.120.254 URL: http://www.joannou.net DATE: 06/18/2003 08:56:14 PM There's a feature request forum on the Movable Type website, and naturally Ben & Mena are ultra-responsive. I bet they'd add something like this, or someone would provide a pretty easy way to edit the software to add it yourself. Have a look-see at movabletype.org. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Frustrated after Helsinki... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/18/2003 09:39:44 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm back in the UK after the Aula MOM 2003 event and I'm feeling a bit flat. I was talking about "The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything", which is kind of an old thing of mine that I've never really written about properly. It's directly inspired by Clay's Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing and indirectly insired by Dan Hill's thoughts on Adaptive Design. I was on a kind-of-panel with Matt Jones and Dan Gillmor. Fun new people I met (alongside the whole awesome Aula crew) included the terrifyingly uber-connected Joi Ito, the insightful JC Herz and the charming Eric Wahlforss. And it was nice, as ever, to bump into Cory.

    So why do I feel flat? I don't know - I suppose a variety of reasons. I didn't feel comfortable with the way I presented my piece, I guess. Or maybe I didn't feel comfortable with the way I presented myself. Maybe I was unsure with the contribution I made generally. I don't know. People said really interesting things, really interesting people said really interesting things. But I felt a bit ... I don't know ... Unconnected? Unproductive? Maybe I'll feel better after a good night's sleep...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Trivial entertainment links... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/19/2003 09:50:25 AM ----- BODY:

    Here's a snapshot of what the rest of the world looks like when you've just returned from Helsinki:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Mobile Asses URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/archives/000861.html IP: 64.21.37.2 BLOG NAME: Mercurial DATE: 06/19/2003 05:41:03 PM Mobile Asses.com, for fun with your new camera-phone. It is important to understand the profound yet implicit statement the author... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reactions to "The Blank Slate" (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Science CATEGORY: Science DATE: 06/20/2003 08:48:07 AM ----- BODY:

    Some really interesting stuff in Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate about responsibility, free will and guilt:

    "When we say that we hold someone responsible for a wrongful act, we expect him to punish himself - by compensating the victim, acquiescing to humiliation, incurring penalties, or expressing credible remorse - and we reserve the right to punish him ourselves. Unless a person is willing to suffer some unpleasant (and hence deterring) consequence, claims of responsibility are hollow. Richard Nixon was ridiculed when he bowed to pressure and finally "took responsibility" for the Watergate burglary but did not accept any costs such as apologizing, resigning, or firing his aides."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three pictures of Helsinki... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/20/2003 09:21:11 AM ----- BODY:

    While I was in Helsinki, I finally had the opportunity to play with a camera phone without any sense of consequence - I wasn't paying the bills! The shift in usage that occurs when suddently you don't have to worry about paying 50p per MMS is extraordinary. Here are some of the pictures that I took while I was out there:

    The lovely Fiona Romeo

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bart EMAIL: bart@trabaca.com IP: 64.185.144.194 URL: http://www.trabaca.com DATE: 06/20/2003 08:36:55 PM Wow, I had no idea the quality of these cameras was that good. Did you touch them up in anyway? And is it possible for you to e-mail them to someone through your phone? If so, I wonder how long it'll be before someone comes up with something to allow you to e-mail them to a weblog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.39.241 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/20/2003 09:03:20 PM I think they come through originally at 640x480 resolution and so I've shrunk them down and done a quick unsharp mask like I would with any photo, otherwise, nope - they're just like they came out of the camera. And there are some ways you can send photos direct to your weblog - I believe Blogger are working on it (or they're rumoured to be anyway) and 20six are doing it already... Although I think maybe it's a bit inelegant still... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hacks: Styling your first post differently in Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/21/2003 01:07:34 AM ----- BODY:

    Simple weblogging applications like Blogger can make it a breeze to update your site, but there's a cost attached - every post on your site has to look pretty much the same. Here's a hack that means you can style your most recent post differently from the ones that follow. It works by staggering the tags that surround your posts.

    Here's possibly the most basic template for a Blogger you could get:

    <html>
    <head></head>
    
    <body>
    
    <p>My weblog</p>
    
    	<Blogger>
    	<p style="background-color: red;">
    	<b><$BlogItemDateTime$>)</b><br><br>
    	<$BlogItemBody$></p>
    	</Blogger>
    
    </body>
    </html>
    

    The important thing to notice on this template is that the paragraph tags (<p></p>) that enclose the Date/Time tag and the BlogItemBody tag are styled so that they have a red background. This is being done with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) but you could equally do it with table cells or <font> tags. The important thing is that since everything inside the Blogger tags will be repeated for each and every post, all the posts will will be styled in the same way.

    Here's how you'd lay it out if you wanted to style the first post differently:

    <html>
    <head></head>
    
    <body>
    
    <p>My weblog</p>
    
    <p style="background-color: red;">
    
    	<Blogger>
    	<b><$BlogItemDateTime$>)</b><br><br>
    	<$BlogItemBody$>
    		
    </p>
    <p style="background-color: blue;">
    
    	</Blogger>
    
    </p>
    
    </body>
    </html>
    

    What you're looking for in this template is how the paragraph tags have been staggered around your weblog content. The first paragraph tag is outside the Blogger tags and so - because it isn't repeated for each post - it just changes the background color of the first post. But the </p> and the <p style="background-color: blue;"> tags at the end are repeated, leaving a paragraph with a blue background open when the next post is inserted. When the second post on the page appears, its background is blue - and this is repeated for every post after that. All that's left is to close the paragraph tag that's left open at the end of the page with a simple </p> and there you have it.

    This hack isn't restricted to background-color - you can change the font-face or size, make the whole post bold or put a background image behind it. You can even use CSS to change the posts position on the screen with margin and padding.

    This hack was originally supposed to appear in the ill-fated O'Reilly "Blogging Hacks" book. I'll be putting all my contributions online over the next few days / weeks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.65 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 06/21/2003 01:41:18 PM Um, you probably know about this already, but something has gone rather wrong with your font formatting halfway through this post, and is making the rest of your page - including the right-hand nav - look rather weird. I think it might be the use of the word <font> in the text that's done it, judging by the source code. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil_snelling@hotmail.com IP: 172.190.68.25 URL: http://onestupidblog.blogspot.com DATE: 06/23/2003 04:33:14 PM Thanks for posting this - it's very handy. One quick question though - is there any particular reason why some formatting (specifically, font size changes) might not show up when using Safari but work when viewed using IE? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: dirt_monkeyy@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.168.170 URL: http://www.dirt-monkey.tk DATE: 08/02/2003 08:50:44 PM thanks alot for that. i couldnt figure out how to change the BG colour without screwing everything up. solved now. got a wicked new design for my site. check it in a month! cheers ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hacks: A Random Link Button STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/21/2003 10:16:38 AM ----- BODY:

    Some people read a weblog because they like the person who runs it. Maybe they think that person is a highly entertaining, witty and exciting individual. On the other hand, many weblogs are run by geeks (including this one). If you're a social no-hoper - what are you to do? How do you get people to come to your site and experience the wonderful links you've found without forcing them to plough through all the rubbish you feel obliged to write?

    The 'random link' code does just what it says on the tin. When your visitor clicks onto it, it gives every link contained on that page of your weblog a number, chooses a random one and then follows it. No muss, no fuss...

    In order to put a 'random link' button on your weblog, you need to insert this simple piece of javascript into the of your Blogger or Moveable Type template:

    <script language="JavaScript">
    <!--
    
    // Surprise me button
    
    function goRandom()
    {
     var numLinks = document.links.length;
     var randomNum = (numLinks - 1) * Math.random();
     randomNum = Math.round(randomNum);
     window.location.href = document.links[randomNum].href;
    }
    
    //--></script>
    

    Now you only need to insert the link itself into your template to help take even the slightest effort out of your visitor's daily visits:

    <a href="javascript:goRandom()"">Random Link</a>
    

    This hack was originally supposed to appear in the ill-fated O'Reilly "Blogging Hacks" book. I'll be putting all my contributions online over the next few days / weeks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave EMAIL: davesplace1@yahoo.com IP: 12.45.63.142 URL: http://davidgoforth.com/id87.htm DATE: 12/05/2003 12:15:42 AM Hey this is one cool script, Thanks ----- PING: TITLE: Things I want to do but can't URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/archives/000184.html IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: frizzyLogic DATE: 06/25/2003 02:43:34 PM 1) Make Kung-Tunes work. An application which uploads information about tracks being played on iTunes to a web page. I get the dreaded type 9 error. Apparently this means there's something wrong with my ftp path, but I have no... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Five by Five (Weblogging) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/21/2003 12:13:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Five links about the state of weblogging in depth:

    Five links about the state of weblogging in brief (most via Jason):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Interesting From The Blogosphere URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108247/2003/06/26.html#a394 IP: 67.125.40.48 BLOG NAME: for the sake of clarity - The Digital Tavern DATE: 08/08/2003 06:38:18 AM Just tracking down current information on bloggers, blogging and the blogosphere and came across these two posts. Worth following the inks. Some good reference material here, too. Journalist Blog List.

    Jonathan Dube claims to have the ...

    ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: When burglars go down! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/21/2003 12:56:40 PM ----- BODY:

    A while ago I found out that they'd caught the guy who committed the burglary on my flat at the end of last year. I was delighted, but also a bit nervous - the whole next part of the process, possibly appearing as a witness, going through the whole legal process (forms!), seeing him in person in the dock - all that stuff scared the hell out of me. Also - that was the time when I found out his name. I didn't expect them to tell it to me, but there it was at the top of the letter. That brought it all home, really. How personal the whole thing was. Well anyway, today - amazing news - not only has he been arrested, but he's had his first hearing and he's pleaded guilty! So he gets sentenced in a few days and it's all over. Justice prevails! And I might now be able to get a decent night's sleep.

    Addendum: Having said all that, I forgot that last night at two in the morning, the police came around to search my next door neighbours' flat (our front doors are six inches apart) because their son (who's a bloody menace, noisy and aggressive) had just beaten the crap out of his girlfriend and she'd finally called the police. I'm not convinced I'm living in the safest area...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tyme2BReal EMAIL: tyme@tyme2breal.com IP: 24.54.104.150 URL: http://tyme2breal.com DATE: 06/21/2003 02:06:53 PM Something similar happened to me. I was told more information though. They told me they offered him a plea bargain, which he accepted. This meant he was going to have a lighter sentence but it saved me from having to go through the whole ordeal. I was satisified that the guy was caught and had a record - that was enough for me. Glad it all worked out for you! And yes, you might want to consider moving. I am in the same boat myself. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ionicus EMAIL: i0nicus@yahoo.com IP: 81.96.142.145 URL: http://ionicus.blogspot.com/ DATE: 06/21/2003 10:02:25 PM From the fact you talk about your flat in the present tense, I'm assuming the pyromaniac guy from a few days ago didn't manage to burn it down. Be thankful for small mercies. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.39.241 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/21/2003 10:24:38 PM Good point! It was nice to find the place relatively intact on my return from Finland. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 06/22/2003 12:49:33 AM Does the UK have a big restorative justice bent on such matters? Is there any chance you'll get some form of compensation for your loss? (I'm assuming your stuff has long gone). ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stunning Buoys... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/21/2003 10:35:50 PM ----- BODY:

    During a break from the Aula event we explored the island. Sneaking over a gate, we wandered down by the shipyards. A lone seagull went nuts and tried to kill us. I got a nice picture of some stunning buoys, which may have meaning only for me...

    Buoys on the beach at AULA

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Stunning Buoys... URL: http://www.wearehugh.com/990 IP: 209.61.186.253 BLOG NAME: WE ARE HUGH DATE: 06/22/2003 01:19:18 AM plasticbag: "I got a nice picture of some stunning buoys, which may have meaning only for me...." ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: e-flight.biz - unethical spammers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 06/22/2003 03:26:09 PM ----- BODY:

    So yesterday I got a comment on an older entry of mine. The comment read, "This wonderful site is worth dropping a line in your guestbook to say thanks!" How nice, I thought to myself. How sweet to send me a note like that... But then I noticed the name of the person who had left the comment - Mr http://www.e-flight.biz. How nice. How... blatant...

    So clearly this company is spamming my comments. That much seems clear. Probably they're after a little extra Google page-rank of some kind - they're clearly trying to dredge a little traffic their way, get some page impressions, make a little money. That's all fine, of course - we all have to make a living - but it seems to me that I shouldn't really be just expected to help them make that living. It seems odd that they should be trying to make money by exploiting the traffic and reputation of my site. I should have a say, surely? I should be asked? Even if - unsurprisingly - the answer would certainly be, "No".

    So I've done some research, and it turns out that http://www.e-flight.biz (note that I haven't linked to them yet) has a bit of a habit of spamming other sites. A quick search on Google finds 591 links to their site, pretty much all of them on guestbooks. But those 591 links don't seem to be enough. That's the only reason I can find from moving from guestbooks to sticking adverts in the comments sections of weblogs. Do they not think I'll mind? Do they not think I'll object to the precendent they're trying to set?

    So the question is, how do we stop them spamming all of our sites? What's the best approach? What's the best way to compensate for every frustrating piece of false advertising they stick on someone else's online home? What's the best way to communicate that e-flight.biz spends its time with unethical advertising and unsolicited spam and are therefore untrustworthy? Has anyone got any ideas?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 81.134.97.199 URL: http://www.paperless-school.com/ DATE: 06/22/2003 04:03:36 PM The first thing that came to mind was some kind of revenge system - but I then rejected it because I would rather move the web towards consensus than conflict. A generative, but long-term, solution might be to promote an XML standard by which metadata can be attached to links (is there one already?). In this case, you as blog-owner might retain control of these. You might then give this link a "-10" rank, say. A consistent and commonly-used system would be of great use to search engines, so I would expect them to adopt it quite quickly. It would probably be first adopted for inter-blog links, then extended as it became more popular. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: maria EMAIL: mmbenet@aol.com IP: 64.172.164.10 URL: http://www.ashladle.org DATE: 06/22/2003 07:38:42 PM My weblog is not popular, not even in the smallest of crowds, but lately, I have been receiving spam in the comments, especially for entries that mentioned certain products (a local brand of pizza, for example) and an entry in my philosophy category that played on the meaning of the word ìshaving.î The comments for the latter post had to do with Gillette, and I deleted them. Obviously, some marketers sit there using Google as a ìmailing listî resource for this new territory. I can see how this spatter of spamming on weblog comments could soon turn into a big problem for us all, so I am glad that you brought it up. I donít have any ideas about how to deal with it, but I believe we should start thinking about ways to prevent it. A search engine ranking system, like the one proposed by the previous poster, would be a good start, it seems to me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: jm-354634985@jmason.org IP: 128.195.183.55 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 06/22/2003 11:47:57 PM Thank you for your wonderful site! Signed, Mr. http://taint.org/ . Seriously though -- it is a good blog. ;) Anyway -- I think the most important thing to do is write up a page documenting this behaviour, and make sure it links to the offending site and contains its URL prominently, and what they did, in a Google-friendly location, such as right at the top of the body in a H1 tag. The aim is to get plenty of googlejuice going to your site, over theirs. That way, searchers for the site, company, or person will likely hit your page, or find it listed in the top 10 results -- and they've just given themselves the worst advertising they possibly could. For example, earlier this year, I got spammed by Amanda Perez. Well, in reality it was her PR company I think. Out-and-out, spam-to-a-scraped-address spam. So I wrote up a blog posting and posted it, it got picked up by the googlebot, and for several months my "Amanda Perez is spamming scum" page was the top hit for her name on Google. Oops! ;) Related is the wierd practice of referrer-log spamming, in an attempt to get googlejuice. It's very odd, using random throwaway domains, generated pages, etc. Very wierd. I got this on my blog a couple of months ago and wrote this up about it. --j. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andreas Reuterberg EMAIL: andreas_reuterberg@hotmail.com IP: 212.78.195.98 URL: DATE: 06/23/2003 09:00:30 AM This post was funny. Sounds to me like the question is more than a bit rhetorical. Hence the link "e-flight.biz spends its time with unethical advertising and unsolicited spam". But you guys had some nice ideas anyway :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Brake EMAIL: fnordguy@hotmail.com IP: 80.193.236.28 URL: http://blog.org/ DATE: 06/23/2003 10:32:18 AM I am getting comment spamming too - not just automated stuff either, it sometimes seems to have been typed in by desperate humans. And the blog entries they target seem random - some are linked to entries months ago. I do hope I won't have to start running a spam-eating app on my weblog's comments! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 06/23/2003 11:07:04 AM I've only had a couple of comment spams. Having very few comments anyway (I know, world's smallest violin), they always stick out like a sore thumb. However, as David mentions, they're always pretty randomly targetted on really old entries and have false email/domain addresses. If they weren't so blantantly full of teenage boredom, I may find them amusing. At least exercising my 'delete comment' finger keeps me in shape... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: cee.plus@virgin.net IP: 195.92.168.166 URL: http://www.benmeadowcroft.com/ DATE: 06/23/2003 11:22:06 AM Send an email to google explaining this situation, they will probably ban the site or somesuch, thus negating all the *hard* work they've been doing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.11.238 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/23/2003 11:25:54 AM I should point out that the link I put above about e-flight.biz being unethical spammers is not a Googlebomb. Google built in a nice piece of parsing code that means they won't weight the words in a link if they don't appear on the page at the other end. It was not intended to be, nor could be, an attempt to influence Google's listings. Having said that - if people wanted to link to this post under the name e-flight.biz, so that people who researched them were likely to get this complaint high up in their search results, I don't think I'd complain much! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sam EMAIL: sam@diaryland.com IP: 199.202.211.40 URL: http://sam.diaryland.com DATE: 06/23/2003 08:37:29 PM I've had a few spam comments in my guestbook. When I spot them, I delete them right away, but I've never really understood why they were there. My site doesn't get much traffic, so it seems a really time consuming thing to do, for not much payoff. At any rate, I found this interesting (at least now I know what the spammers are trying to do, and that I'm not they only person who gets these weird messages. Thanks for clearing up a bit of the mystery. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 171.64.213.142 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org/ DATE: 06/23/2003 09:45:04 PM The other day I saw a nigerian 419 spam as a comment in a band's weblog. I just looked and it has since been removed, but I thought it was a new low. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie EMAIL: jamie@jamiedoris.com IP: 24.168.1.11 URL: http://www.jamiedoris.com DATE: 06/23/2003 11:19:51 PM This is nothing new -- in fact, it's becoming a real nuisance. Ever since the "blogging" phenomenon started getting a lot of hype, the spam vultures have been swooping in for the kill. A lot of the above comments have a good point -- that it seems like a lot of time spent for very little result. On my site, I post technical tidbits on web development -- code snippets and such, just to have a little something besides the usual "bored teen" drivel to read. Well, I received a comment in my "geek" section from a fellow in England, saying something to the effect of "interesting and useful stuff here, need a few days to get my head around it all." Which I considered a compliment. Well, a few days later, I found in my referral page (more on this below), a barrage of referrals from a site in England I never heard of before. Now, on my site, I have a page dedicated to backlinking, or links to pages that link to mine. This is found on a lot of weblog sites, and it's a great way to help fellow bloggers promote one another, to trade googlejuice, so to speak. Well, when I visited this British site, I found a complete and utter mess of banner ads, semi-pornographic picture galleries, and literally dozens of links to "backlinking" pages, including mine. Now I may be wrong, but I concluded that the guy who I thought had left a nice compliment on my geek page was nothing more than another spammer with a lot of time on his hands. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stu EMAIL: feelinglistless@btopenworld.com IP: 81.131.17.39 URL: http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/ DATE: 06/24/2003 01:29:26 AM Although my comments system hasn't been effected my guestbooks is regularly spammed. I use a structure of many questions (favourite films, music, books, colour of couch) and you'd be surprised how many actually take the time to answer the questions before dropping of the spam URL or message. Boringly every spammers favourite film seems to be Star Wars. Part of the issue is that their no doubt working for a company and getting paid to do this work, might even have a quota they have to fulfill. The real stinker was a spammer for a porn site. I noticed that s/he'd left a comment quite quickly and deleted it. But it returned a few minutes later (I knew because I get an email whenever someone leaves a comment). I deleted it. It came back. This went on for about ten minutes before he presumably got board. I mean what's the point? A waist of their time and mine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave S. EMAIL: dave@mezzoblue.com IP: 24.84.168.78 URL: http://www.mezzoblue.com/ DATE: 06/24/2003 04:40:28 AM I've just gotta laugh at the redundant title. Because, you know, we all love the ethical spammers... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 24.211.176.220 URL: http://diveintomark.org/ DATE: 06/24/2003 04:45:31 AM I solve this problem with MT's "close comment thread" feature. Set comments to "closed" and they will show but no further comments will be accepted. Wish it could do auto-close comment threads after a specific time period. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@turbonerd.com IP: 68.66.64.172 URL: http://www.turbonerd.com DATE: 06/24/2003 06:04:55 AM I hesitate to suggest it, because it introduces a few unfortunate side-effects, but I don't immediately see another solution to the problem aside from placing a gate between the spam and the public comment page. For example, one might need to "approve" a comment before it gets posted on her site. This is a bummer solution admittedly, but there are also ways to create similar gates programmatically, and to allow trusted users through the gate (e.g., cookies, passwords, etc.) without hassle on subsequent visits, perhaps? (Man, I feel like a nerd.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hans Nyberg EMAIL: hans@panoramas.dk IP: 80.62.247.140 URL: http://www.panoramas.dk DATE: 06/24/2003 10:43:14 AM Tom said >Google built in a nice piece of parsing code that means they >won't weight the words in a link if they don't appear on the >page at the other end. That is not true. Or it does not work. My site has been no 1 for a certain keyword for about half a year. Last Google update I was passed by a new website which did not at all contain the keyword. When I searched for the links to it I only got guestbooks. He has spammed the guestbooks with links using several keywords.The guy has spammed over 100 guestbooks. Because of the new way Google treats the main page I have fallen from 556 to 46 on the index page while I have increased the number of links to more than 1.300 on the whole site. I hope Google soon discovers the problems they have made by ranking link words higher than titles. I am not going to spam this comment with the url but you can search for panoramas and look at the "zoomvirtual" page. I seen several examples on the same thing earlier but not from guestbooks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron Mayzes EMAIL: aaron@mayzes.net IP: 65.178.193.138 URL: DATE: 06/24/2003 01:55:26 PM One possible idea might involve whipping up some sort of system similar to that of using dummy email accounts as a sort of honeypot, in order to automatically identify and block spamish comments. It'd clearly take someone with madder programming skillz than I to implement, but that's my idea. Run free, little idea! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gerald EMAIL: gerald.steffens@gmx.de IP: 217.225.24.17 URL: http://www.gerald-steffens.com/blog/ DATE: 06/24/2003 02:23:18 PM Tom, you gave them one link. That's not enough for a Googlebomb. Thus it's one link to much ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Davis EMAIL: tgrupert@bestweb.net IP: 216.179.109.253 URL: http://www.livejournal.com/users/tgrupert/ DATE: 06/24/2003 06:32:45 PM If they were smart they could offer authors of popular blogs special deals. Doing so (even at a loss) would get them mentioned by the author themselves. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jay EMAIL: webbasedjay@yahoo.com IP: 199.46.200.230 URL: DATE: 06/24/2003 06:56:29 PM Blogger should add a baynesian filter to their comment system. They could produce something pretty robust from the large number of blogs that they host. I currently code my own blog because I'm a dork like that, but a filter that leverages a larger community would definitely add value to a localized system like their's. Or, if this gets to be a major problem for a site that gets a lot of comments, MT could add a "this is spam" button that lets the administrator delete a post and add it to a local corpus. For awhile, the blogger would have to be prompted to review questionable posts, but folks who've been blogging for years would have a pretty bulletproof system by now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie EMAIL: jamie@jamiedoris.com IP: 24.168.1.11 URL: http://www.jamiedoris.com/ DATE: 06/24/2003 07:17:25 PM Hey Jay -- I'm a dork like that too! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ryan EMAIL: nospam@nospam.net IP: 63.69.106.5 URL: http://snowsuit.net DATE: 06/25/2003 01:54:10 PM Joel of Joel on Software has an interesting answer to some of this: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BuildingCommunitieswithSo.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nik Cubrilovic EMAIL: nik@nik.com.au IP: 196.25.253.13 URL: http://www.nik.com.au DATE: 06/25/2003 10:23:57 PM I have been a serious victim of comment spam. There was a gap of a few weeks where I was away and not online, and I returned to my weblog to find a whole heap of comments on my weblog. The comments were in regards to a guy on the Internet who is scamming people by selling brand name sunglasses at a discount, and then not delivering. Now the comments on my site implied that I was this person who was scamming these people! So people searching for "ray ban scam" were hitting my site through Google, then finding my email address and sending me unpleasant emails. At first I thought it was a friend playing a joke (I have weird friends), but it got serious. I deleted all the comments, and shut down comments on my weblog, but the google cache took a while to update and still had "ray ban scam" referencing my site. I am still now seeing referrers in my logs of people looking into the scam and finding my site. A strange tale. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: akama35@netscape.net IP: 65.34.72.238 URL: http://jbaufordswaterhole.distanthost.com DATE: 08/25/2003 11:59:35 PM I have to agree with you about this unethical spamming. I think that it is just stupid. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robin@figuresix.co.uk IP: 193.35.220.36 URL: DATE: 09/11/2003 04:05:19 PM Just did a search for 'e-flights' on Google. This page is ranked 14 :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob EMAIL: bb@mail.com IP: 67.31.165.162 URL: DATE: 09/22/2003 06:50:55 PM As far as page rank goes aren't you like the pot calling the kettle black? Let's face it google has artificially super raised the page rank of blogs because they are in the blogger business now. Two years ago a site like your blog here would at best have a pr4 if you were lucky! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.215.253 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/22/2003 10:32:38 PM No, "Bob", I'm not. And why? Because unlike you and the four other people with similar one-word names littering my site this morning, I don't spam other sites to get pagerank. All I do is run a site on a daily basis that contains content that people are interested in linking to. How Google rates that is their own bloody business. And while I'm at it, I don't stick links to porn sites on other people's weblogs. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob to Tom EMAIL: bob@bob.com IP: 67.31.166.15 URL: DATE: 10/05/2003 06:32:43 PM Tom, If you don't want certain types of homepages listed such as ones about sex then you need to turn off allowing homepage url's to be listed with the comments. I don't know what your problem is with sex sites, perhaps you are a victorian or a religious fanatic, beats me, but you do have the option to turn off homepage url listing with the comments. As for full names v/s a single name what difference does it make? I don't get it? Do you really think people who use two names are using their real names here on the internet where they could be hurt, killed by psychos out there? Do you ever read the newspapers concerning people who have given out their real names on the net and were kidnaped and brutally murdered by wierdos out there? Nobody with any common sense gives out their real name on the internet. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.194.89 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/05/2003 07:39:47 PM Seriously, Bob. What you're doing is the equivalent of walking into someone's conversation and shouting "Do you want a blowjob!? Come to my site and get a blowjob!" over and over again. I don't have any problem with sex. Sex is great! But you're not offending me on the basis of your interest in sex, you're offending me because you're prepared to fuck around with other people's conversations just to make a few cents. That kind of cynicism, that you're quite comfortable to come in here to my site that I pay for out of my own pocket and have built and written for on a daily basis for the last four years and dare to try and use it to scrabble for money without regard for me, the work I've put in or the community of people who use this site disgusts me! It's no better than petty vandalism and I have no respect for anyone who undertakes it. ----- PING: TITLE: http://benediction.houreleven.com/archives/000446.php URL: http://benediction.houreleven.com/archives/000446.php IP: 66.227.56.14 BLOG NAME: Bene Diction Blogs On! DATE: 06/24/2003 04:31:35 PM Wired News has an interesting interview with the creators of Strongbad. I stumbled on the site about a year ago, and I find it funny. Some of my friends don't get it though. It looks like this family project will keep going for awhile. Hello techies...... ----- PING: TITLE: Blog spammers URL: http://www.markme.com/jd/archives/002767.cfm IP: 207.44.198.22 BLOG NAME: JD on MX DATE: 06/26/2003 11:05:32 PM Blog spammers: There's a lengthy discussion at PlasticBag about handling people who spam blog comments. In related news there's a resurgence of SoBig infections going around... I deleted over 100 attachments at the server this morning, and more came in... ----- PING: TITLE: spamming weblogs and e-flight.biz URL: http://blog.org/archives/cat_weblogs.html#000857 IP: 216.191.155.143 BLOG NAME: Blog.org DATE: 09/25/2003 08:56:44 PM Tom Coates comments on a phenomenon that I hope will not turn into a real problem - people posting spam... ----- PING: TITLE: The latest flame war URL: http://www.benedictionblogson.com/archives/000433.php IP: 209.239.40.33 BLOG NAME: Bene Diction Blogs On DATE: 07/08/2004 10:48:40 AM It started here. And it caused such a reaction the post was taken down from the front page. But not before it was brought up at LivingRoom and John Adams. I think it is great that young people are exploring their place in their world and our world, and... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hacks: Mailing Lists with Blogger Pro STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/22/2003 03:48:36 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the neat features that comes with Blogger Pro is the ability to have your weblog posts e-mailed off somewhere when you publish them. And this presents opportunities to extend your tiny empire right off the web and into people's inboxes. Why not set up a one-way e-mail list which people can sign up to instead of slogging over to your site each day? Or maybe you would like to start a full discussion list with new debates inspired by your daily fevered rantings!

    In order to set something like this up, the first thing you need to do is find a free mailing-list site like Yahoogroups (http://www.yahoogroups.com). Set yourself up a basic list to start off with - and decide whether you want everyone to be able to join in with conversation on the list or not. The only thing you have to do is make sure that the e-mail address you (or you and your friends) use in your Blogger settings are signed up as members to the mailing list and are able to post new messages. When Blogger sends out an e-mail containing the text from your latest post, it will make it look as if it came from your e-mail address. So if that e-mail address is not a member of the mailing list, then it will just bounce right off and no one will get to read it.

    The last thing you have to do is go to the settings page on Blogger under the e-mail tab and put the e-mail address of your mailing list in the Blogsend field. If you are using Yahoo then this will be formatted like so:

    [name of group]@yahoogroups.com

    And you're done!

    Just two more tips for turning your weblog into an effective mailing list. As soon as you click on publish, your post will be sent out to everyone on your list and can't be taken back. So make sure to edit and revise your post carefully before you publish it - saving it as a 'draft' when you're not working on it. And secondly think carefully about how many e-mails people like to receive in a day - if you're a prolific poster, why not encourage people to receive all your posts in a 'digest' form once a day. That way they'll never want to kill you with axes.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.28.221 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/22/2003 04:29:17 PM "instead of slogging over to your site each day". Three little letters... R. S. S. But still, cool hack. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.205.246 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/22/2003 05:01:06 PM Hey don't forget, not everyone has a platform (OSX) which has decent RSS-readers as standard. Some poor bastards are stuck with PCs! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 65.92.120.84 URL: http://www.fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 06/22/2003 05:05:16 PM that is cool, and easier. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: dontspamthisyoubastard@cwazy.co.uk IP: 194.217.93.82 URL: http://www.dragonthief.com DATE: 06/23/2003 02:03:47 PM Of course, people may have other valid reasons for wanting to kill you with axes. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.11.238 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/23/2003 03:37:17 PM Speak for yourself! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KJC EMAIL: kjc4130@hotmail.com IP: 66.228.82.163 URL: DATE: 06/23/2003 06:18:54 PM There IS a good RSS reader for OSX -- NetNewsWire: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.11.238 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/23/2003 06:39:41 PM I know! I was saying there weren't good ones for PCs.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: jon@curnow.org IP: 62.49.20.106 URL: http://www.musak.org DATE: 06/23/2003 10:59:49 PM Emails are a great idea. Pushed content is not dead!! Tom, where is your email feed? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.38.82 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/24/2003 01:34:10 AM Perhaps a centralised RSS-to-email thingy might be a good idea. You know - give it a list of RSS feeds you like and it would email a digest (or individual posts) for each RSS feed on your list. Oh, and that's my idea - whoever does it must make it noncommercial and get me a drink. Would save having each site emailing out masses on top of having to brew up RSS for each visitor. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: plasticgab@x-pollen.com IP: 64.172.59.73 URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/ DATE: 06/24/2003 04:12:12 PM Bloglet (http://www.bloglet.com/) is a free subscribe-to-blog-by-email service based on RSS, though it does seem a tad flaky at times. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fishrush EMAIL: kent@fishrush.com IP: 4.62.171.195 URL: http://www.fishrush.com DATE: 07/01/2003 02:16:30 PM With some minor tweaking, (with the addition of RSS feeds for example) YahooGroups becomes an interesting "Blogging App" in and of itself -- many of the existing features would be welcomed by bloggers. The way I see it, Yahoo owes you $3.7 million for pointing out this potentially revoparidgmaticary use of their stagnating service. (Ok, I'll admit it. I just made up the word 'revoparidgmaticary'.) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mac linkage.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/22/2003 07:20:36 PM ----- BODY:

    While I could be out with Cory I have to do loads of work and stuff. very frustrating. So here's just a few annoying quick Mac links to end the day with while I'm doing this stuff:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Awesome Apple Updates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/23/2003 08:40:06 PM ----- BODY:

    The big news from Cupertino via the WWDC:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 17.210.12.190 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 06/23/2003 09:27:30 PM Hey man, I'm there right now and just posted some thoughts to my weblog: http://www.scifihifi.com/weblog/wwdc2003/Keynote.html I'm going to try to post some pics of the iSight later as well :-)... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 138.88.86.28 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 06/24/2003 12:56:23 AM I'm already wondering what iSight's going to do to all of us. I only know so many of the other webloggers from posting... when we get this, I imagine some of us are going to be tempted to come out into the light. It might be bad for posting for a while, if this is really going to be as easy as it looks. Tom, I think I remember you were one of the people, like me, with a 24-7 webcam on the site a few years back... then we all kind of took them down, at least in my case when more than the 4 people I intended it for seemed to be coming to the site. So I'm sure you were playing with a lot of the video chat software like I was, too. They were hilariously bad over our 28.8 modems, and we all just gave up. Funny how it takes Apple to make this all new and fun again when all the broadband players could have easily been pushing this hard the last two years. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.33.65 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 06/24/2003 01:57:31 AM Oooh. New Mac stuff! My only complaint? More fucking chrome... And I bet there won't be any easy way of disabling it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@mac.com IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://s3d@dreamingsea.net DATE: 06/24/2003 11:21:15 AM My only complaint(s)...iChatAV only works (i.e. audio and video) if your buddies are other iChat users...oh yes and Broadband would be nice...roll on the rural revolution... ~;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt@frownland.com IP: 80.194.225.139 URL: http://www.frownland.com DATE: 06/24/2003 11:40:33 AM Most disappointing is the fact that video conferencing using iChat will not work on G3 machines: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93206 Not sure sure if this will be rectified in the final release. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hacks: Upgrading to Movable Type from Blogger STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/23/2003 10:09:28 PM ----- BODY:

    The instruction manual for Movable Type contains detailed instructions about transferring your weblog from Blogger and Blogger Pro, and these instructions work extremely well if you have not been maintaining your site for very long. But while it's rare for there to be a problem with the importing process, exporting weblogs from Blogger isn't always so easy.

    The normal transferral process is essentially three stages:

    1. Replacing your Blogger template with one that formats your data in a way that Movable Type will understand.
    2. Changing your Blogger settings to produce one very large file containing all your data.
    3. Inserting that file into Movable Type's import directory and pressing the import button.

    Stage one is the simplest stage and presents no problems. You simply copy this text into your Blogger template page:

    <Blogger>
    AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthor$>
    DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
    -----
    BODY:
    <$BlogItemBody$>
    --------
    </Blogger>
    

    If you are using Blogger Pro, you should add the title tag to your template so that it reads like so:

    <Blogger>
    TITLE: <PostSubject><$BlogItemSubject$></PostSubject>
    AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthor$>
    DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
    -----
    BODY:
    <$BlogItemBody$>
    --------
    </Blogger>
    

    Click to save the template, and you're done.

    Stage two is a little trickier. Firstly you change your Blog Filename to something other than the name you normally use. This is just so that you don't over-write your normal front-page while exporting. Then you set the Date/Time Format to the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM|PM and turn off Convert Line Breaks.

    There are two other things they tell you to do in the instructions and these are (in Archive Frequency) turn your archives off and then (in Formatting) set the 'Show N days' posts on main page' to be higher than the number of days you have posted. At this point if you publish your blog, you're supposed to get one massive file containing all your posts.

    Unfortunately this often won't work if you've been weblogging for a while. Firstly, you can't put a number into 'N day's posts' field that's in excess of 999 days, which is a bit less than three years worth of posting. Secondly, even when it finally publishes the file, it is likely not to actually include even that three years of posts. In fact, you're more likely to get around one year's worth of exported content.

    In fact the best way to import files into Movable Type turns out to be by renaming and republishing your 'archive' templates rather than your main template. If you transfer all of those over into the import directory instead of your main page, Movable Type doesn't seem to have any trouble importing them all in one go, and Blogger has considerably less trouble generating the pages.

    The only other thing to bear in mind is the number of Movable Type entries. Movable Type will number your entries in order of file name and then from the top of the page down. If you manage to export everything from Blogger in one go, then the layout means that the most recently created post will be given assigned the MT post number 1, with each subsequent post's number increasing incrementally even as you go back in time. While your posts will always be displayed in date order, this post numbering can be confusing. You might wish to explore ways of reversing the order of the posts in your import file. This is particularly true when you're importing from multiple archive templates, as it will start with the earliest dated file, and then with the oldest (first) within it - effectively completely messing up the order of you posts... Either way, good luck!

    This hack was originally supposed to appear in the ill-fated O'Reilly "Blogging Hacks" book. I'll be putting all my contributions online over the next few days / weeks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eric J EMAIL: ericj@webraw.com IP: 204.78.62.36 URL: http://www.webraw.com DATE: 06/23/2003 10:56:13 PM Tom, Thanks much for posting this. I'm currently in the process of making just such a transition and this is a very helpful addition to the MT instructions. One thing that worries me is that something might be different with the New Blogger Pro. Blogger recently switched my blogs to the new.blogger servers and (with Bloggers track record) I fear something will become severely screwed in the process. Anyone had any problems with the New Blogger switch to MT or is it still too early for a report? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil McIntosh EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 62.254.128.6 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 06/30/2003 03:24:29 PM Tom - thanks for the helpful hack. I may well be struggling down the migratory path from Blogger to MT very soon, as Onlineblog outgrows Blogger Pro, and I'll certainly use this for reference. But one (perhaps slightly daft) question: is there an over-riding reason why we should move archives over to MT, other than for neatness? Is leaving the archives as static HTML pages not an option too? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/10/2003 05:27:45 PM The main reason to move your archives is so that you can rework and redesign your whole site in one go from one interface if you decide you want to. It also lets you do things like use MT Search as your site's search engine rather than having to run another one over the top. Basically, you want to keep your content in a content management system because it just makes it easier to ... manage! ----- PING: TITLE: Note to James URL: http://anize.org/think/dfc/archives/001924.html IP: 66.70.179.192 BLOG NAME: dfc DATE: 06/24/2003 05:16:15 AM James before the semantic web hits beta could you upgrade to MT? Your RSS feed is fsck’ed… Upgrading from Blogger to MT... ----- PING: TITLE: Make that move: Blogger to Movable Type URL: http://tonytalkstech.com/archives/000200.php IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Technically Speaking DATE: 06/27/2003 05:01:01 AM For those of you that are thinking of making the move, I can tell you that you won't be dissappointed. I have done it twice and to tell you the truth; it wasn't as easy the second time as it... ----- PING: TITLE: Converting from Blogger to Movable Type URL: http://brainstormsandraves.com/archives/2003/07/09/_converting_from_blogger_to_movable_type.shtml IP: 205.162.100.16 BLOG NAME: Brainstorms and Raves (Staging) DATE: 07/10/2003 03:30:50 AM I've received several email questions about converting from Blogger to Movable Type, especially with an IIS server, so I thought I'd go ahead and pass along some information at my weblog. Movable Type and an IIS ServerChanges for .cgi extensions (to .... ----- PING: TITLE: Exporting from Blogger - How to's URL: http://railroad.silentrunning.tv/archives/002895.html IP: 205.243.144.3 BLOG NAME: A Stop on the Railroad DATE: 08/24/2003 12:31:11 PM Thanks to Gil Shterzer of Israeli Guy, for bringing my attention to a couple of great resources to assist in exporting your entries from Blogger into MT. An illustrated, step by step set of instructions can be found at Neologasm,... ----- PING: TITLE: the only question left is should i? URL: http://www.epersonae.com/snapping2/2003/10/01/the_only_question_left_is_should_i.php IP: 69.22.169.28 BLOG NAME: Snapping Links II (The Revenge) DATE: 10/02/2003 12:12:06 AM converting from blogger to mt. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/23/2003 11:37:30 PM ----- BODY:

    So because my brain refuses to do what it's supposed to be doing and is finding any and all other avenues to explore, I've read the entire seven hundred and fifty page Harry Potter novel over the last couple of days as well as produced an interminable amount of notes and scribblings of various kinds. My verdict on the book? Gripping and entertaining but also a bit meandering and lacking a clear escalation of pace / convincingly epic conclusion at the end of it. Seemed more of an accidental ending in some ways. Doesn't compete with books three or four. But I look forward to the final two...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hacks: "On this day" links in Movable Type STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 06/24/2003 12:09:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Each day webloggers across the world post news, comments and little fragments of personal information onto their sites. And everything that they post will be forever associated with that specific day in history. But they're not the only sites to connect a piece of writing or a picture with a day. In fact all over the internet there are hundreds of '[something] of the day' or 'on this day' sites - from "Astronomical Picture of the Day" through to "Dilbert Cartoon of the Day". There's a whole category on Yahoo dedicated to these things.

    This hack allows you to put an automated link on the bottom of each of your posts to the Dilbert cartoon (or astronomical picture, word of the day etc.) that was published on that day. You can use it to add a little context to the events on your site or just to show off your interests.

    First things first - what are we trying to link to? These sites often have simple URLs that are based upon the date on which they were initially displayed. For example the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" for February 23rd 2003 has the URL:

    antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030209.html

    ...where the six numbers near the end are the year (03), the month (02) and the day (09). The Dilbert cartoon for the same day has this URL:

    dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20030209.html

    ...which uses almost exactly the same format except with a the year spelled out in full (2003).

    So in order to insert these links on a day-by-day basis, we're going to have to put the basic URL in place without the date elements, find some way of inserting those date elements and make sure that they're formatted so they'll work as a link. We're going to do this by using some of Moveable Type's most useful and versatile features - the <$MTEntryDate$> tag. If you insert this tag into your templates by itself it will use its default setting - which is designed for reading and will look a bit like this: "September 9, 2003 11:44 PM". But you can easily override this by using the format attribute and one or more date-tag variables. Here are a couple of examples of how you might format <$MTEntryDate$> and what the result would look like on your published page:

    <$MTEntryDate format="%d %b %y"$> 
    	would look like "09 Sep 03"
    
    <$MTEntryDate format="%Y: %B, %e"$> 
    	would look like "2003: September, 9"
    

    Here are what some of those letters mean:

    Month:
    
      %b - name abbreviated to three characters
         eg. Sep
    
      %B - name in full 
         eg. September
    
      %m - presented as two digits padded with a 0 if necessary
         eg. 09		
    
    Day:
    
      %d - two digits padded with a 0 if necessary
         eg. 09
    
      %e - two digits padded with a space if necessary
         eg. 9
    
    Year:
    
      %y - two digits padded with a 0 if necessary 
         eg. 01
    
      %Y - four digits. 
         eg. 2001
    

    So to make those daily URLs all we have to do is change the original URLs to include the <$MTEntryDate$> tag like so:

    From:	
    
      http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030209.html
    
         to:	
    
      http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap<$MTEntryDate 
         format="%y%m%d"$>.html
    
    From:
    
      http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-
         20030209.html
    
         to:
    
      http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-
         <$MTEntryDate format="%Y%m%d"$>.html
    

    So this is what you'd put into your template:

    <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap
       <$MTEntryDate format="%y%m%d"$>.html">
       Astronomical Picture of the Day</a>

    This hack was originally supposed to appear in the ill-fated O'Reilly "Blogging Hacks" book. I'll be putting all my contributions online over the next few days / weeks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shapiro Morris EMAIL: shapiromorris@ljdrama.org IP: 12.230.80.114 URL: http://www.ljdrama.org/ DATE: 06/24/2003 01:23:32 PM You know, not to burst your bubble but at the movabletype.org website, there is already a fine Support Forum in existence with exeptional support from users who have used MT a lot longer than a few days. Why would anyone want to come to your site for MT tips? I certainly wouldn't. I certainly don't visit plasticbag.org for MT questions. I hate to say it but you're just wasting your time. Also, what did you do with the preview button? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.226.205 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/24/2003 01:38:43 PM I wrote some stuff for an O'Reilly book and the book's not getting published now so I'm sticking it on my site. That's all. Rather than do it all in one block, I'm sticking it up over a few days. I've also got other work to do at the moment, so this is quite nicely keeping my site ticking over while I get on with that. I also think that it doesn't do any harm to add a bit of information back into the general community. If someone finds it interesting or wants to do something similar or it inspires them to do something, then that's all to the good. With regard to some of your other comments, I've used MT for a lot longer than a few days, thank you very much, if you don't find them interesting then that's fine too (don't read 'em), but when you say I'm wasting my time I have to protest and I suggest you read this piece by Mark Pilgrim which I think sums up my feelings on this matter pretty well... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.226.205 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/24/2003 01:39:53 PM Also - re the preview button - I took it off because I've been having problems with the set up of my server and haven't had time to fix them yet. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mort EMAIL: manuel@simplelogica.net IP: 212.89.24.145 URL: http://simplelogica.net/logicola/ DATE: 06/24/2003 02:53:29 PM Hi Tom, i don't even use MT but i'd like to express my simpathy for you and Mark and anyone who has to read the crap assholes like this 'Shapiro' or Mark's 'Saul' leave behind. Both of you have been much more polite than i'd have been in similar circunstances. Keep on with your superb blogging and blog about what the heck you fancy. We with half a brain will be delighted. Shapiros of this world will... bah, who cares about them anyways? :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: c@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.254.48 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 06/24/2003 11:10:48 PM A slight addendum: I think you have to be careful with sites like Dilbert, because the picture disappears after thirty days. And we don't want more broken picture links on this interweb... Oh, and I'm really enjoying all the Blogging Hacks stuff on various sites. It's inspirational, and it's nice to have such a toolbox available for when I do get around to making a proper spangly weblog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shapiro Morris EMAIL: shapiromorris@ljdrama.org IP: 12.230.80.114 URL: http://www.ljdrama.org/ DATE: 06/25/2003 09:02:17 AM Tom Coates: It's not that I don't "like" your site, but when you are posting very specific MT related information, and I can see that it's all wrong, I would say something. I was being polite by not pointing out the obvious errors in your code. I was being nice, for heaven's sakes! There is a reason for the existence of the movabletype.org support forums. That's where you should be posting "hacks" like this so as to permit more knowledgeable users the opportunity to point out your errors. What you think is providing service to similar users like yourself is in actuality a gross disservice because giving out faulty information just confuses users and creates stress in their lives. I'm not trying to tell you what to write. I'm just asking you to be more considerate and not present yourself as an authority on Movable Type issues when you just switched from Blogger to MT a few days ago. Mort, you are an idiot of the highest order. Just because I post a comment critical of the information that Mr. Coates is posting doesn't make me an asshole. Anytime you post something on the Internet or on the public domain, you open yourself to all sorts of praises, critical acclaim, bashing, etc. If you can't understand that simple concept, you need to quit using the computer altogether, discontinue using your online service and quit posting comments or anything on the Net. You can also learn some manners and STFU about things you don't know. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mort EMAIL: manuel@simplelogica.net IP: 212.89.29.33 URL: http://www.simplelogica.net/logicola/ DATE: 06/25/2003 02:24:44 PM Shapiro: "Mort, you are an idiot of the highest order. " I have to agree with you in that point Shapiro: "Anytime you post something on the Internet or on the public domain, you open yourself to all sorts of praises, critical acclaim, bashing, etc." Cool. That applies to *my* bashing of your comment, so you should have taken it easier.Anyways, you can comment, i can comment on your comment and Tom can ignore us both and hopefully will. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: wuji EMAIL: wujimon@xsmail.com IP: 192.61.123.130 URL: http://wuji.apxs.us DATE: 06/29/2003 06:12:44 PM Just wanted to say thanks for the great hack. I feel bad that the book didn't get released since I was ready to go and pick it up. Anyhow, thanks for sharing the information :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: almostwitty@ntlworld.com IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://andrew.ulimit.org/index.shtml DATE: 07/02/2003 01:06:57 PM I, for one, as a newbie blogger intrigued by all the hacking potential found this above post far more illuminating, and hell, easier to figure out than the posts on MT support. Of course, I haven't tried implementing it yet! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My obligation to you... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/24/2003 02:06:14 PM ----- BODY:

    I feel a personal obligation to the people who read this site and to the world at large not to lie in my posts. I feel a personal obligation not to mischaracterise the truth and to correct any mistakes I make. I feel a personal obligation not to lie by omission. I consider it part of every human being's duty to stand up and fight for what they believe in whenever the feel capable of doing so in whatever way they feel they can. I feel an obligation to foreground any conflicts of interest I might have.

    I feel a very different kind of obligation to the friends that I've made online and the community that has grown up around this site, and to the communities that have formed between all of our sites. I have no desire to anger anyone, frustrate anyone or humiliate anyone. I believe very strongly in the power of reasonable debate, trying - whenever possible - to avoid blatant rhetoric and appeals to emotion, territorialism and nationalism in favour of serious attempts to find some kind of reasonable, workable solution or truth.

    Much like Mark Pilgrim, I feel absolutely no obligation whatsoever to write to entertain the people who read this site. This is my space to be able to speak my mind or make whatever contribution to the world that I want to make. I feel absolutely no obligation whatsoever to change what I'm interested in writing in to fit the desires or needs of people who read this site. Nor do I feel any obligation whatsoever to avoid talking about things that they are not interested in reading or comfortable reading.

    I believe very strongly that my site is a representation of myself in cyberspace - and I think that's true for a lot of people who run personal sites wth weblog software. It is not a publishing venture. I have no potential revenues. I have no obligation or desire to maximise traffic for myself simply in order to get money. And for that reason I don't feel an obligation to target demographics precisely or maintain any form of continuity on my site other than to say, "I wrote this. The thread through all this stuff is that it matters to me".

    If I was to self-censor and self-adapt purely in order to write for our audience's desires alone (however big, however small), then the thin cord that separates our online selves from our offline selves would be severed. Our sites would become little more than costumes we wore - and I think that would be a betrayal of ourselves and the dozens of overlapping communities that each of us belongs to.

    So on the days when I write things that you enjoy - relish it! Get pleasure from it! Sometimes people out there even get commercial benefits from stuff that I write - and that's fine! Enjoy it - I want you to! And on the days when I say something that angers and infuriates you, tell me! Write to me and correct me or explain to me why I'm wrong. I want to know. I want to learn. And if it turns out that what I want to write about doesn't interest you, then that's fine - go elsewhere - there's a world of sites out there to read. And you never know - I might even register your absence and try and mend my ways...

    But I swear to god, the next person who tries to tell me what I should and shouldn't be writing on my own site - which I produce for free and for which I ask nothing in exchange - is going to get a kick up the arse so fucking hard that when they finally land again they'll have frost in their hair...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@johnsjottings.com IP: 24.118.225.8 URL: http://www.johnsjottings.com DATE: 06/24/2003 02:39:21 PM Someone needs to write up the Five Stages of a Weblogger because surely one of them is when he gets fed up with people who complain about their content in some fashion. Seems to happen a lot, of course most especially to those who have a dedicated readership who have decided that said weblogger is writing about one thing that interests them. When that one thing gets mixed in with other things some people seem to believe thats wrong. As writers each of us struggles to find their voice and in doing so it sometimes changes - and people need to deal with that. Hopefully you can move on to the next stage quickly. :-) Keep up the good work... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jb EMAIL: jontyb@mac.com IP: 217.215.102.95 URL: http://homepage.mac.com/jontyb/weblog/index.html DATE: 06/24/2003 03:08:07 PM I am a big fan of Plastig Bag, Tom. Thank you ! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel EMAIL: kaosbabalon@NOSPAMhotmail.com IP: 213.121.66.128 URL: http://www.biroco.com/ DATE: 06/24/2003 03:27:35 PM Interesting post. Been considering this myself. Some friends have told me they don't think such-and-such is a good idea and that I should just write about this kind of stuff, as if my website journal was solely to provide an entertaining read to bored office workers on a Monday morning. The suggestion is that I should make sure the one after the weekend hits the lowest common denominator...put the arcane and overly esoteric stuff somewhere else on the site, etc etc. I find that when I start visualizing "my audience" (gawd) one way or another way I just dunno what to write. The bottom line is that the readers of a website come to it for all sorts of reasons, and if you try to even out what you're talking about I suspect you just end up with the flat line on the heart monitor. And you're not representing yourself fully then anyway. I like writing stuff that might appeal to anybody, but then I also like writing things that about 2 people in the entire world will ever take any interest in (and they probably haven't found the site yet). So you're dead right, and it's a useful reminder. As for that link to "dive into mark", that was astonishing! If someone wrote me an email like that I think I'd send them one back telling them why I was coming round there right now to throw a brick through their fucking window. Of course we care what people think about what we do with our websites, and it's lying to ourselves to think otherwise because sometimes they may just be right, but on the other hand it's useful to remember that the world is full of shits and some of them may just be reading your website. Cheers ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil_snelling@hotmail.com IP: 172.191.98.33 URL: http://onestupidblog.blogspot.com DATE: 06/24/2003 04:59:08 PM I was having a vaguely similar converstation to this with a friend the other week, the upshot being that (and I know this is a hoary old cliche) that people seem to use the perceived anonymity or impersonality of the internet to behave in what frequently seems like extraordinarily rude or hurtful terms. Being generous, perhaps some of this is due to tones of voice or subtleties or whatever not transferring well into writing. Unfortunately, like Joel says, there are some people who are just rude bastards... For me, the bottom line is that, as you say, Tom, a weblog is often an representation of yourself and therefore people could have a greater or lesser amount of emotional investment in them whether or not someone else might read it as inane or boring or whatever. So to post shitty comments or otherwise put someone down just because they have the facility to do that is pretty unforgivable, in my opinion... Hope that's not too rambling! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil_snelling@hotmail.com IP: 172.191.98.33 URL: http://onestupidblog.blogspot.com DATE: 06/24/2003 05:10:07 PM By "converstations" I mean "conversations". D'oh! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave S. EMAIL: dave@mezzoblue.com IP: 64.180.126.204 URL: http://www.mezzoblue.com/ DATE: 06/24/2003 06:07:58 PM I watch the Colorado Avalanche, therefore it's "my" team. When they start choking, I'm damn well going to tell them how they'll improve their game. When plasticbag.org, "my" weblog, starts boring me, I'm going to speak up and tell you to change it to better suit what I want to see. (please don't confuse first-person narrative for actual opinion in either case) Some people are interesting, while most are not. Those that are boring naturally flock to the interesting. Somewhere along the way, a sense of personal ownership, possibly belonging creeps into the picture. I think people forget that there actually is someone on the other end of the text box. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: arseblogger@arseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.170 URL: http://arseblog.com DATE: 06/24/2003 08:55:33 PM You know if you wrote some stuff for Windows users now and again you might get a few more readers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Wallis EMAIL: james@erstwhile.demon.co.uk IP: 80.177.122.210 URL: DATE: 06/24/2003 09:57:59 PM I enjoy your blog very much, but if you ever change that picture of Orford Castle then I'm off. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Anderson EMAIL: mark1344@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.168.177 URL: DATE: 06/25/2003 01:17:29 AM I think you should write purely about David Beckham in order to become more popular. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.226.205 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/25/2003 01:19:02 AM Windows readers!? I don't want people like that on my site! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ernie Hsiung EMAIL: ernie@littleyellowdifferent.com IP: 63.203.204.222 URL: http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com DATE: 06/25/2003 07:23:43 AM Who's David Beckham? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris Harris EMAIL: chris1000000@hotmail.com IP: 24.70.128.135 URL: DATE: 06/25/2003 09:23:42 AM David Beckham plays left back for Manchester United. Tom, wohoo, first comment after reading your site (many times!) daily for probably a year or so now. Your site is great - there's always a good read and it's never mindless junk like many other sites. Keep doing your own thing, that's what people come here for! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shaky EMAIL: shaky@buglab.net IP: 62.253.64.7 URL: DATE: 06/25/2003 09:59:35 AM As for me this is one of the few weblogs i've stuck with over the years simply because it covers anything and everything. If there is a post that doesn't interest me then I simply skip it and go onto the next site (this is so obvious that it barely needs mentioning). As for the validity of the code in the previous post - I don't use MT but I do have 10 years+ experience in perl, php, C++ etc and the code looks fine to me. Keep writing what the hell you like. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: qB@SPAMLESSfrizzylogic.ort IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org DATE: 06/25/2003 03:07:22 PM I couldn't agree more with your post. And having read the deludedly self-important and crass drivel which prompted it, I thought I'd add my voice to the others who agree with you. Also, I've just made your "random link button" for which hack I am extremely grateful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mikey EMAIL: mikey@electricbugaloo.com IP: 12.105.248.226 URL: http://www.electricbugaloo.com DATE: 06/25/2003 03:49:45 PM dude, i think you should write about more cool stuff and less about stuff that's like, not cool. that would like, totally rock! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@mac.com IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://s3d@dreamingsea.net DATE: 06/25/2003 04:57:28 PM I'm with Shaky on this one. I like your site a lot Tom. Not everything you write about interests me, but the ability to skip articles has never been an issue for me...unlike some people it seems. I tried out MT because of your site and when I decided I liked it, I was well aware of the support forums. However, it is still nice to find out about odd bits and pieces from people like yourself, especially when they relate to things I wouldn't even have thought about and if I did, I'd have the MT forums to wade through...out of the two, reading your site is more fun. Thanks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: andrew@andrewbarnett.com.au IP: 203.29.225.246 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0116932/ DATE: 06/26/2003 02:38:21 AM heh! that last paragraph has to be up there in the list of all-time-great physical threats, along with the one about kicking someone's teeth so far down his/her throat that s/he will need a toilet brush to clean them. rock on! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah EMAIL: sarah@leto.co.nz IP: 210.86.75.129 URL: http://leto.co.nz/ DATE: 06/26/2003 09:29:53 AM I haven't fully thought this one through yet so I'm not sure if I actually think it or I just think I think it, but the attraction for me of weblogs is not so much what is said but how it's said. It's the authors voice, their themness that keeps me coming back, whether they're telling me about their new undies or the state of the economy. If people write what they think, or are told, people want to hear instead of what they want to write then their themness disappears and they become just another media outlet. I don't want any of the people in my life (and blog people are part of my life) to be what I want them to be rather than what they are. I'd be all stunted and deformed and ultimately excruciatingly bored if they were. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lyle EMAIL: lyle2@destruction-for-dummies.co.uk IP: 212.135.153.98 URL: http://www.destruction-for-dummies.co.uk/random.html DATE: 06/26/2003 01:12:10 PM *Applause* Well said, Tom. Personally, I prefer to read other people's posts/thoughts, rather than something that's been tweaked and edited to fit in with some nebulous "audience"'s ideas of what you should be, or what should be on the site. A credo my father used to use all the time was "I may not like what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it". I picked it up somewhere along the line (repetition being the wonderful learning tool it is) and I pretty much stick to that now. All power to your quill/pen/keyboard, and nil illegitimi carborundum. *Grin* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: liz@nerdslut.org IP: 68.76.97.162 URL: http://www.nerdslut.org/pointdexter/ DATE: 06/26/2003 05:15:35 PM Huzzah... I came up against this very problem with my own...and decided to chuck it and start over. My "brand" was too well-defined to start changing the tone and subjects as dramatically as I would like to, so I broke up with my blog...and wrote a ridiculously long essay to explain why. While I wish at the moment I had followed the momentum started by Mark and now your force added, nonetheless I think it just would have been too difficult to make the adjustment. Then again, while neither of you are doing much differently than you have been (and I, for one, enjoy and appreciate it), I just think it may be that readers are beginning to get a sense of entitlement that is more familiar to authors who write a series of books that are similar in tone and content, building expectations, and then upon writing something different, well, readers think they have every right in the world to tell you how much (and how hard) you suck. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sheila EMAIL: StarDocMail@aol.com IP: 205.188.209.70 URL: http://starlines.blogspot.com DATE: 06/28/2003 05:59:09 AM The only way people can shut you up is if you hand them the censorship duct tape yourself. Don't let anyone tell you what to write. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Holly EMAIL: holly@hollylisle.com IP: 4.72.38.94 URL: http://hollylisle.com DATE: 06/28/2003 01:11:29 PM >>But I swear to god, the next person who tries to tell me what I should and shouldn't be writing on my own site - which I produce for free and for which I ask nothing in exchange - is going to get a kick up the arse so fucking hard that when they finally land again they'll have frost in their hair... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Holly EMAIL: holly@hollylisle.com IP: 4.72.38.94 URL: http://hollylisle.com DATE: 06/28/2003 01:13:30 PM "But I swear to god, the next person who tries to tell me what I should and shouldn't be writing on my own site - which I produce for free and for which I ask nothing in exchange - is going to get a kick up the arse so fucking hard that when they finally land again they'll have frost in their hair..." That's such a fine, fine sentiment I'm tempted to use it as my new sig. Go, Tom! (And sorry about the error in the previous comment.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow EMAIL: doctorow@craphound.com IP: 216.175.96.87 URL: http://craphound.com/ DATE: 06/30/2003 11:47:09 PM Amen, Tom. This is absolutely the correct attitude. Don't let the bastards drag you down. ----- PING: TITLE: Take it outside URL: http://www.thegofish.com/archives/001439.php IP: 66.220.30.58 BLOG NAME: go fish DATE: 06/25/2003 03:11:08 PM Best diatribe about smacked asses who feel compelled to tell you what to write and what not to write goes... ----- PING: TITLE: Obliging the Audience URL: http://journurl.com/support/users/admin/index.cfm?mode=article&entry=557 IP: 63.151.45.1 BLOG NAME: Big Damn Heroes (Tech) DATE: 06/26/2003 05:23:43 PM The best thing about Tom Coates' latest piece isn't his personal variation on the old "this blog is mine and I'll say what I want" argument. It's that he does what few others are willing to do: he acknowledges that he doesn't operate in a vacuum. I adm... ----- PING: TITLE: blogging for whom? URL: http://www.dixiblog.com/archives/000499.html IP: 216.12.213.222 BLOG NAME: dixiblog DATE: 06/28/2003 04:23:39 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | My obligation to you... dicusses the concept of who you are blogging for, in a personal ----- PING: TITLE: http://60gp.ovh.net/~iokanaan/blog/archives/000151.php URL: http://60gp.ovh.net/~iokanaan/blog/archives/000151.php IP: 213.186.33.51 BLOG NAME: IokanaaN - Blog DATE: 07/01/2003 03:13:32 AM Deux posts forts justes: My obligation to you auquel j'adhËre complÈtement [via le SideBlog de Mouche] et Merriadoc qui fait un bilan de cinq mois de blog.... ----- PING: TITLE: My obligation to you URL: http://60gp.ovh.net/~iokanaan/blog/archives/000154.php IP: 213.186.33.51 BLOG NAME: IokanaaN - Blog DATE: 07/03/2003 03:18:22 PM « Le propos est noble et louable. Le problËme est dans la dÈfinition de la vÈritÈ et de l'honnÍtetÈ. C'est lý o˜ toutes les dÈclarations de bonnes volontÈs viennent souvent s'Èchouer. » - Karl dans les commentaires du post linkant... ----- PING: TITLE: Chronology: Another Way to Slice the Pie URL: http://raymondyee.net/blog/archives/000084.html IP: 209.61.183.104 BLOG NAME: Hypotyposis on a Good Day DATE: 07/27/2003 12:39:23 AM Two days ago, in hope of ultimately connecting the disparate ramblings of my blog, I presented a list of my "life roles" that I use to conceptualize my life. I set the expectation that I would come back to this... ----- PING: TITLE: Chronology: Another Way to Slice the Pie URL: http://raymondyee.net/blog/archives/000084.html IP: 209.61.183.104 BLOG NAME: Hypotyposis on a Good Day DATE: 07/27/2003 12:41:32 AM Two days ago, in hope of ultimately connecting the disparate ramblings of my blog, I presented a list of my "life roles" that I use to conceptualize my life. I set the expectation that I would come back to this... ----- PING: TITLE: Losing It With Style URL: http://weblog.garyturner.net/archives/000149.html IP: 213.228.193.82 BLOG NAME: memoria technica DATE: 09/01/2004 05:13:02 PM Tom Coates..."...I swear to god, the next person who tries to tell me what I should and shouldn't be writing on my own site - which I produce for free and for which I ask nothing in exchange - is... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Against Search Engine Optimisers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Hacks CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 06/26/2003 11:38:04 AM ----- BODY:

    In the middle of the comments for a fairly interesting article about the Googledance that never ends there's a post from a professional search engine optimiser. He says:

    My consulting business website ranks highly in google for a number of search terms that are pertinent to my business. I didn't get that way using a search engine optimization service. It didn't cost anything but my time and the sweat of my brow. And it's really very simple how it works. I tell all my methods in How to Promote Your Business on the Internet.

    In summary: That's the method I used to make a Google search for software consultant turn up my resume as the #4 search result.

    I want to make something clear. This is probably one of the best statements about search engine optimisation I've ever read, and it's still horse-shit. The thing that it says that's actually useful is that you should have a good site. First and foremost - put content on your site that people want to read and update it regularly. That's a really really good point and something that people should remember. But it's not something that a search engine optimiser can help you with, so that leaves you with link-exchange. Which is horse-shit. I'm going to say that again because I enjoyed it so much. It's horse-shit.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, listen very carefully when I say this: There is absolutely positively never any reason whatsoever to go to a search engine optimiser and they may damage your business as much as they help it. The reason they may damage your business is because - for the most part - they are designed to hack the system - to find short-cuts and tricks that fool a search engine into believing your site is something it isn't. And search engines change their indexing methods all the time to compensate for these tricks. All the time. Google do it monthly! And if they find someone using them - often they'll penalise the sites concerned.

    Here - then - is the big secret of search optimisation. Search optimisation isn't really about optimising for a search engine at all. It's about making good quality, cleanly designed, semantically-constructed sites that people want to read, that people can link to and which people can get the gist of in a few seconds. If you make a website well for human beings, then as a side effect - more often than not - search engines will spider it well and rank it highly. And they'll do this because it's the best site, not because you're trying to fool them.

    For the most part this is all you need to know:

    1. Highly complex and flashy animation does not help you, it hinders you - your site needs to be easily spiderable and that means that tricky navigational elements probably won't help. If you have to use them (like I do for my archives above), present alternative simple ways to get around your site as well that use basic boring run-of-the-mill links. This is not a search optimisation tip - this is good navigation design.
    2. Meta-tagging is not that useful any more. But if you're going to use it, do it properly. Specifically, if you're going to put in description and keyword metatags - keep them short (twenty words most), accurate (actually reflecting the content in the body of your page), and don't put the same metatags on every single damn page of your site! That's not going to help at all! None of this will affect Google, who don't pay any attention to meta tags and make up 50% of the searches performed on the web at the moment.
    3. Make it easy to link to things! This means, don't use frames! This means, try and put discreet chunks of content on clear separate pages. This again is not optimising for a search engine at all - it's how to build an information-delivery site properly.
    4. Use <title> tags properly! They sit at the top of every one of your pages and they're designed to make it easy to spot things when you bookmark them. So tell people the title of the page you're on - and do it honestly! Keep them short and clear, don't use marketing speech at all, don't try really really hard to find the right keywords, just use the title that explains what's on the page best. To help people who bookmark you then you should probably put the name of your site at the beginning or end of the title, and if you've got a shallow site hierarchy, you can even put the path to the current page in the title as well. These things are helpful to people! Unsurprisingly, search engines try to use the same criteria as actual people do.
    5. Use semantic content whenever possible. This means when something is the title of a page or a section, stick it in a <h1> tag and use CSS to style it appropriately (and before you say anything, I'm aware that I don't do that - but there's a really good reason for that). Also when you're linking to things don't use terrible words inside the links like "click here" but actually use read words. This is good for people and helpful for search engines. Don't lie! People would find it more useful if you linked to a page about sportscar GT with a link that said "We have a comprehensive section about sportscar GT". Search engines - weirdly - do too!
    6. Bugger link-exchange! Google specifically penalises people for using known link-exchange programmes because they've been designed specifically to circumvent Google's attempt to find quality sites that are well-respected and rated. Don't try and fool the search engines unless you're prepared to pay for search engine optimisers to come in and fix your site every two weeks.

    God there's loads more stuff I could say, but the rule of thumb is the same for all of them. Build sites that are easy for people to use, try not to let the technology get in the way of delivering the information and aspire to making things that work the way the web works, and you'll never have any trouble with search engines.

    Addendum: There's an interesting article on Google over at Salon today in which - yet again - some of the people who try to mischaracterise the usefulness of their own sites by gaming search engine algorithms claim that not being allowed to lie about their site's relevancy is terribly terribly bad. I have absolutely no respect for these people at all...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.226.205 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/26/2003 12:02:08 PM I'm bound to have left something else pertinent out. But really - this stuff is a no-brainer... Don't waste your money with search engine optimisers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Thristan EMAIL: beonlinecomms@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.194.14 URL: http://www.marktsinfoblog.blogspot.com DATE: 06/26/2003 12:57:25 PM I think that some of it boils down to a number of things that are desired from a search (by the user as opposed to in theory). The first thing that a user wants is obviously relevance - algorithms are great at doing this. The second thing that users want is to be able to trust the resource (i.e. judge its reputation). While some might say that it is down to the user to make this value judgement, and, that one man's meat is another man's poison, I always feel that Google's link algorithm makes a reputation judgement that is slightly faulty - i.e. that the best search result is the most popular item (with links) that returns relevant results. Links can be seen as very commodity-based (they can be traded and can return benefits in leading to better search rankings), but reputation is rarely just about popularity - it's about context, real-world standing, quality of material and so on and so forth. I've absolutely no idea how search engines could deal with this, but reputation-relevance would probably deal with "spamming" optimisation techniques. Just a thought... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jo EMAIL: jo@tinyjo.net IP: 62.232.43.13 URL: http://www.tinyjo.net/journal/ DATE: 06/26/2003 01:38:30 PM It's like an executive summary of Dive into Accessibility :) I suppose it's all about making your site easy to read for everyone from screen readers to spiders. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jo EMAIL: jo@tinyjo.net IP: 62.232.43.13 URL: http://www.tinyjo.net/journal/ DATE: 06/26/2003 01:41:50 PM Doh! I know how to link, honest! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rod Brown EMAIL: rod.brown@eoascientific.com IP: 24.222.120.220 URL: http://N/A DATE: 06/26/2003 01:43:36 PM Why advertise at all, print media (newspaper, catalogs, etc.) are expense, tv and radio same thing... in all cases more expensive than any optimizer for the market reach and penetration. This is however what Tom does not understand.... "spiderable, tricky navigational elements, Meta-tagging, description and keyword metatags, frames, , shallow site hierarchy, semantic tag, CSS"... Tom assumes every person reading this understand web page code, knows how to read it, change it, and make it better. That's horse shit - "try not to let the technology get in the way"... you just did Tom! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 145.58.4.51 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 06/26/2003 01:59:03 PM "Tom assumes every person reading this understand web page code, knows how to read it, change it, and make it better." I think Tom assumes any business that has a website has or has hired a webdeveloper who can be instructed to look after "spiderable, tricky navigational elements, Meta-tagging, description and keyword metatags, frames, , shallow site hierarchy, semantic tag, CSS" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tomski EMAIL: dump@tomski.com IP: 132.185.132.12 URL: http://www.tomski.com DATE: 06/26/2003 01:59:28 PM But Rod, if you're prepared to invest in hiring people to build & maintain your website, then make sure you hire well. Find the right people to run your website and you'll not need search engine snake oilers *and* you get a better website hence happier punters. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Young EMAIL: r.youngNOSPAM@bham.ac.uk IP: 147.188.224.113 URL: DATE: 06/26/2003 02:22:58 PM Link exchanging is different thing to building link popularity. The web is built on links from one site to another, without any of these links you are left high and dry and wont get any visitors from search engines. You may get the odd type in but for that you will need nice slick domain name. I have seen sites that are user friendly but are absolutely cack when it comes to search engines. That is where SEO comes in, or at least a decent one. Trying to find a decent one or work out if the one you are bout to employ is not shady then read this page: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/1238.htm I too love to say horse shit, it is great phrase but I donít thing it can be applied to a lot of the SEO that goes on. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: George Dubya EMAIL: georga@dubyaya.com IP: 81.152.210.102 URL: http://www.yahoo.com DATE: 06/26/2003 02:30:55 PM Getting links is not horseshit. A tree falling in the woods and making no sound is horseshit. You want as many people to see whatever you have built for these people to see. So get links, lots of them. If its hard to get links, do what that other person did above, shove a link on any page at any opportunity to boost your crap rank. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.130.220.222 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/26/2003 03:15:32 PM I think the point remains true even if you don't understand the technology - rather than paying someone to come in and optimise your search results, why not pay the same amount of money to get someone to come in and make your site accessible, clearly laid-out and fundamentally honest. There are loads of accesibility experts, information architects, usability people etc. etc in the world and you'll get much better results with them than with search engine shark oil salesmen who have only the one criteria to judge success by (don't forget, if a search engine placement person uses anything other than good honest, tried and true 'make the damn site work' stuff then eventually the search engines will wise up to the tricks involved and you'll be in exactly the same position as you were beforehand). As regards links - I can give you substantial evidence that links alone do not give you traffic, particularly irrelevant ones. And there's much more value in a couple of appropriate and realistic links than in dozens or hundreds of bits of spam in link exchange programs and the like. You'd be much better served by trying to find people with very specific needs online and mentioning your service to them directly by e-mail. It's slower but you'll get a better end result. Or send a press release to a newspaper or an internet magazine. Or find groups of people who are discussing the same kind of site as you're making. If you must do this stuff, put the effort in and do it properly and respectfully. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@woogle.co.uk IP: 195.147.180.194 URL: DATE: 06/26/2003 03:39:09 PM I want my site to rank highly on MSN UK. How does your methodology work here? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.130.220.222 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/26/2003 03:42:47 PM Same way it works on anything - by building your site so that it actually presents itself fairly and cleanly and honestly it'll never be subject to the whims of the search engines' attempts to penalise people who game the system, and gradually will be picked up and ranked fairly by all the sites concerned. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@woogle.co.uk IP: 195.147.180.194 URL: DATE: 06/26/2003 04:07:29 PM Wrong answer. MSN UK uses initially Looksmart listings, which are not ranked on link popularity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.130.220.222 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/26/2003 04:13:12 PM James, my point was that link exchanges don't work for Google (and as you point out don't work for MSN) and that search optimisation to try and game these things doesn't work and is eventually pointless - so when I say the same way I mean exactly what I write above in the body of my post - the best way to get search engines to spider you properly and place you highly is to format your page properly, write good stuff and don't try and game the search engines. Spend your money on usability, information architecture and decent content instead. That's the most cost effective and practical way of getting yourself listed properly, way more cost effective than fiddling to try and find a balance between being seem to spam one search engine and not registering in another through flighty tricks and basic pointlessness... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.130.220.222 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/26/2003 04:16:01 PM BTW - you won't get any argument from me that knowing how to write listings for directory-based sites is a skill or that it could be worth paying someone to help you do. But even that's not really that much of an epic enterprise and can easily be figured out - and it's increasingly unimportant as the timeliness of search is beginning to heavily outweigh the personal quality-checking of directory based sites. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Nski EMAIL: dave.nski@microhard.com IP: 195.166.60.12 URL: http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/googlebombs.htm DATE: 06/26/2003 05:01:12 PM Was it not the search engine sharks (SES) that started all this crosslinking to get to the top of google. I think it was called googlebombing. Dave ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com/chronotope/ DATE: 06/27/2003 03:01:52 AM Good points Tom! There are many more as well I'd wager, locked up in that noggin of yours. I'll offer a slightly different take on things. I recently hired such a SEO. It is part of a bigger package. I am not particularly happy about it either. But I have no complaints. I have a site which just made huge and complicated migration to a completely new technology underpinning. The underpinning in question was essentially hoisted on me and so its weaknesses aren't negotiable. The site relies upon dynamic and terribly unfriendly urls which do not work and play well with search engines. My previous site was essentially hand rolled and had several of my own design elements to treat search engines to what you describe. But when we made this transition our footing in the search engines was damaged by the process. SEO comes as a value added to the package, for more $$, which produces static pages as funnels for the search engines. We have seen several improvements in various listings which produce our income as a result and have not been nearly as hurt by the migration as we would have been had we not employed the SEO. My next step will be to introduce clean urls to the mix and cut both the ASP and the SEO out of their revenue stream. None of this is to refute your very valid points but rather to show circumstances in which SEO firms perform a valid function. It should be noted that the ASP should as a matter of a proper working relationship with its clients design with clean urls out of the box but the additional cut of revenue from the SEO is probably a bigger factor in that decision than simply being up front about a weakness in their technology and finding a soultion to better their product. Hope this helps. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rod Brown EMAIL: rod.brown@eoascientific.com IP: 24.222.120.220 URL: DATE: 06/27/2003 10:37:53 AM To Tom Coates - I apologize for my earlier comments. I do not take my job lightly and I am one of those horseshit search engine optimizer that you proclaim are worthless to you and everyone else. The problem - competency. The web has provided vast quantities of information - and if a person can read they can acquire a certain level of knowledge and skill - this however, does not make them an SEO. I am a eMarketing Strategist - SEO is only one small part of the totally process. Therefore, I offer but a few comments to include for the do-it-yourselfers in your audience. Disclaimer: If you do not have a basic appreciation of the html coding and the elements find someone who does. Your own domain is better than free (or cheap) someone elseís domain Host your site on a reliable server ñ down time during search engine indexing time means lost ranks all the time. Have a robots.txt in your root on your server to tell bots and crawlers what to do Get rid of the JavaScript in the code and put it in an external file Use CSS instead of color, size and font tags and also have this as an external file (note: CSS should be listed in header before any JavaScript referrals. Use less link (images) buttons or JavaScript links and more text links and no more 100 links per page, 25 - 50 is better (more than 100 you will not be credited for them) Make sure to have a site map page and link to from all pages Make sure the first link on every single page is to your main page (this is one link that in best to use an image (HOME on image) link title attribute and image alt attribute indicating your primary topic. At the bottom of each page use menus as text links Make sure your page code is no bigger than 100K. Highly recommend 32K or less Submit your site to ODP and Yahoo Directory, make sure to select the right cat. All directory links - the more the merrier Pay special attention to your content - first visible text (words) on the page is a title using H tags and define in CSS. Try to get as much as relevant links you can and in (or out) of your site if you have software call it software (not products). Relevant anchors in and to your makes the different between ranked #30 and ranked #1 Read each search engines guide lines and follow them strictly Don't spam Don't use doorway pages Don't cloak Breadcrumbs work wonders too! Meta Title - Never start a word pass 58 characters if anything your registered BUSINESS NAME should be here and the last few words of the 60 character title... once. Additional ones... use title attributes particularly in links and the title precisely as the anchor > if image alt="" and title="" the same. Note which page of your site has the most internal links to it > if this is not the homepage > then the page that has the most links will likely have greater success on your most competitive phrase. Match Meta Title with Page Title - SEO's keyword the Meta all the time > however this is the intro to your site as well as a ranking thing > if it doesn't look good written on the page it not that efficient in bringing visitors into your site (even if your #1). Page Title match to Meta Title > now match all internal anchors to that page theme. A text anchor call HOME, which goes to the HOMEPAGE, does not help - get innovative - if your site is about CARS then: example: CARS should be the anchor to index.html. NOTE: this is one place where the use of an image is GOOD... the title attribute and alt both indicate CARS and the image read HOME... also The link HOME is also good in your copyright statement... e.g. - Motortown.com has cars for all people. Copyright © 2003 Motor Town. All rights reserved. Short one-word anchors are better than longer ones. CARS is relevant to blue cars, black cars, old cars, antique cars, used cars, new cars... but none of these are "highly" relevant to each other or just "cars". If you're highly relevant on one-word "carsî, the "on-page" optimized stuff is all that is needed to make you more relevant to the second word (what ever that may be) and not just one phrase. Non-relevant - or less adequate topical pages (contact us, support, trouble-shooting, policies, shipping instructions can help make the difference between a page ranked #11 and one that's higher. Use these to PUSH relevancy and PageRank to only those pages that need it. If many links out to a link structure -- JavaScript the links to pages that already are highly ranked > and use that "saved" PageRank to push to ones that are not (on their specific topic). Contact US page irrelevant ñ all methods of contacting you should be on every page (add with copyright statement) Links page ñ irrelevant ñ put outgoing links on the single most relevant page to the linked sites topic (you will be rewarded dearly for it) Put a face to your site > get your staff professionally on your site > people prefer to buy from people. Particularly if the person is real (employee/owner) and noted by NAME and POSITION in the company. The old story... "On the web... no one knows your a dog" holds true today... a name, a face adds trust. There are many scams out there and just because you know that your not one of them... doesn't mean the visitor knows this. The best advice (put your competitors on your site) and compare your positive points to their negative points (be truthful though). Anyone that believes web purchasers are not comparative shoppers for price, quality, service, shipping, guarantees, warranties, returns, support and another 100 variables is really only fooling themselves... particularly if the visitor came via a search engine > back on out and see what else is available. Additionally, rarely will a new potential customer buy on the first visit. SEO isn't just about getting to #1... Itís also about selling "more" once you're there! Site size is always an issue e.g. the more unique content / pages a website has the more diversity they have. In generally however, I personal don't "check" anything on initial "optimization" but add cookie based tracking code (e.g. hitslinks, indextools, or extreme-dm.com/tracking/ to name a few), and use the referrals from here to define what pages I target for what terms. (e.g. someone doing a deep search and finding you is more productive than you searching/checking all pages yourself). In addition, I have found that even in small sites (6 - 25 pages) you can quickly add highly relevant and very effective "ranking" content early to a sites development without even knowing anything about the sites real topics, markets or industry. A glossary of terms are highly effective and the online resources (many non-copyrighted and royalty free) is a copy and paste process with only time to add links back and forth between the original site content and the 27 pages of terms (glossary index, and A - Z). Also if you have PDF design capability that same glossary can be quickly converted to a PDF version and open for download. With your embedded absolute URLs in each glossary terms you receive 100's of new backlinks, PageRank and relevancy for every single site that add this to their site (an added value resource). Have one site that jump from a mere 50 backlinks to 10,000 in 4 months. Definitely worth the effort eh! Just a fraction of the qualified advice you may get from a well informed SEO. But admittedly only scratching the surface. By informing all that all professionals in a specific industry segment are and talk "horseshit"... means that you must be extremely knowledgeable about that industry segment and all in it and a gifted professional of that segment - otherwise you are merely spouting an opinion and opinions rarely accept accountability. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coate EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.226.205 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/27/2003 12:17:08 PM Thanks Rod - first off, I want to apologise to you directly and to the people with your level of expertise and responsible attitude to their work. I've read through that advice and the vast majority of it is of the highest quality. Having said that, you say yourself that a large proportion of your advice isn't actually all about search engine placement (putting faces on your site and the like) and that your particular expertise strays very heavily into areas like information architecture, effective website design, online marketing and the like. This is not in any way to lessen your skills - which I know to be accurate having written several large treatises on search engine placement, usability and good navigational structures in previous jobs - but just to say that the experience of most people who hire people who claim to be able to improve their search engine placements is of hucksters who can do as much damage as good... For most people, making their site clean, well-structured and well-written from the get-go will do them much more good and at a much lower price... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Angry Man EMAIL: bredtest.submit@mailnull.com IP: 213.122.14.75 URL: DATE: 06/27/2003 04:54:58 PM >> For most people, making their site clean, well-structured and well-written from the get-go will do them much more good and at a much lower price... Yup, and if "most people" had the sense God promised an earthworm, they wouldn't attempt to "design" their website themselves. They might also take the time and trouble to discover that there is actually a series of STANDARDS in web technology, that it would benefit EVERYONE if they were adhered to. But lets deal with the real world here. 99% (or thereabouts) of all websites are a total waste of time, energy, hard drive space and bandwidth, because they are frankly utter rubbish. Since the web is seen as the "last frontier", people have the misguided perception that they can do it as well as anyone, that they should step up to the plate, and give that 6 year old copy of FrontPage a bloody good workout. Horse shit. Hmmm, I like saying it too. If it was a print brochure, you wouldn't get a knocked off copy of Quark and design the damn thing yourself, would you now? Of course not that would be lunacy! You'd go to a professional, and pay professional rates, and be pleased with the results. But because its the web, the "peoples media" they think that there amateurish, ridden, infested, overrun, FP abortions are as "valid" as anyone elses. Horse shit, and that goes for BOTH connotations of "valid". For f*cks sake, http://validator.w3.org/, its free, F*CKING USE IT! Theres even one for CSS somewhere >> people who claim to be able to improve their search engine placements is of hucksters Damn straight. Most webmasters don't know how a search engine works. A friend of mine recently did a freebie design job, and the subject of traffic came up, thusly :- they : "Well, web sites are just ranked alaphabetically, aren't they? We just need to add some words beginning with "A" to our keyowrds tag" he : "No its a bit more complex than that" (repeat for about 30 minutes. Then he got a brain hemorrhage, and gave up) I've had conversations with webmasters of really quite large sites, fronting multi-million pound companies, who were under the impression that when you submit a query to, ohhh, say Google, it went and real-time searched the whoooole web for you (hmmm, say 0.1 second per document to retrieve and categorise, roughly 3 billion docs, thats around a SIX-MONTH RESPONE TIME YOU IDIOT! BY SIMPLE INSPECTION OF THE IDEA YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO TELL ITS COMPLETE HORSE SHIT!) In such a target rich environment, why the hell should anyone learn how to actually do the job? Signing up with Overture and running a telesales operation out of some North of England fleapit should be quite sufficient, shouldn't it? OK, I feel a lot better now, thank you all In summary, the point I was trying (badly) to make, is that SEO is a VERY valuable skillset; however, there many people out there portray themselves as SEOs when they demostrably aren't; and that if potential clients can't do a bit of background research to arm themselves with sufficient knowledge to be able to tell the goats from the sheep, then my sympathy is limited. Caveat emptor... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kpaul EMAIL: luap@mallasch.com IP: 66.73.140.71 URL: http://www.mallasch.com/kpaul/ DATE: 06/27/2003 05:40:47 PM Thanks for the mention. As an aside, I emailed the Salon writer and pointed him to my story on K5 re: Google coming up with the naming convention. Haven't heard back from him yet, though. ;) thx again, kpaul ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Merriman EMAIL: gavin@newdomainmedia.com IP: 193.131.69.170 URL: http://www.money-365.com DATE: 07/01/2003 04:54:01 PM Its a good article and you make a excellent point, but I get the feeling you massively misunderstand SEM. Real search engine marketers will DO aim to create the best site/resource for the keyword they target. The only optimisation is ensuring the page/site is structured to inform the engines what the content is about. There are however a number of techie cowboys with no understanding of the importance of actually trying to satisfy the searcher, they just focus on tricking the search engine itself. But you can not assume all search engine marketers have no grasp or understanding of marketing. That would be like me assuming youíre technically inept because you are a marketer. In the future Iíd try steer clear from writing about a subject you clearly donít understand, but thatís for making me laugh anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Monkey Boy EMAIL: monkeyboy@hotmail.com IP: 193.131.69.170 URL: DATE: 07/01/2003 04:59:17 PM I cna ytpe 500 wrods pre mniuet! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nico Morgan EMAIL: nico@nicomorgan.com IP: 194.143.175.209 URL: http://www.nicomorgan.com DATE: 07/03/2003 12:39:04 PM I've only skim-read most of these epic comments (don't you guys say things succinctly?) and so this has probably already been pointed out: I share a building here with a Digital marketing company who, in the old days, might have referred to themselves as SEOs. These guys know the well-established rules of accessibility, semantic structure and so on, and spend half their lives in the Google fora at Webmasterworld learning from others. They are not about link exchanges, because they have known what makes a site score highly on different engines for some time. Thy are very successful because (big) clients of theirs (international banks etc.) don't want to have to keep these skills in house. They are also very skilled at getting sites listed in those back-room databases which many non-google search engines use as their core data (Zeal etc.) and this helps their clients positioning heaps. They would describe much of their work as "popularity consultancy" I suppose; they do what Tom says site owners should do, but they do it for other people. They're not all sharks - some of them, surprisingly know at least as much about these things as we do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gina EMAIL: gina@scribbling.net IP: 68.161.139.20 URL: http://www.scribbling.net DATE: 07/05/2003 03:50:53 AM http://scribbling.net/entry/394/ I didn't read this before I wrote that (really, I didn't!) but we're saying basically the same thing. Except I never say "horseshit." :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Heath EMAIL: blog@zoomgroup.co.uk IP: 81.6.229.149 URL: http://www.zoomgroup.co.uk DATE: 10/09/2003 12:00:16 PM You've got it in a nut-shell. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Heraghty -- Search Engine Optimisation Consultant EMAIL: m@m.mmm IP: 62.17.29.2 URL: http://www.michaelheraghty.com/findability.html DATE: 10/12/2003 03:44:43 PM Your main points about how to get found in search engines (e.g. regular content etc.) are good ones, though not comprehensive. But SEOs are not all about "hacking the system". There are many Search Engine Optimisers -- and I am one of them -- who provide a *consulting* service for site owners who want to know how to get their sites found in Google and other search engines. To you Tom, the information required for this is a "no-brainer", but you're not representative of the average interent user. You're way more advanced than most; the average Joe Soap who has a website wants help and advice on getting it found. For example, I recently did some SEO work for a client called Kevin Kelly, a personal development coach. Kevin had hired various different website designers over the past few years, but each incarnation of his site performed poorly. He never got any email enquiries through his site. When I first started working on his "internet identity", he was listed 179th in Google for a search on "Kevin Kelly". I created a new site for him, making sure that its design was both usable and optimised for Google. I created a weblog for him too, and got him to commit to updating it, so that he would have fresh content regularly. Already he is in the top 10 for a search on "Kevin Kelly", and he has had more traffic in the last two months than he had in the previous three years combined. Maybe the methods I used were "no-brainer" ones to you, but they weren't to Kevin... For people like Kevin -- the majority of people who have forked out on websites as a way to market their business -- Search Engine Optimisation is an extremely valuable service. Why pay money, after all, to have a website designed and launched, if your customers won't be able to find it? I admit that there are many charlatans out there who are giving SEO a bad name. But that doesn't change the fact that sites must be findable, as well as usable, if they are to work as marketing tools. And neither the people own websites -- or even the people who design websites -- have the knowlege required to make get them found. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Dale EMAIL: james@optimizer.co.uk IP: 62.53.110.106 URL: http://www.optimizer.co.uk DATE: 06/09/2004 02:38:25 PM I don't doubt that many people could learn the basics of SEO with perhaps only a few months of intensive study, but that's still just surface stuff. The thing that really separates SEO practitioners is their ability to understand and adapt to changes which others might have no clue about. In other words, knowledge of historical algorithm changes, patents, and plenty of other stuff is important too. Take for instance Google's PageRank, LocalRank and NewRank algorithms. Or Hilltop for example. What about their acquisition of Applied Semantics late last year? Did this impact on the way sites were ranked? You bet it did. Those who were quick to notice massively capitalised on the changes. Only a fool would suggest things like this are common sense. I've been involved with SEO since about 1997 in some capacity, and whilst I am considered an authority these days ;) , I still find that the more I learn the more there is to learn. It's hard to find a decent SEO pro though, since most of the good ones are making loads of cash from their own sites! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.121 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/09/2004 03:31:43 PM I think you're missing the point. If people are encouraged to build their sites properly according to accepted standards of the internet and good practice then they may not get to #1 in Google, but they will get a good high position and they won't be subject to the vagaries of search engines occasional algorithm changes. The very practice of trying to game the system to get to the top of a search engine is unethical and the reason the less salubrious SEO people have to keep working and keep on top of things is because the search engines are continually trying to undo the work they've done, and restore their search engines to valuable resources that direct people to the most useful (not the best marketed) content. I don't want to teach people how to game Google - I want to teach them how to build sites properly in ways that Google understands BECAUSE THEY ARE THE RIGHT WAYS TO BUILD. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: aaron wall EMAIL: seobook@gmail.com IP: 207.68.121.31 URL: http://www.seobook.com DATE: 06/10/2004 01:35:55 AM I agree with what you are saying in that it is far easier to create ideas worth spreading vice trying to spread bad ideas. Structuring a page properly and registering a site at directories can help you immensely in promoting your site. Many people do not know how to do that though. There are many subtle tricks which can give you a longterm boost that are not bad. It is just smart marketing to benefit from some of the flaws of the system. I am not saying people should push rubish, but that all things fair if others are going to take advantages of the weaknesses of search engines you either need to have a way better idea or exploit the weaknesses yourself too. Not everybody is capable of coming up with good ideas... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.153.198.244 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/10/2004 08:30:41 AM You're quite right that many people don't know how to do that kind of thing, and actually what they need is for someone to put up a simple resource online, or to go to respectable web-designers who will build their sites according to the right fundamental principles. I can completely see the point in there being people who specialise in helping people rework their sites so they are more semantically useful and clear, in order that they should appear in better positions in Google (and in the process, just have better sites), but I couldn't disagree with you more about the 'subtle tricks helping people to benefit from the flaws in the system'. Basically if you try and game things and exploit 'subtle flaws', then they'll change the algorithms and you'll need to do it all over again. And the subtle flaws in one search engine won't be the same as the subtle flaws in others. So you're just shooting yourself in the foot anyway, because you'll have to continually pay SEO experts to push you up a couple of places each time the search engines figure out what they've done. The sites that the search engines WANT TO GET PEOPLE TO are the ones that have good quality content on them that are formatted properly and which real people are linking to. They're the only sites that won't be affected by algorithm changes, except (on the whole) positively. Building other kinds of sites just doesn't make any sense. And that line of yours at the end 'not everyone is capable of coming up with good ideas' is my point in a nutshell. If they can't come up with good ideas, if their sites aren't any good then THEY SHOULDN'T BE AT THE TOP OF GOOGLE ANYWAY. By pushing them up their through gaming the system you make the web a less useful resource and damage people who are providing a better service. As far as I'm concerned that's just unethical behaviour. The sites concerned would be better served by people telling them how to make their sites less useless. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Dale EMAIL: james@optimizer.co.uk IP: 62.53.110.66 URL: http://www.optimizer.co.uk DATE: 06/10/2004 07:14:26 PM You say: "If people are encouraged to build their sites properly according to accepted standards of the internet then they may not get to #1 in Google, but they will get a good high position" How does that follow? If we're being honest, aren't they far more likely to get a rubbish low position, particularly in a massively competitive field? Whilst everyone will agree that building a site according to "accepted standards of the internet" is bound to be a good idea, it certainly doesn't begin to cover the larger and more complex area of ranking at the top of your niche. There is far more to ranking high than simply designing your site to the highest standards of usability, etc. Unless we really are just talking about search terms with sub 10,000 competing results. There are ways to "game" any system, but most of the top SEO companies don't do business this way. Actually, any such "gaming" is pointless since it is less likely to have long term benefits. So, I agree with you there! Very rarely these days will you find any reputable SEO company using invisible links, cloaking, or stealth delivery of any kind. Everything these days is so much more open, which is why Google freely admits they are all for SEO now. Many companies with a huge amount of internal expertise still choose to pay SEO consultants for their time. The reason for this is that these companies don't have the rankings they want - despite great attention to usability, site design, code validation, and so on. Remember, with or without SEO, your ranking will still be affected by algorithmic changes, as with the Florida and DomEsme updates last year. Having someone to hand who understands what Google is doing and can make the necessary alterations can only be of obvious benefit. ----- PING: TITLE: assorted sweets #11 URL: http://www.angiemckaig.com/archives/062903_assorted_s.html IP: 66.33.195.192 BLOG NAME: technofodder for the masses DATE: 06/29/2003 08:01:24 PM I have been trying out a new RSS reader (working out very lovely so far, I might add, though I still think workflow is a problem...). Since my current RSS feeds number in the hundreds, a huge bunch of non-related links ensue. If this RSS reader doesn't... ----- PING: TITLE: Search Engine Optimization a No-No? URL: http://www.inluminent.com/weblog/archives/search_engine_optimization_a_nono.php IP: 12.96.164.15 BLOG NAME: inluminent/weblog DATE: 06/29/2003 10:16:59 PM Tom Coates wrote an article that says people don't need Search Engine Optimization companies to help them get good rankings ----- PING: TITLE: A blogtree, roots, marshland and good web-weaving URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2003/06/26.html#a184 IP: 212.198.0.94 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 08/07/2003 12:13:12 PM

    The day was too lovely to bury myself in the dark for 'Kaena' after all, but she'll still be round the corner tomorrow.

    ----- PING: TITLE: zoekmachine optimalisering URL: http://www.stijlstek.nl/archief/2004/06/11/zoekmachine-optimalisering.php IP: 213.239.135.5 BLOG NAME: StijlStek.nl DATE: 06/13/2004 03:13:50 PM Roger Johansson trok mijn aandacht via zijn QuickLinks naar een interessant artikel over zoekmachine optimimalisering, met een interessante discussie erbij, op plasticbag.org. Va daaruit gelinkt vond ik nog een artikel daarover op scribbling.net. Als j... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: RSS: The Truth... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/27/2003 01:04:18 AM ----- BODY:

    harrow_road.jpg

    Finally we know what it stands for...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Zach EMAIL: me@zachhale.com IP: 66.114.156.8 URL: http://www.zachhale.com/ DATE: 06/27/2003 02:36:15 AM Lol, that's great. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: quirkycat EMAIL: electrickery@quirkycat.net IP: 203.124.2.59 URL: http://www.quirkycat.net DATE: 06/28/2003 03:25:48 PM That's very funny :) Secrets revealed in the most unexpected of places. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Reverend Dan EMAIL: dan@disparatedan.com IP: 62.49.23.237 URL: DATE: 06/29/2003 12:18:46 PM Profil: my favourite font in the whole wide world, ever. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Danny EMAIL: danny666@virgilio.it IP: 80.182.204.26 URL: http://dannyayers.com DATE: 07/02/2003 11:11:14 AM ...and how to pronounce it : http://www.geocities.com/bhg1967/tv/arse.wav ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Recent Highlights on Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/27/2003 11:57:23 AM ----- BODY:

    The perpetually unfinished experimental message-board that Cal and I made is coming up with some particularly interesting debates at the moment. Here are a few of my favourite ongoing discussions:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/28/2003 01:08:44 PM ----- BODY:
    Lili was flustered. "But if you can do a complete revision in eight weeks, why not just finish it, then plan another revision, do that one in eight weeks, and so on? Why take five years before anyone can ride the thing?"

    Why indeed?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oskar & Apple... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/28/2003 01:25:45 PM ----- BODY:

    When we went to Apple in Cupertino I got little Oskar a present that I thought he could grow into in a few months. And now he's wearing it! Aw!

    oskar_n.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Apple URL: http://purplegreen.abstrakt.ch/blog/archives/cat_mac.html#000013 IP: 195.226.6.27 BLOG NAME: PurpleGreen ~ Never Easy To Please DATE: 07/04/2003 11:07:56 AM Isn't it amazing what Apple has to offer these days? Mhm... I wonder if I could get one in green? Btw. little Oskar already has a weblog. Being something around 150 days old, he's online and blogging :)... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Return to Broadcasting House... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: History CATEGORY: History DATE: 07/01/2003 01:23:13 AM ----- BODY:

    So I don't know where to start really so I'm just going to come out and say it. After several weeks of organisation, negotiation and discussion I find myself cheerfully back in gainful employment. My new job has almost intimidating potential and at the moment is a little large a concept to easily digest, but as of ten o'clock this morning I became once more an employee of the BBC - more specifically working in Radio & Music as part of a new live research and development team.

    But it's not just the job that's fascinating - it's also the environment. For the first time I'm actually going to be working in and around Broadcasting House, and (even though the whole area is being ripped asunder and rebuilt and even though I'm based in an extension to the main building) just being there feels like it connects me to a larger and messier tradition of people who have worked at the BBC in Broadcasting House over the last seventy years. From the origins of television through the Blitz right through until the present day, Broadcasting House has been a key element of the legacy of the BBC and there's ludicrous amounts of history saturating every surface.

    Last year I had a chance to visit the bomb shelters from the second world war - walls of concrete six/eight feet deep covered with faded remnants of sixty years of use and disuse. It was fascinating, atmospheric, almost haunting... The BBC Radio Theatre that was in the core of the oldest part of the building has been the scene for some of the countries greatest comedic performances - from the Goons and Round the Horne right through to (almost) the present day. When George Orwell was working for the BBC writing propoganda, he was based in Broadcasting House. There's a Room 101 in the building, and it's widely believed to have been the basis for the Room 101 in the novel 1984. Pretty much concurrently with his work, one of the so-called Cambridge Spies - the drunken, gay, apparently sybaritic Guy Burgess was also working in the building. That is, of course, when he wasn't working for Russia...

    Insane architecture and technology from inside the control room

    But it's not just what happened inside the building that makes it vibrate with such potent historical energies. Even the sculptures on the front of the building (which are unfortunately covered up at the moment by scaffolding and screening) are significant. They were designed by Eric Gill - most familiar to graphic designers and typographers today because of his creation of Gill Sans. I heard a rumour from a friend of a friend once that the male statue originally had prominent genitals that were removed by a censorious establishment. I don't know if it's true or not, but it would fit with Gill's aesthetic and with what I know about the political life of the nineteen-thirties.

    There's so much more that the building has been a silent witness to over the years. It's coped with direct-hits from Nazi bombs, coped with generations of creative revolutionaries over eight decades and now is coping with a radical rebuilding to make it a home for the BBC for decades to come. It's going to sound cheesy, but it's a genuine honour to work there.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 65.92.123.81 URL: http://www.fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 07/01/2003 02:06:27 AM Congrats on the new job! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 66.185.84.73 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 07/01/2003 02:43:30 AM Yes Tom, congratulations, and best of luck at the BBC. I've long thought of them as one of the most respected and highest quality news organisations in the world. They're only further my views by hiring the likes of you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Brake EMAIL: david.brake@journalist.co.uk IP: 80.193.236.28 URL: http://blog.org/ DATE: 07/01/2003 08:34:16 AM Congrats, Tom - it seems almost inevitable that the BBC should end up hiring you given the number of good people they manage to grab - I am glad you've found a way to serve the public and keep body and soul together as well... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.205.172 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/01/2003 08:42:00 AM Thanks guys! The sentiment is truly appreciated. But enough about me - does anyone know any more interesting stories about Broadcasting House? I'm trying to get more of a sense of my new home. Oh - and I'm going to be taking some pictures of the stairs today if I get a moment. They're awesome... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: absurdistan EMAIL: info@absurdistan.co.uk IP: 81.6.197.115 URL: http://www.absurdistan.co.uk DATE: 07/01/2003 09:00:26 AM Well done on the new job! BH is a fascinating place given that it was the first building in the world which was custom-built for broadcasting. It's only a shame you won't get to see the old part of BH as it is being completely internally gutted and rebuilt. Make sure you visit the bunker - if it hasn't been closed already. Before the BBC had contingencies for moving the radio networks out of London in case of civil disruption or a nuclear strike, there was a concrete underground bunker behind BH with 4 small radio studios, a phone exchange, a transmission control room and living quarters for key staff. It's fascinating to look round. It's also a shame that you've missed the beautiful art-deco radio theatre which I guess is now closed as well. When I worked there the smoking room was a studio in the basement which must have been used for recording plays and dramas in the past. It contained all kinds of things for making sound effects - flights of wooden, stone and carpeted stairs which didn't go anywhere, boxes of different sizes of gravel, paving slabs of various surfaces and different kinds of doors with many different sorts of locks and latches - all there just for creating atmospheres! Fascinating! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren EMAIL: darren@timemachinego.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/ DATE: 07/01/2003 10:27:25 AM Congratulations, Tom. Welcome back. I miss working in W1. An office over a Barclays in Shepherds Bush just isn't the same... *sigh* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 07/01/2003 01:39:19 PM Yes, congratulations from here too. Mind you, an exciting and innovative job AND working in W1 rather than the grim, grey hell-hole of that building by the A40 flyover in W12 - some of us could get jealous! :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AKMA EMAIL: akma@disseminary.org IP: 12.248.12.97 URL: http://akma.disseminary.org DATE: 07/01/2003 01:51:40 PM Cheers, Tom — had too happen! Blessings to you and exciting days for the rest of us, as the BBC puts your wits into play. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: suw EMAIL: suw.charman@ntlworld.com IP: 62.253.96.5 URL: http://chocnvodka.blog-city.com/ DATE: 07/01/2003 01:58:24 PM Congratulations! I'm only new to your site, but nonetheless wish you all the best with the new job! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: shatnerian@hotmail.com IP: 206.47.209.227 URL: http://shatnerian.blogspot.com DATE: 07/01/2003 03:49:26 PM Congrats on the new job. I grew up here in Canada inhaling as much British programming as I could take. I think it would thrilling to work for a company with such an international reputation. If you happen to run into Cathy McGowan, tell her I said hi. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 07/01/2003 09:07:09 PM Congratulations, Tom! That's wonderful news. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 194.109.220.178 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 07/01/2003 11:09:30 PM Slowly, but surely, webloggers are taking over public broadcasting. The BBC's the only good thing I can get on Dutch cable - now it's even better. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: james mcmurry EMAIL: jmcmurry@mac.com IP: 66.93.188.237 URL: http://www.jamesmcmurry.com DATE: 07/02/2003 04:32:15 AM THAT IS GREAT ! I know the feeling about getting a "real" job again. After being a contractor for a City government for the past months, I just got my first real offer....only problem is I have to move about 6 hours away. Good luck, and I will be watching for your name in the credits of all the BBC shows on BBC-America :) jim ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: almostwitty@ntlworld.com IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://andrew.ulimit.org/index.shtml DATE: 07/02/2003 01:03:48 PM Congratulations, Tom! Maybe that means the rest of us wanna-work-in-BBC-London-types can hope for job opps too! Andrew, stuck somewhere not even in London... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paul EMAIL: paul@geekexception.com IP: 62.30.165.90 URL: DATE: 07/03/2003 03:31:19 AM Congrats ! I used to work there on the 5th floor in the IT department back in '99. It's a fantastic building with some looooong corridors ( doesn't rival TV Center though ;) ) and some parts you can easily get lost in ! Be sure to join the BBC Club ( it's just round the corner ) where the booze is plentiful and cheap-cheap-cheap !! ;) Oh, and the BBC canteen isn't as bad as people make out ! :p ----- PING: TITLE: Jealous? Me? URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000414.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 07/01/2003 12:54:47 PM Tom Coates has now got an exciting and innovative job at the BBC. This hopefully means that spaces are starting to appear again for the likes of me. But I'm not getting my hopes up, you hear me, I'm not.... ----- PING: TITLE: Flocking bloggers URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/archives/000912.html IP: 81.21.68.14 BLOG NAME: The Obvious? DATE: 07/01/2003 01:22:19 PM Looks like Tom Coates has got a great job in a great organisation. But then I would say that :-)... ----- PING: TITLE: Good luck, Tom! URL: http://prolific.org/archive/atf_2003_07.shtml#006128 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org (atf) DATE: 07/01/2003 11:13:04 PM Return to Broadcasting House.... I am this close to shaking my fist and saying: "Oi! Why the HELL was 'Spooks'... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Okay, so I'm trivialising it... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/01/2003 08:04:30 PM ----- BODY:

    I'll tell you something for nothing. I'm beginning not to care who's right about this whole bloody RSS thing. Is it Dave? Is it Mark? Is it the Penry the mild-mannered janitor? I know it's an important debate, and I know that the world's not complete unless we have a fourth, fifth and sixth syndication format, and I know that I'm being dismissive of a legitimate and complex debate, but you know on the other hand...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Echo, RSS and Pixies URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/echo_rss_and_pixies.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 07/03/2003 01:49:57 PM The big noise just now, in what folk insist on referring to as the blogosphere: The Echo Project.There are a... ----- PING: TITLE: Trivialized necho pixies URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/07/04/trivialized_necho_pixies.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 07/04/2003 04:21:24 PM Tom Coates (who has stealthily added visible titles to his blog posts recently) is having trouble taking the necho kerfluffle seriously. Jack Mottram says the side in any debate that most closely resembles darling little pixies must be right, and denie... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Web splinters under my fingernails... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/01/2003 11:27:48 PM ----- BODY:

    The web splinters that have been working their way under my typing fingernails today include:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Theroux Theroux Theroux! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/05/2003 07:31:00 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. So this brief post is so entirely not about social software or weblogs or technology or futurism or 'the industry'. This post is - well - it's quite a lot more shallow than that. This post (which is nearly over) is quite simply about really really hot people. In particular one really really hot person. In particular this really really hot person - currently showing in a cinema near you... Dear God... Dear beautiful beautiful God...

    Lumme! It's that Theroux chap from the movies!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian w EMAIL: brian@joannou.net IP: 68.36.83.118 URL: http://www.joannou.net DATE: 07/05/2003 11:18:05 PM I assume you've seen this NY Times piece, with a tour of his apartment? Mmm. I only looked because I'd heard he had a PowerBook. I swear. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 66.185.84.73 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 07/06/2003 07:40:05 AM Am I the only one that thought he looked a lot like Robbie Williams in the movie? The very first scene he was in, I thought it was Robbie! Then I saw his body... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dorian EMAIL: loaf@isness.org IP: 217.42.128.218 URL: http://www.isness.org/dory/ DATE: 07/06/2003 12:14:30 PM thomas, really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 217.36.11.116 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 07/06/2003 01:41:51 PM I was so busy laughing at his 'Irish' accent, I almost forgot to ogle. Certainly beats Steve Gutenburg, who I seem to remember being the subject of a similar torso appreciation post in the past... ----- PING: TITLE: The Joy of Justing Theroux URL: http://encomium.eternal-visions.net/externals/archives/2003_07.html#000520 IP: 64.235.243.181 BLOG NAME: Lost and found DATE: 07/07/2003 01:05:56 AM At home with Justin Theroux is an interesting short piece about Bren’s new darling. Remember to check out the pictures. And oohh… Look, he has an iBook. [from Joannou de Luxe, via PlasticBag.org’s comments]... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Working in the West Wing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/05/2003 11:30:54 PM ----- BODY:

    It's been a slow-posting week on plasticbag.org and that's directly related to fast-moving, sleepless, hectic first week of new job acclimatisation. It's still far too early to get a sense of what our every-day work is going to be like, but if it's anything like what we've been doing so far then it's going to be extraordinarily good fun.

    Sometimes at UpMyStreet I'd lament the fact that working life was so infrequently like The West Wing. I'd developed a bit of a taste for thrusting, self-determining creative work while working for the BBC's Making it Happen project, but UpMyStreet - for all the good work we did and all the cool people I met when I worked there - was not that kind of place. It didn't have that kind of atmosphere at all.

    This job has West Wing potential. Serious West Wing potential in fact... (Guess who was in the building on Friday). I can already see myself striding through corridors telling people about wheat yields in Arkansas, colliding with other walking-conversations about speech-writing and Congress. Will I fall over the camera? Will I remember my lines?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jim EMAIL: plasticbag@uslot.com IP: 81.5.174.53 URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U6 DATE: 07/06/2003 08:57:06 PM "West Wing Potential"? Does that mean than every conversation you have is conducted solely through the medium of sarcasm? (Which is, frankly, the thing I like most about TWW.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jacky EMAIL: jacky@hotmail.com IP: 80.58.32.235 URL: http://www.elerotikon.com DATE: 07/11/2003 03:32:14 PM very interesting,thanks ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On AOL's weblogging project... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/06/2003 11:51:30 AM ----- BODY:

    So the first members of the weblogging extended family have been exposed to AOL's proposed new weblogging tools. The general consensus seems to be that they are of surprisingly good quality and that they are approaching the service more like LiveJournal than Blogger, Typepad or MT. I'm going to need to ponder this stuff a little more before I'm going to be comfortable presenting an opinion. In the meantime - here are the links:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: AOL Journals URL: http://ALT1040.com/archivo/000482.php IP: 205.214.88.56 BLOG NAME: ALT1040 DATE: 07/06/2003 05:44:57 PM Pasticbag reporta acerca de un nuevo servicio para publicar weblogs de AOL. Esto ha sido un rumor durante algunos meses pero al parecer es muy cierto y m·s importante que eso, dicen que est· bien hecho. Algunos webloggers famosos fueron citados para qu... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Can weblogs change politics? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 07/06/2003 12:33:58 PM ----- BODY:

    Are you interested in the political implications of weblogs and social software? Then come to Can Weblogs Change Politics? - an event held in the House of Commons on July 14th. Here's an quick excerpt from the proposed topics of discussion:

    "Weblogs (ëblogsí) and associated "social software" tools have been this yearís big news online. But can they be used politically, and if so, how and to what end?"

    I'm really looking forward to discussing this component of the programme, because I think that it's one of those statements that could only be made by someone directly involved in politics. The assumption seems to be that the weblogging publishing system is a tool created that one could use to effect political change - presumably by allowing MPs to communicate more fully with their constituents or by being a point to actively campaign around. What's completely missed are the potential implications of a massive group of people interacting with each other and with information and news in massively more active ways. We're not in that kind of world yet, and indeed we may not ever be, but if large blocks of the citizenry started to organise their relationships with each other, with information provision and with government and mass media then that would have a dramatic effect on political life in this country. When we see the whole Trent Lott debacle in the States, and the effect and importance (for good or evil) of people like Glenn Reynolds who quickly became politicised loci for massive numbers of warbloggers, then the question stops being "Can they be used politically?" and starts being, "Are they changing the nature of the citizenry?". And if you need some help with that one, check out GW Bush's presidential campaigning website and particularly the middle panel of this page...

    So anyway - it should be a good debate, even though (typically) all the invited parties seem to be relatively short-term webloggers who are employing them as tool to facilitate their day-jobs. It's a shame that there aren't any representatives of the culture itself on the panel. I'd have liked to have seen one of the UK's directly political (or community 'embedded') webloggers (the Politx crew for example) represented. But the UK has always been more suspicious of trends and behaviour that emerges from the masses than the States has, so I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.165.0 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 07/06/2003 01:00:49 PM You said: "...the question stops being "Can they be used politically?" and starts being, "Are they changing the nature of the citizenry?"" I don't think the question will change, it won't be one for the other, because surely it goes both ways. Not only could weblogs be used as a means for MPs to communicate more directly with voters in their respective constituencies, but this should go hand in hand with the potential for communities to organise themselves politically. As it is, there's no real debate as phrases - carefully worded, meaningless jargonism - gets flung from side to side. Weblogs and online social networks at least habe the potential to bring debate back to democracy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.45.255.241 URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com DATE: 07/06/2003 01:15:53 PM Big thanks for posting this, Tom. If you have any of your frequent thoughts on this you want to print up and hand out at the event then let me know; i'm trying to put together some "material". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Biroco EMAIL: kaosbabalon@NOSPAMhotmail.com IP: 81.7.53.211 URL: http://www.biroco.com/ DATE: 07/06/2003 01:30:43 PM Maybe it's just me, but it seems the web and weblogs have made *party* politics more irrelevant and antiquated. Politics these days is more like a state of being. Ironically perhaps, despite being ever more catalogued, we are slipping out of the net, power is slipping from grasp of political dinosaurs and a kind of 'individual anarchism', as it has been called, though it was always there, is coming to the fore. Though the web blinkers people, it also unblinkers people after another fashion. The new power is that of revealing oneself. Oldtime politicians, existing in a world of spin, cannot afford to do this, unless they are small fish. So to me the territories facing up to each other are the power of simple truth and honesty against political spin. Tom Watson, MP, for instance, has shown himself to be eminently approachable with his blog, and his personal experiment is a success, but I doubt you will see him coming in drunk and stoned one evening and posting some rant about Anne Widdecombe. He has to preserve decorum. The old order demands it. This shows I think that blogs are for individuals, and party politics doesn't like individuals, they are a danger to the herd, they can cause a stampede with their wild frolics in the undergrowth. And the populace is in general stupid and will stampede with them. What is changing is the nature of personal sovereignty. The party politicians are becoming surplus to requirements. Their power is limited to soap opera and if you don't have a television, like myself, what impact do they have? Bugger all. Fuck 'em, they're dead. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: irritant EMAIL: irritant@[nospam]Phreaker.net IP: 194.222.226.7 URL: http://www.irritant.dircon.co.uk/ DATE: 07/07/2003 04:31:26 PM Being a blogger who has a long-term interest in politics I have to say that I'm intrigued that you have registered an interest in this event. Just out of curiosity why don't you do the political compass test and post it on your site? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://politx.ohskylab.com DATE: 07/07/2003 05:09:42 PM I kind of like the idea that it's starting from a different position to the usual. I mean, yes, getting down and dirty with the community aspect is all well and good, but the people on the panel are genuine, I think, rather than fly by nighters. Let's see what happens. Anyway, while we're not on the panel, I'm definitely planning to attend. This floats my boat on pretty much every level. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.205.172 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/07/2003 09:43:58 PM Irritant - I did the relevant test and my results are here. I'm not sure I completely buy its results, but it's roughly accurate - centrist with libertarian and left-wing tinges. I'm surprised that you find it surprising that I should be interested in these areas - I don't tend to talk about politics on my site, but that doesn't mean I'm not engaged... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: irritant EMAIL: irritant@[nospam]Phreaker.net IP: 194.222.226.7 URL: http://www.irritant.dircon.co.uk/enter.html DATE: 07/07/2003 10:39:44 PM From looking at your site in the past I never seen anything with a political opinion either way. Seeing you had mentioned your interest in this seminar I searched your site via google and still couldn't find much either but that can be due to search techniques and algorithms. While people don't need to discuss politics to have political values I had genuinely wondered if you were avoiding expressing political views and that's what prompted my query. My own scoring is clearly marked on my site because although I don't comment on politics much, it can be helpful for readers to know where I'm coming from. However that's just a personal decision. See you at the seminar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clems EMAIL: jpclement@netpolitique.net IP: 194.51.189.225 URL: http://www.netpolitique.net/php/articles/dean_uk.php3 DATE: 07/09/2003 09:54:02 AM You can find a little summary on the Dean 's Net-campaign and also on his used of weblog. Netpolitique.net tries to understand why and how a weblog is interesting on Net-campaign. Blog perhaps is efficient in Personalisation, humanisation and linking. http://www.netpolitique.net/php/articles/dean_uk.php3 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Human B Leever EMAIL: humanbleever@hotmail.com IP: 159.134.147.18 URL: http://humanbleever.blogspot.com/ DATE: 07/13/2003 08:39:14 PM Party politics and representative democracy are facing a crisis. Politicised webloggers are a reallity, an ever increasing force for change. The question "But can [blogs] be used politically, and if so, how and to what end?" only indicates to me that the power elite have been caught on the hop, and as per usual are out of touch with what is happening at grassroots level... ----- PING: TITLE: Emerging URL: http://meettheg.com/archives/consensus_terrorism/2003/07/emerging.php IP: 63.247.131.156 BLOG NAME: ||| meet the g ||| DATE: 07/06/2003 08:18:03 PM I’m starting to find ‘The Guardian’ and its sister paper ‘The Observer’ quite tiresome. They’re on the ball most of the time, they break a few good stories and have some interesting commentary now and then. I’m... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs and politics URL: http://www.charleshartman.org/mt/archives/2003/07/07/weblogs_and_politics.html IP: 66.33.208.8 BLOG NAME: charleshartman.org DATE: 07/07/2003 06:26:38 PM Tom Coates links and comments insightfully on an event in the UK regarding: Can Weblogs Change Politics? My view is that the potential political uses of weblogs are just starting to be realized by both elected officials and candidates. In... ----- PING: TITLE: Can Weblogs Change Politics? URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/2003/07/can-weblogs-change-politics IP: 12.129.237.12 BLOG NAME: www.perfect.co.uk links DATE: 03/18/2004 02:35:43 PM I went to Can Weblogs Change Politics? at the Houses of Parliament last night. It was interesting (especially the in the pub afterwards). Have a read of James Crabtree’s and William Davies’ thoughts on Blog Rule, the official write up,... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The internet is not shit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 07/06/2003 06:57:38 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been hearing the same sentiments by a lot of people over the last few months in different types of language. Some say The Internet is Shit. Some others say that Virtual Community has died. Without wanting to doubt the good intentions and aspiration of all the people who want to make more of the world in which they live, I can tell you right now why the internet matters and why it is not shit. While it's true that people around the world are lamenting that there's not enough of 'precisely the right kind of information' to finish their term-papers, the internet is more important than that. Take for example the case of support groups for gay and lesbian teenagers. Gay teenagers are two to three times to attempt suicide and two to three times more likely to succeed - and why? Because they think they're completely alone in the world and they have no way of connecting with other gay teenagers. Over the last few years that's all changed - I've seen it happening. Gay teenagers are exploring over the internet first - they're finding other people like themselves, getting advice and support and connecting to a wider community. Hopefully the result will be less death, less depression and less wasted years.

    And here are some other reasons why the internet is not shit and why virtual community is not dead: alcoholism, disabilities, addiction, mental health, prostate cancer, teen health... I could go on all day. Frankly, I don't care who thinks I'm nuts or an evangelist or whatever, but as far as I'm concerned the internet has improved people's lives, helped them understand and deal with health problems, eased depression, connected the lonely and the disconnected and been a fount of information on pretty much every subject in the world. I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks about it - I'm proud of it and proud of my tiny corner of it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: liz EMAIL: liz@nerdslut.org IP: 68.76.97.229 URL: http://www.nerdslut.org/pointdexter/ DATE: 07/06/2003 07:11:46 PM Excellent, and very very true. I worked on an HIV/AIDS prevention site for teenagers back in 1991 (Unix based BBS system with some text based interactivity), and the vast majority of kids we were helping were gay and lesbian, because they didn't know where else to go (e.g., they couldn't actually go to a youth group, etc.) I'll take it a step further: the Internet saves some kids lives. And that is *not* shit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rie EMAIL: livingunderhouse@hotmail.com IP: 66.153.200.205 URL: http://goatse.cx DATE: 07/06/2003 08:34:45 PM It appears as though people who only bother to take a peek at the badside have been so influenced by it, they don't bother to take a look at the rest of it, ie the good side to it. As you pointed out, the internet makes a great help community, especially for those outcasted by normal society, or in some cases, even their own families. In other cases, it makes a good tool for distributing information, such as sites like allaboutsex.com, or others along those lines. While they can be biased sometimes, that's another example of what makes the internet great. Feedback. Television is a one-way street, and other mediums (radio, newspapers) dictate themselves what gets said and when. With the internet, messages good and bad, dull and painfully exciting, pointless and perfected can all be passed along with little to no interception from a "big brother"-type authority. Case and point, the fact that in order to spread their anti-internet message, the above mentioned sites had to in fact use the internet themselves to spread it. How deliciously ironic. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 66.185.84.73 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 07/06/2003 09:27:11 PM I completely agree Tom. When I was first 'struggling' with my sexuality around age 14 or 15, the first place I turned was the internet. I read the experiences of others, I made some lasting friends, and even met a few people from my school who also ended up in gay chat rooms for one reason or another. I even met my boyfriend of 3 years online. I'm 20 now, and I recognize that without the internet I would likely still be a miserable closet-case who never had the courage or the resources to learn more about my true self. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.161.98 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 07/06/2003 10:00:16 PM Anyone who thinks or says that the internet is shit doesn't actually understand what the internet is. It's as simple as that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://www.it.rit.edu/~ell/mamamusings/ DATE: 07/06/2003 10:38:07 PM People who say "the Internet is shit" are confusing the tool with what it produces. Sure, the Internet produces shit. But so does everything else--from individuals to schools to governments to businesses. To define the Internet by the worst it produces is simply an inability to see it as a tool or an environment rather than a product. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.19.12 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 07/06/2003 11:54:18 PM The Internet is not shit. Mcdonalds.com and Disney.com are shit. As are their contemporaries (large corporates doing uninspiring things). The rest (cool people doing cool things with new technology) isn't. Simple as that really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sceefy_uk EMAIL: sebastian@aztec.net IP: 62.49.68.103 URL: http://notthezone.blogspot.com/ DATE: 07/07/2003 12:27:48 AM Without wanting to repeat verbatim what everyone else has been saying, I agree totally. As a gay teenager I found the internet invaluable during the difficult few years before I came out, and the huge online network of people (who know - like few of your other friends can - what you've been through) that you have access to is something that all gay and questioning teenagers would be have benefitted from. The internet is at its best when it is a tool that helps people to communicate, and helps people to live happier lives, safe in the comfort that they are not alone. Long may it be so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rie EMAIL: livingunderhouse@hotmail.com IP: 66.153.199.158 URL: http://goatse.cx DATE: 07/07/2003 01:57:28 AM I agree on that point, Tom. I hate what I shall refer to as the "industrial" internet. I think we all do. The mass-produced, glamour sites that serve no purpose other than being there. Those sites suck. But, keep in mind, no one is forcing anyone to visit them. I have been online for 5 years or so, and I can safely say I have *never* talked to a single person who tells me "Dude, you need to check KFC dot com. They've got some really interesting articles on there." Pathetic. However, on the other hand, they do have a point on one thing. The community spirit, as I like to call it, has died a bit over the years. Whether it be battle fatigue, or just a case of boredom, one can only do so much before its been done a million times. I think what a lot of the internet moaners need is a good injection of some original content. Though, to be fair, some of the more recent crap (ie: online fundraising, goatse fandom) does get an webcrawler depressed with the online future, I do admit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow EMAIL: doctorow@craphound.com IP: 64.178.27.83 URL: http://craphound.com DATE: 07/07/2003 03:29:00 AM Amen, Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 07/07/2003 12:33:54 PM This is all very polarised - "it's shit!" "No it's not it's great!" The fact is the internet is *both*. Yes it helps connect people etc, but it also allows people to network who have criminal interests, and it allows corporate powers to extend their influence even further. Tim Berners-Lee said a few years ago that the web would reflect human culture and that is exactly what it does - for good and bad. I think what we need is a balanced appraisal which recognises both facts, rather than partial and one-sided rhetoric. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mah624@no.yahoo.spam.co.uk IP: 141.163.60.236 URL: DATE: 07/07/2003 03:23:41 PM To a very large number of people, the internet is neither shit or 'not shit'. Simply irrelevant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: editor@realfinance.net IP: 217.150.100.73 URL: http://realfinance.blogspot.com DATE: 07/07/2003 06:20:45 PM Yes, I guess you're right. But actually a lot of what is said on the internetisshit site is interesting. I think we are losing a bit of serendipity (blogging notwithstanding), journalists are lazier, and the web has made it easier to become obessive with subjects that might otherwise be just part of a normal range of interests. Sure, for every depressed gay teen, there's a chance to understand you're not alone. But I worry about the anorexics getting together to feed their compulsion or the people who would have had a minor interest in Star Trek had it not been for the 24/7 availability of Trekkie sites and chat rooms (OK, crass exmaple, but you know what I mean...). Anyway, I agree with the sentiment that it's neither shit nor good. It's like saying paper is shit, isn't it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.205.172 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/07/2003 10:00:51 PM James - it may reflect human culture, but it does also facilitate it. Mark - to a very large number of people, the internet is irrelevant. If it's because they have more important issues to deal with (like getting money for food etc) then that's something the world has to address. Once their fundamental needs have been addressed, I think it's not the case that the internet is irrelevant to anyone simply that some people aren't aware of the utility they could derive from it - everyone gets anxious about illness, everyone needs advice from peers or information about local services and government stuff. And Richard - for all the anorexics who can meet one another, there are also places where they can meet people who are trying to heal themselves. I'm not saying that bad things won't happen as a result of the internet's existence, but I do honestly believe that on the whole it's a force for good. And even if it wasn't - it's with us now and it's not going anywhere... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 07/07/2003 11:04:21 PM Yes and the internet facilitates certain kinds of criminal inclination and corporate marketeering! - Not to mention its own kind of addiction. The point is, there's a good and bad side to it. I'm an internet fan - I understand how interesting and useful it is. But that doesn't mean the 'internet is shit' camp have nothing valid to say. They do; it's not all good. Both sides exist. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stanley Smith EMAIL: Icurn4uprn@yahoo.com IP: 207.243.197.25 URL: DATE: 07/07/2003 11:31:49 PM The internet is just like everything else in life it is what you make of it. It can be shit and it can be "the shit". It just depends on how you use it. If you want to corupt your mind with sex, bomb making, racism and the like its on the net. However if you want to make someones day , check the stock market, connect with friends, and or spread knowledge to millions you can. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.57.100 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 07/08/2003 01:27:54 AM "criminal inclination and corporate marketeering" There IS a difference? Wow. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com/chronotope/ DATE: 07/08/2003 07:24:26 AM I've been supporting a community of married men coming out for over 6 years now. Thousands of guys have come through our servers and hundreds of them have come out to their wives and children. I don't see how the service I provide could be made to work in any other media. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chrissie EMAIL: chrissie@chezchrissie.co.uk IP: 80.225.5.128 URL: http://www.chezchrissie.co.uk DATE: 07/10/2003 01:47:26 PM I wish I could say the Internet had helped greatly with my own experiences of depression and loneliness. I still feel like I'm standing alone in a corner a lot of the time, but maybe that's because I'm just horrible. :-( Nonetheless, I still believe in its potential for good... I have reasons not to, but the rational me says it's not shit and has helped a lot of people. (Just not me.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JJ EMAIL: jj@merelo.net IP: 150.214.16.195 URL: http://blojj.blogalia.com DATE: 07/11/2003 04:37:00 PM I don't think that site needs any kind of rebuttal... he could have said "the internet is a flying herring", and he would be as right or wrong. The only thing he's done is to register a domain and write some stuff, and he's instantly famous... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lea EMAIL: rawr@lealea.net IP: 24.67.102.128 URL: http://lealea.net/ DATE: 07/12/2003 07:04:32 AM The internet is definitely not shit. I wouldn't be in my chosen career if it wasn't for the internet (and many echo my sentiments). I wouldn't be contacting faraway friends with as much frequency if it wasn't for the net. There are many forums out there that give out support to various different subjects -- from the silly (like fan sites where people can lament about their shows without being ridiculed for their fandom) to the serious (sites promoting youth and raising funds for important causes). And if anything else, it's a place to vent. ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 07/12/2003 11:19:59 AM This is still polarised into "shit!" "No not shit - great!". It is obvious: any statement which says one thing or the other exclusively is incorrect, because it is both. Yes it sometimes connects people who feel excluded etc; yes it also creates 'net addicts and confirms people's isolation stuck in front of a VDU. Yes it helps create community, yes it also extends corporate influence. See what MIT's Sherry Turkle says: yes it can help provide a social learning experience, yes it can unbalance people even more (http://www.edge.org/digerati/turkle/). The Internet Is Fab rhetoric started in the 90s, it still continues, and I believe it will ultimately be counter-productive when people see for themselves what the 'net is actually like, on a day to day basis, for the majority of people. There's a difference between potential and actuality, ideal and fact, the enthusiastic few and the indifferent majority, light-hearted and personally appreciative remarks and wider sociological consideration. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Marks EMAIL: kmarks@mac.com IP: 17.202.34.245 URL: http://epeus.blogspot.com DATE: 07/18/2003 09:22:05 AM The Internet is Caliban's mirror - it is built from the thoughts dreams and ideas of billions of people. All human nature is there. If you don't like what you find, consider that it reflects what you went looking for, and that it is your face leering out from the glass. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.lomax/blogger.htm DATE: 07/18/2003 06:49:13 PM That's only partly true, although the notion that all human nature is there is correct. The trouble is, some of it is 'in your face' and unwanted. I guess this debate depends on your perspective: that of an enthusiastic 'user', a cynical 'dismisser' or - which in my view is the only way of having a proper appraisal - someone who acknowledges the full panorama of internet activity. Saying A, B and C are great is OK, so long as you recognise X, Y and Z in equal measure and do not have only a partial focus. One further thought: the 'net is shit' site says hey, let's start again. I disagree. I think the good stuff began decades ago and the current good stuff is a continuation of that earlier trajectory. Its only when the net became hugely popular in the last 5-10 years that all the bullshit started to appear. If we 'started again' all those exploiters, the corporations, the spammers, the pop-up code monkeys, the sick stuff etc. would have an even GREATER presence on the net because they would be starting out level with everyone else and with lots of experience. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Quote EMAIL: none@none.com IP: 64.50.29.142 URL: http://newquotes.blogspot.com DATE: 07/23/2003 05:10:45 PM You are right. The internet can sometimes be used in the absence of a real social life. As long as it's used in moderation it is the best thing ever. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anonymous Coward EMAIL: bi-sexual@Ineedhits-mail.com IP: 67.25.135.252 URL: DATE: 08/24/2003 06:02:48 PM For all it's worth, the web can eliminate barriers (sex, race, etc...) as far as you know, I am a man from America named Joe. nothing wrong with that, I like it. -- The web grants us much more than freedom of speach, it allows freedom from our earthly selves. -- -^- I don't care if the web is good or bad, I like it, and if you didn't, then you wouldn't be reading this. -^- It's not my fault, I was born this way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.lomax/blogger.htm DATE: 08/24/2003 09:42:10 PM "Rheingold is a self-styled visionary. His ideas are projected as exercises in radical imagination. It is this preachy posture that seems to give cyberspace ideology its popular appeal" (1) "Rheingold's image of a virtual community turns out to be no more than an electronic variant of the Rousseau-ist dream of a transparent society in which the ideal of community expresses a longing for harmony among persons, for consensual and mutual understanding" (2) "There is the invocation of community, but not the production of a society. There is groupmind, but not social encounter. There is online communion, but there are no residents of hyperspace. This is another synthetic world" (3). "THE MYTHOLOGY OF CYBERSPACE IS PREFERRED OVER ITS SOCIOLOGY" (4). Fractal Dreams 1996 pages 19 (1), 20 (2), 21 (3), and 26 (4). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben Heertoolong EMAIL: thenetisdead@hotmail.com IP: 131.131.2.10 URL: http://www.flushthenet.com DATE: 09/10/2003 10:01:32 PM I wouldn't say the 'Net is shit, but it certainly has become a toilet that needs a good flushing. As for gay teenagers commiting suicide because they're lonely or confused or whatever, they could go old-school and call a crisis hotline. Or a 900 number like "Guy on Guy Talk - Only $.99 a Minute". Frankly, I wish gays would keep all their "gay pride" to themselves - we heteros don't have parades celebrating our sexuality (hmmm... maybe we should!). Actually, the idea sounds kind of stupid. It would become another Hallmark holiday and everybody would be expected to send cards. And no, I'm not a fag-hater - two of my best friends like to play hide the salami with each other and I love them like the gay brothers I never had. But enough of homosexuality and back the the state of the Internet - what I've seen since '93 (I was BBS'ing before that... perhaps some of you have heard of it) when I first signed up with CompuServe, I thought "My God, this is the coolest thing since canned beer." Okay, I didn't really think that... but I was truly facinated. Back then, advertising was virtually non-existent. Now look at it. You can't go to the lamest of websites without it's creator attempting to force-feed a link to another site selling crap so they can earn a nickle-a-click. Or you get spyware/cookies that track your surfing for some whore of an ad agency (DoubleClick, AdClick, DickClick...) who sells your "demographic information" to some other whore selling shit that they think you'll want to buy. Remember when cable television was commercial free and that's why you were willing to pay to watch it? That used to be cool too. The Intermercial, as I like to call it now, has become nothing more than an extension of the idiot box that sits in your living room that says "Click here for free shit! You're a winner!". Fuck the Internet. I wish one of these script kiddies who create all these world-wide-destructive-email viruses could figure out a way to take the whole damn thing DOWN. Maybe we could all remember what life was like 10 years ago and realize that we didn't really need this after all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dipak Kanabar EMAIL: dipakkanabar@hotmail.com IP: 62.253.64.7 URL: DATE: 10/11/2003 11:55:58 PM soz last post i didnt finish and i made a few mistakes soo i ment i didnt read after Tom Morris and as i was saying i am always online taking on msn messenger and in chatrooms but i heard a comment on gay people realying on chatrooms a while ago i would have support for that theory but as i said above i have changed i now think if you are gay and you are anbarassed, are you embarassed at yourself? well most people will say no at that but if you think about all the lies you have said the answer will turn out yes well now im just changing the subject lol well to get back on track i honesty love the internet but i regret getting "in" to it for the fact that it had taken my life away and made changes to my personality furthermore i think the internet is just aiding peadofiles and criminals and "practical jokes" as i only have been stating the bad facts there are good effects for bisiness but i still think they have spoiled it by advertising and making the internet even slower as i am blaiming people i might as well bring hackers into the story they have practically made me write this they have quite practically ruined this 4 all of us i close by reminding you that i am only 13 and i appoligse for any bad grammer or spelling ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: King Mongo EMAIL: myrealaddressha@notlikely.com IP: 67.121.126.1 URL: DATE: 12/13/2003 10:02:21 PM Yeah, all kinds of people get together on the Internet. Y'all are so quick to laud the Internet, let's not forget the rapid distribution of child pornography, or the ease with which sex abusers can connect with victims all over the country. And this comment, from http://macdaraconroy.com/ is the worst kind of ignorance. "Anyone who thinks or says the the internet is shit doesn't understand what the internet is. It's as simple as that." Imbecile. The problem with debating topics like this, on public forums, is that the Internet users don't have any comprehension of logic or fallacy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/14/2003 12:06:30 AM But that's a ludicrous argument. Unpleasant material can be disseminated in thousands of different ways, people can be harrassed in dozens of different contexts. The internet doesn't make connecting to disseminate child pornography any easier than it makes connecting to share scientific research, tips for cooking or discussing religion, television or health problems (each of which could be shared in person, on the phone, at conferences or by bloody CB radio). As with every communications medium, you have to rely on the fact that the vast majority of uses that people find for it won't be illegal, and attempt to punish people who do decide to abuse it. Otherwise you might as well argue that people shouldn't be allowed to meet in public for fear that they might attack each other. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 12/16/2003 06:59:45 PM You are contradicting yourself here in several ways. You stated correctly that the 'net facilitates culture (above), and now you are back-tracking and suggesting that it doesn't. 'Culture' is not just nice chit-chat; it's also the undesirable stuff. If the 'net facilitates one then obviously it also facilitates the other. Not that you have to apply logic to arrive at this conclusion: its a well known fact that the 'net is being used for undesirable purposes, and there is a steady trickle of news telling us about innapropriate meetings etc. Your objection is ludicrous: of course its easier to access illegal/depraved material on the 'net - its only a few clicks away from you, with a credit card! All this is well known. You're also back-tracking on the recipes, research, health problems etc since you originally stated that the 'net is great (unequivocally) because its helped homosexual people etc. Now you're saying it *doesn't* help with these things. I think Mondo is merely stating the obvious: lets not get carried away with positive rhetoric, but have a more balanced appraisal where good and bad is acknowledged. I agree that you have to affirm the positive and expect that is how it will mostly be used; I do not agree with rhetoric which is actually not factual. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/17/2003 12:32:11 AM I think you're misreading my position. What I'm saying is that there is not necessarily a qualitative difference in the inter-personal distribution of information, but there is an enhancement of the speed, quantity and the like that can be transmitted and stored. For the most part, the internet only differs from letters, village notice-boards and conversation in the speed and depth of the ways that people can interact with each other. That speed and depth facilitates the creation of non-geographically restricted communities, allowing interest groups of all kinds to proliferate - whether they be positive ones or negative ones. Now it's interesting that you say it's easy to access illegal / depraved content on the web with only a credit card - well I'd argue two things there - firstly that it's actually not particularly easy to do so because it's generally pretty easy to get information on which people are maintaining illegal sites because so much of the action of the web requires financial transactions and credit cards that can be relatively traced and identified. I won't deny that it's easier to find pornography, though. Nor will I deny that there are things that are on the internet that most people don't like the look of or would prefer weren't there, because obviously there are. What I would say instead is that for every piece of content you can find that seems to you catastrophically unpleasant, I could find considerably more that has provided value or utility. The basic needs and interests that drive human beings haven't changed simply because they have a larger forum in which to research / discuss / publish about them. People still care about all kinds of dodgy sex, but they also care about their personal health, their financial status, their homes, their families, their ambitions and careers, their pets, their music collections, their computers, their governments, their news, their television programmes, their celebrities, their religions etc. etc. etc. Decrying the internet because it's a place where illegal activities happen is exactly analogous to decrying any environment in which people talk to people. Obviously, we need to find ways of dealing with those people who use the internet to break the law - just as we punish those who use cars in robberies, or use video cameras to make snuff movies or who mug old ladies in parks (and we don't declare parks, cars or video cameras to be somehow evil). On the whole - the internet has done far more good than bad. It has helped many more people than it has hurt. It has published much more useful information than illegal information. It's for these reasons that third-world countries are clamouring for greater access, to have greater involvement and connection with the internet, why across Western Europe and the USA governments are often desperate to drive up digital literacy and access to the internet. I'm not speaking as a cultish devotee of a dark art. The internet may be complicated and nuanced, it certainly has negative things going on in it, but it is not shit - which - if you'll notice the title - was the limit of my assertion in this piece: that the internet matters and is not shit, not that it is perfect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.lomax/blogger.htm DATE: 12/17/2003 02:51:59 AM Iím not sure all of that was focussed on the few simple points I was making: a shotgun going off in into different and peripheral areas. It may not be what you actually think, but you did say it: first, that it helps people link up, communicate and facilitate culture, and then no, it doesnít do that. A contradiction. ìFor the most part, the internet only differs from letters, village notice-boards and conversation in the speed and depth of the ways that people can interact with each otherî That is simply not true. Iíve spent time on web boards and you always encounter vociferous argumentative exchange, flames, trolls and a large amount of very banal little posts. On the one hand thereís the great idea of internet community, and on the other hand thereís the substantial evidence that for much of the time itís really not that great: the characteristics and limitations of the medium limit what can be achieved and what you can reasonably expect. I think where it does succeed is when you have a very specialised interest group ñ technical, philosophical, whatever, and in my experience that is the only time all those Rheingoldian ideals are ever realised. The open, public and free-for-all enterprises are nothing to get excited about because they waste time at least as much as do something with it. ìNow it's interesting that you say it's easy to access illegal / depraved content on the web with only a credit card - well I'd argue two things there - firstly that it's actually not particularly easy to do so because it's generally pretty easy to get information on which people are maintaining illegal sites because so much of the action of the web requires financial transactions and credit cards that can be relatively traced and identified. I won't deny that it's easier to find pornography, thoughî They are two separate issues. It is extremely easy to access that kind of stuff. The fact that you can be traced does not mean it is not easy: it means you can be traced. How widespread the surveillance is, Iím not sure. Itís obviously increasing and will continue to increase as the problem grows. I also suspect, as with the rest of the ënet, much of the content is difficult to locate. Presumably the authorities arenít hacking into databases, so they first have to find the people running them. So why donít you hear of webmaster prosecutions, only the Pete Townsend type? I donít know actually; I donít know how it works. ìNor will I deny that there are things that are on the internet that most people don't like the look of or would prefer weren't there, because obviously there are. What I would say instead is that for every piece of content you can find that seems to you catastrophically unpleasant, I could find considerably more that has provided value or utility.î I donít find it catastrophic, and agree that thereís more decent content than otherwise. I merely think that excessively positive rhetoric is partial and innacurate when we are speaking of the internet *as a whole, and as a cultural phenomenenon.* ìThe basic needs and interests that drive human beings haven't changed simply because they have a larger forum in which to research / discuss / publish about them. People still care about all kinds of dodgy sex, but they also care about their personal health, their financial status, their homes, their families, their ambitions and careers, their pets, their music collections, their computers, their governments, their news, their television programmes, their celebrities, their religions etc. etc. etc. Decrying the internet because it's a place where illegal activities happen is exactly analogous to decrying any environment in which people talk to peopleî Iím not decrying the ënet; I think itís great. Nor am I suggesting that human nature is being or will be corrupted ñ although clearly, where the dodgy stuff is concerned it is like drugs: if thereís a pusher on the street, people buy. The availability accounts for much of the ensuing market. Human nature is the same wherever you go ñ as you point out ñ so the same psychology applies to the ënet: availability does increase the interest. However thatís tangential to my point: what I am decrying is the promulagation of what I referred to earlier as the mythology of cyberspace, as opposed to itís sociology. The first is an exercise of the imagination, and only the second is grounded in sensible and factual observation. ìOn the whole - the internet has done far more good than bad. It has helped many more people than it has hurt. It has published much more useful information than illegal information. It's for these reasons that third-world countries are clamouring for greater access, to have greater involvement and connection with the internet, why across Western Europe and the USA governments are often desperate to drive up digital literacy and access to the internet. I'm not speaking as a cultish devotee of a dark art. The internet may be complicated and nuanced, it certainly has negative things going on in it, but it is not shit - which - if you'll notice the title - was the limit of my assertion in this piece: that the internet matters and is not shit, not that it is perfect.î I agree that on the whole itís pretty good, although the way itís been commandeered by corporations definitely isnít. It wasnít like that originally: when it was used by genteel academics, it was purely for communication rather than an enormous market place." The entire ìshit!î ìno not shit!î dichotomy is not a useful way of forming an appraisal. You say "I can tell you right now why the internet matters and why it is not shit" and I could tell you right now why it is shit ñ see above. In other words, you can take either premise and find your own material to support it. I havenít done that, because they are both partial. What I have done is redressed the over-enthusiastic i.e. positive generalisations, because they are false. You can spin out the visionary and utopian stuff as long as you like: it began in the 90s and continues today. But it never came true, and it never will. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/17/2003 09:45:36 AM With regards to my contradictions, I don't see them. Virtual community creates and supports enormous amounts of people. It could only happen to the extent and scale that it does on the internet. The basic quality of that community however isn't particularly different from a group of people meeting in their local village hall or writing letters to a newspaper, except in that everyone across the world who shares the rare disease can talk and support each other, instead of leaving people isolated by themselves in rural communities simply because the infrastructure isn't there to support their social contact. Let me be blunt. I'm don't believe I'm being hopelessly utopian, I'm not - and never was - claiming perfection, I was presenting an alternative case to dystopianism. Your recurrent use of rhetoric to imply that I have an extreme naive position as opposed to your moderate balanced one is simply innaccurate. I was responding to a statement that the internet was shit. I was pointing out that for whatever negative things it affords, it does a disproportionately large amount of good. That's not hopeless utopianism at all, it's pulling the balance away from the people who decry the internet as something inherently evil into a place more like the real world - where there are many good things going on almost as a matter of course and some bad things going on as well that governments and police forces aspire to fight. With regards to utopian dreaming -you're quite right, we'll never achieve a utopia. On the other hand, I now live in a democratic and mostly liberal society with free healthcare for all citizens, in which most people have no problem feeding themselves, in which almost no one is killed by guns and in which most homes are heated and comfortable. We don't live in a utopia, but this is clearly an improvement in our quality of life over the world of fifty years ago in my mind, and I don't see any reason why the internet itself could not evolve in a similar way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 12/18/2003 06:52:48 PM "The basic quality of that community however isn't particularly different from a group of people meeting in their local village hall" Don't be silly Tom: this is what I mean by mythology and utopianism. Or maybe science fiction is a better description. We're not talking about abstract information - which is expedited magnificently over the internet - we're talking about flesh and blood people. An actual meeting is far more meaningful than tapping on a keyboard. It is *substantially* different. Physically congregating with other folk is the same as being on the internet as is reading a book about Tibet compared to actually going there. Or reading a menu and eating the food. You can't reduce and flatten the physical, sensory, emotional, kinaesthetic and social world in that way. What it does is confuses basic semantic parameters, the "Blending of reality and metaphor: a willingness to equate the real highway with the digital one, physical space with cyberspace, real communities with virtual ones" Slouka, Mark 1996 War of the Worlds Abacus, London: page 68. I know what you're saying, and I have no dispute with the benefits of the internet. But there's so much silly utopian rhetoric flying around, and it gets us nowhere because it's more imaginative than factual. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/18/2003 07:47:55 PM Look, calling it utopian rhetoric doesn't make it so! Your analogies are hideously flawed for a start - if I communicate on the internet or by phone with someone, it's not like a transcript of that person or a decription of that person. You're talking as if whenever you talked to people who weren't present physically (say via the telephone), that what you were actually doing was listening passively to bloody recordings! Of course they're not - it's not bloody radio! People are talking to each other! Now obviously there are things that you can do in person that you can't do physically online. It's harder to guage someone's mood, it's harder to have sex with them, it's harder to get intonation or a tone of voice. But it's still communication! And the possibility of community still exists! I mean, there are many circumstances in which certain elements of the experience an interaction can be truncated - if you're on a phone for example and can't see the person concerned, or if they're wearing sunglasses so you can't see their eyes, or if you're actually bloody deaf and are forced to lip-read, for Christ's sake! But none of these things stop the possibilities of communication, and none of them stop people being supportive, helpful, useful, friendly or even forming communities through them. I work on the internet, and often my first experience of people is online. Sometimes my only experience of them is online. And yet we can be friends! Most of them have helped me out in some ways in the past, and I've helped most of them out in the past as well. Those I haven't met, I'd like to and those I have I see regularly. But that our relationships have moved sometimes from purely online to a mix of both online and off doesn't mean they weren't real to begin with. You talk about 'tapping on a keyboard' as if touching keys was the entire point. You're confusing the method of communication with the communication itself. It would be like me saying, "There's a substantial difference between communicating with someone (online) and just causing air to vibrate with your vocal chords". It's trivialising, innaccurate, clumsy and - frankly - stupid. Your quote - by the way - is interesting, although let me say straight off that I'm not terribly impressed by chapter and verse citations of things that amount to little more than opinion pieces in books. I've had my own opinions published in books and do not consider them to have suddenly taken on a magic form of authority simply because they're in print. There's a lot of conflation in that quote, a degree of truth and very little evidence. I'm going to end with two points. Firstly a fairly simple one - I think - that your arbitrary (shall I say 'imaginative' rather than 'factual') distinction between online community and real-life communities are beginning to collapse into each other. Specifically, people are increasingly knowing more people in real-life that they have met online, they are using online community software more and more to manage, handle and keep in touch with their real-life friends and families, and that these two activities are heavily bleeding into one another. Communities like the one I run at Barbelith.com met online but many of the people on the community see each other now very regularly. When members of the board travel abroad, they go and stay with people that beforehand they have little or no real-life contact with. Friends of these people who didn't meet through the board are being introduced to it as a way of meeting new like-minded people and keeping up with their older friends. It's the same with most online communities - people communicate, they know each other, they share information and support one another. Local geographical groups will form to do those things you can't do through computers (like have sex and drink), and then they go online to do other kinds of activities that they couldn't do in the flesh - communicate with each other in the background while they're at work, getting engaged in long, slow-paced conversations about things that matter to them that they don't need to be immediately present for. And on the site that I project-managed and designed (UpMyStreet Conversations), people are using the site to meet people in their local areas to share information with them, which may then evolve into conversations and communities maintained through all kinds of different media, technologies and spaces (speaking in cafÈs, going to the cinema together, phoning each other, chatting online with one another, going to the same concerts, using similar discussion boards). Which brings me to my other point - the stuff you can do in an online space that you CAN'T do in real-life. There's the wonder of asynchronous communication - that a discussion can be ongoing over many many days with none of the people needing to be in the same place at the same time. There's the security of being able to introduce yourself without anxiety or threat (I know a few people who don't necessarily find it easy to just go out and meet new people in the flesh, who have found discussion online a better way to break the ice). There are the benefits of being able to maintain conversations with people all over the world and to join communities that bring together the most dedicated people in any given field. Now I'm quite prepared to say that with online communities - just like with anything else on the internet - people can use the physical power of the technology to do bad things as well as good. Although, I will mantain - like I have throughout this long (and extremely irritating, unproductive) conversation - that individuals will find more positive uses for the technology than they will illegal and immoral ones. I will base that on the evidence of hundreds of millions of people getting value from e-mail and accessing the web every day for considerably more things than pornography and snuff movies, from governments clamouring to get more access to the internet and from the specific benefits I've got out of it and the friends I've met from it. I'm even prepared to stand by that because of the potential uses I've seen to come. If you think that it's some kind of imaginative notion to se the value in these things, then I think you're insane. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.lomax/blogger.htm DATE: 12/20/2003 04:06:35 PM Look yourself: not calling it utopian rhetoric doesnít mean it isnít. But Iím not going to get into that level of argumentation using spiky remarks, exaggerated adjectives etc, but stay with the simple facts. You try to emphasise the complete similarity between physically based and technologically mediated communication, but in doing so illustrate perfectly certain widespread themes which are just conceptual nonsense. Talking, for example, is something you do with your voice and not via a keyboard. The two different ëmediumsí define in a very basic way what kind of exchange is possible, and I donít think the two things should be confused. There are plenty of studies on this ñ how people engage emotionally via mouse and VDU ñ and I think the conclusion is that it is profoundly ambivalent because it is symbolic. And the ambivalence has to be emphasised, or you become immersed in a strange fantasy world where everything is ëvirtualí. I never said the internet wasnít communication; I merely highlighted the problematic area where distinctions between online and offline are routinely blurred. Itís quite common: there are people who actually argue that you can change your personality or gender with online interaction. I think those people are lost in a technological fantasy world. Somewhat deranged, in fact. Nor did I say there is no possibility of online community. To repeat: I highlighted the difference between online and offline, counteracting the tendency to merge the two, which is done quite frequently by cyberspace theorists as part of their overall rhetoric. I know you can get help, support etc, but I donít agree with people who discuss this as if it were no different from physically based community. Thus, saying ìThe basic quality of that community Ö isn't particularly different from a group of people meeting in their local village hall" is just ridiculous. For example, itís well known that people play around with online personas, even genders, which are different from the real one. I am considering internet usage across its full range; I get the feeling you are only thinking about quite narrow and specialised groups of people. Which is fine: but it means you cannot universalise your ideas as if they represented all online life. And thatís what you tend to do. Iím not confusing the content and method of communication at all; Iím pointing out that tapping on a keyboard is inherently a very restricted means of expression: so we canít get too carried away with what you can achieve with it. In fact you confuse the two in your distinction between voice and internet: you express this in purely technical/physical terms, and the point is what you can convey, how you can convey it, how it feels for you and the other person is very different! I agree the ëtechnologicalí kind of comparision is stupid: I didnít do it, you did! I am fully aware that random quotations arenít really worth very much. What they do is point towards substantial material that someone may or may not find useful or accurate. I personally found it quite a good book; whether you or anyone else decides to investigate it is up to you and no real concern of mine. But it has to be taken for what it is: a signpost away from the discursive limitations of the internet and into the domain of more substantive research. If the distinctions between online and offline community are collapsing ñ as you say ñ then that is an interesting and additional factor to my own ideas about this. But I suspect itís not as common or universal as you suggest, if you look at the internet as a whole ñ not just the limits of your personal experience. You keep defending the internet as if Iím decrying it, and I have to keep saying no I think itís great, that my objection concerns the way it is THEORISED. I think this is pretty clear from my posts. In fact, this discussion illustrates the problems/limitations of keyboard tapping: had it taken place otherwise, the background context for what Iíve said would have been abundantly clearer.The best you can do is summarise your message in text form which has to be snappy and concise, knowing it doesnít fully articulate your position and can be misunderstood. Which is quite ccommon, hence all the arguments, flames etc. with millions of people each with their own agenda. In a 60 or even 30 minute cafÈ conversation you could probably give a reasonable account of a book you had written to another person. I donít think you could do that with the ënet; itís too vague and open to misunderstanding, as each person reads while they sit in a different location and has an entirely different set of thoughts, feelings and ideas going through their head: you donít have the same rapport, or the means of establishing it. Much ënet communication is an attempt to understand what the other person actually means, and itís 100 times harder if they are not face to face. Anyway Iím getting pretty bored with this; itís got to the stage when Iím more or less repeating myself. Utopian internet rhetoric is undoubtedly out there, blurring online and offline experiences, you sometimes do this yourself, and I have highlighted this fact. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 80.40.54.197 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/20/2003 05:20:29 PM You see I don't know that this debate would be resolved if we were in the same place, because you keep cheating by just stating that I'm indulging in utopian rhetoric, and I contend that I'm not. You keep presenting my position as extreme utopianism, as a way of propping up your position. Until the point where you are prepared to say that my rhetoric isn't insanely off-wack, but simply represents a different position to yours - one which may or may not have sufficient evidence to back it up, then we're going to continue to argue. You may have different experiences of the internet to me or I may also have considerably longer experience of online communities than you. It's also quite possible that your understanding of online communities is increasingly outdated. I mean, the fact that at the moment we don't tend to ask for ways for people to demonstrate their identity or their gender or whatever doesn't mean that it can't be done, won't be done or shouldn't be done. Online community software is nascent and evolving and people who use it are becoming increasingly comfortable with its use. The identity experiment stuff is as a result of people's fleeting connections with communities, not their long-term connection to them and it just tends to end after a while. People become generally less interested in them, look for slightly different cues about other people's behaviour etc. And in the future I see no reason to expect that identity online will solidify. It's already beginning to do so around social networking software where it only makes sense to participate if you're actually self-representing in some way. Now obviously there are differences in some of the modes of interaction, obviously there are certain limitations in the ways people can communicate - but in my experience this doesn't undermine the fundamentals that people go onto these things to socialise, discuss, flirt, cause fights and get support - just the same things they do in every day life. If you'd like me to introduce you to communities where that kind of thing is happening, I will. If you want me to talk about ways in which I've worked to try and increase some of the bandwidth for social cues and the like to emerge, then I'll do that too. But if you're just going to stand there and assert that I'm being stupid or naive, then I think we should call this thing to an end. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 12/21/2003 01:18:26 AM Iím not suggesting this debate would be resolved, but making the general distinction between online and offline interaction. I donít think Iím cheating, merely reiterating fundamental points that keep getting lost. If you choose not to engage with it then thatís fine; that in itself doesnít change the validity of what Iím saying. You tend to exaggerate and over-characterise everything eg "extreme" utopianism. No, I wouldnít say that and never did. Iím sure you do have a greater experience of online community because thatís your job. Itís also possible ñ as I have suggested ñ that what you say is based on quite a narrow sector of internet activity, relatively speaking, used to generalise about all of it. Even a massive site like the BBCís, for example, is just a small dot in the entire medium. . "Insanely off-whack"? Youíre just exaggerating and being colourful again, to have an effect. You suggest my experience is outdated with regard to gender games, but respond with a speculative projection into the future. Which doesnít make sense. Since my comment is about the way it is now. . I would be interested in examples of successful long term communities, though you may just be thinking of the obvious/well known ones which I have looked at. Iím sure there are success stories, and it does interest me. I also maintain that they are exceptions, that like the dot coms, for every good one there were/are 10, 20, or more that failed and/or werenít ultimately very interesting. That when you make comments about the internet it necessarily includes those, or you are misrepresenting the cultural phenomenon in its entirety. . I donít think youíve really grasped my fundamental ideas and donít think youíre especially interested. Which is fine. I could explicate further but there is no point; in any case I donít wish to do it. You kept defending the ënet, I kept reiterating my THEORETICAL objections i.e. to certain kinds of rhetoric. The former interests you, the latter mostly doesnít. Which is fine. That doesnít mean there are currently no books or web sites spinning out utopian stuff which lacks some really fundamental phenomenological distinctions between online and offline experience. There are plenty of those books and they are essentially science-fictional, based on a kind of technological enchantment. They also tend to ignore real life issues like internet access. Huge it may be, but it is still used predominantly by specific socio-economic sectors with a certain standard of education. So: to give one specific example, rhetoric about how the ënet encourages community and will enhance society etc is flawed. Because there are real life political/educational/socio-economic factors that just donít fit that cosy rhetorical world. It makes sense for the digerati, but not for others. Similarly for all the benfits of online interaction, it remains keyboard tapping and staring at a VDU. The ambivalence is a fact, i.e. that you are ultimately engaging only in symbolic communciation, and this gets lost and forgotten in all the glossy verbiage. The kind of stuff that people say about the ënet is outdated, because it derives from the 90s when everyone was really really excited. NaÔve might be a better word: it wasnít grounded in sociological, psychological and phenemenological reality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 80.40.60.142 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/21/2003 12:57:24 PM Two things - you say I'm talking about things 'in the future' while you're talking about 'things as the are now'. But actually you're making statements about the possibilities of the medium - and at basic levels like the kinds of interaction that are possible and the types of relationships that are possible - that the internet is inherently not a good place for community because of lack of signals etc. etc. I'm merely arguing that you're generalising from a few - fairly old - generic types of online community, that crossover examples like instant messaging have demonstated that on and offline communities can be one and the same thing, that boards like the one I maintain at http://www.barbelith.com/underground are successful long-term communities that have existed for five years and have many of the same people involved in them and operate at a useful level and that there's a considerable amount of work (like the social networking stuff that's around now) that already resolves the problems that are connected with CERTAIN TYPES of boards and MUDs used it CERTAIN WAYS by CERTAIN PEOPLE at CERTAIN TIMES in history. I could give you dozens of examples of different types of online community. Clay Shirky has an interesting take on this - he says that when a new technology emerges everyone looks at the extreme possibilities - in the case of online communities talking about how personal identities would become fragmented and contextual, that people would be women or men or multiple personalities or whatever. In fact, as any of us who do this long-term know, these things do happen, but they're normally undertaken by naive users in nascent or ill-formed early communities. Now I'm not going to deny that there's a lot of utopianist rhetoric about the internet. I've read and been irritated by a lot of the same books as you have. But just because it's utopian rhetoric doesn't mean coincidentally some of it can't be right - just like some of the nay-sayer stuff couldn't accidentally be right too. I find both positions irritating, but I put my professional reputation on the line REGULARLY on the basis that software and the internet can facilitate and enable communities (both on and offline) to form and work, and if you really want to fight the issue to the bloody end, I'll cite Outlook meeting requests in work environments as a way in which they help offline communities to self-organise and operate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 12/21/2003 05:59:27 PM I think much of what you write at your site revolves around your career, that sometimes itís like a politician building up his ideological position. And as with politicians, what you say sometimes appears to be OK, but if you think it about in a more penetrating manner, beyond the snappy process of read-digest that characterises internet browsing, you realise it is flawed. Not necessarily in a dramatic or obvious way, but flawed nonetheless. Thus, saying people seek sex, pick fights etc on the ënet in the same way they do in RL is ostensibly accurate, but actually misleading. The significant point is the frequency and degree with which this happens compared to less colourful socialising, and the extent to which it makes the ënet a kind of lowest common denominator medium, and ultimately unpleasant. Consider it the other way round: is real life like the ënet? No, of course it isnít. A Saturday night city would have to be a military-policed zone full of soap-box activists and a metropolitan sized orgy, to reflect what happens on the ënet. Therefore, it is not correct to equate online and offline in that way. That kind of facile thinking is what I object to, when the ënet is theorised. You might think thatís nit-picking, but actually it isnít: people pursue those kind of ideas and create a semi-intellectual, digerati milieu, which is ultimately science-fictional nonsense. Who needs William Gibson when people talk like that? I have my own ideas about why this happened (and why those books were published): one is that programmers and coders suddenly had a public platform, central to the internet phenomenon. Those people are not philosophers or social theorists ñ and yet they had entered those intellectual domains. . I donít really know what youíre trying to achieve by offering to show your Outlook documentation. Iíve never denied that youíre involved in some interesting projects, in fact Iíve never even referred to this. Youíve got it wrong re. my remarks and future possibilities; youíre reading into it some of your own concerns. I rarely think about the future ñ literally just a few times, in the most vague ëwhatís going to happení manner. And never in terms of what specific interactions might be possible; only in terms of how it reflects human capacity. If youíre trying to find ways of antidoting well known problems via software architecture, thatís quite interesting. However I donít think you have full clarity on this: instant messaging is still online, despite the fact that is live and instant, and it has the same potential problems as web boards. Itís not "crossover" at all. . I think I read the Shirky stuff, and probably agreed with it. I donít think itís especially pertinent or unique; other people have said similar things, for example in the book The Victorian Internet: exploring the impact and general sociology of technology, noting sociological parallels with different technological forms. And Carl Jung described the way humanity projects psychological ëenergiesí onto inanimate technological form. . It seems to come down to this: your interests and writings refer to quite specific activities, whereas my intellectual interests concern the bigger picture, i.e. the entire phenomenon of the cultural internet: good and bad, past and present, hugely public and relatively private, used by digerati elite, distracted American students, deranged personalities, average e mailers, and all the rest. Thatís the context from which my comments come; your responses continually revolve around your relatively small scale activities. I may have been unfair in attacking this, since we all refer to our own lives and our own experience. However much of the BS rhetoric *is* generalised extrapolation from small scale experience, so it is legitimate to criticise this when it occurs. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 80.40.54.65 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/22/2003 01:27:54 AM Wow. I don't even know where to start. Presumably I should be impressed by you presenting your position (which I think I now finally understand to be "some people in books in the late 1990's wrote loads of utopian books which I don't agree with and as far as I'm concerned you're continuing what they wrote") as 'intellectual interests [concerning] the bigger picture' in contrast to my 'small scale efforts'. Well I think I'd be more impressed if you evidenced any specific expertise in what it means to participate in, create or maintain any kind of online community space. And frankly, I think I'd be keener to continue these arguments (and less likely to stoop to saying that you don't know what you're talking about) if you'd generally been a little less superior all the way through this whole bloody exercise. Still, never mind. With regard to your statements about the rhetoric of the people from the late 1990s that you don't agree with. Ok. Whatever. I don't agree with a lot of that stuff either. PEOPLE WRITE BOOKS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO MAKE MONEY OR REPUTATIONS. OFTEN THEY WRITE THINGS THAT ARE INFLATED OR DETACHED FROM REALITY. Able men and true - you and I both, I assume - don't have to believe what they say. That may come as a shock to you. After three and a half years of (ncomplete) doctoral work, it doesn't come as a shock to me. Obviously, I don't agree with much of that rhetoric and your regular attempts to lump me in with it have been less than endearing to me. With regards to the differences between online and offline communities - I maintain that your position (based as it has been on references to things like a lack of corporeality and problems with input devices) can't just be considered to apply to 'the mean average quality and typology of things that currently exist' as you seem to be suggesting, both because corporeality and input devices aren't going to change any time soon (which means you're talking about the possibilities of the medium as well as it's common usage, and at that point I can point enough useful and valuable, friendly, on/offline based communities in your direction to rather skewer any universalising point), but also because such a statement would be both fairly obvious and not particularly useful. It would also not seem to be in particular discord with the utopianists, who would presumably argue (as I would) that different models of online interaction emerge all the time, gradually seem to be improving and that some models are more (or will be more) successful than others and that some individual communities are more successful than others. In terms of understanding online communities and what they mean for the world, it seems that we should be looking towards those faltering steps that have succeeded and trying to work or build from those. They show us the possibilities - not some dot coms failed venture from five years ago. The statement here is not of utopianist, "all the world will be solved with information architecture", but that models (good and bad) improve, or are demonstrated to be useless/damaging and are replaced. That should be familiar enough to you as a social scientist. In a nutshell on that last paragraph, my position would be recapped: 1) Finding what 'is' wanting and ascribing causes to those failures that aren't going to change isn't a statement about 'most' or 'current' communities but a statement about the possibilities of the medium as a whole. 2) If you're going to universalise, then be prepared to have people cite specific examples that go against your vision and be prepared to account for them. Now the other strut of your position is that there are fundamental differences between online and offline instantiations of community (with a bracketed 'and are profoundly limiting'). The big crux of our disagreement then seems to be 'at what level do those differences emerge' and 'are those differences really that fundamental'. With regards to the first question: Do they emerge at the level of human motivation? Do they emerge at the level of the way that motivation is funnelled and contained? Do they emerge in the limitations of the environment to communicate them? Do they emerge in the distinctions between on and offline communities as groups of people? Do they emerge in the types of discussion / possibilities of discussion etc. that are possible in different contexts? All good questions. Personally, I don't see a particular difference in motivations, or in the fundamental needs of human contact. I see minimal differences in the uses people put these communities to. I see a variety of different ways in which people bond with one another - that's definitely there. Many people do operate with degrees of anonymity in place and utilise the distancing afforded to them by software to say things they wouldn't or couldn't say in the flesh. On the other hand, many communities or pieces of community software are designed to be little more than additional channels for people who already know each other (or ways that people who are getting to know one another) to communicate through - whether that be an alternative to phones, texting, conference calls, or going to the pub - and although they may have a different register or pitch perhaps, that doesn't necessarily the 'type' of community that they have fundamentally different from one that is being conducted exclusively offline. The interest community is still one of the most fundamental that exists online, but those people who actually engage with them rather than kind of ricocheting off them are tending more and more to extend that community off-site. To summarise again: 1) There are differences between some aspects of on and offline community. 2) You think those differences are profound and important. 3) For a large and growing, perhaps even the most part of people who actually engage in them, I think those differences are fairly academic and uninteresting. I think it's important at this stage again not to get confused those people who hit a community a few times a year and bounce off again with the people who are engaging in the places, just like we wouldn't think of the man who walked by the flower club social and popped in for a sandwich on his way somewhere else as engaging actively in that community. Most human-to-human connections and involvements are pretty fleeting, and I don't think that's particularly different online. Now, having been - I think - pretty reasonable throughout this latest post, I'm not going to get a bit irritable. I personally think that no matter what you're actually arguing you'd claim you were taking the middle and most reasonable ground and that the people who disagreed with you were evidencing skewed positions that were evidence of vested interest or weird ideological positions. I don't think your MA expertise gives you the license you require to maintain your position as representative of the obvious and common truth, as the only person who really gets what's going on, and the only one who is looking at all parts of the picture. I don't think it's NEARLY enough to justify that. And with regard again to your statement about my small-scale endeavours versus your far-reaching intellectual feats of endurance, can I echo your sentiment about criticising generalised extrapolation from small-scale experience with regard to your own position, and also remind you that the best way to test a broad thesis is to see if it holds up against specific examples. I think your vision of the possibilities and qualities of online communities doesn't hold up to specific examples of online communities that work well, blur the on and offline distinction and don't appear to suffer from the problems you believe are endemic. There's a double danger in academic work - firstly that you build castles in the sky and secondly that you DON'T look towards the creative possibilities and instead merely criticise. If you want to do legitimate and interesting work in this area, I would suggest that you actively get involved in the creation or repositioning of this stuff online rather than being stuck arguing with pundit ghosts from five years ago. Anyway, I'm going to close this post to further comments now, I think since this whole bloody enterprise has so massively derailed itself. Thanks to everyone who has posted and good night. ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/07/06 20:23 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=2924 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 07/06/2003 11:56:32 PM What we all knew anyway ----- PING: TITLE: The internet is shit. URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/technology/2003_07/the_internet_is_shit.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 07/07/2003 12:19:12 PM I’ve been hearing the same sentiments by a lot of people over the last few months in different types of language. Some say The Internet is Shit. Some others say that Virtual Community has died. Without wanting to doubt the... ----- PING: TITLE: Linkdumps are like sex URL: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/07/07/linkdumps_are_like_sex.html IP: 209.61.183.90 BLOG NAME: dive into mark DATE: 07/07/2003 01:07:53 PM Lots of news about Echo, including drafts of a syntax document and an editing API. Ian Hickson works for Opera now. Windows 2000 SP4 is out. My friend as a new dog. Lots of stuff from John Gruber. And more. ----- PING: TITLE: THE_INTERNET_IS_SHIT_? URL: http://upgrade.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/002298.html IP: 81.92.196.22 BLOG NAME: UpGrade DATE: 07/07/2003 01:49:43 PM Parece que afinal h· alguns anglosaxÛnicos que concordam com o ponto de vista do senhor Armand Mattelart na sua obra "HistÛria da Sociedade da InformaÁ“o" que eu expus ontem aqui, a julgar por este site em formato de manifesto com... ----- PING: TITLE: a few more reasons URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000172.html IP: 129.41.37.46 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 07/07/2003 04:21:58 PM though it hardly seems worthy of debate, a couple more reasons to add to tom's common sense position that the internet is not shit... ----- PING: TITLE: Linkdumps are like sex URL: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/07/07/linkdumps_are_like_sex.html IP: 209.61.183.90 BLOG NAME: dive into mark DATE: 07/07/2003 06:37:59 PM Lots of news about Echo, including drafts of a syntax document and an editing API. Ian Hickson works for Opera now. Windows 2000 SP4 is out. My friend as a new dog. Lots of stuff from John Gruber. And more. ----- PING: TITLE: C'en est ou c'en n'est pas ? URL: http://www.padawan.info//cen_est_ou_cen_nest_pas_.html IP: 212.180.126.172 BLOG NAME: padawan.info DATE: 07/08/2003 10:52:25 PM Some -- who write that "the medium isn't the message" without much clue -- say Internet is shit. Sometimes, one... ----- PING: TITLE: ax-1 URL: http://www.ataxia.net/archive/2003_07.html#000072 IP: 24.128.59.120 BLOG NAME: Ataxia DATE: 07/09/2003 12:47:03 AM now playing: Radiohead, "Paranoid Android" In case you haven't heard already, the internet is shit. And at the same time, not shit. Quite possibly the best 404 page ever which should give proof to the idea that it's not. Jack Dangers on apple.com.... ----- PING: TITLE: this is life at the margins of reality URL: http://www.meltoni.com/000709.html IP: 207.153.127.8 BLOG NAME: at meltoni.com DATE: 07/09/2003 12:53:12 AM enquanto espero um novo servidor ser disponibilizado para os usu·rio da last.fm (culpa disto), penso na carol tentando traduzir o que eu falava no almoÁo de hoje. por talvez quase dois minutos eu esqueci que estava falando comigo mesma sobre... ----- PING: TITLE: The Difference Between Shit and the Internet URL: http://greengabbro.net/archives/000758.php IP: 207.44.192.29 BLOG NAME: green gabbro DATE: 07/09/2003 08:46:02 PM A simple comparison table shows that the Internet is not shit. ----- PING: TITLE: But then again... Internet isn't such a bad place after all. URL: http://www.hultberg.org/mt-archives/000146.html IP: 194.198.108.62 BLOG NAME: Excursions to Lala-land DATE: 07/10/2003 03:29:41 PM Tom Coates is writing on plasticbag.org. He has a different opinion about the value of the Internet than the guys I quoted yesterday.... ----- PING: TITLE: Sympathy for the Star Wars Kid URL: http://www.davextreme.com/davextreme/mt/archives/000218.html IP: 64.191.59.225 BLOG NAME: daveXtreme DATE: 07/25/2003 04:41:04 AM If there hadn't been other people around, I would have cried. I just read Wired News' coverage of the "Star Wars Kid." I'm loathe to admit that my maturity level has reached a point where I can't find some things... ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.blogosphere.us/archives/2003/12/19/.php URL: http://www.blogosphere.us/archives/2003/12/19/.php IP: 209.216.203.28 BLOG NAME: blogosphere.us DATE: 12/19/2003 03:14:13 PM Tom Coates on the authenticity of online communities: But the one thing I will not stand for is this sense that online communities are somehow inauthentic because they are unphysicalHear, hear!Tom is battling a common argument which devalues online com... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tiny T610 Collage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/07/2003 11:04:30 PM ----- BODY:

    I'll be buggered if I can figure out how to get photo-messaging or e-mail or the interweb working on my little T610, which they don't tell you but doesn't actually make images of a decent useful size (not 640x480, but 288x352 of all sizes). I've fiddled with the settings incessantly. Maybe I need to talk to the company themselves. Anyway - I'll be buggered if I can send 'em, but I can sure as hell take 'em. Presenting a collage of the first few days with my new phone...

    t610_collage.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan EMAIL: limbic11@hotmail.com IP: 217.37.228.113 URL: http://www.limbicnutrition.com/blog/ DATE: 07/08/2003 01:27:17 PM I encountered trouble using my 610 on 02. It appears that you need to switch wap profiles if you want to use MMS and E-mail. Normally your provider can e-mail you the correct settings for GPRS or MMS. It is straight forward to set up e-mail. Sony Erricson also have a configurators for all this here: http://www.sonyericsson.com/uk/spg.jsp?page=M8&B=ie&noredir=1 Regards Jonathan ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Human Cargo EMAIL: 8@sense8.org IP: 24.79.99.171 URL: http://www.humancargo.net DATE: 07/09/2003 04:41:39 AM Great pics! I must admit I was pretty dubious about the merits of taking photos with a phone when they first came onto the market, but many of the pics I've seen have been really good, including yours. Great color saturation; they're almost lomographic. Nice work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: destruct EMAIL: destruct@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 194.61.49.12 URL: DATE: 07/10/2003 11:10:28 AM Recently got a t300. Go to maplin and get a Sitecom IRDA adapter for 20 quid or use a laptop with IRDA to copy files direct to your computer. This is far better and free. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marc EMAIL: kaisersosa@gmx.net IP: 80.138.188.164 URL: http://www.bagofgoodies.de DATE: 07/11/2003 10:36:07 AM As I am about to buy a new phone and as I am thinking of buying a T610 I'd appreciate if you could post (or mail) your experience with it at some later point. Would be cool ... thnx. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: me@paperpixel.co.uk IP: 81.129.4.194 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.ukj/log DATE: 08/08/2003 09:22:18 PM What you need to do is relish the restrictions imposed on you by your phone. I don't know what the maximum size on my phone (sharp gx10i) is, but I find the 120x160 medium setting is enough to show enough detail while forcing you to focus on detail photography. Hence my lovely site. Some BBC tardis ones would be cool. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: me@paperpixel.co.uk IP: 81.129.4.194 URL: DATE: 08/08/2003 09:24:29 PM Bollox. Make that a proper link Do this! ----- PING: TITLE: First Impressions: Sony Ericsson T610 URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000559.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 07/09/2003 10:10:51 PM Since 1998, I've used three phones: a freebie Philips handset from Barclays on a pay as you go account (either... ----- PING: TITLE: T610 f–r l”tt att anv”nda URL: http://mymarkup.net/blog/archives/002062.html IP: 62.20.1.132 BLOG NAME: mymarkup.net DATE: 07/10/2003 09:38:19 AM Dan Hon konstaterar att Sony Ericsson T610 ”r en bra telefon. Jag gillar min ocksÂ, men han tar upp en... ----- PING: TITLE: Camera phones URL: http://www.quernstone.com/archives/000223.html IP: 66.33.197.11 BLOG NAME: Jonathan Sanderson's Weblog DATE: 07/13/2003 12:04:49 PM I recently toyed with some digital SLRs, and dismissed them largely on the grounds that genuinely wide-angle lenses are wince-inducingly ----- PING: TITLE: Venus, Mars and Usability URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000574.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 07/13/2003 03:12:41 PM The Sunday Times' Doors section has a lead article today on What Women Want, and the answer is that they... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: CSS stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/07/2003 11:49:19 PM ----- BODY:

    A few CSS links from around the internet recently:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Freud on Super-heroes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/09/2003 09:12:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Freud on super-heroes and super-villains?

    The man who, in consequence of his unyielding constitution, cannot fall in with this suppression of instinct, becomes a 'criminal', an 'outlaw', in the face of society - unless his social position or his exceptional capacities enable him to impose himself upon it as a great man, a 'hero'.

    'Civilised' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness (1908)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Hall EMAIL: tim@kalyr.com IP: 213.122.184.94 URL: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog DATE: 07/09/2003 10:43:54 PM But he has nothing to say about why they wear their underpants over their trousers? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The value of RSS aggregators... STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 07/10/2003 12:46:07 AM ----- BODY:

    A few days ago voidblogs launched. It's an RSS aggregator site that follows the Haddock Blogs model of pulling out a time-stamp and a summary each time a post is made and pulling them together to make what basically constitutes a metaweblog. There's also a new redsign of the UK weblogs aggregator that's relaunched recently and it too operates by these design principles. Is it the beginning of a trend?

    Well - whether it's the start of a trend or not, these sites are pretty rare at the moment. I've been thinking about why, and I think maybe it's because this form is particularly useful for two kinds of activities:

    1. Being a way for an individual to keep up with alll the weblogs they like
    2. Being a way of chronicling in nearly-real-time the mental life of a group

    In the first case, the form would be most useful if everyone could have their own one (which would make it - essentially - NetNewsWire online. In the second, it would be most useful for those people who were within the group itself.

    Which makes me think. A lot of people are talking about how to use weblogs in business and education. They are all working on the principle that a weblog is first and foremost a piece of social software that allows and facilitates collboration. But while it's certainly true that weblog culture in the wild has evolved these groups, it's less obvious that this is necessarily the fundamental structuring principle of what a weblog 'is'. In fact I'm going to go further and state something that should probably be obvious to everyone by now: Giving a group of people weblogs does not mean that they'll necessarily start connecting with each other through them.

    First and foremost, at the smallest possible scale, a weblog is not social software. Instead it is a point in cyberspace from which to speak - it's a representation of ourselves - our voices. At the first level, then - weblogs are not about communities of people inteacting and sharing information, they're about voices as yet unconnected. It takes time for the second-order properties to emerge - and when they do so it's not as a rapid consolidation or phase-shift between stable states of 'singular publishing' and 'many-to-many communication'. Instead familiarity is gradually gained, recurrently interesting and communicative webloggers become friends, people gradually find their communicative voices.

    So the question becomes - when we talk about weblogging around educational projects or work-related schemes, how do we get people to think in terms of their engagement with a community. And how do we get them to that stage quickly? How do we help them use the weblog to express themeselves and create notes and write thoughts while simultaneously ramping up the speed at which they start interacting with each other around these issues.

    Which brings us right back to where we started. In my opinion - rather than setting up a central weblog for a course or a project in which people can post their thoughts only as comments, the simplest and most effective way is to have something like haddock blogs sitting in the middle. Let that be their place to get a sense of their community in a glance, to see the range of interests people have and what they're currently geting excited by.

    Which brings me to another thought - which is the relationship of the public and the private when it pertains to weblogs. Many people I've spoken to recently have advocated setting up weblogs for publishing within work that are separate and distinct from stthe ones we use to publish our personal sites in the real-world. Now, there are clearly reasons why it's necessary to make a distinction between 'what we are outside work' and 'what we are inside work' and probably the most prominent one of those reasons would be that we have legal obligations often to not speak about the stuff we work on directly in our working days. But really - how much impetus is there to write an internal weblog that's of pertinent and interest only to five or ten people with whom you work, most of whom won't be reading it?

    Our challenges then are to bring people's engagement with the project to the fore, help them share information pertinent to the project (be it educational or otherwise)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Catching up on the world of the future... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/10/2003 08:49:31 AM ----- BODY:

    The new job is proceeding apace - I've spent more consecutive man-hours in meetings than ever before in my life. Or so it seems at least. The edges of the job are beginning to become clear, and it's all terribly exciting. One consequence of this is that I've not been keeping up with the world very effectively. Another consequence is that I haven't had a lot of time to look after Barbelith. I shall catch up with everything this weekend. In the meantime, here are some more links about weblogs:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org/weblog DATE: 07/10/2003 05:31:17 PM From the Economist piece: "Some publishers... were quick to set up weblogs. But the general response has been to ignore them. This was not entirely foolish: weblogs do not make money... Even Mr Sullivan says his weblog brings in only about $6,000 a month from such sources. Most bloggers do not blog for money. " Good grief, if publishers consider that minimal setup outlay, little to no advertising and zero distribution costs and a gross profit of more than $70,000 per head per annum is a reason for not looking into weblog publishing, then there's something wrong in the business plan. Is that really the reason publishers ignore them? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joyce Park EMAIL: truitejeunefille@abigportalstartingwithY.com IP: 216.27.183.170 URL: http://www.mod-pubsub.org/blog DATE: 07/11/2003 04:24:53 AM Hi Tom, thanks for the link to Blogchatter. So our data does not exactly come from Weblogs.com. Some people ping us directly, and most of the rest comes from blo.gs -- which polls Weblogs.com once an hour. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Today's favourite search request... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/11/2003 05:33:58 PM ----- BODY:

    Digging around in my search requests for a laugh, I find this lovely little gem posted in the last few hours:

    "Holy shit, for the first time since I have begun visiting this site (about 3 years or so) I noticed that your header image is an actual plastic bag"
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: 12.111.24.74 URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 07/11/2003 05:44:24 PM It took me several months to figure this out as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Baio EMAIL: log@waxy.org IP: 4.38.40.144 URL: http://www.waxy.org/ DATE: 07/11/2003 06:06:49 PM Hmm, never noticed that before either. Now that you point it out though, it looks more like a paper bag to me. (Is paperbag.org taken?) Several people have thought that my header image is some sort of TV. (It's a Vectrex.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: 12.111.24.74 URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 07/11/2003 06:30:22 PM I think a lot of people might be confused about the plastic bag image. Perhaps ditching it in favor of a small white box with a dashed line around it containing a meaningless bit of pixel art would improve matters? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nobody Girl EMAIL: dani12@hotmail.com IP: 81.79.118.171 URL: http://mysite.freeserve.com/moo_pig_cows DATE: 07/11/2003 07:06:03 PM *grins* Classic! I see they're VERY observant ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Branille EMAIL: branille1@aol.com IP: 172.148.28.3 URL: http://www.branille.net DATE: 07/12/2003 02:10:38 AM lol, it took me a while too :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@neuromantics.net IP: 62.30.157.202 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net DATE: 07/12/2003 02:57:24 AM the former audience indeed... also known as the internet's dull, blind muthafuckas. Depressing thought for a fellow designer, I mean when you realise that your visitors give 1% of a shit to the look, why bother? Just be standards compliant and serve up RS* feeds? whats the point? huh?? I give up... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 212.238.82.186 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 07/12/2003 11:13:13 AM Not noticing an image in the header and not noticing the design are two different things. For my part, I have noticed the cleanness of Tom's design, if not the plastic bag... Apart from that, I am of the opinion that a good design is unobtrusive and should be noted only by its absence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 203.164.7.25 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 07/12/2003 01:12:54 PM Behold the folly of undesign. Or not. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eanws EMAIL: ean@walkersmith.net IP: 200.83.95.234 URL: http://bl0g.walkersmith.net DATE: 07/12/2003 06:08:37 PM Is it a sainsbury or safeways placcy bag? I noticed it straight away, nice design. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mucus plug EMAIL: a@a.com IP: 63.202.175.200 URL: http://www.soycow.com/baby/archives/000386.html DATE: 07/13/2003 12:41:22 AM I still don't see the plastic bag :(. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.86.22 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 07/13/2003 01:47:48 AM Being perhaps the only person without broadband in the civilized world, I see (thanks to my sloppy ISP) the plastic bag crawl on, followed by the text. Oh wait, that's because I've got RealOne open, and I'm downloading the latest build of Camino... Still, how can't you notice it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 64.229.196.57 URL: http://www.fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 07/13/2003 03:13:21 AM true...it's not that plasticy.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Worrill EMAIL: zqwerty@fan.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: DATE: 07/18/2003 12:17:16 PM Looks lke a paper bag to me too ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things to do with RSS readers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 07/13/2003 01:46:32 PM ----- BODY:

    When I was in Helsinki, I started thinking about RSS aggregators like NewNewsWire. More particularly I started to think about what extra functionality they should be able to provide.

    Personal Blogdex: Here's the most obvious idea. You have a whole set of feeds, all of which are time-limited (ie. things expire) and everything's in a machine-readable format, and yet these readers don't do anything with the data apart from display it. There doesn't seem to be any specific reason why this is the case. So here's my first suggestion:

    A pane that collates and displays the most popular links that your feeds have referenced. A personal Blogdex...

    Suggested Weblogs: Again - NetNewsWire can export OPML lists of your subscriptions (and you can stick that online if you like) - but it doesn't do anything with the lists that are being put online by other sites. It seems to me entirely possible to reference an OPML file in your own RSS feed (or even include it in your feed) in such a way that an RSS reader could read it. I don't know whether or not NetNewsWire could realistically be set to upload an OPML file to a server (although Kung-Tunes has no trouble), but it could still read things put online by more human means. And that leads me to my second suggestion:

    A pane that collates and displays the most popular weblogs that the people you subscribe to are themselves subscribed to...

    More RSS, subscriptions and NetNewsWire stuff:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 81.134.3.210 URL: http://www.paperless-school.com DATE: 07/13/2003 03:29:29 PM There is a presupposition under this about the way you select your feeds, which may not apply to everybody. Personally, I regularly cull those that seem to repeat ideas I've found elsewhere, in order to manage my information flow. The fact that two bloggers regularly reference the same third blogger would lead me to either cull one of them, or cull both in favour of the third. Perhaps reference-based rankings could be used to automatically lead the user to the original sources of ideas in this way? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brent Simmons EMAIL: brent@ranchero.com IP: 12.228.169.112 URL: http://ranchero.com/ DATE: 07/13/2003 07:07:09 PM Tom -- both are good ideas. As aggregators mature they'll get more and more features like that. It's just a matter of time and feature priorities. Everything takes time to design, develop, and test, so some good ideas have to wait sometimes. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.40.205.172 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/13/2003 07:21:18 PM Sorry Brent! I certainly wasn't implying any slackness on your part - I was just trying to think about what happened next... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Danny EMAIL: danny@spesh.com IP: 192.216.68.203 URL: http://www.oblomovka.com/ DATE: 07/13/2003 08:49:46 PM I'm not sure (I'm a long way from home), but I *think* NewsMonster has features that match what you've asked for (although the suggested weblogs feature actually works by comparing other newsmonster readers' lists with your own). As you can probably tell, I didn't play with them enough to get much utility out of them. But maybe you should tell Kevin about your ideas. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Burton EMAIL: burton@newsmonster.org IP: 63.203.73.87 URL: http://www.newsmonster.org DATE: 07/15/2003 06:55:20 AM You guys are so cute... NewsMonster has been doing this for months! Where have you been! :) For an example... http://feeds.archive.org/newsmonster/burtonator/ Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. Over the next few weeks you are going to see some amazing functionality integrated into NewsMonster which is based on my research around reputation systems... Be afraid... be very afraid :) Peace! Kevin ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Juicy fresh Apple links... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/13/2003 04:40:52 PM ----- BODY:

    A selection of carefully filtered Apple-related linkery for your popular consumption, many of which had their origin in the monkey brains of 2lmc:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Downloading album art made easy URL: http://www.davextreme.com/davextreme/mt/archives/000204.html IP: 64.191.59.225 BLOG NAME: daveXtreme DATE: 07/14/2003 03:47:12 AM I ran across a neat little iTunes script today while reading Plastic Bag. You just select a song or group of songs in iTunes, go to the script menu, selected "Fetch Art," and it'll connect to Amazon.com and download the... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Behold the ravages of time! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/14/2003 08:47:11 AM ----- BODY:

    This is going to sound ridiculous, but when I turned thirty, never in my wildest dreams did I actually think that time was going to continue moving after said birthday. Certainly I didn't think that there would be birthdays after my thirtieth. It seemed so final - such an achievement! So it's coming as a bit of a shock that this coming Saturday I'm going to turn thirty-one. Here's an random analogy which might explain the sensation a bit - you climb Everest and you're terribly proud of yourself and then suddenly you turn around and the mountain's grown another few thousand feet. And then some nutter with a whip turns out and makes you start climbing. Or maybe it should be that you're on a sledge going down a steep ravine and you can see the end in sight and the sledge slows down and frankly you're a bit relieved, but then you've got slightly too much momentum and you end up zooming right past the relatively flat bit and down yet another ravine. It's kind of like that.

    Hmm. Anyway - it would seem cheap to direct people towards my wishlist, and god knows I'm not a cheap man. So, obviously, I won't be doing that... No sirree. I'll just stand here patiently making knowing looks and whistling to myself... Ho hum...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 62.58.35.2 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 07/14/2003 10:19:27 AM If you were a cheap man, the gifts wouldn't be so expensive! Happy birthday, I'll spare you the singing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@magnetbox.com IP: 209.98.64.2 URL: http://www.magnetbox.com DATE: 07/14/2003 02:14:28 PM Just so you know, as I recently found out, the official word from Amazon on how to link to an Amazon wishlist is: http://www.amazon.com/o/redirect?tag=[associate-tag]&path=registry/[wishlistID] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@magnetbox.com IP: 209.98.64.2 URL: http://www.magnetbox.com DATE: 07/14/2003 02:15:59 PM Oh, and happy birthday. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graybo EMAIL: graybo@grayblog.co.uk IP: 81.131.155.237 URL: http://www.grayblog.co.uk DATE: 07/14/2003 04:27:22 PM Speaking as someone who is spending a fair amount of time "consoling" a significant someone who has her 31st on Thursday, I know you are not alone. But, as someone who cruised through the non-event of 32 in May, I can say that it is just something that is part of being a 30something, and probably becomes less consequential with time. I know it almost sounds trite to say this, but what difference does age make? Or getting older for that matter? Will you be any different on Monday next week to the way you are today? Doubt it somehow - perhaps in a little small way, one of those tiny steps we take as we gradually change on the path through life, but not some big significant change. As I look at my older 30something friends, and the 40somethings too, I think that it all just gets better. In hindsight, the 20s were pants. Perhaps if I had known then what I know now, I might have made better use of those years, but then again, going through them in the way I did informed me and shaped me into the fat balding bloke I am now. Anyway, have a good day Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bk EMAIL: 8@sense8.org IP: 216.13.235.162 URL: http://www.humancargo.net DATE: 07/14/2003 05:55:25 PM Things definitely get better the further you go. I just turned 30 recently too. On one hand it's a little scary that so much life as gone under the bridge already, but I can't say I would have done anything differently had I the chance. I got through my 20s as best I could. Things are better today than they ever were. Here's to the future always getting better, never worse. Happy b'day, Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: shatnerian@hotmail.com IP: 206.47.209.227 URL: http://shatnerian.blogspot.com DATE: 07/14/2003 06:23:07 PM You and I share the same birthday, apparently. So Happy Birthday to us. I've got one year on you so I'll be 32 on Saturday. I used to think life would stop at 18, then 21, then 25, then 30. I just kept moving the bar. Now I can finally envision getting old. It's odd. You start envisioning what would be the sexiest way to go bald ("Jean-Luc Picard, yeah that'll work. I just need to lose 50 pounds"). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Suw EMAIL: suw.charman@ntlworld.com IP: 62.253.96.40 URL: http://chocnvodka.blog-city.com/ DATE: 07/14/2003 06:46:25 PM 30 is one of those sort of 'woohoo' birthdays - big party, lots of presents, all very landmarkish. 31 is more 'Wait! 31 did you say? How did that happen? I don't remember signing up for a 31! I thought I'd just stay, y'know, 30...'. 32, on the other hand, is when you look back longingly at 30 and wonder where everything went wrong and, in particular, what happened to that really big pay cheque you thought was in the post. Still, at least I'm now at the age when looking younger than I actually am no longer results in my being ejected from bars. I had wondered at what age 'Gosh I thought you were a lot younger' would turn from being an insult into being a compliment, and it seems 32 is it. Happy birthday, Tom. Have a good one and just remember that you can start lying about your age now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: Gert@REMOVEmadmusingsof.me.uk IP: 217.44.178.57 URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog DATE: 07/15/2003 12:07:36 AM 35 is when it starts getting good. Trust me. There's so much I no longer care about it, and i can look at youngsters with a benign pity. I'm comfortable where I am. I am beginning to become myself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 65.49.49.85 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 07/15/2003 01:01:20 AM And I thought I was old when I turned 20 last month... but seriously, what it's taught me is that age is just a number we assign ourselves. Age, like all things can be relative. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Bell EMAIL: me@gavinbell.com IP: 62.49.28.22 URL: http://takeoneonion.org DATE: 07/17/2003 09:06:04 PM Happy Birthday Tom. Gert's comment is lovely. I'm getting older too, at the end of the month I'll be 32. Since I've turned 30 I've become a lot more thoughtful. I can relate very well to the mountain metaphor, it feels like you have a base camp and keep having to climb mountains and sometimes get pulled out of crevasses. In your 30s (and I guess 40s too) life doesn't stop throwing things at you, it changes though, maybe the dreaminess fades. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charlie B. EMAIL: HereInside2003@aol.com IP: 172.187.3.146 URL: http://hereinside.blogspot.com DATE: 07/19/2003 01:07:39 PM Happy Birthday Tom - and no comments about your attachment status! Age is mellowing you! Ahhh... age and gays. You're already old enough for many 16-22 year olds to start treating you with hurtful disdain, or even ruling out any contact with you at all on principle. Yet how young you look to me with almost 15 years on you. (The melancholy turns serious...) But gay gays don't help one another out enough with the meaning and experience of ageing (as for our straight siblings world literature and national culture, parents, children, in-laws all do). Looking back from 45 my thirties now appear to be the very prime of life -- physically strong, fit, slim, and great in leather; aware, experienced, easy-going; popular, personally powerful, confident; still full of potential and opportunity. So where are the achievements? They must be there. I didn't even meet my lover of 11 years until I was 34. So your birthday's a chance for me to talk about me... Not completely: all the very very best to you Tom, and lots of love from Charlie. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Coates vs. Watson... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/15/2003 12:58:50 AM ----- BODY:

    Tom Coates vs Tom WatsonFrom Palace of Westminster to The West Wing in one bus ride... I'm too exhausted to write much about the Vox Politics event in the House of Commons that I attended earlier this evening - I'll leave in depth discussion of that until tomorrow, I think. But in the meantime, the collaboratively annotated Hydra document from the event is worth reading (and online) and here's a picture from later in the evening when Tom Watson (MP for West Bromwich East) met Tom Coates (Minister for Weblogging Affairs) down the Westminster Arms. All through the power of interhighwebnet.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robingrant@tribalddb.co.uk IP: 193.133.98.226 URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/ DATE: 07/15/2003 10:50:28 AM Heh. It came out quite well... ----- PING: TITLE: VoxPolitics Event Linkage URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/2003_07_01_archive.php#105821117406178484 IP: 64.239.11.193 BLOG NAME: LinkMachineGo DATE: 07/15/2003 08:18:28 AM Notes from Vox Politics Event ----- PING: TITLE: WiFi and Hydra at Westminster URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000215.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 07/15/2003 01:17:20 PM Last night at the VoxPolitics event I used Hydra to take notes with Tom and Euan amongst others, Tom has posted the notes we wrote along with a brief reaction to the event. Unlike Euan I wasn't sharp enough to actually blog ----- PING: TITLE: Between bloggers and their employers (2) URL: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/07/16.html#a672 IP: 130.89.167.145 BLOG NAME: Mathemagenic DATE: 08/04/2003 08:02:22 PM

    From notes of the Voxpolitics event on blogs and politics (I have no idea what it was, you can start digging in from

    ----- PING: TITLE: Web and Westminster URL: http://thisispomo.org/leftlog/archives/001766.php IP: 64.21.147.60 BLOG NAME: politX DATE: 07/06/2004 12:00:54 PM A little feedback from last night's Voxpolitics seminar in Westminster, which I attended and found very useful in places. Though I couldn't help thinking that some of the speakers were a little off-beam, and would have liked to have seen... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On empty, dreary bitching... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 07/15/2003 08:22:38 AM ----- BODY:

    Two people who - as usual - have managed to find specious grounds to bitch about the weblogging event at the House of Parliament yesterday: (1) Andrew Orlowski (2) Simon Kent (hitherto) from 2lmc.org. Some people seem to be able to find Andrew's permanently dribbling bile gland entertaining - and a few seem to find it genuinely informative - presumably in the way that people who want to have their prejudices confirmed get value from the Daily Mail. I have quite a lot of trouble with this way of reading - "Well, he confirms my prejudices, so he must be right" - just as I have trouble with him continuing to reference previous work of his even when pretty much every 'fact' inside that 'work' has been been demonstrated to be full of (at best) unsupported speculation and at worst demonstrably wrong.

    It's almost not worth engaging with the body of this latest piece, except to say that while Andrew is bitching (yet again) about how useless weblogs are and how politicians must find the whole thing ridiculous, said politicians are talking at events in the House of Commons (like this one) explaining how useful they're finding them.

    As to Simon Kent, I think it's this kind of determined negativity and workaday sniping that pisses me off the most about debates like this. I'll be honest - I simply don't think I'm able to understand the type of person who gets pleasure out of such dreary, repetitive, contentless complaining. More precisely, I really don't understand the idea that there is much in the way of meaningful qualitative data (are they shit or not) about people that can be derived from simply grouping together everyone who uses the same tool no matter what said people plan to do with it. I mean if a fishmonger buys a mobile phone and a nuclear scientist buys a similar mobile phone, does that make them "Mophers", who can be easily dismissed as a group of weirdos and idiots? Of course not - and why? Because we are able to see that the tool is valuable and useful (even as it is profoundly simple in concept) and that it could facilitate every kind of speech from shouting about the price of fish to discussing atomic physics. The irony of the whole thing is that Simon (and 2lmc) perpetually demonstrate their own discomfort with people who make these kinds of insanely vacuous value judgments when - despite the fact thay run sites that are patently weblogs - they continually deny that they're in any way associated with them. Why? Because fundamentally they're finding the form useful while not wanting to be associated with (or subsumed within) the stereotypes (that they themselves perpetrate) of the collective. To which I can only reply - hopefully with only the most complicit of irones - join the damn club...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Waxy EMAIL: waxy20@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.160.114 URL: DATE: 07/15/2003 09:34:12 AM "I simply don't think I'm able to understand the type of person who gets pleasure out of such dreary, repetitive, contentless complaining." Hello pot, meet Mr Kettle. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 82.43.194.115 URL: http://www.gaygeeks.org DATE: 07/15/2003 09:37:55 AM Count me in the "perpetually entertained" camp; this running bitchfight between you and Mr. Orlowski makes me giggle. Orlowski actually says that bloggers can't get a date in his latest article; I think the next logical level of ridicule is for to both post photoshopped pictures of each other. I suggest a simian theme. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@bloggerheads.com IP: 62.3.67.17 URL: http://www.bloggerheads.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 10:21:30 AM A simian theme? Pah! You can't go wrong with good old-fashioned nudity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 195.26.97.140 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 11:55:27 AM Last Sunday's Doonesbury is, I fear, quite relevant to the Orlowski vs everyone-I-think-of-as-sane debate. And funny too! http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20030713 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: hitherto EMAIL: simon@hitherto.net IP: 213.208.67.50 URL: http://hitherto.net DATE: 07/15/2003 01:15:53 PM Since I'll agree that last night's spool rant was fairly directionless, I've had a stab at explaining my thoughts a little more coherently at http://hitherto.net/content/writing/essays/nadb2.xml I'm not getting as much sleep as I should right now, so it may still not be as clear as I'd like. But there you go... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John H EMAIL: john@handelaar.org IP: 82.68.20.85 URL: http://handelaar.org DATE: 07/15/2003 01:40:37 PM You know that the spool thing is just the output of an IRC channel, right? Seems a wee bit incongruous to argue with Orlowski about his whining over imperfections in the blog 'style', and then having a rather over-long pop because people ranted in IRC. (I mean, what else is IRC *for* ?) Aaaand, for the record, I'll register an opinion that in order to count as a blogger, Simon would really have to have made more than a half dozen entries on his site in 2 years. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: russell higgs EMAIL: familyofbreath@ratservers.co.uk IP: 217.42.135.95 URL: http://www.conformandobey.co.uk/2003_07_13_blogarch.html#105827289833491285 DATE: 07/15/2003 02:04:10 PM however, last night's blog discussion in the houses of p was fairly dull don't you think. did the wi-fi add anything to it other than "yippee we're online inside parliament with the first wi-fi connection"? the discussion was rooted in extreme short-termism, no real implications of change discussed. and there was that annoying romantic assumption that when mps start to blog they'll have to be more 'real". while you tom are such a funny drama queen, much loudly mimed facial exasperation etc ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mark simpkins EMAIL: mark@nodalpoints.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.nodalpoints.org DATE: 07/15/2003 02:27:55 PM humm, why did no one suggest that everyone get in touch with their mp and suggest to them that they look at weblogs. offer their help in either showing what was possible or even setting it up? i have emailed my mp with just such a suggestion. it did feel a bit like no one was willing to take the leap last night, but people were willing to talk about how long they had been blogging. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 02:59:17 PM When I saw this post I was thinking 'don't feed the trolls', but hitherto's linked response is a useful outcome of this tiny spatlet: reasonable points, soberly made. But Simon/hitherto, while I have some sympathy for your position (although protesting against new words all too often appears Daily Telegraph-ish), there is a useful outcome of the blog movement, too. Yes, the concept goes back to the beginning of the Web; the last chapter of Tim Berners-Lee's Weaving the Web (1999) puts that beyond any doubt. It's really just a new word to describe what he wanted the Web to be all along: a place where anybody could publish their ideas and findings as they occurred, allowing all sorts of new linkages to form. But in the second half of the nineties, that vision was so overwhelmed by the rise of commercial brochure sites that the world needed reminding that the Web isn't just a variant on traditional publishing with the same old constraints and gatekeepers. Sometimes it takes new words and new descriptions to focus our attention on what's already there. You said, in your first essay on the subject, 'Blogs are fundamentally no different to the personal websites that have been made so easy by the likes of Geocities since 1996 or so.' Maybe so, but how many of those Geocities sites grew beyond a few pages built in a first flush of activity? A minority, I'd bet. When people are thinking in terms of 'building a site', the temptation is to tackle it like any other one-off project: in, build it, done, out (all those animated gifs of men-at-work signs). But when the tools they use and the rhetoric of the form stress the open-endedness of what they're doing, the constant changingness of it, they'll approach it in a different spirit. True, they still might not stick at it, but they'll have engaged more with one of the major strengths (and weaknesses) of the Web - its transience - than they would have if they'd bunged up a picture of their cat and left it at that. You clearly have an appreciation for the finer points of rhetoric and the subtle cut and thrust of civilised debate (to wit: 'DO SOMETHING THAT'S ACTUALLY OF WORTH YOU STUPID, POINTLESS, SELF-IMPORTANT, DULL, TEDIOUS, MINDLESS *FUCKS*'). Surprising, then, that you miss the rhetorical significance of all this. Any 'new' Web 'movement' that wakes up the media and (just perhaps) the masses to the potential of all those PCs and all those internet connections and all those 10MB accounts of free webspace given out with all those net connections and all those ideas and observations in all those people's heads in all those countries, cities, homes and offices is a good thing in my book. These stupid, pointless, self-important, dull, tedious, mindless fucks have collectively built a rhetorical, technological and cultural edifice without which a great many 'things of worth' would not have been made. And if you haven't noticed what those are yet, you're too busy bristling at a trivial neologism to pay attention. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 03:00:54 PM Dammit, I forgot Tom's comments munge the paragraph breaks. A more reader-friendly version will be posted at my joint soonish. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: hitherto EMAIL: simon@hitherto.net IP: 213.208.67.50 URL: http://hitherto.net DATE: 07/15/2003 03:57:32 PM Rory - I enjoy exploring the full range of rhetorical forms, from (I hope) fairly erudite, reasoned explorations of a subject right down to ranting drunkenly on an IRC-fed linklog late at night. Life's rich tapestry and all that... The chief problem I have with your argument is that, yes, the format of blogs makes it easy to publish a site, but it doesn't make it any easier to create anything of significance. To use your analogy, too many of the blogs I see are the effective equivalent of someone posting a picture of their cat, and then doing exactly the same thing again and again each day. I'm also sceptical that blogs will actually wake up "the masses". Certainly to date, despite media coverage, I know of no-one with a blog who isn't extremely technically literate and in touch with the entire internet/geek scene on a daily basis. I guess this is really part of the problem I have - the significance of blogs is stated again and again all over the place, but it really is too early to tell where the format will go. There's a general tendency these days to pronounce something's historical significance in the present, when only a decent period of time can tell us what is historically significant. Get back to me on this in 30 years or so :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Hume EMAIL: tom@futureplatforms.com IP: 212.135.62.211 URL: http://www.tomhume.org DATE: 07/15/2003 04:22:22 PM Isn't one of the problems with blogs that they're compared with other publishing mechanisms? I mean, it's common for publications to justify their validity on the basis of their readership figures ("4 million readers can't be wrong"). But using this thinking to evaluate weblogs just isn't appropriate imho. Who cares if most weblogs are only of interest to a tiny number of people? I know that many of the entries on my own blog are read by between 4 and 5 people, but that's fine: those are the 4 or 5 people who I'm writing them for. Sure, some blogs will have greater appeal: and that's fine too. But denigrating weblogs because they're introspective is like declaring the bicycle pointless because we have oil tankers. And I *like* looking at pictures of kittens on other peoples weblogs! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt@frownland.com IP: 82.39.112.57 URL: http://www.frownland.com DATE: 07/15/2003 04:52:38 PM Hitherto wrote: To use your analogy, too many of the blogs I see are the effective equivalent of someone posting a picture of their cat, and then doing exactly the same thing again and again each day. [snip] This is a hypothetical situation, but what if everyone posted very useful information to their blogs, for example, details of how to connect a P800 phone to an iBook via bluetooth, would you be so critical of them then? I believe one of the best things you can do as a blogger is post this kind of specific information, or about subjects you have specialist knowledge of. I like the idea that weblogs allow us to collectively contribute to the web like this; it's like putting coins in a money-box; the blog posts are the coins, the money-box is the wealth of information that can be tapped into. The blog format is simply the mechanism that allows this to happen. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 05:54:35 PM (Sorry Tom. Hope you're enjoying this, or at least ignoring it...) Hitherto - "yes, the format of blogs makes it easy to publish a site, but it doesn't make it any easier to create anything of significance". It doesn't make it easier to create if you assume that creativity is something people either have or they haven't - I'm not sure I'd agree with that; and I'm not sure how valuable one's 'latent creativity' is when it comes to actual *creation*. Highly creative people can end up creating very little, depending on their circumstances; while less creative people can create a lot that others value. ¶ While it might be true that blogging doesn't "make it any easier to create anything of significance", it may well be that it *does* make it easier for things of significance *to be created*, in general. Screw it, I'm in rhetorical mode here, so I'll drop the equivocation: without the weblog phenomenon, all sorts of great things that are currently on the Web would not be. The habit of writing regularly for an audience has spurred webloggers to post things which they would otherwise have left in a bottom drawer, out of the public eye, inside their heads, or wherever; and some of those are *good* things that deserve an audience. Even if they might one day have got them "out there" in a different form - which is less likely if they don't consider themselves to be particularly creative - the fact of posting them sooner rather than later means that they spend longer in the public eye, are enjoyed by more people, and have a better chance of being appreciated at a time when their creator could most use some encouragement. ¶ Look, I was once a skeptic; I had a personal site for a year before I tried blogging, even while I watched the nascent efforts of early bloggers like our host. And I'm still something of a skeptic - my site isn't just a blog, in fact is predominantly not a blog, and I usually think of myself as a website creator (writer, artist, whatever) rather than a blogger. But I've written a quarter of a million carefully-chosen words under the guise of 'blog', a great many of which would not have been written otherwise; and some people have quite enjoyed them. Forget the shameless self-promotion, though: go and read tailorstoday.com, or izzlepfaff.com, or defectiveyeti.com - the whole thing, their entire archives - and come back and tell me that nothing good has come out of the form. ¶ Honestly, getting back to you "in 30 years or so" would be *pointless*, a missed opportunity - this moment will have passed, these people will have gone, and you will not have enjoyed their work when it was fresh and vital; it'd be like arguing about whether or not there was any merit in 30-year old television shows that you didn't bother to watch when they were new because they were on the wrong channel. ¶ Speaking as one fellow creator to another - because I see you're writing a novel, writing poetry, and so on - I can only say, try it for yourself. Or if you don't want to try it (which is perfectly reasonable - it does take up time you might want to spend in other ways, like writing a novel), then reserve your judgement. Don't just snipe from the sidelines; how pointless is that? I'm not a ballet dancer, and I don't go to the ballet, so why would I waste my time railing about the use of the word 'ballet' to describe what is obviously (obviously!) a form of dance? ¶ I'm not saying it's a revolution; the revolution is the Web, not this small slice of it. But the growing phenomenon of personal websites, regularly updated, whether they're called blogs or whatever else, is worth celebrating - and if that means a few cheerleaders celebrating their day in Parliament, then more power to them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 06:06:44 PM Damn, needed another edit. For: "It doesn't make it easier to create if you assume that creativity is something people either have or they haven't - I'm not sure I'd agree with that", read: "It might not make it easier to create, assuming that creativity is something people either have or they haven't - although I'm not sure I'd agree that's how creativity works" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: http://meettheg.com DATE: 07/15/2003 06:12:46 PM I don't think it matters what you write. It could be tech, crap, cats or cornhole....nevermind. If it's on the 'net then it gets scraped, it pops up on the engines of God and you have little control over it unless you ban all the bots. Drifting. There may be hundreds of thousands of 'logs out there but it wouldn't make any difference if they all wrote good or bad crap. They get found very easily and they do diffuse the 'airwaves'. Whether the content deserves to be there is up to the 'consumer' and I find it interesting that the surfer, the wanderer is not mentioned at all in these discussions. Blogs talking about blogs is ...well ... narcissism. Isn't that what all 'logs are about? I think it's a certainty that blogs influence other 'loggers, this meeting was supposed to be about blogs opening up debate. But, when the mic is handled by (us) the 'blog world order' how democratic is that? Does everyone have to 'log away for it to be democratic? Methinks there's problems in this approach. I know it's ironic (literal), I have a 'log. It just amplifies my schizoid personality. Criticism is good. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.164.200 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 07/15/2003 07:36:22 PM Okay I haven't read every comment that has been posted here so far because, to be honest, you're all far too long-winded (sarcasm alert!) but it does seem, just from a glance mind you, that everyone is missing the point. 'Weblog' is just a noun to describe a particular method of writing for the web, really. The weblog phenomenon, and weblogs themselves, are two distinct things entirely. Just because I have a weblog, it doesn't mean I'm going to change the world. It's like comparing a state-of-the-art mountain bike to a penny farthing - they're both bicycles, they're both representative of a major social/technological breakthrough, but that doesn't mean they're on the same level. I'm sure I could write an essay about this if I were properly motivated (which I might do, I have a lot of time on my hands) and the bicycle analogy is kind of absurd, I admit, but I think I'm making a point here somewhere. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed EMAIL: ed@edrants.com IP: 12.99.104.155 URL: http://www.edrants.com DATE: 07/15/2003 09:50:59 PM On one level, this whole debate is really just a bunch of bombastic chefs staring at a chicken sandwich and arguing over whether to call it a canape. In the end, most people will probably just call it a chicken sandwich. And the chefs, brawling in an empty kitchen, will be ignored by sensible people who will eat and enjoy the sandwich, blasphemous ingredients and all. On another level, it's another round of "you can't be negative"/"I'm okay, you're okay" political correctness and its unnecessary "yes I can" responses that fan the flames of hindered expression, and encourage people not to point out what's wrong with the world -- the kind of dainty balderdash that seems to be encouraged in this age of Bush and Blair complacency. Good God, people, if you're trying for the blog equivalent of a Vidal-Mailer fight, then you're hopelessly tepid. Wake me up when people are fighting about something important. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 195.92.168.169 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 07/15/2003 11:58:29 PM There's a simple solution to this: stop reading his weblog. Stop referencing him - and with a bit of luck, he'll fade away. I'd highly recommend the same treatment for people like Bill Thompson too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 195.195.40.250 URL: http://www.infovore.org DATE: 07/16/2003 10:02:19 AM MacDara: "'Weblog' is just a noun to describe a particular method of writing for the web, really." Well, no. There's lots of websites - magazines, criticisms, reviews, creative writing sites (fray, upsideclown: these are NOT weblogs) - out there which are clearly writing for the web and are clearly not weblogs. Is Salon a weblog? Emphatically not. It's a lot more specific than that. Yes, the "weblog phenomenon" and "the weblog" are separate things, but we can't go around labelling everything blogs willynilly (as there is a tendency to do at the moment). I'm at work and don't quite have time to construct a decent explanation of what "weblog" is, but it is FAR more than merely "writing for the web". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.160.103 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 07/16/2003 07:14:24 PM In response to tom, in all fairness I intended an emphasis on 'method' rather than just 'writing for the web', and by method I mean the sequential publishing of individualised chunks of data, whether these are single hyperlinks or a linkless essays. (I'm coming at this from both a philosophical and information science perspective: there should be a taxonomy of weblogs, some sort of subject heading list.) In this respect, I would consider sites such as Upsideclown to fall under the main 'weblog' umbrella, even though they are not strictly weblogs (they're self-contained; not part of the blogosphere conversation, so to speak). I know I could explain myself better, but it's uncomfortably humid here and I don't have any air conditioning. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tempest EMAIL: tempest_22@hotmail.com IP: 80.193.221.252 URL: DATE: 07/18/2003 12:10:04 AM "To use your analogy, too many of the blogs I see are the effective equivalent of someone posting a picture of their cat, and then doing exactly the same thing again and again each day." As if that's not the only problem... ----- PING: TITLE: Last Night's Seminar URL: http://www.adam.tinworth.name/archives/000095.html IP: 217.206.220.154 BLOG NAME: One Man & His Blog DATE: 07/15/2003 02:39:47 PM Well, the seminar last night was excellent, even if it was preaching to the converted. I'll write up my thoughts later on, but you might like to look at the meeting notes, the manifesto prepared for the event and Voxpolitics' write-up. The BBC covered ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Encouraging men to masturbate... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/17/2003 03:29:23 PM ----- BODY:

    Masturbation cuts cancer risk: "Men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation, researchers suggest. They say cancer-causing chemicals could build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly. And they say sexual intercourse may not have the same protective effect because of the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted infection, which could increase men's cancer risk." [via a triumphalist IM from Matt]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mikejla@btinternet.com IP: 217.39.46.222 URL: http://www.troubleddiva.com DATE: 07/17/2003 06:02:13 PM If this is confirmed, then I guess there will have to be a public information campaign, complete with celebrity endorsements etc. Wonder who they'll rope in? (And why does Robbie Williams immediately spring to mind?) Oh, this could be so good... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 07/17/2003 06:11:13 PM That is the best news I have read all week. I think they should have George Michels do PSA. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 216.254.181.163 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 07/18/2003 08:36:23 PM I can picture the headlines now: "How to 'beat' cancer" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LoneAggie EMAIL: loneaggie@hotmail.com IP: 67.30.32.173 URL: http://loneaggie.10500bc.org/ DATE: 07/19/2003 03:22:43 AM I couldn't believe the headline when I saw it on CNN the other day. We were in a restaurant and I almost spit out my food. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: melonn EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 62.252.224.6 URL: DATE: 07/19/2003 01:23:18 PM It's good for your arm muscles too... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 65.49.49.85 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 07/20/2003 06:21:05 AM Another thing to consider is whether they've possibly mixed up the cause and effect in this study. For all we know, men who are less likely to develop cancer masturbate more because they're healthier - not vice versa. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dil EMAIL: he23ejtoi@aol.com IP: 195.93.33.9 URL: DATE: 08/26/2003 01:59:41 PM When i read this on your site, I coulden't believ what i was actuall readind. It's very good news, I think i better start doing more often ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.139.183 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/26/2003 07:05:26 PM Looks a bit like you were doing it while you were typing that! ----- PING: TITLE: la vengeance du straight mou URL: http://perso.all-3rd.net/manu/blog/archives/000101.html IP: 217.128.219.173 BLOG NAME: blog out DATE: 07/17/2003 03:55:41 PM La masturbation rÈduit les risques de cancer : "Les hommes pourraient rÈduire le risque de cancer de la prostate en se masturbant rÈguliËrement, suggËrent les chercheurs. Selon eux, des cellules cancÈrigËnes pourraient se dÈvelopper dans la prostate si... ----- PING: TITLE: Masturbation cuts cancer risk URL: http://www.dekay.org/blogs/dekay/archives/week_2003_07_20.html#000056 IP: 81.209.148.146 BLOG NAME: tango, the world and I DATE: 07/21/2003 11:17:17 AM "Men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation, researchers suggest. They say cancer-causing chemicals could build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly. And they say sexual intercourse may n... ----- PING: TITLE: Flu Like Symptoms. URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108247/2003/07/25.html#a418 IP: 67.125.40.48 BLOG NAME: for the sake of clarity - The Digital Tavern DATE: 08/08/2003 06:36:44 AM Ever notice how the media and medical mavens describe symptoms of new diseases that have evaded the control of modern medicine? Things likeSARs, West Nile Virus, Monkey whatever, even AIDs? Victims describe feeling "flu like symptoms." Makes a guy wond... ----- PING: TITLE: Elisir URL: http://blogs.it/0100214/2003/07/23.html#a1252 IP: 194.185.220.115 BLOG NAME: 4 Banalitaten DATE: 08/16/2003 01:38:55 PM Ancora eccellenti notizie. Udai/Qusai? No, quella mi rende semplicemente euforico. Questa invece è grandiosa. La ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fragments of speeches... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/18/2003 11:09:10 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been reading Blair's speech to Congress (page one / page two), and I think my first reaction is that it's an interesting combination of jingoism, liberalism, pragmatism and self-love. The bits that are a bit craw-sticking are the fawning tones - even when they're only preludes to more serious comments.

    "Let me also express my gratitude to President Bush. Through the troubled times since 11 September changed our world, we have been allies and friends. Thank you, Mr President, for your leadership."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What a long weekend... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/20/2003 11:26:25 PM ----- BODY:

    What have I done this weekend? I've driven (mostly with Nick and Katy) about three hundred and fifty miles. I've taken my friends to a Norwich gay bar full of army fetishists. I've smashed things with my Hulk Hands. I've chased Mo around a garden. I've turned thirty-one, cooked a massive breakfast, fed baby lambs and goats, been scared by a turkey, eaten fudge, laughed at cups with puppy heads, bought tons and tons of meat, ploughed a boat into shallow waters, cooked steak on a barbecue, watched an eighties sunset, snapped at a friend, watched music videos, eaten watermelon for breakfast, watched This Island Earth, cleaned like I've never cleaned before, become obsessed by the sky, eaten hamburgers by the ton, connected to a wifi node in Primrose Hill to check film times, took a high-speed trip to Tottenham Court Road to watch The Hulk, but missed the film, drank a Caipirinha and drove home. Wrote stuff. Became really tired. Went to sleep.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Improvements in Hydra... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/22/2003 11:31:48 PM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Mr Hammersley, I'm currently playing with version 1.1.1 of everyone's favourite collaborative editing tool Hydra. The big change? There's now a built in live-updating HTML preview facility. Some of the implications are fairly obvious - you can now easily collaborate on the writing of web pages in all their glory. Less obvious is the fact that you can now collaboratively write notes in HTML - which could make the composition of semantically well-constructed collaborative writing that can be easily web-published easier than ever... I'm fascinated...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: mike@americantypewriter.org IP: 216.205.224.11 URL: http://www.americantypewriter.org DATE: 07/23/2003 05:28:58 PM I know how you feel about having to use a PC at work...but I don't feel sorry for you, because I'm in the same boat. I haven't even touched a PC in almost a year, save for fixing my grandmother's when her "email broke", but now that I've been interning at 20th Century Fox, I've had to use a PC everyday for two months. I'm just now getting used to clicking the close button using the right hand side instead of the left. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Unxmaal EMAIL: foo@bar.com IP: 68.155.197.200 URL: http://unxmaal.com DATE: 07/24/2003 07:50:57 AM If the reason you must use a PC at work is to access the corporate Exchange server, there are many alternate solutions. I first suggest checking to see if there is web access to email. Many corp Exchange servers are configured to be accessible via http. Second, install the Microsoft Remote Desktop client onto your iBook, then RDC into your PC workstation. It's suitably fast over a LAN, and even running fullscreen it can be minimized/hidden like any other app. Third, procure a copy of VirtualPC, install Win98 on it, and use Outlook to retrieve your mail. Last, and most advanced: if you're truly hardcore, install Fink, install the Ximian Evolution package. (I haven't actually gotten this to work, and if you do, I'll be much impressed). ----- PING: TITLE: Hydra, baby! URL: http://www.charleshartman.org/mt/archives/2003/07/22/hydra_baby.html IP: 66.33.208.8 BLOG NAME: charleshartman.org DATE: 07/23/2003 02:55:14 AM Mr. Coates points out that Mr. Hammersley has pointed out what I am now also pointing out: the most lovely text editor, Hydra has reached version 1.1.1 and now includes live updating HTML previewing. (Yes, exactly, how flipping cool is... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Hateful Windows! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/22/2003 11:55:33 PM ----- BODY:

    Until I started my new job at the BBC - with the exception of miserably short stints in cyber-cafés and the like - I hadn't used a Windows PC in getting on for two years. Now I'm compelled to. My work e-mail is only accessible if I persuade the hated beast to allow me access. Worse still is the effect this has on my outboard brain - that place where my articulation of ideas occurs, that home of recorded impression. My iBook hippocampus - the component of my prostheses that deals specifically with the creation of memory - has been hacked from the network and sits like a thousand pound brick by my desk all day.

    As a result my extended connections to my social network - mediated through my alien stone, my totem computer - continue to atrophy. My sense of what's going on around me is collapsing. I'm no longer sitting at the centre of the Panopticon. Instead I'm peripheral. What is central is the urinal of Windows machinery that, if I am thirsty for information, I must drink from. The internet that squeezes its way through task managers, continual crashing and word processors in browsers is not an internet I'm familiar with. It's an ill-formed, thick and sticky horror - like Roast Lamb gone cold and congealed with fat. Coughed up by a used car salesman.

    Or maybe the shame is that I'm beginning to get used to it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Business Like Apples URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/07/business_like_apples.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 07/29/2003 08:00:28 PM I am always impressed by the loyalty of the Mac user. How have they built such a great brand? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stairs of Broadcasting House... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/23/2003 09:10:40 AM ----- BODY:

    The awesome stairs of Broadcasting House...

    The awesome stairs of Broadcasting House

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Meanwhile, in a different part of the mediasphere... URL: http://www.quernstone.com/archives/000239.html IP: 66.33.197.11 BLOG NAME: Jonathan Sanderson's Weblog DATE: 07/23/2003 10:43:20 PM Tom Coates has similar problems with Windows. It's surprising how much one's desktop influences the thoughts one has. At least ----- PING: TITLE: The View From Here... URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000641.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 11/05/2003 10:41:16 AM At the risk of turning into Tom Coates, I must say there is something rather wonderful about looking out of my new office (for the next week-and-a-bit anyway) in the big LWT tower on the South Bank*, down onto the... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As spies, so pundits? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/23/2003 09:41:56 PM ----- BODY:

    On The Cambridge Spies: "In a dirty bogus business, riddled with deceit, manipulation and betrayal, an intelligence service maintains it sanity by developing its own concept of what it believes to be the truth. Those agents who confirm this perceived truth - even if it is wrong - prosper. Those who deny it - even if they are right - fall under suspicion." It all sounds terribly familiar. Perhaps internet punditry is the new espionage?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ponces and Spies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/23/2003 09:50:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Another quote from The Cambridge Spies because I got it for my birthday and I'm watching it again because I really enjoyed it last time...

    Queen: "Never trust a man with a bad moustache. Homosexualists never have moustaches... Have you noticed? I think it's a signal... To other chaps... 'Look! No moustache! Come and get me!' Ponces and spies, Anthony. The people with the most to hide never have moustaches. So which are you, Anthony? Ponce or spy?"
    Anthony Blunt: "Oh... A little of both... Aren't we all?"
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 194.109.220.178 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 07/23/2003 10:13:00 PM I wasn't aware the series was out on DVD. I missed all of it when it was on TV to my great regret. Thanks for tipping me off, it's on order now. Have you read John Banville's The Untouchable (a beautiful novel of betrayal - of country, family and self - loosely based on Anthony Blunt?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: david@hartster.org IP: 212.19.85.171 URL: http://hartster.org DATE: 07/24/2003 09:47:25 AM Bit of a ditto post really. I also never saw the series but recommend The Untouchable, and pretty much any Banville, wholeheartedly. Best writer of a sentence around. ----- PING: TITLE: DVD URL: http://prolific.org/archive/products_2003_07.html#006215 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org (products) DATE: 07/23/2003 10:19:14 PM Tom's post Ponces and Spies... tipped me off on the existence of a Cambridge Spies DVD, a series I regret... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Webb's favourite colour... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/24/2003 10:17:42 AM ----- BODY:

    My colleague, Mr Webb, has done it again. Today's project is an attempt to find The Web's favourite colour. Here's how it works - you take a photo of your favourite colour with your camera phone and send it via MMS to avit@historicalfact.com. Then behind the scenes, the colours in the photo are completely averaged out, creating a representation of your colour that can be given a hex value. All the colours sent in are averaged out and the background of the page comes gradually to represent the web's favourite colour...

    At the moment, the site's quite sparse - and the favourite colour appears to be (rather unfortunately) grey. But I get the impression that there's much more work being done. Obvious things that leap to mind would be a display of the most recently sent in pictures and rolling averages of the last hour, last day, last month. Matt's probably way ahead of me on all that stuff though, so I'll shut up before I embarrass myself further...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paul EMAIL: paul@NOSPAMdigitaltrickery.com IP: 66.9.237.254 URL: DATE: 07/24/2003 10:55:48 AM ..but will it be web-safe? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ChrisH EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 193.36.79.207 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 07/24/2003 11:26:38 AM Surely this is the MMS users' favourite colour? Can you email in pictures? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 62.69.72.133 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/24/2003 11:30:34 AM You'd have to ask Matt about that, but I can't see that it would be a problem... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 62.69.72.133 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 07/24/2003 11:45:28 AM Yup, email works too but I want to bias it towards phones so it's more "see a colour, send it". I'd love to make it proper MMS, but don't know how to go about getting use of a gateway... First issue from this: it's not apparent enough that the colour of the photo moves the average colour along the spectrum (so green plus purple can mean blue). More visual feedback on that required. (The spectrum thing is to avoid everything turning to grey/beige, and to allow brightness too.) Next to do apart from that: time-based averages (hour, day, week) or maybe just last 3/5/20, most recent pictures (blurred out for decency). Then per-user slices. And then to see what happens when the spambots pick up this email address... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Manne EMAIL: magnusreg@fortunes.nu IP: 194.198.108.63 URL: http://www.hultberg.org/ DATE: 07/24/2003 12:37:45 PM This is such a wonderful idea. Wish I thought of it. :) Please don't make it MMS only, I for one send all my phone-photos using ordinary email and GPRS. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Manne EMAIL: magnusreg@fortunes.nu IP: 194.198.108.63 URL: http://www.hultberg.org/ DATE: 07/24/2003 01:34:48 PM Small annoying thing with the favourite colour web page: Just now the "latest.jpg"-image crashed my Internet Explorer image handling. This is apparently something that happens due to extra information available in some jpegs that IE can”t handle. Perhaps such information can be stripped out before the latest image is stored to disk? More on the subject: http://www.hultberg.org/mt-linklog/archive/000155.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brownshoe EMAIL: brownshoe@hotmail.com IP: 217.39.165.112 URL: DATE: 07/24/2003 02:36:38 PM Would be easier to do it with a spider looking at HTML for hex triplets. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: dontspamthisyoubastard@cwazy.co.uk IP: 194.217.93.82 URL: http://www.dragonthief.com DATE: 07/24/2003 02:37:57 PM Yup... not loading in IE6. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 07/24/2003 05:06:17 PM I've taken out the latest photo for the moment incase this hits anyone else. I'll look at how to strip out this extra info too. Thanks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ABliss EMAIL: scominney@yahoo.com IP: 211.26.2.144 URL: http://www.users.bigpond.com/scottpmack/ DATE: 07/25/2003 03:11:46 AM The favourite colour is more green now. Green objects always draw my attention. Personally I like green and grey and I used to have more green on my web pages. Now I'm using grey and a range of colours. Maybe grey was popular colour because it goes well with a range of other colours. Grey is a tint of black and white and an important colour for the artistic element of tone and within monotone images. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: luna papa EMAIL: houbi@skynet.be IP: 193.53.241.197 URL: http://luna-papa.skynetblogs.be DATE: 07/29/2003 03:24:30 PM Great idea. An interesting variation on this might be to calculate the webdesigner's favourite colour: for example put a search in the Google viewer ( http://labs.google.com/gviewer.html ) and calculate the avarage colour of the screen every 10 seconds. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Keith Waterhouse on weblogs (redux) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/26/2003 11:09:42 AM ----- BODY:

    While digging around in my site to try and find some quotes for a piece I'm presenting at EUvolt today (I'm so bloody busy my ears are bleeding), I stumbled upon an old piece on Newspaper columnists that Keither Waterhouse wrote years ago for The Journalist and which I - rather cheekily - transcribed because it was so pertinent to webloggers. Read it immediately: Keith Waterhouse on Weblogs?

    "It is 106 years since Jerome K Jerome related his difficulties in trying to open a tin of pineapple in Three Men In A Boat. Unless you can improve this classic account, keep your problems with packaging to yourself."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: A journalist's advice for bloggers (well, in a way) URL: http://www.adam.tinworth.name/archives/000112.html IP: 217.206.220.154 BLOG NAME: One Man & His Blog DATE: 07/26/2003 11:25:32 AM Tom Coates of plasticbag.org has dug up an old piece of journalism by Keith Waterhouse telling people how to write opinion columns in newspapers. It's amazing how much of it acn also be applied to blogging. I've said for a little while that most bloggi... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Superdistribution and Superlocalisation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 07/27/2003 09:36:51 PM ----- BODY:

    So I did my talk yesterday at EUvolt and I think it went OK. The paper was a bit of a Frankenstein's monster of components of older papers glued together with liberal smatterings of last-minute thought-goo - but I think it hangs together ok. I've stuck a block of my introductory thoughts on the front as a series of rather wordy slides, because the paper only makes limited sense without them. They're all a bit woolly and half-formed and really the whole thing could do with a loads more spit and polish, but I figured it's best to get the damn thing out there for people to look at rather than leaving it stuck on my computer forever. So here it is: What's next: Superdistributed and Superlocalised communities...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Clark EMAIL: joeclark@joeclark-pas-de-spamjoeclark.org IP: 64.231.79.106 URL: http://joeclark.org/weblogs/ DATE: 07/28/2003 01:56:17 AM HTML version, please. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Garrett Coakley EMAIL: plasticbag@polytechnic.co.uk IP: 81.3.88.34 URL: http://polytechnic.co.uk DATE: 07/28/2003 11:07:10 AM It was more than okay. A huge chunk of the conversations I was involved in after you left were about how good your talk was, oh... and how fast it was! Thanks again for coming along to speak, very much appreciated. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wesley Mason EMAIL: vamp@1stvamp.org IP: 213.249.185.103 URL: http://www.1stvamp.org/ DATE: 07/28/2003 02:46:32 PM Exactly as Garrett said, it was a fantastic talk, one of the highlights of the day..how the hell did you get all that out so fast? I think one of the only reasons I managed to keep up was from being a daily reader of plasticbag beforehand. (Didn't get a chance to talk about it, as I was busy getting food and filling back up on caffeine.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel Fascia EMAIL: danfascia@totalise.co.uk IP: 62.31.69.14 URL: http://www.fascianewmedia.co.uk DATE: 07/29/2003 11:42:57 AM Tom, your talk was superb, and yes... fast! I loved the more academic approach you employed, substantiating what you said with good illustrations and examples you have obviously thought hard about. I am normally very cynical about new media talks as they are usually just a pop for someones business interests (like the others were) but you did not suggest that at all... great stuff ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Burns EMAIL: martin@easyweb.co.uk IP: 194.196.100.34 URL: http://easyweb.co.uk/notes DATE: 08/04/2003 02:27:58 PM Tom, unfortunately, I had to miss your presentation to look after my son (and allow my wife - the GIS analyst - to hear it). I may therefore have missed whether you'd seen/referenced http://geourl.org . Essentially, you geocode your page/blog/site by adding a long/lat-based 'ICBM' meta-tag to the page, and it then constructs a list of the nearest similarly geocoded pages: http://geourl.org/near/?p=http://easyweb.co.uk/notes It seems to me that this exemplifies both superlocalised and superdistributed communities, without having to have the content hosted by a centralised service. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Burns EMAIL: martin@easyweb.co.uk IP: 194.196.100.34 URL: http://easyweb.co.uk/notes DATE: 08/04/2003 02:29:37 PM The download of the presentation seems to be missing the content on slides 40-42. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Clark EMAIL: joeclark@pas-de-spamjoeclark.org IP: 64.231.79.106 URL: http://joeclark.org/weblogs/ DATE: 08/13/2003 03:59:17 AM I repeat: HTML version, please. Even Google has not produced one yet. http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:dytmcagfs3oJ:www.plasticbag.org/files/misc/distributed_communities.ppt ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Friendster insanity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/27/2003 11:57:23 PM ----- BODY:

    So someone wants to be my friend on Friendster. Yawn. God I'm popular. Blah blah blah. Except - what's this - they have a user number of something like 750,000!? My god, how many people are on this damn thing!? So I go digging around in the 'new people' pane and the user numbers are around one million two hundred and fifty thousand! That's insane! So I dig around and figure out you can get your own user number by clicking onto the second page of your list of friends. Assuming, of course, that you have that many friends. (Shines fingernails, looks smug.) And it turns out that my user number is 2175. Which I think demonstrates how awesomely cool I am, until I then figure out that the person I know with the lowest Friendster number is Azeem, which rather puts paid to that theory. (Shit-eating grin to camera.)

    It's such a shame we didn't figure all this out earlier - I'd love to have tracked this stuff in some way - see a graph of how the member numbers have gone up over time. (Much like Mr Webb did with the Blogger post ids. Which makes me think - did he ever make that public? Hmm. Probably not.) So anyway - now I've got all these friends, what am I supposed to do with them? I had a sudden realisation that for many of my friends, I'm the only gay person they know. The whole point of Friendster is that you meet hot cool people through the hot cool people you already know. Then you make out and move in with each other. Which all rather depends on (1) Having cool friends and (2) Them knowing hot poofs. Darn it. This isn't going to work at all...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.60.48 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/ DATE: 07/28/2003 03:01:38 AM So now one can't get to know hot cool people through Friendster and one can't get hot cool groupies through blogging. Damn. I tell you, there must be someone out there who're just hell-bent on making sure all the Concepts(tm)are and stay broken. ----- PING: TITLE: network idiocy poster boy URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000189.html IP: 129.41.37.46 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 07/28/2003 08:05:56 PM Now that everyone in DC knows my home wireless network is wide open... plus, I can't even win with Friendster. ----- PING: TITLE: shey.net chart: just how fast is Friendster growing? URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000193.html IP: 129.41.37.46 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 07/31/2003 07:13:54 AM Thinking more about Tom's post the other day, I realized we did have a way to track Friendster's growth over time. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hating your community... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/28/2003 12:08:56 AM ----- BODY:

    So I think the worst thing about running online communities is that fundamentally you have to spend at least some of your time dealing with incredibly unpleasant people who want to do nothing more than fuck you and said community over simply because they think they're more interesting, important and valuable than absolutely everyone else in the world around them. Particularly infuriating is when said people aren't prepared to take responsibility for their actions - they spend two years - more even - trying to be a hate figure at all costs, and then decide that the way they're being represented is unfair and unpleasant and think that maybe threatening to sue could solve everything. The sheer amount of bullshit that I've had to put up with around this is intolerable, the people I've had to counsel who think that they might be on the end of a campaign of hate and reprisals because they're clearly dealing with a fucking psycho... Nnngh. Let's just say that it's getting tired (for the thousandth time) really fucking quickly...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Well said URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000602.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 08/03/2003 05:40:55 PM Online communities are often a labour of love, and sometimes they can be damn near infuriating. I have oodles and... ----- PING: TITLE: Alligators and swamps... URL: http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/000636.html IP: 64.81.78.180 BLOG NAME: Teal Sunglasses DATE: 08/03/2003 07:29:14 PM This posting on plasticbag nails it right on the head. When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Music from the Diet Coke advert... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/28/2003 11:38:52 PM ----- BODY:

    It's been driving me mad for weeks, but now I finally know the music that's playing in the diet coke advert where the girl is on a train and everything she reads around her seems to be suggesting that she gets down and dirty with the guy opposite her... The song is by the Brothers Johnson, is called "Strawberry Letter 23" and is available on the Jackie Brown soundtrack. Bits of the song sound creepily like "I wanna sex you up". Other bits sound like Supertramp only with more soul. Weird song. Cool, though...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy McCulloch EMAIL: andy@branchleft.co.uk IP: 81.86.74.121 URL: http://growingleaves.branchleft.co.uk/ DATE: 07/29/2003 12:40:21 AM If I may put my annoying music trivia hat on, the original version of that song was recorded by the great Shuggie Otis, it's on his "Inspiration, Information" album if you want to check it out - it's completely different to the Brothers Johnson version. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 213.123.130.11 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/29/2003 08:21:23 AM Yeah - actually I'd managed to stumble upon that version too. Apologies for neglecting to mention it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel Fascia EMAIL: danfascia@totalise.co.uk IP: 62.31.69.14 URL: http://www.fascianewmedia.co.uk DATE: 07/29/2003 11:38:44 AM You can of course use a little service called Shazam on your mobile phone by dialling 2580 and letting the tune play into your mouthpiece from the advert. It sends you a text of the song within a minute, quite useful at times. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 07/29/2003 12:26:51 PM Andy beat me to it, but I'd definitely recommend Shuggie Otis's "Inspiration Information" and his (original!) version of Strawbery Letter 23. Great song. Damn Coke publicists. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stephen Newey EMAIL: stephen@freakymousemats.com IP: 212.250.174.162 URL: DATE: 07/31/2003 05:17:41 PM If it's on a TV ad and you're not sure what it is, try http://www.commercialbreaksandbeats.co.uk/ If you manage to actually type it, it's database and boards are great for finding that evasive track you're after. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Monkeyspit EMAIL: monkeyspit@seaofhumanity.com IP: 198.173.24.156 URL: http://www.seaofhumanity.com DATE: 08/01/2003 06:31:04 PM I haven't heard that one. I will have to check it out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hillie EMAIL: hilliemckenzie@btinternet.com IP: 81.132.233.129 URL: DATE: 08/27/2003 07:57:19 PM It was on a brothers johnson album in 1976-9 Does anyone know what the album was called ? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Giant Blue Marlin EMAIL: abc@hotmail.com IP: 62.253.96.42 URL: DATE: 08/31/2003 09:21:15 PM Hillie, It was Blaxploitation Vol 4 Harlem Hussle (disc 2). Stop talkin' bout music an git down t some serious fishin' Regards, Cooler than y'all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Glynis EMAIL: smileymiley48@hotmail.com IP: 80.46.164.63 URL: DATE: 09/07/2003 09:13:25 PM Thank god someone found out what it was!!! I new it from my 70's disco days and have wracked my brain since first seeing the advert. CHEERS!!!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Me too EMAIL: adriandubois@hotmail.com IP: 212.188.164.42 URL: DATE: 10/04/2003 08:59:52 AM I cant believe I have tracked it down - I have been trying for months Thanks ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: adam EMAIL: Adam___Watson@hotmail.com IP: 195.195.244.66 URL: DATE: 10/06/2003 11:00:04 AM does anyone know were its possible to download it, i have one version but it isnt the same i think its the origanl,,, not as good ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Laura EMAIL: iwantanoriginaladdress@hotmail.com IP: 81.86.79.112 URL: DATE: 04/25/2004 11:34:57 AM What is the song on the diet coke ad where the black woman is singing and handing out bottles from her bag? This has been bugging me for ages Thanks, Laura ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lu EMAIL: lucy@gardner68.fsnet.co.uk IP: 195.92.194.17 URL: DATE: 08/14/2004 09:53:46 PM please could someone tell me who does the music for recent diet coke ad, where two girls are sitting in a shop window and the manequins fall into sexually suggestive (oo-er) positions ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Balkanisation of Blogdex... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 07/29/2003 08:53:44 AM ----- BODY:

    The last couple of days have seen a Daypop and Blogdex Top 40s that are totally overwhelmed by political articles from the States. If it wasn't for the fact that many of these articles are concerned with the war in Iraq, you could be excused for thinking that nothing else was happening in the world at at all - even perhaps that there was no world outside the US.

    Three years ago - back in the days of Beebo.org's metalog - it was quickly observed that the various aggregation sites on the internet had a reinforcing effect on people's browsing - that when they started, the popular links were getting two or three links a day, but that a month later they were getting up to ten or twelve. People linked to good things that they were exposed to - and they decided that aggregators represented an efficient way of finding those good things, prefiltered on the basis of popularity by the community at large. The effect? Sites that appeared on these sites got a significant extra amount of trafic, links, exposure. There's significant value in this mechanism - it produces a manageable amount of links each day that an individual has a chance of being able to read. It also provides a sense of the overall community of webloggia and what they care about.

    The problem comes when these aggregators don't have enough granularity. Let me put it this way - Blogdex, Daypop, Popdex, Technorati and the like are no longer simple reflectors of a community's activities - they are also one of our community's best mechanisms for news discovery. To some extent they're gradually becoming one of the most significant ways we find out what's going on in the world around us.

    Unfortunately it also means that the country with the most weblogs sets the international community's agenda. There are only two obvious results of this - (i) that these aggregators will (or have) become less interesting or useful to people who don't live in America or (ii) that the international community becomes used to the hideous unrepresentation of their own local news and debate. It used to be said that America had no idea of what happened outside its own borders. Can we really be working towards a new way of distributing and discovering media that means the rest of the world has no idea what happens outside America's boundaries either?

    There are a couple of ways that we could address this problem. Firstly there's sampling - we could create a version of Blogdex that doesn't work purely on the basis of popularity, but samples geo-coded weblogs from across the world in such a way that we are presented with a balanced world-wide view of what's important. It's a nice idea, but I think it's impractical - for a start the linguistic barriers would make it less useful for many of us, but also because there would an infinity of ways of determining sampling rates across the world, none of which would likely be 'fair' or 'clear' to people.

    No - the most practical way of approaching this problem is to find mechanisms which allow us to balkanise our aggregators - slice their responses - on the basis of metadata. There are many ways of geocoding weblogs in such a way that aggregators could have a sense of your nationality, location, language, time-zone and the like. And above and beyond such meta-tagging there are dozens of directories that include information based around clumping weblogs around interest groups and/or site locations. So I'm putting out a call now for someone to balkanise Blogdex. I want to be able to see the most popular links generated by people in my country - wherever the links themselves are based. I want to be able to slice these links in different ways, to see popular links mentioned on all English language sites (for example) or just those within the European Union. In fact I'd like to be able to see what gay webloggers are reading too. And people within my age group. All of this stuff should be possible, one way or another. I'd build it myself, if I had the expertise required... Can't someone help me out?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: DATE: 07/29/2003 02:27:27 PM Wonderful idea . Marvelous. But, just like the French willingness to cordon off their culture from America - and Americanisms - the Imperial arbiters of cool always find a way by sheer force of personality and reinforcement; unless we decide to implement these tools ourselves. I like the idea, it would be great. I'm just a pessimist. Good luck in finding your enabler. By the way, poor choice of words, 'balkanisation', I see all sorts of nasty visions.... ethnic cleansing of links, shouts of Anti-American slant, with other -isms and -ises thrown in for good measure. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/29/2003 02:36:48 PM Yeah - but it's alliterative. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: DATE: 07/29/2003 04:23:33 PM Well, it's a -verse. Therein lies my petty gripe. It *might* obscure and confound what you're asking for. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@abstractdynamics.org IP: 160.39.246.128 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 07/29/2003 06:16:51 PM few quick thoughts GeoURL might help, course I don't use it and am not even sure if I got the name right... Doesn't having a site with a generic .org address hurt the prospects of ever really getting such a Balkinization? There does seem to be a granularity of sorts emerging in the larger listings of absolute popularity. IE the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem [ http://truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php ] weighs heavily towards US politics. Is geography really the best divider in this day and age? How about balkanizing by interest? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robingrant@tribalddb.co.uk IP: 193.133.98.226 URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/ DATE: 07/29/2003 06:47:27 PM Tom - not sure about this one. Although I appreciate that having localised blogdex type aggregators might be useful for the reasons you mention, and probably relatively easy for any one of the existing aggregators to achieve (by asking those weblogs register ed/ing with them to specify a country), is this something we want? - to have the blogosphere delineated along narrow national lines - especially if, like me, you'd love the "emergent democracy" or "second superpower" hypotheses to evolve into a tangible reality... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.165.163.187 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 07/29/2003 07:38:47 PM Hasn't Google done something like this already with their News page? It's not perfect, but it works fine. Surely balkanised weblog/news aggregation shouldn't be that difficult? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.165.163.187 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 07/29/2003 07:41:10 PM Actually scratch that, I just saw the gaping hope in my argument that no doubt you lot'll all pick upon like vultures. I shouldn't think out loud so much ;o) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew EMAIL: dru@dreamweaverfever.com IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.allinthehead.com/ DATE: 07/29/2003 08:37:03 PM Tom, you could always spearhead such a project yourself. You could set it up on sourceforge.net and simply project manage it. Developers can write any old code you want, it's the people with ideas that are really needed. I'd strongly urge you to consider it, and if you do, drop me a line. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 129.21.40.11 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 07/30/2003 04:42:39 PM This seems to assume that (a) webloggers are significant and/or representations component of their country's populations, and (b) most webloggers use tools like daypop, popdex, etc to determine what's important in the world. We know that (a) isn't true. Webloggers are a statistically insignificant segment of the general population. And I strongly suspect that (b) is also not true. That aside, the idea of population-specific aggregators is an interesting one. Have you seen what Micah Alpern has done with his "trusted blog" search tools? http://www.alpern.org/weblog/php/blogsearch/writeup.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 129.21.40.11 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 07/30/2003 04:44:19 PM Ugh. Wish I could edit my comments. That should be "significant and/or representative components". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: omit EMAIL: timothompson@yahoo.com IP: 209.217.166.66 URL: DATE: 07/30/2003 11:28:23 PM Not only that--I've always thought you should be able to pick the subset of blogs you want sampled. If I only want to filter 10 specific blogs, let me. To separate the CSS/design sites from the music sites from the political sites, etc. A blogdex for every subculture and interest. Or it could be done categorically (if people could be consistent about categories). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.5.116 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/30/2003 11:31:16 PM Well I'm not sure that it does assume either of those things! We're talking about webloggers finding out information that is pertinent and interesting to them through the filtering mechanism of popularity among their peers! That seems to me to be a quite plausible thing to investigate. I would think that a large number of webloggers do glance at Blogdex, Daypop and the like in order to find out what's going on around the world of webloggers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.76.24 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 07/31/2003 12:51:25 AM If you look at Drupal, they've got a category based RSS reader. I've got it running on my site at... http://www.bbcity.co.uk/?q=import/bundles Something like that could be the basis of such a project - start adding Google-esque PageRanks and community trust rankings (a la. Technorati, Daypop etc.). Make it so that it's more "relational" - you could categorise the person (eg. 18-year-old slobby intellectual art student) and the content (eg. crap morose anti-American cynicism). Then you could mix and match the content and the person - I want to hear "upbeat feminist mumblings" from "Chinese Second Hand Car Dealers living in Southend". Either that or, on a simpler scale, a wide ranging encouragement for people to start up vertical aggregators. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 07/31/2003 12:57:40 AM I agree with Liz, predictably. However, I still think it's good idea, the North American slant has alot to do with the sheer number of indexed weblogs over there, as Tom pointed out. The inherent bias of these tools turned me off them completely -- especially the link reinforcement. If anything, I sample a select group of sites with RSS feeds and avoid Blogdex et. al., it is a little obvious. In sum, it should be done or at least attempted just to see result. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: FranÁois EMAIL: apprentice@padawan.info IP: 212.198.0.94 URL: http://www.padawan.info/ DATE: 07/31/2003 11:51:02 PM [trying to ignore the sh*ty spam from so-called Jamie above] Liz, I agree that webloggers are not representative of an entire country population, but I disagree on your immediate conclusion on (a). I believe that among webloggers there is a representative set of trend setters and opinion leaders from whom you can draw, well, significant trends and opinions. Let's do a big simplification and say those are the A-list bloggers. Regarding (b), I agree with Tom that those tools have a great influence on what "bubbles up" on the weblogs and, in a typical retrofit loop (A-list sends a signal which gets transmitted by those tools and amplified by their users), the A-list bloggers will have *huge* influence on what percolates on the bloggosphere. Now if a majority of those A-list bloggers in the English-speaking web are American, you can easily draw a conclusion. Gummi: in French, balkanisation in the context that Tom described makes perfect sense to me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 08/01/2003 01:48:12 AM (argh. keep forgetting that tabbing from the homepage field takes me up to the top of the page. :P ) Tom I was responding primarily to the line reading "Let me put it this way - Blogdex, Daypop, Popdex, Technorati and the like are no longer simple reflectors of a community's activities - they are also one of our community's best mechanisms for news discovery. To some extent they're gradually becoming one of the most significant ways we find out what's going on in the world around us." While that may be true for some, I know it's not true for me, or for the majority of bloggers I know. That's not to say there's not value in what you suggest...just that the what you describe isn't necessarily as universally problematic as you implied ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: BenM EMAIL: cee.plus@virgin.net IP: 195.92.168.168 URL: http://www.benmeadowcroft.com/ DATE: 08/01/2003 10:51:57 AM What is going on? has someone hacked the article or something? The original article has been replaced by some crap about jamie leigh, whoever that is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 82.43.194.115 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 08/01/2003 12:23:57 PM It certainly looks like a hack; the same content is on FridayFive.org at the moment. Looks to be a security hole MoveableType? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: jm-49385395@jmason.org IP: 128.195.65.51 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 08/01/2003 07:27:48 PM Whoa, what was that... it made it into the RSS feed! Tom -- any idea? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: nick@blogosphere.us IP: 66.188.89.210 URL: http://www.blogosphere.us/ DATE: 08/01/2003 10:59:53 PM We're aware of this problem (the Balkanisation, not the hacking — sorry) blogosphere.us and we're trying to find ways to break down the "whole" blogosphere into more managable (and interesting) chunks. Our first experiment has been to run the text from weblogs through TextCat and then aggregate across the language of the weblog. Unfortunately, it only produces interesting results for Arabic/Farsi and French (this is probably a limitation of TextCat running on HTML, but we're working on enhancing the numbers a bit). At any rate, I apologize for the self-link, but I felt it was necessary to point out that there are aggregators out there working to solve this sort of thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.231.33 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/02/2003 11:20:25 AM I don't know what caused the problem. Certainly it started as comments spam. I went into Movable Type to delete it, and it seems to have replaced the current post with itself. That seems to be either a bug in MT or a piece of code inserted into the comment designed to bugger things up. Either way - thank god for Google who had a cached copy of the page already. So it was pretty easy to go and copy and paste it back into the site... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cameron EMAIL: cameron@mit.edu IP: 158.111.4.25 URL: http://overstated.net DATE: 08/02/2003 08:59:48 PM Nice piece Tom. I've had a number of different people email asking for country-specific versions of Blogdex. While I'd love to offer a sort of international version, my initial experimentation into automatic classification came up bust. Without a large enough sample for each language, and with so many bi- and tri-lingual weblogs out there, the edges just aren't so well defined. One of the major problems with the prominence of English weblogs is simply that countries which have not reached critical mass are filled with webloggers reading and quoting the English hegemony. You're right in thinking that metadata is the easiest solution -- tack another one onto the list of things Atom can solve if implemented fully. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Prescott EMAIL: matt.prescott@zoo.ox.ac.uk IP: 129.67.24.42 URL: http://www.earth-info.net DATE: 08/06/2003 04:27:05 AM Many interesting thoughts above! Due to the low numbers of blogs outside the US I think there could be a case made for establishing non-US versions of Blogdex, etc... at least until individual nations have built up their blogging communities, and merit their own dedicated services. Such non-US services would also be simpler to establish and act as more of a honeypot for US readers interested in a wider range of issues and sites than the big blogs tend to cover (US politics, tech, personalities, blogs, etc). ----- PING: TITLE: Balkanise our aggregators URL: http://www.padawan.info//balkanise_our_aggregators.html IP: 212.180.126.185 BLOG NAME: padawan.info DATE: 07/29/2003 01:23:57 PM Tom Coates wants balkanise Blogdex: The last couple of days have seen a Daypop and Blogdex Top 40 that are... ----- PING: TITLE: Microcontent quickies URL: http://www.sauria.com/blog//computers/internet/microcontent/423 IP: 64.38.174.106 BLOG NAME: Ted Leung on the air DATE: 07/30/2003 10:32:23 AM Steve Gillmor and Rajesh Jain both agree that RSS means new life for fat clients. Rajesh has picked up on the Chandler as microcontent client meme. Via the Floating Atoll (sorry, I couldn't find your name) another good source for an RSS fee ----- PING: TITLE: aggregators will (or have) become less interesting URL: http://www.fishrush.com/blog/archives/000182.htm IP: 63.171.23.4 BLOG NAME: fishrush DATE: 07/30/2003 03:50:02 PM Unfortunately it also means that the country with the most weblogs sets the international community's agenda. There are only two obvious results of this - (i) that these aggregators will (or have) become less interesting or useful to people who... ----- PING: TITLE: The Balkanisation of Blogdex URL: http://www.ludicrous.org.uk/mt/archives/000520.html IP: 212.227.119.10 BLOG NAME: Technovia DATE: 07/31/2003 02:03:55 PM Tom has an excellent piece on the balkanization of Blogdex [from plasticbag.org] ----- PING: TITLE: Aggregator agendas URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0125761/2003/07/30.html#a1296 IP: 212.202.14.51 BLOG NAME: Keeping track DATE: 08/03/2003 12:22:09 AM
    Tom Coates, in suggesting it's time to "balkanise our aggregators": "Blogdex, Daypop, Popdex, Technorati and the like are no longer simple reflectors of a c... ----- PING: TITLE: Coup de coeur foudre folie URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2003/08/03.html#a219 IP: 212.198.0.94 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 08/05/2003 10:56:37 PM

    Marianne's cat is averse to drinking from bowls.
    Instead, whenever I go into the bathroom she follows and stares at me till I turn the tap on and let her lap from the trickle.
    The heat's got to her today. She still miaows until the tap...

    ----- PING: TITLE: desi Juggernaut? URL: http://unix2.iimb.ernet.in/~rsharma/weblog/000020.html IP: 202.41.106.14 BLOG NAME: When the going gets tough ... DATE: 09/04/2003 08:07:00 PM Blogdex: The following sites are the most contagious information currently spreading in the weblog community… War on Iraq, Bush, Elections in California, … I went to Blogdex few days back and saw that most of the blogs that are topping... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Post-structuralist Wifi? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/31/2003 08:01:55 AM ----- BODY:

    So in the dream I'm back at University and I'm in one of those literature classes that you actually only get at school, where people are supposed to give their massive critical insights on a chunk of a play that's about twenty lines long. I remember getting extremely irritable when someone cited a massive bastardisation of one of my favourite critics, but somehow the fact that people were applying theoretical approaches to Wifi to literature passed me by...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let it all out, Tom... Just let it go... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/01/2003 06:18:39 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's a few things that I've found on the internet recently and really wanted to be able to write about in something vaguely resembling detail, but let's just face it, it's probably not going to bloody happen. Which is a shame. So here are the links, all the links and nothing but the links:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Coup de coeur foudre folie URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2003/08/03.html#a219 IP: 212.198.0.94 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 08/05/2003 10:56:42 PM

    Marianne's cat is averse to drinking from bowls.
    Instead, whenever I go into the bathroom she follows and stares at me till I turn the tap on and let her lap from the trickle.
    The heat's got to her today. She still miaows until the tap...

    ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quick thoughts about global undo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 08/01/2003 06:33:03 PM ----- BODY:

    If only I had time to give this the attention it deserves - but alas, I must soon get drunk. Neat Chris from anti-mega has brought into public attention that massive and aggravating UI problem that is what happens when you accidentally quit an application (like Safari) that allows you to have many different pseudo-documents open that are lost immediately without any kind of dialogue when the application quits. The reason I call them pseudo-documents is because the standard behaviour for something that you can edit in an application is to ask if changes should be saved before quitting. That's not the case with tabs in browsers. If you accidentally press Apple-Q instead of Apple-W (to close an individual tab), you lose all the pages that were currently open in the browser (and - because the windows you have had open recently doesn't map neatly onto the things in your history you can also lose all information about how to easily find out both what they were and any information about them).

    Chris' answer to this problem is the OS-wide global-undo facility, where you could simply undo your quit. Hammersley's been talking about it too. I think this is the wrong approach - and not just because I think that it's not going to happen for the next ten years at least, even if it's possible - but also because I think there's a better way.

    So here's my question: Why does your browser lose its current status when it quits? Or to put it more precisely, When I restart my browser, why doesn't it still have all the pages that were open in it when I last quit? Certainly this should be possible - and it would solve the problem (although it might be considered non-standard behaviour). NetNewsWire doesn't forget my subscriptions when I restart it - so why should my browser? (It's not a direct analogy, but it makes a point.)

    I'm sure there are a number of privacy reasons why this kind of thing could be a problem, and it might break the 'session' / 'global' distinction if not handled appropriately - but you could make it a preference that people turned on or off on their own computers, with the sites refreshed when you logged back on again, perhaps? I mean, that should work, right?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: andrew@heyotwell.com IP: 65.106.201.4 URL: DATE: 08/01/2003 06:54:02 PM Alan Cooper's been demanding global undo for years now. I'd be glad to have it, even though "quitting an app" doesn't seem like something "undoable". I agree that showing the last known state of the browser on launch would be great. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin Blanton EMAIL: justin@justinblanton.com IP: 68.59.144.177 URL: http://justinblanton.com DATE: 08/01/2003 06:59:45 PM I have been arguing this point for so long that I can't see straight. Opera is the *only* browser that has ever even offered this feature. It's seems so obvious -- I just don't understand why it's *always* overlooked. There isn't much that makes me angrier than when the browser (or OS) shits on itself and all the pages I had open die. In fact, it was Opera's ability to re-open all previously open pages, and this feature alone, that caused me to use that browser up until Safari 1.0 (Safari is just too good to not use anymore). I'll never understand the reasoning behind not incorporating this feature into all browsers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: 12.111.24.79 URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 08/01/2003 07:01:57 PM I've been developing with Microsoft Visual Studio at work lately (please kill me) and it records the current state of a project when you close out of the app. Next time you open the project, it opens all the docs you had open when you last worked on it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.238.176 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 08/01/2003 07:25:36 PM I picked on Safari just because it caused me so much grief. The two Close Xs in Word cause the same problem, as the app only prompts if you have changes to be saved. I think that many app creators don't think of their usage as creating information in itself, and therefore don't take the normal precautions from the creation tools, such as Visual Studio, Word or Photoshop. Note that Are you sure? type dialogues don't help either, because you soon become trained to hit Yes. I'm surprised that people can't get their heads around undoing a quit. It's just a key stroke, a mouse click, a change of states. One of the most compelling reasons for the global undo is that it solves one of the biggest computer fears - that doing something wrong will be bad for the computer (and, therefore, you). The fear of doing something wrong holds back so many people when learning how to do things. A consistent safety net is a good thing. I'll apologise for re-inventing the Coop - much of his work is appropriate here, especially what's wrong with software: Software forgets. Software is lazy. Software is parsimonious with information. Software is inflexible. Software blames users. Software wont take responsibility. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@abstractdynamics.org IP: 160.39.246.160 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 08/01/2003 07:38:43 PM Firebird with the tabbrowser extensions will save all your tab info when you quit, quite nice. As for a global undo, hell yeah that would be amazing. I'd also like to see a global function key, one that can only trigger OS level tasks, not application level tasks. Would allow you to constantly perform OS level shortcuts without worrying about conflicts with any particular programs shortcut set. The windows key on PCs seems ideal for this, but barely gets used, some Microsoft control issues most likely... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 24.236.149.6 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 08/01/2003 08:29:51 PM Journaled file systems are the first step toward global undo. Eventually, you will be able to save the state of your computer at any momment. This also allows nearly immediate startup, by quickly restoring the last saved state. Right now this will slow down a computer too much to be practical, but some day... Meanwhile, saving state in browsers would be handy, not just for restarting, but it would also open up interesting possibilities for sharing web browsing experiences. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sparky EMAIL: sparky@ultrasparky.org IP: 216.91.96.130 URL: http://www.ultrasparky.org DATE: 08/01/2003 10:05:12 PM I don't know if it's maintained te feature, but the last time I tested out Opera (a couple of years ago) it had a preference setting that allowed you to reopen the app and have it display the page that was open when you last quit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 12.229.50.182 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 08/01/2003 10:36:43 PM Also here is wishing there was a way to switch tabs in mozilla only using the keyboard. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: m@mullenweg.com IP: 64.105.224.98 URL: http://photomatt.net DATE: 08/01/2003 11:42:26 PM I believe MultiZilla for Mozilla adds this, as well as a number of other goodies, though they seemed determine to muck up the interface. Maybe some tweaking with that will get you what you need. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jim EMAIL: plasticbag@uslot.com IP: 81.5.174.53 URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U6 DATE: 08/02/2003 12:55:39 AM Don't know about regular Mozilla, but Ctrl-Tab (and Shift-Ctrl-Tab) works fine switching between tabs in Firebird. I do have the Tabbrowser extensions installed, though, so that might be where that feature comes from. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Danny EMAIL: danny@spesh.com IP: 66.166.237.237 URL: http://www.oblomovka.com/ DATE: 08/02/2003 06:22:04 AM Galeon lets you save the state of your windows. Oh, and on the issue of global undo, ReVirt is a virtual machine implementation of linux, that lets you go back in time and see the state of the machine at previous times. It's not what you want, but you could build from it - and they claim it only takes a 15%-30% speed hit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.238.176 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 08/02/2003 09:25:20 AM Note that being able to save your window states isn't the same as it just remembering. Let the never-tired, never-bored computers do the hard bits, the monotonous tasks mere humans forget. Better undo in browsers would be useful too - if I close one Safari window, rather than the whole program, there's still no way of getting it back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rjp EMAIL: comment-spam@frottage.org IP: 81.86.113.49 URL: DATE: 08/02/2003 07:45:27 PM Eventually, you will be able to save the state of your computer at any momment. This also allows nearly immediate startup Uh, dude, buy a laptop, they've been doing that for years. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: jm-dkfjgdkgj@jmason.org IP: 128.195.65.51 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 08/02/2003 08:56:12 PM A replayable VM, like ReVirt, gets my vote as the best way to do this kind of thing. I've been playing around with stuff like Linux software suspend and VMware, and keeping an eye on ReVirt and usermode linux. IMO the concept of emulating your entire working environment in order to use snapshots, rollback, and hardware sharing, is *incredibly cool*. No better way to use all that CPU power we now have on our desktops. I hope ReVirt gets working soon -- it would provide an OS-wide global undo feature, helps massively against hacker attacks, and is generally incredibly cool. I'd install it on my desktop for sure ;) BTW regarding URL-state-saving in browsers -- I'm pretty sure Mozilla *used* to have that, when it used to crash every 30 minutes. Doesn't seem to any more, although the tabbrowser feature mentioned above sounds pretty close. It really would be a nifty feature... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: plix EMAIL: plix@plix.org IP: 67.75.34.133 URL: http://www.plix.org DATE: 08/03/2003 08:47:29 PM Eventually, you will be able to save the state of your computer at any momment. This also allows nearly immediate startup Windows' Hibernate feature does this on any machine, not just laptops. As for "global undo," it's best implemented at the filesystem level. Products like clearcase already do this and have been doing so for years. Sure, they don't do physical memory dumps (and as such don't allow you do undo things that were only performed in memory in the first place), but that's what Hibernate is for. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: jm-345893485@jmason.org IP: 128.195.65.51 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 08/04/2003 12:24:16 AM re: versioning in the filesystem -- yes, that's a solved problem now. I version pretty much all the important config/settings files on my machines using CVS and it works great. But this is the thing -- consider *that* applied to the entire state of your machine. That's the "quantum leap" to take. VMWare are heading that way and I think it's a killer idea. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sam walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 66.82.112.240 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 01:41:24 AM I totally agree with this. *Nothing* makes me angrier than having a bunch of windows and tabs open in Safari and losing all of them because of an unwanted quit. I have many weblogs (saved as a tab-group) that I check often, and the way I do it is to go through all the blogs and open interesting links in a new tab, then go thru all the tabs I've opened. Well, on more than one occasion I've been leaning back in my chair reading and reached for apple-W , only to hit apple-Q and - bam - all my pages are gone, and I have to go thru and find all the links again. Even a simple confirmation dialogue when quitting safari with open tabs would be enough to solve this problem. I'm tempted to learn how to use InterfaceBuilder just so I can add this feature myself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andreas EMAIL: andikeller@gmx.net IP: 217.2.51.59 URL: DATE: 01/26/2004 10:21:23 PM Undo is always better than a prompt ASKING you SOMETHING. Because as a routine users you just hit ok before you think an whoops its gone. It happens to all of us I guess and is natural. Undoing a quit is easy: Just don't quit the app but hide the window instead. Undoing a save/overwrite is easy: Just make a file system that keeps track of all the versions of a file, from create to publish. Oh I'd love that. And about the browser: Yes it seems more logical that all tabs remain open until you decide to explicitly close them instead of just closing all when the browser closes. What has one to do with the other? Global undo is not unrealistic! Who will have it first? Windows or Mac? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Gratias tibi ago, Domine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/01/2003 11:30:46 PM ----- BODY:

    Gratias tibi ago, Domine. Haec credam a deo pio, a Deo justo, a Deo scito? Cruciatus in crucem. Tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui; officium perfeci. Cruciatus in crucem - eas in crucem.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Two Cathedrals URL: http://prolific.org/archive/atf_2003_08.shtml#006266 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org (atf) DATE: 08/02/2003 08:41:06 PM Has Tom been watching the West Wing?... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No prostitutes in Broadcasting House! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/03/2003 12:29:00 AM ----- BODY:

    There are no prostitutes in Broadcasting House, and why? The reason is explained in a brief aside in an altogether more serious article about The BBC's relationship to architecture and property. Nonetheless, the bit that stuck in my brain was the bit about there not being any brothels or fellmongers on the premises. There's still a dentist in the building though. And Television Centre resembles nothing more than a massive fully-equipped colony ship of people from planet BBC, stranded here when their vessel collided with White City...

    Before it occupied the whole of Broadcasting House, the idea was to let out space to pay for the running costs of the building. In a delightful Reithian touch, the BBC drew up a list of prohibited lessees: "Slaughtermen, sugar baker, fellmonger, beater of flax, common brewer, quasi-medical or quasi-surgical establishment, brothel or bagnio keeper."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: The View From Here... URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000641.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 11/05/2003 10:41:31 AM At the risk of turning into Tom Coates, I must say there is something rather wonderful about looking out of my new office (for the next week-and-a-bit anyway) in the big LWT tower on the South Bank*, down onto the... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the existence of God... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Religion CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Religion DATE: 08/03/2003 01:47:31 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm an atheist. I have been for nearly twenty years, and before that I wasn't really anything - I didn't really have a position on God vs. No God. I suppose I just hadn't thought about it properly. I can't really understand how anyone can be anything other than an atheist, but - despite my incredulity - people do still seem to conjure for themselves other non-atheistic options from the spiritual ether.

    Perhaps it's because I don't understand how people can even vaguely justify theism (or even agnosticism) that I find myself continually in debates about the issue. I find myself explaining my stance on religion at least once a month. At one stage - while I was at University - I went through a bit of a phase of reading other people's books on why they didn't believe in 'god' either. These books were routinely extremely boring, because fundamentally the intellectual labour involved in making a highly convincing 'anti-god' case is so trivial that it feels out of place in the mouths or books of scholars. Bertrand Russell's Why I am not a Christian was one of those books. I read it to see if I could find a new way to translate the obviousness of atheism to the people I routinely found myself in argument with. But fundamentally, it was the same as every other book of its kind. Obvious. Self-explanatory. Tedious. Repetitive. And yet - despite the banality of the arguments, religious people just don't seem to get it.

    I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that the experience feels real to them and that they derive value from it, and I have to confess that as long as religious reasoning is kept completely separate from policy decisions, logic and the like (ie. as long as people's personal beliefs have absolutely no impact whatsoever on the rest of the world), then I have no problem with it. But unfortunately that's very seldom the case. Every so often something frustrating happens to remind you exactly how unresponsive religion is to societal development and our increasing understanding of the world around us. Case in point? There is now around a hundred years of evidence that people who are gay are not gay by choice, and that their sexuality is not infectious in any way (and hence not - in any way - a risk to 'moral fibre'). A hundred years of evidence accumulated - leading to the conclusion (reached by sets of researchers across the world, health organisations, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, geneticists and ethologists) that someone being gay causes no one any harm. And what do you have on the other side? A couple of lines in a book written in the middle east several thousand years ago (filtered through a wide variety of cultural contexts which managed to cheerfully mutate meanings in all kinds of intriguing and implausible ways). And it's this dubious translation of a few words of a several thousand year old work of historical fiction that prompts the Vatican to declare their profound dismay at the possibility that gay couples might come to enjoy the same legal rights as heterosexual ones - rights that fundamentally come down to being the default person that inherits when the other dies, or the right to have some kind of say in the health care of your loved-one if they happen to fall dangerously ill.

    According to that document from the Vatican, I'm suffering from a 'depravity', I undertake 'grave sins', I'm 'intrinsically disordered'. And that's within the first screenful. Not only that, "all persons committed to promoting and defending the common good of society" should be working to stop me have sexual consenting relationships with other people. Because - of course, how foolish of me - I can obviously have no interest in the common good of society. The document talks about the need to "safeguard public morality and, above all, to avoid exposing young people to erroneous ideas about sexuality and marriage that would deprive them of their necessary defences and contribute to the spread of the phenomenon" as if heterosexuality were such a trivial and slight state-of-being that even the merest whiff of same-sex action could tantalise even the most apparently straight white-bread down-home farm-boy or girl. Moreover, the document states that, "Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil." Tolerating our evil is one thing, apparently. Approving of it is something else entirely.

    Frankly, it is the evil in the Vatican's document - the fact that it will have a massively negative effect in some people's lives and no positive effect on anyone else's - that I don't approve of. And increasingly I find myself no longer interested in tolerating it either. Still more even than that - I feel increasingly close to losing any tolerance of religious dispositions per se. Because while I'd like to say that it's just Catholicism that's seriously pissing me off, it's not really Catholicism at all - it's any approach to anything that would put more credence in statements (not even arguments) written thousands of years ago than in the accreted wisdom of hundreds of years that's at our disposal now.

    A few weeks ago I collided with a group of Christians proselytising their religion through song in Leicester Square. I was with Cal and Katy at the time. We'd just been to see a film. In the middle of the street, with no apparent prompting, a smart mobbish group of people started praising their Lord. I ended up explaining to one of them that Christian philosophy had sizable origins in Neo-Platonist collisions with the Semitic tradition, and that it had incredible analogues with some aspects of Dionysian Mystery cults. I pointed out that it was created in a moment of history and that its interpretation had changed dramatically over the years. I pointed out that it might very well not have existed in any plausible form any more if it hadn't been for the Emperor Constantine using it as a binding agent for a failing Roman Empire - and that the same emperor hadn't found their Christianity enough of a barrier to stop them murdering their own wife and son. I explained that while Christianity seemed transhistorical and transcendent - that originally it was just one of many different cult practices that exploded in a region at a certain time in history. And that none of these things made it untrue as such - but that they certainly challenged the monolithic image of Christianity as a pure beam of message from God - and that anyone who was going to seriously consider dedicating their life to a religious practice should probably do some bloody research beforehand...

    But when we get right down to it, that kind of argument doesn't really seem to help anyone any more than the debate I've been engaged in on Barbelith for the last couple of weeks (On Religion) or, indeed, the extremely entertaining 300 proofs for the existence of God which are derived (often) from actual philosophical positions over the centuries, and which I'll append to the bottom of this post, because they're so good. In fact I don't know of anything that's going to do any good in this situation, except a faith - not in divinity - but in humanity's capability to tell its arse from its elbow. Unfortunately, this too is a faith I lost a number of years ago...

    From 300 proofs for the existence of God:

    COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
    (1) If I say something must have a cause, it has a cause.
    (2) I say the universe must have a cause.
    (3) Therefore, the universe has a cause.
    (4) Therefore, God exists.

    ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (I)
    (1) I define God to be X.
    (2) Since I can conceive of X, X must exist.
    (3) Therefore, God exists.

    ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (II)
    (1) I can conceive of a perfect God.
    (2) One of the qualities of perfection is existence.
    (3) Therefore, God exists.

    ARGUMENT FROM CREATION
    (1) If evolution is false, then creationism is true, and therefore God exists.
    (2) Evolution can't be true, since I lack the mental capacity to understand it; moreover, to accept its truth would cause me to be uncomfortable
    (3) Therefore, God exists.

    ARGUMENT FROM FEAR
    (1) If there is no God then we're all going to die.
    (2) Therefore, God exists.

    ARGUMENT FROM THE BIBLE
    (1) [arbitrary passage from OT]
    (2) [arbitrary passage from NT]
    (3) Therefore, God exists

    Other stuff I've written about religion: On American Science and Fundamentalist Christianity, God as plot device.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 08/03/2003 06:27:30 AM Though not without his detractors, I always found Richard Dawkins' stuff quite entertaining in its ability to reaffirm my atheism - if you want someone who *really* hates religion, check him out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fabutron EMAIL: snelson@techie.com IP: 12.241.55.199 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 10:42:28 AM I'm an agnostic, and I was about to post a funny entry about why I'm not an atheist or a christian, but I lost it in a browser crash. However, I someday wish to create a website for arguments against agnosticism, the primary ones being: ARGUMENT AGAINST SUBJECTIVITY (1) You don't believe that we can know truth objectively. (2) I do. (3) Therefore, agnosticism is false. ARGUMENT FOR DEBATE (1) You won't argue for any position other than that of subjectivity, and you're willing to be admit that you might be wrong about that. (2) Debate with you is somewhat useless. (3) I like to debate. (4) Therefore, agnosticism is false. And stupid. Conversely, there are the arguments for agnosticism: ARGUMENT FOR SUBJECTIVITY (1) [The sky is blue.] (2) To prove that, you'd have to prove to me that there is a tangible universe. Go ahead. Try it. (3) [Useless sputtering.] (4) Agnosticism rules! ARGUMENT VIA STUBBORNESS (1) My beliefs state that any argument may or may not be true regardless of logic, because of subjectivity. (2) You can't argue with that, given that it's true. (3) Take that. (4) Therefore agnosticism is correct. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: _remove-this-bit_rlc@gruts.com IP: 212.126.144.12 URL: http://www.gruts.com/index.php DATE: 08/03/2003 01:41:57 PM I'm a (straight) atheist, so I won't presume to speak on behalf of Jesus - but I just can't believe that the Jesus I had drummed into me at school would share the Roman Catholic church's (and other so-called Christian sects') views on homosexuality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dk@quirked.com IP: 151.197.217.178 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 01:52:12 PM I'm a "weak" atheist or agnostic. Pick whichever term you like. I operate assuming there is no god, but can't prove it, hence the agnostic. I find the positions of being "absolutely" sure that there is or isn't a god to be strange. You think religion should be kept completely separate from policy and the rest of the world. That seems impossible to me and not really the solution. There are many people out there that operate with full religious conviction and do many great things for this world (and many who don't). I wouldn't want to lose the good just because I find their reasoning to be flawed. As long as people operate with good intentions and in a tolerant manner towards others than I don't care what they believe. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: cipher937@hotmail.com IP: 12.84.201.227 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 02:38:40 PM I'm also agnostic, and believe that in a way, atheists and Christians are more similar to each other than to agnostics. They both believe that they can know what the ultimate truth of the universe is, whereas I know I'll never know and choose not to think about it. I used to be an atheist and don't lean towards any religion, but after reading some philosophy I've come to accept that the existence of God (or any "ultimate" truth besides my existence) is just not a solvable question. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.74 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 08/03/2003 02:47:40 PM Exactly. Have to say I agree with Mark. I think it takes as much 'faith' (if you'll excuse the term) to be an atheist as it does to be a Christian. Both believe in something, apparently with every fibre of understanding in their bodies. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.129.104.108 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/03/2003 03:00:25 PM Well first things first I'd like to say that I do care what people believe, whatever the actions are that result from their beliefs. I would also fight for their right to have and act on those beliefs (in as much as they don't hurt other people - which, ironically, these ones do, but never mind). But even though I'd stand up and fight for the right of Christians to believe what they believe, I'd still try and fight the belief system at a person-to-person basis (if I had the time) because I don't think that it's obvious that 'good Christians' inevitably do 'good things'. Moreover, just because good Christians do undertake good works on occasion does not mean that the reasons they are undertaking those actions are reasonable, plausible or that those same reasons won't cause as many problems subsequently. I'd ask you this question - do you really believe that moral people who have no faith live less moral lives? Because I don't at all. A religion based on a text cannot learn. It cannot evolve in a useful fashion - responding to changes in society or science - without undermining itself. That's why orthodox Jews can't wear Polyester and Cotton, or trim their beards. Leviticus told them they shouldn't do that stuff - presumably for what were considered pretty good reasons at the time, but which clearly don't apply any more. Religion based on texts is the "moral compass" that only points forward whatever direction you're going in. It's the "stopped watch" that's right twice a day, but not because it can tell the time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.129.104.108 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/03/2003 03:09:03 PM With regard to the point about absolute proofs for the non-existence of God, I think it's fair to say that I couldn't say with total logical conviction that there is no god. That's for the same reason that I couldn't say that there aren't invisible penguin militia walking down my street at the moment - that it's not logically possible to prove that anything doesn't exist. And more to the point, why on earth should we even believe that the burden of proof lies with the atheists anyway? It's the believers of the ludicrous who normally have to convince everyone else...
       I choose to treat the concept of God with the same respect as I treat the other infinite possible invisble, intangible things that could exist in the universe (and which do so without leaving any evidence whatsoever, while going against all the evidence that we actually do have). And when I say I treat them with the same respect, I mean to say that I accept that they're all pretty much totally irrelevant. I simply refuse to accept that there's anything distinct and different about "God" that makes it different at a conceptual level from Mind-Control Cheese from Denver - ie. it's basically ridiculous. I do not consider myself 'agnostic' about Mind-Control Cheese. I do not think that the existence (or not) of naked invisible porno monkeys deserves to be considered an 'unsolvable question' worth serious debate. We give too much credit to these stories purely because a lot of people believe in them. That's not good enough. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.129.104.108 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/03/2003 03:24:03 PM Vaughan - that's simply not true! Or at least - if it is true, then it's only faith that makes us believe that we're not all hollow and filled with bunny rabbits. It's only faith when we say that we're not being mind-controlled by bees. It's only faith when we say that we think the idea that the sun is full of Bounty bars is pretty ridiculous. There are an infinity of counterfactual things that could be true if we were prepared to suspend disbelief to that extent. But we don't consider it an act of faith to say that they're not real. I'd even be prepared to push this to the extent of divinities - do we really consider it an act of faith to say that the Greek Gods don't exist, or the Roman ones, or the Mayan ones or the Indian ones, or the Aztec ones or the Egyptian ones? No! Of course we don't - because it's almost infinitely unlikely that they do. And it shares that status with an infinitity of other potential things. Why does only one of that infinity get this special status of requiring a negative proof in defiance of the fact that a negative proof is impossible? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 24.236.149.6 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 08/03/2003 03:24:53 PM "I do not consider myself 'agnostic' about Mind-Control Cheese." brilliantly funny! i've never really heard a good argument against agnosticism before, but now i'll always remember this sentence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pilkington EMAIL: whiteowl@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.224.6 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 03:50:56 PM The Cosmological Argument appears to be the argument which has most substance to me, as it derives from observation of the world we live in and although it does not prove the existence of God, it does prove the existence of a creator. Perhaps. Everything that exists has a cause for existence and that cause has a cause of it's own, etc. This paints the idea of a constant regress into the past, also known as the chain of cause and effect. Thomas Aquinas, who was brought up in a Benedictine monastery in 1224 - 1274, first acknowledged the chain of cause and effect, and proceeded to state that the chain of cause and effect cannot be ultimately causeless - it must trace back to an uncaused cause, this being God. This however, seems a bizarre leap for us to comprehend, yet Aquinas drew upon Christian scripture to support his claim - Genesis in particular, which writes of how God created everything from nothing. However, as an atheist who does not believe in God, therefore does not view the content of the Bible as valid, I thought this to offer no justification for a belief in God whatsoever. Aquinas did have a point though - that this regress of cause and effect could not be infinite. Although a theoretical infinity may seem a straightforward idea, the conception of an actual infinity causes a lot of problems, namely, that they cannot grow. Infinity plus one equals infinity. The series of cause and effect, then, cannot be an infinite temporal sequence, because the chain of cause and effect continues to grow into the future. The chain of cause and effect then, MUST be finite - it must have a beginning - there must be an uncaused cause. This uncaused cause must be the creator of everything that we know now as it is at the very beginning of the sequence of cause and effect. This uncaused cause must be the creator. The matter of the creator being God, however, cannot be proved or disproved. In fact, the chain of cause and effect cannot be proved or disproved as we can never ascribe to the cause of any qualities, but what are exactly sufficient to produce the effect. I think it's vital that, for one to be Christian, one must offer one's own justification of being so, one must offer one's own argument for the existence of God. It is not enough to simply say 'I believe.' If I were a Christian, this would be mine. Perhaps what makes it most credible, is that it is based upon existence of the world and not reason alone (unlike the ontological argument.) The Cosmological Argument also sets out to prove to an atheist that God does exist, whereas the Ontological Argument does not. When considering the Ontological Argument, originally set out by St. Anselm, it is important to note that the argument itself begins with the premise that God does exist. A belief in God is never in doubt when considering ontology, instead, the argument allows one to understand God's existence in a particular way - a way which leads one to the conclusion that God must exist. Perhaps theologian Richard Rubenstein had the best idea. In the beginning there was a creator, this creator was celebrated, religion was established. The biblical image of an omnipresent, omniscient, saving, loving God has got to go. God is nothing but 'Holy Nothingness.' The focus should not be on God, but on a celebration of the creator and a celebration of one's own roots and origins through the participation of rituals and practices but not through the emphasis of a theistic faith. He drew upon French existentialist belief, when he said that one must create one's own meaning from life, but not assume that existence derives meaning from the divine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Izzy Memom EMAIL: itsmemom@memommemom.com IP: 159.134.245.252 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 04:06:59 PM You might not realize it but you're writing off some okay people by dismissing agnosticism. I recently 'converted' from atheism to agnosticism. Unlike most of you, I actually *despise* religion. However, I am fully aware that this is just my prejudice against religious people. I am laregly happy with the term "bright" and hope it catches on but... I no longer believe (for reasons that would go on for a few pages and that relate to physics rather than the current topic) that the universe will have a "big crunch" and as such, I think that time will march on infinitely. An infinite amount of time means that all sorts of crazy things will happen. If you really believe that the universe is infinite than you must also accept that godlike things will exist. Here's one scenerio: I think it is Ray Kurzweil who has a theory about runaway technology - that computers will proliferate to the point where everything in the universe will be computing, the entire universe will be sentient. You can argue that that will not be a God but you'll be splitting hairs. I don't think humans are smart enough yet to feel confident that they know 1/100th of what is really happening in the universe. Hell, we don't even have DNA down yet. We can't even cure cancer. We suck. Lots. Athiesm is just as irrational as theism since it implies that humans have conducted enough experiments and collected enough data to have a fucking clue (and we haven't). Agnosticism is more responsible imho. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shamit EMAIL: shamitbagchi@rediffmail.com IP: 219.65.147.251 URL: http://shamitbagchi.blogspot.com DATE: 08/03/2003 04:58:20 PM Faith is very essential and religion binds the world and humans together else the human edifice would crumble leading to the dog eat dog phenomenon . . . May be its a device to keep humans to decimate humans - adaptation survival tactic My recent post can be found on the dame topic - recently . . . Read it @ http://shamitbagchi.blogspot.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chris joseph EMAIL: sauceruney@sauceruney.net IP: 66.167.211.226 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 05:13:44 PM I'm agnostic, and I guess it comes down to my not caring if there is a god or not. Both believers and non, will go out of their way to have you come to their method of thinking, while fellow agnostics would rather worry about something that actually affects them. The Pope cannot hurt my feelings, nor can Jerry Falwell for that matter. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: jsr6f@virginia.edu IP: 65.169.47.43 URL: DATE: 08/03/2003 06:13:36 PM also an atheist, but i think the way you wrote this essay may belie a certain lack of tolerance. maybe thats too harsh, but i really do think religion has a great deal of pragmatic value in this, our real world. (with the exception of radicalist religion and fundamentalism. snake handling is obviously whack...) i rarely argue about god with those who disagree with my beliefs. in part because my reverse-evangelism is not any more likely to win them over than their pleas are that i should accept christ/freemasonry/four noble truths/shiva/etc. but also in part because i believe religion has a great deal of efficacy. in the best of times religion can act as a morality heuristic, a pre-packaged 'civilizing' force for those who might otherwise not take the time consider the advantages of living a compassionate, altruistic life. of course, in the worst of times it can become a way to rationalize violent acts like airplaning a skyscraper or shooting off a few hundred cruise missiles or even widespread policymaking and bureacracy in the promotion of genocide. less than a century ago we saw that religious-like fervor over fascist leadership is just as dangerous as religion can be. so maybe we should be most wary of the a way a set of beliefs are put into action than the set of beliefs themselves. thought is a good thing, and like it or not, spiritual and superstitious thoughts seem to be a big part of being human. maybe i'm not disagreeing with you at all, this is starting to sound pretty random... sorry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: wKen EMAIL: wkenshow@yahoo.com IP: 67.125.2.255 URL: http://search4friction.com DATE: 08/04/2003 01:21:23 AM If this is somehow a multiple choice question between: a. There absolutely is some sort of divine being; b. There absolutely is no divine being whatsoever; or c. I don't know and neither do you because you're as clueless to the true nature of all things as I am and therefore it is the responsiblity of any potentially divine being to deal with issues revolving around their own existance or lack there of and we humans should spend or energy on issues that most of us deal with in this box we call "consensual reality", then I would choose answer 'c'. Your mileage may vary. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Astonished EMAIL: astonished@aol.com IP: 67.166.101.137 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 02:48:12 AM Those proofs of God's existence are a presented completely fairly. They show how intellectually honest you are. Kudos to you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory Parle EMAIL: theresnogod@soylentred.net IP: 213.202.161.255 URL: http://www.soylentred.net/ DATE: 08/04/2003 03:00:46 AM An interesting parallel: the document says, as you've quoted, that, "Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil." And at the same time, atheists are finally gaining the confidence to say that tolerence of other people who have religious beliefs is necessary, but tolerance of their beliefs is not. It's not okay to believe in God, nor is it okay to judge someone who does, at least not solely on those grounds. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: abstractnixon@yahoo.com IP: 216.106.91.2 URL: http://www.abstractnixon.com DATE: 08/04/2003 04:51:06 AM As far as tolerance goes, though, I think it is those who choose to express their non-belief who encounter the most pronounced lack of it. But it is important to. I was encouraged by this article in the nytimes - about people who describe themselves as "the brights" - to speak out more often. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex Shapiro EMAIL: alex@touchgraph.com IP: 68.39.94.70 URL: http://www.touchgraph.com DATE: 08/04/2003 05:20:02 AM Refutation of the cosmological argument: Just because we don't completely know the nature of the universe--we don't know what came before the big bang--does not mean that there must be a god. That kind of knee jerk reaction--can't find an explanation, there must be a god--was the same thinking that led people to believe in gods of lignning and volcanos. To me atheism, and more importantly the belief in science, is the faith that we *can* find answers to questions about reality, that it's worth trying to understand strange phenomena rather then saying God did it. And what is god anyway? When it comes down to it, god is just a word. A meme which is like the gateway drug to stupidity, once you belive in the paranormal you can be convinced of pretty much anything. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vicky EMAIL: v@vb.org IP: 195.92.194.15 URL: http://www.vodkabird.org DATE: 08/04/2003 06:47:52 AM May I recommend 'Godless Morality - Keeping religion out of ethics' by Richard Holloway , who at the time that he wrote the book was the Bishop of Edinburgh. It addresses the issue of a moral system based on religion and a moral system based on the avoidance of harm and injustice to others and why the former is no longer the way forward. Holloway also covers some other interesting contradictions in the Bible. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa EMAIL: yoyo@nicelytoasted.net IP: 80.4.3.12 URL: http://nicelytoasted.net DATE: 08/04/2003 10:09:24 AM I personally have no time for very religious people, but they are a fact of life that we can do little about. I only start to worry when their morality starts to affect my daily life: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1011460,00.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mikael EMAIL: mikaellar@yahoo.dk IP: 194.239.148.89 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 01:18:55 PM In my view this very relevant discussion does not boil down to the question of God's existence vs. non-existence (though I'm turning all agnostic reading the comments). And answering the question will not solve half the issues raised in the post. More to the point seems to be a discussion of the ethics of different belief systems and the apparent consequences for both followers (ultimately living in fear of (a) god) and non-followers being discriminated against. On a broader scale we have to acknowledge that religion is so much a part of western civilization that it's already irreversibly entangled in our concepts of morality, ethics and even reason and that a complete separation of religious reasoning from ëpolicy decisions, logic and the likeí, therefore, is quite impossible. Iím drifting, but itís worth a thought or two. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Stewart EMAIL: dstewart@iol.ie IP: 159.134.96.22 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0118874 DATE: 08/04/2003 01:46:19 PM There was an article in Saturday's Irish Times which suggested that the Catholic Church might find itself on the wrong side of an 'Incitement to Hatred' charge here if they aren't careful about how they diseminate the Vatican's booklet on homosexuality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/04/2003 02:13:18 PM Mikael - I'd agree that our ethical systems have been shaped by the Church, but then again the Church was also a product of ethical systems which heavily intersect with our own. I don't think any of us have any problem with the consideration of ethics as part of decision-making. The part we take issue with is when those ethics are considered immune from investigation because god said so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dominic Bacon EMAIL: dominicbacon@hotmail.com IP: 193.117.23.129 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 03:10:03 PM Latest reports that our dear friend Tony is about to bring his Christian views and opinions to a more central role within government is.....scary...and just plain wrong. What about being elected to represent the people and since when (in modern history) did religion and politcs mix in Britain, this clear segregation between the two is something to be proud about living in Britain, but quite frankly if this occurs I'd be happier living and paying taxes elsewhere. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: i EMAIL: i@squub.com IP: 64.8.202.186 URL: http://www.squub.com DATE: 08/04/2003 04:28:38 PM It IS faith to say we're not hollow and filled with bunny rabbits. I don't know if you'd actually argue against that or not. It's an absurd proposition but certainly there are (admittedly philosophical) arguments that could be made to support it; but ultimately the arguments come down to something you said, namely that it's not logically possible to prove that anything doesn't exist. However, it seems to me this agnostic vs. atheist thing gets down to a very serious disconnect between definitions. The "God" that I, as an agnostic, choose to believe we cannot prove or disprove the existence of is really a category. Your examples comparing disbelief in god to disbelief in (insert absurd concept here, including mind-controlling cheeses and invisible, weird creatures) causes me to think that the god you don't believe in is somehow more specific than the god I choose to neither believe nor disbelieve in. The Christian God is right in the same league as mind-controlling baby-swiss cheese manufactured in Wisconsin. In other words, any specific "God" is easy to actively not believe in. The category that "god" represents for me includes any sentience that created this universe we occupy. That category occupies a whole half of a set of things, then. If we accept as given that the universe is here, then it was either created by a sentience or not. My proposition is that the belief that we have any possible way to know whether or not the universe was created by a sentience is absurd. JUST as absurd as the belief in the hollowness and bunny-filledness of our bodies. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cary EMAIL: crenquis@pacbell.net IP: 24.213.16.160 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 04:37:41 PM The following tagline sums up the basic reasoning that I employed in becoming an atheist at the ripe old age of seven when they couldn't give me answers to my questions in Sunday School: ...I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours -Stephen F Roberts While it's not going to help anybody give up their belief in sky-gods -- it does present a black-n-white unemotional map to help them see the path you took to get to your side of the fence. Cary Cary ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chloe EMAIL: chloeincommunicado@watermelonpunch.com IP: 216.222.240.238 URL: http://www.watermelonpunch.com/ DATE: 08/04/2003 04:51:33 PM Morality has never been about the common good or the public good. Morality is ultimately a matter of taste, what the majority likes or dislikes. And when it comes right down to it, I think behaving morally is essentially based on self-interest. ... And I never understand the "public good" argument against gays adopting children. Of course, generally the adoption system doesn't make sense.. After all, where's the common good in that almost anyone at all can have their OWN child and treat it howevery they please? I mean, come on, how many abused children's parents actually go to jail? Yet we're so concerned about what an adoptive parent's going to do? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave K. EMAIL: dk@quirked.com IP: 209.71.44.103 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 04:57:00 PM pilkington - The real problem with the cosmological argument is it doesn't solve the 'cause' problem. You need a cause for the universe, so you have god. So what is the cause of god? No cause? Well, then I would invoke Occam's razor. If you can say, "god just 'is' and doesn't need a cause," then I would say, "the universe just 'is' and doesn't need a cause. Adding god just adds an unnecessary layer of complexity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pilkington EMAIL: whiteowl@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.224.6 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 05:24:23 PM The universe does need a cause though. Looking back in time, the universe MUST have a cause for existence. As we observe things on our planet, we see that everything that comes into existence is caused by something and that cause is caused by something else. Simply: 1 Everything that begins to exist has a cause for existence. 2 The universe began to exist. 3 The universe has a cause for existence. The cosmological argument does establish that the universe has a cause, but it does not establish that cause is God. The initial cause, however, does not need a cause itself - it can't possibly have a cause for itself - because what then, caused this cause? You cannot say that there is an infinite amount of causes because that is absolutely impossible due to the fact that infinity cannot grow or be reached, yet the amount of causes today proceeds to grow and grow. (see previous comment). Some objections to the cosmological argument that I have considered, however, were proposed by David Hume and Immanual Kant. Hume suggested that we cannot apply to law of cause and effect to our world - we cannot say for sure that one thing causes another. For example, the ambient temperature of water may drop, the water will freeze. But did the temperature drop CAUSE the water to freeze or was the freezing of the water just something that followed the dropping of the temperature. Common sense would tell us that the temperature caused the water to freeze, yet it cannot be actually proven. Therefore, the law of cause and effect cannot be applied to our universe. Even if things today do exist due to cause and effect, it does not mean to say that this is the way it has always been. Kant said that the whole notion of cause and effect was one of the ways (along with the concepts of space and time) in which our minds interpret the world - we cannot help but impose causality upon our experience. If Kant is right, then an uncaused cause is a mental impossibility. I do not believe that the cosmological argument is a proof for God's existence. But despite the above criticisms of the argument, I believe the cosmological argument clearly shows how the universe must have an uncaused cause. Whether you choose to make the leap of this uncaused cause being God is up to you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Russell EMAIL: bill100100@hotmail.com IP: 209.213.76.82 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 07:22:58 PM WARNING: THE FOLLOWING COMMENT(S) ARE BEING MADE BY A FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST. Whew, got that one off my chest. Basically you all have to decide one thing: Do I believe in freedom and free will or not. Richard doesnít seem to lean one way or the other but my experience of most atheists is that they want to believe in personal choice (personal freedom of will) at the same time that they insist that there is no God. Letís just cut to the quick. 1) No God = nothing beyond nature 2) Nothing beyond nature = all things are the result of natural systems being worked out 3) All things are the result of natural systems being worked out = humanity is simply the result of atomic/subatomic/nanoatomic/quantum particles working within the ìsystemî 4) The result is that although a human may feel personal choice, the reality is that the feeling is some sort of chemical reaction created by several pounds of gray matter we call a brain as it functions within the structure of a natural world. Donít you just love nature? Iíll admire and respect the first atheist to surrender his/her devotion to human self-fulfillment and declare absolute power to the random workings of a chaotic universe fulfilling its own non-human destiny. As to the Pope? Homosexuality? Look at the people Jesus hung out with: fishermen, whores, tax collectors and lepers. Check out the Gospel of Mathew, Chapter 9: "That night Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. The Pharisees were indignant. "Why does your teacher eat with such scum?" they asked his disciples. When he heard this, Jesus replied, "Healthy people don't need a doctor ñ sick people do." Then he added, "Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: 'I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices.' For I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough." Did you see him hanging out with any guys with funny hats? Nope. My bets are with the living Jesus, not with the Pope. Jesus is the guy whoíd be hanging out with anyone whom society has marginalized. With anyone who is hungry for justice and fair treatment. Anyone like you or me (and Iím as messy a sinner as anyone around that table). Remember who Jesus is John 3:17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it! Jesus would definitely be talking to the Pope & the leaders of todayís church the way he addressed the Pharisees in Mathew 3:7 "You brood of snakes!" I could go on but I wonít. You all would probably kick my ass. Find out who the real Jesus is. And donít let the Christians convince you he isnít worth pursuing. Peace. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tony EMAIL: tonyhua96@hotmail.com IP: 24.30.100.57 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 09:24:39 PM Though I agree with your reasoning about being an atheist! Perhaps, you really never gave god or a god a chance- Christians and most religious people have no idea what they are talking about even when they think "god" talks to them- All i am saying is, don't let stupid religious people keep u from learning about what it means to be human and the realization that God exist, but does not care. and the truth that it is not so much what you believe in, but how u live your life- if you don't believe in god it does not mean god does not exist- if others tell you what god is and how god views us humans doesn't mean they are right and even if they are wrong doesn't mean that god does not exist- And heaven and hell is just a red herring- for only the blind will believe in a god to get to heaven or to avoid hell- only the wise will always do what is right even if god tells them not to do it- to defy god to do what is right is the greatest deed of all and the door to everlasting humanity and perhaps, just perhaps u may find yourself in the presence of the all Mighty in a room full of atheist. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rachel EMAIL: me@rachelandrew.co.uk IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.rachelandrew.co.uk DATE: 08/04/2003 09:29:59 PM I'm a Christian however we aren't all anti-gay or keen to see 'Christian' values (which are subject to a great deal of interpretation) shoved down everyone elses throats. I am as incensed about the blatant homophobia within the Church as many atheists are - perhaps more so as it is no fun from the inside either. I don't however see why atheists feel the need to explain to me how stupid I am for being a Christian. I understand that some Christians may have tried to convert you at some point, but we aren't all that way inclined - they try and convert me too, so I know how it feels - as a liberal Catholic I'm not counted as Christian at all by some quarters. As far as I'm concerned the faith, or non-faith that people have come to as a result of their own journey, and their own studies is great. If someone can say 'this is why I am xxx' they are doing better than an awful lot of people who fill the pews on a Sunday morning because they always have done. I respect that, and have no wish to try and change anybody. I would really like the same extended to me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tomas EMAIL: tomas@jogin.com IP: 213.113.116.135 URL: http://jogin.com/weblog/ DATE: 08/04/2003 09:30:38 PM I'm an atheist. I feel about as "intolerant" about that as I'm sure all Christians do for not believing in Thor, Odin, Loki, Shiva, Zeus, Posseidon, Vishnu, Hades, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Hermes, Antiope, Dryope, Eros, Gaia, Phoboes, Nepherite, Indus, Ghanes, Atlas, Fyr, Balder, Tyr, Skade, Vidar, Njord, Heimdal, Allah, Dionysos, Arthemis, Hestia, Belgarath, Morpheous and Midir. Etc, and so forth. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lukey EMAIL: twister_nt@yahoo.com IP: 172.190.79.61 URL: http://lionshaker.netfirms.com DATE: 08/04/2003 09:39:45 PM That rubbish is supposed to prove that god exists? Wow, i'll make one. ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (II) (1) I can conceive of a perfect shit. (2) According to the bible perfection doesn't exist. (3) Therefore, shit is completely imaginary. I thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J.S. Nelson EMAIL: snelson@techie.com IP: 12.241.55.199 URL: DATE: 08/04/2003 10:34:13 PM I dislike this whole debate because everybody's definition of the key words varies incredibly. There is too much ambiguity. I consider myself somewhat atheistic, mostly agnostic and a little bit theistic, simply because I can find a definition of any of those words that encompasses my belief system without contradicting the others. However, I call myself an agnostic, because that is what I identify with the most. I think that certain forms of atheism give too much credence to that which they deny. (Given: I am somewhat of an atheist when it comes to the god that has time to have an immediate effect on my daily life.) You have X, which is a cultural fairy tale of sorts, which may or may not have some basis. Christians are defined by their belief in X, some are defined athiests by their explicit denial of X. My brand of agnosticism doesn't give it any particular thought. I've placed it completely outside of the scope of the things I need to form an opinion on. Do I beleive that there are invisible porno monkeys dallying about all around us? Not particularly, but I have really chosen to not give it any thought, because I can't so much find out and it really doesn't matter to me much. I don't want a culture based on the explicit denial of X, because then the trueness or falseness of X is still at the forefront of modern conciousness and it will remain there. I prefer to encourage the growth of thought about other subjects and let X just slide out of scope. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pilkington EMAIL: whiteowl@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.224.6 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 12:29:59 AM Personally, I am not out to prove whether God exists or not. In actual fact I am an atheist, yet I have a passion for religious education and theology. Many say that the two don't go together, but I can't see why not. These 'proofs' for Gods existence obviously do have some basis - I'm not trying to say which is right and which is wrong, I just really enjoy studying them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: coderman EMAIL: coderman@charter.net IP: 208.27.83.5 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 12:42:51 AM Re: Agnoticism Here is why I am agnostic and not atheist: Atheism requires a belief that there is no god. That would presume that I know how the universe got here, which I don't. God may have created something, which in turn created the universe, which in turn I arose out of due to various natural forces. I don't know, and don't care, because in either case it does not affect my reality and my place in existence. Note that my concept of God here is a completely detached and uninvolved entity, which, if there _was_ a god, is the only form I could see it taking. Any god that actually interacts with humans is completely beyond the bounds of reason IMHO. To you atheists: how can you prove, or even comfortably ignore the possibility that there is something behind the origin of our universe? Perhaps at the core of the distinction is the difference between what atheists and agnostics consider 'god'. I am athiest with regards to Christian, Muslim, or any other religion which advocates an interested god that cares about what we are doing. But I am agnostic with regards to the general idea of god, as the (accidental?) creator of our universe, because I have no way to prove one way or another, and have no desire to do so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mary EMAIL: mary@rantorama.com IP: 67.161.129.252 URL: http://rantorama.com DATE: 08/05/2003 01:32:23 AM I am deliberately NOT reading the comments, so that they don't taint my initial reaction to your entry. After I post my comment, I will go back and read the comments. First of all, you make an INCREDIBLY well thought-out and well-articulated post. I wonder how many comments I'll be reading in the next few minutes that will be reactionary to your first paragraph or two; the authors never taking the time to read and objectively weigh your arguments. Second: If I were a bettin' woman, I'd wager EVERYTHING on the fact that if there IS a "God" (which, for the sake of fairness, I should disclose that I believe there is) He/She is ABOVE human nature. Which means He/She is ABOVE anger, judgment, revenge, wrath, and ego. The whole problem with the Bible and with religion is that RELIGION SEEKS TO ASSIGN HUMAN QUALITIES (AND FRAILTIES)TO A DIVINE BEING! Let's logic this out. There are humans on this earth who are capable of some incredible amounts of forgiveness. I'm not one of them *snicker*, but we've all seen the news where some mother forgives the person who murdered her child, or similar scenario. If HUMANS are capable of that, then please tell me how "God", a divine being who is above human nature, will send someone to eternal torment for things like premarital sex (or any sex for that matter), choosing the wrong religion, not believing in Jesus when He is divine (or VICE VERSA, believing in Jesus and being wrong, thus worshipping a "false god"). It doesn't make SENSE that God is MORE hateful and vindictive than our sorry asses. It doesn't make SENSE that God has assigned one religion as the "true" religion, and everyone else is going to hell for "guessing wrong". It doesn't make SENSE that God has a bigger ego that requires more feeding (through worship and belief) than the most narcissistic human can ever dream of. Bottom line: If God does exist, He/She could care LESS if we believe in Him/Her. He/She can see our hearts, and the harm we cause, and the good we bring to this earth. That's all that matters. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mary EMAIL: mary@rantorama.com IP: 67.161.129.252 URL: http://rantorama.com DATE: 08/05/2003 01:41:44 AM Oh Migawd! (no pun) ... Every one of your commenters are intelligent and actually read what you wrote. I feel like I'm in the blog equivalent of the twilight zone! ("The Idea Commenter BlogZone!) I'm impressed, and think everyone deserves a big hug. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neo Godless EMAIL: neogodless@hotmail.com IP: 68.83.127.28 URL: http://www.neogodless.com DATE: 08/05/2003 01:45:03 AM I simply wanted you to be aware of this extremely minor typo: proselytizing (z not s). I merely inform you because it distracts from the essay. And I only noticed it because, while I was able to theorize that the word has some relationship to "advertising", I had to look it up to find its actual meaning. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: earththing EMAIL: me@earththing.net IP: 81.86.165.139 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 03:36:22 AM That's not a typo. Both spellings are acceptable in British English. Check the OED if you want. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: earththing EMAIL: me@earththing.net IP: 81.86.165.139 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 03:53:40 AM I suspect that when people decalre themselves to be agnostic they are really making a public display of piety. Agnostics seem to value humility and open-mindedness above anything else when it comes to the argument about god. Either that or they are just hopelessly pedantic. "There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out." - Richard Dawkins ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cat EMAIL: cchismar@earthlink.net IP: 65.176.161.142 URL: http://n/A DATE: 08/05/2003 04:32:20 AM Okay, I think after reading your interesting view on athiesim. I think that you are bashing christianity all together. I was raised as a christian, and at this point in my life I find christianity to be questioned. Although I find that particular religion to be undeniably one that is restricting the lives of many, with the thoughts, ideas on the way one should live, I think that we all have a purpose in life, and that is why we are blessed to be able to have our existence. With that said, I believe that there is a God, but to follow by the rules of a particular religion is also ones own decision. to believe that you were created for a purpose, a reason, is left in the hands of a higher being, ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mrG EMAIL: garym@teledyn.com IP: 207.61.5.16 URL: http://www.teledyn.com/mt/ DATE: 08/05/2003 06:42:44 AM I suppose it's pointless to tell you that in the Letters, it seems the Apostles had exactly the same qualms with organized religion as you do. It's probably also pointless that your entire anti-God argument doesn't disprove the existance or reality of any God, it only discredits those religions who claim to have a mainline connection to the Supreme Being. I thought intelligent people were able to discern such differences, for example, I may not like GWB, but does that mean America is evil? If I were you, I would seperate religions from the divine, and rewrite the article because, if you can do that, your reasoning might be worth some serious debate. As it is, all I know is that you take exception to a few humans who just so happen to rest their arguments on precepts that do not exist. That's not a disproof of God, that's just a disproof of the excuses given by powerstructures. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Reverse Entropy EMAIL: talk_2_da_hand@ugotpimpslapped.com IP: 68.154.52.105 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 07:40:39 AM It's funny fanatsism polarizes into as many sides as imaginable. Mr. Plasticbag is trying to rationalize and defend his own choices in life by taking apart the ideals followed by others. Sad, just like the little boy with a hammer trying to open things and figure them out by smashing them... Dude, your not an atheist you are a weak attempt of being a destuctionist to the Tao of humanity itself. Nice 5 page rant, tweaker... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Franson EMAIL: skylights1@yahoo.com IP: 171.75.214.103 URL: http://www.ksu.edu/freethought/ DATE: 08/05/2003 08:57:57 AM I'm an atheist for the same reason those above have said they are atheists. I don't believe in God for the same reason I don't believe the walls of my house are inhabited by intangible purple monsters that come out at night to play Twister in my living room. Agnostics say, "We can't know if there's a god or not." But this shows they've been prejudiced by prevailing cultural beliefs. They might as well say, "We can't know if there's intangible monsters in the walls or not. How arrogant and illogical of you to say otherwise." That's what they'd be saying if the world was populated by wall-monster believers. My belief that God doesn't exist requires no more faith than my belief that there are no intangible monsters in the walls. I'll allow that maybe something(s) caused the universe. But if so, there's no reason to call it "god" or to think it had any of the attributes that anybody ascribes to god. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: yafujifide EMAIL: yafujifide@hotmail.com IP: 12.216.241.45 URL: http://www.funnylogic.com/ DATE: 08/05/2003 09:41:18 AM Consciousness is all in your head. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: redking EMAIL: ruairif@netscape.net IP: 193.1.133.94 URL: http://www.theplasticcat.com/ DATE: 08/05/2003 04:00:13 PM Reasons for agnosticism: There is a god & it created the universe - who created the god? This is a false question. "Creation" presumes a before & an after state, a timeline of events. Physics has proven that time & space are linked and that both were created at the instant of the big bang, as far as I understand it. Therefore when posing questions about entities that might or might not exist outside the universe, you can't rely on "universe-centric" concepts like time, or apply reasoning that only makes sense within the universe (never mind applying human traits to a god, like gender or fingernails, or biological traits to supposed non-corporal heaven-based entities, such as sight, happiness, memory, etc.) Not that time and whatnot don't necessarily exist outside the universe, you just can't know they do. Therefore all questions posed about entities outside the universe are ultimately unanswerable, though proposed answers vary in their plausibility. Therefore agnosticism. Therefore overuse of therefore and incoherent waffle. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross EMAIL: Immortal_succubus@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 62.30.71.73 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 04:54:09 PM I consider myself agnostic in the sense that I believe What I see, hear, touch, taste, or have some tangible evidence of its existence, but just because I haven't had proof of something doesn't mean it doesn't exist, after all, I've never met any of you guys, but you all could exist somewhere (unless all theses comments were written by one lonely guy/girl, with nothing better to do) so therefore god COULD in all possibilty exist, Its just that we've never seen proof. NB for all the christians who say that there are 'miracles'like statues crying blood and all that hokey, go see a good illusionist magician and I bet even an indepent research team have great difficulty proving his tricks are fake! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross EMAIL: Immortal_succubus@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 62.30.71.73 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 04:55:20 PM I consider myself agnostic in the sense that I believe What I see, hear, touch, taste, or have some tangible evidence of its existence, but just because I haven't had proof of something doesn't mean it doesn't exist, after all, I've never met any of you guys, but you all could exist somewhere (unless all theses comments were written by one lonely guy/girl, with nothing better to do) so therefore god COULD in all possibilty exist, Its just that we've never seen proof. NB for all the christians who say that there are 'miracles'like statues crying blood and all that hokey, go see a good illusionist magician and I bet even an indepent research team have great difficulty proving his tricks are fake! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mary EMAIL: ivlse@yahoo.com IP: 66.26.89.107 URL: DATE: 08/05/2003 07:29:07 PM OMG im liek a chistian and i love jesus and i cant believe u wuld say these thingz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111 ur gonna rot in hell u kow dat???????!!?!?! god will puniish u 4 not belieeiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its not 2 late to turn 2 god!! he wil 4give u n u can join me in heaven!!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 67.41.217.35 URL: http://chronotope.com DATE: 08/05/2003 09:42:21 PM Gawd you are sexy to me right now! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dragon EMAIL: thedemiurgus@xwizards.com IP: 165.166.140.105 URL: http://demiurgus.easyjournal.com DATE: 08/05/2003 11:14:38 PM ::sighs:: This argument is still pedantic. While I currently maintain no specific religious affiliations, I believe in God. Having said that, if you take a good look at history...atheism as a concept is VERY new, especially if you're atheist and you believe in the evolution from dinosaurs to present day. Thus, one simply derives that God must exist...because the ancient records have numerous accounts of talking with God(s), and none of atheism. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: trigger EMAIL: jeff@randomactofkindness.com IP: 12.221.32.105 URL: http://www.randomactofkindness.com DATE: 08/05/2003 11:54:09 PM I don't agree that atheism requires a belief that there is no god or god. A means without (roughly), theism means a belief if a god or gods. Without a belief in a god or gods, is not the same as believing there is no god. I've seen descriptions of strong atheists and weak atheists. Strong atheists seem to believe there is no god, but I do feel that people can call themselves an atheist when they have NO belief IN a god or gods. I say I am an atheist, but I do not believe there is no god or there is a god. I am without belief either and this seems to fit with the true meaning of the word atheism. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 212.159.61.42 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 08/06/2003 12:11:36 AM "That's why orthodox Jews can't wear Polyester and Cotton, or trim their beards." We can't? Holy shit! *rips off shirt, throws away shaver* (Er, Tom... I think you may have it *slightly* wrong... it's combinations of wool and linen in the same garment, and use of a naked blade to shave. Close, though...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chrissie EMAIL: chrissie@chezchrissie.co.uk IP: 62.64.200.6 URL: http://www.chezchrissie.co.uk DATE: 08/06/2003 02:44:38 AM Thanks for the posting, Tom. It summed up how I feel about religion better than I could ever hope to do. I was raised Catholic. Did the whole bit; communion, confession, etc. And then I terminally lapsed one day when I was 15, for reasons I'll never fathom. It's the rank intolerance of so many innocuous, harmless things (not just homosexuality, but a thousand other things too) that really burns me... as you say, based on bastardised interpretations of ancient texts. I posted on a mailing list recently saying, 'Progress is an illusion.' I was thinking of things like this, and the apparent hold it still has on society. Here we have a PM who often speaks in sickeningly pious terms about stuff that has nothing whatever to do with religion. I despair. I love the idea of progress, but lately I don't see much of it. The Iraq business got me into this frame of mind, partly. I do aspire to respecting other people's views, but I'm finding it real hard to respect anyone who buys into this rubbish... I hate myself for feeling that way (i.e. being intolerant myself!), but I can't help it... excuse for rambling... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dragonthief EMAIL: dontspamthisyoubastard@cwazy.co.uk IP: 194.217.93.82 URL: DATE: 08/07/2003 04:05:09 PM First there is the issue of how we, as humans, relate to the possibility of knowledge. I agree with Tom that we ought to limit our truth-claims to what can be supported by logic in conjunction with empirical observation. That said, the claims of the atheist, the agnostic and the theist *all* violate that principle precisely because logic and observation cannot be combined in any way that proves or disproves the exisitence of god... (interestingly, they can't really be combined in a way that proves or disproves physics, either.) Then there is the issue of how our knowledge bears on our relationship with others: do my beliefs about X entitle me to go around limiting the actions/rights of others, who don't share those beliefs about X? Well, no, they don't: but that is a statement about what the proper political relationship between people ought to be, and not a statement about gods or pixies or porn monkeys. This is what I understood Tom to mean when he said that, silly as it is, theists are quite entitled to go around believing in fairies, as long as they don't interfere *politically* with his rights.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 08/09/2003 03:46:29 PM Dunno if you still read these now, but Tom, I would heartily recommend the Douglas Adams discussions on Atheism and the debunking of the "shoulder-shrugging" Agnostic positions. For example there are a few chapters in his posthumous (and fantastic) book, the Salmon of Doubt. His arguments are very similar to yours so maybe you already have read him! :) Otherwise, I wholeheartedly agree with you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: td EMAIL: tdnguyen@myway.com IP: 205.145.64.64 URL: DATE: 08/11/2003 08:01:08 PM I believe that the idea that homosexuals are born that way is completely untrue and the evidence you speak of is almost entirely prepared to promote a thesis rather than seeking truth for truth's sake. Take this gay bishop recently voted upon. He had a wife and two kids and then decided to live another life. To argue that he'd always been gay and only "realized" it later is an unprovable hypothesis. There is no gay gene as much as gays wish there to be. Re: God, it's impossible (with science) to prove or disprove his existence but it seems to me, to take more faith to believe that the ultra-complex universe came into being by accident than to believe some thing out there has(had) the ability to create it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.236 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/11/2003 08:49:14 PM Actually I think you'd find there's a considerable amount of debate about whether or not gay people were born that way or not - and that happens within the gay community as much as it does outside. The one thing that does appear to be clear is that it doesn't appear to be possible for them to choose not to be gay and it's not something that people would naively chose to be, given the fact that gay people have a pretty difficult time of it. As to the issue with the creation of the universe - atheists don't believe that the universe came into being 'by accident' at all. They're just saying that out of all the options that we know of and all the ones that we can't possibly know of as well - that it was created by a beneficient almighty God is no more likely than that it was sneezed into being or crapped out of a super-dimensional yak. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: td EMAIL: tdnguyen@myway.com IP: 205.145.64.64 URL: DATE: 08/12/2003 07:51:18 PM I agree with you there there is debate, but what I haven't seen is any evidence. Continuing on I would argue that it is possible for people to choose not to be gay. There are groups who've worked with individuals who've wanted to leave that lifestyle. I think one is called Exodus or something. Another thing I find odd is that if someone was born a homosexual, why is it that they (generally men) speak with normal diction until later in life when they change the way they speak to fit in? The behaviorial change is most puzzling. Here's a theory, that I've only rarely heard. In the gay lifestyle there are fewer guidelines, boundries or restrictions. It's more of an "I'll do what I like" mentality, which I would say agrees with a great number of people, and others not so much. This relates to God in that, any 7-year-old will instinctively bristle when told to do something they didn't want to do. We're all just older versions, not wanting to do the things that God is telling us. The ironic twist is that, as far as I can tell, the things God commands are actually in our own best interest. The 10 Commandments are truly homo-sapien health and wellness tips. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.38.126 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/12/2003 08:49:25 PM Well TD, there is actually quite a lot of evidence surrounding sexuality - it's just not totally conclusive, and a lot of researchers stay away from the area because research can easily be abused. Let's put it this way - if gay people are 'born that way', then it could be genetic, and if it's genetic then it's possible that a test for homosexuality could be created that might make it possible for people to chose not to have gay babies. Being 'born like it' could be an argument for saying it's natural, and just as much of an argument for saying that it's a defect that needs to be cured. In fact, the fact that knowing if you're 'born like it' doesn't actually help anyone's arguments particularly means we have to look in a different direction - firstly whether or not gay people feel themselves to be cursed with a disease they'd like cured, and secondly whether or not their existence does anyone else any harm. Now, the first question is hard to demonstrate conclusively either way - certainly there are gay people who would rather not have been gay, but there are also lots of gay people who would not want to be straight and are proud of who they are. Certainly it's quite likely that gay people would be affected by the social stigmas attached to homosexuality in many parts of the world and be the presumption of heterosexuality - so that suggests that if the world were less censorious, then more gay people would be content with their sexuality. This leaves us with a range of options: (1) many gay people are happy with their sexuality and (2) those that are not may feel that way because of the way society treats them. That seems like a case for more tolerance. Secondly, we asked whether or not gay people were a threat or a danger to other people - there's no evidence whatsoever that gay people are 'recruited' into the lifestyle - it doesn't appear to be in any way contagious. Most child abuse happens inside families and there's no disproportionate representation of gay people in any figures I've seen (and I've seen a lot). So if it doesn't hurt anyone and it can't hurt anyone mentally, all you're left with is 'spiritually' - which frankly should be left up to the conscience of the person concerned - and aesthetically - which frankly is a pretty spurious argument for arguing against a kind of person...
       Now as to your statement about people choosing not to be gay - frankly, you might want proof, but that's really your problem. As a gay man, I've never made any choice to be gay, and I can't even conceive of finding a woman attractive sexually or falling in love with a woman - and (like pretty much every gay person - it's not through want of trying! So to me, it's absolutely self-evident that if you're gay, you're pretty much gay forever. That's not to say that gay men and women haven't been in marriages and had children, because they have - normally when not being married was a horrific stigma. Although many of these marriages are based on a profound respect and friendship, they don't tend to end well - because, fundamentally, the gay partner is trying as hard as they can to be something they're not. Hopefully, as the pressure not to be gay starts to evaporate, less people will find themselves in tragic situations like that...
       Now - with regard to gay men talking with funny lisping accents - frankly, you're about twenty years out of date, mate. That's not to say that there aren't gay people who fulfil stereotypes, because there obviously are. I don't know why that is - I don't know if it's genetic or cultural or a symbol of rebellion or whatever, just as I don't really know why some people become football hooligans or astronauts - with their respective ways of behaving, cadences and specialised language. But there are many many more gay people who aren't like that. I'm not like that. Which frankly shouldn't get me a prize or anything - I'm not better than them in any way. But it is important for you to realise that gay people aren't all the same, they're not all clones who listen to disco music and do interior design. And frankly, your stereotyping isn't helping your case here...    Now as to your thing about the 'gay lifestyle' - frankly I don't think you know what you're talking about. There are nightclubs where people go to pick up people and get drunk. Heaven forfend that should happen! I mean, it's not like any straight people do that! I mean - get drunk?! Have sex with people!? Only complete deviants could do that! Well - surprise, surprise, straight people DO get drunk and have sex with each other, they DO go to nightclubs and take drugs. And on any given day of the week, I can pretty much guarantee that more straight people are doing all of those things than gay ones. Other straight people are having relationships, going to see movies and having dates, being completely gutted when a relationship goes wrong, playing sport and building things. Some are even Christians. And you know what - gay people do all those things too. They just do it with members of their own sex.
       Now - finally - I want to make this clear to you - there is nothing about gay people in the Ten Commandments, there are a lot of rules for life that are important that are outside the ten commandments, and a good few (don't worship graven images and "You shall have no other god but me") that are nothing whatsoever to do with health and wellness. You have to learn to accept that other people in the world do not believe in or agree with your religion and yet we don't interfere in your ability to do what you want in relation to it. Could you please afford me the same courtesy... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dragon EMAIL: thedemiurgus@hotmail.com IP: 216.189.65.120 URL: http://demiurgus.easyjournal.com DATE: 08/13/2003 11:53:57 AM 1) The Ten Commandments are not the extent of Judo-Christian law. Which you kind of almost said...but then switched topics completely so I'm not sure where you were gonna head with that. 2) Good point that we can't hold you responsible for living our beliefs. And I'm with you in getting pissed off at the idiot fanatics who don't understand that. 3) You still haven't addressed the fact that atheism as a concept is new as hell and by logical deduction is unable to be true. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: dontspamthisyoubastard@cwazy.co.uk IP: 194.217.93.82 URL: DATE: 08/13/2003 12:40:58 PM Can some one explain this to me? Even if there were a creator-god, why would that mean I was obliged to obey him/her in moral matters? In fact: what has it to do with the difference between right and wrong at all? I make a table, I don't expect it to worship me and do as I say. In fact, the impulse to worship, (and perhaps especially the impulse to need to be worshipped) are pretty human, if you ask me, and rather tawdry at that. Arguments that religious sensibility is a question of love I can (vaguely) respect; but arguments that it is a question of *obedience*... s'cuse me while I roll my eyes and sigh. People like td make the (entirely false) point that gay people choose their sexuality, and that this is what makes them culpable. This is such a crock that I hardly know where to start. Leaving completely to one side the issue of whether it is nature or nurture, or even whether it is wrong, I'd like you to think about the role of choice in moral judgement. We think it is important. We think that autonomy is important because it is through deciding for oneself that one attains responsibility for one's actions. Of course, it is also to be fervently hoped that such choice can, at the same time, discover the difference between right and wrong. Even for Christians, it must be more important to choose Good than to choose God, and to fail to choose at all is the worst sort of moral negligence. Our access to moral judgement is provided by reason, not revelation, because it is reason that is bound-up with meaningful choice. Reason, in fact, tells me that it is not moral to do something just because it is "Written" or "Commanded": in such cases I am chickening out of responsibility for my own moral decisions. A judgement is moral only when one has issued the moral principle to oneself as a result of careful reasoning, even if this means, in the end, just endorsing a principle like those in the Ten Commandments. The point is that each conscience must do the work itself, and understand the nature of the Good and how it manifests itself, (if it does) in religious principles. This, you will kindly note, means that it is completely arse-to-front to point to "Written" and "Commanded" principle to explain why things are good or bad: if those principles are correct, then they are correct in virtue of something other than the fact that they were written down, or the fact that a rather cool carpenter stated them 2000 years ago. It's not even that I'm suggesting that they're wrong: I'm saying that the blind following of heteronomous laws is contrary to moral conduct. Religious texts, and even the existence of God, taken on their own, fail entirely to establish moral obligation or moral certainty. So there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dragon EMAIL: thedemiurgus@xwizards.com IP: 216.189.65.120 URL: DATE: 08/13/2003 07:16:20 PM I suppose, then, that you also consider any child that you create free from obeying you? A table and a child are much different - in that a table can't learn, grow, or develop. The child can. That's not done by doing whatever the heck it wants - hence our still more-or-less intact family structure that humans have been using for millenia. God gave us rules for the same reason parents give their children rules. So there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.28.168 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/14/2003 12:37:31 AM Dragon - look the argument is simple - if there's no evidence for something whatsoever and there are an infinite number of possible explanations (some of which we can detail but just as many that we're unable to articulate at the moment), then it's not reasonable to assume that your one possible explanation is obviously right. I don't have an explanation - I'd like to have one but I don't - but in the meantime, without evidence, the odds of your position being right are so infinitesimal as to be irrelevant. And while we're here, when you talk about the more-or-less intact family structure that humans have been using for millenia, then I assume you're also talking about those kinds of family structures that seem to exist quite successfully in non-Christian countries and before the coming of either Christianity or Semitic religions. I'm not prepared to argue the same points over and over if you're unable to push them in any direction other than asserting that you're right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dragon EMAIL: thedemiurgus@xwizards.com IP: 216.189.65.88 URL: DATE: 08/14/2003 04:52:43 AM My point was that there is historical evidence of the existence of God: A) All ancient peoples believed in a diety of some sort, evidenced by Atheism being developed in the last few centuries. B) Since many of the historic records account for various people(s) talking directly to God, they were either all universally insane, or maybe they actually knew what they were doing with their belief in God. That's really all the evidence you should need, unless you can point out how it's unreliable. And I was talking about the general family structure - nto the Christian or Semitic. Families have held societies together for a long time. Whether the societies were all that great (heck - I don't even like most of the Christian societies) isn't the point so much as that survival without rules of some sort in isoloation is not really done all that often. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.129.125.52 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/14/2003 09:13:46 AM Dragon - I'm afraid ancient people's also universally believed in lots of other things that were demonstrably untrue - like the idea that the world was flat. All their belief in some kind of divinity demonstrates is that (i) the human imagination wants an explanation for these things and (ii) is predisposed to think about things in terms of human-like agency. I don't think that's a surprise at all - after all most of us talk about our computers being in 'moods' or 'conspiring against us' even though there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that would make us believe that. And as to 'historical accounts' - there's two things going on there - firstly many of these things were written after the fact many generations after the events apparently described, which had been passed down oral traditions - these are hardly the most accurate of 'historical documents', and secondly all they record is that people in history believed in these things. Which is not a shock. Lots of people today claim that god tells them to do things - they are either called evangelists/'born again' or they're consider paranoid schizophrenic, depending on whether or not they're dangerous or not... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grim EMAIL: grim@kapowaz.net IP: 213.123.174.234 URL: http://www.kapowaz.net/~grim DATE: 08/14/2003 03:59:55 PM Re: Bill Russell and your post on determinism. I've been through this argument in my head many times before. You may or may not be right: I am usually inclined to think you are; Roger Penrose thinks quantum mechanics will prove you wrong. Either way, though, you have clearly thought deeply about it. I would say that you have hit upon the most important conclusion yourself and overlooked the importance of it: "The result is that although a human feels personal choice [that feeling is illusory]." Seeing as you accept that we feel personal choice -- and frankly, who is going to disagree with that? -- then I hope you will agree that we have no choice but to kowtow to the illusion. The question of whether we have free choice or not becomes worthless, because whether we do or we don't, we cannot help but feel that we do. This almost warrants a 'QED'. It is simply impossible to live life any other way. * * * So no; as an atheist, I'm not going to surrender my devotion to 'the random workings of a chaotic universe.' Quite the opposite: I'm going to disregard these workings in order to get on with my life as best as I can. If I'm ultimately not in control, I damn well feel as though I am, and I am going to take advantage of that feeling to spread goodwill and alleviate suffering. Do you do any different? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: td EMAIL: tdnguyen@myway.com IP: 205.145.64.64 URL: DATE: 08/14/2003 04:01:12 PM Great civil discussion btw. :) >a lot of researchers stay away from the >area because research can easily be abused True, a valid point. >but there are also lots of gay people who >would not want to be straight and are >proud of who they are Not that I can step inside these folks and validate their answers, but of course, a portion of the sample would state this to be true, whether it's true or not. >there's no evidence whatsoever that gay >people are 'recruited' into the lifestyle This is a completely untrue statement, which makes me question the honesty of some of your other points. You may not want to admit this is true, but there are many examples of this, even in some of the homosexual literature I've read. I used to work with a guy who tried to convince me I was gay, merely because he wanted me to date me. I'm not making this up. >funny lisping accents - frankly, you're >about twenty years out of date, mate. My point in bringing this up is not to villify or put down but to merely cite this as an example of learned (chosen) behavior vs. innate (genetic) behavior. Homosexuals tend to begin speaking (consciously or unconsciously) in this manner once they've entered the gay lifestyle, not as children, which is what the genetic argument would lead you to believe. That was my only point, not to offend anyone. >Now as to your thing about the 'gay >lifestyle' - frankly I don't think you >know what you're talking about. I'm sure I don't know as much as a homosexual person, I merely used to term to describe the range of activities that homosexuals tend to prefer. These activities, I would argue, fall into a more "boundry-less" category. You didn't speak to this aspect of my theory. Does it make sense that some individuals would be more inclined towards a certain lifestyle if that lifestyle had fewer rules and more freedom of choice? That's my presupposition. >there is nothing about gay people in the >Ten Commandments That's a good point that is a major discredit to people claiming to be followers of Christ. In my experience, homosexuality, while clearly described as sin in Bible, is not said to be any worse (nor better) than any other sin. The only sins that are given more weight are blashemy against the Holy Spirit; another discussion for another time. But many Christians today treat homosexuality as the worst of all sins and that's shameful and completely unloving, thereby un-Christlike. To me, it's a problem like alcoholism or a gambling addiction. Please remember, this is not my opinion... it's God's command that I'm merely citing. People rail against the person who says "This is wrong." calling them judgemental and holier-than-thou but they are only referencing a resource, much like a footnote. Only God can identify what is wrong and what is right, our job to to honestly look to see what He's saying. Bottom line: I understand you don't share my religious beliefs. But I would be less than loving to not point out what I believe to be facts of the utmost importance. Nothing is more important than the meaning of life. I don't so much want you to adopt my beliefs as I desire for all people to investigate and honestly ask themselves, which of all these worldviews resonates best with my true heart. Not what worldview allows me to do whatever I like, but which one seems true. This discussion has been good but the medium has grown small compared to the number of thought threads we've hit on. I won't be posting here again, but please take care. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dragon EMAIL: thedemiurgus@xwizards.com IP: 216.189.65.82 URL: DATE: 08/15/2003 05:32:13 AM While I admit you have a point about the oral tradition, you must also consider that there must be a base of truth in their somewhere for it to happen all that many times. And comparing the world being flat to talking with God is not a valid comparison. Talking to God == going into space and *seeing* that the world is round. Saying the world is flat is simply saying that God doesn't exist. There's no evidence to be relied on their except a limited scope. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shane EMAIL: imshane@mac.com IP: 162.33.168.30 URL: http://imshane.blogspot.com DATE: 08/15/2003 05:53:36 AM A recent discussion between my friend and I, prompted by this post, led me to understand that a person's belief in the existence of god is dependent upon his or her definition of god. Given that god is a supernatural entity, the proof of its existence cannot be determined, since all we humans can utilize to tangibly prove something are our empirical senses. Otherwise, god is bound by the rules of its own creation, and should therefore be tangible in some scientific way. I leave out the Christian concept of god because it's too involved in the abstract. Just because the (irrelevant) idea of "intangible monsters in the walls" is ludicrous does not make it untrue. Example: the belief then versus the knowledge now of the shape of the Earth. Humans in the past didn't have the tools needed to accurately describe this property, but now we do. Perhaps we just don't have the tools now to describe (prove) god. Maybe it's not new tools we need, but new states of mind; but that's too abstract to talk about now. The existence of god is a probability; a belief in god's existence or nonexistence is a gamble, the winnings of which are to be cashed in at some indeterminate time. I for one hope that there is a god because its existence, according to my definition, will give the Universe some sort of unified purpose. I neither believe nor disbelieve in god because I can't, and that used to be frustrating; but now I understand that absence of proof does not necessarily mean unexistance. The atheistic point of view is too simplistic, and the theistic point of view is too convoluted (no proof, no god vs. god is supernatural, yet I know it exists). None of us have known god, therefore we cannot know of its existence. I think I'm done. Critique, please. p.s. Food for thought about the Cosmological Argument: our laws of time and space break down at singularities (i.e., the initial state of our Universe as proposed by the Big Bang Theory). p.s.s. I'm a heterosexual male, but it is my female homosexual roommate's understanding that she's always known that she was gay. Maybe it was in infancy that she went from being a "breeder" to being gay, but the converse could be said of us heteros. Frankly, I don't care. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.172.27 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/15/2003 08:29:52 AM Dragon - I'm afraid that makes no sense. The differences between the oral traditions are too vast to see anything but a desperate need to find 'an answer'. You might as well argue that there are mystical spirits in trees and rivers, since almost all human cultures have believed in that at some point. There's a really interesting book by Walter J Ong called "Orality and Literacy" that talks about how pre-literate cultures conceive of things, memorise things and transmit culture that has a lot to say on this point. Well worth a read. As to your point about the relationship between the flat earth theory and believing in god, I simply don't understand your argument - you'll have to exaplin it in greater depth. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dragon EMAIL: thedemiurgus@xwizards.com IP: 216.189.65.115 URL: DATE: 08/15/2003 02:24:16 PM As far as the 2nd part goes - Saying that the world is flat is the same as saying that you do not believe in God. Both are based on a limited perspective, since the people who said the world is flat had not actually seen the world itself (just a minute part of it). Those that do not believe in God generally have not seen him either. Now, I for one have not seen God. However, there have been people who have. They are much the same as the astronauts that have been in space and have seen that the world is round. They come back and tell us. I've got some paranoid friends who say that the whole space program was faked anyways, and still don't believe that we've seen that the world is round. I, however, believe them, as I do those who have seen God. As for the first, I'll have to hunt down that book and check it out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brad C EMAIL: brad@bradcoleman.info IP: 208.24.179.29 URL: http://bradcoleman.info/weblog DATE: 08/15/2003 02:30:07 PM Please allow me to speak on behalf of the confused who haven't decided what they believe yet. I do believe that there is something more intelligent, and unearthly than me. We are not here by accident. I'm not sure what all of that means though. However, I despise Christianity because my years of experience with it have continually led me to believe that it is a crutch for the weak-minded. It's like drugs, which separate your brain from the reality of life. I can barely believe what humans wrote 10 years ago let alone 2000 years ago. How can anyone follow another human's writing like that to define their lives? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Believer EMAIL: notinterestedinargueingwithyou@yahoo.com IP: 66.25.122.148 URL: DATE: 08/21/2003 03:04:58 PM I believe in God. There is a lot of energy on this page (and attitude and effort) confronting a being you claim you don't believe exists. If you truly believe this, then I think you should consider why a being with no power needs such an intense attack to discredit it. To believe in God requires faith. No religion I know of claims you will be able to study and verify and PROVE the existence of God. They all require this element. People make up their minds fairly early in life to either be able to commit to believing in things we cannot prove, or not. If you cannot believe in anything you cannot prove, you are unlikely to take anything/anyone on faith. With this being the main requirement for religious belief systems, the rest seems really pointless to debate and anyone who needs to think about it in such detail appears to only have a need to prove they are right and that the other viewpoint is wrong. This doesn't smack of taking the high road intellectually, it has the distinct flavor of evangelical campaign, only the candidate is the self proclaimed superior intellect of the non-believer. I wonder if the once a month debate you find yourself in is because you feel the need to set the world straight on their "mistaken beliefs" and cannot abide allowing others the freedom to make these arguments for themselves and decide they disagree with your viewpoint. Acknowledging and respecting different points of view certainly make the day to day interaction with others a bit more challenging than simply charging into the faith/no faith battles and quieting the opposition. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: help EMAIL: jherman@kanematsuusa.com IP: 209.137.139.134 URL: DATE: 08/21/2003 10:46:10 PM noticed a group of athiests are debating god @ http://www.philosophyforums.com -in the philosophy of religion forum. it looks like they need help. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.26 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/22/2003 09:01:47 AM Thanks for writing in. I do - of course - disagree. Personally I completely understand that people feel a need for some kind of meaning in their lives that they feel they need enforced from outside, and I think it's completely plausible that people would try and make a god roughly in their own image, with roughly comprehendable motives who they could give a part of themselves up to. These are the reasons I think it's difficult to convince people - because they don't WANT to be convinced fundamentally - they'd rather believe in something in complete opposition to all other evidence than give up these comforts. And when I talk about adherence to a religion as a comfort, I don't say it because it's requirements are easy, but it's comforting because people often feel uncomfortable with responsibility for determining what to do with their lives, how to live their lives and why they do the things they do - they'd rather give themselves up to something larger than themselves - even if it's a lie - than feel exposed and alone. You don't have to agree of course. Now, in my post itself, I don't make anything even resembling an intense attack - and - let me make this clear - the intensity of an attack can NOT be considered obviously in inverse proportion to its validity. That makes no sense whatsoever! The problem with your position - which is a relatively recent one, I might add, once religious people themselves gave up looking for proof in the behaviour of the world around them - is that it's self-supporting. The argument, fundamentally, is that you have an experience of something and therefore it must be true. The fact that other people also claim to have an of god that is radically different to yours, that just as many of those people are bad people who do terrible things than among atheists and hindus (etc) and that a vast number of people believe that they were abducted by aliens or that they've physically seen aliens in their everyday life - these things apparently mean nothing! That your experience of god is so historically contingent, so different from so many other religions - monotheistic and polytheistic or even animist - *should* concern you. What makes what you believe different from those who see spirits in trees or who worship Lions? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: tharitz@yahoo.com IP: 64.241.69.134 URL: DATE: 08/23/2003 01:17:24 AM I do believe in God(as a Christian) and I am very impressed by many comments on this topic, even though they are mainly athiest and agnostic. I whole heartedly agree that reaseach and learning, not only about your particular belief, but of others is crucial. I'm interested in talking about many things here and hope to come back for more later(I'm at work). But I'm noticing the notion with a lot of comments here, is that once you choose a particular religion and believe there is a divine being, that you no longer care how the world works and science doesn't matter. There are hundreds, of world renowned scientists, bioligists, chemists, etc. that have done amazing things in understanding the world and still have complete faith that god exhists. I don't have multiple PH-Ds, Masters, or Doctorates but I do read a lot of science(Quantum Physics, Biology, etc.) books and articles and have yet to come across any real reasoning why science and religion cannot coincide. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brian EMAIL: b7borders@excite.com IP: 64.12.96.203 URL: DATE: 08/27/2003 05:30:27 PM It seems to me to require a lot of faith to believe in evolution. Scientists know but won't admit that it's impossible for matter to create living organisms without information subjected into the mix i.e. DNA & messenger RNA. Where did this highly complex info. come from? For me its easier to believe in a God than that matter somehow developed the "brains" to make a computer out of itself and then follow the millions of instructions required to develop living animate tissue. After all, Bill Gates does hire software engineers--Windows didn't make itself (although there may be some that would debate that too!). ----- PING: TITLE: god URL: http://www.bootblog.org/links/archives/001177.shtml IP: 66.216.122.85 BLOG NAME: Bootblog - Links DATE: 08/03/2003 01:57:24 AM On the existence of God...... ----- PING: TITLE: oh, god URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/000225.html IP: 66.216.124.46 BLOG NAME: theonlyjuan.net DATE: 08/03/2003 03:54:58 AM From the entertaining 300 Proofs of God's Existence (via Tom): ARGUMENT FROM THE BIBLE (1) [arbitrary passage from OT] (2)... ----- PING: TITLE: Why do people believe in God? URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/misc/2003_07/why_do_people_believe_in_god.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 08/03/2003 10:17:33 AM Why Religion? It’s obvious as we look around us that theism is a popular meme. Probably all of you have friends who are theists, and most of you probably have friends who are weekly church-goers. Many of you are likely... ----- PING: TITLE: Atheist or agnostic? URL: http://www.hultberg.org/mt-linklog/archive/000169.html IP: 194.198.108.62 BLOG NAME: LinkLog - Interesting bits and bytes DATE: 08/03/2003 04:30:51 PM Tom Coates has written some good stuff on why he does not adhere to any religion, and why there is no point in being agnostic.... ----- PING: TITLE: On the Existence of God... URL: http://www.socialenigma.com/archives/000182/index.php IP: 64.72.132.140 BLOG NAME: socialENIGMA DATE: 08/04/2003 04:13:35 AM I just read an article about atheism over at plasticbag.org, a weblog by Tom Caotes. I have quoted the article in its entirety beneath this entry. I, like Tom, and I'm sure many others, have difficulty explaining my reasons for... ----- PING: TITLE: Atheism URL: http://www.raggedcastle.com/webcrumbs/archives/003467.html IP: 209.68.2.86 BLOG NAME: Webcrumbs DATE: 08/05/2003 03:40:41 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | On the existence of God... Simply excellent. Where I differ is in the fact that I ----- PING: TITLE: Pleasure For Atheists URL: http://www.funnylogic.com/archives/000077.php IP: 66.197.0.67 BLOG NAME: Funny Logic DATE: 08/05/2003 10:10:42 AM For those of you who derive pleasure in well executed arguments for atheism, you might derive pleasure in this. I... ----- PING: TITLE: Agnosticism URL: http://jogin.com/weblog/archives/000355.php IP: 213.141.75.130 BLOG NAME: jogin.com :: weblog DATE: 08/05/2003 12:13:20 PM Atheism, or agnosticism, is pretty much the default postures in Sweden, so unlike Tom Coates I very rarely have to explain my lack of faith in God, and seldomly my rigid stance on the non-existance of God. Tom's post on the existance of God is a pretty... ----- PING: TITLE: Oh. No. God. URL: http://www.this-chick.com/miscellaneous/oh_no_god.php IP: 66.246.37.182 BLOG NAME: This Chick DATE: 08/06/2003 12:39:32 AM Those that know, love, and hate me, and even a few who barely fit any of those categories know that I don't believe in God. A few brave souls have asked me why I don't believe. Of course, I usually... ----- PING: TITLE: Or the lack thereof URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108194/2003/08/03.html#a1168 IP: 63.13.131.16 BLOG NAME: The Universal Church Of Cosmic Uncertainty DATE: 08/06/2003 06:27:03 AM
    On the existence of God... [plasticbag.org]

    Love it. Great job. Some interesting stuff in the c...

    ----- PING: TITLE: God, Religion and Bad Faith URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/08/god_religion_and_bad_faith.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: macdaraconroy.com DATE: 08/06/2003 08:03:23 PM There's an excellent, thought-provoking post from Tom Coates over at plasticbag.org regarding issues of the religious kind, sparked by the ----- PING: TITLE: oh, god. (more thoughts) URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/000228.html IP: 66.216.124.46 BLOG NAME: theonlyjuan.net DATE: 08/08/2003 08:55:46 PM Tom Coates' excellent (and popular) entry on his beliefs about the non-existence of God (previously linked) made me think about... ----- PING: TITLE: God, Religion and Bad Faith URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/archive/2003/08/god_religion_and_bad_faith.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: macdaraconroy.com DATE: 07/05/2004 10:57:18 PM There’s an excellent, thought-provoking post from Tom Coates over at plasticbag.org regarding issues of the religious kind, sparked by the recent Vatican proclamations condemining the ‘sin’ of homosexuality. (Before I... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: It's Sunday afternoon entertaining link time.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/03/2003 03:50:21 PM ----- BODY:

    A few entertaining links to compensate for the religion piece:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Xfm meets 20six... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/05/2003 08:53:22 PM ----- BODY:

    So I've got my hands on an excerpt from a press release that announced that Christian O'Connell from Xfm (a UK alternative radio station) was starting a new weblog for his breakfast show using 20six's service. Whatever you may think of 20six - they've got one thing right - they know how to promote themselves. Blogger certainly never courted celebrities (as far as I remember) as a core part of their strategy:

    "What's a weblog? A weblog is the best new thing since sliced bread, thanks for asking. It's a journal, a diary, an online record of your likes, your loathes, your jokes and your photos. A weblog can be whatever you want it to be; an ever-evolving account of your life, a collection of your poems and short stories or your most voracious reviews and opinions."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren EMAIL: darren@timemachinego.com IP: 81.128.13.209 URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/ DATE: 08/05/2003 09:08:28 PM Xfm Breakfast. I noticed it the other day whilst adding a blog to the Updated UK Weblogs List. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.67 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 08/05/2003 10:48:21 PM Yeah, but come on . . . that's all very well. But it'll be a mere pissing in the wind when the *god-like* Terry Wogan goes all multimedia on us and updates WoganBlog as part of his breakfast show. Oh, how I long for that day to happen. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: meg EMAIL: spam@meish.org IP: 82.68.44.97 URL: http://www.meish.org DATE: 08/05/2003 11:20:29 PM Fellow XFM DJ Iain dot Baker had a weblog two years ago, and has been doing a "site of the day" type thing as part of his show for yonks - eventually incorporated onto the site with archives, etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.144.12 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 08/06/2003 09:07:34 AM Wogan with a weblog. Yeah, right. You'd have to get the BBC interested in weblogs first. We're talking here about an organisation who pay off staff, then invest in 'Comrades Reunited', a Friends Reunited-style website aimed at the rapidly declining number of war veterans in this country (who probably don't even have access to an internet connection, nor know a keyboard from a hole in their trousers). I get the impression that Christian O'Connell probably isn't even going to be updating his own weblog, although I could be wrong. And therein lies the problem with getting celebs on board with this kind of thing: they really have to be into it, and they have to do it - then keep doing it. Unfortunately, that's rarely what happens. Usually, they get a hold of a technology like this and simply don't know how to use it - but hey, it seems cool - so they shout about it for a while, because it keeps them in the public eye in some way or another. Then they get tired of it, and move on to the next thing that makes them look dahn wiv da kids. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/06/2003 09:37:29 AM I wonder if they have a contract with 20six that says that he has to update it at least three times a week for six months. That would be interesting... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: azeem EMAIL: azeem@Azhar.co.uk IP: 213.208.108.177 URL: http://www.20six.co.uk/azeem/ DATE: 08/07/2003 08:39:32 AM Tom, Thanks for the note on thias 20six/XFM thingy. The Christian O'Connell radio show has four people on team (Christian, Chris and Roque). The blog is called the "XFM Brekafast Show" and is actually updated by that team. Chris (who reads the news and weather) does most of it--and I think he's doing a pretty good job. XFM is different to Wogan for a lot of reasons. The XFM audience is young and funky. The XFM DJs are not, by and large, such super celebs that they have to attend to audiences in the millions. They are great DJs and they have comparatively well targeted audiences. And that audience connection is important for them: which makes their blog valuable to them. cheers aa ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.129.108.232 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/07/2003 08:52:53 AM Thanks, Azeem. And having you here means I can actually ask you the question directly! I can completely understand that it's a good thing for Xfm to get involved with their audience via weblogging, but presumably it's also a relationship that you have to look after, since the weblog's in a public space. So I suppose I'd be interested to know whether you guys have a contract with each other and if so, are there any terms around posting and stuff? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On tiny, tiny superheroes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/05/2003 10:44:12 PM ----- BODY:

    This week I've done a little tiny amount of work for the very smallest of sites. Ickle.org has been running for quite some time now (although it's a luridcrously small amount in geological time). It celebrates the teensiest of eensy weeny things. I've taken on the whole week - three entries on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And the theme? Tiny tiny superheroes! First up... Shrinking Violet:

    " Shrinking Violet joined the Legion of Super-Heroes in 2962 at the same time as Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy and Brainiac 5! She comes from the super-tiny planet Imsk and can make herself super-tiny as well. Which is just as well or she'd squish all her friends ..."

    Compare and contrast: Long-Suffering Boy...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Shop-soiled linkages... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/05/2003 11:32:15 PM ----- BODY:

    A few shop-soiled weblog-related links, since I'm in the mood:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KO EMAIL: khalido@go4b.net IP: 202.176.255.83 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com DATE: 08/06/2003 08:06:54 AM There's a plugin available for pagination at http://www.nonplus.net/software/mt/MTPaginate.htm which works great. MT Pro should be able to handle small CMS stuff with ease.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Patricia EMAIL: info@lunanina.com IP: 165.247.97.220 URL: http://lunanina.com/musings/ DATE: 08/08/2003 12:38:43 AM I use MT to publish my entire site; just created 'blogs' for the different sections. The combination of php includes, stylesheets and MT makes site management effortless. I can change the entire look of my site by changing one file. It's a beautiful thing. And there are plenty of plugins out there to make the MT do pretty much anything you need it to do. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Radio Days... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/06/2003 10:14:15 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm nervous about mentioning it just in case I stink up the show but - just in case you're interested - I'm going to be on John Pienaar's morning show on FiveLive this morning between eleven-thirty and midday (UK-time), talking about (what else)... weblogs. The other guests in the same slot include James Crabtree of the Work Foundation and Madeleine Morris. And on the rest of the show is Formula One Champion Sir Jackie Stewart and a debate on "Has Feminism Failed?". The station is broadcast live online via the BBC radio-player (there's a link on the page above), and I think there's some kind of parallel web-chat using arcane BBC machinery (which would be a good place for all of webloggia to go and correct me when I say something dumb). If that's not enough for you, I think you can e-mail in your insults to morning [at] bbc.co.uk and if you're a real glutton for punishment I think there's also a webcam in the studio so you can bitch about my hair and watch me sweat in abject terror under the almighty unwavering stare of the BBC. Gulp...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tomcosgrave EMAIL: tom@tomcosgrave.com IP: 193.120.42.100 URL: http://www.tomcosgrave.com DATE: 08/06/2003 12:00:58 PM You went all the way into the studio for a few words?! Yikes. You sounded good though, nice one :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon Thornton EMAIL: simon@mutualmisunderstanding.com IP: 217.36.14.215 URL: http://www.mutualmisunderstanding.com DATE: 08/06/2003 12:01:49 PM well, myself and the katy listened to you (and hoped to see you on the webcam! but no....) and...er....didn't let you say much did they? ho hum.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/06/2003 02:05:34 PM No. Indeed they did not! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tomcosgrave EMAIL: tom@tomcosgrave.com IP: 193.120.42.100 URL: http://www.tomcosgrave.com DATE: 08/06/2003 05:34:54 PM Wasn't that you on the webcam (wide angle shot - button 2) at the bottom of the image? ----- PING: TITLE: Hot weather/Facial hair URL: http://www.digitaltrickery.com/archives/000840_hot_weatherfacial_hair.phtml IP: 63.111.22.101 BLOG NAME: digitaltrickery DATE: 08/06/2003 11:49:34 AM Fuck. It's hot. No neeeeeed. Get thee to Scunthorpe! My head is melting! I wouldn't care, but I have to sit and pretend to work. I'm currently listening (via Tom's shameless piece of self-publicity) to a discussion on BBC Five... ----- PING: TITLE: Five Live and Weblogs URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/08/five_live_and_weblogs.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 08/06/2003 01:22:42 PM John Pienaar talks weblogs on Five Live ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An introduction to weblogs for radio listeners... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/06/2003 02:03:36 PM ----- BODY:

    Hmm. That was a bit of a disappointment. I mean all things considered, that could only be described as a little bit of a disappointment. Basically, FiveLive's morning show was over-running and the weblog feature was stuck right at the end - leaving it to bear the full brunt of the sharpened knife of editorial pressure. So in the end, all we managed was an introductory chunk, a couple of lines from James Crabtree, a line from me and a short conversation with Alastair from Scary Duck. Apparently they also trailed a chatroom that didn't actually work, which is a bit of a shame because it basically means that those of you who did have questions or comments or thoughts realyl didn't have any opportunity to present them to the world...

    So here's what we're going to do - if you have come to this site as a result of that chunk on the radio or if you have any questions or comments abotu weblogs and/or weblogging of any kind (or even if you just want to know what it's like in the studio at FiveLive - then click on the link below and post your thoughts. Maybe that's the best way to demonstrate one of the ways ni which weblogs can be valuable in having ongoing discussions - one of the things that makes it most different from simple broadcast media. And in the process maybe we can help some new people try out weblogging for the first time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lucy trooper EMAIL: lucytroopy22@yahoo.co.uk IP: 81.128.143.94 URL: DATE: 08/06/2003 02:26:45 PM Hey! I heard you on the radio! You sound lush. Have you got a photo? I want to see it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ionicus EMAIL: i0nicus@yahoo.com IP: 81.96.142.145 URL: http://ionicus.blogspot.com DATE: 08/06/2003 03:21:02 PM I listened to Radio 5 for the first time in 10 years just to hear you guys, and you're right, it was a bit of a disappointment. Though I did enjoy hearing what you and Scary really sound like. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.48.235 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 08/06/2003 03:57:56 PM Ah, I missed it. I heard John Pienaar trail it (and instantly thought you'd be involved), but I missed it. Old programme. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.69 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk/weblog/ DATE: 08/06/2003 09:19:45 PM Obviously the *only* question that matters - what's Nicky Campbell really like? Sorry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scaryduck EMAIL: scaryduck@fastmail.fm IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.scaryduck.com DATE: 08/10/2003 07:42:00 PM I was very disappointed that we were bumped thanks to discussions on facial hair and school dinners. It was a shame as Madeleine made some comments (about blogging being mainly a young person's pastime, which it clearly isn't) right at the end I wanted to take issue with, but the programme ended before I could say anything. Sorry for babbling though, I don't think I made much sense. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cybermen in Television Centre?! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/06/2003 11:36:18 PM ----- BODY:

    So after the FiveLive thing, I went for a bit of a wander around TVC to meet with a friend who works on CelebDAQ. Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush... Anyway, while exploring the Design Building, I stumbled upon an abandoned TARDIS and decided to have a bit of an explore. Except every thirty seconds someone walked by and I had to look really innocent and totally, "I'm not taking lots of pictures inside your Police Box". It's hard to look innocent next to a TARDIS.

    Anyway, after a while I got a chance to dig around inside, and I have to say that it's not really very Homes & Gardens. It's much smaller and less time-travelly than I expected and (although I looked everywhere) I couldn't find that nice white room with the round things on the wall and the pulsing console in the middle. The glass in one of the windows was cracked, however. And I did find some kind of articulated insect on the floor though which I determined could possibly have been aa Cybernaut. My conclusion? Cyberman attack.

    Caring little, I decided to pose...

    tardis_excitement.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt.prescott@zoo.ox.ac.uk IP: 129.67.24.42 URL: http://www.earth-info.net DATE: 08/07/2003 12:35:25 AM Wow! What a find! Good luck with your new job. Matt ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.50.186 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/ DATE: 08/07/2003 12:45:54 AM Admit it. If there had been fewer people about, you would have had to bring it home with you. And you're sure it wastn't the Master that was responsible? Cybermen are more prone to leave more behind than a broken glass. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Melanie EMAIL: melanie@veracity-or-mendacity.com IP: 203.219.16.40 URL: http://www.veracity-or-mendacity.com DATE: 08/07/2003 04:30:28 AM I hope there weren't any Darleks or evil Time Lords around. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian A EMAIL: istrada@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.68.17 URL: http://northbysoutheast.blogspot.com DATE: 08/07/2003 07:21:29 AM Gaaaark! And I'd just gotten over our *BC renewing the rights and deciding to rerun ALL eps of the Dr starting next month with the William Hartnels. But I'm fantasising a new series with Paul McGann back and you, Tom possum, as a crypto-lust-interest. That first screen kiss...O frabjous joy... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.35.158 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 08/09/2003 02:00:09 PM The various BBC buildings are like the Cabinet of Infinite Curiosities updated for the 21st Century. That's cool. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A question about password length... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/08/2003 11:58:35 AM ----- BODY:

    Right. So here's a dumb question about password length. There are a great many sites where you have to register to use the service. Most of these sites require you to provide a user-name and a unique password. In order for your account to be secure, it's in your interest to have a password that's hard to guess. So the first thing that most sites suggest is that your password should be a certain number of characters long. The reason for this is that people will try to use passwords that are as simple as possible to remember and short-passwords are going to be easier to remember than long ones. So if you were doing a brute-force attack trying every combination of letters and people (on average) were using more passwords that were four characters long than seven or eight characters long, then you'd be able to break some passwords pretty quickly just by starting with the smallest words. So people stick on a minimum length of passwords. Which is interesting. So my first question here is: if you set a minimum password length of (say) six characters, how many people use exactly six, seven or eight character passwords? Doesn't that make it easier for people to state 'a large number of passwords will be of this length, so let's target our efforts there'? Even if the maths involved is much nastier? I bet - for example - that loads of people have passwords that are combinations of two three or four letter words... What's the maths like around this stuff?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 08/08/2003 12:45:20 PM Not sure about the maths, but as an application engineer I deal a lot with this. We've seen that most people get used to minimum length passwords and pick words that they'll remember that are at least this length and use that same password on most sites. for example, in one application which had a minimum length requirement of 6, most users had 10 or 12 letter passwords, way over the minimum. Looking at the hashes of these passwords over multiple applications where the same user has registered, the hash is the same, so that user is using the same password over multiple sites. That makes sense to your average user, who in this day and age has 1 million and one passwords, numbers, etc to remember, but its a security bad, for obvious reasons. here's not a lot you can do about this except by enforcing stronger security and thereby annoying the user (make sure your password contains letters and numbers, is mixed case, is changed very month etc - all not guaranteed to tick off a user) So users (as far as I've seen) usually go for larger passwords than smaller ones. No real problem. The real problem (and what personally ticks me off when I'm a user of an app) is not the minimums, its the maximum lengths. That seems silly to me when you;re trying to promote good security. It becomes a real problem when the app you're using enforces a maximum on your over-length typed password choice and then doesn't inform you that its been truncated. You'd be surprised how many sites out there do this. Its not user friendly at all, and the only real benefit I can see to it is saving hard disk space in the database. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Androse Rosewood EMAIL: ned-plasticbag.org@idsland.com IP: 80.11.50.160 URL: DATE: 08/08/2003 01:12:27 PM A premice of these questions is : is a brute force attack over HTTP even possible ? Isn't the network latency + server load just going to make it impossible if you have over 8 char passwords ? Of course it's easy to code a protection against brute force attack (store the http user agents IP, and a timestamp, and define a maximum threshold of attempts, etc), but it would be too resource consuming for most medium to large web apps, that's why nobody does it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: mail@smallworldmedia.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://www.smallworldmedia.co.uk DATE: 08/08/2003 02:45:48 PM I'm really not sure about the maths, but it sounds like you're planning a break-in... :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 216.254.181.163 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 08/08/2003 04:14:37 PM Tom: In my experience building web applications , people usually have one password that is used for pretty much all of their password needs. If it doesn't reach the minimum length, they simply pad it with other, easy to remember, characters. For example, if I use the password "bryan" everywhere (I don't), and the site requires 8 characters, I could simply make the password "bryan123". Doing this keeps the password easy to remember, but since it's not a word, a vanilla dictionary attack will be useless against it. Let's say you have 120 characters to choose from when selecting your password. You can pick any of 120 characters for the first character, any of the 120 for the second, and so on... This gives you 120^n possible passwords where n is the password length. As you can see, increasing the password by one character increases the number of possible passwords exponentially. Now, your idea of a dictionary attack is interesting, except that as I pointed out above, most people (in my experience, at least) don't go looking for an 8 character word. For people who do use simple dictionary words, it would, in theory, be very easy to guess their password on a site with password length constraints. If S is the set of all words in the dictionary, the number containing, say, 8-10 characters (which I assume most people would use given a mimimum length of 8) would be a miniscule subset of S. Although I have no proof, I suspect the number of words in English with more characters actually decreases the higher you go. This would be something interesting to look into for my 4th year thesis project since I'm majoring in Electrical Engineering and I'm planning on specializing in cryptography and security. Ambrose: Not many people actually try dictionary/brute force attacks over HTTP - you're right, the protocol is way too clunky for that. I suppose the concern is more this scenario. Let's say a small web server I have an account on gets broken into. They have a mySQL database of their users, with hashed (md5) passwords. They use a brute force attack on a local computer until they find out the password for my account. If this is the same password I use for other sites, they can log in to eBay, Amazon, and other popular sites I may have accounts on and cause trouble. Also, if you wanted to break in bad enough over HTTP, you could limit your requests to one per minute, go to sleep, wake up, and have had 480 attempts. If the user's account is a dictionary word, of 8 characters or so, that's probably about half of your possiblities right there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian w EMAIL: brian@joannou.net IP: 24.136.120.254 URL: http://www.joannou.net DATE: 08/08/2003 04:37:06 PM I think the Crypto-Gram newsletter probably has some good articles about this sort of issue. (http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html ... I should note that Counterpane is a legitimate cryptography & security website, not some l33t hax0r site masquerading as something legal) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: john.furnival@btinternet.com IP: 195.92.194.11 URL: http://infinitum.org.uk DATE: 08/08/2003 04:39:25 PM I've noticed a large number of secure sites use a number of blanks when a password is displayed even though your password may only be six or so characters long. Freeserve is a typical example. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cameron EMAIL: cameron@media.mit.edu IP: 158.111.140.62 URL: http://overstated.net DATE: 08/08/2003 04:41:33 PM Assuming that passwords are case sensitive and constrained to letters/numbers, you're talking about 26*2+10=62 possible values for each character. The number of passwords for a password length n is given by 62^n, or 62, 3,844, 238,328, and 14,776,336 for 1-4. As noted above, if we assume a network latency of 1ms (which is pretty darn fast), you're talking about 4 hours to brute force any 4 character password. Bump it up to 6 characters and it's roughly 19 years. And that's if we're only considering those at length 6... so if people always used the minimum, you're safe to say that brute force really isn't an option. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 212.159.61.42 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 08/08/2003 05:22:47 PM I hit this problem when registering for the otherwise-excellent BBCi Connector chat service. The password I use in most places on the web is six chars long. I use it when registering for places I don't care that much about (i.e. nearly all web registrations.) The BBCi Connector registration, however, demands a minimum of eight characters, which I find intensely frustrating. If it was a bank account login, I'd understand - but a chat room? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: je_apostrophe EMAIL: jay@kenyamountain.com IP: 65.115.97.154 URL: http://www.makeoutcity.com DATE: 08/08/2003 10:11:20 PM not really, say i would normally search for passwords that are only alphanumerical characters and i will search from 1 characters to 10 characters. there would be ( ( 26 + 10 + 1 )^9 + ( 26 + 10 ) ) combinations. ( 26 = the alphabet, 10 = the numbers, 1 = no character here ) but let's say i would search from 6 characters to 10 characters, that's ( 37^4 + 36^6 ) - so we decreased our search space by 00.00167% - big deal! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@unfortu.net IP: 212.135.203.107 URL: DATE: 08/09/2003 01:37:24 PM I don't know the answer to the question about user behaviour in choosing lengths of passwords I'm afraid, but no, knowing the exact length of the password you're after does not make guessing it _significantly_ easier (obviously it does make it easier, just not significantly so). The absence of a character (ie a password being 7 characters rather than 8 characters long) is only of the same weight in your calculation of time-to-crack as adding an additional possible character to the set you allow (ie. A-Za-z0-9) (in fact, it's a lot less so, as these 'blanks' can only occur contiguously at the end of the string.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@unfortu.net IP: 132.185.144.12 URL: DATE: 08/11/2003 01:19:47 PM Sorry it took me a while to dig it out, but I wanted to find a URL to go with it. The Green book (DoD password management guidelines) is a good (if brief) discussion of some of the science behind this. It's a bit old, but the maths is still valid. Read the appendices, esp. C. http://www.securityunit.com/colorbook/CSC-STD-002-85.pdf ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pb EMAIL: pb@pb.com IP: 65.206.231.252 URL: DATE: 08/13/2003 11:40:31 PM The thing is, brute force password attacks like that are uncommon. Much more common or at least troublesome are the social hacks such as the setting up of a spoof site. Or taking advantage of services that use something knowable, like email address, as the username. With a CD-ROM full of email addresses, you can run them against logins using easy to guess passwords like "password". ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A question about secret questions... STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/08/2003 12:10:07 PM ----- BODY:

    IN THIS POST I WAS BEING REALLY REALLY DUMB

    Following on from my earlier post, I have another question about password mechanisms and logon procedures. So the first thing people do is make you have a longer password to make it harder to crack. Now people still - on the whole - only use lower-case letters and no numbers in their passwords. This makes it easier to crack, because there are only a couple of dozen possible characters for each component letter of the potential password. If you put capital letters in as well, then you double the effective number of potential characters per 'slot'. And if you add in the numerals, that adds another ten. The other advantage of persuading people to use numerals in their passwords is that it makes it less likely that they'll use words from straight out of the dictionary. This is good, since that's the first approach that a brute force attack to a password would be likely to start.

    Ok, so we've gone through this entire process of getting people to have secure passwords. And that's great. That's really great. But what happens next? Well in order to get your password sent to you again (if you've forgotten it), a lot of sites have a kind of 'secret question'. When you sign up, you chose a 'secret question' to answer and then when you lose you password you get the site to ask you that question and you supply the appropriate answer.

    Now - I'm sure that I'm being weird about this - but isn't that automatically a tremendous security risk? First things first - the answer to your question is likely to be plain-text with no numerals. So that cuts down the possibilities straight-away. Add to that, when you sign up you are often presented with the full range of possible questions that you (and often everyone else) could be asked. These tend to be things like "Mother's Maiden Name", "Where you were born" or "Your favourite pet's name". I've even see "Favourite Colour" suggested.

    So when it comes right down to it, you don't need to know

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Plasticbag.org's Top Posts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/08/2003 05:10:20 PM ----- BODY:

    The most read posts on plasticbag.org over the last thirty-one days (thanks to analog and pair.com are:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Quest for Fonts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/09/2003 10:48:47 PM ----- BODY:

    First thing I have to say is that Identifont is an extremely cool and really useful font-finding utility. The next thing to say is that despite the fact it's extremely cool, it didn't help me find the two fonts that I've been scrabbling around to find for the last week. So this is where you guys come in. I figure maybe you can help me (since my life-long love, Mr. Internet, has completely let me down).

    So here we have the first font as it decorates the front cover of the July issue of The Face. Now the weird thing with this font is that I have spent weeks fiddling around with a logo with the word 'dirty' in it. Literally weeks. After about twenty passes over the logo, desperately trying to get it looking roughly accurate, I suddenly stumble upon this issue of The Face. Sitting there in my sitting room. The two 'dirty's look identical. I'm the most derivative designer alive. Nonetheless, now I want to find the damn font. It's all through the issue.. Can you help?

    Now the other font I'm looking for is - coincidentally - also in the same issue of The Face, although it's not where I saw it originally. It's a highly stylised psuedo-cursive that looks a bit like Neon. The best place to see it is on page 153 in the 'tracks' section. It's the font that they use for the name of the reviewer at the end of each review. I've seen it all over the place recently, but I can't seem to find out much about it online. Please help!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: c@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.235.226 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 08/10/2003 10:37:41 AM Have you looked through the t26 and emigre foundries? Most "directional" fonts come from there... also itcfonts and fonts.com. The first shares features with Citizen at Emigre, but it's more normal. If the tracks font is the same in the current issue, it look very similar to the one used on the recent Bjork albums/stuff. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shim EMAIL: shim@bluefish.co.uk IP: 192.114.47.54 URL: http://no.no.youdontunderstand.itsallreallybad.com DATE: 08/10/2003 11:11:15 AM http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/t26/oeiller/regular/ Found using the far, far cooler http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ after I cleaned up the image a bit >> ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Clark EMAIL: joeclark@pasdespamjoeclark.org IP: 64.231.79.106 URL: http://joeclark.org/weblogs/ DATE: 08/11/2003 12:24:01 AM Hmm. That's a surprise. _The Face_ has, for time immemorial, been famous for using custom fonts. What else did we have Neville Brody for in the 1980s? (And where is he now?) It's an index of the declining relevance of _The Face_ that they buy off the shelf. (Declaration of conflict of interest: I interviewed Brody and wrote a storyette for _The Face_ lo those many years ago on novelty fonts.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.132.45.13 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/11/2003 08:31:13 AM Awesome! Thanks to everyone concerned. To shim - that's pretty amazing, thanks so much. It's exactly the right font and thanks to Chris for pointing out that it might be the same font as the one used on Bjork's latest album (Vespertine) - I'm not sure they're identical, but it's pretty bloody close... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 193.36.79.207 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 08/13/2003 10:20:32 AM You're right, the vespertine font is different. I'm busy ordering lots of proper paper catalogues of fonts, as it's the only easy way to browse. I think The Face had to use custom fonts in those days - things like t26 and chank didn't exist. Now, if you've made a weird font, it seems easier to sell. Anyway, unless they've changed recently, I've heard The Face gets on the Internet via individual dial up modems. Can we live at this speed? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eric Olson EMAIL: eric@processtypefoundry.com IP: 24.245.6.192 URL: http://www.processtypefoundry.com DATE: 08/13/2003 01:36:29 PM The script font mentioned on page 153 in the "tracks" section is my font FIG Script. You can download a pdf on my site or try it out live at myfonts.com. Hope this helps. Best, Eric O. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paolo Colonna EMAIL: tom@tom-online.it IP: 213.140.15.167 URL: http://www.tom-online.it DATE: 08/13/2003 06:40:33 PM Tom, according to Grafik (once Graphics International) August issue, the 'dirty' font in the latest The Face make-over is indeed Oeiller, although in a slightly customized version. Ciao ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.26.153 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/17/2003 10:18:06 PM Thanks everyone! That's an incredible response far in excess of what I was expecting. Thanks for the information - I shall proceed to purchase them forthwith! ----- PING: TITLE: The Quest for Fonts URL: http://typographi.ca/000657.php IP: 216.183.98.113 BLOG NAME: Typographica DATE: 08/13/2003 03:55:26 AM Separated, as it were, at birth? “Now the weird thing with this font is that I have spent weeks fiddling... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the bloody weather... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/09/2003 11:33:43 PM ----- BODY:

    The English talk about nothing but the weather. We do this to avoid talking about ritual goat sodomy, which would otherwise be the first thing on our minds, I think. This is my honest belief. It would decimate my world-view if it was demonstrated to be untrue. At the moment there's more weather to talk about than normal. A couple of days ago we got within a degree (centigrade) of the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK. It is - bluntly - stinkingly uncomfortably depressingly miserably oppressively hot.

    Now - before you even start - everyone who lives in places that actually get much hotter than this (say in Africa example or - maybe - on the Sun) is bound to find the whole idea of it being really hot in the UK kind of funny. "Ha ha," they're almost certainly thinking as they pump out another two or three pints of blood-heavy sweat, "These English people will complain about even the smallest of heat-waves. Once when I was strapped in an oven in the Sahara for ten weeks with cayenne pepper inserted into my rectum, I complained less than this weakling English pigdog."

    Well screw you buster! First things first - compare and contrast the BBC's current European weather map with the one for North America. We're stomping all over your weather. I think London's currently beaten only by Texas and certain particularly gay areas around Miami. Next - bear in mind that English homes are - at best - designed to keep the rain off and the heat in. They are not designed to be cool and refreshing idylls amid the melting pavements. No - British homes are apparently designed for a country with a climate so temperate that any weather that strays from a ten degree range between 'moist and chilly' and 'moist and fresh' is considered almost insanely avante garde. Thirdly, as a people - we're just not bloody used to it!

    I can feel this post just kind of petering out as I run out of body salts (should I lick my own arm, would that help?) and my brain shuts down forever. No doubt I'll return for another stab at completing it in one of my many many nightly trips back to the computer that I take when I get bored of lying in my own sweat. Writhing in discomfort isn't as fun as it sounds. My only other option would be to cave my own head in with a spade in a vain attempt to get some crapping sleep already...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KO EMAIL: khalido@go4b.net IP: 202.176.255.83 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com DATE: 08/09/2003 11:59:14 PM I thought you had central air conditioning everywhere, so what are you complaining about? In Karachi when the temp drops down to 30C its considered good weather. Right now its the middle of the night and its exactly 30. You would be hard pressed to imagine what its like in the day. You did say - before you even start- well what the hell I thought might as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ralph Krawczyk, Jr EMAIL: rckrawczykjr@earthlink.net IP: 24.145.233.108 URL: http://www.screwhead.net DATE: 08/10/2003 12:29:33 AM You poor sweaty bastard. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mudge EMAIL: echo@ghostcassette.com IP: 195.92.194.14 URL: http://www.ghostcassette.com DATE: 08/10/2003 12:31:52 AM Apparently cavemen coped better with extreme weather than modern Britons. Strangely enough, it doesn't make me feel any better--or cooler for that matter. I've even had to resort to digging out shorts. That's right, shorts! I had to dig them out of the back of my wardrobe where they had been peacefully resting for the past umpteen years. Opening windows and putting fans on only seems to circulate the universally present warm air rather than provide any relief. Give me grey skies and rain-beaten flagstones any day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@yellowcandy.com IP: 81.128.186.36 URL: http://www.yellowcandy.com/brio DATE: 08/10/2003 01:11:20 AM No, there's precious little central air conditioning around here. As a matter of fact, my partner and I spent all day trying to find a place cool enough to spend a few hours. We ended up going to the Serpentine Gallery (nice choice, by the way, especially if you haven't seen the Cindy Sherman exhibit), since we figured that paintings and prints had to be kept at least a little cool and dry in the summer. But where to go tomorrow? It's meant to be as hot tomorrow as it was today. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.129.122.38 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/10/2003 10:22:41 AM Shorts?! Dear God. At work some of my colleagues wear shorts. I keep pointing out to them how wrong and immoral that is - how profoundly un-English - but they won't listen to me. They keep on gurning through their sick filthy short-weating pantomime. The world's shot to hell... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 82.43.197.147 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 08/10/2003 12:00:28 PM A good place to beat the heat is the GNER first-class carriage. I took the train down from Edinburgh yesterday, and didn't realise until I stepped out of the carriage precisely how stinkingly hot it is at the moment. It's hotter here, now, than it is in the tropical island on which I was born. On the plus side, though, it means all the fit men in London are wondering around wearing as little as they can get away with, which can only be a good thing. On a completely unrelated note, Tom, is your BBC job on Great Portland Street? I start work at another office on that street tomorrow... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.202.161.18 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 08/10/2003 12:20:41 PM It's not the heat so much, as it is the humidity. It's like the opposite of wind chill factor, it makes everything seem oppressively hotter. Granted, here in Dublin it's a few degrees cooler than in Britain, but it's still sweltering by our standards. I've got a fan running behind me, but it's just moving hot air around... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 68.83.141.31 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 08/10/2003 02:32:45 PM It's pissing hot in Pennsylvania right now, and horrible outside, mostly down to the humidity, 90%+ all the time. Barely breathable. I'd still rather be here than back in London though, simply because everywhere has air conditioning. I was trying to explain the difference to a local and suddenly realised how stupid it sounded. I had to stop trying to come up with anything convincing and just finish off by saying "...basically, English buildings are rubbish". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: archdata EMAIL: archdata@rogers.com IP: 24.157.154.187 URL: DATE: 08/10/2003 06:13:40 PM Here in Canada (southern Ontario to be specific) we regularly go from 40C (104F) in the summer to -40C (-40F) in the winter. During the summer you lie on the bed in a deluge of sweat, and the winter you lie under so many blankets you can't move. Relationships tend to be much better in the winter, as you can't stay in the same bed in the summer without a meltdown. Just for you information using the phrase "It's not the heat, it's the humidity" is a shooting offence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Poopsie EMAIL: opsiepoopsie@yahoo.co.uk IP: 81.135.62.253 URL: DATE: 08/10/2003 06:25:55 PM Darling, I am Italian and should be used to hot weather but no, here in London, it IS bloody hot and thanks for confirming that the british overcarpeted wooden houses are just not built for this! air conditioning? what's that?! mind you, in Milan is much worse and the humidity in London is actually too low at the moment... I can't even sweat! :( ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 81.128.115.78 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 08/10/2003 11:27:05 PM Shhh! The goat sodomy thing is supposed to be a secret, Tom! But seriously, yes -- it's been hot. We here in England have the most changeable weather of anywhere I've ever heard about. The reason this heatwave is significant is because we rarely have hot summers. But when they're hot... damn they're hot! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: maddy EMAIL: m_cramsie@hotmail.com IP: 203.12.53.70 URL: DATE: 08/14/2003 11:03:06 AM I come from Sydney, and we have a little joke which I shall relay for you now. Q: How do you know when a plane load of people from England has arrived at the airport? A: When they turn the engines off, you can still hear the whining. Honestly, enough bitching and complaining! I *thought* you were having a heatwave until I read that the hottest it had reached was 36C (or almost that). You should try coming down under next summer! BTW It is currently a pleasant 14C - and this is Winter at 8pm! Harharhar.... You Poms will never learn!! BWARHARHARHAR.. ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/08/10 10:29 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=3180 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 08/10/2003 10:34:27 AM More heatwave linkage ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.kuboid.com/archives/000074.html URL: http://www.kuboid.com/archives/000074.html IP: 212.73.244.51 BLOG NAME: Kuboid DATE: 08/10/2003 07:10:39 PM Everybody's complaining about the weather. Personally, I was having a great time. And then, immediately after I took this picture, my girlfriend explained to me why our relationship couldn't continue. Way to bring me down. Couldn't she have waited unti... ----- PING: TITLE: Melting URL: http://fragment.nl/archive/2003/08/12/melting/index.php IP: 80.69.66.55 BLOG NAME: Fragments DATE: 08/12/2003 02:43:18 PM I always try to avoid blogging about the weather, it's usually a sign of having nothing interesting to say. Right now I don't have much... ----- PING: TITLE: To hot to blog anything good URL: http://www.padawan.info/humor/to_hot_to_blog_anything_good.html IP: 212.180.126.177 BLOG NAME: padawan.info DATE: 08/31/2003 10:30:16 AM What with these Britons again? They beat a 50-year old speed record and go nuts. Now they come close, but... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: MP3 of FiveLive Thing.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/10/2003 11:17:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Let's bear in mind (1) that I was quite nervous (2) that I didn't really get a chance to get into my stride and that (3) I think it's quite embarrassing. Are you bearing that in mind? Ok. Then if you're ready, here's that 5live Blogging piece as an MP3 (7 Mb). Featured contestants include James VoxPolitics, Alastair S. Duck and yours truly...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ionicus EMAIL: i0nicus@yahoo.com IP: 81.96.142.145 URL: http://ionicus.blogspot.com DATE: 08/11/2003 11:42:40 AM If John Pienaar's moustache had been smaller, the whole face of errr... the bloggers would have had a chance to get into their stride. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On 'two years' of weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/11/2003 12:31:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Every single time I get asked by someone for my opinion on the whole "weblogs as journalism" thing, I give pretty much the same response. First things first - there are differences. That should be pretty obvious. One clear difference is that working for an established organisation or brand gives you access to the newsgathering machinery. By that I mean from the low-grade, cost-dependent things like being able to afford to get Reuters newsfeeds all the way up to the stuff that's all about being 'in the club' - ie. everything from being invited to movie review screenings before the film is released through to being able to be present in the press room of the White House. These latter things work on the principle that it's not possible to let all the world in to ask all the questions they might like, so there are representatives from the newspapers who ask those questions for them. Fair enough - to an extent that kind of thing is unlikely to be heavily democratised, and quite rightly so.

    The other difference between weblogs and established mainstream journalism is in terms of the brand - and more importantly the mechanisms that are supposed to lie behind that brand. The trusted brand is supposed to reflect an organisation that makes sure its journalism conforms to good standards of fact-checking, that it is guaranteed to be professional, that it asks the questions that its readers want answered and that if it is not there is a space and a process whereby redress that can be made. This is what I normally argue when asked - that although there is a lot of overlap between mainstream journalism and weblogs (particularly around opinion pieces, editorials, reviews and ... less fortunately ... regurgitated press releases), there are some things that - for the most part - are done better by the professionals. Webloggery - as yet - cannot even think of competing with the professional newsgatherers.

    Well that's what I normally say anyway - despite the fact that absolutely anyone who's ever been featured in a news story (or ever seen a news story about anything they actually know about) knows full well that journalists routinely seem to get quite important and easy-to-check facts wrong. Here's today's example in a piece about (what else) weblogging by Bill Thompson from the BBC: "All over for blogs?". And the typically offending line?

    "The earliest bloggers have been at it for two years now - how many days can someone keep on posting to their LiveJournal site, or visiting Blogger to add more details about their cat's mysterious illness? " [my emphasis]

    Decent journalists, according to my training, when they put a date or a figure in their work are either supposed to check that figure and mark it as checked, or their sub-editors are supposed to check it for them, grudgingly and with a certain amount of irrtation. I don't know where the gap in professionalism was that allowed this 'two year' figure to go to print, but I do know that it started with the person who wrote the damn article and should have checked in the first place.

    The earliest webloggers have been going for two years, then? That should make me positively primordial, since I've been posting regularly since November 1999. Meg Meish in the UK was also posting around then, I believe. Cal Henderson and Matt Webb were both definitely posting regularly over three years ago. There were loads of other people across the UK and the US who started posting around or shortly after that time. And we're all children compared to the long-haul people...

    And what's this? If you do a basic Google search for History of Weblogs you get seven articles about the origins of weblogs on the first page? And what do they say? That, "In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of 'other sites like his' as he found them in his travels around the web." [Rebecca Blood] So that's five years for certain - five and a half for certain if we include kottke.org (one of the most linked-to and visited weblogs on the internet). If we look further back, then Dave Winer started Scripting News in April 1997, a few months before the term 'weblog' was invented by John Barger of Robot Wisdom. So now we're nicely over the six year mark - and with what? Thirty seconds worth of research?

    So where does that leave us with weblogs vs. journalism? Well I still stand by my word - for the most part proper news gathering is better done by paid professionals with the budgets, access and accountability. There's still space for professionalism. And as soon as I find that professionalism evidencing itself in the opinion section of the BBC News Technology supplement, I'll let you know...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: C. Edward Thomas EMAIL: pirates@caribbean.com IP: 81.132.231.91 URL: DATE: 08/11/2003 12:43:00 AM You know the weird thing about stuff like this is that it's completely routine stuff trotted out by Bill without doing his research properly and it's under the BBC News brand. You'd think that actually checking your facts was probably quite a big deal for them - particularly at the moment when governments keep looking at them funny... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 213.107.124.21 URL: DATE: 08/11/2003 01:16:08 AM Two words for weblog archaeologists: Justin Hall. The links came first, and from the links came the life of a linker. And that's, what, pre-96? (Or even http://freedonia.com/~carl/ if you're of that mindset, though my gut feeling is that Justin's 'daze' predate Carl's periodic updating.) God, I was getting pissed with Meg Hourihan in SF *after* she'd left Blogger back in January of 2001, so the 'two years' thing is just utter fuckwittery from Bill T. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Hon EMAIL: ec@danhon.com IP: 81.96.66.243 URL: http://danhon.com/ec/ DATE: 08/11/2003 01:19:04 AM Op/ed being passed off as fact checked journalism. Who would've thought, eh? I've been blogging for (counts on fingers) probably nearly four years now - and I don't even own a cat. What's more, some people seem to not bother so much that I don't own a cat and talk about its non-existant mysterious illness. Then again, I also make efforts to correct anything I've written that's blatantly untrue. "It may be that the same thing is happening to blogs, as more and more sites are created by people with less and less to say." Well, Bill. You could go and have a look, instead of inaccurately thinking out loud. Sigh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: editor@freeblogistan.com IP: 64.169.160.130 URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/ DATE: 08/11/2003 03:37:13 AM The marker for this style of journalism is the lazy use of the "cat meme." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rhys Jones EMAIL: plasticbag@oncider.nildram.co.uk IP: 62.173.89.115 URL: http://www.oncider.nildram.co.uk DATE: 08/11/2003 09:45:26 AM This makes me feel old Tom... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren EMAIL: darren@timemachinego.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/ DATE: 08/11/2003 11:52:19 AM I did a bit of weblog archeology about UK Weblogs some time ago. The earliest blog I could find was Dan Hon's which started in January 1999. This was followed by Bifurcated Rivets in April 1999. Blogger started in August 1999 so they were both well ahead of the pack who started in late 1999 - early 2000. I'm interested if there were any other Brit Blogs out there at the time but it would not surprise me if Dan and Lindsay are the longest continuous bloggers in the UK -- 4+ years and counting! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ed EMAIL: ed@bodgmatic.com IP: 82.32.32.59 URL: http://www.soulpacific.com DATE: 08/11/2003 05:17:16 PM I replied to him for you (and me because I like cats). As I am gambling that this does not make it through the moderator, here is my half baked reply to yet more Internet snobbery: "This seems a bit more opinon than fact to me, and very snobby as well as innaccurate. A few things: 1. As pointed out by a few bloggers today, 'blogs' have been around for much longer than two years. Please do more fact checking. 2. Why should people not have a space to write about their cats? This is a cheap and moody jibe. Do we all have to discuss cyber-politics or clever bug fixes? The RSPCA is a hugely popular UK charity and loads of people love animals. Is there something wrong with that? On hot days, I'd rather discuss cats than have a frustrating rant about an unsatisfactory political system and how technology is only going to serve it's goals with ID cards, GPS and data protection-breaking microchips in clothes and money that mean my privacy dissappears. 3. Do you approach everyone in the pub and meter their conversations? "Sorry, you are wasting airspace with your normal human conversation. Please invoke conversation #3321X, 'The internet and democracy'..."? ..." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eddie Cochrane EMAIL: eddiec@cobrabay.org IP: 194.176.223.193 URL: http://www.cobrabay.org DATE: 08/11/2003 05:36:12 PM Before Jorn Barger coined the term, before the permalink, before Dave Winer posted his first link on Scripting News, before the Blink tag, before even Netscape 0.9 beta, when a would be web surfer had to knit his own Mosaic browser, the proto-blog existed. Using a copy of Mosaic, helpfully compiled for me by a colleague (I was a Unix-newbie then), each day, I would faithfully check the "What's New at NCSA" page. I started checking that page in late '94, around September-October as I recall, and it had been going for a year by then, and each day there would be another set of new links, maybe a couple, maybe 30 or more, few enough enough that in a slow morning it was possible to check most of the new web sites created around the world in the previous day. Take a look at the archive, here's September 1994, http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/old-whats-new/whats-new-0994.html OK, not much in the way of an editorial voice, it's not personal, it was intended to be inclusive after all, and it is the editorial winnowing of links that really makes a blog, but you can't look at that page and tell me that it doesn't look like a blog. It was the sheer eclectic nature which made it so enjoyable then, and is part of what I enjoy about reading blogs now. That was lost for a while, when Yahoo and the other directory sites categorised and consequently channeled our searches, but we have it back now with blogs. Blogs are serendipity on steroids. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TheDon EMAIL: blackpencildesign@hotmail.com IP: 65.92.186.173 URL: http://www.blackpencildesign.com/blog/ DATE: 08/11/2003 05:41:01 PM I think what makes blogs a more interesting read than editorials and the like is that very few bloggers try to pass off what they write as objective. Journalists and news agencies supposedly pride themselves on reporting news impartially and without an agenda but most of us know quite well that this isn't true. I figure, if I'm going to read about current events, better it be honest and acurate. As it stands a great deal of news today is inacurate, biased and driven by money not news. As a good friend of mine once said, "I get my news from blogs". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 08/11/2003 06:31:36 PM If BillBlog thinks weblogs are boring or inconsequential -- which may or may not be true -- there's a case in claiming the BBC reporting style is the same. The BBC and Weblogs have a lot in common, the designation of a Beckham correspondent is the intellectual equivalent of reporting about cats. 45 minutes of doom and two years worth of weblogs, timing is everything -- yes, yes, I know, it's a stretch, that's my point. Lets not get slap happy. I think Bill is suffering from the silly season too, August is such a boring month and the heat is getting a bit too sticky and mean. I'm sure he enjoyed firing off that missive whilst typing naked at his PC, to attract viewers. He's having a good laff and baking in the heat as we reflexively bite back. And, Mosaic with 'what's new,' I've heard this so many times -- the first weblog. It was a sign and wonder and from what I remember the links were submitted in nearly all cases, there weren't that many websites out there and the threshold of publication was very high, hence it was fresh and useful to many of my colleagues, in some academic circles we called it the 'manual'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chloe EMAIL: chloeincommunicado@watermelonpunch.com IP: 216.222.238.42 URL: http://www.watermelonpunch.com/ DATE: 08/11/2003 06:46:20 PM Directed towards Dan: I wouldn't argue the point too strongly that it's not true that there's more & more bloggers w/ less & less to say. heh. It seems to me like half the links you follow in any given link's "citation" at daypop or blogdex will take you to a blog that has a link, MAYBE an excerpt, and no personal notation at all. The only way these 'bloggers' could have less to say is if they didn't post at all. Mind you, I don't care if they post or not - but I wish there was a means by which they could be filtered out of blogdex results. haha. To TheDon: I'd say that's VERY untrue... I think a LOT of bloggers maybe not so much try to pass themselves off as objective, but really do believe they're objective! Of course, I think it's a case of people not knowing what 'objective' truly means. Not that I'm saying media journalism is 100% objective... But just the fact that my conservative co-worker thinks Fox News is unbiased, and that NPR is biased, and the fact that I'm liberal, and I think Fox News is biased, and NPR is less so... I think that goes to show it depends on your stand point. They're probably both pretty close to unbiased... or at least closer to unbiased than "Tim's Blog" or "Me The Pundit". haha. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CheeseburgerBrown EMAIL: mfdh@quackquack.com IP: 67.69.11.138 URL: http://mfdh.ca/mfdh DATE: 08/11/2003 07:55:55 PM Lumping "weblogs" together for the purposes of criticism makes about as much sense as considering all "homepages" as an analysable unit. Which homepage? On what topic? Constructed how? By whom? Blogging has simply become too diverse for the self-satisfied slings and arrows of nervous pundits to hit with a single mark. What is blogging, really? It's a homepage format. To say anything more (like "blogging borders on journalism" or "blogs are little more than simpering diaries") is nonsensical -- akin to critiquing a novel based on the layout of its table-of-contents. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.236 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/11/2003 07:56:20 PM If a member of the public expresses a like for something in a recordable way, then they're saying nothing? Interesting perspective on the electoral system you've just inadvertantly provided! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chloe EMAIL: chloeincommunicado@watermelonpunch.com IP: 216.222.238.42 URL: http://www.watermelonpunch.com/ DATE: 08/11/2003 08:36:07 PM Tom: I assume your comment is directed towards me... If someone just posts a link to a story with nothing else... that's the same as expressing a like for it? Sometimes people post links to stories they're angered by, or hate, or think are lousy... At best, posting a link with nothing else is dubious... I don't know that that's worse than 'nothing'... but YOU are the one that said "and less fortunately... regurgitated press releases..." *I* never said it was unfortunate that people did that, I just said *I* personally didn't have any interest in those blogs. So interesting perspective of your own that you just revealed. heh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: simon@croppier.co.uk IP: 172.187.56.30 URL: http://www.egosumnemo.co.uk DATE: 08/11/2003 10:39:25 PM I don't know about the rest of you, but my blog is definitely inconsequential. Does that meam I'm wasting bandwidth? Hey, if you don't like it, don't read it. I agree with ed; the blogs that I enjoy reading are the 'inconsequential' ones, about feelings, moods, and - ok - cats. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 203.164.8.222 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 08/12/2003 01:23:56 AM I've been hearing that weblogs have been passè for about three years. I personally hold to the theory that Tim Berners-Lee invented the weblog with the web; there just had to be a critical mass of other sites to comment about. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nardo EMAIL: office@soulpacific.com.au IP: 211.28.198.199 URL: http://www.soulpacific.com DATE: 08/12/2003 03:53:49 AM Mark 'MT' Twain invented blogs ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 62.58.35.2 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 08/12/2003 08:36:12 AM Pah. Pepys invented the weblog. Just google for it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rodney EMAIL: rodney@SPAMFREElifeasithappens.com IP: 62.255.76.122 URL: http://www.lifeasithappens.com/blog DATE: 08/12/2003 11:42:28 PM life as it happens has been going since 1998, though admittedly as an online journal rather than a weblog. (which makes me old enough, in internet terms, to start collecting my pension - make me a mug of cocoa and fetch my slipper, would you?). I seem to remember pretty much the same thing being said in the online journalling world a few years ago - that nobody had anything more to say. It was as untrue then as now. It's just not as shiny and new as it seemed a couple of years ago. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah EMAIL: lloannna@surfside.net IP: 66.52.22.55 URL: http://lloannna.blogspot.com DATE: 08/13/2003 10:51:49 AM I recall making online journals as an off-and-on part of my first Geocities pages back in 1996 (I signed up for a CollegePark address even though I was still a senior in high school, and then had guilt for eight months until I felt legitimate). Started again in 1998 when it seemed like everyone I knew had a daily journal of some sort online. Admittedly, I didn't call anything I did a "blog" until I signed up for Blogger in 2002, but I distinctly felt behind the times in terms of journaling online during that entire period. As to whether blogging is akin to journalism, and whether it's proper to lump all blogs together -- let's not forget how silly it is to lump journalists in with one another. A lady in my father's neighborhood distributes a photocopied page of simpering poetry and recipes and letters about how great her "newsletter" is, sometime between 1 and 6 times a month. She's much closer to the NYT in format terms than she is to a blog. I think it's clear that part of the problem is that when we say "journalism" everyone thinks BBC/NYT/FoxNews/NPR/etc., and when we say "blogging" it means different things to different people. Bill, perhaps, isn't hooked into the InstaPundit circuit, and so doesn't see the blogosphere the same way we do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 08/13/2003 02:00:20 PM Tom, you really should know better than to continue to read Bill Thompson's utter drivel. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris.a.anderson@comcast.net IP: 12.22.28.2 URL: DATE: 08/13/2003 11:30:46 PM Recording personal opinions for internet consumption has been around for far longer than 6 years. Many people I knew had .finger files that performed the same function as a weblog. Mine was started in 1987 and continued through 1992 before I gave it up. And I was not the first by any means. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: HarryP EMAIL: harryp0tter@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.126.238 URL: DATE: 08/14/2003 09:12:24 AM Tom you're disingenuous. Yes the journalist has got a fact wrong, but you're anger comes from somewhere else: You've taken it as a personal slight that the BBC is saying that blogs aren't cool. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.186.27 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/14/2003 07:11:48 PM Actually I've taken it as a professional insult to my ex-career of a journalist. The fact that I run a weblog is how I know he's wrong, it's not my reason for being angry with him. And I think I should make clear that this is nothing to do with the BBC either - since I've been working there for the last few months and I know full well what the institutions angle on weblogs is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Thompson EMAIL: bill@andfinally.com IP: 62.253.133.182 URL: DATE: 09/07/2003 06:58:58 PM [Been away, just back and stumbled across your comments on my holiday piece. Shame you didn't drop me an email to let me know it was there or I'd have been here earlier.] Tom - so I got a fact wrong and nobody corrected it. Sad but there it is - I'm sorry. I was writing at the end of a 10k GSM dialup line, and messed up. It happens. But I'm afraid that I do think there is something more going on here than you criticising me as a sloppy journalist, some deeper defensiveness about the nature of blogging and what use it all is. The fact is, I don't take blogging very seriously as a major new media phenomenon, and I think that those of you who do are wrong. I doubt we will ever agree. But it won't stop me using blog technology if it suits my purposes :-) I am first and foremost a journalist. An imperfect one (which of us isn't) but I have an editor and a set of professional responsibilities. That, I believe, makes a difference. Using blogging technology to give people a voice is fine, but don't confuse it with what is happening in online journalism. And it worries me that the BBC may be listening to the zealots again when it comes to blogging, just as they did with so many other here today gone tomorrow net technologies - remember channels? remember push technology? ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Coates fact-checks the BBC URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/08/10/tom_coates_factchecks_the_bbc.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 08/11/2003 04:04:45 AM Ordinarily, Tom Coates of plasticbag.org defends professional journalism as the province of dedicated newgathering resources and standards of professionalism, although, as he notes in On 'two years' of weblogs..., [A]bsolutely anyone who's ever been fe... ----- PING: TITLE: All in my head URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/000614.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 08/11/2003 09:11:10 AM Steven Frank: P800 Notes For now, I still have my P800, despite various threats to hock it to the... ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Cotes Goes Fact Checking URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/2003/08/12/tom_cotes_goes_fact_checking/index.shtml IP: 62.149.37.15 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 08/12/2003 10:03:32 PM I'm only linking this because my friend Tom Cotes was mentioned on MSNBC's weblog central in a para about him... ----- PING: TITLE: BBC's Bill Thompson sez... URL: http://coolstop.com/radio/archives/000136.shtml IP: 216.71.64.55 BLOG NAME: jenett.radio DATE: 08/13/2003 12:03:07 PM All over for blogs?  "The earliest bloggers have been at it for two years now - how many days can someone keep on posting to their LiveJournal site, or... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Chamber Pot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/12/2003 10:46:57 AM ----- BODY:

    To start off with - I should apologise to the various people who come here for stuff about social software. I've been thinking in very different directions with the new job and I'm only just starting to get to a space where I can start reconciling them. Having said that - I'm not really sure that my slightly tangential approach to my writing over the last few weeks has really changed the character of my site that much - certainly not enough to make the main search requests that reach my site How do I masturbate, shit and You're a Fag. Sigh. I'm the internet's chamber pot. Makes a chance from Paradoxes of Liberalism, I suppose...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 08/12/2003 05:56:13 PM Welcome to my world. I get bastards who are pissed off that I will not help them pirate Nintendo games. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Thristan EMAIL: beonlinecomms@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.198.71 URL: http://marktsinfoblog.blogspot.com DATE: 08/14/2003 03:52:46 PM Tom, what's the new direction taking you away from social software? I first came to check out your site via social software and blogging "workflow" postings that you put up - any more of this likely in the future? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.79.114 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 08/14/2003 06:41:06 PM I've recently (last 6-8 months) had hits from people looking for "free lesbo porn", "spanking slave girl", "swedish pedal pumping", "7-12 sex children fuck sex family" and "inmotion porn". But that's all small peanuts compared to: "shrine to cliff richard". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: steve@eatmypiano.org IP: 81.129.28.161 URL: http://www.eatmypiano.org/ DATE: 08/14/2003 06:58:46 PM I'm the number one site returned by MSN and Google for "Cunty Bollocks" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.186.27 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/14/2003 07:20:11 PM Mark - there will very definitely be more of that stuff in the future... Social software is still my first love, but my job is compelling me to think outside my natural field for a while. At the moment I'm busy working with Matt Webb around issues of music and radio online, the relationship of radio and music to web-sites, desktops and the like, time-shifting, tivos and social software that could support it. I'm still unsure what I can talk about externally and what must remain internal at the moment. But I've still got lots of things I want to say about pure social software and I'll try and get it out as soon as I can... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nancy dorthy EMAIL: ghettorymes2003@yahoo.com IP: 24.195.200.41 URL: http://wow DATE: 11/11/2003 12:48:29 AM hi this is nancy an di would like to say that they dont have very good description on chamber pots cause i have looked all over and have not found one zut picture ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nancy dorthy EMAIL: ghettorymes2003@yahoo.com IP: 24.195.200.41 URL: http://wow DATE: 11/11/2003 12:48:33 AM hi this is nancy an di would like to say that they dont have very good description on chamber pots cause i have looked all over and have not found one zut picture ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stuff STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/13/2003 05:29:28 PM ----- BODY: Mr Tourette, Master Signwriter The Project Gutenberg EBook of 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Power-cuts in the States... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/14/2003 11:29:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Cameron from Blogdex for pointing this out - as America is hit by a massive powercut you can track New York power consumption in real-time on the New York energy market. I suppose it would be a dumb question to ask if there's anyone online in New York or in the power-cut areas across the eastern seaboard, but if there is here's something you can do: Blackout.textamerica.com is a site that's collating images from the ground sent in by MMS. All you have to do is send in images via e-mail from your phone to blackout.814@tamw.com. That's assuming - of course - that your mobile phone network is working - which is highly suspect, I believe...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.158.178.194 URL: DATE: 08/15/2003 08:42:01 AM Yup. But if significant power-outages are the new indicator of political incompetence, and lead to calls for political change, it looks like were going to have conan the republican in the White House before long. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joe EMAIL: joe@sameperson.net IP: 141.156.20.199 URL: http://joe.sameperson.net/ DATE: 08/15/2003 12:44:59 PM It was kind of sad to look at that graph yesterday and see the "actual load" just plummet.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Awesome applications of Science! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/15/2003 09:07:33 AM ----- BODY:

    Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you six - count them - six "awesome applications of science and technology" from wooden mirrors to ships made of ice...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rich EMAIL: tramp@trampompoline.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: DATE: 08/15/2003 12:24:45 PM boo! bad link! and i really wanted to know about wooden mirrors as well... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 08/15/2003 04:52:51 PM I used to think I made some good fractals but now... sigh I guess missed the Ultrafractal bandwagon... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wonderful world of weblogging! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/15/2003 09:11:52 AM ----- BODY:

    Gasp in stunned awe at the "wonderful world of weblogging"! See the strange solitary creatures scuttling around in their underpants in rooms full of empty coke cans and pizza boxes. Beware their strange and colourful stenches!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www,whereveryouare.org.uk/ DATE: 08/15/2003 09:22:52 AM If I was still a Blogger user, strangely enough I think I'd probably be slightly grateful that the system wouldn't allow me to find posts I made before 2001 - mainly because posts on my site before that date were utter crap. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 67.41.217.35 URL: http://chronotope.com DATE: 08/15/2003 06:22:09 PM That no posts prior to 2001 thing is the biggest pain in the ass. Blogger gets no more blowjobs from me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Davis EMAIL: pothin@terra.com.br IP: 200.176.186.141 URL: http://www.ddpdosul.blogger.com.br DATE: 08/16/2003 01:54:59 AM Unfortunately some people here in Brazil are not aware how important it is to preserve the environment, specially our specific nature. I think Brazilians are so used to the abundance of natural resources that they think they will never end. Luckily, some non-governmental organizations and even some communities are trying to change this scenario, providing ecological education and making some important companies aware of their responsibility with the well being of our people. Ps. By the way, congrats for your weblog and donít forget that you have a faithful reader here from Brazil. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Magic Palace of Design and Fonts! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/15/2003 11:07:24 PM ----- BODY:

    Come closer! Come closer! Our tour of the epic achievements of the interweb progresses! See as we approach the Palace of Design and fonts, inlaid with Mother of Pearl and Lapis Lazuli, filled with epic gauntlets as big as a man dribbling with pomegranate juice and ice-filled silver bathtubs cooling design mangos and fresh typeface champagne...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Karen EMAIL: karen@manic.com.sg IP: 165.21.154.11 URL: http://www.manic.com.sg/blog/ DATE: 09/15/2003 05:30:40 AM About Fig, which you said was the original Bjork vespertine font. I looked at it and it looks *quite* different from the script font on my vespertine album. In fact, none of the characters look the same. Any reason you think it's the original vespertine font? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Rand EMAIL: Dave@profonts.com IP: 65.19.174.35 URL: http://www.font-download-free-fonts.com/foundry/download.htm DATE: 04/14/2004 09:25:08 PM You can get free fonts here.... www.font-download-free-fonts.com/foundry/download.htm ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thrills and spills in Current Affairs! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/16/2003 12:07:15 AM ----- BODY:

    Don't give up faith, my children - our epic journey is reaching its conclusion! But first it's time for the thrills and spills of the dark and dirty depths of current affairs, journalism and politics. Will you lose your very soul to the mischief and profanity? Will the dark clammy hand of fate slide down your back towards your trousers? Slow and methodical but relentless?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Sage Beauty of Apple Computers! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/16/2003 12:12:13 AM ----- BODY:

    Our penultimate ride today (ladies and gentlemen) will be a sedate and elegant one indeed. Clamber about your transport - the translucent white ones are slower but I think more elegant - and prepare to see the view from above the great fields of Apple Computing! An experience not to be missed... One day only...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Linklogs... STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/16/2003 11:52:19 AM ----- BODY:

    If there's one thing I've learned from the last week or so it's that I probably need a separate linklog on this site. I'm not necessarily particularly keen on the idea - I keep aspiring to a consolidation of my weblogging aspects. I like the idea that the side of my weblog that faces the world is built of something pure, complete and self-contained rather than being a conceptually ugly (but easier and actually really effective) hybrid of multiple weblogs (and sometimes weblogging systems). But at the same time I don't want to A linklog makes that difficult.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Disposable Happy Trash of Fun Love Stuff! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/16/2003 08:23:30 PM ----- BODY:

    And here we are at the end of our tour of the best and worst that Theme Park World has to offer. We've experienced the intellectual highs of science, the corrupt dismal depths of current affairs and the gleaming happy purity of the ever-present loving touch of mothership Apple. But at the end of our journey - what will you take with you? What goody bag will return back with you to the humdrumity of 'I.R.L.'? I'll tell you what... A motley selection of linky trash fun!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the distribution of gay teenagers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 08/16/2003 09:44:50 PM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday (via new-favourite-weblog Let Me Get This Straight), I stumbled upon an article about a Bronx senator and a conservative legal group in Florida who are suing the Harvey Milk school in New York with discrimination. The Harvey Milk school is the target of this attack because it is 'the gay school" - it's being accused of discrimination because (apparently) it discriminates against straight students (Lawsuit challenges gay high school). Now the school is unlikely to have too much trouble with this threat because it's actually open to students of any sexuality. It's perhaps not too much of a shock, however, that only gay students really want to enter into a programme that's marked as being particularly capable of meeting their needs of people who are experiencing problems at their schools on the basis of their sexuality. I'd love to see the barely-hidden smile when they say, "We're open to anyone who's having trouble at their schools because of their sexuality - so find me a straight kid who's being beaten up and harrassed by an overwhelming force of gay students and is being failed institutionally by an entirely gay staff and they're in..." In fact in many ways this whole enterprise is a really bad idea for the anti-gay people - they're just providing a platform for gay activists to detail all the ways in which our education systems fail gay teenagers [cf. On Homophobic Bullying in Schools].

    Now I've had a couple of conversations with friends about the Harvey Milk school and they've been quite surprised by my feelings towards it. They assume it's a kind of ghettoisation and that we should instead be fighting to make all schools gay-friendly. Certainly, this isn't an uncommon feeling among gay people - the respondents to the Let me Get This Straight post aren't uncritical. But I'm not critical at all - in fact quite the opposite. First and foremost I'm supportive because the specifics of the functioning of the school aren't really encapsulated in the phrase 'gay school' very well - I think there's generally a misunderstanding about what the school is there to achieve and when you explain its function to people, they pretty much get it immediately. It's not there because gay children are a problem, and it's not there to try and detach them from straight people or 'normal' life in any way - it's there because the kids are getting regular, daily harrassment in their current school - harrassment that is almost impossible to control, permeates everywhere and can be extremely dangerous. Of course these things should be fixed at the source - school shouldn't be a homophobic environment - but while they are, in extreme cases, you can understand the reasoning...

    The other aspect of this is more complicated and I think it's got something to do with the geographic distribution of gay children. Now the most obvious grounds for discrimination are probably things like religion, race, background or gender. For every single one of those things, while there are some schools in which one religion, race, background or gender might be in a significant minority, there are other schools in which the same 'type of person' will be in the majority. In religion, race and background these things are likely to be geographically determined - what's a minority in one place will be a majority elsewhere. And (all things being equal, as in fact they never are) that means that there's always the possibility of moving to a place where your child will not be judged on the basis of that one signifier.

    Gender is different of course - there isn't (for example) a massive geographical clumping of women around Nottingham. But still - there's a roughly 50/50 split in boys and girls in pretty much every reasonably sized area in the world, so any places where there are lots of boys will mean a different place with lots of girls nearby. And of course - in terms of gender and schools - there are more often than not only really three stable states - girls only, boys only or roughly 50/50 (with exceptions of course for schools that place different emphases on subjects that attract one gender more than the other but are open to both - not uncommon, but also normally evened out by the presence locally of schools that complement them).

    Now gay kids are in a different situation. Firstly, they're not in any way geographically clumped. If living in a specific area would normally mean that the people you go to school with would be on average more similar to you on all the axes of religion, background, income and race (language even), it bears no relationship to whether or not they're going to be gay or not. This makes it quite distinct from the geographical spread of gay adults, who tend towards cities where there's more opportunity to clump into interest communities and lifestyle communities. But gay parents don't necessarily have gay children, if they have children at all - so even in the most gay areas on the planet, there are still going to be no more gay kids than the 0.5% - 10% seem worldwide.

    So they're not geographically clumped, but nor are they evenly balanced like the genders. Gay kids represent a disreet chunk of the school-attending population - but not a particularly large chunk. The figures for the incidence of homosexuality among adults vary dramatically depending on which study you believe, but the consensus is that it's probably somewhere between 0.5% and 10%. At school, the figure of kids who are out to their friends and families (let alone to the world at large) will be considerably smaller than this figure.

    So what does this mean? It means, fundamentally, that gay kids will pretty much always be in the minority at their schools. They'll pretty much always be considered the freaks and they'll pretty much always have to see themselves as strange, different or abnormal. In this they probably have much more in common with groups with unusual inherited mental or physical attributes that have the potential to ostracise - and that's everything from severe physical handicaps all the way to the unusually bright. Some of these groups we don't have second thoughts about schooling differently - autistic children or the insanely clever for example. Others (those with physical problems for example) we try to integrate into local schools - because we believe that whenever possible a physical problem shouldn't be a reason to stop an individual having the same options and opportunities as anyone else.

    So that brings us to gay teenagers - what group are they in? Do they deserve access to the same options and opportunities as everyone else - clearly yes. But do they also have needs that aren't likely to be met in a school in which they'll always be in a radical minority. I'd say yes to that too. A gay teenager should have the opportunity while at school to realise that there are loads of other people like themselves, to forget - for a while at least - that they are not like everyone else. They should also have the opportunity to meet and date and flirt with other teenagers without wondering if they're going to get beaten up. They should have the ability to have crushes on people without it being statistically inevitable that they'd have them on straight people. They should have the opportunity to do all that learning about relationships and going steady that are open in principle to straight people in general (even if many straight kids don't feel able to take advantage of them).

    So where does that leave us? Clearly the Harvey Milk model isn't right for every gay kid or - indeed - even every big city. Nonetheless something needs to be done. There has to be some way for all gay teenagers to have someone to advise them without worrying that their secret will get back to their families before they're ready to tell them themselves. And there has to be a way for gay kids to have those Dawson's Creek moments that their straight friends wander through without realising how lucky they are. Maybe better guidance counsellors and gay summer-camps are the answer - who knows... But let's not close our minds to the option of schools that advertise themselves as gay-friendly just yet, eh? The situation's too grim at the moment to shut any options completely off...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: raoul parekh EMAIL: raoul_parekh@hotmail.com IP: 80.189.6.166 URL: DATE: 08/18/2003 08:08:43 PM I agree with what you say about discrimination against gay teenagers compared to that by race or religion etc., but what about another common cause of bullying - obesity? You sort of allude to this in your bit about physical abnormalities, but I don't really see the difference between being bullied because you're fat and being bullied because you're gay (especially if the fatness comes from some sort of genuine physical problem). Don't fat children have the same right to "wrealise that there are loads of other people like themselves, to forget - for a while at least - that they are not like everyone else"? I'm not sure I'm against this school completely, but I do think there's a possible double standard here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.26.153 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/19/2003 12:08:42 AM Well at some level yes - certainly - I wouldn't see anything intrinsically wrong with a school for obese people, if the people concerned had specific needs and represented a sufficient percentage of the population for such a school to be in any way pragmatic (I don't know the percentage of people with serious weight problems in schools, so I don't know how much of a catchment area it would need to have to work). Having said that, there are some distinctions here - a child with an illness or physical abnormality would ideally not be obese - and if there's a way of helping them deal with that situation then it would be irresponsible not to try and offer them all the benefits of a totally integrated life as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: zxfiles@yahoo.com IP: 68.185.244.207 URL: DATE: 08/19/2003 01:21:49 AM Hello, One of my concerns is the fact that the school is being publicly funded via tax dollars. I feel this is something that needs private funds. Would you (not just you, anyone) be willing to have your tax dollars go to fund a Christian-based school or a school for obese children? Should an athiest have to pay for a school based on a belief in God? Another idea...What if Muslim children in the US feel threatened because of 9/11 backlash? Would it be okay to set up a school just for them? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.30.109 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/19/2003 08:37:08 AM Well that's a different question I think - there are issues around what religious activity can happen in public schools in America I believe, and I don't really know enough about that to comment. I'm going to stay with what I know and try and talk around that. Whatever the percentage is of gay adults in the country, it's important to remember that they still all pay taxes and they're still all citizens. Every one of them also went to school at some point. In fact - as a percentage of the population - there's basically a direct analogy between the number of gay tax-payers and the number of gay students. I think it's really important that we don't assume that the people who pay for schools that are supportive to gay children would be exclusively straight, white, middle-class people. I'd be interested to know what the figures are on the amount of tax paid as well - while I don't believe that gay people are any more talented on average than anyone else, the fact that most out gay people move to cities at some point probably means that they're earning more money than average and hence paying more tax. The question you could ask here might be why - if they're paying all this money towards the state, it should go exclusively towards an education system that supports straight children but not gay children - particularly as gay men and women are less likely to have children themselves that would put pressure on the system. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ryan EMAIL: guy@storyofaguy.com IP: 128.125.232.96 URL: http://www.storyofaguy.com DATE: 08/24/2003 06:51:13 PM Also, in terms of tax dollars--the school isn't discriminating against straight students, it just doesn't necessarily appeal to them. And, with regards to tax dollars funding religious education, in the state of Louisiana, at least, state funds provide textbooks, computers, and various other supplies for every school, including parochial institutions. (The state-provided materials cannot be used to teach religion classes, but are used in every other area of the school.) Several other states have similar programs--I don't know if New York is one of them. So atheist tax dollars are funding Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, etc. education. And I wish I could answer the point about obesity without saying that "it's a choice" and is an entirely different problem to issues of sexuality and gender. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh EMAIL: josh@inseasonout.com IP: 68.18.59.41 URL: http://trackten.com DATE: 09/02/2003 05:53:01 PM In school (grade 7-11 or so) I was pretty severly harrased/abused/mocked as well as beaten quite a few times for being overly feminine. I'm a hetro-sexual male, who is also a born again christian, so while not neccesarrily the target market for the school, I would have been some-what of a likely canidate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Damien Mulley EMAIL: damien@mysurname.net IP: 194.165.175.8 URL: http://mulley.net DATE: 09/07/2003 05:56:34 PM And this site just gets better. Just read wandered on to this post now. I live in Ireland and the whole sexuality in schools never came up. We're still forced with catholicism in schools mostly and as a teen who was questioning his sexuality in school having the school not mention anything but heterosexuality in religion class or other subjects was hard. It was all "lets talk about guys liking girls and girls liking guys. " Its pretty much still the same and guys and girls are afraid to come out. Schools are meant to educate and get us ready for society and when it comes to sexuality they are ignoring a lot of peoples needs. I also know that they are refusing to let gay organisations in to talk to students. I'm no longer a teen although I still try and retain my teenage angst :) . I'm pretty well sorted now in life but from various gay discussion forums in Ireland gay teens are still pretty saddened by schools views on sexuality. I've decided with some others to put up a website dedicated to Teenage Sexuality issues. I've talked to other Gay Adult Support groups and they are all afraid to broach the subject too. Theres a great website for kids in Northern Ireland - http://www.glyni.org.uk and I hope to create a resource as good as theirs. As for what Richard commented about tax dollars. If the education program of the school matches and/or exceeds what the government stipulates a school has to carry out then it should not matter who attends the school, be it race ,physical appearance, religion or sexuality. Education is a basic human right. A lot of these schools are passionate about looking after their pupils and are moreso than some ordinary school who have burned out teachers. So schools founded cos they really give a damn should be welcomed. Its a good use of tax dollars isn't it ? ----- PING: TITLE: Damien - 104th result in Google URL: http://www.mulley.net/archives/000102.html IP: 212.69.192.225 BLOG NAME: Mulley blog - Damiens ranting DATE: 09/07/2003 07:27:50 PM So can I get into the top ten for the search result for Damien ? I'm no. 1 for Mulley which is great but I want top ten for Damien too. What an ego boost for this already huge ego.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Here be monsters? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/16/2003 11:32:20 PM ----- BODY:

    A selection of weird "it's been in the back of my head for a while now" posts about trying to find my biological father: Looking for Tom Coates (Jan 2002), On searching for 'father' (Nov 2001), Ring random people with my father's name (Sept 2001), Pictures of my father (Jan 2001). This might be the time to acknowledge publically that - in fact - I have been using Google adwords to try and get information about my father, which I know is a bit weird, but hey - it makes my brain hurt a bit when I think about it, so what do you expect? Rational behaviour? If you want to see the Google Ad, then it's here. Please don't click on it, as it costs me money and it just goes to one of the pages above.

    My position on finding my father has always been a bit vague. I really really didn't want to talk about it with my mother. I didn't want to ask her any information or anything. And - of course - this would have made the whole process of finding him nigh-on impossible, assuming that I actually started looking for him seriously, which I never really have. And why? I think the reason I haven't is because I'm scared - scared of whether he'd like me, scared of whether he'd be appalled of me being gay, scared of whether when I find him he'll be already in the ground and that then I'll have only the certainty that I'll never know either way if he'd be proud or ashamed of me.

    This all sounds a bit cheap-airport-novel to me, but no doubt in some way it's true enough.

    So what have I done? In possibly the most half-hearted campaign ever, I've looked his name up on a few online directories (his name is the same as mine - go figure), and I've sent several dozen e-mails to complete strangers around the world with the same name. I've stuck up a Google Ad.

    But that's all the trivial stuff. More importantly I've made myself very visible. My father worked in computers for crap's sake, back when you debugged machine code with ball-point-pens on big stacks of paper with perforated strips down the side punched with holes. If he was still alive today he must have been on the internet at least once, right? He must - sometime in the last ten years or so - have typed his own name into a bloody search engine? Right? And I've been here - the most internet-visible "Tom Coates" in the world - owning something like seven of the top-ten "Tom Coates" spots on Google. I'm like a bloody massive flashing beacon of findableness. I'm the fucking atom bomb on a dark night. And has he seen me? Has he arse.

    I feel a bit like the SETI Project to be honest. Lighting up the darkness with a seeming infinity of radio waves and broadcasts. Radio, TV, Web, Print... I'm here! Anyone who wanted to could find me a moment! So why don't they come?

    Anyway - now I know more than I ever have before because - dear god - I've finally had that conversation with my mother. I now know that the invisible parent was born in August 1940. I know that he went to the same school as Dudley Moore (which I think was Dagenham County High School). This was a surprise - in the back of my head I'd always assumed he was from Norfolk like my mum. This makes me more city-folk industrial by history than I'd expected. Apparently he worked for Honeywell computers and then 'Digital Computers' in America for a while. My mother said they chose him because he had a funny brain. And he evidently had a fair share of personal issues with his family. Apparently his mother died and his father remarried. He didn't like the new woman much it seems...

    So what now? I know that you're supposed to take information like that to St Catherine's House and that they're supposed to tell you all about whether he's alive or dead or not or where he's living now - or if he's even in the country (or alive, which I'm beginning to doubt). But while I know what you do with the information cerebrally, emotionally I don't think I have a clue what to make of the whole thing. Just learning all this stuff was a strange and disconcerting experience - I could feel my brain squirrelling the information out of my conscious mind as quickly as possible, out of sight, out of the way. But I can feel it lurking, like an irritating piece of meat stuck in your back teeth that you keep tonguing but can't get out. And if you did get it out there would be no certainty that it wouldn't explode to massive inconceivable size, sprout tooth and scale and claw and take my bloody head off. "You've gone way off the map, Sonny," my mind seems to say in full Geoffrey Rush Pirates of the Caribbean style. "Here be monsters".

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.156.1 URL: DATE: 08/17/2003 12:39:19 PM Have you never known him or did he leave when you were very little? Is this need to find him about tying up loose ends re your own history or will you not be satisfied unless you can actually develop some kind of relationship with him? One thing's for sure after your post above, you can't just leave things half finished. You need to pursue this to the end even if it hurts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.199.193 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/17/2003 12:54:24 PM He and my mother divorced when I was two, I think. And I think he was around occasionally until I was about four, but I haven't seen or heard from him since then. My mother heard from him when I was about eight though. Nothing since. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Thomas EMAIL: no@email.com IP: 195.92.194.18 URL: DATE: 08/17/2003 01:27:04 PM I'm not ready yet ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.26.153 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/17/2003 07:35:37 PM ... and passing swiftly on ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com/ DATE: 08/17/2003 08:16:22 PM My daughter's mother left us when she was 2. She's now 9. I have the same weird feelings. I know that she can read and I know she knows how to use the net. I am very very findable and I have no doubt that if she wanted to find me she could in seconds. It's difficult for both of us to know she could find us if she chose to and instead chooses not to. I personally would rather her not contact us as I want nothing to do with her. But reading your post I can easily see my daughter going through the same thing in a couple of decades. Good luck in your search. I hope you don't come to regret what you find. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian A EMAIL: istrada@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.68.51 URL: DATE: 08/18/2003 07:19:08 AM My p&M divorced when I was about 2 too. I was brought up by an enlightened stepfather who made every effort to treat me and the three half siblings alike. Finally met bio-father's mother when I was in my mid-20s and I was holidaying in their city. Exchanged a couple of letters with him and we both lost interest before we ever met. My "dad" was the one who (for better or worse) did the fathering, not the impregnating. I don't wonder/care about the biological one and that's obviously mutual. I don't think he would have made any difference to who I am now. But I will be interested to follow up on your endeavours, Tom, and to hear what you make of the experience. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: russell higgs EMAIL: familyofbreath@ratservers.co.uk IP: 217.42.123.52 URL: http://www.conformandobey.co.uk/blog.html DATE: 08/18/2003 10:01:16 AM i'm told by my mum that i'm named after my dad's 2 favourite men. i've got the russell from bertrand russell and the shaw from george bernard. i count my blessings that i'm not called berty george (while had i been a girl i'd have been tracy anne). i mention this because my dad died when i was 10. as an adult i have grown to appreciate the importance of blood, especially as i have no relatives that i can in any way truly relate to intellectually. the mythologised concept that my dad admired these 2 thinkers makes me wish i could have an opportunity to meet him and talk with him. most memories of him now are very much based on photos. i'm aware that i don't remember his voice, his accent etc. and i can only speculate that we perhaps shared a similar temprament and mind. sometimes i have played a game in the street where i'll see a stranger from behind who bares a resemblance to him and i'll run through a fantasy that my dad isn't dead and this man is him. i could just go up to him and tap him on the shoulder. what will we talk about? what will he make of me? an acquaintance of mine met his dad for the first time and discovered they shared the same favourite books. belonging and biological rootedness are important things. i hope very much that you do find him. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Emily EMAIL: emily@strangechord.com IP: 12.224.129.146 URL: http://www.strangechord.com DATE: 08/19/2003 05:57:54 AM Tom, I really feel for you. I have never met my father and finally called him on the telephone about two years ago for the first time. What had me finally grow the guts to pick up that phone was that I knew what a personal triumph it would be to realize that kind of courage, because I was really scared. Even though no relationship came out of that short call, I am soooo complete - both with him and most satisfyingly, with myself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.145.254 URL: DATE: 08/19/2003 08:37:31 PM I think in a way that's tougher than if he'd never been around in the first place. To have spent those years with you and then never attempted to get in touch again... I can imagine how abandoned I'd feel. No excuse for that. Do you think there's a chance your mother may have stopped him getting in touch, considering it's obviously been difficult to broach the subject with her in the past? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.156.241 URL: DATE: 08/20/2003 05:07:36 PM Anyway there's a programme on next Wednesday on Channel 4 called Looking For Dad (9pm) - a two-parter about people searching for their biological fathers. You may find it helpful in some way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 207.140.66.1 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 08/21/2003 07:23:21 PM Tom: very appropriate the title of this post: "Here be monsters" used to denote the uncharted territories, the place where the sea ended in an abyss, and untold horrors existed. What happened is that, once these sailors went on, they discovered a new continent, full of new ideas, stars, treasures, as well as its share of difficulties. But such is life. I hope that your search end finds a favorable resolution, favorable for you, one that allows you to grow and find that piece of yourself for which you are obviously looking. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: karen EMAIL: thebatchelerfamily@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 213.48.42.33 URL: DATE: 08/23/2003 02:08:14 AM Hi Tom Dudley Moore went to a school in Dagenham fairly near to where I used to live,the primary school is in or near to Bonham Road in Dagemham towards Chadwell Heath its now an assessment base for special needs children but surely they would have records etc. Its a weird suggestion but the mormons in utah have a family tree tracing thing called "onegreatfamily" he could be on there?(Im not a mormon BTW) Can you also trace voters lists in a certain areas I know thats how I would approach it. More depressingly there are death and burial records, I hope it isnt that but at least you would know why he hasnt replied? All the best Tom, it cant be easy, dont lose sight of yourself being wonderful as ultimately thats most important. Karen ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tish MacDonald EMAIL: montymoomoo24@hotmail.com IP: 81.132.48.171 URL: DATE: 10/23/2003 11:32:43 AM I to am trying to trace my farther which is proving very complicated as i have so little information,its been nearly thirty years since he parted company with my mother and remained in Scotland.Like yourself i wonder if he would except me i doubt we have very little in comman and like you i have reached another dead end and wonder if i should throw in the towel.Yet part of me like yourselfcan,t stop wondering about our absent fathers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I do in my spare time... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/17/2003 07:17:47 PM ----- BODY:

    Everybody has a space alien twin - who watches over us day and night: "For every human being on Earth, there appears to be an alien counterpart who takes care of them when times get tough, who shares the same thoughts and who bears a remarkable resemblance to them physically," says respected cosmologist Dr. Thomas Coates. "This relationship appears to be the true cause of thousands of so-called abduction experiences -- and perhaps every story we've ever heard about guardian angels."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 08/17/2003 07:49:16 PM I somehow found that alien face with the bosom body arousing. I wonder if regression analysis will reveal secret flings with Aliens in smoothy silk underwear. Oh wait, there's a flaw in this thinking.... perhaps. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: russell higgs EMAIL: familyofbreath@ratservers.co.uk IP: 217.42.123.52 URL: http://www.conformandobey.co.uk/blog.html DATE: 08/18/2003 10:10:14 AM i was told by someone once that the occurence of twins in the womb at an early cellular level is much more common than we'd imagine. that therefore many people have a lifelong sense of grieving and searching for their unborn twin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: suw EMAIL: suw.charman@ntlworld.com IP: 62.253.96.42 URL: http://chocnvodka.blog-city.com/ DATE: 08/18/2003 10:50:02 PM If there's a guardian alien watching my every move and supposedly looking out for me, I'd really like to know where the hell it was when I packed my last job in and why the hell it didn't tell me to take a holiday instead of quitting. For this failure alone it deserves a damn good hiding. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 207.140.66.1 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 08/21/2003 06:55:28 PM The weirdest theories are often the correct ones. And certainly, wouldn't it be better to have an all knowing guardian, taking care of us little humans, than to go alone? An alien taking care of us from the distance would be nice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.30.109 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/21/2003 10:04:23 PM Hmm. I'm not so sure about that. Sounds a bit creepy to me. My friend Cal once said something about God that I think's vaguely pertinent - "So God's everywhere, right? So does that mean he watches children undress?" ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guardian launches new weblog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/18/2003 12:43:16 PM ----- BODY:

    If you go to the front page of the Guardian today, the third story down isn't a story at all. In fact it's nothing less than a link through to a new weblog that the Guardian are supporting - KickAAS - designed as a resource and platform for activists campaigning against agricultual subsidies. Now from what I remember, the OnlineBlog was set up as a bit of a sideline and didn't initially go through normal brand-control channels (I could be completely wrong on that), but this one must have been approved. I'll be interested to see how it develops - will it be brand-enhancing, will it be brand-destroying, or is it going to pod itself off from the main site and take on a complete life of its own - the first of many weblog projects? [Thanks to Jones for the link]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 62.105.175.42 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 08/18/2003 02:52:37 PM I'm not sure if I've read you correctly, but I don't really think that the Guardian were thinking of their brand when they launched this one. I mean, agricultural subsidies really are indefensible, and the Guardian are doing the right thing here. They deserve respect for taking a stand. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/18/2003 03:30:17 PM I'm just interested in it as a model and whether it's the start of a trend or an abortive experiment. Their motives are clearly pure. I wonder whether they're running it like this because they'd like to keep the blatant campaiging site distinct but parallel from the news resource. That would be a fascinating model, but I'd love to haev been a fly on the wall in the marketing meeting. Most large organisations are obsessively careful about uses of their brand... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 08/18/2003 04:12:39 PM One interesting thing is that it's using the seemingly fantastic Typepad! Oh and kudos to the Guardian, because Agricultural subsidies are a vital, outrageous subject... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Von Klimpel EMAIL: no@email.com IP: 195.92.194.18 URL: DATE: 08/19/2003 06:49:33 PM Slightly off topic, but have you seen all the PDFs of the documents from the Hutton enquiry here: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/documents/0,13758,1003078,00.html Some security person has crossed out some of the lines (too sensitive presumably), but you can still (just about) read them Look at this file: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Politics/documents/2003/08/19/powell_no_threat.pdf I can make out "The document says nothing about these and TB (Tony Blair) will...blah blah ... different .... US ...once ..." I'm sure someone with time on their hands could work out what all the crossed-out lines are. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On album sales and piracy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 08/18/2003 03:24:44 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm not particularly in the mood to get too involved in this discussion at the moment, but I just thought it interesting that the music businesses hysteria about piracy destroying the music business doesn't seem to be being borne out by the fact that album sales are at an all-time high. Here's a quote from the Guardian article:

    "Music album sales in the United Kingdom have defied the industry's alarm calls about piracy, shrugging off the world of CD burning and internet file sharing to reach a record high. After a dip in the first quarter of the year, sales hit a new peak of 228.3m at the end of June, almost 3% up on last year. The figure published yesterday by the British Phonographic Industry marks the fifth consecutive year that album sales have topped 200m."

    Now there's a slump in the sale of singles (but then that's been happening for years anyway) and - admittedly - the increased sales are mainly in discounted CDs, which has meant a small drop in the industry's profits, but really - album sales at all time high does not seem to me to correspond that well with "piracy is destroying the music business"... What am I missing here?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/18/2003 03:36:13 PM Also interesting (although I don't agree with it) is the Guardian's Comment section which seems to argue that there isn't a problem at all. Now whether it's a problem or not isn't yet clear, but it's certainly more than conceivable that online piracy could (and quite possibly will) strike a terrible blow to the music industry. I should point out that my problem is only with the statements that this is already happening at any dramatic level... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 65.95.114.59 URL: http://fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 08/18/2003 03:59:34 PM i don't think it's that much of a blow - maybe record labels and record stores (like HMV, Virgin, etc) should decrease CD prices to something more affordable. these days (past two years) i've only bought used CDs...it's to expensive sometimes for completley new releases. this way i wait a while till those new releases show up at used CD stores. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 62.105.175.42 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 08/18/2003 04:09:57 PM I just read this report, which shows that the arguments we're used to hearing from record companies may well be false. If the studies cited are correct, the current boost in album sales can be partly attributed to online music distribution, as 87% of people who download music go on to buy the album. A while back, I was predicting the online music revolution. I still stand by some of my economic arguments, but as this more sober analysis shows, intellectual property issues will remain the big obstacle for the record labels, despite evidence of the benign impact of online distribution. Piracy isn't destroying the music industry, but it's making it more competitive. Big companies with partial monopolies don't like that at all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 08/18/2003 04:10:07 PM Well some people argued that the decline in sales (that was very clear a few years ago, maybe not much in the UK) was due to the price-fixing effected by the recording-industry, so that if they charged a decent price, people wouldn't need to download so much. Those recent statistic you cite, Tom, seem to prove this! If you don't believe companies have been fixing prices for eons, check this tacit admission: http://www.musiccdsettlement.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Max Leibman EMAIL: theory@leibman.us IP: 199.200.9.126 URL: http://theory.leibman.us/ DATE: 08/19/2003 01:50:25 PM I think the thing that terrifies the music industry most is not that album sales as a whole will decline--which, it seems, they aren't--it's that they no longer have any control over WHICH album sales are increasing. File-sharing (and information spread through other means online) is democratizing music sales, allowing the consumer to find stuff they really, truly want to listen to. New artists who would have languished in Local Band Hell for years in previous decades can now get heard and start selling internationally before their albums even appear. In other words, the music biz's attempts to commodify its output (modern country, rap clones, boy bands, bad girls, Everybody Sounds Like Creed for a couple months, etc.) are threatened. The few predictable cash cows are being replaced by a broader market. More artists are selling less albums apiece, but more music moves overall. If I had built MY industry on the concept of "making" hits and artists and the public buying what I made because that's all they got to hear about, I would be terrified, too. The big players in the music industry will have to abandon committees and develop better coolhunters if they want to avoid being washed away by smaller players that can finally find an audience. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: asli EMAIL: asliarun@hotpop.com IP: 203.200.197.66 URL: http://kaa.blogspot.com/ DATE: 08/19/2003 03:18:52 PM I think that the bottomless greed of RIAA and such would still cause them to argue that album sales would be higher IF file-trading stopped. I think this witch-hunt is not based on economics, but simply the ego of a behemoth that has been rattled. Rattled not by another company but by a mere group of people. This might seem like hyperbole but i like to think of it as Darwinian. The alpha male has set a few examples to maintain dominance of the pack. It usually has nothing to do with need, only greed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Glenn EMAIL: glennpeoples@hotmail.com IP: 65.206.114.184 URL: DATE: 08/20/2003 04:51:34 PM I'm employed in the music business in NYC, and I can attest that piracy is one of reasons--not the only reason--the industry is in shambles. The economy is one reason. The lack of exciting new artists is another reason. But believe me, I wouldn't have nearly as many unemployed friends if people didn't think online piracy was benign. The RIAA is not acting out of greed. It is acting to protect the assets of its members. Record labels invest a great deal of money in recordings. Why should they stand aside and let people acquire their property free of charge? People hate to hear this, but music is a business. If you want free music go down to the street corner and listen to the man busking for loose change. I find online music piracy to be nothing more than shameless greed. One of the basic laws of economics says that if an item is given away for free, people will consume as much as possible, and often more than they rationally need to consume. This is greed, pure and simple. And what about the price for a CD? In real terms, the price of a new CD has remained level since introduced in the mid '80s. In NYC, you can still buy a CD for less than a pizza. Yet I've never heard anybody bitch about the price of pizzas. One reason people think CDs cost too much is because DVDs are priced so low. This has affected the perceived value of the CD. In relative terms, the CD "seems" expensive. One tenet of Western economics is protection for patent holders, copyright owners and the like. Without these protections, there is less incentive to develope and create new products. Entire industries--certainly many in computers and hi-tech--have been created because these protections allow business to flourish. Take away the protections and you take away business. Record labels have less of an incentive to record and release music. At the end of the day, everybody is worse off...the labels, the artists and music consumers as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Max Leibman EMAIL: theory@leibman.us IP: 199.200.9.126 URL: http://theory.leibman.us/ DATE: 08/20/2003 06:06:52 PM In reading Glenn's comments, I realized I left a door open in interpreting my views that I hadn't intended to. I didn't point to the trend as inherently good or bad. I'm a believer in copyright and patents. I have nothing against the profit motive and I'm not supporting free music as a political or economic cause. I'm just presenting the situation as it appears to me--certain labels and blocs may be losing sales, but if sales are up, they're up. The question, to my mind, becomes, "What is selling, and why?" and my comments are aimed at answering that. To me, if the major trend is breaking up power blocks and putting people in touch with art they enjoy more, and the economic value generated by that is greater than the loss to piracy, then it's a good trend. If that effect is minor or non-existent (as Glenn stated in an e-mail to me--thanks for the insight, Glenn), and the economic loss to piracy is greater than the overall gains brought by the democratized market, it's a bad trend. I think my initial message had more of a "Damn the Man, burn the system!" tone than I intended. As anyone who reads my blog can attest, I AM the Man, Whitey, etc. I can't claim I've never downloaded a song that wasn't legally put online. I CAN claim I've never held onto an unauthorized download that didn't result in me buying an album. I'm a capitalist and believe in the rule of law, but I also believe in the power of markets, and whatever bad online piracy may be (and whether I've interpretted the results correctly in my first post or not), it is also part of a larger message from the market about how it values the current product and its distribution. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.30.109 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/20/2003 07:37:06 PM Glenn - first things first - I think it's obvious to everyone concerned that piracy has the capacity to damage music sales. But - in the UK at least - there doesn't really appear to be that much evidence that it's doing so! That's not to say that it won't begin to more over time, but I repeat the highest album sales in history were over the last few months - so perhaps the level of scaremongering that the industry is undertaking is counter-productive. Now at a secondary level, there's other things to think about - the first one may be simply whether or not it's possible to control information at the level that would be required to stop this kind of activity and if it is not possible to do so, then the music industry clearly will change quite radically. I was talking to Joi Ito a while back and he said something really interesting - that people no longer build pyramids, because there's no longer a legitimate business model to support it. It could very well be that we're at that brink-point between music sales through physical media being something that you can make money out of and something you cannot. Think about it this way - if someone said ten years ago that you would be able to get most of the world's newspapers online for free now, and that people - for the most part - did not seem prepared to pay would you have believed it? Does it seem like unfathomable greed that people can access those newspapers now? Whether that's sustainable, of course, is another matter... The only thing in your piece that I really disagree with is the characterisation of people who download music as greedy. They might very well be stealing, but that's something very different. There are lots of free things in the world that are free because they are not scarce - air for example. People don't hoard it, they don't sell it and they don't gorge themselves on it - because there's no need. Now new music isn't like that - someone needs to make it, and they need to be able to live while they do so. So it's not the same at all. But having said that, something that can be infinitely and effortlessly copied without any loss in quality and can be distributed with little or no cost is essentially non-scarce and it's very very difficult to legitimately ask people for money for things that are not scarce... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 212.137.30.138 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 08/22/2003 11:15:26 AM Max said, "I can't claim I've never downloaded a song that wasn't legally put online. I CAN claim I've never held onto an unauthorized download that didn't result in me buying an album.". I would have to wholeheartedly agree with him on this one. I've bought more CDs this year than I ever have done because I've had the opportunity to listen to the merchandise first via a download. I really don't see the difference between my doing this or going down to my (not-so-local) record store and putting on some headphones in a listening booth. The biggest difference is that I've had the opportunity to listen to every track several times and get hooked rather than have to make a snap decision on a few seconds of each track because I don't want to be standing in a shop for an hour. The other factor in my increased purchasing also has a little to do with the high quality of material coming out of both established and new bands. I'm hoping that this isn't just some minor blip and that it continues for a while... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A new definition of social software... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/19/2003 10:47:39 AM ----- BODY:

    Can I just recommend The Devil's Dictionary 2.0? There's a particularly insightful definition of social software:

    social software, noun
    Any arbitrary collection of algorithms, protocols and metadata that allows friendless agoraphobics to pretend otherwise. "Iím having trouble deciding which node in my social software network Iím going to ask to the e-prom."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Inte SAOL URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/001643.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 08/23/2003 10:23:56 PM NÂgra rader ur The Devil's Dictionary: blog, verb To noisily and simultaneously void oneís spleen, stomach, bladder and bowels. ìGet ----- PING: TITLE: XML defined URL: http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/archives/000058.html IP: 64.207.130.2 BLOG NAME: Sarah Allen's Weblog DATE: 09/01/2003 06:20:16 AM XML, noun: A magic elixir of legend, claiming to solve all problems while inevitably exacting an ironic cost. ìOnce we drink the XML and take care of a few minor things ó parser, DTD, entification, well-formed-ness, validation, namespaces, I18N, XSL... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Ugly Wiki (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 08/21/2003 05:26:18 PM ----- BODY:

    A few months ago a conversation emerged across the net about whether or not wikis were ugly (see also Many to Many) (and moreover whether the fact that they was ugly affected how useful they were). Obviously, the whole issue was rife with debate about whether the simple design of wikis was simply nasty or whether it was actually just more useful and appropriate to have something stripped down to the bone.

    Anyway, over the last few weeks the team that Matt and I work with has been trying to put together a wiki for our intranet. I think they've demonstrated that maybe there are ways of keeping both camps content - simple, adaptable Wiki designs can be made that are also elegant and attractive. First things first - here's a quick thumbnail of Kate Rogers' design for the page (apologies for the blue border - it's a standard plasticbag.org thing).

    I'm not sure that having the image reduced to that size necessarily does the design justice, so here are two screen-shots of the site at different screen-widths. The whole thing's been recoded in (mostl) compliant HTML and CSS, so it's also quite flexible:

    Matt and I haven't had that much to do with the getting the Wiki together - it was a project that existed before we got here - but we've had a couple of minor opportunities to help out and the whole process has been really interesting. I think most of all we've learned a lot about how Wikis should be rolled out to groups of people who aren't really familiar with them - in particular the importance of transmitting the culture and the ethos. It's still a bit of a work in progress, but it's looking increasingly like it's actually going to work...

    But before I say any more about rolling out Wikis, major kudos to Paul Clifford and Joss Burnett - when we arrived in the department they were experimenting with Zope as a substrate for the intranet, and had put Zwiki in place for the wiki. But when we actually came to working through Zwiki's rules for text-formatting, we were all a bit startled - they were extraordinarily arcane and complex. So we researched the problem a bit and looked at various kinds of wiki mark-up and discovered that there was not only a massive variety of them, but also that many of them operated on completely different principles from one another.

    After considerable examination, we decided that MoinMoin's parsing was probably the most effective and useful for our purposes, because - even though I don't think they're as simple as Usemod - it's powerful and has a relatively shallow learning curve. At which point Paul and Joss spent considerable time and effort building a highly effective MoinMoin parser for Zwiki - giving us all the benefits of Zope with a Wiki that is actually simple enough for non-technical members of the department to use. General consensus here is - that if we are able - we're going to throw all this stuff (design and code) straight back out into the public sphere for people to work with and play with... More news on that as we have it...

    Coming soon... The Ugly Wiki (Part Three)

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Androse Rosewood EMAIL: ned-plasticbag.org@idsland.com IP: 82.67.184.109 URL: DATE: 08/21/2003 06:47:38 PM Regarding the arcane text-formatting rules (I agree), why not interface the wiki with a WYSIWYG editor ? There are several that are both IE/Win and Mozilla compatible, and degrade gracefully in other browsers (the user sees a textarea with HTML code). This one has an awful interface, but is functional. Bitfluxeditor is another one, very impressive, but Mozilla only. Probably the most important thing to do is to restrict the capabilities of those editors : ban the span tags etc. Areas where wikis could get better: (1) automatic menu bars / navigation on every page, ordered byÖ (2) metadata, used to create 'sections' or 'sets' to aggregate several pages, etc. But at that point, of course, you have started to build yet another CMS. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: miladus EMAIL: miladus@miladus.org IP: 69.3.2.226 URL: http://www.miladus.org/mt DATE: 08/22/2003 02:24:27 PM Thanks for an excellent post. I have been looking into wikis lately and the aesthetic dimension has been (outside of some usability issues) the most interesting, not to say determining. I had been torn between moinMoin and Twiki, but after seeing you pics, it looks like it will be MoinMoin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/22/2003 03:15:37 PM I should point out that we're actually still using Zwiki - and that we've (Paul and Joss) just changed the text parsing rules to be the same as Moin Moin. Hopefully we're going to be able to give the code for that back to the community at some point soon... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 08/23/2003 01:03:10 PM Very nice. I look forward to hearing more about this project. Another well-done (and !ugly) wiki implementation I ran across recently was for an English class (on weblogs and wikis). http://199.17.178.148/%7Emorgan/cgi-bin/blogsAndWiki.pl?Entry_Point ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.26 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/25/2003 01:23:28 AM There's this really annoying post over at 2lmc about this, which I think completely misses the point, which is not just about styling up a wiki with CSS, but about (1) rewriting the default Zwiki skin to be pure CSS/HTML (2) getting a professional designer to do some work on making it look good, clear and degrade well (3) writing a MoinMoin parsing engine for Zwiki and (4) planning to release all of this work into the public sphere. Seems to me to be a pretty impressive and good thing for the BBC to be doing... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.26 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/25/2003 01:24:37 AM Said post: 2lmc.org ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 4.60.59.186 URL: http://zwiki.org DATE: 08/28/2003 09:43:15 PM Thanks for writing about this work. We're discussing it a bit at http://zwiki.org/GeneralDiscussion .. please feel free to jump in. Were you folks responsible for http://zwiki.org/MoinMoinMarkupMode ? I thought I'd point it out if not. Also don't miss http://commonplacebook.org . Rock on BBC! Best regards ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LionKimbro EMAIL: lion@speakeasy.org IP: 216.254.10.130 URL: http://speakeasy.org/~lion/ DATE: 09/07/2003 09:38:13 PM Re: "WikiEtiquette"- Caution? You've got versioning. You've got review. Just dive in and wiki. You'll learn soon enough about community norms. Isn't caution WikiSin? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian Howard EMAIL: adrianh@quietstars.com IP: 62.252.160.5 URL: DATE: 09/08/2003 04:33:24 PM Kwiki is quite easy to customise look-wise. See http://www.kwiki.org/index.cgi?KwikiSkins for a couple of minor examples. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris Purcell EMAIL: cjp39@cam.ac.uk IP: 131.111.8.103 URL: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cjp39/Me DATE: 09/17/2003 05:15:50 PM I'd say "caution" is a virtue for any Wiki site where newbies will vastly outnumber those who can refactor information and pages. Only sites of a more static membership, with few incomers and many old hands, can successfully field a complete disregard for etiquette in its freshers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan Smith EMAIL: jonathan.w.smith@att.net IP: 24.24.86.16 URL: http://jcwinnie.us/MT/weblog/ DATE: 09/21/2003 03:20:59 PM Are any wiki developers looking at XSLT? It seems to be at the forefront of weblog design, if Alzanto: A Small Demonstration is any indication. ----- PING: TITLE: Wikis and Design URL: http://jcwinnie.us/MT/archives/000129.html IP: 216.67.245.138 BLOG NAME: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine DATE: 09/21/2003 03:15:22 PM Prospectus for the ultimate wiki package that users and designers would like ----- PING: TITLE: Wikis and Design URL: http://jcwinnie.us/MT/archives/000129.html IP: 216.67.245.138 BLOG NAME: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine DATE: 09/21/2003 03:38:40 PM Prospectus for the ultimate wiki package that users and designers would like ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Ugly Wiki (Part Three) STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/22/2003 05:15:05 PM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hal Hartley on Quality... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/25/2003 10:14:02 AM ----- BODY:

    Here are a couple of good (brief) quotes from Hal Hartley - who is one of my favourite directors. These quotes were found on Way Down Here:

    There's a right way and a wrong way to do things. If you make a chair, you want to make a nice chair. You want people to admire it. I think doing something well is a form of respect for humanity in general.
    Depending on what's happening in my life at a given time, I aspire towards solitude. Your stupidity quotient is obviously lower when you're by yourself.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The OED's draft definition of a weblog... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/26/2003 04:26:13 PM ----- BODY:

    The Oxford English Dictionary's draft definition of 'weblog' from March 2003: "A frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: azeem EMAIL: azeem@azhar.co.uk IP: 80.169.64.3 URL: http://www.20six.co.uk/azeem/ DATE: 08/26/2003 04:42:12 PM Interesting. Quite concise. As we like it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Bell EMAIL: me@gavinbell.com IP: 62.49.28.22 URL: http://takeoneonion.org DATE: 08/26/2003 11:29:18 PM It maybe misses some of the sense of community that is present in writing a weblog, or misses some of the other forms that are out there, photoblogs spring to mind. However it does describe the noun, weblog, very accurately. It is also so much nicer than the word blog, or the term blogging. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 62.64.130.136 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 08/27/2003 12:34:54 AM I'm almost tempted to go through all the menu's on my site and replace "blog" with "weblog" for aesthetic sense. It's just a far nicer word. It's all in the pronounciation of the "b", I find. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: adam swish EMAIL: adamqswish@netscape.net IP: 172.190.149.215 URL: http://www.internalimages.com DATE: 08/27/2003 02:07:28 PM I know when the definition says "run by a single person" it means one person is responsible for the contents of the site, but part of me considers this a humerous, derogatry remark to the blogging community of an unfortunate nature. I'm sure there any many bloggers in relationships out there. ----- PING: TITLE: blog URL: http://www.metamix.com/re/pukiwiki.php?blog IP: 211.9.192.15 BLOG NAME: PukiWiki/TrackBack 0.1 DATE: 11/28/2003 12:08:08 AM http://jouno.s11.xrea.com/x/doc/weblog_history.html http://sheepman.parfait.ne.jp/wiki/blog%CF%C0%C1%E8/ http://911digitalarchive.org/ http://www.wikiroom.com/weblog/?WeblogHistory http://www.alterope.co.jp/splash/?num=0&gnr=WB http://ascii24.com/... ----- PING: TITLE: blog URL: http://www.metamix.com/pukiwiki/pukiwiki.php?blog IP: 211.9.192.15 BLOG NAME: PukiWiki/TrackBack 0.1 DATE: 06/04/2004 04:36:58 AM FrontPage life blog ./º³Ÿ¼§‘€÷€Ì€ƒ~http://www.noblog.net/ http://www.enpitu.ne.jp/ http://plone.org/ °°http://procfeed.net/ €Œ€ˆ€Ø€¢€ˆ€×URL €÷€Ì°º€Š€­€Û€Š70%° NetRatings) ¿ÏÃÁ€È€§€ø°º§¨º¼ŠÆ°¶¼¼ø…§Ú¬Â¼Œ§¼§Î€÷€Ì€ƒ€µ°º€²€¼ blogamp blogPulse ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tories would close BBC website... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 08/26/2003 05:16:05 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm going to just report this without much in the way of comment while I try and work out what my professional relationship with the BBC means about my ability to give my personal opinion about things like this: Tories would close BBC website.

    The Conservative party would switch off a swath of the BBC's digital services, including its website and the youth channel BBC3, if it won the next general election.

    The party's culture spokesman, John Whittingdale, told Guardian Unlimited Politics he was "not persuaded" of the case for a public service website and that he was "not convinced the BBC needs to do all the things it is doing at the present", including providing "more and more channels".

    "As a free-market Conservative, I will only support a nationalised industry if I'm persuaded that that is the only way to do it and if it were not nationalised it would not happen."

    Mr Whittingdale's comments will be seen within the BBC as a glimpse of what it can expect from the Tories' review of the corporation. The party launched the review, chaired by the outspoken former chief executive of Channel Five, David Elstein, earlier this year.

    [He continued] "...I am not persuaded that there is necessarily a case for a public service website. I'm not persuaded that anything on the BBC site could not be provided elsewhere, [for instance] the newspapers are mostly providing sites, which provide news and comment.

    "They [the newspaper sites] are essentially trying to provide for the same market and therefore you can argue why does the licence fee payers need to be financing the BBC to do it when there are other commercial organisations who are doing the same thing."

    I'm just going to leave this one open to general opinion, I think. If you've got any thoughts or comments, then leave them below...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 08/26/2003 05:28:56 PM Oh, this has been the main topic of conversation in emails flying back and forth this afternoon. I'd love to repeat what I said but, like you, think I'll keep schtumm for obvious reasons. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: C. Edward Thomas EMAIL: nospam@nowhere.com IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: DATE: 08/26/2003 05:31:13 PM Surely the most obvious reason why the BBC should be providing news - on as many platforms as they possibly could - is because the vast majority of people think that it's a good thing to have one news provider who isn't beholden to any government or to commercial interests?! Surely you couldn't get more public service than to have a truly independent news provider across all media? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 194.81.244.110 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 08/26/2003 05:58:13 PM The British electorate would vote out a swath of Conservative MPs, including the party's culture spokesman, if they contested the next general election. The public was "not persuaded" of the case for a Conservative party and was "not convinced it needs to do all the things it is doing at the present", including providing "more and more attacks on the BBC". "We're not persuaded that anything the Tories say or do could not be provided elsewhere, [for instance] the newspapers are mostly providing pointless snipes at Auntie. Why does the taxpayer need to vote Tory when there are commercial organisations who are doing the same thing?" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: sapientum@lineone.net IP: 81.152.217.226 URL: http://www.sapientum.com DATE: 08/26/2003 05:58:44 PM The BBC has had a turbulent time with political parties in the UK since the time of Margaret Thatcher. The reason seems to be that in an age when commerical interests drive UK politics further towards the American model, the BBC remains an impartial, independent and highly effective organisation for undermining the spin and subtefuge upon which most Governments rely to remain in power. The scenario which is currently playing out was brilliantly predicted and documented in a 1994 book called "Fuzzy Monsters: Fear and Loathing at the BBC" Read it and weep! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: gert@REMOVEmadmusingsof.me.uk IP: 217.44.178.47 URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog DATE: 08/26/2003 06:18:22 PM I have the BBC News front page set as my homepage and I think that all Tories are scum. However, it does trouble me that the BBC website seems, as far as I can gather, to be provided out of the licence fee, which is regarded as a regressive tax (although jolly good VFM at £2 per week). I feel uncomfortable that the (often) rich webusers, including non-UK residents, are being subsidised by the (often) barely surviving general populace. However, I do wonder, if the private sector could do it as well as the BBC, why they don't...! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 82.45.230.74 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 08/26/2003 07:09:31 PM In Parliamentary tradition, I hereby refer the honourable gentleman to the answer the free market gave some moments ago. *gestures at the dot-com graveyard* In other words: Let's see Whittingdale run a successful for-profit content or community site that covers the same ground as bbc.co.uk does and then we'll talk, okay? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: djt EMAIL: djt@no.spam.please.mutablelogic.com IP: 81.86.189.197 URL: DATE: 08/26/2003 07:19:33 PM fyi, the funding of the bbc news website is split between license fee and by the foreign office. in fact, there are two bbc websites: a uk edition (used mainly by those in the uk) and an "international" edition (used by those outside the uk). so it's not too difficult to ensure that license fee payers are paying for the hosting and editorial for the uk edition only. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike Killingworth EMAIL: mikekillingworth@aol.com IP: 62.253.64.7 URL: http::/www/20six.co.uk/killingworth2 DATE: 08/26/2003 07:53:47 PM The regressive nature of the licence fee was less of an issue when all that was required to access BBC services/products was a TV or a radio. Now you need a computer and cable as well, which not everyone has or wants - particularly in the lower income brackets. I think the Beeb should provide a website, just as it provides a World Service, but I do think that BBC1 and BBC2 have been devalued by the new channels. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 213.122.127.143 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 08/26/2003 08:31:15 PM I suppose Mr Whittingdale might point to the US media for an example of free market media provision? The trouble is, the US market simply isn't free. Channels compete for viewers but, as in the UK, you have to go to the government for the right to broadcast in the first place. Consequently, the US media always has an eye on getting licenses renewed. This could be why they're so deferential ("Fair and Balanced") towards government. The internet is replacing TV/radio bulletins for many and there's no reason to restrict access to the same independent reporting. And what competition there is between TV channels simply means that everything is pitched squarely at the mainstream. With the new channels, the Beeb has been able to experiment more and try a few new formats, showing once again the advantage of public broadcasting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adam Bowie EMAIL: adam@adambowie.co.uk IP: 62.49.61.205 URL: http://www.adambowie.com DATE: 08/26/2003 08:45:12 PM I do have to wonder about how the Tories plan to set about winning the hearts and minds of "Middle-Englanders." The BBC sites fall just behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in popularity, so it's safe to say that most UK internet users visit some part of the BBC's sites at some stage or another. Quite how shutting down this much used resource would be a good idea I'm a little unclear. To me it seems as big a vote winner as shutting down libraries. There's nothing to stop some kind of business setting up hiring books out for commercial gain - Blockbuster's built a pretty big business renting films and software. But why doesn't someone suggest it. Oh yes - because the borrowing and reading of books that is currently free would either require lots of ads (Harry Potter brought to you by Coca-Cola), or would cost money. The net result is that fewer people would use the resource, and again the poorer part of society would be the overall loser. Yes I know that net access is not available to all, particularly the poorer part of society, but there are ways and means through libraries (!) and community centres for all to access the net. Just as Greg Dyke announces the BBC Creative Archive, and timed also around the start of Philip Graf's review of BBCi, the Tories pile in with this. Of course the timing of none of these announcements is accidental. I can understand that sometimes the BBC seems to be a beast that no-one can give a run for its money. Why should I visit other football sites full of pop-ups, pop-unders, interstitials and DHTML ads when I can get content quickly and easily (and freely) from the Beeb? And some of the areas of the BBCi sites are pretty diverse on not necessarily related to any broadcast programmes, but the BBC rightly see the web as another broadcast medium. And for the most part this is content for which we the licence payer have already paid for, being made available on demand. The news argument is very powerful with arguably the only independent freely accessible news archive in the UK (OK - there are the much more limited ITN sites too). Every newspaper has its own political axe to grind to some degree or another - so no independence there. But to return to the idea that the average parent would want BBCi shut down when he or she currently sees a site like the Beeb's as being an island in a sea of largely paid-for or advertiser funded content - well that's mad isn't it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seyed Razavi EMAIL: seyed@monkeyx.com IP: 62.49.60.74 URL: http://monkeyx.com DATE: 08/26/2003 09:48:03 PM Who cares what the Tories think about anything anymore? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: qB@SPAMLESSfrizzylogic.ort IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org DATE: 08/26/2003 10:28:57 PM djt - fyi... foreign office money for news online is channelled through the world service, and provides funding for enhanced coverage of international news. When you are asked to state where you're looking at the site from (UK or elsewhere) you are not losing the ability to view any part of the site at all. I am, for the purposes of the website, "outside the UK" because I'm more interested in international news than domestic and thus have a different front page. I can access any other part of the BBC site as normal. That's all the difference at the moment, but I understand there was talk of (gasp) putting adverts on the "international facing" site. Currently, I understand, the amount of "licence fee" money available for BBC News Online is diminishing, with the burden increasingly on the FO-via-WS funds. There are others who would be better placed to comment on this but I'm sure for professional reasons they'll refrain from doing so. My opinion? Close down the website - total and utter lunacy. Shut down a couple of channels... I'm totally opposed in principle of the government having that kind of leverage over the organisation. However I suspect a really good argument could be made for rationalising the (currently allegedly self-financing) World Service TV and the John Birt Vanity Project that is BBC News 24. If they shut the children's channels (CBeebies and CBBC) I would play the sounds of my children's screams through a loud hailer 24 hours a day outside the homes and offices of those responsible until the channels were reinstated. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KO EMAIL: khalido@go4b.net IP: 202.176.255.83 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com DATE: 08/26/2003 10:36:09 PM The BBC is the only truly global news organization in the world. Here in Pakistan, the BBC is the only news channel which people trust. Same with the website. It's the poorer people who can't afford to pay subscriptions to access websites.Computer access is already cheap and widely available, even for those who can't afford a computer and is going to become more so in the future. You have poor farmers in India accessing the BBC radio over the internet for news, and in many places in Africa the BBC is the sole reliable news source. In Pakistan, it's cheaper to use a net cafe for 40 hours then it is to buy a book or a magazine. For people who can't afford to buy a book, the internet is a godsend. In the future, the the poor are going to have access to a lot less information that the well off. As more websites move to subscription models it's going to happen. Also, if a community/nation/whoever/rich eccentric has decided to subsidize a news organization for their benefit, does it matter if it puts some people out of business? And when you have organizations the size of AOL Time Warner, its hard to say the BBC should die as its unfair competition. If the BBC packs up, or restricts itself to the UK its going to be a real loss for the whole world. Maybe the UN should fund a news organization, or take over the BBC. [at least the news channels and websites] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: C. Edward Thomas EMAIL: noone@nowhere.net IP: 81.128.186.89 URL: DATE: 08/26/2003 11:41:32 PM It seems strange that any government should have the power to just turn off the 26th most popular site in the world (according to alexa). I mean the BBC spends a tiny tiny fraction of the license fee on interactive services of all kinds - something like 3%. I'd rather they got rid of Eastenders! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@davidmadden.org IP: 80.1.21.115 URL: http://www.greasy-spoon.org DATE: 08/26/2003 11:49:44 PM I would switch off the Conservative Party, especially its youth channel (the young conservatives !). I'm certainly not persuaded of the case for a Conservative Party and I'm not convinced the Tory party needs to do all the things it is doing at the present... strength to the Beeb ! All the criticism they are getting means they are doing something right ! The BBC's problem at the moment is they are too successful ! Murdoch or Auntie ? Give me Auntie - morning, noon and night !!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ionicus EMAIL: i0nicus@yahoo.com IP: 81.96.142.145 URL: http://ionicus.blogspot.com/ DATE: 08/26/2003 11:50:53 PM Yet another item to add to my ever-lengthening list of Reasons Not To Vote Tory Ever Again. /ex-Tory voter I for one would be quite happy to see all the money currently wasted on News24, home of inane drivel, spent on the website, home of informative content. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 62.64.130.136 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 08/27/2003 12:03:58 AM Free-market? That's why none of the radio stations rival Radio 4 for quality programming. That's why few news websites offer the same quality news reporting as the BBC. That's why every radio station in the country, apart from the BBC's, happens to be a Capital FM clone comprised of bad pop and worse conversation. That's why Sky is virtually unwatchable (I've boiled it down to about four programmes that I find truly useful or entertaining, which is fairly embarrasing considering that there are in excess of 150 - 200 channels). The Beeb are writing and compiling this news already - for radio and television - it's hardly a stretch to put it online when it's already written. The BBC isn't perfect. But compared to CNN/Fox News it's fantastic. And that's why it's the most widely trusted news broadcaster across the world. Even after the Dossier Charade, it still comes out relatively unscathed because of it's illustrious history of excellence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: suw EMAIL: suw.charman@ntlworld.com IP: 62.253.96.42 URL: http://chocnvodka.blog-city.com/ DATE: 08/27/2003 12:12:42 AM I don't think that it's as simple as whether the BBC website as a whole should be shut down - obviously that would be a rash and foolish move. But the BBC/BBCi do tread on toes and do take money away from other ventures. I run the free Welsh learners web site, http://www.clwbmalucachu.co.uk. I tried to get funding from ELWa, a government body set up to fund education and 'life-long learning' in Wales, to help support and expand my site. My site's been running a while and is very popular with visitors. It provides valuable information for learners, it's professionally designed, has high editorial standards and is entertaining. The only other site on which is of a similar standard is the BBC's Learn Welsh site. Now, wouldn't you have thought that an independent minority language site would deserve some sort of support? Particularly when you consider that Welsh is not in the healthiest of states and needs all the support it can get. I was told by an official at ELWa, though, that I wouldn't be even able to apply for funding, as all their money for the next three years would be going to the BBC to fund expansion of the Learn Welsh site. Now, you might think to yourself that this is just sour grapes from me, but I canít believe that Iím the only person to have seen public money that should have been available for *any* venture to apply for disappear into the BBCís coffers. The BBC is perfectly well funded by the licence fee and shouldnít be drawing funding away from other ventures, or muscling in on markets where existing companies already provide a service. When they do, their actions should be curtailed. Who can compete with such a behemoth as the BBC? And how does it benefit the public for the BBC to be squeezing out smaller companies? The BBC should be doing what other people cannot do, such as fair and unbiased news reporting and making great TV. It should not be trying to create a web site which is all things to all men, nor should it be providing commercial services in markets which are already well served by other companies whom it undercuts. When the BBC exceeds its remit, when it over-reaches, and other companies or individuals suffer for it, it should be reprimanded. The BBC should not be hindering other people's work or other companies' business. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eanws EMAIL: ean@walkersmith.net IP: 200.104.2.147 URL: http://bl0g.walkersmith.net DATE: 08/27/2003 12:37:30 AM An expat living in Chile I have realised what a great institution the BBC is, people respect it. If the BBC pushes forward into the internet as it is and will be then its a first and others will follow. As to the Torries saying what they said, they can go and bugger off. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: steve@oclipa.com IP: 136.250.234.23 URL: http://www.oclipa.com/blog.html DATE: 08/27/2003 08:47:27 AM I'm sure the announcement of this new policy has absolutely nothing to do with trying to please the Murdoch empire. That would just be too cynical... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tomcosgrave EMAIL: tom@tomcosgrave.com IP: 193.120.42.100 URL: http://www.tomcosgrave.com DATE: 08/27/2003 10:55:58 AM The party launched the review, chaired by the outspoken former chief executive of Channel Five, David Elstein, earlier this year. Channel 5? Enough said, I think. The fact that this is even being taken seriously, that the review is taking place under the chairmanship of a second rate television executive / hack boggles the mind. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org/ DATE: 08/27/2003 12:30:19 PM As an outsider, I think there is definite room to trim back the BBC online operation. It seems to duplicate a lot of work that happens elsewhere across the BBC's newsgathering operation, rather than repurposing content in the most efficient way. I know there's been a lot of work to trim this back, but perhaps more is needed. But for providing niche services, I think it does a great job. That shouldn't be underestimated. Challenging commercial output, as it seems to be attempting with the pretty dire output on BBC3, is not what the Beeb does best; Radio 4's position as one of the nation's biggest stations is a prime example. And even as somebody who is sympathetic to the BBC, I am also concerned about the more blatent politicisation of the BBC's online news. It seems a lot looser with its language than any of the broadcast channels, and is something which I think detracts from the often high level of quality in basic news reporting. The trouble is, we are in a tough situation with the BBC. In many ways, BBCi, Freeview and the digital channels have helped to drive online and digital TV uptake; yet I think there is a definite case against the licence fee funding those services as long as there are people without the technological capability to use them. Perhaps, until such technology becomes ubiquitious, the solution is a multi-tiered licence fee, incorporating extra charges for households with computers and/or dTV? I understand that the BBC is extremely important for those using the service abroad, but I do think the situation over funding (splitting between the licence fee and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office) is confusing and needs addressing. What we need to do is make sure that people continue to get a top-rate service without impinging on worthy commercial enterprises or endangering the corporation as a whole. That's the balancing act, and if it's not looked at now, it will only get harder in the long term. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.170.42 URL: DATE: 08/27/2003 12:45:03 PM I think it's just scaremongering. I mean, it would be like getting rid of Nelson's Column wouldn't it. It's very brave of them to say it anyway - a new tack indeed. Usually political parties talk about cutting back *after* they're safely in power - concentrating on what they're going to build on/introduce prior to that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: me@seldo.com IP: 194.70.234.46 URL: http://www.seldo.com DATE: 08/27/2003 02:23:20 PM My thoughts on this (admittedly fairly similar to ones already expressed) are here: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/blogmonths/b200308.php#blog2826 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/27/2003 02:41:20 PM Just a couple of things - firstly, I'd like to direct people's attention to the high-quality metafilter thread on this subject, and also to say that if anyone's interested in giving their opinions directly to the government about the BBC's online review (whatever your feelings) the e-mail address is bbconlinereview@culture.gsi.gov.uk ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.156.89 URL: DATE: 08/27/2003 04:10:34 PM Mind you I think some of the people who run the 'less weighty' sites (entertainment/leisure type, message boards, etc.) abuse their position quite often - block posts without just cause, don't respond to queries, for example. It obviously doesn't bother them that we're paying a licence fee for their er... shall we say, unique style of service. Voicing my opinion will at least give me my 'Right of Reply'. I guess what goes round *does* come round after all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.156.89 URL: DATE: 08/27/2003 04:15:28 PM ...by that I mean it might be an opportunity to get rid of some of the dead wood. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org DATE: 08/27/2003 05:14:26 PM Former Channel Five boss David Elstein may well be a "second rate television executive/hack", but let's not forget that BBC director general Greg Dyke was a former head honcho at TVam and LWT - and was the man who brought us Roland Rat... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scaryduck EMAIL: scaryduck@fastmail.fm IP: 132.185.144.14 URL: http://www.scaryduck.com DATE: 08/27/2003 05:22:08 PM The honourable gentleman, as a free-market Conservative is talking a big pile of bollocks to keep his chum Mr Murdoch happy. Ten quid a month gets you BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, News24, two kids' channels, Five national analogue radio stations, digital stations, local radio, the world's best website. You also get the world's most listened to international broadcaster paid for out of your taxes, so you'd hardly notice, and the Tories and NewsCorp still think the BBC is bad value for money. Did I say bad value for money? I meant "an untouchable competitor they'd be happy to see disposed of". Sod it, I'm copying and pasting this for my own blog. I'm on a roll here, Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel Fascia EMAIL: danfascia@totalise.co.uk IP: 82.41.38.189 URL: DATE: 08/27/2003 08:35:59 PM I feel that the BBC websites have made the license fee worthwile. I used to loathe paying it for two measly channels (albeit with the best comedy in the world!) - but the quality and diversity of the websites make it. I don't think this argument needs to get political (I am not scum because I vote Tory) its a case of whether you feel you are getting value for money... I AM but perhaps others never use the web and don't watch television enough to appreciate the deal. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Ashton EMAIL: pete@peteashton.com IP: 81.107.194.24 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 08/31/2003 04:22:39 PM I'm possibly an extreme example but I haven't paid my TV license in over five years because I don't have a TV. However, I only ever listen to BBC radio (1-4) and have used the BBC news site on many occasions. Obviously, I'm happy with this situation but it does puzzle me somewhat as to why it's allowed to continue. ----- PING: TITLE: Unplugging the BBC website? You could help prevent it URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/archives/000252.html IP: 66.246.77.12 BLOG NAME: frizzyLogic DATE: 08/26/2003 11:00:43 PM Tom Coates has, as a proclaimed BBC employee, merely posted the salient text from a Guardian article which quoted the Conservative culture spokesman, John Whittingdale, saying "...I am not persuaded that there is necessarily a case for a public service... ----- PING: TITLE: You take my Radio 4, and there will be hell to pay. URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/79 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk / Tom DATE: 08/27/2003 12:31:58 AM Tom Coates of plasticbag found it, The Guardian wrote about it, various people whinged about it. And I'm here to join them. The Conservative party intend to pull the plug on a lot of BBC services if they won the next election. Now, I'm not a Tory voter... ----- PING: TITLE: Yeah, right. URL: http://www.digitaltrickery.com/archives/000852_yeah_right.phtml IP: 63.111.22.101 BLOG NAME: digitaltrickery DATE: 08/27/2003 08:33:10 AM Tom notices that the Conservative Party's "Culture Spokesman" would switch off a swath of the BBC's digital services if they came to power. Right. In what way is this kind of talk meant to make the Tories more popular? Do... ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/08/27 15:22 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=3337 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 08/27/2003 03:23:41 PM Tories set out to alienate everyone who uses bbc.co.uk ----- PING: TITLE: BBC to Put Entire Radio & TV Archive Online URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/movies/2003_08/bbc_to_put_entire_radio_tv_archive_online.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 08/27/2003 09:47:11 PM Not so long ago, a number of media companies were complaning about the BBC as unfair competition, as it’s governement funded. They’re going to be even more upset now. The BBC is to to put it’s entire radio and television... ----- PING: TITLE: Writing, the BBC way URL: http://www.blethers.com/blethers/archives/000027.php IP: 209.239.36.202 BLOG NAME: Blethers.com DATE: 08/28/2003 04:21:57 PM If you're interested in improving your writing, or even just having a chuckle at such excellent wordsmithery as "Thereís an overturned tractor trailer heading north on the M11" and "Itís a sad and tragic fact that if youíre a farmer... ----- PING: TITLE: would the tories close the bbc website URL: http://www.currybet.net/archives/000095.shtml IP: 213.171.193.84 BLOG NAME: currybetdotnet - search : web : media : politics DATE: 08/29/2003 01:57:00 AM mediaguardian reported on tuesday that "Tories would close BBC website", quoting culture spokesman John Whittingdale. according to this article - Tory questions BBC digital ----- PING: TITLE: BBC to Put Entire Radio & TV Archive Online URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/movies/2003_08/bbc_to_put_entire_radio_tv_archive_online.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 05/27/2004 06:36:12 AM Not so long ago, a number of media companies were complaning about the BBC as unfair competition, as it’s governement funded. They’re going to be even more upset now. The BBC is to to put it’s entire radio and television... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "plogging"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 08/27/2003 09:06:03 PM ----- BODY:

    There seems to be a current obsession with the language of weblogging coursing through print. First things first we got Technobabble in The Times being all random, and now we have "ploggers" (from the Guardian's Backbencher e-mail):

    Readers who have yet to succumb to the blogging craze sweeping Westminster (© all leftwing thinktanks) should pay heed to the experience of Richard Allan (Lib Dem, Sheffield Hallam), a blogger - or "plogger", as the political variety now seem to be known. Richard, who has announced his intention to stand down at the next election, was asked how it felt to be a "blogging elected representative".

    "My answer, based on my experience to date, is that a blog is like a dog," Richard mused. "It needs a certain amount of care every day. This is time consuming and can feel like a bit of a drag when you are busy. But you know that without the regular walks and feeding then the dog/blog will become unhealthy. And for all that you occasionally moan about the demands of your faithful friend, you become so attached that you would not enjoy life without half so much without it."

    I can't quite figure the whole thing out. I mean firstly, no one seems to like the word 'blog' anyway except the press. Everyone else seems to find it really ugly or vaguely stupid. Movable Type no longer use it at all, and various long-term luminaries have publically regretted ever hearing or using the word in the first place. And as to all these other neologisms... I just don't get why the press gets all excited about all those little bits of shorthand - they're (at best) only tongue-in-cheek. Very few people take them in any way seriously. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to tell whether these journalists are in on the joke or whether they're just looking for something easy to take pot-shots at...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 08/28/2003 12:18:15 AM I whole heartedly concur. I now run an e-zine and a personal journal. Neither are Blogs but both are powered by Movable Type ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 08/28/2003 01:11:41 AM I disagree. I quite like the word "blog", especially as a verb. When I post stuff to my website, I'm definitely blogging, not weblogging, or journalling, or writing for my e-zine. My blog isn't a personal journal all the time; sometimes it's a list of links and commentary about stuff that's going on on the web at the moment -- literally, a log of my web surfing, hence the highly appropriate name. On the other hand, I've always hated words that just have an "e" in front of them (e-zine, e-mail, e-commerce) since they strike me as "horseless carriage" type words -- backward looking, rather than giving this new phenomenon a different and properly descriptive name. E-mail and e-commerce are here to stay, I guess, but I wish e-zine would die a death. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@abstractdynamics.org IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 08/28/2003 06:32:09 AM hmmm, if MT no longer use the word then why does TypePad give you the option to host your site at blogs.com? But yeah blog is an awful word, I avoid it as best possible. Weblog is the simplest way out, but it leaves the contraction out in the running. I'm sensing a split between some the styles, diaries vs. indie publishers. Somehow I think the blog handle will stick to one of them, probably the diaries. The indie publishers will look to squeeze between the stigma of dot com boom resonating web zines and diary resonating blogs. We'll find out soon enough. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mikejla@btinternet.com IP: 81.128.215.27 URL: http://troubleddiva.com DATE: 08/28/2003 08:57:00 AM I like "blog" precisely *because* it's a bit clunky and amateur-sounding. "Weblog" sounds a tad too earnest, too high-minded, too public-service, for the sort of nonsense that I mostly muck around with. (Self-deprecating aside: If I'm talking with other bloggers, then I'll say "blog". If I'm trying to justify what I do to someone who has barely/never heard of the medium, then I find myself saying "weblog". Funny, that...) Simply put: Blog = Punk. Weblog = New Wave. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 62.58.35.2 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 08/28/2003 02:52:30 PM Betcha any money (well, fifty p) that those who object too strongly to 'blog' are too pompous for their own good anyway. Or want to appear all grown up and 'sophisticated'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@abstractdynamics.org IP: 65.104.16.39 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 08/28/2003 06:54:53 PM "Simply put: Blog = Punk. Weblog = New Wave." lol, so what equals Hardcore? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stu EMAIL: feelinglistless@btopenworld.co IP: 81.135.8.66 URL: http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com DATE: 08/28/2003 11:02:55 PM I blog therefore I am. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 65.80.155.43 URL: http://diveintomark.org/ DATE: 08/29/2003 01:38:49 AM http://www.eod.com/devil/archive/blog.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: tim@psionic.nu IP: 67.25.236.132 URL: http://psionic.nu DATE: 08/29/2003 06:41:05 AM Hmm. The dog analogy is a bit inaccurate. We care for dogs. We even learn to love animals, while most of us will never come to love our blogs. I think of a blog as the modern equivalent of the Tamagotchi. Cheap, irrelevant fun. If the Tamagotchi died because of abuse, you just start over again. (Barbelith reborn as Plasticbag?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.170.213 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/29/2003 09:44:31 AM You know - to be honest - I don't know what I'd do if plasticbag.org died. All of barbelith's stuff came with me when I moved - starting from scratch would be... pretty extreme... I'm not sure I could do that again... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Ashton EMAIL: pete@peteashton.com IP: 81.107.236.95 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 08/29/2003 08:47:42 PM "so what equals Hardcore? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Ashton EMAIL: pete@peteashton.com IP: 81.107.236.95 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 08/29/2003 08:48:42 PM Ah, I see Tom has HTML turned off... http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596001002/ ----- PING: TITLE: Blogs are like Dogs URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/2003_08_01_archive.php#106201792549113253 IP: 64.239.11.193 BLOG NAME: LinkMachineGo DATE: 08/28/2003 08:55:07 AM [blogs] Richard Allan on Blogs: '...a blog is like a dog... It needs a certain amount of care every day. This is time consuming and can feel like a bit of a drag when you are busy. But you know that without the regular walks and feeding then the dog/bl... ----- PING: TITLE: 'Blog' isn't cool anymore? URL: http://www.ryanwaddell.com/waddellblog/archives/000399.html IP: 65.49.76.250 BLOG NAME: Ryan's Rantin' DATE: 08/28/2003 04:40:45 PM Hrmm, was perusing Blogosphere.US and happened to come across this post, which linked to this post complaining about the term 'blog'. The complainer seems to think that the only ones using the term blog are the press. I would disagree.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the 'one big site'-ness of weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 08/28/2003 12:29:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Here's a weird quote about weblogging: "I believe in my heart that people should come up with their own publishing methods. Frankly, itís boring to surf the blogosphere and see so many sites using the same, tired weblogging tools. The same basic templates, the same ìpost a commentî form, the same URL schemesÖ Itís almost as if theyíre all small parts of one huge site." (Adrian Holovaty).

    So my immediate reaction is that the fact that there are a limited set of really popular weblogging systems has probably been a good thing, because it means there's an active and widespread community large enough to be able to self-support, fully explore the boundaries of the software available and push for new functionality. But more importantly, there's an element in which all weblogs are part of one huge site. And that's only partly the sense in which all the web is basically one big hypertext entity in which all boundaries between sites are essentially arbitrarily - or culturally - enforced.

    More specifically I mean that at that point where a weblog is pretty much balanced between personal publishing (micro-broadcasting or 'one-to-some' communication) and social software (something like a distributed discussion board) there are aspects of 'one huge siteness' in play - and that that's precisely why they're mostly working. We have a roughly common vocabulary about what an entry consists of, a set of structures about how a site works, and systems of trackback, permalinking and commenting that are pretty much interoperable (in one form or another).

    I suppose if I wanted push an old comparison (that I never thought really worked) in a slightly different direction, then I'd say that weblogs needed to be 'like one huge site' to the same extent that a peer-to-peer network needs to consist of mostly coherent and standardised applications in order to do what it does. Maybe some of the newer responses to writing and interactions between people are demonstrating that 'siteness' (heimlich) and 'unsiteness' (unheimlich / other) aren't categories with as much utility as we once thought - or at least that breaching or straddling them provides opportunities for new, powerful kinds of applications.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 08/28/2003 12:38:14 AM Bollocks. Have you ever read a blog writted by a self coding ASP or .NET developer? All they talk about his how they are coding the tools and how the database is working or RSS syndication or what ever. The advent of premade software and the GUI allowed people to focus on the task and less on the process. I seriously doubt that people will make a better weblog if we make it harder to do. I like the fact that I can almost allways rely on Movable Type and that I don't have to worry about editing perl everytime I want to tweak my site. Then again AOL started their blogging tool this week. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.69.125 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 08/28/2003 01:51:46 AM One word: Trackback. It wouldn't be nearly as useful if there was fifty competing standards. Thanks to MovableType licencing the standalone client under the Perl Artistic Licence, I've been able to put a basic working TrackBack in to GLUE (the PHP-based collaborative blogging engine that I use). Surely, the other argument is that due to their simplicity, blogs are easier to customise and fit in with complex designs. It's also interesting that he's arguing for web standards then saying that we ought to change all blogs so that they are fundamentally different from one another. *scratch head* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dag EMAIL: mukeisatsu@msn.com IP: 24.67.253.203 URL: http://blog.tidalflame.net DATE: 08/28/2003 02:06:06 AM I wrote all the scripts that automate my blog myself, yet it still takes on the general appearance of an MT blog... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bart EMAIL: bart@trabaca.com IP: 64.185.144.159 URL: http://www.trabaca.com DATE: 08/28/2003 03:58:40 AM Hmm... 50 tools does not necessarily mean 50 different standards. I think weblogging could definitely benefit from a wider selection of tools that adhered to one standard of permalinks, trackback, etc. A different set of developers could have a different set of ideas about what a weblogging tool should consist of. To limit the number of developers bouching ideas off of and competing with each other doesn't seem that advantageous to me. I'm not really convinced that 10,000 users supplying feedback to one MT development team would be better than 10,000 users supplying feedback to 10 teams of weblogging tool developers, either. Also, how many ideas do you suppose have been put on the backburner by MT's developers that other teams would put a higher priority on simply because it's impossible for one application to handle that many new features while they would be tried out more readily by other teams? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: me@x-pollen.com IP: 64.169.160.130 URL: http://x-pollen.com DATE: 08/28/2003 06:32:04 AM I have huge respect for Adrian Holovaty but on this one I think he's missing the point in a profound way. It's like suggesting that each novelist invent their own printing press technology. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: markdilley@umich.edu IP: 68.43.98.255 URL: http://markdilley.2ya.com DATE: 08/28/2003 07:46:12 AM Working on the OneBigWiki, right now it is kinda like the OneBigList. (working on it though) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paul EMAIL: paul@digitaltrickery.com IP: 82.68.44.98 URL: http://www.digitaltrickery.com DATE: 08/28/2003 07:55:10 AM This is obviously tosh. Custom CMSs are all very well for bleating about how 1337 you are with MySQL, but no-one spends three years writing one properly to accomodate the flexibility that MT can give you. Anyway, as a programmer, I find writing CMSs dull as dishwater. Thank God someone else has done the job properly so I can worry about other stuff. More of a problem, I think, is the ubiquity of design across weblogs. If I see another two or three panelled flowing CSS type design, with dashed borders and undecorated hyperlinks, I'll shoot myself (and I'm as guilty of this as anyone). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: suw EMAIL: suw.charman@ntlworld.com IP: 62.253.96.42 URL: http://chocnvodka.blog-city.com/ DATE: 08/28/2003 08:19:18 AM Surely whining about the similarity between weblogs and blogging tools is like complaining that all TVs have rectangular screens and remote controls. I admit, I do get narked (with myself) when I see blogs that look identical to mine, even if they're using a different blogging tool, and I tell myself to get off my butt and sort myself out a new look and feel. Course I never do because I'm too busying writing my blog and reading other people's to spend any time designing. But is that such a bad thing? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Hume EMAIL: tom@futureplatforms.com IP: 212.135.62.211 URL: http://www.tomhume.org DATE: 08/28/2003 08:46:08 AM Surely the similarity amongst tools is a bonus for both writers and readers? Writers get consistency in how they put together their weblog, build up mental models of how the blogging process works, and can easily transfer this knowledge between packages. Readers get a fairly consistent interface: posts organised by date, blogrolls, etc etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 65.80.155.43 URL: http://diveintomark.org/ DATE: 08/29/2003 01:26:00 AM Why do all good sites use descriptive page titles? Why do all good sites use clean, consistent, hackable URLs? Why do all good sites use breadcrumbs? Because page titles are important. Because hackable URLs are important. Clean design is important. Site structure, "information architecture" (gag), typography, accessibility, liquid design, usability, navigation. These things matter, there's an infinite number of ways to do them, but only a finite number of ways to do them well. It's not better because we say it's better. It's better because it's better. Adrian should know this better than anyone. http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/12/18/the_right_ones_in_the_right_order """Shut up and listen. This thing here, which looks like a wooden club, is actually several pieces of particular wood cunningly put together in a certain way so that the whole thing is sprung, like a dance floor. Itís for hitting cricket balls with. If you get it right, the cricket ball will travel two hundred yards in four seconds, and all youíve done is give it a knock like knocking the top off a bottle of stout, and it makes a noise like a trout taking a fly... [He clucks his tongue to make the noise.] What weíre trying to do is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might ... travel ... [He clucks his tongue again and picks up the script.] Now, what weíve got here is a lump of wood of roughly the same shape trying to be a cricket bat, and if you hit a ball with it, the ball will travel about ten feet and you will drop the bat and dance about shouting ìOuch!î with your hands stuck into your armpits. This isnít better because someone says itís better, or because thereís a conspiracy by the MCC to keep cudgels out of Lords. Itís better because itís better. You donít believe me, so I suggest you go out to bat with this and see how you get on. [quoting from the play] ìYouíre a strange boy, Billy, how old are you?î ìTwenty, but Iíve lived more than youíll ever live.î Ooh, ouch! [He drops the script and hops about with his hands in his armpits, going ìOuch!î ANNIE watches him expressionlessly until he desists.]""" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lloyd Dalton EMAIL: daltonlp@daltonlp.com IP: 24.245.4.8 URL: http://www.daltonlp.com DATE: 09/02/2003 05:29:36 AM Adrian Holovaty says "people should come up with their own publishing methods...as far as Iím concerned, people who do Web development for a living yet donít use a custom-built weblogging system shouldnít be trusted." I agree two hundred percent with the first part. I wrote my own CMS because I like the programming and knowing everything that's going on under the hood. Also, I want to develop new publishing methods. But that doesn't mean anyone should trust me. My CMS is full of bugs. If you want one you can trust, get Moveable Type or something. I think the "shouldn't be trusted" comment caused many people to treat this insightful statement as a troll. Too bad. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian Holovaty EMAIL: web@holovaty.com IP: 24.124.23.195 URL: http://www.holovaty.com/ DATE: 10/03/2003 09:41:38 PM Heh. My comment wasn't meant as a troll, and it certainly didn't deserve all this. Mainly, I'd wanted to point out that, if everybody uses the same tool, innovation stagnates -- no matter how intricate of a plugin system a weblog tool includes. I like diversity. I like fresh ideas. I like choice. I don't like monopolies or oligopolies. ----- PING: TITLE: Weblog tools a crutch? URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/08/27/weblog_tools_a_crutch.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 08/28/2003 06:44:54 AM Adrian Holovaty says, in a Zlog interview I believe in my heart that people should come up with their own publishing methods. Frankly, it's boring to surf the blogosphere and see so many sites using the same, tired weblogging tools. The same basic temp... ----- PING: TITLE: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/cat_bloggy.html#000534 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/cat_bloggy.html#000534 IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: Links DATE: 08/28/2003 01:21:27 PM PlasticBag: On the ‘one big site’-ness of weblogs…... ----- PING: TITLE: Homegrown weblogging tools URL: http://www.paranoidfish.org/notes/2003/08/29/1745 IP: 212.13.198.115 BLOG NAME: paranoidfish.org/notes DATE: 08/29/2003 05:48:49 PM Whilst writing a CMS is not something everyone should have to do, people really shouldn't be criticised for going it alone and making it up for themselves as they go along... ----- PING: TITLE: United we blog URL: http://www.padawan.info/weblog/united_we_blog.html IP: 212.180.126.185 BLOG NAME: padawan.info DATE: 09/01/2003 11:09:22 PM As far as Adrian Holovaty is concerned, "people who do Web development for a living yet don't use a custom-built... ----- PING: TITLE: Cultural Value in the Age of "Mass Amateurisation" URL: http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/~burgess/archives/000360.html IP: 131.170.98.199 BLOG NAME: creativity/machine DATE: 11/17/2003 07:44:38 AM Tom Coates' insightful and focused article "Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of (Nearly) Everything", and the followup by Tom of bbCity, have come at just the right time for me. For the last few weeks I have posted several short... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dumb links for a Thursday morning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/28/2003 09:21:12 AM ----- BODY:

    Safari is close to mental collapse. I have far too many "must write about this" links hovering perpetually in my multi-tabbed browser. Safari is not perfect. It will throw a strop if I don't take some of the strain away. So you'll have to guess for yourself what kinds of penetrating commentary I would have otherwise given these following (less than fresh) links:

    1. How to use hypnosis to bring out the best in your sex life
    2. Blog is a perfectly cromulent word
    3. On controlling your sleep (I do this too)
    4. Aggregators attack info overload
    5. Doctor slang is a dying art (cf. "Normal for Norfolk")
    6. Eigenradio
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Guardian "Second Sight"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/28/2003 11:29:12 AM ----- BODY:

    So there's an article in today's Guardian Online supplement that I wrote about weblog culture. I'm pretty happy with it - I think I managed to say most of what I wanted to say. I'm not sure it'll convince anyone who isn't already convinced, but it might start pushing the debate in a slightly different direction - away from "dumb vs. not dumb" and more towards "well we're stuck with them, what do we do now". I had to edit it down by a couple of hundred words to get in under the word limit, so if I get time I'll stick up a full version at some point in the next few days. In the meantime, here's a quick quote from Second Sight:

    A future weblogging culture should be able to find counterpoints to arguments, to identify experts quickly and easily, and it should help good commentary bubble up effectively from new or low-trafficked sites. Mechanisms that help us know who to read, who to trust and who to ignore should be permeating the entire community invisibly and pervasively.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Bell EMAIL: me@gavinbell.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://takeoneonion.org DATE: 08/28/2003 01:29:51 PM Interesting article, I think it is important to deal with the oncoming situation rather than sit wishing it would go away. Ensuring that people's voices are heard against the power curve is an interesting challenge and aspires to loosely connected and communication networks of people. Each group of people has different members and hopefully the non-overlapping edges of these circles amount to enough churn to stop the insular nature of the in-group. We all operate in our wells of 150 of people, weblogging is a way of at least hearing other narratives, even if you never meet the actual people, you can at least see the world from their point of view. It is a kind of low-level pattern matching AI that is needed, trying to classify all of this woud be madness. The tools are out there, but rudimentary. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 62.105.175.42 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 08/28/2003 01:56:57 PM Good article. The Guardian shows its worth once again, having the sense to publish quality weblog-commentary by bloggers themselves. I'd appreciate it if you'd expand on one point of your argument, though. Your key example of the strains caused by the increase in the number of weblogs as the medium goes mainstream is the emergence of the separate, almost incestuous, warblogger community. Why is that a symptom of increased numbers in particular? Is this ground you've covered before? ----- PING: TITLE: Metaspace Metabolism URL: http://littlethinktank.typepad.com/weblog/2003/08/metaspace_metab.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: » LittleThinkTank « DATE: 08/28/2003 02:16:27 PM Tom Coates (of whom you can read more at plasticbag.org) highlights in his recent contribution to the Guardian the key challenge facing everyone trying to make sense of the uncharted mass of knowledge floating unseen in the meta-space around us. ----- PING: TITLE: explaining weblogs and RSS URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000269.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 08/28/2003 06:10:34 PM Two interesting articles from Ben Hammersley and Tom Coates, both in The Guardian. "Second Sight" has Tom explaining that we should not shy away from the oncoming hordes of new bloggers from Yahoo and AOL. Instead we should improve our tools and ----- PING: TITLE: State of the Weblog URL: http://www.charleshartman.org/mt/archives/2003/08/28/state_of_the_weblog.html IP: 66.33.208.8 BLOG NAME: charleshartman.org DATE: 08/29/2003 05:56:08 AM Your attention is directed to this little article by Tom Coates, which does an excellent job of delivering a short “state of the weblog world” sort of address. I found this bit particularly interesting: A future weblogging culture should be... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am not a tuber... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/28/2003 11:33:29 AM ----- BODY:

    The only other thing that I really really feel is important to say about the Guardian article is that the photo they have decided to use alongside it makes me look - at best - like a total drooling inbred. It's like they popped out into their country garden, got the largest, sweatiest tuber they could find, cut a few random shapes into it, poked it a few times with a ball-point pen and slapped my byline next to it! To compensate (and understanding of course that this in no way undermines my image of being a consumate professional) here are some happy pictures of me looking less gross:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: flambingo EMAIL: anno@pavilion.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.flambingo.net DATE: 08/28/2003 11:52:52 AM the first one looks like your market testing for lynx deoderant ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/28/2003 12:41:12 PM Gasp, someone has finally discovered my secret arm-pit fetish... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Gibson EMAIL: joe_gibson99@hotmail.com IP: 62.190.233.173 URL: DATE: 08/28/2003 01:23:00 PM Sorry Tom, someone needs to inform you: you are just as ugly in the photos above as you appear in the Guardian image. But it's okay - byline photos ALWAYS make journos look silly, and journos usually look silly anyway. That's fine, because you're not in Girls Aloud, neither are you auditioning for a place in Home and Away any time soon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 82.45.230.74 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 08/28/2003 02:13:45 PM I think this constitutes open season, don't you? http://matthau.yoz.com/cam/20020616/hazel_tom.jpg ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: woody EMAIL: jez.wood@ipc.co.uk IP: 217.37.226.1 URL: DATE: 08/28/2003 02:31:38 PM Are you going bald? It's looking a bit thin on top ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/28/2003 02:58:06 PM I've receded a bit, but I comb-over and no one can tell. [Looks pointedly at Woody] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ionicus EMAIL: i0nicus@yahoo.com IP: 81.96.142.145 URL: http://ionicus.blogspot.com/ DATE: 08/28/2003 03:53:42 PM Also from the Grauniad site, and particularly appropriate at this juncture: http://www.guardian.co.uk/picture/page/0,13302,1031005,00.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.170.213 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/28/2003 07:53:36 PM Are you saying I look like Hugh Grant? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cherie matrix EMAIL: cherie_matrix@hotmail.com IP: 213.146.131.78 URL: http://mysite.freeserve.com/way_of_the_dread DATE: 08/29/2003 12:52:26 PM have i told you lately how much i truuuuly love you sweetie? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rik EMAIL: rik.abel@firebox.com IP: 217.155.91.193 URL: http://rik.typepad.com DATE: 08/29/2003 04:53:26 PM NFN ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: blogger@NOSPAMYOUSPAMMINGBASTARDSILLKILLYOUALLANDSETYOUINFIREarseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.174 URL: DATE: 08/29/2003 10:30:36 PM Maybe it's just me, you look terribly Scottish. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ksquare EMAIL: thisisnotafunnyemail@emailaddresses.com IP: 219.95.156.109 URL: http://see.above.com DATE: 08/31/2003 03:14:57 PM Actually, I think you look fairly younger than your age in some of those photos... well, the first one at least. My opinion? S-H-A-V-E dammit. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A camera-phone retrospective... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/28/2003 09:15:22 PM ----- BODY:

    Down the side of the sofa is the blue widget that connects my iBook to my phone. Since Vodafone or Sony Erickson or London's weather or radioactive space emissions interfere so regularly with my ability to send picture messages, this blue widget is the only way I seem to be able to photos off my camera phone. Finding it down the side of the sofa, therefore, has suddenly unlocked my portable image stash.

    For my thirty-first birthday, we hired a little chug boat from a place near my parent's village. Rounding a corner we found ourselves looking directly at a wherry:

    While I'm wandering around London, I often find myself taking snapshots of interesting bits of signage - bits of typography and design that trigger completely different reactions. It's almost hard to believe that the stark and sombre marks on the Cenotaph were produced by the same frivolous elegant species that produced Art Nouveau. Here are five fragments of London signage:

    And then there's the pictures of people - oddly truncated, strangely cameo-shaped - like grunge passport photographs:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Immorality of the Ten Commandments... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/29/2003 06:33:28 PM ----- BODY:

    From a highly entertaining article on the Ten Commandments: "It's obviously too much to expect that a Bronze Age demagogue should have remembered to condemn drug abuse, drunken driving, or offenses against gender equality, or to demand prayer in the schools. Still, to have left rape and child abuse and genocide and slavery out of the account is to have been negligent to some degree, even by the lax standards of the time. I wonder what would happen if secularists were now to insist that the verses of the Bible that actually recommend enslavement, mutilation, stoning, and mass murder of civilians be incised on the walls of, say, public libraries? There are many more than 10 commandments in the Old Testament, and I live for the day when Americans are obliged to observe all of them, including the ox-goring and witch-burning ones."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Top Ten Commandments URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/92 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 08/31/2003 06:06:48 PM After my recent spacks against The Quack himself - Roy Moore, this article at Slate (found at Plasticbag) sums up a lot of my current feeling on the issue. I particularly liked this bit... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Dan's Change of Address... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/30/2003 02:38:21 PM ----- BODY:

    By the way - if you looking for Dan Hill's cityofsound weblog, then you should probably start looking at cityofsound.typepad.com instead, since he has - rather unceremoniously - moved. Dan is my boss at BBC Radio & Music Interactive, but can I make it clear that in no way did he force me to write this.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the book of the Baghdad Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/31/2003 09:01:43 PM ----- BODY:

    I have managed to get my hands on an advance copy of Salam Pax, The Baghdad Blog, which is coming out in paperback on September 5th. During the war, I have to confess that I found Dear Raed essentially unreadable. The weight of irrational rhetoric from all directions around the blogosphere had become totally overwhelming - the whipping up of fervent belief (on all sides) was creating this weird hybrid mood of blood-lust, puritanism, evangelism and nationalism. The weblog world was full of hyperbole to the extent that it seemed to me quite plausible that any opinion could have been espoused by someone, and seized upon and used as some kind of flag to stand behind - although, to be fair, it was no more full than the opinion columns of the national and international press. At the time the thought of reading another opinion on the war - and trying to scrabble the truth from the mix of prejudice, vested interest, nationalism, accidental misinformation and context - was a far from compelling proposition...

    With the benefit of hindsight, of course, things start to look a little clearer. When the red tide started to recede, the shapes of opinions and reportage of intelligence and integrity seemed to me gradually to emerge. And I think, now the initial hysteria has passed it's become clear that Dear Raed constitutes an abiding - albeit small - artefact of life on the ground during the second war in Iraq.

    I have one caveat. I think it's important to remember that - as human beings - we have a tendency to group people into those who are similar to us and those who are not. We find it much easier to identify with people who share some of our cultural baggage, values and preoccupations. Our sensitivity towards Salam's words and our sense of identification when we read his experiences - whether we agree with his politics or not - are as a direct result of the fact that he speaks with a vocabulary and in a sensibility that are immediately comprehensible to Westerners. It's important to remember both that there are many other voices - more representative voices - that perhaps we're either not so willing to hear or comprehend. Perhaps Salam's most important achievement, then, should be that he simply started giving us the tools to help us listen...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Post-war stories... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/03/2003 08:57:08 AM ----- BODY:

    From Dear Raed a couple of days ago:

    While my family is waiting outside something strange happens, one of the soldiers comes out, empties his flask in the garden and start telling the medic to give him his, the medic shoos him away. They all think that the soldier is filling his flask with cold water from the cooler. Later it turns out that he emptied my fatherís bottle of Johnny Walkerís into his flask and was probably trying to convince the medic to give him his to empty another bottle. Weird shit.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Jenny Everywhere... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 09/03/2003 12:21:00 PM ----- BODY:

    My wonderful cult are getting a bit of exposure at the moment and it's all because of Jenny Everywhere. My involvement in the whole enterprise was fairly negligible - I started a thread to try and get people thinking about the possibility of Open Source Comic Book Characters. I didn't notice that a quite a substantial group of rather more engaged and creative people - particularly Steven Wintle - were (unlike me) actually getting off their arses and doing something with it. The result is not only a completely Open Source Comic Book Character that anyone can use in any book owned by any company (or indeed by anyone who wants to self-publish a book with a soon-to-be recognisable character without worrying about rights) but also a series of highly entertaining completed stories:

    In the meantime, Jenny has appeared in Exclaim, "Canada's Music Authority" as well as on Boing Boing yesterday. It's all looking very positive. My next hope? That she'll start turning up in cameos in DC and Marvel books - although presumably their legal departments might take a while to get around the concept...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 09/03/2003 03:36:47 PM ----- BODY:

    1// Before the world of the weblog was the time of the homepage. Back before we knew any better, it was the homepage that was going to transform the world. Everyone was going to have them. They were going to democratise publishing. Together we thought we were going to change the world. But we didn't..

    Ten years on from the earliest homepages, and we now find ourselves with weblogs. There are now hundreds of thousands of active weblogs in the world - quite possibly more than a million - almost all of them powered by simple content management systems with names like LiveJournal, Blogger, Movable Type, Bloxsom... There are webloggers in pretty much every country of the world. There are celebrity webloggers, expert webloggers, political dissident webloggers, prison webloggers... Weblogs are becoming "Enterprise Solutions", they're creating empires of "Nano-publishing". Across the world, faster and more randomly than anyone has yet been able to track and collate, webloggers are linking, posting, trackbacking, commenting, aggregating and moblogging their way through the first days of the 21st Century. The world now finally seems to be changing, and weblogging is part of that process...

    This is an exciting time to be engaged with this explosive community of people - and there are many intriguing debates about the nature, function and value of weblogging starting to emerge. Some are debating about whether weblog culture resembles hyperactive academic citation networks - does the "best" stuff rise to the surface? Others are asking questions about the politics of weblogs - if it's a democratic medium, they ask, why are there so many inequalities in traffic and linkage? Others are talking about a 'world-wide free-market in ideas' - with all the benefits and horrors that suggests. Still others wonder whether we're all about to sell out. A few say we already have...

    These debates are heady and passionate and focused with laser-like intensity - and often they are valuable debates to be having. But their focus comes with a cost - we're losing a sense of context - why should we care about weblogs at all? What makes them different from the dying form of the homepage? How do they fit into the wider context of emerging cultural and technological trends? These are important questions because they situate weblogging within a larger shift in the way we relate to the world around us. And in the process, they gesture at our future. Where do we go from here? Through the rest of this article, then, I'm going to try and explain how weblogging fits into the wider world with an eye to showing how weblogs may form a ragged centre for our small-scale personal creative endeavours. And - as a sideline - maybe I'll be able to explain the relationship between weblogs and homepages...

    2// Technically, weblogs are trivial - a reasonable programmer can assemble their own weblog content management system in a couple of hours. It's nothing but a form on a webpage glued to a database with some templating tweaks. Wherever the animating magic might lie, it's not there. Instead we have to look towards what weblogs and weblogging software accomplishes. Clay Shirky phrased it one way when he wrote an article called Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing. In his piece, he described the way in which weblogging simplifies the concept of "Publishing" to the point that not only is it now so simple that anyone can do it, it's also so simple that there's no way of making money out of it. Publishing has come to the masses... This idea - of a form of publishing that's almost completely lacking in barriers and cost - is fundamental to an understanding of weblogging.

    Another popular approach to understanding what weblogs 'do' is to compare the process of blogging to the mainstream print media. Under this interpretation, weblogs constitute not just a mass amateurisation of publishing, but a more rarified amateurisation of journalism itself. This approach highlights the possibilities of the form - that the combination of timeliness and super-lightweight content management means that the ability to comment and report on the world around us is suddenly within reach of everyone. The journalism argument is perhaps less convincing than the one concerned with simple publishing.

    But what both of these attempts to understand weblogging have in common is this sense of amateurisation. They both argue that weblogging software constitutes a radical simplification of previously complex tools. Updating a website on a daily basis is no longer an activity that only a trained professional (or a passionate hobbyist) can accomplish. It's now open to pretty much everyone, cost-free and practically effortlessly...

    But it's not just publishing or journalism that are going through a process of mass amateurisation at the moment. In fact over the last fifteen years or so pretty much all media creation has started to be deprofessionalised. We only have to look around us to see that this is the case - as individually created media content that originated on the internet has started to infect mass media. Hard-rocking poorly-animated kittens that once roamed e-mail newsletters (http://www.b3ta.com) are now showing up in adverts and credit-sequences, pop-songs written on home computers are reaching the top of the charts, weblog commentators in Iraq are getting columns in the national and international newspapers, music is being hybridised and spliced in the home for competitions on national radio stations. The whole of the mainstream media has started to look towards an undercurrent of individual amateur creation because of the creativity that's bubbling up from this previously unknown swathe of humanity. Mass-amateurisation is EVERYWHERE.

    3// So what is generating this explosion in unprofessional production? Fundamentally it's because the gap between what can be accomplished at home and what can be accomplished in a work environment has narrowed dramatically over the last ten to fifteen years.

    The first shift towards the mass amateurisation of everything arrived with a rise in the power of computers and a drop in the price of sophisticated software. Desktop publishing was the first professional tool to meet the mainstream - but it was never going to have a massive effect because the price of producing and distributing a magazine were always going to remain relatively high. You still need paper. You still need someone to drive your creation to all the news retailers. But while desktop publishing was never going to create a massive network of underground magazine publishers, its bastardisations in products like Microsoft Publisher and Word did set a trend that has been ongoing ever since - a trend towards giving amateurs tools at inexpensive prices that have all the power that professionals have become used to.

    Today we have applications that are supplied free with our computers that allow us to assemble video footage into forms that can be burnt onto DVDs and played on our home televisions. Other free applications allow us to touch-up photographs or be our own DJ. There's a vibrant culture in making animations with Flash or Director while for a few thousand pounds it's possible to download enough high quality applications to record and mix music in the home - or even to compose it. Professional video-editing software and high-powered computers have dropped to such a price that now it's possible to create broadcast-quality TV shows with little more than a DV camera, an Apple Powerbook and a copy of Final Cut Pro... Weblogging software is an almost trivial example of this process - but while the technology that lies behind weblogging is more basic - the power it provides is just as real...

    But it's not only equipment that separates the professional from the amateur, it's also access to information. The dramatic increase in available information constituted the second shift towards mass amateurisation (and was the first that the internet provided). Suddenly it became effectively effortless to research information online and to connect with communities of people interested in the same things. Film-makers could meet one another, animators find out each other's tips and tricks, audio-professionals could learn from and collaborate with their peers. Before the internet, large swathes of technical information had no accessible forum in which to be exchanged had previously been disseminated top-down via training courses, Universities and within industries. That remains true to an extent today but to a much lesser extent - today much more information is available to everyone - one way or another. This has had a parallel effect quite outside media production - helping to amateurise almost every field of human activity from fixing cars to fixing people. For good or ill, self-diagnosis tools, support groups and dedicated information resources are increasingly helping people to figure out what's wrong with themselves and even (sometimes) to fix it.

    The third shift towards the mass amateurisation of everything was another direct result of the creation of the internet - but now in terms of the distribution of amateur content. In terms of the written (or at least typed) word, the internet has already been the easiest, cheapest and potentially most targetted distribution channel for a good few years now. For webloggers, that's enough - but for people creating video or audio content, it's not. People producing video, audio, animations and the like need fatter pipes - greater bandwidth - to be able to show off their creations. Thankfully, they're getting precisely that - broadband is making it faster to distribute personally generated content just as peer-to-peer technologies are making it easier. Inevitably, each and every day, more personally produced media content is appearing online and being distributed net-wide. This process shows no sign of slowing...

    4// So where does the weblog fit into this picture? Weblogging software creates a highly effective and simple way of helping people create fully functional - if unflashy - regularly updated websites. In these respects it's a clear parallel to iMovie and iPhoto - applications that help us make things. And just like the video and photography communities online, there's a community of weblog enthusiasts who have been empowered by the internet to share tips, insights, new technologies and with whom one can engage in debate. And just like these communities, webloggers are distributing their content online. Our three drivers towards mass amateurisation are clearly making their presence felt.

    But I think there's more going on with weblogs than with some of these other forms of media. And I think to understand what that is, we have to return to the homepage. We have to see what has changed since publishing last claimed a mass amateurisation...

    At the beginning of this article I wrote, "Before the world of the weblog was the time of the homepage. Back before we knew any better, it was the homepage that was going to tranform the world. Everyone was going to have them. They were going to democratise publishing. Together we thought we were going to change the world. But we didn't.. "

    But maybe we did... There's not a lot of difference between weblogs and homepages in some respects. Both are spaces to put written content online, for one. But the fact that homepages had no sense of standard structure, required manual updating, were unbound from time and were resolutely non-discursive meant that they were static, lumpen. At their best they became monolithic tomes - bunkers for content, guides updated haphazardly that infinitesimally accrete "content". In terms of the distribution of the word, the homepage was like a "Time Out Guide to {your name here}". The simple addition of structure and mechanisms for ease of publishing have made the comparable form of expression on weblogs so fluid and quick that it borders on speech. In terms of self-representation, the homepage is like a statue carved out of marble labelled carefully at the bottom where the weblog is like an avatar in cyberspace that we wear like a skin. It moves with us - through it we articulate ourselves. The weblog is the homepage that we wear.

    And this is the big leap forward - this is where the value of weblogs lies in the newly amateurised world. This flexibility of publishing creates a fluid and living form of self-representation, the 'homepage (as a place)' has become the 'weblog (as a person)' that can articulate a voice. And when there are a multiplicity of voices in space, then the possibility arises of conversations. And where there is conversation there is the sharing of information. And conversation about what? Well everything from music and movies and animation and medical information. Weblogs are becoming the bridge between the individual and the community in cyberspace - a place where one can self-publicise and self-describe but also learn, debate and engage in community. In other words, weblogs are not only a representative sample of mass amateurisation, they're becoming enmeshed in the very structures of information-retrieval, community interaction and media distibution themselves. Weblogs are now facilitators of mass amateurisation. They're almost becoming one of its architectures...

    5// So what will we see in the years ahead? We can expect computer power and technology to develop at a similar - perhaps even increasing - rate. We can expect applications to develop and evolve, leaving legacy versions in their wake that become ever cheaper and which provide ever more creative power to the hobbyists and amateurs of the world. And we can expect the internet to bring more bandwidth to our home computers and (gradually) to other devices too. And this will bring an ever-evolving culture of amateurisation into every form of creative production (or at least those that require little in the way of capital investment). Whether or not this shift will result in an explosion of creativity or a debasement of quality remains unclear. What effects it may have on mainstream media is at the moment unforeseeable. But one thing is clear - at the centre of all of this amateurisation is likely to be the weblog or something very much like it - far from them most flashy or obvious of the technologies we'll be using, but a place around which we can connect with our interest groups, learn new skills and distribute our creations.

    As to the specific form the weblogs of the future are likely to take - and the ways in which they'll directly connect to the other stuff we make and the communities that are generated - well we don't know as yet... But maybe the tools and skill-sets needed to design them are starting to become mass-amateurised as well. If that's the case, perhaps we'll all be able to have in hand in their creation...

    This article was originally delivered to Aula Meeting of Minds 2003 - Exposure in Helsinki on June 16th 2003 (pic).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clay Shirky EMAIL: clay@shirky.com IP: 151.205.169.241 URL: DATE: 09/03/2003 05:48:27 PM Though I'm inclined to like the concept of mass amateurization (for obvious reasons), I'm not as sure its EVERYWHERE as you are. In the service economy there is a counter-effect, which is the replacement of formerly individual activities, now being remanded to experts. Sometimes its bourgeois pursuits, such as home decorating or gardening, but its also in clothes (20 years ago, every shopping center in America had a fabric store) and food (the fastest growing category of grocery sales is "home meal replacement" (link). So if publishing is going amateur but cooking is going pro, there's something more complicated at work her. -clay ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: ry1@caspianpublishing.co.uk IP: 217.150.100.73 URL: http://www.realfinance.net DATE: 09/03/2003 06:36:40 PM As a journalist who started in the profession (if you can call it that) just as the web became mainstream (1995), I've had a chance to observe a lot of this first hand. Three things came to mind from your essay. First, DTP has changed print publishing. Since the late eighties it's been possible to generate professional-looking pages from your bedroom. OK, so you have to sell subs or ads to cover the costs of print and distribution. But where there certainly was a barrier to entry in content creation (unless you wanted to look like an anarchist free-sheet or 'zine), there isn't now. And like music, you can now use the web to cut those costs, too. But if you're a crap writer or designer, your output will still be lousy, on web or in print. Second - and I hate to revive your favourite "bloggers vs journalists" debate - but not everyone has something worth saying. And I use lots of writers who have stuff worth saying but who just can't say it very well. So your can amateurise the publication process, but the number of people actually attracting attention will probably remain static, even if they are now "rising to surface" by blog referrals. Third, blogging is still disproportionately skewed towards relatively wealthy, well-educated people. I'm not making a point about blogging or technology, per se. But the real amateurisation of communication (which is kinda what I got from this essay) is not about technology - it's about access to, and quality of, education. Clay Shirky's point is well made. I'd rather retain professionalism in all areas - even in communication and ideas - and allow people to express themselves through their natural talents, such as cooking or clothes-making, all of which are encouraged and allowed to flourish thanks to a great education system. (I've no problem with there being more professional thinkers and communicators, by the way, nor with them using the web to communicate!) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.144.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/03/2003 07:47:28 PM I think I should redress a few misinterpretations, but first a confession - yeah totally, you're completely right, obviously the flag I'm raising here is a little simplistic and that's specifically why I'm talking in terms of 'nearly' everything. Having said that, here's a response of sorts - if you wanted spontaneously to make some clothes or to cook a great meal you'd never had before then you could do so more easily than ever before given no prior experience. You could argue that the sheer number of activities that exist around the world that an individual could decide to pursue as a passion or a hobby has escalated while the requirement to do many things that we now consider hobbies (like cooking and clothes-making) but were originally essentials has diminished. What you would probably expect is an increased distribution of activities, each with less of a 'market-share'. Maybe we're not comparing like with like - or maybe the application or device that will mass amateurise clothes construction and cooking is still to come. You might even make a case for that time already having come when it comes to food - that the mass amateurisation of cooking revolved around the creation of devices that allow people to cook quick and easy meals at home - giving them a much wider variety of foodstuffs to choose from without the previous expense and effort of making them. After all, many an advert talks about how you don't need to go out to restaurants (expert) any more because you can make the same meal at home... Well anyway - that could be a bit of a stretch but it brings me to another aspect of the debate. Mass amateurisation does not mean a world in which everyone produces things of supreme quality. It never has meant that. In fact it could just as easily mean is an average decrease in quality, greater fluidity of job role and less of a market to support professionals. Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable, but whether it not this is happening in several fields is pretty much not - the gap between professional and amateurs is diminishing in a variety of fields. Don't get me wrong - I'm not denying that I'm an advocate of individuals learning about and utilising the new tools that are at their disposal, but it's important to realise that to an extent it's going to happen whatever I think - our role is to find ways to let that newly amateurised world function and function well. Which brings me back to this issue of quality again - you're not going to get me saying ever that the average weblog is better or more creative or more professional than the Guardian or the Telegraph. I have have never said that and I would never say it. But there remain possibilities for quality, responsiveness and creativity in an aggregate of these communities - in harnessing all the decisions and preferences and interests and expertises of these people one way or another... In other words, while mass amateurisation results in a lot of bad stuff, the challenge for us all is to find new ways to find the good stuff. Just like with the explosive power of the web and with the search engines we needed to use to have any grasp on it whatsoever... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 09/03/2003 09:00:18 PM Great damn article. 1. Youíve got a typo on pgh 4 of section 4/. ìHaphazardly.î 2. Iím most interested in the final pgh of section 3. In some ways, that non-text content sharing was what made mp3.com so mindblowing in the early days. I found so much great music out there through them. Now, in part due to crippling suits by/distribution deals cut with the RIAA, mp3.com isnít that friendly a place to share music with. You canít just upload your latest and have friends comment on it or check it out right away. So I suppose I want know this: What do you think a music weblog would look like? 3. My filecard on weblogs: theyíre like a hybrid between homepages and BBSes. I actually prefer BBSes ñ less work for me to think up content on my own, more of a sense of community. I think thatís what makes livejournal so popular (for better or worse) ñ itís a hair closer to a BBS than other blogs, because the comments are integral and ìcommunity journalsî are a part of the product. I think this meshes well with your conclusion of weblog-as-person, since BBSes were always a bit like villages or colonies. 4. If you really want to address ideas about amateurization and, what, "quality" or whatever, you might want to get into the stuff surrounding "vernacular" as a concept. I mean, the first big thing we remember about the printing press is that it was used to make vernacular Bibles -- the Word of God in the language of the People (amateur), not the Church (professional). I bet there's been lots more written about that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lark EMAIL: sky_lark_1998@yahoo.com IP: 202.81.160.16 URL: http://thelark.blogspot.com DATE: 09/04/2003 06:59:14 AM All true somehow what has bee. blogged here. Where I am right now(Philippines) weblogging hasseen growth in the way people would want express themselves via the net..of course pretty soon there will be text blogging..being that we here are soo much into sms stuff ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Trevor F Smith EMAIL: trevor@trevor.smith.name IP: 64.171.186.100 URL: http://trevor.smith.name/ DATE: 09/04/2003 11:49:03 AM This argument has been made elsewhere, but I think it's important to point out that cheap tools are also leading more people to understand the aesthetics of imperfection which come with amateur work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Trevor F Smith EMAIL: trevor@trevor.smith.name IP: 64.171.186.100 URL: http://trevor.smith.name/ DATE: 09/04/2003 11:58:47 AM As I take more of a role in media creation and publishing, I become more aware of commercial media. As I learn to use Reason, I recognize good beats. As I learn to use Final Cut Pro, I'm interested in non-Holywood lighting. As I learn to use MovableType, I understand the role of newspaper editors. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bree EMAIL: breebop@toastmedia.com IP: 154.5.115.209 URL: http://breebop.toastmedia.com DATE: 09/05/2003 04:03:44 AM This is an excellent article. I've been interested lately in the meaning of amateur, in particular the way the word's been used to denigrate people's work. There's the connotation that amateur means 'not as good as professional.' In my experience, professional work is steady and predictible in quality, like a McDonald's hamburger. Amateur work varies wildly in quality, but is sometimes inspired, like the great burgers a family member or friend will make on the BBQ. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: plastique@freeblogistan.com IP: 64.163.213.116 URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/ DATE: 09/05/2003 06:27:54 PM Excellent follow-up comments to an important essay. Tom, when you write, "Mass amateurisation does not mean a world in which everyone produces things of supreme quality. It never has meant that," I think you hit the nail on the head. I was in college when the 1984 Mac appeared and it spawned endless flyers and documents written with silly fonts and ugly layout. Desktop publishing launched a revolution and enabled a lot of really bad print design to flourish. As the playing field widens the average quality probably does go down, but the chance of an otherwise undiscovered Mozart of the form gaining access to the tools of creativity goes up. It's interesting that your comment form asks for a "homepage" but I put the address of one of my weblogs in there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: michael EMAIL: mjjones@aol.com IP: 208.42.18.176 URL: DATE: 09/07/2003 03:57:10 AM Perhaps a supplementary reason for the increase in "Mass Amateurisation" besides the ease in which such activity can now be done, is that it offers an outlet that the the work environment no longer does - if it ever did. As one poster has pointed out, work is increasingly less likely as a source of inspiration, innovation, or creativity. In addition, all sorts of legal and corporate restrictions seem to stifle various 'professional' activities (journalism being one example ...) opening up opportunities for amateurs to step in. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Damien Mulley EMAIL: damien@mydomain.net IP: 194.165.175.8 URL: http://mulley.net DATE: 09/07/2003 04:43:19 PM Terrific article and the comments also increase its weighting in my opinion. I very much agree with what you have to say and its set me thinking about other things. So now that blogs are allowing people to comment on everything and bring their thoughts to the online community whats next ? Final Cut Pro is making marks as are some music creation software applications. What else are we going to see ? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Nagle EMAIL: idiotprogrammerNOTTHISPART@fastmailbox.net IP: 192.91.75.29 URL: http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/sharethemusic/ DATE: 09/07/2003 06:36:39 PM A previous poster asked about music weblogs. One thing I discovered a few weeks ago is that up to now music weblogs don't exist yet. That I predict will change very very rapidly. Why? When people start migrating away from RIAA music via p2p to free mp3's via websites, they need a way to share recommendations of individual URL's. Fortunately places like IUMA allow you to download mp3's without registration. And weblogs are perfect for providing informal networks of recommendations. Here's my music weblog I started a few days ago. I'm in the process of launching a www.sharethemusicday.com to celebrate the sharing of music. (The site has a very rough draft of my essay). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Nagle EMAIL: idiotprogrammerNOTTHISPART@fastmailbox.net IP: 192.91.75.29 URL: http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/sharethemusic/ DATE: 09/07/2003 06:38:34 PM Hmmm, no a href tags allowed? Let's try this--link to my music weblog called Share the music http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/sharethemusic/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.192.132 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/08/2003 08:45:32 AM Can I just add (for anyone coming from Microdoc News) that I've written a response to the whole "is the word amateurisation prejorative" issue that they've brought up. All I can say is that as far as I'm concerned it's not a value-judgement and that everyone in the Olympics is an amateur sports man or woman and they're the very best in their fields. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel M. EMAIL: jmoser@moserbrothers.com IP: 66.214.185.143 URL: http://www.moserbrothers.com DATE: 09/08/2003 10:58:06 AM Mr. Coates, your last comment is too self-conscious. What your articles says is correct. The lesser artists will fight for the power of the amateur, while the confident will recognize out loud what the others secretly fear - that most of the work out there is crap (and maybe just maybe their work). It is, therefore, important to always stress craftsmanship along with creativity, because craftsmanship, the thing so foreign to much of our generation, is what allows an artist to unleash his gifts. Stick to these stresses, and continue setting a good example, and never accept all art as equal. Doing so in politically correct these days, but deep down in our heart of hearts, we know some art is of better quality. Right on with your observations! Don't back down now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paolo EMAIL: paoloferrarini@libero.it IP: 80.180.155.220 URL: http://www.mindstylemagazine.com DATE: 09/08/2003 02:01:58 PM Dear Tom, I absolutely agree with what you are saying about mass amateurisation! I'd like to publish some excerpts of your article on the site I work for. Of course there will be a link to plasticbag for the complete article. Please contact me if you are interested in it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 81.135.76.59 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 09/08/2003 05:11:04 PM Some comments on the whole Tom v. Ed thing going on around this post, here: http://speedysnail.com/2003/09.html#criticalmass ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: truegossiper EMAIL: peter@2kgeneration.com IP: 202.59.164.82 URL: http://true-gossiper.tk DATE: 09/09/2003 07:10:28 AM this is kool man! thanks for sharing the thoughts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jason EMAIL: j@jasonlevis.com IP: 206.12.30.43 URL: http://www.sublog.ca DATE: 09/11/2003 01:36:27 AM we didn't change the world? huh?? no offense intended... but i don't really understand what you were trying to achieve by writing this article. weblogs allow someone on one side of the world to experience a non-commercial view of life in another part in the world. that's what i like about em. non-professional=non-paid=non-commercial ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Greg Gershman EMAIL: greg@blogdigger.com IP: 199.173.225.2 URL: http://www.blogdigger.com/ DATE: 09/12/2003 06:22:35 PM Tom, Does mass-amatuerism signal the end of popular culture? Just wondering your thoughts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.lomax/blogger.htm DATE: 09/12/2003 07:19:48 PM Maybe I shouold have posted this here: http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/09/is_amateur_an_insult.shtml#001883 ....since its mostly a response to Tom's article. Anyway there it is. Seems to me there's some stuff here that really has to be examined, if it's going into public web space and having an influence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alan Sullivan EMAIL: alan@seablogger.com IP: 12.82.78.66 URL: http://bilge.seablogger.com DATE: 09/13/2003 05:22:37 AM Excellent article. It may sound flippant, but regarding Clay Shirky's initial remarks, I would observe that people who write weblogs may not want to spend much time cooking or sewing. And why should they? It seems to me there's something vaguely luddite about Clay's implicit insistence on the value of such menial activities. I think Joel M. is right on the mark regarding the need for qualitative distinctions. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 81.132.144.248 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 01/04/2004 10:55:10 AM Demos have got there too, only they're professional so it took a little longer: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1112979,00.html (number 6) In 2004, 'amateur' will no longer be a term of derision - you should take it to mean you're dedicated, educated and open to new ideas. Where would society be without magistrates, the TA, lifeboat people and classroom assistants? Moreover, in some fields amateurs are leading the way, for example self-builders, astronomy, or self-publishing 'bloggers', such as Baghdad's Salam Pax. As Charlie Leadbeater from Demos argues, 'ProAms are set to play a more prominent role in innovation.' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wayne Myers EMAIL: waz@easynet.co.uk IP: 132.185.144.194 URL: http://www.waz.easynet.co.uk/ DATE: 01/07/2004 06:49:28 PM It's taken me a while to figure out what the big problem I have with your idea of the mass amateurisation of everything is; it's hard to pin it down because on the surface it seems to be obvious that greatly widespread distribution of the means of production of.. things.. leads to more people being able to produce more things, and therefore more of those things being done badly. What's wrong with it is the embedded implication that prior to the mass amateurisation of everything, there was some golden age of a mass professionalisation of everything, where nothing was ever done badly, and everyone who was ever allowed to do anything was invariably a consummate professional whose work reflected that fact. Yet there is no evidence that such a situation ever did in fact obtain, and suspect strongly that in fact the proportion of complete cultural kak being produced, overall, is probably about constant; perhaps lower now, even, since one great advantage of producing within the amateur sphere is the increased freedom from arbitrary and artistically damaging constraints like 'what will make money', 'what will make me famous', or 'what will most please my editor/boss'. Your distinction between weblogs and homepages is somewhat specious - a weblog is one way a homepage might be arranged, or it might be part of one. As for 'what will rise to the surface', the answer is easy. Nothing. There *is* no surface any more. This very distinction between 'amateurisation' and 'professionalism' is only important to those still embedded in the ongoing and excrutiatingly painful death-throes of the mass media's obsession with posing as if it came from some position of objectivity; if weblogging, viewed as a gestalt thing, comes to demonstrate anything it is the abject poverty of such a view, both intellectually and morally. It's not that the world is 'newly' amateurised so much as that the old false 'professionalism' has been shown up for the empty shell that it is now that the tools of production are so much more widely distributed. Meanwhile, it is vital to realise that while the cultural constaints on who gets to produce what have been relaxed, they have not been removed, and there is an enormously long way to go until publishing is truly democratised. All we can say is that things now are better than they were. Then again, they used to be shit, so we're still not saying much. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.175.172 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/09/2004 12:38:10 AM Well that's kind of my position actually. Basically in a nutshell I'm arguing that much more will be produced by people, that a good proportion of that will still be kak (just as it is now) and that will probably constitute a quantitative increase in kak even if not a proportional one. But on the other hand, the number of people who will be engaged in creating good stuff, learning skills, sharing information and the like is also likely to explode. I don't consider amateurisation to be a bad thing, although I understand that a lot of other people do. I have a lot of respect for doing things 'for the love of the thing'. It's how I learned to do web stuff (among other things) and has represented some of the most personally rewarding and career-developing experiences I could possibly have hoped for. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: aaron wall EMAIL: awall19@hotmail.com IP: 68.9.204.63 URL: http://www.aaronwall.com DATE: 01/20/2004 09:38:06 AM Ease of entry is important, but I think what really makes weblogs amazing is the speed at which they propigate messages. Every day I go downstairs to talk to my roommates while they are watching television. I get to tell them what will be on the news, and generally I get to experience unbiased reporting (or biased from many different angles vice just one.) I get to experience all that free without commercials. To know I can learn and redistribute my knowledge to help cause possitive social change is so empowering that I could now never live without it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Trevor Cook EMAIL: flycook@optusnet.com.au IP: 203.202.71.138 URL: http://trevorcook.blogspot.com.au DATE: 01/21/2004 01:02:19 AM An excellent article, and great dialogue. On the cooking analogy, it seems to me that the technologies are not that important in terms of actually cooking eg a good chef doesn't need much more than a stove that can generate some real heat, some knives (heavy & sharp) a mixmaster and a mortar and pestle. What is required is skill and great ingredients. The skill revolution is happening through an unbelievable access to information about how-to cook through books, TV and the internet. Yet skill still requires practice and a knowledge about technique and why some things work and others don't. Writing and weblogs are similar I think. What might happen is that many more people will have to learn how-to write. Not to win Nobel prizes but just in an efficient way, that informs and entertains. This has always been one of the great journalism skills. There's no use knowing lots of stuff if you can write well. A second observation on the amateurisation comparison with cooking is the idea that great cooks know how to please the audience. It took me quite awhile to accept the fact that the best way to a valued amateur cook is to do stuff that people like and to do it as well as you can - rather than a lot of experimentation. So, conclusion. I think the weblogs that will be valued are those that focus on giving people what they want and to do it as well as possible. Simple really but it will probably take years to find out precisely what can and cannot work in the blog format. In the meantime there will be a lot of sad, uneaten souffles out there ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: We EMAIL: needmore@clarityhere.com IP: 80.5.160.5 URL: http://www.clarityhere.com DATE: 03/07/2004 12:21:28 PM You know, it's not all yeah! great! the internet rules! "The internet and its surrounding technologies hold the promise of reviving the public sphere; however, several aspects of these new technologies simultaneously curtail and augment that potential. First, the data storage and retrieval capabilities of internet-based technologies infuse political discussion with information otherwise unavailable. At the same time, information access inequalities and new media literacy compromise the representativeness of the virtual sphere. Second, internet-based technologies enable discussion between people on far sides of the globe, but also frequently fragmentize political discourse. Third, given the patterns of global capitalism, it is possible that internet-based technologies will adapt themselves to the current political culture, rather than create a new one. The internet and related technologies have created a new public space for politically oriented conversation; whether this public space transcends to a public sphere is not up to the technology itself." Here: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/JournalIssueAbstract.aspx?pid=105720&jiid=508028&jiaid=20808 "Surveillance-based reality television has emerged as a resurgent programming genre in the US and Western Europe during a time when the online economy is becoming increasingly reliant upon surveillance as a form of economic exploitation. The portrayal of surveillance through 'reality TV' as a form of entertainment and self-expression can thus be understood as playing an important role in training viewers and consumers for their role in an 'interactive' economy. This article relies on interviews with cast members and producers of MTV's popular reality show 'Road Rules', to explore the form of subjectivity that corresponds to its implicit definition of 'reality'. This form of subjectivity reinforces the promise of the interactive economy to democratize production by relinquishing control to consumers and viewers. Surveillance is portrayed not as a form of social control, but as the democratization of celebrity - a fact that has disturbing implications for the democratic potential of the internet's interactive capability." Here: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/JournalIssueAbstract.aspx?pid=105720&jiid=508050&jiaid=24409 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: luke EMAIL: seke9@ekno.com IP: 203.123.69.211 URL: DATE: 10/05/2004 04:42:31 AM It seems to me that the argument about amateurisation is a bit separitist. Can't we all quietly go on with what we're doing? people will read and people will write, some will get read and some will not. If the unread are passionate they'll learn more and better their skills and become read. Or drop off the radar and explore something else. Perhaps their calling was really to be a mechanic. But, in a way, as tech. progress' and people become more and more knowledgeable, the real issue is, as someone pointed out earlier: Access. Perhaps there will always be inequality in terms of "gift" or "talent" for something, but the important thing is to create access. So that, as many people as possible can engage with the available mediums and means of expressing themselves and SHARE thier creativity. In this way, the pricedrops in laptops etc. is a good thing, but it is still almost exclusively limited to the inhabitants of the western world. Where are the voices from the 3rd world? Silenced by lack of access of course! As spoilt middle class "whities" (tongue in cheek here) totter out self-indulgent rants on the ills in society they do nothing to prevent, someone in a refugee camp in africa has no chance to tell the world of the suffering perpetrated upon themn by another western backed dictatorship. AND have they not just as much right to do so as suburban m-class teenagers?. But despite my judgements, fundamentally i realise we need BOTH voices in order to enjoy true equality and emergent culture, in the glorious form in could be. ----- PING: TITLE: (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/weblogs/2003_09/weblogs_and_the_mass_amateurisation_of_nearly_everything.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 09/03/2003 07:36:12 PM A must read article on weblogs and society. Before the world of the weblog was the time of the homepage. Back before we knew any better, it was the homepage that was going to tranform the world. Everyone was going... ----- PING: TITLE: att l”sa om bloggar URL: http://mymarkup.net/malin/arkiv/002483.php IP: 62.20.1.132 BLOG NAME: Malins blog DATE: 09/03/2003 09:21:02 PM Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything..."Before the world of the weblog was the time of the homepage. Back... ----- PING: TITLE: weblogs and the mass amateurisation of nearly everything. URL: http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/000759.html IP: 64.81.78.180 BLOG NAME: Teal Sunglasses DATE: 09/04/2003 07:14:33 AM good. read: weblogs and the mass amateurisation of nearly everything.... ----- PING: TITLE: Blogs: There Is No Spoon URL: http://www.edrants.com/reluctant/archives/000405.html IP: 209.68.2.102 BLOG NAME: Plight of the Reluctant DATE: 09/04/2003 09:32:27 AM Recent essays from Dave Winer and Tom Coates reek of the kind of "representative democracy" and velvet rope entitlement that... ----- PING: TITLE: a better, safer world. URL: http://www.nodalmedia.org/blog/archives/000037.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: nodalpoints DATE: 09/04/2003 10:47:09 PM Andy Oram has written a new blog at Oreilly, not-so smart mobs and makes the observation that.. 'Like the rest of the world, the Internet is getting scarier and scarier. ' he moves on to virus', bringing down SCO's website... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs as continuation of amaterurization of america URL: http://theanswergrape.com/aweeblog/archives/001164.html IP: 66.96.128.113 BLOG NAME: WEEBLOG DATE: 09/04/2003 11:12:20 PM The article "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything..." explains the increasingly distributed nature of creative works of all kinds. Used to be, big media outlets like book publishers and television producers were the gatekeepers... ----- PING: TITLE: What really is an amateur? URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/105 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 09/05/2003 12:13:07 AM Reading (Weblogs And) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything, it occured to me that the term amateur is slung around far too often and yet rarely defined. The most common insult in the art and design world is that something looks 'amateur'. "Th... ----- PING: TITLE: A good article on weblogs URL: http://www.fortysomething.ca/archives/002986.php IP: 209.197.236.24 BLOG NAME: forty.something DATE: 09/05/2003 12:41:04 AM Now this is an example of an excellent article on weblogs! "The weblog is the homepage that we wear. And... ----- PING: TITLE: skins URL: http://huminf.uib.no/~jill/archives/blog_theorising/skins.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: jill/txt DATE: 09/05/2003 11:40:09 AM Tom Coates of Plasticbag.com has posted an article about weblogs as mass amateurisation. I'm not terribly interested in that, but love the nitty gritty of his comparison of the homepage to the weblog, midway in section four, near the end... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs: More quality in a Gaian Suprasystem or more noise in Zaibatsu-ville. URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0106698/2003/09/05.html#a174 IP: 208.229.228.85 BLOG NAME: Connectivity: Spike Hall's RU Weblog DATE: 09/05/2003 03:55:35 PM In (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... ----- PING: TITLE: Crass Generalisations URL: http://www.kuboid.com/archives/000098.html IP: 212.73.244.51 BLOG NAME: Kuboid DATE: 09/05/2003 04:36:52 PM Why is there so much inaccurate pap being written about weblogs at the moment? Every other day I seem to come across another pompous editorial dismissing the medium, often because it's been linked to and skewered by an actual weblogger.... ----- PING: TITLE: Link Dump URL: http://www.wood-tang.com/archives/000360.php IP: 209.61.191.75 BLOG NAME: Wood-Tang.com DATE: 09/05/2003 08:55:51 PM I'm off to Indiana this weekend for a bachelor party. Here is some weekend reading that I don't have enough time to expand upon: The China Syndrome (Paul Krugman, NY Times) - From "old Europe" and its chocolate makers to... ----- PING: TITLE: Open source and mass amateurisation URL: http://www.sauria.com/blog//computers/open_source/561 IP: 64.38.174.106 BLOG NAME: Ted Leung on the air DATE: 09/06/2003 09:38:28 AM Tom Coates notes that just about everything is becoming amateurised. I think that there are parallels with open source. There are a couple of quotes in his post that are relevant to open source as well. The first is about access to equipment. F ----- PING: TITLE: Mass Amateurism URL: http://www.mulley.net/archives/000101.html IP: 212.69.192.225 BLOG NAME: Mulley blog - Damiens ranting DATE: 09/07/2003 05:51:43 PM Go read this about Weblogs and Mass Amateurisation of the web and everything else. As tools to make us more creative become cheap or free and readily available will we start using the other sid eof our brains more... ----- PING: TITLE: (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... URL: http://kawika.blogs.com/blogonian/2003/09/weblogs_and_the.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: The Blogonian DATE: 09/07/2003 08:56:56 PM “The weblog is the homepage that we wear,” writes writes Tom Coates in his weblog, Plasticbag.org. What’s the difference between home pages and weblogs? Home pages had “no sense of standard structure, required manual updating, w... ----- PING: TITLE: Mass Amateurisation, Blogging and Google - Nano Publishing News - Microdoc News URL: http://www.rolandTanglao.com/2003/09/07.html#a5364 IP: 216.232.31.144 BLOG NAME: Roland Tanglao's Weblog DATE: 09/08/2003 05:41:51 AM (SOURCE:"scripting news")- Blogging = Empowerment! Agreed! QUOTE The trend to which both Coates and Shirky point, rather than being amateurisation is actually a wider and far more pervasive trend that has been on-going since writing and authorship has bee ----- PING: TITLE: More on amateurization, er, empowerment URL: http://www.sauria.com/blog//computers/open_source/568 IP: 64.38.174.106 BLOG NAME: Ted Leung on the air DATE: 09/08/2003 09:16:26 AM The publisher (sorry, I can't find your name on the site) of Microdoc news, was a little more affronted by Tom Coate's use of the term amateur than I was. He does go on to suggest empowerment as an alternate explanation of the trend the Coate desc ----- PING: TITLE: (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... URL: http://www.reusability.org/blogs/brian/archives/000276.html IP: 129.123.53.125 BLOG NAME: Object Learning DATE: 09/08/2003 06:45:32 PM Tom Coates of Plastic Bag, with a piece that contextualizes weblogs within a broader set of developments … suggesting that the real effect is that users have a new power to create, manipulate and distribute media: Technically, weblogs are trivial... ----- PING: TITLE: Amateur Ideas URL: http://www.mediajunk.com/public/archives/000169.html IP: 207.201.152.195 BLOG NAME: mediajunk DATE: 09/08/2003 07:35:02 PM Clay Shirky wrote a much-linked-to essay last year about how weblogs were "amateurizing" publishing, a process that was having some ----- PING: TITLE: "Mass Amateurisation" of Learning Objects? URL: http://commons.ucalgary.ca/weblogs/dnorman/000204.html IP: 136.159.109.13 BLOG NAME: D'Arcy Norman's Learning Commons Weblog DATE: 09/08/2003 07:47:07 PM Brian Lamb (channelling Tom Coates and Clay Shirkey) talks about Mass Amateurisation with respect to weblogs. Isn't that sort of what software like CAREO is supposed to do for the learning object realm? That's my perception of the reason for CAREO even... ----- PING: TITLE: http://keimns.bloggedup.com/archives/000056.html URL: http://keimns.bloggedup.com/archives/000056.html IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Blindspots DATE: 09/09/2003 12:12:18 AM Stephanie over at WEEBLOG has some pithy comments on the article "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything..." from Plastic Bag: The article "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything..." explains the increasingly... ----- PING: TITLE: Cultural Value in the Age of "Mass Amateurisation" URL: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/creativitymachine/2003_09_07_creativitymachine_archive.html#106307671076566909 IP: 64.239.11.193 BLOG NAME: Creativity Machine DATE: 09/09/2003 04:57:03 AM The democratization of technologies means that non-specialist practitioners can create, edit and distribute digital images, music, text, and video cheaply and without enormous technical expertise. The "mass amateurisation of everything" appears to thre... ----- PING: TITLE: Online news consumption URL: http://www.blisspix.net/licensed/archives/000063.html IP: 64.21.177.66 BLOG NAME: Licensed Product DATE: 09/10/2003 05:54:25 AM The latest issue of First Monday has an article entitled The current status and potential development of online news consumption: ----- PING: TITLE: New School Blogroll example URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/09/10.html#a113 IP: 203.98.50.22 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 09/10/2003 01:10:45 PM As per my previous post , I've updated my blogroll to include topics and conversations . ----- PING: TITLE: Journalism, shournalism URL: http://jerobins.freeshell.org/house/archives/000065.php IP: 192.94.73.2 BLOG NAME: The Robinson House DATE: 09/10/2003 03:23:56 PM Tom Coates wrote a lengthy piece entitled (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... A very good read. He asks what is creating this movement and answers the question citing availability of technology and information. I would certa... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs in education as courseware URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/weblogs/2003_09/weblogs_in_education_as_courseware.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 09/10/2003 05:03:14 PM So where do weblogs fit in the learning scheme of things? Read on below for my journey into the world of educational software, and my attempt to build a courseware system using movabletype. In reality, a weblog is just another... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblog typology URL: http://www.heyotwell.com/heyblog/archives/000232.html IP: 209.61.191.75 BLOG NAME: heyblog DATE: 09/12/2003 02:19:29 AM Tom Coates has a great article on "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...". Tom makes some good observations ----- PING: TITLE: Incandescent History URL: http://bilge.seablogger.com/archives/000270.php IP: 209.151.94.15 BLOG NAME: Fresh Bilge DATE: 09/13/2003 05:29:42 AM Plasticbag.org is one of the more tech-oriented weblogs that I... ----- PING: TITLE: Publiken intar mediescenen URL: http://hyperfinder.net/tls/archives/blogging/publiken_intar_mediescenen.php IP: 203.194.196.211 BLOG NAME: Bloggar och blogging DATE: 09/13/2003 05:33:54 PM I senaste numret av tidskriften Axess finns en intressant artikel av den norske journalisten Olav Anders ÿvreb¯, redaktionschef f–r Ukebrevet Mandag Morgen. Artikeln b”r det talande namnet Publiken intar mediescenen och beskriver hur den traditionella ... ----- PING: TITLE: Technology and "amateurization" URL: http://Blogger.iftf.org/Games/000155.html IP: 65.223.9.30 BLOG NAME: Future of Entertainment DATE: 09/20/2003 12:12:22 AM I was just struck by something in Tom Coates' article "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...." He makes the argument that music, journalism, and lots of other creative endeavors are becoming "amateurized." Why? Fundamentally i... ----- PING: TITLE: Gleaning, Exchanging and Vernacular Media URL: http://www.test.org.uk/archives/000979.html IP: 213.161.64.78 BLOG NAME: Test DATE: 09/28/2003 06:54:38 PM MIT Press have recently published New Media: 1740-1915, an excellent series of essays looking at the social effects of various... ----- PING: TITLE: The tao of blogging URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/weblogs/2003_10/the_tao_of_blogging.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 10/28/2003 05:35:09 PM It seems sooner or later every blogger is bound to write a post about weblogging or to be more precise, What We Blog About When We Blog About Blogs, Why I Blog and what’s the point of blogging? Most people... ----- PING: TITLE: (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... URL: http://PersonalWebpublishing.mediapedagogy.com/2003/10/29#a46 IP: 209.128.68.78 BLOG NAME: Personal Webpublishing Systeme und Weblogs DATE: 10/29/2003 02:37:33 AM Nachdem ich morgen dem nordamerikanischen Kontinent wieder den Rücken kehren werde, stell ich doch schnell mal einen weiteren Artikel ein. ----- PING: TITLE: Cultural Value in the Age of "Mass Amateurisation" URL: http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/~burgess/archives/000360.html IP: 131.170.98.199 BLOG NAME: creativity/machine DATE: 11/17/2003 07:44:46 AM Tom Coates' insightful and focused article "Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of (Nearly) Everything", and the followup by Tom of bbCity, have come at just the right time for me. For the last few weeks I have posted several short... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblog vs. Homepage URL: http://FlorianKopp.mediapedagogy.com/2003/11/01#a65 IP: 209.128.68.78 BLOG NAME: Der "FloLog" von Florian Kopp DATE: 11/19/2003 12:54:13 AM Jetzt noch ein par Gedanken zu Tom Coates Ansichten über Weblogs und Homepages in seinem Artikel (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Coates über Weblogs... URL: http://FlorianKopp.mediapedagogy.com/2003/10/29#a42 IP: 209.128.68.78 BLOG NAME: Der "FloLog" von Florian Kopp DATE: 11/19/2003 01:02:41 AM Ein weiterer, diesmal "brandaktueller" ----- PING: TITLE: PerchË Rheingold va preso con le molle URL: http://blogs.it/0100206/2003/09/04.html#a1074 IP: 62.101.126.208 BLOG NAME: Network Games DATE: 11/24/2003 03:12:55 PM ----- PING: TITLE: Ancora su Rheingold URL: http://blogs.it/0100206/2003/09/06.html#a1081 IP: 62.101.126.208 BLOG NAME: Network Games DATE: 11/24/2003 03:13:16 PM Massimo ----- PING: TITLE: Amatorialitý di massa e su tutto URL: http://blogs.it/0100206/categories/community/2003/09/04.html#a1073 IP: 62.101.126.208 BLOG NAME: Network Games DATE: 11/24/2003 03:23:11 PM Concordo con Tom , questo pezzo di Tom Coates Ë proprio valido...e fa giustizia sulla vaexata questio della cosiddetta "fuffa". ----- PING: TITLE: The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything URL: http://emergentreport.com/archives/000039.html IP: 24.233.124.192 BLOG NAME: Emergent Report DATE: 11/29/2003 01:28:03 PM Here's an interesting piece that I've seen and meant to read before, but just slipped off my radar. My Bad... ----- PING: TITLE: Materialsammlung: Weblogs URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0132241/2003/12/11.html#a71 IP: 62.99.165.6 BLOG NAME: mediatope DATE: 12/11/2003 12:28:15 PM Allgemein Dave Winer: What makes a weblog a weblog? F¸r Winers Harvard-Blawg-Projekt geschriebene Intro. ----- PING: TITLE: Why Starfleet, indeed? URL: http://kylem.xwell.org/blosxom.cgi/tech/articles/why-starfleet-indeed.writeback IP: 66.33.196.152 BLOG NAME: KyleM.xwell DATE: 12/11/2003 05:37:30 PM Why go to space in 400 years? More accurately, why Starfleet and not telepresence? Matt asks this question, and I think he's missing the point. While he'd like to really believe in the "mass-amateurization of everything" (a subject which deserve ----- PING: TITLE: Matt Jones takes the piss out of Star Trek URL: http://www.thingsleftbehind.com/tlb/archives/000722.html IP: 65.221.109.2 BLOG NAME: The Things You Leave Behind DATE: 12/14/2003 06:48:42 AM [I read further down and this made me laugh my ass off, in the vein of Ellis's bit on the X-Men a couple of days ago.] Why Starfleet? Okay. So, this is a slightly polished version of a rant I... ----- PING: TITLE: Los weblogs como cerebro auxiliar URL: http://www.intelica.es/mt_static/merodeando/archivos/000142.html IP: 66.98.144.23 BLOG NAME: Merodeando por la enredadera DATE: 01/02/2004 11:31:20 PM Existen en la red infinidad de anotaciones sobre por quÈ se escribe una bit·cora. Algunos hablan de la masificaciÛn del amateurismo de todo. A mi la razÛn que m·s me convence, que no sÈ si es la que a mi... ----- PING: TITLE: "The dramatic increase in available information Ö" URL: http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/000912.htm IP: 63.247.142.216 BLOG NAME: Brian's Education Blog DATE: 01/08/2004 10:28:45 PM Here's an essay about the rise of the amateurisation of nearly everything with obvious educational vibes attached to it. I ----- PING: TITLE: The Fractal Blogosphere URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/01/18.html#a189 IP: 203.97.2.242 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 01/18/2004 11:39:55 AM In this article I draft guidelines for a Fractal Blogosphere and suggest that ----- PING: TITLE: HvenÊr bloggar ma•ur um mann og hvenÊr bloggar ma•ur ekki um mann URL: http://www.maggadora.com/blog/archives/001501.html IP: 213.176.155.241 BLOG NAME: Magga Dóra bloggar DATE: 01/19/2004 10:13:44 PM Šg skrifa•i fÊrslu um daginn um hva• flokkast sem blogg og hva• ekki. Þetta vir•ist vera –•rum bloggurum huglÊgt. HÈr eru nokkrar greinar. Hef ekki lesi• œÊr allar svo segi•i mÈr hva• ykkur finnst. Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an... ----- PING: TITLE: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Wonderchicken URL: http://www.emptybottle.org/glass/2004/01/never_mind_the_bollocks_heres_the_wonderchicken.php IP: 63.247.132.12 BLOG NAME: EmptyBottle.org DATE: 01/21/2004 08:16:19 AM I'll be 40 years old next year, but I don't, despite my worst fears, feel anything like that ancient. Thanks to my greatly reduced intake of things that are bad for me (from apocalyptic to merely terrifying), I feel physically better than I did through... ----- PING: TITLE: The tao of blogging URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/weblogs/2003_10/the_tao_of_blogging.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 01/21/2004 10:17:39 PM It seems sooner or later every blogger is bound to write a post about weblogging or to be more precise, What We Blog About When We Blog About Blogs, Why I Blog and what’s the point of blogging? Most people... ----- PING: TITLE: Updates and Admin URL: http://joannejacobs.net/cgi-bin/archives/000352.html IP: 140.186.45.15 BLOG NAME: joannejacobs.net DATE: 01/23/2004 07:01:30 AM Geek and professional news in the post, personal news in the extended entry. You know the routine. Geek news: 1. iTunes has now released an RSS feed for updated listings of music files available through the iTunes micropayment system. What a great idea... ----- PING: TITLE: All about Blogs, Weblogs, and the Blogosphere URL: http://www.mahalie.com/blog/archives/000022.php IP: 66.33.197.209 BLOG NAME: mahalie's blog DATE: 01/27/2004 08:45:10 PM Holy blog!! I was just voting for my favorites for the 2004 Bloggies awards, when I came upon the category "Best Article or Essay About Weblogs". I have only just finished the first entry, (Weblogs and) the Mass Amaturisation of... ----- PING: TITLE: Website Redesign URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/misc/2004_02/website_redesign.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 02/14/2004 09:57:42 AM Warning: This corner of the web has encountered a temporal anomaly - adjusting style-sheets to compensate. Alarms. “Cap’n, it’s not working! The box model hacks are overloading the temporal capacitor’s ability to compensate! The... ----- PING: TITLE: Website Redesign URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/misc/2004_02/website_redesign.html IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: KO DATE: 02/14/2004 11:31:57 AM Warning: This corner of the web has encountered a temporal anomaly - adjusting style-sheets to compensate. Alarms. “Cap’n, it’s not working! The box model hacks are overloading the temporal capacitor’s ability to compensate! The... ----- PING: TITLE: The Skin I Wear URL: http://www.lifeofrobert.com/archives/2004/02/24/11.50.01/index.html IP: 209.152.177.64 BLOG NAME: Life of Robert DATE: 02/25/2004 07:51:02 AM plasticbag.org has a great article about how weblogging could be affecting and/or be a result of amatuerisation. And this is the big leap forward - this is where the value of weblogs lies in the newly amateurised world. This flexibility of publishing c... ----- PING: TITLE: The Skin I Wear URL: http://www.lifeofrobert.com/archives/2004/02/24/11.50.01/index.html IP: 209.152.177.64 BLOG NAME: Life of Robert DATE: 02/26/2004 02:19:40 PM plasticbag.org has a great article about how weblogging could be affecting and/or be a result of amatuerisation. And this is the big leap forward - this is where the value of weblogs lies in the newly amateurised world. This flexibility of publishing c... ----- PING: TITLE: Amateurs are more innovative URL: http://www.monkeymagic.net/blog/archives/2004_03_03.html#000134 IP: 81.21.68.57 BLOG NAME: Monkeymagic DATE: 03/03/2004 11:03:21 AM A little knowledge may be a dangerous thing when you're diffusing that bomb at the end of the Bond film you're in. In terms of invention, though, it seems to be a positive. ----- PING: TITLE: Are epidemics bad for your blog? URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/07.html#a506 IP: 212.198.60.13 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/07/2004 08:30:24 PM Still in rude and frosty vein, I buried myself deeper in my lunchtime reading, after shaking his hand, when Andr ----- PING: TITLE: Oh yes, the Bloggies URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/16.html#a524 IP: 212.198.59.143 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/16/2004 09:58:37 AM I'd forgotten about those annual awards (Fairvue) . ----- PING: TITLE: Los ganadores de los Bloggies2004 URL: http://www.uberbin.net/archivos/000849.php IP: 66.33.213.7 BLOG NAME: Denken Ðber DATE: 03/16/2004 06:47:43 PM Finalmente ya se dieron a conocer los ganadores de los Bloggie Awards 2004 de la lista de nominados que anteriormente habÌamos comentado. Solo para tomar nota, MT, Blogrolling, Boing-Boing, Slashdot, Metafilter, Little Yellow Different, Scripty Goddes,... ----- PING: TITLE: Amateur Gatekeepers: Who Needs 'Em? URL: http://keimns.bloggedup.com/archives/000051.html IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Blindspots DATE: 03/24/2004 03:58:20 AM Stephanie over at WEEBLOG has some pithy comments on the article "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything..." from Plastic Bag: The article "(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything..." explains the increasingly... ----- PING: TITLE: Mass Amateurisation URL: http://www.annelogue.com/weblog/archives/000144.html IP: 81.19.252.176 BLOG NAME: Annelogue DATE: 03/31/2004 05:53:55 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...... ----- PING: TITLE: I guess this makes me a journalist URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/2004/04/19.html#a224 IP: 203.97.2.242 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 04/19/2004 11:31:15 AM Today I got my first article in print. ----- PING: TITLE: Dead trees = journalism URL: http://blogs.it/0100198/2004/04/19.html#a2600 IP: 67.100.91.193 BLOG NAME: Marc's Voice DATE: 04/19/2004 07:41:36 PM Congrats to Richard! ----- PING: TITLE: New School Blogroll example URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001718.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/22/2004 06:54:16 AM As per my previous post, I've updated my blogroll to include topics and conversations. I just manually updated my blogroll OPML file, but I envisage a web frontend for this in future - kinda like Phil Pearson's web form for... ----- PING: TITLE: The Fractal Blogosphere URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001790.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/22/2004 10:15:24 AM In this article I draft guidelines for a Fractal Blogosphere and suggest that it be used as a measure of scale in the weblogging world. The goal is to help bloggers, particularly new ones, easily fit into a suitable b... ----- PING: TITLE: I guess this makes me a journalist URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001824.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/22/2004 12:02:26 PM Today I got my first article in print. My interview with Marc Canter made it into Computerworld New Zealand (pg 16, April 19 edition - right over the page from Jon Udell). It was one of my goals at the... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogs as Avatars: some thoughts URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001902.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/27/2004 09:18:13 PM I'm in a stage right now where there are lots of details that I'm juggling in my life, both in the real world and my weblog world. My job is busy, with quite a few relatively exciting projects on the... ----- PING: TITLE: Bloggies 2004 URL: http://www.karmakars.com/weblog/archives/2004/03/19/bloggies/ IP: 216.58.174.152 BLOG NAME: Karmakars.com DATE: 07/04/2004 12:46:28 PM A lot seem to be going around on the net with the 2004 bloggies results and photos. While I didnt personally didnt attend an of it I do find some comments and discussions interesting. The results are included at th... ----- PING: TITLE: http://WWW.positionrelative.com/quicklinks/archives/2004_08.php#000205 URL: http://WWW.positionrelative.com/quicklinks/archives/2004_08.php#000205 IP: 64.235.234.165 BLOG NAME: quicklinks DATE: 08/30/2004 09:07:16 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...... ----- PING: TITLE: Bloggies 2004 URL: http://www.karmakars.com/weblog/archives/2004/03/19/bloggies IP: 216.58.174.152 BLOG NAME: Karmakars.com DATE: 09/07/2004 12:11:08 PM A lot seem to be going around on the net with the 2004 bloggies results and photos. While I didnt personally didnt attend an of it I do find some comments and discussions interesting. The results are included at th... ----- PING: TITLE: Mass amateurization. URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0126951/2004/09/20.html#a146 IP: 146.115.67.59 BLOG NAME: Nick Gall's Weblog DATE: 09/20/2004 12:04:48 PM The issue of Mass Amateurization came up in a client discussion. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being grouchy with BTOpenworld... Again... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/06/2003 06:36:25 PM ----- BODY:

    So like a great great many people in the UK who can't get easy access to cable, I get my ADSL from BTOpenworld. BTOpenworld is the online part of that-which-used-to-be-called-British-Telecom before it was privatised twenty or so years ago. Now the thing about this ex-monopoly is that it really doesn't have the slightest idea what it's doing most of the time. I've had £250 phone bills for internet access and then been told I'd get unlimited usage only for it never to work (an offer they actually physically rescinded because they couldn't handle the strain), I've had ADSL packaged with the world's least practical and useful modem and I've recurrently had them say that they don't support Macs even when - let's be honest - what's to support? The biggest problem with them is that they keep thinking "ooh - let's add more shitty services and fluff on our service" while resolutely not doing anything even vaguely useful like:

    1. Have vaguely easy to search help files
    2. Provide a simple service that actually works
    3. Not be dick-heads

    My favourite bit always used to be the phone help-lines that they charge 50p a minute for. You ring up and they say things like "Have you got the phone cable plugged in?" and "Is your computer turned on?" before confessing that they actually dont' know what's wrong at all, and - by the way - thanks for the tenner you've just spent on the conversation...

    But I have a new favourite bit. They send out these e-mails every so often, telling you how they're changing the terms and conditions and giving you brilliant new services like new dumb-shit-enabled browsers and "Photo and briefcase storage and sharing" whatever the hell that might be. The latest big deal that no one gives a crap about? BTOpenworld is 'fusing' with Yahoo in some totally tedious way. So they send out an e-mail explaining how ace this new service is and it's all HTML enabled and full of crappy images. And at the bottom it has this thing about what to do if you're on a Mac, and - of course - the bloody link doesn't even work if you're using a Mac.

    Gah, the sooner there's some decent, practical simple mac-friendly competition the better...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian EMAIL: adrian@vavatch.co.uk IP: 217.155.173.222 URL: http://www.mssv.net DATE: 09/06/2003 06:46:07 PM Why are you staying with BT Openworld? Surely there are other, better, ADSL ISPs that you can use, like Zen or Pipex? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@infinitemonkeys.co.uk IP: 80.177.109.149 URL: http://www.infinitemonkeys.co.uk/gasgiant/ DATE: 09/06/2003 07:28:37 PM Might I recommend Demon? They've given me almost no trouble at all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@infinitemonkeys.co.uk IP: 80.177.109.149 URL: http://www.infinitemonkeys.co.uk/gasgiant/ DATE: 09/06/2003 07:30:02 PM Ooh - and never have a USB modem; always use an Ethernet router. They're so much less hassle. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joe gibson EMAIL: joe_gibson99@hotmail.com IP: 62.190.233.173 URL: DATE: 09/06/2003 07:34:04 PM Leave BTOpenworld NOW (but they even make leaving difficult!) Follow the advice about an Ethernet router. Finally, use Nildram as your ISP. They're brilliant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul EMAIL: paul@rixort.com IP: 62.3.227.191 URL: http://www.krynet.com/ DATE: 09/06/2003 09:44:39 PM I agree with Joe, switch to Nildram - they are an excellent ISP. You can basically do what you want (run servers, download huge files etc.) so long as you don't abuse the service or break the law. I would advise against Pipex - they wouldn't even speak to me on the phone when I rang up to enquire about one of their packages (instead telling me to go and look at their site). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: excession EMAIL: peterj@mesallen.info IP: 217.44.39.42 URL: http://www.peterallen.info DATE: 09/06/2003 10:04:39 PM Have to say, I use BTBroadband (rather than OpenWorld) and have had no real problems. (Although I do use a router rather than a free-ish modem.) And surely BT can be as bad as they like - change if you don't like the service, ISP-ion is an open market after all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 68.83.141.31 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 09/07/2003 03:34:48 AM I've never gone wrong following the simple maxim: BT are *always bastards* and *never get anything right*. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: N. EMAIL: nickdastoor@mailup.net IP: 213.121.67.170 URL: DATE: 09/07/2003 03:35:38 PM I'm on a mac too, and on the point of going broadband myself The one ISP I had ruled out of hand before I even started thinking about it was BT. All I hear is hassle and even if you have no problems why pay £30 a month when others with much better reps and lab test results are much cheaper? Considering eclipse, nildram, zen and plusnet. I'm on a Mac too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: adrian EMAIL: list_daemon@hypster.co.uk IP: 81.86.138.153 URL: http://www.hypster.co.uk DATE: 09/07/2003 05:02:01 PM Just wanted to plug pipex. Been with them 18months, no problems and a pro-active, friendly helpdesk who've even phoned me back for updates. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Carter EMAIL: _remove-spam_rlc@gruts.com IP: 212.126.144.12 URL: http://www.gruts.com/index.php DATE: 09/07/2003 06:10:19 PM ADSL - some of us can only dream of ADSL! My local exchange goes digital this month, but now BT are telling me I might (don't they know?) have a shared line (whatever the hell one of those is) - so they can't guarantee a connection. This from a company that provide me with a bog standard phone line that managed to break down five times in one year. Living on top of a hill in the Pennines is wonderful, but you don't half feel socially excluded sometimes. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jez EMAIL: plasticbag.5.nixondea@spamgourmet.com IP: 172.188.124.60 URL: DATE: 09/07/2003 06:24:40 PM ISPs lease their ADSL connectivity for their customers from BT Ignite (who own the network infrastructure). These ISP (Demon, Freeserve, AOL etc.) have a ëservice level agreementí with BT whereby if connectivity to the customer is lost due to a problem at the exchange then BT Ignite pays a ëfineí to the ISP. So, for example, if someone using Demon has a fault at the exchange level then BT Ignite will be instructed to fix it and pay a fine to the ISP if it is not fixed within a certain time period. Thatís with Demon. Unfortunately, BT Openworld has no ëservice level agreementí with BT Ignite (why fine a company owned by the same parent?) and therefore their exchanges are always the last to be fixed. I worked supporting BT Openworld customers for a bit and the level of support we were able to offer was terrible. It wasnít our fault; weíd effectively be fined for reporting a faulty exchange and we were encouraged not to do so, even though most faults were at the exchange and not with a particular customersí set-up. Are you sure itís your USB Modem at fault? Often it's a problem with the exchange. Have you updated your drivers? :P ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: matthew@bytemark.co.uk IP: 81.134.72.51 URL: http://www.bytemark-hosting.co.uk/ DATE: 09/07/2003 06:39:42 PM If you want a reliable ADSL connection, my suggestion is to get two of them :-) After the sting of the installation fees for a second phone line and 50 quid setup charge, two ethernet routers from Dabs for £40 each, you can enjoy the luxury of never ever dealing with an ISP support department again. Because when one connection goes down, who cares? The other should still be up. My business partner and I have our houses linked by a wireless setup and some nerdy Linux routers at each end (optional, but nice) which mean that we don't even notice when one connection goes down, everything gets re-routed to the other connection and carries on. The connection at my house is BT Openworld (who refused to book a fault with their engineering department becuase "you'll need to send those pings from a Windows computer before we can be sure it isn't your equipment") and at my partner's, Bulldog (www.bulldogdsl.com) who are friendly and helpful people with a responsive tech support department, but have had a couple of network outages in the short time we've signed up with them, so not fabulous, but for under 25 quid a month I'm not fussed (total ongoing cost is £55 for both connections). But who cares, they've never yet gone down at the same time, so we've not had a total outage since we've set the system up. Obviously it would be nice to get cable instead of a second ADSL connection for proper redundancy, but it's been a while since BT have stuffed up their exchanges so badly that resllers were down as well, it's usually an upstream network problem that causes down time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven EMAIL: frontallobe@btopenworld.com IP: 81.131.205.25 URL: http://frontallobe.blogspot.com DATE: 09/07/2003 11:49:22 PM It seems like you aren't the only one: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3192055.stm ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Brook EMAIL: mail@robertbrook.com IP: 194.60.38.10 URL: http://www.robertbrook.com DATE: 09/08/2003 11:01:24 AM I've been reasonable un-annoyed by Demon's Mac-friendly effort: http://www.demon.net/adsl/expresspackages/expressmac-home.html. A few minor install glitches, but pretty good after that. The ADSL 'current news' recorded message line is useful as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: mcdave1962@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.40.63 URL: http://www.afterimages.co.uk/backword/ DATE: 09/08/2003 02:33:41 PM Thanks for starting this thread. I'm looking into switching to a Mac, but my ISP (ntlworld.com) will only support OSX with broadband, and I'm not convinced they're any help even then. I was just looking through all the other ISPs, and now I've found all the resources I need in one place. Wonderful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@longmans.net IP: 62.190.236.241 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 09/08/2003 03:57:51 PM Tom, Repeat after me - P-I-P-E-X. Actually it's not bad, 12 months + down the line (pardon the pun). Seems to get pretty good ratings at adslguide.org.uk, too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: s3d EMAIL: s3d@dreamingsea.net IP: 62.64.160.41 URL: http://www.dreamingsea.net DATE: 09/09/2003 12:18:22 AM I'm considering 'freedom2surf' when our exchange goes ADSL in November. They look pretty good and they have the one thing that I always rate highly with any technical service: a community-based support forum (freedom2support). It doesn't work for everyone, but it works for the likes of myself who have enough technical know-how to get out of most jams but just need that little extra input from others who've been there when I don't. (The Movable Type support forums have helped me immensely on more than one occasion in this respect.) The forums at adslguide are a good place to start to gauge opinion of the biggest ISPs out there. I recommend it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 213.152.37.170 URL: http://www.goatforce5.org/ DATE: 09/09/2003 11:03:36 PM A guy at work was trying to leave BTOpenworld the other day - ended up agreeing to pay-out the last 6 months of the contract just to get away from them... However, i'm curious - how often do they change their T&C's? Was the Yahoo thing a T&C change? Because, if i'm not mistaken, you can reject any T&C changes and the service provider either has to continue to provide the service under the old T&Cs, or they let you leave the contract, no? I would ask the guy from work, but he's currently on a press junket to some Caribbean island - so life's not all bad... :P ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brad Brooks EMAIL: ninthart1@mac.com IP: 81.132.101.162 URL: http://blog.ninthpanel.com DATE: 09/10/2003 09:54:00 AM I'm with BTOpenworld on ADSL, and to be honest, I haven't had a problem with them. I use the crappy USB modem, but it's connected to a PC which acts as router and firewall. Doesn't give me a lick of trouble and using SSH forwarding I can access my Mac through the internet 24/7. I will change to a Netgear modem/router soon, as I'm so sick of windoze it's not true, but if you know how to play the game it's no problem (never phone tech support, don't plug the USB frog into the mac, etc...). I do agree about the Yahoo crap though. What on earth are they thinking of? BTW, Tom, check the tabindex attribute on this comment box. When I tried to tab from the Homepage input area above, it sent me to the search input box at the top of the page. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dug EMAIL: dug@pumpernickle.net IP: 80.176.240.59 URL: http://www.donkeyontheedge.com/ DATE: 09/10/2003 11:29:53 AM Relief is being able to bollock a person instead of a recording: http://www.donkeyontheedge.com/permalinker/?pid=11216&blog=donkey ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: POP EMAIL: POP_DOG_999@hotmail.com IP: 81.178.140.233 URL: DATE: 11/06/2003 06:56:41 PM Ive quit BTopenworld for pipex 1mb and it has been such a hassle cancelling BTopenworld. I even talked to french ppl! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Orlowski influence on BBC article? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/08/2003 12:01:14 AM ----- BODY:

    So there's an article over at the BBC at the moment about Google celebrating its fifth birthday. As part of this article there's this paragraph:

    Web logs, or blogs, pose a particular problem for Google as one of their defining features is the links they have to other blogs. As the numbers of blogs has grown the influence they have over rankings has increased. In some cases blogs referring to a webpage on a particular subject are ranked higher than the page itself. To combat this Google has considered creating an index just for the web journals.

    My question is quite simple, really. The possibility that weblogs might be skewing the Google's results has been mentioned several times before, but as far as I know Google have never come out and confirmed these stories - and they have actively denied that a potential 'separate index' would involve removing weblog from their main index. So my concern is not what Google may or may not be doing, but whether the BBC has just based that part of its article on the article written by Andrew Orlowski on this issue, which conjured a fair amount of spurious fantasy and assertion out of surprisingly limited evidence. If they have, I have to confess I'd be disappointed...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: GarnetPoint EMAIL: GarnetPoint@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.246.5 URL: DATE: 09/08/2003 12:12:08 AM Chill Mr Tom. You get rattled at any article that doubts the power of the blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.192.132 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/08/2003 12:26:25 AM Nope - nothing to do with that. I do know weblogs pretty well, and I do get irritable when people make the same mistakes over and over, but this one is just a plain question - do they have separate confirmation on this one (in which case that's really interesting, and we should investigate it further) or is it based upon Orlowski's article, in which case it's hardly 'three independent sources' and I'm a bit disappointed in the BBC. Either's fine as an answer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.typepad.com DATE: 09/08/2003 12:51:38 AM Fair enough. But, they really should do something to mitigate/contain/properly weight the impact of blogs. Google is definitely less useful* than it was two years ago. *Anecdotal: personal experience. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 09/08/2003 01:59:45 AM I wonder, though, how they would go about segregating blogs. The lines between "blog" and "not-blog" are very fuzzy. How would they classify something like my courseware, for example, which runs on Movable Type but contains all of my course-related information (syllabus, readings, etc)? Would it be only those blogs that are on hosted systems, like blogspot and typepad and livejournal? Anything that has a blog-like logo or "powered by" link? This is treacherous ground. (Ceci n'est pas une blog...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 09/08/2003 02:11:26 AM Seems like I remember a recent study where someone at a US university actually had people run hundreds of queries, and found that the actual incidence of (obviously) weblog-based results was quite small. Need to find that... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.typepad.com DATE: 09/08/2003 02:11:55 AM (Blogs are shite until someone can build a system that ACTUALLY REMEMBERS PERSONAL INFO.) But anyway - it is easy now Liz: they have a live DB (Blogger's) with more than enough of a sample size to see what Bloggers are pointing to. They don't need to anaylze every single blog, just the 300,000 (or whatever number of active Blogger blogs there are) they have immediate access to. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 09/08/2003 02:28:00 AM Brad Choate has posted a fix for the "remember me" problem (it's related to the year/month/day archiving thing, and the way the cookies are set). As to the Blogger thing, I thought the idea was to separate blogs from the "real pages," not just to analyze blog links. (Though I think either one is problematic, since blogger isn't necessarily representative of the larger world of "blogs.") ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jazer EMAIL: jazer@rislone.com IP: 66.190.62.130 URL: http://www.johnzeratsky.com DATE: 09/08/2003 03:38:38 AM So, if this is true (which we currently don't know due to questionable reporting--which I believe is Tom's point) does it mean that Google is changing the definition of what a search engine is? Isn't a web search engine supposed to search web pages? Blogs certainly fall into that category. And given the loose definition of what a blog is, how would Google go about defining exactly what their main index includes? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ole Eichhorn EMAIL: ole@pacbell.net IP: 68.170.40.235 URL: http://w-uh.com/ DATE: 09/08/2003 05:14:27 AM Whether or not Google has confirmed it, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that Google's weighting of blog posts leaves something to be desired. For example, on August 30 I made a short post about Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 1997 Oui interview. This is presently the #1 result for the search "Arnold Oui" on Google. I've had hundreds of visitors because of this one post, which certainly was not the definive source for information about the Arnold Oui interview. So whether Google admit it or not, they do have a problem. I don't think the solution is to segregate blogs from other websites - the dividing line is too grey, rather, I think a change to the weighting scheme is in order. Ole ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KO EMAIL: khalido@go4b.net IP: 202.176.255.83 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com DATE: 09/08/2003 07:14:22 AM On the other hand, for a number of topics blog posts are a better resource of information as they collect the best content from the web. It's a lot better often to find a usefull blog post than to have to deal with a 100K results from google or dmoz. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.192.132 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/08/2003 08:35:36 AM I have to say that personally I haven't noticed much of a problem around this stuff. At worst people click on a weblog post that then gives them a link directly to what they're looking for. Wasn't there a Microcontent News piece on Google and Weblogging a while ago that didn't find weblogs in the index a problem? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jazer EMAIL: jazer@rislone.com IP: 66.190.62.130 URL: http://www.johnzeratsky.com DATE: 09/08/2003 05:05:22 PM Ditto. Blog posts tend to be better jumping-off points for net research than "real web pages" (whatever the hell those are). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Newman EMAIL: sam-newman@magpiebrain.com IP: 217.155.195.3 URL: http://www.magpiebrain.com/ DATE: 09/08/2003 11:08:12 PM I wrote a little piece on this a while back (Trackbacks considered harmful: http://www.magpiebrain.com/archives/000079.html). As far as I can see, the main complaint must be concerning the use (of some bloggers) of trackbacks. The fact is that google rates a page as being more important when more people link to it. Now if I blog what effectively amounts to a 'aint this page great' type link then I inflate the importance of that page in googles eyes. As far as I'm concerned this is perfectly ok - I found the link useful. What is NOT useful, is that if I then ping this site the site I ping will typically create a URL back to my site (this is how movable type works by default), artifically inflating the importance of my post. To be honest, until I see a decent study on this I'm not that bothered - anecdotal evidence is just that and is devoid of any scientific merit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 62.64.131.123 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 09/09/2003 09:55:36 PM Surely the problem with Google isn't the blog posts but the content-free Orlowski/Billblog rantings and commercial crap. I'd prefer a commerce-free Google to a blog-free Google any day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com/ DATE: 09/12/2003 02:14:02 AM It seems to me that Google is not as effective as it could be at "understanding" blogs because it does not understand "permalinks." If this were rectified then surely results would be improved, as they pertain to blogs at least. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.207.129 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/13/2003 11:19:56 AM Well - is that true? I mean - it clearly is true to an extent - but if people all used individual archives or day archives, then the whole permalink issue would be less of a worry, I suspect... ----- PING: TITLE: Things I have learned about Google URL: http://www.wood-tang.com/archives/000408.php IP: 209.61.185.17 BLOG NAME: Wood-Tang.com DATE: 10/20/2003 04:48:02 PM Things have been more lively around here in the past couple weeks, and I have seen significant spikes in traffic on two different occasions. It's certainly not because I'm doing anything different; I actually haven't been trying that hard lately... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One big clump of recommendations engines... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/08/2003 12:58:55 AM ----- BODY:

    I'm doing a bit of work around recommendations and recommendations engines at the moment, and I'm finding it really illuminating. The thing I think I'm most surprised by is how unclear the boundaries that surround the whole concept actually are - how everything seems to bleed into surrounding areas - where structure and categorisation bleeds into navigation bleeds into contextualisation bleeds into associations between things which bleeds into tracked user-behaviour in aggregate which bleeds into individual user behaviour patterns. It's all very... bleedy...

    Anyway, so I'm thinking about all this stuff and I start looking at Amazon - and I know I shouldn't really be surprised but I suddenly get slightly overwhelmed by it. It's basically just loads of recommendations engines joined together with a tiny fragment of 'buy a product' goo. There's the page that greets you when you arrive (assuming you're logged in), above which you can click on a page to get specialised recommendations based upon purchases. On every single item you go to there's a recommendations aspect (people who bought this also bought...) - and then if you add it to your basket, then you get a recommendations page that shows you other things you might like to buy. The same thing happens when you add it to your wishlist. And then there's the recommendations engine that tracks you around the site, keeps track of every item you've looked at and works out descriptions based upon those - that's called "The Page You Made". And then there's the "New for You" page - a set of (you guessed it) recommendations based upon what's recently been published or released.Then there's the button that you click to "See more items like the ones in your wishlist". And then there's "Your Store"... I wouldn't be surprised if they tweaked your recommendations depending on where you lived as well.

    All of which only makes it worse that seem to think they think I'm obsessed with low-grade sk8ter rawk...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 65.92.119.236 URL: http://fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 09/08/2003 02:51:44 AM ewwww sk8er rawk is the exact product of corporate marketing gone really successful. fakes, phonies, an image that is precieved as tough and cool because of the clothing brands you wear, the "punk" music you listen to, and because you hold a skateboard in your right or left hand. sick really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 81.132.93.124 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 09/08/2003 08:30:14 AM Coincidentally, Erik Benson wrote a piece on Amazon Recommendations - http://www.erikbenson.com/index.cgi?node=fortune-telling - in which he says "The goal of personalization is to get to know you so well that all it takes is a complex algorithm to predict what you will do (usually buy) next. We are trying to outspeed the computation power of your brain" ... and ... "We don't care why you bought something, because whatever the reason was, some or all of that reason may apply to another person and they may end up doing the same thing that you did if they've done things similar to you before." ... which is all good stuff (doesn't mention the feedback loops which feel a bit like time-travel: if you hadn't been recommended the book, would you still have bought it?) BUT I think misses one of the key features of Amazon :: the recommendations are used to establish context. They perform the same function as: the reviews on the back of a book saying "The New Mr X!"; that some books on the shelves face outwards and others don't; similarities of cover art designating style/subgenre. All of these things can be done in a bookshop because you see many books at once -- Amazon has to do it deliberately. So it's important to have in the "Customers who also bought" mix books you've bought already? I reckon so. Oh yeah, and back on topic: Not only is Amazon is bucket of recommendations systems, it's also a great fulfilment company. That's all you need. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 81.134.102.146 URL: http://www.paperless-school.com DATE: 09/08/2003 09:21:17 AM It would be really good to see even a tentative categorisation, if you come up with one. I've had my interest in reputation systems stimulated by the way the Elance one has broken; it's set me thinking that very, very few people seem to actually understand them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Garret Keogh EMAIL: garretkeogh@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 152.163.190.1 URL: http://cheesedog.typepad.com DATE: 09/08/2003 12:18:08 PM I sometimes have to look artist information up in Amazon for work (I'm an online music journalist). This then becomes part of my recommedations! Amazon currently thinks I like The Coral, Blazin Squad and Bergman movies. This is not true. I find the "People who bought this..." links quite useful and they have often led me to unexpected but rewarding book and music purchases. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.165.167.158 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 09/10/2003 07:38:48 PM From my own experience, the Amazon recommendations work better the more you use the site - the more products you browse, buy, etc. the more refined their computations. Or something. Of course, having said this, I take much more stock in the 'People who bought this have also bought:' links, since these are filtered by individuals and their actions, not statistical guesswork. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Thristan EMAIL: beonlinecomms@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.198.74 URL: http://www.marktsinfoblog.blogspot.com DATE: 09/11/2003 11:36:35 AM Tom, I had a slightly different ponder about recommendation systems a while back. I just wondered whether search engines could be improved by some form of reputation management, and the way I considered this working was with a network of recommendations. It's basically an idea to overcome the fact that search engines at present are fine for precision and recall, but don't help you to judge the "trustworthiness" of information. Any thoughts (beyond the obvious personal data protection issues)? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.192.132 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/11/2003 09:49:10 PM Well of course in one way they are. Google's Pagerank (as my good friend Mr Webb suggested a while back) nothing but a recommendations mechanism for web-pages. It's reputation component is in the number of people who think a page is interesting or useful enough to link to. The only difference is that there is a difference in register. With something like Amazon, the fact that someone else has bought two objects has created a link between those objects of a greater or lesser strength. The two objects, however, are of the same register. They are both 'things you buy'. In Google, there are things you look for and things you link to - although I have no doubt (since we can see it in their adverts on the right) that the fact that you choose to click on one link rather than another is recorded and reused in some way... A variety of other people have been trying to talk about positive and negative links recently - some of whom as a result of reading one of my old posts - On the responsibility of linkage - but others working completely independently. The gist of their work seems to be that there should be (at least) two kinds of links - one that is a recommendation (as all links are today - albeit tacitly - in that they build traffic for the person linked to) and one that is an obvious and clear statement of disagreement which would be something that a search engine could parse and utilise. I'm not sure I know how useful or functional such a negative link would be - nor do i know how you'd implement such a thing or how prone to abuse it would be - but it's certainly interesting as a concept. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.137.122 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/21/2004 12:44:11 PM Could I just say to "south beach diet" who keeps posting spam comments on this site that I'm just going to continue to delete them as fast as you post them, add them to a blacklist and circulate them around the community. At a certain point I may start sending you bills for the advertising on my site that you are undertaken, working on the basis that you are implicitly agreeing to this site's Terms and Conditions of use. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is "amateur" an insult? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/08/2003 08:24:55 AM ----- BODY:

    Microdoc News has responded to my piece on Mass Amateurisation with a corresponding piece taking me to task on using the word 'amateurisation' when I should use the word 'empowerment' (Mass Amateurisation, Blogging and Google):

    Mr Coates has done it again - created a wide sweeping panorama of ideas which seem to work but then once the euphoria of the idea has swept by, one realises that Tom has just kicked me and all the other webloggers in the guts. The concept of mass amateurisation is that kick in the guts -- amateurisation is a pejorative term, belittling the efforts of thousands of webloggers.

    I think it's a shame that my piece has been read in this way. As I think should be obvious to pretty much everyone, I'm interested in weblogs and weblog culture and I'm proud to belong to that community of people. When I used the word 'amateur' I wasn't intending to make any kind of value judgement - I was just describing a type of activity that was open to many people who were undertaking it not because they had to - and not for money - but because they enjoyed doing it and derived other benefits from it. There are clearly many extremely good weblogs with expert (or popular) appeal and there are also a great many weblogs that neither have - nor particularly look for - any relevance outside a small group of family or friends. I'm not sure I believe that whether they are 'amateur' or not necessarily has much bearing on that distinction. The web is full of sites by creative people who don't get paid for their efforts. Many of these sites are dramatically more interesting and creative than commercial sites. They're still amateur... And why can't an amateur writer be at the very top of their field? After all only amateur sports men and women can compete in the Olympics...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon Thornton EMAIL: simon@mutualmisunderstanding.com IP: 81.129.123.201 URL: http://www.mutualmisunderstanding.com DATE: 09/08/2003 09:44:22 AM It is odd that they picked up on your use of 'amateur' in this way. I certainly knew what you meant by the term, as I suspect most people who read your article did. If I do something as a 'hobby' often, but don't get paid for it (blogging, photography, collecting stuff, whatever) then I'm an amateur at it - with no judgement applied to if I'm actually any good at it. If I do something often and get paid for it (music, IT-type stuff) then, according to the taxman at least (!), it's a profession (=opposite of an amateur pursuit). Shirley? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: amateur@x-pollen.com IP: 64.163.213.116 URL: http://x-pollen.com/ DATE: 09/08/2003 09:46:30 AM Of course the etymology of amateur speaks to doing something "for the love of it," but it's also true that the word carries baggage, connotations of sloppiness or mediocrity. Then again, how anyone could read your essay as an insult to webloggers is beyond me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Watson EMAIL: jwatson@funkanorak.com IP: 81.86.148.191 URL: http://www.funkanorak.com DATE: 09/08/2003 11:20:25 AM "Amateur" could well be a veiled insult, but the use of the word in your article is fairly obviously non-pejorative. However, you do suggest that amateurisation could have negative effects: "And this will bring an ever-evolving culture of amateurisation into every form of creative production ... Whether or not this shift will result in an explosion of creativity or a debasement of quality remains unclear." Microdoc seem hesitant to admit that the "empowerement of the masses" could generate dross as well as gold. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory@speedysnail.com IP: 213.122.145.13 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 09/08/2003 11:52:10 AM If we're worried about words having unfortunate connotations, empowerment is hardly going to do; it makes weblogging sound like self-helpery. (Which it can be, just as it can be amateurish, but that's hardly all it is.) That rainbow superhero graphic on the Microdoc article isn't helping, either. Not everyone who sets text to screen wants to be an Empower Ranger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mad William Flint EMAIL: mpwilson@earthlink.net IP: 63.13.131.4 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108194/ DATE: 09/08/2003 04:33:30 PM It's kinda interesting. As I read it I had 'both' interpretations flipping randomly through my head trying to puzzle out which one you were going for. I have to confess to, until the clarification of this post, having come to the pessimistic conclusion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed EMAIL: ed@edrants.com IP: 12.99.104.155 URL: http://www.edrants.com DATE: 09/08/2003 09:09:22 PM This is bound to open up a can of worms (and I'm already well behind on the response front for the other score), but so the hell what if blogs are amateur? Let the weak-kneed get their panties in a bunch over the "I'm okay, you're okay" political correctness. They can go home and cry to mommy about pejoratives. Call me crazy, but a guy in his twenties or thirties shouldn't be crying over a bloody nose on the playground. I'm troubled over the idea that people (in this case, Tom) have to defend themselves for being honest about the state of weblogs or, for that matter, the state of the universe as described or chronicled in a weblog. Can't anyone take crticism or half-baked conclusions like a man anymore? Jesus. I'd hate to be in the Verdun trenches with the Microdoc News folks. If I had to spend our time constantly comforting them, the Germans would mow us down with machine guns before you could say Big Bertha. If you want to be empowered, then get off your duff, put in the work and do something about it. Just keep in mind that it's a tough universe out there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel Biroco EMAIL: kaosbabalon@NOSPAMhotmail.com IP: 213.121.68.97 URL: http://biroco.com/journal.htm DATE: 09/09/2003 12:44:18 AM Amateur is okay. It's amateur astronomers who discover new comets, it's amateur entomologists who discover butterflies thought to be extinct. The 'talented amateur' of the Victorian era is where many of the professionals of today came from. The father of modern surgery, John Hunter, was an amateur whose insatiable curiosity led us to much of modern medicine. For "amateur" read "generalist", for "professional" read "specialist". We all know that over-specialisation leads to extinction. There's nothing wrong with the gifted amatuer. It's the hopeless amateur, however, that we don't want to be associated with. People who collect labels on apples and oranges and suchlike, the clueless amateur, the boring trainspotter etc. I glory in the amateur, but I draw a line when amateur becomes an excuse for not being good enough. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.vze.com IP: 67.69.211.196 URL: http://fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 09/09/2003 02:23:17 AM can't really see how else one would describe your article without using the word amateur. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bree EMAIL: breebop@toastmedia.com IP: 154.5.115.209 URL: http://breebop.toastmedia.com DATE: 09/09/2003 08:46:32 AM I think it's unfortunate that 'amateur' has acquired such a negative connotation. I know when I hear the word, I think first that it's an insult, and then remember that it doesn't have to be. How much of that is because the 'professionals' needed to explain why people should pay them to do what the amateur would for love? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel EMAIL: jmoser@moserbrothers.com IP: 66.214.185.143 URL: http://www.moserbrothers.com DATE: 09/09/2003 12:51:58 PM The bright side, though, is that the article has generated a response at all. There are tons of "amateur" bloggers out there who could declare an incestuous relationship with Hitler and not get a comment, trackback, or referral. See what good writing and taking a stance can getcha? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anoxia EMAIL: anoxiate@hotmail.com IP: 129.142.172.6 URL: DATE: 09/09/2003 02:33:34 PM Amateurs are people that have the opportunity to simply do what they feel for instead of what will bring them a steady income. I think that's a really good starting point for making something of real value. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt@wood-tang.com IP: 159.53.32.42 URL: http://www.wood-tang.com DATE: 09/09/2003 02:39:04 PM Such distinctions between "amateurs" and "professionals" also assumes that being labeled a professional is the Holy Grail of compliments, which is far from the truth. I have worked with scores of professionals who would lend that term a far worse connotation, had they not made a career of hiding in their cubicles and avoiding responsibility. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@ihatespam.meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 09/09/2003 07:42:06 PM If I remember correctly, Microdoc went out of their way to take a giant dump on AOL journals, which smacked of elitism: "I cannot help but get the sense that AOL Blogging is going to be anything else than emasculated garbage." Very nice, s/he must be suffering from a sense of humour failure -- or bypass -- concerning the 'rank amateur' status of their views, and needs to read a copy of "The Intellectuals and the Masses". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Rutter EMAIL: rich@clagnut.com IP: 193.82.96.102 URL: http://www.clagnut.com/ DATE: 09/10/2003 10:47:48 AM Aside from the thinly veiled flamebait that was the Microdoc article, their response does highlight the different meaning of the word 'amateur' in the UK compared with other English speaking nations (Microdoc is based in Australia). We Brits almost exclusively describe someone as 'amateur' when they engage in an art, science, study, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession. Conversely someone is deemed to be 'professional' if they persue said activity as a job. So the difference between 'amateur' and 'professional' in British English is not one of skill or ability but of employment or finance. In other English speaking countries (US and Australia included) a rather different distinction is prevalent. A professional is someone who is proficient and an amateur is someone who is not (yet). Having said all that, it was pretty clear that your article implied amateur as meaning unpaid rather than unproficient. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.lomax/blogger.htm DATE: 09/10/2003 01:09:26 PM I think Tom's enthusiasm for blogs is obvious, as is his support for 'amateurisation' meaning everyone can do it. However there's more to this subject than an 'amateur? how dare you!' response. Tom claims that 'amateurisation is everywhere', and I don't think this is as true as it initially appears, and nor is it necessarily a good thing as Tom implies. Digital empowerment is a substantial cultural trend (Movable Type, Photoshop, Publisher, Avid, Premiere...) but I think its still quite a specialised area. Tom speaks in a generalised way - it is indeed "panoramic" - but is actually thinking of a relatively small number of people. You can't talk about 'empowerment', 'community' etc in such a narrow way when these are important, and WIDER social/political/educational issues. The world is changing? Says who, and by what criteria? And how are blogs part of this when such a small percentage of people have a computer/internet connection/blog? Many people do in the educated new media world, but statistically most people who have a different kind of life don't. Tom's consistent 'finding the good stuff' theme refers to a select few within a select few. The majority of blogs are not based on "information". Distributed cognition and aggregation are great ideas, but they do not apply to maybe 90% of what's out there - the blogs that Tom neither reads nor links to. Most blogs are socially motivated. Personally, I have concluded that blogs as a whole are not very interesting because I can't possibly be interested in thousands of individual lives that I mostly cannot relate to. It's like having access to personal letters. But their significance derives not from what I think, but from what the families, friends and colleagues think of each other's work. And that's great, just as it's great there are a small number of blogs which are based on or at least interested in "information". But what about the remaining 90%? What can you say about them? I think these parameters need clarifying, so the interests and concerns of a digital elite are not presented as a widespread cultural phenomenon or the defining meaning of what is happening. The value of the blog phenomenon is 'distributed', as are the blogs themselves. And here's a specific point: WHO is comparing blogs to the academic citation model? I only know one person who did/does this: Tom, presumably thinking of his own online venture. I may be wrong. But again I think this needs clarifying, and also evaluating: if most blogs are not information based, then this premise is incorrect. It may apply to a select few, but not the vast majority. I think a much bigger example of 'amateurisation' is the fashion for Pop Idol This, Become A Celebrity That, and the related so called Reality TV. You too can be a famous person. Is this 'empowering'? Of course not. If it ever does help people it is still a tiny minority in the same way that so called celebrities are a tiny minority. As some kind of social project, it is therefore misleading and exploitative. It appears to empower but maintains the same old infrastructure. You are supposed to identify with the protagonists because they are ordinary, but they are in extra-ordinary circumstances which you and I will never experience. I don't mean to be either aggressive or rude, but robust: if a spade is a spade, it makes sense to describe it as such. Personally, I think in the media, in politics and even in academia there is too much spin, half-truth and fancy rhetoric that gets us nowhere. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anonymous Coward EMAIL: anon@coward.com IP: 210.8.239.77 URL: DATE: 09/11/2003 03:41:56 AM The guy is a total crook anyway. It's ironic that for someone who is pushing themself as a Google expert, you can find so much dirt on him by searching Google :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: shandy_w@hotmail.COM IP: 217.44.64.78 URL: DATE: 09/15/2003 12:39:56 AM The ironic thing about Mr Microdoc's comments is that he (or she - I couldn't find a name on the site - a further irony when the subject is personal publishing) is not an amateur publisher. As he describes on the about the site page, the website is his job - it pays enough for him to live on - it is (at least at the moment) his profession. Kinda funny how he still relates to the little guy putting up a webpage for fun/satisfaction as "us". It's also quite amusing that the material is copyrighted to a limited company. The other interesting thing about his article is his reaction to google removing his site from the google news feed. He doesn't say that google specifically gave his supposed 'amateur' status as a reason - I think simply the fact that it is written and edited by a single person that is the problem - there are no checks and balances, no one to catch mistakes or query facts. Professional or not, reliance on a single source (as it were) can lead to serious errors being broadcast as news (or in a dossier...) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Towards a typology of recommendations systems... STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/09/2003 09:37:49 PM ----- BODY:

    So back to recommendations systems and some attempts to articulate some kind of typology (and to do so with enough decent keywords in the piece so that it can be found by Google - which is something that I rather wish other people had done already.

    The first principle of recommendations systems that I can discern - given my inexperience in the field - is that it's all about people. Or at least - conceptually it doesn't have to be about people, but there aren't that many practical situations that I can immediately think of where two things need to be matched with one another in which the motives of one of those things is as inscrutable and complex to model as a human mind.

    All of these models can be phrased in at least two ways - recommending things to individuals on the basis of collected behaviour or forming connections between things on the basis of shared behaviour. So - although it amounts to the same thing - you can argue that people will like things because our information indicates that they do, or you can argue that an object is linked to another object (is similar in some way) by dint of the fact that they have both been liked by a person.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Friendster as neocortical prosthetic... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 09/09/2003 09:51:50 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been reading connected selves on the 150 person limit for weak ties and its relationship to Friendster:

    "When i have 200+ friends on a site like Friendster, i'm not a social networks anomaly. What is actually being revealed is that my articulated network goes beyond the relationships that i currently maintain. While a high percentage of my friends and associates are on Friendster, not all of them are. There are quite a few relationships that i currently maintain that are not represented there. Additionally, many of the relations represented are outdated or on hiatus, not because i don't love or appreciate those people, but because we are not geographically colocated or our personal situations have created a situation where time to connect is limited. This doesn't mean that i don't love and appreciate those people, just that they're not part of my current situation."

    Particularly that early phrase, "I'm not a social networks anomaly", intrigued me. The assumption seems to be that Friendster just reveals our social networks - uncovers them - and that we had to explain away those circumstances where it seemed to indicate that human beings were managing more than 150 weak ties. This seems odd to me - surely Friendster is actually a mechanism by which we might outstrip the limits imposed by the size and power of the primate neocortex. I can't find a copy of the classic RIM Dunbar article online anywhere, but I did find an article on Neocortex as a constraint on group size in antelopes in which the author, Peter Taylor, specifically says:

    "Social animals group size is not limited by environment or feeding behaviour, but by neocortex size. Social life requires the mental capacity to process relationships and social standing. Therefore bigger groups require a bigger 'computer' in order to process all the group information. When the group size increases over the computational capacity the group fractures into smaller more stable numbers."

    It would be cheap to draw a direct parallel between the language he uses to describe our social-network-management wet-ware ('computer') and social software online, but I think there are some intriguing and fairly obvious parallels between the kind of information that we use our neocortices to process and the information we try to incorporate into our online social tools - reputation management being the obvious example. This idea of social software and online community software as a prosthetic is one I've articulated before but I think this is the most clearly I've seen it expressed...

    Addendum: There's a really interesting post in a similar vein on confusedkid.com too.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rayne EMAIL: rayne_today@yahoo.com IP: 172.157.132.207 URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0001549 DATE: 09/10/2003 08:02:49 PM Prairie dogs. That's my rebuttal. "Prairie dogs live in large colonies that are also called towns or villages. Undisturbed colonies have thousands of residents and extend for miles in all directions. Within colonies, prairie dogs live in family groups called coteries. Each coterie defends a home territory of about one acre (.40 hectare) from surrounding coteries. The typical coterie territory contains about 70 burrow entrances." - National Geographic Doubtful prairie dogs have a proportionally larger neocortex in comparison to other mammals. I would interested in looking at through-put between brain hemispheres. I'd also be interested in any studies of on-line relationship capacities (versus F2F) by humans with Asperger's; it's possible that the internet permits better relations as an augmentation to diminished capacity of right-brain function or diminished through-put. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cold Bacon EMAIL: coldbacon@coldbacon.com IP: 24.55.250.171 URL: http://www.coldbacon.com DATE: 09/11/2003 02:23:31 AM I am new to the whole 'is Friendster' good or bad discussion. Also, i think you are too intelligent. and i'm not sure i am able to figure out whether you think friendster is a good thing or not based on your text. maybe you could provide a more personal account. my reaction to friendster is here: http://www.coldbacon.com/friendster.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Zack Lynch EMAIL: z.lynch@attbi.com IP: 12.236.249.210 URL: http://www.corante.com/brainwaves DATE: 09/11/2003 04:56:29 AM Social software architecture + neuroceuticals = Forecasting Happiness http://www.corante.com/brainwaves/20030901.shtml#51882 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: benry EMAIL: blogthis@benry.net IP: 207.6.195.56 URL: http://www.benry.net/blog/ DATE: 09/12/2003 05:19:20 AM The 150 likely comes from the social network "rule of 150". You can read more about this in Malcolm Gladwell's book entitled "The Tipping Point". The idea basically is that humans can't really effectively maintain quality relationships in groups larger than 150 people. This idea has ruled things like the size of army divisions and the office sizes at the makers of GoreTex. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jean EMAIL: jeangenie_5@hotmail.com IP: 210.49.71.120 URL: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/creativitymachine/ DATE: 09/13/2003 05:21:05 AM Yeah, benry, it's the "quality" part that seems most important to me (or perhaps "intensity" is a better word) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.207.129 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/13/2003 10:53:27 AM The origins of the concept are in the RIM Dunbar article that Gladwell and many others have subsequently talked about. I fully understand that there's an issue about the quality of connections maintained, but the principle remains - is it possible to augment the social aspects of our being with some kind of outboard prosthesis? I would argue that it is - and I'll give an example of something like the IM buddy list, which allows individuals to 'feel' the 'presence' of their friends even when they're not having active discussion with them and when they're not co-located. That sense of perpetual low-grade maintenance could be seen to be an active maintenance of that connection... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rayne EMAIL: rayne_today@yahoo.com IP: 172.128.229.41 URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0001549 DATE: 09/16/2003 04:18:45 PM Hmm. Is the use of IM buddy lists a true parallel, then, of the prairie dog's yip or bark across its territory to other prairie dogs? Is a form of shout-out a deminimus requirement for a weak tie? What is the digital parallel -- merely blogrolling, or actual interaction? Is the lack of a nominal shout-out mechanism the reason why some mammals can't sustain networks of 150+ nodes? (I posted some thoughts on this subject after reading this post; perhaps it's not a augmentation of *external* social systems, but an augmentation of *internal* systems that we're seeking through networked mediation: http://blogs.salon.com/0001549/2003/09/10.html#a939 ) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: rob@nismo.org IP: 24.87.50.161 URL: DATE: 10/13/2003 03:34:13 AM I think that social networks software, esp. friendster, capitalizes on the large portion of the population who have high affiliation needs. some people need to have large numbers of friends. by providing a service to extend and keep in touch, websites such as friendster have really given the "affiliation-addict" what s/he needs. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cold Bacon EMAIL: cold@coldbacon.com IP: 67.20.100.114 URL: http://www.coldbacon.com DATE: 10/13/2003 10:23:58 PM I think the 'affiliation' model is a good way to look at it. it really won't change anybody's social life any more than email already did/has/does. and once you find the people/friends/date, you still may end up pushing them/being pushed off a cliff someday when they/you least expect it. so whatever. if people want to pay for/use friendster, i say let them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Fritz Honymann EMAIL: honymann@web.de IP: 217.231.244.95 URL: http://www.20six.de/honymann DATE: 11/24/2003 01:50:05 PM Commenting on Rob's point: The question is whether Friendster is actually able to capitalize on people's "affiliation needs". KleinerPerkins, a larger VC firm that has recently invested a substantial amount into Friendster, obviously believes so. However, I am not quite sure about it, yet. ----- PING: TITLE: Friendster as neocortical prosthetic... URL: http://www.zephoria.org/snt/archives/000727.html IP: 64.61.61.206 BLOG NAME: connected selves DATE: 09/10/2003 08:58:38 AM Multiple people have responded to my 150 person limit post with arguments about how the web should help increase our ability to connect and expand this number (most notably Tom Coates' Friendster as neocortical prosthetic...). Tom's right in that those... ----- PING: TITLE: On Joining Friendster URL: http://www.davextreme.com/davextreme/mt/archives/2003/09/on_joining_friendster.php IP: 64.191.59.225 BLOG NAME: daveXtreme DATE: 09/10/2003 04:27:46 PM I usually try to be on the cusp of trends. I joined eBay in 1998 and Napster in Fall 1999. For some reason, it seemed for a time like too much work to set up Friendster, but last night I... ----- PING: TITLE: Creative Networks: Smaller, Better, Smarter URL: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/creativitymachine/2003_09_07_creativitymachine_archive.html#10632505630050694 IP: 64.239.11.193 BLOG NAME: Creativity Machine DATE: 09/11/2003 06:46:13 AM What if we could measure the intensity and depth of engagement between one blog and another instead? What if we measured the frequency of link exchange between blogs, the depth of analysis of particular topics between 3 or 4 networked blogs? Then we'd ... ----- PING: TITLE: Creative Networks: Smaller, Better, Smarter URL: http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/~burgess/archives/000355.html IP: 131.170.98.199 BLOG NAME: creativity/machine DATE: 11/17/2003 06:42:05 AM Tom Morris has responded to my previous post on "mass amateurisation" with a thoughtful piece on the personalisation and decentralisation of the web: While personalisation and decentralisation may be just buzzwords at the moment, with the rise of the i... ----- PING: TITLE: Blogs as Outboard Brains URL: http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/~burgess/archives/000336.html IP: 131.170.98.199 BLOG NAME: creativity/machine DATE: 11/17/2003 06:53:38 AM Swimming against the "blogs are exhibitionistic" tide, back in May last year Cory Doctorow described his blog as his outboard brain . This would be closer to the way I see my blog as well - a way of annotating... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apple Ipod Infographica... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/11/2003 08:37:34 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a thought - the Apple Music Store has sold 10,000,000 songs. And the new iPod now has space for 10,000 songs. So if you needed a place to put all those 10,000,000 songs, you would only need 1,000 iPods. I wonder to myself - could you work out how many 'spaces for songs' that Apple have sold based upon their sales of the various sizes of iPods. You could then work out the average number of spaces for songs per iPod. An interesting figure would be the percentage of songs that are on an average iPod that were bought from the Apple Music Store... As Matt Jones said when I IM'd him about this - "Infographic ahoy!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordonREMOVETHIS@snowgoon.co.uk IP: 82.40.16.246 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 09/11/2003 10:00:48 AM Would never work. My iPod has about 8,000 songs on it with precisely NONE bought from the Apple Music Store (and amazingly ALL the MP3s are from CDs I own... no seriously!). Of course I really should go and look at what they are selling, my fear it that if/when something like this starts in the UK, it'll be chart stuff only and I really *don't* wanna pursue lists of Christina, Justin and the like for any little nuggets of hope. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Carden EMAIL: web@tom-carden.co.uk IP: 193.132.242.124 URL: DATE: 09/11/2003 10:50:42 AM Of course, at a dollar a throw (with no resale value and limited usage) who's going to have paid to download more than about 5% of a 10k capactiy iPod? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil McIntosh EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 81.132.217.103 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 09/11/2003 02:39:37 PM So Tom (Carden) - is the price you pay for a CD strictly dependent on the number of times you estimate you will play that disk in its lifetime, and any residual value in it x number of years down the line? :-) My, that's a cold way to look at the joy of music... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AR EMAIL: andrew@yellowcandy.com IP: 62.53.42.23 URL: http://yellowcandy.com/brio DATE: 09/11/2003 11:59:25 PM This also assumes that all 10M songs are unique songs. My guess is that there are probably two orders of magnitude fewer songs than downloads. But be safe and say 1M songs, with the average being downloaded ten times. But it would be interesting to see how many come from the Apple Music Store. If mine is any indication, it would mean 1/7332. But I'm also a Windows user (boo hiss)-- don't you think a Macintosh user/iPod owner might have more, as iTunes articulates so well with the Apple Music Store? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 68.83.140.76 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 09/14/2003 09:03:29 PM Approximately 0.44% of the songs on my iPod are from the Apple Music Store, even given that I use a Mac. The simple reason for this is that the AMS is overpriced and provides rubbish service. It doesn't have either interesting, obscure music or new music. I bought one album to test it. It's better than the other pay services (apart perhaps from buymusic.com) but that's really not saying much. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jonno EMAIL: jonno@jonno.com IP: 66.157.80.23 URL: http://www.jonno.com/now DATE: 09/20/2003 12:00:37 AM It's not *all* rubbish. Scrape away the Avril Lavigne and Matchbox 20 and there's plenty of good material on AMS ; in the last month I've downloaded some hard-to-find compilations by the Boswell Sisters and Etta James; the two excellent Verve "Remixed" jazz/electronica collections; several early career albums by the Talking Heads and Sonic Youth that I own only on cassette (cassette!) and didn't have the wherewithal to digitize; and, more recently, the new CD from Erykah Badu, one of the few contemporary big-label artists I enjoy very much - and which cost me six bucks less than had I purchased it at Tower or Amazon. If you're a "music devotee" who only finds credibility in small independent labels with limited distribution, yes. the AMS is sorely lacking. But on the whole it's turned out to be a much better resource than I'd expected. While the albums I mentioned and a few other tracks amount to less than 2% of the items in my music library (and on my iPod), that's not such a bad percentage for a service that's only been available for a couple of months. It'll be interesting to see what those figures will be like a year from now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hannah Bond EMAIL: hannahbond03@hotmail.com IP: 82.38.130.101 URL: DATE: 11/08/2003 08:47:12 PM I was wondering, are the Apple Ipods worth the money? I would like one very much but they are extremly pricey. Do they get damaged easily? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hannah Bond EMAIL: hannahbond03@hotmail.com IP: 82.38.130.101 URL: DATE: 11/08/2003 09:30:44 PM Thank you for the email. I am after the 20GB one. The only thing holding me back would be the price and that I would be very worried about scratching it. I will post again if I buy one and let you know what I think. Hannah ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Browsers to be crippled for Flash plug-ins... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/13/2003 11:13:44 AM ----- BODY:

    Well then, one way or another - at least for the foreseeable future - it looks like we have confirmation that we won't all be using Flash as our dominant way of designing for the web. Via 2lmc, I've been directed to Zeldman's commentary on the Eolas vs. Microsoft patent battle over web plugins. In a nutshell, Microsoft has lost their first attempt to challenge the ruling, and are starting work on removing certain plug-in-related functionality from Internet Explorer. As a result every site using Flash or Java plug-ins across the web is likely to have to rebuild aspects of their site.

    So what about all of those companies that have built sites using Flash in good faith? Who do they get to take to court? Could they sue Microsoft? I'm imagining they won't have that opportunity. It seems to me that means thousands of companies spending millions of dollars in rebuilding and future-proofing and an internet that's less accessible and useful than it was before. I just wish I had a better sense of whose fault it was? Is it Microsoft for breaking the rules, Eolas for pushing their patent or the patent system itself?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: steve@stevethompson.me.uk IP: 81.129.108.233 URL: http://www.stevethompson.me.uk/ DATE: 09/13/2003 12:03:34 PM This doesn't surprise me. During the time I worked at Apple UK, MicroSoft released a "Security Patch" for Windows 95. One of the features of this security patch was that QuickTime stopped working although VideoForWindows continued to work fine. Go figure. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: a@hey.com IP: 24.175.44.123 URL: DATE: 09/13/2003 04:17:09 PM Wait until this gets to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has tossed out a few of these absurd IP suits. The question is whether it's cheaper for MS to change IE or to pursue an appeal. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Heilemann EMAIL: eudaimic@binarybonsai.com IP: 212.10.10.31 URL: http://binarybonsai.com DATE: 09/13/2003 04:34:51 PM This is _good_ news! I have never seen a single case of flash being warranted for a site. Extraneous 'flashy' design which gets in the way of me finding the information I need is what I say :) And Java... Well apart from my Internet Bank, I haven't seen that being put to any really good use either... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Daines EMAIL: mdaines@shaw.ca IP: 68.147.2.103 URL: DATE: 09/13/2003 04:59:21 PM In the most general sense it seems like the best response to a patent is further innovation. The patent system is supposed to foster innovation by making it desirable for companies to disclose their innovations, because they can charge other people for using their invention. Maybe it's possible for a bunch of major players in the browser field to come together and create a better way of doing something similar, like how the PNG format was created in response to the GIF tax. But the problem with that is that to people who use browsers it seems like the plug-in architecture isn't really a way of doing things (a method), it's more of a simple fact that THIS IS WHAT'S DONE. Unless an appeal goes through and we all don't have to worry about this patent, something's got to give. Maybe that should be any current problems with the way plug-ins work. (Of which I can think of NONE, at least in general, because it's just always been this way.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: steve@oclipa.com IP: 81.130.106.26 URL: http://www.oclipa.com/blog.html DATE: 09/13/2003 05:26:24 PM At the risk of seeming very dense: if this ruling finally comes to fruition, won't it only affect future browsers? Those of us already using browsers which allow an "automated interactive experience" will not notice the difference. No? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.62.57 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 09/13/2003 11:50:33 PM "I have never seen a single case of flash being warranted for a site." You seem to exclude the thousands of quality independent flash cartoons. Sure - it's pretty useless for navigational purposes and it's a pain in the ass for something like a shopping site. But as with everything it has it's uses. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Bogaard EMAIL: dsb@it.rit.edu IP: 66.67.219.230 URL: http://dan.rit.edu DATE: 09/14/2003 05:09:09 AM To disagree with Michael H. and agree with Tom Morris - it is NOT a good thing. How can it possibly be so? Are fewer options ever good? Is one company deciding what we can and can't do ever a good thing? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.207.129 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/14/2003 11:34:40 AM I think more importantly, what we're talking about is a whole raft of sites that - whether good or bad - mostly worked, being suddenly made more innaccessible or just plain broken. However you package it, that's a worry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jez EMAIL: jez@jezuk.co.uk IP: 82.36.32.43 URL: http://www.jezuk.co.uk/jez DATE: 09/14/2003 02:50:26 PM I'm not generally inclined to be sympathetic to MS, but they, and through them everyone who uses the Web, with the exception of Eolas themselves, ha ve got the short end of this. This isn't about whether Flash/Java applets/whatever are a good idea/a sin against design/floor wax and desert topping, it's about software patents and whether they are a good idea/insufficiently scrutinised/overly broad/allow patenting of effect rather than method. Eolas's website described their patent - " Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document" - as
    First demonstrated publicly in 1993, this invention lifted the glass for the first time from the hypermedia browser, enabling Web browsers for the first time to act as platforms for fully-interactive embedded applications. The patent covers Web browsers that support such currently popular technologies as ActiveX components, Java applets, and Navigator plug-ins. Eolas' advanced browser technology makes possible rich interactive online experiences for over 500 million Web users, worldwide.
    As best I can remember, MS had demonstrated OLE (aka ActiveX) and Apple/IBM (Taligent maybe) had demonstrated OpenDoc in 1992, if not earlier. Both these bits of software allow you to embedded one application within another. It's the thing that lets you can drop an Excel spreadsheet into a Word document and still have it work properly as a spreadsheet, for instance. Eolas patent describes the same thing as OLE or OpenDoc, except that everything takes place over a network connection. Doesn't strike me as amazingly revolutionary. In fact, it seems like a classic case of adding "over the web" to something and it suddenly becoming patentable. Consider - you invent a process for mass producing diamonds. You patent it. I invent a different process. I patent that. You cannot sue me simply because I'm churning out diamonds by the dozen, because they way I do it is different. If you write a web browser in Java, the mechanism by which you load an applet is very different from the way IE displays an ActiveX control. In general terms, they're the same, but the detail is different. If you write a browser in Python that can display Python plug-ins, that would seem to be covered to. A patent that covers all this, which Eolas seems to claim is the case, is essentially patenting an effect, not a method. It's rubbish really, and that fact that MS is the company being litigated against is blinding a lot of the coverage to that fact. ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/09/12 22:10 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=3536 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 09/14/2003 03:17:23 PM Patent Nonsense ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On persuasion through fear and rhetoric... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/13/2003 12:37:11 PM ----- BODY:

    If all I cared about was traffic, then of course I'd write more about politics. Or religion. I wrote about religion a while back, and - yeah, I got lots of traffic. And I also had to spend about two weeks fielding e-mail from people, explaining my position again and again, taking issue with people who mischaracterised my position, trying to remain at all times relatively cool headed, relatively reasonable. I wish I could say that I succeeded all fo the time.

    Of course if all I cared about was traffic, then I wouldn't have bothered. I would have let my rhetoric fly free and wild. Facts? What facts! Logic? Who cares! I'd have stripped myself of the constraints of society (Arguing fairly - pah! Accepting when you're wrong - how retro! Looking to learn through debate rather than win through debate - ludicrous!) like I was shedding clothing, and I'd have run naked screaming through the fields of cheap attack, jingoism and name-calling! Who cares what I'm saying as long as it has the effect I desire? Who cares what tactics I use to get my point across? A win by a technicality - or a win by cheating - is still a win godammit...

    If all I cared about was traffic, I'd write like James Lileks. I'd talk to people's guts, I'd talk to their pain. I'd do whatever I could to avoid their ears and their minds. Because otherwise how would I be able to argue that being the victim of a terrorist atrocity automatically made every decision of a country - past, present and future - purer than the driven snow...? How else would I be able to argue that the only response that would be unreasonable would be atomic war...? How else would I be able to argue that anyone who even questioned this position hated humanity and was insulting the families of victims?

    I'm sure James gets a lot of traffic, and I'm sure that a lot of people feel that he speaks for them and says things that they feel to be true. There are a lot of people who feel vulnerable in the world at the moment, and there are a lot of people who feel that something must be done. They're right to feel vulnerable - we all feel vulnerable. They're right to want to do something to make the world a better place - there's no doubt that it could do with the help. But selling arguments on the basis of fear and bile and name-calling isn't the way to go. If I was James I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. And I don't think the traffic would help...

    Addendum: I'd like to apologise for the tone of this post, which was written in anger and ironically suffers from some of the same rhetorical excesses that I was taking James Lileks to task for. I do - however - still stand by the content.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Weblog Nostalgia... I may die... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/13/2003 10:04:15 PM ----- BODY:

    In March 2000, I'd been a weblogger for about four months. Blogger itself wasn't much older. The directory pages which tracked the start of each new public weblog are still up online and you can see new weblogs starting at the rate of one or two a day. The very first page on that directory contains the names that still conjure up the early weblogging experience to me - Evhead, Megnut and Onfocus, of course. But also Anil Dash, Saturn.org, Ethel the Blog, prolific.org, Prehensile Tales, WrongWayGoBack, etc. etc. If you dig around a bit, I'm in that list too somewhere - the past subtly retroactively edited by me changing the name of my site from Barbelith to plasticbag.org at a much later date...

    This nascent community was in some ways not nascent at all - many of the people in that early weblogging space were just looking for a platform in which they could do something creative. In fact, I think maybe one aspect of Blogger's initial success was how connected the initial webloggers were with earlier creative communities and individuals like Derek Powazek's fray and - in particular - Lance Arthur's epic Glassdog.net - back at the time when you could make great things online even if you couldn't program for shit. Glassdog.net's collection of wonderful web projects is completely lost now, unfortunately, but it was a space for many people eager to do something wonderful online. In a way, the early weblogging community was an extension - almost a sideline - of this community - a sideline that grew and grew to occupy not only much of our time, but also the time of many hundreds of thousands of other people... And in return, the communicative aspects of weblogging galvanised that community - exposing the people behind the projects, creating stated connections and creating genuine friendships, partnerships (and occasionally animosities).

    A couple of days ago Meg linked through to a site which featured a quicktime movie of an amateur interview with the early Blogger crew. And all I kept thinking about when I watched it was how much I wanted to go to SXSW to meet them all back in March 2000, and how I couldn't, and how much I wish I'd been able to. It was a fun time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@abstractdynamics.org IP: 68.164.34.231 URL: http://abstractdynamics.org DATE: 09/14/2003 02:35:04 AM March 2002? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.207.129 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/14/2003 11:30:31 AM Oops. Fixed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 82.41.48.26 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 09/14/2003 11:36:15 AM I was surprised at March 2002 also. I could almost (but not quite) swear that I'd come across the plasticbag name much earlier. Nice post, nevertheless. The Blogger startup files seem to stop about January 2001. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tamsin EMAIL: t_pad2002@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.170.77 URL: DATE: 09/14/2003 12:56:14 PM People's guts, pain, ears and minds are just parts of the whole being, and often interlink. What of those with damaged (pained) minds? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 213.107.124.21 URL: DATE: 09/14/2003 07:00:25 PM Before there were weblogs, there was the Cabal™. And that was just an accumulation of sites that valued well-crafted writing. I trace it back to Maggy Donea, Alexis Massie, Leslie Harpold's 'Smug', and its odd mirror-image the 'teeny-bopper domain hoppers' with tales of self-mutilation, teen poetry and Tori Amos lyrics, all wrapped in astonishingly good design. The fusion of those elements around a simple form contributed, I think, to the rise of the blog. And yes, it was a fun time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin EMAIL: kevincmurphy@hotmail.com IP: 66.65.112.138 URL: http://www.ghostinthemachine.net DATE: 09/16/2003 08:44:24 PM And, of course, these were just the people using Blogger. You also had the Winer folk, and the hand-coders (where I come in), and the other groups you mention. Obviously, the histories of blogging and Blogger are inextricably intertwined...but looking at Blogger's listory doesn't tell the whole story by far. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jordan EMAIL: swirlee@catharsis.org IP: 144.62.18.54 URL: http://www.swirlee.org/ DATE: 09/16/2003 09:57:02 PM It's weird to see myself on that list (74th from the bottom) and see all of those weblogs that I recollect so rarely now but remember so fondly. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dustin Davis EMAIL: dustindavis4788@hotmail.com IP: 212.199.169.153 URL: http://dustindavis.freewebpage.org DATE: 04/06/2004 11:51:17 PM your page is inspirational ;)

    Dustin Davis ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.fairvue.com/CentralArchives2003Sep.fv#007424 URL: http://www.fairvue.com/CentralArchives2003Sep.fv#007424 IP: 209.10.108.201 BLOG NAME: Fairvue Central DATE: 09/14/2003 04:40:53 AM Tom reminisces about the earlier days of weblogging. (Hey, look, I'm still #18 in the Blogger directory...)... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "At Home With Hitler"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/15/2003 08:57:42 AM ----- BODY:

    So Simon Waldman has been asked to take down the At Home With Hitler spread by Homes and Gardens. The full story is here. Someone's already put up a mirror, which I can't help thinking is a good thing. The most irritating thing about the whole debacle is that I don't think they have an obligation to make him take it down - instead I think they've just decided that they don't want to publically have their magazine linked with Hitler. I suppose I can understand the anxiety, but it is unfortunate. The article is a fascinating piece of history that we will shortly no longer have access to. I don't know that we ever really think about that aspect of copyright - that it stops us having unmediated access to recent history...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 81.128.160.170 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 09/15/2003 09:20:06 AM Trying to obscure the fact that Hitler was once a bona fide member of high society can only have the effect of making him seem more and more like a monster who appeared as if from nowhere. It is important that mankind remembers that Hitler was once considered a great man of the people because the monstrosity of the Holocaust was the result of a collective psycopathy. To remove this evidence of Hitler's once-upon-a-time respectability is to rewrite one of history's great lessons: there is great capacity for evil in mankind's nature and we all have a responsibility to ensure that it does not take root. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon Waldman EMAIL: waldo@oddpost.com IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://wow.blogs.com DATE: 09/15/2003 12:39:25 PM The mirror which someone kindly put up has been swamped. I have written to Homes and Gardens asking them to find an official home for the scans. I think the ideal solution would be to find a way to let them be widely and legally available. Let's see what they say. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ole Eichhorn EMAIL: ole@pacbell.net IP: 68.170.40.235 URL: http://w-uh.com/ DATE: 09/15/2003 03:36:24 PM This is exactly the argument against copyrights, or indeed any form of intellectual property. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek Powazek EMAIL: dmp@fray.com IP: 64.166.237.10 URL: http://powazek.com DATE: 09/15/2003 09:16:57 PM Oh come on, how naive is this guy? "Dear large magazine that's owned by a soulless multinational corporation with too many lawyers: I've reproduced your copyrighted work. And what's more, it's a hot button item about Hitler! Surely you'll be so pleased." Really. What was he expecting? I'm amazed they were so nice about it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.207.129 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/15/2003 09:51:34 PM Tell you what - I have to confess that I would agree with you on that one, except that Simon Waldman is pretty clued up on media stuff so I can't imagine that he doesn't know why they'd have an issue with it. Still - it's a little disingenuous of them to use copyright as the basis for their complaint... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 81.128.137.83 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 09/16/2003 11:15:13 AM Tell you what, how about some kind of compromise where the copy can stay up so long as there's some kind of criticism (in the proper sense of the word) of the events surrounding it? Sure, the magazine probably doesn't want to look like they support Hitler now, but it's fair use to put up scans of the images and say something like "My, look how times change!" Giving the magazine the opportunity to put up a statement on the site wouldn't hurt either... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel EMAIL: kaosbabalon@hotmailNOSPAM.com IP: 213.121.68.85 URL: http://biroco.com/journal.htm DATE: 09/16/2003 05:01:48 PM Ironic Mr Waldman blatently breached copyright on Isobel McKenzie-Price's email to him. I agree with Derek Powerzak. The web thrives on breach of copyright, but if you go to the trouble of alerting the copyright holder what can you expect? Still, in 2008 it'll go out of copyright anyway. Besides, have you considered that they may wish to publish a book of previous interesting articles, little point if people can get away with putting stuff up on websites anyway, the editor is merely following form on behalf of IPC. What else can she do, if she doesn't and there is a rash of copyright-infringement from Homes and Gardens then she will be answerable to others who will ask her why she didn't stem the tide, why she gave tacit permission. She probably found the piece interesting herself, but it was impolite to publish her email. Simon has just behaved a little boyishly and is let down not to get an enthusiastic response from the magazine. That's all. There is no issue about IPC and distancing from Fascism here, it's just policy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel EMAIL: kaosbabalon@NOSPAMhotmail.com IP: 213.121.68.85 URL: http://biroco.com/journal.htm DATE: 09/16/2003 05:19:50 PM Looks like the Fascist "historian" David Irving has already mirrored it for you Simon: http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/house/Homes_and_Gardens_Nov1938/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek Powazek EMAIL: dmp@fray.com IP: 64.166.237.10 URL: http://powazek.com DATE: 09/16/2003 07:01:34 PM Jacob - Good idea. It would be totally legal to put up a portion of the scans (not all of them) to go with an essay about fascism, media, and nostalgia that used the article as an example. That's Fair Use, and if that's what Simon had done, I'd be behind him 100%. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lynn S EMAIL: lynnsislo@yahoo.com IP: 209.12.76.28 URL: http://www.aeternam626.com/weblog/ DATE: 09/29/2003 06:47:56 PM There is a very amusing aspect to all of this. The Hitler article is getting a lot more publicity than it would have if the Homes & Gardens people hadn't been such twits about it. This is not what copyright laws were intended for. They also were never intended to last forever but corporations are lobbying to insure that they do. ----- PING: TITLE: At Home with Hitler URL: http://www.slolane.org/archives/000289.html IP: 209.50.235.10 BLOG NAME: SLOlane DATE: 09/20/2003 09:27:36 PM One of the great things about blogs and bloggers is that they are so much faster than the 900-pound corporate... ----- PING: TITLE: Another blogger censored by copyright laws! URL: http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/000413.html IP: 63.247.131.148 BLOG NAME: Classical Values DATE: 10/05/2003 12:42:27 AM This story is a real outrage:Homes & Gardens of November 1938 showed off Hitler's fashionable home. Homes & Gardens of 2003 would rather kill the story than apologize.... It is frankly sickening that Homes & Gardens should display concern for... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Going to the Blogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/16/2003 06:29:52 PM ----- BODY:

    I've just noticed there's a Spiked online weblogging event going on tomorrow at the South Bank called Gone to the blogs: The blogging phenomenon in perspective. The panelists will include Brendan O'Neill, Perry de Havilland, Bill Thompson and James Crabtree. I will be there, probably looking surly in the back...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: dru@dreamweaverfever.com IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.allinthehead.com/ DATE: 09/16/2003 08:38:19 PM If you go, throw some tomatoes at Bilbo Baggins for me, Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: james crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 82.35.73.62 URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com DATE: 09/18/2003 01:48:48 PM Nonsense: you were very well behaved. A common enemy does that, and frankly i doubt there are many people who can't find a common enemy in the amazing performing Spiked! boys..... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Forrester EMAIL: blogger@nospam.cubicgarden.com IP: 80.177.26.60 URL: http://cubicgarden.com DATE: 09/20/2003 03:58:46 AM A lot of tougue biting, is I feel is a better account than well behaved. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Perry de Havilland EMAIL: pdeh@samizdata.net IP: 81.5.146.53 URL: http://samizdata.net/blog DATE: 09/22/2003 03:53:30 PM You were not surly at all... but you should reserve the tomatoes for Bill 'Great Internet Wall of the EU' Thompson ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief design history of plasticbag.org STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 09/16/2003 11:19:17 PM ----- BODY:

    I've wanted to do this for ages, but I've never had time just to push it out into the open. So, without further introduction, here's a brief design history of plasticbag.org neé Barbelith.

    Barbelith, it has to be said, had designs that predated this one. It had a number in fact. Unfortunately none of them have survived the test of time very well - files have been lost and archive.org hasn't recorded their passing. The first vaguely well-constructed one (click on above for full screen-shot) was built by me hacking around with tables and adding things from the top down, feature at a time. It was considered quite good at the time, and remains the only single thing that I've designed in my life that has garnered universal good-feeling.

    Barbelith Design One

    My weblog started as a piece of filler to sit on the front of my barbelith.com domain, which had within it a comic-book fan-site and what was later to become The Barbelith Underground. After a while it became clear that the people who were coming for the online community or the fan-site saw my weblog as incompatible with the rest of the community. So I decided to split my efforts over two domains - and plasticbag.org was born. I spent a considerable amount of time getting a design that I was exceptionally happy with assembled over several weeks. No one liked it. No one at all... It remains one of my favourites...

    plasticbag.org Design One

    The main criticism of the pale-blue plasticbag.org design had been that it was too cold, so when I came to version two I made a conscious effort to make it more friendly. During the process I got terribly excited about ways of using black in tasteful and creative ways, the integration of random images into designs and the potential of right-aligning sites. I got particularly interested in ways of crafting a site that looked well-finished, which was why I put such a lot of effort into the bottom of the page - an area normally considered with distain or indifference by webloggers (with a few notable exceptions).Of my plasticbag.org designs, this is the one I look back on most fondly.

    plasticbag.org Design Two

    Version three of plasticbag.org came about because I was desperately pining for elements of the pale blue design which I'd always seen as representing the kind of modern disposable slightly artificial mood I'd always wanted to generate. This time, however, I was working with a classy designer of considerable repute (Denise Wilton) and she was patient enough to round robin designs with me until we came up with something I really liked and thought captured the mood of the site well enough. It had several 'innovations' for me - it was my first pure CSS site and the most difficult to build of anything I've ever made. It never worked perfectly in any browser. There was always something that made it feel wrong. It also used different style-sheets for the internal site and the front-page, so I could put content on half of the index and let it fill the page when you went into the archives. It was a nice trick, but fundamentally flawed. The text on the front-page was not a suitable width for long-reading, and I came to write smaller, more condensed pieces simply because it was all a reader could manage. Images had to be tiny to fit the width and then looked out of place internally. It was a glorious folly, but it was a folly nonetheless...

    plasticbag.org design three

    The design that replaced it is the one you're looking at today - which brings us to the end of our little tour. I have nick-named this one "kottkesque", it has some fairly obvious influences (kottke.org) and its creation came as a bit of a shock even to me. I spent an idle couple of hours thinking about what it meant to design a site for the weblog format - which was concentrated around putting long tracts of readable content on a page with almost no navigation at all, but instead quite a lot of ambient persistently useful peripheral information. And the more I thought about it, the more Jason's work just seemed so practical - as if he'd uncovered a kind of ideal format that we should all now be looking at and working around. His was tables-based (and still is), so I pulled it over, rebuilt it in (slightly flawed) CSS and then started to try and push it in extreme directions - looking for ways to improve it in terms of branding, navigational areas and contextual information.

    I'm not sure I succeeded in making that much of a contribution to what-comes-after his design scheme, except maybe in terms of abstracting navigational items in that top space. Quite possibly Jason's design remains the clearest and most admirably platonic form of webloggery yet devised. However, I have my suspicions that his linklog/remaindered links format is pushing his format in directions it wasn't really built to withstand, and that its showing the strain. This might be an indicator for where new investigations into weblog design should be concentrating their efforts. Perhaps erikbenson.com might have alternative lessons for us in this regard...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 64.172.59.43 URL: http://sylloge.typepad.com/ DATE: 09/17/2003 10:04:52 AM Why are you always sucking up to Kottke? (Also, I loved the last Barbelith-with-Tom design.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/17/2003 10:28:14 AM Nnngh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 193.114.74.13 URL: http://www.infovore.org DATE: 09/17/2003 10:57:32 AM OK, so I first read plasticbag around the time of the second design, and have seen the Barbelith one before... but that first plasticbag design is great! Why the hell did nobody else like it? It's stylish, clear, and it's not cold per se, merely cool. Cool colours are easy on the eye. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 09/17/2003 01:31:45 PM I LIKED that first plasticbag.org design! Of course, I never said so at the time because that would have been far too forward of me. But yes, I did. You could bring it back as plasticbag 'classic', maybe? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 193.114.74.14 URL: http:/www.infovore.org DATE: 09/17/2003 01:55:01 PM As opposed to what? New Plasticbag? Plasticbag 2? Plasticbag X? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shaky EMAIL: shaky@buglab.net IP: 194.9.188.21 URL: DATE: 09/17/2003 04:02:03 PM I always liked the Barbelith design best mydself - the random pics at the top were like the filler bits from 'the Naked Chef' or, to coin a new phrase - 'Jamieoliveresque' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: 12.111.24.79 URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 09/17/2003 04:33:09 PM Stewart, I am a God among men. Why deny the truth? I also liked the orange Barbelith design best...quite possibly the most pleasing design for a weblog ever. Really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 203.164.8.140 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 09/18/2003 10:11:16 AM Err, I liked them all. Though the barbelith version was particularly striking for it's day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ron EMAIL: ron@thepixelage.com IP: 202.156.2.202 URL: DATE: 09/18/2003 04:31:48 PM Was expecting you to mention the 'nipples' in ver 3! Hehe! Oops. Normally am just a lurker. But couldn't resist this one ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: 12.111.24.79 URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 09/18/2003 05:37:53 PM The permalink nipples! I'd completely forgotten about them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: milov EMAIL: milo@milov.nl IP: 62.45.136.171 URL: http://milov.nl/ DATE: 09/18/2003 07:00:28 PM Once, having 30 or so weblog windows open, I read through an entire plasticbag.org entry before realizing I wasn't reading kottke.org. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.215.253 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/18/2003 09:53:03 PM Oh come on... He's not that good... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 212.238.82.186 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 09/19/2003 11:52:44 PM Now being a jannie-come-lately I've only seen your current design, but comparing it to the previous version, I think it's still the best. Minimalistic yet with its own personality. ----- PING: TITLE: 11 Weblog Pieces URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001722.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/22/2004 06:59:12 AM Forgive me, it's the end of the day and I don't want to write my usual lengthy blog post. So I thought I'd do the blogging equivalent of "piano pieces", which in this case is a collection of various links... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Quote of the day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/17/2003 05:09:47 PM ----- BODY:

    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety," said Benjamin Franklin.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hence the paucity of updates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/21/2003 11:35:27 PM ----- BODY:

    The last few days - it has to be said - have not been the easiest of my time on the web. I've been spending more time that I would like dealing with problems on Barbelith trying to work out where to take the board next. The board has experienced long-term problems that only recently have reappeared - in the process forcing me to recast our battle in terms of an ongoing stalemate. There seem to be only two options available to me at this point - neither of which I'm particularly comfortable with. I either have to fight - using every mechanism in my power to resolve the situation once and for all no matter how difficult or unpleasant it gets - or I have to accomodate myself to the possibility that the situation may simply never end as long as the board survives. This in turn brings up the possibility of turning the damn thing off. Since the end of last week, this has been pretty much the only thing on my mind - whether to attack, whether to continually defend or whether to abandon the whole project. It's been taking up more of my headspace than I would like and meant that a weekend that had been planned to be creative, exciting and rife with projects has been spent sweating, feeling desperate/trapped and being completely unable to concentrate. Hence the paucity of updates...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: spoiling it for everyone URL: http://undergroundlondon.com/antimega/archives/000522.html IP: 64.71.150.66 BLOG NAME: anti-mega DATE: 10/03/2003 10:48:44 PM As I sat down to write this, I found a post by Clay, probably expressing these themes far better than me. Like him, I've got a gut feel of despondency - and for me it's not just about email. I found a love for newsgroups and mailing lists pretty much... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the weirdo in the perspex box... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/24/2003 12:08:01 AM ----- BODY:

    This is one of those posts that gets me into trouble with people. If you don't like rude words, or have any particular love for David Blaine then walk away! Walk away!

    So I want to talk a bit about David Blaine. Hardly the most auspicious reason to get myself back into the weblogging habit after a difficult week, I admit, but I have to vent. I mean - can it really be true that the British are evil for finding him so... ludicrous? Hasn't anyone noticed? I mean, surely it's obvious? You talk to American friends over AIM and they're all, "Oooh, you've done it now... We're pulling out the Blaine inspectors. And then we're going to have to invade!"

    The British don't have a "healthy disrespect" for celebrity and if you've been told that, then you've basically been lied to by a professional Englishman-abroad or by some weird kind of Dick Van Dyke cod-Anglo-faker. The British don't have a healthy disrespect for anything at all, they're just grumpy old sods who don't really like anyone who sets themselves above the rest of the herd. Basically if we don't fancy them and if we don't want to be them, then we pretty much hate their guts. While they're funny or cool or interesting - well that's great - but a chink in the armour and we strike. That's why British celebrities after a while have to either treat the whole thing as a bit of a job or as a bit of a joke. The most successful take the piss a bit. They go, "It's Ok! I understand! I get it too! They give me lots of money and I sing songs and have lots of sex, but I'm just like you lot! I think it's all dumb too!" That's why people get a bit bored when Robbie Williams writes songs about his inner pain. Whatever you do, you mustn't believe the hype. Or you mustn't show that you believe the hype or the cry of 'wanker' will resound from hill and dale, from weir to West Wittering...

    Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the press is confused. Surely the British are terribly terribly polite? But they're always so modest and quiet when you see them on television... Well now you know why! The secret need for fame may burn bright in our hearts, but for many people it would be far too embarrassing to admit it. There's always the secret desire for the banana skin lying provocatively in the path of those who think their farts smell of summer blossom and happy fairies. And there's always the fear of that self-same skin lying in wait ready to cut us - quite rightly - back down to size. It's just not the same in the States - where aspiration is celebrated and failure mourned. There each person who becomes huge is an indication that you too could make it if you just ate less mexican food and got your teeth fixed. If you did that in England you'd just get duffed up by some bloke with a bit of a lazy eye who thought you were checking out his girlfriend. Inevitably.

    Weirdly, though, the whole trans-Atlantic miscommunication has a menacing side. Several of my American friends have asked me - quite genuinely and quite nervously - whether the vilification of Blaine is somehow representative of the British position towards America. But I must confess it is not - while the image of the USA giving up on the Stars and Stripes as a symbolic representation of their country and instead stringing-up Blaine has a certain visceral appeal to me, I can't see it happening. Blaine is not being attacked because he is American. But there is a connection with the slathering excesses of fringe America - and that's to do with the fundamental connection between American celebrities and total and absolute unmitigated bullshit.

    I'll give you an example. Jennifer Lopez somehow managed to claim that being 'for real' was - for her- 'like breathing' - that she was indeed still Jenny from the Block. But in fact she was possibly the least grounded human being since Yuri Gagarin - and everyone knew it! But it didn't matter - they still lapped it up shamelessly. Blaine is radically post-Lopez (po-lo?) in the scale of his attempts to turn pure shit into gold - hence the in-box nappy - and that's the aspect that the British can't forgive. So why is he hated? It's not because he's American and it's not because the British are evil. Fundamentally, simply, basically, finally he's just hated because he's a twat. It's just that in America, many more twats get famous...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kerry EMAIL: kerry@unfilteredfilms.com IP: 68.120.58.130 URL: DATE: 09/24/2003 12:23:02 AM David Blaine was much more interesting as a magician than as -what seems to be his current career choice path - one who tests odd limits of human endurance. I admit that I am concerned about how Americans are perceived by you Brits, simply because I think I might want to live in London one day and I don't want George Bush to go and ruin that possibility for me... and I was curious as to whether Blaine's reception was an indicator of how Brits currently view us yanks. Perhaps Blaine's "stunt" truly is a test of endurance. How long can he endure the taunts and beratement? How long can the Brits endure his presence? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 09/24/2003 12:26:00 AM Speaking as an American I would love to see his cable cut and find if he can get out in time before he drowns. That would be the only way he could ever get close to Houdini. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carson EMAIL: rie@fuckoff.com IP: 66.153.202.14 URL: DATE: 09/24/2003 12:36:49 AM Being an American an all, I find the whole thing in itself hilarious. Most everyone I know cares little for David Blaine, and as far as his amazing "stunts", I glad people over there are pointing laser pens at him, throwing eggs at his case, and dangling hamburgers from toy helicopters in front of his face. Serves him right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mad William Flint EMAIL: mpwilson@earthlink.net IP: 63.13.131.6 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108194/ DATE: 09/24/2003 01:33:17 AM Who the hell is David Blaine? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cooper EMAIL: contact@mobilescape.co.uk IP: 195.157.153.86 URL: DATE: 09/24/2003 11:57:59 AM Not sure if you have actually been down to Tower Hill Tom but the fact is that about 5% of people there are hostile, another 5% are adoring Blaine and the rest are kind of bemused. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shaky EMAIL: shakybaker@hotmail.com IP: 194.9.188.21 URL: DATE: 09/24/2003 12:17:29 PM I was at Tower Hill on Sunday after going to lunch at Butler's Wharf and I happened to pass the 'phenomenon'. Granted, there was a great deal of people there but as Cooper mentioned they all looked bemused. The guy in front of me said "what a tosser" and it was obvious that most of the people there thought along the same lines. I couldn't even be bothered to lift my camera to take a picture, you spend a great deal of your time in London trying to avoid nappy-wearing weirdos who haven't eaten in a while - why go and see one in a box? "healthy disrespect for celebrities" or not, I think someone has to do more than simply BE a celebrity to deserve my respect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Bowden EMAIL: bods@durge.org IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.bods.me.uk/ DATE: 09/24/2003 01:08:20 PM Can someone ask David to go away and return when he's got something interesting to do? I know the british version of Blaine is Derren Brown but at least he's doing something interesting (well trying not to get shot). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.98.50.21 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 09/24/2003 01:14:38 PM We have the same kind of don't-get-too-famous attitude in New Zealand: it's referred to as "tall poppy syndrome" here, i.e. don't grow too big or we'll lop your head off. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: musak@musak.org IP: 213.235.7.195 URL: http://www.musak.org DATE: 09/24/2003 01:16:09 PM I don't think it's a particular hatred/amusement with David Blaine or Americans. Nor do I think most of the reaction to him is - at heart - to do with him being a 'twat' (although in this case he clearly could be so described). I think most people honestly think this event (like the ice and the pole) are just self-serving, attention-seeking stunts and nothing more. And most people in Britain don't like an attention seeker - which is why all the helicopter-delivered hamburgers are more exciting. Blaine (and his PR machine) should be relieved by the British reaction because it will - hopefully - stop him doing something like this again and go back to the clever illusions. Personally, I liked the thought of Adam Ant bringing David down by the "power of punk" (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifeandstyle/articles/6701724 - now that would get onto the South Bank). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Budd EMAIL: info@andybudd.com IP: 62.49.5.25 URL: http://www.andybudd.com/blog DATE: 09/24/2003 01:27:06 PM I dunno. I think the Brits have a "healthy disrespect" for celebrity. If David Blaine was doing something truly impressive I'm sure everybody would be out on the streets in support. However he's actually doing something extremely dumb and pointless. Whereas in some parts of the world, people would be wowed by the whole spectacle of celebrity, I think us Brits are more grounded. Sure he's famous, but just being famous isn't enough to impress us. It's not a persons celebrity that impresses. It's their actions. Personally I'd be much more impressed if it was a regular Jo doing it for charity, rather than a Houdini wannabe doing it for fame and fortune. Where a naturally cynical lot the Brits. Personally I think that's one of our strengths. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: russell higgs EMAIL: russellhiggs@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.42.238.181 URL: http://www.conformandobey.co.uk/blog.html DATE: 09/24/2003 01:28:18 PM my own thoughts on blaine http://www.conformandobey.co.uk/2003_09_21_blogarch.html#106440624919735605 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lloyd EMAIL: lloydshep@yahoo.com IP: 193.115.130.231 URL: http://www.lllj.net DATE: 09/24/2003 01:58:56 PM Nice one, Tom. But beware of the danger: a lot of us Brits are sounding oh-so-superior about this, but in a modern, urban, cutting-edge, ironic sort of way. You can dress it up with a lot of jokes, and fine writing, which you do, but at the end of the day you're saying "we've seen through this, and you haven't, because we're British." Also, a lot of the stuff that's happened to Blaine has been quite nasty - don't equate high-minded cynicism with hooliganism, please.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lori EMAIL: contactlori@hotmail.com IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://www.lori-smith.co.uk DATE: 09/24/2003 03:40:08 PM As Kerry said, I think now the real test of Blaine's endurance will be whether he can suffer taunts and prank pizza deliveries for the full 44 days. Now, that would be impressive. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robingrant@tribalddb.co.uk IP: 193.133.98.226 URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk DATE: 09/24/2003 03:56:29 PM Check out the David Blaine Assassination Game ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: razorhead EMAIL: razor@razorhead.co.uk IP: 194.159.174.13 URL: http://ulterior.razorhead.co.uk DATE: 09/24/2003 04:28:35 PM A lot of this is a reaction against the hype, especially given that he was compared frequently to Houdini, who escaped from boxes. I formed my (low) opinion of the man following his interview on GMTV a few years back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rollo EMAIL: rollo@schvtrn.com IP: 172.188.114.154 URL: http://www.schvtrn.com/ DATE: 09/24/2003 08:31:47 PM That was a truly inspired bit of blogging sir. Welcome to 'Post-Lopezism'. X ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rollo EMAIL: rollo@schvtrn.com IP: 172.188.114.154 URL: http://www.schvtrn.com/ DATE: 09/24/2003 08:31:52 PM That was a truly inspired bit of blogging sir. Welcome to 'Post-Lopezism'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ionicus EMAIL: i0nicus@yahoo.com IP: 81.105.246.217 URL: http://ionicus.blogspot.com DATE: 09/24/2003 09:13:43 PM I'm just waiting for Uri Geller to turn up and bend the crane using the power of his mind... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adam EMAIL: dirtywetback@hotmail.com IP: 24.161.216.21 URL: http://www.pillo.tk DATE: 09/24/2003 09:22:26 PM I disagree with your belief that it's only a British trait of being "just grumpy old sods who don't really like anyone who sets themselves above the rest of the herd." Everyone is like that, c'mon don't you hate it when your friends become successful. Here in America you get cut down to size fairly routinely, at least among my friends and family. It's almost a status symbol to have a lot shit talkers about you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 67.100.198.108 URL: http://chronotope.com/chronotope/ DATE: 09/24/2003 11:52:49 PM His early sleight of hand and "magic" was lots of fun. All the spectacle crap he's been doing the last several years is just as you describe: the actions of a twat. (Please don't let him come back to the US - we're done with him.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: g EMAIL: guywilli@bigpond.net.au IP: 203.45.218.220 URL: DATE: 09/25/2003 04:36:09 AM Love the Blaine killing game from Robin. But hey what is this bloke trying to do. Grab some media attention and if you think about it he is being very effective at achieving this goal. I mean people are creating web sites to discuss his antics, so who is the fool, us for watching and thinking about him, or him for doing it. Either way he is getting his wish FAME! I wanna live for ever, I wanna learn how to die! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Leo EMAIL: l.hoban@comcast.net IP: 24.62.107.30 URL: DATE: 09/25/2003 04:44:03 AM Hmm, a lot of Houdini's escapes took several hours to complete, in that respect, Blaine is certainly an heir (if a hugely exploded version of Houdini in that respect.) On the other hand, Blaine is one of the best close up magicians in the world. (He has about 4 peers in the world, at least in my magician following opinion.) I sorta think that Blaine hasn't found his actual talents sufficiently attention grabbing... Oh sorry, he's a bit bad in choosing his stunts, but I'm wandering off subject... wait, my subject was that I use too many elipsis ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tommi EMAIL: fortommi@bloggidity.com IP: 198.141.197.3 URL: http://www.bloggidity.com/web/index.aspx DATE: 09/25/2003 07:47:49 AM This was a really funny blog, especially the "po-lo" part. That will most likely become a more widely used term for that era in our time. Thumbs up! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gibbon Boy EMAIL: bagoshite37@hotmail.com IP: 203.185.240.45 URL: DATE: 09/25/2003 08:50:29 AM A great little piece on the mastery of David Blane. That is to say that he has mastered the art of doing nothing for money! Wish i could. Probably why i hate him so much..... Any man who can make money out of some shit stunt deserves respect. Any man who does it more than once deserves to be taunted for trying to make us look like idiots cause he thinks we will be impressed! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jb EMAIL: jontyb@mac.com IP: 130.237.195.187 URL: http://greynotebook.typepad.com DATE: 09/25/2003 09:16:22 AM Po-Lo ! Hysterical. I agree with you about Jenny From the Block. I'd love to see someone like Paxman of Jon Snow question her on this. I bet she couldn't offer up any evidence. Anyway, she's not real. She's hyperreal. When you look at Lopez all you see is what she represents. She's disappeared beneath the spectacle of what she now signifies. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 195.92.113.67 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 09/25/2003 02:33:59 PM I agree that Blaine has some good close-up magic skills (although I've only ever seen them on TV) and is going somewhat off track with his recent publicity-seeking stunts (some of which I'll admit to being impressed by). However, what I find most disturbing about the whole affair is that it's very much designed to appear as some kind of "starvation" test. Being locked in a box for a long time is a tough enough challenge even with plentiful food and water (and yes, I believe Blaine is getting some kind of sustenance through that little pipe). I do hope that he gives an interview when he comes out, or at the very least makes his journal freely available, just so that I can judge his state of mind. BUT, why the "no food" tag? I find this very offensive because there are people who are genuinely too poor to eat well and Blaine is making money off the concept of famine whilst doing nothing to promote the cause of those trying to feed the hungry. What's next? Perhaps Blaine will have his ears sealed shut so he can "endure" the life of a person born deaf for a week or two. Or maybe he'll think of something even more vile. The people heckling Blaine do right. I wish they'd explain WHY they're heckling him and also that the media would spend more time decrying this cynical grab for cash. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lawrence EMAIL: lawrence@chiles.org IP: 62.189.22.150 URL: http://www.chiles.org/6040 DATE: 09/25/2003 06:02:29 PM I'm agreeing with most of these responses, but just to step outside of Blaine's box for a second, one thing his 'stunts' do expose is the perculiarity of the spectacle and the public's reaction to it. Surely the most interesting response to this - simply a man in a box not eating - is not boredom and refrain but this near hysteria? (as it's been presented in the press) I don't think for a minute that Blaine is attempting to expose people's reaction's, but watching people get over-excited, throw things, react in an unconventional way to something that is essentially banal is fascinating. The British arn't very good with blank spaces, we like to fill our plazas and squares with monuments and 'things' - Blaine's emotional blank canvas is just exposing a British trait of needing to fill the void with 'something'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anthony EMAIL: coxar@hotmail.com IP: 134.151.207.2 URL: http://www.blacktriangle.org DATE: 09/25/2003 06:30:32 PM Oh come off it Lawrence, it is just a dire idea. Some millionaire celebrity on some ego trip about getting closer to God by chosing to do what other people have inflicted upon them by circumstance. Matthew Scott's story, who escaped from kidnappers in Columbia and spent 12 days without food in the Jungle, is much more interesting. Now there's an idea for Blaine's next 'magic trick', although I suspect if he was kidnapped they would be desperate to hand him back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tim EMAIL: timc3@timc3.com IP: 217.155.206.89 URL: DATE: 09/25/2003 06:54:45 PM well done.. you have completely managed to prove that you don't understand the english at all. Basically if you put someone in a box infront of us, we throw things at them. Why? well mainly if you put yourself in a box then you deserve to get things thrown at you.. Also we are more than bored by celebs and most can't be bothered to be famous - just as an american you can't believe that a person could live without being famous.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 194.125.47.72 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 09/25/2003 07:14:07 PM A friend of a friend met Paul Daniels on a tour of Ireland a number of years ago, and asked him his opinion on David Blaine. Daniels replied: "When I see him do a trick, I'll let you know". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.215.253 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/25/2003 09:15:41 PM Er, Tim... Can't tell who you're talking about. If you're talking about me then everything you said might be true if I hadn't been born in Reading, grown up in Norfolk, gone to university in Bristol and wasn't currently working in London. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seyed Razavi EMAIL: seyed@monkeyx.com IP: 62.49.60.74 URL: http://monkeyx.com DATE: 09/26/2003 12:55:07 AM I'm guessing tim was talking about Lawrence's crappy psychological analysis not you Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Halvard Halvorsen EMAIL: halvard@nospam_.halvorsen.org IP: 192.77.198.12 URL: http://www.halvorsen.org DATE: 09/26/2003 11:28:41 AM Nice piece Tom. AA Gill has a good piece in the Times (I am not a big fan, but when he hits his target he is good). I have a feeling Iím pushing an open door here. Sometimes, as a society, we just decide about things: we just know, like bees know. Itís a sort of cultural osmosis, a collective taste pheromone. And we have decided heís a plonker, a variety act with pretensions and a German girlfriend. When he was doing bar-mitzvah table magic, he was bearable ó now heís got all Faustian, heís a pillock. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Meehan EMAIL: dave.meehan@orificeworld.com IP: 81.174.200.215 URL: http://www.orificeworld.com DATE: 09/27/2003 11:37:11 AM What amazes me about this is how people can't take in what is meant to be happening here. Blaine is an illusionist right? So this is an illusion? Yet people think he's actually in the box? And so he's one. He's made the illusion and suckered some people. If you think of him being at home with a beer, watching all the twats staring at the box, you can see how he'll have a chuckle. And how we should chuckle at all those suckered in. If on the other hand he's actually in the box, he's not going to get famous for being an illusionist, now is he. I remember back to watching magic tricks on tv as a kid. Some people thought it was camera tricks, but you only have to go to a live show to know the people can be illusionists. And so I quickly decided that the woman being sawn in half was not actually being sawn in half, but was merely a stage prop for a twat in a sequined jacket. By all means there is a skill in illusions, but no more so than if you know for to fix your car, or your PC, or your kettle. with the right training, anyone can do these things. Magicians are famously coy about how even the most basic illusion works, because its all a house of cards. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ally EMAIL: aplatham@earthlink.net IP: 63.188.192.26 URL: DATE: 09/30/2003 08:14:18 PM "South Park" had a David Blaine episode -- and if he isn't done, he should be. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: wendy EMAIL: wendytulchin@hotmail.com IP: 64.12.96.39 URL: DATE: 10/30/2003 10:21:13 AM For the last six weeks, the world has had its eye on artist/illusionist/magician David Blaine, who last Sunday successfully completed an astounding feat by spending 44 days in a human-sized plexiglass box suspended by a crane above the Thames River in London, with only a pen and journal, diapers for his initial clearing of waste, a pillow and pad, lip balm and a water tube (along with a urine tube) to keep him alive. No food. Blaine is a fascinating figure. Though he is most often referred to as a magician or illusionist, his accomplishments aren't as dismissable as some of his less-convincing predecessors, such as David Copperfield. With Copperfield, we sensed that television made it easy for him to walk through the Great Wall of China or make an airplane disappear. Using television to enable "magic" didn't seem so magical at all. Not so with 30-year-old David Blaine, whose acts have, for the most part, been pointedly public. Last year he stood on top of a 24-meter high flagpole in his home state of New York for 35 hours without a safety net, and in November 2000, Blaine encased himself in a six-ton block of ice in New York City's Times Square for 58 hours. Because he allows the public to watch live, Blaine's stunts take on some greater artistic - even shamanistic - force, and with each new project he definitively gains more of the world's mystified attention. Perhaps this is because he walks a terribly exciting and convincing line between actually demonstrating something true about nearly unlimited human potential (will, focus, endurance) and what can only be seen as miraculous. I became utterly intrigued with Blaine's stint in the clear box above the Thames. When I wasn't reading about it, I was thinking about him, imagining him up in the clear box like a zoological exhibit, thousands of people every day coming to see him. I was as fascinated by Blaine's determination as I was by the reports of the public's volatile reaction to his endeavor. Apparently, the 44-day stunt began with a wave of public hostility over Blaine's audacious declaration that he could live, let alone fast, for so long in his plexiglass box. People taunted him, bared their breasts and buttocks at him, threw eggs, golf and paint balls at his enclosure, cooked BBQ beneath him to tempt his hunger, and played loud drums beneath him at night to keep him from sleeping. But toward the end of the 44 days, as Blaine began to look noticably thinner and fade in and out of consciousness, as he complained of heart palpitations and shooting pains in his head and muscles, as well as of the horrible sulfuric smell inside the box, the crowd softened. People began hanging supportive signs on nearby fences and shouting encouragements at the dazed martyr figure above. A group of policemen - in an act of support that caused them to later be fined by the city - actually abandoned their duties to come and watch Blaine endure his final hours. This type of aggression turned tender (or tenderness turned aggressive) speaks for itself, I think. It is a narrative that repeats itself consistently through history, most prominently with the crucifixion of Jesus. But certainly we see this sort of reaction in art that is intrinsically powerful, too. What gets under our skin, aggravates, infuriates, frustrates and makes us hate is of the same seed that also begets love and divine revelation. The majority of humans, it seems, tends to resent those individuals seeking a freedom by willfully denying comforts so addictively sought after by most; even more, the majority shuns those who flagrantly tempt death. Blaine himself is quoted as saying "I think it is worth it for my art even if I drop dead. I am not afraid of life or death." In his work there is the consistent suggestion that the spirit is undoubtedly mightier than the flesh, and that the mind is bafflingly capable. When asked if he was bored after several weeks in the box, he responded: "I believe that boredom is a choice that we have. Boredom is a state of mind. ä I choose to not be bored." Illusion or not, Blaine views what he does as performance art, and I wholeheartedly agree. He refers to himself as an "artist with a love for magic." And indeed, his projects are live-action public spectacles packed tightly and delivered directly with beauty and meaning. Rarely do artists affect their audiences as much as he has on both local and international scales. Toward the end of his fast, a woman lay a dead pigeon beneath his box in the hope that Blaine's shamanesque powers would somehow bring it back to life. Though the pigeon was not to be resurrected, Blaine's feat does unquestionably leave a deep mark on our collective psyche. However he managed to successfully complete his 44-day airborne fast (which doctors estimate will require two to four weeks recovery in the hospital), in its wake is a sense of triumph not only for Blaine but for human beings everywhere. Upon emerging at the end of day 44, he told the awaiting crowd of thousands, "I have learned more in that little box than I have learned in years. I have learned how important it is to have a sense of humor and laugh at everything because nothing makes sense anyway. I have learned how strong we all are as human beings." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bridget EMAIL: nick@dawkins.me.uk IP: 80.7.145.162 URL: DATE: 11/06/2003 04:05:10 PM DAVID BLAINE WILL ALWAYS BE THE BEST MAGIC MAN EVER. HE SHOWS US HOW FAR HUMANS CAN GO AND HE HAS GONE A LONG WAY. DAVID I LOVE AND RESPECT YOU FOREVER. THANKYOU FOR SHOWING ME YOUR MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT, KEEP GOING DON`T STOP FOR ANYONE. LOVE AND PEACE BRIDGET.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DAVID BLAINE FOREVER, DARREN NEVER. :) :) :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/06/2003 09:04:11 PM Snigger. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bridget EMAIL: nick@dawkins.e.uk IP: 80.7.145.162 URL: DATE: 11/19/2003 02:44:37 PM Tom you can snigger as much as you like, lets see you go and do 44 days in the box what a bloody laugh, at least David had the guts. Good luck to David Blaine in what ever he does. DAVID BLAINE. LOVE AND PEACE . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/19/2003 03:19:56 PM You're right - I can snigger as much as I like, and I fully intend to. You may say that it takes tremendous guts to do that, but I'd say that it only takes courage and guts to do something intelligent, valuable and useful and that doing something as grotesque and self-obsessed as make a spectacle of your own starvation isn't brave, isn't impressive, but is ridiculous and vaguely sickening. The closest analogue I can find to it as a feat of endurance is Sex: The Annabel Chong story, which I also think was kind of hideous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bridget EMAIL: NICK@DAWKINS.ME.UK IP: 80.7.145.162 URL: DATE: 11/23/2003 07:36:54 PM David i am very proud of you. Tom your right too, you have the right to have your opinion i do apolize, but still David done very well. LOVE AND PEACE TO ALL. ----- PING: TITLE: Not a Goldfish URL: http://www.this-chick.com/amusements/not_a_goldfish.php IP: 66.246.37.182 BLOG NAME: This Chick DATE: 09/24/2003 05:39:18 AM And here was I thinking I was nasty for laughing when I saw shots of the Brits pointing out that David Blaine is trying just a little too hard to get noticed. I feel so much better having read Tom's... ----- PING: TITLE: On David Blaine URL: http://www.ludicrous.org.uk/mt/archives/000600.html IP: 212.227.119.10 BLOG NAME: Technovia DATE: 09/24/2003 08:52:45 AM Tom has a genius post about David Blaine, entitled "On the weirdo in the perspex box...". Should be required reading ----- PING: TITLE: David Blaine URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/161 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 09/24/2003 11:55:16 AM And that's that. David Blaine? I don't hate him. I just don't see any reason to like him. He is just a twat, as Mr Coates rightly put it, and we have too many of them already. Of all the things I could be doing (watching the footie, going out and havin... ----- PING: TITLE: The Magic Mr Blaine URL: http://www.frankw.net/blog/archives/000037.html IP: 212.187.158.5 BLOG NAME: .: Funtime Franky :. DATE: 09/24/2003 04:35:15 PM So everyone’s talking about David Blaine. plasticbag.org has written an article entitled “On the weirdo in the perspex box…” about the man himself, which has sparked off some other, quite diverse comments. When everyone heard Da... ----- PING: TITLE: David Blaine URL: http://www.ianp.org/archives/000022.html IP: 69.36.184.45 BLOG NAME: Random Thoughts DATE: 09/25/2003 01:32:00 PM I used to read Tom Coates' weblog regularly, and came back to it after a break today. This post pretty much sums up my thought's about David Blaine, and is very funny at the same time. My favourite quote?...you too could make it if you just ate less me... ----- PING: TITLE: Beautifully Put URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000496.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 09/25/2003 01:37:36 PM Senor Coates beautifully sums up my feelings on the whole David Blaine thing - and moves out into a whole bunch of wider, yet still familiar, feelings too.... ----- PING: TITLE: Life by the river URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/000267.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 09/25/2003 02:54:52 PM Our local area has become a focus for medieval behaviour with the arrival of David Blaine's box, but there is much more than that to see and do here. ----- PING: TITLE: Blaine in a box URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/archives/001310.html IP: 64.21.37.2 BLOG NAME: Mercurial DATE: 09/25/2003 04:31:01 PM Tom Coates certainly makers a clear distinction between Americans and British, regarding that guy hanging in the aquarium: Blaine is... ----- PING: TITLE: Pure gold URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/archives/000086.html IP: 80.71.6.131 BLOG NAME: The Obvious? DATE: 09/25/2003 08:58:39 PM Tom Coates on David Blaine: I'll give you an example. Jennifer Lopez somehow managed to claim that being 'for real' was - for her- 'like breathing' - that she was indeed still Jenny from the Block. But in fact she... ----- PING: TITLE: Soon Forgotten URL: http://www.this-chick.com/amusements/soon_forgotten.php IP: 66.246.37.182 BLOG NAME: This Chick DATE: 10/15/2003 09:55:09 PM I seems that the end is near. I'd actually forgotten all about it to be honest! Still this article does serve to point out how little teenagers know: "They are all probably ugly and jealous," 16-year-old Suzannah Dickson said of... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On work and weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/25/2003 11:27:17 PM ----- BODY:

    So without denying for one moment that I am very lucky to have the job I have and that it's extraordinary, it does have one drawback. Working in a team that only has the function of thinking up new things for an organisation means (obviously) that you get to think up ideas for a living, but it also means (obviously) that they are first and foremost for that organisation. So I can see really interesting posts like this one at kottke.org on ways of registering the popularity of songs broadcast on the radio and get quite excited and want to explode with thoughts and comments around it and I'm just not sure if I can. And if in principle I could, I'm not sure how to do it in an ethical, business-friendly way. And because thinking-up things professionally is different from building something (which allows a reasonably clear distinction to be drawn between what you're there to accomplish and what you do that's your own), almost everything we think around is - to a greater or lesser extent - kind of work-related. It's a bit of a quandary...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Another year, another proposal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/25/2003 11:36:12 PM ----- BODY:

    Another year rolls by, and with it comes (and passes) another ETCon Proposal Deadline. The afternoon of the deadline seems to be becoming nothing more than a pan-world panic proposal-writing session - with about half the people on my buddy list (many of whom I met at last year's event) frantically trying to knock their thoughts into some vaguely coherent order before the O'Reilly Geek Gong sounds. I'd love to mention everyone's names, but I guess it could be seen to be pretty tactless if I were to reveal just how random and unprofessional we all appear to be.

    I've put a proposal in this year - which unfortunately isn't about the work that Matt and I have been doing at BBC Radio and Music Interactive. In the end, although we've got a fair amount we'd like to say, we haven't really been working in the area long enough to be able to feel confident in our proposals. Maybe we'll do that next year. As to this year, we hear whether or not our papers have been accepted around the beginning of next month... Successful or not, I'll be attending whatever happens (particularly after winning a free ticket at last year's event). You try and keep me away.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Joel Veitch, Cultural Icon! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/26/2003 01:22:55 AM ----- BODY:

    I got quite a shock on the bus yesterday. As we passed Selfridges I glanced at the new window displays only to be startled by the awesome presences of Blode, a Giant Bee, a Frightened Boy and many other smiling, brightly-coloured creatures. That's right! Joel Veitch, insane kitten manipulator of rathergood.com has now ascended to the status of a cultural icon. It really brings back those days colouring in crabs on Exmouth Market with only custard tarts for pay...

    Joel Veitch featured in Selfridges' Windows ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lori EMAIL: contactlori@hotmail.com IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://www.lori-smith.co.uk DATE: 09/26/2003 03:05:36 PM Selfridges really come up with some great ideas for their windows. The one in the Trafford Centre is great but I don't think we have Joel Veitch here yet. Must pop by after work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: jn@aol.com IP: 67.31.167.167 URL: http://www.foxhome.com/soundofmusic/som.html DATE: 09/30/2003 10:32:06 PM Excellent blog you have here! ----- PING: TITLE: Meme reaches Tesco URL: http://www.kuboid.com/archives/000125.html IP: 212.73.244.51 BLOG NAME: Kuboid DATE: 09/28/2003 09:54:10 PM Following the appearance of Joel Veitch's creations in a Selfridges window display, here's a flat-capped no-hands kitten on a Tescos carton of milk. It undoubtably stems from the b3ta meme and Joel's northern kittens. Who knew these memes had such... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On building a valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Document! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/27/2003 03:34:00 PM ----- BODY:

    This won't mean a lot to a lot of people, but I just thought I'd report (with a certain amount of glee) that I just wrote a template for a friend's website and ran it through a validator and it validated immediately! Admittedly it was written in XHTML 1.0 Transitional, and not anything strict or terribly difficult, but frankly, I'm astonished. It's a far cry from the normal validation horror I experience, where I find myself many hundreds of errors away from web guru nirvana. I'm quite proud of myself. Having said that - I would of course be more proud of myself if I could sort out the validation issues around plasticbag.org...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Everything in moderation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/28/2003 01:42:40 AM ----- BODY:

    What follows is an enterprise that only the most anal and beard-stroking of smoking-jacketted social software enthusiasts could possibly enjoy. While I was writing it I could almost feel myself rocking backwards and forwards in my leatherette chair with quiet but insistent mirth while muttering to myself, "Quite so! Quite so!". I'm indulging in that particular depth of humour that has analogues in all the trades and professions. I am gaining pleasure from the equivalent of jokes about double-entry book-keeping.

    For some reason best known to myself, I've been digging around for quotes about 'moderation' (in the sense of being a moderate drinker). More particularly I've been looking for quotes that take on an entertaining or strangely pertinent double-meanings when you pretend that they're actually about the moderation of online community spaces. Ho ho ho! Do you see what I did there? Two meanings, with one word! Oh the decadent ecstasy of language! I may die!

    Anyway - I've found the whole enterprise highly entertaining, which is almost certainly an indication that I should be upstairs at my neighbour's late-night party rather than down here quietly bitching about the noise they're making while tapping frantically at my little laptop... But given that I'm not likely to be leaving my flat any time soon (or sleeping, for that matter) here are a few of my favourites:

    "The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom." Aristotle

    "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess." Oscar Wilder

    "To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity." Blaise Pascal

    "The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity." Seneca

    "Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance." Charles Caleb Colton

    "Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind." Francois FŽNelonÝ

    "If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime." Georg C. LichtenbergÝ

    "Only action gives life strength, only moderation gives it charm." Jean Paul

    "Out of moderation a pure happiness springs." Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheÝ

    "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit." W. Somerset Maugham

    "Wisdom hath her excesses, and no less need of moderation than folly." Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

    I could go on all day... But I won't because if I did so, none of you would ever come back. I hope you've found it at least a little illuminating and enjoyable. God knows you could all do with a little culture every now and then... Anyway, I'll end with my favourite quote of the lot - to be delivered with a rueful complicity smile and a bit of an eye-roll towards its author, Saint Augustine, who (clearly after looking after barbelith for more than a couple of hours - was heard to remark (with a sigh?):

    "Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: gert@REMOVEmadmusingsof.me.uk IP: 81.152.99.50 URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog DATE: 09/28/2003 11:50:44 AM Trust me, as one who knows - there really are no jokes about double-entry book keeping. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alan Sullivan EMAIL: alan@seablogger.com IP: 12.82.78.121 URL: http://bilge.seablogger.com DATE: 09/28/2003 03:24:49 PM The funny thing is, people sometimes expect moderation from the moderator on a website. In that context, "moderation" seems to mean "having no views about anything." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 129.21.40.101 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 09/28/2003 09:09:40 PM This made me laugh. (And though I've often been described as "anal," "beard-stroking" is definitely not on the list of terms of applied to me...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pokey EMAIL: shamrocksquid@yahoo.com IP: 205.188.209.70 URL: http://hoo-ha.blogspot.com DATE: 09/29/2003 02:35:54 AM Illuminating? Maybe if I had an attention span longer than a fly's. Thanks for making me feel dumb. I'm going to go slit my wrists now. Just kidding. I'm going to reread very slowly. bye. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pokey EMAIL: shamrocksquid@yahoo.com IP: 205.188.209.70 URL: http://hoo-ha.blogspot.com DATE: 09/29/2003 02:39:43 AM oh yeah and I'm a bookkeeper. There have to be jokes about double-entry bookkeeping. "Double-entry" sounds so dirty. Like, here's one I just wrote: Why did the bookkeeper take her work home with her? Because she liked the "double-entry" system. See? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Halvard Halvorsen EMAIL: halvard@delete.halvorsen.this.org IP: 192.77.198.12 URL: http://www.halvorsen.org DATE: 09/29/2003 06:42:04 PM ' "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess." Oscar Wilder. ' Oscar Wilder - how appropriate (intentional or not?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bree EMAIL: breebop@toastmedia.com IP: 207.6.110.113 URL: http://breebop.toastmedia.com DATE: 10/01/2003 07:06:57 AM I love it! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Enhanced reality: Noise in Space? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Science CATEGORY: Science DATE: 09/28/2003 08:40:42 PM ----- BODY:

    So it occurred to me (while watching some dumb sci-fi TV series set in space) that maybe spaceships that make noise in a vacuum isn't such a dumb idea after all. I mean, obviously they wouldn't (couldn't) make any noise, but there would be all kinds of reasons why it would be in the best interest of neighbouring ships to simulate the sensation. After all, noise can convey all kinds of useful information - different guns make different noises, different engines make different noises, you can tell the location - perhaps even the speed - of an object by pure noise alone. If we were to assume that - in space - the computers and sensors on ships would most likely be taking in much more information than a human could easily assimilate through a visual interface, then it makes total sense that you'd try to deliver some of it through sound. In fact it seems astonishing that you wouldn't!

    In such an environment - detached from everything outside your pressurised container by metal and vaccuum - the only sense that you'd otherwise have much use for would be sight. Smell would be pretty much redundant, you couldn't reach out and touch anything and taste (bluntly) wouldn't be that useful. Even the limited amount of motion senses that we have would probably be quite dramatically interfered with by the unfamiliarity of space and either an absence of, or a highly localised and disorientating forms of, gravity. That being the case - making use of a sense that would otherwise have very limited input would seem to be eminently practical and useful. Overlaying this enhanced - information-delivering, but yet still artificial - reality over normal video footage would create an outer-space that was more obviously comprehensible to human beings. That simple layer of mediation would help transform the insanely complex and alien into the routinely prosaic (this being - after all - precisely the reason that TV series put the noise in). So From now on I'm going to pretend that's what they're doing when the Romulan ships let off a volley of patouieee-ing distruptor blasts. I'm going to pretend they have a special insight into the world of the future and the ambient interfaces that they might use. I'm going to remark to myself, "How clever they were to think of that!"

    For more information on various kinds of enhanced reality, you might try out some of these links:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian EMAIL: adrian@vavatch.co.uk IP: 129.67.10.16 URL: http://www.mssv.net DATE: 09/28/2003 09:29:18 PM Not a hugely new idea (as you admit) but it makes a lot of sense. What I think would be great is if astronauts (on EVA) heard their crewmates as if they were talking through air. So instead of a crewmate's voice sounding the same no matter where he was through your headphones, you'd use positional sensors in spacesuit to provide the information to simulate the sound his voice would make in air from that particular direction and distance. This would mean that if you were working on a particularly troublesome AE35 unit and your crewmate called out to you, "I'm floating away!" you know roughly where he was without even having to look around. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave green EMAIL: admin@gagpipe.com IP: 81.136.228.48 URL: http://www.snackspot.org/ DATE: 09/28/2003 09:33:13 PM you are turning into the "Star Wars technical commentaries" http://www.theforce.net/swtc/ and I claim my 5 pounds (see below). Warning - this site contains a genuinely demented level of analysis, including "In A New Hope the labels on the tractor beam power device deactivated by Kenobi are seen in English. The text says something like "tractor beam 12 sector N6". According to folklore, Lucas wanted to use non-English symbols but his movie studio disallowed it for the sake of audience comprehension. Therefore we can assume that this is an instance of implicit translation in the movie -- much like the implicit transaltion of speech into real-world terrestrial languages." http://www.theforce.net/swtc/misc.html#aurebesh ANYWAY: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/astro.html#sound The most plausible explanation is that the sound is produced inside the cockpit of each starship for the benefit of crew. External radiation sensors of various kinds are linked to audio systems of the cockpit in order to provide the pilot with audible cues to the proximity of other starships and energetic phenomena, operating like a glorified Geiger-counter. A greater rate of particle detections occurs when the source is more powerful or closer; each of these contributes an audible click on internal speakers, millions of pulses received combine to give a sound which characterises the emission spectrum of the passing starship. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Guy P EMAIL: deadcentre@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.168.165 URL: DATE: 09/28/2003 11:06:41 PM Easy real-life example: on fighter jets, when missiles are coming towards them, the beeping gets faster the closer they get. Easier than having to keep glancing at that damned radar, I guess. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: pete@binary-ape.org IP: 62.3.68.189 URL: http://www.binary-ape.org/tracks/ DATE: 09/28/2003 11:40:35 PM Waaay back in the mid-1980s, White Dwarf magazine had an SF themed cartoon strip called "The Travellers". I think one of the characters had sold combat sound effect simulators to space pilots for a living. I've got no idea how I've managed to remember this, or why I'm admitting it in public. Anyway, it's not a new idea, but it might be useful or amusing. Peep (http://sourceforge.net/projects/peep/) does something similar for networks, using woodland noises. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.128.170 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 09/28/2003 11:42:02 PM Yeah but wouldn't it be cooler if they went "WOOOOOOOOOOSH" instead? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adam EMAIL: dirtywetback@hotmail.com IP: 24.161.216.21 URL: http://www.pillo.tk DATE: 09/28/2003 11:55:11 PM This reminds me of an article in wired, where they were talking about different ways to convey information to the pilot. Such as a touch sensor that would put pressure on different parts of the back to indicate which was is up. When you're pulling multiple G's you can get easily disoriented. I think they also had a taste based sensor. I always thought about that growing up, like how did those tie fighters make that whooshing sound? I wrote it off as this enhanced noise you're talking about. A great idea, nice post. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin RE Watts EMAIL: thebrains@kevinrewatts.com IP: 209.87.242.242 URL: http://www.kevinrewatts.com DATE: 09/29/2003 12:47:00 AM Sound does travel in space, evidenced by the B flat note emanating from a black hole discovered by scientists in the last couple weeks. The medium (whatever space "is") just doesn't vibrate enough for humans to hear it. This article explains it better than I ever could, but it could be that hearing noise in space might be as simple as putting a very sensitive microphone on the outside of your spaceship. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: McChris EMAIL: chris@lineages.co.uk IP: 82.41.208.8 URL: http://www.lineages.co.uk/chris/ DATE: 09/29/2003 03:14:25 PM Now I knwo sapace is a vacumn but... http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Space/2003/09/09/181099-ap.html Basically reports the detection of sound waves generated by a black hole hmmm..... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike Lynch EMAIL: spike@it.uts.edu.au IP: 138.25.8.1 URL: http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~spike/ DATE: 09/30/2003 07:49:42 AM Samuel Delany's novella _Babel-17_ has a scene which describes a spaceship crew who use enhanced reality to perceive things like gravitational fields, nearby spaceships, and so on, using not just sound but also smell, touch and vision - all very psychedelic, as befits its period (it was written in the late 60s). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chris EMAIL: ch@mail.com IP: 67.31.167.167 URL: http://www.foxhome.com/soundofmusic/som.html DATE: 09/30/2003 10:35:35 PM How about the bbc show Red dwarf? They did some scits on this subject. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: DATE: 10/01/2003 10:19:28 AM One the best 'space movies', 2001: A Space Odyssey, used the absence of sound in space to great effect. The latter half of the film when Poole is killed by HAL conveys the horror and hearing the hiss of gas from his helmet would have been terrible. On the flip side, when Bowman pursues the body, a single intermittent ping conveys the distance to Poole, a remarkable and brilliant choice. Turning back, the explosive bolt scene works well because of the repressurisation sequence. Ultimately, hearing Bowman breath in the spacecraft (sans atmosphere) and have a dialogue with HAL as he goes to 'destroy' him is genius, especially in a crowded dark theater. Extraneous sound can be deafening. ----- PING: TITLE: Captain Wank URL: http://www.funnylogic.com/archives/000161.php IP: 66.197.0.68 BLOG NAME: Funny Logic DATE: 09/29/2003 09:04:40 AM Plastic Bag has an interesting write up on sound in space. In a real spaceship you couldn’t hear other ships... ----- PING: TITLE: Space Noise URL: http://www.constantvzw.com/blog_archive/000278.html IP: 65.23.128.28 BLOG NAME: HUPOMN MATA DATE: 10/02/2003 02:59:22 PM How the noise of a Romulan ship leads to interesting meditation over enhanced reality : "So it occurred to me (while watching some dumb sci-fi TV series set in space) that maybe spaceships that make noise in a vacuum isn't... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Modelling a space for group-activity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 09/28/2003 11:43:36 PM ----- BODY:

    In preparation for a piece of work we're doing this afternoon, Mr Webb and I have been thinking around social software and its relationship to the other things we do in our lives. In other words - how often is it in real-life that we meet with people without a context, a circumstance or some kind of an activity to meet around - all good Shirky-esque stuff. As part of this thinking we've come up with what I think is quite a nice and useful way of conceptualising the relationships between our social activity per se and the things we do with people.

    Imagine that you're participating in a group activity - for simplicity let's say it's in your spare time. As far as we can tell, your activity will fit (roughly) into one of three kinds of group activity. The first one is where the media or activity form nothing but the background for social engagement - like having the radio on in the background at work, or going around to a village coffee morning. The second grouping is where the media or the activity is an inspiration or an ongoing pretext for social activity - like going to an political meeting or playing a game of football with friends. And finally there's that grouping in which the media or activity takes up almost all the attention of the whole group - leaving (at least while it's occurring) no room for overt social interaction. The cinema or the theatre are the perfect examples of that kind of activity.

    Alongside this distinction (in which activity is either foreground, midground or background) there's another one based around who you're undertaking it with. Some activities you might choose to undertake with mostly complete strangers (perhaps joining an adult education class or going on a demonstration). Others are clearly activities that you undertake with just your friends.

    If you put these two axes together, then you get a model of a space upon which you should be able to plot (in theory) pretty much any group activity you can think of. Here's a visual representation:

    Group activities can be plotted onto a 2-D grid.

    Now the interesting stuff comes when you actually try and plot some of the spaces that we've created for online social activity. For the most part, activities that are undertaken primarily through a web-browser sit resolutely towards the bottom-middle of the graph. Only a few of the online interactions (notably e-mail and instant messaging) have any overt utility for groups of friends at all, and they only rarely attempt any kind of social activity that isn't directed towards interest-group conversation...

    Now one argument here might be that this stranger-space was relatively empty until the arrival of the internet. I'm guessing this is probably the case (and I'll see tomorrow if anyone can think up a block of things that disprove me on that one). But the question now is - is that the end of the story? It seems relatively clear to me that with western countries gradually approaching a relative ubiquity of access (no matter what the device that access manifests itself upon) whole ranges of the graph will start to be practical spaces for experimentation - if they're not already (which I basically think they are)... So maybe it's in online analogues for these friend-focused activities that we should now be looking...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.139.192.30 URL: http://sylloge.typepad.com DATE: 09/29/2003 12:32:48 PM To answer your question: yes, this is plainly the end of the story. Some *actual* remarks - if browser-based social activities start at the bottom center of the graph, they can quickly start moving up and spreading slightly to either side. Though it occurs less often than with mailing lists, groups of friends do get together on boards, and MANY online game players had pre-existing relationships. A few people I know ran MOOs on their desktops as alternate to IM for a group of friends. Another loose group chose a MUD and used that. There are lots of offline things in the botton center. I may go to a concert or art opening with one or two friends, but enjoy a solidarity with fellow concert/opening goers and spend as much time engaged with 'strangers' as with the people I came. "Media/Activity" doesn't at all seem to me to "carve nature at its joints". I don't have replacement, it just appears to be a random pairing (but, I am rabidly anti-media, in the sense you are using it). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jeff Mace EMAIL: jhm18@psu.edu IP: 146.186.19.14 URL: http://www.jmace.net DATE: 09/29/2003 01:48:33 PM In regards to the stranger-space of your graph... I would say that one prominent example, and one that precedes the Internet, would be a sporting event. It is likely that you will attend the event with a friend or two, but you will also have a heavy interaction with people whom you have never met before. It is possible that I'm missing the point, if so I apologize, but would this be another valid example of an activity in the stranger space? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 09/30/2003 04:50:08 PM Now one argument here might be that this stranger-space was relatively empty until the arrival of the internet. I'm guessing this is probably the case (and I'll see tomorrow if anyone can think up a block of things that disprove me on that one). I wonder if you can go two ways on that one -- pen pals (much more common in days of yore, especially for young people), and, in a word, church. In a large congregation, you won't know everyone there, you'll have certain groups of friends, and you'll have a shared activity... especially in the non-ceremonial stuff that goes along with church. I'm thinking here of church socials, rummage sales, charity drives, that sort of thing. The same sorts of activities would happen through social clubs like the Freemasons or, well, America is full of them -- Elks, Moose, Eagles, Rotarians, Kiwanis.... In small towns, you'd find the membership climbing up to the top of your chart, but in larger towns and small cities, they'd be closer to the bottom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: christina sponselli EMAIL: cts@dev.urel.berkeley.edu IP: 128.32.215.89 URL: http:// DATE: 10/01/2003 03:51:33 PM I truly enjoyed Mr. Coates' piece. I'm trying to identify the factors that drive people up from the stranger space to the friend space. And if successful, would this automatically mean more activity on the site where they were gathering. It also seems that people may drift between fore-, mid-, and background during an activity. For example, if they were joining an online discussion. Some days the activity may be of extreme interest to them--they send thoughful posts--while on other days their interest may wane--they feel the need to look at the activity even though they just scroll through the postings. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: adrian chan EMAIL: adrian@gravity7.com IP: 64.232.134.164 URL: http://www.gravity7.com DATE: 10/01/2003 10:45:19 PM This is a very compelling question, but I'm not sure the axes are right. I think the distinction between medium and activity is a false distinction, and it'll get us into trouble. Media are not more or less the focus of activity... Media are in between. So the question of the "relationship between social software and other activities" is the right question but, i think, mistakenly phrased. There is no relationship between those two. Media, insofar as they facilitate interaction, are a means of production--not an end in and of themselves. The danger of setting up false oppositions increases if we treat context as having more or less presence in social interaction. All interaction is in context and is situated (place and time). It's just that our focus on the context per se varies (e.g. fore or backgrounded). Technologies tend to make process explicit, and I think that's one reason we all feel as if we're participating in sofware when we do this social software stuff... But the attention we pay to the software is not because it is a focus of activity, i think, but because we have to negotiate our way through a representation of information, contents, navigation, etc. We're required to attend to the framework or architecture of interaction that in f2f would be implicit and backgrounded. It's fascinating that the connective media/applications now creating emergent communities and interactions can help produce new relationships, yes. I think we need to ask though, relations of what kind. How intense? How intimate? With what kind of trust? And for what? A transaction, file sharing for example, does not produce a relationship. Perhaps it establishes, fleetingly, a relation. But no -ship! Insofar as our memberships/associations compel us to interact, pay attention, stick around, take care of others, etc., I think the question facing soc. software should be one of degrees. As you have suggested here. But not degrees to which we are engaged in the medium. Rather, degrees to which the medium helps produce forms of interaction and emergent proximities among members/users such that they develop commitments to one another, and to their mediated "community." Interestingly, Fster, Tribe, etc work by leveraging existing trust-relations to grow communities. I'm not convinced that the trust that exists in a pair (dyadic) is transferable/extensible. Social networks do seem to act as a filter (on populations, where people are content). But can a logic of adjacency (social networks) or similarity (shared interests) be leveraged for more than filtering and qualifying other members? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Smith EMAIL: tom@othermedia.com IP: 195.167.165.10 URL: http://dev11.otherworks.com/theotherblog/Articles/2003/10/01/fWdcWktuxp?q=User+Experience+Usability+Research+Tom+Smith DATE: 10/02/2003 02:23:50 PM Hello, I've tried to understand what you're doing by slapping some example activities and technologies on a copy of your diagram. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: james boadwell EMAIL: boardwell@mac.com IP: 132.185.144.14 URL: DATE: 10/02/2003 04:56:01 PM I agree in large part with adrian - that media cannot form more or less 'context', that context just 'is' and that understanding the nature of relationships in and between different social groups would help us to provide services to aid their development and formation. quite what 'leverage' we should be looking to exploit out of the 'logic' of these social networks is debatable. i think one of the interesting things where there are so many competing outlets for information is the filtering aspect of the social network - the process of interpreting and debating / reinforcing opinions. this seems to me to be the pre-eminent reason for the success of online social networks... trust being the glue, no? is the thrust of tom's argument then that we should be providing services for established social networks where trust is already established and maintained? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: marty EMAIL: kearns@greenmediatoolshed.org IP: 68.48.138.241 URL: http://www.network-centricadvocacy.net DATE: 10/08/2003 05:33:17 AM The best place to look is the open thread on the Dean campaign. This is large scale social network tools. I also think it is fair to ask if the group dynamics shirky writes about emerge in short lived groups. If they do not then maybe we can bag the idea of long lived social networks and assume folks will be able to engage and find each other on an as needed basis. http://www.network-centricadvocacy.net/2003/10/free_wisdom_fro.html ----- PING: TITLE: More social software ideas URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/174 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 09/29/2003 12:56:28 PM Tom Coates' of plasticbag has produced a fantastic guide on how and why groups of people get together. Whether this will just serve as a thinking exercise for those of us interested in (and the subset: those who do things with) social software, or whet... ----- PING: TITLE: Coates on Modelling Social Interaction URL: http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2003/09/30/coates_on_modelling_social_interaction.php IP: 64.94.116.26 BLOG NAME: Many-to-Many DATE: 09/30/2003 06:25:38 PM Tom Coates is working on describing all social interaction along two axes: Imagine that you’re participating in a group activity - for simplicity let’s say it’s in your spare time. As far as we can tell, your activity will fit... ----- PING: TITLE: culture URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0101747/2003/10/01.html#a2290 IP: 24.81.164.76 BLOG NAME: Bruce Landon's Weblog for Students DATE: 10/01/2003 04:04:27 PM theOTHERblog- Modelling a space for group-activity... ----- PING: TITLE: Too Many Links URL: http://www.littlethinktank.net/weblog/2003/10/01/too_many_links IP: 69.57.163.32 BLOG NAME: » LittleThinkTank « DATE: 11/02/2003 01:35:12 PM Too many links to keep track of, and not enough time to do them justice. On Boundaries: Jason Kottke on the natural... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Gordon Brown's Speech... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 09/29/2003 07:52:17 PM ----- BODY:

    The full text of Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour party conference is well worth a read whether or not you rate his aspirations or his ability to achieve them. I personally think it presents an interesting and honourable model for what the United Kingdom could aspire to be - a bridge between nations and a model of the balance between responsibility and practicality - although of course with all normal caveats gently acknowledged. The only thing I'm less than comfortable with is the way that he appears to have taken vague pot-shots at all our national neighbours and allegiances in the process. Otherwise - generally intriguing and rousing stuff...

    "And where America is enterprising but not today seen as fair, the rest of Europe more socially cohesive but not today seen as enterprising, I believe that we in Britain can - even amidst the pressures and insecurities of globalisation - become the first country of this era to combine enterprise and economic strength with a strong public realm where public services are based not on vouchers or charges but are universal - and we eradicate child and pensioner poverty... And by standing up for these British ideas - and with our outward looking internationalism - Britain can be more than a bridge between Europe and America: our British values - what we say and do marrying enterprise and fairness, and about public services and the need to relieve poverty, can and should, in time, make Britain a model, a beacon for Europe, America and the rest of the world."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 81.106.99.30 URL: http://www.eye-imagine.co.uk DATE: 09/30/2003 09:03:40 AM Rings of moderation! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: dontspamthisyoubastard@cwazy.co.uk IP: 194.217.93.82 URL: DATE: 09/30/2003 10:38:06 AM Prudence! Prudence! Prudence! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: james crabtree EMAIL: jcrabtree@theworkfoundation.com IP: 82.35.73.228 URL: DATE: 10/03/2003 07:06:49 AM i was there.... swoon.... anyway, sorry for leaving a personal message, but my e-mail is currently shagged. you are still on for cameron on monday, right? can you drop me a line with your number and we can chew it through? ta. jc ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Around the back of Broadcasting House... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/29/2003 08:34:01 PM ----- BODY:

    Anyone who has passed by Broadcasting House in recent months will have noticed that it has been carefully gift-wrapped in white sheeting and scaffolding. Underneath the chrysalis it's hard to guess what's going on, but from the otherside - from inside the Portland Place part of the structure - you can see a lot more... This view is looking southwards toward Oxford Circus. Check out the little tiny diggers at the bottom of the picture. They're on the third or fourth story! Neat, huh?

    the_back_of_broadcasting_ho.jpg

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Louise Ferguson EMAIL: louise@louiseferguson.com IP: 195.92.67.69 URL: http://www.louiseferguson.com/cityofbits.htm DATE: 09/30/2003 01:18:40 PM Crikey, Tom, if I'd have know there was this going on up above, I would never have gone in!! ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JocBrut EMAIL: jocbrut@hotmail.com IP: 80.58.32.235 URL: http://www.msnbox.org/descargas.php DATE: 10/09/2003 07:39:51 PM thanks for the info. ----- PING: TITLE: The View From Here... URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000641.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 11/05/2003 10:41:24 AM At the risk of turning into Tom Coates, I must say there is something rather wonderful about looking out of my new office (for the next week-and-a-bit anyway) in the big LWT tower on the South Bank*, down onto the... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Advice for members of online communities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/30/2003 10:47:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's three pieces of advice that apply as much to moderators and administrators of message boards as much as to the people who are unfortunate enough to have you as unduly elected presidents for life. The first piece of advice I have been reminded of again recently. It's nice and simple and is profoundly important: Don't post angry. The second piece of advice is about the content of your posts: Argue the issue, not the person. And the third and final piece of advice is about how you argue your point: The art of winning arguments is all about seeming to be the more reasonable party.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Advice for the young at heart URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000504.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 10/01/2003 11:28:42 AM Tom Coates has posted some rather marvellous, yet fabulously simple, advice for members of online communities Ironically he's not turned on comments, so I have to post about it here. :-) He says this: The second piece of advice is... ----- PING: TITLE: Quick Clicking URL: http://www.photodude.com/weblog/2003/october/01_quick_clicking.shtml IP: 64.235.41.2 BLOG NAME: PhotoDude's Weblog DATE: 10/01/2003 05:42:42 PM Quick Clicking - Tom Coates offers some simple advice for members of online communities, but given the recent heat over the Wilson/Plame affair, I couldn't help but think that it applies to individual bloggers as well. "The first piece of advice I have... ----- PING: TITLE: Some good message board advice URL: http://www.frankw.net/blog/archives/000043.php IP: 216.40.241.211 BLOG NAME: .: Funtime Franky :. DATE: 10/01/2003 11:30:27 PM If only all people were intelligent enough to take on the advice at plasticbag.org and Tom’s advice for members of online communities. - Don’t post angry - Argue the issue, not the person - The art of winning arguments is... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vote Alex! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/04/2003 07:10:50 PM ----- BODY:

    I can't quite believe I'm doing this, but if you are in the United Kingdom and if you're not going outside and getting drunk or having a big party of something, could you please ring 09011 212 210 and cast your trashmatic Fame Academy vote for the wonderful Alex. I wouldn't normally ask, but this is really important... Sigh...

    And thank God! She's won! Bloody wonderful! That's really cheered me up. Thanks everyone for being useful and voting for her! The 'staff' look pretty happy too, which is probably because they've been saved from Sneddon-like embarrassment. Good stuff. Good stuff.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.76 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 10/04/2003 08:21:17 PM I'm so glad that great minds think alike. No, this isn't at all tragic. Vote for Alex. (Mind you, whatever did happen to that nice Ainslie chap, eh? My vote could be the kiss of death). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 194.109.220.178 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 10/04/2003 09:15:55 PM Yes, I would be voting for Alex if I lived in the U.K. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicholas EMAIL: blogmaster@wallposter.co.uk IP: 195.38.75.211 URL: http://wallposter.net/ DATE: 10/04/2003 09:58:06 PM Even though I've only watched about two hours in total (before tonight) of Fame Academy's present run, I too have added £1.50 (no - six phone calls isn't excessive; Alex MUST win) to my phone bill in order to secure a win for Alex in the final. (I could try and justify my actions by blaming it on a few glasses of Chilean Chardonnay, but that would be a lie; I'm loving every minute of it.) I'll be devastated if Alex doesn't win. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 81.106.99.30 URL: http://www.eye-imagine.co.uk/weblog.htm DATE: 10/05/2003 09:31:40 PM I thought i would immortalise her character by broadcasting the following quote by her - I won't put it in context since this is part of the immortalising plan: "I'd just make everything just a little bit more wonky - Alex" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.194.89 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/05/2003 09:50:57 PM Yes! I know! I loved that quote too. I thought it was really illustrative of her generally pleasing demeanour. I had a bit of a fight with someone at lunch about whether she's pointless or not (damn you Cal) but this is yet more evidence for her fundamental coolness. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dance Sensation EMAIL: none@hotmail.com IP: 217.155.244.161 URL: http://www.dancesensation.net DATE: 10/08/2003 12:06:02 AM I glad Alex has won. I don't have a TV so only heard her sing a few songs when I was at a friends house but it was enough to know that this girl had a voice. I wanted to buy her version of 'I don't want to talk about it' as soon as I heard it - if anyone knows of another person who does that song better, let me know! I hope her first album is suitably angst-ridden. She does it so well. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wiggle Room in the Power Law.. STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/05/2003 12:06:59 AM ----- BODY:

    Introduction to the issues

    Just over six months ago the concept of the power-law collided gently with webloggia, sparking off a whole range of discussion about power, inequality and politics. The heart of the issue was links and scale-free networks. In particular it seemed to be the case that as more and more people came into the blogosphere, they would mostly link through to the same core group of people - creating a space in which the early-adopters seemed to achieve preternatural dominance over the eco-system. The main two early pieces around these issues were Clay Shirky's Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality and Jason Kottke's piece on Weblogs and Power Laws.

    Clay admirably explains the case for the social network explanation for the origins of inequalities inside networks in the introduction to his piece:

    A persistent theme among people writing about the social aspects of weblogging is to note (and usually lament) the rise of an A-list, a small set of webloggers who account for a majority of the traffic in the weblog world. This complaint follows a common pattern we've seen with MUDs, BBSes, and online communities like Echo and the WELL. A new social system starts, and seems delightfully free of the elitism and cliquishness of the existing systems. Then, as the new system grows, problems of scale set in. Not everyone can participate in every conversation. Not everyone gets to be heard. Some core group seems more connected than the rest of us, and so on.

    Prior to recent theoretical work on social networks, the usual explanations invoked individual behaviors: some members of the community had sold out, the spirit of the early days was being diluted by the newcomers, et cetera. We now know that these explanations are wrong, or at least beside the point. What matters is this: Diversity plus freedom of choice creates inequality, and the greater the diversity, the more extreme the inequality.

    In systems where many people are free to choose between many options, a small subset of the whole will get a disproportionate amount of traffic (or attention, or income), even if no members of the system actively work towards such an outcome. This has nothing to do with moral weakness, selling out, or any other psychological explanation. The very act of choosing, spread widely enough and freely enough, creates a power law distribution.

    Now there's no doubt that this is true and that it has an impact, but what I'm going to be talking today is an attempt to demonstrate two things: that the analogy between HTML links and human social behaviour is less obvious and/or powerful than this position might demonstrate, that there is more flexibility, movement and wiggle room within the weblog hierarchy than looking at links alone might seem to suggest. All of this is gestured towards in another paragraph of Shirky's - so don't for a moment think that this is innovative stuff - but perhaps I can put some flesh onto the argument that:

    "... blogging is a daily activity. As beloved as Josh Marshall (TalkingPointsMemo.com) or Mark Pilgrim (DiveIntoMark.org) are, they would disappear if they stopped writing, or even cut back significantly. Blogs are not a good place to rest on your laurels. "

    Links vs. Traffic

    Jason found a power law in the distribution of links to weblogs, links that came (for the most part) from other weblogs. But he didn't - couldn't - look at figures about the traffic that each weblog is receiving, nor about the correlation between number of links and the amount of traffic that a site gets. When we talk about link popularity, we're simply assuming that the most linked-to site gets read most often as well. If we were simply analysing theoretical scale-free networks, perhaps this wouldn't be such an issue, but it's a very real issue for the discussion of the political calcification (or otherwise) of a community. It seems clear that - under those circumstances - a practical inequality in the number of links to a site is only of interest if those links are being used either as accurate representations of - or specific mechanisms for - people's actual reading/social behaviour.

    As part of my experiment, I went through the Top 100 of Technorati">Technorati Top 100 and viewed the source on every weblog on it to try and find some information on the traffic that each site was receiving. Many weblogs - even some of the web's most successful - use free and open-to-the-public stats packages. In order to try and collate vaguely comparable figures I decided to investigate in particular the sites using extreme tracking stats packages. After a while I'd collected the URLs for the stats pages of eleven of the Top 100 sites, and added in my own to demonstrate I was prepared to eat my own dogfood, however mediocre:

    1. BoingBoing
    2. Where Is Raed? extreme stats
    3. This Modern World extreme stats
    4. A Small Victory extreme stats
    5. The Volokh Conspiracy extreme stats
    6. Instapundit extreme stats
    7. Vodkapundit extreme stats
    8. OxBlog extreme stats
    9. plasticbag.org extreme stats
    10. Wood's Lot extreme stats
    11. The Command Post extreme stats
    12. Blogcritics extreme stats

    So let's prise some of those stats open a bit. Organised in order of their appearance in Technorati, they look a bit like this:

    Boing Boing Blog 2862 blogs Instapundit.com 2597 blogs Where is Raed 1582 blogs Modern World 1274 blogs A Small Victory 856 blogs The Volokh Conspiracy 728 blogs VodkaPundit 672 blogs OxBlog 568 blogs plasticbag.org 558 blogs

    But when you organise them by dint of last-months traffic, the ordering is remarkably dissimilar.

    Arranging them by order of number of links that Google finds for them provides a third measurement:

    What's fairly clear in this graph is how

    Here are the URLs for the stats of all weblogs using extreme stats that are in the (and mine, because you should eat your own dog-food, however mediocre):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A Victorian responds to comment spam... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/05/2003 07:26:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Today - after receiving a few more pseudo-comments from people whose home URLs contain the word "blowjob" - I also received the following:

    If you don't want certain types of homepages listed such as ones about sex then you need to turn off allowing homepage url's to be listed with the comments. I don't know what your problem is with sex sites, perhaps you are a victorian or a religious fanatic, beats me, but you do have the option to turn off homepage url listing with the comments.

    The interesting thing about the person who decided to leave this message (which like so many was stuck on the end of my piece about the evils of weblog comment spammers) was that they don't seem to be able to to understand the difference between someone engaging in a conversation and someone coming into your space and trying to sell you something. And they don't seem able to understand that taking advantage of other people's good-will to whore your own products and services is innappropriate - that it's wrong.

    The reason - obviously - that webloggers allow individuals to put links to their homepages in their comments is so that we can strengthen links and ties between the members of our heavily abstracted community. We do it so that if people find a comment interesting they can go and read more about the person who commented. The cynicism involved in using such things for pure Google-juice - just to try and scrabble people to your porno site for a few extra cents - is just disgusting. And it's not because it's pornography, it's because it's brazen, disrespectful and offensive.

    I'm trying to find a good strategy for resolving this situation, but in the meantime I'm just going to change the URLs to pages about the evils of spamming, if I don't just delete them. I'll try and collate some useful links as soon as I am able.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lon EMAIL: lon@wanadoo.nl IP: 212.129.218.151 URL: DATE: 10/05/2003 09:04:35 PM If I may make a suggestion as to how to stop these unwanted posts... Most comment-spammers are scripts I guess, not actual persons submitting forms. So you need an algorithm to separate scripts from humans. One way could be to put a hidden field in your form that is (server-side) filled with the current time. Comments that are submitted in less than (say) 3 seconds can be safely ignored. Another way would be to let a (second) hidden field be filled by some javascript on the client. An automated submit-script will probably not be able to execute the javascript properly. The server can check on submittal whether or not there was a submit-script running or a browser. Just some ideas. Good luck. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: nospamplease@hotmail.com IP: 217.44.64.72 URL: DATE: 10/05/2003 11:00:46 PM You could also try something like the system used by www.knowspam.net - the first time you e-mail someone who is using this filter, the system automatically sends an e-mail requesting you to click a link to a page to verify you are an actual human rather than a spam robot. All you need to do is enter the number that appears on the page into the field - the catch is that the number appears as a gif or jpg, so only a real person could interpret it. You could do the same thing for your comments page by having a gif/jpg with a code word or number and an extra field for the info to be entered (a null field or wrong repsonse means the comment would not get posted). As that would be a pain to most regular commenters, you could always have that logged in a cookie after the first successful attempt, or keep a database of "friendly" URLs. By the way - it would be nice to be able to enter an e-mail address like hatespamAThotmailDOTcom in the comments form, so your loyal readers don't get more spam either. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Reid EMAIL: kpreid@mac.com IP: 68.65.178.96 URL: http://homepage.mac.com/kpreid/ DATE: 10/06/2003 12:19:35 AM This reminds me of . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Reid EMAIL: kpreid@mac.com IP: 68.65.178.96 URL: http://homepage.mac.com/kpreid/ DATE: 10/06/2003 12:20:10 AM This reminds me of http://www.usenet2.org/rant.txt . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john EMAIL: john@johnsjottings.com IP: 24.118.36.246 URL: http://www.johnsjottings.com DATE: 10/06/2003 03:39:34 AM I've had good luck to date with Jay Allen's approach, which I link to here http://www.johnsjottings.com/archives/2003/10/03/it_works.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 10/06/2003 08:17:29 AM This is all Andrew Orlowski's doing, obviously; he's taken his hatred of blogs to a new level, and has started a low-level sabotage campaign... (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33214.html is Andrew crowing over "the death of weblogs", also known as "high churn rate") ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.194.89 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/06/2003 08:55:34 AM Yeah I saw Andrew's article, and I honestly didn't know what to say. It seemed so blatantly skewed towards rant. I wonder what the corresponding churn is like for YahooGroups. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: McChris EMAIL: chris@lineages.co.uk IP: 82.41.208.8 URL: http://www.lineages.co.uk/chris/ DATE: 10/06/2003 12:30:16 PM Just a wee idea but could you not add like a small script to you comments post which looks for words such as blowjob and replaces them with jibberish?? just a thought. That way these parasites would just be wasting their time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 194.223.183.231 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 10/06/2003 03:07:23 PM Leaping in to state the bleedin' obvious: filtering on individual words is a terrible idea. In the first place, it's awfully indiscriminate -- McChris's post would fall foul for including "blowjob" and so would this one (admittedly no great loss). In the second, the real problem isn't that the spam is advertising something sexual, but that it is hijacking the blog to advertise anything at all -- a spam advertising weblog software could be just as reprehensible. Trying to filter out everything that might be spam by simple word matching is a hopeless task. Requiring users to read and acknowledge some image token might help -- and I don't think it's too onerous a requirement -- but it's conceivable that at least some spam comments are posted by humans, in which case they'll thwart such precautions easily. I wish I had something more helpful to add, but short of instituting a reign of terror in which spammers are brutally slaughtered and their heads displayed on pikes as a deterrent I can't see anything working in more than the most temporary way. The spam war has been going on much longer in email and on Usenet, and although things like Bayesian filters can help stem the tide a bit we're still nowhere near a convincing solution. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: seriouslesbosmock EMAIL: seriouslesbosmock@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.18.241 URL: DATE: 10/06/2003 08:00:55 PM Make some of your readers into comment moderators with the power to delete/edit crap posts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kurt EMAIL: kurt@madiwodovrzazo.be IP: 81.11.153.207 URL: http://www.kurtminnen.be/tafelzoetstof DATE: 10/06/2003 08:10:23 PM Well said! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Burton EMAIL: burton@newsmonster.org IP: 141.157.43.7 URL: http://newsmonster.org DATE: 10/07/2003 07:19:27 AM Are you sick and tired of comment spam? Do you hate when spammers come to your website selling their products and hawking their wares?! Well no fear! Act now! Supplies are limited! Buy the *amazing* Spam Comment Blocker from Annoying Software Systems (ASS) (TM). Our patent pending technology utilizes state of the art weblog technologies to block spam posted to your weblog! Click here to purchase for *ONLY* 19.95 or 2 easy payments of $9.95! Money back guarantee and full lifetime warranty! (no hidden charges) Limited time only! Act now and receive free installation and delivery and free 30 day evaluation (no questions asked)! No cash? No problem? Financing guaranteed, no risk and no down payment! Batteries not included! Act now while supplies last! This offer not available in stores! Mileage may vary. Allow 6 weeks for deliver. Some assembly required. Some restrictions may apply. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dance Sensation EMAIL: none@hotmail.com IP: 217.155.244.161 URL: http://www.dancesensation.net DATE: 10/08/2003 12:10:51 AM You could always add a CAPTCHA to the comments submission system. Or more simply, don't display homepages as a link. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary EMAIL: gary@gol.com IP: 165.76.40.14 URL: http://www.garyandmegumi.com/blog DATE: 10/14/2003 08:38:00 AM I started just like yourself, deleting or changing the urls. After doing that a few times, I found that the spams on my blog were now including the url inside the text of the comment. I am currently contemplating using one of the blacklists, while manually deleting the spam comments on a daily basis. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anonymouse EMAIL: anon@anonymizer.com IP: 82.81.68.49 URL: DATE: 10/02/2004 06:36:15 PM The are bunch of ways to fix this problem. I could give you one adwise. You just need to enable content filtering. For example do not allow people to put links that contain words like : sex, blowjob, anal, ... in the comments. For example the following will for in your site. Best blowjob movies. ----- PING: TITLE: More links than you can shake a stick at... URL: http://tonytalkstech.com/archives/000454.php IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Technically Speaking DATE: 10/06/2003 05:39:06 AM Yesterday, I didn't get around to all of my blogroll entries. Well that has been remedied today. I hope I didn't miss anyone! The rule, for me, was to find other technical blog entries in the blogosphere. My first cut... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On conversations with Cameron Marlow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 10/06/2003 10:50:44 PM ----- BODY:

    While BloggerCon has been ongoing in the States, I've spent most of the weekend attending mini events with the charming Cameron Marlow of Blogdex infamy. Cameron came over to the UK to talk at a conference at the Oxford Internet Institute and managed to squeeze in a few small gatherings before heading back to the States.

    On Friday afternoon, I hosted a small event with Cameron at the BBC that Matt Jones had organised but was unfortunately unable to attend. Cameron talked about social networks, the similarities and differences between meme transmission and STD transmission across social networks (there are, intriguingly, many fewer types of STDs) and the relationship between link networks and the social networks that they sit upon. There were a fair number of UK-based BBC-based webloggers present (plus Cal who we sneaked in), but irritatingly none of them have talked about the event on their sites, so it's been very difficult for me to gauge how useful or interesting they found it. The day was nicely capped by Cal, Cameron and I stuffing our faces at Pizza Hut, having a long discussion with a man at a neighbouring table about The Darkness ("Men what do rock, baby") and then collapsing in front of Finding Nemo. I'm fairly sure I had an argument with someone important about Eastenders as well...

    Yesterday - in a more dedicated weblogger-centric (and sporadically organised at the last-minute) dim sum session at the New World in Soho - we got Cameron together with some more bastions of the UK tech/weblogging scene, including Matt Webb, Cal Henderson, Phil Gyford, Paul Hammond and Neil McIntosh from Online Blog. After eating inhuman amounts of tiny tiny food and everyone tolerating another one of my long rants about Eastenders, we decamped to Apogee - a café off Leicester Square - for coffee, cake and constitutional cocktails.

    Finally today, Cameron and I found ourselves on a lunchtime panel at the iSociety (written up by James Crabtree in considerable detail) on weblogs and the public sphere which I found very rewarding (although I'm not sure the same could be said of the people who were forced to listen to my ramblings). I think both Cameron and I were particularly interested in the various perceived inequalities and freedoms of webloggia (perhaps as an example of networked individualism), how those freedoms/inequalities might inter-relate with one another and what it meant to be an ethical builder of tools in that environment. I was also particularly delighted to see Perry de Havilland of Samizdata.net again, who - while I might not agree with his politics - always has an interesting contribution to make to these debates.

    I'm almost certain that I've managed to capture only the most limited sense of the events and the issues discussed at them. Should any of the parties concerned with to use this space as a forum for subsequent discussion, they should feel free...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: 'A list bloggers' URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/2003/10/a-list-bloggers IP: 12.129.237.12 BLOG NAME: www.perfect.co.uk DATE: 12/03/2003 07:08:38 PM iSociety had a interesting lunchtime session yesterday - Blogospheres and Public Spheres: The Future of Cyberspace with Cameron Marlow (of blogdex) and Tom Coates, a roundtable of luminaries and me. Tom Steinberg sums it up.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On niche weblogging, Google and Adsense... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/06/2003 11:24:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Matt Haughey writes about putting Google AdWords on PVRBlog:

    Make no mistake, last month PVRblog made a lot of money from Adsense. When was the last time you heard someone say they received a check for advertising on their hobby site that could be used to purchase a fully loaded Aeron chair? Sounds like something you might have heard in 1998, no? Well it's true today, and I hope a lot more people meet with the same success.

    Haughey's experience sounds very intriguing and his tips for running a successful Adsense-based semi-commercial venture may very well gesture in the right direction for niche commercial weblogging enterprises. I've never been very comfortable with the idea of getting money from weblogging, because I've always felt that there was a distinction between getting sponsorship for what one writes and getting advertising based upon what/who one is. Weblogs have seemed to be to be a space in which individuals could self-describe and - as such - putting advertising upon them has felt to me rather like being prepared to sell parts of one's face or body for commercial advertising purposes.

    Today at the iSociety event, Cameron articulated a useful and simple distinction between a publishing model of weblogs where a specific site is (to a greater or lesser extent) impersonal and subject-focused (which is - I think - the only part journalists seem to understand), and a social model where the site is no more or less than a representation of a person online and connects with other sites around itself as a proxy for a social connection to the person behind the keyboard. That we can understand weblog space as being a spectrum like that (with people like Mark Pilgrim occupying this weird Schroedinger-like superposition between concept and human) makes it much easier for me to conceive of a comfortable place for this kind of commercial weblogging venture.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil McIntosh EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 81.132.42.80 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 10/07/2003 02:14:19 PM Hmm - unlike you to make a statement like this without standing it up, Tom: "a publishing model of weblogs where a specific site is (to a greater or lesser extent) impersonal and subject-focused (which is - I think - the only part journalists seem to understand),"? I think journalists "get" the social model, and those of us who have been covering this scene a while might see that angle as the most viable long-term model for weblogging. It's just that, for many (especially those who constantly cover the business angle of tech stories) the commercial angle is the one that holds most interest. In that context, (personal) weblogging is simply the byproduct of some neat software that makes it very easy to public niche web sites, from which it might be possible to make money. The social angle doesn't come into it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/07/2003 02:48:44 PM Apologies Neil - the piece was written in a hurry and I didn't get to expand on that point as much as I'd like. It is certainly not a view that is held exclusively by journalists or by all journalists - but I was trying to draw attention to the way in which many people (and this is particularly common when the people concerned work in conventional/professional publishing ventures) see no value in the social or partly-social side of weblogs because they're judging all of them by the criteria of a publishing model rather than a representational model. That's all I meant. Sorry for not making that clearer... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kristina EMAIL: kristina@live-diary.com IP: 24.175.46.119 URL: http://live-diary.com DATE: 10/08/2003 05:24:24 PM Personally (this is just an opinion), I think that journals -- or writings of personal opinions, emotions, & experiences -- hold my fascination more than the "commercial blogs" that give me tech headlines and a few sentences of thought about each one. If I wanted the news, I would go to a credible website. Some techblogs just happen to evolve into one without thinking--they start as a personal journal but what is personal to them IS technology--it's just a matter of priorities. I happen to believe that journals do encompass the social far more than the commercial/techblogs do, because social is society. Society is the way people interact with each other, and what is more social than a journal chronicling the deeply personal experiences and interactions of one person among others? I guess this could just be taken two ways... ----- PING: TITLE: M·s sobre webloggear y ganar dinero por hacerlo URL: http://ALT1040.com/archivo/categorias/bitacoras/mas_sobre_webloggear_y_ganar_dinero_por_hacerlo.php IP: 66.36.233.61 BLOG NAME: ALT1040 DATE: 03/06/2004 07:58:23 AM Walter lo expone perfectamente: Est· claro que uno de los temas que ha centrado mucha atenciÛn ha sido un simple botÛn de PayPal en un weblog escrito en espaÒol. Este artÌculo viene a demostrar que atrasada est· en algunos aspÈctos nuestra "blogoesferi... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I am (officially) ill... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/08/2003 09:26:16 PM ----- BODY:

    So I've been feeling really run-down for the last couple of weeks, but - hey - you know - who doesn't. Anyway I thought if Matt and I stopped working so hard for a couple of days and just let our minds and bodies catch up with the world, then I'd feel a bit better and I decided to end one of those days by going out for a couple of drinks. And - I'll admit it - I had a couple of cigarettes. And then I woke up this morning unable to stand properly and with a throat that the flu fairy had attacked with a rusty old cheese-grater. Anyway, I went to work anyway because clearly having days off is evil and wrong and only lightweights do it. I bought loads of pills and took loads of pills and just about managed to get through the day and get home before promptly barfing all over the place and collapsing exhausted onto the sofa. I am, it seems, officially ill.

    As this has clearly been building for a while now, I think I'm going to assume that it's the reason that I've felt so enervated and unable to accomplish anything for the last couple of weeks. So - taking advantage of the fact that I've now been lying on my sofa for three hours solidly without really moving at all and have therefore built up some typing energy - I'm going to (1) briefly apologise for the lack of posts recently (2) say thank you to the lovely person who bought me Nowhere off my wishlist (unless I bought it for myself (which it occurs to me it quite possible, although I don't remember doing it) and (3) look rather surprised at myself for having just accidentally bought a Powerbook on the day that they announced the shipping date for Panther.

    Oops! Here comes lunch again. Best be off.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jean EMAIL: jeangenie_5@hotmail.com IP: 211.29.136.13 URL: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/creativitymachine/ DATE: 10/08/2003 09:59:11 PM Get well, Tom ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.178.237.51 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 10/08/2003 10:42:05 PM Fwiw, I had it last week - and it took a week to get my mind back. Get well soon. Going in to work is a bad thing, I managed to infect half of my team in just a day when I first had a sore throat. Stay at home, put Terry and Gaby on, and relax! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Hill EMAIL: dan@cityofsound.com IP: 82.35.42.244 URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/ DATE: 10/08/2003 11:50:06 PM And just in case anyone thinks I'm some kinda hardcase making Tom feel like a lightweight about not going to work, for the record I told him to go home at lunchtime ;) He's also achieved loads in the last coupla weeks - and awesome stuff too. Must be frustrating that your boss knows where you blog ... Though actually it was me buying him at least one of those drinks. Hmm. They were Jamie's fags though. Honest. Get well soon Tom ... Take it easy, mate. Dan. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 195.92.168.166 URL: http://www.infovore.org DATE: 10/09/2003 11:18:32 AM Tom: how does one accidentally buy a Powerbook? (Fifteen, yes?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Jones EMAIL: matt@nospambbj.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.blackbeltjones.com DATE: 10/09/2003 11:35:13 AM I've got it too... and I think I have just given it to F. In other news, I will be cancelling my Tivo sub tonight, hence transferring custody to you shortly... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie Tetlow EMAIL: jamie@oddtype.com IP: 132.185.144.12 URL: http://www.oddtype.com DATE: 10/09/2003 01:43:30 PM My most sincere apologies for forcing the above quota cigarettes on you, they are the devil it's true... you'll be pleased to hear that in return your accidental purchase has head locked me into a 'put money where mouth is' situation - how did that happen?? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 10/09/2003 01:44:40 PM Its not going to work that makes you ill. Its taking time off. Everytime I've had a week's holiday and gone somewhere nice for the last few years, I've ended up with flu whilst *on* holiday. Prague - flu. West Cork - flu. Turkey - flu. I'm not going on holiday anymore - its dangerous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 67.69.211.167 URL: http://fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 10/09/2003 11:40:53 PM i wish i could get sick and accidently buy a Powerbook... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carla Donner EMAIL: cdonner@aol.com IP: 216.127.82.97 URL: http://www.megaone.com/supermodel DATE: 10/12/2003 01:09:14 PM I too was sick and had swollen glands and had to cancel my opera performance in Vienna last week. The bug is going around. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Caterina and Tom, together at least... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/10/2003 09:36:54 PM ----- BODY:

    In lieu of real content, while I try and drag my lungs back together from the scrabbly little bits I can see around my sitting room floor attached to scraps of tissue paper, here's a picture of Caterina and me at the Lego place in Helsinki from earlier this year...

    Tom Coates & Caterina Fake

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The final solution for persistent trolls? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 10/13/2003 11:54:11 AM ----- BODY:

    So what do you do when nothing else has worked and you're left with a board that is at the mercy of a persistent troublemaker? There aren't very many options. Firstly there's taking the situation to the ISP or workplace of the person concerned. But if they're that persistent, then it's not unlikely to think that they'll just take such a move as an escalation of hostilities. Contacting the police might be appropriate if you think you've got enough of a case to push for harrassment or something similar - but again, it's more than likely that it would just be read as an escalation of hostilities - and that's likely to make everything more serious and difficult to deal with in the long-term. At the other extreme, you have the option of just learning to live with them, but that comes with a range of costs - the most significant of which is that your authority (and those of the system you've built and the people who occupy it) has been openly challenged and you have failed to resolve the situation. This will encourage other trouble-makers either within the population of the board itself or real-life friends of the 'conquering troll' to come and populate your community. Backing down, fundamentally, is only an option if you were wrong in the first place. Under those circumstances you should confess pretty much immediately. This is embarrassing, but not normally catastrophic. Backing down when you're right because you can't enforce your decision - however - is.

    One extreme - and totally uncommercial - solution is to build upon the social networks of individual culpability and responsibility that already exist within your community. For example - by making it impossible for the unregistered user to see what's being posted, you limit their ability to check up on what people are saying about them. By making it impossible to register without having been directly invited, you not only get the benefits of a web of trust-style selection process for new members, but you also have someone responsible for bringing the new member into the midst of the community. That person can be held accountable if they invite someone particularly troubling inside. Unfortunately this has a number of problematic elements - firstly it's commercial suicide if you're running the board as part of a business (unless you are getting people to pay for your messageboard on the basis of who is on it), secondly it will increase the cliquey aspect of all online communities and finally it will mean that the content produced by your community's members can't easily be used as a resource for anyone other than the community members itself. Nonetheless, in many circumstances it can be the only practical way to move forward...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 82.45.231.165 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 10/13/2003 03:55:47 PM One common solution is to make a troll's postings invisible to the rest of community once they've been recognised. The troll gets no reaction, but doesn't know why - he can still see his posts sitting with the others. But nobody else can. Trouble is, of course, that the troll just has to try browsing around in an unregistered state and suddenly he can't see his posts any more. So how about making the posts visible to unregistered users too? You're still protecting the people you care most about, namely your registered community. And you can set a timer to automatically delete the troll's posts after 24 hours. Knowing your experience with trolls, though, I bet you've tried something like this already - what happened? Does the troll just keep re-registering under too many usernames to keep track of? (BTW, Tom, it'd be great if you could implement *some* kind of paragraph formatting in the comments...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cal EMAIL: me@omglame.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: DATE: 10/13/2003 04:07:28 PM As you guessed yoz, trolls that have several username get wise to this pretty quickly :/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/13/2003 05:12:52 PM Also trolls that operate with friends - which is surprisingly common when the they're a recurrent problem (which most actually dedicated ones are). We thought about that approach for UMS Conversations but it simply wouldn't have worked with the representative trolls we were working with. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kavi@fingerpie.zzn.com IP: 64.229.197.87 URL: http://fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 10/14/2003 01:28:56 AM i swear, you can't run away from bullies... ----- PING: TITLE: How to solve trolls URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/243 IP: 64.239.11.193 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 10/14/2003 11:02:27 AM Tom Coates of plasticbag has an interesting post on how to solve problems with message board (ab)users. I think that having an 'ignore' function is an extremely simple yet effective way of solving the problem of misuse, because the more annoying trolls... ----- PING: TITLE: Mapping the process of Knowledge Making URL: http://www.synesthesia.co.uk/blog/archives/knowledge_management/000208.php IP: 80.71.6.131 BLOG NAME: Synesthesia DATE: 10/16/2003 03:05:13 PM Developing Spike Hall's model of an online tool for collaborative production of knowledge. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Political economies in self-moderating communities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 10/13/2003 11:55:43 AM ----- BODY:

    Derek Powazek wrote an interesting piece last year about rating-based moderation systems: Gaming the system: How moderation tools can backfire. One of the most important lessons in online community management is that top-down management is seldom particularly successful in forcing people to act in a certain way. Certainly if the image of the community that the administrators wish to enforce is radically different from what the community itself wants, then the site is more likely to rip itself apart than to fall in line. Online communities are not made social by the presence of these administrators and nor is the quality of their social interaction defined by that administrator. Groups of people self-organise, self-maintain and even - to an extent - self-moderate. An administrators job is to (more or less intrusively or architecturally) facilitate the creation or the maintenance of these self-organising aspects and to build a community space that suits them.

    Moderation systems that are based upon ratings schemes are radical attempts to help people self-organise by choosing people and content worth reading and by ostracising bad users. The most well-known sites of this kind are Slashdot and Kuro5hin. But Derek's piece reminds us that even these attempts to replicate concepts of reputation and rating online can have problems:

    Still, it's important to remember this essential truth: Any complicated moderation system that makes its algorithms public is eventually going to fall victim to gaming. So my advice is, if you're going to use a community moderation system, make it as invisible as possible. No karma numbers, no contests, no bribes. Rely on social capital and quality content to get your community talking, and develop a system that helps you moderate without a lot of fanfare. The bottom line is, if you take away the scores, it's hard to play the game.

    I think Derek's position on this is fundamentally correct - albeit a little strongly worded. I suppose my biggest problem is trying to work out to what extent gaming the system is an abuse of or a fundamental aspect of real-world analogies to these moderation schemes. Perhaps the problem is not that the social structures built within the game are too complex and take away from normal human interaction, but that they're simply not gameable enough. The online political economy of a site like Slashdot seems to me to have some clear analogies with the problems of inflation in the virtual economies of MMORPGs. It could take many years for the UI and the 'market' to come together in gameably useful ways...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.155.39.121 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 10/13/2003 11:32:29 PM I've been a frontline administrator / moderator / hitler / leader / guidance coundellor of online communities in one form or another for over 8 years (ie before mainstream blogging) now - and I agree wholeheartedly. My experience (which I'm not claiming is exhaustive or correct by any means) has shown me that moderators do not control online communities. In fact, the more moderation you apply, the less effective it is. You either a) moderate so much that you lose the community (a community does not consist of a single voice), or b) lose control of the community altogether. Moderation is a big thick grey line. Sure, community members are aware of golden rules in as much as the general public is aware of the fact that murder is wrong in 'civilised' societies. Beyond this though the moderator will find difficulty in enforcing rules and maintaining a state of parity. Moreover, a successful moderator (in my experience) does not cast rules down to a community. The most successful moderation lies in peerage - in bending majority opinion with peer authority. To be crass and patronising, its the sheep rule - leadership through example is the best form of moderation. Of course, I would never belittle any community that I have moderated in this way. Successful real world moderation lies as much in the flexibility of the authority as it does in the pliance of the community itself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@digitaldust.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.digitaldust.org DATE: 10/15/2003 03:42:42 PM The thing I advocate is for obfuscating the mechanism not hiding the rules/laws. There are two things at work here; one is the laws by which the space works. Not the codes of conduct or social norms, but the social laws - that in a social space function like physical laws. If you post something good it gets seen more, if you post something bad it gets removed... onwards and upwards to karma systems and collaborative moderation. These should function just like the way you understand that if you throw a rock up in the air it falls back to hit you in the head. Then there are mechanisms. These are the exact ways the rules/laws are implemented. g=G*M/D¾ for gravitational attraction. People don't need to know this formula to work out rocks fall. They don't need to know and if they do know then a select few will try to game the system. If told the mechanism, then the exact nature of these will eventually be empirically determined and taken advantage of. This may sound draconian, I want to stress that it completely and utterly is. Most if not all online communities are run by single entities, companies or people, or groups of like minded enough people that it doesn't matter. The best of these communities are ones that are seen by the users as benevolent dictatorships. And they will always be, even if the creator steps down, they usually still pay the bills to the ISP, thus having ultimate control. I think there is something to do with equality and status and the obfuscation that is required. Communities where everyone is equal donít need to hide the rules. Communities where people can gain status do. Slashdot and Everquest need to hide the mechanisms of their rule systems. A game of chess or a heavily moderated messageboard donít. Thereís more to this last paragraph, Iíll have to think about it. ----- PING: TITLE: Cracking the Virtual Economy URL: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~craft/craftblog/archives/000047.html IP: 128.83.125.182 BLOG NAME: Jason Craft DATE: 10/13/2003 07:02:27 PM Great post from Tom Coates on plasticbag.org about the ways that online communities respond to -- or evade, or subvert -- moderation: I suppose my biggest problem is trying to work out to what extent gaming the system is an... ----- PING: TITLE: How Moderation can backfire URL: http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/000910.html IP: 64.81.78.180 BLOG NAME: Teal Sunglasses DATE: 10/16/2003 05:44:22 AM A nice article on the side-effects of publishing reputation data -- you turn it into a game. This is a good explanation of why I'm looking at limiting access to reputation data in systems I'm designing, so that only the admins have access to all of the... ----- PING: TITLE: Mapping the process of Knowledge Making URL: http://www.synesthesia.co.uk/blog/archives/knowledge_management/000208.php IP: 80.71.6.131 BLOG NAME: Synesthesia DATE: 10/16/2003 03:05:22 PM Developing Spike Hall's model of an online tool for collaborative production of knowledge. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Introducing "Everything in Moderation"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/15/2003 12:27:09 AM ----- BODY:

    Today I'm launching a new site - my first full new site under my own steam for a couple of years. Everything in Moderation is a new site designed to find creative ways to manage online communities and user-generated content. I'll be writing up some of my experiences with Barbelith Underground, particularly some of the interesting anti-troll solutions that we came up with, as well as talking about models of full or partially distributed moderation systems to compete with things like Slashdot. I'm quite excited about the prospect and look forward to getting a lot of site suggestions to write about from people like you - Mr and Mrs Everyman!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Everything in Moderation URL: http://www.monkeyx.com/archives/web/everything_in_moderation.html IP: 64.246.62.22 BLOG NAME: MonkeyX - Hairy Thoughts DATE: 10/15/2003 08:19:08 AM Tom has launched a new site, Everything in Moderation, which explores "Creative ways to manage online communities and user-generated content." It's an area which I've been involved in various ways having spent most of my career building community sites... ----- PING: TITLE: Is this the beginning of the Age of Topic-focused Blogs? URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/10/15.html#a131 IP: 203.97.2.243 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 10/15/2003 12:01:18 PM I read with interest Matt Haughey's essay Blogging for Dollars , where he relates his experiences running Google's Adsense adverts on his TiVo-focused weblog, PVRblog . ----- PING: TITLE: Mapping the process of Knowledge Making URL: http://www.synesthesia.co.uk/blog/archives/knowledge_management/000208.php IP: 80.71.6.131 BLOG NAME: Synesthesia DATE: 10/16/2003 03:05:06 PM Developing Spike Hall's model of an online tool for collaborative production of knowledge. ----- PING: TITLE: Everything in Moderation URL: http://www.frankw.net/blog/archives/2003/10/Everything_in_Moderation.php IP: 216.40.241.211 BLOG NAME: -Funtime Franky- DATE: 10/16/2003 03:49:11 PM Just browsing my Blogroll today and stumbled accross Tom’s article, introducing his newly launched website, Everything in Moderation: Creative ways to manage online communities. Along with MonkeyX, I have spent most of my (short?) career building... ----- PING: TITLE: Everything in Moderation URL: http://www.frankw.net/blog/archives/2003/10/Everything_in_Moderation.php IP: 216.40.241.211 BLOG NAME: -Funtime Franky- DATE: 10/16/2003 03:58:32 PM Just browsing my Blogroll today and stumbled accross Tom’s article, introducing his newly launched website, Everything in Moderation: Creative ways to manage online communities. Along with MonkeyX, I have spent most of my (short?) career building... ----- PING: TITLE: Is this the beginning of the Age of Topic-focused Blogs? URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001735.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/22/2004 07:10:13 AM I read with interest Matt Haughey's essay Blogging for Dollars, where he relates his experiences running Google's Adsense adverts on his TiVo-focused weblog, PVRblog. Matt is making a pretty penny running the Google ads on his TiVo blog and one... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Increasing transactions costs for e-mail, redux... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/15/2003 10:48:38 AM ----- BODY:

    There's another round of discussion going on post-FOOCamp about combatting spam by increasing transaction costs for e-mail. I'm not going to get too involved in it, because I've had many of the arguments before - most often with the lovely Cory Doctorow, but in a nutshell, my position is that there are many situations in online life where the effective removal of marginal cost has created problems in handling massive the subsequent massive amounts of abuse that such systems are prone too. I'm not convinced that building in restrictions into e-mail is particularly desirable, but there are lots of other situations where creating artificial scarcity and building-in increasing marginal costs (even if they are only in effort) might have significant positive impacts.

    Here's some of the older posts I've written on these subjects:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex EMAIL: ajm@zanthan.com IP: 64.221.15.174 URL: http://www.zanthan.com/itymbi DATE: 10/15/2003 03:36:06 PM The problem I just can't see a way around is how to introduce such a system? People who receive email will have to agree to only receive email that has been paid for, or to treat all other email as spam. This, I suppose, really means that hotmail and yahoo, of the public providers, at least, and exchange, have to adopt this system. I'm assuming users of sendmail, qmail etc. will quickly adopt various filtering solutions without a centralized system. Without this you're not really solving the problem for most users. Then you have to somehow make it possible for people to pay for email. Transaction costs for credit card payments means you'd probably have to buy "email stamps" in blocks costing at least $10. How is a stamp affixed to an email? How do you frank the stamps so that a single stamp can't be used more than once What about mailing lists? For mailing lists perhaps the people who want to receive messages from the list have to provide some sort of stamp to the list. I think the overall idea is sound, unfortunately the devil is in the details, and that's the bit people always seem to skip. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dance Sensation EMAIL: none@hotmail.com IP: 217.155.244.161 URL: http://www.dancesensation.net DATE: 10/16/2003 12:01:35 AM Assuming that there problems in charging for email will be solved, this won't stop spam anyway since spam will be sent from hacked machines. Mass mailing has always existed in the standard postal system where there is a greater cost, so increasing costs won't eliminate the problem. In fact, it might be argued that if spam is paid for, then it will legitimise spam. ----- PING: TITLE: the problem with email for money URL: http://undergroundlondon.com/antimega/brain/archives/000580.html IP: 64.71.150.66 BLOG NAME: the anti-mega outboard brain DATE: 10/15/2003 06:40:50 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | Increasing transactions costs for e-mail, redux... The problem with email costing money (aside from the various... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh Powerbook adventurer! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/15/2003 11:41:30 AM ----- BODY:

    My new Powerbook was shipped way earlier than I expected and I now find myself routinely checking its progress across the world every two or three hours. It started off in Taipei - a place I've never been - and then travelled across the world to Luxembourg - another place I've never been. When we finally meet, it will be as two explorers who have explored the world - weary and ready to settle down...

     Activity Location Date / Time (GMT)
     Shipment Picked Up TAIPEI, TP, TW 11 Oct 2003 01:44
     Cleared Customs TAIPEI, TP, TW 12 Oct 2003 05:00
     Depart Terminal TAIPEI, TP, TW 12 Oct 2003 05:35
     Arrive Terminal LUXEMBOURG, LU, LU 14 Oct 2003 06:39
     Depart Terminal LUXEMBOURG, LU, LU 14 Oct 2003 14:12

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan...(iel) EMAIL: contax@phrenetic.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.phrenetic.org DATE: 10/15/2003 01:39:59 PM By the sounds of things it's your powerbook that's done all the exploring, not you, lardo! ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.144.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/15/2003 01:42:40 PM Humph. That must be why it's so svelte and beautiful and powerful - all that exercise... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin Mulligan EMAIL: kevlar@kebeol.net IP: 213.78.123.108 URL: http://www.kebeol.net DATE: 10/15/2003 02:04:57 PM Looks like the majority of it's trip is over. Once it gets to Luxembourg TNT pick it up and its only about a day till you get it :) I went through this with my iPod a few weeks ago, waiting is terrible. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 82.45.231.165 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 10/15/2003 03:47:30 PM http://www.theonion.com/3939/ - last headline on the right hand column. (But I can sypathise - bloody Scan seem to be nowhere near shipping the 400 quids' worth of equipment I need to rebuild my malfunctioning PC) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 217.158.189.253 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 10/15/2003 03:50:34 PM Sorry if you know this already... You can go here: http://cgi.tnt.co.uk/trackntrace/trackntrace.asp; Click the 'please click here' link at the end of the block of text; And enter your shipping number from the Apple site (not the order number) in the box as your Reference Number. You'll get a more detailed report on what's happened to your package right now.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Gibson EMAIL: joe_gibson99@hotmail.com IP: 62.190.233.173 URL: DATE: 10/15/2003 05:12:56 PM I hope you've purchased Apple's extended warranty. New PowerBooks have a habit of dying very quickly. Thank God I have the warranty - Apple have twice taken a laptop of mine in 'for repair' and simply replaced it with a new machine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.144.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/15/2003 05:35:44 PM Oh. Thanks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron EMAIL: why@doyouneedthis.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: DATE: 10/16/2003 08:53:39 AM Joe, European law dictates that good must be fit for purpose when sold, and with a powerbook, I think a court would accept that that means about 5 years of reliable computing, at least. So there's no need for an extended warranty, at least in Europe - don't be fooled, fellow consumers! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe EMAIL: joe_gibson99@hotmail.com IP: 62.190.233.173 URL: DATE: 10/16/2003 11:38:38 AM Nice advice Aaron but I tried that method with the first PowerBook I purchased. It means extended rows with Apple, the computer disappearing for months at a time, letters being sent to a Trading Standards officer who says there's nothing they can do, and ultimately ending up paying a great deal more to get it repaired thereafter. It's simply not practical to take Apple to court every time a PowerBook f***s up - which is quite often. At least with the warranty you know you'll get a new computer if anything goes horribly wrong. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Horatio Downing, III EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 195.172.226.195 URL: http://www.blogthing.com/ DATE: 10/16/2003 04:50:26 PM You can buy the Applecare extended warranty at any point during the initial warranty, I seem to recall. ie, buy it about 11.5 months from now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Erik EMAIL: primer__55@hotmail.com IP: 213.224.83.137 URL: http://www.scheetboarders.tk DATE: 12/09/2003 08:16:31 PM well I am sorry Tom Coates that i am one of the dumb people who reached this site by google. I am a student and I ordered an ibook and it is going through the same procces. Shipment Picked Up TAIPEI, TP, TW 09 Dec 2003 11:45. That is the only info i got, now my question: "can i exspect this machine to be here on the 12 of december (this friday)?" considering that I live in belgium next to Luxembourg. Thanx in advance ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Emperor's Animals... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/16/2003 11:47:42 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a concept for a new Typepad weblog, inspired by the quirky and immensely pleasing post categories on a friend's weblog. The concept is called The Emperor's Animals and is basically a collection of funny animal links and stories from around the web. The site is designed to resemble 18th/19th Century illustrated guide to fabulous beasts and uses as post categories the The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge typology of animals outlined in Jorge Luis Borges' The Analytical Language of John Wilkins. Please please will someone make this. I'd read it every day! Just in case you don't know them off-by-heart already, these categories are:

    1. belonging to the Emperor
    2. embalmed
    3. trained
    4. pigs
    5. sirens
    6. fabulous
    7. stray dogs
    8. included in this classification
    9. trembling like crazy
    10. innumerable
    11. drawn with a very fine camelhair brush
    12. et cetera
    13. just broke the vase
    14. from a distance look like flies
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 129.21.21.23 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 10/16/2003 07:02:12 PM Ah...I was trying to remember where Mark Pilgrim's category "those who resemble flies from a distance" came from. Thanks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 212.74.14.90 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk DATE: 10/17/2003 09:37:02 AM Looks interesting. Wouldn't *have* to be TypePad though would it? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where's the Powerbook? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/16/2003 12:11:24 PM ----- BODY:

    Ack! My baby's in London. But when will it arrive in my hands?!

    DateTimeLocationStatus
    16 Oct 2003 07:37 London City Import Received
    16 Oct 2003 04:46 London Stansted Airport Consignment Received At Transit Point
    15 Oct 2003 22:25 Brussels Hub Consignment Received At Transit Point
    15 Oct 2003 09:35 Brussels Hub Consignment Received At Transit Point
    14 Oct 2003 21:07 Luxembourg Shipped From Originating Depot

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt MacLeod EMAIL: matt@bigbarn.co.uk IP: 212.140.116.77 URL: DATE: 10/16/2003 01:21:33 PM At just about the point that you've resigned yourself to the fact that it's never going to arrive. Just like mine did a couple of days ago! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martino EMAIL: martinoo@xs4all.nl IP: 212.108.27.4 URL: http://www.yra.nl DATE: 10/16/2003 02:43:37 PM I had the same thing with my Wireless kb and mouse. They were shipped to Luxembourg! (and that's the wrong way) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: nick@blogosphere.us IP: 66.188.89.210 URL: http://www.blogosphere.us/ DATE: 10/16/2003 02:59:42 PM I'm feeling for you -- mine just left for repair two days ago. I've been staring at the clock ever since. Best of luck getting your machine (is it even fair to call them machines?) back in the very near future. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordonREMOVETHIS@snowgoon.co.uk IP: 82.40.16.66 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 10/16/2003 03:05:42 PM Guessing that the silence indicates your baby has arrived? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gert EMAIL: gert@REMOVEmadmusingsof.me.uk IP: 81.152.99.44 URL: http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog DATE: 10/16/2003 04:43:26 PM If it's anything like the experience that I - and my commenters - have had with various delivery companies, it will make a nice Christmas/Festering (Delete as appropriate) present ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.183.123 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/16/2003 09:02:36 PM It's here! I'm salivating over it as we speak. I love you, baby! I'll never leave you alone again. I promise... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.198.74 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 10/16/2003 10:18:42 PM While I'm everso glad it's arrived, I must admit that I could help slightly hoping that it would prove to be Apple's own version of it3c.co.uk, featuring regular updates about how your delivery was stranded outside Leamington Spa sorting office by a horde of marauding wildebeest. Or something. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: dru@dreamweaverfever.com IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.allinthehead.com/ DATE: 10/16/2003 10:23:07 PM I'm insanely jealous. In my world this isn't fair. In the real world, you work hard and so can buy nice things, but in my world this really sucks. /me wants a powerbook soo much. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On stealing authenticity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/16/2003 11:20:52 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm sitting at my new Powerbook watching The Man of Law's Tale when Cameron Marlow IM's me to say that he's in this conference watching a paper called, Visual Factors In Constructing Authenticity In Weblogs and they've just started citing the design of my site. It would probably be disingenuous of me to say that I just ripped off kottke, although when I first showed it to him, he did think it was a joke. Sigh. Anyway, it looks like an interesting paper:

    The emergence of weblogs as contributing to the public sphere has returned concerns about authenticity in renewed form: readers who encounter weblogs must construct some basis of trust in the content and the subjectivity represented there in textual form. Many sources of authenticity are largely verbal (mutual citations, ideological coherence, recognized links, ease of access, ranking on index sites). Beyond these, however, there are visual cues which tend to promote confidence: these visual cues are more easily overlooked but nonetheless important in establishing the writersí credibility.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.45.255.241 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 10/17/2003 09:10:44 AM The idea of visual authenticity is deeply dubious. Supposing that Undesign may act as an endorsement of a blogger is akin to a mechanic smearing marmite on his overalls so as to convince people that he knows his way round an engine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.162.241 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/17/2003 09:19:59 AM Well I think the point is more to see how people choose to self-represent in order to try to convey authenticity. While - of course - I agree that judging a weblog's authenticity on the basis of its design is dubious, I think it's important to remember that there isn't a single company, newspaper, businessman, magazine or television show (among many other things) that doesn't try to self-represent as convincing, professional and 'authentic'. It's less like a mechanic smearing marmite on his overalls than it is a businessman turning up to a meeting in a suit. Doesn't mean he's good at his job, but it's a sign that he takes it seriously... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: http://www.mp3.com/grant DATE: 10/17/2003 08:07:15 PM So what *are* the hallmarks of designed authenticity? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 10/17/2003 08:11:42 PM Actually, it's interesting that abstract/paper link mentions Joshuah Micah Marshall -- I used to find his design a major stumbling block. Too skinny, and hard to link to. His photo up to helped a little... but his frequent links to his own work and the content of his analysis of others' work was what got him on my favorite places list. TPM is looking a little better now, too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@nakedblog.com IP: 82.41.48.26 URL: http://www.nakedblog.com DATE: 10/17/2003 11:07:33 PM "Visual factors in constructing authenticity." Since when could authenticity be "constructed"? White man speak in forked tongues, methinks. His entire paper is peppered with poor use of English. Anyways - I came here to find out your views on this year's Guardian Blog Awards, but there don't seem to be any constructed yet. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.162.241 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/18/2003 12:16:56 AM I'm not sure I really have opinions on it. Most of the stuff I found really annoying has been removed. I'll have a ponder and post something tomorrow. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Found objects: Social Software Mind-map... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/17/2003 09:14:10 AM ----- BODY:

    I've not got an awful lot to say about this this fantastically interesting mind-map of social software, but I think it's slightly too important and interesting to be left loitering in the linklog.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: (Mind)mapping Social Software URL: http://www.littlethinktank.com/elsewhere/2003/10/mindmapping_soc.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: » LittleThinkTank Elsewhere « DATE: 10/17/2003 12:59:32 PM A neat little visual from Tom Smith [Via plasticbag.org] ----- PING: TITLE: A Social Software Mind Map URL: http://www.nyc99.com/weblog/000953.html IP: 216.120.232.36 BLOG NAME: nyc99 DATE: 10/18/2003 03:39:00 AM At plasticbag.org he found a Social Software Mind-map and posted a link to the link to it: PDF: Social Software Mind Map :the OTHER blog: User Experience, Usability and Research from Tom SmithPDF: Social Software Mind Map http://dev11.otherworks.com/t... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aaron Caffrey didn't break into my systems... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/18/2003 03:02:28 PM ----- BODY:

    According to a good friend of mine, I spent a good five minutes in the Warner West End's first-floor loo with Aaron Caffrey - a (tall, enblondened) nineteen year old who was acquitted sometime in the last few days of crashing Port of Houston computer systems. Of course, being completely out of touch with everything that's happened in the world since I went down with the flu last week, I didn't notice at all and looked rather blank at my friend while he explained the whole situation to me. Young Katy seemed vaguely clued up on the whole thing too. I am - it seems - out of touch.

    Anyway, I can report that at no time during our lavatory-time together did Aaron attempt to break into my systems, that he does indeed fit the stereotype remarkably well and that - in unrelated news - that League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a tedious, unexceptional, bland and irritating adaptation of the Alan Moore / Kevin O'Neill comic book and that I very much don't recommend it.

    Addendum: For those of you actually looking for useful links about Aaron, you might do better here:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com/ IP: 159.134.97.34 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 10/18/2003 09:28:12 PM Didn't you read the reviews before you went? Or were you hoping they were wrong? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.162.241 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/18/2003 09:53:33 PM I was - in fact - assuming they were wrong, because it was a comic book movie and they never have the slighest idea what they're talking about when they review comic book movies. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 10/19/2003 09:46:41 AM Coincidentally, it seems I was next door at the time you were watching this movie, watching Kill Bill at Empire. It was 90 minutes of beautifully shot death and mayhem; at once breathtaking and nauseating. I didn't like it, but would probably watch it again... Oh and yes, LXG was dreadful, although I was hoping the special effects might make up for the crappiness of it (I saw a rather poor quality downloaded copy). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron Caffrey EMAIL: aaronluke@msn.com IP: 80.1.19.215 URL: http://www.aaronluke.com DATE: 10/25/2003 09:33:42 PM Your friend should have said hi. I'm upset now. Oh well. ----- PING: TITLE: The League of Boring Gentlemen URL: http://www.frankw.net/blog/archives/2003/10/The_League_of_Boring_Gentlemen.php IP: 216.40.241.211 BLOG NAME: -Funtime Franky- DATE: 10/18/2003 04:05:36 PM I must agree with Tom’s view on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in that it is a rather crap film. Watching it a few days ago, it does Sean Connery no favours at all, and must be one of his... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two early views of income tax... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: History CATEGORY: History DATE: 10/21/2003 09:14:33 AM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Radio 4 for these two early positions on Income Tax. Nicholas Vansittart, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1816 put the case for the tax:

    "This tax would press less on the lower orders of society than any tax which could be devised... It was a tax more upon the rich than upon the poor... When the act was revised, it would be found the least oppressive and the least objectionable of any tax that had ever been imposed..."

    And a petition for the Corporation of London put the opposing view:

    "Painful experience has only served the more strongly to root upon their minds a conviction of its injustice, vexation and oppression ... the manner in which the said tax is carried into execution, by means of an odious, arbitrary and detestable inquisition into the most private concerns and circumstances of individuals, is still more vexatious, unjust and oppressive, hostile to every sense of freedom, revolting to the feelings of Englishmen, and repugnant to the principles of the British Constitution; ... the petitioners are deeply sensible of the depressed state of the agricultural interests, and of the ruinous effect of such a burden thereon; ... the manufacturing and trading interests are equally depressed, and equally borne down with the weight of taxation ... and they confidently hoped, that by such reductions in the public expenditure... and the abolishing of all unnecessary places, pensions and sinecures, there would have been no pretence for the continuation of a tax subversive of freedom, and destructive of the peace and happiness of the people. [Petition to Parliament from the Corporation of London]

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the sheer number of people in government with a vested interest in not pay lots of tax, the government was defeated by a huge majority. Read more about the whole debacle: The Repeal of Income Tax.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 10/21/2003 12:21:01 PM IT kinds of hammers home the idea that 200 years is a really short time on the time-scale of evolution.... ie. we haven't changed much since. :/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Bell EMAIL: me@gavinbell.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://takeoneonion.org DATE: 10/22/2003 06:42:08 PM The Long View, which is the series that this programme on tax came from is often quite interesting. Also in the programme was a debate on the progressive vs regressive taxes. VAT and other flat rate taxes being regressive in that they take more from the poor. Income tax is the fairest method of taxation in theory, but Labour have denied themselves access to it, hence the national insurance rises. I think that they should be braver and just go for a rise of a penny or so in the base rate, they need to do something after wasting all that money on the recent war. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alan Sullivan EMAIL: alan@seablogger.com IP: 12.73.130.174 URL: http://bilge.seablogger.com DATE: 10/23/2003 02:59:51 PM Now let's ponder how the income tax, once considered "vexatious, unjust, and oppressive," won the political acceptance it enjoys today. In the name of egalitarianism, most people submit to the "detestable inquisition" without a murmur. Is this really a good thing? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Apologies for down-time... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/21/2003 10:37:22 PM ----- BODY:

    I'd just like to apologise for the relative lack of posting over the last few days on both plasticbag.org and Everything in Moderation. Looking around me I see a near infinity of "things that need to get done", very few of which are actually getting done. I'm feeling a little swamped and something's got to give. At the moment that's the weblog(s). It's a shame, though, cos there's so much going on in my head and otherwise that I'd love to be able to write up in greater detail... Patience!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First thoughts about Panther... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/25/2003 02:33:53 AM ----- BODY:

    After a highly enjoyable Panther install party around Mr Webb's house, I'm now in a position to give my first impressions of Mac OSX.3. In no particular order (and with no claims made towards total accuracy):

    Generally, I'm impressed by the functionality but not impressed by the finish. This one feels half-done - that it wasn't possible to get it any further down the line before launch date. I have a feeling that over the next few months we'll see a few patches that resolve 90% of OS's problems. And when they do - it's going to be more awesome than ever.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charles S. EMAIL: 4@enure.net IP: 12.208.171.121 URL: http://enure.net DATE: 10/25/2003 05:08:09 AM thanks for posting a critical review. i agree about the too-gray appearance and the hideous logo. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Darren Rowse EMAIL: darren@phuture.org IP: 210.50.200.74 URL: http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog DATE: 10/26/2003 06:29:41 AM thanks for that - I've been wondering about it. Might wait a few weeks before I decide if I should upgrade....see what the general consensus is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: blech EMAIL: spool@2lmc.org IP: 213.208.111.27 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/ DATE: 10/26/2003 10:50:49 AM From what I've seen of the Panther command-tab widget, it's still not as nice as the one in LiteSwitchX (which I've been using since 10.1 or so). Sadly, unlike LiteSwitch, the Mac OS X version is $15 payware, but given I've paid for it now, I'll keep using it when I finally upgrade. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: redmonkey EMAIL: redmonkey@mac.com IP: 68.116.76.22 URL: DATE: 10/27/2003 06:57:14 AM Very nice review. I agree... although I got sucked into the hype (because it is great fun anyway), I am suprised to find so many rough edges with this release. I, too, have no doubt they'll all be polished in the next few months. FontBook was my biggest disappointment. I had hoped it would be so much more, instead it destroyed some very logic font organization for me (nested folders by project) and with a massive amount of fonts, the utility became useless. Oh well. Oddly, despite all of these complaints, it feels like the right direction. There are so really great things about 10.3. It's speed for one! I actually have warmed up much quicker to the Finder than I expected. I like it and am finding files in a different, more efficient manner. Would I recommend it? Absolutely, just be warned these first few months may require some patience for some quirky bits. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charles S. EMAIL: 2@enure.net IP: 12.208.171.121 URL: http://enure.net DATE: 10/29/2003 01:43:29 AM And did anyone notice the new finder icon is hideous as well? The highlighted band across the top really simplifies its formerly well-done plasticity. Oh well. ----- PING: TITLE: Visions of the Future URL: http://purplegreen.abstrakt.ch/blog/archives/000134.html IP: 195.226.6.22 BLOG NAME: PurpleGreen ~ Never Easy To Please DATE: 10/25/2003 12:40:42 PM Through an article on John Udell's weblog (yes Gregor, I sometimes read techie blogs) I saw Apple's famous Knowledge Navigator concept video. I saw the movie before I read the article. I was very surprised, that the video must be... ----- PING: TITLE: Saturday, October 25, 2003 09:52 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/031025.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 10/26/2003 11:07:23 AM Tom Coates has First thoughts about Panther as well. He doesn't seem impressed ----- PING: TITLE: Link Dump URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/link_dump.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 10/30/2003 06:31:44 PM NetNewsWire is, as everyone knows, a fantastic application, but it really comes into its own when you're less connected than... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Power Law, iCan and Weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 10/25/2003 04:54:29 PM ----- BODY:

    So the BBC has launched a public pre-beta version of iCan - their attempt to help people re-engage with and self-organise around politics at an local/national/international level. The early stage makes it almost inevitable that there are going to be bugs - and bugs there are - but the idea seems sound and there's considerable scope for iteration toward something profoundly useful and important. The non-beta version is a way off yet, but I can recommend that anyone who's interested in starting a campaign or getting engaged around an issue try the site out and feedback into the development cycle. There's a good few issues starting to populate the site already - including Kevin Marks' campaign to get the BBC releasing audio as MP3 rather than Real, which is obviously interesting to me (working in R&D at BBC Radio and Music Interactive) but which - also obviously - I can't really comment upon in the public sphere...

    Matt Jones - who has worked on the project for the last couple of years - has written a post (It's all about the tail) which tries to articulate some of the rationale for the endeavour, based on that old power law chestnut. This time the power law graph has "issues" on one axis and (I suppose) "amount of coverage" or "scale of political engagement" on the other. A tiny amount of national issues get massive amounts of coverage/engagement while a massive amount of smaller local issues get little or none.

    The aims of iCan in this space seem to be two-fold - firstly that the tail should get 'fatter' ie. that there should be a way to encourage people to engage in the smaller, lower-rent difference-making. Secondly there's an aspiration towards mobility - that smaller campaigns should be supported in their attempts to get larger, to transition into different scales of activity and to grow.

    This latter objective does seem to come with some interesting provisos, however. There are some issues which are by necessity localised, there are some campaigns which will never and should never become national news or motivate hundreds of thousands of people. In a sense, then, iCan is about finding the best place on the power law for a campaign to live. It's about facilitating the scale and type of engagement that will do the most good for people based upon the kind of issue that they bring to the table.

    All of which brings me right back to the issue of weblogs (again), back to Clay Shirky's article (again) and back to this issue of 'inequality'. In the case of iCan, there seems to be an acceptance that there's a difference of type between kinds of campaigns and that certain types will sit at different levels of the power curve. So of course the question arises, is there a difference of type between the weblogs at different points in their analogous curve and what does that mean for weblog inequality.

    Any examination of the 'top-linked' weblogs brings you to the conclusion fairly quickly that they're either highly subject-focused or totally subject-focused. Several of them are group weblogs as well. They are almost totally non-conversational. At the bottom end are the small focused, highly conversational clumps of weblogs used almost as mailing-list/group e-mail equivalents for friends, familes and small groups of people. This isn't a question of quality - the latter type has no aspiration towards massive traffic and web-popularity, while the former model has aspirations towards a publishing model and a larger 'mass market'.

    That's not to say of course that a conversational weblog will remain conversational or small and downplayed (any more than to say that all human beings are uniformly socially popular) or that the publishing model weblog will necessarily achieve Time magazine levels of success, but simply that the inherent qualities of each type of site make them ideally suited to different points in the power-law - that there are different kinds of interaction which work better at different scales.

    In between of course, there are many variants of tone, personality and conversationalism - hybrids designed to operate at different 'depths' - some by choice or aspiration, some forced into new forms of interaction by dint of new forms of pressure. Any long-term weblogger is familiar with the changes in tone that come with the arrival into your online social scene of people from your real-world who you didn't expect to read your writing - and many are equally familiar with the sensation that too much of your life is on display for the benefit of strangers. A trafficked personal site necessarily becomes less personal - more of a publishing style site eventually, as the author is slowly eroded by revealing themselves totally in the public sphere - just as the local campaign becomes less homely and more structured as it extends to the county or national level.

    Which leaves us where? My argument would be the fairly obvious one that - in order to create a fair and useful (equal) space within which webloggers can operate, we should be thinking about how to build tools and mechanisms that will encourage movement along the arc of the power-law, helping sites responsively find a level of traffic and engagement that reflects what individuals are trying to achieve, and that we should find new ways (maybe new kinds of weblogs themselves) that help articulate what kind of activity a weblogger is aspiring towards, and help them move in those directions. The level of engagement that has been demonstrated by individual webloggers has clearly been one of many inspirations for iCan - now perhaps it's our turn to be inspired in turn?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard MacManus EMAIL: ricmac@hotpop.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://readwriteweb.com DATE: 10/25/2003 10:12:32 PM Hi Tom, I'm not sure about your conclusions on 'A-List' blogs compared to 'C-List' (I know you didn't use those terms, but to make things easier I'll use them). You say that the A-List are or aspire to be "highly subject-focused or totally subject-focused", whereas C-List are "small focused, highly conversational". These are the same assumptions that Clay Shirky et al make and which prompted this post from me. What about those weblogs that are highly topic-focused but have only a few readers? Or what about someone like Dave Winer, whose weblog is very conversational in tone but his is an A-List blog? My contention all along has been that the *type* (or "mode" as Clay Shirky calls it) of weblog one writes has nothing to do with quantity of readers. Maybe on average there is the pattern which you describe - A-List = broadcast, non-conversational; C-List = conversational. But I somehow think this kind of compartmentalizing goes against the grain of what the Web stands for - that it's a big open universe where you can publish what you like and how you like. I don't identify myself as an "online diarist" (do you?)... I don't understand the need to typecast weblogs according to size of audience. Anyway I'm rambling again...not sure why this whole power law thing is winding me up so :-) I'll think some more on it and write another post. But would be interested in yours and others thoughts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.165.220 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/26/2003 12:04:15 AM I'll be honest. There are elements to my argument here that make me uncomfortable too. I think there's something profoundly troubling about describing disparaties in traffic to something almost 'natural'. It feels almost like a way of sanctioning prejudice and shooring up the position of one group against another. And there's no denying that there are a great many good sites that deserve consider traffic that aren't getting it - and that things like preferential linkage are making it increasingly hard for new webloggers to get seen and read. And you're not going to get any argument from me that this latter situation needs redress. Having said all that, and accepting that we have to be careful not to belittle or diminish the actual issues that exist, I still think there are some perceptible trends in the way people use weblogs and how content and audiences interact with one another on weblogs. It seems absolutely clear to me - after four years of experience - that one major trend with webloggers generally is for their personal conversational writing to diminish with time and/or with traffic. People talk towards an audience - even when they expect that audience to be one person - and I think it's clear that people are prepared to expose themselves (on the whole) much more to small groups of people in perceived privacy than they would be to the web as a whole. Similarly, single issue weblogs are more likely to have focused audiences - for one reason, there aren't as many of them because they're harder to maintain. I think for both those reasons you'd expect the low-trafficked end to be more conversational and the high-trafficked end to be more publishing oriented. And that's precisely what you do find - when you put your eyes slightly out of focus, at least, and look at the larger trend rather than the specific instances... The specific force of this post has been about trying to develop the mechanisms that can help people get what they want out of weblogging by helping to demonstrate that different people have different objectives that might be fulfilled in different ways. It's not about A-list to C-list, because that presents the whole thing as a competition, which I don't think is true of most of those people who don't sit in the highly connected cluster in the middle of weblogging, and also because I'm very specifically talking about facilitating movement and how weblogs might choose to, or be forced to change and adapt themselves over time. I don't know if that's any clearer or not... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard MacManus EMAIL: ricmac@hotpop.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://readwriteweb.com DATE: 10/26/2003 10:06:30 AM Yes that is clearer now, thanks. The point you make about webloggers becoming less conversational the larger their audience becomes, or when people they know start reading their blogs, is a very interesting point that I hadn't considered fully before. And I agree that if we look at "the larger trend", then these theories of 'broadcast vs conversational' start to make sense. Thanks for your feedback - shows the value of "conversations" eh ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 213.107.1.97 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 10/27/2003 01:09:27 AM So what are we doing here; drawing an analogy between the power-law curve of small-campaign news coverage and of small-weblog traffic? And asking the question: how can we ensure greater efficacy for the bottom 90% of weblogs? One idea: ideological aggregation of some sort? Whereas iCan is an umbrella and facilitor for action, connection and promotion, might a similar umbrella group together - using metadata or textual analysis - posts from hitherto unique individual weblogs that regard a shared subject or interest? That is, the end result might not be a "group weblog" in the common sense of the term but, by translocating multiple alike posts in one large, popular, open and highly visible space, effectively becomes so - and gives the writers in the invisible bottom 90% a leg-up into visibility, · la iCan. Or is this method not already employed in existing blog filters etc? Ultimately, however, I really don't think iCan is modelled largely on inter-blogger interactions, as you claim, but rather on the other, far-better uses of web technology already used to mobilise issue-led action and connection. In contrast, the blogosphere appears far less effective and far more a vacuum space than, say, FaxYourMP or any of the petrol-price sites from a couple of years back, which achieve real-world agency... Additionally, I don't agree that the weblog is a great conversational medium. Rather, it is primarily a publishing medium and, actually, a pretty good one at that. A conversation is a civil interaction between participants, proceeding either on an equal, mutual statement-response basis or according to the most effective conversationalist - an attention economy. A weblog "conversation" is always started, controlled and ended by the deitified blogger and all conversational content and context are derived from the worship of said host on said page. I prefer conversations in which I have the opportunity to have more fluid interactions, uninterupted by the dictative rhythms of a conversation-keeper. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.165.220 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/27/2003 08:45:44 AM I disagree about the conversational aspect, and I think if you looked at Livejournal more thoroughly you'd see a much more substantial level of interconnectedness and conversation. As I said - I'm not talking about weblogs at the level of comments on a site, but on intra-site discussion... ----- PING: TITLE: London calling URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/001805.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 10/25/2003 10:28:05 PM Det h”nder saker p The Beeb. De g–r ett slags meetup: "iCan is a new BBC service which aims to ----- PING: TITLE: Culture of Celebrity and Weblogs URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/10/26.html#a136 IP: 203.97.2.243 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 10/26/2003 12:10:12 PM I judge the quality of a weblog by its IDEAS , but it seems some people equate quality with popularity . ----- PING: TITLE: iCan, too URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/weblog/archives/2003/10/27/ican_too.html IP: 128.121.231.184 BLOG NAME: The Gay Vote DATE: 10/27/2003 10:49:42 AM Following my previous post on BBCi's iCan beta service, Tom Coates' Plastticbag.org has, as usual, a far better take on it than pretty much anyone else (although out of generosity he links to them anyway).... ----- PING: TITLE: Fatten not Flatten URL: http://209.126.156.138/blogosphere.us/archives/2003/10/26/fatten_not_flatten.php IP: 209.126.156.138 BLOG NAME: blogosphere.us DATE: 10/29/2003 04:30:09 PM Tom Coates of Plasticbag writes yet another interesting piece, this time on the BBC's iCan project (I wonder what influenced their choice of names?). iCan is essentially a network building tool with an activist's bent. It lets users find people,... ----- PING: TITLE: Culture of Celebrity and Weblogs URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001740.html IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 05/22/2004 07:17:06 AM I judge the quality of a weblog by its IDEAS, but it seems some people equate quality with popularity. Is the 'culture of celebrity' that afflicts Western movies, television and radio creeping in to weblogs as well? These thoughts were... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A post/pre-emptive apology... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/25/2003 04:58:10 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm hoping to really plough through a lot of ideas in the back of my head this weekend, so please forgive me if they're not as clear and well-formed as they might otherwise be. All responses gratefully received, all comments appreciated, and I'll do my best to fix any errors and typos that will inevitably litter everything I write today as I try to throw things out of my head onto the web where they're both more useful and easier to keep track of. Again - apologies for the incoherent bits and the scrabbling for meaning - I'll try to do better next time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First thoughts about Panther: Address Book... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/25/2003 05:37:44 PM ----- BODY:

    Address Book under OSX has never been a particularly impressive application, but it's just about worked as a system wide piece of kit. Panther brings with it a number of changes and improvements and a couple of nasty unprovements too. There's some functionality here that I can't categorically say wasn't in Jaguar, so bear with me if I foul something up:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anthony Finucane EMAIL: afinucane@o2.ie IP: 159.134.108.199 URL: http://www.anthonyfinucane.com DATE: 10/25/2003 10:44:32 PM The Send updates feature just sends a vcard with the changes made to your contact details. The recipient can the either review the changes or overwrite the previous address card. Works nicely. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Share your nice little Panther tricks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/27/2003 10:47:29 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a nice little Exposé trick that some of you might not have found yet. Press F9 or F10 to show either all the windows you have open or only your current apps windows. Now press TAB to cycle through to the grouped windows of the next app you have open. You can keep pressing TAB to bring each set of app windows into focus. If you know what app you're after, you can Apple-TAB to bring up the app-switcher and choose it directly. Have you found any nice little bits of functionality yet?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cal EMAIL: me@colondee.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: DATE: 10/27/2003 11:11:07 AM IF you don't install panther and stick with jaguar, you save $129. does that count as a feature? :p ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@neuromantics.net IP: 195.157.141.100 URL: http://neuromantics.net DATE: 10/27/2003 11:58:17 AM Hmph. I'm on my third install in as many weeks of Panther. It's good, but be careful about updating it. Either iSync 1.3 or the updated Mpeg2 Quicktime component has recently killed ALL my adobe apps. Not good. Also had extreme oddness with an 'update' install - best advice is always do an 'archive & clean install' I guess. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter Lindberg EMAIL: peter@tesugen.com IP: 213.112.225.33 URL: http://tesugen.com/ DATE: 10/27/2003 12:02:06 PM One thing I like about the new app-switcher, and which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere, is that while you're tabbing around, you can immediately Alt-Q to quit an app, without first selecting it. That is, to quit the third and fourth frontmost apps, hold down Alt and hit Tab, Tab, Q, Tab, Q. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Androse Rosewood EMAIL: ned-plasticbag.org@idsland.com IP: 82.67.184.109 URL: DATE: 10/27/2003 01:35:56 PM A very usefull feature that was introduced by Action File under OS 9, followed by Default Folder under OS X, now included in Panther : In the open/save dialogs, you can click on a grayed-out filename to copy that filename into the text input field. Very usefull when you want to save a variation of an existing file with [final draft] appended to the name. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Androse Rosewood EMAIL: ned-plasticbag.org@idsland.com IP: 82.67.184.109 URL: DATE: 10/27/2003 01:47:59 PM Actually, I just noticed that the trick I mentionned (with many others) is on www.macosxhints.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Androse Rosewood EMAIL: ned-plasticbag.org@idsland.com IP: 82.67.184.109 URL: DATE: 10/27/2003 03:47:38 PM Okay, a friend of mine pointed out these two, that are not (yet) on macosxhints : 1. Command+ let you cycle between all the windows of the current application. 2. Control+Z cycles between all the windows of the visible applications. The hidden applications stay hidden. Also, Control+D brings up the dock so you can navigate it with the keyboard. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 24.226.15.111 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 10/27/2003 05:35:51 PM Once you've hit F9 or F10 and all the windows are tiled, you can also use the arrow keys to cycle between them - I've found this very handy along with the tab trick. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian w EMAIL: brian@joannou.net IP: 24.136.120.254 URL: http://www.joannou.net DATE: 10/27/2003 05:43:41 PM The arrow-key to cycle between ExposÈd windows trick is unfortunately strangely set up. Some windows I can only get to by hitting left arrow, others only by hitting right arrow. Trying to backtrack doesn't work at all. Odd. As for the command-tab switcher, I went right back to using LiteSwitch: it's more robust than Apple's ripoff (acknowledging, of course, that LiteSwitch lifted the functionality from Windows...) and allows you to resize the icons to your liking, among other things. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/27/2003 08:05:24 PM The arrow key is directional I think - you click up to select ones above your current one, left to move to the left. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter Lindberg EMAIL: peter@tesugen.com IP: 213.112.225.121 URL: http://tesugen.com/ DATE: 10/28/2003 05:25:34 AM Androse: Command+< and > (for cycling through the windows of the current app) aren't new to Panther. I can't remember for how long I have used them, but they were definitely in Jaguar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 141.156.89.78 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 10/30/2003 05:01:41 AM Apple-Tab to cycle between apps worked in Jaguar, too, but it wasn't as nice in terms of user-feedback, as it only showed the apps highlighting along the dock (which we barely need now, btw, between Expose and Launchbar [shareware] - only using the dock now for the occasional drag and drop). Favorite feature I hadn't heard of anywhere: control-click any item in the finder to zip archive it; or attach a folder to a message in Mail to send it as a zip. Both save time if you work with/for a lot of windows users... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jeff EMAIL: jcbabb@comcast.net IP: 205.130.197.130 URL: DATE: 10/31/2003 06:31:57 PM The Application Switcher is an almost exact copy of the functionality of LiteSwitch X from www.proteron.com which I found to be very handy in Jaguar. Glad to see the same functionality incorporated in Panther. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Earl Tash EMAIL: earltash@yahoo.com IP: 64.222.237.212 URL: DATE: 12/15/2003 12:22:31 AM So far the little tricks about panther don't make up for all the screw ups the os has.I went back to jag.And it wasn't easy.But at least that os works. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Newbie EMAIL: larridon@yahoo.com IP: 213.224.208.65 URL: DATE: 07/16/2004 01:09:34 PM Where can I find the: 1. the command button? 2. the control button? on my keyboard? Thank you! ----- PING: TITLE: Link Dump URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/link_dump.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 10/30/2003 06:31:17 PM NetNewsWire is, as everyone knows, a fantastic application, but it really comes into its own when you're less connected than... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On "Feedbag Error 17"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/27/2003 10:07:21 PM ----- BODY:

    A couple of days ago I noticed that I couldn't add Azeem Azhar to my iChat AV contacts list. I kept getting returned "Feedbag Error 17" which seemed entirely unexpected and unpleasantly phrased. Was I a feedbag? Had iChat eaten Azeem? The mind boggled.

    After several hours of consideration, another option occurred to me. Perhaps iChat was trying to protect me from excessive contact with Azeem! Maybe my beautiful new Pantherised beast was being defensive! "No, Tom!" It was going, "He's bad news! He'll tell you that you work in Marketing again and you'll get all cross and defensive and make that ludicrous speech about being an artisan! Please! Please! Let me protect you from the embarrassment!" At which point, I assumed, feedbag laptop decided to chow-down on poor Mr Azhar's AIM name with fierce hungry vengeance. I touted this theory around a few of my friends. General consensus, "It's not a bug, it's a feature!"

    Well now I know that I'm not alone and that it's nothing personal, Mr Azhar! My Powerbook loves you and iChat loves you and all I had to do was throw away a couple of my childhood friends who - frankly - are never online anyway and kind of sucked at web stuff. In the end the problem was all caused by having too many friends - apparently AIM can only handle 150 contacts - at least that is according to Mssrs. Unsanity, Rael and Webb.

    But it occurs to me that there's something slightly suspicious about all of this. A couple of days ago I tried searching for information about this error message, but it was nowhere. There was literally no information. Today, there's a search result returned, and posts about the subject on three separate weblogs. So what's happened? Is it a new error message or is it just we've all hit the limit at the same time? Or has the number of buddies available changed? I smell a mystery!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rands EMAIL: rands@jerkcity.com IP: 64.166.19.46 URL: http://www.randsinrepose.com DATE: 10/28/2003 03:29:14 PM The 150 buddy limit in AIM has been well known for some time. I ran into the issue a few months back and have taken the opportunity to purge the vast array of offline buddies who appear to ALWAYS bee offline. It's a cleansing process akin to moving from one cell phone to the next where you get to ask "Gosh, do I want to talk to this person any more?" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tiffany EMAIL: tiffbud@hotmail.com IP: 64.231.165.203 URL: http://www.tiffbud.com DATE: 10/29/2003 12:35:47 AM Limits like that suck. Hopefully you can find and download some program on the Internet that'll let you have unlimitd AOL friends or whatever. *thumbs up ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Garrick Van Buren EMAIL: email@garrickvanburen.com IP: 66.93.17.219 URL: http://www.garrickvanburen.com DATE: 10/30/2003 02:26:50 AM Um, it's not just an AIM limit - it's a physiological limit ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.165.220 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/30/2003 07:29:44 AM While I completely appreciate that the average group size and mental capacity of humans is to manage around 150 people, I can't help thinking that if it was a clear-cut psychological limit then so many human beings wouldn't find themselves butting up against it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zak EMAIL: z@zak.to IP: 68.6.80.53 URL: http://www.betablog.com DATE: 01/09/2004 03:08:52 AM ah, now i know what its all about. and i thought panther thought my friend ryan was a feedbag! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eliot EMAIL: eliot@landrum.cx IP: 66.185.71.207 URL: http://eliot.landrum.cx DATE: 02/10/2004 04:20:59 AM I keep running into it because I have loser friends that decide to never log in again.. and I forget about them under the fold of "offline". Ah well. Time to clean. Thanks for the hint! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: seb EMAIL: shoff@filnet.fr IP: 81.255.158.189 URL: DATE: 08/27/2004 01:25:35 PM i had the same problem today.. but with an error 10 and with an empty list with a new pseudo aim....i can't add anybody. If y change to my old pseudo (with it's list of pseudo) i can add what i want....i try to create a new pseudo on aol and with the new one, i don't have the error and can add what i want. If i return on the new wrong pseudo the error is still there. I tried to locate le ichat pref and trash them....ichat re-create the files. I started again and fianly try to add a contact....Impossible díajouter ý votre liste de contacts. (erreur Feedbag 10) sorry my english is so bad ! have you any idea ? please respond to shoff@filnet.fr ----- PING: TITLE: two quick things URL: http://undergroundlondon.com/antimega/archives/000707.html IP: 64.71.150.66 BLOG NAME: anti-mega DATE: 11/07/2003 07:59:39 AM Remembered from when going to sleep last night... Weblogs in aggregators are completely inverse to IM contacts - you get rid of the ones that talk the most, not those that never contact you. Out of the 355 feeds I read, and maybe double that weblogs I'... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The world adapts to Cory Doctorow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/29/2003 11:51:11 PM ----- BODY:

    My theory regarding the awesome O'Reilly-sponsored wifi at Foyles cafÈ on Charing Cross Road goes a little like this:

    Tim O'Reilly: "Hey Cory, how you doing?"
    Cory Doctorow: "You know what sucks? Wifi in London."
    Tim O'Reilly: "Hmm..." {thinks}
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Well Documented URL: http://llib.org/archives/000883.html IP: 66.183.173.179 BLOG NAME: llib.org DATE: 10/30/2003 08:09:17 AM There may be hope yet. In my well documented list of frustrations with internet access in London I've been looking... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Make your world a better place! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/30/2003 03:41:12 PM ----- BODY:

    So here we go - something to do. Are you a web developer with some time on your hands that wants to do something creative, useful and potentially world-impacting? Then Tom Steinberg's charitable web incubator MySociety.org might be an ideal environment for your talents. It's an attempt to build applications that might enrich or contribute to civic society - applications that fulfil a need just like UpMyStreet.com andFaxYourMP.com do. There's an article in the Guardian today which explains it more successfully and eloquently than I can hope to. Here's a quick pithy excerpt:

    We are setting up an organisation you might think of as a charitable incubator for those who want to develop software to make society better, and who want to pay the bills while doing it. We're calling it MySociety.org. And we need your help ... Companies don't produce these tools because there isn't money in it. Government has a different problem. It doesn't seem able to take advantage of what the internet is best at - applications that are cheap to produce, that do something peopleneed and cost roughly the same no matter how many people are using them. Sadly, the public sector seems bound by all sorts of obligations that prevent it from being able to create such cheap and cheerful services ... Complaining about this isn't any good - we need to demonstrate how it can be done. Which is where MySociety.org comes in.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Arikawa EMAIL: andy@modulo26.net IP: 216.213.22.2 URL: http://modulo26.net/andy/ DATE: 10/30/2003 03:49:09 PM Tom, I believe the URL in your prelude is incorrect. MySociety.com seems to be something different from MySociety.org ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/30/2003 03:57:02 PM Apologies - I'll fix that immediately. This was supposed to be in draft form for a little longer and I actually posted it accidentally. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com DATE: 10/30/2003 09:19:39 PM I met Tom S. the other day at that BBC Broadcast Assassins thing. He's a bit of an anorak, but he's got some nice ideas. I'm not entirely sure where he thinks the funding for mySociety.org is going to come from -- businesses are generally quite reluctant to fund things that people don't use (yet) and that don't make them money... I wish him the best of luck though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Cronin EMAIL: james@mysociety.org IP: 212.135.203.107 URL: http://www.mysociety.org/ DATE: 10/31/2003 08:53:17 PM Hi Seldo, We've already got enough funding to start it, now we need some ideas! Oh... and some more funding if you've got some lying around ;) J. x ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nikolaos EMAIL: Brotherhoodofgat@hotmail.com IP: 212.121.6.147 URL: DATE: 11/27/2003 04:58:49 PM You're on to something here. We can't rely on the companies to do anything for the "greater good". Being a lowly student, funding for this project I cannot provide, and the brotherhood is as yet not online. But, I work for free, and so does the brotherhood. We got us some competant programmers, web designers, graphic designers, artists, and others, so...if we can help any... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nikolaos EMAIL: Brotherhoodofgat@hotmail.com IP: 212.121.6.147 URL: DATE: 11/27/2003 04:59:12 PM You're on to something here. We can't rely on the companies to do anything for the "greater good". Being a lowly student, funding for this project I cannot provide, and the brotherhood is as yet not online. But, I work for free, and so does the brotherhood. We got us some competant programmers, web designers, graphic designers, artists, and others, so...if we can help any... ----- PING: TITLE: World, Web, Technology and Change URL: http://jerobins.freeshell.org/house/archives/000107.php IP: 192.94.73.2 BLOG NAME: The Robinson House DATE: 11/03/2003 06:47:29 PM Tom Coates, in his article Make your world a better place!, pointed me to MySociety.org. A very interesting concept in many respects. First, they're talkin' money: We believe that in order to deliver polished, highly usable social tools, developers wil... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Aula Exposure book for sale... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/30/2003 05:18:25 PM ----- BODY:

    If reading (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything on the web wasn't good enough for you then it looks like the Aula Exposure book which includes that piece, loads of other stuff from other attendees as well as writing on The Future of Copyrighted Media, Riding the Wave of Personal Publishing and Creating Celebrity, Protecting Privacy is now available for sale (in what looks like a beautifully bound edition) for roughly $50 US.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few recent Everything in Moderation posts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/31/2003 09:22:11 AM ----- BODY:

    For those of you who haven't been keeping up, there are a few more pieces up on Everything in Moderation:

    1. Tagging Difficult Users with Infectious Markers
    2. On Killfiles / Ignore User Functions in online communities
    3. Kuro5hin's "Notes Towards a Moderation Economy"
    4. An old-school guide to Usenet Trolling
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Political clarity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 10/31/2003 11:32:00 AM ----- BODY:

    For many recent Labour voters the last couple of years have been a bit of a troubling time - with some of the actions of the government (particularly with regard to the War in Iraq) seeming to be violently and almost universally at odds with the views of the electorate. As a result, I think it's fair to say that their popularity has waned. But while people have become vaguely disillusioned with Labour, the other political parties haven't really seemed to be particularly inspiring any kind of reaction at all. In a way it's a bit of a surprise - whether you like the policies or not, it's difficult to deny that the Conservative policy raft has been more interesting than it has been for a long time. But that doesn't seem to have made much of a difference either way. On the whole - with the exception of occasional terrifying statements by Oliver Letwin, the only things they do that get any press or interest from the public have been their bi-weekly attempts to commit televised hari-kiri.

    There's a whole range of reasons why they might not have made sufficient political hay recently. Obviously there's the increase in general political disillusionment. Certainly the current government hasn't done an awful lot to stem that particular tide. Also, no one realistically thinks that the Conservative party can quite hold themselves together long enough to put any of their shiny new (if occasionally barking) policies into practice? Their regular apocalyptic tailspins have made them the "Kenny" of Westminter's "South Park".

    Another position - and one I tend to subscribe to - is that because they've simply tried to be perceived as vaguely socially tolerant (and had a "nice" non-threatening leader), minority groups, trade unions and the like have stopped thinking of them as an actual danger any more. And while that group has had their anxieties eased a bit that doesn't mean that they (or other people in the centre-ground) are yet convinced that they're trustworthy, representative of public opinion or - well - totally in touch with reality... And while they're waiting for evidence, they're quite comfortable to background them...

    Well as far as I'm concerned, the discomfort remains and the anxiety is back. That's not to say that I think Michael Howard has much of a chance of being Prime Minister. And it's not to say that I think the party will be any more united under his leadership. But - if they put him in charge of their party - they will have made certain parts of this argument crystal clear for me again. Instead of being able to view the Conservative party as representing an alternative - perhaps more market / efficiency driven - approach to running the country, appointing Michael Howard is no more or less than running up the Conservative Skull and Crossbones again and setting sail for the easy targets of cheap political swag.

    Tom Watson has put up a post that reminds us of the facts about Michael Howard. There's terrifying stuff in there. I'm going to highlight a few of the ones that scare me most personally, but please - read the full list...

    "As Home Secretary, he believed that the answer to crime was simply to lock more people up: "an increase in the number of criminals in prison leads to a large fall in crime" (POLITICS, MORALITY AND THE NATION STATE lecture, ST. MICHAEL CHURCH, CORNHILL, CITY OF LONDON, 10 January 2003)"

    "Howard criticised Jack Straw's decision to detain General Pinochet and actively campaigned for his release: "We think this has gone on far too long. We think he should be sent back to Chile." (BBC Interview, 26 November 1998)"

    "Howard opposed the introduction of the Human Rights Act."

    "Howard was judged to have flouted the European Convention on Human Rights following unlawfully delaying the release of five long-serving IRA prisoners - the SEVENTH time he had been found to be acting illegally in just two years as Home Secretary. (September 1995)"

    "Howard voted against equal rights for homosexuals by opposing lowering the homosexual age of consent to 16"

    And if you still needed evidence that this man must not be allowed to become Prime Minister at any cost, then how about these two draconian, vile-worded and dangerously regressive/oppressive policies:

    "Howard was the Minister in Charge of bringing in the Poll Tax in 1988. Even after Thatcher had gone, and after the poll tax riots, he insisted he still believed in the policy (July 1991)"

    "Howard was the Minister who brought in Clause 28 of the Local Government Act banning the "promotion" of homosexuality (March 1988)"
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Matthewman EMAIL: scott@thegayvote.co.uk IP: 195.224.127.94 URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/ DATE: 10/31/2003 01:16:26 PM I've been surfing around looking for other comments by MH. Interestingly, when challenged about Section 28 recently his response was, "well, you'll have to ask Labour why it's still on the statute books". Excuse me? Who put it there in the first place. This is a man who wants to "lead from the centre". Presumably in the same way that when you push a shopping trolley in the centre, it always tends to swerve to the right... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://ht DATE: 10/31/2003 07:14:53 PM The irony is that I am supporting a guy named Howard in the 2004 US Presidential election. Howard Dean is probably going to face George Bush except he is very pro gay and signed the only domestic partner marriage law in a US state when he was Gov of Vermont. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 10/31/2003 07:15:09 PM The irony is that I am supporting a guy named Howard in the 2004 US Presidential election. Howard Dean is probably going to face George Bush except he is very pro gay and signed the only domestic partner marriage law in a US state when he was Gov of Vermont. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 211.29.136.12 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 11/01/2003 06:49:50 AM PMs named Howard are bad idea. Ask any Australian who hasn't had their conscience lobotomized by the Right Wing Death Beasts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: tribes23423@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.67.209 URL: DATE: 11/01/2003 10:30:10 AM I wonder if Howard as leader and Letwin as his deputy will attract anti-semitic sentiments. Even Jeremy Paxman couldn't help going on about Howard's 'Transylvanian heritage' on Newsnight. And the Daily Mirror portrays him as a blood-sucking vampire. Mandelson gets a similar treatment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 82.69.20.224 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 11/01/2003 03:20:16 PM Wasn't the transylvanian thing a reference to the "something of the night" comment, and the fact that he's an evil fuck? Good post, Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sceefy_uk EMAIL: sebastian@aztec.net IP: 194.222.255.26 URL: http://sceefy.typepad.com/ DATE: 11/01/2003 04:47:48 PM The Transylvanian comment on Newsnight was not just a reference to Ann Widdicome's "something of the night" remark, but also a little jibe at his ACTUAL heritage. That's right, Michael Howard is partially of Transylvanian descent. You can't make this stuff up... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 80.3.75.92 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk DATE: 11/02/2003 06:22:51 PM I dunno about the rest of you, but I can say that MH and his Clause 28 ruined my teenage years. The school took the view that combating homophobic bullying would be "promoting" homosexuality. By the way, I once heard that the word "Tory" actually means "thief." Makes sense to me! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 195.92.113.67 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 11/03/2003 04:38:22 PM Yah Boo Sucks! to the lot of you :) It's a point of fact that locking criminals up in prisons reduces crime committed not just by the offender but also by any other person who might (were it not for the deterrent of prison) be tempted to offend themselves. The Human Rights Act is debatably flawed and (worse!) forced upon us by the Europeans. It marked a change in the relationship between "citizen" and state. Where was my vote on this? And I've never encountered a person who thought that the IRA prisoners (murderers, for the most part, lest ye forget) should have been let out at all. Political prisoners my arse! I'll give you guys the Section 28 thing, but we're all aware that things have moved on a great deal since then. ----- PING: TITLE: Plasticbag.org on "political clarity" URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/weblog/archives/2003/10/31/plasticbagorg_on_political_clarity.html IP: 128.121.231.184 BLOG NAME: The Gay Vote DATE: 10/31/2003 01:23:21 PM Tom Coates, one of the bog world's sharpest writers, makes his own thoughts known about Michael Howard, inspired in part by the list on Tom Watson's blog.... ----- PING: TITLE: Something of the Night URL: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog/news/000788.shtml IP: 217.199.168.207 BLOG NAME: Where Worlds Collide DATE: 10/31/2003 03:48:42 PM Now they've dumped the rather hopeless IDS, it looks like Michael "Something of the Night" Howard is going to be ----- PING: TITLE: The Conservative Party leadership URL: http://davew.typepad.com/42/2003/11/the_conservativ.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: 42 DATE: 11/01/2003 12:51:51 PM I have not normally made Political comments part of my weblog, however, the current situation in the Conservative party is worrying. a) How could anyone consider Michael Howard a suitable person to become our Prime Minister? See these links: Tom ----- PING: TITLE: That Nice Mr Howard URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000644.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 11/06/2003 07:43:50 AM Tom Watson on key facts about Michael Howard that you may have forgotten As Environment Secretary, Howard allowed power generators to keep their pollution levels secret (Nov 1992) n 1995 he was accused by Private Eye and the New Statesman... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the BBC's relationship with Government... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/02/2003 10:01:42 PM ----- BODY:

    So there's an article about the BBC's iCan project over at Wired.com: BBC Offers Power to the People. It's an interesting, if slightly frustrating piece, for a whole range of reasons, but there's one misconception that I think needs to be cleared up.

    "In addition to finding the iCan issues a bit trivial, Kirkcaldy, a 20-year-old antiwar activist, doubts the BBC's ability, as a government-owned entity, to objectively manage the site's issues."

    The BBC very clearly and very much is not owned by the government. It's an organisation originally created by a conglomerate of wireless manufacturers supported by a license fee that gave it financial independence from the Government that was given a royal charter in 1927. From that point onwards it has been answerable in principle only to the British people via the Board of Governors who are appointed to act as trustees for the public interest - ensuring it's accountable and independent.

    That's not to deny that the BBC has a relationship with government - because members of the Board of Governers are appointed by the Queen under recommendation from the Prime Minister of the day. And the Government has a certain amount of power over the BBC - they approve the level of the license fee for a start (but are in no way responsible for its collection) - but there's a very specific piece of legislation that guarantees editorial independence that should be evident to anyone who has seen the recent spat between the Labour government and the BBC.

    If you're sufficiently interested, there's a great deal of information about the history of the BBC online as well as about how and why it operates.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee Bryant EMAIL: lee@headshift.com IP: 81.86.117.89 URL: http://www.headshift.com DATE: 11/03/2003 08:30:01 AM You are quite right to point this out as a gross simplification of the BBC's relationship to the British government, and as one of those who was interviewed for the piece, I agree with you on that. The BBC is one of the best examples of a contemporary British institution, and it does a good job of fulfilling the mission that you link to above. Whilst it is not government owned/run, it is nonetheless an organ of the state in a broader sense, as you illustrate by describing the composition of its governance. Generally, it does a good job of keeping the government on its toes and we I think we should support its continued independence as far as possible. However, BBC News is sometimes justly criticised for the way it "frames" issues that fall outside the general consensus, or that are perceived to be contrary to the interests of the state. Contrast the BBC's desire to respond to the fuel protests (which seems to have been one of the influences behind iCan) with its extremely cautious coverage of the anti-war movement, anti-globalisation initiatives, the Middle East conflict and so on. Ideally, iCan should avoid "framing" either the spectrum of opinion or the issues themselves as far as possible. In pratical terms this might mean devolving control over the way subjects and issues are described and organised, perhaps through some kind of distributed metadata system that gives users the ability to contribute to how content is named, grouped and linked. It should probably also reflect the wider world by placing more emphasis on aggregation, partly to solve its own content problem and partly because this could help provide some really useful civic enagement functionality for people organising campaigns. Finally, I don't think the focus on the "tail" (does that just mean least popular by the way, or am I understanding it wrong?) should mean that we ignore one of the basic roles of the BBC, which is to "inform" civil society activity through its often excellent investigative reporting and analysis - i.e. why not create links between BBC output (News, TV and radio programmes, etc) and related issues and camapigns? That's what created the impetus for campaigns such as Shelter and Oxfam. Indeed, the people involved may have such developments in mind already. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: marek EMAIL: non@non.com IP: 217.158.118.154 URL: DATE: 11/04/2003 11:15:16 PM The BBC's funding is more convoluted, and as a result, its financial links with government more direct, than you suggest. The money flow is simple - but unexpected. Licence fees are collected by TV Licensing on behalf of the BBC who have the statutory responsibility for its collection. The money collected does NOT go to the BBC, though - it goes to the consolidated fund aka the government (Communications Act 2003 s365(7) - but that's a re-enactment of a long-standing provision)). The government then pays grant-in-aid to the BBC of a sum equivalent to the licence fee revenue. The practical upshot is much the same, of course, so you could argue that it's a distinction without a difference. It does though go to the heart of the BBC's self-mythology - and if more widely known might tend to exacerbate the kind of confusion shown by the Wired piece. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: KO EMAIL: khalido@go4b.net IP: 202.69.49.3 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com DATE: 11/05/2003 11:11:36 AM Now that the charter is coming up for review in 2006, do u think there might be any changes? Especially since Murdoch and co. and even the British govt. seem to have decided that the BBC has had its day? I think it collects something over 4 billion pounds a year, that is a hell lot of money! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: marek EMAIL: non@non.com IP: 217.158.118.154 URL: DATE: 11/05/2003 10:52:15 PM No - £2.658 bn. Still a lot of money, but also a lot less. At £10 per household per month, that still looks like a pretty good deal. Charter renewal is certainly an opportunity for changes at the margin, but change to the principle of core licence-fee funding isn't really on the political agenda. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Tapir EMAIL: gscott_burgess@yahoo.co.uk IP: 81.129.11.107 URL: http://dailyablution.blogs.com DATE: 11/07/2003 10:54:41 AM Antiwar activists shouldn't worry that their concerns will be given short shrift. This article will reassure them, I'm sure. http://dailyablution.blogs.com ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Strange Case of the Karmic Bus Ticket Machines... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/02/2003 10:44:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Central London's bus routes have a new feature - small machines that you must buy your ticket from before they will let you embark. They have two particularly interesting features. Firstly they are the least well-designed / usable ticket machines I've ever seen, with the buttons that you are forced to press before you pay placed (cunningly) about half a foot below the place where you put the money in. So you see loads of people putting in money and then pressing buttons and looking a bit blank when they should be doing it the other way around. They form in little clots around the machines and make it impossible for everyone else who isn't quite as dumb to pay for a ticket before the bus moves off. It's very frustrating.

    The other significant feature is equally annoying. The accursed machines are just too easy for people to game. Every single machine I use on a regular basis is clogged up with money at least twice a week. The reason? There's a guy who roams up and down Oxford Street, putting in sticking and/or clogging-up substances (gum, maybe?) into the paying slot. He then waits for the money to build up and then comes along later in the day to harvesting the machines of lovely lovely cash. I have lost several pounds to this nefarious prankster. He is ... objectionable ... in my sight.

    Anyway - yesterday I got to the bus stop, put in a pound, pressed the button (wrong order again, dammit, bloody machines), then pressed the eject button and then the proper button (first this time, good Tom) and capped it all off with the insertion of a nice round pound-coin. And what response did I get? Nothing. So I pressed the 'eject money' button once more. Nothing. So then I thumped it with my fist... And... Jackpot! Five shiny pounds clang down into the tray at the bottom. I am rich! My bus ticket karma is strong and I have been rewarded!

    One stop later and the world finds equilibrium. Two people get on the bus without tickets. They want to get off again and buy tickets while the bus waits. The bus driver is understandably cross and refuses to let them do this as the ticket machine process is long and complex. They refuse to get out. Everyone on the bus shouts at them. Even I shout at them which is a surprise (I don't shout at people much in public - only at the infestation of charity workers that colonise Central London). But they won't get off. They say they've been waiting for half an hour. Everyone on the bus says they were waiting for half an hour too thank you very much. After ten minutes of stand-off, I get off the bus, buy them both tickets, thrust them in their hands, give them a piece of my mind about their behaviour (I'm becoming my mother) and sit down again on my seat. But they throw their tickets on the floor, the bus driver refuses to let them stay on board, the police arrive and then finally they get dragged off - possibly (for all I know) to Colditz or Alcatraz. At the next stop, almost exactly the same thing happens again! Again! Would you believe it! Another clump of people sans tickets, poncing around and shouting at the bus driver, causing a big stink and being unreasonable. Only this time I'm wise to their tricks. No buying people tickets for no good reason for me... Oooooh no... Not me.

    And so time passes and we can finally see the great plan of the karmic network in its totality. For my extra four pounds that appeared from nowhere, I must pay two back and suffer over half an hour in delays. This is my destiny and I embrace it grudgingly. The world is a complex, intricate, designed place. And those bloody bus ticket machines are right at the heart of it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paul pod EMAIL: paulpod@mac.com IP: 82.35.86.71 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net DATE: 11/03/2003 01:19:15 AM I've been wondering about this new bus-ticket-malarky (I have routemasters on the routes I use most). What happens if, as you say is frequently likely, the street machine is not working? You can't get on the bus? If so, that seems a bit harsh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seldo EMAIL: plasticbag@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 11/03/2003 08:35:25 AM This is why everyone should take the tube. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Wallis EMAIL: james@erstwhile.demon.co.uk IP: 195.224.196.101 URL: DATE: 11/03/2003 10:17:12 AM If the ticket machine is bust, as happens, then you're completely shafted: this has happened to me. I understand the thinking behind the new system but there wasn't enough of it.. They should bring back the Routemaster buses: fast entry and exit, the ability to board or leave between stops, a cheery conductor (sometimes) and one of the finest and most durable pieces of British engineering since WWII. And, like Concorde, being phased out. Insanity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom p EMAIL: tom_p@earthlin_nospam.net IP: 157.140.11.138 URL: http://www.sunnyblue.net/ DATE: 11/03/2003 10:26:20 AM I wrestled (figuratively speaking) with the machines for about a week after they were introduced. After that, and in spite of my inate fear of forward planning, I figured it was much easier to buy those clumps of saver tickets from news agents, they work out at 65p each and are a lot easier to carry around than a load of loose change. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@24weblog.com IP: 81.131.227.49 URL: http://www.24weblog.com DATE: 11/03/2003 02:15:35 PM If the ticket machine is bust, you can often 'walk' a short distance to the next stop and use the machine there. Unless you are laden with kids or large bulky objects, etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alan EMAIL: alrenwick@aol.com IP: 81.136.205.10 URL: DATE: 11/03/2003 04:19:16 PM May I recommend Travelling Karma - a track by JLK on the Karmic Hit rarities album www.karmichit.com The song is his record of a day spend on a bus Better than it sounds... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: diamond geezer EMAIL: dg@dgeezer.net IP: 62.49.24.118 URL: http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com DATE: 11/03/2003 07:01:42 PM Seems these inefficient little ticket machines are designed to speed up buses but slow down passengers. After all, buses would travel so much faster if nobody ever got on. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kerry EMAIL: Kerry@unfilteredfilms.com IP: 68.120.58.130 URL: DATE: 11/03/2003 08:51:00 PM Good Post Tom. These are my favorite type of posts from you and the reason I keep coming back to plasticbag. More please. I love to feel your pain. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cheryl EMAIL: moonspoonbaboon@hotmail.com IP: 212.219.59.200 URL: http://www.cherylkam.co.uk DATE: 11/07/2003 01:16:17 AM Those machines are going to look ancient in about 2 years' time. Heck, they already look ancient! I missed two buses because of those machines, got fed-up (i'm very impatient) so i now have the oyster card. You should check it out, it's the best thing for speedsters. Cx ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nico Macdonald EMAIL: nico@spy.co.uk IP: 212.18.227.210 URL: http://www.spy.co.uk/ DATE: 02/10/2004 02:49:49 PM These machines certainly weren't sold well enough to travellers. In Central London tourists often use buses, and will be even less likely to appreciate the rules of travel (few systems of this kind exist elsewhere) and non-English speakers will just be perplexed when the driver tells them to get off. Also, the prepay model assumes a level of trust (that a bus will come soon, and go al the way to your destination without being turned around) that just doesn't exist among Londoners used to late running and cancelled services. In this respect the hexagonal carnets mentioned by Tom P are more 'karmic'. (You can reclaim for a ticket not used because of late running, etc, if you post it to the relevant bus company with a covering note...). Additionally, the machines give no change, and don't take notes. Anyone who has just got cash out of an ATM has to then buy something locally to get change, assuming there are local shops that are also open. There are many interesting scenarios with Oyster Cards, but I won't go into them here. The question for me is: why does an organisation with so much experience make these basic mistakes? ----- PING: TITLE: compulsory tickets before boarding URL: http://undergroundlondon.com/antimega/brain/archives/000678.html IP: 64.71.150.66 BLOG NAME: the anti-mega outboard brain DATE: 11/02/2003 11:24:43 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | The Strange Case of the Karmic Bus Ticket Machines... Agree about the machines, they've tried to... ----- PING: TITLE: London Transport URL: http://www.kittyjoyce.com/eric/log/archive/001006.html IP: 66.33.197.13 BLOG NAME: ...pickhits... DATE: 08/31/2004 03:38:58 AM When I was 18, I went off on a brief trip to Europe with a friend of mine. Our plan... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Established 1999... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/03/2003 09:04:38 PM ----- BODY:

    Omigod. I completely forgot my weblogging birthday on Saturday. This site has now been going for a full four years and two days. Four years and two days of almost daily pre-fabricated, disposable weblogging goodness. That's one thousand four hundred and sixty three days since I started weblogging. Worse still - that's three thousand nine hundred and forty nine posts. An average of 2.7 posts per day. Dear God. When will it end? Will I never tire of writing this crap? In twenty years, will I have an Established 1999 sign out front? Will I be in total information capturing mode as I'm shoved into an old folks home? Will there be a bloody keyboard in my grave? Will the first thing that happens in Atheist Heaven be that some crotchetty old bastard with a toothless smile hands me an ethereal laptop with spiritual-fidelity wireless soulnet access before demanding that I write something pithy about halos?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Don EMAIL: Don@chiriquichatter.com IP: 208.166.43.75 URL: http://www.chiriquichatter.com/blog DATE: 11/03/2003 09:10:07 PM Well happy weblogging birthday. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zlog EMAIL: admin@zlog.co.uk IP: 81.110.162.37 URL: http://zlog.co.uk/ DATE: 11/03/2003 09:40:23 PM Happy (weblog) Birthday! If you had started it one day earlier, you could have shared my birthday (the real one that is not my weblog one). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: berry EMAIL: berry@ashead.com IP: 80.133.52.192 URL: http://www.berrys-archive.com/ DATE: 11/03/2003 10:00:54 PM Happy birthday to your weblog, then. :) I hope you blog from heaven one day. Then maybe I in Atheist Hell can still read it... Cheers! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.213.50 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 11/03/2003 10:14:06 PM atheist heaven? and it has halos too? so i was looking for more information about atheist heaven among the three thousand nine hundred and forty nine posts and the search results pointed to a bunch of dead links. happy birthday anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.164.30 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/03/2003 10:25:13 PM Dude I'm doing a rebuild from scratch to weed out crap old versions of pages that shouldn't exist any more! Give it half an hour and it should all work again... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joshua Kaufman EMAIL: web@unraveled.com IP: 144.82.200.170 URL: http://unraveled.com DATE: 11/03/2003 10:29:04 PM Happy weblogging birthday Tom. Wow, athiest heaven sounds great. I can't wait to get there! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AKMA EMAIL: akma@disseminary.org IP: 12.248.12.97 URL: http://akma.disseminary.org DATE: 11/03/2003 10:37:36 PM No, on the way to Atheist Heaven some crotchety guy will point out to you the days you were too busy to blog. . . . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: barry.ickes EMAIL: barry.ickes@btinternet.com IP: 81.128.217.207 URL: DATE: 11/03/2003 11:28:38 PM Considering your writing style it's unlikely to be pithy. Verbose maybe. No offense old fruit. Keep it up. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 11/03/2003 11:31:34 PM I'm looking forward to your halos post already :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.164.30 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/03/2003 11:35:54 PM I can do pith. I choose not to. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin Blanton EMAIL: justin@justinblanton.com IP: 12.234.156.36 URL: http://justinblanton.com DATE: 11/04/2003 12:53:27 AM Impressive Tom. Keep up the good work man. I really enjoy the site. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 11/04/2003 09:52:43 AM Tom darling, you'll be the crotchety old guy handing out the kit ... that's why we read you and that's why we love you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Perseo EMAIL: dottore-gianluca-perseo@perseo-berlin.de IP: 217.225.3.110 URL: http://www.perseo-berlin.de DATE: 11/08/2003 08:56:58 PM Halli hallo. Very complimento for your site. I think you should visit the blog.site of a great and intelligent friend of mine, his name in his weblog is erre (it comes from R, ROberto farneti; http://robertofarneti.blog.tiscali.it/), I hope that you interact with us, in english obviously. You will find new ideas, new experiences in our reality, I am so sorry that you probably do not understand our language, you loose some wisdom contained in our comments. But we can make up for, don't worry and be happy. On the right side of the screen you have: calendario: if you choose Ottobre, you find a picture of me when I was 21, I looked very sad that time, nobody can recognize me in that state, I've been always laughing and still do it (ex. http://www.vjo.it/053/regola.htm). I hope you enjoy us soon, just ask something difficult to Roberto Farneti and Gianluca Perseo, a problem in your life, an alternative to your routine, just ask that we decide together how to give the best answer for you and we will do it. If we really can, than you got it. Roberto doesn't know that I'm writing to you to involve you or exchange our two realites. Enjoy yourself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.155.39.121 URL: http://www.italianjob2003.co.uk DATE: 11/11/2003 07:29:29 PM Hey Congrats Tom!! We'll have to buy you a drink at the webloggers party! ----- PING: TITLE: Only four? URL: http://prolific.org/archive/atf_2003_11.shtml#006680 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org (atf) DATE: 11/05/2003 11:30:07 PM Like Tom I forgot my weblogging Foundation Day. Four years of me me me. Feels like eight. What do I... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Jason Salavon's beautiful abstracted nudes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/04/2003 12:20:12 AM ----- BODY:

    Half-Klimt (one, two, three), half-Rothko (one, two, three) - I know they've been everywhere, but they're so bloody beautiful: Every Playboy Centrefold: The Decades. There's something so elusive and gestural about them - and the traces of writing and iconography lingering around the bodies just makes the whole thing seem even less to do with flesh and still more numinous.

    The same artist achieved similar effects with a triptych of stills of late night chat-show presenters and used the same process on images of homes for sale, which is equally breath-taking.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: jmetcalf@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 11/04/2003 12:24:48 AM You know that site hosting the Playboy pictures is just asking for a lawsuit from Heff's lawyers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fred l EMAIL: postroad@hotmail.com IP: 24.45.20.74 URL: DATE: 11/04/2003 12:39:26 AM Fuzzy houses and late night trash show ok but messing with Playboy babes is a mean thing to do. ----- PING: TITLE: Jason Salavon and Macro-art URL: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~craft/craftblog/archives/000065.html IP: 128.83.125.182 BLOG NAME: Jason Craft DATE: 11/04/2003 01:52:31 AM This amounts to hundreds of hours of the David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Conan O'Brien programs. From this perspective, the collection can be seen not as a set of discrete jokes and bits and interviews, but as a generalized contour... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a frustration with pundits and social networking tools... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 11/08/2003 08:21:54 PM ----- BODY:

    I have to say, I'm vaguely appalled by the way that some people have become so obsessed by social networking services. Business 2.0 is the most recent drunken advocate to go all giddy about them, describing them as "technology of the year" (according to Many to Many). It's like social software all over again - a vaguely useful concept/service with relatively intriguing possibilities emerges and gestures in roughly the right direction and all the pundits get caught up in the immediacy - the nowness of the thing rather than looking at the past (the millions of mailing lists, message-boards, instant messenger accounts, the bulletin boards, the MUDs and MOOs) or the possible futures that actually start hybridising these bits of technology together in more interesting and useful ways. And before anyone starts - yes, I know, it happened with weblogs too... And just like weblogs social networking tools are genuinely interesting and useful, just not in the trivial, money-grabbing, tedious, company-based and inflated way that many of these pundits / press seem to think.

    Let me say this one more time. Friendster is interesting! Friendster is cool! Ryze is interesting! Ryze is even vaguely useful! But the functionality that these sites are based around has to be a component of something larger. The social-networking chunk will either go open-source, API or it'll just start being built into other types of community site. The sites that exist at the moment only have value because of the volume of people who have registered on them - without that volume they're the social software equivalent of the world's most successful, well-executed and powerful login page or 'shopping basket' metaphor. It'll all change when/if someone like Google buys them (there's not really a whole lot of room for lots of these operating concurrently if all they do is connect people together in the way they're doing at the moment, but connect it with something else...) but in the meantime technology of the year?! Are they mad?! Flashback twenty years - I think they'd have said the same bloody thing about the Rubik's Cube...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seb EMAIL: rather@not.net IP: 132.246.36.244 URL: http://seb.notlong.com DATE: 11/12/2003 04:08:37 PM Well, they did write "technology of the year", not "technology of the years to come"... the Rubik's cube might well qualify as "technology of the year" 1980. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/12/2003 06:03:09 PM Except that the Rubik's cube was never actually useful for anything, of course. You see my point? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Seitz EMAIL: fluxent@yahoo.com IP: 68.173.27.0 URL: http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki DATE: 11/15/2003 02:31:57 PM During the last bubble lots of companies "succeeded" by getting bought by AOL, Yahoo, or Microsoft. Just think of these startups as outsourced R&D, following the Cisco model. So, given that these things will become lots more useful when integrated into other services run by the big guys, and there is (potentially) some interesting social network analysis stuff, etc., calling it meaningful tech doesn't seem totally out of line... (Interesting side-thought: does thinking about which of those big-3 (4 counting Google) will buy a given social net service change your willingness to start pouring data into it? Not that it does you any good, since you can't guess how it will turn out...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eoin EMAIL: eoin.matthews@verizon.net IP: 68.160.141.190 URL: DATE: 12/26/2003 04:29:45 AM On the last comment, I would say that a lucrative acquisition is not applicable. None of the existing sites have actually developed any new technologies yet- with the exception of there.com and it is not really a social-networking site. Even the infamous six degress of separation patent is unlikely to stand up in a court if push comes to shove. If a site has millions of dedicated users, then yes it has value because of the users, but I do not think any social networking sites is in that position. The difference will come when a site integrates all the social aspects people want (blogging, picture galleries, IM, browsing, not being bugged by the wrong people) into one glamourous hub. Whether that becomes a reality depends on whether that social network has a business model that does not depend on dating, messaging or advertising (or even a combination of these). But I think there is a great business model that is being overlooked. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the political contextualisation of weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 11/08/2003 11:48:53 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm really interested in the attempts to collate and analyse webloggers' responses to The Political Compass, which is doing another one of its periodic rounds across webloggia. I first posted about it a little under two and a half years ago - since when (you may be interested to know) I have become fractionally more left-wing (-1.25 on the x-axis rather than 1.23) and slightly less libertarian (-5.03 on the y-axis rather than -6.86). I don't know whether that's a function of age, cynicism or pragmatism, but it's interesting in that it demonstrates that our apparent political dispositions aren't totally fixed and solid qualities. That's not a particularly startling revelation for anyone who has watched their parents descend more and more into the decaying pits of Thatcherism/post-Thatcherism over twenty years of political calcification, but it's interesting to watch it happen to yourself nonetheless...

    Anyway, the initial analysis of webloggers behaviour (bearing in mind that they are self-selecting through association and social networks) is providing some really interesting results. There seems to be a clear and distinct clumping/relationship between leftist and centre-leftist ideologies and libertarianism across the blogosphere. There are very few leftish authoritarians. The right-wing, on the other hand, seems much more diffuse - with authoritarian and libertarian tendencies roughly equally split. Whether or not the weblogs marked on the chart are representative of webloggers in general is difficult to say given the small sample size. If it is, anecdotal evidence would seem to suggest that right-wing webloggers talk more about politics, as my general experience of reading political sites is they almost always seem to be right-wing. Which makes you wonder what the left are talking about...

    Anyway, at the moment the sample size is ludicrously inadequate but maybe if we can get a few more webloggers to take the test and then feed in their results to the (ugly, unreadable and yet totally compelling) collation form on the analysis site, we might start to get some more useful results. It would be fascinating to start mapping these results back onto geographical areas (particularly across the UK weblogging communities - maybe at London Bloggers?) to see if there are any relationships between where people live and their politics. More interesting still would be to start creating ways of navigating sites via these political axes. I like the idea of providing a mechanism for someone to navigate to another site from mine simply by asking for something, "more libertarian". Another useful/intriguing approach might be to find ways to contexualise the material on a weblog by connecting a keyword or URL search to these political frameworks. Think how awesome it could be to be able to automatically generate a set of links that would give you representative perspectives from every major political sensibility on any given issue, news story or link. It's just one example of the kind of contextualising tool I talked about in the Guardian a while back and would fit in really nicely with aggregators like Blogdex and Google News,

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 11/09/2003 12:37:12 AM The left are talking about life, reality, things that actually matter. Isn't politics thoroughly discredited by now? Trivial? In the game-theoretical sense, solved? Only ideologues still think that kind of thing matters. Speaking as an ideologue, obviously. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin EMAIL: jm-489385345@jmason.org IP: 128.195.65.51 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 11/09/2003 01:04:29 AM Tom -- I think the balkanization into distinct "left"/"right" clumps is a phenomenon of modern American society. cf. Valdis Krebs' work, looking at Amazon book-purchase patterns: "There's a set of books that seem to represent "left-wing" readers, with titles by Chomsky and Michael Moore and Tom Friedman. And there's a parallel set of books that seem to represent "right-wing" interests, with books by writers including Ann Coulter and Patrick Buchanan." a few more details at: http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/mt/archives/000484.html#000484 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 66.167.22.158 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 11/09/2003 01:28:19 AM right wing webloggers talk more about politics? Does not sound right to me at all. Take a look at the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem [ http://www.truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php ] which ranks blogs with a heavy emphasis on the political side of the blogsphere. Of the top 10 whose politics I can identify, 4 are right wing and 4 are left wing, with the left holding 3 of the top 4 slots. Number 4 dailykos.com just migrated to Scoop, which has a user diary feature. In effect there are hundreds of left wing blogs on that one site alone. All born in the past month or so. The blogsphere is extremely big, its getting damn hard to make general comments about it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rayne EMAIL: rayne_today@yahoo.com IP: 172.168.154.171 URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0001549 DATE: 11/09/2003 02:46:31 AM A similar fluidity noted in results to the political compass survey when compared to last year's results; I suspect I'm more conscious of being left/libertarian than I was a year or even three ago. Were the questions unchanged from a year or two years ago? I had the impression that some may have changed -- and if so, wouldn't that impact results? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Orinoco EMAIL: orin@twjc.co.uk IP: 80.189.112.92 URL: http://www.twjc.co.uk/ DATE: 11/09/2003 10:55:20 AM " I like the idea of providing a mechanism for someone to navigate to another site from mine simply by asking for something, "more libertarian". " I think this would be a bad idea, instead of reading up on a political issue & making up their own mind, I think people will read up on whatever matches their political orientation is then simply adopt that view. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 159.134.99.101 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 11/09/2003 01:35:24 PM It's funny how the test places me at -5.79 on the y-axis when I don't generally consider myself to be libertarian. It might be a result of me being a fence-sitter when it comes to certain questions regarding ownership: the binary opposition makes me uncomfortable leaning either way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/09/2003 02:08:14 PM Orinoco - there's also no reason why you couldn't be presented with a representative position from someone who shares exactly the opposite position to you - or is as far from the mean political position as you. That might be a really interesting way for people to be shown more than one side of an issue. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 66.167.22.158 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 11/09/2003 02:47:59 PM One thing worth noting, I recall reading someplace that the people behind the political compass itself are libertarians. No idea if that's true, or where the info was presented. But if it is true, one would expect them to slant the questions to get people thinking like libertarians... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Orinoco EMAIL: orin@twjc.co.uk IP: 80.189.115.98 URL: http://www.twjc.co.uk/ DATE: 11/09/2003 02:57:30 PM But it comes down to how people would use such a service. I think many people would use it to reinforce their own views, how many people would choose to use a product to challenge their beliefs? Incidentally I would. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 195.137.95.246 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/09/2003 04:19:07 PM I think we have to face the facts that people mechanisms which allow people to filter who they interact with online are coming, if they're not already with us. Our approach should now be to also create useful applications that can widen people's perspectives. ----- PING: TITLE: Compass URL: http://emptybottle.org/coasters/discarded/2003/11/compass.php IP: 69.10.138.64 BLOG NAME: Emptybottle : Coasters DATE: 11/09/2003 01:19:59 PM Tom talks about the reappearance of the Political Compass on the blogistani radar, and the political contextualisation of weblogs. We Metafilter diehards had our own go at this a while back, too. Wonder how well the two graphs (webloggers and... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogging's political lodestars URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/11/10/webloggings_political_lodestars.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 11/10/2003 07:21:29 PM Tom Coates writes about the political compass postings that have been meme-ing their way through the blogosphere lately. I know I took the test and posted my results here sometime, but I'd have to use my search feature to find it, or take the test agai... ----- PING: TITLE: Weblogging's political lodestars URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/11/10/webloggings_political_lodestars.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 11/10/2003 07:24:57 PM Tom Coates writes about the political compass postings that have been meme-ing their way through the blogosphere lately. I know I took the test and posted my results here sometime, but I'd have to use my search feature to find it, or take the test agai... ----- PING: TITLE: Political Compass: Redux URL: http://www.davesrants.com/archives/2003/11/000416.php IP: 217.114.166.196 BLOG NAME: Dave's Rants DATE: 11/12/2003 12:17:32 AM This must be my 3rd or even fourth time taking this test. This time I decided I'd keep a permanent record of my scores so that I could accurately track my changing views over time! I've yo-yoed a bit over the past 3 years or so. I've always been this L... ----- PING: TITLE: My Political Compass URL: http://www.boudist.com/archive/2003/11/06/my_political_compass.php IP: 69.56.141.18 BLOG NAME: Boudist DATE: 11/12/2003 02:02:22 AM According to the Political Compass Test i'm a leftist libertarian. Which aligns me with other fine folks like Nelson Mandela, The Dalai Lama and Ghandi. Update: Someone is collating bloggers results from the political compass test. It's also been done... ----- PING: TITLE: Orienteering for all URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/482 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 11/14/2003 01:27:05 PM This map of where webloggers stand on the Political Compass is quite interesting (found via plasticbag) - I'm thinking about how I could implement such a system for bbCity, so that users can find where they lie on the political compass, tap in their co... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Hateful mouth and fingers that express themselves so badly... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/09/2003 02:27:57 AM ----- BODY:

    Some of the things I'm thinking about at the moment - at work and not at work - that I'm having real trouble articulating for some reason but that maybe I can do something with if I set some of them free:

    Gah. I can't think properly. Too much stuff piling up unexpressed. Too many things I'm not expressing properly. Too many opportunities not to produce stuff of suitable quality and value.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Shifted Media URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/11/shifted_media.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 11/11/2003 07:52:22 PM Indeed, time-shifting has been an advantage to me - I watch much less dross now. But it also encourages me to record the worthy and adds to my feelings of frustration. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Baghdad Blogger on Newsnight... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/11/2003 12:04:20 AM ----- BODY:

    Watching the Baghdad Blogger on Newsnight this evening has been a vaguely dispiriting experience. It's not entirely clear what his remit was or what the circumstances of the film were, but it looks like he was given a camera and very little support and left to try and drag a film together. The idiom was very webloggery - insight into the individual's life and background blurring into commentary on life in Iraq. As an approach I think it's very powerful - the most startling moment for me was his mother talking about watching Pop Idol and realising (yet again) how similar and connected we all are - but the implementation was terrible and - I fear - a bit embarrassing. The whole thing felt - yet again - like one of those blurred confusions between webloggery and journalism that journalists keep making that always seems to come out slightly badly for the bloggers concerned. Or maybe I'm being a little unfair...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil Wilson EMAIL: pipthepixie@hotmail.com IP: 62.105.94.141 URL: http://pipthepixie.tripod.com DATE: 11/11/2003 10:15:05 AM Damn! Missed it! Thank goodness we can watch online! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: ry1@caspianpublishing.co.uk IP: 217.150.100.73 URL: http://www.realfinance.net DATE: 11/11/2003 10:18:56 AM You're being a little unfair on the film. The fact that you think it looked a bit shonky (if I may be so bold) is that you're being defensive about weblogging. You even said it yourself: he's an architect who recorded a diary of life in a city during a period of conflict. His "implementation" was hardly polished. Either the film should have been just like that - or it could have been an interview, complete with an army of pro technicians, through the lens of a professional journalist. Simply put: journalists and diarists/bloggers/columnists/whatever do different things and trying to compare and contrast is a bit pointless, really. But why on earth did you find it embarassing? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: david.weeden@ntlworld.com IP: 62.252.40.143 URL: http://www.afterimages.co.uk/backword/ DATE: 11/11/2003 10:42:19 AM You hit the nail on the head for me Tom. His mother watching 'Pop Idol', how much he planned to drink over Ramadan, and the architectural history were diverting, but he couldn't have been less illuminating. As for the handwritten signs... just a perfect example of how to blow your fifteen minutes. Couldn't he have interviewed a freed prisoner or someone who lost a child? Embarassing is right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.233.80 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 11/11/2003 10:52:53 AM It was potentially embarrassing because the webloggery style, which was telegraphed with those blurred link-shots of Salam typing into the Blogger page like Carrie on 'Sex and the City' was in my view very gimmicky. In other words, to the mainstream of Newsnight-watchers out there, weblogs are some newfangled gimmick. Even the way Paxman said 'blogger' after the piece was with a hint of disdain. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but how and ever .. While undeniably powerful, the piece told us very little if any of how Salam Pax actually came to be presenting it - how his weblog gave 'his' story a gravity that others just don't have - and the details of which make his story even more powerful. But that's just my opinion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 81.106.99.30 URL: http://www.cybertxt.co.uk DATE: 11/11/2003 04:48:48 PM Perhaps it is all a mockery of us...what's with his site at the moment- did i hear right when he said something like: "take the money and run" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: PaulMac EMAIL: paul.macinnes@guardian.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: DATE: 11/13/2003 11:37:37 AM It's not all Salaam's fault tho, he had a production team from Guardian films working with him. Their natural language is that of documentary film, so why it was such a dog's dinner is a little confusing. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On pets... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Television DATE: 11/12/2003 12:30:21 AM ----- BODY:

    So Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was apparently - woo - a tremendous success in the States and everyone was so happy about it and stuff because - ha ha - funny gay men patronising the dumbass straight men - how funny is that!? But now - if the reports are to be believed - then there's going to be a "Straight Eye for the Queer Guy" show coming out, designed to turn the tables back again with - ha ha - hilarious consequences. But some of my gay colleagues are protesting that turning the tables back again isn't really acceptable behaviour... Their argument is that gay people already know enough about straight life - given that they've had to spend many years trying to fit into straight culture while being taught that their lives will be immoral, diseased and short-lived before erupting free from this stigma in a blaze of brightly-coloured taffeta and nicely-tapered trouser-bottoms. Their point is - I suppose - that one's a tasteless misrepresentation, and the other isn't...

    I'm just having trouble figuring out which is which! Because as far as I can see, both of them share one thing in common - a flagrant and blatantly patronising image of gay people as cheery little inoffensive sexless chappies. Well bollocks to that. Bollocks to happy gay people on TV, bollocks to the straight audiences, bollocks to the producers, bollocks to the bloody cameramen, bollocks to any passing trannies. Bollocks, if you will, to absolutely bloody everyone. I'm going to say this once and once only - and I hope it doesn't come as too much of a shock to anyone: It's not just Straight Eye for the Queer guy that will be patronising shit that sells an image of gayness that is damaging and frustratingly bland. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was patronising shit as well.

    I can't really believe that was a shock to anyone, but just in case - I'm sorry for those of you who fell over and hit your head...

    I suppose back in the late eighties, when the prevailing mood was that gay people were diseased perverts that would lead short, shameful and disgusting lives, the idea that we might get portrayed as happy little child-puppets might have been quite appealing. But that time has passed and I think we've all had enough now of that newest of grotesque gay stereotypes archetypes - that of the girl's-best-friend, sexless, happy, home-keeping, stylish queer. I might actually bloody vomit if I see it one more time on television and if I get my greasy hands on Kevin Kline let me reassure you that I'll be giving him a piece of my oh-so-wise, well-tailored and witty gay mind.

    It's not because it's an unpleasant image of homosexual individuals, and it's not because there aren't any gay men that are all smiley and pastel in the world (because there are, and they're lovely). It's just because I'm sick to death with being "understood" by people I meet on as a "good-natured, slightly-dim, fashion-obssessed hysterical best-friend-in-times-of-need" kind of guy on the basis of the representation of 'my kind' in a few shit films and TV shows. There are differences between gay people and straight people - don't get me wrong. But there aren't any scientists world-wide who truly understand what the hell they all are, so why the hell do a twenty minute comedy show going to have a better idea?

    Now I've read my Foucault like the best of them, and I believe him to be right when he says that categorising something is a way of asserting power over it. Hence the creation (and medicalisation) of homosexuality a little over a hundred years ago. And I'm with him on the next step too - that the creation of the category also creates an identity around which the group can rebel, to try and recast itself. But it works the other way around too. We started off as godless, sex-obsessed, dirty monsters and we fought and we've rebelled. And now instead we're god-loving, relationship-focused, kitchen-cleaning princes among men who like little dog, Versace and television where 'we' get to patronise people. Our 'positive' image has already been reincorporated and recontextualised and reconsidered and represented. The tremendous variety of gay male experience - from the most delicate to the most brutal, from the most elegant to the most fierce, from the most diplomatic to the most battle-ready, even from the most tacky to the most trivially crass - all of it is reduced down to the image of gay men as a fussy little child - who plays at 'houses', plays at 'cooking', plays at 'being a man', plays at life.

    Well I want out. And this is where I turn around to face my comrades who loved "Queer Eye" but are cross about its sequel. I say to you that it's not enough that a programme on television should just be ostensibly 'nice' about gay people. It's shouldn't float our boats that some show finds it entertaining to see the happy poofs take the piss out of groups that used to kick our heads in either. If you want some honour in your programming, demand that it shows you a larger variety of truths. Most particularly, demand that it shows you the truth of identity as something negotiated, fought for, forged, lost and potentially rebuilt. Don't let them tell you it's something that you're born with, something inevitable that you'll grow into whatever aspirations you might have. Because identity is a negotiation between the world around you and what nature gave you, mediated by your mind, morals, attitudes and beliefs. It can't be given to you like you'd give a pet a name...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Steinberg EMAIL: tom@mySociety.org IP: 82.69.12.16 URL: http://www.mySociety.org DATE: 11/12/2003 01:32:13 AM Hey - that's really strange. Because when I first heard of the program about 3 months ago, literally the first thought that popped into my head was "I bet we get at least a five paragraph napalm bomb of a rant from Tom Coates about this". I was wrong. It's seven... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.223.145.27 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 11/12/2003 01:50:52 AM While I enjoy the general rant, I'm not sure I can agree with what seems to be the point of it all, which is not to say I don't wish it were true: "Because identity is a negotiation between the world around you and what nature gave you, mediated by your mind, morals, attitudes and beliefs. It can't be given to you like you'd give a pet a name..." Identity can be a negotiation between the world around you and what nature gave you, mediated... but it can also be given to you like you'd give a pet a name. Giving us identity (particularly, but not only, that of passive consumer) and teaching us to accept it like pets accept names is a large part of what mass media does, and (too) many are unaware of this and accept it like pets names, or are just too lazy to do the mediation necessary. Queer people are no more immune to mass media training than straight people, and those queer people who have obviously adopted their identity directly from mass media are no more (or less) sad and annoying than their straight counterparts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex Reynolds EMAIL: reynolda@sas.upenn.edu IP: 68.236.15.195 URL: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~reynolda DATE: 11/12/2003 05:49:25 AM Thank you for writing this! It's nice to know someone else feels the same rage that I do at the constant, patronizing shoeboxing of the gay community by the corporate element. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.243 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 11/12/2003 09:09:05 AM "It's just because I'm sick to death with being "understood" by people I meet on as a "good-natured, slightly-dim, fashion-obssessed hysterical best-friend-in-times-of-need" kind of guy ..." - hey, that's my job Tom, stop hogging it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: blogger@[SPAM]arseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.174 URL: DATE: 11/12/2003 09:55:58 AM Your comments are well made. However, the big question is this: Should I wear the black Prada shirt with these trousers or not? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jaymaster EMAIL: jay.master@virgin.[spam]net IP: 195.107.47.196 URL: http://jaymaster.blogspot.com DATE: 11/12/2003 10:07:22 AM I haven't seen the programme yet, either the UK or US version. Have to admit I would be tempted to watch it and probably alternatively squirm and laugh at the representations of gay and straight men. I agree that this programme will probably present a stereo-typed ësafeí image of gay men. While we do need to recognise that gay men and woman are a diverse bunch we should also be grateful for an image of gay men on TV that is just Mr Humphries or Larry Grayson ñ about the only representations I saw as a kid. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: you@already.know IP: 82.35.58.63 URL: http://momorgan.com/ DATE: 11/12/2003 10:09:09 AM I have to confess to watching the first one of these, if only to see if it would be as bad as it sounded. This seems to be a very confused genre of television. First you define and pigeon-hole the stereotypes you're going to feature, and then you spend the programme blurring the boundaries you've established. But let's be honest, it's got nothing to do with whether the stereotypes accurately reflect all homosexual men or all heterosexual men. It's simply that the TV company wants a show that appeals to the 18-35 female market, and have drawn the conclusion that combining the make-over format with the Stamford character from Sex And The City is a perfect way to persuade L'Oreal et al. to place advertisements. It's mildly interesting that none of the main characters in the format fall into the demographic at which the show is targeted. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tony EMAIL: toeknee%nospamplease%@tamesapien.com IP: 211.29.121.221 URL: http://www.tamesapien.com.weblog/ DATE: 11/12/2003 10:15:48 AM Mix sexuality and self-image and what do you get?. A modern TV show producer's (wet) dream. TV constantly bombards us all with images of what we ARE and this show makes it starkly clear to me that reality television is shit, beyond all comprehension of the word 'shit.' Reality television is...ahh fuck it, it's just not worth talking about because every single person goes through it every single day. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Ashton EMAIL: pete@peteashton.com IP: 62.173.111.102 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 11/12/2003 10:21:04 AM You're right, of course, but surely ALL television is patronising shit? I thought that was the point of mainstream broadcast TV - to patronise and intellectually stunt the audience no matter what orientation it may be. I can't watch these kinds of programs without feeling like my brain is slowly being shredded by a very friendly smiley person making out they're my best friend so I don't think it's unique to Queer Eye. TV - approach with caution. And a big axe. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: plastictrash@become.co.uk IP: 131.111.8.97 URL: http://www.become.co.uk DATE: 11/12/2003 10:52:14 AM So, does that mean you don't like Will & Grace? I thought all gay men loved the positive depiction of yaddah yaddah yaddah Reality is always less glamorous than TV. Escapism is part of life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/12/2003 11:01:44 AM You think real-life people are less glamourous than those people on TV!? Are you mad?! And just to restate my position - I'm not arguing that TV should be all moral and good and stuff - I'm saying that gay people who liked QEFTSG and are complaining about Straight Eye for the Queer Guy should look again at the patronising crap they swallowed so cheerfully in the first place... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/12/2003 11:17:36 AM Oh and by the way - if people are interested in my opinions on Will and Grace, then you can see my much earlier piece on them, which - interestingly - took a completely different position. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 159.134.108.117 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 11/12/2003 12:27:30 PM It's all about flattery though, isn't it? You could take the disinterested view that it is, of course, patronising bullshit - or you could be flattered by the co-option of 'gayness' (in archetypal terms) into the mainstream, which seems to me why Queer Eye has been accepted so widely. Look at it this way - even polio goes down well when it's in a sugar cube. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ray Stone EMAIL: Raymond.Stone@easyjet.com IP: 81.128.146.51 URL: DATE: 11/12/2003 01:55:24 PM Speaking as a straight man, I'm stick of TV producers stereotyping me as having no dress sense, bad hair and not being able to dance. Solution: don't look to TV to supply your gender roles. Try your friends and family instead. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: m.cand@ic.ac.uk IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: DATE: 11/12/2003 03:30:31 PM (Straight guy) Actually I find it hard to understand that the whole concept of the show could be found as not patronising. Maybe in America, where mentioning gay people without describing their eternal damnation in hell is considered social progress... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: spam@o2b.net IP: 63.119.250.4 URL: DATE: 11/12/2003 04:15:43 PM Have you watched the show? Patronizing is the last word I'd use to describe it. The men on the show genuinely strive to make a difference in the lives of the men they work with, sometimes with very touching results. If there is any sense of "better than thou," it is tongue in cheek, and not meant in any hurtful, shameful or spiteful way at all. Amongst reality shows about degradation (Fear Factor), debauchery (Temptation Island) and rejection (any Bachelor-type show), Queer Eye is a fantastic model for good television. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kerry EMAIL: kerry@unfilteredfilms.com IP: 68.120.58.130 URL: DATE: 11/12/2003 06:53:16 PM As someone who works in t.v. development, I first heard about this show 4 months before it hit the airwaves, and as a gay man, I rolled my eyes and thought "oh great... use the fags as entertainment for the straights". Having seen the show a handfull of times, I can say truthfully that I think it moves forward our cause of integration and acceptance -- even though it does show us as sexless and barely a step away from the stereo-types ingrained in the national psyche. I like the show... I like that it indeed has heart and none of the men on it (gay or straight) aren't the butt of any cruel joke. I heard Harvey Firestein talk about "exposure at any cost" when bemoaning the period of time when any and all gay men shown on t.v. or in movies where portrayed as whimpering or suffering or flaming or dangerous. His preference was to at least have a portrayal - even if negative - rather than none at all. Going by that way of thinking, I can easily live with this show and it's portrayal of "my kind". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: a@b.com IP: 65.80.157.43 URL: http://diveintomark.org/ DATE: 11/12/2003 07:18:43 PM I agree with the other commenters who wish you would spend more time actually *watching* the show and less time pigeonholing and stereotyping it yourself. Setting aside the obvious fact that the entire show exists to provide a venue for product placement, these men *actually know what they're doing*. They're passionate about their specialties, and they're good at their jobs. Several of them do this off-screen, for a living. Obviously what ends up on the screen is a watered down version of a much longer production, but from what I've read in interviews of their Straight Guys, these guys really enjoy it, and they really learns a lot from the experience. How often does *that* happen on TV, that men are portrayed as genuinely passionate and good at what they do? That said, I have low hopes for Straight Eye for the Queer Guy, or any other knockoffs that come out in the wake of Queer Eye. Other producers will take the formula, now that it's been established, and lose all that boring "passion" and "genuine talent" stuff, and replace it with something cheaper. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: plastictrash@become.co.uk IP: 131.111.8.103 URL: DATE: 11/12/2003 11:12:05 PM Surely any tv show which that plays on a stereotype for the purposes of entertainment without challenging the stereotype cannot be seen as "groundbreaking"... gay people come in all shapes and sizes. Some dress well. Some dress terribly. On another note, gay male culture seems to demand a certain conformity. I don't see the same happening with lesbian culture. Why? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jean EMAIL: jeangenie_5@hotmail.com IP: 211.29.136.12 URL: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/creativitymachine/ DATE: 11/13/2003 10:39:57 AM erm...not to mention the appropriation of the term "queer" to mean conservative, stylish gay urban *men*. The "how queer are you tests" used for station promos asking how much you know about hair products and cooking utensils... And what would dyke eye for the straight girl look like, I've always wondered. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/13/2003 11:39:22 AM Jesh, i know exactly what you're saying. I tried to spell out that I was talking about their treatment of gay men rather than gay people, because people always seem to make that mistake and I know how incredibly irritating it is. Apologies if I didn't convey that effectively enough. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: PaulMac EMAIL: paul.macinnes@guardian.co.uk IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: DATE: 11/13/2003 11:47:05 AM The whole thing is sad and all, but you could look at it optimistically and see it as the next shift in your Foucaultian cycle of categorisation followed by rebellion. Now gays have been categorised as home-loving, gay men such as yourself are rebelling against it and, in time, this will create another category of gay men. By the year 2900 there may even be as many gay types as there are white straights. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jean EMAIL: jeangenie_5@hotmail.com IP: 211.29.136.12 URL: http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/creativitymachine/ DATE: 11/13/2003 10:56:56 PM Tom - it wasn't a dig at your post. But the topics and themes of your post prove that this appropriation of queer to mean a certain kind of gay man means that discussion and debate naturally tends to be around gay (male) identity most of all. And other queer identities who clamour to be heard end up looking like they are whining to be included in this super cool club. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Luke EMAIL: luke@captainfez.com IP: 203.18.241.5 URL: http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ DATE: 11/14/2003 01:12:21 AM The show's interesting, but predictable. They seem to be certainly skewing it towards the victim's journey from "Oho, I dunno if I want a gay guy seeing me _without my shirt!_" to "Hey, those poofs _are_ kinda cool!". As other posters have mentioned, though, I don't know how much this is a concession to American mores (well, the mores of the average TV viewer). I don't know - diverting is not how I'd label it, but I have a low tolerance for this kind of show. I can understand taking offense at the basic ideas behind the show, given that it's very much an us/them setup (the question of identity neatly sidestepped in this here, obviously), but in the end I think it's about on par (in terms of repugnance) with some of the other makeover/comp shows on air. This one focuses on revision of identity instead of greed, however - that's what I'd say the major difference is. Straight men take notice, however: if *I* can learn to dance without the help of a team of advisors - gay OR straight - then so can you! Buck that trend! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jesse EMAIL: tryturkey@yahoo.com IP: 66.126.168.205 URL: http://turkeydinner.net DATE: 11/14/2003 05:25:55 PM As a straight man who is often confused for gay, I have to say that I enjoyed your post, Tom. For me, the reasons people have found me to be "gay" are all superficial and stereotypical and have been expressed by those both straight and gay; I'm "stylish," I like to cook, I'm sensitive, I'm not too interested in sports, and, my personal favorite, I'm "nice." So for me, Queer Eye embodies the extremes of sexual identity and for me to find myself in it, I have to someone combine aspects of the "fab five" and the hapless "macho" guy who's dad didn't hug him enough. I'm rather put off by both stereotypes as well. Also, I'm having trouble seeing how the spin-off would work. When does a gay man need to act more "straight?" If it's for job interviews, I'll be very upset. Finally, I like how you mentioned Foucault, neat! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.74 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 11/15/2003 12:29:28 AM Only just read this post. Haven't seen the show, but the whole programme sounds utterly execrable (and yes, that is an uninformed opinion - but I read your post, so now I am informed, aren't I?) :-) This gay stereotype thing is . . . argh, it just makes my blood boil. Oh, and I seem to have run out of any decent way of putting my annoyance into words - but then you probably noticed that. Right, I'm off to spend the evening on the phone talking to all my girlfriends about relationship advice, because that's what I do, isn't it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: nospam@spam.com IP: 209.28.174.62 URL: DATE: 11/18/2003 03:49:30 PM six feet under is a show you might like... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rachel EMAIL: rachel@diluted.org IP: 129.2.237.141 URL: http://diluted.org DATE: 11/21/2003 01:28:17 PM "Straight Eye for the Queer Guy" is going to be a one-hour special (probably in time for February sweeps), not a new show itself. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be just as stereotypical of straight guys as "Queer Eye" is thought by many to be of gay guys - some reports have joked about having experts in power tools, (American) football, etc. It sounds fairly benign to me. Of course, it remains to be seen if it will actually be funny. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: opa@opacodex.com IP: 67.9.145.26 URL: http://www.opacodex.com DATE: 11/21/2003 10:35:04 PM For a related topic, read this great discussion on gay identity: http://www.livejournal.com/users/minuhcare/17098.html Don't forget to open up the individual threads. They're all wonderful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ricky EMAIL: riverica@hotmail.com IP: 66.152.229.163 URL: DATE: 12/01/2003 03:58:18 PM i don't understand what you want people to get from your post other than you would rather not have any gays on tv. so what they boys on queer eye are a bit over-the-top. please do not tell me you don't know any gays who are exactly like the queer eye boys. the show is not meant to represent every homo out there man. get over yourself. there are gay killers, lovers, fashion victims, doctors, lawyers, artists, ugly, pretty, masculine, fem, ... you get my point? we can't be represented in every way. we will never be represented in every way because we are just people. the point is that we are represented and that people know we are here, queer and they need to get used to it. as a matter of a fact i think you might see yourself represented more than you lead your readers to believe. you might be an exact matchg to one of the guys in that show and are clearly offended because the truth hurts. all i see in the show is a straight man having no problems hanging with these guys regardless of how queenie they seem to be. to me, this is a good thing. as far the new show it would probably make more sense to do a show called "queer eye for the gay guy". i know quite a bit of messy gay boys who don't have a clue. --- fyi: i am one of those guys nobody believes to be gay. "you, gay? nooooooooo" is the usual reaction. but you know what? i let them know i'm just a regular joe and gay. this works for me cause i'm spreading the gospel. get over it! work with it. play it out baby. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ricky EMAIL: riverica@hotmail.com IP: 66.152.229.163 URL: DATE: 12/01/2003 04:09:56 PM man with all i was saying i forgot to tell you that your site is fantastic and you are adorable. keep up the good work. ricky ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mercurior EMAIL: martin05051973@yahoo.com IP: 195.93.34.8 URL: http://mercurior.blogspot.com DATE: 12/12/2003 12:02:57 PM this show is being shown over in england.. it gets me that some people thing just because a man is gay.. he has style no we are all different a few of my gay friends dress like complete slobs, some dress wow i i say wow they can pull it off i cant.. we wear what we feel comfortable in.. so what if what i wear isnt "fashionable" i am comfortable in it.. its the trying to make everyone the same i object too.. so what if i dress like a goth.. doesnt bother me.. (i love black)but to be told to change by people who havent lived like me.. is just plain wrong ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: simon EMAIL: canalstreet01@hotmail.com IP: 81.79.72.149 URL: http://simonmanc.jablog.com DATE: 09/19/2004 02:56:19 PM I wholeheartedly agree that this show is patronising shite! ----- PING: TITLE: the brunswick st ute muster URL: http://grudnuk.com/vm/2003/11/12.html#001262 IP: 150.101.214.94 BLOG NAME: Virulent Memes DATE: 11/12/2003 01:08:33 AM Tom lets rip on Queer Eye For The Straight Guy: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was patronising shit. Straight Eye for the Queer Guy will be (you guessed it) patronising shit. Back in the late eighties, when the prevailing... ----- PING: TITLE: Don't You Think I Look Cute In This Hat, These Little Pants, This Matching Tie... URL: http://www.doyoufeelloved.com/blog/archives/2003_11.html#000380 IP: 66.33.193.54 BLOG NAME: Do You Feel Loved? DATE: 11/12/2003 03:45:09 AM I can't recall if I've ever registered my thoughts on it here on this weblog, so let's get it out... ----- PING: TITLE: critical eye for identity URL: http://www.theonlyjuan.net/000265.html IP: 66.216.124.46 BLOG NAME: theonlyjuan.net DATE: 11/12/2003 03:49:16 AM Tom Coates has composed a lengthy rant on identity as related to the 'Queer Eye For...' and the recently announced 'Straight Eye For The Queer Guy' shows, 'Will & Grace' (implicitly, at least), and the... ----- PING: TITLE: Identity and world URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/archives/001505.html IP: 63.247.132.5 BLOG NAME: Mercurial DATE: 11/25/2003 02:30:00 PM Tom starts on a rant about "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", and ends with this incredible valid and thoughtful... ----- PING: TITLE: Modelizer URL: http://www.cultivatedstupidity.com/archives/2004_02.html#000190 IP: 66.33.213.22 BLOG NAME: Cultivated Stupidity DATE: 02/05/2004 05:41:31 AM I have come to the brutal, searing, and, frankly, disgusting truth that I enjoy reality television. Let me clarify what I mean by reality television--I don't include anything on BBC America or TLC (if I did, I would be ruined... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More on 15" Powerbook screens... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/12/2003 03:14:23 PM ----- BODY:

    This is probably well known by now, but according to a friend of mine who is still trying to work out whether to get the 12" or 15" Apple Powerbook, he's been advised by a man he talked to at a London Apple Centre that a 15" variety will take longer to be delivered because Apple have accepted there's a problem with the screen getting brighter spots on it. Apparently they've definitely ceased production while they look into it. This is probably extremely good news for those of us who have a Powerbook with this problem, and it might explain why I have still not received my return voucher, over a week and a half after I rang them up. I'll be checking up on this later, but I thought I should probably share the news. If anyone has more information on the subject, please feel free to add links in the comments.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamison EMAIL: jamison@cruzscene.com IP: 64.166.246.12 URL: http://www.sourcreamzengarden.com/ DATE: 11/16/2003 04:07:24 PM It is always advisable not to buy the first generation of an Apple Product that is manufactured overseas (er, in Taiwan, I should be more explicit) by third party manufacturers. There is always some kind of major problem (like the eMac monitor issue, the original PowerBook G4 had that issue where the batter would loose contact when the machine got warm, the new 15" display and kernel panic issues, etc...) Apple moved manufacturing overseas (from the US) years ago as a cost saving measure, of course in doing so they gave up tight quality control. Meanwhile the PowerMac G5 is assembled right here in California and hasn't had the same level of issues of other first generation machines. go figure. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Secret Santa 2003 is launched... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/12/2003 05:56:51 PM ----- BODY:

    So Secret Santa 2003 has launched. For those of you who are newbies, the point remains the same - you give us details of your site and your wishlist and then on December the 10th we send them out to another person elsewhere on the web who buys you a present. You get someone else's details and buy them a present. Everyone gets a present! Everyone's happy!

    This is Santa's third year, and Cal, Denise and I are back to serving just the weblogging / personal publishing community. It's only right and proper given that's the community that we're part of and care most about. And Secret Santa has generally been a tremendous success. Over the last two years over 1,000 presents were sent out to people, promoting peace love and general loveliness all over the world - from Japan to Germany!

    This year the one most obvious difference is that I've rewritten the copy so that the vast majority of it is now in bad poetry. I'd like to apologise to you all for this straightaway, particularly to the UI, usability and editorial professionals out there who probably won't appreciate how hard it is to put clear instructions into groups of rhyming eight-syllable sentences and will just concentrate on the "It's not very good" aspect of the whole enterprise...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 207.140.66.1 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 11/13/2003 02:50:49 PM Where do I susbscribe? And what can I ask, because, I mean, a laptop is kind of expensive. A new job is SFO? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Keogh EMAIL: jvk@mac.com IP: 80.177.117.180 URL: http://www.enkil.demon.co.uk/blog.html DATE: 11/14/2003 07:03:41 PM I always meant to join this scheme But was too late - a private meme. But your short rhymes did me ensnare Like annuals of Rupert Bear! ----- PING: TITLE: Secret Santa URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/archives/001486.html IP: 63.247.132.5 BLOG NAME: Mercurial DATE: 11/13/2003 02:49:12 PM Are we, as community, making our own myths and cosmogonies? Tom reminds us that the Secret Santa for this year... ----- PING: TITLE: 2003/12/22 17:30 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=3935 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 12/22/2003 05:45:11 PM Okay...We Get It....You Love The Holidays ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More Secret Santa poetry... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/13/2003 10:09:40 AM ----- BODY:
    Weblogger south, Weblogger north!
    Come hear my tale of Christmas glee...
    Which this year shall be much in rhyme
    (I'm sorry and please bear with me...)

    A mount so high it touches space;
    Within: a massive darkened cave,
    Wherein a sharp and pointy race
    Of tiny elves has been enslaved...

    And in the centre, Mrs Claus -
    A tower of computer might
    (And built for no apparent cause)
    Stands passive in the candlelight.

    Beside her there's a silhouette
    A disconnected robot form
    Who waits each year for holidays
    The chance to serve and be reborn.

    But then, what's this? The Yule alarm!?
    A klaxxon sounds throughout the lair
    And with a twitch, the robot's arm
    Thrusts holly fistfuls in the air!

    He stands, a monster, next the flames
    That every year before hath burned.
    And lo! His robot voice proclaims
    That SECRET SANTA HAS RETURNED!
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cloggs EMAIL: katie.clogs@btinternet.com IP: 81.128.207.166 URL: DATE: 11/14/2003 11:05:05 AM Site not clear on who it's aimed at. Is it the general public or bloggers? Looks pretty though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/14/2003 12:40:06 PM It's for people with personal sites. They don't have to be webloggers, but they need to have some kind of site, so that people have a contact point. ----- PING: TITLE: Secret Santa URL: http://ulterior.razorhead.co.uk/archives/000302.html IP: 213.239.45.196 BLOG NAME: Ulterior DATE: 11/14/2003 03:35:20 PM I am rather excited to hear, via Plasticbag, about Secret Santa '03. I take a rather perverse delight in buying people a random thing from their wishlist (its like stalking by credit card), so I too will be a secret... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A window of opportunity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/14/2003 10:42:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Oh my god! I've got a whole week off. What on earth am I going to do with myself? I mean I've got lots of forms and bills to sort out, and no clean clothes and a flat like a pig-sty and I actually still have some work hanging over my head which I'm going to try and get done tomorrow morning so I don't have to think about it any more (although I have a sneaking suspicion it'll still be with me at the end of the week). I'm also going to Norfolk for my brother's eighteenth birthday (which is so weird and exciting and strange) and four hours after work has ended, I've already got things tumbling out of my head almost uncontrollably. Two site sketches down on paper, plans for redesigns, bits of jottings taking shape, social software things. And I even have this urge to go out and get drunk and maybe go dancing or something. I never feel like that. I wonder where I can find nice fun people to play with...

    One thing that I probably won't have time to do is to think around the landmark east project. It seems to me that those of us with insane creative web-building urges should be able to contribute to something like that in some way. Maybe something using ubiquitous computing, or feeding in contributions to the public and turning into something physical and manifest automatically. Or maybe some kind of collaborative architecture experience - like that font project that was around a few years back, where individuals came to a page and turned one pixel on or off, trying gradually to assemble some kind of alphabetic glyph. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could create a structure, a landmark, a monument like that? Chunk by chunk, brick by brick, curve by curve... Together. The manifestation of a people.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On dimly remembered books from childhood... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/14/2003 11:24:50 PM ----- BODY:

    Did anyone read a book when they were a kid that had two teenagers running through a forest, touching a piece of ball lightning and being transported to Ancient Rome? I remember one bit distinctly - the two boys being surprised when they realise they're in Rome because where they come from it's called "Reme" after the brother Remus rather than Romulus. I'm only asking because I stumbled upon a post on Fiona's site which suggested using Amazon to find the name of dimly-remembered books. Only I can't find it. If no one has any idea, could you someone please pop into Wroxham library and see if it's still in the kids book section after twenty years. Thanks!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Baio EMAIL: log@waxy.org IP: 4.38.40.170 URL: http://waxy.org/ DATE: 11/15/2003 12:09:10 AM Terry Pratchett's Strata. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Baio EMAIL: log@waxy.org IP: 4.38.40.170 URL: http://waxy.org/ DATE: 11/15/2003 12:19:41 AM On second thought, probably not. Terry Pratchett was one of several authors to use the Rome/Reme gimmick to define differences between parallel worlds. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/15/2003 12:26:59 AM It very definitely wasn't a Terry Pratchett book. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: SobaFett EMAIL: SobaFett@mac.com IP: 209.6.203.235 URL: http://www.pcahnphoto.com DATE: 11/15/2003 09:45:42 PM You're probably thinking of Fireball, by John Christopher. I may still have a copy on my bookshelf. I remember reading all of his books that I could get my hands on, after seeing a bit on The White Mountains on tv. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Wilkin EMAIL: mark_wilkin@hotmail.com IP: 213.86.197.188 URL: http://www.pagga.com/log/log.html DATE: 11/16/2003 01:59:13 PM I can't help you with the title but I think there was a sequel where they explore America after starting a revolution by the Christian church in Europe in the first book. It's all to do with them introducing longbows I seem to remember. The sequal has them escaping from Vikings into the hands of the Aztecs I think. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rollo EMAIL: rollo@schvtrn.com IP: 172.189.8.29 URL: http://www.schvtrn.com/rollo/blogger.html DATE: 11/17/2003 07:45:06 PM I don't think this is the one you're thinking of but... a couple of days ago I was reading 'The Secret School' by Whitley Strieber. Fireballs or ball-lighting crop up a lot, and being transported to Ancient Rome... but it just happens to one boy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@venusberg.org IP: 217.44.138.29 URL: http://www.venusberg.org DATE: 11/27/2003 01:00:40 AM FWIW, I think it *is* fireball...I remember reading it. There's a bit, IIRC, where somebody asks one of the boys if he is (what he interprets as) a "foggy tea wash", that is a fugitivus or escaped slave. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If people don't notice it, it's not architecture... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 11/15/2003 11:57:42 AM ----- BODY:

    I've just caught up on my Dreamspaces and been confronted with a conundrum. In a piece about brutalist architecture, they featured the Tricorn centre in Portsmouth. Here's a picture of the building in question:

    Now, this building hasn't had the most illustrious of histories. It was built in 1966, given an award in 1967 and voted Britain's fourth ugliest building in 1968. It is generally reviled by the public and will not be protected by government by being listed. But when the architect - Rodney Gordon - is asked about the general distaste towards his building, he replies:

    "Well I'm very surprised. A lot of people liked the building. One thing I do find is that any piece of architecture worth being called architecture is usually both hated and loved. If people don't notice it, it's not architecture."

    That last phrase seems extraordinary to me - stunning in its arrogance and audacity and completely in opposition to most of the understandings of design and architecture that I've accumulated over the last ten years. That kind of ostentatious statement of impact above function was given up within the first ten years of web design. What Gordon is talking about is the construction of follies - buildings with little or no function but to inspire and awe. Unworkable spaces, unusable spaces. We have them on the web too - sometimes even intentionally - either as art or design showcases or as image-based impactful press prelease or advertising spaces. But this is different. This is a site - a space - designed for shopping and socialising that wants desperately to be innovative and impressive - the architect all the while dismissing the subtle and less overt arts of flows and usability, building things that are not scaled for humans or comprehensible to them. All the things that allow a place to be understood by people are dismissed as unworthy of the name of architecture. And why - because the building must be noticed... It's stunning. It's terrible. And I'm fairly sure it's wrong.

    If you're interested in the Tricorn:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt@frownland.com IP: 82.39.112.71 URL: http://www.frownland.com DATE: 11/15/2003 12:16:38 PM Was it not Owen Luder who designed this building? He also designed the equally loved/hated Gateshead shopping centre/car park/nightclub (made famous by Get Carter) - http://www.rmaz.co.uk/ghp.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/15/2003 12:21:47 PM I think Owen Luder and partners was the company that designed the building, and that Rodney Gordon was the specific architect behind it. Does anyone have any more information around this? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Grove-Stephensen EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 81.134.43.116 URL: http://www.chalkface.com DATE: 11/15/2003 01:32:02 PM "That kind of ostentatious statement of impact above function was given upwithin the first ten years of web design" - Now that's a fascinating observation. What's the difference that made the difference between architecture and web design? I would suggest it is the ease with which success can be measured in web design. Architects, by contrast, are not in the habit of measuring the usage their buildings get once they have been completed, and even if they did they have no valid standard for comparison because large buildings in particular enjoy a local monopoly of function. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave S. EMAIL: dave@mezzoblue.com IP: 24.84.168.162 URL: http://www.mezzoblue.com/ DATE: 11/15/2003 06:55:17 PM "That kind of ostentatious statement of impact above function was given upwithin the first ten years of web design" - That's the phrase that got my attention too. While it's true there's a resurgent movement under way that puts function over form, one has merely to browse through such style-over-substance breeding grounds as K10k, DiK, PixelSurgeon or the like to see that the guys at the top of the food chain still aren't on board. Don't get me wrong, the work there is truly the best of the best; in that pretty, shiny, useless sort of way that fueled the career of many a pop idol chanteuse with implants. Oh, and URLs of course. www.k10k.net - www.designiskinky.com - www.pixelsurgeon.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex Schroeder EMAIL: alex@emacswiki.org IP: 217.162.143.215 URL: http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/ DATE: 11/16/2003 07:17:45 PM I like the building on the picture; and in a way I think what the architect says is true, and your comparison to web design an oversimplification. Because we *do* value good design; and good design needs not to be plain ("forgettable"). Design should, however, not impair usability, and this is where many web designers got it wrong and are still getting it wrong. The question to ask, therefore, is this: Does the design of the building make it unsuitable for "shopping and socialising"? If it can achieve both -- be a work of art *and* usable, more power to the architect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.114.97 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/17/2003 12:16:29 AM I think your description of good design as 'not plain' is completely wrong. Is a Post-It flashy? Is a well-designed toothbrush necessarily glamourous? That they be attractive is at most a third of the aspirations of good design/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Witold Riedel EMAIL: witold@zuper.com IP: 69.22.228.245 URL: http://www.witoldriedel.com DATE: 11/17/2003 05:25:47 AM caves were a good idea... and trees... could usability develop with a species?... "You use best, what you use most." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Sauer-Thompson EMAIL: thoughtfactory@iprimus.com.au IP: 211.26.57.75 URL: http://sauer-thompson.com/junkforcode DATE: 11/18/2003 01:33:03 AM Tom, your comment about a late corporate modernists being indifferent to the people flows and sociability is spot on. That is about lived context and sensitivity to life on the street. Both were not a modernist strongpoint since their emphasis was on the built form. On pure form and honesty to materials? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: mail@mattswanton.com IP: 62.49.28.181 URL: http://www.mattswanton.com DATE: 12/15/2003 07:55:53 PM Rodney was just trying to be polite to all those stupid people who don't understand great architecture. I am stupefied by your comments. Have you ever been to the tricorn? I have, i live 5 minutes away from it. I also got a first in architecture. So Iím pretty well informed to talk about it. The design was based around a cas-bah. Meaning that there was variation and choice with movement and appearance. It is a very intelligent piece of architecture. As for the aesthetics. Well it is in a long tradition of brutalist architecture. The British weather hasn't been that kind. Cobraís buildings in chandagarh have faired better. Mainly because they are much more respected but India than in England. But that is no surprise considering the crap that is built here. We produce the worldís best architects and the world most mundane crap architecture. Go figure!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/16/2003 09:20:18 AM I'm afraid - unlike with art or product design or websites or whatever - I'm less tolerant of architecture that can only be appreciated by other architects. As far as I'm concerned it's the height of arrogance to place your personal aesthetic vision over that of a whole community who are going to be forced to live with, in and around the structures you have made. Most websites, most art, most products have readily available alternatives - so if they're not what people want to use, then they'll choose something else. But I'm afraid they don't have that choice with the Tricorn. If people dislike the environment, if it encourages crime, littering, if it seems to generate urban decay, if people desperately want it ripped down, then there are a lot of arguments you can make for why they are wrong, but if you're relying on the "I'm an architect and I know best" approach, then I have no sympathy with your position whatsoever. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jeannie kerswell EMAIL: jeanniekerswell@hotmail.com IP: 81.105.175.41 URL: DATE: 12/18/2003 03:44:35 PM I have the public art commision for a section of the Tricorn hoardings. I am currently compiling quotes, opinions and memories of the building for inclusion in the artwork. The artwork comprises of four sections, love/hate (opinions on the building, Flashback- memories of Grannies/ basins- The Tricorn Club, also memories of rading/shopping experiences, and Bright ideas- fantasy or realistic for the existing building/ redevelopment of the site itself. This has been publisised on TV and radio and I have dooe several walk abouts and targeted specific groups for comments. I would like to make contact with people responding/ author of the site. i am unable to lift commnets fromt the site due to copyright and intellectual property rights. Please contact me direst by emailing me. jeanniekerswell@hotmail.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jeannie Kerswell EMAIL: jeanniekerswell@hotmail.com IP: 81.96.45.214 URL: DATE: 01/20/2004 11:23:15 AM The Tricorn debate lives on. Tom Dyckhoff has an article in The Times. 2oth January 2004 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt swanton EMAIL: mail@mattswanton.com IP: 62.49.28.181 URL: DATE: 01/20/2004 12:26:40 PM "As far as I'm concerned it's the height of arrogance to place your personal aesthetic vision over that of a whole community who are going to be forced to live with." Fine! Go live in your introspective plastic malls with no decay and no life. I think i'll opt out of that one though if you don't mind. I'd rather live in the tricorn. I don't disagree that architects can sometimes have strong opinions and visions.But this is a case of the portsmouth council, mike hancock and the developers not having any of their own opinions about the spaces. Just the wish to create a highly profitable shed formed on the opinions of millions of questionaires. Buildings should be heroic and powerful. Not just a collage of a million conflicting opinions and agendas. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.174.216.230 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/20/2004 01:51:35 PM That a building should be heroic and powerful is certainly a worthy aspiration. That it should be heroic and powerful while being hated by the hundreds of thousands of people who end up using it is clearly NOT a worthy aspiration. Now I'm not going to argue with you about the possibilities of architecture - although I could quibble with the idea that all architecture should be there to be noticed (should all plumbing / wiring / sewering etc be there to be noticed as well? should that all be 'heroic' or is there another aspiration, that they should work perfectly and effortlessly around people elegantly and beaufully - whether visibly or not). But even if I go along with you and say that the aspiration really is to create buildings that are heroic and powerful - that are products of innovation and vision - still you have to agree that these buildings should also be comprehensible human spaces that people enjoy operating within? That's my only point. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt swanton EMAIL: mail@mattswanton.com IP: 62.49.28.181 URL: DATE: 01/20/2004 04:35:57 PM come on stop it, give your self a slap. What building that was never completed, never moved into and new used and that has been left to rot for 35 years is every going to be admired by the majority. Have you ever been to the tricorn? In the places where it hasn't been boarded up, there are glimses of the wonderful spaces it creates. For instance it take whole streets and lifts they up so that people can wander and shop while getting lots of daylight and having full and amazing views over the island Not just inward looking shopping precints that focus people on just to become a rat shopping for crap. It created vistas that lead people suggestivly around the huge tray and ramps which resemble swans kissing. It gives the shopper a new world in which to shop. It is breathtaking. Stop being argumentative for the sake of it, your arguments do not hold water. If the building had been allowed to function then you could post rationalise over its problems. This is not the vision that should be for the tricorn. The building will be knocked down without ever having fulfilled its potential. We are talking about architecture on a world scale. There is so little to boast about in england and yet what we have through innovative decisions in the 60's will now be replaced by banal economics. We really should do something!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.174.217.223 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/20/2004 05:50:36 PM I don't respond well to being told that my honestly held beliefs are just trolling for arguments, so be grateful you're getting a reply at all. As far as I'm concerned my argument completely holds water. For god's sake, we're not talking about a building that has just been left to rot that people have come to dislike over time, we're talking about a building that was voted the fourth ugliest building in the UK two years after its creation! You might love it, but that view was NOT SHARED by the vast majority of people who had to use it! But I'm getting off the point, since my piece was arguing against his position that spectacle isn't the primary point of architecture. My position instead was that architecture that doesn't provide a workable space for people to operate within and that people are forced to inhabit regardless isn't architecture - or at least is bad architecture. I honestly consider it scandalous that an architect can operate on the assumption that the thing they're creating is a visual / aesthetic experience first and a functioning one secondarily. And that's what he said - that architecture is about spectacle, not pragmatism. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave W EMAIL: admin@outoftheshadows.port5.com IP: 172.151.19.78 URL: http://outoftheshadows.port5.com DATE: 01/29/2004 12:34:34 AM i am a photographer specializing in disused urban buildings such as Whitecroft mental Asylum on the isle of wight, i have visited the Tricorn a few times and i agree that where the structure is not boarded-up coverd in graffiti and dirt you can see that it is actually a wonderfull design, the structure lifts the user into the air and the bold rough boarded concrete gives a definate boundary between the designed space and the open space, having visited the interior of the building several times during the past 3 years i agree that at present it is not exactly the taj mahal. in the 60s and 70s taste in buildings changed very quickly and i believe that if the Tricorn was refurbished today it could be a sucess, once the space was clearly defined as a usefull structure and not a canvass for graffiti peoples attitudes to the building would change. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: mail@mattswanton.com IP: 62.49.28.181 URL: http://www.mattswanton.com DATE: 02/03/2004 10:25:46 PM dave, well put. i have to admit, firends that aren't inot architecture find it very difficult to look pass the hoardings.dirt decay and grafitti. But when you do it is pretty heady stuff. We don't build like that any more. Even the so called trendy architects like future systems are intent on removing the aging process from buildings. Lords cricket ground is hygiene gone crazy and as for the selfriges in brum!! looks like a big arse!! I'll keep the site informed asto the goings with the tricorn. Hopefully it will get spot listed and then people will look seriously at making it work finally! visit architectureshowcase.co.uk for architecture in the southcoast ( shameless plug, sorry!) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave W (again!) EMAIL: admin@outoftheshadows.port5.com IP: 194.203.22.154 URL: http://outoftheshadows.port5.com DATE: 02/26/2004 10:19:01 AM just to say i visited the tricorn on tuesday & spent four hours wandering around inside(yes i know the hoardings are there for a reason but its not enough to keep me out of such a interesting building)apart from almost killing myself in the process of getting to the top carpark it was very enjoyable. when it is empty and quiet it is easy to see the beauty in the maze of concrete. and some of the interiors of the flats (i think, it was inside the two story block on the first car deck away from the other decks)it seemed to be a entrance to the flats or something with a beautifull alloy staircase looked really nice (i will put some photos on the web soon) does anyone know the actual date of the demolition? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lerrup EMAIL: lerrup@lerrups.co.uk IP: 62.171.194.45 URL: DATE: 03/11/2004 02:14:35 PM The problem with the Tricorn was that it was not an intelligent piece of architecture, but that it was a piece of architecture for architectural fashion followers. This type of neo-brutalisim just doesn't work and while it may have been inspired in some distant way by a casbah, it wasn't created to function like one. For God's sake the few flats that were incorporated in it were uninhabitable. Designing something that doesn't fulfill its function does not come within my category of intelligent. I fully agree that most shopping places are unthought through pieces of po-mo trash. The alternative that we should be arguing for is not the preservation of past mistakes and disfunctional blind allies but things that are beautiful and work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave W EMAIL: admin@outoftheshadows.port5.com IP: 194.203.22.154 URL: DATE: 03/11/2004 06:55:45 PM ITS GOING :-( RIP TRICORN WE WILL MISS YOU ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave w EMAIL: admin@outoftheshadows.port5.com IP: 194.203.22.154 URL: DATE: 03/11/2004 07:04:16 PM if anyone wants any photos of the interior of the tricorn buildings (inside the bars and the lazer quest arena) give me a mail to admin@outoftheshadows.port5.com all photos taken within the last two weeks ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@obayda.com IP: 81.128.168.210 URL: DATE: 03/17/2004 01:25:06 AM Firstly, It was Rodney Gordon who designed the Tricorn, but he was employed by Owen Luder Partnership to do so. He only designed a small handful of buildings during his brief employment there, including the Gateshead carpark. Owen Luder's job was to negotiaite the brief with the client and the planners. Secondly, i hope everyone has seen the proposals for what will soon replace the Tricorn. Get ready to cast your votes for the new ugliest building in Britain. At least the Tricorn was brave enough to point the way towards new architecture (Lloyds Building and High Tech etc). No other shopping centre in britain has, for better or worse, made any contribution to architectural debate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Tucker EMAIL: willTucker@hotmail.co.uk IP: 212.137.19.134 URL: DATE: 03/24/2004 02:22:07 PM Finally, good riddance from today. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: worldoftheshadows EMAIL: worldoftheshadows@yahoo.co.uk IP: 81.134.196.202 URL: http://www.worldoftheshadows.tk DATE: 04/09/2004 04:28:31 PM on sunday the 3rd april i and a student at portsmouth uni managed to get inside the flats and department store (all 4 levels of it) the flats were amazing and VERY dated the department store was interesting and even contained escalators, we explored nearly all of the site including the roofs of the flats/office block and the interiors of the warehouses and shops, i have some of the photos i took on my site at: http://www.worldoftheshadows.tk dv video will be uploaded soon along with many more photos. the demolition team are demolishing the tricorn from the centre outwards and have removed all the trees from the square and demolished the stairway and lift shaft that went from the square up to the nightclub building. if your interested in the tricorn or like my site let me know by signing my guest book at http;//www.worldoftheshadows.tk or emailing me worldoftheshadows@yahoo.co.uk ----- PING: TITLE: just exploring URL: http://www.sauer-thompson.com/junkforcode/archives/001108.html IP: 63.247.141.221 BLOG NAME: Junk for Code DATE: 11/17/2003 01:50:42 PM Just been exploring around after reading Barista & Bonyton and quickly skimmed things magazine as I followed the trail to ----- PING: TITLE: Notice Architecture URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/reading/2003_11.php#002251 IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Reading DATE: 11/17/2003 02:52:14 PM A fine riposte to Tom's post on the Tricorn. I too found Rodney Gordon's claim that 'if people don't notice... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Whoa, look at all the cool shit I missed... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/15/2003 08:26:52 PM ----- BODY:

    You know, the reason why you'll be seeing odds and sods turning up in the linklog that have been all around the interhighweb three or four times is that it's very uncommon for me to post something until I've read it properly. That's why I'm linking to Why tables for layout is stupid now even though - you know - you've all bloody read it already. My long-established stash of links is gradually being sorted out and worked through and you can expect more blasts from the extremely recent past to be clogging up the old P.B. before the end of the weekend...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Vint and Bob show... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/19/2003 11:41:14 AM ----- BODY:

    I had the opportunity yesterday to go to Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn Meet the BBC at RIBA in London. I took comprehensive notes of the event, if anyone's interested. The part that got me most excited was the work that Vint is doing to extend the internet across the rest of the solar system - starting with Mars. More on that story:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 11:01 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/031119a.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 11/21/2003 11:09:41 AM Will there be a .mars? Vint Cerf ponders the question, and NetworkWorldFusion takes notes. [ via Tom Coates ]... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Off to Norfolk... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/20/2003 01:13:13 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm off to Norfolk for a few days to visit my family and celebrate my little brother's eighteenth birthday. Updates are likely to be vaguely sporadic until Sunday, but hopefully I'll spend some of the time writing up some of the stuff that's coursing around my head for posting upon my return. In the meantime, here's some snippets of Norfolk-related plastic-baggery:

    And just to set the mood a bit more, here are some pictures from around my village, taken this summer (around the time of my birthday):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: A walk around the blogosphere block URL: http://tonytalkstech.com/2003/11/a_walk_around_the_blogosphere_block.php IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Technically Speaking DATE: 11/27/2003 06:36:09 AM Today I am trying to follow links from one site, through many sites, leading back to my own. I have know idea where I will be going or what I will see, but I expect it to be quite a journey. I'm going to start with one of the greatest linkers I know - ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On intellectual performance anxiety..? STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/24/2003 12:53:34 AM ----- BODY:

    I think the most upsetting part of having a week-long holiday 'to get things done' is that when it's over and you look back at what you've accomplished, you're inevitably disappointed. When you look at sites that you'd planned to update every day and haven't updated for weeks even when you had nothing obviously else to do, then that's just got to be gutting - you've got to be failing somehow. I might have to be honest with the world and state that Everything in Moderation is likely to be a highly sporadic venture - a name under which I can put up articles or posts as and when the mood strikes me, rather than something that I can legitimately maintain on a daily basis.

    It's very depressing and I think it's wrapped up in a whole range of other things that are drifting around in my head at the moment about how people justify less-than-immediately-easy-to-organise social events, plans, schemes, hobbies and the like. Don't they feel guity about not trying to make / build / write / achieve something? I know that I do - profoundly guilty - which unfortunately is beginning to have the effect of causing me to become effectively totally blocked. My head is teeming with stuff I want to do pretty much all the time - teeming so much that it's beginning to feed upon itself. Achieving non-work-related mental clarity and useful working states is also becoming harder as the stuff gets backed up, because now every thing I do takes too long when put against the other five things I should be doing at the same moment. I'm perpetually distracted. It's getting aggravating.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the UK Webloggers Christmas Party... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/26/2003 07:47:41 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm pretty much promoting this one to death at the moment, but just in case someone using RSS feeds to read my site has missed the enormous plug I'm giving this event on my site at the moment, there's a UK Webloggers Christmas Party to be held in London's fashionable Farringdon district this coming weekend. Details follow:
    Venue: Downstairs at the Well
    When: This coming Saturday 29th November from 7.00pm
    How do you find it? There's a helpful map!
    Organised by: That lovely chap from Funjunkie.co.uk

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: sapientum@lineone.net IP: 81.152.117.227 URL: http://www.sapientum.com DATE: 11/26/2003 09:23:20 PM Thanks for that, I found out about the party only from reading your RSS feed so your plan worked. Not sure if I can get along though, I am supposed to be celebrating at a birthday party here in Oxford. Please send my apologies. ----- PING: TITLE: A Family Thanksgiving URL: http://boifromtroy.com/archives/000563.php IP: 209.12.212.35 BLOG NAME: BoiFromTroy DATE: 01/25/2004 12:05:34 AM Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Without much to do before heading to the gym this afternoon and the Valley for some turkey tonight, I offer the following roundup of posts from the "Gay Mafia"--my induction into which I am thankful to... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On disturbing status messages... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/26/2003 11:02:35 PM ----- BODY:

    Having finally been forced to join tribe.net by a friend, I swiftly started to build up my personal network. That is until I realised that the connections it helped maintain between people were rather more alarming and invasive than I had initially thought:

    I should point out (I have been forced to point out) that Stewart wasn't the friend I was initially talking about. That was someone quite quite different.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: A walk around the blogosphere block URL: http://tonytalkstech.com/2003/11/a_walk_around_the_blogosphere_block.php IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Technically Speaking DATE: 11/27/2003 06:36:17 AM Today I am trying to follow links from one site, through many sites, leading back to my own. I have know idea where I will be going or what I will see, but I expect it to be quite a journey. I'm going to start with one of the greatest linkers I know - ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A penny for your thoughts isn't worth it... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/28/2003 11:04:51 AM ----- BODY:

    Intriguing Barbelith fact: Each post currently costs around 1 pence (UK), or precisely 1.6213519580942878523322524320279 cents (US). If we had more posts, then that cost per post would actually decrease, because - at least at the moment - we're paying a fixed cost for bandwidth and storage. It's on that basis (and the fact that Barbelith is now open for new members once more) that I invite you to join immediately. The cheaper we can make each post the better! Although, having said that, only high-quality intelligent posts or highly witty comments are acceptable. Why not consider it an alternative to trying to sign up to Metafilter, only with more in-jokes and a weirder moderation system?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: me EMAIL: me@omglame.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: DATE: 11/28/2003 12:19:52 PM you failed to make the lame "penny for your thoughts" joke ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.15 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/28/2003 12:24:11 PM Check out the title of the post concerned. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: me EMAIL: me@omglame.com IP: 217.33.194.194 URL: DATE: 11/28/2003 12:31:32 PM that's all very well for the rss turncoats, but the *normal* people don't see it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: n@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.16.168 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/me/lostpages/ DATE: 11/28/2003 07:08:31 PM No to menation that conversation on Barbelith is better and more fun than on MetaFilter. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/30/2003 12:13:56 PM No comment. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Key moments in Barbelith history... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/28/2003 11:30:31 AM ----- BODY:

    While I'm speaking of Barbelith, I thought I'd mention the latest craze circulating through its dank and musty corridors. Essentially the premise is this - (i) find an old thread with particularly good and entertaining dialogue in it (ii) go to the Red Meat Comic Strip generator and (iii) represent the thread in question as a Red Meat strip. It's really capturing some of the spirit of the board (albeit mostly the bits that are most vibrantly foul-mouthed and politically dubious). Here are some of the latest examples of actual Barbelith conversations edited down to the nub (Warning - many of these aren't particularly work-friendly):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The long-term cycles of weblog-writing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/28/2003 12:03:05 PM ----- BODY:

    Writing for a weblog seems to me to go through cycles. At times, words just flow from your fingertips effortlessly. The quality of those words will generally be rather debatable, but they'll have a fluidity to them and an honesty or playfulness that at least partly compensates for their lack of substance. Normally with me, these periods gradually bed down into highly productive periods of good writing about things that I'm thinking about in greater depth - pieces of writing that I think have some greater utility or worth about subjects that I care about. Normally I've been thinking around these issues for a while but not had the mental discipline to drag them into a more coherent shape. During these periods, I do my best work.

    These periods - inevitably - do not last. What seems to happen is that the material I want to write gets more and more convoluted, high concept and/or involved, more necessarily rigorous in execution and generally larger in scale until such a point where the pressure to articulate an idea properly overwhelms my ability to write at all. At those points - suddenly - I find myself completely blocked and unable to produce anything. Smaller, lighter, trivial posts occasionally squeeze their way out - but for all intents and purposes, I'm just unable to write. From there it's a short, unpleasant wait of mounting tension, frustration and irritation until the walls collapse and posts pour forth - this time with little or no discrimination in evidence, full of bad jokes, thrown together collections of links and the like. And then from there the cycle repeats itself as concepts of quality and discernment slowly start creeping back into my output.

    As a matter of interest - does this pattern sound familiar to anyone else or is this simply a personal thing?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: you@already.know IP: 82.35.60.72 URL: http://momorgan.com/ DATE: 11/28/2003 12:14:23 PM Very familiar. I've always put it down to the cyclic nature of thought processes. Weblogs do a very good job of highlighting the pattern because their style of creation is so instantaneous. You can feel the cycle as it's happening, and you can also observe it later. I suppose if you had a column in a daily newspaper, you wouldn't fill it with the first thought that came into your head when you sat down each day to write it. You'd probably jot down ideas for future columns as you thought of them, and then expand from there later. This process would go some way towards smoothing over the boom and bust of ideas. I guess that suggests that you could apply the same thinking to writing a weblog, but does that rather defeat the object? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 11/28/2003 12:17:39 PM Tres familiar here too. I usually fallback on various 'cheats' to compensate for my desire to post everyday (that's a different discussion I think), links, referrer log discussions etc etc.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Edmondson EMAIL: dme@dme.org IP: 192.18.1.5 URL: http://www.dme.org DATE: 11/28/2003 12:30:39 PM I wouldn't claim to know the dizzy heights, but the lows and the rise and fall are familiar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter Lindberg EMAIL: peter@tesugen.com IP: 213.112.225.14 URL: http://tesugen.com/ DATE: 11/28/2003 02:20:30 PM This is very familiar for me as well. When blockage happens, it seems to work pretty well to not bother about quality at all, but to just write, often about a detail of whatever idea I have in mind, and the end result often proves to be at a higher quality than I anticipated. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve Hunt EMAIL: steveh@illnation.com IP: 213.219.28.246 URL: http://www.illnation.com/blog/2003_11_01_archive.jsp#106993634001983663 DATE: 11/28/2003 02:31:27 PM Me here also. I tend to think the opposite to Peter though. Rather than just write anything, I just treat the silence in my head as, perhaps not a 'blockage' but more of a, processing latency. I'd much rather say nothing at all than something not useful [at least to me]. There's a rare day that I don't find at least one link to post (though these rare days are becomming, less rare) ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross Mayfield EMAIL: rossmay@earthlink.net IP: 67.116.242.231 URL: http://ross.typepad.com DATE: 11/28/2003 02:45:42 PM Absolutely. These cycles of productivity apply to more than weblog writing, its how we work. What a weblog does for you is make you more concious of flow -- negative feedback that binds you with the timeline. As you adapt, you can increase productivity. It's one of the benefits Jim McGee sees in weblogs for organizations. http://www.mcgeesmusings.net/2003/09/19.html#a3676 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter Lindberg EMAIL: peter@tesugen.com IP: 213.112.225.14 URL: http://tesugen.com/ DATE: 11/28/2003 02:52:01 PM I just wanted to add that those lower-quality posts, although they might not be useful for the readers, they are useful to me and they benefit the quality of my posts in the longer term. Something happens when I express the thoughts, and for me, thereís a difference between just keeping it in the head, or writing it down, and posting it to the weblog. But I canít quite put my finger on it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gavin Bell EMAIL: me@gavinbell.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://takeoneonion.org DATE: 11/28/2003 03:24:49 PM I find that this is a very familar feeling, especially when I get busy. The moment I started using drafts long term in MT things started to slip. You want to hone the piece a bit more or add in links to some other things. I've even started using titles as place holders for articles, mainly for travel writing. Then I'll come back with a burst of posts usually and sometimes this is enough or it peters out and I'm left flat and quiet again. I used to berate myself about it, now as you say Tom it is part of a cycle and I accept that I'll write more in a while. I've lost the compulsion to post one a day, which was a useful crutch in the beginning. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Dolan EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 217.29.59.11 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/ DATE: 11/28/2003 03:47:11 PM As everyone else has said, this is utterly familiar stuff. Fret not. A way I've found round this was nicked from (I think) the choreographer Frederick Ashcroft, who was trying to get some new scene together. Everyone was off doing their thing except one dancer who was stuck rooted to the spot. "I don't know what to do?" she said. "Do *anything*!" said FA. "That way I've got something to change". Er actually, thinking about it, Brian Eno put better in his 'oblique strategies'. "When you don't know where to start, start anywhere." Keep pushing on, doing *something* and stuff will come. Also, don't underestimate the value of a decent gestation period. Back in my Systems Analysis days, we were told that once you'd gone and gathered all the data and written it up, you should basically come into work the next day, read it all, and then sharpen pencils and look out of the window for two days before doing *anything*. Otherwise you risk jumping to obvious, and possibly wrong, conclusions. Your brain is still thinking, just let it. Oh, and cutting decks of cards works quite well as a way of occupying the 'blocking' half of your brain. And hey, never forget that an idea expressed 90% of the way is better than no idea expressed at all. Good luck! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 132.185.144.14 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 11/28/2003 04:09:02 PM Never happened to me, he lies. And when it has, I've just written fairytales. Or, indeed, complete and utter crap. Such is the life of weblogging, I believe. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rayne EMAIL: rayne_today@yahoo.com IP: 172.170.211.63 URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0001549 DATE: 11/28/2003 04:14:12 PM Incredibly familiar, get the bloggle-neck blues from time to time. It makes me glad I don't (yet) write for a living; I can't imagine having to write something *right now* on demand and under a deadline while suffering from writer's block. I find it as frustrating, though, to have an excess about which to write. I might be in the thick of an inspirational book and a host of blog-worthy activities, too wrapped up or busy to take enough and adequate notes to write later on the topics. One of these days I'm going to have to develop a better personal discipline for dealing with plentitude so that blog-block doesn't happen as often. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian EMAIL: test@test.com IP: 129.67.10.9 URL: http://www.mssv.net DATE: 11/28/2003 05:59:33 PM It's a very familiar feeling. I've gotten around it with my current site by having three different weblog columns - one for long and hopefully well-written entries (called massive), one for shorter entries about observations and personal comments (called middling) and one for quick links and comments (called tiny). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 212.238.82.186 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 12/01/2003 12:20:16 AM Oh god yes, it does sound extremely familiar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jo EMAIL: back@blog-in.com IP: 81.7.62.105 URL: http://www.blog-in.com DATE: 12/03/2003 04:50:21 AM Very well put. It depends whom you write for. I have noticed that some bloggers alter their style to please an unseen audience, shaped by previous trends in comments they receive. It self-perpetuates and is a little scary. I have soul-searched and realize that I write to clarify my thoughts, get it out of my system and use the diary to help my failing memory. Hopefully not a Barbieblog (wicked description) but a scrapbook. Never mind the audience. On a more practical note: pretty please can you take the line-height parameter out of your style-sheet? It makes the lines run over each other. (As in most MT blogs). ----- PING: TITLE: Blog block: cyclical? URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/11/29/blog_block_cyclical.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 11/30/2003 02:13:25 AM When I first started blogging, I thought it was just me, that I was the only one with the problem. All these thousands and thousands of bloggers appeared to be oozing with creative energy all the time, able to produce posts on demand every day. Here I ... ----- PING: TITLE: bloggingÊûØÁ´‚Áóá URL: http://blog.timetide.net/archives/000218.html IP: 216.12.200.67 BLOG NAME: Time And Tide DATE: 12/02/2003 07:29:36 AM ÊÑüÊÅ©ËäÇÂÅáÊúü”½ÄÊôÉËÄåËøáÔºåÊîæÂÅáÂèØËɇÊääbloggingÁöÑÁŵÊÑüÁªôÊîæÂÖ┆ÜÔºåÁªûƒ‡ËÑëʱŔ¼üÊ委½çÂᆔ½Ä”½Â‚óÊù€“ÄÇÊâÄ”ª€ÂºÄÂßãÂÜô†üËØù“ÄÇ ÊàëÊä䔪䧩ËøôÁßçÁäÂܵÁ߃”¼ã”½†bloggingÊûØÁ´‚Áóá“ÄÇÂÜôblogÁúüÁöÑÈúÄ˶ÅÁŵÊÑüÂíåÁ¥ÝÊùêÔºåÊúâÊóÂÄôÁŵÂÖâÈóÁéƒ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Great British Christmas Single is reborn... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/28/2003 08:45:00 PM ----- BODY:

    If I confess to a soft-spot for the Darkness, you won't come around my house and stab me in the eyes with the sharpened plectrums of proper rock will you? I mean, obviously they're a bit of a novelty act, but at least they look like they're enjoying themselves. Of course, on occasion the more cynical and disenfranchised dribbling fool might suggest that maybe they're going a little too far. As evidence for their ludicrous case, they might point at the creation and release of a Christmas single (the elegantly named Christmas Time: Don't Let The Bell's End) complete with lace-up-trousers/laser-gun video action... But they're wrong goddamit! Wrong! It's bloody art! And I will be there with my crusty notes at my local Our Price on December 15th desperate for my very own copy...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marie EMAIL: haveissueswilltravel@hotmail.com IP: 194.165.160.143 URL: http://beautifullytwisted.co.uk DATE: 11/28/2003 09:35:56 PM I've found myself to be a huge fan of The Darkness as of late. Any band that contains a frontman with a fullon inferno tattooed on & above his nethers is fine by me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Zach EMAIL: zach@wayblur.com IP: 66.114.153.145 URL: http://wayblur.com/ DATE: 11/28/2003 10:33:42 PM You know, I have heard a lot about The Darkness in the last week. I first came to hear about them from a friend who thought that he sounded funny in "I Beleive in a Thing Called Love". I admit, he did sound a bit different compared to current American artists. I listened to a bunch more from them and someone commented about my choice of music because of the music I had by The Darkness. Well, they aren't bad. I should download that single. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sceefy EMAIL: sebastian@aztec.net IP: 80.176.235.106 URL: http://sceefy.typepad.com/ DATE: 11/30/2003 12:00:27 AM Okay, I have nothing against The Darkness per-se, and certainly nothing against their many, many fans - but I've seen them live twice now, and loathed them both times. The album isn't bad, and they certainly know how to have fun, which is quite endearing in itself. However they are the definition of a one-trick pony, and this Christmas release is, to mix metaphors, the straw that will break the reindeer's back. The Darkness have had their fifteen minutes, let's all get back to some proper rock, please. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Hall EMAIL: tim@kalyr.com IP: 213.122.146.238 URL: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog DATE: 12/01/2003 11:00:19 PM If I say "But The Darkness are a return to proper rock after all this boring po-faced indie rock that's been fashionable for far too long", does it show my age? Hard rock has been marginalised for far too long. Hopefully The Darkness' success will open the door for other, better bands. BTW, if you think The Darkness are ridiculously over the top, you haven't heard the Italian band Rhapsody. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Amy mckeown EMAIL: Hamyish2001@ntlworld.com IP: 62.253.32.5 URL: DATE: 12/10/2003 04:24:35 PM I think the darkness are one of the best bands to hit the scene this year, and this single just adds to the quality of the ones that were released! Rock on Darkness!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cynthia Lovan EMAIL: clovan@hotmail.com IP: 12.223.126.187 URL: DATE: 12/24/2003 07:46:01 AM The Darkness definitely rise above the status of "novelty". Solid song writing and and Justin Hawkin's angelic voice make them worthwhile. People underestimate how hard it is to write a song that is "catchy". Their music, look and videos seem straight from the heart. They strike me a doing what is genuinely in thier gut and the result is pure well rounded entertainment. A++ What a pleasant way for this generation to learn how to rock! It's so rare that a pop star can make you feel like a love/star struck teenager when you are over 30. Justin's passion deserves to be unleashed on the universe! They make me feel alive. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Guardian weblog competition... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 11/28/2003 10:32:44 PM ----- BODY:

    I promised myself I wouldn't comment on the Guardian's Weblog Award this year, as my opinions last year caused a good few fights and didn't really seem to do that much good in the end. Some people entered and didn't have a problem with it, others did have a problem with it and didn't enter. This year they'd made more of an effort I thought, and although I still didn't really agree with it, I thought it churlish to comment. But really, they've been so ungracious about the whole thing!

    Firstly the (in person) absolutely charming Simon Waldman wrote of the - fairly reasonable difference of opinion that we had last year:

    "Within hours, the blogging community was talking about it - good and bad, but mostly bad. There was outrage that anyone, let alone a newspaper, should sit in judgment on blogs. There were conspiracies that it was just a devious plan to get traffic on Guardian Unlimited (as if we needed it). We thought we were simply launching a competition: at times, it felt more like we were dropping a hand grenade into a hornet's nest."

    But rather than accepting that the people who protested might have had a good point (particularly given that they actually wrote to UKBloggers saying that they'd taken many of the previous year's comments into account) instead he decided to declare any dissent to be the product of a hardcore bunch of grumblers (the line is:"The original hardcore blogging community is still there, and still vociferous") while suggesting that while that's happening, alongside "every month, thousands of others are trying their hand at this unique publishing form". The latter group - of course - being prime candidates for a little pat on the head from the nation's favourite (and indeed, my favourite) left-wing newspaper.

    It's a shame, then, that the evidence from the ground is less rosy - and that even some of the people who liked the Guardian competition last year are coming to feel at least slightly less comfortable with it a year later (cf. Naked Blog). But that's not the end of it. First we had the rather self-congratulatory, but not particularly annoying assumption that all webloggers at this weekend's Christmas party would be all of a fluster about the competition which Meg then entertainingly lampooned, followed by another snipey post on the Guardian's weblog about the whole thing.

    Now look - the whole thing's pretty trivial, but let's make one thing clear. It is not an obvious fact that weblog competitions like this are good things, and it's certainly not an obvious fact that belittling the opinions of people who disagree with you - when you're supposed to be a national paper and rather above that kind of thing - is that brilliant an idea either. So I've felt compelled to write this rather stuffy e-mail to the Guardian about it (after a rather muffled grump directed at Mr Waldman earlier didn't do much good) - just to kind of make it clear that the whole point of the exercise is to encourage people to express their opinions, not throw the Guardian's 800lb Gorilla at anyone who doesn't hold the same views!

    Jane! Really! The thing about the competition that people get cross about is that it feels like colonisation rather than reward! We're actually going to meet our friends and our peers and stuff and we arranged it and we're mostly pretty much looking forward to it. A good proportion of us resent the implication that we're all going to spend the time giggling like twelve-year-olds and puzzling about who'll win the prize in a competition that we don't really think gets the point of the whole things in the first place.

    I mean, you're talking as if the people who have weblogs are all desperate fame-starved teenagers publishing magazine-like columns to try and get acclaim and publicity. Even the people who have entered - and I mean no offense to them because if you don't have a problem with it, then you may as well go after the cash - probably aren't seriously thinking about gossiping at length, getting hysterical and fainting at the merest thought of the thing. There are many professional people who are using them to connect with their industries or their peers, families who are talking to their relatives abroad - it's not like the press, bits of it are like hanging out with friends or peers! For many of us the Guardian competition is a well-intentioned but clumsy stab at trying to do something that promotes weblogs, but actually isn't really that relevant /or/ exciting.And if you're really trying to support and promote them, then making sarcastic comments about the kind of things they post about probably isn't the best way!

    Tom

    See also: Mo Morgan's "Less of a bloody stupid idea"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Blogs EMAIL: joe@blogs.com IP: 81.110.86.67 URL: DATE: 11/28/2003 11:40:34 PM Oh come on, get over it. It was a throwaway remark, hardly designed to seriously suggest that a clique of vain little bloggers in London Village would *actually* be arguing over The Guardian's competition (though, given the level of vitriol currently being spewed the newspaper's way, who would bet against the topic now being on at least some lips?) I think you're reading too much into it. The debate is an interesting one, because it symbolises the supposed disjuncture between powerful 'ol, top-down, institutionalised media and punk, grassroots, personal-publishing channels. The place between those two points is the interesting place where this argument fizzes. But look at the list of judges. Half of it reads like a Who's Who of blog slebs - Kottke, Trott, Denton, Watson, Pax (okay, so he's in bed with The Grauniad), Azhar, Gillmor, Sterling. So you can't claim to speak for, or defend, the single, outraged blogging "community" out there... this is your *personal* opinion - the "blogosphere" has now grown too big, too amorphous to be ascribed single characteristics and (your own) default opinions. Rightly or wrongly, that does leave sections of the medium open to be rated, reviewed, panned and applauded. I am of the - playful - opinion that awards and reviews have no place in the art world, for example, because, hey, art is an entirely personal mode of creative self-expression - it simply can't *be* wrong! Clearly, that may also be applied to opinion, but I'm also inclined to think that media which set themselves parameters within which to work and patches to cover leave themselves more open to being judged. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: you@already.know IP: 82.35.60.72 URL: http://momorgan.com/ DATE: 11/29/2003 12:27:48 AM There really isn't anything for Tom to "get over", so far as I can see. The principle is really very simple. It's like you've got a few friends over for dinner, and I turn up uninvited and announce that it's my birthday party. That's all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/29/2003 01:03:29 AM First off, joe@blogs.com - if you want to have an honest debate about the subject then I'll take you much more seriously if you actually leave your name and proper e-mail address. Unless you work for Typepad, that e-mail address is invalid, and I pretty much don't think you work for Typepad. Posting anonymously like that rather hurts whatever case you have, because people are going to assume - rightly or wrongly - that you have a vested interest that you're not prepared to overtly stand behind. Secondly, I think your response is substantially more melodramatic than mine - given that you talk about a level of vitriol directed at the Guardian that I'm totally unaware of! Indeed if you read my piece above, I say the Guardian's my favourite newspaper, that I had no interest in getting involved in any of the debate around the event this year, that the whole thing's pretty trivial. I just think it's a bit cheap to claim to be doing something for the good of webloggers and freedom of expression and then use your professional, ostensibly serious, grown-up media voice to dismiss any and all of the webloggers who disagreed with your approach as being hard-core and vociferous. With regards to me trying to speak for the weblogging community as a whole - I'm sorry to be so rude, but frankly you're talking out of your arse. I say throughout that piece that I'm talking about a 'good proportion' at one point, 'some' and 'many of us' at others - and often those proportions are explicitly talking about the people who are being characterised as a vociferous minority. You won't find a single statement in that piece that sets itself up to be representing the opinion of the blogosphere as a whole. There are a whole range of people who will enter the competition and a whole range who won't (as I say above) and good luck to any and all of them. In fact - without wanting to really get into the whole argument about the award itself - the group that think they know best for the blogosphere are the Guardian - they're the ones arguing that a competition like this helps weblogs and webloggers, that people who don't agree with it aren't representative and that webloggers as a whole find the topic so thrilling and exciting that they talk about it at every opportunity. To be honest, I think when you talk about 'weblogging celebrities' and you talk about 'media which set themselves parameters within which to work and patches to cover leave themselves more open to being judged' and when you talk about the difference between 'top-down' and grassroots 'personal' media, that you're really missing the whole point. The point is that for a huge amount of people their weblogs are not a type of media except inasmuch as their human voice is. They choose to use that voice to speak - sometimes to friends and sometimes to stranger - and don't necessarily connect that with the same activity as producing a 'piece of media'. It's as Danny O'Brien said on Oblomovka recently - it's not that they're broadcasting these things publically for the whole world to consume - it's that they're having conversations in public with their friends and family and finding new people to have discussions with. When you talk about weblogs as media you're so obviously talking about a particular kind of publishing on a weblog that is a clear analogie of commercial publishing. Now this kind of publishing certainly exists amongst webloggers, but it's just not the main activity of weblogging world-wide. The judges on your list should all know what happens when you get a little traffic and how that effects how they write - you become more like commercial publishing because you have too. But for the most part it still isn't commercial publishing, and for everyone who runs a site like Gawker there are many hundreds - many thousands - who are literally just talking about their days and using them to communicate with a few friends in a dialogue or with a few complete strangers (with a hope that they'll become friends). At this level, weblogs are more like representations of people than they are work that the people produce, and I maintain that judging whether one person's opinions or ideas or bloody day-to-day life is more worthwhile than anothers is just a bit sick and wrong. It's like your comparison with the art world. How on earth can you argue that awards have no place in the art world but do have a place for people's self-expression online? It's like going into someone else's party at random and saying you'll give the one that you find most entertaining £500 at the end of the evening! It's bloody Indecent Proposal! So do you have to agree with that position? Absolutely not! Do you have to think that subject-oriented weblogs shouldn't be celebrated or promoted? Absolutely not! Do you have to think that weblogging competitions are bad? Absolutely not! You don't have to think about any of those things at all because that's not what this post is about. Plain and simple, and back to the beginning, the argument here is nothing but: if you believe in weblogs and you believe in a diversity of opinion, and you're an important, authoritative, well-respected newspaper, then stop making sarcastic bloody comments about people who happen to have a different opinion than you and don't presume that everyone should feel grateful for your presence. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 11/29/2003 12:27:55 PM Like Boring Bill Thompson, you should forget all about The Guardian and its village fete approach to blogging. I certainly have. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 217.44.91.77 URL: http://thisispomo.org/weblog DATE: 11/29/2003 01:31:48 PM You've turned what I saw as something fairly throwaway into a semi-big deal. If you don't like something, that's fine. But I think Jane's piece, whether it was clumsy or not, was not badly intentioned. I certainly don't think her Guardian weblog post was snipey; perhaps it felt like that from your context, but I just can't read that into it. Disagree with Waldo, sure, but taking it out on a minion seems rather unfair. There are a million arguments to be had about this, of course, but to be honest they are all relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and shouldn't sour a social ocassion that all of us were actually looking forward to. Knowing, in whatever context, pretty much everyone involved, I find this a particularly difficult argument that seems to be growing out of scale in a rather bizarre way. But I'd just ask one thing: to remember that there are people on the end of all these arguments, and if everyone takes a step back and reads things in the light they were intended you'll see it could actually be quite hurtful for *everybody* involved. I think I'll come tonight, though I'm not convinced, since I don't particularly want to be on the defensive or pilloried by angry webloggers. I hope Jane comes, I don't know if Waldo will. But whatever, I hope that this whole shebang can be put in its rightful place - i.e. the back of our minds. I'd rather just get drunk with friends old and new. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: mike@pentangle.net IP: 81.5.134.87 URL: http://www.pentangle.net DATE: 11/29/2003 01:55:08 PM Articles like this (and the comment that follow) are precisely why people on the outside find this balkan of the blogging community (you know, the one which blogs about blogging) self-orbitting, comically self-important, and heart-breakingly dull. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: you@already.know IP: 82.35.60.72 URL: http://momorgan.com/ DATE: 11/29/2003 03:34:45 PM Mike: surely identifying people as "inside" and "outside" the "community" creates the self-importance of which you speak. The only inside and outside that I can see within the context of this discussion is the division between the amateur and the professional. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil McIntosh EMAIL: nmcintosh@btopenworld.com IP: 81.132.217.248 URL: DATE: 11/29/2003 04:48:07 PM Writing personally, lest you accuse me of setting the Guardian's supposed 800lb Gorilla on you and your party, Tom, I think this argument is perfectly absurd. You've just taken 800 words to diss something despite insisting "I promised myself I wouldn't comment on the Guardian's Weblog Award this year", "I thought it churlish to comment" and "the whole thing's pretty trivial". You've written even more in the comments, taking a comment that was - at worst - glib and using it to whip up what passes for a storm in this tiny teacup. It's one way to spend a damp Saturday afternoon, I suppose, but I say you were right first time - it is trivial, it is churlish. For goodness sake have a good drink tonight. I know I will. And you're sounding like you need it too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 11/29/2003 05:31:41 PM Look - I'm not going to pretend that I didn't find Simon's characterisation of the people who disagreed with last year's competition rather aggravating (and I'm sure if you asked Mo Morgan - who was very pro the new changes initially as UKBloggers' archive will tell you - or Meg Pickard among others, then you'll find I wasn't the only one). And I wasn't going to say anything about the piece in the Guardian about us all talking about it, because I didn't think it was particularly important, even though it was a bit aggravating. Meg on the other hand did think it was important enough to comment on, and quite rightly posted about it. Which is fine and cool. I didn't think at the time that I would follow suit - after all few of the people I know were entering the thing anyway - but whatever. We had a chat, I agreed it was annoying and we left it at that. In the end though, the post on the Guardian's weblog was just a bit rude to her specifically and to the community in general, so I decided that maybe I should stand up and say something. I don't think it's a huge deal. You call it a storm in a tiny tea-cup? Well I don't see the storm, frankly. It's just me writing a post on a weblog about something I don't particularly agree with or like. You want a storm - there are other weblogs more suited to that... In contrast to those weblogs who *have* argued much more vociferously about this than I (and there are several), I *have* tried to stay out of the firing line because I was aware that expressing an opinion on this stuff tends to start big fights that I'd rather avoid having and don't think are particularly useful. I had about a dozen e-mails on the day of the competition's launch from people who found it really annoying and came to my site to see if I'd rise to the challenge. And I didn't. I avoided the temptation of getting involved in a big fight around the thing loads of times. I haven't been stirring up dissent, I haven't been campaigning against it. I've said NOTHING until now. And what I'm saying now isn't about the competition so much as it is about the way the community has been characterised as basically a giggling group of twats with a hardcore of bitter wankers in the middle spoiling their happy fun. Personally, I just think maybe it's time that you stopped pretending that everyone thinks this kind of thing is a great idea and that anyone who disagrees with you is a dribbling twit and instead be at least VAGUELY polite to - and respectful of - the variety of opinion in the community of people that you're trying to court. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Meg EMAIL: spam@meish.org IP: 82.68.44.97 URL: http://www.meish.org DATE: 11/29/2003 06:08:16 PM My discomfort with the reply on the Guardian site yesterday wasn't because of the "ooh, handbag" nature of it and I certainly don't have an issue with the author at all. I was slightly uncomfortable with it because it doesn't matter *who* wrote it - but that it was on the Guardian's Weblog. I lampooned the Guardian on my personal site, mostly because the unfortunate phrasing of the original Guardian Weblog announcement about the party made it sound as if the competition discussion (and, by association, the Grauniad) was an accepted, expected part of the evening's fun-filled agenda. My response has got *nothing* to do with the competition. My response would have been the same if it had been ITV saying "It's a chance for British bloggers to meet up, have a dance and argue about who is going to win the Pop Idol" or if the FA had posted "It's a chance for British bloggers to meet up, have a dance and argue about who is going to win the cup." Well, it *is* a chance to discuss the topics aforementioned among many other possible subjects, like favourite cheese and who was the best pope, but there's obviously a vested interest in the Guardian (BBC, FA) twisting the announcement to suit their particular agenda. Likewise, the party is a chance for British bloggers to meet up, have a dance and argue about my choice of footwear. Suddenly, the party sounds as if it's being laid on specifically for me and my shoes - or at the very least, I've had something to do with it. Think Tupperware. Think Ann Summers. Same thing applies. The response on the Guardian's site was a bit surprising. If a snarky comment (or comment which could be interpreted as being snarky, or even just a bit "ooh, handbag") appeared on any other personal site i would think "whatever, personal opinion." But in this case, it appeared on the Guardian's weblog. Whatever is said there cannot be a personal statement, opinion or reaction, whoever wrote it (minion, columnist, editor, anonymous...), because it appears not on a personal site (like Waldman's for example) but on a mouthpiece of an important, respected publication with massive reach. The Guardian may want comments posted there to be treated as if they are written on just any other blog, but that's not the case - it's different when a massive organisation does it. If a narky post appeared on the BBC disabilities blog, that's the BBC's official position. Corporate bloggers, whether named or not, are tacitly supporting their organisation's aims, and representing that organisation digitally. When I lampooned the original post, I wasn't lampooning Jane, I was lampooning The Guardian. And when a slightly sarcastic comment appears on that site, it's not Jane saying it - it's The Guardian. There's a difference! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jane Perrone EMAIL: jlperrone@yahoo.com IP: 213.122.181.20 URL: DATE: 11/29/2003 06:14:53 PM Tom, I am sorry if you, Meg or any other weblogger has been offended by anything I've written. I do wish you'd take things a little less to heart, though. By writing copiously about this, you seem to be intent on making the whole thing an issue for discussion tonight after all. Like any national newspaper organising awards in a particular field, we are going to write about it, and encourage (not order) others to talk about it too. There's no three-line whip for you or any other blogger to enter the awards or to agree with how we've organised things. My blog entry yesterday was an attempt to emphasise that I have absolutely no influence over what people talk about or do tonight. Speaking of which, see you at the Well a bit later ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: DATE: 11/30/2003 10:36:02 AM I suppose any comment after the party would be pointless, anyway, I love pointless gestures: co-opt: verb -- 1) To elect as a fellow member of a group. 2) To appoint summarily. 3) To take or assume for one's own use; appropriate: co-opted the criticism by embracing it. 4) To neutralise or win over (an independent minority, for example) through assimilation into an established group or culture: co-opt rebels by giving them positions of authority. and blah, blah, blah.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: shakybaker@hotmail.com IP: 194.9.188.21 URL: DATE: 12/01/2003 10:53:20 AM Get a life the lot of you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Reg EMAIL: reg@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 213.208.94.226 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 12/01/2003 12:34:45 PM Was there serious conversation at the party? I must have missed that... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: D EMAIL: dave@acerbia.com IP: 160.79.240.162 URL: http://www.acerbia.com DATE: 12/01/2003 02:29:02 PM It involved Tom gurgling "I'm veh, veh drunk" and tumbling into people's laps Reg, you'd be forgiven for missing it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: peter.bowler@ntlworld.com IP: 80.5.85.220 URL: http://themisanthrope.typepad.com/ DATE: 12/01/2003 08:40:40 PM If I may be allowed to intrude, I saw that comment in The Guardian and thought it hilarious and inoffensive. I can barely believe so many knickers have got into such a large twist about it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/01/2003 11:45:45 PM Ah. Sod off. I'm cross with you now too. ----- PING: TITLE: More awards URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000701.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 11/28/2003 11:36:12 PM I'm considering starting the Blatant Optimism "Best British Phone Call" awards. If you have made a phone call recently and would like to be considered, please let me know. I'll need a tape of the call, details of who it... ----- PING: TITLE: The fruit of the commons URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/536 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 11/30/2003 09:19:21 PM Here's something Lessig could be proud of: my photo plus Tom Coates' spack with the Guardian equals cool laser eyes! (Thanks, D from Acerbia) ----- PING: TITLE: The best of British blogging? URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/2003/12/the-best-of-british-blogging IP: 12.129.237.12 BLOG NAME: www.perfect.co.uk DATE: 12/18/2003 11:27:41 AM The Guardian’s British Blog awards have just been announced. Some people were always suspicious of the whole thing and yet the intentions were admirable. I’ve ended up feeling slightly underwhelmed by the whole thing - I was expecting it to... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Guts of a New Machine (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 11/30/2003 09:40:11 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been reading The Guts of a New Machine, the latest (and longest) article on the iPod perpetrated by the New York Times. It's an interesting article that does the journalistic job of covering a variety of angles well while trying to find some unifying theme - but that makes commenting on it in general almost impossible. It itself has no thesis - no argument to make. So instead of addressing the piece as a whole I'm just going to jot down a few thoughts that occurred to me as I read specific chunks. I'm going to do this in multiple posts as it should make commenting more practical.

    On rapid product development and coherent product vision

    "The iPod came together in somewhere between six and nine months, from concept to market, and its coherence as a product given the time frame and the number of variables is astonishing. Jobs and company are still correct when they point to that coherence as key to the iPod's appeal; and the reality of technical innovation today is that assembling the right specialists is critical to speed, and speed is critical to success."

    This chunk of the article (not a quote from anyone) interested me, because of the perceived dislocation between speed, the right staff and coherence. The process seems to me to have been successful in producing something coherent and clean almost because of its brevity. In my experience, three months is about as long as you can reliably expect any individual person to care about their part of the project more than they care about anything else - even if they're given total free space not to have to think about anything else (multi-tasking is the evil enemy of creativity in my opinion). Only clear delineations between stages in a project (and strong management over those transitions) can really help maintain people's levels of constructive engagement if you need a project to go any longer.

    When I see the iPod and hear the time it took to think through it, I can almost smell the initial back-to-basics workshops, the brainstorming around what MP3 players could and should be at their core. You can feel the desire to understand something - grasp a vision - and the reason that sensation still sits at the heart of the thing is that there wasn't enough time for that vision to erode before it got to market. The iPod's design to me isn't really about simplicity or coherence at all, it's about getting to the essence of the thing and sparsely sketching it out without letting the cruft or baroque tendencies unfold. Where human beings are involved, design is a process in time, and the quality of that design can be affected directly by too-little time, too-much time, and not know what to do with the time you have.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Blaine Hilton EMAIL: blog@blainehilton.com IP: 4.10.81.152 URL: http://www.webcalc.net/ DATE: 11/30/2003 10:00:18 PM I think the whole key is timing. With MP3s being so popular right now and portable CD players being so common that practically everyone has one (or three) right now the iPod was one of only a few MP3 players on the market. If they had waited a while longer we would probably be talking about a different product right now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel M. EMAIL: aliasmoze@hotmail.com IP: 66.214.185.143 URL: http://www.moserbrothers.com DATE: 12/02/2003 06:19:33 PM A small army of PC users I know recently backed way, way off from the iPod after news that the battery has an eighteen month life expectancy and that Apple expects the user to simply by a new iPod when the battery goes. That pretty much sums up Apple to me. After one gets over the initial wow of Apple's admittedly powerful marketing and product design savvy, it's difficult to ignore the fact that their products are just too expensive and that the company kind of dictates to its customers how they spend their money. Which is why Apple's fate may be as explorer, the company that paves the way for others to follow but ultimately never gains a majority of market share. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 195.92.113.67 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 12/03/2003 10:31:32 AM I'd really like an iPod type device, but at present they're just too bulky for me to justify carrying them around. I need something with the approximate dimensions of a pack of cigarettes, except about half as thick. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: simon@simonwheatley.co.uk IP: 82.33.62.49 URL: DATE: 12/03/2003 05:18:12 PM I believe that Apple has partially addressed the battery issue. See which carries both the scare (http://ipodsdirtysecret.com/) and the counter (http://ipodsdirtysecret.com/message.html). ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Guts of a New Machine (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Business CATEGORY: Business DATE: 11/30/2003 10:18:52 PM ----- BODY:

    My second response to a chunk in The New York Times article The Guts of a New Machine concerns the comments of Rob Glaser from RealNetworks. You can read my first response (on rapid design processes) here.

    Three visions of Apple & the music player market in five years:

    Nor will music bought through Apple's store play on any rival device. This means Apple is, again, competing against a huge number of players across multiple business segments, who by and large will support one another's products and services. In light of this, says one of those competitors, Rob Glaser, founder and C.E.O. of RealNetworks, ''It's absolutely clear now why five years from now, Apple will have 3 to 5 percent of the player market.''

    It's an interesting position this, but I wonder if it's true. I mean, the iTunes Music Store has clearly been a bit of a success in the States, even if it's not going to topple retail CD sales any time particularly soon. An awful lot of people already have tracks from it, and - given Pepsi's deal to buy and give away 100 million tracks and MacDonald's rumoured deal for a further billion - a hell of a lot of other people are going to join them pretty soon. It seems clear that if Apple sell or distribute that number of tracks during this early period then it'll help them sell iPods straightaway. And later it should have an equally positive effect when people come to replaced their devices - the retention levels should be directly improved as a result. At least this much seems obvious - the more tracks you own, the more you then have to lose by transferring to a player that can't read them.

    Now that's already a different sense of the future than that held (in public) by Rob Glasner. And it doesn't take a genius to try and push that a bit further. Given the scale of their lead, you could easily argue that the possibility exists for Apple to create de facto bought-music standard that is attached exclusively to their products. They'll have a lock-in. At which point the question emerges - how long is it in their best interests to maintain it?

    Now, I've painted a fairly rosy picture of Apple's use of DRM and non-device-independent music files so far, but there are clearly disadvantages as well. History has shown us (with a few notable exceptions) that unless consumers and companies have little or no choice about whether to use them - things based on non-proprietary and vaguely open standards seem destined to 'win' in the long-term. They'll get used on the most devices and in the most interesting and dynamic (and obviously inexpensive) ways. In fact just last year I was arguing that Apple's resurgence was a direct result of steering away from this kind of proprietary activity (Apple and the Pirate Everyman). Their moves towards open standards seemed to be based around creating the best hardware and software for exploiting the (perhaps problematic / perhaps not) confusions and collapses around intellectual property.

    But of course there's no reason why the style of DRM'd AAC that Apple use couldn't be subsequently opened up as an available format for use in other devices. And I don't doubt that if there was an economic rationale for doing something like that then they'd do it in a heart-beat. Say - for example - the restrictions were stopping more people buying the devices than they were retaining. So with that in mind, here are two more very very lightly-sketched out possibilities for Apple's future treatment of their DRM'd non-device-independent AAC format:

    (1) Apple have leveraged their current dominance in legal downloads and players into a technology that they (perhaps) license to other players resulting in a situation like with plugins or (kind of) like Microsoft OS's, where almost no music player in the world can afford not to pay to play Apple Music Store tracks (compensating for the corresponding loss in iPod sales). (2) They just open the doors to other companies building players that can play Apple Music Store tracks. There are clearly technology issues around both of these issues (like - I believe - the way that the sale and subsequent approval of Music Store tracks are handled over the internet direct with Apple. But fundamentally, I can see no reason why the current chain between track and player could not subsequently be broken (or reinforced) according to the needs of the market.

    Importantly, I'm not going to articulate my position on whether Apple's DRM-based, non-player-independent approach to the selling of music is the right or most moral one. If you find these issues interesting, then Jim Griffin and Cory Doctorow have a lot to say about it in a variey of places, including in the Aula Exposure book.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: steve EMAIL: esc@mac.com IP: 68.193.79.128 URL: http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/ DATE: 11/30/2003 11:27:42 PM I used to work in the research lab of a large telecom where, among other things, we co-developed AAC, networked music, players, drm and did serious work in online music distribution and the sociology of how people use music. I won't go into that much other than note there were many mp3 players at the time the iPod hit the market. There were even a few high capacity hard drive models and everyone knew about 1.8" Toshiba disks. Apple just did a fundamentally better job than anyone else - and much of that was the computer to device linkage. I have talked with the folks at Apple a couple of times in the past two years. One gets a sense that they really are about selling hardware - iPods and (hopefully) bigger game. The store and drm that legitimizes it is a hook. Apple understands that most people will be compressing their own music and some sharing (of non copyprotected) music is inevitable. It is interesting to note that Apple fought hard for giving people AAC encoders and even giving them away. Members of the AAC consortium treated such tools as armaments and were concerned "the game was over" if one made it into the public (we even had to verify locks at universities that were testing codecs with us). This was a very big thing at the time. Apple would like to see the music store grow, but that isn't where the game is for them. They are far too realistic for that here are some of my comments http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2003/11/the_tao_of_ipod.html http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2003/11/buymusic_and_na.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Swall EMAIL: grahamswallow@hotmail.com IP: 62.140.215.130 URL: DATE: 12/03/2003 12:50:35 PM I know this isn't hugely relevant but it does go some way to putting all this into context. A friend of mine (camera-phone, Digital radio, PS2 owner) saw an ad for the iPod and turned to me and said: "Whats an ipod?" He pronounced it more like epod, rather than eye-pod. Clearly he has absolutely no idea about what is going on in the internet music world, and maybe this is true of the majority. This is low-level stuff today - and any exaggerated claims should, I reckon, be taken with a mighty pinch of salt. The point is I think - no-one really gives a monkeys. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On The Guts of a New Machine (Aside) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 11/30/2003 11:52:51 PM ----- BODY:

    One thing that I noticed for the first time today was the distinct similarity between the navigational style of the iPod and the horizontal-hierarchy menu-driven interface to Tivos. Is there a memetic forebear to both of these that I'm unfamiliar with, or is this simply an emerging standard in navigating through libraries of content when you only have a few physical buttons and real-life interface elements to deal with?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jazer EMAIL: jazer@rislone.com IP: 66.222.60.211 URL: http://www.johnzeratsky.com DATE: 12/01/2003 12:17:53 AM Not just there, but Mac OS X too! It seems to be a convenient way of looking at large amounts of data in distinct categories. I've never used Windows much -- is there any history of the trend on that platform? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/01/2003 12:30:20 AM Ah yes! The column-view in OSX does that too doesn't it! I should know that since I'm writing all this rubbish on Mac. That's really interesting. I wonder if anyone's done a family tree for this particular way of moving through heirarchies and structures. Must have done... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jazer EMAIL: jazer@rislone.com IP: 66.222.60.211 URL: http://www.johnzeratsky.com DATE: 12/01/2003 01:35:49 AM When I first got my paws on Mac OS X, I remember my reaction to the column view being more of "about time" than "what innovation!" I'm not sure why. Maybe I used this interface in a past life? Anyway, I would love to see a timeline or family tree tracing this... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ole Eichhorn EMAIL: ole@pacbell.net IP: 68.67.48.50 URL: http://w-uh.com/ DATE: 12/01/2003 03:11:22 AM I don't think this is a deep observation. Essentially any heirarchy of possible functions will arrange itself in this way, if the number of items on each menu are limited (by screen space, for example). Research shows limiting the number of items on a menu is better anyway, even if there is no limitation, because people deal best with a limited number of choices (I think seven is the maximum). Ole ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jazer EMAIL: jazer@rislone.com IP: 66.222.60.211 URL: http://www.johnzeratsky.com DATE: 12/01/2003 05:41:36 AM "Essentially any heirarchy of possible functions will arrange itself in this way." How do you figure that's true? The horizontal model is definitely unique -- they could've just as easily had you click, then see a new directory list, with no horizontal movement implied. Decades of personal computers have had hierarchies of possible functions listed in a limited space, yet the "column view" is relatively new. Deep? Maybe not. But certainly not inevitable, like you say. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom p EMAIL: tom_p@earthling.net IP: 157.140.11.138 URL: http://www.sunnyblue.net/ DATE: 12/01/2003 11:04:52 AM Lots of console games use this kind of display for menus, particularly RPGs which require complex inventories for several characters (The Grandia series springs to mind). As others have said, it seems like a fairly obvious way to arrange heirachial menus using small amounts of screen space. I expect you'd see this kind of menu a lot in Game Boy games, though I don't have a Game Boy so can't be sure. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: a@hey.com IP: 66.68.106.156 URL: DATE: 12/01/2003 02:11:01 PM OSX gets it from the NeXT GUI. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jazer EMAIL: jazer@rislone.com IP: 144.92.164.198 URL: http://www.johnzeratsky.com DATE: 12/01/2003 07:51:47 PM Ah ha! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jerry Kindall EMAIL: web@jerrykindall.com IP: 205.158.143.67 URL: http://www.jerrykindall.com/ DATE: 12/01/2003 08:40:53 PM Hierarchical pull-down menus have always "flown out" to the right too. It goes back to the fact that we read left-to-right, and when we "turn a page" we move to the right. I wonder if an Arabic TiVo or iPod would provide the sense of moving leftward through menus. As an aside, you know that famous Japanese tidal wave print? The Japanese "read" paintings right to left. Flip the image horizontally in an image editor to get the European version of how it seems to them. (The wave looks a lot more like its looming when you do this.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joel M. EMAIL: aliasmoze@hotmail.com IP: 66.214.185.143 URL: http://www.moserbrothers.com DATE: 12/03/2003 02:12:38 AM The "fly out" navigation shows up in the Windows START button too, all the way back in 1995. This type of navigation is fine, but it really does seem - if you'll forgive the expression - evolutionary, not revolutionary. If the menu itself is vertical, it stands to reason the only direction the fly-outs can fly out is to the side. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/03/2003 09:16:10 AM Evidently I'm not communicating myself very well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon Thornton EMAIL: simon@mutualmisunderstanding.com IP: 81.129.33.76 URL: http://www.mutualmisunderstanding.com DATE: 12/03/2003 10:09:40 AM "a few physical buttons" - however the Tivo has 32 buttons on the remote (I just counted 'em) which does seem slightly at odds with the navigation system they've used (and it drives me nuts, I have to say)....your point is an interesting one though.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: phagor EMAIL: phagorphagor@hotmail.com IP: 217.204.251.194 URL: http://www.phagor.com DATE: 12/03/2003 02:28:39 PM Gopher, n'est pas? http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/g/gopher.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hans Gerwitz EMAIL: hans@phobia.com IP: 216.87.51.2 URL: http://phobia.com/ DATE: 12/04/2003 10:28:28 PM Gopher, indeed! Although no client was sophisticated enough to visually represent "expand to the right", the arrow-key navigation of most imparted a similar sensation. The first time I used TiVo, I thought "this is the prettiest gopher client I've ever seen." Back in my day... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Farewell, my lovely... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/05/2003 04:08:50 PM ----- BODY:

    And so with a deep sigh I have consigned my beautiful Powerbook (which has been with me a such a very little time) back to the welcoming arms of Mother Apple. My child needs to be fixed. The strange mottling blotchiness of his screen had become worse and worse as the days passed by until they resembled nothing so much as a pair of staring blank eyes - evil eyes - that hovered in front of every piece of work I did, every movie I watched, every e-mail I sent. It's so difficult with beautiful computers - you love them (like a child), training and working with them until you operate as one (like a family) until eventually they betray you (like a child all over again). But when they turn sour that good feeling stays with you for longer - it's so difficult to do what must be done but do it you must. They must be sent off to faraway scientists who'll open them up with strange devices, rooting around in everything that makes them what they are and forcing their silicon biology back to standards that their parents can live with. They must be brought back to civilised behaviour whatever the cost.

    Data may be lost - I accept that. The Powerbook that I gave to the rather nice-looking man from UPS may not feel or be quite the same when it returns. It will have been changed, fixed, broken and reformed. But when it returns it will work - and work it must - for I have typing to do.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why has the cheese returned? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 12/06/2003 07:26:05 PM ----- BODY:

    A weekend without my beautiful Powerbook means lots of time to sort out my disasterous financial / bill-paying / mounds of paper situation. This - in turn - means that some forms of music television have become an essential part of my life. Which means in turn that I'm being exposed to what seems to me to be a ludicrous excess of Christmas singles. Like dozens of them! Way more than normal. The other day I wrote about the The Darkness' effort but it's far far far from alone. Check out this highly inexhaustive list:

    And that's just the ones with explicitly Christmas themes (and doesn't include blatant Christmas-mongering attempts like the Ozzy/Kelly Osbourne atrocity). So I wonder to myself? Why is this Christmas so poptastic? Is there some kind of correlation between the perceived redundancy of the music industry and a prevalence of these cheesy singles? Or does it correlate to anxiety about the state of the world? Or is it a sign of complacency? Or are we all just incredibly naff? Thoughts on a postcard please (and let me know if I've missed any of the little bastards)...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 12/06/2003 07:41:47 PM I think it's a British thing. Here in the US we really don't have the phenomenon of Christmas singles, betting on the Christmas No. 1, and so forth. That's something I've always found very odd about the UK. Not to suggest that we're immune from cheese in the US, of course--far from it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mad William Flint EMAIL: mpwilson1969@optonline.net IP: 67.86.120.154 URL: http://www.mpwilson.com/uccu/ DATE: 12/06/2003 08:14:41 PM ...but we here in the US have always preferred milder cheese than the rest of the world. Lots of it, certainly. But milder. Spice Girls couldn't make it here the way they did elsewhere any more than Stilton can. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/06/2003 10:34:33 PM Stilton is wonderful! You're really really missing out. If you are interested in Stilton then you should really visit Neal's Yard Dairy. It's amazing. I'll be visiting there shortly before Christmas, actually, because it's so incredible. I should write a post. Hmmm. I'm really interested in the idea of Christmas Singles being profoundly British. I mean - that's my perception of it as well, but I'd really like to figure out why and what it represents or means. Anyone got any ideas? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 12/07/2003 01:29:45 AM Well, I'm no expert, but I've sort of gotten the idea that the whole Christmas #1 thing was promoted by the various British tabloids. This might help explain the cheeziness, as well as the perennial dominance of Cliff Richard (who, if I remember correctly, is very much admired by the tabloids). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jem stone EMAIL: jemstone66@ntlworld.com IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://jem.blogs.com/ DATE: 12/08/2003 10:46:57 AM As is also the case with Brit TV schedules, the US singles chart has never really has 'Xmas No.1s'. That said Band Aid made the Top 10 (...after Xmas) and blimey they don't half love 'seasonal' albums. Frank, Elvis, Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, The Muppets and a million others of which "A Christmas Gift to You" from poor old Phil Spector is not only the finest example but one of the best albums of all time. You missed the Cheeky Girls ('A Cheeky Christmas') and the Fast Food Rockers btw. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.251.142 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 12/10/2003 09:27:48 AM There is also Basil Brush's Christmas Slide. Not that I am watching GMTV and they're doing a roundup... There does seem to be loads of singles coming out next Monday, including, oddly, a Darkness tribute single (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Darkness). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Billy Jeffs EMAIL: scallyboy@hotmail.com IP: 213.210.52.146 URL: DATE: 12/12/2003 10:17:21 AM I've heard the Different Darkness "Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Darkness" EP. it'sout on the 15th, it is genius! check it out here http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000V1CU6/ref=sr_aps_music_1_1/026-3570802-2947639 ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the subject of cheese... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/06/2003 10:59:14 PM ----- BODY:

    This may sound like a bit of an advert, but frankly I don't care. You have to be able to express joy in the things you like - I think - whether they be commercial or not. Only let me say that I have received no money or free merchandising for the following glowing endorsement. None at all. Not even the tiniest sliver of perfectly ripe brie...

    Every year shortly before Christmas I pop into Neal's Yard Dairy and get a selection of cheeses to take up to my family in Norfolk. It's become a bit of a ritual. There's something really primal and satisfying about bringing food back for a significant meal - particularly one so associated with the winter solstice and the rebirth of the sun (oh and all that Christian stuff I guess). So to do my part, I go into Covent Garden's most well-stocked and sensually stimulating shop, sample a dozen cheeses (they'll let you try everything) and then buy a representative sample.

    This sounds more like an advert than I'd feared, but let me continue anyway... The wonderful staff will recommend the Stilton that'll be at its best at exactly the right time, they'll tell you how to store your cheese (FYI: in a cellar or on a window-ledge - not in the fridge because it'll dry it out) and they'll even label each perfectly paper-wrapped block of cheese you buy - so that you can order them again or look them up later in your favourite cheese tome (I bought my father a book of cheese so that he can investigate the whole issue in more detail - I believe it's been a tremendous success). In a nutshell - it's one of the most pleasant experiences of my year and I heartily recommend it. Plug over. Well, nearly...

    It occurs to me that this is an ideal topic for a random poll, so here we go: What's your favourite cheese?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: terreus EMAIL: terreusuk@yahoo.co.[y]uk IP: 80.2.241.90 URL: http://www.terreus.dynip.com DATE: 12/06/2003 11:39:46 PM The best for me would have to be Lincolnshire Poacher. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: padawan EMAIL: apprentice@padawan.info IP: 81.64.234.182 URL: http://www.padawan.info/ DATE: 12/06/2003 11:56:52 PM Well, when being presented with new cheese from all over Europe every week at the market in Paris, as if there really are thousands of them, it keeps changing on a regular basis. Let's say my recent favorite is the Etivaz (Swiss), but it's a short winner from tens of others ;-). I wish I knew more about the British cheeses (if someone knows where to find good ones in Paris, I'll be grateful). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 81.132.206.191 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 12/07/2003 12:17:26 AM Hmm..... I like boursin.... Cracker barrel.... Anything smoked... Emental... too many to narrow it down, really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/07/2003 12:22:33 AM Well if you are interested in British cheese, you can in fact order it from Neal's Yard Dairy! Having said that I will now stop trying to push their beautiful, wholesome, often-organic cheeses onto you wise, admirable and tasteful people. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jamie wilson EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 213.152.37.172 URL: http://www.goatforce5.org/ DATE: 12/07/2003 02:04:04 AM montgomery's cheddar can be exceptional, although i've had a couple of batches which weren't great. it's available, funnily enough, from neal's yard dairy. a good batch of it can exceptional. the non-great examples of montgomery's were bought from neal's yard, with the warning that it wasn't quite the right season for it, or something, and them insisting i tasted it before purchase to ensure i was happy. in my experience they tend to insist you taste everything when you buy - which is a problem for me as a non-stilton eater who has, on occasion bought stilton for friends as a treat. :) it's a great shop - the staff really know their product, and they take pride in what they sell. the queues just before christmas, however, are a bitch. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kasei EMAIL: greg@evilfunhouse.com IP: 68.65.212.11 URL: http://kasei.us/ DATE: 12/07/2003 02:22:21 AM I absolutely adore Le Chimay Grand Classique. Their beer is quite good as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Euan EMAIL: blog1@theobviousblog.net IP: 217.155.42.151 URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/ DATE: 12/07/2003 08:20:40 AM A Stinking Bishop takes a lot of beating in my humble opinion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: dumpster@meettheg.com IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: DATE: 12/07/2003 08:25:35 AM I've discovered and love Reblochon, Roquefort and Cantal (these are in no particular order) in my Parisian market trawls. Red Leicester and a particularly strong/sharp Cheddar are old faves but impossible to find over here. Padawan, you'll need to use the Chunnel to get the variety you're looking for, or as Tom suggests, click away. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.245.233 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 12/07/2003 10:11:24 AM Oh my. One favourite cheese? Eeek. I think anyone brought up in England won't look back to their childhood Cheddar, and whilst the 6 or 7 that Neal's Yard offer are great, sometimes something a bit milder hits the spot. I'm partial to a New Zealand Cheddar I found at Waitrose - totally the wrong texture (slightly rubbery), but very smooth and creamy. I think a bit of heat helps a lot of cheese, and nothing can beat a runny Raclette, or melting Fontina or Reblochon over hot buttery potato slices that have caught slightly. On the wobblier side of cheese, a firm Emmental or Gruyere are something special, and a good Brie or Camembert with a hunk of fresh bread makes a fine lunch. For these it is best to head down to Neal's Yard, negotiate the flailing knives with samples proffered, and take a while to pick and choose (but not at Christmas, when queues stretch out of both Covent Garden and Borough Market). (Kill me, I appear to have turned into Nigel Slater...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: padawan EMAIL: apprentice@padawan.info IP: 81.64.234.182 URL: http://www.padawan.info/ DATE: 12/07/2003 10:22:17 AM OK, I'll pay a visit to Neal's Yard at Covent Garden on my next visit to London ;-). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.16.9 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 12/07/2003 11:18:57 AM Probably Wensleydale. Incidentally, I was once interviewing Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace of Wallace & Grommit fame) for a student newspaper, and asked him what his favourite cheese was. Dolcelate, apparently. Hope that helps. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@longmans.net IP: 62.190.236.241 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 12/07/2003 07:34:40 PM Beaufort or Morbier, both French cheeses. Lovely with a few fresh slices of apple and and a cold beer or a glass of wine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Max EMAIL: max.niederhofer@20six.net IP: 62.3.247.86 URL: http://www.marketinginrecession.de DATE: 12/08/2003 09:05:29 AM There's St. Nectaire, which I really enjoy. It's French cheese, slightly less mild than a Brie or a Camembert. I haven't been able to find it outside France, unfortunately, but that won't stop me trying again in Covent Garden this week... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jez EMAIL: jez@jezuk.co.uk IP: 82.36.32.43 URL: http://www.jezuk.co.uk/cgi-bin/view/jez DATE: 12/08/2003 09:32:46 AM A nice soft Brie or a bit of Roquefort. I don't normally advocate drinking beer with food, but I do enjoy a good bit of Sage Derby with a bottle or two of IPA. These days getting a proper IPA isn't a problem, but Sage Derby? Tricky. You're going to tell me I get it from Neal's Yard Dairy now, arn't you? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.168.231 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/08/2003 09:37:46 AM Well that all rather depends. Neal's Yard only does cheeses from the UK and Ireland, and I'm not sure how good they are with vegetarian cheeses (Sage Derby is vegetarian, right?) but if that's not a particular anxiety I don't have any doubt that they could find you something comparable and beautiful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derby EMAIL: dragon@NOSPAM.dragonsmind.co.uk IP: 148.107.12.20 URL: http://www.dragonsmind.co.uk DATE: 12/08/2003 09:51:56 AM I have particular fondness for the cheeses from back home - Wales. Y Fenni, Pant Mawr, and this gorgeous soft cheddar with leek that I forget the name of. And then there's all those ewe's milk and goats milk cheeses too. I feel fat just thinking about it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Billy EMAIL: billy@lecturelist.org IP: 81.136.133.61 URL: http://blogs.pumpernickle.net/billy DATE: 12/08/2003 04:22:10 PM I've never met a cheese I didn't like, but one of those strong but slightly creamy traditional cheddars with a bit of a bite in it comes to mind right now (no metaphor or irony intended) B-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 12/08/2003 09:09:17 PM Appenzeller. After it has ripened for a week or so in the fridge. Kind of a pungent Swiss thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ole Eichhorn EMAIL: ole@pacbell.net IP: 68.67.48.50 URL: http://w-uh.com/ DATE: 12/09/2003 02:20:07 AM Sacriledge from a Dutchman: my favorite cheese is Manchego, Fol Epi, or Pecorino. So I like sheep. So? Ole ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the genesis of two ways of seeing the world... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/07/2003 12:20:36 AM ----- BODY:

    So I'm sitting in the BBC canteen in Broadcasting House with one Matthew Webb, who is (I fear) the husband part of our particular TV husband-and-wife Research and Development team. I say that because he sits really quietly and reads things and grunts while I freak out about stuff and try and kick him under the table. In this particular aspect - as in many others - it feels much like my parent's marriage (except with heated and even occasionally productive debates about social software, recommendations engines and the like).

    Anyway, he's unusually chatty on this day and I think I'm being unusually stoic and calm. I'm tucking into a slab of over-cooked BBC roast-pork with mixed vegetables that have been boiled into submission while he's chomping on some kind of grey-looking sandwich from the shop that doesn't have the scary woman with the thrusting money-demanding hand at the cash-till. I'm probably using a plastic knife because they never have any metal knives - my theory being that with the BBC's internal politics (in other departments, obviously) being what it is, a metal knife would simply prove too much of a temptation. And - while we look out over the bright panorama of London towards the distant hills of Hampstead, across the emptiness of Regent's Park - Matt starts talking about fog, the diffraction of light (I'm not a physics graduate, so apologies if that makes no sense) and the possibilities of enormous hovering spherical mirrors.

    And it was in this fashion that I became witness to the genesis of an UpsideClown story that oozes Borges and Ong called: The Mirrored Spheres of Patagonia. Since Matt and I talked initially, he took his story seed and doused it liberally in Gro-fast, psycho-tropic substances, a small amount of cat-pee from an animal with prostate difficulty and had it bitten by a passing radio-active spider. Or so I can only deduce from its scale, complexity and total disconnection from traditional human forms of communication. A choice excerpt follows:

    "The basis for Patagonian civilisation, the discovery that turned a relatively simple agricultural community towards greater and greater complexity, was the perfection of their science of optics. Every citizen carried a telescope, and at intervals in their cities vast mirrored spheres were winched into the air. Smaller spheres were placed outside windows, and similar ones inside all rooms and scattered in all public places. Strung between cities and villages were magnifying lenses, repeaters, also winched up. From what we're told it seems that this infrastructure allowed any citizen - from anywhere - to view any other point in the empire."

    At which point I can only say that my competing ideology - that we should bio-engineer human beings to produce nano-enhanced packet-switching uber-networked skin-flakes that were able to sense the nature of the thing they were adjacent to and capable of determining their three-dimensional location in space with relation to nearby flakes with the effect of producing an accurate and 3-D explorable model of the world and all its surfaces that could tell you what and where everything was at any given moment of the day or night - was significantly more fun. And moreover (you will note with respect) had the advantage of not defying any major laws of physics and helping you determine which parts of the world were particularly in need of a hoover.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: shandy_w@hotmail.com IP: 217.44.64.73 URL: DATE: 12/07/2003 01:25:28 AM Sounds like it could be one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities... there are a few of them excerpted here. And while I was looking, came across this rather poetic web essay/palimpsest about cities. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gareth EMAIL: mail@kuboid.com IP: 82.69.20.224 URL: http://www.kuboid.com DATE: 12/07/2003 01:29:58 AM No need to bio-engineer humans. With a small modification, my dog could do most of the job. It was great to meet you and Matt the other night, and put a face to all these odd, odd ideas. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Geography of the Bloggies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/07/2003 12:45:53 PM ----- BODY:

    Soon it will be time for the annual Bloggies - the weblog equivalent of the Oscars (voted for by the community that makes them, heavily slanted towards blockbuster-sites that get bums on seats, vaguely ridiculous and highly entertaining). The best mock fights are always around the Best Poof category (which I won once a long, long time ago), particularly when Sparky or Ernie are in the game. This year - however - I will be heavily promoting Trash Addict for that particular dubious honour.

    Anyway, the standard debate around categories will start emerging shortly, so I just thought I'd get my thoughts in on the localisation issues quickly and early and see what people thought. Currently they're organised roughly like this:

    There seem to be a few problems with his grouping to me - firstly there's no category for the Middle East, and I think this year that's going to be a more obvious omission than ever given Salam Pax and all the webloggers around Iraq and Israel. Secondly, having separate categories for Antipodean, Canadian and American weblogs, but not one for British/Irish ones seems rather random considering that both Canada and Australia/NZ have much smaller populations in general and smaller weblogging communities in particular than the UK and Ireland. And finally, the grouping of Europe with Africa seems to make the possibility of Africa weblogs becoming seen rather unlikely. So here's my proposed reworking:

    It's two more categories than last year, but it seems more convincing to me. Any thoughts / contributions / suggestions / improvements / comments?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lars EMAIL: lars@larsholst.info IP: 213.80.73.75 URL: http://larsholst.info/blog/ DATE: 12/07/2003 04:09:36 PM Splitting up Europe and Africa is an improvement. However, there are still problems. If the categories are to be based on population size, then I don't quite see the reason why you want to ignore Germany? Or France? Or Japan? India? And where did South America go? And what does localisation actually mean? Should the webog of a white U.S. citizen currently residing in Japan and blogging about the local European expat community be categorized as localized in Japan? If yes, then I don't see what the localization parameter actually means. I'd much rather have categories according to subject or main focus area. Some of those would be geographically related I suppose. Of course, topics such as Japanese art and Italian politics highlight the difficulty of chosing an appropriate category. Either way, there should be a worthless weblog award as well. I have a long list of nominees. And that would be a universal category. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.219.12 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/07/2003 04:28:29 PM Well of course there are lots of topic and identity-politics based categories as well (Best political weblog, Best Topical, Best Humourous, Best Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender etc), so that's not a huge issue. I'm not sure it's supposed to necessarily reflect population density as much as it's supposed to provide workable categories for a prize that needs a certain amount of (most likely) English-speaking weblogs in an area in order to be effective. It's not that the French or German weblogs might be under-represented, but simply that (on previous evidence) they're less likely to enter. As to whether an Asian weblog is a weblog that is written in Asia, written by an Asian person or written by someone of Asian ethnicity - that's a rather different question (and you'd have to talk to Nikolai about that). Clearly in the past, these distinctions have been more than a little blurred... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.234.237 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 12/07/2003 09:24:10 PM Thanks for including Ireland. We always seem to get left out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.166.115 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog/ DATE: 12/08/2003 12:34:02 AM I think you're more or less spot on, especially with the Middle Eastern observation. I'd probably still let Canada have it's own category, although not for any particular reason beyond my impression that they seem like very nice people who deserve seperate recognition to the US. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lars EMAIL: lars@larsholst.info IP: 130.235.80.160 URL: http://larsholst.info/blog/ DATE: 12/08/2003 02:30:22 PM Read your commnet Tom. Well, I agree with most of your points, and I can see how population size isn't necessarily the best measure. The important thing is, as you say, to get "workable" categories (I still think South America is missing though). I also realize that English-speaking weblogs are implied in these sorts of things. It's a practical thing I guess, although I'd love to see the equivalent of a Weblog "Olympics". However, I'm sceptical about certain categories. Take Best Gay award for example; does a weblog qualify by being written by a gay person or do you actually have to write about gay life, culture, issuess, etc? And if it's the latter, would a straight person qualify? And so on. I don't know for sure, just raising the questions here. As for Asian weblogs, I just found this one: http://www.flyingchair.net/awards.php After a very quick look, there seem to be some good nominees. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org DATE: 12/08/2003 02:47:14 PM One point; why lump Africa and Asia together, but have a seperate Middle East category? What would be the difference between them? I can see the reasoning, but don't think it draws clear enough distinctions. After all, what would an Egyptian weblogger count as? Would a Turkish weblogger be European, Asian or Middle Eastern? Making geographical distinctions when trying to take account of population, politics, density of interest etc. will always going to be problematic. Maybe there are just too many blogs out there to make a simple geographical comparison an easy decision. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org DATE: 12/08/2003 04:51:07 PM oop. as i've been informed, i misread the listings when i made my comment. consider it splumped. whatever splumping means. still, i'd be a little splurpled over the british isles/europe distinction, since that's really a question of language. after all, there are loads of german blogs that i've come across. i just can't read any of them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@poorbuthappy.com IP: 65.115.236.150 URL: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease DATE: 12/08/2003 07:31:59 PM If you want to avoid bad feelings in SA, don't label US blogs as "American blogs". "North American blogs" is ok, "US blogs" is even better. Also, let people self-categorize, and let them choose more than 1 category (max 2, and only win in 1). Make it clear that selecting more than 1 category doesn't increase your chance of winning. That should address most of the issues with this categorization. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 12/08/2003 09:22:09 PM I like the idea of self-selecting two categories. But I also like the idea of geeking out in one direction and dividing the world into eighths along lines of latitude and the equator, such that North America is one octant, South America is one, Western Europe/North Africa is one, Sub-Saharan Africa is one, and Asia is split three or four ways. Hawaii would probably wind up in the same category as Australia and Indonesia, while Russia would sprawl across three octants and China would reach into two. (If there are Chinese weblogs.) OR geeking out in another way, you could simplify all our lives by running Oceania against Eurasia against Eastasia. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: blogger@[SPAM]arseblog.com IP: 80.58.50.174 URL: http://www.arseblog.com DATE: 12/08/2003 10:27:25 PM There had just better be a 'Best Sports Blog' category. That's all I'm saying. For now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.146.100 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/08/2003 11:29:46 PM I have heard that may be a possibility. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniela EMAIL: info@getyourweb.co.uk IP: 195.93.34.8 URL: http://www.getyourweb.co.uk DATE: 12/09/2003 01:11:53 PM What about the bloggers who live in the Caribbean? there are plenty of them too. I definately think you should seperate the awards per country. Some countries might not have any bloggers, but if you give some countries an award for themselves it would only be fair to give one to each and every country. That would solve your problem of trying to "group" them. And then you might find that more international bloggers will take part in your competition. And they might even rewrite some of their blogs into English. If you need a German speaking judge I could do the German language blogs for you. German is spoken in Germany :-) and Austria and also in Switzerland. So as you can see its going to be hard to group them all together. There are quite a few Russian bloggers out there, and there are also a few Chinese and loads of Japanese, Singaporean and Korean bloggers out there. My opinion would be to just have the best per country and then maybe a subcategory winner per region. Then I would suggest to just use the normal listing of the continents. If you want to truly get the whole world involved. Letting people choose the country they want to blog under would be very good. So a, lets say, Chinese immigrant living in the UK may choose to blog under the China listing. Or I might want to blog under the Jamaican listing, even though I live in London, or in the German section as I have tripple nationality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Akin EMAIL: david@davidakin.com IP: 24.57.191.44 URL: http://davidakin.blogware.com DATE: 12/09/2003 01:52:04 PM As Marcus said in a comment above here, we"are very nice people who deserve separate recognition to the U.S." In fact, as an increasing number of social researchers are showing, we are vastly different than our continental partners. Indeed, our retiring prime minister -- he's done next week after winning three consecutive majorities -- quipped about relaxing marijuana laws here so he could kick back and light up a spliff upon retiring. Can you see any American politician saying something like that? So, no, please, don't lump us in yet again with our Yankee cousins -- we share just enough with them. If anything, dump us in with the Irish and/or the Australians. Now there's folks who, like us, like a good beer and are never too big for their britches. - Posting from Toronto, Ontario, Canada ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/09/2003 02:38:04 PM I should point out that I don't run the Bloggies - I'm just suggesting some alternative ways of categorising things. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@poorbuthappy.com IP: 65.115.236.150 URL: http://petervandijck.net DATE: 12/09/2003 03:41:56 PM Some comments: - "Dividing the world in eights along lines of latitude and equator". Falls in the trap of "objective categories" that exist in the world. It doesn't take into account the amount of bloggers in each region, which may well be perceived as unfair. - "Separate awards per country". Same comment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lars EMAIL: lars@larsholst.info IP: 130.235.80.160 URL: http://larsholst.info/blog/ DATE: 12/09/2003 03:49:20 PM I wouldn't encourage sports blogging. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dean Allen EMAIL: dean@textism.com IP: 212.31.242.112 URL: http://textism.com DATE: 12/10/2003 10:59:04 AM Hey I actually won one of these idiotic things last year, but never got my 'TBA from Tom Coates'. When oh when will IBA? Never got '$50 from ed k.' either, but vaguely remember hearing he was set upon by Controversy. Nikolai did send a stunning bubblejet-printed certificate in the mail, though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vasco EMAIL: jvascony@yahoo.com IP: 66.108.161.150 URL: http://brzinnyc.blogspot.com/ DATE: 12/11/2003 02:01:37 AM Adding to the mess: Brazil has the 2nd biggest blogging community after the U.S. yet it seems Brazilian bloggers had a hard time been nominated - maybe there aren't any worthy, i don't know. But, in my case, a Gay Brazilian blogging from New York on no specific subject - if it were left up to me, none of the categories fully represent my intentions. We can discuss this forever and never agree on anything - awards rules are set by whoever is giving the award - and as with the Nobel, the approach should be that you don't lose the prize, only win it . ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/miniblog/archives/week_2003_12_07.php#001996 URL: http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/miniblog/archives/week_2003_12_07.php#001996 IP: 66.33.208.14 BLOG NAME: LYD's mini-blog DATE: 12/08/2003 06:23:34 PM my name is ernie, sweetie. ernie.... ----- PING: TITLE: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/archives/002433.html URL: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/archives/002433.html IP: 207.44.220.31 BLOG NAME: Guide to Ease DATE: 12/08/2003 07:25:40 PM Ah, a category debate! On the Geography of the Bloggies.... Let me humbly provide a few categorization guidelines: - The discussion is inherently political, so don't even try to propose a categorization scheme and state that it is more correct.... ----- PING: TITLE: Bloggies and categorization URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/archives/001536.html IP: 63.247.132.5 BLOG NAME: Mercurial DATE: 12/09/2003 03:37:07 PM Check the debate over at Tom Coates about the appropriate and desirable categories for the bloggies awards, specially taking into... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: David Shrigley on the Tube... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/07/2003 04:41:44 PM ----- BODY:

    After watching a particularly interesting episode of The Art Show, I now plan to go and visit the work of David Shrigley currently being displayed on the London Underground. Here's a detail from one of the displayed works:

    Picture of a deserted book

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 81.129.86.234 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 12/07/2003 05:24:19 PM It was a good documentary, that - reminded me that his public work and sculpture is really very good stuff. The drawings and books I can take or leave - Shrigley mentioned he decided to do them 'as a job,' something the programme failed to pick up on. I'd be interested to know whether he sees all his practice as one and the same thing, or if the cartoony drawings are meant to be viewed differently to the gallery and public work above and beyond the obvious difference in context. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@longmans.net IP: 62.190.236.241 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 12/07/2003 07:32:02 PM Didn't see the documentary, but I met him at a party in 1999. Actually, that's a lie. His publisher was having a small party at the top of Waterstones on Piccadilly which I invited myself to as I was a big fan. I thought he was great bloke. Surprisingly normal and self-deprecating. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 12/08/2003 10:13:29 AM I found myself in Gloucester Road station the morning after the Webloggers party, and with my hangover beating me into a strangely pensive mood, I missed train after train because I was looking at the works on display there. I absolutely loved them. Cheeky, irreverent, and strangely wistful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pip EMAIL: phil_hall007@hotmail.com IP: 193.82.99.130 URL: http://na DATE: 01/06/2004 03:52:34 PM Yeah this was a cheeky little programme, it seems to be a good time to show his work on a more publicly viewed format. masses of illustraters seem to use his work as a excuse to do meaningless pictures of what they deem to be highly profound statments. At last it seemed to offer some accountablity and ideolology. Which is long over due in this secture. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jason EMAIL: muspi2000@yahoo.com IP: 147.197.200.12 URL: DATE: 01/18/2004 03:21:19 AM david shrigley's artwork..is just that..another piece of artwork. art is crap, and art like this is certainly NOT BLOODY WORTH THE TIME analyzing bout it. Come on man, this is crap, his art is crap, my god..ppl can analyze this as contemporary conceptual art..bla bla bla, his work is brilliant because of this and that bla bla. please, my god this kind of art is fuckin crap. Art= impressionism, expressionism that kinda stuff is art, not this fucking crap ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: God EMAIL: sanguin_reborn@hotmail.com IP: 82.43.122.202 URL: DATE: 01/24/2004 11:50:11 AM "Comment: barrie j davies (January 21, 2004 08:22 PM) said: this is for you out there jason, art is not crap! you are just so narrow minded you would not be able to apreciate it if shit fell on you from a great height!" We'd all be able too apreciate it though. "Art is expressionism" Isn't this work a form of expression.. Oh my, it suddenly became art. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: olle EMAIL: gustavsson_olle@hotmail.com IP: 213.122.112.94 URL: DATE: 01/26/2004 09:42:27 PM well, he's a good man, makes thoughtful images and so on, but come on - look in any designer's/artist's sketchbook and you'll find similar stuff - thoughtful captions about life and everything around them - why aren't their images on show too?? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anna EMAIL: mmmmmmmmyes@hotmail.com IP: 152.71.94.4 URL: DATE: 02/11/2004 03:14:05 PM Art is just expressionism, impressionism eh? what an idiot. Im sorry but you're missing out on some amazing things in this world if you believe that art boils down to a couple of movements. That stuff aint relevant anymore so get with it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nadine EMAIL: ihavethepower5000@hotmail.com IP: 82.33.32.247 URL: DATE: 02/21/2004 08:53:03 PM Shrigley takes the piss and that is what endears him to the public. I saw a few pieces by him at the Serpentine this week and laughed out loud, what an amazing quality in a human being-let alone an artist! Take it at face value-he wants you to laugh at yourself and the idiocy of life, what a great guy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Loathsome Cowboy EMAIL: sickhappyidle@hotmail.com IP: 62.249.206.25 URL: http://www.sickhappyidle.com DATE: 03/09/2004 02:44:09 PM adrian did the narration for that shrigley art tv show... this is his site... http://www.sickhappyidle.com he is also in the documentary ...the bloke with the camouflage jacket on (in case you missed him) bye ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A lovely article on Gaydar... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 12/08/2003 01:18:41 PM ----- BODY:

    There is a quite charming article on the Independent's site today - Confessions of a Gaydar junkie - which is about one of the world's most successful (and mostly unsung) pieces of social software: Gaydar. Like most truly dedicated social software enthusiasts, I have - of course - forced myself to investigate the service, although with a certain amount of disappointment and embarrassment I feel compelled to confess that I've never actually met anyone off it. I suppose that means that my dedication to the cause of computer-mediated social interaction has some limits. Either that or I'm too embarrassed.

    Anyway, the article is particularly good value, which I suppose you might expect since Mark Simpson wrote it. Mark - you will recall - wrote the rather irritating/insightful book Anti-Gay. He writes of his experiences:

    "Moralists who protest at gay e-promiscuity should be encouraging the Government to provide gays with grants for permanent broadband connections, since the internet not only keeps them off the streets and out of the parks, it turns all that messy sexual energy and appetite into ... typing. Gays have become the unpaid secretaries of desire, filing and cataloguing human weakness. Promiscuity is now a form of bureaucracy. Tedious, eye-straining, number-crunching slave work. Don't bother feeling jealous, all you sexually frustrated, non-online non-gays: internet cruising is its own form of punishment."

    Well obviously, I'm not really into a position to comment on all that stuff, being at least as inadequate at pulling on a site dedicated to the process as I appear to be in real-life (is it the beard, do you think?). But there are some other aspects to the piece which I think are interesting in terms of the relationship between the internet as a place for social interaction and as a means unto itself. I'll give you an example to end with - which although perhaps presented in rather absolutist terms is certainly entertaining enough to be worth reporting as fact:

    "You see, the real efficiency of online dating, just as with internet anything, is not the way it delivers you lots of pointless sex without leaving the house, but the way that it ensures that you will be spending more time on the internet."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 213.107.1.240 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 12/08/2003 02:55:09 PM http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3256348.stm http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/content_objectid=13702722_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Rhondda-MP-may-be-forced-to-quit-name_page.html http://www.rainbownetwork.com/content/News.asp?newsid=4017 http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=9&id=1526 http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22chris+bryant%22&sa=N&tab=wn&meta= ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@(nospam)groc.org.uk IP: 81.133.106.250 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog DATE: 12/08/2003 07:45:48 PM yes -what is the beard about? please explain. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jason EMAIL: jasondgold@btinternet.com IP: 81.129.117.124 URL: DATE: 12/08/2003 08:36:22 PM What is the beard about? You mean it isn't just to make me go weak at the knees? Very nice Mr Coates ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.146.100 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/08/2003 10:13:59 PM Dunno really - just seemed like a good idea at the time. I think there's a time in a man's life when he either has to start going to the gym and fighting to retain his youthful looks OR he has to grow a beard and embrace middle age. I am testing out the latter route. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Laurie EMAIL: me@seldo.com IP: 194.70.234.46 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 12/09/2003 11:31:43 AM I don't believe you're no good at online pulling; you're just oblivious. I've been stalking you online for months now, yet you take no notice... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.195.223 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 12/09/2003 11:42:31 AM Ahh, the Time of Beard Growing. I experimented with that phase myself a few years ago, but everybody I knew kept sort of pointing and giggling. It was just after Gladiator came out, and I thought Russell Crowe might have made beards "cool" again, but I suspect I miscalculated. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 146.227.1.9 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 12/09/2003 02:49:52 PM It depends on whether it's an "Intended Beard" or an "Apathy Beard". The former is created by a choice to embrace middle age (as you describe) and the latter is just lazy buggers who can't be bothered to shave. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Dolan EMAIL: tom@sparklefluff.com IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/ DATE: 12/09/2003 06:34:44 PM One of the unsung great things about Gaydar, though, is its radio station. Our DAB set alternates between that and R7. It's particularly recommended on a Sunday morning, after 'Brodcasting House' on R4 finishes, as a way of filling in time during the omnibus edition of 'The Archers'. Just lots of really great pop and dance, with a bit of camp and tongue-in-cheek thrown in. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: How many weblogs are there in the UK? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/09/2003 02:51:23 PM ----- BODY:

    Right. For a whole range of reasons, I'm getting increasingly interested in finding out how many weblogs there are in the UK. If we could demonstrate that a large number of UK-based webloggers exist, then it could have a whole range of effects: it could encourage publishers to find constructive ways to engage with the community, could encourage UK-based people/companies to get more involved in building weblog-based software (or to spend time thinking around Denton-esque micro-publishing ventures like Gawker, Fleshbot and Gizmodo). All kinds of stuff.

    Now there's no really useful way of effectively measuring these things, but it occurs to me that we'd probably be able to motivate a good number of people to make themselves known as weblogers if everyone who read this post stuck up a mention/plug for one or more of the major geographical portals onto their sites. So I'm going to wander off now and check that I'm listed on:

    And please - if you've got ten minutes and are interested in helping to uncover the lost continent of UK webloggers out there, then stick something on your site about this too.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: mmm... Marketing Data URL: http://www.neuromantics.net/bunker/arc/technology/mmm_marketing_data.shtml IP: 212.67.202.141 BLOG NAME: bunker DATE: 12/09/2003 06:38:56 PM But really, it like Tom asks, "How many weblogs are there in the UK?" it... ----- PING: TITLE: Go Forth, My Bookmarks, And Clutter My Computer No More URL: http://missiedith.bentbacktulips.co.uk/archive/000337.html IP: 63.247.72.82 BLOG NAME: LaceOverSand DATE: 12/10/2003 03:30:30 AM I'm very organised when I want to be. I have a special folder for temporary bookmarks of things I want to point out/link to. However, this may be one of the last blogs I do from this laptop until January,... ----- PING: TITLE: tom coates asks URL: http://www.marketinginrecession.de/archives/000074.html IP: 80.237.130.9 BLOG NAME: Marketing In Recession DATE: 12/10/2003 04:12:12 PM "how many weblogs are there in the UK?" Find out how to make yourself known.... ----- PING: TITLE: Online neighbourhoods and geo-data URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/000758.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 12/10/2003 07:59:25 PM Three links about geo-data, neighbourhoods and local weblogs. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A Collection of Conundrums... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/09/2003 09:58:05 PM ----- BODY:

    How to talk about thoughts about work (in public) that I need to articulate and work through a bit without said thoughts taking on a political dimension - feeling like part of some attempt to game social reality. How to deal with personal frustrations (or let those frustrations go) without projecting perceived inadequacies onto other people. How to reconcile the satisfaction of a work that will result in something made with the desire to work on a subject that you're passionate about. How to know when one is doing that. How to think about what's next without sorting out what is. How to handle the frustrations of watching other people do work in places where you used to be the only person who cared. How do deal with people communicating things you want to communicate but didn't think you should. How to not sound shrill and callous and vengeful and bloody. How to not sound desperate and flighty and trivial and fake. How to tell whether your impression of things is a lie or not.

    These being an adequate representation of the conundrums I find myself dealing with on a Tuesday evening, because it would of course be too much for me to scratch out any kind of mental peace.

    My head, unfortunately, is far from in the position to do its best thinking. My blood feels like it has thickened to the consistency of thick pressurised loam, to be forced at pressure through brain-flesh, capillary and straining vein. Mental clarity is unlikely to be found in such a state. So I shall have a bath and go to bed. In the meantime: Conundrum vs. Conundra.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Million Pound Property Queens... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/10/2003 10:29:53 PM ----- BODY:

    So there's this TV show called The Million Pound Property Experiment. It's presented by these two charming young men called Colin and Justin. Evidence suggests that the two young men in question come from a dimension that - let's just say - is big on musical theatre. One of them (Colin) is quite fluffy and conciliatory ("We like Colin! Yay Colin!"), but the other one (Justin) is a bloody nightmare. Watching him in action is like watching a drag act on cocaine with foot-long claws hacking and slashing her way through a room stuffed full of fluffy bunnies, kittens and happy smiling teddy bears. I'll give you an example. When the programme started they had this really decent guy working with them as a project manager. He was a bit of a curmudgeon at times, but he seemed pragmatic and mostly reasonable. And Justin just wailed at him and scratched at him like one of those impossibly unreasonable small children that you kind of pick up and watch quizzically while they writhe and kick and scream that they hate you. Nutter! And I'm not the only one who thinks so - you only have to read the vaguely homophobic thread over at Digital Spy to see how stunned and amused people are by his behaviour. And that's discounting the whole Popbitch thing. Which we won't mention, obviously. Oops.

    That's not to say - of course - that the buildings they end up producing aren't beautifully assembled, but the most galling aspect is how relentlessly they ignore everyone who tells them about the prices in the area or that their design ideas are inappropriate for their market or that - you know - children could - you know - die if you build it that way. So week after week they get profits in the region of £1000 just because they're snotting drama queens. It's scandalous! Great television, though...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: a EMAIL: -@-.com IP: 65.120.138.156 URL: DATE: 12/10/2003 10:38:17 PM Profits seem more in the range of 10,000 rather than the 1000 pounds you suggest. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.142.24 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/10/2003 10:43:11 PM Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit - although they did have two properties that only made around £1000 profit and £2000 profit respectively - and I can't imagine that includes the cost of their interior design expertise. Admittedly, tonight they got a rather more substantial £108,000 profit so I might have to let them off. But that also appears to be more because Justin lets other people get a bit of a word in every so often nowadays. Which brings me to my other question. You didn't leave your name. If you're Colin, do you fancy half a shandy sometime? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.74 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk/weblog/ DATE: 12/10/2003 11:22:43 PM Strangely enough, I was going to post about this programme tonight, but couldn't think of anything to say apart from repeating the words 'car crash television'. That's not to say it's not fabulous and compulsive viewing . . . but really! Those two designers! And the fact that it's like every property programme going on telly in that they ignore every bit of sensible advice. And the fact that by the end of every programme I'm chewing the arm of the sofa pleading for the gods to make it stop, and yet I come back to it each and every week. Horrendous. Brilliant. Brilliantly horrendous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JP EMAIL: jp@webk.co.uk IP: 80.3.72.83 URL: DATE: 12/11/2003 12:26:12 AM Btw, they're a couple apparently. First gay couple presentering duo thing in the UK and all that blah blah. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.142.24 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/11/2003 12:30:15 AM Oh that's a terrible terrible shame. I'm way less annoying than Justin (well I'm slightly less annoying anyway) and I think that other chap and I would get on terribly well after he got past the whole "you live in a dump and have no style" thing. Such a waste. Oh the humanity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan EMAIL: jonathan@whiteland.net IP: 212.44.22.65 URL: http://whiteland.net/jonathan DATE: 12/11/2003 10:18:15 AM I only managed one show (porobably the "children could die if you build it that way" show unless that happens _every_ week_). There's no accounting for relationships though: on Liquid News a couple of weeks ago they said they met in a club and had been together for 18 years. Hmmm. That's interesting maths! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Teemo EMAIL: teemoven@yahoo.com IP: 193.202.231.79 URL: DATE: 12/11/2003 10:42:30 AM So the original pitch was they start with a cheap house, do it up, sell it on, use the profits for the next house and so on up to the big million. And the final profits go to children in need. But disaster struck on house one: the one where they "designed" a bathroom where if you sat on the toilet you had to put your legs in the bath. Three of the properties so far have been financial disasters. The worst: £1,000 profit for 12 weeks work, and youíll notice the bottom line doesnít include mortgage payments for the weeks the house stands empty. So actually, a loss. The fix is in. The experiment died at birth. The bbc ends up funding a another make-over show. Only unlike the wonderful (trained, knowledgeable, talented) Lawrence Llandudno-Butlins, these two jokers are basically unskilled. They know as much about design as theyíve picked up off watching The House Doctor, thereís no rigour or depth to their approach. Itís the intellectual equivalent of a dog eating its own vomit, but lacking the charm. And not wishing to trivialise, but what is with their hair? Was Colin auditioning for an Amish community production of Oklahoma during filming? One morning, looking over the breakfast table and gazing at the box of Quaker oats, another design statement comes to Colin? But anyway: £108k profit. Not a bad return. But you donít have to be a genius to spend £160k and turn a massive six bedroom house into a nice, massive six bedroom house. And hereís the biggest clue, their favourite part of this weekís show: "injecting the lifestyle". For the love of God, wonít somebody think of the children (in need). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 81.129.88.8 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 12/11/2003 02:21:15 PM It certainly is addictive - It's not just Justin's bull drag queen in a china shop ways that make it such good viewing, though. The truly wonderful moments come when J. stops stomping about demostrating a complete lack of regard for the wise advice of his betters and snaps, like that time he wept on the beach, or last night when it dawned on him that he'd actually turned a profit. The quivering lip! The teary eye! The naked play of emotion across his face! And the pleasure of seeing him crumble into a wimpering tearful mess is all the greater, since there can be no doubt that he is an utter, utter twat. On the Popbitch front, I won't mention that the gossip in Glasgow suggests the popular newsletter was uncharacteristically restrained in its description of the couple's proclivities. Oops. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dunstan EMAIL: dunstan@1976design.com IP: 213.78.84.155 URL: http://www.1976design.com/blog/ DATE: 12/11/2003 11:04:33 PM My dad and I roar with laughter at that show, it's so bad and so good and so awful and oh, how can they really be like that? I'd like to see those two lending a hand re-building Iraq, I think that'd liven things up a bit. Wonderful stuff :op ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dance, familiar. Dance... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/11/2003 07:32:57 PM ----- BODY:

    An interesting line about the selves manufactured by spies (that seems to me to have currency for all people who have cause to narrativise their lives in one way or another) from John Le Carré's rather blandly-titled (but also rather good) new novel Absolute Friends:

    But who is Mundy Three, when Mundys One and Two have gone to bed? Who is this third person who is neither one of the other two, who lies awake while they sleep, and listens for the chimes of country bells he doesn't hear? He is the silent spectator. He is the one member of the audience who doesn't applaud the performances of his two familiars. He is made up of all the odd bits of his life that are left over after he has given the rest away.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "The Bookman's London" reviews Foyles on Charing Cross Road... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/11/2003 07:55:08 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm sitting in Foyles' cafÈ on the second floor of the massive and esteemed London book store and I'm having one of the most pleasant moments of my life. The cafÈ has a nice murmur of activity meandering around me. I'm sat with my laptop on an old school-like table. I've eaten some refreshing food, and am tapping away to myself while simple book-loving folk slip past unhurriedly. Most beautiful of all is the album of simple melancholic bluegrassy adaptations of Christmas carols that is playing in the background. It's sedate, slow, respectful and humble - unlike the desperate to be happy, frantically cheery hysteria of most Christmas music. It's all tremendously comforting.

    On the wall is this rather lovely poster which has a review of the store I'm in from "The Bookman's London" (1952) by Frank Swinnerton. It's cast in this lovely typeface (I think it's Parable). Anyway - I tried to find a source online for the (rather indifferent, but still apt) review and there wasn't one. So I thought I'd transcribe it so that if anyone else looked, it would be be there for them to reference. So here's Mr Swinnerton's review of one of the world's finest and oldest (and most randomly organised) Book Shops:

    Towards the Oxford Street end stands one of the really extraordinary enterprises of the book world - Foyles. Two brothers began this shop within the memory of many who are living now. By sheer genius they made it the busiest centre for the sale of books known to me. One may go at any time of day into any of the departments - and there seems no end to them - and find everywhere a packed concentration of students seeking books and advice. The atmosphere is that of great, preoccupied busy-ness; the assistants are inexhaustible encyclopaedias; whole ranges of cheap classics, new school books, histories, dictionaries, novels and in fact everything, as far as everything can now be obtained, is at hand for the student's need. There is, of course, a rare book department in Foyles, where those more exclusive in taste can rove; but for the most part this is a store for men and women of small means in search of essential tools. As an institution it is overwhelming.

    Oh and if you are one of the more exclusive in taste, you might be interested to know that Mr Swinnerton's book is in fact now itself a bit of a collector's item (albeit not a very expensive one): Walter-Saxen Rare Books.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Bowden EMAIL: bods@durge.org IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.bods.me.uk/ DATE: 12/12/2003 09:54:04 AM I love Foyles, although I'm quite miffed that they have the french language versions of Les Miserables (the novel), volumes 2 and 3, but no copy of volume 1! I especially love the recent refurbishment (although they've removed a delightfully random escalator that went from the 1st to the 2nd floor and looked like it was from the 1930s) because the illuminated signage above the bookcases still looks like it's from a distant timewarp, despite it being brand new :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the decline of anti-gay sentiment in the UK... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/12/2003 12:28:17 PM ----- BODY:

    The Guardian has an article today about the increasing acceptance of homosexuality in society that is worth a read: Without Prejudice. It's generally a pretty well worked-through piece, even if it has a tendency to represent things in perhaps too cheerful and happy a way. Here's one of the more randomly bizarre questions it asks:

    But do these advancing levels of acceptance leave us in a position where it is easier to be gay in the UK than it is to be black, or even female?

    The answer to which is patently no -on the whole - because (1) there simply isn't a consistent experience of being gay in the UK (some areas / industries / cultures are gay-tolerant, some gay-positive, some are patently and overtly not), (2) gay teenagers are still some of the most at risk of bullying, homelessness and suicide statistics, and because (3) there is still a massive amount of institutionalised homophobia and stereotyping both from outside and indeed inside the 'community'.

    On the other hand things have got considerably better. When I was at University you could almost feel the tides turning - and turning quickly. But there is another aspect to this rapid change in cultural beliefs regarding homosexuality and gay issues that I think the Guardian has missed. I remember when I first noticed (around ten years ago) that the frequent reference to - and tacit acceptance of - gay issues in TV shows like Friends seemed to be having much more effect on the hearts and minds of people around us than any of the dedicated and necessary campaigning and fighting of the oppressive late eighties. It seems to me that the media won the war for us, and that's troubling in and of itself.

    And it's not just who won the battles that is alarming (because there's no guarantee that they won't start reversing their position - particularly in the increasingly right-wing USA), it's also the speed in which the battles were won. I think we have to be aware of the fact that political and social life doesn't just naturally have a tendency towards liberalism and socially inclusive politics. A rapid social swing in that direction (while wonderful in the short-term) makes me concerned about the possibilities for an equally rapid swing towards more repressive and less gay-friendly ideologies. Let's let these changes bed in a bit before we start saying the war has been won.

    In the meantime, The Guardian's article is a bit of a charter for complacency, because as the man said, "Rights have to be defended all of the time because rights are under attack all of the time". And looking back on the last twenty years, perhaps the lesson is not that we are naturally destined to be accepted as equals, but that - in the future if not now - the media will be the battleground upon which all ideological conflicts will be won.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Loz EMAIL: l_pycock@hotmail.com IP: 195.171.200.235 URL: http://blahblahflowers.blogspot.com DATE: 12/12/2003 01:52:59 PM Hmmm. I read it more as being slightly disappointed that the 'gay community' was accepted in a "now we can't win liberal kudos by standing up for them" kind of way, regardless of whether the Guardian ever really did stand up for us/them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.195.223 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog/ DATE: 12/12/2003 07:51:54 PM Well, I'd turn that question on its head and say "is it now any harder to be gay in the UK than it is to be black, or female?" And from the dubious outsider's perspective of a heterosexual white male I can honestly say: I no longer think it is. Of course it does depend on who you associate with and, frankly, what part of the country you're in. I think that certain areas of the country have a lot of liberal attitude catching up to do compared to other parts of it (I'm not talking about the North/South divide here, because in my experience varying levels of homophobia and racism are dotted all over the bloody place). I still think that women/blacks/gays anywhere don't have a level playing field with white heterosexual males. But the thing is, and I suspect I'm going to get shouted at for saying this: I'm not certain the questions bears valid comparison in the first place. Let's not forget that it is unquestionably not your choice whether you're born black or female, but it is, for the time being at least, a subject of great debate whether you are "born" gay or "become" gay. Neither can you successfully hide being black or being a woman, unless you're in a Carry On film or something. So I guess black people and women have had to develop more overt, in-your-face methods of gaining equality than gays have, because until recently homosexuals could at least have the option of pretending that they weren't gay, however emotionally tormenting that might be. Which is possibly a good reason why it's taken longer for gays to progress in the march towards equality. Er, I'll shut up now before Peter Tatchell comes round my house and beats me up. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: redking EMAIL: ruairif@netscape.net IP: 193.1.133.94 URL: http://www.theplasticcat.com/ DATE: 12/12/2003 08:20:19 PM The "Choice" argument, ignoring its obvious falsity (to a gay person, pretty well qualified to know about this area), is irrelevant to this topic. Religion is a matter of choice, and is still offered full protection under the law. So unless you advocate the repeal all laws protecting religious observance, it seems odd that you would bring it up for this one group. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.195.223 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog/ DATE: 12/12/2003 08:26:03 PM I'm not siding with the debate on nature versus nurture or whatever - just acknowledging that the debate exists. All I was saying, in my own haphazardly roundabout way, was that because it's possible to hide the fact that you are gay, and it's not really possible to hide the fact that you're female, or black, and maybe that's at least part of the reason why we've seen more strident moves for female and black equality than we've seen for gay equality until recently. Pretty limited observation I know - but in my defence it's nearly 8:30pm and I'm off to the pub. Not much of a defence, I know. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: redking EMAIL: ruairif@netscape.net IP: 193.1.133.94 URL: http://www.theplasticcat.com/ DATE: 12/12/2003 08:51:21 PM Sorry; see your meaning. That mode of argument always gets me riled y'see. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.142.24 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/12/2003 09:37:28 PM It's difficult to explain the differences between being gay and being a woman or being black (except of course that being a woman or being black isn't mutually exclusive with being gay), but I'll give you one example that I think illustrates some of the qualitative distinctions and how the battles we fight differ in kind. Almost every gay man or woman is born into a family of straight people. That's radically different from the experience of almost any other disenfranchised group - and leaves teenagers with - for the most part - absolutely no one to get support from. And I think that people still under-estimate how straight the world actually is and how difficult it can be to be gay in it - from not knowing many or any gay people through the normal channels of social exchange (ie. work / school / church whatever) through to working out whether you want to or how you intend to have children etc. etc. Now of course, I don't want to underestimate or trivialise the experience of other people. Being gay isn't quite the terrifying, illegal, medicalised stigma that it was forty years ago - and obviously there are parts of life that are not necessarily as difficult and unpleasant for gay people as they are for other disenfranchised groups. For example, if you want to - or feel you have to - conceal your sexuality you can do so, although it isn't necessarily a good thing for your mental health or quality of life to feel unnecessarily under threat or ashamed all of the time. That means that - for the most part - there's no reason to not be able to have a career, no places that are unlikely to serve you and no greater experience of being patronised or glass ceilings than any non-gay person. That is, as long as you're prepared to ignore the gay thing and not talk about it overtly. Because as soon as you do - in this country at least - you can still (in principle at least) be fired for being gay, experience regular discrimination for it as well as be ridiculed and ostracised for it. I should point out that I am lucky enough to live and work in a highly liberal area in a highly liberal profession, so for the most part I'm unaffected by these kinds of discrimination. But I still had to go through the processes of feeling isolated from everyone around me, not having anyone to talk to, strained relationships with my family, anxieties about my future and whether I'd ever be able to be open. And I fear that these anxieties are still felt by pretty much every child that discovers they're gay. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hadley EMAIL: hadley@technologist.com IP: 218.101.46.117 URL: DATE: 12/15/2003 07:03:56 AM I wonder if one can draw parallels between being gay and being deaf. Almost every deaf child is born into a family of hearing people. And while most people wouldn't view being deaf as something terribly bad, they would much rather their children not be - while some deaf parents might prefer to have deaf children. It's not something that's outwardly obvious, but has profound effects on the way you live your life. There is a strong deaf community, while those 'merely' hard of hearing have less support. ----- PING: TITLE: Without prejudice URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/weblog/archives/2003/12/13/without_prejudice.html IP: 128.121.231.184 BLOG NAME: The Gay Vote DATE: 12/13/2003 04:15:50 PM The Guardian's G2 section led yesterday with Without Prejudice, a light analysis of whether being gay in Britain is a non-issue these days. Unfortunately, yesterday's Christmas lunch at my workplace prevented me from picking it to pieces to comment upo... ----- PING: TITLE: Gay Life in Britain URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2003/12/gay_life_in_britain.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 12/15/2003 04:40:49 AM Do advancing levels of acceptance leave make it is easier to be gay in the UK than it is to be black, or even female? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: iPod local syncing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 12/12/2003 10:53:52 PM ----- BODY:

    So imagine that you're coming home from work with your iPod and you're listening to a song. Let's say that you're listening to Don't be Light by Air, because it's an extremely good song. Now let's imagine that your iPod has bluetooth capabilities (or something similar) and that you've already paired it with your home computer (that - of course - you have hooked up to your stereo).

    Now for the vast majority of people, everything that's on their iPod is also on their computer. And by that I don't just mean the songs themselves, but also any of the potential playlists they might be listening to. So here's my thing. You're coming up to your front door, you pull the iPod from your pocket, you do the spinning thing until your menu is pointing to sync and then as you are about to enter your house your local copy of iTunes powers up, selects the same song that you're currently listening to, skips forward to the same moment in the track and fades the volume up (at the same time as your iPod gradually fades the volume down) so you can seemlessly remove your headphones without spoiling your auditory experience. Wouldn't that be neat?!

    Extending it still further, using the same sync option, you could turn the whole iPod into a local remote control. But that's probably less interesting. Well, less interesting to me, anyway.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jim EMAIL: jimswoon@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.31.21 URL: DATE: 12/13/2003 01:28:51 AM Stop pitching. If apple were going to give you a job it would have happened by now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Forrester EMAIL: blogger@cubicgarden.com.removethis.crap IP: 80.177.26.60 URL: http://cubicgarden.com DATE: 12/13/2003 02:33:02 AM Interesting idea, not that far removed from one of the visions of the semantic web. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bryan EMAIL: bryan@thesamis.net IP: 24.226.15.111 URL: http://www.thesamis.net DATE: 12/13/2003 05:18:27 AM Seems like a sort of similar concept to some of the new "smart houses". They can play a song and have a certain lighting level and stuff, then when you leave the room and go into another room, the music will follow you on the speakers in the new room, etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dag EMAIL: mukeisatsu@msn.com IP: 24.71.248.80 URL: http://blog.tidalflame.net DATE: 12/13/2003 05:56:31 AM Eh... too much extra cost, not enough functionality. You could always try leaving your headphones on =P ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phillip Swindall EMAIL: phillipswindall@mac.com IP: 165.121.228.88 URL: http://www.brotherphil.com DATE: 12/13/2003 09:30:30 AM Bluetooth isn't all that expensive... but, fitting it into the iPod... now, that's something alltogether different! But, I really think this idea is right down the middle of what Jobs' idea of the hub of our digital life is all about! Good luck, however, in getting the props from the conglomerate if they add the feature in the future. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.142.24 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/13/2003 11:29:03 AM I don't think cost is strictly relevant, since - you know - all things drop in price in time. And as for size - they can fit bluetooth into quite tiny mobile phones, so I'm not sure that's an issue either. Also people have been talking about Bluetooth-enabled iPods for quite a while and it seems likely that they're coming - either in the form of add-ons or integrated into the device itself. Check out: the Register, XTreme Mac and news about the Bluetooth enabled Toshiba Hard Disks. Mostly they're talking about ways of connecting headphones or remote controls to devices, but there's no reason they couldn't extend it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J2 EMAIL: j2@alloutofangst.com IP: 12.222.162.186 URL: http://alloutofangst.com DATE: 12/13/2003 01:04:38 PM This is one of the greatest iPod ideas I have ever read. Sure I have heard about wireless sync of songs and playlists, but nothing to the extent of yours. Brilliant. I will think about it every time I am pulling my coat on and trying to get my iPod to the same point as I head out to walk to school. Fingers crossed for that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben Hammersley EMAIL: ben@benhammersley.com IP: 80.183.104.81 URL: http://www.benhammersley.com DATE: 12/13/2003 04:31:10 PM Hot damn, the first time that happened, you'd wet yourself. Grade A genius idea. If not in the iPod, then car stereos. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: dru@dreamweaverfever.com IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.allinthehead.com/ DATE: 12/13/2003 09:10:37 PM Why not have it configurable to sync automatically when the iPod comes into range? No user intervention required. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh EMAIL: josh@futurefarmers.com IP: 69.3.235.46 URL: http://www.theyrule.net DATE: 12/14/2003 12:17:36 AM Imagine that you are listening to a talk about the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, then you arrive home and your roomate is asleep on the sofa and then suddenly they are woken up by the Marxist MP3 you have been listening to. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/14/2003 01:33:40 AM I think that's why you have you make it something that you decide to transition to rather than something that's done automatically. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joe gibson EMAIL: joe_gibson99@hotmail.com IP: 62.190.233.173 URL: DATE: 12/14/2003 03:29:01 PM The specific idea detailed above is a bit daft and sci-fi, sort of akin to having robot slaves doing the housework, but generally there is mileage in having a wi-fi or Bluetooth iPod. I'd like to see the iPod sync over a wireless network to load up with tracks; share files with other local iPods; and using it as a remote control for a bigger home music collection also makes sense. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jem Stone EMAIL: jemstone66@ntlworld.com IP: 80.3.90.51 URL: http://jem.blogs.com DATE: 12/14/2003 10:34:57 PM That would be an itrip then ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.178.22 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 12/14/2003 10:51:01 PM Well I don't think it's particularly daft (in that this kind of continuity of experience seems to be something that's actually desirable if we can find a mechanism that makes it happen simply and elegantly) or sci-fi (in that you could probably make it happen with a tiny piece of information transferral and a few bloody Applescripts). And - to be fair - robot slaves are already doing the housework of Matt Jones who has recently purchased a Roomba. As to your suggestions, the local data syncing aspect is quite likely to happen, the sharing with other local iPods would work perfectly well too (it's just an extension of the stuff that iTunes does already so there's a precedent there) and the remote control thing appeals to me, but - ironically - might be considered a bit of a confusion of function unless based on the metaphor of the same music being playable in different places - which of course leads back to some kind of interaction in which you can pick up and carry out - or put down in your home - whatever particular feed of music you happened to be listening to at that point in time. That is, of course, what I was suggesting in the first place. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 66.26.152.231 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 12/16/2003 02:28:10 AM Your idea is so clearly radical and common sense at the same time that it must be implemented: continuity of experience, data following the person instead of the machine, and a common simple interface between you and your enjoyment of your passive activity. You realize, you must patent this! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 212.159.61.42 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 12/17/2003 01:52:42 AM Damn, sorry, meant to post this over the weekend: MIT's Progect Oxygen already has code to do something very similar to what you want. See: http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/Overview.html - the videos down the bottom of the page, either the "Cricket" one or the "MetaGlue" one. I was kind of put off because it's mostly the same old active-badge magic that they've been playing with at UCL and other places for over a decade, but the music-player tricks are cool. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 12/17/2003 06:38:29 AM I already do the same thing by putting my iPod in the cradle connected to my stereo.. although I would like it this way as well, but I think doing it through the standard firewire cord would be fine instead of needing bluetooth.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: allgood2 EMAIL: alnisa2@pacbell.net IP: 128.218.232.126 URL: DATE: 12/18/2003 03:58:54 PM The problem is, is that your stereo is connected to your computer, and not the inline-port on your iPod base. My configuration has two sets of speakers, but only because of been too lazy to explore splitting my stereo speakers. But one set of speakers are connected to the inline jack of my iPod stand, the other to my stereo. When I come home, I take my iPod out of my pocket, with headphones on, and place into my iPod base, the current song keeps playing in both my headphones and now my speakers. I then just remove my headphones. If I decide, I want surround sound, then I turn on my stereo and just plug-in my iTrip. It then streams my music to the stereo speakers. Its all rather seemless, with no worries about syncing, or fading music in and out at the right time. The biggest issue is turning my stereo on and off, since I hate that background buzz, that happens when I'm not actually streaming music to it. In this regard, the best decision I made was not to have the iPod base station receive its charge from the computer. Since that always interrupts the flow of music when your computers takes over the iPod. So no I deliberately sync my iPod to my computer, at least once a week, but occasionally more often--typically after new music purchases, or if I've added a batch of new contacts or meetings. Otherwise my set-up keeps the iPod as the primary music source, and with the new inline jack, the iTrip, and or the PowerWave, the music keeps playing freely without a skip from one source to another. Though bluetooth iPod capabilities would be nice so if I'm on my latop at the couch, I could use my laptop to jump playlists. Or to use Bluetooth to stream data from the iPod to Synergy or my laptop. I love have the album art, song, album, artist, and rating flash on my screen. i've noticed that with Smart playlist I frequently run into music, I didn't realize I had, and don't immediately recognize. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Holmes EMAIL: paul@globalbeach.com IP: 212.111.58.50 URL: DATE: 12/22/2003 12:41:40 PM and then, as you are about to enter your house, your neighbour's local copy of iTunes powers up, selects the same tune you're currently listening to, and confuses the hell out of them. At the same time, your iPod gradually fades the volume out, convincing you that you need to put it on charge. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Collyer EMAIL: dave@desktopconfessional.com IP: 195.173.39.4 URL: http://www.desktopconfessional.com DATE: 02/03/2004 05:54:15 PM You can do this already Coates: 1. Plug your i-Pod dock into your stereo. 2. As your enter your flat pluck your i-Pod from your pocket and slip it into the dock. 3. The song you were listennig to will continue uninterupted. Granted, it doesn't have the sexy wireless implementation of your idea but it works and it's *now*. Word. DC ----- PING: TITLE: iPods make you sexy and thin URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/dparchives/007926.html IP: 209.61.183.104 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent DATE: 12/13/2003 04:44:20 PM Tom Coates' genius iPod syncing idea. Dear Apple: this, please. You're coming up to your front door, you pull the iPod from your pocket, you do the spinning thing until your menu is pointing to sync and then as you... ----- PING: TITLE: Yes Please... URL: http://www.atmasphere.net/mt/archives/004787.html IP: 207.44.162.34 BLOG NAME: atmaspheric | endeavors DATE: 12/13/2003 10:09:19 PM So imagine that you're coming home from work with your iPod and you're listening to a song. Let's say that you're listening to Don't be Light by Air, because it's an extremely good song. Now let's imagine that your iPod has bluetooth capabilities (or s... ----- PING: TITLE: some thoughts on the new Apple iPod photo URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000712.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 10/26/2004 10:06:39 PM Apple have released the much rumoured iPod Photo, available from the Apple Store. I think it is a lovely product, even the slideshow on TV is beautifully designed, showing the battery live onscreen too. I love the 5x5 display for preview too, ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Saddam Hussein has been captured... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/14/2003 11:22:08 AM ----- BODY:

    Tony Blair has confirmed this morning that Saddam Hussein has been dug out from a cellar in Iraq and is now in custody. Apparently DNA testing has now confirmed that it is not one of his doubles. It's a shame, of course, that the West bank-rolled, armed and propped him up in the first place. More on this story:

    If you wish to keep track of the news surround the capture, probably the best place to look is Google News.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which one particular floodgate bursts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/15/2003 12:17:42 AM ----- BODY:

    So I've discovered a few exciting things today. Some of my glaring shameful ignorances have finally been smeared full (to bursting) with that most horrible unctious goo that is 'unpalatable truth'. For example, I discovered today (thanks to a conversation with Matt Haughey) that when the American press refers to the GOP, what they're talking about is the "Grand Old Party". The image of the "Grand Old Party" seems to me beautifully evocative of faded sepia, bruised faces, tight sphincters and mournful piano music - like some kind of apocalyptic and hideously decaying vision of the last half-hour of a Jay Gatsby-style social-gathering that went on just a hundred years too long. So I suppose it's apt then that the phrase refers to the Republican party - since it seems to me that only a group of people so ruined by the hideous spectacle of infinite and never-ending indulgence could possibly need novelty so badly that they'd be prepared to allow an experimental monkey to lead them.

    Another thing I've learned today is how to refresh the Grand Old Party in style and keep it going for another hundred years. I mean we all know how unsexy liberal policies are and how compellingly raunchy uniforms, guns, muscles and the enforcement of good down-home fist-action can be, right? So if you want to make something look and feel vibrant and sexy, then violence is where it's at. I was reminded of this by SWAT which was one of the most gloriously power-fetishising, macho, reactionary, fascistically driven illiberal and hence enormously sexy and titillating films I've seen in months. Such films appeal to something deep and fundamental to all men and women. And by that I don't mean our sense of morality, our aspiration for a better world, our attempts to aspire towards some kind of enlightenment or any woolly concepts of social contracts or democracy. Oh no - it is the wonder of our reptile brain that leads the way. It is that ancient part of our psyches that drags concepts of territory, aggression and violent fucking under its control and which we must surely thank for the glimpse of straining power under the GOP's crumbling, dessicated and insect-ridden dinner jackets.

    The other thing I learned today was to fear the French. In SWAT the villain was - to my surprise - not English or Muslim. Oh no, the new evil is far far worse than that. Where once we fought people with conviction and morality, now our enemies appear not to have morals of any kind at all. How could they when they disagree with us so violently? And if you disagree with us in the way we wish to fight terrorism - well that's as bad as being a terrorist itself, right? And it's not like we didn't hate the French anyway. I mean they're just so darn rude. They're like that man at the Grand Old Party who's secretly conspiring with the staff to create dissent! They're traitors to their international class! To their religion! To their race! Well I'm sorry - you do that for long enough and you won't get invited back, says our Muscle-Bound Bizarro Monkey governments. And quite right too! Quite right that their very name should be scratched out so we can put FREEDOM in their place.

    Learning things is important. Learning things is good. And don't worry! I'm learning well! I've learned the only position worth having is an absolutist one. The only party worth going to is the one that never ends - that has the strength to fight to maintain itself. After all, aren't we right to be scared of what happens when that party ends? What will we do instead? Will there ever be a party like it again? After all, it's them and us, whosoever they may be - and however much we've lost touch with what that US is supposed to mean.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: In which one particular floodgate URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/pathways/archives/001564.html IP: 63.247.132.5 BLOG NAME: Pathways DATE: 12/16/2003 02:35:12 AM In which one particular floodgate bursts...... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A fragment of a world full of metadata... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/16/2003 11:59:59 PM ----- BODY:

    Metadata, then, is data about data. Jason has posted a piece about metadata called Metadazzle Overfizzle, the vast amounts of metadata that seems to be appearing for every piece of actual content we're producing on computers and how much this new state of affairs reminds him of writing a love letter using Excel.

    As an example, posts on weblogs can have categories, permalinks, post dates, post times, # of comments, # of new comments since your last visit, # of words, # of trackbacks, who last commented on a post, titles, authors, icons, prompts to read more, karma scores, # of versions, "email this" links, referers, and all sorts of other things.

    Which made me wonder to myself about the amounts of metadata that I might receive from letter sent to me through the post. Obviously a few pieces of information are clearly metadata-like. There's the address that it's sent to complete with house number, street name, district/town name, city, county and post/ZIP code. The postcode in the UK being a nicely detailed piece of metadata for a letter that would get your location down to around 16 homes. Sometimes you'd have details for country in the address too. Sometimes on the back or top left you'd expect to see all the details of the person who sent the letter to you. Then there's the stamp, which explains the amount of money (or the class of postage) that's been used to send the letter. Then maybe - if it was a complex package - you'd have to write the class on explicitly to make sure that it was clear which class the cost corresponded with. So more metadata there. Then there's the information that's on the postmark itself that tells you which sorting office it came through and what time it was processed. Obviously whether the postmark actually intersects the stamp or not has an impact on whether or not it's still functionally usable as a medium of letter exchange, so that's probably an extra piece of metadata there. And we haven't even opened the letter yet.

    So we've opened the letter and again we have the address fields displayed - both sent to and from. We probably don't need to worry too much about that though, since we've already captured most of that information. Then there's the date upon which the letter was written, which we need to note down because it may be radically different to the date when it was sent. Then if it's a piece of business correspondence there may be a RE: field, which I suppose we have to call a subject and then maybe the people who have been 'carbon-copied' in on the letter. But that's a bit businessy, so let's ignore that for a moment. Then of course there's the letter itself (blah - content), then the name of the person who wrote the thing (author - finally!). If it's a professional piece of correspondence - of course - you might also need to put in separate typed and signed names to end (extra data there, as it's both pertinent who wrote the letter and that you believe it's them). And then there will be an indication that there may be attachments or not.

    Of course that's not all the information you'd get from the letter concerned. You'd get much much more than that. You'd get a sense of whether it was professional or personal by the way the letter had been addressed, whether it was hand-written or not, the size of the envelope, the colour of the envelope, its flexibility and weight. And if you wanted to record information about the letter (which might - of course - have bearing on how you were to read the content of it) to any degree of accuracy you'd have to think about the smell of the paper, it's thickness and approximate quality, whether it was pre-printed with an address, whether it contains a logo, how cleanly it was folded, is it colourful or black and white, whether it's written in green ink, how steady or efficient or loopy or shaky or spidery is the handwriting, whether it's written up to the margins and in tiny writing or whether each line of text has been carefully strapped to the ghost of the printed sheet of lines that could no doubt be seen - as if through tracing paper - through the page as it was written upon. And there's got to be more... The scratchiness of a pen knib, the slightly deformed circle of paper that could be a circle of dried salt-water. What other things could be recorded in a love letter that might need to be recordable?

    Because the thing about metadata (if you'll bear with me for a moment as I take still further liberties with our common conceptions of the word) is that for the most part we're exposed to it all the time - vast amounts of it, in fact, around every physical artifact that we use. Over and above the obvious data, there are textures, sensations, handwritings, stamps and fragments of information that all have a bearing on how we read the almost trivially information-sparse chunk of scrawl that's actually supposed to be 'the message in itself'. A single romantic letter dribbles metadata out of every flat, folded, ink-inscribed surface, and we assimilate it and operate with without the slightest concern for the amount of contextual information that we're being forced to ingest. Human background-readable information, absorbed invisibly and unconsciously or so routinely that it no longer feels like information at all.

    Because in fact it's not that there's too much metadata in the world, it's that we have incredibly primitive and vestigial mechanisms to help us transcribe it from world to idiot-savant computer companion. We're stuck in a middle-period between the emergence of useful computer processing power and the computer's upcoming ability to self-annotate, transcribe and create metadata simply, elegantly (and in vast amount) in the background all the time. In the meantime our transcription processes are tedious and long, our computers eager but clueless - and the amounts of metadata available for any given thing trivial compared to the richness of information and association you could get from a genuinely interested and knowledgeable person. This will all change in time of course, but in the meantime (and in fact regardless, given the information we generate without even noticing it on a routine basis) we're stuck writing love letters in Excel whether we want to or not.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: robin EMAIL: robin.preene@ntlworld.com IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://speakingasaparent.com DATE: 12/17/2003 08:41:04 AM Enjoyed that very much. A point well made. ----- PING: TITLE: A World Full of Metadata URL: http://microblog.wallposter.net/archives/2003/12/#d17h02.33.50 IP: 66.246.81.109 BLOG NAME: The Tooltip Microblog DATE: 12/17/2003 02:34:08 AM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2003/12/a_fragment_of_a_world_full_of_metadata.shtml ----- PING: TITLE: Computers considered "eager but clueless" URL: http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/mt/archives/000791.html IP: 194.70.3.10 BLOG NAME: Blackbeltjones Work DATE: 12/17/2003 03:13:14 PM A lovely post by Tom Coates following on from Kottke's "metadazzle overfizzle" [which IMHO is much nicer shorthand for all... ----- PING: TITLE: Thursday, December 18, 2003 11:55 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/031218.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 12/28/2003 05:39:47 PM Tom Coates savages metadata, piling on after Jason Kottke's metadata overfizzle. "Nothing takes the fun and personality out of writing like metadata." Yeah. Imagine if I had to bracket every block post with attributes. That would suck.... ----- PING: TITLE: XHTML & the memory tag URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2004/02/23/xhtml_the_memory_tag.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 02/23/2004 06:26:22 PM I write this because I'm sure I'll have this problem again, and then Google will help me (hi idiot Meg from the future making the same mistakes again!) In the meantime, it may help you. Been there done that! Much of what I write I consider to be simpl... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Guardian Award Winners... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/18/2003 11:35:29 AM ----- BODY:

    So the Guardian's Weblog Awards have been announced, and although I'm surprised by a good few of the sites who made it onto their lists, generally the standard's pretty good. Some recommended sites from the published list:

    And a special shout-out to my particular favourites: LinkMachineGo and The Diary of Samuel Pepys and commiserations to the poor site whose bandwidth limit was exceeded the moment they won.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brooklyn EMAIL: elporkio@hotmail.com IP: 212.85.4.68 URL: DATE: 12/18/2003 02:23:55 PM how could you miss belle out? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dvboy EMAIL: lee.stanley@orange.net IP: 62.254.0.30 URL: http://bbcity.co.uk/user/dvboy DATE: 12/21/2003 06:23:11 AM Since you don't have Trackback enabled, I'll mention my credit to your site here instead. :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is physical presence necessary for community? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 12/19/2003 01:12:05 PM ----- BODY:

    A few months ago I responded to a site that claimed The Internet is Shit with a reposte designed to illustrate that although our networks might contain difficult and unpleasant material, they also contain enough of value and facilitate enough legitimate and real communities to be able to state pretty conclusively that The Internet is not Shit. Note - not that it's perfect, not that it doesn't have flaws, not that bad things don't go on in it, but that pound-for-pound it's more useful and valuable and community-generating than it is useless or damaging or culture-destroying.

    Over the last few days, the post has turned into a bit of an argumentative arena, with various posters weighing with positions on what constitutes utopian rhetoric versus what constitutes a reasonable and rational position about the possibilities of (among other things) online communities. Throughout this article various people - myself included - have stumbled in our logic, presented clumsy opinions and misunderstood each other. Nonetheless, I want to pick up one particular fragment of these arguments - a fragment that I feel strongly about and am prepared to fight vigorously about. It's about the authenticity or otherwise of online 'communities'. At a certain point in the debate, my sparring partner posts:

    "We're not talking about abstract information - which is expedited magnificently over the internet - we're talking about flesh and blood people. An actual meeting is far more meaningful than tapping on a keyboard. It is substantially different. Physically congregating with other folk is the same as being on the internet as is reading a book about Tibet compared to actually going there. Or reading a menu and eating the food. You can't reduce and flatten the physical, sensory, emotional, kinaesthetic and social world in that way."

    Now I'm going to agree with the premise that the particulars of the medium through which people communicate can add a timbre to a community and that they can faciliate certain parts of the exchange more effectively than others. On the other hand, I'd also argue that the qualities of the community space are supprted by the software that they run on, and that quite possibly that software hasn't yet - in the ten/twenty years that it's been being developed - quite achieved the elegance and sophistication that we take for granted in some other social spaces. But the one thing I will not stand for is this sense that online communities are somehow inauthentic because they are unphysical - or that the truncation in social 'signal' somehow reduces them down to a point of uselessness or redundancy. So excerpts from my reply follow:

    Your analogies are hideously flawed for a start - if I communicate on the internet or by phone with someone, it's not like a transcript of that person or a decription of that person. You're talking as if whenever you talked to people who weren't present physically (say via the telephone), that what you were actually doing was listening passively to bloody recordings! Of course they're not - it's not bloody radio! People are talking to each other!

    Now obviously there are things that you can do in person that you can't do physically online. It's harder to guage someone's mood, it's harder to have sex with them, it's harder to get intonation or a tone of voice. But it's still communication! And the possibility of community still exists! I mean, there are many circumstances in which certain elements of the experience an interaction can be truncated - if you're on a phone for example and can't see the person concerned, or if they're wearing sunglasses so you can't see their eyes, or if you're actually bloody deaf and are forced to lip-read, for Christ's sake! But none of these things stop the possibilities of communication, and none of them stop people being supportive, helpful, useful, friendly or even forming communities through them. I work on the internet, and often my first experience of people is online. Sometimes my only experience of them is online. And yet we can be friends! Most of them have helped me out in some ways in the past, and I've helped most of them out in the past as well. Those I haven't met, I'd like to and those I have I see regularly. But that our relationships have moved sometimes from purely online to a mix of both online and off doesn't mean they weren't real to begin with.

    You talk about 'tapping on a keyboard' as if touching keys was the entire point. You're confusing the method of communication with the communication itself. It would be like me saying, "There's a substantial difference between communicating with someone (online) and just causing air to vibrate with your vocal chords". It's trivialising, innaccurate, clumsy and - frankly - stupid.

    [I should apologise at this point for resorting to name calling in the final line - put it down to frustration.]

    There's a lot more to the argument that's worth reading and talking abotu on the post itself, but I just thought I'd ask do people still think that the term 'online community' is necessarily an oxymoron? Do you really think that the fact you're interacting through your fingers dramatically limits the strength of the relationships you can make?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dina Mehta EMAIL: explore@vsnl.com IP: 202.68.150.4 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/ DATE: 12/19/2003 03:00:14 PM Tom - i live in India - and i've been communicating with people all over the world through online communities for a while now. Have made some very 'real' friends and am working with some of them on joint projects. Anyone who calls these connections 'inauthentic' really hasn't even begun to understand what 'community' really means. Technology makes it easy - with amazing audio like Skype and video capabilities as well - there have been times when i've worked with people thousands of miles away and felt we were infact sharing an office - each in our own cubicle - chatting over the partition ! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.229.190 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 12/19/2003 03:08:56 PM well put. i would add that there are some things the non-physical communication mediums do better than the medium of physical interaction, such as balancing the communication styles of introverts and extroverts or fast talkers and slow talkers, allowing people to communicate coherently in large groups (it's impossible for two people to talk over each other in a chat room), talking without passing illness to one another (which was important to me the last time i was having this conversation - in taiwan during the SARS outbreak), and - of course - communicating with people who aren't nearby. in some cases these benefits outweigh the drawbacks and non-physical communication is not only an okay, lesser alternative to physical communication, but actually superior. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Suw EMAIL: strawberry.z@virgin.net IP: 81.98.86.231 URL: http://chocnvodka.blog-city.com/ DATE: 12/19/2003 04:46:38 PM I suspect that the people who feel that internet communities are 'inauthentic' are the same people who think that internet relationships (friendships or romantic) 'aren't real'. But this distinction between online life and 'real' life is an arbitrary and fallacious one - the people that you meet on the internet are real, they have real feelings, real thoughts and real ways of expressing them. How can they not be real? (Unless the net is chock full of really good Turing machines and I just never noticed.) There is a long tradition of epistolary relationships and the only difference between us and, say, Victorian letter writers is that our letters get there faster. Yet no one doubted the sincerity of epistolary relationships in the past, so why is email or blogging different now? The truth is that it's not, and anyone who thinks that it is probably has their own agenda to serve. After all, if one denies the validity of internet communities and relationships, one negates the need to take responsibility for one's actions - if the medium is 'not real', one's actions within it are 'not real', and the hurt one can cause is 'not real'. I'm not saying this is the thinking of everyone who claims that internet communities are inauthentic, but one does have to wonder at their inner motivations for making assertations that are so patently incorrect. It is very easy to believe that there is in fact not a thinking, feeling human being on the other side of the screen, and I've been a victim of the kind of thoughtless abuse that that particular standpoint engenders. I'm sure we all have. But people who choose to believe that are stuck in the school playground of their own volition, and probably also believe that 'I didn't mean it' is an adequate way to apologise. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross Mayfield EMAIL: rossmay@earthlink.net IP: 67.123.242.211 URL: http://ross.typepad.com DATE: 12/19/2003 04:52:56 PM Furthering Dina's point, f2f and engaging in a m2m space are simply different modalities, each with their own strengths. In some situations, interacting at distance can be more effective. We also compensate for the lack of cues in different modalities, like when someone one of six senses. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.193.198 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 12/19/2003 11:39:21 PM Speaking as somebody who has been engaged in online communities since about 1994 (first through BBSes, later the Internet) I can say that whilst a certain degree of comradery and friendship can be built up via an electronic text-only medium, nothing beats a face-to-face meeting with the same people. Or better still, a great big party. Communication via text alone is missing out on the body language and numerous other non-word based ways of expressing our feelings, and thus can only ever be second best unless you're really weird and socially maladjusted. What is it they say, something like only 5% of our person-to-person communication is in the actual words we use? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dustyangel EMAIL: deadin30seconds@yahoo.co.uk IP: 138.130.201.25 URL: DATE: 12/20/2003 01:43:12 PM Interesting. I think the point being stressed, Marcus, is that online interactions/communities are not 'inauthentic'. Sure, there are benefits to face-to-face meetings -- just as there are benefits to being able to express your feelings through text (as outlined by Scott), but it's like comparing oranges and mandarines: both are fruits, but which one is better really comes down to personal preference and what you find satisfies your needs. In either medium, it's an exchange of ideas. Sure, there are nuances in our body language that betray things our words fail to uncover, but there are just as many 'signposts' in the written word ... especially when used in informal, friendly settings like online communities. Punctuation, the order of phrases and questions left unanswered are just a few "unspoken" signs that are waiting to be picked up on. Still, to each their own. I do, however, object to having my online relationships labelled 'inauthentic'. The emotions I feel when I chat with my partner overseas are not 'digitised' -- they are as real as the happiness I feel when we are together in person. Sure, when we're in the same country, it's wonderful, but that doesn't mean our online interations are fruitless wastes of time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.193.198 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 12/20/2003 03:04:42 PM I completely agree with what you (Dustyangel) and Tom are saying, albeit with the reservation that I still prefer the "real" thing. :) I think "inauthentic" is a ridiculous, snobbish way to describe online community and social interaction. The implication that you're not really communicating with people if you do it over the Internet is nothing short of bizarre. Sorry for probably failing to grasp the full issue here (slight hangover preventing full cogency), but I think that community and communication is what you make of it, no matter the medium. You may as well call sign language "inauthentic language" because it doesn't use verbalised words... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dustyangel EMAIL: deadin30seconds@yahoo.co.uk IP: 138.130.201.25 URL: DATE: 12/21/2003 03:36:26 AM Good point, Marcus. That makes me wonder if the arguments people like "Tom's sparring partner" make are discriminatory towards, say, people with a visual impairment. If they can't see who they're talking to (sound familar?), does this mean they are incapable of having authentic communications/relationships? I dare say such people would also resent the implication. As I said, I strongly believe it's the quality of the content that matters, not the box in which it was packaged. Of course, having said that, I should also admit that I do love to analyse body language (and there's nothing like a good hug to cheer you up on a blue day). I just happen to enjoy conversing in text just as much :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@recumbentgaze.net IP: 81.96.110.87 URL: http://www.recumbentgaze.net DATE: 12/26/2003 02:51:20 PM Just to clear something up, since this thread vaguely concerns me. If you read back along the lines of this debate, it looks like Tom is saying *I* said online interaction is inauthentic. My post is still there, and anyone can see I never said that. What I emphasised is the ambivalent nature of online interaction, and the fact that it is different to RL - countering the tendency to equate online and offline as if they were the same thing. Which is ridiculous. The same applies point to Tom's final post at the debate: that it mostly mis-characterises actually what I said, and is merely what he imagined my position to be. I have no intention of taking this any further; I really can't be bothered. However what I will do is respond to the specific points aimed at me, which I think is reasonable. I'm not going to add anything else to this - very little, anyway. . I don't presume to think I'm some kind of sole source of wisdom, as Tom said very explicitly, but I do think this kind of discourse is stuck in fairly rigid patterns which are amenable to critical methods from non-techno/cyber people. Saying, as he did, that my MA is "NOT NEARLY ENOUGH" grounding in this subject is missing the point. First, most of my ideas have derived from the 2 years since I did my MA. Second, from what I've seen of the cyber and techno theory currently popular, I'm not very impressed with the 'thinking' that goes with internet culture and this is not from 5 years ago but today: a book was published a year ago which is full of it, and it's a core university text. All I'm saying here is there are psychological, sociological and phenomenological factors which other disciplines account for in sophisticated ways, and internet theory doesn't. That you don't need internet credentials to be able to analyse this. In fact from what I've seen, the more totally immersed in it you are, the less likely it is you can talk sensibly about it. Which seems to stir the proverbial hornet's nest, to which I reply: people see things in different ways. There is no one viewpoint. It is legitimate and useful to consider what are alternative perspectives. The fact that the internet is technological does not mean it has to be considered only in techno-speak terms by internet workers. In the final analysis it is actually cultural, with cultural ramifications. Most critics are not themselves novelists, artists etc nor do they have to be. Academics aren't the only people to build castles in the air, in fact the almost hypnotic nature of the internet makes it very conducive to castle-making. . But that doesn't seem to go down very well. . I could also say *I'm* not going to get irritated. But that is effectively just internet-speak for saying I am irritated, but I'm not going to express it, because I am above that kind of thing. Internet discourse of that kind is not just straightforward and/or logical, it is *theatrical*. I could come up with a graph-theory about that, showing how at one end of the scale you have an emotional or emotive exchange, subject to its own kind of dynamics and having its own values - and at the other end of the scale you have a straightforward debate of ideas. The two things get mixed up - on the internet quite a lot - and its useful to disentangle this. But really, spinning out some kind of clever-dick model to illustrate that idea is uneccessary tautology: I can say it in just a few simple words. . My reference to 'small scale activities' seemed to really irk Tom, big-time. Thus, I was 'superior' because of my intellectual declaration, arrogant etc etc. Now, I've never doubted Tom's experience in online community. However that is what he DOES know about, focus on, and theorise; what DOESN'T really interest him is more dysfunctional activities, more transitory, ephemeral, and fleeting internet exchange. But actually they are very widespread. I said I'm interested in the big picture, and all that means is: I incorporate all the wild, wacky, distasteful and negative stuff into my ideas and conception about the internet. Tom focusses on quite specialised areas and tries to support them and take them forward all the time. I like to consider the whole spectrum of internet activity. That's not superior at all, its just a different focus. The initial debate began "is the internet shit" and my point was a) that's a silly polarised question b) ultimately its both shit and not-shit and c) by definition it's a question about the whole of the internet, not just groovy online community. However the debate was construed only in online community terms. The internet is actually quite big, and even though Tom has knowledge in certain areas, he is not some kind of Universal Internet Guru. There are plenty of other people out there - maybe even not online, maybe in print - who say things beyond Tom's range, different to it, and referring to other facets of the internet phenomenon. . I think what is 'authentic' and what isn't is an argument not really worth pursuing. The term is not defined for a start; there are plenty of people who would say that plenty of aspects of RL society are 'inauthentic'. That a human being can be inauthentic when they are in bed with someone, or say they love you, or anything else. This is what I mean: internet theory gets into areas like this, and flattens out what are quite big subjects. Basically, if you feel online communication is 'authentic', well then for you it is. Simple as that really. If you go into a MUD or a MOO and feel you've been raped because someone takes control of your avatar and abuses it, well no one can say that's not 'authentic' if that's how you feel. But it *is* possible to disentangle the psychology and phenomenology of all of this. That there's no getting away from the fact that you were just in front of a VDU. That there is a strong tendency to ignore and flatten out these distinctions, in internet culture. . I think my conclusion is there are theoretical areas of no concern to Tom, and no *practical* concern for anyone who enters an online community - me included, actually! But what what I "won't stand for" is when quite sensible enquiry is dismissed, mischaracterised, derided as beginners arrogance etc. . Incidentally I use the term 'utopian' not only in a perfect world-building sense, but also in the sense that logical and rhetorical construction is deemed sufficient to establish ideological positions, regardless of logical fact and shaky real world correlation. Castles in the air, in other words. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: maRia EMAIL: magesco@hotmail.com IP: 80.58.8.42 URL: http://alaiyo.blogspot.com DATE: 12/31/2003 12:05:24 AM It's all very simple. If you're likely to conjure up ice-cream castles in the air, you'll do so regardless of whether you're online or not. Personally I've made some interesting connections which have helped me out, specifically when I've been unable to talk, and needed an outlet. Can't find any fault in that. ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.blogosphere.us/archives/2003/12/19/.php URL: http://www.blogosphere.us/archives/2003/12/19/.php IP: 209.216.203.28 BLOG NAME: blogosphere.us DATE: 12/19/2003 03:14:03 PM Tom Coates on the authenticity of online communities: But the one thing I will not stand for is this sense that online communities are somehow inauthentic because they are unphysicalHear, hear!Tom is battling a common argument which devalues online com... ----- PING: TITLE: Is physical presence necessary for community? URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/000784.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 12/19/2003 03:49:18 PM Can there be such a thing as "online" community or does it only exist in the real world of phyical contact. ----- PING: TITLE: Finding the eBay of Social Capital URL: http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/000657.html IP: 66.159.239.43 BLOG NAME: Unbound Spiral DATE: 12/20/2003 01:27:48 AM The blogosphere seems intent on finishing the year on a social note. I'm seeing plenty of posts on LinkedIn, ZeroDegrees, Spoke and continued tirades over what Ryze, Tribe and Friendster provide or don't. Yes it's an area I read about... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A world of iTunes tips... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/19/2003 08:29:09 PM ----- BODY:

    So an upgraded version of iTunes appeared on my Software Update this evening. For the most part - if you're not from AOL and looking to buy music - there aren't very many changes that I can notice (except hopefully it won't now crash my G4 desktop every 12 hours or so). But one thing I did notice that I hadn't seen before was under the iTunes menu at the top of the screen - an option called 'Hot Tips'. When you click on it, it throws up this page - iTunes Hot Tips - which included these useful-to-know factoids:

    Lots more. Some obvious. Some less-so. All very nice.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.193.198 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 12/19/2003 11:48:38 PM The tips you mention are also in the Help > Shortcuts and Tips section of the help file on iTunes for Windows 4.11 - but a direct link from the main menu is a more user-friendly touch (and better than having to deal with those irritating "tooltip" windows that often pop up when you start various Windows apps these days). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 80.225.28.40 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 12/20/2003 01:46:15 AM Factoidoids! Factdroids! Fact-tastic! Thanks for this: I thought about downloading the update, but because I'm back on 56k couldn't be bothered. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Christmas! My old enemy! We meet at last... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 12/20/2003 08:39:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Imagine me, if you will, in a smoking jacket. Imagine a thin moody moustache is slithering across my upper lip rather than the manly unkemptness that I call my beard. Imagine that I'm sitting in a 60s pod-chair - almost completely spherical apart from a hole from which I peer, and suspended on the slightest tapering base. Imagine as you enter, I turn around to face you with a smile of grim satisfaction on my face. And then I say:

    "Ah Christmas! My old enemy! We meet at last..."

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm terribly afraid that you're not likely to get much more plasticbaggery over the next week, as I have an astonishing range of Christmas-related activities to indulge myself in. At least part of that period will be spent with my family who believe that any computer than runs a browser after IE4 and does so via a non-free dial-up ISP (that cuts you off every twenty seconds) is the closest thing to pure evil that they can imagine. Such an environment is not conducive to regular postage. I shall return with many stories shortly before the New Year (and I'll still be available on e-mail and there's always someone to talk to on Barbelith if you get desperate), but otherwise, if I don't see you before, have a wonderful Christmas!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A year ends, a year begins... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/07/2004 01:05:47 AM ----- BODY:

    Wow. What a long time it has been since I last posted to plasticbag.org. And what have I done in the meantime? I've been back to Norfolk to see my family, experienced the wonders of Christmas, seen Return of the King, watched ten hours of videos with my little brother, watched the snow come down and get washed away, struggled through lots of music television, had my first frank conversation with my little brother about being gay, opened and given lots of gifts, battled back to London via bus and train, gone back to work for a few days before late-night driving off to Cornwall for New Year with a selection of friends and friends of friends wherein was had much late-night drinking, (indoor) swimming, fondue-ing, walks in the wet and the dark, eating of beef and roaming around. Since I last posted I've travelled about eight hundred miles in total, including trips to Penzance for shopping, Newquay for boots and Bath for Sally Lunn's. I've driven through Indian Queens, passed by Splatt and circumnavigated Pityme. I've also read a lot of The Social Life of Information (more on how much I want to burn that particular waste of headspace later), thought a lot about Tivo and Social Software, played a lot of Knights of the Old Republic and both been bought and bought for others some of the most wonderfully entertaining porcelain cups I've ever seen. All in all, an eventful and entertaining couple of weeks.

    Next up is trying to get my head together to start a new project at work (interesting one this - should have really positive, interesting and coincidentally weblog-friendly effects on BBC Radio sites), trying to assemble my thoughts for a conference at Olympia in a couple of month's time, trying to work out whether to propose a participant session for this year's ETCon (which I'm still hoping I'm going to attend), while apparently also trying to score maximum points on self-created, self-destructive and highly non-fun-for-all-the-family games like, "How quickly and effectively can I alienate everyone I work with?", "Be an arse!" and "How fat, weird and bearded can one man become?". What did you guys get up to?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart Butterfield EMAIL: stewart@sylloge.com IP: 209.87.135.69 URL: http://sylloge.typepad.com DATE: 01/07/2004 01:12:59 AM Sounds like someone has a bad case of "life" ... ho ho ho! Buck up, old boy. Stiff upper lip, eh wot. One can get much weirder and fatter and more bearded than you! (I think you're cute, even.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 81.128.31.48 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 01/07/2004 08:45:03 AM Welcome back. I missed your frequent ramblings :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Belaugh House circa 1900... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: History CATEGORY: History DATE: 01/07/2004 01:26:42 AM ----- BODY:

    Here's something quite special (for me at least). While I was up in Norfolk over Christmas, my mother showed me a picture that had been taken of our home shortly after it had been completed (circa 1900). It may sound ridiculous, but I find it extraordinary how immediately recognisable it remains despite all the additions and removals and reorganisations that it's suffered/enjoyed over the last century. Particularly astonishing for me is that the little pine trees that you can see dotted around the lawn are still there today and are now about twice the height of the house itself. And those little trees you can see dotted around the gate and around the drive-way are now enormous mature horse chestnut trees with branches that hang low as you come into the garden and shelter that whole side of the garden in dabbled sunlight through the spring.

    I love the idea that the house has gradually settled into its location over the years, that it has made its environment its home just as we made it ours. It doesn't look like a block perched on a hill surrounded by fields any more. Now it looks like a part of the landscape. And that makes me think more about the nature of artisanship - particularly that the creators of the house and garden built something that wouldn't even start to look its best until decades after they had died. I wonder whether the current vogue for disposable, short-term buildings means that we're cheating ourselves of that settled-in, mature feel - as if all our buildings were like unripened flavourless cheeses that we never respected enough to come into their own.

    I'd love to work on something that had that kind of presence in time, that wasn't going to vanish or mutate overnight. I wonder whether that's why so many web people still want things in print or physical media. Because that way the artefact can age and mellow with them - even after them. That they need that sense that they've created something living that will change and deepen through time just as steadily as it will endure.

    Family House in Norfolk Circa 1900

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin Wisse EMAIL: plasticbag@cloggie.org IP: 213.227.150.155 URL: http://www.cloggie.org/wissewords/ DATE: 01/08/2004 11:50:50 PM Plant a tree. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.175.172 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/09/2004 12:28:23 AM I'm not sure it has enough of the sense of creative labour that I'm looking for, but certainly it's a good idea and I will definitely consider it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert EMAIL: zqwerty@fan.com IP: 218.101.92.173 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 05:12:04 AM Would be good to see a picture of how the house looks now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: denise EMAIL: hello@styledeficit.com IP: 82.43.32.37 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 03:34:26 PM There's a tree cathedral in Whipsnade that I saw on TV. These pictures are rubbish actually, on TV they had actually bothered to film when there were leaves n the trees, which made a big difference. The idea is a little odd, but the presenter was saying, the people that planted the garen would never see it at it's finest, obviously as it wouldn't grow into itself until many years after they had died. It's a similar thing to your house. Perhaps it ties in with your post ages ago about destroying Victorian buildings in London and building new 'modern looking' buildings. Everyones up in arms about how new and horrible these buildings look. Who knows, maye in years to come, they too will look fantastic? Maybe we just don't give things a chance to mature. Everything we do has to look perfect immediately. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Bloggies 2004... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/07/2004 02:32:53 AM ----- BODY:

    So the weblog competition that I don't tend to get stroppy about is back and what a relief it is after all that Guardian rigmarole to have a nice award that's nominated and voted for by members of the weblogging community itself and that vaguely reflects the culture and interests of that community. Yay! As we'd say over at Secret Santa, "Everyone gets a present! Everyone's happy!" Because the Bloggies have returned!

    There are some interesting shifts in the categories this year - Nikolai sent around an e-mail earlier in the year to see if he could improve them still further, and I'm delighted to say that this year there is no longer a combined "Europe and Africa" category, and that instead there are separate categories for Africa and the Middle East, The UK and Ireland and continental Europe.

    In order to jog a few minds I'm going to make my usual yearly reminder of some particularly good sites that I've seen around the place which I think might deserve a mention. Feel free to ignore as you will, but these are likely to be on my initial ballot sheet.

    If you're looking for some good Aus/NZ blogs, then I can heartily recommend Loobylu, Brainsluice and Captainfez.com. For African/Middle-Eastern, I think I'm going to go with the obvious and cast my vote for Salam Pax, who has been the iconic weblogger of the year, at the heart of the largest news story of the year, and has been always honest, open and personal. For Best British/Irish, I can't recommend CityofSound enough, and it's not because Dan's my employer or because we had a row and I feel guilty about it. Genuinely fascinating, well-written stuff. And for the European award, you wouldn't go far wrong putting your pebble in the Tesugen urn when you're voting.

    In the topic-based categories, I'd like to recommend Coolfer, chachacha.co.uk and Share the Music - all of which I check up on regularly and find illuminating and passionate. The Best Political weblog will inevitably go to some foul warblogger, but I'd like to point you in the direction of the very British PolitX. In terms of the best gay weblog (always one of the hardest fought categories), I'm going to have to try and persuade you all to read trash addict more than you do. Otherwise, any of the classics would do nicely: Ernie, Bart or Sparky all come with the highest of recommendations. Best Group should (and probably will) go to Boing Boing and best community to either Slashdot, or Metafilter.

    As for myself - I pretty much think I've done my thing with regard to these awards enough times already. But that doesn't mean that I'd be exactly upset if you decided to nominate plasticbag.org for Best British or Irish Weblog, or best GLBT weblog. One thing I would really like though (because I think it's one of the best things I've written in a while) is for people to bear in mind (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything when they're looking to nominate for the Best Article or Essay about Weblogs category. Weirdly, it's one of the things I've done this year that I'm genuinely proud of (despite all its clumsiness and deeply dodgy turns of phrase) and I'd genuinely like more responses to it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Luke EMAIL: luke@captainfez.com IP: 203.48.97.130 URL: http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ DATE: 01/07/2004 02:57:48 AM Thanks Tom: I'd not noticed they were even on again. And just as I come out of a three-month "fuh" period, too. Nice beard, incidentally. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@cityofsound.com IP: 82.35.42.244 URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/ DATE: 01/08/2004 09:20:34 PM Thanks Tom. I don't deserve it, but thanks. And if I ever wrote anything as good as your mass amateurisation piece I'd be a happy boy. Oh, and yeah, nice beard. ----- PING: TITLE: Awards Season URL: http://boifromtroy.com/archives/000141.php IP: 209.12.212.35 BLOG NAME: BoiFromTroy DATE: 01/24/2004 12:32:38 AM With the People's Choice Awards last night, Hollywood is in full gear for the truncated awards season. The Oscars come a month early, so everything will be at fill-tilt across Southern California. Jessica Simpson is already bemoaning the "Newlyweds" be... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I look like at the moment... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/07/2004 02:50:11 AM ----- BODY:

    A very recent picture of me trying to look serious. I shall shortly add this to my ongoing visual Brief History of Tom.

    Tom Coates, Jan 2004

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bart EMAIL: bart@trabaca.com IP: 24.239.155.70 URL: http://www.trabaca.com DATE: 01/07/2004 03:24:01 AM You were too skinny when you were younger! I much prefer normal-weighted Tom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian EMAIL: adrian.hon@queens.ox.ac.uk IP: 129.67.10.21 URL: http://www.mssv.net DATE: 01/07/2004 10:07:13 AM Holy shit, some criminal has taken over Tom's body and is growing him a beard! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 01/07/2004 10:57:21 AM I'm sorry Tom, I love you to bits and all but I the beard just makes me giggle like a Japanese school girl. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: spam@prolific.org IP: 145.58.4.56 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 01/07/2004 01:41:56 PM 'We're sorry sir, casting for Lord of the Rings has ended.' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Loz EMAIL: l_pycock@hotmail.com IP: 195.171.200.235 URL: http://blahblahflowers.blogspot.com DATE: 01/07/2004 04:04:02 PM I really enjoyed that 'Freak Like Me' song you did with the Sugababes... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jason EMAIL: sleeperservice@easynet.co.uk IP: 81.129.94.119 URL: DATE: 01/07/2004 10:57:03 PM Ignore the philistines! Fuzzy hotness! Men who shave are hiding something. Their beards! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: muscle mary EMAIL: musclemary35@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.184.176 URL: DATE: 01/07/2004 11:00:34 PM Love the pic with the cap. Reminds me of when I used to hang round the Brief Encounter in the late 80s/early 90s, off my tits on speed and poppers. All the boyz looked like you - just like members of that fab but forgotten pop act Big Fun. All I can say is: "Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times - blame it on the boogie. Remember "no glove, no love!" Peace. xxxxx ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 80.3.75.92 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk DATE: 01/07/2004 11:19:16 PM Aren't you the scruffy little thing, eh? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.234.246 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 01/07/2004 11:52:09 PM I believe I have him beat in the scruffiness stakes. I'd provide photographic evidence, but I don't want to scare anyone (nor invite riducule, for that matter). Which reminds me, I need a haircut. Number three all over, please. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sillyputty1967 EMAIL: sillyputty1967@yahoo.com IP: 209.30.188.12 URL: http://station.dyndns.info DATE: 01/09/2004 11:52:05 PM I wouldn't toss you out. Adorable. Come visit when you can. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: BoiFromTroy EMAIL: boifromtroy@hotmail.com IP: 24.51.241.178 URL: http://tommytrojan.blogspot.com DATE: 01/12/2004 12:29:59 AM Tom- I'm a gay blogger from L.A. and will be in London next weekend...any advice on how to have a good time?!? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Patterson EMAIL: matt@reprocessed.org IP: 81.6.249.231 URL: http://reprocessed.org/ DATE: 01/12/2004 02:28:44 PM Is serious the same as hung over? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Patterson EMAIL: matt@reprocessed.org IP: 81.6.249.231 URL: http://reprocessed.org/ DATE: 01/12/2004 02:43:12 PM Sorry - should elucidate: my browser stalled loading the image below the mustache but above the lips, and Tom looked very miserable indeed... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Letters, Data and Metadata... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/07/2004 03:11:48 AM ----- BODY:

    Considering how annoying I find The Social Life of Information (again - more on that later), it's surprising how often I feel that I should be posting some of the nuggets contained within it for a larger audience. Anyway, there's a really interesting quote in the book from Paul Duguid's trip report from Portugal which I think is pertinent to my other post (A fragment of a world full of metadata) on the vast amounts of metadata that the real world supplies us with around the edges of the ostensible 'content'. But then again - as I say - I find much of the book so aggravating that I'm not sure quoting a chunk of it to support one of my positions is a particularly inspired idea.

    I was working in an archive of a 250-year-old business, reading correspondence from about the time of the American Revolution. Incoming letters were stored in wooden boxes about the size of a standard Styrofoam picnic cooler, each containing a fair portion of dust as old as the letters. As opening a letter triggered a brief asthmatic attack, I wore a scarf tied over my nose and mouth. Despite my bandit's attire, my nose ran, my eyes wept, and I coughed, wheezed and snorted. I longed for a digital system that would hold the information from the letters and leave paper and dust behind.

    One afternoon, another historian came to work on a similar box. He read barely a word. Instead, he picked out bundles of letters and, in a move that sent my sinuses into shock, ran each letter beneath his nose and took a deep breath, at times almost inhaling the letter itself but always getting a good dose of dust. Sometimes, after a particularly profound sniff, he would open the letter, glance at it briefly, make a note and move on.

    Choking behind my mask, I asked him what he was doing. He was, he told me, a medical historian. (A profession to avoid if you have asthma.) He was documenting outbreaks of cholera. When that disease occurred in a town in the eighteenth century, all letters from that town were disinfected with vinegar to prevent the disease from spreading. By sniffing for the faint traces of vinegar that survived 250 years and noting the date and source of the letters, he was able to chart the progress of the cholera outbreaks.

    His research threw new light on the letters I was reading. Now cheery letters telling customers that all was well, business thriving, and the future rosy read a little differently if a whiff of vinegar came off the page. Then the correspondent's cheeriness might be an act to prevent a collapse of businss confidence - unaware that he or she would be betrayed by a scent of vinagar. (Chapter 7 p.173)
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Denise EMAIL: hello@styledeficit.com IP: 82.43.32.37 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 03:26:22 PM What a fantastic quote though. ----- PING: TITLE: Metadata URL: http://www.drsnet.org/preoccupations/2004/01/metadata.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: Preoccupations DATE: 01/08/2004 12:17:17 AM Some very interesting comments and an extended essay from Tom Coates (a web producer specialising in print-to-web transitions, social software and personal publishing on the web). His excellent blog has the following posts: Letters, Data and Metadata A... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Using Wikis for content management... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/09/2004 11:29:59 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a thought partly inspired by an e-mail from a work colleague and partly by Haughey.com. Creating and editing wiki pages is extremely simple and elegant once you get past the first 30 minute learning curve. And essentially you end up with a page that's got an incredibly simple template, pretty well marked-up code (or at least could do if you used the right Wiki system) and can be edited incredibly quickly. Now, imagine for a moment that the Wiki page itself is nothing but a content management interface and that the Wiki has a separate templating and publishing engine that grabs what you've written on the page, turns it into a nicely designed fully-functioning (uneditable) web-page and publishes it to the world. It could make the creation of small information rich sites enormously quick - particularly if you built in FTP stuff.

    Now one of the problems with using Wikis generally is that they don't lend themselves to the creation of clear sectionalised navigation. Nor do they do naturally find it easy to use graphic design, colour or layout differently on separate pages to communicate either your context or the your location in the site. That's not to say that Wikis are broken, of course, just that the particularly networked rather than hierarchical model of navigation that they lend themselves towards isn't suitable for all kinds of public-facing sites (the same could be said of the one-size-fits-all design of the pages). This would clearly be a problem. Wikis sacrifice that kind of functionality on the whole in order to gain advantages in other areas (ie. collaborative site generation and maintainance). Without those advantages, you'd simply be left with an inferior product.

    So how to integrate design and architecture into the production of a wiki-CMSed website? Well, it's not a particularly new question with regard to wikis generally - loads of suggestions about how some kinds of hierarchy could be built in have been made and some of them implemented. On the whole they've not been terribly successful as they present a higher level of user-level complexity, and with a lot of potential naive users, publically editable wikis can't really afford complexity. But that's not true if only one person or a small group were to be updating the site. The complexity level could increase a bit and the learing curve would have to be just a little steeper initially.

    Here's an example of how you could create hierarchy and utilise different templates at the level of the individual page. First, imagine a templating interface that allowed you to create an outline hierarchy of the various sections of a site (just like you'd produce in the outline view of Word or using something like OmniOutliner). Now, each section of that site-map could have a distinct template attached to it, or inherit a template from the section above. Then all you'd need on the Wiki-page (as content-management interface) would be a drop-down box on the right that allowed you to choose which section the page you'd created would sit under. Given that, you could use the mechanics behind the templating engine automatically generate a variety of different models of hierarchical navigation and breadcrumb trails which you could embed into your templates (you could use a templating mechanism very much like the one used to move content chunks around weblogs using Typepad). And the same part of the Wiki page that you use to decide which section the wiki page should be contained within could also house a .gif thumbnail of the template for that page. And the assigned section of a new page could even default to that of the page from which you created it - forward-link from a page about Troubleshooting (in the section "Help") to create a page about Error Messages, and Error Messages is automatically created inside the "Help" section initially. And all of this could then be 'published', pushing everything out in a lovely stylish elegant and visually rich format to the rest of the world at the push of a button.

    Wouldn't that be cool? Blogger-style management for all kinds of other sites... The only things that don't seem obvious to me at the moment is how you make the intra-wiki links not look like Wiki links to the general public while preserving the ease of use that they engender for the person creating the pages... Any thoughts?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Orinoco EMAIL: orin@twjc.co.uk IP: 194.130.77.143 URL: http://www.twjc.co.uk/ DATE: 01/09/2004 01:04:36 PM If you use Opera or Mozilla you can use a user stylesheet to display something that the webpage's stylesheet hides. eg: On each page:

    blah blah blah

    In the Style sheet: p.intrawikilinks {display:none;} In your user style sheet: p.intrawikilinks {display:inline (or whatever)} The visitor sees nothing out of the ordinary but you get the extra links. Not all that secure though as a quick view of the page source will show the hidden links. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Orinoco EMAIL: orin@twjc.co.uk IP: 194.130.77.143 URL: DATE: 01/09/2004 01:21:59 PM that blah blah blah should be: (html paragraph tag id="intrawikilinks") Blah blah blah (end html paragraph tag) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: quis EMAIL: me@quis.cc IP: 172.185.121.197 URL: http://www.quis.cc DATE: 01/09/2004 01:56:22 PM There's a good example of a hierarchical wiki at faq.ozoneasylum.com. Obviously hiding the intra-wiki links isn't what's needed there. Something like the solution above, or an admin page separate from the public part of the site. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Seitz EMAIL: fluxent@yahoo.com IP: 68.161.154.7 URL: http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki DATE: 01/09/2004 03:35:26 PM What's the benefit you're focused on? If it's the avoidance of markup there are non-wiki approaches like Textile. While the auto-linking is cool, for a "published" site you want enough flexibility over link labels and linking that you'll probably end up escaping the wiki's auto-linking features anyway... And I'm sure there must be some 3-line Perl hack out there to let an admin edit a page via a browser... I wonder whether "published" ("polished"?) sites will become less relevant over time to many contexts... http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/z2004-01-09-CoatesWikiCms ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin Mason EMAIL: jm-43893485@jmason.org IP: 68.5.202.38 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 01/09/2004 08:05:20 PM A good way to avoid the CamelCaseLinks issue without requiring the editors jump through hoops writing links like [link to foo site:LinkToFooSite] would be to post-process the HTML output using a dictionary of substitutions: s/(]+>)LinkToFooSite()/$1link to foo site$2/gs Make the list of from -> to pairs editable through the web, with the "from" list automatically updated from the current wiki pages, and it's a bit nicer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: martin burns EMAIL: martin@easyweb.co.uk IP: 82.68.75.30 URL: http://www.easyweb.co.uk DATE: 01/10/2004 10:24:39 AM This seems like an awfully long way round - ripping out and replacing half of the Wiki functionality to be able to get the simple markup capability within a more normal site structure. What you'd be better off doing is using a CMS that provides Structured Text or similar. The Zope App Server has STX as standard, and Plone is a rather nice CMS built on top of it. Editable documents can be edited in any one of HTML, STX or Plain Text. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lon Farenwald EMAIL: lon@ghostwheel.net IP: 66.109.226.26 URL: DATE: 01/10/2004 03:42:23 PM Seems to be that TikiWiki (http://tikiwiki.org) could accomplish a lot of what you say. I'm thinking of implementing it as the framework for my company's intranet/CMS. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee Bryant EMAIL: lee@headshift.com IP: 81.86.117.89 URL: http://www.headshift.com DATE: 01/11/2004 02:39:46 PM Echoing Bill Seitz's and Martin Burns' comments, I really can't understand what the point of this is. We have built several simple CMS apps that do exactly what you describe, with WYSIWYG front ends and a choice of templates drawn from an initial hierarchical outline. There must be hundreds of implementations of this idea floating around that allow logged in users to build pages as you describe. Remove the logged in requirement and lo - you have the openness of a Wiki, but without the need for people to engage with or learn the rather counter-intuitive ways of the Wiki. Why Wiki? Isn't that putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, in terms of user requirements? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marc-Antoine Parent EMAIL: maparent@mac.com IP: 66.11.172.37 URL: DATE: 01/11/2004 03:06:11 PM Have a look at Eastgate's Tinderbox. It does exactly what you want. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Thristan EMAIL: beonlinecomms@hotmail.com IP: 81.178.228.140 URL: http://www.marktsinfoblog.blogspot.com DATE: 01/11/2004 06:13:59 PM I have to agree with the latter comments, Tom. Isn't the benefit of a Wiki that the content and structure of the content emerge gradually from from the input of the various wiki users, a very purist bottom-up approach to information architecture? Taking a top-down approach already implies a categorisation attempt that is outside of the sphere of influence of the wiki contributors, which kind of counteracts the point of a wiki. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.188.94 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/12/2004 08:53:46 AM I'm talking about the Wiki as interface rather than Wiki as thing - suggesting no more than that the Wiki interface might be a good way of assembling a site for people who aren't particularly technically literate (or for those people who'd like to be able to assemble a highly templated site very quickly). As evidence for the basic utility of a wiki structure for the maintainance of a non-weblog site (like a portfolio site for example) I site a.wholelottanothing.org and haughey where Matt Haughey has used a wiki as the foundation of his site, allowing him to edit and adapt it whenever he wants without it appearing to be a wiki to people on the outside. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kimberley Burchett EMAIL: kimbly@cybercom.net IP: 64.95.76.151 URL: http://www.kimbly.com/ DATE: 01/14/2004 06:10:18 PM You might want to check out diamond wiki for an example of how you can let wiki users create hierarchies of wiki pages. Diamond wiki lets each wiki page be in multiple hierarchies simultaneously, so it fits better with the free-for-all approach of wikis, instead of the top-down approach of a single taxonomy. ----- PING: TITLE: LOTD is U URL: http://tonytalkstech.com/2004/01/lotd_is_u.php IP: 209.50.237.119 BLOG NAME: Technically Speaking DATE: 01/09/2004 03:25:53 PM I am maintaining my day behind schedule. Maybe one day I will get in sync with Kate. Here we go. U is for unbelievable. -- This site is full of unbelievable things. U is for unpunctual. This is a bit disappointing. U is for underworld's use. U is for u... ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Coates on Wikis as Content Management Tools URL: http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/01/10/tom_coates_on_wikis_as_content_management_tools.php IP: 64.94.116.60 BLOG NAME: Many-to-Many DATE: 01/10/2004 04:58:45 PM Tom Coates is thinking about the relationship between wikis, CMSs (shudder) and planned navigation:Here’s an example of how you could create heirarchy and utilise different templates at the level of the individual page. First, imagine a templatin... ----- PING: TITLE: "using wikis for content management" URL: http://ghw.wordherders.net/archives/001322.html IP: 216.40.250.86 BLOG NAME: george.h.williams DATE: 01/12/2004 02:53:21 AM Via Many-to-Many: "Using Wikis for content management...." Here, Tom Coates addresses what has been one of my reservations about wikis, the somewhat awkward resulting appearance and navigational elements: "the particularly networked rather than heirarc... ----- PING: TITLE: Wiki and navigation URL: http://huminf.uib.no/~st04555/jot/archive/000217.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: jotting DATE: 01/13/2004 04:56:36 PM Posting link to an article that I intend to read - right now I'm exhausted from adding domain names to my blacklist. ----- PING: TITLE: Wiki and navigation URL: http://huminf.uib.no/~st04555/jot/archive/000217.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: jotting DATE: 01/13/2004 05:02:49 PM Posting link to an article that I intend to read - right now I'm exhausted from adding domain names to my blacklist. ----- PING: TITLE: Wiki and navigation URL: http://huminf.uib.no/~st04555/jot/archive/000217.html IP: 129.177.211.173 BLOG NAME: jotting DATE: 01/13/2004 05:03:04 PM Posting link to an article that I intend to read - right now I'm exhausted from adding domain names to my blacklist. ----- PING: TITLE: Using Wikis for content management. URL: http://www.academyhd.org/blogarchives/000156.html IP: 217.160.226.23 BLOG NAME: Academy of Harvested Discourse DATE: 01/15/2004 06:17:48 PM Now, imagine for a moment that the Wiki page itself is nothing but a content management interface and that the Wiki has a separate templating and publishing engine... ----- PING: TITLE: Using Wikis for content management URL: http://www.leuschke.org/quick/archives/2004_01.html#003381 IP: 66.33.193.51 BLOG NAME: leuschke.org links DATE: 01/17/2004 09:10:39 PM still working on it... ----- PING: TITLE: LOTD is U URL: http://tonytalkstech.com/2004/01/lotd_is_u.php IP: 216.120.249.245 BLOG NAME: Technically Speaking DATE: 03/08/2004 04:08:35 AM I am maintaining my day behind schedule. Maybe one day I will get in sync with Kate. Here we go. U is for unbelievable. -- This site is full of unbelievable things. U is for unpunctual. This is a bit... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Identify the funny cartoon! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/09/2004 03:56:53 PM ----- BODY:

    My new favourite witty cartoon du jour follows. Anyone know anything about who produced it and where it was originally published?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: plasticbag@grahamazon.com IP: 171.66.155.66 URL: http://www.grahamazon.com/anatomy/ DATE: 01/09/2004 04:33:06 PM It looks like it was made by Jennifer Berman. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: methyl EMAIL: methylsalicylate@hotmail.com IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: http://methylsalicylate.com/dook.htm DATE: 01/09/2004 04:38:17 PM It looks familiar... not sure, but it just *screams* New Yorker. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: meg EMAIL: spam@meish.org IP: 82.68.44.97 URL: http://www.meish.org DATE: 01/09/2004 11:53:44 PM ...and now available as a charming sweatshirt. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: patricia EMAIL: info@lunanina.com IP: 165.247.90.145 URL: http://lunanina.com/musings/ DATE: 01/10/2004 05:46:39 AM that's great. i love it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bree EMAIL: breebop@toastmedia.com IP: 64.180.47.77 URL: http://breebop.toastmedia.com DATE: 01/10/2004 08:20:45 AM First you laugh, then you groan. Awesome. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: owen EMAIL: owensoft@yahoo.com IP: 208.138.29.113 URL: http://owensoft.net DATE: 01/12/2004 07:52:58 PM very funny. you ever notice that if you tab out of the website input box you jump to te top of the page? ----- PING: TITLE: Identify the funny cartoon! URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0108913/2004/01/09.html#a96 IP: 209.180.103.49 BLOG NAME: JCD DATE: 01/10/2004 04:31:19 AM Read the comments [ plasticbag.org ] ----- PING: TITLE: You'd better believe URL: http://www.lunanina.com/mini/archives/2004_01.php#004137 IP: 66.33.208.27 BLOG NAME: LunaNina: Mini-Blog DATE: 01/10/2004 05:49:49 AM I'm going to be buying this sweatshirt. [via plasticbag.org]... ----- PING: TITLE: Rock n Rule URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2004/01/10.html#a343 IP: 202.68.150.4 BLOG NAME: Conversations with Dina DATE: 01/10/2004 07:13:48 AM Got this cartoon from Tom Coates . ----- PING: TITLE: 20040125 URL: http://joon.at.twofishy.net/mt-static/archives/000164.html IP: 219.93.77.26 BLOG NAME: the mundane adventures of joon DATE: 01/25/2004 07:57:05 AM Elastic Design: A List Apart memcached: a distributed memory object caching system sane css typography css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design perl.com: A Refactoring Example [Oct. 09, 2003] HTML 4 Document Type Definition My So-Called Blog plasticbag... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A New Font for a New Year... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design DATE: 01/13/2004 04:26:47 PM ----- BODY:

    After a highly entertaining half an hour with my work colleagues and fontifier, I now have a full operational font of my handwriting. It looks a little childish and insane, like the kind of thing you'd write threatening letters with, but it looks great as the default font on OSX's Post-It equivalents. Should you be foolish enough to want my scribblings on your computer, feel free to download it from here: Coates.ttf.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@consumedmag.org IP: 195.137.47.187 URL: http://www.consumedmag.org DATE: 01/13/2004 04:53:25 PM I suggest that your next project should be a 'Coates Signature Font', an exact likeness of your signature as used on, say, cheques and important documents. I also think that using a handwriting font on computer 'stickies' is going one step too far... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Deek EMAIL: dxg999@email.com IP: 81.106.192.198 URL: DATE: 01/13/2004 06:50:38 PM You should try to get hold of an architect to do this with. They train them to annotate sketches in this architect-specific "angular" style of writing. The moment you've seen it, you know a trained architect scribbled it -- it's really quite nice... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 01/13/2004 08:43:28 PM Weird - I was just dling free handwriting fonts like mad two nights ago. And here is a fine one. Question, though -- you include any punctuation with it? Quote marks and dashes and such are so important when I use these things. I really need to get a font-making program for myself.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Barfle EMAIL: barfle@helloteddy.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 01/14/2004 12:13:56 AM It would be nice if you could get a handwriting font that could do cursive (you know, all the letters joined together). That would be excellent. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Harry EMAIL: anderssverker64@hotmail.com IP: 217.209.136.28 URL: DATE: 01/14/2004 02:49:21 AM "Flygande bckasiner ska hwila p mjuka tuvor" is sort of Swedish. Flying (strange word) will rest upon soft tussocks (almost). why the (quasi-) Swedish, Tom?! /a swede ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dvboy EMAIL: lee.stanley@orange.net IP: 62.254.0.30 URL: http://bbcity.co.uk/user/dvboy DATE: 01/14/2004 02:26:50 PM See, that wouldn't work with my handwriting, it's too varied, and joined up. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel EMAIL: DanielDavidson258@hotmail.com IP: 80.5.160.5 URL: http://nosdivad.blogspot.com DATE: 01/15/2004 09:36:35 PM I used fontifier myself to create a font, only it didn't turn out as well as I wanted to. Still, it's a cool idea, and I like it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Max EMAIL: max@REMOVEinmyplace.net IP: 81.128.15.125 URL: http://inmyplace.net DATE: 01/19/2004 04:20:45 PM ha! I did that handwriting thingy over a year ago! and implemented it into my web site! but it looked crap, so took it off... best of luck in the bloggies, fellow nominee ----- PING: TITLE: links URL: http://boobah.com/clay/blog/archives/2004/01/13/links.html IP: 64.209.119.20 BLOG NAME: here, but pointless DATE: 01/13/2004 05:10:34 PM I saw url2png and thought a useful tool for web designers would be an expanded version of that which would return an image of your site as viewed by various versions of IE, Netscape, Safari on various versions of Mac OS, Windows, etc. Does something l... ----- PING: TITLE: http://wso.williams.edu/~atorrega/blogs/belonging/archives/000263.html URL: http://wso.williams.edu/~atorrega/blogs/belonging/archives/000263.html IP: 68.14.114.176 BLOG NAME: belonging DATE: 01/14/2004 08:47:54 AM Links Low-Level Enumeration with TCP/IP Simulating and Optimising Worm Propogation Algorithms RIAA seizes police powers, EFF says "yay!" -- Except they don't Friedrich the Great Actor-Writer Spalding Gray Reported Missing Oscar 'Screener' Found on Int... ----- PING: TITLE: My Sunday URL: http://www.jasmeet.net/archives/2004/02/01/my_sunday IP: 69.50.169.2 BLOG NAME: J : Da Blog DATE: 02/02/2004 07:17:25 AM Bar none, Tom Coates handwriting is best used for Post It Notes. As he has shown in an earlier... ----- PING: TITLE: Adventures With Fontifier URL: http://davesrants.com/archives/2004/07/20/adventures_with_fontifier/index.php IP: 82.195.129.128 BLOG NAME: Dave's Rants DATE: 07/20/2004 05:39:48 PM I saw Fontifier months ago, but it's only since I came to that I've had any access to a scanner. So I just gave it a try there. ----- PING: TITLE: Adventures With Fontifier URL: http://davesrants.com/archives/2004/07/20/adventures_with_fontifier/index.php IP: 82.195.129.128 BLOG NAME: Dave's Rants DATE: 07/20/2004 05:44:47 PM I saw Fontifier months ago, but it's only since I came to that I've had any access to a scanner. So I just gave it a try there. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Are there gay people at ETCON? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/15/2004 02:10:18 AM ----- BODY:

    So first things first, after considerable soul-searching and fiddling around with finances I've found a way to go to Emerging Tech this year to cheer on my BBC other half's paper: Glancing: I'm OK, You're OK. Last year the conference completely blew me away and acted as fuel for one of the most creative periods in my working life to date (although unfortunately not all of that creativity ended up being expressed coherently or in the public domain). Hopefully this year's conference will be just as good...

    One thing that I found last year that I wasn't expecting was how many like-minded people I met - or if not like-minded, how many people there I felt comfortable around. I felt that I understood their world-view even if I didn't understand anything else that came out of their mouths. That got me thinking about what particular elements or lifestyle attributes we had in common - and that in turn made me thing about all the things things that we might not have in common - and that in turn led me to think about whether or not these events are bastions of heterosexual maleness and whether many of the people present might be gay. So as a result of that, I'm putting a kind-of poll into the field to see if there are going to be any gay people at ETCon this year that would like to get together at some point for a drink and a chat.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.238.166 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 01/15/2004 08:24:40 AM I thought about turning this into a participant session (at http://wiki.oreillynet.com/etech/pub?ParticipantSessions ) but it could remind me too much of the worst kind of university lgb group... At least this year we're in a proper city, so there's the opportunity to explore the real world. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@magnetbox.com IP: 209.98.64.3 URL: http://www.magnetbox.com DATE: 01/15/2004 03:44:47 PM Is there a list somewhere of absolutely everyone that is attending? I would be interested to see that as well. I am attending, but heterosexual. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zephoria EMAIL: zephoria@zephoria.org IP: 67.169.72.133 URL: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/ DATE: 01/17/2004 05:37:38 AM Is a gay gathering open to the queer girls as well? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jamie EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 213.152.37.170 URL: DATE: 01/17/2004 12:25:04 PM oh arses. and not in a good way... a year ago i promised myself i'd have my finances and generaly shit sorted enough to go to this. but, hey, guess what, it didn't happen. :( speaking of things not happening, what came of the uk conference thing that was discussed at the photographic cafe, et al, a while back? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.164.232 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/17/2004 01:52:48 PM Absolutely! Would be great to say hi to some gay women at the event. I suppose I was rather assuming that they'd be an even rarer commodity in such a place, given how few women generally are normally there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: blog@deaddodo.com IP: 81.86.238.166 URL: http://www.undergroundlondon.com/antimega/ DATE: 01/18/2004 12:02:25 AM Ben, why not add yourself to the upcoming.org event: http://www.upcoming.org/event/1602/ - already some netty people attending (istr that the official attendees list is only handed out at the event). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.93.24.53 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 01/18/2004 09:06:01 PM Chris, there's a participant list on the O'Reilly wiki, though it's not fully populated by any means... http://wiki.oreillynet.com/etech/hosted.conf?ConferenceAttendees While I fall into none of the above-mentioned categories, I am looking forward to meeting Tom in person! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An illustration of spam... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/16/2004 03:23:27 PM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday I received a piece of spam with a title so interesting and dramatic that I felt I had to illustrate it with Photoshop. Presenting: "Unrelenting Massive C*cks Destroy Innocent Pussies!"

    Addendum: Of course now my site will be blocked by my brother's school for another six months. Sigh.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan...(iel) EMAIL: loop@phrenetic.org IP: 132.185.240.13 URL: http://www.phrenetic.org DATE: 01/16/2004 03:34:21 PM I suspect that this is not what they had in mind, which is a shame really... ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chrispian EMAIL: crowe@lit.org IP: 216.180.33.135 URL: http://www.chrispian.com DATE: 01/16/2004 03:42:26 PM Is this the start of a new art form? Interpretive spam art? Quick, someone register a domain name! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jkottke EMAIL: jason@kottke.org IP: 12.111.24.71 URL: http://www.kottke.org DATE: 01/16/2004 04:42:47 PM If this were boingboing and London were LA and spam was SARS, this post would be the start of some cool new cultural art thing and would wind up in Wired magazine next month. Good thing this is much better than that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.229.190 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 01/16/2004 04:44:18 PM yeah, i'm actually starting to enjoy the spam that makes it past my filters. most of it contains what seems to be randomly generated text that could pass for bad poetry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 81.178.245.14 URL: http://www.infovore.org DATE: 01/16/2004 05:28:26 PM See also this recent Penny Arcade for a depiction of a door-to-door spammer... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 82.69.38.165 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 01/16/2004 06:18:16 PM Excellent. But you should have titled it in your own handwriting font thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 81.132.158.156 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 01/16/2004 07:19:17 PM I, too, have illustrated your spam. But it's not so classy. http://interconnected.org/home/more/2004/01/cock-pussy.jpg ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattj EMAIL: matt@nospambbj.com IP: 62.78.172.18 URL: http://www.blackbeltjones.com DATE: 01/16/2004 08:44:48 PM But mattw, that's more like a cockswarm, than a massive unrelenty cock in the singular. It's a bit like that horse-sized duck vs 100 duck-size horses. Another spam illustration, but I mainly get marvellous Bayesian-avoiding sender names: http://www.blackbeltjones.com/constitutionally_f_iodizes.gif /mj ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@NOSPAMgroc.org.uk IP: 81.133.23.174 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog/ DATE: 01/16/2004 11:35:31 PM bum. that's lots better than my spam monsters project. think i'll give up now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@cityofsound.com IP: 82.35.42.244 URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/ DATE: 01/17/2004 12:10:23 AM Jones, I like your Constitionally F. Iodizes ... Andy Otwell and I have been collecting such fabulous sender names. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kurai EMAIL: kurai@xs4all.nl IP: 213.84.231.51 URL: DATE: 01/17/2004 10:10:02 AM it's Gigans brother ^_^ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 81.132.158.156 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 01/17/2004 12:35:38 PM mattj: The spam specified multiple cocks, but I agree with the swarm problem. I had hoped to use a large ranked mass to signify 'unrelented'. Perhaps if we could get the guys with the LOTR special effects computer interested in this game it'd be more convincing? Conveying innocence is also a quality hard to convey convincingly. What this, and b3ta-style art, reminds me of is Archaic art. Feyerabend, in Against Method [p177], describes the style: "The picture becomes a list. Thus a charioteer standing in a carriage is shown as standing above the floor (which is presented in its fullest view) and unencumbered by the rails so that his feet, the floor, the rails can all be clearly seen. No trouble arises if we regard the painting as a visual catalogue of the parts of an event rather than as an illusary rendering of the event itself (no trouble arises when we say: his feet touched the floor which is rectangular, and he was surrounded by a railing...)" -- the picture is a series of statements: "We have what is called a paratactic aggregate: the elements of such an aggregate are all given equal importance, the only relation between them is sequential, there is no hierarchy, no part is being presented as being subordinate to and determined by others". The picture is read rather than gleaned, and I'd contend that this form of art arises out of cultures that contain strong virtual worlds (we have cyberspace; the Greeks had systems of thought and description. It's not so different), because if the world the artists inhabit is a construction, the art will tend to be like that too. (See also, Cyberspace as a paratactic aggregate.) Anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daphne EMAIL: pop@lupacabana.org IP: 81.208.60.192 URL: DATE: 01/17/2004 01:03:43 PM You are a genius. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mac EMAIL: deemack99@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.168.170 URL: DATE: 01/18/2004 04:47:52 PM Genius, nearly wet meself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: edna million EMAIL: ednamillion75@yahoo.com IP: 66.209.193.23 URL: http://www.ednamillion.com DATE: 01/19/2004 07:16:14 PM I love you. I will never look at spam the same way again. You made my day, although I coughed diet coke on myself, my day is much better on the whole. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: homer jay EMAIL: sk8shop@hotmail.com IP: 64.146.74.214 URL: http://www.homerjay.net DATE: 01/19/2004 09:10:57 PM I think you may have stumbled upon the only thing SPAM is good for. Brilliant! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mark@shinyplasticbag.com IP: 24.138.2.178 URL: http://shinyplasticbag.com DATE: 01/20/2004 01:57:08 AM Methinks someone should write a song about this that is sung to the tune of 'Imitation of Life' by REM. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicholas Liu EMAIL: nicholasliu@NOSPAMmetastatic-whatnot.com IP: 203.124.2.10 URL: http://metastasis.popagandhi.com DATE: 01/20/2004 04:24:55 AM You know, this would be way funnier with all the words removed from the image. Really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 146.227.1.9 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 01/20/2004 07:29:25 PM My friend John takes the fact that his site was filtered in schools as a badge of honour. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joshua EMAIL: joshua_au@hotmail.com IP: 165.21.154.16 URL: http:///usr/bin DATE: 01/25/2004 11:33:38 AM Simply Divine. I dont think I can ever think of cocks and cats the same way anymore too ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kirsty EMAIL: theonereplicant@hotmail.com IP: 81.134.209.162 URL: DATE: 10/13/2004 06:42:48 PM FLEE! FLEE! THE ENOURMOUS CHICKEN COMETH! AAAH!!! Those words are etched into my mind for life. Genius. Everyone I showed thought it was completely hilarious. Cheers! ----- PING: TITLE: spam art URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog/archives/000831.htm IP: 217.204.38.28 BLOG NAME: Groc's bloggette DATE: 01/16/2004 11:56:13 PM another much more famous brit blogger succumbs to the urge to create spam inspired art.... ----- PING: TITLE: Round Up: When Friend's Bail URL: http://unraveled.com/archives/2004/01/round up IP: 66.33.208.4 BLOG NAME: unraveled DATE: 01/17/2004 12:36:59 AM Lance Arthur: Becoming Dated "You're The Prize!" 37signals: Basecamp Coming "January 2004" Paul Ford: Ceiling Jeffrey Veen: Stop Stealing... ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.sortakinda.ca/archives/2004_01.html#003819 URL: http://www.sortakinda.ca/archives/2004_01.html#003819 IP: 64.254.34.11 BLOG NAME: sortakinda DATE: 01/17/2004 06:20:23 PM "Even the purest kitten perished on the day the massive unrelenting cock came to town." so for those who've already... ----- PING: TITLE: PoMo Spam URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/archives/001672.html IP: 63.247.132.5 BLOG NAME: Mercurial DATE: 01/17/2004 06:36:51 PM Tom Coates has found a way to thwart all those nasty spameses, by rendering them into art. Behold Cockzilla vs... ----- PING: TITLE: Politics, blogs and Spam Art URL: http://joannejacobs.net/cgi-bin/archives/000349.html IP: 140.186.45.15 BLOG NAME: joannejacobs.net DATE: 01/17/2004 09:41:18 PM The Washington Post is reporting a study showing that a means of attracting the young voter in the US is to use blogs and chat facilities. Certainly the popularity of blogs like that of Howard Dean is a demonstration of how blogs can act as a catalyst ... ----- PING: TITLE: http://thm.askee.net/links/archives/000131.html URL: http://thm.askee.net/links/archives/000131.html IP: 208.239.240.123 BLOG NAME: quicklinks DATE: 01/18/2004 12:40:26 AM SPAM illustration... ----- PING: TITLE: Attack of the Fifty-Foot Roosters URL: http://www.lies.com/blog/archives/001442.html IP: 66.180.194.98 BLOG NAME: lies.com DATE: 01/18/2004 04:17:17 AM Item 2 of 3 in my net.kooks extravaganza: An illustration of spam.... From Tom Coates of plasticbag.org.... ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/miniblog/archives/week_2004_01_18.php#002077 URL: http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/miniblog/archives/week_2004_01_18.php#002077 IP: 66.33.208.14 BLOG NAME: LYD's mini-blog DATE: 01/18/2004 10:15:30 PM spam e-mail subjects + photoshop + british humour = hilarity... ----- PING: TITLE: a picture tells a thousand words URL: http://www.dfunkd.com/dramaqueen/archives/000483.html IP: 207.44.164.11 BLOG NAME: DramaQueen DATE: 01/19/2004 11:32:09 AM From plasticbag.org, and in his own photoshopping no less: Yesterday I received a piece of spam with a title so interesting and dramatic that I felt I had to illustrate it with Photoshop. Presenting: "Unrelenting Massive C*cks Destroy Innocent Pussies!... ----- PING: TITLE: Pžlevate silmadega blogijad kaklemas URL: http://teller.diip.ee/archives/001792.html IP: 194.204.30.250 BLOG NAME: Teller plžksib: fotod, mžtted, viited DATE: 01/19/2004 12:57:47 PM You know what we should do? Send up a Mars mission and then once they're up in space, call them and say, "You guys can't reenter the atmosphere until you develop a cure for AIDS. Get crackin'." Selline veider koomiks. Ja siis muidugi unrelenting massic... ----- PING: TITLE: Spam illustration URL: http://life.of.neekole.com/miniblog/archives/000515.html IP: 206.194.103.7 BLOG NAME: nicole lee's mini-blog DATE: 01/19/2004 04:56:01 PM 'The Enormous Chicken Cometh!' Good lord, that's hilarious. ----- PING: TITLE: The Illustrated SPAM URL: http://tiglaw.com/blog/archives/002104.html IP: 160.79.194.70 BLOG NAME: Tiger: Raggin' & Rantin' DATE: 01/20/2004 04:34:16 AM "Unrelenting Massive C*cks Destroy Innocent Pussies!" proclaimed the subject line of the message in the Inbox. What? Someone more inane than I concocted the truth of the story in Photo Shop. I have ta thank Goldie for trackin' this story... ----- PING: TITLE: An Illustration of Spam URL: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~sagarwal/blog/archives/000004.html IP: 128.32.112.233 BLOG NAME: Psychotic Banana - Care for a Bite? DATE: 01/21/2004 08:44:35 AM Yes folks, this plasticbag entry started it all. It inspired me to start my own blog. Is this just a temporary fad? Will it go away like those horrible wretched Furbies? Probably.... ----- PING: TITLE: What Artists Do When They're Bored URL: http://www.gadgetopia.com/2004/01/21/WhatArtistsDoWhenTheyreBored.html IP: 209.51.150.38 BLOG NAME: Gadgetopia DATE: 01/21/2004 10:52:18 PM An illustration of spam...: Can't...breathe....laughing...too...hard.... ----- PING: TITLE: If I didn't have such a dirty mind, I might've thought of this URL: http://rocketjones.mu.nu/archives/011248.html IP: 66.111.41.40 BLOG NAME: Rocket Jones DATE: 01/29/2004 10:27:46 AM Carol points the way to Tom, who hilariously photoshops a spam. Bravo!... ----- PING: TITLE: An illustration of spam URL: http://www.jacobsen.no/anders/blog/sideblog/archives/2004_02.html#000931 IP: 209.68.1.45 BLOG NAME: Anders Jacobsen's sideblog DATE: 02/02/2004 05:18:14 PM Tom Coates: A cartoony illustration of spam... (via Camilo)... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If God is a dancefloor... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/18/2004 09:59:59 PM ----- BODY:

    According to Pink in her song God is a DJ: "If God is a DJ, life is a dance floor, love is the rhythm, you are the music". Which is troubling for me, really, because if life is the dance floor and love is the rhythm and we are the music, then who the hell is dancing? Is no one dancing at all? Is that the point? Is the point that life is empty and pointless - a farce of creation without function or utility? Or is it still worse than that? Perhaps it's demons and monsters that dance to us, stomping all over life, letting their evil hearts race to the rhythms of our loves and getting sweaty and emotional and copping off and falling over to the music that is us. We're nothing but the noise that supernatural clubbers take drugs to! That's your message, Pink!? Well, thanks for nothing...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On adaptive success and theories of homosexuality... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Science DATE: 01/19/2004 10:50:54 PM ----- BODY:

    The latest issue of New Scientist contains an article - "The In Crowd" - that is both profoundly interesting and yet totally unavailable online. Gradually, I'm delighted to say, this situation is becoming more rare and more of a surprise each time it occurs.

    Anyway, the article - written by Joan Roughgarden - contends that: "Same-sex relationships are not a biological dead end. They are a glue that helps hold many animal societies together, and a fatal flaw in one of Darwin's central ideas." Here are a few choice chunks of the article that I think encompass most of the article:

    Author Bruce Bahemihl, in his book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and natural diversity, has catalogued over 200 vertebrate species in which same-sex genital contact regularly occurs. In some species, homosexuality is not very common - around 1 to 10 per cent of all mating. In others, such a bonobos, homosexual mating occurs as often as heterosexual mating. In some species only males participate, in others only females, in still others both sexes. Sometimes homosexuality is associated with pair bonds that last for years, and in others with short-term courtships. This broad occurrence of homosexuality among vertebrates raises the possibility that if it has a genetic basis at all, it has some broad adaptive significance, and is not an aberrant condition just a few species happen to be stuck with.

    In humans, moreover, homosexuality is much too common for it to be considered a genetic aberration. Real genetic diseases are really rare, and their frequency inevitably depends on their severity. A disease that is uniformly lethal must arise anew each generation, so its frequency is equal to the mutation rate, say one in 1 million. A disease that causes only a 10 per cent drop in offspring production (fitness) is 10 times more common than a lethal disease - about one in 100,000. Similarly, a mere 1 per cent drop in fitness leads to a frequency of one in 10,000. If homosexuality has a frequency of 1 in 10, the fitness loss could be no more than 0.001 per cent, which is completely undetectable. A "common genetic disease" is a contradiction in terms, and homosexuality is three to four orders of magnitude more common than true genetic diseases such as Huntington's disease.

    All this seems eminently reasonable to me so far. I mean, clearly I'm no expert in evolutionary biology, so my opinion really counts for less than nothing. But on the other hand, as an engaged reader and a gay man I've at least got a legitimate interest in the subject and have found myself relatively compelled by the idea that if homosexual behaviour has a genetic component, that at least some of the genes that result in it must have some adaptive utility. The most commonly cited example is that perhaps a gene might exist that in an heterosexual adult provided a significant reproductive advantage of some kind - but which had the side effect of producing a certain proportion of children who were gay. As long as the cumulative effect was to mean that - on average - the familial line would produce more sexually productive offspring than a line which did not have the gene, then it would be clear that the genes that result in gay people had a reproductive advantage.

    Of course while that theory has a certain compelling logic to it, it doesn't (perhaps shouldn't) have anything to say about what it means to be gay in this context. In other words - it makes no statement that homosexual behaviour is itself somehow useful or positive with regard to human behaviour, survival or evolution. Homosexual behaviour then, is not considered adaptively useful.

    Now back to Joan Roughgarden's piece (carrying on directly from what was written above):

    Indeed, I challenge the presumption that homosexuality leads to any reduction in fitness whatever. Throughout history and across cultures, homoerotic attraction has not precluded heteroerotic attraction. And there is little evidence that people who feel homoerotic attraction have, as a group, any less Darwinian fitness than those who don't. After all, many exclusively heterosexual people do not have offspring either. Even if those with homoerotic attraction did have marginally fewed children, they might make up for it by a better chance of survival - during wars, for example, when homoerotic bonds might lead soldiers to protect one another more vigorously.

    So what then, is the adaptive significance of homosexuality? Homosexuality has many uses, much as the ability to speak does. Homosexual contact is a way to communicate pleasure. And I suggest that homosexuality is a social inclusionary trait - that is, it provides animals, including perhaps humans at times, with admission to social groups. It evolves, I suggest, whenever same-sex cooperation helps achieve an evolutionary successful life: to survive, find mates and protect one's young from harm. This plays out in different ways in different sexes and species. Sometimes, as with bonobos, same-sex cooperation provides group security and access to food that females need to successfully rear their young. For others, such as male Savanna baboons and probably some whales, it provides the allies they need to survive conflicts so that they may later mate. But the unifying principle is the same - homosexuality cements relationships that are crucial for a successful life.

    At which point, I'm afraid, I think my scepticism comes to the fore. It seems to me that any theory of homosexuality that operates in direct opposition to people's experience of contemporary human sexuality seems to be at least flawed. While bonobo homosexuality might be seen to be useful in the creation of social inclusion, often exactly the opposite occurs in human society. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's classic book Between Men specifically talks about the continual need to disavow sexual components to male homosocial relationships (ie. male-on-male friendship / bonding relationships). We're all familiar with this kind of experience - that the most common and most potent sources of anti-gay tirades are tightly-bound social groups of men. At the very least more is going on in those situations than simple homoeroticism bringing those men together to express solidarity and closeness. Even at our most open-minded, surely we have to state that in those circumstances, the fact that any vestigial or situational erotics have to be so vigorously denied makes it clear that there's a distinction to be drawn between homoerotic behaviour, homosexual behaviour and homosexual identities that is much more complex than anything that Roughgarden supplies us with.

    I will of course give her the benefit of the doubt in this case - the article is evidently a truncation of a body of work that no doubt includes a massive set of sample data from which to draw conclusions as well as the applied expertise of a lifetime of training. If I get the chance to read any more of her work, I will make sure that I do so vigorously. But in the meantime, I'm afraid I must remain interested but unconvinced.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.234.66 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 01/20/2004 12:11:38 AM I'm probably being insultingly obvious here, but it seems that there is a major stumbling block here: the presumption, at root for everything else said in relation to it, that sexuality is merely a tool for the propogation of a species via reproduction. Surely this idea would have to be set aside before anything really meaningful could be said? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.229.190 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com/ DATE: 01/20/2004 12:23:55 AM i don't think we can use civilized history to discount a theory based on evolution, because humans have many features that had clear evolutionary advantages before civilization, but are no longer useful. hair, for example, was useful for keeping us warm (among other things). but we now have blankets, hats, and all sorts of external tools for doing that. this doesn't suggest that hair didn't become genetically common because it kept us warm. it just suggests that as a species we've moved on from (unintentional) evolution. so while i'm not convinced by the argument you're refuting here, i'm also not convinced by your refutation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 01/20/2004 12:29:37 AM I don't see that there is any contradiction between homosexuality as a socially-beneficial character and homophobia as similarly socially-beneficial (in a purely local sense). Both can serve to cement social relationships, even if the latter does so in a rather less constructive way. Also, while there is a fair amount of evidence for there being a genetic basis for homosexuality (or at least a predisposition to it), homophobia seems likely to be a largely memetic phenomenon, and therefore effective over a much shorter timescale (by the same token, the gay identity is clearly a memetic construct, which seems to have been somewhat effective against homophobia on the scale of 20-30 years). The fact that homophobia has been a recurring memetic strategy for a few centuries in no way undermines the suggestion that human homosexuality may have conferred evolutionary benefits on the order of thousands to millions of years -- and indeed may still be doing so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 01/20/2004 12:32:33 AM (Um, make that 30-40 years. I've never quite got to grips with the fact that it's no still the early 1990s...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben Hammersley EMAIL: ben@benhammersley.com IP: 80.180.157.35 URL: http://www.benhammersley.com DATE: 01/20/2004 12:48:45 AM I'll second what Matt and Scott have said. You must not confuse long-term, seriously long-term, evolutionary processes with relatively recent, relatively localised, cultural developments. Indeed, for that matter, neither should relatively juvenile cultures, such as Pauline Christianity, or fetal cultures like post-Victorian sexual repression, be taken as meaningful developments. It's far too early to make that call. Of course, that's all utterly useless if you're having to deal with with people's beliefs today, but still. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.165.80 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/20/2004 12:50:12 AM To MacDara - actually I think I'm more at risk of making that assumption than Joan Roughgarden is. Her specific argument (probably poorly represented by me) is that sexuality has a wide variety of uses that aren't related exclusively to the immediate creation of offspring. On the other hand, it does still kind of come down to reproductive success in the end though - I think that's inevitable when you're talking in terms of the survival of a gene that seems superficially to be directly counter to helping that genome survive. To scott - I think you can probably tell by my last couple of paragraphs that I can see ways in which you could back up the position that homophobia in the homosocial could be a result of precisely those feelings that Joan would posit exist - so I don't think I would call my comments a refutation, more of an expression of doubt or suspicion that - at the very least - indicate that there's clearly a few nuances of the argument that are missing from the article. To matt - can you actually think of any ways in which at the local level of the individual, homosexual behaviour is likely to have been advantagous to them having children and hence spreading the gene further? Because all the examples I can think of end up saying that certain mixes of gay-related genes could perhaps afford advantages to individuals, but that at the end of the day those people who are "just, y'know, gay" are simply much less likely to have children. That's got to be a problem for that kind of theory, surely? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.165.80 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/20/2004 12:53:25 AM Ben - and yet the problem remains - can you imagine a context in which a man who felt himself to experience limited or no heteroerotic desire could be seen as having a reproductive advantage? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 01/20/2004 02:07:02 AM Well, lots of women seem to be attracted to gay men, and I know a fair number of gay fathers, including my own. But that's purely anecdotal, and on such a short term as to be evolutionarily irrelevant. On the other hand, the notion of a separate, exclusively-gay identity is such a recent invention that it has to be similarly negligible. Even if we accept it as a wholly-genetic effect that does indeed limit the individual's reproductive potential, there remains the argument you yourself cite: of homosexual behaviour somehow conferring an advantage on heterosexual siblings who still carry (at least part of) the gene, either by increasing their chances of reproducing ("have sex with me because my brother is *fabulous*") or increasing their offspring's chance of survival (eg, by altruistic intervention as a doting uncle). Genetic reproduction is certainly at some level a matter of brutal chemistry, but in the context of social animals there is a lot more going on than that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 01/20/2004 02:17:08 AM And another thing... (god, I seem to be in blathering mode tonight) One could argue that homophobia is a pretty strong force for the propagation of a "gay gene" in that it encourages people who would naturally be predominantly homosexual to enter reproductive heterosexual relationships in order to hide their predilections. And since homophobia would be lost without homosexual targets, both tendencies could be seen as interdependent, almost symbiotic. (Ick, what a repulsive argument. I'll shut up now.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory Parle EMAIL: plasticbag@soylentred.net IP: 137.43.13.22 URL: http://www.soylentred.net/ DATE: 01/20/2004 12:09:17 PM It's important to note that genes do not determine action, but rather weight it. There is no gay gene in the sense that everyone with that gene is necessarily exclusively homosexual, though it seems widely accepted that there are genes that make homosexuality more likely. Perhaps there are simply genes (or lack of specific genes) that counter the tendency to be very much more strongly attracted to the opposite sex. This wouldn't in itself drastically affect a person's probability of reproducing, but would level the field for psychological or sociological influences to determine homo-, bi- or heterosexuality independent of genes. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rayne EMAIL: rayne_today@yahoo.com IP: 66.227.156.91 URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0001549 DATE: 01/20/2004 02:11:07 PM The most important bit: "Homosexuality has many uses, much as the ability to speak does." That homosexuality exists across species at a fairly constant rate suggests there's an inherent purpose for the perpetuation of each species. My own belief is that it is the ultimate fallback, the buffer against complete obliteration of a species. Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs and Steel' makes the point that most communicable fatal diseases run their course through a population, but stop shy at roughly 10% (correct me, it might be 6%). This percentage is fairly constant. Any heterosexually-transmitted pathogen would be defeating its own perpetuation to wipe out an entire genome upon which it is dependent; the buffer allows for a group with immunity to rebuild the genome. Under the stress of the loss of the rest of the non-homosexual members in a genome, homosexuals may modify behavior sufficient to allow reproduction and rebuilding of the genome. This is at genetic level. At memetic level, homosexuals may represent the perpetuation of culture, the operating system of the genomic hardware. For example, the mahu of Hawaiian culture were the keepers of the Hawaiian language and history; when Hawaiian culture was suppressed, the mahu kept the culture alive until it could be documented and restored to Hawaiian people. That homosexuality has other social purposes only ensures that a genome does not obliterate its fail-safe. There may be some rational for the extreme reaction (disgusting as it is) by a percentage of the hetero population; it keeps them at opposite ends of contact, reducing the chance that heteros infected (with pathogens or with aberrant memetic materials) do not harm the fail-safe. My personal guess is that there would be a correlation in population size -- roughly 10% of the population is rabidly anti-homosexual. Thanks for being our fail-safe, Tom...this begs another question: is blogging another method by which homosexuals can now "keep the culture"? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Backword Dave EMAIL: mcdave1962@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.32.7 URL: http://www.afterimages.co.uk/backword/ DATE: 01/21/2004 12:59:14 AM Tom, AFAIK, your instincts are right. I've long supported 'genetic homosexuality' because it both seems the simplest and most powerful explanation, and because it seems the most acceptable: if gays are gays because of their genes, attempts at cures are hopeless-- with much saving of misery. I'll have to buy the current issue, but, from what I've seen quoted, Joan Roughgarden doesn't understand the basics. If she meant "a fatal flaw in one of Darwin's central ideas," the woman is a fool--nothing she has said works as a flaw in Darwin. Evolution happens to populations, not individuals. (Anyway, Darwin is dead: if he had wrong ideas, so what? Gravity still pulls you down even if Newton never transmuted lead into gold.) Put crudely, individuals don't have "reproductive advantages"-- traits do. And I think you're very wrong about: "We're all familiar with this kind of experience - that the most common and most potent sources of anti-gay tirades are tightly-bound social groups of men." Well, who would you favour someone you had slept with or a stranger? You have to see that sexual relationships would make these kinds of organisations much less stable. There is also (and I don't think anyone has mentioned this so far) the 'spare uncle/aunt' theory -- a few fallback relatives if blood parents get killed by violence/disease/childbirth would also be useful, as would extra hands hunting etc. But to me, gay men (not all,obviously) seem to understand social behaviour and charm more than straights, and I'm not sure that large societies could survive without a few. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.165.80 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/21/2004 01:27:58 AM Does that latter point work equally well for lesbian women? Obviously there's no obvious reason for saying that the genetic advantages conferred by some measure of homosexuality are necessarily symmetrical, but I wonder how much of that understanding of male homosexuality is a myth that seems somehow less stable if brought alongside the complementary case. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alan J. F. EMAIL: luminus310@hotmail.com IP: 63.203.205.202 URL: http://luminus529.tripod.com/weblog/ DATE: 01/21/2004 02:29:14 AM It's likely that there is a proportion with a predisposition to homosexuality. It's possible that at a young age, there was a stimulus that triggered homosexuality. The function of homosexuality might have been a throwback to an ancient evolutionary time when a fish would be capable of changing sex in case there is an unequal proportion of male and female. The clownfish, from a recent issue of the TIME Magazine (USA edition), can change from a male to a female in the event that his mate and children have been killed. I heard in biology, though I might have misunderstood, that the vertebrates have four times more chromosomes than the closest non-vertebrates, the Echinodermata. This diversity allows the Chordates, which include human beings, to become larger than other animals. The size of dinosaurs, whales, and elephants should serve as an example. Of course, the giant squid could be the disproof, but I'll continue. This complex mass of genes allow us to grow in size, but also carry a risk that mutations will propogate and carry over long period of time, eventually resulting in a definition of attraction between same-sex individuals. It is possible that same sex attraction was not just a mutation, but an accumulation of mutations that eventually became entangled in the mass of DNA that we have, most of which are junk. In an environment with equal proportion of male and female, a competition for food and survival, and the fact that male can produce millions of sperm but female can produce only one baby in a lock step succession, it may be necessary for a male to aggressively take more than one mate, especially when he is more prepared for an hostile environment. Another thing to consider is that the culture involving homosexuality arises at the same time as heterosexuality. Therefore, the moment that people were able to communicate and make drawings on the wall, it was already very well-present in a tribal situation and accepted as a normal part of life. Only when the population increases that people isolated from such groups forms opinions about them that gradually become homophobia. When we recognize the possibility of same sex attraction, culture follows to integrate it, whether by ostracism or by giving them a superhuman adulation, as in the case of the Native Americans. Without such attraction, we would not even be talking about it and our entire society would be completely different. ----- PING: TITLE: Was Darwin Wrong About Homosexuality? URL: http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/000306.html IP: 63.247.72.82 BLOG NAME: the evangelical outpost DATE: 01/22/2004 12:25:19 AM Joan Roughgarden, a professor of biology at Stanford University, California, claims that “Darwin's theories are inherently flawed.” Was she convinced of Darwin’s error because of it’s circular logic? Perhaps, she realized that the t... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Bloggies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/20/2004 12:32:04 AM ----- BODY:

    So the nominations for the the Bloggies are now up and I would encourage everyone to go and explore some of the weblogs that have been short-listed. For good or ill, quite a lot of the old crew have ended up on the nominations again this year, with plasticbag.org surprising me a bit by being up for four categories. Evidently there's still a bit of life in the old blog yet. If you want to vote for it, then it's represented in the Best British or Irish and Best GLBT weblog categories and to my delight Weblogs and the Mass Amateurisation of Nearly Everything has a shot in the Best Article or Essay about Weblogs category (weirdly opposite Rebecca Blood's classic Weblogs, A History and Perspective which actually already won the award a couple of years ago).

    Now despite my reputation for being a complete kill-joy when it comes to weblog competitions, I actually have a bit of a soft-spot for the Bloggies. I'm not going to go into too much detail about why I like them (big argument here) but - in a nutshell - it's because they're part of the weblogging ecosystem and treat it with respect, they don't take themselves too seriously and most importantly, because they are open to everyone to participate in, vote in and nominate for. There's something nice - honourable, even - about nominating someone else for an award that they'd never put themselves in for but eminently deserve. And it's fun being able (at this stage) point to some of the new sites that I've discovered as a result of the nominations process and which I plan to read more often. So - from the nominations list - here are some sites (old and new) that have given me particular pleasure today:

    PS. When does the gay mudslinging start? Because that's the best bit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: The Bloggies... URL: http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/001222.html IP: 64.81.78.180 BLOG NAME: Teal Sunglasses DATE: 01/20/2004 06:39:48 AM the nominees for the Bloggies came out today. Plasticbag.org comments on it. I have similar thoughts. When it came out, I went to the site, not to vote, but to browse. And I found a bunch of fascinating new sites to explore -- and I was surprised at th... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A short video of snow in Norfolk... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/20/2004 01:12:28 AM ----- BODY:

    I've been meaning to get this up online for the last couple of weeks but keep getting distracted. While I was up in Norfolk for Christmas it started snowing insanely hard and I almost accidentally got about fifteen seconds of it on video. So for your total lack of interest, here's the view from my bedroom window as the snow comes down (.avi 3.9Mb). I find it strangely soothing.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: david EMAIL: davidmsc@davidmsc.com IP: 69.144.172.16 URL: http://www.davidmsc.com DATE: 01/20/2004 04:15:43 AM Beautiful shot/s. Snow truly is soothing & tranquil -- so quiet as it falls! Thanks for the pics -- and the wonderful Illustrated Spam (rooster/cats/heh). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 01/20/2004 06:24:02 AM That's lovely. One of the things I really love about weblog medium is its ability to show me little slices of lots of peoples' lives. I love that sort of thing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jameel EMAIL: jameel@recoil.org IP: 155.198.17.122 URL: http://jameel.recoil.org/ DATE: 01/20/2004 12:58:10 PM You may be interested to see http://jameel.recoil.org/snowing/ shot out of my old office window in South Kensington using a little l'espion keyring camera. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where all the best people work... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/20/2004 09:53:52 PM ----- BODY:

    From an entertaining post on an interesting Metafilter thread:

    The BBC is best when it's at its least domestic and condescending: its radio and web output is better than its TV news (BBC World excepted) and the World Service is best of all. There's a reason why people who work at Bush House feel superior: they are superior.

    For the record, I work at Broadcasting House, which is kind of like the BBC's version of the Lost City of Atlantis.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@consumedmag.org IP: 195.137.47.187 URL: http://www.consumedmag.org DATE: 01/20/2004 10:28:46 PM How are the folks at Centre House supposed to feel, I wonder? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.198.74 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 01/20/2004 10:49:59 PM I was going to continue that thread by wondering about the people at Threshold House, but then I remember that I work, most of the time, in the Steel Grey Temple Of Doom. Anyway, Bush House must be good. Which is why it's going in a few years, isn't it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ruggart EMAIL: packacards@juno.com IP: 66.217.79.119 URL: DATE: 01/21/2004 12:53:02 AM The ten writing comandmants wore me out to where I could hear Jennifer Eagan's wince while my ass cheeks grew fat enough to squish her against the back of my legs without anyone being there to look at her. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@bods.me.uk IP: 132.185.240.14 URL: http://www.bods.me.uk/ DATE: 01/21/2004 09:46:22 AM Hurray! I'm superior! But alas we're so good, the BBC has taken the decision to dismantle us so we can spread our fantasticness across White City and Broadcasting House - both of which will grow enourmously under our guiding influence. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.12 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 01/21/2004 03:52:09 PM I couldn't agree less. "And Nation shall speak peace unto Nation". The BBC was founded by a Scotsman under the principles of reflecting the social composition of the United Kingdom. It is at its best when the nations work together. Keep watching the skies - you're living through the final days of a London-centric BBC. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On parody search engines... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/21/2004 09:27:18 AM ----- BODY:

    Compare and contrast: (1) Me making a funny at Google's expense a couple of years ago: Google Pornfinder and (2) The site recently launched to help the world find porn (as reported in this Boing Boing entry): Booble. What next? Should I expect someone to genetically engineer Fifty-foot cat-killing laser-eyed chickens?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: x is for... URL: http://www.dfunkd.com/dramaqueen/archives/000492.html IP: 207.44.164.11 BLOG NAME: DramaQueen DATE: 01/22/2004 10:25:23 AM ...well... not much really! So rather than exercising my brain (like Kate managed to do to fantastic effect), I am going to bend the rules and use words with 'x' in them. Yes, I know john o, I'm a big... ----- PING: TITLE: x is for... URL: http://www.dfunkd.com/dramaqueen/archives/000492.html IP: 207.44.164.11 BLOG NAME: DramaQueen DATE: 01/22/2004 10:25:35 AM ...well... not much really! So rather than exercising my brain (like Kate managed to do to fantastic effect), I am going to bend the rules and use words with 'x' in them. Yes, I know john o, I'm a big... ----- PING: TITLE: And just like that...Booble no more URL: http://www.inthefaith.com/blog/archives/000882.php IP: 66.33.213.19 BLOG NAME: The Chronicle of Anthony K. Valley DATE: 01/24/2004 04:57:51 AM You know, sometimes it is just scary, how predictable the internet can be. We all knew that Google would crack down on nuisance that was Booble, the inappropriately named vaporware (because it disappeared as fast as it came online) that... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Wonkette and the rest of Gawker media... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Business CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 01/24/2004 06:36:48 PM ----- BODY:

    So Nick Denton's Gawker media has released its latest offspring into the world, and so far (particularly after the enormous success of fleshbot) it doesn't look like much of a contender. Wonkette has been described as Gawker for DC (by Glenn Reynolds, no less), but so far she's evidenced little of the ready wit and weblog-savvy of that rather superior organ's array of editorial talent. Wonkette's Ana Marie Cox writes like a weblog-naif - she's overly fascinated by the speed of the publishing and the novelty of not having an editor (and too involved in the immediacy of her voice over the quality of the material she's referencing) to make the site a really compelling read. I've no doubt all this will change of course - the novelty of writing for a weblog can fade over time. But in the meantime: For God's sake, calm down before you do yourself a mischief!

    Gawker media is in my mind a lot at the moment, for a whole range of reasons. First and foremost, I've got a paper that I should be writing for an upcoming conference on e-publishing at the London Book Fair. Specifically, I've been thinking about writing about Nick's model of nanopublishing and the way in which these small ventures can create grass-roots, highly-targetted brands - brands which could be floated off into larger ventures, used as branded chunks (syndicated columns perhaps) within larger publications or simply used to colonise the brain-space of people who feel disenfranchised by the large and inhuman face of large-scale media. In particular I want to talk about that alternative model of online publishing - in which large teams of individuals are brought in to run online presences / support sites for commercial magazines or other large media presences at tremendous expense - expense which evidently might simply not be necessary.

    But of course the problem with Nick's nano-publishing model (and he problem with my proposed paean to it) is that it doesn't really seem to make anyone that much money and that perhaps as a direct consequence, no one else seems to want to do it. I mean, short of business ignorance (which we shouldn't dismiss as a likely proposition) what other reasons could there be for the lack of competition to Gawker Media? I mean, it's established a model that's far from hard to replicate if you have a little money lying around and a certain amount of savvy. And it's even generated a core concept (local savvy correspondents filtering and condensing the regional media down to thick paste that is as much about myth-making the place as it is purporting to give back-stage access into what's really going on) that's eminently replicable to every decent-sized on the planet. I mean, we can all imagine a London equivalent, a Tokyo equivalent or a Sydney equivalent - we can all see the possibilities in a version of this model for Rome, Paris, Edinburgh and Barcelona. Which leads me to wonder - where are they?

    I have my theories, of course. Do you have any?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 64.105.72.155 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 01/24/2004 07:04:04 PM Daily Candy sold for $4 million a couple months back, so that's pretty solid evidence that someone is making money off the micropublishing model. Suspect that Flavorpill is making good cash too. Two key factors to both of them, they publish as email lists first, but archive on the web, and they both have dedicated sales teams. Basically if you want to make cash with micropublishing you need to be able to convince advertisers to pay significantly more then standard web ad prices. Convince them that this is branding advertising, not convert directly to sales advertising. Not easy, but doable give how much lower the costs are compared to print publishing. Not exactly sure is Denton has figured out how to do any of this though... Finally worth noting that Ana Marie Cox is a better blogger then the Wonkette debut would let on see http://www.theanticmuse.com/ for reference. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.200.68 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/24/2004 07:14:23 PM Thanks for that - it's much appreciated. I'm particularly interested in Ana Marie's personal site. Reading back, my inherent pre-lunch grumpiness may have manifested itself a little too aggressively and I kind of wish I'd rephrased that first paragraph a bit before posting it. I'll consider dropping the bitch-level on it a bit later (obviously I'll flag that in the quotes if I do so though). The market in online mailing lists is pretty evident - both at the professional level and at the gossip / entertainment level (Popbitch being a prime example here I would have thought), although the specific examples you cite aren't ones I'm that familiar with (so thanks again). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick Denton EMAIL: nick@gawker.com IP: 66.65.187.163 URL: http://www.nickdenton.org DATE: 01/24/2004 10:19:48 PM An interesting discussion. I'm surprised too that there haven't been more organized efforts to create low-cost niche web media. There's Calacanis, and some of the pre-blogs, like Flavorpill and Daily Candy. You put your finger on one reason: there really isn't all that much money yet. The readership of these sites may be growing rapidly, but they're still tiddlers. You can go for a high-intensity ad sales approach: deep integration of a sponsor's creative, events, advertorial content creation, dedicated mailings. But that's expensive -- your sales costs would be a multiple of editorial expenses -- and risks alienating the audience over the long term. It seems a shame, with a low-cost model for editorial, production and marketing, to revert to high-touch ad sales. And some of the techniques -- Daily Candy's dedicated mailings on behalf of advertisers -- risk alienating the audience. I'd rather make half the revenues, through Google, self-service, and inbound -- and keep the organization lean. Outbound ad sales can come later, when the size of the audience justifies it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 64.105.72.155 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 01/25/2004 07:22:26 AM I can definitely sympathize with your position Nick, I took a brief look at all these economics before deciding it wasn't worth the energy output at the moment. But at the same time someone needs to be out there unlocking huge pricing differential between online and print/broadcast advertising. Once advertisers start looking at online ads as a branding space, then its going to open a lot of doors to a lot of publishers. Little mystified by the audience size issue though. Sure no blog is getting People/Vanity Fair sized numbers. But compared to trade magazines? From what I understand the big political blogs actually have larger audiences then most political magazines. Think DailyKos is tipping in at 80k unique visitors a day, which is more then the monthly readers of Ms Cox's ex-employer. Its not about getting the audience now, its about turning it into ad sales... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Neil McIntosh EMAIL: neil.mcintosh@guardian.co.uk IP: 81.133.35.74 URL: http://www.onlineblog.com DATE: 01/25/2004 12:06:18 PM Interesting post and discussion. To answer your main question, Tom - "where are they?" - I think some potential entrants look only at the profit/loss sheet and see that, in many cases, it's going to be hard to make a case for spending the time and effort a good weblog requires. In terms of bringing this concept to other cities, I'd much rather be creating a weblog in just about any decent-sized American city ahead of Edinburgh, or even London, as the size of the US market transforms everything, and makes the marginal case... well, a little less marginal. But you hit the nail on the head when you write about "grass-roots, highly-targetted brands", and there remains a lot of potential for established media brands, and big-name/expert individuals, to take the nanopublishing model and do something useful. The profit/loss account case may still be tight, but the P&L doesn't record all assets. Enhanced reputation or a lower cost of sale for the core product (consultancy or writing, for instance) could be the main, but intangible, benefit a nanopublishing site could bring. Finally, I don't agree this is an established model: blogging, especially in the UK, is in its infancy, and is still regarded as very geeky. Many of the people you'd be hoping might break new ground in this area are, in fact, still blissfully unaware; of the model, of the technology, of the emerging form of journalism that supports it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TS EMAIL: tim@shey.net IP: 138.88.168.126 URL: http://shey.net DATE: 01/28/2004 03:41:30 AM I'm particularly interested in how Nick's model will fare here in D.C. Amazing that I hear of Wonkette from Tom's UK-based site, rather than through all the people I know here with their political and net media connections, but which may illustrate some of the trouble of building an audience here. For one thing, news doesn't spread too fast here in D.C., even among the reasonably well-linked. The other thing that gives me pause: unlike New Yorkers, we live in a city that possibly becomes less fascinating the more you hear about it, so I'm not hopeful that outside readers like you, Tom, would regularly follow Wonkette, and while Gawker could do with content of interest mainly to locals in a city of, what is it, 14 million, the D.C. area's around 3 million people, and many of them never set foot inside the District, identifying more with Dulles or wherever their house and job is. Wonkette's at least got the benefit of election-year news to log now, but even most of that is getting generated outside D.C. (our own primary was a bit of an embarrassment). But really, how much of us even here in D.C. can get excited about posts about a Supreme Court Justice seen eating at 2941 (a place that most New Yorkers would not find "glamorous"), or a link to an article from the unfortunately-named GW school paper, The Hatchet ? A little more scandalous content (Wonkette could use some better-placed stringers, it looks like), and maybe some more appearances of Clooney at The Palm (no luck there - "K Street" is cancelled) would probably help the site quite a bit. A couple of us D.C.-area bloggers had fooled around with a D.C.-based Gawker parody last year (called "Gvwrker" - may still have the masthead graphic around somewhere), if only to point out how dull D.C. can be (sample post: "Saw Tony Williams and his wife dining at Cashion's during Orange alert. They were sitting outside, no security in sight. Guess we're safe."). At the same time, our small city does have a healthy, 100% ad-supported weekly independent paper, a well-distributed (if stiff) monthly glossy, and a number of local papers for communities like the Hill, the club scene, and the Northwest, so perhaps the ad money's there for a tightly-run, daily site, if they can find enough interesting content to make it work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anon EMAIL: anon@ymous.com IP: 63.241.202.6 URL: DATE: 01/28/2004 06:47:53 PM With the amount of money Denton is pouring into plugging the worthless Wonkette, the page should have ten times the traffic it does. Some of us put up similar numbers without full color banner links from Instapundit and feature pieces in the Boston Globe. Perhaps he should have focused on hiring someone a little less poltically-correct, and a little more professionaly qualified if he wanted a writer who had a ghost of a chance in DC? "Snarky"? Uh, I would go with "laughable". 20 year-old staff assistants have more political connections and savvy than Ana Marie Cox. Six months. ----- PING: TITLE: denton hits d.c. URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000298.html IP: 129.41.37.15 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 01/28/2004 04:05:31 AM No reason it can't work. ----- PING: TITLE: denton hits d.c. URL: http://shey.net/mt/archives/000301.html IP: 129.41.37.15 BLOG NAME: shey.net/ DATE: 01/28/2004 04:09:58 PM no reason it can't work -- except d.c. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On fires, string quartets and the new politics of online communities... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 01/24/2004 07:09:39 PM ----- BODY:

    In the Guardian article Four's a crowd, cellist David Waterman talks about how to keep a string quartet together over many years without the interpersonal relationships forcing the group apart. I love articles like this - articles that don't seem to have an overt relationship to how we build social software but nonetheless remind us of core lessons about the nature of groups. Lesson one: the thing that keeps groups together can be a mutual passion, but a mutual activity will bring them together even more strongly. Lesson two: that intensively creative groups seem to be necessarily relatively small. And that's because - lesson three - there will always be tensions and forces within groups that will try to push them apart from one another. And here's where social software comes in to the fore - because lesson four is that those tensions can almost always be ameliorated or even totally removed by the careful implementation of mechanisms that institute some form of process, some kind of system - or even some kind of politics. That's how we can operate in a macro-social way, because we have instituted a system / structure within which we all operate.

    If we're looking for more evidence about the importance of structures and systems then perhaps we should look at what happens when some of those structures break down. A recent Wired article provides the perfect example. Imagine an office during a fire - it's the kind of environment where the normal civil strategies of co-operation between individuals can disintegrate. And the consequence is that everyone suffers - like an enormous ultra-paranoid version of the Prisoner's dilemma. And when that break occurs, when there is no hope that the individuals concerned will take the hopeful collaborative approach, how do we stop them destroying themselves? In the article, they try to mitigate the effects of this collapse of collaboration by abstracting the problems out from a rule space into a physical one. They remake the building so that these sudden collapses in the social rulespace change the context from one in which bad behaviour results in death to one in which it doesn't.

    All of this stuff has an enormous impact on the way we should be building our online social spaces - from helping us determine how such spaces should support and compensate for human social failings (on the one extreme), all the way through to finding ways of abstracting inter-human rules for exchange and behaviour, power and reputation into organic and evolving rule-sets and meta-rule-sets that can be encoded into software and built into the very structure of our online environments. A lot of the work we put into the first version of Barbelith is based specifically around these simple concepts - creating a space with an evolving, abstracted political structure that translates inter-human process into code, with the aspiration of generating an oligarchic political economy rather than a despotic one (metafilter) that requires strong consistent leadership or a capitalist one (slashdot) that can be gamed or unbalanced. The aspiration was to - in the process - find a different model in which an online community might be able to act decisively with fast intra-group policy-making and enacting structures. The eventual aspiration - a model that goes beyond oligarchic rule into democratic or even fully anarchic / distributed rule - a model that can create communities that can operate with the absolute minimum of external or top-down management and in which the 'citizens' are able to self-determine and self-enforce the rough structures of their own rule-making.

    I was hoping to be able to get some of this together for a participant session at ETCon, but I don't think that's looking practical any more, so I think finally maybe it's just best if I start pumping it out into the open and hope someone finds it as interesting as I do...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.rit.edu IP: 24.24.39.209 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 01/24/2004 07:13:05 PM Well, I find it very interesting, for what that's worth. Whether I have much of value to add is another issue entirely, but I'm going to mull a bit over what you've posted. And why *not* make it a participant session? It could be posed as an open-ended discussion, rather than a full-fledged presentation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andreas EMAIL: andikeller@gmx.net IP: 217.2.53.56 URL: DATE: 01/26/2004 01:28:49 PM Could we build a democratic state on these principles? Self-organizing cells rather than top-down administration? Sound thrilling to me.. ----- PING: TITLE: Bringing politics into online communities... URL: http://www.everythinginmoderation.org/2004/01/bringing_politics_into_online_communities.shtml IP: 216.92.201.51 BLOG NAME: Everything In Moderation DATE: 01/27/2004 09:58:22 PM I should start off with a round of apologies. It has now been well over a full month since I last posted to Everything in Moderation. This is far from my initial aspirations for the site and hopefully I'll be... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A million tiny points of light? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/24/2004 08:30:26 PM ----- BODY:

    From an entry on Barlowfriendz about the death of Spalding Grey comes this paragraph:

    "Among the beliefs that he and I shared was a conviction that making public the intimately personal is a revolutionary act in an atomized society where many feel compelled to play so close to the chest that they can't read their own cards. Being emotionally naked before strangers extends to them a permission for self-revelation they badly need if they are to loosen the shackles of their own quiet desperations. It is a blow against the pursuit of loneliness.

    I don't care whether or not I sound like some kind of self-indulgent old hippy, but to me this reads like a profound manifesto for weblogging - in which every single post is a tiny act of revolution, a sputtering light that draws others closer for warmth and companionship.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Permission to self-reveal, sir? URL: http://prolific.org/archive/quicklinks/2004/01/index.shtml#013678 IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: quicklinks DATE: 01/24/2004 09:30:21 PM "Being emotionally naked before strangers extends to them a permission for self-revelation they badly need if they are to loosen the shackles of their own quiet desperations." A friend of author Spalding Grey (missing and presumed dead) has written som... ----- PING: TITLE: Permission to self-reveal, sir? URL: http://prolific.org/archive/2004/01/24/permission_to_selfreveal_sir.html IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org DATE: 01/24/2004 09:47:49 PM "Among the beliefs that he and I shared was a conviction that making public the intimately personal is a revolutionary... ----- PING: TITLE: I Worry URL: http://kasei.us/archives/2004/02/23/worry IP: 38.118.152.153 BLOG NAME: Life on Mars DATE: 02/24/2004 07:43:19 AM I worry that my private self is still private, and that I retreat into the comfort of using this medium solely for technical ramblings. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Save me from the blood mists... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/24/2004 09:21:51 PM ----- BODY:

    I swear, if someone doesn't put a bloody save-state function into a browser with tab-functionality in it soon I'm going to snap and murder everyone around me. Even Safari - probably the most stable browser I've ever used - still crashes every eight or nine days or so, taking with it about forty or fifty open tabs full of carefully filtered, "I really must talk about that at some point" potential weblog content. Now I know I should be impressed that I basically never have to restart my laptop (current uptime according to Terminal is 5 days and 22 hours since I last shut down) and goddamit I am but allowing me to build up a massive amount of stuff in my browser over such a long period of time and then not giving me simple ways of grabbing all the stuff I have open and putting it somewhere safe - well it's just nuts. So please, please Apple/God, will someone please do something about this!? Before the blood mists start?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zlog EMAIL: plasticbag@zlog.co.uk IP: 62.252.224.8 URL: http://zlog.co.uk/ DATE: 01/24/2004 09:46:11 PM I second that. Mostly related: I had to re-map 'cmd + q' ( quit Safari ) to 'cmd + shift + q' because I always seemed to hit it by accident whilst closing tabs ( 'cmd + w' ). This happens so much you would think people would have complained about it, but no, it appears not. Hyatt take notice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Daeley EMAIL: robert@celsius1414.com IP: 4.47.28.150 URL: http://www.celsius1414.com/ DATE: 01/24/2004 09:53:02 PM I just create a "tmp" folder in the Bookmarks Bar and either drag stuff there or hit command-D. Sometimes I'll have other folders beneath that (Read, Food, Listen, etc.). Much safer. I mean, what program do we expect to rescue us post-crash when we keep what amount to 40 or 50 unsaved documents open? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justn Blanton EMAIL: justin@justinblanton.com IP: 24.6.189.115 URL: http://justinblanton.com DATE: 01/24/2004 10:24:56 PM I know exactly what you are talking about! I've actually written about this for years. Opera was the first to add this capability (years ago!) and not a single browser has followed suit since. Yes, there are plug-ins and extensions, but no other browser does this natively. I don't get it. I've had to drop Safari after it crashed one too many times and move to Firebird with the Tabbrowser Extensions. This worked great for a while, but now, after installing the latest versions of the browser and the extension, it absolutely will not restore my tab session -- I've tried everything. At the momment, I'm using the Session Saver extension, which works quite well but requires you to manually close the browser to save your tabs, which makes absolutely no sense. So, if I feel like Firebird is about to crash, I have to shut it down so that Session Saver will remember my tabs. I wrote the author of the extension the other day and asked if he could put in the ability to have it save the tabs every time a new one is opened/closed; he said that someone else is taking over the project and will probably be adding that functionality, though he doesn't know when it will be completed. I feel your pain Tom, I really do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bongoman EMAIL: foo@bar.com IP: 203.51.64.249 URL: DATE: 01/24/2004 10:28:51 PM There seems to be an applescript workaround: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030913153245341 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: a@hey.com IP: 65.120.138.100 URL: http://www.heyotwell.com/heyblog/ DATE: 01/24/2004 10:52:12 PM zlog, the Cmd-Q and Cmd-W keyboard shortcuts are the same in many Mac apps and even in Windows apps; they're so fundamental it's hard to imagine changing those. As many curmudgeonly UI designers (Raskin, Tog, Cooper etc.) have argued, there's no reason that *every* app can't save its state information invisibly and constantly. Clearly there are processer cycles by the zillion to spare, and saving the tab state, browser history, window size and position, even information typed in form fields is a trivially small amount of data. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zlog EMAIL: plasticbag@zlog.co.uk IP: 62.252.224.8 URL: http://zlog.co.uk/ DATE: 01/24/2004 11:30:56 PM Andrew: I know, I know. I never (repeat never) use it on purpose though so what else was I to do? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: martin@copydesk.co.yj IP: 81.132.207.109 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 01/24/2004 11:36:55 PM Call me stupid, but isn't that what bookmarks are for? Better still, why not just set up a "I really must talk about that at some point" linklog? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bjorn EMAIL: bjornrl@yahoo.com IP: 162.83.213.41 URL: http://www.babybjorn.com DATE: 01/25/2004 02:56:05 AM www.avantbrowser.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow EMAIL: doctorow@craphound.com IP: 216.126.84.58 URL: http://craphound.com DATE: 01/25/2004 08:17:50 AM Dude, Moz does this in spades. Bookmarks -> File This Group of Tabs... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.201.159 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/weblog DATE: 01/25/2004 10:38:05 AM It's like Justin says: Opera has had save tab state functionality for yonks. In fact I think the only thing Opera doesn't righteously kill the opposition on is bookmark implementation, which is a bit rubbish to be honest. But I love it anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Orin EMAIL: orin@twjc.co.uk IP: 80.189.21.237 URL: http://www.twjc.co.uk/ DATE: 01/25/2004 11:02:36 AM I believe Opera 7 (affectionally known as macopera) for the mac when it finally comes out will be well worthy of your consideration. If you crash, just load up again & it asks do you want to continue from last time? This guy is one of the Opera developers & gives away a few snippets of info: http://my.opera.com/Junyor/journal ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.200.68 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 01/25/2004 11:21:52 AM Now if only they'll implement it in Safari. Thanks for the information, guys. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Insam EMAIL: tom@jerakeen.org IP: 82.133.104.28 URL: http://jerakeen.org DATE: 01/25/2004 01:37:43 PM I use pith to solve this. It'll save the state of the currently open windows, and can magically restore it when you restart safari. http://www.blacktree.com/apps/index.html?pith/index.html. Alas, it won't do tabs, because there's no Applescript support for them. Stupid stupid stupid. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Raena Armitage EMAIL: raena@raena.net IP: 203.20.58.1 URL: http://blog.raena.net DATE: 01/25/2004 02:46:21 PM 'Dude, Moz does this in spades. Bookmarks -> File This Group of Tabs...' In safari for now, you can just drag the URLs into a folder in your Bookmarks Bar. You can then open that collection of bookmarks as tabs. No word as to you can't bloody save a collection of tabs as bookmarks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 81.129.54.202 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 01/25/2004 04:09:57 PM Incredibly annoying, isn't it? The AppleScript solution pointed to above works great for me, though - I just had to get into the habit of running the script every so often - it sits in the script menu, so it's no hassle. I suppose Safari is a victim of it's own fabulousness here - as you say, having a browser that you can leave open for days on end is a new thing, and encourages ways of working that the developers maybe didn't anticipate. You'd think automatic save state on quit would be standard in all applications, though, really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 01/25/2004 07:55:16 PM The forthcoming OmniWeb 5 will do something like this--it has a notion of saveable "workspaces." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.237.71 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 01/25/2004 09:19:22 PM It's annoying that you can't bookmark groups of tabs in Safari like you can with Camino, but the Applescripts that bongoman has provided a link to have been working fine for me for a couple of weeks. I'm personally more peeved by the proprietary format Safari uses to store its bookmarks - why can't they use XML like Camino does? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 01/26/2004 03:00:35 AM An elegant, at least partial solution to this problem would be the simple "not saved" state. If you have more than one tab opened in a window, the close widget would show a dot in the center, like text editors do. Then if you tried to close the window, either by the actual close widget or Apple-W, or quitting, it would ask for confirmation, with the option to save your current state. This would of course be a behavior you could turn off (off by default probably), and also could make automatic for Quitting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Johan Adler EMAIL: alltid@nyfiken.org IP: 192.44.243.18 URL: http://nyfiken.org/ DATE: 01/26/2004 01:17:41 PM I don't know about Mac, but under Windows and linux Opera does just what you want. If it crashes it will give you the option of reopening all tabs that were there at the crash. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: nick@nedrichards.com IP: 80.3.0.42 URL: http://www.nedrichards.com DATE: 01/26/2004 03:43:36 PM Firebird now has Session Saver v2 which does all you want and a little bit more. Snaffle version 0.8 when it comes out in a week or so (or a current nightly) and give it a whirl, it's clever. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: daniel harvey EMAIL: dan@rga.com IP: 4.43.250.191 URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~dancharvey/blog.html DATE: 01/27/2004 02:48:28 AM Latest version of netscape has a "save this tab set" function as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gabriel Radic EMAIL: gabrielradic@timbru.com IP: 80.65.224.34 URL: http://www.timbru.com DATE: 01/28/2004 01:43:39 PM Grab the new WebKit powered OmniWeb 5, it can do this and more. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/5/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 146.227.1.9 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk DATE: 01/28/2004 05:21:45 PM Argh! The pain, the pain! It burns when that happens. Fortunately Camino offers a "Bookmark All Tabs" option. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: simon@simonwheatley.co.uk IP: 82.33.203.20 URL: http://www.simonwheatley.co.uk DATE: 02/03/2004 06:39:28 PM Apparently OmniWeb for OsX does this, see: http://daringfireball.net/2004/02/omniweb_5_public_beta ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: FREAK vs. EARLY ADOPTER STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/24/2004 11:39:59 PM ----- BODY:

    Which - anyway - brings me to the second point of this post. Whenever you work in a creative industry and you care about the kind of things that you're making (whether it be buildings, chairs, websites, clothes, political decisions, business propositions) then there is a danger that your insider knowledge and hardcore interests can overwhelm your sense of the people that you're building for. Almost routinely you have to second-guess your own choices and strategies to try and make sure that you're not wandering too far up an ivory tower of your own creation. You have to reality-check occasionally and make sure that other people will understand what you're trying to accomplish.

    Now in my experience, the standard response to this kind of sensation (when people feel the need to make sure they're being open) is to instutionalise their own disconnection from their work and to start stating openly insane things like "we're not building these things for us". This is the point at which people disavow their own expertise and experience and revert back to decision-making on the basis of pure testing, obsessive collation of statistical evidence and the following by-the-letter rather than by-the-spirit of usability guidelines. For the most part, the organisations that tend to do this kind of thing have an awful lot of money available to them, produce plodding products and take a long time to do so. What should be evidence to assimilate and judge with becomes dogma and a way of avoiding taking creative responsibility for a finished product. Unless you can afford to do it properly and you have some people who are actually capable of maintaining intellectual and creative leadership through the whole process, then this kind of activity can end up being counter-productive.

    Of course there's another extreme. If the 'we're not building it for us' mentality regards those of us who make and design and build and love the web as 'freaks' who have no relationship to actual humanity, the other angle is to treat all creatives as 'early adopters' - after whom the rest of humanity will blindly trot - albeit a couple of years behind. Now this approach is responsible for some of the most apocalyptically bland and / or extreme products ever-produced and a direct consequence of narrow views and self-reflexive viewpoints wrapping around upon one another. This gives us personal computers designed by engineers, spreadsheet programs that are terrible for organising your finances, computers shaped like cubes that cost a fortune and things like the Sinclair C5. On the other hand, of course, this model of creative work can work terribly well - in aesthetic realms, some trends will work and take off and others will not and it'll all be to do with creative foresight, rather than any issues of pragmatism. High-fashion designers are a prime example here.

    I don't think there's any form of media or entertainment that's more conservative than rock or pop music

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On technology and song lyrics... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/24/2004 11:47:47 PM ----- BODY:

    I love it when technology creeps from innovation to ubiquity. Or - more to the point - I love that very first set of transitions, when you're watching a movie or a TV show and suddenly for the first time they're actually using e-mail or talking about Googling someone. In analysing the sensation, I keep coming back to a mingling of a few different experiences - one is of a private world becoming public, one is of elation and approval and one is (weirdly) a sensation of vindication (even if the technology has been around for years). I suppose there's something profoundly reassuring about seeing your strange habits and vocabulary represented to the world as being totally normal - exotic or cool even - particularly when it's done in a form that hundreds of thousands of people might encounter. Maybe it's a bit like being accepted at school or something.

    Here's an example of one of those moments, from a medium (rock song lyrics) that isn't exactly known for its take-up and referencing of breaking technologies:

    My phone's on vibrate for you
    Electroclash is karaoke too
    I try to dance, Britney Spears
    I guess I'm getting on in years

    My phone's on vibrate for you
    God knows what all these new drugs do
    I guess to have no more fears
    But still I always end up in tears

    My phone's on vibrate for you
    But still I never ever feel from you
    Pinocchio's now a boy
    Who wants to turn back into a toy

    So call me
    Call me in the morning
    Call me in the night
    So call me
    Call me anytime you like

    My phone's on vibrate for you
    For you [Vibrate by Rufus Wainwright]
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: james@chachacha.co.uk IP: 82.69.38.165 URL: http://www.chachacha.co.uk DATE: 01/25/2004 12:42:04 AM That's nothing. Jay of hiphopmusic.com has recorded the world's first 'blog dis' as an mp3. Which is, like, weblogs and mp3s and 'disses' all rolled up into one. I suppose that's hip hop for you, though - always quick on the uptake. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 64.105.73.127 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 01/25/2004 05:40:46 PM Favorite is Ginuwine's homage to the two way pager, with the added bonus a beat built out of two way ring tones... From all the way back in 2001 and its already an homage to a dead technology. Final note, for all the European's who think that American's don't text, two ways where a popular technology that did nothing but "text". American's text just fine, just not with their cell phones. Ginuwine, "2 Way" This is for all you who are connected with The two-way. Ya heard? It's a two-way street, it a two-way door It's a two-way life (Pick it up and two way me) It's a two-way sky it's a two-way tel It's a two-way life, pick it up girl and hit Me Girl it's so easy, it ain't as hard as you trying To make it seem All you gotta do is pick it up, compose a Message straight to me I won't hear your voice but all you thoughts, That's what I sure will se Go to and push them key, and tell me All of them freaky things (Now you got some choices to make, you got them colorful girl one, you got them black ones, platinum ones...well me?) I prefer that platinum thing, to go with all my platinum chains Plus it's hot to death I figure, plus I'm just That platinum nigga If it's dark light it up, put 'em up. Put 'em up If it's closed, flip it up, in the club, beam me Up I got mine on vibe, so if you get me, I'll feel you I'll call you back real quick, no lie better yet, I'll just reply Chorus I'll be within reach baby, I'll be right at your Beck and call Even if I'm with the fellas, or kickin it down at The mall Just type what you wanna say, go down to the send and hit it All your wants will be fulfilled, 'cause I'll get it In just a minute ( Yo , I want ya'll to know though, it ain't no lock on this joint So, if you not careful, you might get himmed up knawmean) I recommend if you play the game, don't think She won't do the same If you a playa know when to fold, the game is to be told, not to be sold If it's dark light it up, put 'em up. Put 'em up If it's closed, flip it up, in the club, beam me Up Now I got mine on loud, if you get at me I'll Hear you I reply back quick it's true, betta yet I'll just come to you ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 195.92.198.74 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 01/25/2004 08:26:28 PM I like Barcelona's 'I Have the Password to Your Shell Account', which you can download at Epitonic http://www.epitonic.com/artists/barcelona.html But I guess the kick of elation and vindication is greater when it's a more mainstream act. I liked Destiny's Child's mention of the internet in 'Survivor': "You know I'm not gon diss you on the internet, Cause my mama taught me better than that." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Philipp Lenssen EMAIL: blog@outer-court.com IP: 194.173.180.2 URL: http://blog.outer-court.com DATE: 01/26/2004 06:26:46 PM Momus in '97: "Axiom 1 for the world we've begun: Your reputation used to depend on What you concealed Now it depends on what you reveal The age of secretive mandarins who creep on heels of tact Is dead: we are all players now in the great game of fact instead So since you can't keep your cards to your chest I'd suggest you think a few moves ahead As one does when playing a game of chess Axiom 2 to make the world new: Paranoia's simply a word for seeing things as they are Act as you wish to be seen to act Or leave for some other star Somebody is prying through your files, probably Somebody's hand is in your tin of Netscape magic cookies But relax: If you're an interesting person Morally good in your acts You have nothing to fear from facts Axiom 3 for transparency: In the age of information the only way to hide facts Is with interpretations There is no way to stop the free exchange Of idle speculations In the days before communication Privacy meant staying at home Sitting in the dark with the curtains shut Unsure whether to answer the phone But these are different times, now the bottom line Is that everyone should prepare to be known Most of your friends will still like you fine" -- Momus: The Age of Information (from the 1997 album Ping Pong) http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2003_05_23_index.html#200334462 ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dan's iPod Projector... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/25/2004 02:52:35 PM ----- BODY:

    Dan Hill's idea for a profoundly useful iPod accessory - as explained in greater detail in his post iPods and the wireless - is rather cheekily presented below. I want one.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the benefits of competing audio formats... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Business CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/27/2004 10:52:12 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a fascinating clump of posts going around the place at the moment about the various DRM-based digital audio solutions that you can buy at the moment. The one that kicked stuff off initially was a post on The Sobleizer (A challenge for webloggers: handling organizational difficulties) which included a chunk of stuff about why it's best for people who are going to buy music files with DRM to buy them in Windows Media format. Here's the main chunk of the argument:

    When you hear DRM think "lockin." So, when you buy music off of Napster or Apple's iTunes, you're locked into the DRM systems that those applications decided on. Really you are choosing between two competing lockin schemes.

    But, not all lockin schemes are alike, I learned on Friday. First, there are two major systems. The first is Apple's AAC/Fairtunes based DRM. The second is Microsoft's WMA

    Let's say it's 2006. You have 500 songs you've bought on iTunes for your iPod. But, you are about to buy a car with a digital music player built into it. Oh, but wait, Apple doesn't make a system that plays its AAC format in a car stereo. So, now you can't buy a real digital music player in your car.

    (I should mention at this point that Scoble works for Microsoft, but I'll say straightaway that I don't think that's particularly relevant to the argument at hand. Nonetheless, cards on the table.)

    So the argument at this point is if you choose lock-in with Microsoft, then your music files will work on a wider variety of media than if you choose lock-in with Apple. Therefore you should choose lock-in with Microsoft. At which point BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow weighs in:

    In this world where we have consumer choices to make, Scoble argues that our best buy is to pick the lock-in company that will have the largest number of licensees.

    That's just about the worst choice you can make.

    If I'm going to protect my investment in digital music, my best choice is clearly to invest in buying music in a format that anyone can make a player for. I should buy films, not kinetoscopes. I should buy VHS, not Betamax. I should buy analog tape, not DAT.

    Because Scoble's right. If you buy Apple Music or if you buy Microsoft Music, you're screwed if you want to do something with that music that Apple or Microsoft doesn't like.

    Cory's argument then is the fairly commercially radical proposition that we should buy only open music files, that companies should sell open music files (there is a precedent here - Bleep sells DRM-free songs from Warp Records), and even that companies like Microsoft should be using their substantial legal power to fight the record companies to be able to sell DRM-free songs online.

    Now I'm not going to argue with that, although - to be fair - I think the current climate makes it pretty unlikely to happen. The various companies concerned are too neurotic about it, and frankly Microsoft has too much to lose from the proposition that intellectual property should be distributed without arcane DRM attached to it. Instead I'm going to argue that even if we're only given the choice between two DRM schemes, we should still not just automatically go for the one that plays on the most devices. Because what does this mean in the end? No more or less than yet another monopoly at the operating system level - the musical infrastructure ends up belonging to Microsoft.

    The fact is we shouldn't think in those terms at this stage. We should be trying to create miscegenated musical libraries that we expect digital music manufacturers to support all of, not just some as it suits them or as it suits whichever company ends up dominating the market. We've been down this parth before - the company that owns the monopoly has the least to gain from a rapid pace of innovation, the least to gain from being standards compliant. We've seen it at the level of operating systems, internet browsers and now we're seeing attempts to own and define the one successful format in which music files could sit for the next few decades. These things are too important to be left in the hands of one company. We need to have consumer choice at the level of which DRM (or lack of DRM) we're comfortable with buying, we need variety so that different types of audio file can be released via a variety of business models, we need variety - fundamentally - because otherwise we all lose.

    The examples that people cite about competing formats no longer hold true for music. It's not like VHS and Betamax - we're not talking about hardware with different sized slots that you can only fit one kind of music delivery system into. No - with music we mostly have applications on our desktop that can play dozens of different formats - whether we notice it or not. Just the other day, RealOne announced that it could now play Apple-encoded AAC files, and the rumour is that HP's deal with Apple required that the iPod should have its ability to play WMP files restored. These things can play more than one type of file and we should be doing our damnedest to make sure that continues to be the case. It should be obvious to car audio manufacturers that they should be able to play AAC tracks - that there are hundreds of thousands of people across America (and soon Europe) who are going to want to be able to do more things with their bought songs. And it should be obvious to all of us that we want a world in which new formats can be integrated into our listening without any particular effort, or at least without us having to rebuy all our old tracks to work on non-mutually functioning players.

    So in the meantime, buy, steal or rip whichever tracks suit you best in whatever format you want and make it your mission to put pressure on all the players (both business players and audio players) concerned to support as many of them as possible as soon as possible. And don't listen to anyone who says that having one organisation controlling the musical infrastructure will result in greater choice. That's never been the case in the past, and I very much doubt it will be so in the future either.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awfurby@hotmail.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 01/28/2004 03:58:03 AM A large part of the problem seems to stem from companies trying to become the "standard" - they still have this idea that if only they can get the 'first-mover advantage' everyone else will have to follow them and their technology (regardless of merit) will be the one that *everyone* has to design for. But it's totally bogus - Google wasn't the first search engine, but it still ended up as the best search engine and the technology that all the others are chasing. The idea that if you're first you can pluck fruit from the money tree forever is just stupid. Here's a tip - if you're working on something, make it open, let lots of people use it and there's a good chance it will still be used in the years to come. And you might even be able to get a viable business out of it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: gav EMAIL: gavin@dgen.net IP: 213.78.142.26 URL: http://www.dgen.net DATE: 01/28/2004 10:00:34 AM hmm, maybe we could the purchase of a CD as some form of license? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron EMAIL: as@hotmail.com IP: 82.35.66.26 URL: DATE: 01/28/2004 10:52:44 AM This is all very interesting.. but really, you'd be very foolish to invest any sustained amount of money in any compressed digital music format - with or without DRM. CDs are a wonderful thing - sure, they're only 16-bit, but they're uncompressed and unrestricted - and that's great for the consumer. The music industry is renowned for re-appraising its delivery mechanisms, and charging consumers all over again for material they already own. Who wouldn't want to buy the Beatles back catalogue on MP3 - who wouldn't want to replace it with a higher resolution version in five years, maybe with 5 channels of sounds - but you'll pay through the nose to do it. Long term, I think we'll see a shift towards a subscription based delivery service, where you get what you want when you want it via a wireless device (oh the licensing problems) - until that happens, people without never-ending pockets should stick to CD's or P2P. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 195.188.199.151 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 01/28/2004 03:11:20 PM In these times of cynical DRM lock-ins by the suits, let's hear it for Warp Records and their Bleep online record store containing Warp's entire back catalogue of electronica in affordable, high quality, DRM-free MP3 format. And read their FAQ for a thought-provoking reponse to DRM and the implication that all customers should be treated as potential criminals no matter what. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clue EMAIL: clues@shaw.ca IP: 68.146.189.151 URL: DATE: 01/29/2004 07:55:12 PM Who cares what this moron Gorog says. Both Microsoft and Real are whining like babies because they aren't getting their way and that it's unfair that they are losers. Well if you want into the game convince Apple to let you use their technology for your music site so you can be in the majority and have the best possible quality with the least restrictions and not be subjugated to Microsoft exploitation and inferior quality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dtoker@cox.net IP: 68.8.211.17 URL: DATE: 01/29/2004 10:35:35 PM This is all a strawman argument. Who cares what format wins? Every song I download from the iTunes store I burn to a CD which I can use in my car. Another thing - with the popularity of iPods and other players most auto manufacturers realize that putting an audio input jack on their radios to accomidate these devices will be a selling point for their cars. This is a non problem by a Microsloth rep trying to force WMP as a standard so they can get license $ from everyone to use it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mars EMAIL: mars@noneofyourbusiness.co.uk IP: 213.78.64.88 URL: DATE: 01/30/2004 08:55:50 PM I don't think we can call them 'DRM-based digital audio solutions' when they don't effectively work. I would also be inclined to boldly stipulate that they never will either. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark SPLINTER EMAIL: marky@splinterproducts.com IP: 80.2.160.141 URL: http://splinterdata.com/ DATE: 02/10/2004 02:21:19 PM DRM allows non-musicians to continue to make money from music. When musicians sell direct and accept that they are not going to be millionnaires, we might get somewhere. The difference between "commercial" and "underground" music has never been so clear. What makes me most sick is "consumers" talking about what they are prepared to pay for music, normally on the lines of "i think 3.99 for a single is a lot of money and albums are better value". I mean jesus, these people buy music BY WEIGHT! And they talk about "compensating the artists fairly" as if the RIAA put a chip in their brain or something. If you like an artist, give hime some money, then you will get good art. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cre8ivE EMAIL: cre8ive.master@gmail.com IP: 208.30.130.237 URL: DATE: 10/15/2004 10:26:32 PM Will someone at least smack the DRM people upside the head and tell them that even the most innane of users would be able to (upon accepting the slight loss in quality...) loop their media files back through the good ol' analog channels to a microphone (or better yet line in from your line out, or video capture the playback to their computer monitor...), re-record in MP3 (or format of choice) and away we go... At what point do 'they' think there IS a way to secure these files. All they end up doing is forcing the continually inflated price of the media ($15.00 for a CD?! - even the price of Plasma TV's has dropped by 30%, but not the price of a disc of poly?), reducing the number of people willing to plop down .99 on a single digital file (average of 13 to 15 songs on a disc == $15 per disc...what savings was that again?) that takes up less than a fraction of a pennies worth of HD space... Everything always comes back to a consumer/provider basis - if the consumer percieves a 'fair' provider they are more likely to be the 'honest customer' that provider is looking for. When I hear all these 'lock-in' methods applied to CDs, DVDs, and other media...I am less inclined to even toss my coin in the ring and purchase another dust collection device... ----- PING: TITLE: The Music War and File Formats URL: http://www.davextreme.com/davextreme/2004/01/the_music_war_a.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: daveXtreme DATE: 01/28/2004 04:40:26 AM A discussion rippled across the web today regarding the upcoming Apple vs. Microsoft music war. Scoble’s A challenge for webloggers: handling organizational difficulties argues for Microsoft’s music format over Apple’s. File formats? ... ----- PING: TITLE: catching up URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/040320-catchingup.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 03/22/2004 11:35:08 AM Tom Coates weighs in, too. He sounds ambivalent, like I am.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And this too will pass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/28/2004 11:53:18 PM ----- BODY:

    What a strange, frustrating day. Loads of reporters lurking around Broadcasting House all day, TVs blaring out from all over the building as they report live the responses to the Hutton Inquiry, e-mails all over the place, anxious preparations for meetings that were doomed (before they began) to end badly, lots of snow (plus a couple of snowball fights), the sensation of slowly sinking beneath an ocean of political intrigue and my repeated uttering of at least two sayings which seemed almost impossiby iconic and important to me today: Never get involved in a land war in Asia and An atheist is a man with no invisible means of support. General crapulence eased slightly by long conversations with good friends over AIM and the viewing of insane low-key televisual masterpiece Director's Commentary on (weirdly) ITV1. Sleep soon to come. Reassuringly, this too will pass.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I'm faxing to my MP... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 01/31/2004 12:51:36 AM ----- BODY:

    What follows is a letter that I'm sending through to my MP via FaxYourMP.com. If you feel strongly about this issue too, then I would ask you to consider expressing your sentiments accordingly. The views expressed - of course - are exclusively my own and have nothing to do with my employer.

    Dear Ms Karen Buck,

    I wanted to write to you to express my horror at the way the government that I voted for in the last two elections is handling the current debacle with the BBC.

    I've been awaiting the Hutton report with considerable interest, and while I was surprised by the results of the enquiry I was much more surprised - appalled even - by the effect it has had upon the BBC. I didn't realise how strongly I felt until I watched Greg Dyke resign and saw statements by Tessa Jowell and Tony Blair on the news.

    It seems to me that the two major issues in this country at the moment are (1) whether or not the BBC's accusation that the government's dossier was 'sexed up' was true or not and (2) whether we were dragged into a war that many felt strongly was not justified given the evidence available. Of the two, the first is an extremely serious issue, but surely it can't compare in size to the scale of the latter.

    When the Hutton report came out, it stated that the BBC needed to accept culpability and that there was a clear need for change. The changes started immediately and have just kept coming - Gavin Davies, Greg Dyke, Andrew Gilligan - all of them have now left the organisation. Alongside these resignations, the editorial processes that led to this mistake being made are now being thoroughly investigated and reviewed.

    With regards to Greg Dyke's departure, I personally believe that this was a step too far. His resignation was a profoundly honourable gesture, but it was unnecessary and I believe a direct result of the extraordinary pressure that the government placed upon the organisation. I don't know to what extent people understand the extraordinary damage his departure will cause to the organisation as it prepares for Charter-renewal, but I think much of the country will come to consider the government responsible for much of this damage.

    Which is ironic really, considering the other major issue in the country at this time. After all, the government took our country to war, and the rationale it gave for that war turned out not to be true. And don't take my word for that - listen to the ex-head of the investigatory body! The war itself might have had positive consequences and it may have had negative consequences. It might or might not have been an honourable venture. But even if we accept that there was no untoward pressure from the United States and that the government was not in any way duplicitous, surely to go to war on the basis of such astonishingly incorrect information must still constitute the very largest of screw-ups!

    So let's examine this again for a moment. A mistake was made somewhere down the line, a mistake that was not picked up by the various chains of command and resulted in some bad decisions all the way up to the top of the organisation. Does this sound in any way familiar? Gavin Davies and Greg Dyke found themselves in a similar situation and they resigned. And what has the government done? Nothing. More to the point, the BBC has nearly been broken by the attempts of government to force them to make an abject apology for their mistake. But is there any sign that the Prime Minister feels the slightest responsibility to apologise to the nation for making the decision to go to war on such faulty information? No! He has not!

    Given this situation - and having watched Tony Blair and Tessa Jowell on television over the last 48 hours - isn't it a thoroughly dishonourable act to praise another for having the strength of character to fall upon their own sword? Doesn't it smack of the most hideous hypocrisy and moral weakness? The idea that they can even say those words without burning up at the shame of their own dishonour and double standards staggers me.

    Ms Buck, I can't even tell you how much and how quickly my opinion of Tony Blair and the current Labour administration has changed. Two days ago - and for the ten years before that - I was a strong supporter (advocate, even) of the Labour party and Tony Blair. Today I find myself questioning if I could even bear to vote for your party again. The way the government has handled this has been hideous, self-serving and vile and has damaged one of our most-loved and well-respected institutions far beyond the extent that was actually necessary. I can only hope that you are ashamed of yourselves. When I voted for you I never thought I'd be forced to question whether or not the good you had done would be outweighed by the damage. I find myself now looking for a new party to support.

    Yours,

    Tom Coates

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In support of Greg Dyke and the BBC... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/31/2004 09:06:57 AM ----- BODY:

    In the Daily Telegraph today is an advert/petition paid for and signed by many thousands of BBC staff asserting the fierce independence of the BBC and talking about Greg Dyke's leadership as Director General (see Guardian article). I don't have a lot to say about it except to say that unfortunately my name and those of many other people I know couldn't fit onto the page, but that shouldn't in any way be read as a lack of support. It was signed and supported financially by many more people than could fit onto that page - myself included - and its impressive scale should be viewed as just a slice of the even larger genuine ground-swell of sentiment throughout the organisation.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Greg Dyke URL: http://danhon.com/ec/mtarchives/2004/01/31/greg_dyke/index.shtml IP: 69.59.170.180 BLOG NAME: ext|circ DATE: 01/31/2004 09:59:16 AM Anyone have a scan of the Greg Dyke petition/ad in the Daily Telegraph today? I don't particularly fancy buying a... ----- PING: TITLE: Supporting Greg URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2004/01/supporting_greg.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 01/31/2004 02:54:17 PM More comment about Hutton and the BBC. Staff at the Corporation have taken an advertisment out in the national press today. ----- PING: TITLE: BBC Staff Advert in The Daily Telegraph URL: http://www.currybet.net/archives/000152.shtml IP: 213.171.193.84 BLOG NAME: currybetdotnet - search : web : media : politics DATE: 01/31/2004 10:00:15 PM Today BBC staff placed a full page advert in The Daily Telegraph to assert their belief in the continued independence of the BBC, and ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On ballots, blogs and the syndication-impaired... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 01/31/2004 05:40:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Just a reminder - first things first today is the last day that you can vote for this year's Bloggies. And secondly, I want to put in a bit of a plug for daily dose of imagery in the Best Photography category, because (despite the fact that the site suffers from one of those appallingly truncated taster-only RSS feeds* that drive me absolutely barking) the images are simply and regularly beautiful. Particularly recommended is today's snowy car-lot in Toronto. Extraordinary.

    * Other plasticbag.org regulars / favourites that don't get read as much as they should because of this fetish for miserable little RSS-dribblings: Zeldman, Oskarn.org, Worlds of Waldman, Wish Jar Journal and Paranoid Fish. I know that you all have your reasons, but really...! Lots more people would hear what you had to say if you'd just be amenable to how we'd like to read your sites...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The music from the Odeon Trailer Ident... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/01/2004 05:52:14 PM ----- BODY:

    This will only mean anything to readers in the UK, and only cinema-going readers at that. Just before the trailers are shown at Odeon cinemas there is often an ident designed to get you into the filmgoing spirit. This advert resembles an explosion of what appear to be out of focus sparks or fireworks. It's pretty cool. I can now tell the world that the music that accompanies it - music which always gets Cal and I wiggling along approvingly - is by Pete Rodriguez and is called "I Like It (I Like it Like That)". The song can be found on this album and no doubt is circulating on various peer-to-peer networks. I thank you.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Things to do... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/01/2004 06:46:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Font for post-its remains Coates.ttf as made with Fontifier.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rollo EMAIL: rollo@schvtrn.com IP: 172.187.230.78 URL: http://www.schvtrn.com/rollo/blogger.html DATE: 02/02/2004 01:50:23 AM 'Basic Washing?' So you won't be using Pantene for this then? 'Twice as shiny'? Not quite as odd as the latest Lucozade ads claiming that 'Lucozade have redesigned water'... Redesigned water?! Redesigned water?!! What, wasn't it shiny enough? Wasn't it thirst-quenching enough? Wasn't it wet enough? What next, Nike redesigning the human foot? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: jon@rereviewed.com IP: 194.74.202.254 URL: http://www.rereviewed.com/rs/ DATE: 02/02/2004 07:09:46 PM Well, it's worse than that, isn't it? A fire is once as hot as it is. Tomorrow, you can make a fire that it twice as hot. Twice as shiny logically means that Pantene makes it twice as shiny as Pantene does. So, if you wash your hair with Pantene every day for a fortnight, it will be 8,192 times as shiny as the first time. Literally, brilliant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 02/03/2004 11:08:59 AM You forgot one: "Open savings account for intended trip to visit long lost friend on opposite side of planet." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drumster EMAIL: mail@drumster.com IP: 203.115.78.224 URL: http://www.drumster.com DATE: 02/03/2004 11:31:08 AM Most of the adverts do not make sense of what they are talking....at times its just a blind sense of competetion that drives these inane concepts...its upto the discerning customer to decide.... quite sadly, there are a few of those discerning people around :o) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the rhetoric of adverts... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/01/2004 08:44:13 PM ----- BODY:

    Brief one this: So I'm watching Contact on television and there's an advert for Pantene shampoo. And the voice comes on - the deep pounding "buy me" voice of the professional voice-over artist - and he says ,"Pantene makes your hair not just once - but twice as shiny!" Can you imagine that? Can you imagine how awesome that must be? I mean something that makes your hair once as shiny is clearly pretty good (given how important the advert made it sound), but this is way way beyond once! This is like twice! That's like once as shiny two times over!

    Can someone explain to me how an advert can present "once as shiny" as somehow something pretty awesome that only Pantene can beat? I mean, wouldn't hair naturally be once as shiny? If it wasn't - that would be a problem, wouldn' t it? I mean if your shampoo made your hair 90% as shiny, then wouldn't it gradually and eventually decrease in shininess every time you washed it? Wouldn't it eventually come to absorb all light? Maybe that does happen in very poor places where they can't afford proper almost-once-as-shiny-making shampoo. God how confusing that must be for people at night. It would hurt your eyes eventually, wouldn't it? And wouldn't it make people's heads really really hot after a while? Frankly the thought's so scary that I'm now scrabbling around for a shampoo that guarantees me precisely 100% normal shininess and not a single millionth of a percentage either way. If it's not precisely once as shiny, I don't think I want to go near it...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A brief aside about the BBC... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/01/2004 11:31:40 PM ----- BODY:

    By the way, just in case you're surprised by how cheerful and non-violent I appear to be about the current political / BBC situation, rest assured that it's all a big act but that I don't really think I can write about it while I work for them. That is all. Move along.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One. More. Day. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/03/2004 08:22:29 PM ----- BODY:

    One more day of work. One more day and then I'm off... Off to Los Angeles for a few days of R&R before ETCon starts. I can hardly wait. I had to wave goodbye to Mr Webb today, who's flying off one day before me, and it nearly killed me. I don't leave the country enough, I think. And I certainly don't have enough adventures. So excited I might actually burst. PS. If any LA webloggers would like to meet up at short-notice and/or any companies/organisations are interested in having a chat around social software / personal publishing stuff, then feel free to e-mail on the usual address - tom [at] plasticbag [dot] org or leave a comment below.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: BoiFromTroy EMAIL: boifromtroy@hotmail.com IP: 66.122.151.157 URL: http://boifromtroy.com DATE: 02/03/2004 09:26:47 PM If you need any entertainment in the City of Angels, hit me up...there's a whole group of bloggers out here that are very nice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bijou EMAIL: bijoubonne@hotmail.com IP: 68.123.165.88 URL: http://bijou.typepad.com/eldorado DATE: 02/05/2004 04:49:22 AM I'm new to LA. Where do the LA bloggers hang out BoiFromTroy? ----- PING: TITLE: Welcoming remarks URL: http://boifromtroy.com/archives/001695.php IP: 209.12.212.35 BLOG NAME: BoiFromTroy DATE: 02/03/2004 09:30:34 PM Tom Coates of PlasticBag.org is coming to L.A. tomorrow... Feste...a Fools Blog has joined the Bear Flag Leage...... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cheery thoughts before flying to America... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/04/2004 11:23:52 PM ----- BODY:

    Looking at my passport photo, I'm suddenly gripped with a fear that they won't let me into the country, followed by a massive burst of misery at how badly I seem to have decayed over the last five years, followed by a massive sense of my own mortality and of the inevitable and steady decay that I can expect until death. God I'm depressed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: 8bit@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com DATE: 02/04/2004 11:30:07 PM I suggest getting a copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Anarchist Cookbook, The Quaran and putting them in your carry on bag. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 17.201.26.221 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 02/04/2004 11:31:25 PM But, on the plus side, the beard looks cool. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: sillyfiltersystem@matthew.at.become.co.uk IP: 131.111.135.194 URL: http://www.become.co.uk DATE: 02/04/2004 11:35:20 PM Beards? They scare me. I thought beards were for people who wanted to flout their masculinity (or who wanted to hide their double chin...) Oh well May the BBC live long and prosper ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Wilkin EMAIL: mark_wilkin@hotmail.com IP: 172.186.203.152 URL: DATE: 02/05/2004 12:29:46 AM Shave the beard off dude, you'll loose 5 years in age and people will come up to you and say 'I didn't want to say before but you look a lot better without the beard'. Happened to me, true story. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 02/05/2004 12:57:10 AM If that's all you have to worry about, Tom, then you are one lucky bastard. I say to you: "Pshaw!" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex Reynolds EMAIL: reynolda@sas.upenn.edu IP: 68.236.63.52 URL: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~reynolda DATE: 02/05/2004 02:39:43 AM You look like Tom Jenkinson's evil twin, albeit slightly bored. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.191.70.13 URL: DATE: 02/05/2004 03:32:55 AM You are so going to get a shave in San Diego, Tom. Even if we have to strap you down and sedate you before the razor comes out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aangespoeld EMAIL: richard@rnc.nl IP: 145.58.148.21 URL: http://www.aangespoeld.nl DATE: 02/05/2004 07:03:44 AM Yup, lose the beard (you knew this). But at least you have the wonderfull camera. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: shaky EMAIL: mark@buglab.net IP: 217.205.121.70 URL: DATE: 02/05/2004 09:04:09 AM Growing a geography teacher beard isn't a sign of decay - why don't you just shave it off? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 02/05/2004 10:04:51 AM Have an orange. The smell and taste will not only cheer you up, but they're also good for you! Yay for oranges! They're brill! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: andrew@andrewbarnett.com.au IP: 203.29.225.246 URL: http://andrew.typepad.com DATE: 02/05/2004 10:09:56 AM Well done. I have the same camera as you, assuming you have the 400. I have tried and tried to take my own photo but every attempt yields an image of a stroke victim or a drunk or both. You are clearly cleverer than me. As for the beard, I used to wear one of similar length and, on the rare occasions I trimmed it very short, would be met with a chorus of appproval, much as described in previous comments. This pissed me off no end because I wore the beard to be me, not a namby, pink-faced comformist like the rest of them, and I hate hate hate being hailed and congratulated for conforming. But the beard did itch and make me look older and also make me look like a backwoods hick. Ultimately, I found a way around the issue: each week, I use a beard trimmer without the comb, resulting in something like a 2-day growth that looks really good. As soon as it approaches proper beard length, I trim it. In this way I am able to remain defiantly nonconformist, exhibit a vague air of ruggedness and cool, but avoid the aforementioned negatives. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: misteraitch EMAIL: mr.h@spamula.net IP: 217.174.65.46 URL: http://www.spamula.net/blog DATE: 02/05/2004 10:24:47 AM You oughtn't to worry: a friend of mine took several months out to grow a really big, bushy beard for the specific purpose of having his passport photos taken: just for contrariness' sake - passport done, he shaved the beard off. He travels widely & has never mentioned meeting with any problems because of it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 02/05/2004 11:41:37 AM Don't worry Tom ... it's just a *veneer* of terrorism. Everyone knows the real you is much more loveable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 02/05/2004 01:27:37 PM AAHhhhhh Make the scary man go away! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jus EMAIL: pimpdadi@frostbytei.com IP: 65.2.17.18 URL: DATE: 02/05/2004 02:46:29 PM sexy. really. wait, really? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: duncan EMAIL: duncan@suttree.com IP: 193.133.200.97 URL: http://www.suttree.com DATE: 02/05/2004 02:53:51 PM The beard has got to stay. The philosophy of the beard is worth it alone. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: andlosers@squirming.net IP: 194.81.253.91 URL: http://squirming.net/ DATE: 02/05/2004 03:21:10 PM I actually very much like the beard - ignore these philistines - although you could probably improve it with a big, floppy hat, a long coat and a whimsical grin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: craig EMAIL: mrcraigawilson@yahoo.com IP: 24.206.159.245 URL: DATE: 02/05/2004 05:23:11 PM from texas : agree with aangespoeld - lose the beard, but the cam's great - not to be too down in the mouth about. you hair looks better now - compared with the plastic helmet in the old photo. too much goo. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: rlc@gruts.com IP: 212.126.144.12 URL: http://www.gruts.com/index.php DATE: 02/05/2004 06:38:23 PM Don't listen to those pogonophobes: a beard is not a fashion statement; shaving is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awfurby@hotmail.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 02/05/2004 10:07:41 PM Keep the beard, shave your bonce! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: RobotDan EMAIL: robotdan@alittlepoison.com IP: 81.178.210.206 URL: http://www.alittlepoison.com DATE: 02/05/2004 10:23:57 PM MMmmmn. Keep the hair, keep the beard... when you get to the US customs, wear a pair of orange sunset 70's specs and talk in a faux-cuban accent. Call everyone Hombre and laugh too loudly. You'll be fine. Great site, by the way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ean WS EMAIL: ean@walkersmith.net IP: 200.104.44.43 URL: http://www.walkersmith.net DATE: 02/05/2004 10:55:45 PM Tom, I travelled across to Chile some five years ago from Blighty. I got a new passport before leaving, clean shaven, hair cut short and looking damm young. Now, some five years later I am feeling old, looking older, bearded, wondering if the UK will ever let me back in. Enjoy your hols Laters Ean ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian EMAIL: ianstenning@hotmail.com IP: 81.79.77.36 URL: http://www.i-a-n.co.uk DATE: 02/05/2004 11:29:39 PM hehe you might need a shave! One of my co-workers at the airport dyed his hair red and they wouldn't let him air-side, he had to dye it back as best he could to his original colour! If they don't let you back in, just burst into tears, no one like a scene! Ian ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Laurie EMAIL: me@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 02/05/2004 11:57:48 PM I don't care what you guys say. Tom is uber-sexy and I shall continue to stalk him until he notices I exist, or at least leaves a comment on my blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: may EMAIL: may@filterfine.com IP: 68.167.204.154 URL: http://www.filterfine.com/notes DATE: 02/06/2004 01:17:38 AM oh don't be depressed, you're a hottie! I think so! (but then I'm a girl, so what do I know...) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 02/06/2004 11:18:26 AM I still think having an orange would be best. Its an entire bottle of antidepressants in a handy peelable package. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 211.29.136.13 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 02/06/2004 02:59:24 PM Two words: Richard Stallman. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarc EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.227.43.80 URL: DATE: 02/06/2004 05:19:39 PM I'll bet it's an IXUS v3, andrew. And, I like the beard.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 68.120.58.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/06/2004 05:38:37 PM It's an Ixus V2. Thank you very much. Have to say am feeling way way better about everything since I've now got into the country. More importantly I'm beginning to realise how much I've let stress get to me recently and how incredibly relaxing and liberating a couple of decent nights sleep can be! Am feeling sexier already. Expect new pictures shortly in which I look gorgeous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jason EMAIL: sleeperservice@easynet.co.uk IP: 81.129.122.22 URL: DATE: 02/06/2004 08:05:05 PM Love it! But then I have hinted at that before... People who shave are hiding something. Their beards! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ravana EMAIL: ravanacymraeg@hotmail.com IP: 195.92.67.78 URL: http://www.ravanacymraeg.co.uk DATE: 02/06/2004 09:07:54 PM yup... you do indeed look like a shoe bomber. *hug* x ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: kv1138@yahoo.com IP: 213.39.30.58 URL: DATE: 02/07/2004 06:54:01 PM Tom, you are looking scarily like Charles Manson, ever thought of starting a cult? On second thoughts... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: christopher@safersex.org IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com/ DATE: 02/08/2004 04:13:59 AM Tom you look pretty cute with the beard but my God buy yourself some new damn shoes! I swear I feel like strangling puppies every time I hear that squeak! ----- PING: TITLE: Caaaaake URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/dparchives/008066.html IP: 69.20.61.178 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent DATE: 02/05/2004 10:21:52 AM Behold the mighty So-Going-To-Get-Stopped-At-Customs. Unleashed from his Bush House prison, the wild man roams free, foraging for food along the Strand. Cake, then. Cake is big in Florence this week. Schiacciata Alla Fiorentina, to be precise, a large ... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On taxi drivers in Los Angeles... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/05/2004 04:01:11 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm being churlish of course - you give a taxi-driver a written-down address on a piece of paper and you would of course expect them not to have heard of the large region of Los Angeles where things like the Sony Pictures Lot are located. I mean you'd obviously expect that right? That would be normal. And then you'd expect them to spend about ten minutes while driving very slowly typing the address into their GPS / map thingy while looking confused. And then of course you'd also expect them not to be able to read an American address and take you to completely the wrong place. And then - of course - you'd expect them to bitch not-so-very-quietly to themselves about how you actually told them to go to the wrong place and that it wasn't their fault, when in fact all you did was give them the bloody address written down on a piece of paper and frantically gesture at it while saying, "This is where I'd like to go please! Thank you very very much!" And then you'd expect to get into a huge row with them in which you say, "For God's sake, you ludicrous man! I gave you the bloody addres on a piece of bloody paper. The address was written down by an American. It's written in exactly the format and style that you'd expect it to be in. It's even in a large bloody font! So why the hell are you shouting at me about giving you the wrong bloody address!"

    And then - of course - you'd expect to still pay then $50 for a $20 cab fare because it simply wouldn't occur to you that when a cab driver made an obvious mistake they'd still expect you to pay for the whole journey and not apologise or anything. And of course you'd give them a tip. Because it would be rude not to...

    Anyway... Little taxi-bastards aside, Los Angeles is already proving tremendously good fun. At this point, I've done very little though - just spent a little time hanging around with Kerry, had beer and tequila in his office and watched the 100th episode of Angel. Shortly we're going to visit his ex, Sean, and at that point we shall have Tacos. Everything over here remains kind of beautiful and kind of monstrously tacky at the same time, but at least there's lots of sky, which matters to me. The flight was - unsurprisingly - good for sky, and we went over Iceland and Greenland again and just like last year I took far far too many pictures of the ice-flows, mountains and seas.

    But the most important thing of all is that I'm not in bloody London! I can already feel my frantic and jellied-up brain shudder a little and let out the tiniest little gasp of relief. Should Kerry actually permit me to sleep at some point during the next few days I should be nicely fresh for ETCon. In the meantime, in my few remaining off-moments, I plot the death of taxi drivers and think about visiting the Apple store...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Los Angeles (Day Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/06/2004 03:47:43 PM ----- BODY:

    A few weeks ago I had a conversation with Dan Hill about clothes. My contention - that everyone in the world should wear the same clothes because then we'd stop making spurious assertions about people's integrity and value on the basis of what bloody T-shirt they wore. My other contention - no adult human being needs any more than two pairs of shoes and those that claim otherwise are in some way mentally depraved.

    This latter story - such as it is - is relevant for two reasons. Firstly because I tried to buy some clothes today and secondly because I tried to buy some shoes today. I was unsuccessful on both counts. The shoes that I needed to replace last year at ETCon are still firmly on my feet. And I have no new clothes of any sort. I do however have an enormous pile of stuff from the Apple Store and a desperate salivating urge to go back and blow another £200 on a new iPod. I only wish I could claim surprise at this turn of events...

    The other great thing that happened today was that I got to have lunch with Christopher from filchyboy / chronotope / safer sex. We went to a little Mexican place where they fed us about five tons of food for about twenty pence and talked about familial relationships, children, expectations, socialising and meeting people through the internet. Altogether a very pleasant couple of hours that I look forward to repeating at some point in the future.

    The only bad news (other than me cleaning out Apple of course) was that I was supposed to go with Kerry to the Viper Rooms this evening, but am too bloody tired to move out of my comfy chair. So - more likely - I shall instead mess around with Garageband for a couple of hours and then have an early night...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ah! Weblogging like it used to be! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/07/2004 03:47:28 PM ----- BODY:

    Another unexpected joy of this trip so far is the unfettered bad-quality weblogging I'm doing. I'm using the site as a jotting diary of my time here, and I'm dropping in all these little references to things that will hopefully make it easier to remember what happened in years to come. I'm not worrying too much about sentence construction, I'm not fussing over the shape of an argument or anything like that - and as a result this feels the most fun it has in a couple of years. I don't know how useful it is of course, but it's definitely nice to have a beak from more serious industry-related writing. Assuming anyone will want me back when I'm done, of course...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 159.134.98.61 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 02/10/2004 03:56:50 PM I understand that you might feel you have an "obligation" to your "readership", but this is a weblog, not a newspaper. Embrace the eclecticism! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The weirdness continues... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/08/2004 01:33:21 PM ----- BODY:

    It's 5am in the morning, and one of my favourite Los Angelenes has just decided to get into a nurses outfit. His boyfriend is - I think - amused but a little weirded out by the whole thing...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tompy EMAIL: jt@tompy.com IP: 194.243.108.194 URL: http://tompy.typepad.com DATE: 02/09/2004 04:47:04 PM I would! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from Etech: Joe Trippi... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/09/2004 05:36:17 PM ----- BODY:

    Rapid recontextualisations make my head hurt. Nonetheless today I'm not in Los Angeles having fun with friends in drag. Today instead I'm watching Joe Trippi talking about American politics and the consequences and effects of the Dean's internet-enabled online fund-raising and campaigning tools. The basic conclusions of his talk are quite simple:

    1. Broadcast media was supposed to give people greater access to democracy, but instead it's failed us completely;
    2. All it meant was that to persuade people in the country, candidates had to go to the people with the real money in order to buy screen-time;
    3. Let no one believe that campaigning isn't about the money - it is;
    4. We have to give the ownership of politics back to the people;
    5. The only medium that can restore that ownership back to the people - both in terms of getting funds raised from the grass-roots and getting home-grown organisation happening among the people - is the internet;
    6. If the people are paying for the campaign then special interests have less impact;
    7. The tools weren't there a couple of years ago, but they are now;
    8. The press are describing the Dean campaign's online strategies as a failure - as a 'dot-com crash';
    9. But how can it be? They raised an enormous amount of money from the grass-roots, and a year ago Dean was absolutely nowhere.
    10. That now we have to find new tools in order to help this kind of people-owned democracy happen in the future.

    The weirdest part of the session was the pretty-much standing ovation at the end of the event that revealed the whole thing to be (as suspected) pretty much more of a political rallying speech towards the web community than a descriptive or didactic piece. Nonetheless, some interesting insights in amongst the passion.

    One thing that did occur to me, though, was whether or not - given the importance of money to politics - the BBC could possibly think about adding a fund-raising tool into iCan. I can imagine the outrage that could surround that, but it would be tremendously interesting and useful to have an independent arbiter displaying nothing but statistical information about candidates and political parties and then helping to actually engage the general public by allowing people to donate money directly to a campaign.

    Another thing was how useful UpMyStreet Conversations could be in terms of poltical campaigning (or at least political organisation). I think I might have to introduce the concept into the proceedings at some point. It's not a system that would necessarily work terribly well in the US - given that their ZIP code system is so radically different from UK Postal Codes - but in principle I think it could be a tremendously useful mechanism for getting campaigners in contact with one another, for advertising and promoting events and for having local discussions about policy. [Although I guess if it was possible, someone might have done it already, given the fact that apparently Clay Shirky introduced Al Gore to the site a year or so ago].

    Addendum: Please forgive me for the obvious and rampant discontinuity of posting styles - drag-act nurse babes (hey Sean) and American Politics / technology may not be obvious bedfellows. Although come to think of it, I'm sure there are associations and relationships that could be drawn between the two...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com EMAIL: 8bit@8bitjoystick.com IP: 140.178.33.123 URL: http://www.8bitjoystick.com/ DATE: 02/09/2004 06:56:59 PM Yes getting fake news from a corporate monopoly sucks.That is why we will never see real campaign finance reform when the networks controll the media. So do you think George Orwell would watch Fox News? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 02/09/2004 07:17:28 PM What's the difference between UK and US ZIP codes? In the US, they're all in numerical order by location in columns across the country, with the 10000s being up by Maine, the 3000s down here in Florida, and the 90000s being in Southern California. (I'm not sure what Alaska or Hawaii are.) I kinda thought one of your ideas about UpMyStreet involved activist organizing, actually, since it kinda seemed a natural. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.105.236.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/09/2004 08:21:39 PM Certainly one of the plans was to allow people to self-organise around issues in their local area, but it occurs to me that it might be a really good kind of tool for a political party to run across a country. For example, can you imagine the Conservative party (for example - since they're more distributed over the land being a rural party) having a dedicated version of UpMyStreet Conversations to help them connect campaigners and key workers across the country? They could have something on their website saying "meet up with and connect with campaigners in your local area" and could get a few hundred regular campaigners to publicise events on it, and put out appeals for help and stuff. It could work really well... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Matthewman EMAIL: scott@thegayvote.co.uk IP: 213.218.252.174 URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/ DATE: 02/09/2004 08:44:59 PM We actually tried something like this at The Gay Vote at the last election -- which, unfortunately, turned out to be one of the more apathetic polls of recent years, so I never really got to find out whether it didn't take off because it was a dud idea, because we didn't have a critical mass of users, or just that people weren't motivated enough. Basically, people who registered on the site saw their "home" constituency -- and also were able to communicate with other people in the same constituency via the site. Any member could mail any other; you could view and contribute to on-site conversations on any constituency; and you could mass email all other members in your constituency only. It's been an ongoing (and unfortunately *extremely* part-time) project of mine to revive that section of the site once we decided to bring The Gay Vote back online as a general resource, rather than (ahem) a general election one. It's kind of nice to know that other people are thinking along the same lines. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jamie wilson EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 213.152.37.170 URL: http://www.goatforce5.org/ DATE: 02/09/2004 11:40:22 PM There is/was a US version of UpMyStreet Conversations that actually came out before your work. I was half-heartedly pitching the idea of a UK version around when you got yours out the door. The name was possibly zip[something].com, and was possibly started by an ex-CNet person in the Bay Area. Or maybe it was just reported on CNet. It had a green swoosh in the logo. Hmm. I'm normally better at remembering obscure URLs than this. I'll see what I can dig up. I seem to recall that US zipcode data is easier/cheaper to get than UK postcode data too, if you're in the mood to code something up quickly... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.124.92.232 URL: DATE: 02/10/2004 09:50:12 AM ZIP+4 is about the equivalent of the UK postcode; right now, the five figure ZIP code is about the equivalent of the first three characters of the UK postcode. That's to say, my current ZIP of 28806 is about the same size and population as the TS8 area I used to inhabit... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.32.7 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 02/10/2004 02:53:13 PM I don't think there's any way iCan will stray near campaign finance. I, too, see political tools potentially being plugged into UpMyStreet Conversations, though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 12.105.236.37 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/10/2004 04:21:30 PM The problem with the ZIP +4 thing in comparison with UK postcodes though is that almost no one in the US knows their +4 postcode, unlike the UK postcode system. This is also probably because it's a nine figure number rather than a six character digit. Also the UK postcodes have an apparent logic to them, which isn't as obvious in the US. And then there's the question of how often the postal codes change and how you'd track those changes. Although I take your point - Nick - in principle you could buld a UMS Conversations in the US - it's just I'm not convinced it would be easy for people to use. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 02/10/2004 07:54:42 PM Um, I don't think ZIP codes change. I've never heard of them doing so. Telephone area codes change. And I seem to remember hearing about the 4 digit suffix changing on someone once, but that's such an ill-formed memory I wouldn't trust it. The postal service does make using ZIP+4 on websites seem easy: http://www.usps.com/zip4/ Oooo -- and actually, they *do* change, according to one of the pages in this handy link-cluster: http://library.csun.edu/mfinley/zipstats.html Namely, this one: http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/jgb/ZIP.resources.html It just doesn't happen too often. Apparently, the gov't uses ZCTAs instead of ZIPs to collate data -- ZIP Census Tabulation Areas. And that last page does have tools for dealing with ZIPs & addresses. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.124.92.232 URL: DATE: 02/13/2004 08:31:16 AM Actually, I agree with you, Tom -- I was mainly making a factual comparisong for those in the States who don't have a sense of the average size of a community defined by a postcode. The big problem with ZIP+4 (beyond the fact that no-one knows their +4) is that the code's specificity combines with the more widely-dispersed population in the US -- and, basically, a commuter culture, as seen by the number of suburbs without pavements out front -- to make the links much more tenuous. Meaning that you're more likely to make community connections on an issue-based or interest-based model (i.e. Meetup.com) than on the location where you sleep. ----- PING: TITLE: Right Method, Wrong Man? URL: http://boifromtroy.com/archives/001723.php IP: 209.12.212.35 BLOG NAME: BoiFromTroy DATE: 02/09/2004 06:14:25 PM Tom Coates is visiting the U.S. from London and giving his observations on the election. He believes that the press has mischaracterized the Dean Campaign as a "dot-com crash" because it is an easy metaphor...and that the internet can successfully... ----- PING: TITLE: Feeling Trippi URL: http://www.voxpolitics.com/weblog/archives/000429.html IP: 80.87.128.130 BLOG NAME: the VoxPolitics blog DATE: 02/09/2004 06:19:22 PM I'm listening, like much of the rest of the blogosphere, to Joe Trippi's talk at ETCON. Taking notes seems a... ----- PING: TITLE: Seeds of Blog Media Consolidation URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2004/03/13/seeds_of_blog_media_consolidation.html IP: 66.33.213.5 BLOG NAME: Abstract Dynamics DATE: 03/14/2004 02:10:51 AM What happens when blogs start making money? A lot of people still want to know if they will make money... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from Etech: Digital Democracy Part II STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/09/2004 08:22:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Two more Digital Democracy Teach-In events come and go. The guys from meetup.com put together a couple of presentations including some useful statistics and a few nice punchlines, but I'm not sure I learned anything particularly new during it. Certainly I didn't feel my head trying to articulate itself into any strange new shapes. And next up the political weblogging panel, which I've decided to abandon almost on principle - not because it's about weblogs, but because political weblogging as an end unto itself seems to me not to have matured past tabloid tactics of name-calling, mischaracterisation and "Am I right? Am I right?"-style calls to the converted. My general impression of this part of the event is that it's more aimed at explaining current fairly-mainstream technologies and approaches to politicos rather than looking at the emergent technologies that might interest the geekier audiences (and me).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 12.105.236.37 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 02/09/2004 09:24:36 PM Wise choice. The political blogging was comically awful. Only without the comedy. There is also something quite surreal about giving a-list political bloggers a platform like that. THe only rationale available is: "we listen to these people quite alot - so lets listen some more!!". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ed EMAIL: comments@guerrillawaiter.com IP: 167.206.248.11 URL: http://www.guerrillawaiter.com DATE: 02/09/2004 10:08:55 PM I love buzz words, and the occasional buzz that surrounds them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 64.105.72.177 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 02/10/2004 06:45:36 AM Ok, where to start? I'm not a Etech so I can't comment much on the panel, but I didn't see anything close to an a-list *political* blogger in any of the literature. All I saw where a list tech/social software bloggers, and a couple non-blogging borderline A list political figures. The real A list political bloggers exist in a whole other ecosystem ( http://www.truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php and note that the first few are currently mistakes, the political bloggers are certainly not up to Technorati code abilities). As for "political weblogging as an end unto itself seems to me not to have matured past tabloid tactics of name-calling, mischaracterisation and "Am I right? Am I right?"-style calls to the converted", that may well be true in the UK, but its very clearly not the case in the US. A few facts: 1- Trent Lott - A bit more then a year ago he held the position of Senate Majority Leader. A quick look at some info the UK parliament leads me to believe this position is roughly equivalent to that of being the Chief Whip in the House of Commons. He no longer holds that post and its almost entirely because of bloggers forcing the story of his racist statement to become news. 2- Audience - The largest US political blogs now have *daily* readerships on par with the biggest *weekly* political magazines. And there are far more large political blogs then political magazines. When it comes to in depth political writing blogs are now the prime medium in the US. 3- Money - Take a look at the weekly rates that the top blogs are charging for ads ( http://www.blogads.com/order_html ). Its not a living wage yet but its getting close. Actually Talking Points Memo seems to be pulling close to $4,000 a month which is a living wage for plenty of people. This month saw the first few coordinated mass blog ad buying sprees, and initial results seem quite positive. Then there are the donations. When Atrios asked for money for a new laptop he raised more then enough in a few hours. And to top it off someone straight bought him one off his wish list to boot. Same thing happened to Talking Points Memo when they asked for money to fund covering the New Hampshire primaries as a full time blogger. He raised more then enough money to cover expenses in only a few hours. If this space grows there are going to be a significant number people political blogging as a profession within a year. 4- DailyKos ( http://www.dailykos.com ) Not even sure where to start with this one. Plasticbag and Joi Ito might strain the MT comment system, but they still function. dKos shattered MT switched over to Scoop (the engine behind kur5hin.org) and is rapidly growing towards Slashdot dimensions. Its pretty much graduated from the blog category, although some characteristics remain. The community here is large, active and vibrant. It was completely unanticipated, but the users leaped on Scoop's diary functions and the site now host thousands of blogs. Visit the site during a major live event like a state primary or presidential debate and you'll find dozens of people commenting intelligently in real time in an true emergent conversation. Its a remarkable thing to watch unfold. Then there is the fundraising. Power is far more about the ability to move money then the actual possession. And dKos is in the midst of developing paths to channel political money that have never existed before. Its about to scale up too, read about it here ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/2/8/172943/3090 ) 5 - Bush AWOL - In the 2000 elections this story basically got ignored by the press. But blogs have been pushing it ever since and only in the past couple weeks has it begun to become a real story. And the blogs are still ahead of the press, with Calpundit breaking real ground in the investigation only two days ago ( http://www.calpundit.com/archives/003220.html ). That's real journalism not tabloid tactics. And it comes from a blogger who until now basically just talked very educated trash and never showed any real journalistic inclination. 6 - there's more, but I've typed enough for now... Suffice to say there is a ton going on in the political blogging world that doesn't quite get noticed by other parts of the blogsphere. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abe EMAIL: a@SPMFREEabstractdynamics.org IP: 64.105.72.185 URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org DATE: 02/10/2004 07:44:25 AM and this news fresh in. One of the first bulk blog ad buyers is the campaign of Ben Chandler, who is running a special election to fill an open House seat in the southern state of Kentucky. In 10 days of ads they raise $40,000 with the ads costing an estimated $2,500. That's an impressive rate of return. Even more impressive is the fact that pre internet in all probability very few of those donors would ever have even heard of the campaign, save maybe on back of the newspaper mention. Yep the political blog space is evolving at light speed. [ http://politicalwire.com/archives/2004/02/09/chandler_looks_good_with_one_week_to_go.html ] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.124.92.232 URL: DATE: 02/10/2004 09:01:27 AM Anno and I tagged the Meetup.com talks as winners of the Private Eye-esque 'first mention of how 9/11 changed everything' and 'first mention of De Toqueville' awards. The former was utterly specious; the latter was kind of messy out-of-context stuff (it's good that you can Google for the quote in context). Anyway, what I ended up discussing instead of going to the political blogging sessions was about the symbiotic 'buy-in' that's required for the role of blogs as a political rebuttal tool or rhetorical ready-reference takes effect. That's to say, you need more Josh Marshalls who can translate the discourse of the blog-space; or, more heroically, you need sufficient numbers of campaigners to throw their hands in with a net-based model to force an adaptive rather than a reactive model to develop. And I'm hopeful of neither. ----- PING: TITLE: Political blogs: a brief guide URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/weblog/archives/2004/02/10/political_blogs_a_brief_guide.html IP: 128.121.231.184 BLOG NAME: The Gay Vote DATE: 02/10/2004 12:10:54 PM Well, voting for the best political weblog in the Guardian awards is now over. It's all a bit of fun really, and regardless of the outcome, readership to this site is up on average 20% since before the shortlist was... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: ETech Adjunct: Weblogs and Journalism... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 02/09/2004 10:14:25 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm watching the panel on the role of journalism as part of the Digital Democracy and it's the first teach-in of the day that feels like a teach-in. Nonetheless, I'm not sure that I'm finding it terribly useful - probably because I've thinking about the issues from a slightly different perspective at the moment. Which reminded me that a few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Kabir Chhibber asking about my views of journalism and weblogs generally, which I responded to with a whole range of thoughts. I was thinking about neatening it up and presenting it online in a more clearly worked-through form, but perhaps this is as good a time as any... So what follows is a rather rough and badly-written assemblage of replies to a series of question. Take from it what you will:

    First of all, could you reflect on the following two quotes by Salam Pax? Do you think they are acurate? How do have any experiences which demonstrate or contradict his statements?
    ìI think that I can tell after this experience what, for me, is the difference between a journalist and a blogger is. A journalist has to actively run after things, a blogger just watches (and lives his life) and takes things as they come.î

    Salam Pax is an insightful and courageous writer, but I think (as he says himself) heís talking more about his own experience of being a weblogger rather than anything intrinsic to weblogging in general. Certainly itís my belief that the vast majority of weblogs are a representation of a personís voice and that ñ as such ñ what they write about will be about their opinions, experiences and the events that occur around them, but I donít agree that itís necessarily quite such a passive experience. There are webloggers ñ many webloggers ñ who at one or more points in their online lives have decided to investigate something in more depth and have become for a short period of time amateur (by which I mean ëfor the loveí) journalists ñ seeking out information, researching material and running after things. In a sense, then, some are born journalists (Dan Gilmore, perhaps), some achieve the status of journalists, and many others have journalism thrust upon them.

    "The point about blogging is that it has to be very personal. Bloggers, you always have to remember when you are reading them, do not act like journalists. You're just talking about your life and your opinions. You're not writing something for a big newspaper where someone is going to take it as fact. Always be suspicious."

    Again I can see what he means ñ and itís representative of the vast majority of weblogs out there ñ but I donít think it tells the whole story. Again I think it comes down to weblogs being representations of people. If you met someone in the street for the first time, you wouldnít believe their opinions. But if you had built up a relationship with someone over time, you would evaluate how trustworthy they were, how much you believed them, what you thought of their opinions generally. Itís almost exactly the same thing that happens with the press ñ journalists get themselves associated with brands that say ìwe fact-checkî and ìwe have a reputation to protectî because individuals have come to have a relationship with those brands ñthey have come to trust them over time. And yet how many of us would still take the word of a close friend who had seen the events first hand over the reportage in a newspaper?

    I think itís clear that there are differences between journalists and webloggers. The first main difference is that webloggers arenít associated with a brand and with a support structure that is designed to communicate the idea that facts have been checked, that the journalist is trustworthy and that the news they are reporting is of legitimate interest. Thatís the first function of professional organisation and itís based on the fact that we canít know the reputation, skill-set or expertise of every journalist that we might encounter in the world. To an extent of course, this is changing ñ knowing webloggers means that you can start to evaluate their expertise ñ but I think itís unlikely that thereís any real threat of all professional journalists being deposed from their positions of authority by this tendency alone.

    The second difference is a nice easy one. Organisations with money that can support a number of journalists can afford to provide access to a variety of different research tools that individuals donít have at their disposal. At the moment of course individuals have more access to more information than ever before (via the internet) but there remain feeds of data that are simply outside the scope of individuals to get access to. This includes photo libraries, research databases and detailed archives. This may change in time too.

    The third function of professional journalism that canít be met by the weblogsphere is that itís designed to deal with a massive scale differential between the number of SUBJECTS of news (small) and the number of people who could possibly want to ask them questions (enormous). By this I mean that not every journalist or weblogger in the land can go to a preview screening of a film, or be in the White House press room or talk to the police at a crime scene or be invited to product launches. These things have limited space available ñ they are journalistic bottlenecks. And these bottlenecks are resolved by selection ñ the most established and trustworthy journalists are invited to participate in these events because they can communicate to the largest amount of people. And thatís never going to change. We might see a few webloggers transition into celebrity ñ thereís no doubt that if this happens then theyíll end up invited into these kinds of gathering, but for the most part thereís always going to be a distinction between the masses and the few when it comes to one-on-one access to certain primary sources.

    Your blog started off quite personal and has become more political as it (and you) developed. I have seen this in other blogs too. Why do you think this is?

    Basically I think itís a question of scale. Things you feel comfortable talking about to a small number of people feel more and more awkward when more people start reading your site ñ particularly when they start being people you know in a professional context. At a certain point you end up moving from writing about personal stuff into writing about things you care about. In my case thatís ended up being a mix of films, politics, social software and technology stuff. Itís still my voice, itís just not talking about who I have or havenít been dating.

    What do you think about the current high-profile of weblogs? What kind of quality is out there - do you think it matches the NY Times or The Guardian?

    I love the fact that weblogs have been getting such a lot of attention ñ and more particularly I like the fact that the bubble hasnít burst yet despite frequent assurances by some nay-sayers that it would at any minute. People genuinely enjoy the ability to make their voice heard whatever the medium and even if theyíre only talking to a few people with similar interests or aspirations.

    Iím slightly nervous of the way the press treats weblogging, though. When journalists write pieces ñ particularly feature pieces - theyíre not only trying to write something honest, theyíre also trying to write something that people and editors will think is interesting. Itís a necessary flaw in mainstream journalism that means that writers are continually looking for the next big thing, or something enormous and surprising and transformative that they can present to their editors. And when they write the pieces they have to justify all that initial enthusiasm by producing a piece that explains why the thing theyíre talking about is so very terribly interesting and important. I think weblogs have suffered from this a bit, as those journalists who like weblogs have written inflated and melodramatic pieces that then other journalists have then spent 400 words dismissing as rubbish. In the background ñ of course ñ webloggers just get on with it like normal, neither directly saving the world nor destroying it

    When you have discussed big issues, like gay marriage and war with Iraq, what kind of responses have you gotten?

    Very very mixed ones. Both of those have generally received responses that are measured and intelligent ñ whether they directly agreed with me or not. But a whole range of other people have responded very differently. When I said that a proportion of warbloggers seemed almost blood-thirsty in their need for war, dozens and dozens of sites started a competition called the Tom Coates Most Blood-Thirsty Warblogger Award in which theyíd compete for the right to be the most vicious, and writing large tracts about what an ëidiotarianí I was and how stupid and weak my views and opinions were. It got down to the level of shouting abuse from them to the extent that I started to not write about politics at all. Considering that all the way through the Iraq war my main objective was to talk about the complexities of the issues rather than to back any side, I found that quite difficult to deal with. Some people take to that like a duck to water and find value in it, but just as often these little self-reinforcing circles of fury get completely out of hand.

    Do you feel any need to be a journalist when talking about these things - be fair or objective? Or to discover the truth?

    Personally I feel a great deal of pressure not to lie and a certain amount of responsibility to correct myself and apologise when Iíve made a mistake. Iím not sure I think itís necessarily the responsibility of an individual weblogger to spend a lot of time researching their statements ñ sometimes itís best to get initial impressions and throwaway thoughts ñ but I think that has to be left to the individual conscience of the individual. Again ñ itís about establishing a relationship between weblogger and weblog-readers (who may be other webloggers) ñ and as such, unlike journalism where often the individual commentator is kind of effaced, it pays to put your cards on the table and be as open as possible. Let people understand where youíre coming from.

    Do you write for an audience? As your audience grew, did you begin to feel any obligation to take their interests into account?

    I am certainly aware of the fact that there are eyeballs out there that read what I write ñ sometimes itís a lovely feeling, sometimes itís a terrible thing. At times I feel a pressure to ëperformí that can be quite debilitating. And yes ñ I will scout around some issues rather than talk about them because Iím not prepared to get engaged in a long-term battle around them. But with regard to writing things because people want to hear about them, no ñ not really. I avoid some controversial areas that I donít consider myself qualified to comment upon or wish to take considerable heat for, but otherwise I say what I want when I want. I donít really think of them as an audience ñ theyíre more like peers. I imagine most of the people who read my site have sites of their own, and that Iíll read many of theirs as well.

    What role do you see for bloggers and journalists in the future? Will things like Insta-Pundit means journalists will be competing with their own audiences...?

    As Iíve said, I think there are a few major differences between professional journalists and webloggers and what theyíre able to accomplish. Certainly it seems that hard news material is unlikely to be replicable by the weblogging culture, and to be honest Iím more comfortable with that material being generated by these established organisations anyway. I see the role of webloggers being more of second-order journalism ñ the journalism that results in newspapers full of comment pieces and editorials, features and opinions. And those places are likely to be either heavily cannibalised by webloggery or to experience a renaissance of voices (because people will expect more varied opinions to be represented). Thatís the area that webloggers excel in and where I think they act alongside news journalism ñ contextualising, correcting, editorialising and adding interpretation to it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Massimo Fiorentino EMAIL: massimo@interiority.com IP: 80.197.168.146 URL: http://www.interiority.com/ DATE: 02/10/2004 09:49:52 AM Very interesting indeed! And I think you're right. Especially in the sense where people - or should you say 'bloggers' / 'blogger-readers' might want a broader view on things (there are still people who like the one-sided view because it is uncomplicated), since they have access to so much information. And it works perfectly as a democratic principle in itself. But in the future it will also be harder to distinguish between facts and fiction, not only in blogs but also in respected media, since media tends to become 'populistic' (mostly because of ratings > shareholder stocks ($)) and thereby shallow (not in general of course, and it can also happen from story to story) and since you do not have any way of checking up on things from the Net unless you a) trust the source or b) are researching upon it yourself. This requires a great deal of the observer of news & blogs (& the Internet & media in general), because you have to be very analytical and critical as a reader in order not to get sucked into self-proclaimed truths or misinformation. But I guess this problem has always existed - it's just that we have so much more information to deal with these days. I just wish that this can become just as an important curriculum in schools all over the World as math and reading/writing is... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charmaine EMAIL: weehob@weehob.com IP: 144.92.156.103 URL: http://www.weehob.com DATE: 02/10/2004 03:32:28 PM For a rough draft, your ideas come off very succinct and put together. I think the distinction between blogger and journalist is a very interesting one. But I also really like where your conclusions leave the issue -- there are webloggers and journalists but there is also that overlapping grey area. And rather than comparing the two on valor, we can accept and appreciate the symbiotic nature of the relationship. My question would be (and this coming from a journalism student), when was it determined that journalism is so truly "objective" -- that the opinions and personalities of journalists, or that of their editors never come into play? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charmaine EMAIL: weehob@weehob.com IP: 144.92.156.103 URL: http://www.weehob.com DATE: 02/10/2004 03:34:34 PM For a rough draft, your ideas come off very succinct and put together. I think the distinction between blogger and journalist is a very interesting one. But I also really like where your conclusions leave the issue -- there are webloggers and journalists but there is also that overlapping grey area. And rather than comparing the two on valor, we can accept and appreciate the symbiotic nature of the relationship. My question would be (and this coming from a current journalism student), when was it determined that journalism is so truly "objective" -- that the opinions and personalities of journalists, or that of their editors never come into play? ----- PING: TITLE: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/bloggy.html#001055 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/bloggy.html#001055 IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: Links DATE: 02/11/2004 09:30:32 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | ETech Adjunct: Weblogs and Journalism… :: views of journalism and weblogs generally... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Network troubles at ETCon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/10/2004 05:08:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Day Two of ETCon and the network horror starts. Rendezvous isn't working for me, so I can't see or connect to any other SubEthaEdit documents. I can't IM anyone, I'm trying to download IRC but the network is collapsing. All very frustrating. It's like being mindblind.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from ETech: iRobot... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/10/2004 07:02:02 PM ----- BODY:

    For the most part the ETCon keynotes are pretty much high-concept fluff. They're fundamentally high-profile, high-glamour bits of hardcore tech that (often) are completely outside the practical experience of the so-called Alpha geeks that attend these events. But they have their value - they're designed, I imagine, to be more brain-openers than brain-developers, they're there to extent the aspirations, intentions and creativity of the people who attend the event rather than to be of direct use to them. Nonetheless if you're not blown away by the technology or awed by the future tech on display, they can seem like more of a waste of time. Bring on the stuff I can actually use...

    Last year the troubling session of this kind was from K. Eric Drexler on Nanotechnology, which most people had already read about in great length but there wasn't a lot of apparent movement upon. The geeks in the room were interested in the theory but wanted results or something they could participate in. Intrigue fought with frustration and in the end - I think - frustration won. This year that balance was never more in evidence in the second keynote of the morning: Robots: Saving Time, Money and Lives.

    HelenÝGreiner from iRobot Corporation came on stage and seemed surprisingly nervous. She started talking about the Roomba automatic robotic hoover and did so at considerable length. The immediate interest ("I want one") faded quite rapidly as people gradually tired of the technological challenges of sensing walls, picking up dust and getting in close to the walls. Watching something of technological interest but distinct from the activities of most of the people in the room just seemed to gradually cease being that fascinating. But all that changed when she moved onto the military applications and particularly the Packbot [See the brochure].

    The first reaction to the Packbots is fascination and a certain amount of awe. Comments like "I've seen this movie!" and "I want one" mix with awed responses to the robustness of the devices concerned. A video is shown where a Packbot is thrown through a window, lands with a thump, bounces a bit, rights itself, looks around and wanders off. One zooms up a staircase. One falls from a second story window and survives intact. Murmurs of delight from the audience at the new toy on offer reverberate through the room.

    But gradually the mood changes and anxieties start to appear. Questions about the applicability and potential uses of the technology start to collide with the natural utopianism of the geek audience. What will these robots be used for? Who will control them? Where are the controls? It's not immediately clear exactly where the anxiety is coming from - we all appreciate that weapons have to be built, that there is a need for the armed forces. But there seems to be something different about using robotics. Thinking about it I come to the conclusion that maybe it's about a sense of automated killing - an absence of human presence that makes the whole thing resonate with the increasingly mechanised processes of death that echoed through the last century. Is keeping people further out of the equation actually a good idea? Does it discourage or encourage conflict if your side can eradicate another country without suffering any losses at all? Those human horrors of shell-shock and war-weariness - the insanity caused by human-upon-human violence suddenly seem to me almost preferable options - deterrents to conflict designed to stop us arbitrarily exterminating people and going to war.

    I'm not going to judge the people involved - I don't have that right. We all know that warfare and the technologies of warfare must evolve and adapt. The arms race still exists, and will continue to do so as long as state feels under threat from other states or from terror-attacks. It's just that I didn't expect such an early brain-opening session to ring such alarm bells or to give me such concern for the future... On occasion, this country I'm visiting feels like it believes itself to be under seige - like some kind of gated-community surrounded by paramilitary, robotic guards...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 12.105.236.37 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 02/10/2004 07:05:01 PM But gradually the mood changes and anxieties start to appear. Questions about the applicability and potential uses of the technology start to collide with the natural utopianism of the geek audience. I think this is a really healthy response -- not too long ago the attitude of scientists/engineers was that technology was separate from moral concerns. "It's not the gun that kills people," etc. We could use a bit more of this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Justin Mason EMAIL: jm-439853495@jmason.org IP: 68.5.202.38 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 02/10/2004 10:58:28 PM Good article on the siege mentality you describe: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/05/1073267964070.html BTW sounds like fun. Eric Bonabeau's talk sounded right up my street w.r.t. SpamAssassin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 12.105.236.37 URL: DATE: 02/10/2004 11:15:50 PM More siege mentality with the hard sell from the shouty spooksman; yes, there's an obvious attempt to harness these techs for the defence industry. And what's scary is that the Pentagon is probably the most generous and 'open' funder right now, in the absence of VCs... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Humphries EMAIL: whump@mac.com IP: 17.212.20.114 URL: http://www.whump.com/moreLikeThis/ DATE: 02/11/2004 02:10:06 AM The packbots, while cool, sound too much like the "US/UN Teletroopers" in MacLeod's The Star Fraction. I do want to see the defenestration movie. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awfurby@hotmail.com IP: 165.228.130.11 URL: DATE: 02/11/2004 02:48:14 AM You could use them as portable mines - just drive them into the building, roll them up next to the 'bad guys' and press Detonate. There could be a whole battalion of them, known as the "Creeping Death". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Helen EMAIL: helen@irobot.com IP: 66.238.211.199 URL: http://www.irobot.com DATE: 02/13/2004 08:31:33 PM Consumer - I had responses ranging from "not technical enough" to "way over detailed technically". Sigh. What we do concerns technology at a consumer price points. This is exciting to me because I have always dreamed of building a robot that anyone can own. Military - In case it wasn't clear, our robots deployed today are completely teleoperated - meaning every action is controlled by a soldier with a joystick. Very thoughful comments and questions about the future. I stayed an extra day at Oreilly because I heard (and read) concerns. Yet hardly anyone came over to talk to me about it. Maybe I shoulda just talked social networks or blogs...Ah well, at least people didn't leave like in other keynotes:) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Thomas H EMAIL: hoover.tom@ssd.loral.com IP: 128.49.41.101 URL: http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/newsletter/RoboticsUpdate_3_2.pdf DATE: 03/03/2004 02:18:28 AM "Better a robot than a man on point." That is the most frequent comment I get when I discuss this issue with the men on the pointy end of the spear who are defending our ability to even debate this issue. Personally, I much prefer to send the robot down range first. It costs a lot less than the pay off on my life insurance policy. It is just another tool to help the soldier do his job. If "fairness" were the objective in war, it would be a chess match not armed conflict. If anything, having robots on point allows the rules of engagement to become more restrictive. It allows that squad working through an urban environment to actually ask questions before shooting. That translates directly to less civilian casualties. Robbie the point robot _can_ take that round and still fight where the 18 year old _has_ to shoot first if he wants to come home. By using that robot to open the door or look around the corner we can be much more descriminating in the use of lethal force and that means less death and mayhem. Further, there is no obligation for the robot to use lethal weaponry. It can _safely_ employ non-lethal weapons because it does not face the conundrum of having to kill or risk being killed. My biggest concern is that I can keep these 'bots up and working in a war zone. If we are going to put them on point they will be taking a lot of hits and that means we need to have the ability to keep them up and working. Otherwise they become a very brittle tool that is too expensive both in preperation time and logistics tail. The closer that repair facility is to the end user, the more the 'bots will be used. That is my job, getting that repair facility close enough to my users that we can keep these systems on-line. Let the philosophers debate the morality of using crossbows, gun powder, or robots. I just want the tools that make defending that freedom safer for those of us who have volunteered to defend it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: barb EMAIL: barb@dykesdodigital.org IP: 207.127.235.132 URL: http://www.geeked.org DATE: 06/24/2004 10:02:49 PM re: "we all appreciate that weapons have to be built, that there is a need for the armed forces." do we? i don't think this is, or should be, a given. i realize it's extremely difficult to envision a world in which we didn't need weapons. on the other hand - if we *don't* envision it, we sure as hell will never get there. as far as developing robots to kill people in war instead of converting human beings into machanized, killing robots - is that really progress?! how many resources - person-hours, creative energy, intellectual capital - was spent on developing this ever more sophisiticated war technology, and would any of those resources perhaps have been better spent in pursuit of streamlining the process of *peace*? yeah yeah, just call me a hippie and pass the bong, already. ;> ----- PING: TITLE: How to capture a conference through weblogs URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/000992.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 02/11/2004 12:02:25 AM ETCON as a case study of the many ways in which social software can augment conference proceedings ----- PING: TITLE: Capturing a conference using social software URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/000992.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 02/11/2004 01:24:06 AM ETCON as a case study of the many ways in which social software can augment conference proceedings ----- PING: TITLE: i, for one, fear our new robot overlords URL: http://akuaku.org/archives/001178.shtml IP: 208.59.199.233 BLOG NAME: AkuAku SF DATE: 02/11/2004 03:29:09 AM The iRobot marketing assault at eTech was the scariest conference keynote ever. Props to Burtonator for asking the ethics ----- PING: TITLE: (Artificial) life during wartime URL: http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/mt/archives/000872.html IP: 194.70.3.10 BLOG NAME: Blackbeltjones Work DATE: 02/11/2004 07:49:34 AM Helen Greiner of iRobot gave a keynote address this morning, Tom has great commentary. I asked her after the event,... ----- PING: TITLE: (Artificial) life during wartime URL: http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/mt/archives/000872.html IP: 194.70.3.10 BLOG NAME: Blackbeltjones Work DATE: 02/14/2004 02:43:02 AM Helen Greiner of iRobot gave a keynote address this morning, Tom has great commentary. I asked her after the event,... ----- PING: TITLE: Geek Conferences: Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself URL: http://www.thebishop.net/geodog/archives/2004/02/16/geek_conferences_nothing_to_fear_but_fear_itself.html IP: 66.132.150.8 BLOG NAME: Geodog's MT Weblog DATE: 02/16/2004 08:44:13 AM Is the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference elitist? This question seems to be stirring up the blogosphere, and causing lots of good people who I read and like to throw verbal bricks at each other. I thought that as someone who is clearly not a m... ----- PING: TITLE: Dusty Deathbots URL: http://lemonodor.com/archives/000710.html IP: 68.164.118.199 BLOG NAME: lemonodor DATE: 02/17/2004 03:15:42 AM The illustration above certainly cuts to the chase as far as the point of the Grand Challenge is concerned ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from ETech: Nutters from the Defence Department... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/10/2004 11:14:21 PM ----- BODY:

    Wow. Weird. The Defense Department / Many-to-Many technologies session turned into some kind of weird recruitment/intimidation drive from a marching shouty soldier man. What a creepy and kind of dirty-feeling waste of time! Such a shame, I was really looking forward to that one because I actually thought it might be about many-to-many technologies - ways of helping people self-organise in war-time situations or to organise logistics - stuff that could have particularly interesting parallel peace-time applications - particularly given all the stuff that people were saying about use of instant messaging in Iraq. But no... Terrible shame.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from Etech: Flickr and the end of Day One... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/11/2004 03:37:24 AM ----- BODY:

    So ETCon Proper Day One ends and I'm basically high on some kind of highly emotionally charged intellectual hysteria-generating buzz. So far I've only managed to write about the things that have caused me frustration and irritation - probably because irritation can be easily quantified and described while the enjoyable papers cause an explosion of possibilities that are hard to collate and contain. The papers I've found most stimulating today have been threefold:

    The first two in particular I can't rave enough about and have pushed me into some kind of weird euphoric intellectual trance - but I think it's best that I talk about them later when I'm feeling more centred and can produce a more rational response. The Castranova piece on cyberspace economies intrigued me and stimulated me because of the question-and-answer component rather more than the paper itself - which was more of a bringing-up-to-speed piece for people who haven't been reading Terranova or read Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds.

    But it was the final talk of the day that was the most heady, but more because of the launched product and the play around it than the talk itself. I'm going to let Cory describe what was launched because - frankly - I'm a bit fried:

    Flikr is a social image-sharing application: it's a mechanism for creating ad-hoc chats, using a drag-and-drop GUI interface that lives inside your browser, and share images from peer-to-peer and within conversational groups.

    I've beta-tested this at various points and at each time I've been struck by Ludicorp's amazing combination of utilitarian, usable interface aesthetic and genuinely witty whimsy. As Ben Ceivgny, a developer on the project, said:
    We collect images with cameraphones and so forth, but we have no good mechanism for advancing them out into the world. Here's a mechanism for batching them into a locked-and-loaded tool for firing them into the world.

    I'm not a Ludicorp adviser, but I have been beta-testing it. It's bloody good fun and I highly recommend it. Much much better than Orkut - introducing Flickr!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Seitz EMAIL: fluxent@yahoo.com IP: 68.161.161.224 URL: http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki DATE: 02/11/2004 04:37:21 PM Is there any info about whether FlickR is using any existing protocols, like Jabber or WASTE? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: none@none.net IP: 62.254.64.8 URL: http://www.pixor.co.uk DATE: 02/13/2004 04:27:40 PM I've been playing with Flickr the last couple of days, and I must say I'm impressed. I've put my thoughts to blog at http://www.pixor.co.uk/2004/02/flickr_birth_of.html for anyone that's interested. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kate Andrews EMAIL: kate@hotmail.com IP: 4.46.84.129 URL: http://www.googlecommunity.com/forum-4.html DATE: 05/08/2004 07:31:43 PM Here's an interesting forum where we can discuss orkut. http://www.googlecommunity.com/forum-4.html ----- PING: TITLE: Flickr Launches URL: http://www.caterina.net/archive/000465.html IP: 66.33.208.29 BLOG NAME: Caterina.net DATE: 02/11/2004 06:05:44 AM Today Flickr launched! I could not be more pleased. It was an incredible effort by an incredible team -- two... ----- PING: TITLE: Tom Coates has a great blog going on ETech URL: http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/000694.html IP: 66.159.239.43 BLOG NAME: Unbound Spiral DATE: 02/12/2004 06:23:07 AM Tom Coates has a great set of posts coming out of ETech. Wish I was there! This is the summary of day one in total. Is it Flickr over Orkut already? I have an account ---not yet enough time to... ----- PING: TITLE: flickr (beta) URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000412.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 02/12/2004 03:28:50 PM One of the stars of ETCON so far has been Flickr, social software by Ludicorp, who created Game Never Ending. Sitting in London yesterday morning I read plasticbag.org, where Tom cites Cory Doctorow. It seems like the usual friend making website like ----- PING: TITLE: Readers' letters and 'social software' URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/02/12.html#a463 IP: 81.65.232.170 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 02/12/2004 10:50:03 PM An impudent, imprudent member of the Faithful 5 ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pictures of Mountains and Clouds... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/11/2004 07:10:59 AM ----- BODY:

    So by way of a change of pace, here are some pictures of mountains and clouds. They were taken (much like last year) from the plane from the UK to California.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from ETech: Day Two Schedule... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/12/2004 01:07:56 AM ----- BODY:

    In lieu of a detailed coverage of what's been going on at ETCon, I just thought I'd post a schedule of the talks I've been to today. I'll drill down into some of the more interesting ones later this evening or tomorrow.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Is there a ROBOT OVERLORD in your future? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/12/2004 06:09:08 PM ----- BODY:

    ETCon gets weirder and weirder by the moment... [larger version]

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil Wilson EMAIL: phil@philwilson.org IP: 213.38.132.74 URL: http://pipthepixie.tripod.com DATE: 02/13/2004 10:02:32 AM Kevin Warwick was my lecturer at Uni, I've had enough cyborg overlords already, now I might have to deal with full-on robot ones too? Sheesh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Janet Clark EMAIL: farmer@steadylanefarm.com IP: 129.63.151.75 URL: http://www.steadylanefarm.com DATE: 06/10/2004 08:48:44 PM I resent the possible portrayal of Robbie as sinister. (As you can tell I did not attend ETCon) ----- PING: TITLE: ETCON: roundup and impressions URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/001020.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 02/14/2004 10:04:18 PM The Emerging Technology Conference 2004 was a fascinating and thought-provoking event, and these are my general impressions ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Live from ETech: Cory Doctorow and e-books... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/12/2004 08:40:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Warning: What follows makes increasingly little sense. Day Three Proper of ETech has resulted in a certain lack of mental flexibility and a weird warm grinding feeling at the temples as my over-saturated lobes rub together...

    So in a few weeks I'm presenting a piece on e-publishing and weblogs at the London Book Fair. To be honest, I've never understood the compound, "e-publishing". It seems to mean different things to different people at different times. For most people it seems to bear little or no relationship to what I consider publishing online - ie. those content-rich sites like BBC News Online and TimeOut.com or weblog-style stuff or in fact anything browser-readable, but instead just that highly narrow field of e-book publishing (generally considered as some kind of proprietary text-based format glued into a PDA or piece of dedicated e-book-reading hardware / software). In a nutshell, then, I didn't really consider it terribly interesting.

    I was surprised, then, to see Cory Doctorow talking on the subject at Emerging Tech. I mean, obviously I knew that he'd released his books online under a Creative Commons license and obviously I'd known that had been quite a successful and publicity-garnering thing to have done, but - to be honest - I'd somehow never really made the connection between that and "e-books". In my mind an e-book was little more than a species of niche electronic emphemera designed to sit within a tiny ecosystem of highly-tech-friendly but not particularly tech-savvy over-monied poseurs. So, why would that have any connection with Cory? I mean - he basically slapped the plain-text of the book onto the web. Which is - you know - useful. Where's the connection?

    Forty-five minutes later, of course, and my views are different. It's not that Cory said that much which was alien to my sensibility or world-view - in a sense he's preaching to the converted - but I've now got slightly more of an understanding of the publishing of books 'electronically' as a spectrum rather than as a set of rather problematic models in competition with each other. Which demonstrates, I guess, what a dumbass I was fifty minutes ago. Still... I guess it's good that I can face up to that, right?

    Anyway - I've stuck up my personal transcript and understanding of his piece and I recommend everyone read it.

    More importantly, Cory did a really cool thing just before getting off-stage - he's releasing even more of the rights to "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" under a Creative Commons license. Originally it was just free to distribute, but not to change or undertake any derivative works. But now - as long as it's uncommercial - he's freed up derivative works as well. This is more important than it might sound - it means that individuals can make t-shirts or badges on the one hand (as long as it's non-commercial), but more significantly, they can now make and distribute reader translations of the book without trouble and they can even write fan-fiction and slash without any trouble - just as long as these translations and derivative works are distributed under the same terms. Very interesting and worthy of considerable celebration and approval. More later...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awfurby@hotmail.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 02/12/2004 10:25:43 PM Hang on - "Even the trolls work for him - directing people to download the book and read it to see just how bad it is.."?? Just because someone didn't like his book and tells other people their opinion doesn't make them a troll. Maybe they really didn't like the book. Here, I'll have a go. I read his book, I thought it was better than the first one, but it was still a pretty thin read. His characterisations are 2-D, the narrative is fairly standard - the only edge he has is the obvious enthusiasm for what's happening in five minutes. Probably he will get better - lots of artists do. But I wouldn't recommend Eastern Standard Tribes to anyone. Troll? No. I just don't like the book. The good thing is, anyone can now go and download it and See For Themselves. So he's right there - but critics aren't always trolls. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: razorhead EMAIL: razor@razorhead.co.uk IP: 212.158.195.103 URL: http://razorhead.co.uk DATE: 02/13/2004 12:01:55 AM surely you mean *decreasingly* little sense? Sorry. Pendant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: gavin EMAIL: gavin@dgen.net IP: 213.78.142.26 URL: http://www.dgen.net/biog/gavinstarks.htm DATE: 02/13/2004 03:36:36 PM Interesting views... made me think of a project that I worked out for the RNIB (royal national institue for the blind). They have tens of thousands of hours of recorded audio books (novels and textbooks), recorded over the past 50+ years. Many are out of print. All are now being digitised from decaying old tape. So they index them *manually* to put in the chapter marks. This should be automatable... so I engaged with some voice recognition software and an "intelligent" natural language search engine... the result of which was searchable time-coded recordings. So, a searchable spoken-word archive of books, and we can have the whole thing voice-controlled over the phone. Who needs paper anyway... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://www.twoplaces.com DATE: 02/13/2004 05:11:02 PM Who, now, has such a burning desire to create these derivative works? I mean it's as though Cory imagines thousands of people clambering across one another to partake of this god given freedom which he has so kindly allowed! Here we have a huge decoration scattered upon a writer trying to sell his work. Will it be because of his talent that people want derivatives or because of his exposure via BoingBoing. Perhaps his 'fans' will be looking for exposure of their own. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://www.twoplace.net DATE: 02/13/2004 05:18:39 PM I'm wondering too what is going on with this promotion 'sharing' among the big wig blogs ñ of course I do not demise the good in them, but it seems like the beginnings of a traffic monopoly? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 68.120.58.130 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/13/2004 11:07:14 PM Philip - I think you're rather missing the point. Cory took what a lot of people would think of as an impossibly enormous risk by putting the whole text of his first published novel online for anyone to download for free. Many other writers would have claimed that to be commercial suicide, so I don't think it necessarily follows that it was an obvious piece of PR fluff at all. With regard to the derivative works stuff, Cory spends an incredble amount of his time at the EFF and under his own steam arguing for rights for us ALL to be able to employ - rights that organisations like Disney are taking away from us (almost as a side-effect) in order to try and eake out more money from work done tens of decades ago. Whether or not anyone is particularly interested in the derivative works thing in his case is kind of irrelevant, except in that it gestures in a potential direction for other writers, and in the meantime people are now starting to translate his books into other languages and distributing them non-commercially. That seems to me to represent a success for him personally and a success for any non-English speaking individual who wanted to read his work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://www.twoplace.net DATE: 02/14/2004 02:52:19 AM I don't dispute Cory's efforts, however I do not see the enormous risk. Most of us can do very little with long digital texts, I for one cannot read a whole novel on a screen and would rather buy a copy than print it. Perhaps it would have been different if he was already a thoroughly established author or if we were further into a future where book are redundant. It would be interesting to see statistics on how many readers are actually reading these long digital texts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stavrosthewonderchicken EMAIL: stavrosthewonderchicken@hotmail.com IP: 219.252.131.163 URL: http://www.emptybottle.org DATE: 02/16/2004 03:41:42 AM One of my (adult) students here in Korea was explaining to me the other day how 'e-books' work here. As with most things e-, the Koreans are way way out ahead of the game. Seems much of publishing these days is tiered - many books are made available on line first, de rigeur, and if they achieve enough popularity, they get printed and bound and sold in hardcopy. Just a data point that I'm fairly certain may not have been included in the magnificent punditry at the latest conference... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stavrosthewonderchicken EMAIL: stavrosthewonderchicken@hotmail.com IP: 219.252.131.163 URL: http://www.emptybottle.org DATE: 02/16/2004 03:44:28 AM Also, just to counter what philip had to say there, above, I have done my reading (on average 2-4 books a week) exclusively on my laptop for the last 4 years. Perhaps 100 books out of my 10,000-12,000 volume book collection is actually printed on paper. My circumstances are perhaps somewhat unique, but it's certainly not as uncommon as some may think. ----- PING: TITLE: ETCON: roundup and impressions URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/001020.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 02/14/2004 10:04:34 PM The Emerging Technology Conference 2004 was a fascinating and thought-provoking event, and these are my general impressions ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: ETech come-down... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/13/2004 11:46:21 PM ----- BODY:

    Right then. Emerging Tech is over and everyone's heads are full and we've all got a little bit of a hangover from last night celebrations and socialising. I'm now back in Los Angeles, having taken the train up from San Diego with the lovely Phil and Anno. The train journey was filled with little aggravating child noises and I was sitting in the wrong direction so arrive in LA feeling queasy and dizzy. The train goes so close to the Ocean that it's almost impossible not to want to sacrifice all future working ambitions, get out at any convenient station and run giggling into the water with warm sand between your toes. Manfully, I have resisted.

    I fly back to the UK on Sunday evening - arriving back sometime around early lunchtime on Monday. I think I'm going to have to make an appeal for a long weekend off work to try and digest everything that's been going on and make sense of it. I think my understanding of the event is even more blurry this year than last. In the meantime posting is likely to be more erratic than usual...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Emerging tech, scrambled eggheads URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/02/14.html#a467 IP: 81.65.233.112 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 02/14/2004 07:40:27 PM Coates is coming down from O'Reilly's Emerging Technology 2004 "...everyone's heads are full and we've all got a little bit of a hangover", Tom says (' plasticbag '). ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Horton Plaza... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/17/2004 11:46:59 PM ----- BODY:

    When I think back to ETCon and my time in America my mind can't help catching onto images of Horton Plaza in San Diego - the Escher-like mall-from-hell that kind of sat in my head and unfolded its sprawling, immoral, monstrous, mis-shapen, rhizomatic self into the nether regions of my cerebral cortex while I was busy looking for Tacos. I've tried to collage together a partially exploded view of the place but it's not particularly representative. Apparently the architect wanted to create an 'architecture of confusion' where you would get completely immersed in the experience of the place, not want to leave and stumble upon new shops serendipitously. Personally I found the place mind-destroying, confusing, uncomfortable and not-a-little creepy. I kept seeing shops that I wanted to get to but could see no obvious way to do so and wandering down apparent walkways or paths that would suddenly turn into cul-de-sac balconies. It took me fifteen minutes to find the top floor food-court and a further ten to escape. The maps were of no help whatsoever. I kept expecting to see David Bowie glued to a ceiling twirling a glass orb on his fingertips. Very strange. Unsurprisingly, Matt loved it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 17.201.26.221 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 02/18/2004 01:34:51 AM Those Westfield Malls, which can be found all over California, are all pretty insane in their scale. I've certainly never been a lover of malls, but it wasn't until I moved out here that I actually began to consider them terrifying. One of my favorite fish taco chains actually has a franchise at Valley Fair in San Jose, but I only manage to get their food when I go back to Colorado because I *simply cannot deal with the mall*. You should see the places around Christmas... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Laura EMAIL: laura@NOSPAMelectrosketch.org IP: 80.177.162.239 URL: http://electrosketch.org/weblog/weblog.php DATE: 02/18/2004 02:54:06 PM Westfield shopping centers are taking over the Chicago area too. After visiting several, I'm quite convinced that excessive shopping isn't simply a popular American pastime. Mall crowds are instead the result of peoples' inability to find their way out of these consumer labyrinths. Many unfortunate soles end up merely purchasing "supplies" to survive until they can architect their escape. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek EMAIL: dkmiller@pobox.com IP: 66.38.134.26 URL: http://www.penmachine.com/journal/2004_02_01_news_archive.html#107713257931318851 DATE: 02/18/2004 07:36:22 PM I always found Horton Plaza a pleasant place to get lost, but there was a trend in the '70s and '80s to create malls that were hard to understand and difficult to get out of. The examples in my hometown of Vancouver (such as Lansdowne Park Mall in Richmond) are particularly egregious because they are windowless, dark, dreary, terra-cotta circular monstrosities. I'm glad that newer malls I have experienced are returning to simpler layouts that are easier to navigate. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A picture of lemons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/17/2004 11:51:46 PM ----- BODY:

    This picture - taken shortly before I flew back to London - shows lemons growing by the garage around the back of Kerry's house. They were left uncommented upon - no big deal - they grow all over the place, all over the world. But if you're from less sunny climes, there's still something miraculous about lemons just growing untended. As if it were perfectly normal! With no one saying, "Ooh! Lemons!" or taking any special interest whatsoever. As I took a photo of them, Kerry's next door neighbour cycled around the corner and gave me a very peculiar look as if to say, "Why's that guy taking pictures of lemons? That's so lame."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reactions to being back in the UK... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 2 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/17/2004 11:58:39 PM ----- BODY:

    Well of course it's the jet-lag that makes tired and frustrated with the UK. It's the jet-lag that makes me want to be part of a larger and more productive internet community. It's the jet-lag that makes me begrudge the local weather. It's the jet-lag that makes me jealous of the extended social networks and friendships that my gay friends in the States appear to have. It's the jet-lag that makes me miss actually going outside and having fun for a change rather than beating myself up about not doing enough extra-curricular work activities. It's definitely the jet-lag that makes me angry about how much everything costs here. It's almost certainly the jet-lag that makes the rent on my flat the same as a beautiful three-bedroom house in Korea Town. It's got to be the jet-lag that makes me pine for a city with a beach or a bay or hills or features or views. Grr. I will be fine in a couple of days.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Appeal for Broadcast Assassins.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/18/2004 12:29:45 AM ----- BODY:

    Public service announcement: Basically the BBC is doing a session in a couple of weeks (March 8th) in London exploring the impact of new technologies on viewing / listening behaviour and they're looking for volunteers to come and spend the afternoon with some key managers from around the organisation (or something like that). I don't have a lot of details about the project, but I think there's a nominal contribution for the day and people who participate will be doing something good and positive both for the BBC and for all of us who end up consuming stuff that the BBC produces. If you're interested in participating then you have to fill in and return this questionaire as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, I can't attend as I work for the BBC (annoying but true), but I'd be interested to hear how people got on...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An Archaeology of Browsing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/18/2004 02:07:04 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a weird sensation. I'm trying to install a Photoshop upgrade at two in the morning, because i'm jetlagged and can't concentrate on work but can't sleep either so I'm procrastinating. And in order to install said upgrade I'm going to have to restart my browser. So I start the process of closing down windows and tabs and adding them to a little bookmarks stash and I'm about forty-five tabs down (and about half-way through the process) when I start finding clumps of windows that I opened during presentations at ETCon. One browser window is full tabs stuffed with ubicomp and networked objects sites, another is full of robot-related material. As I grab the URLs and stuff them in a folder for later, I start to realise how clearly I remember navigating to each of the sites and how I'd determined to keep them for later. Suddenly I'm back in the auditoria, next to Phil and Paul keeping notes and listening for the hum of the infinity of extension cords that litter the carpet around us.

    If they'd all been hand-outs, I'd have them in my hands - little grubby bits of paper stacked in piles here and there, clogging up bags and boxes and bookcases. Every so often I'd glance inside them to find one thing in particular and a wave of nostalgia and association would fill my head. That is - at least - until I finally snapped and threw them all away. Now until this point I'd always assumed that the web was getting rid of interactions like that - that our relationships to sites were transitory and fleeting - but now I'm not so sure. The act of "saving" and the act of "having open" are gradually merging and I can foresee a time when I haven't closed my browser in months rather than weeks and in which I've managed to accumulate thousands of open windows across a whole range of applications. The stuff near the surface will be the stuff I've been working on recently, but I'll be able to do an archaeology of my own browsing when I'm bored and filter through the collected papers, throwing away the things that no longer have any relevance to my life. Will we start wanting to transfer documents in their open states between computers when we upgrade? Will we expect a computer desktop to be as persistent and never-changing as a wooden one? When someone famous dies, will the biographer go through their enormous accumulated browser cache to find out what they were interested in five or ten years ago?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow EMAIL: doctorow@craphound.com IP: 216.126.84.58 URL: http://craphound.com DATE: 02/18/2004 04:46:20 AM IIRC, the first Unix port of Netscape uncovered a bunch of really slow memory leaks that had remained hidden in the Win and Mac builds because the OS always crashed before the bugs went critical. The *nix versions were the first ones to stay up and running for days on end, which pointed out these weird, minor, cumulative bugs. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@NixSpam-groc.org.uk IP: 81.133.29.40 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog DATE: 02/18/2004 07:04:58 AM errr... isn't it more likely you've developed a rather idiosyncratic way of working? I've certainly never heard of anyone working like that before... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 02/18/2004 08:00:07 AM Are you kidding? I work exactly like that, as do a lot of people I know. It's why some people like virtual desktops and OmniWeb 5's new workspaces feature. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: jon@curnow.org IP: 213.235.7.195 URL: http://www.musak.org DATE: 02/18/2004 12:50:52 PM I find a similar thing using Mozilla's history function which I have open in a side bar. I can't, however, foresee a day when I would be comfortable leaving a whole stack of open tabs on a browser without committing them to bookmark groups. Once I've actually bookmarked it I do tend to tidy the clutter away making it like my real desk - only I tidy the paperwork into the bin. I am intrigued by the notion of active note-taking and collaborating via the network in a conference setting (never having done it myself). Isn't there a temptation to wander of to other parts of the web when the speakers are dull? Does it change the way people present if a large number of the audience are connected? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Trevor Smith EMAIL: trevorolio@mac.com IP: 64.171.186.195 URL: http://trevor.smith.name/ DATE: 02/18/2004 04:13:07 PM Screw the journaling file system, I want a journaling desktop. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Grove-Stephensen EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 81.133.202.52 URL: http://www.chalkface.com/catalog/html/custom/index.html?c_category_id=213 DATE: 02/18/2004 06:40:33 PM I keep expecting Safari's "open in tabs" feature to work in reverse, and then being disappointed when it doesn't. I want to bookmark all the tabs in one window into a single folder, and preferably make a few notes on the folder at the same time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rich Gibson EMAIL: rich@testingrange.com IP: 209.204.151.85 URL: http://www.testingrange.com DATE: 02/19/2004 09:58:07 PM I had the same experience in coming back from etech! There is something interesting about sets of browser tabs-they reflect not just the temporal, I opened this before that, but add in a bit of topical organization. I really like Ian's suggestion of being able to bookmark all the tabs into a single folder. I use del.icio.us, so I've got the ability to file things away reasonably quickly, but still I loose that feel of a whole area of discourse being open at one time. ----- PING: TITLE: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/archives/002551.html URL: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/archives/002551.html IP: 207.44.220.31 BLOG NAME: Peter Van Dijck's Guide to Ease DATE: 02/18/2004 03:07:53 PM An Archaeology of Browsing...: "So here's a weird sensation. I'm trying to install a Photoshop upgrade at two in the morning, because i'm jetlagged and can't concentrate on work but can't sleep either so I'm procrastinating. And in order to... ----- PING: TITLE: Browsing history URL: http://soreeyes.org/archives/001163.html IP: 193.111.200.5 BLOG NAME: Sore Eyes DATE: 02/18/2004 11:38:22 PM Tom Coates, having left his web browser open for a few weeks and accumulated quite a stack of open pages sitting in the background, thinks keeping lots of browser windows open even if you're not going to return to them for a couple of weeks might just ... ----- PING: TITLE: Window Overload URL: http://www.infovore.org/archives/2004/02/index.html#000189 IP: 212.187.158.83 BLOG NAME: Infovore DATE: 02/21/2004 12:09:21 PM I understand what Tom's going through; so many times I've ignored an important application update because I basically have too many things open to close. Of course, your definition of "too many" will depend on who you are. When Safari... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Do weblogs need Terms and Conditions? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/21/2004 01:05:12 PM ----- BODY:

    So here's a thought - albeit a short and unconvincing one that hasn't really got much of my heart behind it - about the problem of weblog comment spammers. For those of you who are unaware of the phenomenon, basically it's pretty simple: if your site is linked to by a well linked-to site, then Google ranks you higher in search results. Therefore if you're someone with a desperate need to exploit the unhappy, unconfident or socially awkward by selling them Viagra or weight-loss drugs or 'the banned CD', the apparent best way to claw that little bit further up the greasy pole is to start posting specious comments on people's weblogs filled with links to your commercial sites.

    Or at least that's the theory of the soulless evil self-interested wankers who undertake such activities. God knows if it works or not - certainly Google's algorithms aren't public. Moreover, there was a suggestion a while back that only links in which the link-text reflected something on the linked-to page would count for their weighting. So it might not work at all. Nonetheless, it continues and as it does so, each and every time, another weblog owner starts to feel more and more disillusioned with the web in which they operate and about the unscrupulousness of their fellow man. The perpetrators of this kind of spamming aren't committing crimes against humanity, but they're still basically scum. They're people who would spit in your face if you couldn't stop them and they could make a few cents out it.

    There are a variety of 'solutions' to this kind of problem of course, with some being instituted in Typepad as we speak while others (like MT-Blacklist) have been developed by third-party developers.

    One possibility that occurs to me that's less technical in scope is a "Terms and Conditions"-style tick-box that you have to click when you post a comment. In the Terms and Conditions could be a statement that posting a comment constitutes an agreement that you will not link to any commercial sites whatsoever and that anyone who does so has basically entered into a tacit agreement to pay for whatever the length of time that link remains on the site at the rate of $100 a day (rounded up to the nearest day). You could then bill the sites concerned via their addresses in whois and take them to the small claims court if they didn't pay-up. I'm fairly sure this wouldn't work on the whole but it might put the wind up a few people and make them think twice about it. Has anyone got any other suggestions?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adina Levin EMAIL: alevin@alevin.com IP: 24.206.111.164 URL: http://www.alevin.com/weblog DATE: 02/21/2004 05:20:52 PM No commercial sites whatsover is too strict a standard. Most of the time I comment on blog posts as me. But sometimes I'm responding to a post that mentions my company specifically. We get product questions and even got a tech support question from Twisted Librarian once by blog. In that case, I'll sign as Socialtext (no link for the local policy :-) That's not spam in that case, it's the identity behind the comment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: quis EMAIL: me@quis.cc IP: 172.191.210.63 URL: http://www.quis.cc DATE: 02/21/2004 06:15:46 PM It seems generally like a good idea which might put a few people off. What though if some even-less-scrupulous type spammed a weblog advertising the website of a rival? Then it would be an innocent party getting billed for the damage. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Grove-Stephensen EMAIL: ian_gs@chalkface.com IP: 81.133.202.52 URL: DATE: 02/22/2004 09:31:16 PM Outside of LiveJournal, how many blogs are genuinely uncommercial? Most of the bloggers I read, certainly, use their blogs to support their careers in one way or another. So I'm not sure you can draw a clean distinction between commercially and non-commercially motivated posts either. Perhaps we should look to the operating principle of open wikis, that it's quicker and easier to undo a post than it is to create it in the first place? (no link but if you want to find my unashamedly commercial blog, dig a bit at chalkface.com). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike EMAIL: foo@foo.com IP: 82.35.54.220 URL: DATE: 02/23/2004 12:15:54 AM Like this. And then this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chujoe EMAIL: duemer@clarkson.edu IP: 24.59.48.143 URL: http://chujoe.net DATE: 02/23/2004 12:42:54 AM I actually tried this a while back, with amusing results. You can find the account of my adventure at: http://chujoe.net/archives/000182.html (I'm just pasting in the url because I don't know if your comments are set up for html. jd ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ed EMAIL: edmittance@yahoo.com IP: 82.32.32.59 URL: http://www.soulpacific.com DATE: 02/25/2004 04:43:49 PM soulP is a totally uncommercial collective of individuals who love the web as it offers us the chance to talk, write, comment and we even met for the first time recently and all that stuff, which was very exciting, but the infliction of rabid spam rubbish on every comment box is enough to tip us over to violence (an unsaid expectation), so i guess any solution would be satisfactory. I'd say a process solution which stumps the bots and makes normal humans think first is the way. The soulP editor and the chief tech will be awake soon and this shall be discussed (after their huge fits of antipodean rage no doubt) and we shall let you know too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 192.154.91.225 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 02/25/2004 05:39:40 PM Ian: well, none of the blogs I read regularly are commercial or about promoting the owner's career, and most don't even have adverts. I suppose the possibility exists that some are writers and use their blogs as advertising, but given the content I doubt it. Incidentally, I recently installed MT-Blacklist and it's great. I particularly like the option to check all your comments for spam and delete automatically, which makes it much easier to deal with a mass attack. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ed EMAIL: edmittance@yahoo.com IP: 82.32.32.59 URL: http://www.soulpacific.com DATE: 02/26/2004 09:14:40 AM Well, the lads have decided to ignore and move on, with references to boing boing and dive into mark, while waiting for further developments in MT. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One tiny tweak on Yahoo! STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/21/2004 01:52:11 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. I'm probably missing something really obvious, but while everyone's talking about how Yahoo! have now relaunched their search without Google and while everyone's debating whether it's better now or not, why has no one commented on the really really obvious failing of Yahoo? That failing being, of course, that when you go to their bloody site your cursor isn't automatically in the search box!? It takes me twice as long to search for something on Yahoo as it does on Google and involves me fiddling with my trackpad. What an idiot design decision (and such a simple one to fix).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@consumedmag.org IP: 195.137.47.187 URL: http://www.consumedmag.org/front/blog DATE: 02/21/2004 01:59:39 PM Well, it seems that using IE (on the PC at least) the cursor is automaticallly placed in the search box, although it isn't when using Firebird. Before I checked, I thought that one explanation could be that Yahoo! have done this on purpose so that users are forced to spend a few moments longer at their portal. With Google, the focus is the search engine. At Yahoo! they want you to read all their lovely advert- I mean content, with the search being just one option for finding what you're after. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.137.122 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 02/21/2004 02:14:43 PM Yeah I thought this might be the case. It seemed like it was too unlikely that they wouldn't do something like that, except it's a bit of a statement of slack online behaviour for a major search engine not to let its most important page (of the two basically important ones) cater properly for alternative browsers. Still, I should have checked with my PC using friends first. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil EMAIL: phil@gyford.com IP: 217.154.6.98 URL: http://www.gyford.com/ DATE: 02/23/2004 10:07:33 AM On the other hand, overriding the browser's default behaviour like this isn't that great if you want to use Mozilla's Find As You Type -- if I start typing when the page has loaded, expecting to jump to a link somewhere on it, I realise my typing is all ending up in the search box. Very annoying, although I realise that in the real world this affects almost no people, and I am used to the behaviour on Google - I'm just showing there's another side of the coin. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My visited countries... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/21/2004 02:09:01 PM ----- BODY:

    I've visited seventeen countries so far (I'm sure I've left some out), and if I could remember the names of the places I went to in America I'd do the dedicated map for that too. But I can't. Why not play too: Create your own visited country map.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Countries you have visited URL: http://www.drsnet.org/radley/2004/02/countries_you_h.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: DRS's Radley weblog DATE: 02/21/2004 03:09:16 PM Online travel diaries are becoming More and more common. World66 allows you to build your own map of places you've visited. Mine are depressingly Northern and Western. create your own visited country map or write about it on the open travel guide Link ... ----- PING: TITLE: I have succumbed... URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/archives/000252.html IP: 209.68.2.78 BLOG NAME: Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen DATE: 02/23/2004 02:03:01 AM Everyone else has done it... So, I figured I might as well join the "Where have I visited" Bandwagon. Thanks to Tom for providing the link to the map generator. I have visited 60% of the States in the U.S... ----- PING: TITLE: Vizitat 7% din ‰£ŸÉri URL: http://www.timbru.com/jurnal/2004/Feb/vizitat_7_din_tari IP: 66.98.182.73 BLOG NAME: aah, nebunii de-ale mele... DATE: 02/23/2004 10:47:02 AM Harta e generatŸÉ pe un sit web, gratuit. Pescuit la plasticbag.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few beautiful images... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/22/2004 11:28:54 PM ----- BODY:

    A few beautiful images from daily dose of imagery:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Monday, March 22, 2004 11:42 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/040322b.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 03/28/2004 05:28:22 PM Check out daily dose of imagery. Some amazingly beautiful photographs. I like this one a lot. [ via Tom Coates ]... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Creative Commons and attribution online... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 02/29/2004 12:34:51 AM ----- BODY:

    Imagine a circumstance where someone was building a weblog aggregator like Haddock Blogs, but imagine for a moment that they were doing it with the full text of other people's weblog entries, sectionalised by theme and with the name of the writers put by them (like a byline), but without any link back to the site where they originated. You might have to look pretty close to realise that the posts didn't originate on the aggregator site in the first place. That would seem, well, wrong to me - like a kind of passing off. But as far as I can tell, there isn't a single Creative Commons license that wouldn't allow someone to do that with your work if they wanted to perfectly legally. There's something weird there about the nature of attribution on the web, I think, that maybe doesn't sit too well with the concept of attribution named in the Creative Commons licenses. Naming an author isn't enough to attribute online, you should be making a connection with them...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.166.90.166 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org DATE: 02/29/2004 12:47:14 AM We're in the process of updating the licenses (we're in a public discussion period right now), and the attribution requirement is being stepped-up to require this. I can't remember the exact language but it's something like requiring that people attribute others using the technology available (hyperlink if it's on the web, mention by name in the credits for movies, liner notes/ID 3 tags for music files, etc). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 81.129.133.19 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/drift/ DATE: 02/29/2004 03:49:44 PM That's good to know, Matt - I had assumed most people would already take 'attribution' to imply linking when it came to re-publishing on the web, but had a bit of bother recently when someone used an interview I'd CC licensed on their site. The interview was credited to me, but without a link and, therefore, without the full context of my original introduction, the interviewee was, arguably, being misrepresented, and a link to the interview in it's original context would've fixed that. Admittedly, the whole thing was my bad for picking a license that allows modification of the text in question, but clarification of what 'attribution' means in different contexts would certainly have helped sort the problem out more quickly. (All that said, since my site is UK-based and the offending site US-based, I honestly have no idea whether the license actually applies in a meaningful legal sense...) ----- PING: TITLE: Talkin' about a revolution URL: http://www.dotcoma.it/archive/013292.html IP: 204.2.106.75 BLOG NAME: d o t - c o m a *:o) DATE: 03/02/2004 08:59:02 AM Don't you know They're talkin' bout a revolution It sounds like a whisper Don't you know They're talkin' about... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On DowningStreetSays.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/01/2004 11:02:31 AM ----- BODY:

    So here's a useful and interesting application of weblog-style publishing using Movable Type: downingstreetsays.org - yet again demonstrating how useful it is to have a relatively standard format for publishing date-organised sites. The site contains transcripts of the daily briefings that Downing Street give to journalists - in itself profoundly useful - but also opens them up for further debate around webloggia by giving them a fixed reliable and stable URL, having built-in comments and even building in trackbacks.

    So far - apart from the beautiful and conceptually appropriate logo - the design is pretty sparse. But it's also highly functional - in fact the only UI/IA/interface things I can see that I'm not totally convinced about are the URLs and the implementation of trackback - both of which look like MT defaults. The URL structure at the moment uses basic MT post-numbers (rather than title or date) as the basis for the file name, which works relatively well if nothing goes wrong, but don't work terribly brilliantly if you're forced to reimport entries at a later date. If that happens, you end up having to purge your MT installation's database completely, as otherwise it'll number all the reimported posts sequentially up from the last post added (ie. post one of 300 ends up being reimported as entry 301, with a URL to match). There are any number of articles on sorting out MT URL structures so I won't go into any more detail at this pointl.

    My issue with the implementation of Trackbacks is - I think - more rooted in aesthetics than usability. I'm probably alone in thinking that having a separate page for the Trackbacks is an error and that the URL to ping to shouldn't be made visible (but instead reached only via autodiscovery). Personally I consider the overt description of Trackback jargony and confusing, a bit of usability no-no and basically unnecessary, but (from what I see on other people's sites) I may be alone in believing that. Again, I don't think I need to go too far into my reasons in this post. I've written a lot about this stuff before: A microcampaign to turn on autodiscovery).

    Otherwise, I have to confess that I think this is a bit of a first-stage triumph for the mysociety crew and is exactly the kind of thing they should be doing - simple, clear sites using mostly off-the-shelf technology to do valuable and constructive things that add to the value and utility of the web (particularly with regard to public service matters) but which probably wouldn't be natural projects for individuals in their bedrooms. Well done to all involved.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org DATE: 03/01/2004 12:25:50 PM i'm totally with you on trackbacks - essentially i think they need the geekery to be removed: make it all work seamlessly in the background and become integrated into site design... i do think it's a usability issue, at least for the unversed and uninterested, for whom trackbacks could be really important and useful tools if they weren't quite so obtuse. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Olivier Travers EMAIL: olivier_travers@scifan.com IP: 80.172.0.231 URL: http://www.oliviertravers.com/ DATE: 03/01/2004 01:24:30 PM No, you're not alone about trackback! I've always found the name itself baffling, and the concept could definitely be made more explicit to the layman. It's even more geeky (in a socially awkward way, i.e. meaningless to outsiders) than "ping." In fact, I didn't make trackback explicit on my sites yet for that very reason. I think I'll call them "remote comments" and more or less merge how they look with local comments. And even if I don't totally hide the trackback URL, I'll probably make it more discreet than the usual "trackback" link. By the way, I see you created a "best of" category which I happen to be doing too as I'm recategorizing my whole archives after a migration from Blogger. Let's start a meme! (Or did you start doing this long ago?) ----- PING: TITLE: Different models for engaging with government online URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/001073.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 03/01/2004 09:39:02 PM How would you like your e-government? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Festering in my head... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/01/2004 11:46:35 AM ----- BODY:

    The secret of successful weblogging is - it seems - never to pause for a moment. Never let the fact that you're kind of not in the mood for a few days to stop you putting some old crap up on your site. Because the longer you leave it, the more pressure there is to make your return worthwhile, valuable, interesting. I am currently backlogged with about three weeks worth of things I feel I need to say - mostly about ETCon, but also about online communities, social software, ConCon and politics - but I know now that I'll never manage to get most of it out onto the page. Had I not been so self-indulgent about making it perfect, then anything useful I had to say would actually be out there doing some limited good rather than festering in my head. It's all terribly frustrating.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: How To Post URL: http://llib.org/archives/000959.html IP: 207.216.8.177 BLOG NAME: llib.org DATE: 03/01/2004 05:06:50 PM Festering in my head "he secret of successful weblogging is - it seems - never to pause for a moment.... ----- PING: TITLE: Quoting this post in full is easier than writing something myself... URL: http://www.reusability.org/blogs/brian/archives/000481.html IP: 129.123.72.103 BLOG NAME: Object Learning DATE: 03/02/2004 12:26:15 AM With apologies to Tom Coates of plasticbag.org… The secret of successful weblogging is - it seems - never to pause for a moment. Never let the fact that you’re kind of not in the mood for a few days to stop you putting some old crap up on y... ----- PING: TITLE: Telephone, C, Secret of Blogging URL: http://www.zoctagon.com/archives/000044.html IP: 66.199.237.31 BLOG NAME: Zoctagon DATE: 03/03/2004 08:25:37 PM I may or may not have mentioned that I want a PDA, because I do. Over at engadget, Peter Rojas' new venture, I noticed a picture of Motorola's new MPX300 PDA phone. It has WiFi, Bluetooth and a built in... ----- PING: TITLE: catching up URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/040320-catchingup.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 03/22/2004 11:55:17 AM Finally, as Tom Coates noted: "The secret of successful weblogging is - it seems - never to pause for a moment." Scoble took a blog vacation. A mere week! What a wimp. Try taking eight weeks off, and then catching up in one post ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What is the future of typing in public? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 03/01/2004 12:30:56 PM ----- BODY:

    ETCon is a conference like no other. This is not because of the quality of the speakers but because of the type of audience it gets and the culture that has self-generated around it. One of the most notable features of the ETCon culture is in the near-permanent and overt use of the laptop during sessions. It is not an exaggeration to say that half the people in the auditoria will have a computer open during a keynote. It's not an exaggeration to say that a significant proportion of those people will be multi-tasking enormously - finding a massive variety of ways of interacting with each other around the main topic of discussion.

    There will be an IRC channel - co-occupied by (1) the kind of attendees who can't work at home without having fifty windows open on their computer, the TV on with the sound off and loud trance music pounding into their frontal lobes and (2) those poor unfortunate long-distance virtual hecklers who couldn't get out of work or couldn't afford to participate in person who spend half their time trying to work out what's going on and the other half of their time trying to get someone to ask questions on their behalf.

    There will be the SubEthaEdit gang (a group I fear I belong to), whose mission will be to attempt to get the clearest transcription of the event in question and who may or may not require the discipline of writing to help them keep everything in their heads. There are a variety of sub-types of SubEthaEditors, including the blind transcribers, the commenters and the newbies. This year I fell into the role of blind transcriber, by dint of being able to type faster than most people. I hoped that other people would amend the notes around the place, and fix any errors I created, but - on the whole - SubEthaEdit this year for me became more of a broadcast experience.

    Then there are the people who are surfing the net, or posting direct to their weblogs, or throwing files between each other over iChat or AIM or who are playing with the subject of the talk in question (cf. Ludicorp's piece on Flickr, are actually trying to finish off their own papers or (as I often think might be the case with Cory Doctorow) paying their bills, organising their next speaking gig and knocking out a draft of their latest novel.

    All in all then, the experience of ETCon is of a place in which a hell of a lot of people do a hell of a lot of typing.

    At ETCon this year, Cory Doctorow did a piece on e-books that I've talked about before. His argument is that e-books can't compete with paper at what paper does best. The DRM'd versions of novels that only allow you to read in a linear fashion - well these aspire to be 'proper' books, but they can't hope to reach that level because of the absence of viscera. E-books simply aren't attractive, engaging, smelly, textural or beautiful objects. This kind of e-book may be portable, but you still can't take it into the bath with you.

    But why should e-books be operating only at the level of what paper does best? Why shouldn't they concentrate more on what they can add to the experience. If you give out a plain text version of your novel, then so much more becomes possible that wasn't before - grepping / cutting / selective printing / copy & pasting / running simple scripts against / reading in any platform in any place and at any time / distributing and redistributing. If viewed in this perspective, then the gestalt of the paper book and the e-book is enormously potent. And if you take away the e-book, then the paper book might seem - well, broken.

    At ETCon, that's how those of us who are continually backchannelling think the experience of the conference for those without backchannel wifi-enabled social access to the concurrently written-into-existence e-conference must be. Those people who don't engage in the larger conference are having a truncated experience of the event. It's as if they'd decided to walk into a paper with a blindfold on.

    I say all of this because I'm aware how odd it can sound. Since my return to the UK I've been to two events - one was ConCon, and there simply weren't enough power-points to allow people to be engaged in any signicant degree of back-channelling. But then the papers were summaries, they were truncations, densely-packed contextualisers that served little purpose other than to inspire questions. ConCon was of a scale where the size and social dynamics of the group meant that back-channelling was simply less necessary. And even here typing went on here and there, unremarked upon, normal.

    The other event I've attended was the AIGA UK event at the Design Council where representatives of the BBC spoke. And there a very different dynamic was in place. I was pretty much the only person in the room with an open laptop - trying to take very sparse and occasional notes (given the paucity of power-supplies) - and it became very clear to me very quickly that in a room of roughly 100/150 people, the muffled noise of my very occasional typing was considered to be rude and intrusive. The assumption was that I was doing stuff that was not related to the event concerned, that I was demonstrably not engaging with what was going on and that the open laptop was a direct affront to the spirit of the event. And in the meantime, I wanted to follow up some of the points online, I wanted to explore the issues more fully, I found myself passing my laptop to a neighbour so that he could see what I was thinking about. Much like a book without an e-book, the event seemed a little broken without a backchannel, without wifi. And I seemed to be the only one who noticed.

    A couple of years ago I wouldn't have been surprised by this attitude, but after two ETCons it seems vaguely archaic - particularly when surrounded by an apparent fraternity of highly web-literate Londoners. But it's not limited to London - Stewart reports going to Infest in Vancouver and discovering an environment in which large numbers of geeks go to a conference and feel absolutely no need to backchannel, no need to have their laptops open, no need to note-take or collaborate or discuss in parallel.

    So I wonder to myself which way are we moving. Are we moving more towards a ubiquitous computing presence where laptop note-taking at events and back-channelling are more common than now, where it breaks out of the individual contexts of ETCon and spreads more widely into other geek conferences, discussion-based events or even into work or conversational meetings. Or is this kind of overt back-channelling going to remain the provenance of a very particular clump of conference cultures - perhaps only percolating elsewhere in a more backgrounded, perpetual but less overtly lean-forward kind of way.

    In essence what I'm asking is: What is the future of typing in public?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.133.124.182 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/01/2004 12:34:38 PM Having written this, of course, the first thing that leapt into my head post-Oscar night was how horrific it would be to go and see a movie and be surrounded by people back-channelling their comments in real-time about what was going on onscreen. So let me start right off by saying that god knows I hope there'll be limits to this kind of back-channelling whichever way it goes. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rich Gibson EMAIL: rich@testingrange.com IP: 209.204.151.85 URL: http://www.testingrange.com DATE: 03/01/2004 09:14:58 PM To support note takers, Schuyler and I posted our talk online. This included the outline which was used to automatically generate our html slides. In theory, a person could then edit their own copy of our outline in real time. We also included a link to download all of the slides, the outline that produced the slides, images, sample scripts, a copy of some other stuff that we thought was relevant and the full documentation for the GRASS GIS system. In practice, I don't really know how it worked for the audience, since I was in the front, but in theory I really wish the people who gave the talks I attended had done that... http://maps.nocat.net/tutorial/index.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 195.92.113.67 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 03/02/2004 10:21:59 AM I suspect that overt back-channelling is more of a social/cultural artefact than a "feature" peculiar to technical conferences. Herd instinct implies that laptop use will increase, but remain less prominent in other arenas. As for the future? Well, that's easy. In the future we'll all be able to back-channel without the use of a keyboard. One day, the transhuman elite will be able to communicate "telepathically" via devices implanted in their heads. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ross Mayfield EMAIL: rossmay@earthlink.net IP: 67.112.122.3 URL: http://ross.typepad.com DATE: 03/02/2004 09:20:01 PM Not to be commercial here, but we have provided Eventspaces for 10 conferences now, not all of them tech and very different participants than at Etech. Its fulfilling a natural desire to actually participate when people come together. ----- PING: TITLE: What is the future of typing in public? URL: http://www.nedrichards.com/archives/2004/03/01/typing_in_public IP: 212.13.208.194 BLOG NAME: nedrichards 'So Much Writing In The Air' DATE: 03/01/2004 03:11:01 PM Comments on this post One possible future was mapped by Neal Stephenson in Snowcrash with his description of 'gargoyles', people who are continuously and compulsively recording, back channeling and the like. As I remember they tended to be ostracised a... ----- PING: TITLE: BBC: the Bromsgrove Bloggers Collective URL: http://www.headshift.com/archives/001075.cfm IP: 217.199.183.127 BLOG NAME: Headshift DATE: 03/01/2004 11:42:52 PM Lots going on in social software for group and network collaboration, and very rewarding when you can help people take the first steps towards using it practically ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The problems of visualising social networks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/01/2004 12:50:13 PM ----- BODY:

    From a pithy and somehow true post by Stewart Butterfield on the problems of creating visualisations of social networks:

    Artist/curator friend Mark Soo did a piece for one of the Infest openings where he visualized the curators' social network using balloons with people's names printed on them as the nodes and ribbons tying them together as the edges (the data comes from "invites" he got the curators to send to one another). This was a great, inviting, tactile "graph manipulaton interface". But the reason I liked it so much was that it really brought out the problems of social networks visualizations as a way of learning about the networks being visualized: too confusing!

    He also cites a few examples of some of the attempts to visualise them - the problems should become self-evident:

    Two things immediately occur to me - firstly how do we as humans make sense of this data in our everyday lives (because we're incorporating at least some of it into our mental models, surely, and understanding that would make it easier for us to enhance those models rather than creating new ones that create nothing but cognitive overload), and secondly What would Tufte do?.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Carden EMAIL: web@tom-carden.co.uk IP: 81.86.166.237 URL: DATE: 03/01/2004 10:18:38 PM WWTD? Why don't you ask him? http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Carden EMAIL: web@tom-carden.co.uk IP: 81.86.166.237 URL: DATE: 03/01/2004 10:21:54 PM Or, indeed, chime in here: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00018F&topic_id=1&topic=Ask%20E%2eT%2e ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: g@moltenglobule.org IP: 81.57.39.153 URL: http://transient.moltenglobule.org DATE: 03/02/2004 06:04:21 AM I think the way you display the data is linked to how you want to use the information. I assume browsing the data to understand relationships is important, and tagging the paths you like for retrieval would be a good thing. The data -as it's represented- is flat, looking at the structures in 3D might help. Imagine a real-time browser of the dataset, where you can zoom in and leave breadcrumbs of your journey, highlighting people and places. Paths leading from a person (or people) could be reduced to minimal or complex branches, like a phylogenetic relationship -in these cases you can mute (grey out) extraneous data and create a 2D representation of demonstrable paths. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark EMAIL: mark@mamliza.com IP: 80.178.148.227 URL: DATE: 03/02/2004 08:10:16 PM you should check out Huminity "Google of people" at www.huminity.com they plot maps of the person connections ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Judy Breck EMAIL: jbreck@nyc.rr.com IP: 66.65.66.92 URL: http://judybreck.com DATE: 03/03/2004 02:05:04 PM The obstacle to creating visual representations of social or other complex networks is that nodes occur redundantly. You cannot visually represent Maryís relationship to her pals Sue, Betty and Louise in the same visual network as Maryís spot in the piece of the network comprised by her and her siblings because Mary appears in both sub-networks and none of the other individuals do. It is at best very messy to depict even two sets of relationships simultaneously. In the overall web of the people in her life Mary is redundant over and over, if you will, showing up in many configurations of different individuals. Tufte and the rest of us will, I think, never be able to reflect this visually. The wonderful thing is that we have the amazing new expressive powers of virtual representation in digital networks in which we can capture and manipulate the redundancies, calling up the relationships at will of Mary and her friends or Mary and her siblings. Because this new medium is dynamic and interactive, we can visualize what we need at the moment. Doing so is a big step toward mirroring thinking. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 207.140.66.1 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 03/04/2004 05:11:55 PM Off the top of my head I can think of reasons why these maps are wrong: they are the partial external link to people, without explaining what kind of relationships are there, and they are not a map or model even, but a byproduct. We do develop mental models of relationships, but these are based on concepts such as attraction, ideology, affinity, coincidence etc. These maps lack that subtlety and resolution, and simply jumble people together: You would need different resolutions for different kinds of relationships, redundancy assigning different weights, and definitely more than 2D to indicate the closeness and weight of appreciation for any person. And just like a mental model of a city is not related to the geographic city itself, but to your interactions with it, our mental social models are based on how we interact with people and the stimuli we exchange, the messages that comprise our joint activity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: derek EMAIL: derekt@rocketmail.com IP: 216.254.118.15 URL: http://e-piphany.com DATE: 03/09/2004 02:22:12 PM Just rambling here. If this is to be done in two dimensions, I propose any mapping be comprised of fading ink, that will indicate the connectedness of individuals. Less visible is a great metaphor for not well-connectedness. Someone not well-connected hardly deserves an equal spot in the overall network. As they become connected, they come up on the radar. Size of the individual symbol or text could symbolize how integral the individual is to the network. ----- PING: TITLE: Visualizing Social Networks URL: http://www.blogosphere.us/archives/2004/03/01/visualizing_social_networks.php IP: 209.216.203.28 BLOG NAME: blogosphere.us DATE: 03/01/2004 02:44:19 PM Tom Coates asks "what would Tufte do?" when it comes to the problems associated with visualizing social networks. Tom rightly points out that we're constantly using our social networks in our daily lives, but when it comes to visualizing thei... ----- PING: TITLE: The problems of visualising social networks URL: http://erikbenson.com/morale/links/2004/03/index.html#006376 IP: 69.0.240.46 BLOG NAME: Erik Benson's Morale-O-Meter DATE: 03/01/2004 04:59:55 PM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2004/03/the_problems_of_visualising_social_networks.shtml... ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.abstractdynamics.org/linkage/archives/001927.html URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org/linkage/archives/001927.html IP: 66.33.213.5 BLOG NAME: linkage DATE: 03/01/2004 08:59:23 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | The problems of visualising social networks...... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On a difference between wonks and geeks... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 03/01/2004 09:18:55 PM ----- BODY:

    Here's a suggested difference between geeks and policy wonks that might go some distance towards making the two groups get on with one another better. It is my contention that the two groups simply have radically different registers and types of interaction. Policy wonks - like all politically oriented people - are encouraged to think in terms of combative point-making. The most respected and well-thought through acts of Parliament being those that have been fought over the most. The most convincing politicians are the ones who have solid positions that they can stick with and defend. Political life is a combative life, with positions being tested and retested before they're taken out into the world. In terms of doing things you want to know that the thing you're going to do is the right thing before you get too far down the line, particularly when the consequences of getting things wrong are so potentially enormous.

    The life of the creative geek community is very different. The atmosphere of an event like ETCon is not one of absolutist positions (or at least it is on occasion but it's mostly frowned upon), but of gradual accretion, iteration and development. Particularly (but not exclusively) in those realms where development requires time but not a lot of capital investment, ideas are thrown out into the world to see if they'll stand or fall. Those that succeed are iterated upon. Those that fail are either abandoned or taken further by other groups who will try to solve the errors and mistakes that surround them. In terms of making things, each new idea is expected to be flawed and clumsy and full of holes and everyone knows it and works from that point onwards. It's the model of the technologist community as competitive craftspeople, and it operates on the assumption that whether something will be successful or unsuccessful / useful or useless is something that must be left up to how people interact with it and its take-up with a community. You make it the best you can, in the way you think is right, and let the world decide if you got it right...

    I think this is the distinction that explains why there are so many disagreements between the groups. One group looks for immediate application where there may be only potential. One group sees possibility where there is no immediate practical benefit. And in talking to each group, you have to use a different register. There's no point talking RDF to policy wonks, because they'll see no application until you can show them something made with RDF that they consider actually politically useful. And there's no point telling technologists that their creations are politically naive, because they'll consider them works in progress, building from a position of naivety towards - in time - something legitimately useful and ground-breaking.

    It's a difficult job - understanding which register to use in which circumstance - but it's an important one for those people who have to straddle disciplines. Because one way or another they're going to have to work with geeks or wonks who will by necessity have a very different mind-set. Being aware of the distinction will not only create the possibility of legitimate discussion (and minimise the possibility of large cross-disciplinary enmities) but also inspire actual creativity to emerge between the disciplines...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: mboyle@NSmikel.org IP: 66.46.77.3 URL: http://www.mikel.org/ DATE: 03/01/2004 10:42:36 PM Can you provide a little context for this? I'm not at all convinced that there is a yawning divide between policy wonks and techies. The examples I can think of - Lessig, the W3C - certainly don't have a problem with the uncertainty of technology. And the model you identify geeks as being comfortable with is how I see the legislative/policy development process. Entrenched positions don't get one very far there - compromise and experience are key (well, that's idealized, but anyhow)... Maybe I'm missing something here? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Andrews EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.32.7 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 03/01/2004 11:00:25 PM Is policy-making not also iterative? Consider the initial steps, they being the identification of a problem by an individual or small group of individuals. Then several possible solutions are kicked about amongst individuals, with increasing momentum telling until a majority-agreed solution evolves into a motion, then a green/white paper or bill. Published to competing ideologies and opinions, a bill will be subject to several revisions before eventually being passed to the upper chamber, which may also propose revisions or seek to block the proposal entirely before it has a chance of becoming legislation. In the months and years after the solution passes into legislation, policymakers will keep a close eye on its progress and look to tweak it as is fit. Broad ideologies may be firmly entrenched, but surely democracy can be argued to be an evolving, iterative doctrine? By contrast, it could be argued that the geek sphere is particularly attuned to point-scoring. Witness the hackers and crackers keen to be first, crack best, bring down the biggest website or develop the neatest tool before the rest. Despite ideological differences, isn't politics more consensual than that? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.133.124.182 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/02/2004 12:26:38 AM Well it's quite possible, of course, that I'm talking about a very particular kind of geek and a very particular kind of wonk. I think there may be an element of truth to that, but I also think it goes slightly deeper than that. Think about the acts of legislation that you're talking about and all your iterations moves are - as it were - before launch. Although the law will be revised after the fact - and any changes will necessarily be entered into with that understood beforehand - legislation must, on the whole, have been bashed around and unpicked and sown together by those experts behind the scenes almost indefinitely before it will become law. The 'release' of a law that people are agreed beforehand to be bad or clumsy would seem counter-productive. Among a large group of organisations and individuals creating software and websites online, it is absolutely normal. I'd love there to be a some kind of concept of a political beta law that's in effect and usable but might break down under a variety of circumstances, and which requires feedback from the general public, but unfortunately - in its purest form - that's not particularly practical. At the moment there is no conceptual test-bed into which multiple competing laws can be thrown to see which ones will inspire further work on those laws or become recognised as useful in their own right. Move this iterate-first model into the think-tank kind of environment and you're working exclusively from research, precedent, extrapolation and model-making. Policy-making is the paper prototyping in which the paper-prototype becomes the thing itself. Now of course, if you work in a commercial organisation or have your own company, exactly the same restrictions apply (albeit to a lesser extent). You can create a project, but you really should attempt to iterate in-house if you want to keep a certain competitive advantage, you should attempt to do research and work through all of the issues involved before launch, you have to make sure that your product is at a usable form. But this is a function of business, not of geekhood. The geek model, alternatively, has culturally been one of attempts to get things right to an extent in private before launch, but also to allow or even encourage immediate feedback and subsequent rapid iteration in the wild, with the result that there's proliferation of alternative versions of intriguing models followed by live competitiveness, and the gradual success (fast or slow) of one or two models over the many that existed beforehand. This could be a function of our place in the history of computing and communications, of course. I could also talk about the difference between arguing a point and demonstrating a point as a cultural difference, but maybe another time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.158.178.194 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 03/02/2004 07:52:14 AM Very interesting... its worth thinking about DEMOS and their supposed 'open source' model of policy development, which does (in theory) release beta model policies, if not beta model laws. It's also worth considering the role of the US in the UK policy scene. With its 51 legislative bodies (including the Capitol), the US is where UK policy-makers look to see what works and what doesn't. Our welfare policy, for instance, is born out of watching various States setting up policies and seeing which ones "stick", to use geek parlance (for the record, Wisconsin stuck). Now what about rebuilding the intelligence services around collaborative geek principles... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Cronin EMAIL: james@unfortu.net IP: 132.185.240.121 URL: http://www.unfortu.net/~james/ DATE: 03/02/2004 01:04:21 PM Maybe you hang around with nice geeks too much? I know many who are highly combative and some who consider social niceties like concensus forming and listening to others as something to be optimised out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.32.7 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 03/02/2004 01:25:58 PM It could be argued that the geek model's propensity to release products which work "to an extent [but] encourage immediate feedback" would be irresponsible in the public sphere. It works well enough in the open source community, but Microsoft, for example, is now on the ropes for releasing buggy software and fixing it later. All kinds of policies are subject to pilots (perhaps analogous to your "political beta"?), and these, too, serve the basis for concrete policies and best practice. But such heavy reliance on developing policy in the wild as you go along, as with software rewrites, might not wash in, say, the health service. Also, I would've thought immediate (and prior) feedback would have been built in to the democratic system as a pre-requisite. The problem is, most people seem to have forgotten that. Interesting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.174.216.31 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/02/2004 02:00:16 PM To James: I don't necessarily mean that they have to do consensus forming, but that they understand that you build something and stick it into the wild that SOMEONE will take the idea if it's any good and take it further. Whether you like it or not. I mean Dave Winer is not a particularly play-nice-with-others kind of man, but he understood that there was no way that he could put RSS out into the open in such a way that it would either not be (1) ignored (2) not adopted but fiddled around with or (3) adopted AND fiddled around with. The equivalent would be creating a law that was just roundly broken and wouldn't work at all and might even be damaging if it was widely adopted (but all laws are by their nature widely adopted) and then waiting for subsequent versions to fix those problems until such a point that everyone decided they'd go along with the law and agree to it. To Rob: In terms of software and websites, the Government actually don't produce that much generally - and when they do it's in this interplay between areas that they have to operate. But certainly, with regard to LAWS and the like, it would be EMINENTLY irresponsible for a government to put a beta law into play. That's why the attitude has developed in such a fashion - because there is no simple Darwinian 'market' or 'community' for laws to achieve dominance within or demonstrate their utility inside. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee Bryant EMAIL: lee@headshift.com IP: 81.86.117.89 URL: http://www.headshift.com DATE: 03/02/2004 07:08:08 PM Tom, I think you make a very good point here, as it happens. Of course, you are dealing with archetypes, but if the archetypcal wonk could learn from the iterative shared-development-of-ideas model that many geeks are comfortable with, then we would end up with better policy. The adversarial nature of much that passes for politics and policy making is one of its principal weaknesses. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org DATE: 03/04/2004 07:35:27 PM Mmmm. I think you're a bit off-base here. Geeks and policy wonks both work iteratively, but within various sized circles and in different ways. OK, Tory and Labour policy advisers are unlikely to work in conjuction with one another, but then developers from different technical organisations won't likely work too closely with each other on particular products. The entire geek world is not open source. In fact, since laws are generally based on simple principles and discussed openly in media and politics, they could be considered more collaborative. We all have a say, whether we know anything about politics or not. In computer terms, laws *are* put into beta; they are trialled, they are tested, they are given small spheres of influence to experiment in. The problem is that these trials - and the laws which are subsequently enacted - have far-reaching consequences. They can't just be released and then worked on some more, without a lot of work. Law 1.0 and Law 1.1 might well occur, but there's a lot of damage that could happen in between. You're not buying a single product from a political party. You're buying an entire ethos. It's not about cherry-picking what works best for you, and building a package from that: it's about choosing which is better suited to your ideals. That, maybe, is what is wrong with oppositional politics; there's not enough compromise on success rather than ideology. But then again, when something works, it sticks. That's why we've had the NHS for 50 years, through governments of the right and the left. But I think it's wrong to imply that there is too much that politicians could learn from the working methods of technical development. It's just too cosy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Morris EMAIL: tom@bbcity.co.uk IP: 146.227.4.18 URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom DATE: 03/04/2004 09:50:15 PM You think you've got problems? Just try and explain the concept of a wiki to a group of lawyers! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Margherite EMAIL: margh@dca.net IP: 209.204.104.66 URL: DATE: 03/09/2004 03:36:21 PM Yesterday I had the opportunity to observe a fascinating lessons-learned from a systems integrator-type geek vis-a-vis some major player U.S. policy wonks. A summary of his rather agitated discourse -- U.S. policy wonks are constitutionally incapable of deciding what they want from a project and speccing it. He went on to note that cultural differences between the Arab policy wonks, who not only decided and specced but also bought a beta and submitted it to rigorous testing and scaling, and Western indecisiveness might account for the difference. Us back-office folks now have a challenging migration project (the beta is working, but the subsequent product is obsolete). But the early adopter was much more interested in function and results, while the U.S. policy wonks remain stalled on the decision process itself, and the technology developed onwards. Since the current product has been discussed as a major component of a national ID system, including the U.K.'s, does our systems integrator have a valid point? ----- PING: TITLE: Democracy 2.0? URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk/archives/analysis/democracy_20.php IP: 69.93.19.132 BLOG NAME: roblog DATE: 03/07/2004 07:54:34 PM Interesting discussion over at plasticbag.org, where Tom suggests politicymakers should adopt the geek community's iterative, test-and-improve model for lawmaking: I'd love there to be some kind of concept political beta law. There is no conceptual tes... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the "Air Ministry"... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2004 10:26:51 AM ----- BODY:

    There are many organisations in my working life that I have decided - retroactively - to refer to as the Air Ministry:

    "You can have any combination of features the Air Ministry desires, so long as you do not also require that the resulting airplane fly," said Willy Messerschmidt, preeminent World War II German aircraft designer.
    [From The Humane Interface]
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 03/05/2004 11:03:10 AM Well that one is getting forwarded round work. How very apt and succinct. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On shopping with MacUser... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2004 04:48:52 PM ----- BODY:

    This is the second time it's happened and it's as weird as the first. On the bus this morning I was reading the latest issue of MacUser (nice magazine redesign, shame about the old-style Mac typeface in the logo) when I find myself reading about myself.

    Back in the real world, Tom Coates has been blogging from his trip to Los Angeles, lamenting the lure of the Apple Store and that all-so-familiar dilemma of need versus want. "The shoes that I needed to replace last year at ETCon are still firmly on my feet. And I have no new clothes of any sort. I do, however, have an enormous pile of stuff from the AppleStore and a desperate salivating urge to go back and blow another £200 on a new iPod. I only wish I could claim to be surprised by this turn of events.

    Weird. In case anyone is interested, I did not buy an iPod after all, although I kind of wish I had. I bought an iSight, which I can recommend whole-heartedly, some Apple earbuds that sucked ass with such commensurate skill that they should set themselves up with a business catering to the needs of Hollywood celebrities, and some rather useful and not-available-here Apple-oriented screen-wipes. Since my return I have bought myself shoes by the same company as my last pair (I'm not a great shoes man) and basically the same green as my last pair went after a couple of years. So in the end, everything worked out OK, I guess...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On e-mail as a means of exchange... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 03/05/2004 06:50:31 PM ----- BODY:

    I've had lots of conversations over the last few years about ways in which rising marginal cost could deal with grotesque abuses of online services. There are probably a dozen posts in this blog about that subject alone. Now the obvious example of a place where this kind of thing has been proposed has been e-mail - people have been talking about ways to get people to pay for e-mail "stamps" for years as a possible means of avoiding spam. Bill Gates has proposed another version of this scheme recently. His idea - ten-second pieces of computing time on the machine that sends the mail being given to some worthy cause (or to just solve some abstract puzzle). This would - apparently - be a gesture of good faith on the part of the sender that a spammer couldn't possible match.

    Now, my personal opinions about rising marginal costs have mainly been about how to deal with noise, distance and abuse in online communities. I once touched on the issue in connection with e-mail (only because e-mail was a suitable jumping off point) and ended up in an almighty fight with Cory Doctorow about it. Since that time, I'm still of the opinion that exponential graphs of effort or diminishing causality over space or increasing marginal costs (all features of the real-world) still have a role to play in how we solve gross abuses online. On the other hand I've seen no evidence that there's a model that works particularly well with regards to e-mail. Certainly my experience of sending the fifty or sixty e-mails I send from my personal account a day (and the other fifty or sixty that I send at work) wouldn't be radically improved by having my various computers churn through puzzles for twenty minutes a day.

    With regards to the 1p-per-e-mail approach - I'm still of the opinion that a more successful version would be about the redistribution of money rather than the paying of it. What if the person you sent your e-mail to got the 1p you spent to send it to them and could then use that penny to send an e-mail in turn to whosoever they wanted. In those circumstances, most users (who get as much e-mail as they send) would be financially unaffected, the spammed would get a financial reward for all the rubbish they were forced to consume (there might even be a legitimate business model in collecting spam) and the spammers would end up paying much much more money than before.

    This is not a new idea either, and nor do I think it's a particularly practical one, but it does present some interesting opportunities to think about e-mail in very different (ludicrous?) ways - perhaps eventually even as a unit of currency that you write upon and distribute. After all noted currency is only an abstraction of value written on a rectangular piece of paper - why shouldn't our future currency be based upon the transactions of plain text files...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Hall EMAIL: tim@kalyr.com IP: 81.135.36.219 URL: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog DATE: 03/06/2004 11:53:08 AM How would this work for email discussion lists? A straight 1p per email recieved would mean it would cost four quid to post to a list with 400 subscribers. And for a 100 message a day list, lurkers would get a quid a day just for subscribing! An alternative would be for the 1p to go to whoever's running the list server, and for there to be no payment to list subscribers. I wonder how this could be implemented technically in a way that couldn't be exploited by spammers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Glube EMAIL: john@learnsteps4profit.com IP: 65.95.121.11 URL: http://www.learnsteps4profit.com/spf.html DATE: 03/06/2004 09:18:20 PM Tom, Interesting post and thank you for the opportunity to comment. As an aside, think how boring the online world might become without abusive human behavior as represented by spam on the Internet to talk or rage about. No conferences on spam or online anti-spam discussion groups. Look at all the businesses which have sprung up to fight email abuse from filters to routers and everything in between. The development time spent on designing new solutions to plug the security hole in sending email or otherwise deal with spam. Publishers publishing, lawyers suing, legislators legislating, developers developing and the list goes on and on. What would we do? And were would be without our Technorati or Feedster? I am reminded of Rumpole of the Old Bailey as he raised a glass of his favorite claret at the pub to toast the criminal class. Of course, I make these comments somewhat tongue in cheek. Turning to your post, raising the marginal costs of sending abusive email is one potential solution and as you acknowledge has been discussed in the past. Apart from the solution itself, another problem as pointed out by the previous commentator is distinguishing between "legitimate commercial email" - for example unsolicited direct marketing email sent with prior consent(to use the terminology of the EU directive) and the stuff sent without. The underlying difficulty is the security hole in the mail transfer protocol. Therefore solutions like the Sender Policy Framework hold promise. At the same time, using concepts as being now being implemented with the Turn Tide Router (a network solution, as opposed to a sender solution) to raise the marginal cost, while seemingly differentiating between legitimate commercial email as defined and the ugly stuff have potential. However, even though both CAUCE and Microsoft like the Trusted Email Open Standard, to date, the internet access services seem unwilling to give up some element of control. Unfortunate. Thank you again for the opportunity to post my comments on this otherwise heart wrenching topic, which can seemingly almost raise people from the dead and cause the House of Lords to snicker about spam, spam, spam. Kind regards, John Glube Toronto, Canada ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.abstractdynamics.org/linkage/archives/001991.html URL: http://www.abstractdynamics.org/linkage/archives/001991.html IP: 66.33.213.5 BLOG NAME: linkage DATE: 03/05/2004 10:17:59 PM pay for email, with a twist... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few customised toolbars... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2004 06:57:51 PM ----- BODY:

    So it occurs to me that UI design for applications isn't easy at the best of times, and that one key area of UI design is the toolbar filled with icons that sits at the top of most applications. It also occurs to me that this space is one that can be edited and changed very easily by users - should they wish to do so. So then it occurs to me that perhaps there are usability lessons that can be learned from looking at the various custum configurations that people use on these applications and that applications should prompt users a couple of days after they have made significant UI changes to ask them if information about their new configuration could be sent back to the developers. It should then be relatively simple for the developers to keep a live track of which parts of the UI are most commonly adapted and to pull out statistically which configurations people find most useful (with the aspiration of being able to improve that structure over all subsequent versions of those applications). Until that day, here are a few of my customised toolbars:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.229.190 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com DATE: 03/05/2004 07:45:16 PM That's a good idea, but it would be annoying for anyone who wasn't regularly connected to the internet (which doesn't apply to any of the apps you listed). The same procedure could be used to get other useful information. Developers could put the most used menu items at the top of the menus, for example, after discovering which they are from user records. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 82.40.21.158 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 03/05/2004 08:16:22 PM Surely this then falls into the area (arena?) of company attitude. My professional experience working for a software company is that most of them are 'unapproachable'. Let's start with the beast - Microsoft - which although it has a myriad of contact forms, email addresses, forums and the like, you don't really get the sense that you are contributing (a good example is their KB articles which prompt you to rate their effectiveness - what happens to that information?? It's not easily found out). Most software companies, believe it or not, are keen to hear from their customers but don't want to place themselves in the position of actually having to deal directly with them. Factor in that most people only want to contact a company when something goes wrong... have you ever emailed 'Apple' and said "well done by the way". No I didn't think so. So what then? Well that's a different discussion and I've rambled on long enough.. In short - I agree with your sentiment but the practicalities are not that simple. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eden EMAIL: eden@justonebite.com IP: 66.171.46.236 URL: DATE: 03/13/2004 04:19:08 PM I've worked in application UI and can assure you that some (major) companies do just that, at least within their own releases: they track what customizations are made by users and that data influences the next rev of the design. However, the vast majority of users do no customization whatsoever, which leads to internal debate over whether the existing app is "perfect" or if people are satisfied or lazy. UI designers argue the latter, but execs happy with the position of their favorite features will always argue the first. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A critical mass of photograph swappers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Business CATEGORY: Business DATE: 03/05/2004 07:39:16 PM ----- BODY:

    Everyone at ETCon had a Mac. Or at least pretty much everyone at ETCon had a Mac. And pretty much everyone was using the wifi network in the conference rooms. And - much like last time - loads of people were using Rendezvous to instant message each other in iChat as well as to collaborate on documents using SubEthaEdit. Also this year, everyone was taking photos with their digital cameras. But one thing surprised me - no one was sharing their albums via iPhoto. When I was in Los Angeles I'd bought iLife because I wanted to play with Garageband, but when I started playing with the various applications I quickly realised that iPhoto's rendezvous sharing could be really really interesting and cool in an environment like ETCon. I kept thinking that there would be a whole culture in photo swapping and distributing snaps of speakers, nicking pictures of yourself from other people's computers, finding ways to annotate your own personal experience of the conference with the distributed materials of a few hundred attendees. But there was no such culture there.

    There may be any number of reasons why it didn't take off in that environment, of course. One possibility is that people feel different about photos than they do with playlists and music - more proprietorial, more nervous of sharing. Or there might have just been problems with the network. But I can't help feeling that it's a direct consequence of Apple charging for this particular update - and that the critical mass of people that you'd need to make an active subculture around that stuff will now not be reached...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Haughey EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.166.90.166 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org DATE: 03/05/2004 07:47:26 PM I wondered the same thing myself, then looked at my photo stash to see what I should share. I don't go around taking nude portraits of anyone, but there are loads of embarassing things in my iPhoto library. Stuff like 35 shots of my face in various poses when I was testing out a new portrait lens. There's a definite difference between how personal photos are and how personal my music collection is. One feels private and something to be guarded, the other is to be openly shared. You can limit sharing to only albums, and I could/should have made an etech album and left only that open to all, but I didn't think of it at the time. The other half of this problem is the interface is whack. Ideally, it'd be great if I saw a little photo icon in my iChat list for every buddy that had also opened up their photo galleries. Maybe a little music note too, to send me to their iTunes lists. And while we're making pie in the sky requests, tell iChat to let me share music and photos with buddies not on rendezvous, but aim. They're my friends and no matter if they're across the room or the Atlantic, I don't mind if they listen to a few of my mp3s or browse my latest gallery of images. Heck, this could be killer for finding new music to buy, by getting a look at what my friends are listening to most this week. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kasei EMAIL: greg@evilfunhouse.com IP: 216.52.235.101 URL: http://kasei.us/ DATE: 03/08/2004 06:54:20 PM I suspect that part of it is also that iPhoto isn't the only way to manage photos, and given iPhoto's rough start for large collections it might have scared people off early on. Unlike iTunes which is mostly the only game in town for playing music on the Mac, it's very possible (and perferable to some people) to import, hand organize, and browse photos using Image Capture, Preview, and GraphicConverter. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack Schofield EMAIL: Jack.Schofield@guardian.co.uk IP: 81.133.154.65 URL: DATE: 03/11/2004 02:24:38 AM "Everyone at ETCon had a Mac. Or at least pretty much everyone at ETCon had a Mac." Not true, Tom. I did a couple of counts and, in the audience, the numbers were pretty close to even. At the 2003 event, pretty much everyone did have a Mac, so that was a major change. At least one person took both an iBook and a ThinkPad -- me ;-) ----- PING: TITLE: 2004/03/07 15:37 URL: http://2lmc.org/spool/?id=4093 IP: 217.10.129.148 BLOG NAME: 2lmc spool DATE: 03/07/2004 03:41:14 PM Easy sharing for photos ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some pictures from the periphery of ETCon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2004 08:34:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Very late - here are a selection of pictures from the periphery of ETCon, pictures about arriving, seeing things unfold, being repacked and then finally departing. There are no pictures of the events themselves. They are in roughly chronological order:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why do bloggers kill kittens? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 03/07/2004 01:14:07 PM ----- BODY:

    A couple of days ago I posted a rather aggressive link through to 2lmc the other day complaining about their post Most read blogs least original which cited an article from Wired News called Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious (itself quoting HP's Blog Epidemic Analyzer - I could go on). My link read: "I've noticed that people are much less intellectually rigorous when they read articles that they agree with. Case in point: Most read blogs least original, says blech 2lmc".

    Since posting that, Paul and I have been having an extremely civilised discussion behind the scenes about some of the issues surrounding that article and our individual responses to it. I won't post his e-mail to me for obvious reasons, but I wrote such a lot in response (and I think there's enough stuff in it worthy or argument if not agreement) that I thought I'd post it up here to see how far out on a limb I was. I've added in some hyperlinks, edited a little for clarity and extended a couple of sentences here and there to make it readable in a larger context. Comments welcome as ever.

    Dear Paul,

    Firstly I should apologise for the link-text - I was halfway through writing a longer post addressing your post when I got distracted by work. When I came back to it, with the initial enthusiasm gone, I couldn't motivate myself to finish it. I had another seventy tabs open in Safari that were squealing for attention, so I thought I'd linklog my response instead. It came out a little more snipey than I'd intended, and for that I apologise.

    You say in your response that with regards to my site, you enjoy some of my larger posts but find my linklog slow on the uptake. I can't say that I'm surprised at the latter - my linklog is exceptionally slow on the uptake. It's that slow because I stockpile things that I'd like to write about in greater detail and then - when I realise that I'm not going to have time - I end up posting them on the linklog. I have some links stashed away in a bookmarks folder called "Backlog" that are at least four or five months old that will probably end up on the linklog at some point once I've finally accepted they're not going to have the fuller treatment they deserve.

    First things first, let me admit that I'd like to be the first one to post all of those links (or at least up in the first few). Certainly as an aspiration, to be first in the flow of sexy fat links would be glorious. But I want to make it clear that even if I can't get them out that quickly, I still see considerable value in getting them out way after the fact.

    My reasons are manifold. Firstly, we get straightaway down to the distinction between weblog as written for an audience versus weblog as written for me. Now clearly it's not just for me - I've have to change what I write on occasion because there are people out there reading (my mother, my brother, some potential employers) who I have to be aware of. I don't write in the same way as I did when I started. Then I could bitch about people I didn't like and talk about my life without feeling particularly exposed. I was talking to strangers with no impact on my life. Now I'm not. But while my weblog isn't any longer 'just' for me, it's definitely not just for an audience either. I use my weblog as a searchable archive - a repository of things that I've seen and read and that I thought were interesting, I use it to record thoughts that I think might be useful and that otherwise I'll forget. I use it as a notepad, as a chronicle, as a place to store my photographs. There's an interplay between trying to be fresh for other people and not really giving a damn about other people. I think this comes back to my understanding of a weblog as a representation of a person online - an avatar with a voice. A self-representation is about being both true to yourself and knowing how to self-edit in different circumstances. That's what a weblog is to me.

    Secondly I operate with an understanding of my links as a kind of microcontent vote (also here and here). It's the idea that by linking to something I say, "Yes - this deserves some of your attention - this is a good thing", and that the more sites that do that the more attention something will get. So by voting for something I like (alongside dozens of other people) that thing becomes incrementally more visible in Google, Blogdex, Technorati, daypop. Also, in turn, those people who don't read a lot of other weblogs but read mine also get exposed to it. And those other people who have weblogs may choose to pick up that link and post it to, thus exposing more people to it in turn - putting their votes behind it too. Massive link propogation (as far as I'm concerned) is not a bad thing at all - it's how the web determines what's worth reading.

    Now the other question posed in your piece is why people would come to a site like plasticbag.org or kottke.org or BoingBoing when most of the links on those sites come from other places. Well firstly, I'd like to state up front that I can't comment on where Jason or the BoingBoing crew get their links from. In my case, yes, it's certainly true that the links I publish have often been posted somewhere else first (either because I'm slow to publish or because I found those links elsewhere), but I want to make it clear that even in these circumstances there's you can characterise that behaviour in very different ways: is it mining for links as content on the one hand or is it collating the good things you've read on the other? I'd say it was more of the latter.

    With regards to why people read our sites, I imagine to an extent it's just because of the time we've been around and carrying readers with us since we started. (At this stage I should probably state out loud that I'm nowhere near in the same league as Jason and BoingBoing by the way - they're a full order of magnitude 'larger' than plasticbag.org). I would also imagine that they read us because on occasion our commentary or original work is valuable enough that people are prepared to read all the other guff we write or link to as well.

    But to be honest, I think the question is a bit of a red herring. First and foremost weblogs started off as carefully-selected links (maybe with commentary) to a whole range of other sites. There is an element to weblogs which is nothing but aggregatory and filtery in nature. Pretty much all weblogs (including 2lmc) find their links either from mainstream news sources, or their daily searches, or from some mailing list somewhere or from another weblog that they read regularly. That's absolutely normal behaviour. I suspect, then, that the main reason that people read our sites is because we're relatively consistent in the selection of links that the people who read our sites find interesting, wherever those links originally emerged from (and - in fact - however old they might be). To an extent (and this may seem tautologous), popularity has got to be to some degree correlating with how interested people are in what you produce.

    Which brings me to the question of originality. My weblog grew up online with 'via' links on weblogs. That was the way we did things. In fact I vaguely remember us starting to use them because at the time the commodity of a good link seemed the most valuable that any weblog had. As time has passed, I think the culture has changed a bit - and there are all kinds of reasons for that. Personally, I no longer often know where I found a link. I'll open up dozens of tabs from a cursory reading of my NetNewsWire subscriptions and then close down the windows that aren't particularly interesting to me. Then I'll store the pages that are interesting until such a point that I'm able to give them the attention I think they deserve. In that process I often simply lose track of where I found them. Moreover, the most practical structure of a linklog in my opinion is - well - a link. Nothing more. That seems to be the simplest and clearest way of referencing something, and as a result there's not even always a space for adding in a via link or a reference to the originating source.

    In fact as time has gone by, I've increasingly come to the opinion that links are everywhere and that referencing where you found the link alone is no longer quite as necessary or as useful as it once was. When I know the source and when I have the ability to link to it, I'll still make that reference, but nowadays I'm more interested in useful links to useful material rather than just a reference to the person who told me about it. I look for commentary - something I can actually cite that had a useful contribution to make on those links concerned (however short a line that might be). A lot of other people may disagree with this as a strategy - and god knows it's not something that I'm entirely unconflicted about myself. But I think if you consider that (as is most often the case) the originating sites are linked to anyway - "blog-rolled" in my sidebar - then I'm not sure it's as big as anxiety-producer as it might be.

    [Quick sideline: Andrew Orlowski gives webloggers hell for what he considers 'circle-jerk' or 'meaningless self-promoting cliquey' inter-linking or whatever, while other people who are not fans of weblogs and weblog-culture take us to task for not doing those things because then it's an elitist culture within webloggery.]

    With regard to the article at Wired and my slightly barbed comment that "I've noticed that people are much less intellectually rigorous when they read articles that they agree with", what I think is interesting about the Wired article (and quite a lot of the stuff that's written on the HP site) is that it's far from immediately obvious how many 'stolen' links exist, how accurate their linguistic analysis is (versus what the proportion of links use headlines or site-names and reference material that comes into the public arena at specific times, like - for example - a news story), or whether this kind of behaviour is limited to specific groups or cultures online or is rife without weblogs as a whole. Nor is it clear whether or not the originating sites are linked elsewhere on the weblogger's page. This is not to say that I dispute the results, but that I wait to be convinced that these questions have answers that could support the kind of headline, "Most read blogs least original", which really does appear to be almost Daily Mail-like in its bluntness and lack of any qualification. I have a feeling that the originating study will eventually demonstrate a rather more nuanced and qualified version of the picture - one with fewer value judgments imposed up on it. Because at the moment (Why do bloggers kill kittens), I suspect that they've been taken rather out of context...

    Yours, Tom Coates

    Addendum: Danah Boyd on Blog Attribution

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eponine* EMAIL: nozomiiqel@hotmail.com IP: 202.161.39.10 URL: http://nozomiiqelbefree.blogspot.com DATE: 03/07/2004 01:21:33 PM Apologies that this comment is not in reply to your entry above, but simply that I scrolled down and saw that you love 'Say it isn't so' too. I love that song and am a compulsive listener who had put that song on mp3 replay for days at a go. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick Barrett EMAIL: nbarrett@noos.fr IP: 212.198.60.13 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/ DATE: 03/07/2004 09:09:52 PM Thanks, Tom, both for your write-up of your travels and adventures and for this painstaking post. I've for once taken the liberty of quoting you at some length at my place (in 'Are Epidemics Bad for your Blog?), since you've raised several issues -- as have others -- on my mind right now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mearso EMAIL: mearso@mearso.com IP: 193.63.135.67 URL: http://www.mearso.com DATE: 03/08/2004 09:59:41 AM Fianlly motivated to jump in and post a comment after sitting on the sidelines with my orange armbands for a while and watching the rest of the bloggers frolicking in the water. The thing that you said that tipped me over the edge, was you relating how you use your blog. - as a repository for ideas and an archive for you to organise your thoughts. Initially for yourself and then for whoever else might be interested. I admire the candor that you show and effort that goes into your postings. You obviously think deeply about the use of blogs and wider online communities then feed that back into to yours. Right, done that, I'm just off to get a towel! ----- PING: TITLE: LinkLogs URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2004/03/07.html#a381 IP: 202.68.147.135 BLOG NAME: Conversations with Dina DATE: 03/07/2004 04:21:27 PM Its been such a busy period on the work front for me. ----- PING: TITLE: Weblog voice URL: http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/001352.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: BookBlog DATE: 03/07/2004 04:31:32 PM I think this comes back to my understanding of a weblog as a representation of a person online - an... ----- PING: TITLE: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/bloggy.html#001157 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/bloggy.html#001157 IP: 203.194.159.243 BLOG NAME: Links DATE: 03/07/2004 05:45:51 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | Why do bloggers kill kittens?... ----- PING: TITLE: The Missing Link URL: http://transient.moltenglobule.org/past/2004/03/Citations/ IP: 63.247.136.86 BLOG NAME: Transient DATE: 03/07/2004 07:51:21 PM An aggregate of links to older posts with some clarification. How most new mechanisms keep residual phenomena - regarding weblogs and Kitten Killers. ----- PING: TITLE: Are epidemics bad for your blog? URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/07.html#a506 IP: 212.198.60.13 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/07/2004 08:30:35 PM Still in rude and frosty vein, I buried myself deeper in my lunchtime reading, after shaking his hand, when Andr ----- PING: TITLE: Bloggers Kill Kittens URL: http://wizbangblog.com/archives/001805.php IP: 63.247.142.130 BLOG NAME: Wizbang DATE: 03/08/2004 01:34:15 PM The story about the Blog Epidemic Analyzer has jumped the shark, which is rather remarkable in that it's only a few days old. Still, Tom Coates defends the honor of popular blogs and dispels a lot of the hype about... ----- PING: TITLE: Something old, something new, URL: http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1730.html IP: 69.20.61.177 BLOG NAME: Sam Ruby DATE: 03/09/2004 04:48:21 PM ... something borrowed, something blue. What started me down this path was posts by Tom Coates and Phil Ringnalda. Together, they started me thinking about rethinking my original story vs. post dichotomy, and toward what is emerging as the blog sta ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why does my Apple laptop beep at me? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/13/2004 03:42:03 PM ----- BODY:

    Ok. It's driving me so mad that I'm forced in the end to appeal to the general public. My laptop appears to be beeping at me. Every so often - no more than once a day, for some reason which appears to be hardware-related (I'm not even sure it's coming through the Powerbook's speakers) it beeps at me. Two sets of two beeps in the form: beep-beep beep-beep, always the same tones. There doesn't appear to be any particular rationale for when it beeps, except that it could be related to whether it's on my lap or not (I've never heard it happen at work) and/or whether it's being charged (I don't think I've ever heard it beep when it wasn't being charged). It's really worrying me as I don't know what's causing it to protest. It could even be a bloody alarm clock for all I know (except that it doesn't seem to beep at any particular time of day). It's driving me insane - does anyone know what the hell is going on?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paulpod EMAIL: paulpod@mac.com IP: 82.35.86.71 URL: http://www.neuromantics.net/bunker DATE: 03/13/2004 05:55:48 PM Maybe it's just saying Hi? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: john@thebeard.org IP: 158.152.185.198 URL: http://soreeyes.org/ DATE: 03/13/2004 06:42:13 PM My flat-panel iMac did this to me twice last weekend. The first time I was completely unprepared for it, but the second time (the following day) I paid closer attention. It sounded as if the beep was coming from the system unit rather that through the speakers. There was no sign of any on-screen alert or any entry in any of the obvious log files suggesting that OS X had encountered a problem. I haven't heard it since, and my iMac is still operating normally, but naturally I'm curious as to what could have caused it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sebas EMAIL: plasticbag_comment@phase2.tv IP: 62.167.217.161 URL: http://www.phase2.tv DATE: 03/13/2004 06:50:12 PM "I don't think I ever heard it beep when it wasn't being charged." That sentence gave me a headache. So you are saying that it only beeps when it is on your lap and charging? Perhaps it's warning you that overheating might occur? No serious, my Vaio gets quite warm underneath when charging, don't want that on my lap. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: peter jung EMAIL: prj@mhcable.com IP: 24.105.197.12 URL: DATE: 03/13/2004 07:39:01 PM A few years back when I was new to the Internet, my computer hit me with an error message that said, "Your domain needs to be resolved." I'm still reeling from the existential shock of that moment.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jasmeet EMAIL: webmaster@jasmeet.net IP: 68.167.204.247 URL: http://jasmeet.net DATE: 03/13/2004 08:07:51 PM just a thought, try paying close attention to any running apps you might have. I had a similar problem a few weeks back, then I realised it was a Konfabulator widget making the sound all along. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Leary EMAIL: dfleary@pacbell.net IP: 69.110.20.82 URL: DATE: 03/13/2004 10:32:57 PM I had this exact same thing happen with a Powerbook 800. It would beep when charging. The resolution was that I needed a new AC power adaptor. I had Applecare and they sent me a new one free, but if you don't have it, you can get a 3rd party charger for as little as $50. Another symptom was that the green light on the plug that goes into the powerbook to indicate a full charge would not come on sometimes. It would usually come back if I wiggled the electric cord right near the plug. There was no correlation between whether the green light was on and the beeping, but the new power supply fixed everything. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kavi EMAIL: kguppta@hotmail.com IP: 64.229.237.237 URL: http://fingerpie.vze.com DATE: 03/13/2004 10:33:04 PM i remember kottke had a tick/pop problem with his iBook, maybe its of close relevance to his situation? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Newfred EMAIL: athw@newfred.com IP: 81.132.5.65 URL: http://www.newfred.com DATE: 03/13/2004 11:16:19 PM Sounds like your Powerbook has become infected by the Nokia message tone. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dave urmson EMAIL: switters@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 82.35.72.81 URL: DATE: 03/15/2004 02:10:31 PM ermm, it's not the ad on Wired website is it? it has the beep beep, beep beep. actually, not sure which ad on the front page it is, just that when i go there i get da beeps. d ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: monoclast EMAIL: monoclast@no-spam.please.hotmail.com IP: 144.189.241.170 URL: DATE: 03/15/2004 02:53:57 PM You might want to see if you can record the beeps in an AIFF file and put a link to it here so we can hear what it sounds like. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: CopyChief EMAIL: heend@sbcglobal.net IP: 64.204.130.180 URL: DATE: 03/15/2004 03:10:11 PM I, too, have heard an errant beep from my Mac -- it's an iBook. It's actually more one, constant tone that lasts about a second or two. I think it's coming from the hard disk (which is a brand-new Hitachi model, less than six months old), but it seems to happen fairly randomly... both when it's charging, and when it's running on battery. Weird. I just make sure I've got good backups in case it is, indeed, the HD... or worse. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sarah EMAIL: sam8063@hotmail.com IP: 63.161.12.129 URL: DATE: 03/15/2004 06:08:04 PM My iBook has beeped (and not through the speakers) for the last 2.5 years. While it was under warranty I called Apple several times, but they didn't have a solution. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: john@thebeard.org IP: 158.152.185.198 URL: http://soreeyes.org/ DATE: 03/15/2004 07:24:37 PM I don't know about Tom's iBook, but that ad on the Wired front page sounds very much like the beep I heard on my iMac, and I might well have had a page on the Wired News site open on the couple of occasions when it beeped at me. What a relief! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.23.166 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/15/2004 07:43:44 PM Oh my god. That's fucking terrible. It was the bloody advert on Wired.com - I go every couple of days and I'd simply never connected the two in any way. They should do something about that, it's been driving me insane with worry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ryan EMAIL: ryan_hoguet@yahoo.com IP: 24.5.44.178 URL: DATE: 03/17/2004 09:57:04 AM funny...because it only happened when it was in your lap, i was aout to suggest it was telling you it *liked* you... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ddm EMAIL: ibodywork@yahoo.com IP: 67.200.12.143 URL: DATE: 03/23/2004 10:17:28 PM Maybe it's because it was designed by Apple in California but assembled in Malaysia. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin EMAIL: kevin@kebeol.net IP: 213.78.105.187 URL: DATE: 03/30/2004 03:01:33 AM That was driving me mad. Well done for figuring out what it was :P ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joshua EMAIL: welded@canada.com IP: 154.5.82.156 URL: DATE: 04/06/2004 05:42:54 AM My Powerbook just beeped at me for the second time since I've had it (about 3 months). I don't recall the scenario around the first time, but this time the only application I had running was iTunes and Illustrator CS. After listening to the last few songs again, it turns out it was just a funny rip of an Alice In Chains song. Weird. Here i was thinking, "only a couple more weeks until I can afford a back-up hard drive!" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Patrick EMAIL: zaphire@cybcon.com IP: 208.186.116.132 URL: http://www.oceanstorm.org/ DATE: 05/12/2004 07:22:33 AM I've been getting this strange tone completely randomly now and then from my 667 G4 PB. The first time I heard it was about two months ago. I thought it was something in the office that did it actually so I ignored it. It happened about three more time between then and now. And then there's today. It happened again this afternoon just before I was getting ready to leave work. My boss said it came from my computer. I'm puzzled why my laptop would even make such a sound, especially when I wasn't even using it. Now here I am, 11pm, and it just did it again about ten minutes ago. Thats twice in one day! The only apps I've had open the whole time have been Proteus, Mail, Stuffit Expander, Photoshop (I was working on a new buddy icon), and Safari (which had no open windows). It has been plugged into power all evening, but it wasn't when it did it earlier. Anyone figure this out yet? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kalonica EMAIL: kalonica@pacbell.net IP: 64.161.31.250 URL: DATE: 10/09/2004 09:16:26 PM In the interest of archiving a phenomenon, I confess that I too have a beeping G4 17-inch powerbook (minted first run Aprilish 2003). Same symptoms: one random simple beep, not from the speakers, never more than twice a day. Can't discern any conditions that would give me reproducible results. Don't have to be online, using Airport, doesn't have to be in my lap, doesn't have to be running hot. Doesn't even have to be AWAKE! Happens at any time of day. Apple Store Palo Alto hadn't heard a peep about this beep, so couldn't give advice or warning. Hate to think it was something dying. Backing up like crazy just in case. Seems to be coming from behind, to the left. (???), but it has a ventriloquist quality of making me think some other errant device in the room is making the sound. Very interesting. If anyone knows what it is, let me know. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On faltering footsteps with PHP... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/14/2004 10:30:25 PM ----- BODY:

    Wow. What a frustrating few days. I've been working on a project in the background (not too exciting - don't get your hopes up) that vaguely involves PHP and I know nothing about PHP. I'm a programming weenie. You know - I do words and layouts and stuff. And occasionally ideas. So I've been throwing myself at it with profound diligence, concentrating like some kind of concentrating ninja on the task in hand. And after two days of as-much-concentration-as-I-can-manage-nowadays I find myself with something about a third done. And kind of done a little bit wrong as well. Thanks to Matt Biddulph for the PHP parsing guidance...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: On offering PHP help via Trackback... URL: http://blog.matthewman.net/archives/2004/03/15/on_offering_php_help_via_trackback.html IP: 64.23.0.69 BLOG NAME: Scott's place DATE: 03/15/2004 12:01:49 PM You know, when somebody whose website is required reading states that he's having problems with PHP, I want to offer to help him. But sensible soul that he is, he doesn't include an email link on his site -- and... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From pirate dwarves to ninja elves... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Humour CATEGORY: Net Culture DATE: 03/15/2004 11:36:40 PM ----- BODY:

    I have always considered the profound distinction between ninjas and pirates to be an absolute one. One was either ninja or pirate - there were no inbetweens. One personality type was skilled and proficient, elegant and silent, contained and constrained, honourable and spiritual. The other type loud and flamboyant, gregarious and unrestrained, life-loving and vigorous, passionate and strong. I thought all people must pledge their allegiance, or be categorised accordingly.

    The other day at work, another binary pair was presented to me - a co-worker who doesn't declare people pirate or ninja, but instead elf or dwarf. For him, humanity falls into doers and thinkers - elves being elegant and timeless, conceptual and refined, abstract and beautiful while dwarves are practical and structural, hard-working and no-nonsense, down-to-earth smiths and makers. It's a view of the world that's expounded a bit in Cryptonomicon.

    The wonderful thing about both of these classifications systems is how unladen they are with value-judgements. It is possible to consider an elven person to be intellectual and high-concept, or pretentious and useless. It's possible to view a pirate as boorish and crass or as vivacious and life-loving. It is not better to be ninja or pirate - the world needs both. And the creativity generated by the collision of elf and dwarf is far greater than could be achieved by elf or dwarven kind alone. Not only are there no categories that come prejudged inferior or superior, but also people have no problem self-categorising themselves - there's no shame to be felt in any of their self-classifications.

    Both systems have these qualities - but still we're left with a conundrum. Although so similar - the systems are different. So how to make them work together? Confronted with a collision between two such radically different ways of conceptualising the world, obviously our minds started working overtime. Could we find a way to map the two categorisation schemes onto one another? Could we declare all ninja's inherently elven? Or all dwarves intrinsically piratic? The more we considered the issue, the harder it seemed to achieve some kind of detente. And then it came to us - a new view of the world, transcendent and illuminatory - a way not only to make the two systems work together but to make each infinitely more illustrative in the process! At that moment the Ninja/Pirate/Elf/Dwarf theory of human classification came into being - and with it the crowning achievement of all managerial arts, the following graph:

    As you can see - the ninja/pirate polarity has become a spectrum. The elf/dwarf polarity has followed suit - it is now possible to exist directly between the extremes. But this spectrum is at right angles to the first, generating a person-space with an infinity of different potential placements. People now can be hardcore ninja dwarves, or err towards the piratic side of elfdom. Within this graph all humanity exists in all its polyphonic splendour.

    Think of some of the humble bloggers on my blogroll. Where would they live? Ben Hammersley has something of the pirate about him. This is not a restrained man of quiet honour, but a proud warrior of the sea - hair flowing in the breeze. But his skills are more evenly tempered between the conceptual and the practical - as best evidenced by his work on the schema for various syndication formats. His position is clear. Matt Jones is far closer to elf than dwarf, but as swashbuckling as a man can come. Not so Dan Hill, elven once more but evidencing the self-mastery and discipline of a true ninja.

    It takes little effort to spot the ultimate ninja's quiet responsibility and attention to detail in the work of Jason Kottke and Matt Webb and both straddle the technical divide between thinkers and doers. Mark Pilgrim on the other hand has achieved a balance between ninja and pirate, while plunging into the vigorous constructive heart of dwarvish ways. And so it continues - until I can map almost my entire blogroll accordingly:

    And it doesn't end there! You could plot people's operating systems against it - Dwarves being more Linux-focused, elves more Apple-oriented. Pure graphic designers have a tendency towards the top right, interaction designers are spread across the top. You can also deduce a lot about the people I tend to associate with online - there's an enormous clump of people on the pirate / ninja axis who aren't heavily elf or dwarf. In this context, this suggests a group of old-school web people who have tended toward balanced expertises across a range of disciplines. It's interesting how those people with more clearly defined job roles tend to move towards the corners too.

    Now it's over to you - take this epic revelation and place yourself within it. If you are a life-loving pirate with dwarvish leanings, perhaps you'd like to assemble a quiz to locate people against the axes like on that rather less important and trivial Political Compass site. I would love to help, but I'm simply not capable. What can I say, I'm an elvish pirate - I have better things to do with my time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: chuckg EMAIL: chuckg@blindmuse.com IP: 63.202.173.69 URL: http://www.blindmuse.com DATE: 03/15/2004 11:56:01 PM That was, simply put, one of the most informative, hilarious readings I have ever done ... granted I'm 21 years old and have alot more to experience. Myself? I throw myself more in the pirate elf extreme, both loud and boisterous but calm and calculating at the same time. Wait, that would make me ... oh you've confused me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 82.40.21.158 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 03/16/2004 12:15:55 AM Brilliant. An congrats on the Bloggies award too ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 17.201.26.221 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 03/16/2004 12:25:25 AM One question: where does Pulp Fiction's Beatles people vs. Elvis people disctinction fit into this? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J. S. Nelson EMAIL: jsnelson@altern.org IP: 24.0.213.140 URL: DATE: 03/16/2004 12:48:14 AM I hope we don't have to make this three dimensional. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Magnus EMAIL: jjuliuss@c2i.net IP: 194.19.20.183 URL: http://evirtus.net/ DATE: 03/16/2004 01:58:48 AM What a concept you've devised! :) At 02:52 (past midnight) it was a hilarious read and a damn good mind workout. And when thoughts of the 3rd dimension was thrown in... Congratulations with the Bloggie as well! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bonwell EMAIL: bonwell@creative-weblogging.com IP: 208.54.143.1 URL: http://www.celebrities-weblog.com DATE: 03/16/2004 02:52:37 AM But this leaves one major question to be answeredñ where does this put Jon Picking's character, "Chris the Ninja Pirate," in the grand scale of things? And he's neither dwarf nor elf, but a mushroom! Is there a fungal classification? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.191.70.96 URL: DATE: 03/16/2004 08:38:54 AM I'm sure that the followers both Plato and Aristotle appreciate being resolved into Tolkien's elf-dwarf polarity, Tom ;) (And really, Webb is so elvish, it's unbelievable. He out-Platonises me most of the time. Even rhizomatically.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mearso EMAIL: mearso@mearso.com IP: 193.63.135.67 URL: http://www.mearso.com/newblog DATE: 03/16/2004 11:37:27 AM I've always used the distinction of observer and participant. Though I like very much your elf,dwarf,ninja and pirate world view. btw I consider myself a lazy elf. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 211.29.196.110 URL: http://grudnuk.com/vm/ DATE: 03/16/2004 12:51:34 PM Oh, common, everyone knows these are false dichotomies! Well, actually, I'm saying this because I'm having trouble working out where I stand. I'm probably a wombat. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: cmk@start.no IP: 80.213.102.28 URL: DATE: 03/16/2004 03:01:29 PM Heeeelarious ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: nightdrake@hotmail.com IP: 192.223.163.6 URL: http://www.pornolize.com/cgi-bin/pornolize2/pornolize2.cgi?lang=en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.georgebush.com%2Fblog%2F&submit=submit DATE: 03/16/2004 04:34:38 PM I've seen major college papers written with less intelligent premise. You should turn this into a full length treatise... We could use the 3rd axis (depth within a 2D image in this case, represented by name size as perspective) to determine morality. I'm thinking monkeys (fat names) vs. hamsters (small names). So you can have elven ninja hamsters, and dwarven pirate monkeys. Just to give it that further overcomplicated feel. Oh, and lets try to include a 4 page representation of the chart via an allusion to a bicycle. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jc EMAIL: jc1@jeanettecline.com IP: 216.15.147.158 URL: http://www.jeanettecline.com/thoughts.htm DATE: 03/16/2004 04:36:56 PM I must say I totally love this way of personality classification! I would have to say I'm a piratish elf myself, other than an elvish pirate simply because my pirate side is somewhat more dominant than my elf side. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joerg EMAIL: joerg.diekmann@lta.org.uk IP: 195.110.173.222 URL: http://photos.fugacious.net DATE: 03/16/2004 05:01:44 PM Wow - a really good post. Also congrats on your bloggie, and essay. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nyrath EMAIL: nyrath@projectrho.com IP: 151.148.137.157 URL: DATE: 03/16/2004 05:42:05 PM Excellent! There is a similar concept in the old "Dungeons and Dragons" game. They have an "alignment chart" of character morals with one axis being "Good-Evil" and the other being "Law-Chaos". There is a political axis at http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm which is very much like the political compass. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joey deVilla EMAIL: joey@kode-fu.com IP: 216.40.39.5 URL: http://accordionguy.blogware.com DATE: 03/16/2004 08:35:05 PM Let me know if you want that "Pirate/Ninja/Elf/Dwarf" axis questionnaire written -- I'm interested! -- An Accordion-playing Fellow Bloggie Nominee ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lantzilla EMAIL: lance@nishihira.com IP: 64.236.139.249 URL: http://www.sonofapigfarmer.com DATE: 03/16/2004 09:47:15 PM One of the funniest reads today; you made my afternoon. I definitely fall into the ninja/pirate hybrid-elven category. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon Thjorska EMAIL: jon@fullcircuit.com IP: 81.168.92.63 URL: http://thjorska.livejournal.com DATE: 03/16/2004 11:39:12 PM I am a pirate elf, and I wave my sword in a menacing manner at the scurvy ninjas. Excellent classification system indeed, though a third axis might eventually be added. Then we shall stray into hypertime. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon Thjorska EMAIL: jon@fullcircuit.com IP: 81.168.92.63 URL: http://thjorska.livejournal.com DATE: 03/16/2004 11:40:02 PM I am a pirate elf, and I wave my sword in a menacing manner at the scurvy ninjas. Excellent classification system indeed, though a third axis might eventually be added. Then we shall stray into hypertime. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joshua EMAIL: zayyin_daath@yahoo.com IP: 66.177.171.168 URL: http://www.livejournal.com/users/doctor_hellfire/121760.html DATE: 03/16/2004 11:52:46 PM I have long held that the "Pirate/Ninja" classification was one of the utmost significance. Although our local vertical axis would have been "Cowboy/Spaceman". Still, I think the author has contributed greatly to this important field of study. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cal EMAIL: cal@sexygirl153.com IP: 209.87.135.69 URL: http://www.sexygirl153.com/ DATE: 03/17/2004 05:54:28 AM i'm not sure i agree with my categorisation. am i not ninja-like? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LNKakumanu EMAIL: lnkakumanu@yahoo.com IP: 203.200.22.181 URL: DATE: 03/17/2004 06:05:29 AM Great! Pattern recognition is commendable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MCSoySauce EMAIL: megadestructo@mailsnare.net IP: 155.212.205.170 URL: http://www.eastern-standard.com DATE: 03/17/2004 03:21:31 PM The only major problem is that, historically, ninja's were far from being spiritual OR honorable (quite the opposite, really). Stealthy assassins rarely are. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob Pierce EMAIL: address@example.org IP: 63.148.235.6 URL: DATE: 03/18/2004 01:28:18 PM I think some got his movies mixed up -- substitute "Samurai" for "Ninja" and you'd be closer, I think. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fairy / lumberjack EMAIL: eric@aquameta.com IP: 68.116.15.160 URL: http://www.aquameta.com/~eric/ DATE: 03/18/2004 05:21:53 PM If you want to take a bold step into the third dimension you could add the fairy / lumberjack spectrum. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gerry EMAIL: gerry@geraldgleason.com IP: 64.36.33.169 URL: http://www.geraldgleason.com/projects/blogs/gerry/blogcur.html DATE: 03/18/2004 11:01:27 PM You do realize that going to two dimensions isn't really new. A while back a number of people were talking about The Political Compass which is an effort to go beyond the typical left/right political spectrum. I think to really fully develop this concept, you need a many page questionare so that we may locate ourselves on your map. I'd probably end up somewhere in the middle probably a little bit toward the elves and ninjas. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lach EMAIL: plasticbag.org@illuminosity.net IP: 139.130.216.191 URL: http://illuminosity.net/ DATE: 03/19/2004 02:46:30 AM Why bother sticking to a lame 3 dimensions? Introduce a 4th scale, represented via the spectrum of colours. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rusty EMAIL: rusty@kuro5hin.org IP: 24.198.182.234 URL: DATE: 03/21/2004 07:47:50 AM Ninja dwarf here. I was assigned ninja by none other than Mr. Coates himself, and I have come to agree, but the dwarf is self-assessment. Are ninja dwarfs rare, or am I just reading the wrong blogs? Also, please note that for goofy uses like this, the correct plural is the Pratchett "dwarfs" and not the Tolkein "dwarves." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jinx EMAIL: kingston999@hotmail.com IP: 213.122.227.113 URL: DATE: 03/21/2004 09:47:57 AM Ever seen/read Naruto. He's a ninja with a pirate personality type. How does that fit into your classification ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: timbu EMAIL: timbu@timbu.org IP: 24.118.134.95 URL: http://timbu.org/mtblog DATE: 03/25/2004 02:43:42 PM Reminds me of something that used to appear on suck.com, when that was a going concern. It was shiny versus not shiny, useful versus useless.see the picture. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy EMAIL: mctaylor4000@yahoo.com IP: 68.46.101.179 URL: http://www.mcshasta.com DATE: 03/30/2004 05:56:06 PM A local flavor of this same concept is found in my own circles, with the use of robots and cowboys taking presidence over elves and dwarves. Pirates and cowboys tend to be less serioues, while ninjas and robots tend to be more serious, ect. Great job mapping it all out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Grim... EMAIL: plasticbag@hsmx.com IP: 80.177.39.142 URL: http://www.hsmx.com/ninpir/ DATE: 05/07/2004 05:42:09 PM I found this an intriguing idea, and I have made a quick website allowing groups of people to specify where they sit on the graph. You can take a look here: http://www.hsmx.com/ninpir/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gain EMAIL: Gain_mahoo@yahoo.com IP: 216.47.90.153 URL: http://nil DATE: 05/08/2004 06:46:48 AM dammit! what about sheer mindlessneess, like zombies or robots? and since both are frowned upon by their respective societies, what about heroic characteristics, like taht of a silver-screeen cowboy. the only possiblw way to group people is, to have a 47 dimensional graph, encompassing all of the things that have popped up. whichever way is more fun, i say! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Max EMAIL: max.niederhofer@20six.net IP: 81.6.227.82 URL: http://20six.co.uk DATE: 07/18/2004 04:06:44 PM hey tom, my girlfriend and i just tried to apply the scheme in writing evals for her work group and let me tell you it proved utterly worthless. amusing, though, no doubt. max ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Chmielewski EMAIL: chuma@dcsi.net.au IP: 203.94.150.10 URL: http://timchuma.com DATE: 08/18/2004 05:08:33 AM I saw this drawn on a wall in Melbourne a few months ago: http://photos.timchuma.com/kibology/piratesvsninjas.jpg Thanks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: WoodenTongue EMAIL: woodentongue@virtigo.co.uk IP: 154.32.46.2 URL: DATE: 08/18/2004 10:20:40 AM I *would* add a third axis, which I would call the Watchtower-Red Sandals axis. I would use this to characterise the way in which people approach issues and problems. Do they stand in the watchtower, look at the big picture and direct, or do they wade in up to their knees in gore and lead from the front. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: john_b5@hotmail.com IP: 192.35.84.8 URL: DATE: 09/15/2004 05:18:47 PM MCSoySauce obviously knows nothing about real ninjas, only their Hollywood bastardizations. ----- PING: TITLE: Yaar! URL: http://emptybottle.org/coasters/discarded/2004/03/yaar.php IP: 63.247.132.12 BLOG NAME: Emptybottle : Coasters DATE: 03/16/2004 09:45:43 AM Yaar!... ----- PING: TITLE: Yaar! URL: http://emptybottle.org/coasters/discarded/2004/03/yaar.php IP: 63.247.132.12 BLOG NAME: Emptybottle : Coasters DATE: 03/16/2004 09:46:04 AM Yaar!... ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.hopstudios.com/nep/five/2004_03.html#000502 URL: http://www.hopstudios.com/nep/five/2004_03.html#000502 IP: 66.84.18.35 BLOG NAME: Five Live Links DATE: 03/16/2004 06:37:05 PM Are ye a true pirate or a wily ninja? I ain't made up me own mind yet...... ----- PING: TITLE: Cryptonomicon Classifications and a Discussion on the Creative Commons URL: http://drowning.neutralevil.com/archives/2004/000070.shtml IP: 207.44.202.86 BLOG NAME: Drowning But Learning DATE: 03/16/2004 07:22:02 PM Ever since reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, I've been enamored with his description of Randy Waterhouse's classification system, where he describes people in terms of being dwarves, wizards, elves, etc. based upon the archetypes presented in To... ----- PING: TITLE: From pirate dwarves to ninja elves... URL: http://www.triptronix.net/ishbadiddle/archives/2004/03/16/14.25.58/default.asp IP: 192.220.171.31 BLOG NAME: Ishbadiddle DATE: 03/16/2004 07:26:39 PM I think I'm a pirate elf. What about you?... ----- PING: TITLE: It's alright, Mr President, the dancing fruit says it's all going to be fine. URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/dparchives/008164.html IP: 69.20.61.178 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent DATE: 03/16/2004 08:14:05 PM It's the Terror Alert Banana! As detailed here, our curvy dancing fruity friend will change colour immediately any evildoers are detected. The joy of XML data feeds, right there. I am a Pirate, it's official. Also via Tom comes... ----- PING: TITLE: Pirate/Ninja, Elf/Dwarf Compass URL: http://kwc.org/blog/archives/001335.html IP: 66.92.251.165 BLOG NAME: kwc blog DATE: 03/16/2004 08:22:31 PM There's no test for this - you have to rate yourself. It's like the Political Compass, but more amusing. Are you: 1) More Elf or Dwarf? 2) More Pirate or Ninja? For descriptions, visit From pirate dwarves to ninja elves...... ----- PING: TITLE: Wonderful Things URL: http://www.darkness.net.nz/archives/000397.html IP: 216.71.64.139 BLOG NAME: darkness.network DATE: 03/16/2004 08:56:06 PM Boingboing is loud and proud of being "a directory of wonderful things", and two of today's offerings are classic. If ----- PING: TITLE: Pirate / Ninja + Elf / Dwarf URL: http://www.numenor.ca/archives/2004/03/16/pirate_ninja_elf_dwarf.php IP: 24.87.45.99 BLOG NAME: numenor.ca DATE: 03/16/2004 10:06:36 PM Fun for the whole, um, blogroll! Rate your friends! Rate yourself! Much more accurate than the politcal compass! ----- PING: TITLE: Not much to say... URL: http://www.techgnosisweb.com/blog/archives/000160.html IP: 66.50.233.216 BLOG NAME: TechGnosis - Dig it. DATE: 03/17/2004 03:52:23 AM Don't really have too much to say tonight, a bit too mentally exhausted to post anything worthwhile, but I will at least warn you guys that there will likely be many more Second Life themed posts showing up than there... ----- PING: TITLE: Half-Elfin Pirate in a Ninja's Closet URL: http://www.zota.org/mt/archives/000225.html IP: 216.98.134.252 BLOG NAME: ZOTA DATE: 03/17/2004 04:29:46 AM pirate-ninja-dwarf-elf... ----- PING: TITLE: Pen Has Been Here Since Friday. URL: http://24fridays.com/mt/archives/000623.html IP: 202.37.218.2 BLOG NAME: Here Be Dragons DATE: 03/17/2004 09:59:20 AM The world is cool, and when you need to be reminded of that, you can witness such excellent things as... ----- PING: TITLE: From pirate dwarves to ninja elves... URL: http://www.synesthesia.co.uk/linkblog/archives/2004_03.php#000358 IP: 80.71.16.101 BLOG NAME: Synesthesia LinkBlog DATE: 03/17/2004 10:53:09 AM Tom Coates has found a new way of categorising people - the dwarf/elf and pirate/ninja axes... ----- PING: TITLE: How do you say, "Aye, arr!" in Sindarin? URL: http://www.hill-kleerup.org/blog/mtarchive/006269.html IP: 63.247.135.212 BLOG NAME: ***Dave Does the Blog DATE: 03/17/2004 02:31:58 PM Hey, look -- a new way of classifying people, on a two-axis grid. But it's not the usual leftist/rightist, libertarian/authoritarian,... ----- PING: TITLE: Teenage mutant ninja dwarves URL: http://memewatch.com/thelist/archives/2004/03/17/teenage_mutant_ninja_dwarves.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Meme List DATE: 03/17/2004 02:40:46 PM Ninja or pirate, elf or dwarf? Two more axes and we'll have a hipster Myers-Briggs thang going on. ----- PING: TITLE: Dwarves, Pirates, Elves and Ninjas URL: http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/03/dwarves_pirates_elves_and_ninjas IP: 216.110.45.174 BLOG NAME: JayAllen - The Daily Journey DATE: 03/17/2004 07:09:11 PM Me? Dwarven pirate, I think, although it would be interesting to hear my friends classify me. Brilliant system.... ----- PING: TITLE: “Arrrrr, Elron!” URL: http://akma.disseminary.org/archives/001242.html IP: 69.20.61.176 BLOG NAME: AKMA’s Random Thoughts DATE: 03/17/2004 09:05:50 PM Margaret and I had a dinner date last night, wherein one of the topics of discussion was “Where do we fit on the Tom Coates typology?” Margaret decided that she is probably a ninja dwarf of a somewhat elven sort; I, on the other hand, felt ... ----- PING: TITLE: Forget Myers Briggs URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/archives/000438.html IP: 80.71.16.101 BLOG NAME: The Obvious? DATE: 03/17/2004 10:31:54 PM What we all need is Tom Coates' Pirate/Ninja, Elf/Dwarf Compass... ----- PING: TITLE: plasticbag.org | weblog | From pirate dwarves to ninja elves... URL: http://www.davextreme.com/extremi/2004/03/index.html#a0001059981 IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: eXtremities DATE: 03/18/2004 12:58:48 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | From pirate dwarves to ninja elves... ----- PING: TITLE: taxonomographology URL: http://off.net/~shaver/diary/archives/001956.html IP: 66.246.133.2 BLOG NAME: shaver DATE: 03/18/2004 09:48:20 PM I have always considered the profound distinction between ninjas and pirates to be an absolute one. (“ology”, BTW, is for science)... ----- PING: TITLE: I'm a Ninja Dwarf! URL: http://www.gungeralv.org/notes/archives/2004/03/im_a_ninja_dwarf.php IP: 24.72.41.155 BLOG NAME: Notes DATE: 03/19/2004 02:36:42 PM Tom Coates has a two-axis scheme for classifying people that has made my day: From pirate dwarves to ninja elves...:... ----- PING: TITLE: Are you a pirate dwarf URL: http://www.ismckenzie.com/archives/002623.html IP: 65.61.204.1 BLOG NAME: Ian's Messy Desk DATE: 03/19/2004 03:29:02 PM or a ninja elf? I think I’m somewhere in the ninja dwarf quadrant. [[from Frank Patrick]]... ----- PING: TITLE: How the other side see it URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000877.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 03/19/2004 03:32:17 PM I was very impressed by Tom Coates' recent post on Ninjas v Pirates and Elves v Dwarves. As I'm also a pirate elf, though possibly more pirate and less elf than Tom, I resented the implication that I could be... ----- PING: TITLE: Ninja Elf URL: http://www.octapod.org/adam/mt/archives/000695.html IP: 203.12.146.250 BLOG NAME: Word up - It's the A-Dawg DATE: 03/21/2004 10:42:46 AM Take a career quiz with Tom Coates, you certainly won't be told to pursue a career in computing:... ----- PING: TITLE: elfos ninjas, anões piratas URL: http://www.spiceee.com/pensaletes/2004/03/22/elfos_ninjas_anoes_piratas.php IP: 63.247.72.82 BLOG NAME: pensaletes DATE: 03/22/2004 11:17:50 PM tom "platicbag" coates inventou uma teoria bem original para catalogar pessoas.... ----- PING: TITLE: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 10:40 PM URL: http://w-uh.com/index.cgi/posts/040323c.html IP: 208.36.168.50 BLOG NAME: Critical Section DATE: 03/24/2004 11:41:17 AM Tom Coates invents a new people classification system, the 2D Elf-Dwarf Pirate-Ninja scheme. One axis measures style: "Ninja are skilled and proficient, elegant and silent, contained and constrained, honourable and spiritual. Pirates are loud and... ----- PING: TITLE: Multiple dimensions URL: http://drzaius.ics.uci.edu/blogs/danyelf/archives/000122.html IP: 128.195.21.110 BLOG NAME: Made out of people DATE: 03/25/2004 05:08:55 AM Might you be a libertarian? Rate yourself on social and personal liberty Maybe you sit better on a multiple-axis personality set: Myers-Briggs from Extroversion-Introversion; Sensing-Intuition; Thinking-Feeling; and Judging-Percieving. Maybe the axes y... ----- PING: TITLE: Ninja Dwarf URL: http://www.agwright.com/blog/archives/000853.html IP: 198.144.192.42 BLOG NAME: alex wright DATE: 03/29/2004 09:23:02 PM Lowell pointed me to Tom Coates on pirates and ninjas, elves and dwarves: I have always considered the profound distinction between ninjas and pirates to be an absolute one. One was either ninja or pirate - there were no inbetweens.... ----- PING: TITLE: Differing Ninjas, Pirates, Elves and Dwarves URL: http://www.mcshasta.com/blog/archives/2004/03/30/differing_ninjas_pirates_elves_and_dwarves/index.php IP: 216.110.36.12 BLOG NAME: mcshasta DATE: 03/30/2004 06:00:33 PM I couldn't have said this better myself. From Plasticbag. I have always considered the profound distinction between ninjas and pirates ----- PING: TITLE: Don’t dream it, be it. URL: http://www.longstoryshortpier.com/vaults/2004/04/23/dont_dream_it_be_it IP: 209.239.37.46 BLOG NAME: Long story; short pier DATE: 04/24/2004 12:46:41 AM I don’t know how Kazu pulled it off: somehow, he got hold of Scott McCloud’s comics retrospective from 2054. I’ve seen preview pages—he’s only being slightly hyperbolic. Flight (vol. 1; vol. 2 is in the works) is a 208-pag... ----- PING: TITLE: re: How I Got Started Programming and My Thoughts on Women in Computer Science URL: http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2004/05/08/128363.aspx IP: 66.129.67.202 BLOG NAME: Sara Ford's WebLog DATE: 05/08/2004 09:58:31 AM ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'd like to thank the Academy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/16/2004 08:07:24 AM ----- BODY:

    I'd like to thank everyone who voted for plasticbag.org at the Bloggies, where I've accidentally picked up Best British or Irish weblog. I'm particularly surprised given given the quality of the other candidates: Going Underground's Blog, A Teenager Blogs, Greenfairy.com and The Big Smoker.

    More importantly, I'm genuinely delighted to report that I somehow won the Best Essay Bloggie as well for (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything. If anything I think that one is the more important to me because I spent a long-time writing that piece and thinking around it and I think it's one of the best things I've written. I'd love it if more people read it and responded. So thanks again to everyone involved!

    The big winner of the night was Boing Boing, who took home the Best American Weblog, Best Group Weblog and Weblog of the Year. I'm kind of surprised - given Cory's alleged nationality - that they didn't win Best Canadian Weblog too! Lifetime achievement rightly went to Heather Champ, whose creative output online has been astonishing for as long as I can remember. Well done!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave S. EMAIL: dave@mb.com IP: 12.100.41.91 URL: http://www.mezzoblue.com. DATE: 03/16/2004 08:53:47 AM "I'm kind of surprised - given Cory's alleged nationality - that they didn't win Best Canadian Weblog too!" You and me both, brother. You and me both, ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Foe EMAIL: foe@foeromeo.org IP: 82.181.1.130 URL: http://foe.typepad.com DATE: 03/16/2004 09:28:49 AM Bravo! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott EMAIL: scott@matthewman.net IP: 213.218.249.94 URL: http://blog.matthewman.net/ DATE: 03/16/2004 10:32:03 AM Many congrats, Tom. Both awards well deserved. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: dave@brainsluice.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 03/16/2004 10:33:44 AM Well done old chap! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: david@itchyhands.com IP: 219.95.210.187 URL: http://www.itchyhands.com DATE: 03/16/2004 01:02:56 PM Hey Tom, congratulations on your Bloggies. Yes, good on you for the essay. I thought it was very thoughtful and clever, not amatuer at all :o) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael EMAIL: mboyle@mikel.org IP: 66.46.77.3 URL: http://www.mikel.org/ DATE: 03/16/2004 02:34:27 PM Congratulations on a well-deserved victory Tom, particularly the Bloggie for your excellent article. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stuart EMAIL: muggins@citizenzero.com IP: 195.224.39.133 URL: http://www.citizenzero.com DATE: 03/16/2004 04:56:09 PM You totally deserve it! This site is not only a great read but wonderful to look at as well. I think you are "Lost in Translation" to Boing Boing's "Lord of the Rings". Nuff said. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stacy EMAIL: stacy@iamafish.org IP: 24.21.226.113 URL: http://stacyaustin.net/personal DATE: 03/16/2004 05:23:41 PM Congrats!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.155.39.121 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 03/16/2004 07:37:22 PM Well done Tom! Its utterly deserved! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nazzina EMAIL: nazzina@framedland.com IP: 64.228.129.195 URL: http://framedland.com/nazzina DATE: 03/16/2004 07:47:21 PM Congrats Tom!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: me@NOSPAMlooselogic.com IP: 24.71.163.25 URL: http://www.looselogic.com DATE: 03/17/2004 01:53:55 AM Congratulations! They're well deserved. Great job with the essay. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: lvx23 EMAIL: chris23@cruzio.com IP: 192.150.10.200 URL: http://lvx23.blogspot.com DATE: 03/17/2004 08:36:24 PM And did you notice that Boing Boing linked to your Ninja/Pirate/Elf/Dwarf theory yesterday? Congrats! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms. Jen EMAIL: blackphoebe@earthlink.net IP: 66.74.180.34 URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen DATE: 03/23/2004 08:21:25 AM And why were't you there to receive your certificate? The best part of BoingBoing's 3 wins is that Cory had prepared speaches that he read from on his laptop. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms. Jen EMAIL: blackphoebe@earthlink.net IP: 66.74.180.34 URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/ DATE: 03/23/2004 08:23:55 AM vlargh...um.. sorry.. I meant "Speeches" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 207.140.66.1 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 03/23/2004 06:28:35 PM Congratulations. Funny thing is, I emailed Nikolai two weeks before the event telling him to please give you your prize. Foresight, I have! ----- PING: TITLE: Oh yes, the Bloggies URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/03/16.html#a524 IP: 212.198.59.143 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 03/16/2004 09:58:46 AM I'd forgotten about those annual awards (Fairvue) . ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A statistical head-rush... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/17/2004 08:31:43 AM ----- BODY:

    Wow. That was a bit of a head-rush. The busiest day of traffic ever on both plasticbag.org and Barbelith. Between the two of them a meaty 25,000 page impressions logged up in 24 hours. If I include Everything in Moderation as well, it goes up to 25,027. Cor. In unrelated news I shaved my beard off this morning, and I'm just about to go in and have all my hair hacked off. I look really different without a beard. I don't look as tired, I don't look as 'manly' and I think I look a hell of a lot bitchier. And a bit fat.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom Coates, bored defender of weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/18/2004 07:46:35 AM ----- BODY:

    I don't know whether it's articles like these (on why people give up weblogs) that I get annoyed by or responses like this from 2lmc, but either way I'm pissed. I don't know how obvious it has to be before people get it - lots of people have weblogs and find value in them, and - yes - lots of people don't! This is a shock to precisely no one! Moreover, there has never been anything on the web that some people have liked and some haven't. Every single online community, bulletin board, mailing-list, online social-networking tool, web-application or published site ever made has had people who start using them and then stop. There's even an industry word for it: "churn".

    Getting three people's comments on why they don't read BBC News might be an interesting read but it wouldn't be a story. It wouldn't reveal anything particularly good or ill about BBC News. And anyone who was seriously using such a piece to illustrate their own counter-factual hobby-horse would just look highly selective in their source material, slightly duplicitous in their arguments or basically a bit stupid. Why is this any different?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike whybark EMAIL: mike@whybark.com IP: 216.173.212.237 URL: http://mike.whybark.com DATE: 03/18/2004 08:07:38 AM blogs are/were often mistaken for transient media interactions, like a phone chat. When users realize they are more like phone logs or obscure literary mags, most follllllks under the impression of ephemerality run run run away. A warm embrace to you twenty-fourth-century bit archaeologists. May I fuurther state that Billy Bragg singlehandedly justifies the preservation and entreasurement of the culture of the UK,as viewed by a middle-aged post baby-boom Yank. Kissy kissy and please do note that this calls for a special blend of psychology and extreme violence. Twentieth century interpreters are invited. Happy St. Paddy's to yez. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.27.46 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/18/2004 08:12:30 AM But do you have the slightest evidence for any of that? Technorati stacks up another few thousand weblogs every day. I'm not saying that people don't stop weblogging, because they do, just that the figures I've seen with regard to the take-up, maintenance and giving up of weblogs suggest that many more new people take it up than give it up. I'm quite happy to be wrong here - I don't have any particular desire to see everyone in the world weblogging - but blind nay-saying on the basis of a couple of people expressing the reasons it wasn't for them isn't useful! It would be like me talking about why heterosexual sex isn't really that hot or interesting and people using that to justify why we should all be gay. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.158.178.194 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 03/18/2004 08:30:45 AM Tommy Cooper gag that I use when having this argument with people: "I went to doctor and said 'Doctor, it hurts when i do this [lifts arm]'... the doctor said, 'well don't do it then'". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 03/18/2004 08:44:53 AM Any comment I had forming in my head has been render useless by that perfect Tommy Cooper quote. Bravo. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: frumiousb EMAIL: frumiousb@livejournal.com IP: 32.106.195.39 URL: DATE: 03/18/2004 08:51:38 AM Everyone¥s looking for the next Big Thing-- pundits debating whether or not something will take over the world, rather than evaluating the thing itself in light of the people/tasks for which it is suited. It¥s irritating and irrelevant, I agree. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: g@moltenglobule.org IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: http://transient.moltenglobule.org DATE: 03/18/2004 12:46:55 PM Why get pissed by a bunch of quotes, or even the article in question? It's just a view and I'm sure people would understand it's not representative of the whole blogo-whatever. Without abstraction, your comment kinda represents a weblog jingoism. A reflexive reaction, akin to those folks who defend the actions or principles of their country of birth. I'm sure in some cases things are worth defending, but to get angry and denounce stuff just because a person gave their view, or a whole weblog post uses quotes -out of context- is a bit rash. I thought the set of interviews were quite interesting, not very hostile at all and the individuals who gave their opinions seem to be credible. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 82.45.231.165 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 03/18/2004 12:54:32 PM I'm with Gummi on this one. I really don't see what the problem with the piece is, especially given Giles's track record of being an honest and curious reporter of online life, rather than someone just trying to slam something. Reporting on the problems with blogging is not only just as valid as the benefits but vital if the medium is going to adapt to those problems and reach more people, surely? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stuart EMAIL: stuart@citizenzero.com IP: 195.224.39.133 URL: http://schmo.typepad.com/cz DATE: 03/18/2004 01:14:21 PM I have stop/started weblogs for all the reasons mentioned by the interviewees - it's a hassle tech-wise, I sound like a twat, nobody reads it - so they have my sympathies in some respects. Unless you gain some personal satisfaction from doing it, why bother? Someone giving up on an activity is no reflection on the activity itself. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.120 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/18/2004 01:19:49 PM I have met Giles a few times and I think he's a lovely man. And there is nothing intrinsically bad about reporting a few people's reasons for quitting weblogging. But it's not really reporting to find three people who say something unless all you are - in fact - reporting is what those three people think. You can't do a lot with it. If it was an impromptu survey, then that might be interesting. If it cited information (that is available) about churn and the like then that would be interesting and useful. As it is, it's a perfectly simple little piece reporting what three editorially selected members of the public think about smoething. I'm more than happy with reporting on the problems with weblogging. I'd actually be delighted if someone actually did it! And I think that's where I get irritated, because 2lmc's little selective quotations from the vox pops are being used to slam weblogs and webloggers. If they used statistics or any kind of evidence then I'd be delighted to listen, but if they're not going to do so, then what exactly are they doing? Basically, they're stating opinions (which is their right) and also being a bit rude (which is also their right). It's also my right in return to point out that the evidence they have wouldn't back up ANY particular assertion and that if they keep being rude then they're just going to alienate a lot of people without actually doing anything to improve the world they find so frustrating. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.121 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/18/2004 01:23:34 PM And Stuart - you're absolutely right! Someone stopping doing something is no reflection on the thing itself. I totally agree! So that being the case: where's the story? If it's 'three people stopped weblogging because they felt like twats', then that's fine. 2lmc's blech on the other hand (and - if he's trying to draw a conclusion from it - Giles) was precisely trying to argue that them doing something WAS a reflection on the thing itself - and the other people doing it! That's precisely what I'm saying that they shouldn't do! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gummi EMAIL: g@moltenglobule.org IP: 157.136.21.88 URL: http://transient.moltenglobule.org DATE: 03/18/2004 02:25:37 PM Maybe I'm being selective here as well, but I didn't notice a statement saying this or that opinion cited was a reflection of weblogs -or the state of them. There might be an undercurrent or a history of entries here and there on the sites, which point to that conclusion. I think it's fair to take the posts in context. In this case, 2lmc have their pith and bubble and you can see the swipes coming from afar -really, an argument that you don't have to enter that URI in your browser or subscribe to the RSS if it's really that bothersome, is very true. I suppose it comes down to an idea of constructive or destructive criticism, and since there's so little out there anyway, maybe one gravitates towards the more destructive kind because it exists. In some ways, I get the feeling that you and 2lmc are Hero and Nemesis (and that could be switched). You know, as a sidenote, I could easily imagine Celebrity Weblog Deathmatch. Coates vs. 2lmc (tag team), Pilgrim vs. Winer and a grand Warbloggers free-for-all. It just goes to show how far weblogs have matured when one can think in those terms. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mike@whybark.com IP: 216.173.212.234 URL: http://mike.whybark.com DATE: 03/18/2004 03:31:48 PM no, no evidence at all that I'm aware of Tom - it's just my opinion. There really is, in my personal experience, a point where one realizes what one wrote two years ago (for example, after midnight on St. Patrick's while a tad boozed-up) will still be hanging around in cyberspace causing trouble, and this realization comes as a surprise. That surprise will affect different people differently, I think, and surely some will hang it up if the surprise is akin to the librarian found posing for a B&D site or somesuch that makes work or homelife difficult. and feel free to disregard my boozy dada bonhomie, above. thankfully, no-one was hurt in the manufacturing of that comment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cait EMAIL: cait@zoonies.com IP: 81.76.0.227 URL: http://moolies.zoonies.com DATE: 03/18/2004 03:39:56 PM Many eons ago, before the era of blogs, there were hardcoded online diaries and some guy had a site which, like a dead letter office, collected old diaries and reviewed their last entries. My point being - same old, same old. The reasons are always relatively interesting, however. What do you mean, URL??? Do you expect me to look it up? (Well. I did, actually, but I couldn't find it fast enough). xxx C. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JH EMAIL: john@userfrenzy.com IP: 194.201.25.93 URL: DATE: 03/18/2004 06:17:07 PM Um, Tom... Exactly which part of the phrase "Go go out-of-context quoting" weren't you following? He's joking (and given your habit of endlessly complaining about 2lmc, possibly doing so specifically for your benefit), and your failure to get the gag doesn't make *them* look foolish, if you get my drift. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jez Stone EMAIL: j.ez@virgin.net IP: 62.64.236.235 URL: http://www.upsaid.com/jez/ DATE: 03/19/2004 11:13:03 AM Irrelevant blogs or "blogs" are the same as everyday life and everyday people I suppose. Some blogs are the polystyrene worms of the internet, as some people are the polystyrene worms of life (as in they are just the packing, light and fluffy but with no edible qualities). Lots of blogs (mine not as yet included:-)) have some real content. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: echa EMAIL: brandy@ydnarb.com IP: 213.10.154.36 URL: http://www.ydnarb.com DATE: 03/19/2004 03:14:57 PM i hope i don't give up weblogs later, it's a place where i can share what i'm thinking, my daily days and about the dutch ppl sometime, i just like to post something because writing is my hobby too :) ----- PING: TITLE: Two morals URL: http://blog.matthewman.net/archives/2004/03/18/two_morals.html IP: 64.23.0.69 BLOG NAME: Scott's place DATE: 03/18/2004 11:01:42 AM If you want to read reasonable, articulate articles on weblogging, you can do no better than to read Tom Coates. If you want to read reasonable, articulate articles on same-sex relationships in soap operars, you can do no worse than... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Belle de Jour... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/20/2004 12:32:40 PM ----- BODY:

    I know I'm being obtuse, but I'm really not getting the whole Belle De Jour obsessiveness that's spiralling its way across the web and into the print media. The latest incarnation of this particular ludicrousness comes from the Independent newspaper (Who is the real Belle de Jour, the internet's best-read whore?), in which the woman in question is variously identified as Sarah Champion, Michel Faber or - of all people - long-time plasticbag.org favourite Andrew Orlowski. The latter has certain perverse logic to it - his journalism has a tendency to roam near the outer edges of the barely-plausible and uses such blatantly evocative rabble-rousing language and vitriol that you can't help but view everything he says as being heavily coloured by his own spitting phobias and/or desire for attention. Certainly I wouldn't put it past him to take that final leap into fantasy in order to make a point. Assuming of course it would be fantasy and that The Register haven't just run out of money...

    But who cares?! I know I'm missing something here, but how can we really be so shocked and startled by the idea that one of the enormous number of prostitutes in the world has decided to write a weblog? Certainly it's worth a read. She seems like a nice, sorted, intelligent person. And yes - she can write reasonably compelling posts in good quality English. Certainly it'll get more people going to it than some site about a granny and her cats. But realistically, does it warrant this level of media attention? It's not like sex is something that only the terribly rich and the morally repugnant can get away with! It's not like she's in the middle of Iraq having sex on top of Saddam Hussein's palace! It's not like she's fellating moon-chimps on CNN or inventing orgasm-generating laser beams! So she reads a few books! What's the big deal? My theory: England has too many sexually-frustrated journalists without book deals. If we want a better press, getting them laid would be a really good start.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Laurie EMAIL: me@seldo.com IP: 195.137.95.232 URL: http://www.seldo.com/weblog/ DATE: 03/20/2004 02:27:49 PM The reason Belle is such a fascinating read is because prostitutes, as a group, are necessarily secretive about the details of their work, and of course entirely confidential about their clients. The anonymity of Belle's weblog provides a way to get past that and find out what everyone wonders: what a prostitute *really* thinks about her clients. Does she hate them? Pity them? Secretly desire them? It's fascinating. And it's more fascinating since Belle herself is a very interesting character: she is a clever, articulate, well-read person, who could easily get a job doing something else. She is not a whore through desparation, but through choice. That makes her even more interesting. The issue of her real identity is entirely separate and secondary to her readability, and is generated by an entirely different group of people who, faced with a fact that someone doesn't want them to have, feel compelled to seek it out -- and also, we want to know if she's *really* a prostitute. The compelling thing about her writing is its authenticity, so it's essential that she not be a fake. Otherwise it's just somebody imagining what a prostitute might think, which is not interesting at all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nick EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.191.70.96 URL: DATE: 03/20/2004 03:10:15 PM In a nice coincidence, given the subject matter, there's a great essay by Michel Foucault called 'What is an author?' which discusses, in part, just why anonymity is such a frustration for literary scholars: the 'author's name' isn't important because of the person per se, but because it allows for categorisation, authentication and so on. We now ask of each poetic or fictional text: from where does it come, who wrote it, when, under what circumstances, or beginning with what design? The meaning ascribed to it and the status of value accorded it depend upon the manner in which we answer these questions. And if a text should be discovered in a state of anonymity -‑ whether as a consequence of an accident or the author's explicit wish -‑ the game becomes one of rediscovering the author. Since literary anonymity is not tolerable, we can accept it only in the guise of an enigma. And in a sexual analogy, identification is the money shot, after which... well, disappointment. Give me the perpetuation of anonymity -- a flirtation with identification rather than a dogged pursuit -- rather than that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Franz EMAIL: franzstehrn@hotmail.com IP: 137.208.103.48 URL: http://theitblog.net.tf DATE: 03/20/2004 04:26:14 PM I don't think anyone is really shocked and startled as you said, but just curious. Belle's blog - in case it's not just fiction - allows people to relate to a hooker on a different level through short stories and musings, and there's no need to read a whole Houellebecq. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: cdeskinfo@copydesk.co.uk IP: 81.132.34.156 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 03/20/2004 06:56:26 PM I'm with you Tom. It's this faddish, award/attention-seeking approach to weblogs which marginalises the genre and popularises the growing media disdain for weblogging in general. It's no different to what happened when the www kicked in - loads of crappy homepages, water-cooler webcams and porn porn porn. Belle de Jour is nothing more than the t-shirt of the month, and I can't really agree that 'her' weblog is well-written. My own site is hardly a model of grammatical correctness, but I spot howlers on Belle's site every other day. Let's hope the hype settles down soon - for that is all it is: hype. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Philip EMAIL: philip@eye-imagine.co.uk IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://www.twoplaces.net DATE: 03/21/2004 12:23:33 AM "She seems like a nice, sorted, intelligent person. And yes - she can write reasonably compelling posts in good quality English." Is this an inverted way to deride her? Obviously she can't possibly be a talented writer actually succeeding. Anyway here's something funny that may strike your fancy - http://www.myboyfriendisatwat.com - scroll down to March 19...the permalink doesn't seem to work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 81.128.196.202 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 03/21/2004 12:23:47 AM It's not even a good read ferchrissake. Let it lie, and go read something else. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Betteridge EMAIL: ianbetteridge@mac.com IP: 80.0.169.70 URL: DATE: 03/21/2004 08:02:01 PM I think that in fact, "Tom Coates" is a fiction suit inhabited by Andrew Orlowski... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@prandial.com IP: 80.58.32.42 URL: http://www.prandial.com DATE: 03/22/2004 08:47:52 AM Indeed. And, in fact, the point of imabelledejour.com. Well, that and thong sales. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: izb EMAIL: ian.beveridge@dynofoo.com IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.yeahbutisitart.com/ DATE: 03/22/2004 01:15:22 PM She's getting so much attention because she sounds like the prefect fantasy woman. Intelligent, beautiful and filthy as hell. That's why people want to know if she's real or not. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.185.206 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/22/2004 08:46:16 PM Er. Ok! I don't think it's a bad read at all! I think it's a good weblog! I think she's a good writer! Assuming of course that she's real, I'm very very glad to have her on the web as a weblogger. I'd be delighted if she got lots of people reading her, and I'm delighted that she's got a book deal out of it. I'm not in any way passing judgement on her. I wouldn't presume to! I think the whole point of weblogs is that people get to express their voices and have people actually listen to them. What I was kind of taking the piss out of was the extent to which the press is fascinated by her. I mean you have to admit it's a bit out of proportion - articles in the Independent newspaper obsessing about her identity, enormous conspiracy theories involving Andrew Orlowski. I mean, it's clearly the combination of her skill in writing and her profession that makes her so interesting to her - but I wonder if she had a less sex-oriented job if middle-aged hacks would be so interested. Or even more interesting, I wonder whether if it was a guy who was writing about sex with men whether or not it would be so interesting to them. But that's not supposed to take any credit or kudos from Belle - I really do think she writes extremely well, and I look forward to her upcoming book. I just won't be spending a lot of time in the meantime puzzling over her identity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vicky EMAIL: i@thehighrise.org IP: 81.178.164.48 URL: http://www.thehighrise.org/weblog DATE: 03/22/2004 08:51:22 PM How odd - I seem to have read an entirely different post than the commenter above. How strange to be accusing the author of being a wet blanket, when I gauged that he was actually striking out against what most of the blogworld appears to be dribbling on about and suggesting that Belle de Jour *is* worth the page it's typed on. Perhaps if I refresh the page...nope, still the same... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.128.185.206 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/22/2004 09:20:22 PM I may accidentally have deleted that guy's post while very purposefully removing his post about how God would tell me off for supporting gay rights in another thread. I'm going to put this one back again underneath. Sorry if it makes things look confusing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: yeahright EMAIL: yeahright@yeahright.com IP: 81.128.185.206 URL: http://www.yeahright.com DATE: 03/22/2004 09:21:18 PM Blogs are very diverse things, and the majority are undertaken by nondescript, ie non-media-professional people, for personal reasons. You sit there at the BBC, hob-nobbing with your media and homosexual chums, passing judgement on anyone who dares to have a different view to yours. You speak as if you represent the entire blog phenomenon, and you don't. You seem to lack warmth and humour - the closest you get is little narcissitic self-parodies - and these are the reasons why you don't "get" Belle de Jour. Why the only way you can 'understand' it is with snipey remarks re. sexual repression and Belle's popularity. I wouldn't say you are jealous, because you are probably feeling completely content with your 25,000 visitors ("cor!"). But I do think your pseudo-intellectual blog-defender stance does not qualify you to pass judgement on a bit of fun, on interesting self-disclosure, on using the blog format to express a unique life situation (fictional or otherwise). At the very least, the latter is a truly interesting aspect of the blog phenomenon, based on its unique capacity to be both high profile and anonymous, at the same time. You live, write and blog within the ivory castle confines of the professional media world. You are not qualified to judge others (which is 80-90% of blogs - the ones you don't read), and it is mean-spirited and dumb to attempt it. Belle is a great example of a succesful blog which is NOT one of these mutually back-scratching media blogs, and that alone is reason to enjoy her success. If she really is a prostitute rather than a journalist with ambitions, it makes her blog and her success even more interesting and laudable. The fact that you are insensitive to this possibility speaks volumes about your narrow and intolerant attitude, your narrow view of the value and possibilities of the blog format, which you talk about as if you were a special expert -which you are not. Belle doesn't fit your blog world-view, but it is eloquent and interesting/fun, so your comments say more about you than her. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marco Escorts Polo EMAIL: noname@yahoo.com IP: 165.236.65.41 URL: http://www.escorts-mexico.info DATE: 03/23/2004 09:49:23 AM I'm going back to Belle de Jour. Not for the vicarious sex, but because it represents breaking barriers of convention, etc. What is wrong with a hooker writing a blog? I think it is great. The underlieing theme of most of the reactions about her are: 1. Pro - the ones who think it is great, I think are really applauding her breaking out into a new freedom and do not do so because she has some great literary talents. (even though they may think they think that) Let's face it, she isn't another Tolstoy or Henry Miller if you know what I mean. But Jeez, we are talking about a blog here people. Anti - Hookers are supposed to stay in their place. Hidden, used, treated bad, and ashamed. After all, blogs are really for us self proclaimed moral types. Usually morally judgemental for others and not for ourselves. As for most of the major media, I consider most of it a wasteland. Dumbed down to the point of ridiculous and 90% spin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stacy EMAIL: stacy@quietnoises.com IP: 209.47.107.200 URL: http://www.orkillme.com DATE: 03/23/2004 11:13:57 PM It's hardly as if she's the first "working girl" to keep an online diary. Javina got loads of attention back in the Open Pages/early online diary days, in part for her well-known "Prostitution FAQ". This whole thing is frustrating to me, since BdJ seems like such a santized, *safe* vision of prostitution - whereas Javina refers to it as "the worst, most difficult job I've ever done" (Prostitution FAQ) - which is not quite the best book cover blurb for an airport lobby, I suppose. Also Devon, a gay escort in SF who loves his work, although he's discrete about client encounter details. Probably a ton more. It would be nice for people to quit acting like BdJ is the first prostitute who can write and find his/her way online. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marco Escorts Polo EMAIL: noname@yahoo.com IP: 165.236.65.38 URL: http://www.escorts-message-boards.info DATE: 03/24/2004 12:40:41 PM It goes back to Xaviera Hollander with the Happy Hooker column in Playboy in the 1970s, then her subsequent book, and probably a few before that. Hell, all of the major advertisers have been using sex to sell things for most of the last century, but it is OK because they were/are considered respectable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sergio EMAIL: sergio@overcaffeinated.net IP: 129.33.1.37 URL: http://overcaffeinated.net DATE: 03/25/2004 03:51:11 AM Well, the subject of her identity would indeed, matter, if one were -- let's suppose -- planning a trip to London and, in a -- merely scientifical and entirely unrelated note, of course, shall we say, as an afterthought? -- spur of the moment, decided to email Belle and ask her if she would "service" one of her Blog Readers -- bear in mind we're still in the realm of the completely hypothetical -- then... then one... er... that person... would fear for one's hypothetical privacy, and perhaps fear having one's said email mistakenly printed on a book about the bunch of perverts that undoubtedly email good old Belle, who, if she were not who she says she is would, purportedly, be mildly offended by one's rather... egregious propositions expressed in said electronic missive. Which was left unanswered... hypothetically. Soo... that would be a reason, I'd venture a guess. Not that I know. Or care. No. Not at all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: siren EMAIL: rpk34@yahoo.com IP: 203.90.124.169 URL: http://sirencall@blogspot.com DATE: 03/26/2004 05:57:37 AM I was all for BDj...she was a good read after work got over and it was no surprise people all over thought it was a journalist because a hooker who reads would just be far too groundbreaking...however i gave up reading the blog when suddenly she got pulled into the complete commercialism and now they have bloody T- shirts...T- shirts and mugs!!!... a book deal is fine but is nothing free from commercialism any more...i was kinda dissapointed after that...cos everything gets tainted these days.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: perplexus1@hotmail.com IP: 212.90.39.69 URL: http://natural-creations.co.uk/bookclub.html DATE: 03/28/2004 10:48:39 AM A great discussion - with virtually all sides of the current debate regarding the BjD phenomenon expressed. I'm not sure if Tom Coates and yeahright are really disagreeing too much about what they recognise as Belle's achievement - you both seem to have more in common than you may think. What is it with this hostility towards media types and their lifestyles? Explain yourself coherently or get over it! I'm surprised that people are still getting sidetracked by the identity issue, and concerning themselves with the degree to which it affects the quality or honesty of any author's writing - surely all storytelling is a construct - whether it represents itself as fiction, news journalism, commentary, political speech making, UN resolutions or judicial reports on the machinations of government. Haven't we all accepted that by now. Surely we all gather information from the environment we inhabit and choose to convey it in the way we see as being appropriate to our medium, audience and ends. At the receiving end surely the process of interpretation is the same in reverse. Who are we when we read or hear something? Are we the same person all of the time? And do we truly know who we are? It is all constructs being deconstructed and reconstructed in different contexts over and over again. (By the way I am not the nick who posted the Foucault link - and I wonder just why "literary anonymity is not tolerable"? Its not a zero-sum game - after all, who was William Sakespeare, really? And why is it so important when the words are the message?) Regarding whether Belle is worth the Blog she's written on - its merely a case of personal judgement - either you get something from it, for good or bad, and choose whether or not to carry on reading as a result. That's the case with all written words and stories - you care or you don't. Regarding the commercialism of Belle. Its unfortunate that the manufacture and purchase of a thong or a t-shirt, a book or a film, to signify an association or convey a message conjures pejorative reaction - but how on earth do ideas disseminate wholly outside of the pecuniary marketplace whilst there is still a material world out there beyond the free exchanges of the net that we are now so familiar with? Regarding Belle being the latest in a long line of a particular genre: is there any singularly unique new genre out there that I haven't heard about yet? Surely a writer's challenge is to be conscious of the genre/tradition in which they write and to extend it knowingly. Is Belle guilty of failing to do this any more than say virtually any published author in the world today? I don't mind admitting that I enjoy Belle's writing for what I take it to be - which is lots of different things that change over time - but on balance I continue to read. And that is the only measure by which I can honestly judge anyone's story - no matter who they are, or why they tell it. Finally, does anyone know Lisa Hilton? And has she made any public or private statements regarding whether or not she has a blogger account responsible for http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/? If I'm missing the point - please rattle my cage. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: yeahright EMAIL: yeah@tomsnotinternetempire.com IP: 195.8.166.80 URL: http://www.tomsnotinternetempire.com DATE: 04/05/2004 03:49:01 PM There's nothing wrong with the media lifestyle any more or less than any other, and I never suggested otherwise. I think there is something wrong when the internet web log is first dominated by media folk, and then other kinds of blog are undermined and criticised by them. I said all of that: my views are elaborated above and very clear. I don't understand why there is such passivity over this. NO ONE has an exclusive and overriding take on blog culture, and yet this is exactly what Coates attempts. He only HALF jokingly refers to himself as Minister For Blogging Affairs etc. and what he does is define what is interesting and valid and what isn't, and no one can do that because what people think and feel about their blog is distributed, variable and personal, just like the medium. So intentionally or otherwise, the result is building up an empire of influence and visibility. He even suggests, for example, that blogs are comparable to academic citation, and then passes that off as a widespread subject when it's not: its just Coates-speak. And it is ridiculous, because it only applies to a small minority of blogs, the ones that are concerned with information - like his. I assume that not many people protest this because its mostly his chums that read him. The media blogs are an extension of the traditional media world, written, read and developed by media folk. In that respect I don't think they embody what I like to think of as the 'spirit' of the blog - democratic etc. I think both BdJ and Scary Duck are nice examples of the blog spirit and the success of both was hugely enahnced by the Guardian - a competition which Coates strongly objected to. In fact I think the G competition is a more laudable idea than the Bloggies awards because the latter focus on the media blogs - and surprise surprise, Plastic Boy is always highly rated. I think the G are doing a great job because they point people towards refreshingly different content which is not part of the incestuous media world. There's not really anything for me to "get over", but are there are things to consider as I have outlined above. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: yeah EMAIL: yeah@coatestheexperthah.com IP: 195.8.166.80 URL: http://www.coatestheexperthah.com DATE: 04/05/2004 03:51:53 PM You're exaggerating Coates, as usual. A few articles is not disproportionate to the size of Belle's readership. The same thing happened with Scaryduck, and others. I wouldn't call that "fascination". And guess what? Sexy stuff does generate interest! Wow! Think Lady Chatterley, or Page 3. So why is it surprising? And I'm sure there would be less interest if it were homosexual. Guess what again? The vast majority of Humanity are heterosexual. Go figure! As for the identity question, well its called f-u-n. It looks like s/he's going to be successful, so working out who s/he is an inevitable little game - is s/he taking the piss, or genuine? All of which makes for something refreshingly different from the sooo fashionable permalink/meme/media stuff that dominates the blog world. Marco: I agree that most of the media is spin, and that this attitude and tone extends to the blog world. The media blogs, anyway. And yes, that's why Belle is a refreshing read. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/05/2004 03:59:00 PM I'd just like to say that until such a point that you're prepared to post these things under your own name I'm not going to bother to respond to them. If you post any more like this I'll just delete them. And please be aware that you're not as anonymous as you think you are - I've still got records of your comments about gay people and I'm quite prepared to send them to Manchester City Council or wherever it is you work alongside the IP address / time of your posting to the weblog. Now please - either stand up and be a grown-up or piss off. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: perplexus1@hotmail.com IP: 212.90.39.69 URL: http://natural-creations.co.uk/bookclub.html DATE: 04/05/2004 05:12:47 PM I think its unfortunate that "yeah" does not publish a name, email address, or blog url. They are making some interesting points, albeit they seem to resent the host of this blog for various reasons which don't fully add up as far I'm concerned. How can anyone set themselves up to comment and analyse blogs without passing judgements even if they are implied. We all have our perspectives afterall. As for removing comments - I think that can be necessary for racist, sexist or other offensive expressions of prejudice - but in this case I'm not sure "yeah" fully warrants censoring - they have views in common with many others and these views are best heard than suppressed - surley its by having them stated and considered that will lead to better understanding. Regarding Belle, where has everyone's curiosity gone? The story is ticking, the writer is unidentified in the papers, and the blogging community has become seemingly apathetic and thereby lost the plot of potentially the most intersting phenomenon to hit the net this year - the publishing house hijacking of blogs for the purposes of drumming up book sales prior to publication - is anyone really buying of this "she is the real belle de jour, honest!" nonsense? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: seb EMAIL: seb@seb.org IP: 80.47.202.0 URL: DATE: 04/07/2004 07:28:13 AM Nick, you are right on the Belle de jour story. It really seems to have dropped away, depite no denial from Lisa Hilton. Maybe so many publications are in on this or have signed non-disclosures that no-one has any interest any more to expose her? That being said, Belle's blog seems pretty lacklustre nowadays, and even dispirited. I wonder if anyone will buy the book when the blog is exposed as a fake? Or if the publishing deal would stand in such a case? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lizb EMAIL: lizbury2001@hotmail.com IP: 213.219.50.34 URL: DATE: 04/07/2004 11:54:11 AM It *was* weird the way the press whipped this up. The whole 'who is it?' thing smacked of a publicity campaign to me, not a genuine story. In any case, I'm not convinced of the attraction of reading a blog as a book unless the style or the content is something really special? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charles EMAIL: checkenurenetforanemail@enure.net IP: 24.16.255.70 URL: http://enure.net DATE: 04/09/2004 02:35:25 AM Oh Tom, What's really the need for a "real" name? What's wrong with a bit of anonymity? I for one think it be one of the lovely parts of the internet. Remember that commercial, where there was a black man, a young girl, an older lady, an asian woman, etc. - and they were all stating that on the internet, no one judged them by their appearance. You let me know if you want to. I'm absolutely open to a different view point on this. Oh, and it seems negative posts might construct negative responses. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick EMAIL: perplexus1@hotmail.com IP: 212.90.39.69 URL: http://natural-creations.co.uk/bookclub.html DATE: 04/15/2004 11:40:40 AM Belle de Jour has now denied being Lisa Hilton. I personally hope that Belle is Belle, whoever that may be, and that she is a previously unpublished author set to take the publishing world by storm. In a sense I regret ever doubting her, but you can't be too careful these days. With regards to Lisa Hilton - I love the journalism and must get hold of the books - they sound marvellous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seb EMAIL: seb21013@yahoo.com IP: 168.143.113.8 URL: DATE: 04/17/2004 05:04:55 PM Nick, there's no denial there at all. I think every author has the licence to allow their fictional character to talk to them, even to compliment their physical attributes. To me that blog passage confirms the Hilton connection. Given your compelling evidence the author(s) have given ground, conceding that Belle at least knows Lisa Hilton. Whether there are two or more authors (the Erotic Review Conspiracy theory) or it is Hilton ghost writing for the real item we will probably never know. But I for one am now convinced this blog is a hoax. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: seb EMAIL: SEBNAB04@hotmail.com IP: 168.143.113.8 URL: DATE: 04/17/2004 05:53:21 PM By the way, I've just noticed that the Belle de Joru book has now been RETITLED on Amazon, from "Belle de Jour - the Diary of a London Call Girl" to "Belle de Jour - The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl". I think I'll rest my case. The initial "diary" plus weblog gave the impression of a first person, honest account. "Intimate Adventures" is cover for fiction. The author and publishers are now covering their butts in relation to the recent or imminent outing of the author. Not much really to discuss any more is there? Pity really. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: noname EMAIL: noname@anonymous.com IP: 68.115.168.204 URL: DATE: 04/24/2004 04:52:53 PM To me that blog passage confirms the Hilton connection. Quite. I want to know just how Belle can comment on Ms Hilton's 'abs'. Now, I know that Ms Hilton swears by 100 sit-ups each morning; but that's only because she told me a long time ago. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: seb EMAIL: sebnab04@hotmail.com IP: 168.143.113.138 URL: DATE: 04/28/2004 07:33:13 AM It's also strange that the press has not jumped on Lisa Hilton as the new lead suspect behind Belle de jour. Given the hysteria in March over the "outing" of Sarah Champion the yellow dogs seem strangely muted. Unless of course that is why Belle is on "holiday"... ----- PING: TITLE: Independent -- Orlowski is Belle De Jour URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/2004_03_01_archive.php#107977350927590077 IP: 66.159.239.140 BLOG NAME: LinkMachineGo DATE: 03/20/2004 05:06:22 PM [bdj] Who is the real Belle de Jour, the internet's best-read whore? -- The Independent suggests that Andrew Orlowski is Belle De Jour. ----- PING: TITLE: Belle's story URL: http://goddess.droyer.org/archives/2004_03/22/belles_story.php IP: 65.165.40.233 BLOG NAME: Your Local Goddess DATE: 03/23/2004 01:14:42 AM Tom Coates writes up pretty much my thoughts on Belle de Jour, except that I haven’t cared enough to write... ----- PING: TITLE: Catfunt exclusive" Stella Vine's 'Belle de Jour' URL: http://www.catfunt.net/blog/archives/000156.html IP: 193.22.244.17 BLOG NAME: catfunt on the internet DATE: 04/07/2004 11:00:18 AM We can today reveal as an exclusive Stella Vine's painting of top blogger Belle de Jour. Of the many pieces about the Belle de Jour phenomena my favourite is Tom Coates somewhat patronising hissy-fit which just strikes me as blogger ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 11:33:21 AM Farewell, Sarah Champion (or was it, Andrew Orlowski?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called. We... ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 12:14:12 PM Farewell, Sarah Champion (or was it, Andrew Orlowski?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called. We... ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 12:23:34 PM Farewell, Sarah Champion (or was it, Andrew Orlowski?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called. We... ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 12:29:13 PM Farewell, Sarah Champion (or was it, Andrew Orlowski?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called. We... ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 12:50:08 PM Farewell, Sarah Champion (or was it, Andrew Orlowski?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called. We... ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 12:56:50 PM Farewell, "Sarah Champion" (or was it, "Andrew Orlowski"?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called... ----- PING: TITLE: Of Five and Six Figures, Gnash Gnash URL: http://www.sacredwhore.org/mobwhorelog/archives/000088.html IP: 131.161.246.241 BLOG NAME: MOBWHORELOG DATE: 09/16/2004 01:43:38 PM Farewell, "Sarah Champion" (or was it, "Andrew Orlowski"?). (I can't be the first in the blogwhoresphere to make reference to Belle's departure, can I? Not taking full credit. Jessica did tell me over the phone first. Don't think that's why she called... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Questions for Dave Winer... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/22/2004 05:18:31 PM ----- BODY:

    Dear Mr Winer,

    I should add that I don't really have much of an opinion about the whole Typekey thing at the moment. Certainly we need something to deal with comment-spam, certainly a centralised service will help with that and make things easier, yes I'd rather have an open standard or set of protocols that allow completely decentralised system if I could think of any way it could be done (but offhand I can't).

    Addendum: I have to confess that I'm not terribly interested in this stuff - I was making a fairly light-hearted and facetious point that really wasn't particularly well-expressed. I was clumsy in a variety of places, and for that I apologise. All I was saying, I guess, is that Dave's questions made it sound like Six Apart had a reputation for proprietorial formats and patenting stuff and not opening up APIs - and that I don't really see any evidence of that. And - realistically - Dave is still associated with Userland and Userland is still a competitor of SixApart - so I can't really see why they should feel any particular obligation to answer those questions. (Particularly given that Userland attempted to trademark RSS a few years ago - a move that could be seen to be directly against the kind of openness that Dave's interrogating Six Apart about.)

    Anyway, I certainly don't feel qualified enough to comment in any depth about the business practices of either Six Apart or Userland in this context and these are not positions that I'd be prepared to battle to my last breath to protect. So I'm going to back down gracefully, only saying that I hope that it's clear why I had the impression that I had, however inaccurate it may or may not have been. I also apologise to anyone who was offended or feels mischaracterised and I hope we can put this all behind us.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Not this time URL: http://philringnalda.com/blog/2004/03/not_this_time.php IP: 66.33.196.43 BLOG NAME: phil ringnalda dot com DATE: 03/22/2004 10:37:59 PM Dave Winer may be throwing rocks at SixApart, but this time he's got all the windows in his house wide open. ----- PING: TITLE: Dave WIner's Status URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0127028/2004/03/22.html#a145 IP: 24.156.90.113 BLOG NAME: Brian Sullivan's Random Musings DATE: 03/22/2004 11:21:52 PM I am a bit confused by this post at Scripting News. ----- PING: TITLE: Blogger News Item URL: http://warwick.weblogger.com/2004/03/22#a369 IP: 64.71.134.138 BLOG NAME: warwick@weblogger DATE: 03/22/2004 11:29:24 PM Tom Coates at Plastic Bag asks Dave Winer some questions about Radio/Frontier and UserLand: Will the API for radiocomments be public and clonable? If so, will the API for radiocomments be published before the initial deployment of the radiocomments system ----- PING: TITLE: Dave is a target again--that's a shame. URL: http://houseofwarwick.com/2004/03/22.html#a675 IP: 66.137.180.242 BLOG NAME: house of warwick DATE: 03/22/2004 11:29:29 PM Tom Coates at Plastic Bag asks Dave Winer some questions about Radio/Frontier and UserLand: Will the API for radiocomments be public and clonable? If so, will the API for radiocomments be published before the initial deployment of the radiocomments system ----- PING: TITLE: Anonymity, Thy Name is... URL: http://www.libraryplanet.com/2004/03/anonymity IP: 207.44.176.9 BLOG NAME: LibraryPlanet.com DATE: 03/23/2004 06:20:41 PM In conjunction with Movable Type 3.0, they are introducing a new service, TypeKey. As is typical in the blogosphere, merely... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tiny trackback explanation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/24/2004 05:15:13 PM ----- BODY:

    Another friend asked me what Trackback was today and I showed them my old guide to it and to be honest it wasn't very helpful for them. But I found a way to say it more simply even than that. Here is trackback in a nutshell: If someone links to one of my posts, my post will link back to them.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Trackback in a sentence URL: http://blog.matthewman.net/archives/2004/03/24/trackback_in_a_sentence.html IP: 64.23.0.69 BLOG NAME: Scott's place DATE: 03/24/2004 05:56:55 PM Confused about Trackback? In a sentence, if someone links to my blog, my post links back to them. They don't appear straight away, though. In an ideal world, they ought to -- after all, trackbacks are comments, except made on... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: As Pooh once read: Busy Backson... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/28/2004 06:36:47 PM ----- BODY:

    And projects just go on and on and there's no resolution to them whatsoever and it's quite normal for them to take every working hour of the day and it's just as normal for you to have no real sense of what you've accomplished at the end of the day. I'm in a bit of a funk at the moment - trying to get some sense of what I'm accomplishing and how to accomplish it better - how to make something truly worthwhile and valuable. A lot is going out the window while I try to make better sense of everything. Back shortly...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Paint the whole 'lith with a rainbow... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/29/2004 02:21:32 AM ----- BODY:

    Right. That's it. Enough already! I'm just going to go and launch the damn thing and let everyone else find all the bugs and the crappy bits of code and the hacked together bits of shit and I'll fix em all later when I've had a bit of a break. Otherwise it's going to suck up every last bit of my life forever as I fiddle and fuss around some of the obscurer areas when I should be throwing enough people at it and see how many land on something spiky.

    So with that in mind, I'm here to announce the 87% complete new version of Barbelith - the online community that actually doesn't just talk shit all day (although it does that too). As ever with a redesign it's got a good few rough edges that will get worn into shape over time. Unlike most redesigns that I've been involved with it's also full of really bad code and there are places where the new lick of paint could do with a couple of more coats. But then again, unlike most commercial redesigns of any scale, this one took four weekends from start to finish. I am sooo looking forward to going outside again. Anyway - have a poke around - be nice to the locals and feel free to leave your thoughts:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brad EMAIL: none@none.com IP: 68.99.205.167 URL: DATE: 03/29/2004 05:43:33 AM Great design Tom! I never seen anything so sexy in all my life! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.18.13 URL: DATE: 03/29/2004 07:35:53 AM Looking goood.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.203.136 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 03/29/2004 08:44:46 AM Preedy colour coded menus - but wot, no CSS positioning in a 21st century redesign? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 03/29/2004 09:51:00 AM No - I'm afraid not. This was more of an evolution of an old design, although it's not necessarily obvious to anyone that that's the case. I was using the Barbelith redesign as an excuse to get more deeply into PHP and as such decided that I was going to concentrate on that side of things rather than moving it towards CSS positioning. It was quite satisfyingly retro to go back and do a site in tables again, although I don't think I'll be doing it again - and hopefully I will be able to move the site to CSS positioning at some point in the nearish future. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pythagore Anonymous EMAIL: pythagore@pestsmitta.se IP: 82.182.97.251 URL: http://www.pestsmitta.se DATE: 03/29/2004 01:46:09 PM Hmmm...I'm not so sure. The design looks nice, yes, but I think the former was more "fitting" to the general feel of the community. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 211.29.136.11 URL: http://grudnuk.com/ DATE: 03/29/2004 01:55:26 PM Oh, now that is good. It might even get me to come back and waste all my time there again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rollo EMAIL: rollo@schvtrn.com IP: 172.185.81.160 URL: http://www.schvtrn.com/rollo/blogger.html DATE: 03/29/2004 11:01:22 PM "Congratulations, it's a buoy!" And what a beauty! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Ashton EMAIL: pete@peteashton.com IP: 82.36.143.212 URL: http://peteashton.com DATE: 03/29/2004 11:58:14 PM I'm not a regular by any means but I was struck how readable it is. I tend to stay away from forums because they're so messy and impossible to follow. This is very nice indeed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aidan EMAIL: gifs_2k@yahoo.com IP: 172.191.148.34 URL: http://aw01.com DATE: 03/30/2004 01:02:16 AM It looks excellent to me. Unlike most community websites, it loads extremely quickly and doesn't have an abundance of undeeded code. The design is simple, colourful, tasteful and it fills the whole page. The title font is attractive. And as far as I know, it's a new forum template, which, while it's not exactly the same as most traditional online forums/message boards, it's still intuative and easy to use; something quite rare when you consider how many people attempt to create new forum styles and fail miserably. Excellent work, IMO. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: me@looseNOSPAMlogic.com IP: 24.71.163.25 URL: http://www.looselogic.com DATE: 03/30/2004 05:10:17 AM I think it's great! Really different from any forum I've ever seen, in a good way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Natali EMAIL: satur9@bigfoot.com IP: 24.86.2.255 URL: http://www.beautykills.vze.com DATE: 03/30/2004 06:08:19 AM Looks hott. I've joined. Loving it so far. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nicklas EMAIL: noise@carbonatedink.com IP: 62.127.12.115 URL: http://www.carbonatedink.com/me/lostpages/ DATE: 03/31/2004 12:48:49 AM Yeah, gave me quite a shock though when I first saw it but it looks good. Different but good. It's going to take a while to get used to but more time on Barbelit was just what I needed right now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LVX23 EMAIL: chris23@cruzio.com IP: 192.150.10.200 URL: http://lvx23.blogspot.com DATE: 03/31/2004 01:25:09 AM It was shocking at first, having spent a ridiculous amount of time in Barb over the past year. But now I like it. The only thing I miss is being able to spot the 3 most recent topics of each forum from the Index page. Now I have to go in to each to see what's new. Not so bad, just not quite as easy as it was. All in all, I'm getting to like the new look quite a bit. Cheers! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.nospam.com IP: 212.74.14.32 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk DATE: 03/31/2004 03:16:22 PM I think it's a great improvement - I was never sure what barbelith "was all about" before (being lazy and not looking hard), now it's nice and obvious. For the entry pages the little block of colour sticking out the left looks a bit clunky - have a look at subtraction.com, the layout of the individual post data (date, time, etc.) is beautifully done. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pythagore EMAIL: pythagore@pestsmitta.se IP: 212.181.103.250 URL: http://www.pestsmitta.se DATE: 03/31/2004 11:47:59 PM Ok, I give up. I love the design nowadays. It's a beauty. But, as a lot of people has pointed out I'm sure, a "last updated threads" on the first page would be great - even though that might break the design. In that case - forget about it. And a "last post by" showing on every thread would be great to - in case you forget how many replies the thread had when you wrote in it. Great job. ----- PING: TITLE: Another.. Online.. Community.. URL: http://www.dryerlint.org/archives/000040.html IP: 216.180.251.58 BLOG NAME: DryerLint DATE: 03/31/2004 02:14:44 AM But this one looks interesting. It's called BarbelithTom Coates from PlasticBag seems to have something to do with it. Here are some other things I haven't had a chance to blog about but wanted to:... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Precisely One Hour of House-Cleaning Music... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/04/2004 11:37:55 AM ----- BODY:

    New concept - don't clean until your house is clean, instead merely allocate time to the cleaning process and clean until that time is over whether you finish or not. Also if you finish before the time is up (unlikely) then clean something better than you would normally. I started this insane cleaning regimen yesterday with a statement that I would clean in a high-impact fashion for no more and no less than precisely one hour. I created an iTunes playlist full of motivational music with the sole intention of keeping me psyched about the whole horrors of cleaning my flat. It is precisely one hour long and is called Precisely One Hour of House-Cleaning Music. It contains a fair amount of cheese, for the specific reason that it's designed to get the heart-pounding and the mind focused on doing things (rather than being subtle or nuanced in any way) so don't get on my case about how lame it is. The first tune is designed to set the scene and the final one to get the pace back down to useful human-levels. List follows:

    1. "Main Title", Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More with Feeling
    2. "Because We Can", Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
    3. "God Save the Queen", Sex Pistols
    4. "Don't Be Light", Air
    5. "Fix Up, Look Sharp", Dizzee Rascal
    6. "Baby, I'm a Star", Prince and the Revolution
    7. "Live at Dominoes", The Avalanches
    8. "Love Burns", Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
    9. "Star Guitar", Chemical Brothers
    10. "Superheroes", Daft Punk
    11. "Fire Up the Shoesaw", Lionrock
    12. "Twist and Shout", Backbeat Soundtrack
    13. "Kodachrome", Paul Simon
    14. "I Fought the Law", Green Day
    15. "My weakness", Moby

    Length of playlist 1 hour and zero minutes and zero seconds. Your time may vary based upon whether or not you cross-fade your songs or have inserted seconds of blank-space at the beginnings of your tracks.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Geoff EMAIL: blog@geoffjones.com IP: 81.100.86.84 URL: http://www.geoffjones.com DATE: 04/04/2004 12:47:48 PM An excellent idea, I did the same thing for my Pilates class. Its great as you don't have to watch the clock at all. I wonder how it could be commercalised... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joseph EMAIL: joseph@make-believe.org IP: 210.50.205.60 URL: http://www.make-believe.org DATE: 04/04/2004 01:09:14 PM An stirring example of pedantry at its finest. Excellent work. And the inclusion of a track from the Buffy musical soundtrack is inspired. Can I ask for how long you were able to justify putting off the clean up by compiling this list? :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dizzee_rox EMAIL: taskforce@hotmail.com IP: 62.252.224.8 URL: DATE: 04/04/2004 02:06:29 PM bigups go out ta dizzee and tha resta rolldeep blet. he is like da rawist. man alla roll deep r. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 80.3.75.92 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk DATE: 04/04/2004 07:00:49 PM Good plan. See how long it takes before you're doing the cleaning reeeally slowly. Better concept: move to a smaller flat. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kit EMAIL: girl@webcookie.net IP: 64.72.81.54 URL: http://webcookie.net DATE: 04/04/2004 11:17:33 PM "Don't Be Light" is such an awesome song. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: me@looseNOSPAMlogic.com IP: 24.71.163.25 URL: http://www.looselogic.com DATE: 04/05/2004 01:21:10 AM I might just try this. Anything to try and make the time pass quicker. Nice picks too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mish EMAIL: mish@nospam.com IP: 130.63.100.53 URL: http://www.boltofblue.net/michelle DATE: 04/05/2004 04:45:49 AM nice mix tom :) i hadn't been here in ages! yes, the air track is absolutely wonderful! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 217.209.178.218 URL: DATE: 04/05/2004 08:04:57 AM Aahh.. Kodachrome.. my favorite song, ever. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: candace EMAIL: !spam@127.0.0.1 IP: 194.164.38.180 URL: http://epistolary.net DATE: 04/05/2004 11:40:58 AM flylady to the rescue. ignore the religious overtones and housewifeyness, the method is valid. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: brainsluicenz@yahoo.com IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: http://www.brainsluice.com DATE: 04/05/2004 12:32:52 PM I'm picturing you strutting about with a hoover, a la Freddie Mercury in "I Want To Break Free", and I'm very disturbed by that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jon EMAIL: musak@musak.org IP: 213.235.7.195 URL: http://www.musak.org DATE: 04/05/2004 01:53:54 PM But you don't say if it worked. Is the flat clean or did you end up dancing around the flat for an hour (which would make it a great motivational exercise playlist as well)? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J-Ko EMAIL: jstenros@cc.hut.fi IP: 193.110.108.33 URL: http://www.iki.fi/hoh/fabula/ DATE: 04/05/2004 02:28:15 PM You have neglected the seminal cleaning record from Chemical Brother, Exit Planet Dust. Points for Buffy, though. Also, cleaning up begins with making a cleaning up coctail. If you are into more indy stuff, I'd recommend also the Finnish trio The Cleaning Women (from planet Clinus, obviously). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J EMAIL: goluboy@inbox.ru IP: 207.176.233.95 URL: http://www.2xy.org DATE: 04/05/2004 02:36:46 PM Fantastic idea! I think I shall try that, rather than devoting an entire day to cleaning. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jessi EMAIL: jessi@jessi.nl IP: 80.61.252.139 URL: http://www.jessi.nl DATE: 04/05/2004 04:13:11 PM What a wonderful idea! I'd also include a song from the Backbeat soundtrack: Long Tall Sally. In fact, I might just add the entire album... :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltation@fastmail.fm IP: 62.253.64.8 URL: http://go-blog-go.blogspot.com DATE: 04/05/2004 09:38:41 PM Personally, I've found that by far the best way to deal with housework is to lower my standards. Do you really NEED the ability to visually distinguish furniture from floor? I've learned not. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ryan Schultz EMAIL: ryanwinnipeg@yahoo.ca IP: 130.179.25.214 URL: http://ryanschultz.net DATE: 04/06/2004 02:21:21 AM Thanks for the idea, Tom. I'm going to try this. --Ryan Schultz (Quiplash) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jonah EMAIL: jonah34578@hotmail.com IP: 64.81.53.191 URL: DATE: 04/08/2004 07:19:57 AM Jez wanted to let ya know that the Buffy-theme is by a group called NerfHerder. On another note, real nice playlist. ----- PING: TITLE: muck URL: http://www.bitful.com/archives/001822.html IP: 212.187.158.83 BLOG NAME: bitful DATE: 04/07/2004 09:49:58 AM On Plasticbag: "...don't clean until your house is clean, instead merely allocate time to the cleaning process and clean until that time is over whether you finish or not." [...] "...I would clean in a high-impact fashion for no more and no less than p... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: If the nodes were people, couldn't you make the links actual web-pages / documents? STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/04/2004 12:59:31 PM ----- BODY:

    So basically I just saw Political Friendster and started to get a bit excited. They're basically allowing people to collectively make connections between the various figures in American politics. Unfortunately it's not particularly carefully validated or checked information and it's basically being done as a joke. Oh and it's stolen the design and name from Friendster so it's pretty likely to be shut down in about an hour.

    Well anyway - they're not alone in thinking these connections are important or interesting though. There's a great site called theyrule.net which is unfortunately in Flash which traces the connections between the boards of major companies (and hence the possibilities for vested interests and collusion) as well as allowing individuals to annotate them. From a more artistic perspective there's also the work of Mark Lombardi who traced financial connections and flows between (amongst others) George Bush and Osama Bin Laden and articulated the whole thing in terms of beautiful diagrammatic representations of power.

    So here's what I'm thinking. Rather than make it a trivial piece of play theatre or a didactic piece of political commentary, why not go to something somewhere closer to LondonGeek? But why not make it better - why not do something that no one has ever done before and create a hybrid of Friendster and Lombardi's work that allows people to (1) create new nodes on a grid (whatever those things might be - institutions or whatever) and then (2) create links between them by simply submitting a web-page as the link. So for example - if there's a piece of evidence or a news story out there that says that George Bush has been holidaying with the Bin Laden's then you'd connect Bush with Bin Laden by submitting that story. On each of their pages, then, you'd see a list of the people they were connected to, but importantly you could see precisely how strongly they were connected and more importantly still you could see precisely how they were connected to each other. With quick play with Pagerank and Google News you could start collecting some really interesting data. Subsequent play with Archive.org could keep the news stories and / or found documents on the record for longer. Loads of possibilities...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sharing multiple digests could be kinja's killer app... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 04/05/2004 11:46:24 PM ----- BODY:

    So I looked at Kinja and I was pretty impressed. I looked at it and saw something clean and simple that would hopefully appeal to people who find the morass of weblogs out there to be overwhelming. I thought it would appeal to those who didn't know where to start. It wasn't perfect, of course - not by any stretch of the imagination. For a start, the first beta didn't really make a clear distinction between the digests that you could make and the digests that were editorially chosen by the kinja team. It didn't seem to know what it was there to do for you. But after some fiddling an essence started to emerge and I started to see it for what I thought it was - a nice little simple application that would appeal to the newbies...

    So basically, I thought it was polished and useful but I didn't think it was interesting. But the funny thing is that I think I've changed my mind. And the reason I've changed my mind is because of the tiniest feature that I didn't even notice the first few times I used it - it's not the fact that I can create my own little version of Haddock Blogs that's interesting, it's the fact that I can chuck it around to all my friends. I can link to it like this and - if I wanted to - I could stick it at the end of my blogroll so that other people could play with it too. I could e-mail it to someone, or IM it or even just tell someone my user name and have them go and find it.

    This is the feature that I think we were supposed to catch on right from the beginning - or was somewhere in people's minds in the earliest iterations of the concept - but has kind of been hidden by accretion, simplification and implementational problems. The message has become lost - because Kinja's not about making the collections, it's about making collections that we can do things with, collections with handles that can be picked up and thrown around and shown to people to explain or illustrate things.

    Nearly a year ago I started writing a little post about RSS aggregators that went a little off the rails. It was supposed to be a tiny little post that spiralled and spiralled until it became impossible to finish. It kind of sat in my drafts bin, where it remains, even though I'm basically going to rip it off wholeheartedly for the rest of this enormous rant.

    The draft post was written shortly after voidblogs launched - a site kind of based around the Haddock Blogs model of pulling out a time-stamp and a summary each time a post is made and then stringing them together in a webloggish format to generate a perpetually updating metaloggy thing. Around that time the new design of the the UK weblogs aggregator relaunched. I found all of these things really interesting and came to the conclusion that they were interesting not only because people liked the specific weblogs in the list and wanted to keep track of them, but more importantly because they were a way to mirror in nearly-real-time the mental life of a group to members of that group. They could reflect both ways - they revealed the compiler and they could reveal the group to itself as well.

    Which made me think. A lot of people were talking then (and are still talking now) about how to use weblogs in business and education. They've all been working on the principle that a weblog is first and foremost a piece of social software that allows and facilitates collboration. But while it's certainly true that weblog culture in the wild has evolved these groups, it's less obvious that this is necessarily the fundamental structuring principle of what a weblog 'is'. In fact I'm going to go further and state something that should probably be obvious to everyone by now: Giving a group of people weblogs does not mean that they'll necessarily start connecting with each other through them.

    First and foremost, at the smallest possible scale, a weblog is not social software. Instead it is a point in cyberspace from which to speak - it's a representation of our very self - our voice. At the most very basic of levels, a weblog isn't just part of a commmunity that shares and interacts, it's an individual voice as yet unconnected. It takes time for the second-order properties to emerge - and when they do so it's not as a rapid consolidation or phase-shift between stable states of 'singular publishing' and 'many-to-many communication'. Instead familiarity is gradually gained, recurrently interesting and communicative webloggers become friends, people gradually find their communicative voices.

    So the question becomes - when we talk about weblogging around educational projects or work-related schemes - given that a weblog won't automatically make them part of a creative collaborative community - how do we get people to think in terms of their engagement with others. And how do we get them to that stage quickly? How do we help them use the weblog to express themeselves and create notes and write thoughts while simultaneously ramping up the speed at which they start interacting with each other around these issues.

    Which brings us right back to where we started. In my opinion - rather than setting up a central weblog for a course or a project in which people can post their thoughts only as comments, the simplest and most effective way would be to have something like haddock blogs or the uk weblog aggregator or a kinja group digest sitting in the middle in between all the participants. Let that be the one stop shop for zeitgeist measuring and interest following and in-public annotation or discussion. Let that be the place for representing the community at a glance, to see the range of interests people have (even serendipitously the interests they have outside the specifics of the course / working environment that you're trying to represent). Let that be the place to see what they're getting excited by...

    And hence to kinja... Please, please, please Mr Denton - don't try and sell me weblog-management. Don't try to make it easy to replicate the functionality of my RSS aggregator. No - your killer app is this sharing of digests, this creation of really user-friendly throw-aroundable clumps of groupness. That's the the core of the enterprise. That's where the fun is, that's the playlist-making, that's the mix-tape, that's the place where self-defining groups can make their home and that's where I think the future development should move (and the marketing effort). Let people make more than one digest - let them make dozens - let it represent their church group or their anthropology class or their social software circle. Let them share them - even badge them prominently so that they seem co-owned. If you do all that, then Kinja might not just be a simple app for the newbies in the audience but a project with surprising and long-lasting power. There could be something really interesting here after all, just in a slightly unexpected direction...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@neuronwave.com IP: 203.51.145.107 URL: http://www.neuronwave.com DATE: 04/06/2004 12:49:00 AM An excellent thougthful article Tom. It makes a nice change from the why did it take 15 months to build/this is lilke bloglines lite type discussions recently. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mike EMAIL: mikejla@btinternet.com IP: 217.205.37.3 URL: http://troubleddiva.com DATE: 04/06/2004 10:24:14 AM Some good points there, Tom. Once I've established that Kinja really is tracking my blogroll in the way that I want it to (and the jury's still out on that one - the tracking isn't quite smooth and timely enough just yet, but I'm giving it time), then I'm seriously considering replacing my entire blogroll with a link to my Kinja digest. It would remove all the horrors of blogroll politics at a single stroke, leaving me free to add and delete sites quietly and without fuss (and vice versa, of course). The idea of multiple Kinja digests is a good one; in my case, I could see myself straight away using separate digests for UK, US, Europe and music. I think you're just a little bit dismissive about the weblog aggregation functionality, though. What I like about Kinja is that it's such an absolute doddle to set up and manage - the cookies meaning that I don't even have to log in more than once. Less clicking around than with other software that I've tried, and a proper blog-style interface which is what I've always been looking for... and best of all, I don't have to go looking for the names of people's RSS feeds; Kinja finds them automatically, even the auto-generated feeds from Blogspot sites, whose authors DON'T EVEN KNOW THEY'VE GOT THEM. As someone who reads a lot of small-scale "personal" blogs, this is a huge boon - a large proportion of the people I read have zero interest in RSS/Atom, and now it doesn't matter. In fact, the only blogs which Kinja isn't tracking (and I've fed in a LOT) are a couple which are updated by crude FTP only, with no CMS at all. It's a hooray for Kinja for me, then. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Euan EMAIL: blog1@theobviousblog.net IP: 132.185.144.122 URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/ DATE: 04/06/2004 10:48:10 AM Good stuff Tom - now if I could just get the damn thing to import my opml file :-( ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Caroline EMAIL: vonb@xs4all.nl IP: 145.58.4.56 URL: http://prolific.org DATE: 04/06/2004 11:32:57 AM @Mike: not sure if you realise Kinja parses HTML first. If that fails, it tries to find an RSS feed. So in theory Kinja should be able to track sites that aren't generated with a CMS. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 04/06/2004 01:04:48 PM "how do we get people to think in terms of their engagement with others" I agree that Kinja could, if it heads in the direction you suggest, be a very useful tool in this sense. However I still think that comments are the key way to do this. Sure Kinja will show you a snapshot of all the blogs in the 'group/company/mismash' but it's the interaction of discussion of topics that should be the driving force in getting people to think about where/how they interact. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham EMAIL: sp@m.com IP: 211.29.136.11 URL: http://grudnuk.com DATE: 04/06/2004 01:05:33 PM What it is, in fact, is the weblogging equivalent of Livejournal's "friends" function. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 04/06/2004 01:36:02 PM BTW - getting 'malformed response' when trying to send a trackback ping. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Costas EMAIL: costas@memigo.com IP: 216.27.161.87 URL: http://memigo.com DATE: 04/06/2004 02:47:24 PM FYI, memigo has been doing "digests" for almost a year now: memigo lets you rate news articles and lets you share highly-rated articles to other users and to the web at large using your recommendation history (just like Kinja's digests) via HTML or RSS. Most importantly though, your ratings *matter*, they weigh the article itself, the news-site that published it and those that linked to it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: freonmonkey@hotmail.com IP: 81.128.139.98 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 04/06/2004 05:30:06 PM I think Kinja is a transitory load of bollocks which, rather appropriately, also describes most weblogs (including my own). I severely doubt that it is ever going to fulfill its stated purpose as being an RSS reader for the proles...er... non-weblog savvy, but I agree that the "share the contents of the weblogs you read with others" thing is marginally better than just manually linking to the site URLs from your own weblog. Marginally. But hell, what do I know? I'm no social software visionary. Sod's Law is that Kinja will become the latest global cultural phenomenon, the New Google. And a new verb "To Kinja" will pass into the English language, meaning "to read a weblog". "Hey, have you Kinja'd plasticbag.org today?" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/06/2004 05:38:23 PM Well I'm not convinced that Kinja's going to change the world at all, but I can see a use there that I hadn't seen before and quite an interesting one. It'll need some refinement before it becomes clear exactly what it's best designed for and I think we'll have to wait until that's done and been tested by a few thousand people before we know if it's going to be part of the infrastructure. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter Caputa EMAIL: pc4media@hotmail.com IP: 198.160.170.1 URL: http://www.whizspark.com/pete DATE: 04/06/2004 08:03:45 PM spot on. there is a plethora of aggregators. blogrolling is a public form of publishing what blogs you read. why not combine the 2? and after reviewing kinja for the first time, i immediatel, thought that its value was that I could share what I read on a daily basis. and this isn't wholly separate from their goal of introducing newbies to weblogs; by me aggregating what I read on a daily basis and sharing that with someone. It is much more likely that someone i want to introduce to blogging will peruse one page of content that i tell them i read everyday, as opposed to a long list of links of blogs that i read everyday. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: SB EMAIL: sbsift-comments@yahoo.com IP: 66.109.144.19 URL: http://www.sbpoet.com DATE: 04/07/2004 05:56:49 PM I am having trouble tracking-back to this post; just wanted you to know that a non-geek was interested in what you have to say, and is trying it out. ----- PING: TITLE: Portable Links URL: http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/04/06/portable_links.php IP: 64.94.116.60 BLOG NAME: Many-to-Many DATE: 04/06/2004 05:25:52 AM Tom Coates on Kinja: So basically, I thought it was polished and useful but I didn’t think it was interesting. But the funny thing is that I think I’ve changed my mind. And the reason I’ve changed my mind is... ----- PING: TITLE: Spot on URL: http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/archives/000465.html IP: 80.71.16.101 BLOG NAME: The Obvious? DATE: 04/06/2004 10:49:01 AM First and foremost, at the smallest possible scale, a weblog is not social software. Instead it is a point in cyberspace from which to speak - it's a representation of our very self - our voice. At the most very... ----- PING: TITLE: Kinja, the blog mix-tape URL: http://prolific.org/archive/2004/04/06/kinja_the_blog_mixtape.html IP: 209.68.1.85 BLOG NAME: prolific.org DATE: 04/06/2004 11:39:35 AM Playing around with Kinja last night, I realised I could set up more than one digest. I set up one... ----- PING: TITLE: Kinja: more than just simple aggregation? URL: http://www.engadgeted.net/archives/2004/04/06/kinja-more-than-just-simple-aggregation/ IP: 62.67.59.20 BLOG NAME: engadgeted.net DATE: 04/06/2004 01:40:10 PM Perhaps i was wrong with my previous criticism of kinja. Not entirely wrong, but perhaps i missed a point. I don't know how or in which direction kinja will develop, but tom coates posted an interesting proposition: make kinja a weblog aggregator no... ----- PING: TITLE: join URL: http://www.bitful.com/archives/001820.html IP: 212.187.158.83 BLOG NAME: bitful DATE: 04/06/2004 02:25:27 PM At last, a one-stop fool-proof way to say ta-ta to incomplete directories, recently updated lists and rss feed readers: with Kinja I am finally able to gather excerpts from the latest posts of all you favourite weblogs on one page. It can be set up in ... ----- PING: TITLE: Coates on Kinja: URL: http://www.mikel.org/arch/2004_04_04_mikelarch.html#002044 IP: 139.142.202.46 BLOG NAME: mikel.org | Michael Boyle's weblog DATE: 04/06/2004 03:45:58 PM Sharing multiple digests could be kinja's killer app. "...it's not the fact that I can create my own little version of Haddock Blogs [digests] that's interesting, it's the fact that I can chuck it around to all my friends. I can link to it like this an... ----- PING: TITLE: Kinja, Please URL: http://www.davextreme.com/davextreme/2004/04/kinja_please.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: daveXtreme DATE: 04/07/2004 04:12:57 AM Internet hot spot of the week Kinja has been getting a lot of attention. My quick review: I like it. I’m not sure I prefer it to Bloglines, but it provides a different enough experience that I’m going to ----- PING: TITLE: Extending Kinja URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk/2004_04_01_archive.html#108125400655430765 IP: 69.56.172.146 BLOG NAME: gordonmclean.something DATE: 04/07/2004 12:06:31 PM The easiest way to ensure other people are aware of the expectations placed on them, and for them to communicate the expectations they have of others, is through discussion. Where that discussion takes places could be crucial. ----- PING: TITLE: Kinja tell what it is yet? URL: http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/4/12/34090.html IP: 207.178.248.9 BLOG NAME: Chocolate and Vodka DATE: 04/12/2004 04:57:24 PM When I wrote my Kinja post last week, I was starting off from a bias-free point of view. Iíd ... ----- PING: TITLE: Kinja URL: http://www.energei.com/blog/archives/000289.html IP: 82.98.129.50 BLOG NAME: So This Is Love DATE: 05/03/2004 04:06:53 PM Kinja, como dice un tÌo mÌo sobre Madrid, "estar· bien cuando lo terminen". Hice un "digest", es decir, una selecciÛn de favoritos, de los cuales teÛricamente deberÌa irme enseÒando los posts m·s actuales a modo de "meta-blog", pero por ahora... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: BBC releases Reith Lectures online as MP3s STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 04/08/2004 12:03:20 PM ----- BODY:

    For those of you who don't know, basically my job at the moment is to be one-half of a rapid-prototyping and R&D unit with Matt Webb over at the part of the BBC that handles the interactive aspects of the BBC's Radio and Music output. The department makes all the websites for the various Radio Networks as well as interactive TV stuff, stuff for mobile phones and - of course - the Radio Player. It's a pretty cool place to work and I'm proud of the work that we've managed to get done there (more on that in the next few months, hopefully).

    So at the moment I'm particularly proud of the work that the department is doing. Basically Radio 4 do a series of programmes each year called The Reith Lectures, in which they get a notable thinker to come in and - over a series of lectures - expound upon a particular scientific, political or social theme. This year Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning poet, is talking about Climate of Fear. Normally - like many BBC radio shows - you can listen to them again via the BBC Radio Player. But this year they're doing something a bit different and I think pretty significant - they're releasing all the lectures as DRM-free MP3 files for people to download. There's more about this over at Dan Hill's site and Matt Jones has written some commentary on it too (Free as in speech). Hopefully it's the first open distribution of many programmes of this kind - enlightening, significant and weighty pieces of work that actually have the potential to make the world a better place - available for free from the BBC. Fingers crossed.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris McEvoy EMAIL: chris@usabilityviews.com IP: 80.192.92.172 URL: http://confusability.com DATE: 04/08/2004 12:54:40 PM I am quite happy just to get streaming content from the BBC and am not very interested in being able to download radio programmes permanently. However, I would like to be able to find "Listen Again" content more easily. Every Radio 4 site that has "Listen Again" programmes seems to use a different interface for delivering their old programmes. I maintain a list of Radio 4 programmes about desing/Usability/Ethnography etc. and spend a lot of time trying to find the permanent urls for audio streams. For example: The most recent In Our Time programme (The Fall) has a link to inourtime.ram (which will point to a different prog next week). You can also find the same audio at inourtime_20040408.ram which is the permanent link that I need. With the In Our Time site this archive page will not appear on the site until next week, but as I know how the site works I can generate the URL for the permanent page for this prog (inourtime_20040408.shtml). A much better example to follow is Thinking Allowed, which always has a link to the "current Week" as well as providing a link to the permament url for the programme. So as each new prog is added the "Current Week" and "Previous Week" links are updated, and the current prog is also added in its own right as a permanent url. So rather than delivering content in different forms I would rather that you spent some time making it easier to find content that is already there. If you want to take a look at my list of R4 programmes, search google for "bbc radio 4" and it's the entry after bbc.co.uk ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 04/08/2004 01:30:56 PM I think this is an excellent move. Quality content I can take with me - will make those long journeys a whole lot more interesting and productive, hell even holidays will benefit! It also means I don't have to be hooked to my PC all the time. A good thing in my opinion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wild EMAIL: richwild@funjunkie.co.uk IP: 217.33.105.2 URL: http://www.funjunkie.co.uk DATE: 04/08/2004 02:41:44 PM "available for free from the BBC" - I presume here you're meaning free as in fiscal, no cost terms rather than free as in DRM-free or free-speech-free, which I'd like to take issue with as we *are* paying for it, but other than this pedantry this is great news! I hope it spreads to the popular show archives soon! I'd disagree with Chris above by saying that the ability to be able to take an archived show with me anywhere, and also be able to play it even without net connection would be an enormously fantastic thing. p.s. Tom - any word on the licencing of this material? ie is it published under Creative Commons etc or is it under tamper free copyright? Can we chop it up and use it for stuff? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@cityofsound.com IP: 132.185.240.121 URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/ DATE: 04/08/2004 06:19:30 PM Thanks all - useful comments; keep 'em coming. And Wild, it's still copyright BBC I'm afraid (as all broadcasts are) ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@cityofsound.com IP: 132.185.144.120 URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/ DATE: 04/08/2004 08:15:32 PM Thanks guys; interesting comments all. Keep 'em coming. And Wild, 'fraid it's still copyright BBC (as all broadcast material is, unless otherwise noted). Ta, D. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: alan EMAIL: alan@alanhunt.ca IP: 216.123.180.134 URL: http://www.alanhunt.ca/blog/alansblog.html DATE: 04/12/2004 08:04:36 PM I'm a big fan of the BBC's commitment to online radio archives, which I think of as being second only to wfmu.org (although the programming is very different). I love the Mp3 option, as I normally record streams and the burn them on to CD to listen to it in the car on my drive to work. If all of the shows were downloadable it would save me a lot of time. But my tax dollars are going to the CBC(who needs more archiving!) so I guess I'm getting a free ride as it is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rik EMAIL: rik@abeldesign.com IP: 217.43.70.72 URL: http://rik.typepad.com DATE: 04/15/2004 08:14:43 AM That's great! I loathe Real Player. Any plans to offer previous Reith Lectures as MP3s? I'd really like to listen to the "Phantoms in the brain" series. Keep up the great work, sonuds like a fun job. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Judith Fairlie EMAIL: judi@idms.co.uk IP: 82.35.26.248 URL: DATE: 04/25/2004 10:14:39 AM What is a DRM-free MP3 file? I would just like to be able to read the Reith Lectures again and my first thought was The Listener, Second was the Internet but the jargon is ahead of me. I did not see the times and dates from the BBC and have missed the previous ones. Please explain what I have to do. Thanks,Judith Fairlie. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Judith Fairlie EMAIL: judi@idms.co.uk IP: 82.35.26.248 URL: DATE: 04/25/2004 10:20:20 AM Got it! Seems like I didn't actually have to know what the jargon meant to get it - great. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Norman Lorrain EMAIL: normanlorrain@hotmail.com IP: 205.206.206.116 URL: http://lorrain.ca DATE: 05/05/2004 10:18:14 PM Well done BBC! I'm always looking for something interesting to listen to, and my portable player is mp3-only. Incidentally, here in Canada you can get some good content here (it's a science show) http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks/index.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jason mhz EMAIL: bbc@NOSPAMneupop.com IP: 81.86.78.194 URL: http://neupop.com DATE: 07/19/2004 03:57:01 PM This is very good - real is such low quality I hate it. Please encode patrick moore the sky at night as divX as real player is unwatachable and I want to watch them but the quality is so low. The BBC as a public institution should support open formats and standards - this is clearly in the public interest. The entire BBC archive should be encoded as MP3 and made publicly available. BBC stop thinking like a business and start thinking like a public institution, this is a good first step. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan EMAIL: jg20@st-andrews.ac.uk IP: 80.229.40.192 URL: DATE: 08/29/2004 10:55:03 AM One very simple question? How can one conveniently record the current "listen again" content from the BBC. Like others, I would love to be able to listen to some of these programs on car journeys ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charles EMAIL: charles.hoffmeyer@gmail.com IP: 67.167.178.20 URL: DATE: 10/10/2004 09:51:27 PM It seems as if they have moved back to Real Audio. I cannot find an mp3 file anywhere. ----- PING: TITLE: BBC Releases the 2004 Reith Lectures as DRM-Less MP3's URL: http://www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/2004_04_01_archive.php#108142963622458559 IP: 66.159.239.140 BLOG NAME: LinkMachineGo DATE: 04/08/2004 05:39:41 PM [bbc] The Reith Lectures 2004 -- the BBC is releasing the 2004 Reith Lectures as DRM-Less MP3 Files. This year's lecturer is Wole Soyinka discussing "The Climate of Fear". ----- PING: TITLE: One small step for MP3, one huge leap for the content we pay for. URL: http://www.bbcity.co.uk/entry/1661 IP: 69.0.162.170 BLOG NAME: bbCity.co.uk DATE: 04/09/2004 11:21:37 AM Tom Coates' reports that the BBC are releasing the Reith lecutres in MP3 format. Also see LinkMachineGo. This is great. Because broadband shouldn't equal broadcast. If only they could dispose of the incompatible and crap RealPlayer and go MP3 for every... ----- PING: TITLE: BBC releases Reith Lectures online as MP3s URL: http://christopher-hill.com/archive/2004/04/10/2098.aspx IP: 82.68.138.54 BLOG NAME: christopher-hill.com DATE: 04/10/2004 12:12:07 PM ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On incursions into fictional reality... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/10/2004 09:14:16 AM ----- BODY:

    From Barbelith as found by Matt Jones:

    "...imagine what would happen to Pulp Fiction if, when the character of Jules looked into the briefcase, he "woke up" in mid-scene and not only realized that he was a character in a movie, but also realized that he "was" also Mace Windu and Shaft and a bunch of other characters in realities he can scarcely comprehend, while also glimpsing an uber-reality where all of those realities are just movies and he's an actor called Samuel L. Jackson."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More fun from Radio and Music Interactive... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/12/2004 11:21:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Those of you in the UK today may have stumbled upon Radio 1's Ten Hour Takeover - in which members of the listening public got to choose which songs were played - only using the magic telecommunicative power of text messaging. What you might not know is that this was another BBC Radio and Music Interactive enterprise! Better still, some of the creative parties involved have been able to write up some of the technology and experience on their weblogs - Matt Biddulph (head of our architecture team) has written up his exhaustive and open thoughts on the design and implementation of the project in a piece called Moyles-proof code over on hackdiary. And Dan Hill's also posted his thoughts about the project in a post called Takeover Radio. More satisfying still is that conversation around the even has even started to creep over the rest of webloggia - with David from Fuddland posting about his experience of the day (10 Hour Takeover). I was listening to the radio at exactly the same time as David and was equally impressed at the quality of the selections - although I'm not convinced that the person in the car next to us at the traffic lights near Bluebell Lane in Norwich was as delighted by Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" as I was.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Taylor EMAIL: tom@tomtaylor.co.uk IP: 81.174.167.44 URL: http://www.tomtaylor.co.uk DATE: 04/13/2004 04:36:58 PM Good work, it looks like a pretty impressive system from reading the blogs of the team. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 04/13/2004 04:56:01 PM I should repeat that it had absolutely nothing to do with me directly. Matt B had some interactions with my other half Mr Webb, but generally it's been kept well away from my eyes until the last minute. I'm too busy working on something much less glamourous, which I hope will have its own utility... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@plus-media.co.uk IP: 212.158.245.215 URL: http://www.plus-media.co.uk DATE: 04/15/2004 04:07:18 PM Thank you so much! I just found your post about the odeon music (http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2004/02/the_music_from_the_odeon_trailer_ident.shtml) I have been looking for it for ages! Am currently clicking on to amazon now :D ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LoÔc Le Meur EMAIL: loic@ublog.com IP: 195.68.50.5 URL: http://www.loiclemeur.com DATE: 04/15/2004 06:58:38 PM Hi Tom, sorry for commenting here it has nothing to do with your post but I could not find your email address, I will be in London on May 12 and I am trying to organize a blogger dinner there, could you join and possibly bring blogger friends ? I would really like to meet you there. Thanks. Here is the blog post & wiki of the dinner: http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2004/04/i_will_be_in_lo.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tiffany EMAIL: tcraighenry@yahoo.co.uk IP: 195.172.227.194 URL: http://www.deadjournal.com/users/vulgarcriminal DATE: 04/23/2004 06:22:14 PM But did you hear the duck song? That was strange. ----- PING: TITLE: It's A Takeover URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2004/04/its_a_takeover.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 04/13/2004 02:29:41 PM As each day passes I have more and more respect for the talents of Chris Moyles. ----- PING: TITLE: It's A Takeover URL: http://www.musak.org/entries/2004/04/its_a_takeover.shtml IP: 66.33.213.10 BLOG NAME: Listen to Musak DATE: 08/05/2004 06:37:02 PM As each day passes I have more and more respect for the talents of Chris Moyles. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: "We will now back down!" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/16/2004 05:41:13 PM ----- BODY:

    There's a slightly Freudian typo in BBC News' latest article about the joint Blair / Bush press conference in the states. Or at least I assume it's a typo and Blair didn't just squeeze in a bit of a massive policy U-Turn while no one was looking:

    Outlining the coalition's strategy, the prime minister said: "First, we stand firm. We will do what it takes to win this struggle. We will not yield, we will now back down."

    It probably won't be there for long, so enjoy it while you can...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Vadvaddenujasa? URL: http://terra.incognita.se/archives/000052.html IP: 213.115.211.16 BLOG NAME: Terra Incognita DATE: 04/18/2004 08:07:52 PM Apropå min lilla profetia att att Bush och Blair borde börja glida isär snart... Bush verkar tycka det är ok att Israel mördar hamasledare efter hamasledare, medans regeringen Blair verkar tycka det är olagligt, omotiverat... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Thoughts on magic, religion, metaphors and technology... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/18/2004 11:48:56 PM ----- BODY:

    So this is one of those posts that nothing good can come from. This is because it's one of those posts that is inspired by something so profoundly clumsy and grotesquely insensitive that I stumbled upon elsewhere that I'm almost loathe to link to the original source. And I'm going to make it worse, I fear, because in order to get some kind of interesting aesthetic resonances I'm going to smash it together with a bit of horrific ethnic sterotyping, cod technology might-be-April-Fools technocrap and some wodges of clumsy Occidentalism. Nothing good can come from such clumsiness, and I want to start off saying before I go any further that I'm a bit ill and that the sheer depths of my ignorance on almost every aspect of what follows should not be underestimated. This is an extended riff around a theme. No more.

    Basically the whole thing starts and ends with an extremely dodgy thread on Barbelith - more specifically a thread in the Temple section of the board. This section has the honour of being essentially the best board on the internet about Chaos Magick, paganism and alternative spiritualities. This is in itself a pretty good thing. On the other hand, it's also a bit of a ghetto that doesn't mix that well with the rest of the community. I find it even more problematic because for the most part I don't believe in any of it. I'm basically interested in Magickal practice only in as much as I'm interested in how models of said practice that concentrate on language and sigils tend to intersect with structuralist and post-structuralist thought on language as a conceptual binding agent for the modernist universe. At which point, of course, I should shut up before I sound like a complete twat.

    Anyway - back to the questionable thread in question, which has been posted by one of the fun new guys who have been turning up on the site pretty regularly since we opened up the site to Google spidering. The thread is called - rather depressingly - Al queda wizards and is, essentially, about whether Al Qaeda used practicing magicians in order to influence the success of their attacks on the States and across the world. Let me say straight off that it is, in my opinion, a pretty dumb insensitive thread written by a pretty dumb insensitive person. And yet the thread has tweaked my interest because of another post which reads as follows:

    "But djinn and efreeti on the battlefield would be so cool, especially if they went up against the robot tanks and battlesuits that are in development."

    Which got me thinking about technology and the way we use it to make the dreamed-of real. Because whether or not we're at such a place where technologies are able to meet the fantasy desires of human beings - and whether or not those dreams would inevitably have to come with deep-seated provisos and qualifiers and restrictions - it's pretty clear that these fantasies and beliefs and aspirations and desires are starting to be made real. Moreover it's increasingly clear that our aspiration is to do this - that technology is moving more and more towards the attempt to fulfil things that have been human fantasies for hundreds or thousands of years.

    Let's start with some simple examples - which fantasies have we seen become technologised and then become commonplace? A few hundred years ago, it was the magical objects that were the focus of our aspirational children's fantasies - fairy stories of enchanted carpets that could whisk you anywhere you wanted, cave-doors that would only open if you knew the correct passwords, magical talking beasts that could aid you in your quests, objects that responded to your whim in some way from a distance. And these objects gradually become technologised in our myth-making as they become increasingly close to plausible. The talking horses and magic carpets became the talking cars full of gadgets, the magic carpets secret military helicopters hidden in atolls. The man who could call down the power of the sun became the man with the orbiting satellite. And then the cars in real-life got GPS and computer controlled suspension and cruise controls and the televisions started keeping programmes for you that you liked and the houses started turning the lights on when you got home or responding to your voice-print. Magic became aspirational fantasy technology became real-life technology. And it'll keep happening. It's not that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic - it's that the aimof all technological advancement is to aspire towards the appearance of magic.

    Some fantasies were born from a scientific mindset - a modernist frame of being - but had no relationship to science itself. Many of these were fantasies of aspirational human powers - extensions and enhancements of the self that are best exemplified by super-heros and comic books. These characters - given their gifts by collisions of lightning and mysterious chemicals or by the rays of strange exotic suns - might as well have been purely mystical in origin for all their relationship to any laws of thermodynamics that I'm familiar with. But that too started to change. A few decades ago a fresh pass of the fantasy crystals of TV-land created the six-million dollar man. And technologists started to try and buildworkable jet-packs. Our sensibilities with regard to fantasy started to change and our super-heroic figures started blurring more in with the realms and limits of technological possibility. And now our soldiers are wearing nanofibre weaves that make them nigh-on indestructible and have extended senses that make normal humans look comparatively useless. Binoculars become smart-glasses, clothing becomes exo-skeletal or supportive and people keep working on the jet-pack every few decades. And why? Because fundamentally people want to fly like the birds fly and they'll keep dreaming about it until someone has made it real - however long it takes.

    And while the extreme ends of super-heroics are visible on the horizon, even now we can see traces of the future possibilities of implants and genetic development in the cyborgised grannies with hi-tech hips and knees. The next few hundred years will see the development of human beings in directions that will astonish us. Any sufficiently advanced (and rich) human being will be indistiguishable from a super-hero (or a super-villain - but more on that later).

    Which brings me to the religious and mystical aspirations like the idea of djinn and efreeti on the battlefield. Fundamental dreams and concepts that have lived in the narratives of cultures for millennia. And immediately I'm drawn to attempts to bring about religious events with technology that I've read about in Wired. Unfortunately I read it in an April (Fools?) issue of Wired so I don't know if I believe it or not (I'm thinking not), but the story remains online and it's scary and plausible enough to support the weight of my flimsy argument even if it's not true: How a hologram, a blimp and a massively multiplayer game could bring about the end of the world. The article suggests that a prophecy says that a temple made of light will descend onto the site of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem - and some rather nutty technologists are proposing to make it happen with mist, some holograms and a convenient blimp. Apparently, there's no collision with what is understood by the religions in question (Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity) except that a lamb must be sacrificed onto the altar and they're wondering how its blood could be spilt on something with no physical substance. Prophecy is a different thing to fantasy, and this story may be total bunk, but the promise remains - could technology be used to satisfy another few aspirational desires in ways that - to all outsiders - would look like magic...

    So what about djinn and efreeti on the battlefield? Will they be battling robots? Well, we already have concepts of smart dust, and self-organising swarms and motes. We already have illustrative science fiction concepts that place distributed technologies in the Middle East. Who's to say that resurgent interest in technology combined with non-Christian value systems might not generate technologies that are built around radically non-Western metaphor sets or aspirations? Who's to say that cultures that are based around the ultimate stability of the nation-state might not concentrate on representations of the enhanced body politic, the ultimate Westerner/Viking/ThunderGods, while cultures who have a different relationship to statehood, a different relationship to land and a different land to have a relationship with (or who are concentrated around religious identities, or in extreme cases have an understand of warfare at the cellular guerilla level, or have a more nomadic heritage - but generally just have a radically different set of metaphors and aspirations to cast into matter in the heat of technology) might view their goal to make the very land itself swarm up and fight back - to make the powerful spirits of their traditions emerge from narrative and into reality.

    The world of the future, then, is full of the products of our fantasies but is it a better place? As ever it's impossible to say. The story of the human race is no different from that of most other creatures - there's always a tension between what's good for the individual and what good for the collective or the environment or ecosystem within which they operate. And fantasy is a singular thing, the product of one mind wanting to put itself in the centre of an idealised future. But not everyone can be in the centre and so as individuals get catered for more and more, there's ever more reason for people to ignore the collective and concentrate on their own gain. Arguing that the future is full of dreams fulfilled doesn't make it necessarily Utopian - it simply means that individuals are able to experience things they've only dreamed of before. Whether the indirect consequence of this is that they're also forced to experience a degradation in society and the environment that they've only dreamed of before is unclear. Most likely balances will be struck, equilibria found, and fantasy will move on through to the creation of more authentic experiences, new and more vigorous attempts to become the individual godheads we all secretly crave to be (in one field or another). And only the variety of cultural backgrounds that we have around us can hope to provide us with enough metaphor sets to provide us with enough new avenues for discovery to last us in the longer term. The future we're looking towards may be one where memetic biodiversity is severely threatened as all our dreams come true.

    Addendum: Think of this as the product of an unsound metabolism and don't take it too seriously. The satisfaction I'm getting from such a large mind-dump is enormous, but don't take that as sufficient reason to believe that anything within it is even slightly plausible. It might get edited for sense over the next couple of days as I try to find out what it's supposed to be about.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 80.3.75.92 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk DATE: 04/19/2004 08:16:34 AM Crikey, stop apologising! There's a short story about at least some of what you're on about, I think it was by Greg Bear (or was it Greg Egan) where an Islamist state builds an AI, and its outlook is totally different from the usual must-destroy-humanity stuff, or the star trek fluffbunny crap, just loads of worshipping god and hailing all the works of god as good, including itself, all the plants and animals, etc. Fairly interesting idea for a short story... But then, djinns and efreets on the battlefield would be like that bit in Return of the King when the army of the dead traitors comes in and magically saves the day. Bit of a cop out I thought. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@REMOVETHISsnowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 04/19/2004 10:32:27 AM May I humbly suggest that if you DO edit this, don't change this post but post the edited version here (or elsewhere). Would be a doubly interesting read to see how/why/where you edited the original. As for the content. My head's still spinning and I don't want to make myself look daft so I'm keeping schtum. It IS making me think though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 195.92.113.67 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 04/19/2004 11:33:12 AM You should read the books of Iain M. Banks, whose novels are set within a futuristic culture (aptly named the Culture) in which these kinds of ideas are explained at length. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Daniel EMAIL: dj.scruton.remove.this@ntlworld.com IP: 81.96.74.22 URL: DATE: 04/20/2004 12:53:20 AM May I just add David Brin's short story "Life in the Extreme" from 1998 to the list. It fits so well. By the way, this story also premonitions your mass amateurisation of everything... maybe you've been channeling him? ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Frosty? EMAIL: ioninfinite@hotmail.com IP: 213.249.245.114 URL: DATE: 04/30/2004 08:06:36 AM Hi there, i'm one of the people from the 'ghetto(!)' (Maitreya at the moment) and was thinking that maybe one thing that you could do is to try and see it from the thread starters viewpoint, someone who believes in Magick, and then maybe you won't find the person as dumb and insensitive as you maybe do at the moment. For the people that believe in and practise Magick it isn't that far out an assumption to suspect that the terrorists could of actually had their own occultists working to increase the chances of the terrorist attack being 'succesfull', even if it does stink like it does. Maybe in asking yourself why the thread offended you, you would be able to learn something about how you perceive Magick, and why you don't believe in it? None of this was intended to offend you, sorry if it did, i just find it interesting that you'd think the person who brought the subject up as being dumb/insensitive when other's who believe in Magick didn't get that impression. ----- PING: TITLE: Djinn URL: http://emptybottle.org/coasters/discarded/2004/04/djinn.php IP: 63.247.132.12 BLOG NAME: Emptybottle : Coasters DATE: 04/19/2004 07:58:26 AM Go read this. It'll make your brain hum.... ----- PING: TITLE: Holy Computer URL: http://www.ideasbazaar.com/blog/archives/2004/04/21/holy_computer.php IP: 212.73.244.33 BLOG NAME: The Ideas Bazaar DATE: 04/21/2004 09:27:48 AM In a similar, though rather more straightforward vein to Tom Coates' post about magic and technology, Genevieve Bell writes about the religious uses of technology that she's witnessed during over 2 years of fieldwork across Asia. It's a powerful statem... ----- PING: TITLE: Divorce URL: http://WWW.onepotmeal.com/2004/04/divorce.html IP: 63.247.134.231 BLOG NAME: onepotmeal DATE: 04/21/2004 02:15:35 PM Updike, Roth, and S. try a new place this week, an Olde Boston favorite with lobster newburg and various varieties of scrod. The kind of restaurant where people insist scrod is a species of fish. How's your scrod? Updike asks.... ----- PING: TITLE: links for 2004-09-11 URL: http://www.msrobot0.com/archives/000008.html IP: 64.207.136.2 BLOG NAME: Ms Robot0 DATE: 09/11/2004 01:14:07 PM japanese paper robots (categories: paper robots) How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (categories: programming) HISTORY OF ROBOTS IN THE VICTORIAN ERA (categories: history robots) Daily Yomiuri On-Line: Robots on the ma... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On MediaUnbound and recommendations engines... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 04/22/2004 02:23:01 PM ----- BODY:

    I've been playing with a demo over on MediaUnbound, which is a music discovery engine that runs in Flash and assembles pseudo-radio players that are designed to meet your every musical need. The concept isn't particularly new, but I have to say I was impressed by the quality of the recommendations and - more importantly - by the process by which the recommendations were made.

    Human beings have a tendency towards self-deception and care (to a greater or lesser extent) about the groups of people they are considered to be associated with. They care about how they are being compartmentalised or categorised by those around them and this - for the most part - is the way that most recommendations engines work: demographics, categorisation, association. In real life, people are reticent about revealing tastes that they're slightly ashamed of and happy to own up to tastes that fit in with popular opinion or with the opinion of the subculture that they most heavily identify. Because of this, telling people what they might like is inherently a judgement by association - and if people aren't comfortable with the way that the system has 'judged' them (either it seems clumsy and overly simple or it judges them to like music or books that are associated with cultures that they find tacky or crass) then they're simply not going to be interested in hearing what it has to say. That's as true online as it is when you recommend a song to a friend and they say that they don't really like "that kind of music", whether they've heard the song or not.

    My experience with MediaUnbound has been better than with most other recommendations engines. Like the best LiveJournal quizzes the options you are provided with seem designed to make it a little more difficult to associate the choices you are given with 'types of people' you might or might not like. And the results give the impression of being satisfyingly varied between genres, cultures and styles allowing you to determine for yourself which recommended songs you think are central to your recommendations (ones you're proud of or that you know you like or might find interesting) and which you can self-group as more peripheral (ones you're ashamed of or don't like). Add that to a generally pretty reasonable success rate and generally you can't go that wrong... Here are a selection of some of the songs it thinks I'd like (I'm not going to tell you which ones are accurate or not - judge me as you see fit):

    Sonic Youth: Silver Rocket
    Porno for Pyros: Pets
    David Bowie: Jean Genie
    The Third Sex: At Least I Got Some Cool Clothes
    7 Year Bitch: Dead Men Don't Rape
    The Pixies: Gouge Away
    Spice Girls: Spice up Your Life
    Eagle-Eye Cherry: Indecision
    Weezer: Pink Triangle
    Sleater-Kinney: I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone
    Cadallaca: Two Beers Later
    The Breeders: Opened
    L7: 'Till the Wheels Fall Off
    Hispana Tim: Sad and Lonely
    Modest Mouse: Dramamine
    Syrup USA: Vaporized
    Tiffany: I Think We're Alone Now
    The Pixies: Silver
    Tompot Blenny: Dr.Fitzpiers
    Bruce Springsteen: Brilliant Disguise
    The Breeders: Fortunately Gone
    Confetti: Who's Big And Clever Now
    Razorcuts: Mary Day
    Quasi: The Poisoned Well
    Shop Assistants: All Of The Time
    The Adverts: Bored Teenagers
    Bedhead: Unpredictable Landlord
    Britney Spears: Oops!...I Did It Again
    Weezer: El Scorcho
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.18.65 URL: DATE: 04/22/2004 07:31:32 PM I can't believe anyone can like both Spice Girls and Bruce Springsteen! I just can't.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@cityofsound.com IP: 82.35.40.93 URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/ DATE: 04/23/2004 12:27:38 AM Mediaunbound's good, innit? Coincidentally, I wrote a short note on music recommendations t'other day, in some way related to Clay's ideas around situated software and social networks - I guess posing the question as to whether collab-filt-based recommendations are a better solution than building around small social networks ... http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2004/04/do_recommendati.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rich EMAIL: dickyjim71@yahoo.co.uk IP: 195.92.168.175 URL: http://www.mightymoenaeem.blogspot.com DATE: 04/24/2004 02:07:28 AM It reminded me a bit of being at the opticians! Very clever, but it does seem slightly light on the dance music side. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 04/24/2004 04:55:35 AM I just discovered http://music.for-robots.com/ two days ago, and I ahd the same reaction you had to this. I just went through and downloaded all the recent MP3 files that have been posted, put them on my iPod and listened to them ñÝand I was surprised by how much I liked them. I had though I had my musical tastes pretty well defined (although there's no simply word for it ñ I guess kind of Disco-ish Techno/Indie Rock/Folk Rock). But as I listened to these songs, many which were in categories I had more or less written off as being things I don't like, I actually liked a lot of them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmail.fm IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://saltation@fastmail.fm DATE: 04/27/2004 04:42:14 PM > Human beings have a tendency towards self-deception "That's not true!" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: foo EMAIL: foo@bar.com IP: 66.92.250.182 URL: DATE: 04/27/2004 06:27:19 PM the tiffany song got thrown in there, eh? you need a way to do Amazon-like recommendations on these things. There needs to be a button that says "don't figure this into the recommendation s/w". ----- PING: TITLE: MediaUnbound URL: http://alex.halavais.net/news/archives/000905.html IP: 203.194.240.131 BLOG NAME: Blog de Halavais DATE: 04/22/2004 06:40:17 PM Tom Coates alerted me to MediaUnbound. a new preferences engine for selecting music. I won’t comment much on the flash-based... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A few boring Barbelith stats... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/24/2004 10:17:44 AM ----- BODY:

    A few interesting Barbelith (temporarily closed for new members) stats which I compiled the other day whlie trying to avoid work. In the last month there have been 14846 undeleted posts on the site, made by around 900 unique user names. That makes around 480 new posts each day, with each user posting around 0.5 times per day or 16 posts a month. After a (hopefully) brief period of reworking, the site will be open again and I hope to see all you guys there.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A disease in the Breedster ecosystem... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/25/2004 11:59:22 AM ----- BODY:

    There's so much I could write about Breedster if I had the time. I could write about the interesting way it handles new members (you have to put work in to getting food and finding a partner before you can create a new user account and plug someone into it). I could talk about the possibilities of gaming / message-board overlaps and some of the slightly-abortive work that Cal and I did on the not-open-for-business The Mafia Game site. I could talk about the gaming aspects of maintaining a community and the congruence between gaming rule-sets and political rule-sets. I could write about lots of things. There's loads of stuff I could talk about that's interesting (to me) here. Instead I'm just going to report that a friend of mine has just contracted a disease in the game - they've released an infestation that can affect your bug's digestive tract and make it harder for you to build up enough strength to fornicate. Watch out everyone, there's infected poop about. This is a disease of the colon that could (and please forgive me for this) run and run!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charlie Bourne EMAIL: charlieoffice36@btinternet.com IP: 81.132.141.178 URL: DATE: 04/25/2004 09:33:15 PM Tom - I would like to send you an e-mail about professional matters (ie work) but cannot find a way of contacting you. Could you e-mail me with a way to write to you? Thanks Charlie Bourne Leamington Spa Warwickshire ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AKMA EMAIL: akma@disseminary.org IP: 24.13.251.214 URL: http://akma.disseminary.org DATE: 04/26/2004 02:09:10 PM Not just a digestive virus, Tom, but an STD. (Be polite, and don't ask how I know -- but if we meet in Breedster, let's not go further than holding hands. For your sake.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sue EMAIL: s.tyler@paradise.net.nz IP: 203.97.2.242 URL: http://www.stonesoup.co.nz/superverygood DATE: 04/29/2004 01:52:46 PM help is hand, a rumor is spreading about a fabled purple bug who heals all who touch hir. on another note the STD is only spread between breeders, thus if you mate your children or members of the same sex you are laughing all the way to the bank. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Fred Mephisto EMAIL: fmephisto@babalonnexus.com IP: 68.19.115.223 URL: http://babalonnexus.com DATE: 05/04/2004 06:28:17 AM The real question is, how can I get born??? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pope Jones VII EMAIL: grammatikal_errors@hotmail.com IP: 69.244.4.151 URL: http://im poor DATE: 05/04/2004 10:04:22 AM someone sent me an invite but their eggs died... some std... so ...uh... i was wondering what is up with this site... the invitation was random.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lord Asriel EMAIL: admin@hisdarkmaterials.org IP: 213.10.128.7 URL: http://hisdarkmaterials.org DATE: 05/06/2004 12:39:42 PM I am the purple bug. My username is Asriel. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jan EMAIL: watersnood@dolfijn.nl IP: 194.159.226.125 URL: http://www.influenzamedia.org/breedster/index.php DATE: 05/12/2004 05:16:57 PM There is one way to survive breedster without searching for the purple bug. Find yoursef a partner. Bug dating service ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kill me before I finally snap... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/28/2004 06:58:55 PM ----- BODY:

    So a friend of mine who I completely love is - well - he's not really at the cutting-edge of what's happening online. He normally chucks me links that have been around the web a couple of times in the previous few weeks. I'm not particularly well connected these days, to be honest, so sometimes they're a discovery for me too. Today, however, he has excelled himself by sending me an awed link to (wait for it) All your base are belong to us! I'm trying not to mock him, but it's so so very hard to resist. Nnngh. Nngh! Must resist temptation!

    I hear what you're thinking and yes yes - I too was startled by his hideous lapse into the clunky humour of 2001, but I guess we should be more forgiving - he works in the film/tv industry after all and it's not like they're particualrly down with the kids. Also they probably have way more important things to do during the day than look at funny flash movies and bitch about Microsoft products. Still, as a result of this discussion I have decided that the world needs a new scale upon which to measure how quickly an individual hears about big memes. We need a Beaufort/Richter scale for memetic clue. I am calling it the RHINE system (based directly on the river in Europe) and using the clunky old metaphor of the memestream (that also probably reached its height in the musty nostalgia of 2001). Essentially, the longer it takes you to hear about rilly cool things on the interweb, the further downstream you are considered to be - with all the commensurate anxieties about who has peed in your drinking water that involves. The novel factor in the scale is that your relative position can be identified with key cities along the Rhine! What fun! Which means, dear old close friend (Kerry), that if the memestream were the Rhine you would live in bloody Rotterdam. I'm more of a Cologne man, myself...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: The RHINE system URL: http://www.sunpig.com/martin/linkdump/archives/2004_04.html#001104 IP: 209.68.2.210 BLOG NAME: Martin's Linkdumps DATE: 04/28/2004 10:23:26 PM http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2004/04/kill_me_before_i_finally_snap.shtml... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Pets TV and working wallpaper... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 04/29/2004 02:48:31 PM ----- BODY:

    From behind the mediaguardian registration wall comes this wonderful little weird nugget of BBC-ness:

    Pet TV is a service digital viewers can access by pressing the interactive red button on their remotes, for a week-long run from Saturday May 1. It is being billed by the BBC as an attempt to find out what sort of TV programmes, sounds and images animals respond to. The interactive TV service will consist of a looped series of images and sounds, including clips of snooker balls rolling across the green baize, frisbees flying through the air, cat toys and cartoon characters such as Top Cat. The service will also offer clips from more traditional TV fare, such as EastEnders, Neighbours, The Muppet Show and Animal Hospital. Pet TV can be tried out on dogs, cats, birds and even fish, according to the BBC.

    Not quite sure what I think of in terms of how entertaining pets might find it, but it could be ideal ambient TV wallpaper. I'm thinking of having it on all the time...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: cdeskinfo@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.120 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 04/29/2004 03:03:29 PM I don't have a Guardian subscription, so I can't read the whole article, but is this not related to Test Your Pet? http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/pets/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevan EMAIL: kevan@kevan.org IP: 212.74.19.174 URL: http://kevan.org/blog DATE: 04/29/2004 03:18:52 PM We used to have a cat video, which sounds very similar - lots of looped clips of moving objects, strange computer-generated patterns and voyeuristic scampering mouse action, accompanied by beeps and bloops and swanny whistles, the whole thing repeating every twenty minutes or so. It's completely non-ambient and will drive you insane. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robin@perfect.co.uk IP: 193.133.98.226 URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/ DATE: 04/29/2004 04:14:27 PM Lot's of strange pet related things seem to happen at the BBC, take this email my girlfriend received for example (sirnames removed): -----Original Message----- From: Stuart Sent: 23 April 2004 11:11 To: Karen Subject: Sport Relief Hi Karen, John and Stuart in the BBC safety office suggested I talk to you about a project we are planning as part of this summer's Sport Relief campaign. The theme of the campaign is Go The Extra Mile, tying in with the 50th anniversary of Roger Bannister's four-minute mile. As part of this, we are looking to have a gerbil in a cage with a pedometer fitted to his wheel to record how far he runs during the campaign. This would also have a webcam attached so people can check his progress and even predict how far he will travel. I really need some advice on dealing with animals in thw workplace and believe you are the designated carer for the Blue Peter rabbit? Is there any chance we could have a chat at some point, as I'd welcome your advice on issues including purchasing the animal and finding a place for him to live. Kind regards Stuart Project Manager Sport Relief interactive ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.75 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 04/29/2004 11:59:11 PM In a spooky coincidence moment earlier today, I first read this post as I sat in our office listening across the corridor to someone enthusing their team about this particular service. But it's OK, because I actually *lost the will to live* when I overheard the conversation, rather than when I read your post. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bobbie EMAIL: bob@thisispomo.org IP: 193.122.208.99 URL: http://thisispomo.org DATE: 04/30/2004 12:58:13 PM there was a version of this story in the early editions this morning - you don't have to be registered to read this one: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1206662,00.html ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What can I say - I'm behind, okay? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/01/2004 04:37:28 PM ----- BODY:

    So basically what can I say - I'm behind, okay? I'm not doing all the things I want to do as effectively as I like. And yes - there's a lot of procrastination in there as well. It's not like I'm busy all the day and night. I'm hardly busy at all, except that when I am doing things, they're kind of head-intensive and I'm having trouble maintaining concentration on them. So what can I say - I'm behind, okay?

    The weblog is the first to suffer of course. I've been writing nothing of utility for ages because work's been crawling through my head all the time saying, "Concentrate on me! Concentrate on me! If you're not getting stuff done then make sure it's me that you're not getting done and not that flighty crap you put up on your site". My brain is a stupid useless object that doesn't let me multitask efficiently. I spend long hours plotting how I could reengineer it to be more useful - a couple of bits of bent-over paper-clip heated in a microwave and stuck up my nose and whoosh there goes my obsession with The West Wing. A good blast of Domestos up my nose and maybe I can get rid of my continual nagging self-doubt. The rest of the time I spend fighting my inner demons of "fuckaround" and "watchTV". When I get stuck on something, what else should I do? I mean it's not like I could go and do something else more useful instead. As a result my flat's a state of course. And I haven't got any clean clothes and stuff. And I haven't paid my rent yet and it's really late. So what can I say - I'm behind, okay?

    So what I can I say - I'm behind okay, but I actually got something done today! I sent off a quick sketch of a rendezvous application that I'd really like to build with someone who understands how to build applications. I do not. I am a designer of sorts, and hence useless. So I need more cool programmers in my life. Ideally really focused industrious ones who can't think of anything to build themselves and who find themselves scratching at their legs and rocking backwards and forwards because they can't fill up their time with constructive amazing work. Essentially, I need anti-mes. And what else? I started to get worked up about a prize that I thought I might be in the running for and then had to calm down about it again. I don't think I filled in the forms correctly / at all and I don't know whether I had to or not, but I didn't, okay? I hate forms. They're nasty and confusing and I'm obsessed that if I fill them in wrong they'll put me in prison or something. That's not me being lazy, okay? That's just how it is.

    What else? Two big documents I want to write - really interesting documents - are icebergs that I keep aiming my brain Titanic at but I can't seem to hit. And there's another project - a chunk of a work project (a really really interesting work project that no one's going to find very interesting to start off with when it launches) - that's clogging up my head because it's harder than I expected it to be and I don't have enough time to do it in. And then there's barbelith which gets me so down sometimes because I don't want this to happen to me but I know how easily it can happen and I know some of the stuff I want to do and build and make and experiment with but I don't know how to get it done in a way that's not really unfair and exploitative on my collaborators. But there's lots of interesting guff in there that I'd like to explode - really useful guff. Not your book-learnin' stuff maybe, but stuff that's in the wild and working! But then? And then? And then? And then what? When do I get to spill all this stuff out? When do I get to open up my head and let people poke around at the stuff inside and go "ooh" or "aah" or "hmm - that's a bit rubbish"? When do I get to reengage with the debates that I'm passionate about? When do all the projects in my head start emerging and start being useful and productive rather than loitering around the public loos looking sinister? When do I get to open the gates and let it all out / let them all in?

    What can I say - I'm behind, okay?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.223.53.22 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com DATE: 05/01/2004 05:06:52 PM you might want to talk to jonathon wright about the rendezvous app: http://toxicsoftware.com/software/shareware/iRoster/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: drew EMAIL: drew@script-o-rama.com IP: 68.217.246.166 URL: http://www.script-o-rama.com/blog/blog.html DATE: 05/01/2004 10:34:37 PM I prefer to be behind than be utterly caught up. When I'm utterly caught up, I'm always looking over my shoulder, waiting for disaster to knock over my fragile deck of cards. But when I'm behind, it gives me inner peace. Peace with the knowledge that hey, I'm never gonna catch up anyway, so why sweat it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Natali EMAIL: satur9@bigfoot.com IP: 213.48.162.90 URL: http://www.beautykills.vze.com DATE: 05/01/2004 11:45:31 PM I hope I'm not the only one that started to sing the lines : "What can I say?/I'm beHIND OKAY!" over and over. Might be a good idea to pay the rent though sir. We don't want you homeless. The rest will sort itself out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: zephoria EMAIL: zephoria@zephoria.org IP: 212.158.232.46 URL: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/ DATE: 05/02/2004 09:22:58 AM {{hug}} I totally understand. I've been back online for 2.5 days and the backlog from hell makes me want to completely hide. Thus, my blog says i'm still offline... and probably will until i get back to procrastinating paper writing. It's scary how we can self-construct our own anxieties in our self-constructed responsibilities, eh? I always used to think that only someone else could give me anxiety. I was wrong. I'm far better at it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: rlc@gruts.com IP: 212.126.144.12 URL: http://www.gruts.com/ DATE: 05/02/2004 09:57:45 AM The rot set in the day the beard went. How many hours have you frittered away shaving since then? ----- PING: TITLE: Londoner URL: http://www.infovore.org/archives/2004/05/index.html#000230 IP: 212.187.158.83 BLOG NAME: Infovore DATE: 05/03/2004 04:57:33 PM To put it mildly: the last six weeks have been quite hectic. Five weeks last Friday, I was out at the theatre with a friend, and had my mobile phone on silent. I got out at half ten, and as... ----- PING: TITLE: Link Dump URL: http://goddess.droyer.org/archives/2004_10/06/link_dump.php IP: 65.165.41.141 BLOG NAME: Your Local Goddess DATE: 10/11/2004 05:12:27 PM Not working gets me behind in blog reading because I read most of my blogs at work. So I got... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On portability, navigation, self-presentation and data-use... STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Social Software CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Television DATE: 05/03/2004 05:13:33 PM ----- BODY:

    At the moment there's a lot of discussion about music-related recommendations and ratings functionality roaming around webloggia. I wrote about MediaUnbound the other day (On MediaUnbound and Recommendations Engines), and I've linked to the (currently pretty awful) Music Recommendation System for iTunes. Dan Hill has also been talking about Socialising mp3-based music listening and posts again about whether recommendations scale. Meanwhile those minxes over at 2lmc have been linking and commenting upon people who are suggesting better ways that iTunes could handle transitions between songs. And of course the new version of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store also now has certain amounts of incorporated user-generated content within it - in the form of the new iMix features, which allow you to put your musical selections on the web where other people can rate them and buy the songs that are on them. And then there are the staples - the rapidly-becoming-indispensible audioscrobbler, which doesn't really do much but is still utterly compulsive. And then there's last.fm and all the little play hook-in tools like iChatStatus (publish current listening to iChat) and Kung-Tunes (publish current listening to the web) that have slowly becoming integrated into my life without my really noticing how they all hook together, branch off and build upon each other.

    So this stuff is starting to get exciting because - of course - there are now a decent number of people who listen to almost all of their music in a digital form on machines that are connected to the internet. Of course, it's realistically a tiny proportion of the music-consuming public that are doing this kind of stuff, but that tiny proportion is now starting to be large enough to self-organise. So there's potential there. We can start trying to work out from it what are the trends for the future...

    As I've said before, in any attempt to extrapolate from your own behaviour you have to ask yourself: am I a freak or am I an early adopter? It's gradually starting to become obvious that - with regards to digital music consumption - there is scope for extrapolation based on the behaviour of people playing in these areas. They may not be total early adopters but they're certainly not freaks. They're pointing in roughly the right direction. So the question now becomes what's in that direction? What things are people aspiring towards? What are the ends that we mean to uncover? And what possibilities or problems are these desires (and the shape of emerging consumer-facing tech) likely to create?

    Four things leap to my mind that seem indicative of the trends that are taking place. These trends are manifesting in a whole variety of areas, including the consumption of text-based, audio-based and video-based media. They're not absolute and canonical, but they might be useful to an extent. They are portability/access, navigation, self-presentation and data use/privacy.

    The difference between owning an iPod and a CD Walkman clearly isn't one of audio quality. For the most part, people don't notice the difference in the sound quality between the two, but if they hooked up their portable CD player to a decent quality stereo, they'd probably accept that the CD player sounded better. Interesting, despite this (which will change eventually anyway - it's only a function of storage space, compression algorithms etc) people don't care. They buy iPods because they can listen to an enormous number of songs or albums whenever they want - they want continual access to their music wherever they may be (whether at a distance or because it is portable). This is clearly a trend that's only going to develop as people want access to the same manageable store of media wherever they may be. Mid-range future is likely to include decent bandwidth always on, flat-rate internet access on portable appliances like iPods, which might mean that all your media can be held 'in the sky' and streamed down to you on whichever appliance you'd like. If full internet-wide bandwidth doesn't become as cheap as storage, another direction will probably emerge - with technology concentrating more and more on ways of keeping information and media consistent over a whole range of appliances with synchronising tech. In the meantime there may be something in between - terminal computers running software off the wired internet, bringing your home computer and all associated files with you wherever you are seated and with portable appliances hybridising vast local storage with permanent connectivity. Any way you look at it, though, the repository of available material "owned" by an individual will increasingly be linked to that individual, just as the phone has gone from a thing that belongs to a place to a thing that belongs to a person.

    The other aspect of this kind of portability is that the pressure will be to find new ways of easily and seemlessly distributing the material around. Whether or not this is done in legal or illegal forms seems to be almost trivially unimportant because the pressue exists and will be satisfied one way or another. The total fluidity that people want is the ability to give a friend a song on the train on the way home from work or ping it to them when they hear something they think they'll like long distance. This kind of thing is all about the disconnection of the media itself from the means of describing and identifying it - and the most significant shift must be towards some kinds of universal identifiers. Being able to recognise a song in some kind of way that allows you to point to it - giving everything a handle by which it can be manipulated - is the inevitable consequence of the individual's desire to manipulate objects in the most fluid and natural form possible.

    Which brings us to navigation. At the moment navigation of television is done by a weird combination of architectural structures like the concepts of TV Channels, editorial structures like experts and reviewers and specific browsing mechanisms like TV Guide and Electronic Programme Guides. Gradually recommendation-based systems are starting to emerge as well. The increasing number of channels, and the increasing flexibility of media is pushing us to a place where concepts like when something is broadcast on television are becoming increasingly trivial. As a result the sheer amount of available media for anyone to plough through are growing at an extraordinary speed and the mechanisms to help us plough through them must develop at a similar speed to cope. Navigation is probably the place where some of the most innovative work in media consumption will happen over the next twenty or thirty years as we gradually start to see some of the structures of content publishing become more and more granular, finely-honed and portable.

    Let's look at some of the examples of the kind of navigational mechanisms that people have been talking about recently - Michael McCracken's transition-sensitive shuffling is a purely navigational process in which responsibility for what to consume next is completely devolved to algorithm. His idea is for an application like iTunes to track which songs you allow to transition into one another and start weighting those transitions so that the experience of listening to songs in semi-random modes (again, almost certainly weighed by ratings of one kind or another) isn't jarring. As 2lmc responded, there are problems there for any individual - the sheer amount of combinations are too enormous. But such weightings could probably be deduced from the aggregated behaviour of all iTunes users.

    Dan Hill's comments are also about forms of navigation. He points out that generalised extrapolations of aggregated behaviour don't necessarily push you towards work that is genuinely interesting and new to you, but instead tend to move people towards more mediocrity. Aggregated behaviour (even in your social circles) does not - in essence - allow you to distinguish between people whose taste you like and those whose taste you don't. Dan would find my musical tastes anodyne. I find his inscrutable. And so the concept of the expert user or the musical taste-maker emerges. This is another form of navigation that many of us use on a daily basis to find songs that we'll probably like - we have friends who are more involved in the music scene and whose taste we allow to be a proxy for our own because they've proved reliable in the past. By finding people whose taste is similar to our own we can also look for where the differences are - what things they have found that we have not. That's the stuff we're most likely to want to listen to. But again - doing that within ones social circle won't necessarily make give you the best ideas. Aggregating it across all the people in the world just might (which is where audioscrobbler comes in and also where Dan suggests that the iTunes infrastructure might also be developing towards).

    I'm most interested in this concept of recommendations engines and audio applications as taste-prosthetics - places where individuals can delegate responsibility for predicting and navigating media to their digital assistants embedded in media devices. You can see how these things might all start to hook together more deeply still - with elements of pro-active taste-definition taking the form of Wizards or Quizzes being merged with implicit behavioural tracking software and web-enabled comparison engines. At the moment, your copy of iTunes only knows what to play to you because you have explicitly told it what you like and defined some playlists that exploit that. But imagine a version of iTunes that had many many more mechanisms in it that were designed to meet your listening whims before you even knew what they were. The iTunes Music Store is keeping track of which songs people are previewing, it's keeping track of which songs and albums are being bought and by whom. Locally, your copy of iTunes knows the size and shape of your library, it knows which songs you've listened to most and even how often on average you've listened to them since you first ripped them. It could even have the simple capacity to determine changing patterns of consumption - which direction your taste appears to be moving and developing.

    So imagine then that the iTunes music store had all of this information and that without even being asked guessed an appropriate rating or weighting for every one of the songs in your library. Imagine that the five star ratings system was only used by humans as an override or way of tweaking the 'natural' order of things, which would be that the software would be determining which songs you actually wanted to listen to with little help from you at all. When you start approaching this kind of threshold the distinction between the store and your local music would almost cease to be relevant, just as the perceived difference between the radio as a music-discovery engine (individuals selecting music they think you'll like based on market research and personal tastes, connecting you to stuff you may not have heard before) and a possible proto-celebrity culture that could emerge around iMixes and your randomised pre-selected playlists (algorithms selecting music they think you'll like based on market research and your own tastes, connecting you to stuff you may not have heard before) disappears. The scope is endless around this kind of stuff and to a greater or lesser extent it's already on its way. The future will be all about how to find interesting new things, how to find things that fit your taste exactly, how to browse or search for things and how to have things recommended to you in the most effective form.

    Which brings us to self-presentation. Media is not something that's consumed purely individually, nor is taste something that manifests itself in an undiluted, unmediated form in the individual. The things we choose to listen to are chosen for a whole range of hybridised reasons - no doubt genetics and psychology has an impact, as does the immediate context in which we want to listen and the purpose to which we want to put the music (dance / consolation / wallowing / to work to). But then there's also the presentation of our choices, and the impact that the comments of others has upon our tastes - our sense of belonging to (or alienation from) specific communities contextualises and influences our choices. Fashion has an impact. Our aspirations have an impact. The way in which we choose to listen to things (ironically or with full emotional investment, nostalgically or viscerally etc) has an impact to. And we incorporate these choices back into our sense of self and how we present ourselves to others. Our tastes are social and (in part) performative.

    Applications like Kung-Tunes and iChatStatus and sites like audioscrobbler are based on our need to self-represent and self-clarify ourselves by means of the things that we like. They're no more or less an elucidation of our personalities than the clothes that we wear or the way we cut our hair.

    The desire to advertise ones tastes overtly are not, however, obviously universal. Everyone has seen teenagers wearing T-shirts with the name of their favourite bands on them, but it's much rarer to see people in their forties or fifties doing the same. Much of this is to do with the way in which people of varying generations define their sense of self. Fiona Romeo's wonderful ethnographic piece on Social Software for Children at ETCON 2004 is probably the definitive public piece on this in recent times and is well worth a full investigation. But just because adults don't tend to overtly advertise their tastes in such overt and cultish ways doesn't mean that they're not self-representing. Concepts of presence that are emerging now in forms like iChatStatus are going to solidify and extend as time passes and more tasteful ways of representing oneself online are bound to emerge as web-enabled mediation becomes a more common substrate person-to-person contact.

    But more than this, self-representation is also going in another direction. As Dan writes:

    Leaving aside the patterns in other people's 'scrobbling for a moment, as my Audioscrobbler page developed over time I started observing my listening. And now my obsession has got to the stage where I've been 'teaching' it, 'seeding' the system with a fair representation of what I'm into by leaving a 'Top Rated' playlist running overnight in iTunes' party shuffle mode. This is quite odd behaviour if you think about it - playing music not to listen to, but to ensure that Audioscrobbler has a decent understanding of who I am, musically.

    Dan's talking about how he represents himself to the application or recommendations system that he wants to train up, but it's more than that - there's also another aspect (one I've talked about before) in which he's wanting the site to reflect a positive image back towards himself - the self-representation being to the self as well as to the rest of the world. This is one of those areas where future systems will have to be very careful. Recommendations and discovery systems are not only about honestly representing what people might genuinely like back at them, but also about reflecting a version of themselves that they want to be like back at them. Technological developments will have to be sensitive to personal concerns like these or they won't work - or to put it another way, they will work but they'll work way better if they're handled carefully.

    And finally there's the issue of data use. What I think is becoming clear is that the kind of functionality that is increasingly looking to be useful for individuals - stuff that can predict their desires or tastes, or can generate communities around media - all the navigational stuff and much of the portability/access stuff

    Finally, and as a direct result of looking at data use and misuse, I want to end with a few words about rights management. For the most part I've stayed away from talking about DRM and rights-management stuff. For a start most of the pressures that are going to start pushing the technologies around media consumption in new directions are going to be present whether or not the media is heavily DRM'd or not, and people are still going to be looking for ways of getting as close to the 'ideal' of the ultimately portable, accessible, throw-aroundable and navigable mediaspace whether their rights are managed or not. It seems clear to me that draconian rights management will only damage functionality and fluidity and hence people will just find new ways of routing around it. A total lack of rights management might result in broken business models for the creation of music but it probably won't reverse the trend towards fluidity and navigation anyway. It seems clear to me that the best business models will be the ones that accept the direction of movement and try to capitalise upon it. And it also seems to me that business models that don't accept that movement will simply fail.

    Having said that the only way in which these pressures could be resisted are likely to be by the exploitation of the data which will increasingly be available to companies as individuals become increasingly willing to let their consumption habits be tracked in return for additional functionality.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Social Super-Orders? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/03/2004 11:06:06 PM ----- BODY:

    Really briefly, there's a fascinating and short post over at zephoria called Social Technology from MPD to Aspergers in which Danah says:

    I have a funny feeling that social technology is back to developing software based on disorders and instigating new ones in people. Only, we've move away from schizophrenia and onto autism. Did you ever get the sneaking suspicion that this new wave of "social software" is not really making social life easier, but permitting the kind of social awkwardness that is recognized in Asperger's?

    Having read this I started to wonder to myself whether or not our attempts to gradually improve of ways of socially interacting online would see us pass through a whole range of psychological disorders. Perhaps the limits and barriers to social interaction and identity online really do have very clear offline parallels. Perhaps we won't be able to enable truly effective collaborative online spaces until we've finally started modelling or facilitating these social encounters effectively. And maybe then the various new affordances of the internet will truly come into their own. But what will we have then? I'll tell you what! A new form of ultra-enabled socially superordered men and women - their prosthetic social enhancements compensating for and transforming any individual awkwardness into truly collaborative endeavours?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On hearts in the faeces of virtual insects... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/05/2004 10:15:07 PM ----- BODY:

    Strange, arcane shapes are starting to appear in the landscape of the breedster eco-system, carved out of the faeces of insects (map):

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: And relax! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/14/2004 02:31:30 PM ----- BODY:

    Wow. What a couple of weeks. I've been working so hard that at times I swear that my keyboard fingers have been getting cramps. Certainly my brain has. A succession of twelve-hour days, plus travel (including weekends) has left me a little the worse for wear and not really in the fittest state to talk to the general public. And - of course I have this epic post gestating in the background that I can't get rid of and can't finish that I really just need to release into the world as is. Mental constipation due to an overly refined diet of work, I think...

    Anyway - I've carved myself out a long-weekend of slacking off and not thinking about work at all, both Friday and Monday to wander around the place and think about personal stuff and catch up with what's going on online and clean my flat and try and get a few design treatments done for some things I'm working on. So far I've already seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, watched the final episode of Friends and the penultimate Enterprise and Angels, gone for lunch with Cory and ripped a few new albums. And later today (when I've got bored of standing up in the Human-Computer Interaction department of Foyles scabbing off their wifi) I'm going to wander off and catch Troy. Tomorrow is cleaning and basic creativity, I think. And then I might spend Sunday on the blog and Monday doing personal project stuff before the slog begins anew... Relaxation is fun.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I never knew relaxation was such hard work! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/15/2004 01:36:10 PM ----- BODY:

    If you've tried to comment on the site in the last few hours then you'll probably already have noticed that I've upgraded to MT 3.0 and that I've turned on most of the draconian comment features. In the last couple of days I have had the better part of sixty comment spams from various hardcore pornography, bestiality and rape sites and quite frankly I've had enough.

    Anyway as a result of the upgrade there are a few templates across the site that have broken and look a bit crappy. I'll try and get that stuff sorted over the weekend, once I've ploughed through my new book on Illustrator. I'm so far behind in my various obligations outside work that I can't really imagine I'm going to get everything done I want to over the next couple of days, but I'm going to give it my best shot. In the meantime, I can recommend Troy - it's long and it's not particularly accurate, but it's mostly pretty compelling and has a few ridiculous Classics jokes which appealed to me in it. Back in a bit.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: time@none.com IP: 82.35.64.196 URL: DATE: 05/15/2004 02:15:05 PM I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to see how draconian it was.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: FuBar EMAIL: Foo@bar.com IP: 62.255.32.6 URL: DATE: 05/15/2004 02:28:56 PM It's a shame that such powerful technology is appropriated for such devious means. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hanni EMAIL: hanni@pinksocks.co.uk IP: 81.101.66.36 URL: http://pinksocks.co.uk DATE: 05/15/2004 03:38:06 PM Just upgraded and also hoping that it will rid me of the plague of comment spam. Good luck with all that you have to get done! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2004 05:30:13 PM Let me know how you're doing - getting it integrated with my templates around here has proved a bigger bugger than initially expected. ----- PING: TITLE: MT Back Pedaling URL: http://pinksocks.co.uk/archive/2004/May/15/mt_back_pedaling.php IP: 66.197.212.85 BLOG NAME: pinksocks.co.uk DATE: 05/25/2004 05:22:35 PM Six Log: Movable Type 3.0 Developer Edition Six Apart has responded to some of the feedback concerning MT 3.0's licensing system. Here are the main points of interest: The single CPU usage statement has been removed from the license. It... ----- PING: TITLE: MT Back Pedaling URL: http://pinksocks.co.uk/archive/2004/May/15/mt_back_pedaling.php IP: 66.197.212.85 BLOG NAME: pinksocks.co.uk DATE: 05/27/2004 09:59:16 PM Six Log: Movable Type 3.0 Developer Edition Six Apart has responded to some of the feedback concerning MT 3.0's licensing system. Here are the main points of interest: The single CPU usage statement has been removed from the license. It... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bring it on, spam wankers! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/15/2004 05:50:29 PM ----- BODY:

    First impressions of the new MT are generally really positive. I'm still having the same problems with incredibly slow performance that I had before, which I'm now assuming are to be laid at the door of my $140 a month host - pair.com. While I can now manage to do a full-site rebuild without my server throttling the process, if I pre-moderate or delete more than two or three comments in one go the whole thing shudders to a grotesque halt. For this reason (and because I've had some twat try and pump another forty incest-related bits of spam through the site), I'm putting the ultra-draconian comment management features into effect from this point on. I'm afraid if you want to make yourself heard on this site from now on you'll have to register with Typekey. I'm terribly sorry, guys, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let my site prop up the porn empire of some grotesque little money-grubbing freak who thinks that pissing around with the personal sites of well-meaning people in order to make 0.01 cents a pop is a legitimate thing to do. Wankers.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hanni EMAIL: hanni@pinksocks.co.uk IP: 81.103.219.144 URL: http://pinksocks.co.uk DATE: 05/16/2004 03:44:00 PM Annoying that you've been forced to do this, but let's hope it does solve the problem. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2004 04:21:10 PM I've already had a few e-mails from people saying that they're not going to be posting to the site since I've moved to using Typekey, so I don't know whether it's something I'll continue to do in the same way for very long. In the meantime though - after a bit of fiddling around the templates, it is at least now finally working and working relatively well. I'm a bit surprised by how some of it works, of course, and it's not the easiest thing to tweak and adjust (and the default templates for commenting are a bit skanky, frankly), but if it stops me being overwhelmed by horse porn, I guess it's worth it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hanni EMAIL: hanni@pinksocks.co.uk IP: 81.101.70.223 URL: http://pinksocks.co.uk DATE: 05/16/2004 04:26:40 PM I really don't understand what people's problems with Typekey are? It is a measure to, as you say, cut down on the comment spam. If people really want to comment on your weblog then what is an extra 10 seconds to sign in to Typekey? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2004 04:34:19 PM I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it myself, I suppose. I don't like the fact that the system I use to run the site is so apparently exposed, and I'm not particularly comfortable with forcing people to sign up to post - I imagine it's going to result in a significant drop of comments. On the other hand, I'm not too gutted about that anyway - I get more than I can normally handle effectively anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Hall EMAIL: tim@kalyr.com IP: 81.135.31.160 URL: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog DATE: 05/16/2004 06:01:52 PM Much as the existance of things like Typekey are an annoyance, I'm not convinced there's a better and scalable way of keeping the online penis enlargers and their ilk from polluting weblogs with their slime. I'll be interested is seeing how widely we see Typepad being adopted. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More on the Typekey upgrade... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/16/2004 05:23:13 PM ----- BODY:

    So my installation of Movable Type has never been the simplest of things. I've had to use cgiwrap to avoid some of the more arcane problems with pair's process throttling and I've got MT installed in a completely different directory and domain to my site. For someone with as little overt server knowledge as myself, this means that every time something's supposed to be a simple installation or adaptation process, everything goes completely wrong. This is all by way of me saying that I've still got lots of problems around the place with integrating the Typekey registration system, including but not limited to it randomly not working, having lots of really nasty preview screens that remain totally untemplated and generally feeling more than a little rough around the edges. I'll endeavour to get it all sorted out this evening so that the Monday morning crowd don't start snarking out at me... Plus: Lots of actually interesting posts on real subjects to come soon!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@snowgoon.co.uk IP: 82.40.21.158 URL: http://www.snowgoon.co.uk DATE: 05/16/2004 05:43:49 PM Ahhh, it works now. Bravo that man. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike Steinbaugh EMAIL: mike@webspiffy.com IP: 68.234.228.149 URL: DATE: 05/16/2004 06:02:37 PM TypeKey login works fine for me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz EMAIL: ell@mail.isc.rit.edu IP: 24.24.47.125 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 05/16/2004 06:05:02 PM Ah. So _that'_ how it works. Thanks for implementing it so I could see the registration in action. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2004 06:46:46 PM No problem at all. You'll also notice that the links to your sites go through redirects so that people don't get any Googlejuice from putting their URL into the comment. It's a bit weird, but it does appear to work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Johan Svensson EMAIL: johan@frozenskies.net IP: 213.114.163.135 URL: http://frozenskies.net/ DATE: 05/16/2004 07:14:28 PM Is it possible to disable the URL redirect/cloaking? I would actually like people to get some google juice. (Unless they're spammers, in which case they get nuked.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/16/2004 07:47:18 PM Yup - that's easy enough. It's just a normal set of Movable Type tags that you can decide to use or not as and when you want. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Bloomfield EMAIL: richard@bloomfield.me.uk IP: 212.20.241.39 URL: http://www.bloomfield.me.uk/ DATE: 05/17/2004 02:01:58 PM Have you had any backlash from people wanting to post comments, but not wanting to register on Typekey? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/17/2004 02:46:11 PM I've had one e-mail from someone saying that they wouldn't be commenting any more, but for the most part - and probably as you'd expect, the only people who have commented have been people who are prepared to comment! I do understand people's resistance, but there is a side effect to not using it - ie. that I'll continued to get large amounts of comment spam and it'll continue to be an effective strategy for people who are spammer, and as a result everyone suffers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.72 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/17/2004 02:47:11 PM Of course having said all that, I'm not really an average user since I'm so interested in moderation technologies generally and am much less tense about the idea of individual sites having different requirements for posting. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The tarnish is the flag... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: Politics DATE: 05/17/2004 12:01:31 AM ----- BODY:

    It's probably evidence of the good that a couple of days off work can do to a man that I suddenly find myself able to write a brief post about politics - a subject that I'd normally handle with kid gloves attached to the end of a long barge-pole, itself glued to the end of some kind of excrement-encrusted stick. In my experience, most arguments about any subject function by flattening down complexities to tiny arguable issues. Normally we derive significant utility from this style of argument - but I think with politics our ability to find core and simple arguable issues disappears. With each person added to a political situation, the complexity grows exponentially, and when we try to reduce things down to first principles we end up with the sparsest and most atavistic of binaries - things like "them" and "us", and appeals towards cheap solidarity or patriotism, desperate attempts at face-saving and feeble gestures towards self-interest.

    Which brings me to a post from the 37 signals weblog called It's good that you're upset. It's not an evil piece, it's not even a stupid piece - it's actually a desperately sad and mournful piece that tries to scrabble for positive meaning out of the behaviour of a small selection of incredibly stupid American servicemen overseas. Here's a quotation:

    The world is rightfully disgusted by the treatment of some Iraqi prisoners, but the fact that the world is outraged is a good sign that America is still held to a higher standard. The Arab street remained mostly quiet when Saddam tortured for three decades or when American soldiers were dragged through the streets and hung to dangle in public a few weeks back. And how many leaders in the Arab world will be outraged that one of their own ruthlessly beheaded an American contractor after forcing him to name his parents and his siblings (and donít forget about Daniel Pearl who had to admit he was a Jew before his head was cut off)? The world barely gave notice to the Talibanís systematic and despicable treatment of women in Afghanistan or the destruction of ancient works of irreplaceable art and culture. The world was barely interested in stopping the carnage in Bosnia until over a half-million were killed (and then the UN still didnít want to get involved). The world is still barely affected by the genocide taking place right now in Africa. But, when the US humiliates some Iraqi prisoners, people are outraged and are calling for resignations at the highest levels of our government. And thatís a good sign for America. Weíre held up to a higher standard and itís something we should be proud of. Not the vile treatment, of course, but the worldís response. Weíre in trouble when people stop caring about how we act as a nation.

    I wish I could agree, because although the UK's own parallel media situation has been resolved, I don't doubt for a minute that some British soldiers somewhere have undertaken very similar actions to the ones that these American servicemen perpetrated. But to try and find in that evidence that the tarnish is so noticeable because the flags are so bright... Well, it's pretty far from convincing.

    The world is not looking towards these things as a momentary blip - that's not why they're so powerful. They're seen as emblematic, as representative, as illustrative of a relationship that America has with the rest of the world. These actions are seen by people to be illustrations in microcosm - direct analogies - with the way America (and the UK) acted flagrantly without consent from the United Nations. They're seen as directly illustrative of their disregard for international law, directly illustrative of America's perception of itself as superior to the rest of the world and qualified to police all of it according to what best serves it's own best interests. Those countries that are railing against America because of these pictures are not doing it because they're holding America to a higher standard, they're doing it because they finally feel they have human-scale evidence of the enormous insensitivity and clumsiness of the entire nation.

    I think the most important thing I could say at this point is that it doesn't matter whether that's true or not. It doesn't matter whether or not America is a rampaging power, it doesn't even matter that an incredibly small minority of US forces have been behaving in this way or exposed. What matters here is that we in the west actually understand and accept that the stances of our governments are not seen by much of the world to be moral or good or positive, but rather self-serving, arrogant, interventionist and actually corrupt, and that pretending that we're well-liked isn't going to anyone any good.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee EMAIL: lee@headshift.com IP: 62.3.241.157 URL: DATE: 05/17/2004 10:18:59 AM I quite agree, although I would question our tendency to automatically assume the US soldiers represent a small minority. Where's the corresponding evidence that a the vast majority are doing a good job and are well liked in Iraq? It's hard to find. I remember during the war a Channel 4 TV crew just happened to follow a US Marine unit around Baghdad and during just a single day they filmed them shooting women and children in cars for no reason and also shooting apparently at random into residential areas. I think the almost universal contempt that US soldiers have for Iraqis, their extraordinary ignorance of Iraqi culture plus the hatred that most Iraqis feel for them based on their behaviour all combines to lock them into a cycle of abusive action and reaction that will ultimately prove very damaging to Iraqi society, as well as making the stated goal of democratisation prior to exit harder to achieve. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: 8-ball EMAIL: william.goring@music.ox.ac.uk IP: 163.1.71.15 URL: http://www.clickass.net/blog DATE: 05/17/2004 10:36:36 AM What a refreshing change from all the other bilge which spewed out onto the web last week. One thing I found particularly distasteful was the amount of weblogs which posted the actual video of the beheading of Nick Berg, as if it was some kind of public information film. Pure voyeurism. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Legal gay marriages in the United States STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 05/17/2004 08:14:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Massachusetts has become the first state in the US to allow same-sex couples to get married. Whether it will last or be crushed under the weight of a Constitutional amendment I don't know, but it's bloody wonderful in the meantime:

    Other towns and cities across the state were also prepared to wed large numbers of same-sex couples as the law came into force. The Supreme Court ruling upheld a decision by the state's highest court. It said that denying marriage licences to same-sex couples violated anti-discrimination laws.

    The Massachusetts ruling has fuelled heated debate across the country - and the controversy has been particularly intense in an election year. In a statement, President Bush said he had called on the Congress "to pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman as husband and wife. The need for that amendment is still urgent, and I repeat that call today." His rival John Kerry - who is a Massachusetts senator - is also opposed to same-sex marriages, but favours a more limited form of legal recognition.

    I think the issue of gay marriage only started to matter to me when I realised that many of my gay friends actually wanted to get married. And on the day when a friend of mine showed me a marriage booking form online in San Francisco and I started looking for the section for gay people and there wasn't one - It was all the same form... That affected me too I think - to realise that while it was clearly an issue at the moment, the whole point of this battle was about completely collapsing that difference around relationships. That's a pretty cool goal...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Ely EMAIL: davextreme@mac.com IP: 209.101.135.132 URL: http://www.davextreme.com/ DATE: 05/17/2004 10:09:53 PM Legally it will take a minimum of two years before Massachusetts could amend its constitution and ban gay marriage, and even then only there were huge support for it. The same is true of the US constitution. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: web@neverthink.com IP: 81.154.146.23 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/18/2004 07:39:17 PM I find it appalling that a nation built on the precepts of freedom and equality (and also the seperation of church and state) would have considerable elements of its citizenry and government actively pressing for a constitutional ammendment directly intended to limit freedom and equality for religious reasons. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kinder EMAIL: bodyrockin15@aol.com IP: 64.12.116.206 URL: DATE: 06/24/2004 07:06:39 PM Does anyone know other states that you can go to to get married if you're gay? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Informal request for assistance... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/18/2004 12:04:55 AM ----- BODY:

    Apparently some people using IE6 are having trouble logging into Typekey via plasticbag.org and as a result can't post comments. Most other browsers seem to be working OK - certainly all Mac browsers that I've tried - but obviously this is a problem that I need to resolve. If anyone has any idea why this is happening (presumably I've messed up some aspect of the template), then I'd be delighted if they could e-mail me on my normal e-mail address: tom {at} plasticbag {dot} org. Otherwise I'll look into it more thoroughly tomorrow evening, once I've slept and worked the requisite number of hours.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mathowie EMAIL: matt@haughey.com IP: 67.166.90.166 URL: http://a.wholelottanothing.org DATE: 05/18/2004 01:57:31 AM Yep, it doesn't work for me, using IE6 on my PC (this is posted in Firefox from the same desktop). It says you aren't logged in, then I login at typekey and get redirected back here, but it reloads to show that I'm not signed in. Worse yet, when you click on the "sign into typekey" link, it goes to typekey, figures out you're already logged in, then redirects back here, where the cookie apparently isn't being recognized. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Phil Ringnalda EMAIL: phil@philringnalda.com IP: 12.45.57.125 URL: http://philringnalda.com DATE: 05/18/2004 03:45:22 AM Because of the Barbelith thing (of course), with normal IE settings barbelith.com can't set a cookie that plasticbag.org can read, so you look unlogged-in even after you are. Individually, you can fix it by Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy -> Web sites -> Edit -> barbelith.com -> Allow, but that's not very satisfactory instructions to have to give 70% of your readers. I think this is (one of) the problems that's solved by adding DynamicComments 1 to your mt.cfg file, though I'm not sure exactly what effect that has, not having used it. Log in and you get essentially what you would in a comment popup, I think. Worth a try, anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms. Jen EMAIL: blackphoebe@earthlink.net IP: 66.74.180.34 URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen DATE: 05/18/2004 06:33:27 AM I was able to sign in via Mozilla 1.7 on a PC. Now I am going to test my IE 6.0. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 212.74.14.38 URL: DATE: 05/18/2004 10:12:14 AM Aye, what Phil said. This mentions it, scroll down to where it says Beta 3: http://www.premrara.com/index.php?p=263 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bravo EMAIL: signal@signalshift.com IP: 67.83.203.161 URL: http://bravo.typepad.com DATE: 05/18/2004 02:18:37 PM i've missed so many changes since my hiatus started! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott M EMAIL: scott@matthewman.net IP: 213.218.249.94 URL: http://www.matthewman.net/ DATE: 05/18/2004 04:34:23 PM Looks like you may have been able to fix it, Tom -- this post has come from IE6.0/Win with no problems. That said, your comment preview template needs, um, a little work ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.122 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/18/2004 05:07:00 PM It seems to work perfectly well for me as well - at least when I'm using Internet Explorer 6.0 at work. Is the problem just intermittent, or restricted to various versions of IE6/Windows? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jacob Martin EMAIL: jacob@jacobmartin.info IP: 81.152.44.109 URL: http://jacobmartin.info DATE: 05/18/2004 09:51:54 PM When will people realise that Internet Explorer is rubbish and start to use proper web browsers? I'm probably as sick as you are, Tom, of having to work around legacy technology :( ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@dingbat.org IP: 82.0.179.184 URL: http://dingbat.org DATE: 05/19/2004 01:39:45 AM I'm still having problems, every single time - when I try to log in with IE6. It's version 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633. I'm not sure if that's any help, but I hope it is! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 151.197.203.104 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 05/19/2004 02:09:26 AM I wasn't able to comment at work today (IE 6, XP Pro, firewalled/proxy-servered and Google Toolbar if that's relevant but I can't see how it would be). One relevant thing might be that I was also couldn't log in on sixapart's site to download MT 3, though I was quite able to get into typekey.com and fiddle with my profile. In fact I originally registered while I was at work. I dunno about all this. I'm thinking of trying out Wordpress, once I've upgraded to a hosting package with SQL. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cal Henderson EMAIL: cal@ludicorp.com IP: 209.87.135.69 URL: DATE: 05/19/2004 03:58:02 AM Woah there jake - not allowing cross domain cookies is *not* a legacy technology. (btw Tom, it's working for me now) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nico Morgan EMAIL: njm@nicomorgan.com IP: 193.164.126.13 URL: http://nicomorgan.com DATE: 05/19/2004 12:11:50 PM This is definitely IE Privacy settings related and probably down to which cookies are third party and which ones aren't. I couldn't get past the Typekey sign in screen until I changed my privacy settings, in particular I set first party cookies to be allowed, third party cookies to prompt me and session cookies to always be allowed. It worked, as you can see! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@groc.org.uk IP: 81.152.217.12 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog DATE: 05/20/2004 10:48:07 PM yes but... all this stupid typekey business/faff how long is it going to be before your comment spammers twig they too can just sign up for their free typekey thingy too? I still think my idea of us bloggers all clubbing together to hire a hitman to kneecap the evil scummy bastards is a better long term solution... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.18.221 URL: DATE: 05/21/2004 02:16:47 PM Didn't work at all in IE6/WinME (SP1). Didn't work in any browser with Javascript disabled. Didn't work in any browser with Cookies disabled. This is not very good, Tom. I'd say you're crippling 60% of your visitors, not being able to comment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.122 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 05/21/2004 03:07:21 PM I'm not really too worried about the Javascript / cookies situation - everyone who is ever asked to post on a message board or on an online community of any kind has to have cookies and javascript enabled and it's for precisely the same reasons as here - because their identity needs to be checked before they post in order to reduce abuse. The IE thing is a concern, obviously, and I will be looking into it in greater detail over the weekend. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nico Morgan EMAIL: njm@nicomorgan.com IP: 193.164.126.15 URL: http://nicomorgan.com DATE: 05/21/2004 04:50:16 PM You obviously didn't get my earlier post. The reason IE doesn't like it is because IE's default settings aren't allowing the cookie to be set. Change the advanced IE cookie settings to allow first party cookies and session cookies and all will be well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 217.208.210.107 URL: DATE: 05/22/2004 07:24:03 AM I can confirm Nico's statement. I set "Privacy" to "Accept All Cookies" instead of the default "Medium" and it worked. BTW, I forgot to say you're crippling the blind, since they can not register an account.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 192.154.91.225 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 05/24/2004 04:56:16 PM Right, yes, that works now. In fact, you don't have to allow all cookies automatically - I think the one that was being rejected was the one from www.barbelith.com. I'd say set everything to "Prompt" on the Advanced tab. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ome Ko EMAIL: spamvanger@ilse.nl IP: 80.56.244.216 URL: DATE: 09/01/2004 08:17:18 PM Looks like xpsp2 doesn't allow cookies from directories that are being set after cookies from the root dir. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Earthquake 10.5 is Bunk! Bunk! Bunk! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/22/2004 09:15:27 PM ----- BODY:

    The TV miniseries Earthquake 10.5 is just airing in the UK. It is - bluntly - an unmitigated pile of shit. Interestingly if you search for it online, pretty much the first thing you get is a long page by earthquake experts explaining precisely why it's total bunk:

    Fiction: There can be a magnitude 10.5 earthquake
    Fact: The magnitude of an earthquake is related to the length of the fault on which it occurs--the longer the fault, the larger the earthquake. In order to have a magnitude 10.5 earthquake you would have to have a fault that circles the Earth - no such fault exists.

    Fiction: Thinking an earthquake is an aftershock because they couldn't find an epicenter - all earthquakes have epicenters
    Fact: Aftershocks ARE earthquakes!! The only difference is that they occur after a larger earthquake instead of by themselves.

    Fiction: Nuclear explosions can "seal" faults
    Fact: Nuclear explosions CANNOT seal faults. Earthquakes are part of a global tectonic process that generally occurs well beyond the influence or control of humans.

    Additional Earthquake 10.5 fictions that are enough to drive you nuts:

    Now I know it's churlish to expect entertainment to be completely accurate, but this is just a few things from a list of dozens! I'd like to think that people doing stuff like this had some grasp of what they were talking about, but evidently not...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris EMAIL: chris@monkeydork.com IP: 63.191.233.161 URL: http://www.monkeydork.com DATE: 05/22/2004 10:35:11 PM The little logical fallacy that bugged me the most was the scene where the earthquake followed the Amtrak train. Not like, "Hey, I'm an earthquake, and I just happen to be passing along this area where there's a train." But, "Hey, I'm an earthquake, and I'm going to follow this Amtrak train track until I catch up to this poor little Amtrak train and swallow it whole into the Earth." It was like a five minute chase scene! And at the end, the way they moved the camera down, it looked exactly like the Earth was closing back up after a job well done. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Yoz EMAIL: yoz@yoz.com IP: 212.159.61.42 URL: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/ DATE: 05/23/2004 01:03:31 AM I only saw the first ten minutes or so because there's only so much cheesiness I can take, including the train-chasing earthquake mentioned above and the "Cancel my meeting with the important foreign dignitary, because MY PEOPLE COME FIRST, DAMMIT!" President. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.50.198 URL: DATE: 05/23/2004 02:33:18 PM Bullshit unscientific gibberish, my friend! Sure there can be a 10.5 magnitude earthquake! The Richter scale has no upper limit, dammit! [Well, theoretically speaking, it could never be greater than all energy in the universe, but still way beyond measly 10.5!] Sure true, it's NOT CURRENTLY possible on Earth since the crust is too weak to generate such quantities of energy, but it's very possible on other planets and it may become possible on Earth in the distant future. (Side note: For universal terminology seism should be the word of choice.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.50.198 URL: DATE: 05/23/2004 02:42:02 PM And, not specifying the scale, the magnitude figures say absolutely nothing. (I just presumed Richter's.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian Howard EMAIL: adrianh@quietstars.com IP: 217.137.34.35 URL: DATE: 05/24/2004 01:21:28 AM Forget about the bad science - what about the bad acting! Not to mention a script that must have won the clichÈ of the year award. All in all it was so bad I enjoyed it. With any luck next week will spend it's time culling the ghastly cast :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Terry EMAIL: terrymadeley@hotmail.com IP: 195.195.164.218 URL: http://www.upsaid.com/morecoffee/ DATE: 05/26/2004 11:59:11 AM It goes up to 10.5? Cool, but why am I thinking of Spinal Tap? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Manic EMAIL: manicmongoose@yahoo.co.uk IP: 158.125.1.22 URL: http://www.manicmongi.net DATE: 05/26/2004 03:59:13 PM The whole thing was just shit.... never seen such an appauling program. Also shouldn't it be zoom 10.5? Did they actaully think the camera angles were good? These people seriously need to study geography and an acting school. Also lines like "You're the best of the best" are the worst lines..... ever! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rowan EMAIL: rowansjet@yahoo.com IP: 195.92.168.167 URL: DATE: 05/30/2004 10:21:33 AM Everyone involved in this must have been on drugs or something, or else one of those bigass earthquakes knocked them all silly. Writing: If you played the Drinking game, and looked for cliches during this sh*t, you would be off your arse sometime before the end of part one. Acting: Poor in most cases, forced in others. Directing: Someone just watched 24 and thought it would be cool to copy. You can tell it's bad when you laugh out loud at the sheer cr*pness of it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmail.fm IP: 62.253.64.8 URL: http://saltation.blogspot.com DATE: 05/31/2004 01:02:14 AM i hope you're not suggesting we can't rely on hollywood to broaden our outlook and deepen our knowledge, yea our very understanding of and feeling of one-ness with this great wondrous gigantic all-encompassing universe we make movies in. >[Fallacy:] # Earthquakes can cause trucks to sink in dirt, long after the earthquake happened actually, this one could be real (haven't seen the movie. don't intend to). depends on the earthquake, but "liquefaction" after major earthquakes is fairly common. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmail.fm IP: 62.253.64.8 URL: http://saltation.blogspot.com DATE: 05/31/2004 01:04:32 AM >I have enabled a feature that allows your comments to be held for approval the first time you post a comment. I'll approve your comment when convenient; there is no need to re-post your comment. oh but i want to, i want to! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Emily EMAIL: emybemy7@hotmail.com IP: 217.42.196.112 URL: DATE: 05/31/2004 01:00:59 PM Just one more major thing wrong with this program, the whole basis for the plot line was impossible. The 'super faults' were said to be at 700km below the surface. Hmmm, only minor problem is that 700 km below the Earth is the MANTLE!!! Even as an AS Geography student, I know that the Mantle is made of liqiud and so cannot create friction!! But still, the best thing was them trying to fuse the fault lines by using nuclear warheads 200 ft below the surface, I just laughed!! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where the police pretend to be secret agents... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/22/2004 09:50:54 PM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday evening, after a few too many cocktails with lovely people from work and an emergency Italian meal, we walked back towards Charing Cross to catch the tube only to see a van full of police officers looking weird and mischievous while playing the theme tune to Mission Impossible incredibly loudly and driving up and down the Strand. They all looked about seventeen, and like they were wearing their dads' uniforms. These are not the uniformed whores from Morrissey's The World is Full of Crashing Bores and that's quite nice. I wasn't scared of them or anything. But I wasn't exactly filled with confidence either...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: web@neverthink.com IP: 81.154.204.173 URL: http://www.neverthink.com DATE: 05/23/2004 02:38:23 PM I hesitate to repeat the cliché, but isn't it considered a sign of one's advancing years when policemen are looking way too young? The thing is, though, I'm not quite sure where the clichés stand when the policemen in question are playing 1960s spy show themes. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 80.168.33.2 URL: http://www.newsfilter.co.uk/ DATE: 05/24/2004 01:50:12 PM Was walking through the City late one night, and a police car parked in a side street near Morgate tube starting playing the theme to Knight Rider incredibly loudly (through their grill-mounted (?) loudspeakers) as I walked past. I jumped. The policemen laughed. It was most odd. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My blood is unclean... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 05/23/2004 01:57:24 PM ----- BODY:

    I couldn't agree more with this piece on gay men being banned from being sperm donors. The same thing happened a few years ago with the blood transfusion service. They're desperate for donors and yet the rules say (in the UK) that any man who has ever had sex with another man should not donate. I've been tested regularly for pretty much everything and am clear, have a relatively rare blood type (A-) and there are chronic blood shortages that could result in deaths. What possible rationale could there be for stopping me from helping?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.50.198 URL: DATE: 05/23/2004 02:53:47 PM Religion combined with populism. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: qB@SPAMLESSfrizzylogic.org IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/ DATE: 05/24/2004 01:13:24 PM Quite so. I can't give blood because I've been to Africa more than once. Presumably I had a shag-tastic time with the festering natives. My only consolation is that my blood group is both rare and utterly useless... AB can only be donated to other ABs. Whereas we ABs can receive the pure unsullied blood from anyone judged sufficiently non-aberrant to give. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Franˆßois EMAIL: francois@padawan.info IP: 81.64.154.46 URL: http://www.padawan.info/ DATE: 05/24/2004 09:08:11 PM That's one of the very best examples of homophobia based on irrational fear and sheer stupidity. Still, in 2004, it's absolutely amazing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: steve@myacelife.com IP: 62.189.181.250 URL: http://www.myacelife.com DATE: 05/26/2004 11:14:01 AM If I had a rare blood group (which I don't think I do) - I think it'd be amusing to go along, get yourself at the point where they're just about to insert the needle, and suddenly state "Oh, wait, question 5... sex with men? I suddenly remembered that I'm a big flaming nancy and I have sex with men all the time. Sorry for not saying earlier, I was just looking forward to the cup of tea." It'd be worth a hoot for two minutes, at least. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Cox EMAIL: james@imajes.info IP: 62.252.64.14 URL: http://imajes.info/ DATE: 05/27/2004 03:59:59 AM It really is the most ridiculous form of homophobia, but it also has a real grounding in liberal rights too (i think): The plan is to prevent any infected blood entering the pool, and - according to the blood.org.uk site - their testing procedures are not 100% accurate. So they have to rule out common groups. Yes, it's sucky - I think that for rare blood types, they should enable a more active process of recruiting people, and be more open about it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stevo EMAIL: stevobob1212@yahoo.com IP: 216.127.82.99 URL: DATE: 05/27/2004 08:41:18 AM umm dont want to point anything obvious out here but your ummmm gay. that means the *chance* of you catching blood borne diseases are far higher.. simple stuff really. And for the guy that is moaning about the transfusion service in the UK not taking your blood because you have been to Africa - its not because they think you have been having a "shag-fest" you nob - its because once again you are more likely to get blood borne diseases here - Mosquitos are rife. Dare I need to go on.. And dont try and flag me with the "homophobic" flag please - thats just an excuse for ignorance of the wider issues. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Thomas Williams EMAIL: tew28@cam.ac.uk IP: 131.111.8.98 URL: DATE: 05/27/2004 12:29:23 PM I don't entirely agree with their policy, but I don't think that it's homophobic either. They do have to be very careful. Not only could an infected sample spread disease; they can be (and have been) sued under the Consumer Protection Act for providing a "defective product". So they exclude groups that are classed as high-risk. If even 20% of people who are allowed to give blood did so, there still wouldn't be any shortage whatsoever. Sperm, however, the policy makes less sense for. It stays in the banks for longer, so testing is more reliable than in quick-turnover blood banks. And as we're not exactly likely to pass our genes on to a child in the normal way, it's good for the gene pool for gay men to contribute to sperm banks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 217.209.178.15 URL: DATE: 05/28/2004 08:39:31 AM I don't know, Stevo. I think your argumentation is lacking. I'm sure you know, just as well as I, that there are lots of straight people fucking around without much control, while there are many responsible and precautious gays who don't. (And vice versa of course.) Who do you think put themselves at greater risk? You're suggesting that these people should go before me in line just because I occasionally fuck men I know aren't infected. Is that the good policy you support? Your argumentation is thereto based on chance: very scientific indeed.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: qB EMAIL: qB@SPAMLESSfrizzylogic.org IP: 80.177.18.254 URL: http://www.frizzylogic.org/ DATE: 05/29/2004 02:35:04 PM Stevo, two questions... have you ever given blood, and are you familiar with HIV transmission statistics? If you have ever given blood you will be aware that before you donate you are asked a number of questions which include whether you have ever been infected with various diseases (including, for instance, hepatitis etc). Whilst mosquitos are responsible for the transmission of a variety of diseases (such as malaria) you will undoubtedly know if you have caught one of them. They do not transmit the HIV virus. If you were familiar with HIV infection statistics you would know that nearly two thirds of all new infections in the UK are as a result of heterosexual sex. See http://www.tht.org.uk/hiv_info/stats.htm. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 217.209.176.79 URL: DATE: 05/30/2004 09:45:11 AM The truth about "quick-turnover blood banks" is that blood can be stored 6 months without much hassle, meaning there's plenty of time for prolific testing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmail.fm IP: 62.253.64.8 URL: http://saltation.blogspot.com DATE: 05/31/2004 01:43:27 AM umm this one's a tricky one when i first started riding a motorbike, i went from being pulled over by the cops once a year or so, to being pulled over every couple of months. i quizzed a couple as to why and they pointed out that a lot of bikers on the road were out of order-- about 10% pulled over had dud licences for example (!). i'd joined a highrisk group where the risk affected other people. re aids: gays "on average"/"as a category" are still far more likely to be infected than straights. in this country, anyway. so: 1/ PRO this approach: put yourself in the position of a responsible person attempting to set policy for a population, all of whom will have to live with the consequences of your actions. looking at big groups, you really have to lean towards the overall probabilities. the categories might be rubbish, but if they're the only categories you've got that give you extra predictive power (statistical term), it's not fair to everyone to ignore them. the current porn-industry problems are an indication of the downside of even a couple of infected donaters. and remember, they're compulsorily tested monthly AND use a special test unavailable in the UK which has only a two WEEK latency period, as opposed to the normal three month. 2/ CON this approach: but having had an aids test in this country, i was ready to kill the people in the clinic for their sneering supercilious whining incompetent pseudo-superior attitude. and they had no *(&^%$ idea what the reality of the situation was but were very very happy to bang the drum for category this and regulation that. and i'm straight so didn't even get the homophobia thrown in. rargh. "ohhhh you've been to asia... you are at high risk" ".... singapore has a lower aids rate than even estonia." "no, asia is high risk" "asia is not one country. you might be thinking of thailand?" "[panic!: authority not being worshipped fearfully!] do you WANT this test or NOT!?" jesus, choke a jobsworthy today everyone ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: juniorbonner EMAIL: juniorbonner@gmail.com IP: 217.42.180.133 URL: DATE: 05/31/2004 10:10:41 PM the reason why your not allowed to donate your blood is probably cause they dont want people being infected with your genes and being turned into raging queens - its kind of the same thing for vampires I hear. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Better design through simplicity... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 05/24/2004 12:38:53 AM ----- BODY:

    From a relatively old article (at least in terms of webloggia's attention-span) comes some pointers on improving design through simplicity:

    This is a good set of assumptions for trying out new ideas and building new products and pretty close to the way we've been working in R&Mi when we do our rapid prototyping sprints. I should really write that stuff up sometime...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmail.fm IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://saltation.blogspot.com DATE: 05/31/2004 03:54:40 PM "Simplify and add lightness" -- Harry Hawker's old maxim to his engineers ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Lunatic Tebbit blames "buggery" for fatness... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Gay CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 05/29/2004 11:09:56 AM ----- BODY:

    The new caring version of the Conservative party doesn't inspire that much faith in me. I know they're all multicultural this and "ooh happy gay people" that, but all it really takes is someone like Lord Tebbit to pull back the Transylvanian's cape to reveal the genuine sentiments of the Old Guard Tories. On the Thursday morning edition of the Today programme, Lord Tebbit says the cause of obesity is "buggery" (RAM). Having said that the cause of obesity is directly the consequence of a decline in family life he continues:

    And the government is pursuing the break down of family life. We've had one thing after the other... In the House of Lords at the moment we've got this gay marriage bill at the moment - that doesn't help - and we've not only got an epidemic of obesity ... we've got a huge problem of AIDS and the government's attitude is to do everything it can to promote buggery - the two are somewhat intimately connected!

    Weirdly we're left with Boris Johnson having to save the day and say, "I don't think you can really say that gay marriage is responsible for obesity, with the best will in the world..."

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim Hall EMAIL: tim@kalyr.com IP: 81.131.212.129 URL: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog DATE: 05/29/2004 12:49:55 PM A belief that everything they don't like is interconnected is a common delusion of many conservatives. Therefore nudity on television is responsible for an increase in muggings, and Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 80.3.75.92 URL: DATE: 05/29/2004 01:08:44 PM That's hilarious. Sodomites of the world unite! We have thin people to inflate! Now there's a mental image... Does this mean that all the fat people we see around the place these days are real goers in bed? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul EMAIL: paul@rixort.com IP: 130.88.205.66 URL: http://www.rixort.com/ DATE: 05/29/2004 01:08:57 PM I'd just like to point out that Tebbit is well known for his out-spoken opinions on pretty much everything (remember the "get on your bike" idea for the unemployed?) and he doesn't speak for the whole of the Tory party or even the majority. With regards to Tim's comment, blaming Saddam Hussain has nothing to do with the Conservatives (capital 'C', seeing as we are referring to the party rather than the very generalise political view point). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.18.80 URL: DATE: 05/29/2004 01:33:22 PM Ha! I can hear the Looney Tunes theme unraveling in my head.. *smile* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian Howard EMAIL: adrianh@quietstars.com IP: 217.137.34.58 URL: DATE: 05/29/2004 05:57:50 PM Boris Johnson as the voice of sanity. Very weird. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Raised by Chaffinches EMAIL: private@lycos.com IP: 62.252.192.8 URL: http://www.owdo.blogspot.com DATE: 05/31/2004 06:45:16 AM The cause of obesity is buggery? Where does that leave Bernard Manning? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rachel EMAIL: suger_puff_@hotmail.com IP: 69.193.84.219 URL: http://www.roxynotes.blogspot.com DATE: 05/31/2004 10:33:33 PM Yep, gay marriges is why people go stuff their faces in saturated fat. And saturated fat is why so many people have Aids? ARE there any SMART polititians? Maybe I could run... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon EMAIL: sw@netcetera.org IP: 195.92.168.178 URL: DATE: 07/27/2004 08:38:55 AM Two thoughts immediately spring to mind: 1) I'm a bit podgy, but have never indulged in a spot of buggery. Is there something I'm not telling myself? 2) The Hon Nicholas Soames MP. Hmmm. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's Tom been up to? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/04/2004 03:40:13 PM ----- BODY:

    So work's still going a bit nuts and I have no time at all. It should all be over soon (couple of weeks max), then I'll be throwing myself back into the world more than ever. In the meantime, a few little catchups from the few things I've managed to get done outside the BBC.

    I went to see Harry Potter on Monday with my younger brother and bloody Cory who did his 'taking photos of the "don't take photos" sign' thing to general hilarity from the rest of the auditorium. Again. And - of course - the Englishman dies quietly of shame inside (but it wouldn't have been the same without him). Personal verdict - still flawed, but better than anything else in the rest of the series so far. Four stars. Well done to all involved etc.

    And on Wednesday night, I finally got to see the Pixies in concert at Brixton Academy. It was a dream come true in many ways - and one of the most tight, sharp and systematically well assembled concerts I've ever been to. But it was also a slightly sad experience I think - tinged somehow with the fact that I've worn all the songs to the bone with repeated listening. Looking on the stage it looked a bit like Frank Black and Kim Deal felt pretty much the same way...

    This weekend I'm planning to detox a bit tomorrow and generally get my head in order - maybe teach myself some more Illustrator to stop myself going nuts with thinking about the web. And of course I'll be at NotCon on Sunday, as indeed should you be.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.232.201 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 06/04/2004 05:19:24 PM I'll be missing the Pixies reunion (they're playing some megashow with the Chili Peppers here and it costs an arm and a leg so thank you but no thank you) but I won't be missing fellow Bostonites and also newly-reunited Mission of Burma when they pass through Dublin in a few weeks time. Though I am a Pixies fan, I have a sneaking suspicion the Burma show will be much more fun anyhow. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ellogoods EMAIL: ellogoods@yahoo.com IP: 4.8.5.173 URL: http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=383549&T=3343 DATE: 06/05/2004 12:28:41 AM I really don't care for the Harry Potter series but I must admit that I WANT to see this one because they smartened up and acquired Alfonso CuarÛn to direct. I have admired him since I saw Little Princess and he summarily ripped my heart out. He should of been directing the entire series, (I think Chris Columbus is a terribley boring director) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 217.209.178.86 URL: DATE: 06/05/2004 09:57:00 AM A four? Are you on drugs, in love, or are these just confessions of a dangerous mind? I'm not sure how to grasp it. You're the last one I was expecting that from, Tom. I'll see the movie. With a plasticbag over my head. Ciao! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Notes from NotCon: Introduction STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 06/06/2004 11:31:35 AM ----- BODY:

    So it's Sunday morning at 11.30am and I'm going to start taking notes of the goings-on at NotCon. Probably the best way to describe the feel of the place so far is that it's somewhere between the sensation of being at ETCon and how I felt when I went to a Doctor Who convention in Norwich aged around fourteen. The organisation is refreshingly haphazard (the Geolocation panel is supposed to start in about four minutes time and they're still assembling the stage and trying to work out how to project computer screens onto a paint encrusted theatrical backdrop), and the cost of entry (at around £4) is around a five hundredth of what it costs for an Englishman to get to its (perhaps slightly more distinguished) American analogues.

    NotCon has two concurrent streams across two rooms - one is on the ground floor and is completely full as of this moment. The other is on the second floor, marked by a succession of hand-scrawled notes and is almost completely empty.

    My current plans for the day (should anyone care) are:

    I'm going to try and keep some rough notes of what's going on over the day as and when I can, but no promises (it looks like power sockets are going to be hard to come by today and my Powerbook is a hungry beast).

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 80.168.33.2 URL: http://www.newsfilter.co.uk/ DATE: 06/07/2004 11:11:48 AM I made it to NotCon late - just after the sold out of tickets (their insurance or similar only allowed for 300 people), so I ended up hanging out with friends in the courtyard all afternoon drinking cheap beer. But I did hear the Brewster Kahle talk as it was broadcast via loudpseaker in to the courtyard (along with others, but I was busy drinking during those). What an amazing guy - I had heard about the Bookmobile before, and, obviously archive.org, but I didn't realise the same guy was largely behind both. And archive.org is expanding rapidly. (Indeed, they're looking for a Tech Director to run their European operations in Amsterdam, although that job isn't currently on their site. Petabyte databases on massive Linux clusters with gigabit ethernet connections sounds mighty fun for the right person). I hope someone took notes on that and posted them online somewhere... I was given a NotCon badge sticker thing later in the day. I was Ian from Oxford Uni. w00t! ----- PING: TITLE: So, here we are URL: http://www.sparklefluff.com/blatantoptimism/archive/000969.html IP: 209.68.1.175 BLOG NAME: Blatant Optimism DATE: 06/06/2004 12:36:33 PM So NotCon is settling down nicely. Tom Coates' initial-thoughts description is great and sums it up nicely. It's both techier and friendlier than I thought, but it means that the talk is either going to go much better or much... ----- PING: TITLE: NotCon URL: http://alex.halavais.net/news/archives/000953.html IP: 203.194.240.131 BLOG NAME: Blog de Halavais DATE: 06/06/2004 06:07:22 PM Tom Coates is blogging from NotCon. Already I wish I could be there. Mentions a presentation on biomapping, combining biometric... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Notes from NotCon: Geocoding STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 06/06/2004 12:41:05 PM ----- BODY:

    So the first panel of the day is over and we're not waiting in the over-crowded downstairs for the Matt Jones- hosted "Hardware" panel to get going.

    My initial reactions to the Geocoding panel were extraordinarily positive - the first project that people talked about was called Biomapping and it was a fascinating concept. Basically the guy talked about using a galvanic skin response detector attached to a GPRS device to start plotting individual reactions to the environment around them. Totally fascinating. Then followed Nick West from Urban Tapestries (note based geo-annotation on mobile phones), Earle Martin from Open Guides (wiki-based open city guides) and a clump of people from Project Z, who seem to spend their lives creeping around in places where they shouldn't, taking photographs and leaving Indymedia logos. Pretty cool stuff.

    I tried to ask a question during the event, but unfortunately was shut down by Chris Lightfoot. For those who are interested, I wanted to know whether or not any of the geo-annotation systems (including but not limited to the Open Guide wikis) were building in any protection against spamming at the architectural level. So many useful and potentially valuable projects in the past have ended up with fundamental problems with spamming (including e-mail and weblogs - and now wikis), the last thing we need is to have a standard of annotating the earth and all things around us that is going to be overwhelmed with adverts for prostitutes, scams, drugs and vouchers for Starbucks and McDonalds.

    I'll try and post up the full SubEthaEdit notes from the first session later in the day. No promises though...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Afternoon EMAIL: afternoon@uk2.net IP: 217.155.37.44 URL: http://aftnn.org DATE: 06/06/2004 09:07:41 PM I have the SubEthaEdit notes file too! It's online at http://aftnn.org/stuff/journal_src/notcon.txt ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: rlc@gruts.com IP: 212.126.144.12 URL: http://www.gruts.com/ DATE: 06/06/2004 09:44:32 PM Your last three posts have all started with the word 'So'. What do you think you're writing for, the Guardian letters page? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.154.162.91 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/06/2004 11:15:17 PM I refer the honourable gentleman to a post from four years ago: Notable plasticbag.org clichés ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.230.50.38 URL: DATE: 06/07/2004 12:17:52 PM So what, Richard? Hehe.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kim EMAIL: kim.plowright@thankthelordimonthespamfilteratthebbc.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.120 URL: DATE: 06/07/2004 01:46:52 PM Hmn. Are prostitutes calling cards a kind of analog geolocatory spam? What about flyposting? Or those irritating people with charity clipboards? Do we accept this because we're used to it - it's just part of the ubiquitous noise when we're out and about in the street. Is the personal 'myspace' notion of email or SMS what makes it intrusive? K ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick West EMAIL: metroboy99@yahoo.com IP: 82.69.63.65 URL: DATE: 06/07/2004 07:34:41 PM It's a good question -- I also wish that we could have answered it during the presentation! We've thought about it a lot for Urban Tapestries (tho no solutions are implemented in the current version). I'm convinced there's ways to get around space-spam, which generally fall into three categories: * trust networks (FOAF, etc.) * moderation (like Slashdot) * filtering/searching (think a Google for space) Also, I don't think problems with space-spamming will appear until annotation software is widespread and popular...and then at least we can console ourselves with the fact that annotation software is widespread and popular! There's more thoughts about this at http://urbantapestries.net and http://thingster.org/about (a SF-based app that's similar, but not mobile) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A snapshot of my neighbourhood... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/08/2004 06:42:17 AM ----- BODY:

    6.30am: The Police call around and get me to open the front door. They knock on my neighbour's door and ring the doorbell a couple of dozen times. Looking out the back window, the entire block is surrounded by plain clothes policemen. My neighbour doesn't answer. This probably means that their son has beaten his girlfriend to a bloody pulp again.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: The flip side of Venus URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/06/08.html#a601 IP: 81.65.94.170 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 06/08/2004 10:42:02 PM It became hard to maintain the ill-tempered, disabused mood when almost everybody was cheered up by watching the blip of the planet of love glide across the sun (BBC for all the links, along with Ars Technica ) on a glorious late spring morning. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Notes from NotCon: Hardware STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 06/08/2004 06:50:36 AM ----- BODY:

    Well, anyway, since I'm up I may as well finish off my coverage of Sunday's NotCon. After the Geolocation panel (my notes), I joined the Hardware panel. Over the entire day I self-consciously avoided all the political panels because they just looked like they'd be incredibly frustrating, confrontational. Ironically I decided that I wouldn't find the Blogging panel quite as annoying, but more on that later in the day... The Hardware panel comprised of talks by James Larrson, Steven Goodwin, Matt Westcott, George Wright and Anil Madhavapeddy and was a really mixed bag of the sublime and ridiculous.

    There's something uniquely nostalgic about British geeks - their fetishes for the computers of their youth (the BBC Micro and the Sinclair Spectrum in particular) seem to overwhelm their future-thinking impulses time and time again. I can't say that I'm convinced that this is a good thing - it makes me wonder about how British geekhood views its own chances of creating new technologies that actually can push things forward. Maybe they feel it's just not possible any more? Maybe they think no one will take them seriously...?

    That's not to say that Matt Westcott's illustration of new hard and software trends on the Spectrum isn't impressive or entertaining. He illustrates connecting the tiny computer to hard disks and compact flash, talks about the demo scene and the "only project on sourceforge for the Sinclair Spectrum". He ends up with a streaming video version of the Chemical Brother's Let Forever Be video (directed by Michel Gondry). All good fun - I just can't help but feel that it's a little bit of a waste of a talented man's time.

    James Larrson's piece was similarly random - but here at least the whole thing was clearly a bit tongue in cheek, and his presentational skills were so good that someone should really give him a TV-series of short introductions to crackpot inventors. He'd be awesome. The project he was talking about was based around using a BBC Model B from 1982 to measure the changes in state of the mayonnaise, bread and prawn components of a Marks and Spencer prawn sandwich - and using that to tell the time. I'm not going to go into too much detail except to say that he's managed to get the accuracy so good that now the clock only loses/gains up to four hours in any given day.

    I didn't get the name of the next guy - I think it was the Reverend Rat - but he was showing how you could radically extend the range of Bluetooth devices. Apparently by soldering it together with an antenna he's extended the range from ten metres to the rather more satisfyingly non-personal 35 miles (and more). His main planned use for this particular piece of tech seemed to be to stand on top of Centrepoint jacking into passer-by's phones. Or that could have been a joke. Funny chap. Cool though...

    Then we got to the three talks that were actually about the way technology might evolve: Steven Goodwin's piece was on hacking around with your house and TV to allow you to control things long-distance (including recording TV on demand and stream it back to your computer via - I think - e-mail), which wasn't really particularly new in principle but nice to actually hear from someone who's doing it throughout their home. [If you're interested in this stuff, then the O'Reilly book Home Hacking Projects for Geeks could be a good read.]

    Then George Wright talked about Interactive TV, why it wasn't the web and why that's a good thing (in his words). The language he used about the platform's restrictions (no return path in many cases, exhaustive centralised testing on the platform required before it any product can be rolled out, no literature to support development, completely limited to broadcast companies etc) doesn't fill me with hope for the future of iTV - particularly when compared to the possibilities of the future ever-present fat-piped non-broadcast-limited, massively flexible and responsive web - but he did make a good case for convergence not being the point. We're still talking around this stuff behind the scenes and I'll let you know if we come up with anything interesting.

    And finally - and my particular favourite of the session - Anil Madhavapeddy talked about using camera phones as ubiquitous remote controls / mice. There were some lovely aspects to this - the 'ooh / aah' bit coming when he demoed applications with 'robust visual tags' that look a bit like the 2d bar codes that the camera phone could recognise and manipulate. So you'd come up to a some kind of public terminal, turn on the camera phone, arrange it so that you could see the control you wished to manipulate on the phone's screen, and then press the equivalent of a mouse button - at which point the control on screen could be moved around just as if your camera phone was a mouse (via Bluetooth or Wifi, I assume). It sounds over-complex from this introduction, but some of the immediate benefits were clear - the same tags could be used as static encoders of commands in paper interfaces that you just printed out, there's a built-in mechanism for manipulating money via a mobile phone that opens up lots of possibilities for exchanging or buying things, etc. etc. I'm going to be keeping an eye on this stuff, it was fascinating...

    And that's pretty much all I have to say about the Hardware panel at the moment. I have to head off to a thing at the RAB on the "21st Century Radio Listener" for work. I'll talk about the next session on MP3s and Mash-Ups later in the day...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Will Davies EMAIL: wdavies@theworkfoundation.com IP: 217.158.178.194 URL: http://www.theisociety.net DATE: 06/08/2004 08:42:06 AM "Over the entire day I self-consciously avoided all the political panels because they just looked like they'd be incredibly frustrating, confrontational." At least recognise that the organisers made a conscious effort to try and improve on the typical net-politics fare. The first politics panel involved a pretty sophisticated dispute between Bill Thompson and Cory Doctorow (plus my piece, which i can't comment on); the second one included an analysis of mainstream politics on the net, the unveiling of theyworkforyou.com and a civil servant! The day after Notcon I attended a fairly dry two hour seminar on the role of the new e-envoy in government. A *very* different crowd, with *very* different sums of money involved. But for the first time, I felt that it wouldn't have been impossible for the two events to have come together and achieve some form of dialogue. I imagine the same could not be said of Etcon and Washington's e-policy community. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Stuart EMAIL: tom@obsess.com IP: 128.232.8.116 URL: http://obsess.com/ DATE: 06/08/2004 02:06:47 PM I loved that you basically told George Wright that he was confused and wrong during his talk. Spectacularly enjoyable heckling. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 132.185.240.121 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/08/2004 02:13:02 PM I don't know that I'd characterise it in quite that way - I'm really keen to find out what it is about interactive television in its current delivery and structure that makes it a better platform in the long-term for doing these kind of things than delivery through the internet. Just because I've not heard the reason yet doesn't mean there isn't one... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: George Wright EMAIL: georgew@fiddlesticks.com IP: 132.185.240.120 URL: http://fiddlesticks.com/george DATE: 06/10/2004 02:01:37 PM Heh. I enjoyed your heckles too, and I was on the stage. Confused? Yes, I am - it's too early not to be, I think. Wrong? Well, I wanted to speak because I think lots of thinking about the Net is concentrating on getting it to do things it isn't great at ('channels', 'push' and real video at 22 kb/s, for example), and I see the same problem with interactive telly - trying to make a DTT set top box into a poor version of Netscape 3, or services that say 'you are on page 3 of 100', for example, that was the main thrust of what I was trying to say - horses for courses, I suppose I _will_ make some slides and stick them somewhere, din't think 5 mins was long enough to do them justice tbh We'll talk again,Tom ----- PING: TITLE: Non-confÈrence technique ý Imperial College URL: http://onpk.net/index.php/2004/06/09/163-NonconferenceTechniqueAImperialCollege IP: 213.186.33.52 BLOG NAME: :: on pk :: weblog php - mysql - dÈveloppement web & connexe(s) DATE: 06/09/2004 02:19:05 PM Certains d'entre vous savent peut-Ítre que j'ai ÈtudiÈ ý Londres -- ý Imperial College, facultÈ de maths pour Ítre prÈcis. C'est donc avec une attention toute particuliËre que j'ai commencÈ l'exploration des mÈandres de NotCon '04 : elle a eu lieu ý Be... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On representing the backlog caused by an absence of cerebral RAM... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/12/2004 09:24:48 AM ----- BODY:

    That period before a launch is always stressful. This time is no exception. It's occupying my entire head almost 24/7 no matter whether I try and leave work on time or whether I'm there for twelve or fourteen hour days. It doesn't make any difference. It's just there in my head and it probably will be until a couple of weeks after it's finally launched. C'est la vie. It's the nature of the beast.

    In real life, of course, people can sense when you're busy and don't feel particularly upset if you aren't able to give them the time that you would like to. They might not be thrilled about it of course, but they understand. But the signals that I can give off in public through my weblog are less clear. Has he just abandoned the thing? No. Why doesn't he have anything interesting to say anymore? Well, I do! Probably more than ever at the moment. I just can't find the headspace to work with to write them down. Why isn't he commenting on that thing that's so obviously one of his core interests? Well, it's because I'm not commenting on anything - the only creative thing I'm able to do outside work at the moment is doodle in Illustrator.

    What I need is some way of actually ambiently reflecting my personal weather - without all that clunkiness of actively choosing states of mind. What I actually need is some way of representing that I'm just really really behind... A first suggestion - some way of representing the number of unread posts I have in NetNewsWire at any given moment (currently way over six hundred). Except that my path of posting tends to be more circuitous than that. NetNewsWire posts get opened in browser tabs if they look interesting, read thoroughly and then (if they're not something I want to follow-up upon) they get immediately closed. The number of open tabs reflects pretty much exactly the number of things I actively want to talk about at any given moment. If there are lots open, it probably means that I have a lot I want to write about and no time to do it in. Except that doesn't work either, because in addition to the six hundred things in NetNewsWire I haven't filtered and the fifty tabs I have open at the moment, I also have four folders in my bookmarks called "State of Play 1-4" that were the sum total of all the things I wanted to talk about and had open in Safari but then had to store quickly so that I could install a Max OSX update. That's another two hundred discussions I really want to get involved in - that I want to contribute to. And then there's the four or five little projects I have on the side that I've been trying to write up but have been incapable of doing so.

    So six hundred unfiltered posts, fifty open tabs representing fifty filtered posts to talk about, two hundred bookmarks representing two hundred even more filtered conversations to get into, plus four or five multi-page documents (one around 6,000 words) that have been growing in the sidelines that I'm unable to push out into the world in any effective way. That is the index of how busy and behind I feel. That is the measure of my total absence of cerebral RAM. Do you now understand why I'm not posting that much?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Newfred EMAIL: newfred@newfred.com IP: 172.188.144.235 URL: http://www.newfred.com DATE: 06/13/2004 11:37:33 PM You shouldn't worry, many of us find it hard to be creative enough just to get out of bed in the mornings. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Massimo EMAIL: m.fiorentino@interiority.com IP: 80.197.168.146 URL: http://www.interiority.com/ DATE: 06/14/2004 07:05:04 AM Know exactly what you mean... Been there, done that, bought the mug... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: hoiga EMAIL: hoig@walloon.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 06/17/2004 03:57:40 AM so delete it all. if you haven't gotten to it all by now, then it probably isn't as important as you think. ----- PING: TITLE: Cerebral RAM shortage URL: http://linuxbrit.co.uk/blog/2004/06/12/cerebral-ram-shortage/ IP: 66.111.55.30 BLOG NAME: LinuxBrit DATE: 06/12/2004 08:00:10 PM Empathising strongly with Tom Coates right now :p ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Anyone for Gmail? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/14/2004 10:44:17 PM ----- BODY:

    So anyway, I signed up for Gmail a while back and basically I don't really use it even though it's pretty well assembled and has some nice features and now I've been given three invitations but everyone who I know who wants an account already has one. I imagine the big craze for offering people enormous gifts and proposing amorous liasons in exchange for One Gigabyte of Full-On E-mail Pleasure has passed, but if you can think of a reason why I should invite you rather than just making three new accounts with funny names, then post a comment below or chuck me an e-mail to my fairly guessable normal e-mail address (hint: it starts tom@) and I'll see what I can do...

    [Update: I'm afraid all three invitations have now gone. As soon as I get any others I will post them up and people can make a case for why they should get one. Sorry if I didn't send one to you. It's not personal...]

    Second update: I got another five invitations this morning and have given away four of them to some of the other people who contacted me about them either on this post or by e-mail. That means I have one more left if anyone out there wants it. Yet again - make a good case and I'll give it to you. I'm adding one condition now - if you get an account and eventually get the ability to give out invitations, you have to give away at least one of those invitations to someone who says something funny on the internet. You can't give em all to friends. I have no way of enforcing this, of course, but I will consider you a person without honour if I found out you have wilfully ignored your obligations.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chuck Lawson EMAIL: lawson@nonliteral.com IP: 67.173.208.221 URL: http://www.nonliteral.com DATE: 06/14/2004 11:15:00 PM Hmmm... The only reason that I can think of is that my daily allotment of 600 - 1200 spams could use a new place to be filtered out :-) Well, that, and that it might save me from having to take "thirdbozofromtheleft18@gmail.com" as the only address available... lol.. Hey wait -- you didn't ask for a GOOD reason... But if either of those two lame ones are close enough, my address is lawson@ the domain on the comment... Thanks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lars EMAIL: lars@larsholst.info IP: 213.80.73.42 URL: http://larsholst.info/blog/ DATE: 06/14/2004 11:18:44 PM No, no, no, Tom, you've got it all backwards... Here's the deal: If you can think of a reason why I should let you invite me rather than just take up any of the three other invitations I've got... Heh :) The truth is I haven't received any invitations. But I don't need a stupid Gmail account anyway. Honest. P.S. I once linked to your site. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike Steinbaugh EMAIL: mike@webspiffy.com IP: 69.160.38.243 URL: http://webspiffy.com/ DATE: 06/14/2004 11:30:06 PM Tom, if you can hook me up with an account I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping Google integrates IMAP into Gmail in the future. Then I'd store all my old e-mails in my Gmail account as a backup. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Seth Messer EMAIL: seth@megalithic.org IP: 216.170.86.66 URL: http://www.megalithic.org DATE: 06/14/2004 11:35:50 PM Thats quite comical, as I JUST wrote about the same thoughts about Gmail last night. I think it would be so great to have had I not already gotten email through my various domains/hosting accts. I think I've used mine maybe twice just to see what its all about, though I think it'd be good to use for signing up for various forums, etc. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MacDara EMAIL: mailbag@macdaraconroy.com IP: 213.94.236.149 URL: http://macdaraconroy.com/ DATE: 06/14/2004 11:42:16 PM This whole Gmail malarkey is a perfect demonstration of online community core-periphery theory. Those with Gmail, or who have been invited to join, reside in the core. And those who haven't are left stranded at the edge - standing in the rain outside the living room window, watching the party in full swing. Oh you Gmailers, don't you realise how cold it is out here? So, so cold... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lars EMAIL: lars@larsholst.info IP: 213.80.73.42 URL: http://larsholst.info/blog/ DATE: 06/14/2004 11:47:26 PM Haha MacDara, that's spot on! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 06/14/2004 11:51:42 PM Hey Tom. I guess I could use it because I'd really love to finally get a reliable webmail account that's not a pain to use (and it's run by one of my favorite companies as a bonus). If you did give me an invite, I'd promise to use all my invites and give them to other people on the condition that they pass on all theirs - heck, I'd even give them to the people who don't get one in your little contest. :) Plus, your blog is one of my faves (probably my number one, although it's a close call with all the great blogs out there - probably tied with daringfireball.net)- I guess a little butt-smooching won't hurt. ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 06/14/2004 11:54:03 PM And if I don't get a gmail account, a barbelith registration would be nice to have as well. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awful@nothing.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 06/15/2004 01:35:57 AM i've gotta gmail account, and there's no way I'm in the 'core' ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron EMAIL: awatkins@aqua.org IP: 69.137.153.111 URL: http://zerodays.typepad.com/weblog/ DATE: 06/15/2004 01:50:14 AM I have to admit that I mainly want a G-mail account because I feel left out, and would love to be able to tell others at grad school or in my office that yes, I have a G-mail account. What would I do with it? Don't know. I'm sure I could turn it into an interesting project for a research writing class later this summer. I suppose I could have my work e-mail forwarded into it. That might actually produce an interesting range of results, from web- to marine- and environment- related. It's always interesting how Google ads can be off-target. For instance, I read a Washington Post article about Olympic athletes and steroid use only to find ads for "legal" steroids at the bottom. At this point I doubt I would use it as my default address for filling out forms. Like all of us, I already have a horribly-abused mailbox for that. Hmmm, actually, it might be interesting to forward those e-mails into G-mail and see what kind of ads come up. Truthfully, I don't know what I'd do. I haven't thought it through. Hope I make the short-list, Tom... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.223.50.103 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com DATE: 06/15/2004 02:49:08 AM Dear Sir/ Madam With deep sense of frustration and desperation I have decided to reach out to the world for help and that is what this letter is all about. I am Mr. Abbas Abacha the third son of Late General Sani Abacha Nigeria former Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, whose sudden death occurred on 8th June, 1998. Owing to allegations of financial misappropriations levelled against my father, the immediate past Military Government of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar freeze all traceable local and foreign bank accounts in the family's name and also seized our vast estates together with other fixed assets of my family. My mother is still under house arrest since June last year and my elder brother Mohammed is currently in detention being prosecuted by the incumbent democratic government charged with series of allegations. I consider you reputable and trustworthy enough to assist me in acquiring a gmail account. Regards, ABBAS ABACHA (just kidding) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graham Kaplan EMAIL: stuperman3@comcast.net IP: 24.18.217.60 URL: http://cardboardrobot.possify.net/ DATE: 06/15/2004 04:20:23 AM Well, I can't offer you an autographed bible or anything, but if you gave me a Gmail account I would share my invite codes with my Hotmail-using friends. Come on, think of the poor Hotmail users! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drumster EMAIL: mail@drumster.com IP: 203.115.77.187 URL: http://www.drumster.com DATE: 06/15/2004 06:33:33 AM Hey I want a GMail account... i havent got an invitation even though i have a blogger account. Can please have it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Fred Blasdel EMAIL: blasdelf@plastic.com IP: 172.199.137.254 URL: DATE: 06/15/2004 07:42:14 AM Well I don't have any particalarly good reson for wanting one of your gmail invites other than having craved an invite since the project was announced. I just really want to make sure I get blasdelf@gmail before any other cretin does. Would really appreciate it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.153.198.244 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/15/2004 08:25:14 AM Wow. What an extraordinary response. So far I've sent one to Scott Reynen because he wrote the funniest comment and I'm thinking about the rest of you. Sorry to seem cruel but some of your comments are really funny and I want to get more of them... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Terry EMAIL: terrym@aventuremail.com IP: 195.195.164.218 URL: http://morecoffee.blogspot.com/ DATE: 06/15/2004 08:38:06 AM If having the biggest is what you're after, you get 2 gigs with Aventure Mail. Woo. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: krusty EMAIL: 18@mailbox.co.za IP: 196.37.229.110 URL: http://www.fullstop-photo.com DATE: 06/15/2004 08:59:52 AM The other day I got an email from Bill Gates telling me that I'd get a Dollar or something for each email that I sent....the way I figure it is we need to start a club of Gmail users and we all mail each other... with 1Gb of space for all these mails, I reckon we'd be able to bankrupt old Bill, bring down the towering Empire of MS and free the Macs to rule the world.
    Just think about it, 1000 years from now, historians will look back on Microsoft like they do now on the Roman Empire, trying to trace it's collapse and it'll all come back to a simple comment on a good weblog and a Gmail invitation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michelle EMAIL: mattandmichelle@kohpotts.com IP: 202.208.150.220 URL: http://kohpotts.typepad.com DATE: 06/15/2004 09:04:04 AM Because...i've got a yahoo! account bursting at the seams (oh wait... I was just upgraded today to 100 MB... better rethink that reason). Well, I'm interested in conducting a very specific g-mail experiment. Are any of my friends so concerned about privacy problems with Gmail that they're willing to stop e-mailing me if I use a G-mail? Will using G-mail ruin my e-mail social life (which, since I'm living in Japan, is pretty much the only American social life I have going)? Will friends run screaming when they read my g-mail e-mails and be afraid to write back because their e-mails might be (gasp!) scanned and processed for the display of advertising? These are friends who refuse to RSVP for parties listed on Evite because they might lose control of their e-mail addresses. Help me test my friends to see if they really love me... set me up with a Gmail account. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms. Jen EMAIL: blackphoebe@earthlink.net IP: 66.74.180.34 URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen DATE: 06/15/2004 09:20:05 AM Call me weird, but I ENJOY deleting email. It gives me the satisfaction that I have actually read, responded to, and removed my emails from the queue. If I had 1 GB of space... YIKES!!!! I would feel compelled to answer to the avalanche of emails, not get to them due to busyness, and then feel Interactive Guilt (not quite Catholic or Protestant guilt, but close). Just say no to colonics* and say yes to your delete key... ;oD [* uh.. sorry... but I live in California, and colon cleaning seems to be an unfortunate fad next to boob jobs.... And from what I gather from friends who do this, colon cleanliness is next to...] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jpb EMAIL: editors@thingsmagazine.net IP: 82.133.83.196 URL: http://www.thingsmagazine.net DATE: 06/15/2004 10:08:30 AM By the way, yahoo mail just upped its storage quota to 2 gigabytes... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.227.40.241 URL: DATE: 06/15/2004 10:43:45 AM To: acronymous[ate]gmail.cow Cc: tom[ate]o Subject: Gayish Massively Attractive Interconnected Lovebox *LOL* Great one, Scott! Why do I love Nigeria letters? - Yes I do! Here, my poetry. This for Gmail. Yes, you see: I don't want one- Hell, don't need one! Still, I'd give my gay blood- If you need some? Love, sarcosos@mail.[are you?] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/15/2004 11:05:13 AM And invitation number two goes to Jen from blackphoebe.com for talking about high colonics! I'm now trying to work out whether or not my brother would want to get a gmail account with the last one or whether I should give it away to another lucky punter... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robin@perfect.co.uk IP: 193.133.98.226 URL: http://www.perfect.co.uk/ DATE: 06/15/2004 11:06:43 AM Because I find Dave Green annoying, especially the way he denigrates blogging in a needlessly puerile way... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: badly dubbed boy EMAIL: andrew@badlydubbedboy.co.uk IP: 132.185.144.122 URL: http://www.badlydubbedboy.co.uk DATE: 06/15/2004 11:32:49 AM Why you should invite me? Hrm... a) You started me on this whole blogging thing in the first place, curse your metallic socks and shoes b) I'd like to be able to get a username that is less than 10 characters, as opposed to the numbifyingly long usernames and email addresses I have to use at the moment c) I want to be part of the in-crowd d) I want to be part of the out-crowd e) I could buy you a BBC lunch in wales? f) erm... I'll throw in some socks? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: karim EMAIL: karim@cafefort.com IP: 193.251.135.124 URL: http://www.cafefort.com DATE: 06/15/2004 01:11:11 PM I really really would to have one. I need it, please. I'll give you an amazing gift in exchange. Promise :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adam EMAIL: altcom@mailinator.com IP: 80.55.141.196 URL: DATE: 06/15/2004 01:24:59 PM 1) If you give me a gmail account, I'll have more space for spam. 2) If I have more space for spam, I'll end up looking at more spamvertised pr0nsites. 3) If I look at more spamvertised pr0nsites, I'll become a sexual deviant. 4) If I become a sexual deviant, I'll naturally seek out ever greater crimes aginst nature. 5) If I seek out ever greater crimes aginst nature, I'll at some point turn gay. 6) If I turn gay, I'll immediately become hugely obese. 7) ??? 8) Profit! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scarlettholly EMAIL: fionamark@gmail.com IP: 129.215.37.41 URL: http://caffeinecaffeine.blogspot.com DATE: 06/15/2004 01:29:37 PM I have a single gmail invite. If any of you guys would like it, visit my site and leave comments on the gmail post. Then I'll think about who's the winner. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sas EMAIL: sas.1913306@bloglines.com IP: 163.1.237.167 URL: http://manicstreetpreacher.blogspot.com DATE: 06/15/2004 11:51:31 PM It's like being a child again... everyone rushes out to try and get the lastest fashionable toy, blag and parade it in front of the poor kids who haven't got one, then a few days later everyone's bored and wonders what to do with it. Someone on iamcal.com is offering a couple too, and I've got 4 left which I can't seem to give away. I guess the novelty is wearing off. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joerg EMAIL: joerg.diekmann@lta.org.uk IP: 195.110.173.222 URL: http://www.fugacious.net DATE: 06/16/2004 10:45:04 AM I once gave away a free holiday to Mauritius to a friend of mine - I didn't get to shag her. The universe owes me bigtime. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steven Price EMAIL: s_j_price@btopenworld.com IP: 194.72.37.252 URL: DATE: 06/16/2004 12:34:31 PM I would relish the opportunity to compare and contrast the Gmail service against my now upgraded 2GB BT/Yahoo account. I am interested to know whether Gmail's use of Google's search technology to organise and find messages is more worthwhile than using filters and folders etc. In anticipation, PS - I do solemnly swear to invite any additional persons to the gmail service that I come into contact with on the internet [dib dib dib etc.] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Irish EMAIL: onepauls@yahoo.com IP: 24.107.228.216 URL: DATE: 06/16/2004 02:57:33 PM I attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute and absolutely no one at this school has a gmail account yet. This is major problem for this tech school because these nerds rely on their d&d/sci-fi/LARP mailing lists for social interaction. Without adaquate storage to keep all the mass emails they get, these poor recluses will be forced to delete their email regularly, and as a result, be restricted from going out in the world and meeting real people!
    We can't let this happen! We need to give GMail to the nerds! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Branille EMAIL: branille1@aol.com IP: 132.170.187.173 URL: http://branille.net DATE: 06/16/2004 09:36:48 PM lol it seems like every blogger on the face of the earth is giving these babies away :) me included... it's almost like a meme ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: paula le dieu EMAIL: paula@ledieu.org IP: 82.35.72.33 URL: DATE: 06/16/2004 10:18:55 PM ummm...please? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jake EMAIL: vagari@rainweb.net IP: 68.9.58.39 URL: http://recently.rainweb.net DATE: 06/17/2004 01:28:34 AM I'd like a gmail account because I lost my Yahoo! one yesterday. I had a rocketmail email address form 1996, Yahoo! bought them. I upgraded and was using a yearly paid account for a while. Naturally once getting my own domain I wasn't as active with my Yahoo! account. About 4-5 months ago my email client started throwing errors when trying to log in. Whenever I tried to log in on the site it would time out or throw errors. So I started sending them help requests. Never heard anything. Yesterday mine was one of the "50" million to be destroyed. And since it's not an actual Yahoo! address, they can't do anything for me. I got reimbursed for the rest of the year and now am out a piece of nostalgia. I'm going for the pity angle. ;) Have a good night. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ursa EMAIL: uz_13@email.si IP: 193.77.58.123 URL: DATE: 06/17/2004 08:05:15 PM Hello! My name is Ursa Zalar and I`m from Slovenia! I`m trying to get Gmail account for long time now, but in Slovenia we dont have much chances to get it! So, I must search for nice people (like you are) and ask for invitation. Please, if someone has the invitation and is so kind to give it to me, I would be very happy and grateful! Thank you very much! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: krusty EMAIL: 18@mailbox.co.za IP: 196.37.229.15 URL: http://www.ainslie.co.za DATE: 06/18/2004 05:52:15 PM Well, I got my Gmail account today! Yaaaay! And, it was easier than I thought. I sent an email to the address I really wanted, to see if it'd bounce and instead, I got a reply from the current owner of the address which included an invitation!!!!!
    Excellent. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lukas EMAIL: lukasb@gmail.com IP: 12.42.168.132 URL: DATE: 06/19/2004 01:14:21 AM I've got a few. Email me. Creative offers / justifications welcome but not necessary. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 159.134.62.106 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 06/19/2004 01:38:23 PM I deserve a Gmail address because I'm great. In fact, I deserve several, so that I have spare ones for spam. If chosen, I will use my invitations for Me, that's right, I want them all for myself so I can keep my real address spam-free. Mwahahahah... In fact, I might send inter-Gmail emails with all sorts of crazy keywords to see how bizarre the advertisements get. Then I will make public my findings and a laugh will be had by all. Especially me, 'cause I'll have a Gmail account... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.227.42.153 URL: DATE: 06/21/2004 01:33:38 PM You should give it to George W Bush: Because he get's more hate mail than Santa. -- Chinese "media blog" yuest.com goes wild and beats the shit out of zeldman and kottke. There's traffic potential in China: http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=640&h=360&r=3m&u=yuest.com&u=zeldman.com&u=kottke.org ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sundasc EMAIL: sundascute@yahoo.com IP: 195.219.153.4 URL: DATE: 06/22/2004 08:07:40 AM Hello and hi i m a Final year student of Computer science at Beaconhouse Informatics , i needed a GMail account urgently plz invite me at GMail if u can inquire any thing more abt me then i will provide it to u as of urs request i m waiting for the invitation from u i will pray to God for you as well. With best Regards ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete EMAIL: petesDELETETHISPARTmail@gmail.com IP: 81.131.198.40 URL: DATE: 06/23/2004 12:28:09 PM I've got Gmail now! Woo! Thank you to Lukas! I dunno when invitations start arriving in my inbox, but when they do if anyone wants one then email moi! pete ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Atif Nazir EMAIL: atif@astrae.us IP: 203.128.1.7 URL: DATE: 06/25/2004 11:55:06 PM needddd an invitteee :'( please, please, please help?? atif@astrae.us ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Karan EMAIL: karan_narang80@yahoo.com IP: 160.254.20.253 URL: DATE: 06/29/2004 06:47:21 PM Hey I have been trying really hard to get a G-mail account for a while. The reason I want this so badly is because I am in the process of looking for a job. I have completed my MBA and have been constantly applying for jobs (with no luck so far). Anyways, whenever I apply through any of the job websites like monster, I get a confirmation mail to my hotmail account. Unfortunately for me my hotmail account gets full so quickly that I have no way of keeping track of all my applications. With G-mail I would be able to have all my mails in one Inbox and used the wonderful search feature to find an application I sent to a particular company. Also, I assure you that I will send out as many invitations as I can once I get an account. Also hopefully a new G-mail account will help me get a job too. Thank You Karan narang_karan@lycos.com or karan_anrang80@yahoo.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: papricica EMAIL: papricica@yahoo.com IP: 213.201.153.68 URL: http://papricica@yahoo.com DATE: 08/19/2004 10:42:47 AM now here is a deal. You invite me and I invite three other people from this post :) what do you say? papricica@yahoo.com ----- PING: TITLE: I have GMail Invites... in exchange for a good laugh! URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/archives/000344.html IP: 209.68.2.78 BLOG NAME: Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen DATE: 07/01/2004 08:06:14 PM About 2 or so weeks ago, I was reading Tom Coates' Plasticbag and made a silly comment (due to lateness of the hour and the glass of Sangre de Toro I was drinking). Tom sent me an invite to Gmail... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So very near... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/20/2004 11:31:32 PM ----- BODY:

    Guess what! Light at the end of the tunnel! Give me a few more days... Just a few more days... Then I can do stuff again! Like write things on my weblog, look after my community, take days off, have a haircut, clean up my flat, organise a holiday! Just had my first weekend in about two months where I don't feel under pressure or stressed, and it's practically over and I don't feel anywhere near calm or relaxed, but I feel a hell of a lot better than I did this time last week and I'm thinking that maybe it's the beginning of a less frantic period. I'm looking forward to being part of the world again.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two questions about stress and work... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 06/25/2004 10:39:34 PM ----- BODY:

    Weird day. Really good bits. Really tiring bits. Feel slightly washed out and exhausted. Can't tell if I'm a big drama queen or not. Met the new Director General of the BBC today. Launched a site and stuff. More on the important bits tomorrow. Question of the moment: Should you be stressed in stressful situations or should you be calm through them? Personal theory - stress gives you power and if corralled and put into your service is fairly useful. Not sure I'm correct. If I'm wrong, I'm going to have to restructure my belief system a lot. Other question: What do people do when they're not working?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Andrews EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 213.107.1.18 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 06/25/2004 11:04:22 PM The site looks nice. I think a degree of stress can fuel creativity and ingenuity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: matt@walkytalky.net IP: 62.49.27.114 URL: http://walkytalky.net/ DATE: 06/25/2004 11:31:17 PM Yes, you're a big drama queen. (Sorry, sorry, sorry, I just couldn't resist.) Stress can be useful, but more often isn't, because we tend to focus on the stress rather than using it to fuel productivity. Although possibly that's just me... When not working: sleep, recreate, panic about the fact of not working. Not necessarily in that order. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vaughan EMAIL: vaughan@whereveryouare.org.uk IP: 195.92.67.77 URL: http://www.whereveryouare.org.uk DATE: 06/25/2004 11:58:21 PM Please tell me he wasn't still wearing that dreadful pink shirt and brown jacket combination . . . please. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: danny EMAIL: danny@spesh.com IP: 66.166.237.237 URL: http://www.oblomovka.com/ DATE: 06/26/2004 02:24:11 AM One of the big universal pieces of advice from the l*feh*cks survey (which I never have enough time to stick in the talk) was that almost everyone said the best trick they'd learnt as they grew older was to "calm down". It may be an age thing, but they definitely felt it improved their productivity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: fr1dgemagnet@hotmail.com IP: 151.197.200.170 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 06/26/2004 02:26:15 AM Stress is great for short periods of time, but after a while it builds up and literally poisons you. I think it's best to save it for special occasions. While not working I sit in a chair and stare at the wall... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.77 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/26/2004 11:56:10 AM He's taller than Greg Dyke was and wasn't wearing the same outfit he was in the thing on the ring-main. He also doesn't stutter as much in real life. He must have been really nervous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Massimo EMAIL: m.fiorentino@interiority.com IP: 80.197.168.146 URL: http://www.interiority.com/ DATE: 06/26/2004 01:50:05 PM Like fridgemagnet said: Useful in short burst but prolonged stress is 100% pure poison. It breaks down your immune system and all while you don't notice the symptoms building up. Take some general advice from an experienced stress-user (with friends & coworkers to follow): Remember to say "no" from time to time. Prioritise & say "no". You can be just as an important person without saying "yes" all the time, because people can get used to your patterns of handling things pretty quickly: If you are an open door, people poor it through the step, unconsciously. But if you're half-open, they can get used to that too and still feel you are part of the game. Add-on-advice: Turn off your cell phone when you get home. What I do when not working? As little as possible, except if it's during longer periods of time, then I start being active within own projects. Boredom can be a true bliss... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Suw EMAIL: suw.charman@gmail.com IP: 217.42.248.147 URL: http:// DATE: 06/26/2004 03:06:41 PM A little adrenaline can be useful but stress is generally not healthy or helpful. Tires you out too much and makes you less effective. And what is this thing 'not working' of which you speak? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Simon Thornton EMAIL: simon@mutualmisunderstanding.com IP: 217.42.56.60 URL: http://www.mutualmisunderstanding.com DATE: 06/26/2004 03:53:04 PM There's a "not working"??? Damn, no-one ever mentioned that to me before. Stress, unfortunately, actually helps sometimes, at least in the decision-making process (when making music anyway). You probably have to be better at it (the work) than me to be able to deal with it properly though..... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jamie EMAIL: jamie@goatforce5.org IP: 80.168.33.2 URL: http://www.newsfilter.co.uk/ DATE: 06/28/2004 01:18:25 PM I had a chain of Bad Things happen to me in a short span of time a few years ago. Ended up seeing an NHS psychotherapist. Told her my story and basically ended with "...so I think i'm depressed. That's bad, right?" She replied that given what I had been through, she'd be worried if I wasn't depressed - that is: it would have been wrong for me not to be depressed. Fear, stress, depression and all those other "bad" things are appropriate given the right circumstances. You just have to make sure those reactions don't come up at the wrong time. Keep it in perspective... Probably helps that my current boss is agreeable to me saying at 3pm "I'm going home. I need to go have a swim and steam." That's my current cure-all for when relaxation is required. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: su EMAIL: styler@gmail.com IP: 203.79.96.35 URL: http://stonesoup.co.nz/superverygood DATE: 06/30/2004 12:51:24 AM stress is like a bell curve without any stress we couldn't hold our bodies up and at a certain point a person will reach an optimum stress level, which allows them to function at their best. howeve the promeble is there is such a thing as too much stress at this point a person actually become less effective. like everything it's all about the balance ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The new Radio 3 site launches! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 06/26/2004 07:51:56 PM ----- BODY:

    Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to direct your attention towards the new Radio 3 website, which I (along with a great number of other people from every discipline and from all across the BBC) have been working on for the last few months. The teams that created the site have been among the best I've ever worked with and if started naming names I'd be here all week.

    But what's so special about it, I hear you ask? Quite apart from the sterling design work from Paul Finn, we've been working with Radio 3's team to make the site one of the most genuinely web-native sites I've ever seen - designed to effectively reflect the station's programming online in a way that'll be better for the site's current users, for search engines and for anyone who would want to link to the site - including (but certainly not limited to) webloggers. Specifically the new site includes:

    I could go on - I'm terribly proud of the work that everyone has done on the site and it's only going to get better over the next few weeks. But good work be damned! The most important thing is that I think it's going to serve the site's users better - both existing, and (perhaps) people who've never listened to Radio 3 before and can now be exposed to its wealth of programming over the web more effectively than ever before.

    PS. Hello to Leigh, Justin, Andrew, Gregory from Radio 3, Paul and Sarah from the Technology and Design team and everyone else who worked on the project: Zillah, Rija, Tim, Mike, Matt B, Paul C, Manjit, Ian, Jason, Tony, Clare, Dan, Webb, Chris K, Simon N and anyone else I might have forgotten about. And a special personal wave to Margaret Hanley and Gavin Bell for being the best creative partners and co-conspirators a boy could wish for. You all rock!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Matthewman EMAIL: scott@matthewman.net IP: 213.218.252.174 URL: http://www.matthewman.net/ DATE: 06/26/2004 10:13:38 PM Good work all round. Along with the recent BBC homepage redesign, there's an obvious move to simplifying navigation across the bbc.co.uk megalith recently that's most welcome. One of the problems with the BBC website is that it has such depth and complexity that navigating it has been more complex as a result -- which has proven counter-productive, I've always felt. Some of the factors you mention about the R3 site, such as the ability to find out what you were listening to a few days previously, other radio stations needn't replicate -- with so many being playlisted to repeat the same tracks over and over. Three does have this unique situation, requiring a unique solution -- and it's done so well that you don't even notice that it's doing what it's doin. That's truly the sign of a great design. Well done again to everybody involved. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom (BBC Radio monkey) EMAIL: tom@radio.monkey IP: 62.253.32.5 URL: DATE: 06/26/2004 10:38:57 PM Sorry, it's not good enough. To accurately reflect Radio 3's programming, you need long gaps in between every paragraph. Few thousand pixels should do it. And then, it shall be perfect. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz Tracey EMAIL: liz@liztracey.com IP: 65.43.186.64 URL: DATE: 06/27/2004 01:26:31 AM Congratulations, and mazel tov! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick Sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 68.115.168.204 URL: DATE: 06/27/2004 02:38:38 AM It looks great: although there was a moment's panic when I couldn't find any playlists! Perhaps it's a little restrictive right now to have just a few days previous listed in the right-hand menu (I'm just familiar with having the whole caboodle of Late Junction playlists on one page) but the new layout seems more intuitive... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 06/27/2004 06:47:02 AM 3 is a magic number! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.allinthehead.com/ DATE: 06/27/2004 07:35:54 PM Could you explain a little further about the decision making process behind those permanent URLs? I see URLs like /radio3/showname/pip/randomcode which, as I understand it, would require a user to locate a particular show through the site's navigational system. It looks like there's no way of guessing a URL. Is that right? What's 'pip'? That makes no sense to me. My preference for date-based material is a path with the date in it - like /radio3/showname/2004/06/27/. Is there a reason why a URL format similar to this wasn't chosen? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: blogger@samsara.plus.com IP: 128.40.70.142 URL: http://driftwords.blogspot.com DATE: 06/28/2004 04:00:00 PM URL design: It's obvious. This emulation of tinyURL had to have a short phoneme in its handle, and The Pips are the shortest things on radio. Protecting the IP and brand through cloaks of randomness may or may not be a good thing, depending on which stakeholder you wish to be. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ian Fenn EMAIL: ian@chopstixmedia.com IP: 84.64.51.1 URL: http://www.chopstixmedia.com/ DATE: 06/28/2004 09:12:08 PM Drew, That random number will probably be the unique id assigned to the specific programme when it was recorded. An excellent job. Well done, Tom and colleagues! All the best, -- Ian ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Francois Jordaan EMAIL: francois.jordaan@wheel.co.uk IP: 194.203.177.125 URL: http://www.wheel.co.uk DATE: 07/01/2004 03:37:42 PM I'm a big fan of Radio 3, and of your site in general, but by coincidence (unaware of the changes) I was using the Radio 3 site a few days ago and found it rather frustrating. I rarely listen to things when they are broadcast, and rely extensively on Listen Again. Radio 4 in this respect is excellent. (Although I have mused in the past about their inconsistent URL schemes.) Anyway, one Radio 3 show that I like is Late Junction. So what I want to do is turn on the computer, browse for a Late Junction show with interesting content, and stream it. So I go to Listen Again http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/listen/index.shtml The page isn't very useful. I scroll far down to find Late Junction, and I care not a jot about the day of the week they were broadcast, I want to browse their content. I click on a random show, say Monday, which pops up the BBC Radio Player. Then to get info on that show, do I click 'Latest playlist', or 'More info about this show'? Doesn't really matter, they both do the same. Which is not what I want. So they put me on this page http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/latejunction/ Firstly, why couldn't I get here from the Listen Again page? Secondly, what do I do now to get Monday's playlist? The links (Monday, Tuesday, etc. -- no dates) just launch the player again. Weirdly, you access the playlists using the dated links at top right, but of course I have to consult a calendar to check that Monday is 28 June. (The links in the centre of the page should be "Monday 28 June - Listen | Playlist") Now I finally get to the page I want: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/latejunction/pip/ozndi/ Bizzarely, this page does not have a link to listen to the show! I can only listen to it if I consult a calendar to see 28 June is Monday, then go back to the Late Junction page, and click on Monday. I guess this also means that you can't listen to shows older than a week. Is this so? (I have to make this deduction; it's nowhere explicit.) If so, that's very sad! (And much worse than Radio 4.) A final strange thing is the method of navigating dates at the top right of the page. It always shows 7 dates, with the currently selected one in the middle. That means that you only ever have a pin-hole view of the year's shows, and going more than a month back in time, requires numerous clicks to move this pin-hole view. Why on earth isn't there a better way of navigating the dates? Tom, I enjoyed reading your post about the Radio 3 URL structure, and like much of your work, but I can't see the logic in any of the above. My apologies if it deals with stuff outside of your remit. ----- PING: TITLE: new radio 3 website URL: http://takeoneonion.org/archives/000572.html IP: 194.153.168.159 BLOG NAME: take one onion DATE: 06/26/2004 11:12:24 PM The new Radio 3 site launched yesterday and it represents the culmination of about 6 months work, which has been some of the more exciting and challenging I've had the opportunity to take part in. The main benefits from the work are ----- PING: TITLE: Yet another reason to bow at the feet of the BBC URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/weblog/2004/06/27/yet_another_reason_to_bow_at_the_feet_of_the_bbc.html IP: 69.20.61.178 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent DATE: 06/27/2004 11:27:38 AM So, having spent this morning looking for, and not finding, a torrent of a zero-day screener rip of Fahrenheit 9/11 (and if that sentence isn't a sign of Life In The Future, I don't know what is), I'd almost given... ----- PING: TITLE: Radio 3 Website URL: http://christopher-hill.com/archive/2004/06/28/2489.aspx IP: 82.68.138.54 BLOG NAME: christopher-hill.com DATE: 06/28/2004 08:56:16 PM ----- PING: TITLE: New Radio 3 Site and A More Open BBC - All In One URL: http://www.currybet.net/archives/000438.shtml IP: 213.171.193.84 BLOG NAME: currybetdotnet - search : web : media : politics DATE: 07/01/2004 11:16:44 AM At the end of last week a new Radio 3 website emerged blinking onto the interweb. It has been a while in the pipeline, ----- PING: TITLE: Radio ripples: the life cycle of a broadcast URL: http://www.matthewman.net/archives/2004/07/29/radio_ripples_the_life_cycle_of_a_broadcast.php IP: 212.227.109.134 BLOG NAME: Scott's place DATE: 07/29/2004 08:59:58 PM Dan Hill has written an informative piece about some of the architecture decisions behind the new BBC Radio 3 website, which enables deep linking to pages that specifically relate not just to a particular series of show or presenter, but down to the in... ----- PING: TITLE: New Radio 3 Site and A More Open BBC - All In One URL: http://www.currybet.net/archives/000438.shtml IP: 213.171.193.84 BLOG NAME: currybetdotnet - search : web : media : politics DATE: 09/14/2004 12:45:40 AM At the end of last week a new Radio 3 website emerged blinking onto the interweb. It has been a while in the pipeline, ----- PING: TITLE: New Radio 3 Site and A More Open BBC - All In One URL: http://www.currybet.net/archives/000438.shtml IP: 213.171.193.84 BLOG NAME: currybetdotnet - search : web : media : politics DATE: 09/14/2004 12:57:06 AM At the end of last week a new Radio 3 website emerged blinking onto the interweb. It has been a while in the pipeline, ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Developing a URL structure for broadcast radio sites... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Net Culture CATEGORY: Radio & Music DATE: 06/27/2004 08:37:22 PM ----- BODY:

    One of the most common questions I've had about the Radio 3 redesign work that we've been doing has been about the URL structures that we have used to identify individual episodes of individual programmes. I'm really keen to address these questions with a full and maniacally over-detailed post because I think the issue of how we map broadcast programming to web URLs is a really interesting one, and because I think we've done some good work here that other people might find useful or interesting. Drew McLellan writes:

    I see URLs like /radio3/showname/pip/randomcode which, as I understand it, would require a user to locate a particular show through the site's navigational system. It looks like there's no way of guessing a URL. Is that right? What's 'pip'? That makes no sense to me. My preference for date-based material is a path with the date in it - like /radio3/showname/2004/06/27/ Is there a reason why a URL format similar to this wasn't chosen?

    So the first thing to explain is that Radio 3's new site is particularly interesting and ground-breaking because it doesn't just have a page for every broadcast, it has a page for every episode. This is way cooler than having a page for every broadcast, but the full implications of it aren't immediately easy to digest. Basically it means that there would only be one page for any documentary no matter how many times that documentary is repeated. That one specific page then becomes the definitive home for that episode of that documentary on the BBC and all subsequent information or supplementary material that is relevant to that episode can be stuck onto that page at any point in time. Imagine it as being a bit like having an entry in IMDB for that particular radio episode. It's like creating the basis for an ever growing encyclopaedia of Radio 3 programming, and it should make it really easy to search for information about a programme without getting overwhelmed by dozens of versions of the same page, each containing little odds and sods of information, none of which are aware that they're all talking about the same thing.

    Having said all that, lots of programmes don't ever get repeated on Radio 3. Let us take as an example, "Morning on 3". This is basically the equivalent of the DJ-led shows that we're all familiar with and which are common to radio networks the world over. These things are just broadcast live. That's the whole point! It wouldn't make any sense for it to be repeated. Some of the music on it will clearly be repeated - just like any popular music radio show, but the programme itself will not. For programmes like "Morning on 3" Drew's URL structure (which is familiar to all of us who run weblogs) would work perfectly. You can imagine very easily getting to today's episode of Morning on 3 via the URL bbc.co.uk/radio3/morningon3/2004/06/27/. That would be the perfect weblog-like kind of programme, where every individual entry/episode could only be connected to one moment in time.

    But if wouldn't work if they programme ever got repeated. By definition a programme that gets repeated has been broadcast on multiple occasions in time. Imagine a programme that was originally broadcast on June 27th 1985 and which is then repeated the following evening and then again nineteen years later (tonight). What would be the date-based URL for a programme like that? Well one approach would be to go for the date on which it was first broadcast. But what's the experience of that for a user? They've gone to a schedule page for today (say) and they've clicked on the link to a programme that's on this evening and found themselves with a URL from 1985. A plausible reaction would be to think that you'd got lost somewhere along the line and were on the wrong page. How did I end up here?. This situation gets worse when you consider that since we started capturing programmes on the 4th of June, any programme that was originally broadcast before that date would be assigned a URL based on a fairly meaningless broadcast date...

    So, a date-based URL structure would work fine for programmes that never get repeated, but wouldn't work very well for any programme that did get repeated. Immediately, we've got a problem then, because even though 99.9% of the time we know that "Morning on 3" won't get repeated, we can't exactly guarantee it. Just recently on the BBC we've had an unedited re-broadcasting of the live coverage of the 1979 General Election and the daily re-broadcasting in real-time of the Home Service's commentary on the D-Day landings. So even those topical programmes we've talked about could quite easily be repeated.

    But let's pretend for a moment that isn't too much of a problem. Let's also pretend that we can easily distinguish between those programmes that almost certainly won't get repeated on the one hand (and say they might work with a date-based URL structure) and those that very easily could or will get repeated on the other (say anything that's pre-recorded before it goes out on air). What kind of URL structure should we use for the latter?

    One obvious and simple answer is that we should use episode numbers. The Radio 3 show Composer of the Week is broadcast each weekday around lunchtime and then is repeated the following week at midnight. This means that there are two episodes broadcast on each day (another place where date-based URLs might get confusing or seem broken). If we used episode numbers, however, that wouldn't be so much of a problem. So you can imagine the URL being something more like bbc.co.uk/radio3/cotw/episode/2345. This would allow you to predict sequence and order and would make the URL structure nice and hackable by users. Except then you have to think about what you should base that episode number on. Should you base it on the definitive numbers for that episode - ie. the ones that the makers of Composer of the Week use? How should you source that number? Do you trust that numbering scheme to be consistent and reliable? On the other hand should you start with an arbitrary number? And what happens if your system for determining repeats isn't fool-proof and you accidentally assign the wrong number to an episode at some point? The worst eventuality would be that you end up with episode numbering schemes that start to wander out of sync with one another because someone pulls and episode or a schedule changes. And then you get gaps in your URL structure, or programmes out of order. Imagine a circumstance where after six months of perfect running you accidentally pick something up as being a repeat when it isn't... Suddenly that episode has to be reinserted into the scheme somewhere by hand, or you have to change the URLs for any episodes that have been made into pages before you realised. The URLs break or what they point to change, and that whole part of the site stops being human hackable or readable and starts becoming institutionally and forever broken.

    Or you could do it by subject for some of the URLs. Again - Composer of the Week is broken into five part weekly chunks. You could have a URL structure for programmes like this which highlighted those divisions: bbc.co.uk/radio3/mozart/part/4 or bbc.co.uk/radio3/mozart/4. Here the problems are potential URL length and namespace issues. And while they might remain human-readable, they're not machine predictable in any way. So even this kind of URL structure has its problems.

    I want to make something clear at this point - each one of these URL schemes could have worked very nicely for that particular kind of programming. But in the end that's not enough. Because fundamentally as soon as you've decided to use different URL structures for different kinds of programming you're immediately in trouble - because radio programming isn't a static thing, it changes and evolves - an individual programme brand (say Choral Evensong) might change format, change frequency or be cancelled. Another programme might be created with the same name ten years later. And each week there will be a number of specials and one-offs and schedule fillers (this week on Radio 3 there were around seven one-offs, including tonights zeroPoints) as well as regular short-series or new brands. Suddenly there's a time-consuming and fairly-skilled job that has to be undertaken every day - which URL structure should this new programme use... And you're never going to be one hundred percent correct. And so pages are going to be moved and URLs break and all hell will break loose...

    Which brings us to the URL structure that we went with in the end and the rationale for it. Our first principle was that in order to stop URLs breaking and to stop the possibilities of human error in assigning URL structures to brands incorrectly (and to deal with the possibility of random repeats et al) the URLs should all follow exactly the same structure. Fundamentally, this meant that date-based URLs had to go out of the window straight away because they weren't suitable for every episode of every brand. The only URL structure that we could identify that didn't actually break in any circumstances is one that's based on an episode number or identifier of some kind. After careful consideration we decided that we didn't want to give the impression of human readability or order or structure where that structure was inevitably likely to be broken or flawed or mismatched with other identifiers. And we decided that whatever additions to the URL that we made had to be short - it had to be able to be appended onto the end of a brand name without sprawling out of control. More importantly still, we decided that it shouldn't break any naming conventions already used around the site or make the site harder to maintain.

    Which is where 'pip' comes in. We'd already decided that we didn't want to have the episodes sitting in the top directory of the brand. We're in this for the long-term, and we wanted to make sure that we could guarantee that whatever future changes were made to the content management of the site, however many new things or features were added to it, we'd never have collisions between these features and the episode pages. We decided to place all episode pages into a subdirectory, and after much discussion of what that should be called (episodes - too long, not always an obvious term for a news programme / eps - too likely to already be used and too close to the name of a file format for us to be sure that it wouldn't overwrite anything at any time in the future etc) we eventually decided to stake our claim on the directory name /pip/ meaning (if you really want to know) nothing more than 'programme information page'. [PS. In a few weeks time, this directory should contain a list of all the episodes for each brand, meaning that you can hack back the directories and keep going up a level in the site heirarchy from individual episode to all episodes to brand to network to broadcaster.]

    With the final part of the URL - the episode number itself - having taken into account all the problems that we might have with sourcing and guaranteeing the integrity of the 'definitive' numbers for any given series of programmes, and having considered the problems associated with any and all possible bugs that might emerge (what if two random programmes started to be considered as repeats of each other and had to be broken apart - what URLs to give them? What if the programmes were broadcast out of sequence oor we started running the site halfway through the broadcasting of a run and had to move around the episode numbers later etc) we came to the conclusion that the actual episode number should be a non-human readable short code. After much deliberation we came to the conclusion that a five-character alphanumeric hash would be short enough to not break URLs in e-mail and long enough to give us up to 60 million different identifiers. And of course we've kept it as a directory level URL to future proof the URLs against changes in the technology that we've used to build the site. (You'll notice some index.shtml's around the place, but we're going to clear that up).

    The alphanumeric short code that we've got now also opens up a whole range of new possibilities. Because these identifiers are unique across all of Radio 3, we suddenly have a way to point to (and potentially manipulate) every episode that's broadcast on the network. We're still looking into the various affordances that this identifier might provide us with and we'll let you know what we come up with.

    So - in summary - we have a URL structure that is eminently suitable for dealing with the breadth and wealth of programming that could come out of a radio network - a URL that will shortly be totally hackable to the extent that each and every level of the directory structure will contain content appropriate to its place in the site's structural heirarchy ( broadcaster / network / programme brand / episode list / individual episode), and which is human readable as far down its length as is practical. Drew's quite right - in order to guess the URL for an entry you do need to use the site's inbuilt navigational systems. However, it's almost impossible to be able to build URLs for radio programming that are completely human guessable and as reliable and stable as we're determined to make them.

    We're thinking five to twenty-five years in advance here, making sure that the URLs of pages about radio programmes on Radio 3 could conceivably last as long as the web does. We're in this for the long-haul...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com IP: 213.208.100.81 URL: http://www.allinthehead.com/ DATE: 06/27/2004 11:58:56 PM Thanks for such a detailed response, Tom. Not being an avid fan of such radio programming styles, I wasn't even aware that programmes got repeated! (how cheap!) ;-) I can see how going for a friendly URL just wasn't possible and how a practical URL had to do. For me, however, it raises a different question. Should a page have only one URL? I guess that's a discussion for another day. Thanks for going into so much depth. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.77 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/28/2004 08:37:28 AM Quick note on another issue - comparing and contrasting our URL scheme with some other ones from large scale sites: Out of these, only BBC News makes any attempt to make the URL's human readable and although it can be hacked back to the front page and to the UK section, it's clearly having to convey a lot of other material as well, presumably whether the site is the UK or International edition and whether it's high or low-bandwidth. But each of them recognises the importance of exposing an identifier for the film / programme / book itself. I think we've managed to strike a really nice balance between pure human readability and this kind of global identification system. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mikel EMAIL: mikel_maron@yahoo.com IP: 217.44.170.235 URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0100875/ DATE: 06/28/2004 09:04:14 AM Just curious why you didn't consider having multiple addresses for programs .. one set using the unique identifiers; another set date based with redirects. I can understand not wanting multiple identifiers; yet a date based url scheme could be considered as a sort of API. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew wong EMAIL: andrew.wong@bbc.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.120 URL: http://www.badlydubbedboy.co.uk DATE: 06/28/2004 10:55:32 AM Great post with deep indepth thought. Although I don't think the URL structure you've come up with is particularly human-readable! ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Frankie Roberto EMAIL: frankie@frankieroberto.com IP: 62.252.0.5 URL: http://www.frankieroberto.com/weblog/ DATE: 06/28/2004 11:05:04 AM It's nice to see some detailed thought gone into designing URL schemes. I have one question - what happens if a 'programme brand' changes? Say, for example, that the Lunchtime Concerts brand becomes 'Afternoon Concerts'. Of course, you could consider that this new name would be a new brand and ignore any connection, but this would be losing the history of the brand. You could keep the old URLs for the old episodes and try to explain away the confusion, but people 'hacking back' to the level of the old name wouldn't get links to new episodes of the renamed brand. Perhaps the benefits of having the programme brand in the URL (readability, hacking-back, etc) outweight the (perhaps small) likelyhood of this happening though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmail.fm IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://saltation.blogspot.com DATE: 06/28/2004 03:10:02 PM Tom: sound Key definition and good explanation of your reasoning. But Key definition needn't drive the user-interface (corollary: CSS): why not have an additional alternate URL tree which maps/implements the Many:One relationship of showname+broadcastdatetime : uniqueepisode. The machine has access to the unique episode, the humans have guessable access to the episode they heard. Best of both worlds. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rich EMAIL: rich@holygoat.co.uk IP: 81.86.131.133 URL: http://www.holygoat.co.uk DATE: 06/28/2004 06:41:07 PM That was very interesting, thank you. I see only one problem: what if Radio 2 repeats one of Radio 3's programs? I'm thinking of the situation where a documentary on 6 is replayed on another, more accessible channel. It seems to me that the BBC as a whole should have identifiers... or at least have some way of linking to shows originating elsewhere. Still, I think you've come up with an excellent solution. I was thinking right up until you explained it that 'pip' was something to do with "bip, bip, bip, beeep" :D ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.77 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 06/28/2004 09:31:58 PM Answering a few comments - to Andrew first - the point of the URL structure is that it's human readable up until the last moment where it can be. Admittedly /pip/ doesn't mean much, but once you know what's kept in that directory you can hack the URL from the top level down to the penultimate one. There's nothing human unreadable about www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/morningon3/ for example and the /pip/ will mean the same thing in every circumstance. The only bit that's resolutely not human readable is the final five character code - and as I said we debated for a long time what the potential benefits of exposing that might be... To Mikel and the other people suggesting multiple URLs, I'm afraid I just don't agree. The first problem with having multiple URLs in a circumstance like this one is that it breaks a lot of the things that we were trying to create. We wanted to create a page that would become the definitive URL and source for that programme episode and would show up cleanly and without spamming search engines. Sure, we could set up redirects on date-based URLS, but then the question is how do you expose these redirects to people without them also becoming URLs spidered by Google. I don't want to go to Google and search for zeroPoints and get returned twelve pages for every time the same programme was repeated. And worse still, I don't want to go to Google and search for it, but not find it because twelve different people have all referenced different URLs rather than the one central stable one. No - if we want a site that works well in the ecosystem of the web, then we want it not to clog up search engines with dozens of pseudo-duplicates of itself, obfuscating the whole process for users. Better just to the one default URL that will actually always work. At which point, the other issues start to emerge - is it (for example) a reliable supposition that all radio programmes will actually have a broadcast date - if not now then in the future? Do we think that in twenty years time we'll still be distributing these programmes exclusively through radio waves and at distinct times? I would think that's extremely unlikely. And if we still were, then should we be creating a separate URL for programmes that are repeated on the same day? How would that look? Like www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/cotw/2004/12/03/a and /b? Does that still human readable? And what about those programme brands that have different episodes that are on the same day, the first one of which is a repeat of a programme from the previous week? Composer of the Week is broadcast first at midday and then the following week shortly after midnight. That means on any given day two episodes are broadcast and the 'repeated' one is first. So which one gets the 'a' URL for that day? And to what extent is that human readable? And what about the schedules themselves? Radio and TV schedules are notoriously unreliable. They sometimes change right up until the actual day that they are broadcast. At what point would you actually assign the URL to them? And what would happen if the programme suddenly was postponed to the following week? Would you break the old URL or would you leave it there in public, still working but for a programme that wasn't even broadcast on that date? And what if one episode was replaced with another one from the same day? Which one gets the URL then? No - it's actually totally impractical to use date-based URLs for programming - that is unless you're prepared to wait until several days after the programme has been broadcast and then pay someone to check every broadcast and confirm that the schedule was exactly as expected. And that's even if you ignore the desire to weed out repeats and to not spam the search engines with dozens of multiple URLs. And I can't see any broadcast site thinking that it was okay not to talk at all about upcoming shows... It just wouldn't be useful for them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: marek EMAIL: a261bj@yahoo.co.uk IP: 217.158.118.154 URL: DATE: 06/28/2004 10:02:08 PM This is fascintating - and the site itself is a vast improvement on its predecessor, so congratualations on both the design and the structured thinking which lies behind it. In the circumstances, it seems horribly churlish to suggest that the scheme is already a little bent, if not yet broken. On today's [28/6] playlist on the R3 homepage, there is a programme of music by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at 2115. Clicking on the link takes me to the PIP, which tells me that the programme is 35 minutes long. Terrific: it's 2135 so I can catch the last 15 minutes, a simple matter of clicking on the 'listen live' link - but that says that Night Waves is on, starting at 2130. The only explanation which makes any sense is that only one of the two works in the concert described on the PIP was played. But since the PIP isn't broadcast specific, there seems to be no way of knowing that, still less of knowing which of the two works was actually played. In short, the PIP seems to be based on the assumption that the integrity of the original programme survives the process of repeats, but in this case (and not uncommonly) that is not the case. Is there a need a further coding of the instance of the programme, which is separate from the underlying event, in this case the recording of a concert? It's still a great site though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brian Tremblay EMAIL: usenet3@julietremblay.com IP: 66.153.101.17 URL: http://www.tsmchughs.com/ DATE: 06/29/2004 02:51:08 AM I have faced similar dilemmas. I wonder if this solution makes sense: make a canonical url for the programme, as you've done; in addition, create a separate date url that points to a separate page whose only significant content is the title of the programme and a link to the canonical programme page. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian EMAIL: anon@anon.com IP: 210.50.45.156 URL: DATE: 06/29/2004 04:50:22 AM >> Sure, we could set up redirects on date-based URLS, but then the question is how do you expose these redirects to people without them also becoming URLs spidered by Google. Use robots.txt to tell Google which directories are forbidden from indexing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martijn EMAIL: martijn.van.es@gmail.com IP: 82.161.40.137 URL: http://posterestante.org DATE: 07/01/2004 10:20:43 PM I've worked for the internet departement of TROS, a Dutch public broadcaster, and they use the abbreviation PIP (Programma Informatie Pagina, in Dutch) since 2002: http://www.tros.nl/PHP/pip/218/ Always nice to see some standardization...;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Love EMAIL: g@newmediajournalism.com IP: 199.181.134.220 URL: http://www.newmediajournalism.com DATE: 07/10/2004 12:57:44 AM Tom, I agree that you've set up a strong foundation for radio3 by using unique identifiers for each episode and making them guessable up to a point. However, I wouldn't want you to lock yourself into one structure. I like to imagine URLs on dynamically built sites as being one of the simplest programming languages, instead of being simple reference id's. Your current url structure has two variables, unique id and showname. Using the showname pulls up a page linking to multiple episodes for that show. Using the showname and unique id produces a single episode. However, limiting yourself to two variables seems overly restrictive when you have access to much more metadata. The date being one of the more popular variables, but I imagine you track more than just that. Using your example, I would love to be able to dynamically pull all of the segments devoted to Mozart by referencing /radio3/mozart. As far as Google goes, it should be simple enough to give your "program" urls a "noindex, follow" meta tag asking Google to ignore the current url, but continue poking around for a good one. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.77 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/10/2004 10:12:41 AM Well that's trickier than I can really go into - but in a nutshell you have to understand that the BBC doesn't really do a lot of dynamic publishing and without dynamic publishing, the idea of a command line URL interface doesn't really make a lot of sense since. You'd have to prepopulate and publish all the possible combinations! I know it sounds like madness but I can assure you that there are clear and strong reasons for this way of operating that aren't likely to change over the next few years. Also - of course - the idea of there being something ELSE sitting at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/mozart is actually quite high as well - a programming related site includes not only different ways of slicing through programming, but also a large number of supportive / marketing / publicity-related materials, features and the like. So we couldn't use it as a command line in that kind of way anyway. Potentially we COULD do something like that in areas that are served specifically by the part of the system we are using for programme information - ie. we could bracket off an area in the same way we do elsewhere by creating a pip/ directory - but it's not obvious to me that this URL is human readable or makes a lot of sense as a command line interface. Finally, of course, should the architectures change, we could very easily ADD such mechanisms into the site. Should a directly dynamically published site become practical which allows us to investigate keywords, descriptions, metadata and the like on-the-fly then it's entirely possible that we would be able to find other ways of creating on-the-fly indices (like search results) or guides to BBC programming around these areas by some kind of URL command line - all we've committed to is a solid home for the concept of 'programme episode' which will never change. If this is the kind of thing you're talking about - I should point out that it doesn't sound that different from a search engine and we already have one of them... PS. The robots.txt no-index / no-follow options sound like a good idea in theory, but they don't stop people linking to the pages by different URLs, so they minimise the impact that any individual page can have in a search engine by making the canonical URL less 'findable' and 'linkable'. ----- PING: TITLE: Anally Retentive URLs URL: http://www.alpha-geek.com/2004/06/29/anally_retentive_urls.html IP: 207.36.180.249 BLOG NAME: Dichotomy's Purgatory DATE: 06/29/2004 10:05:06 PM Developing a URL structure for broadcast radio sites... (via Simon Willison Blogmarks). I love it when sites pay extra close attention to make sure their URLs lack cruft and are logistically aligned. It just makes sense. Gone are the days... ----- PING: TITLE: Ripples, or "The Social Life of a Broadcast" URL: http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2004/07/ripples_or_the_.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: cityofsound DATE: 07/28/2004 11:07:08 PM The recent redesign of the BBC Radio 3 site featured a joint project between the BBC's Radio ----- PING: TITLE: Work at the BBC (again) URL: http://www.hackdiary.com/archives/000058.html IP: 80.87.131.124 BLOG NAME: hackdiary DATE: 08/23/2004 07:57:11 PM There's a programmer's job being advertised at BBC Radio and Music Interactive in London, in the team where I work. It involves data munging XML, digital radio and other interesting technologies, and involves programming in Python, Perl or Java. You'd ... ----- PING: TITLE: Work at the BBC (again) URL: http://www.hackdiary.com/archives/000058.html IP: 80.87.131.124 BLOG NAME: hackdiary DATE: 09/07/2004 01:04:39 AM There was a programmer's job being advertised at BBC Radio and Music Interactive in London, in the team where I work. It involves data munging XML, digital radio and other interesting technologies, and involves programming in Python, Perl or Java. Appl... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: First impressions of Tiger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 06/28/2004 08:23:29 PM ----- BODY:

    A few first impressions of Apple's upcoming Operating System: Tiger:

    All in all the big news for the operating system is the integration of search and metadata technologies into the heart of the Operating System. The Safari RSS and iChat AV stuff is pretty cool too and everything else looks like tweaks, gimmicks or outright rip-offs. I wonder when it's out?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: SM EMAIL: sm@bitsofdecay.com IP: 192.128.133.68 URL: http://www.bitsofdecay.com DATE: 06/28/2004 09:35:35 PM It looks like itís not going to be available until the first half of 2005. Thatís what was said in the Keynote, anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Graeme EMAIL: prefer@not-to.com IP: 198.136.161.35 URL: DATE: 06/28/2004 09:54:05 PM If you like Launchbar, but would prefer not to have to move your hands from the keyboard, you might want to take a look at Quicksilver. It operates on the same principle, but seems to have a wider search net, better iTunes integration and can be operated using keyboard controls alone. It's also free and open source. http://www.blacktree.com/apps/quicksilver/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Androse Rosewood EMAIL: ned@idsland.com IP: 82.67.184.109 URL: DATE: 06/28/2004 10:14:45 PM The interesting advantage that Spotlight has over Launchbar or Quicksilver is it's use of the system wide metadata indexing. It's apparently integrated in HFS+, just like BeFS used to have it. So we have metadata, at last : goodbye files, hello information. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh EMAIL: josh105@gay.com IP: 66.215.67.92 URL: http://66.36.229.134/~jibhtwlc/index.php DATE: 06/28/2004 10:22:43 PM I'm looking forward to this update. I've recently switched to Mac after years and years of Windows HELL! It's been 3 months now and I haven't looked back since! Currently own a 17-inch powerbook and love it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: partiallyblind EMAIL: joshua@partiallyblind.com IP: 194.205.181.246 URL: DATE: 06/29/2004 11:11:03 AM Couldn't agree more about the Konfabulator rip off... it's nice to see Apple robbing their own developer community yet again. is this gonna be the future of Apple's “innovation” from now on? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Matthewman EMAIL: scott@matthewman.net IP: 82.152.35.116 URL: http://www.matthewman.net/ DATE: 06/29/2004 01:51:21 PM The new features in XCode 2.0 look great -- the visual modelling tools in particular. As someone who'd dabbled with WebObjects (and hence Project Builder and Interface Builder) a few years ago, firing up XCode when my new job landed me in an OSX-only environment felt like coming home. This biggest hole was Object Modeller, which allowed me to bridge the gap between my database tables and my object-based code. Hopefully this new aspect of XCode will fill that requirement. I'm even relieved about Automator. Rest assured, Tom, that seasoned professionals get that dribble feeling when faced with a new AppleScript dictionary for an application they've never automated before. I guess its true practicability, though, will depend on how easy it is for application creators to make their own tools Automator-friendly. And the syndicated feed support within Safari can only help encourage sites of all types to start syndicating content. It's already enabled me to say to one sceptic, "Look! It's not about giving other sites access to your copyrighted news, it's about getting your news delivered in a more authoritative way!" without being dismissed as a gibbering loon... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christopher Anderton EMAIL: christopher@deluxive.com IP: 217.215.70.106 URL: http://www.deluxive.com DATE: 06/30/2004 04:26:33 AM Well. Most of the "ripped off" stuff are old Be and Next things in a new form. It's not a surprise that both Next and Be Inc pepole is developing Tiger. The Konfabulator "rip" is pretty obvious in how IT works, and looks with Konfabulator. But the technology is not that different frÂn the "Objects" from the Next days, and is pretty common in every OS. Longhorn has them, KDE, Gnome, WindowMaker, BeOS, QNX, OS/2 etc etc.. But i agree that i was pretty shocked by how Apple did this. At least they could have managed to be a more bit creative and original. LaunchBar is another idea from BeOS.. And like i said, there are pepole from Be working on OS X... The circle is closed. Old technology returns. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Xian EMAIL: xian@mintchaos.com IP: 24.14.40.203 URL: http://xian.mintchaos.com DATE: 07/01/2004 06:31:59 AM Yes, the iSync/.mac tie-in is annoying. But Steve did mention that the Sync engine now has APIs (and IIRC the sync engine is in the OS now and not just iSync) and that all the developers got an SDK for it. We'll have to wait and see what that actually means, but my guess is that we'll be seeing sync tools for everything from WebDAV accounts to FTP. That's what I'm hoping at least. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex EMAIL: alex12@hotmail.com IP: 128.111.200.162 URL: DATE: 07/01/2004 02:13:21 PM You are the only person I have seen who hit the nail on the head here. Is it a ripoff, yes, sure, but more importantly what is the point of integrating this into the OS? It is like Microsoft going after the some small niche market. So many people didn't even use Konfabulator and nobody switched to mac for Konfabulator. So Apple actually lost here, I don't see people switching to Apple just for these features. To me the most interesting new feature is definitely search, that's something which is really useful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eric EMAIL: blog@booboo.com IP: 146.115.59.79 URL: DATE: 07/01/2004 04:52:30 PM It is not a fucking rip off of Konfabulator. God damn, am I sick of hearing that shit. You guys are all the same morons who said the iPod mini wouldn't sell for shit and was overpriced. STFU ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: DATE: 07/01/2004 05:59:43 PM You may want to read John Gruber's latest artivle over at http://Daringfireball.com for a new look at the Konfab issue. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eliah Hecht EMAIL: eliah@reed.edu IP: 134.10.9.220 URL: DATE: 07/01/2004 09:58:19 PM See Daring Fireball article for Dashboard/Konfabulator issue. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pierre Andersson EMAIL: pierre.andersson@mac.com IP: 210.245.7.26 URL: http://www.pierreandersson.se/mt/ DATE: 07/02/2004 10:06:19 AM I don't agree that it's a rip off of Konfabulator. The widgets in Dashboard are actually made like small webpages or webapplications in java/xml/html. It opens up for a lot of interesting applications. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jesse EMAIL: rystic@astound.net IP: 64.85.229.55 URL: http://www.rystic.com DATE: 07/02/2004 10:46:45 AM An extremely well-written article on the Dashboard vs. Konfabulator debate: http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboard_vs_konfabulator ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: judson EMAIL: judson@ackackack.com IP: 209.189.131.15 URL: DATE: 07/02/2004 02:45:27 PM He ripped off dashboard from...the Mac: read; http://daringfireball.net/ " would be the desk accessories from the original 1984 Macintosh ó conceived by Bud Tribble and engineered (mostly) by Andy Hertzfeld." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joshua Kaufman EMAIL: 701cdfcb0d111ffdf07e2721ac246508811059b7 IP: 81.155.117.225 URL: http://unraveled.com DATE: 07/02/2004 11:47:59 PM Dashboard is not a rip off. John Gruber explains in Dashboard vs. Konfabulator. ----- PING: TITLE: Easy tiger URL: http://www.hulver.com/scoop/story/2004/7/1/62340/89356 IP: 69.55.235.63 BLOG NAME: fritz the cat from Hulver's site DATE: 07/01/2004 02:24:05 PM No it's not about 'tiger' Henman - but Tiger, the new Mac OS X.
    Also - unpleasant moments cause by my new folding bike.
    ATTN HULVER! When I click on 'Ignore Story', shouldn't I be redirected to the Diaries/Homepage instead of back to the sto... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What you should know before starting a doctorate... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Academia CATEGORY: Academia DATE: 07/03/2004 05:48:38 PM ----- BODY:

    A few days ago an interesting article on Graduate schools circulated around the web. The article suggested that Graduate school has many of the features of a cult and that some people staying on to undertake postgraduate studies almost needed to be deprogrammed until they understood that there was value in life outside the Academy. Here (just in case you don't have the stamina to read a short pithy well-written article) are the first two paragraphs:

    Several years ago, the professional career counselor Margaret Newhouse wrote an essay for The Chronicle called "Deprogramming From the Academic Cult." Newhouse argued that graduate school in the humanities indoctrinates its students into believing that they are failures if they do not remain inside the ivory tower, even if there are no suitable academic jobs for them. Career counselors, she argued, have to find ways to persuade unemployed Ph.D.'s to believe that the outside world is not evil and that they are not apostates if they do something besides teaching and research.

    Although I am currently a tenure-track professor of English, I realize that nothing but luck distinguishes me from thousands of other highly-qualified Ph.D.'s in the humanities who will never have full-time academic jobs and, as a result, are symbolically dead to the academy. Even after several years, many former graduate students grapple with feelings of shame and failure that, to outsiders, seem completely irrational.

    A little under seven years ago I left a doctorate in Classics that I'd been undertaking at Bristol University. I'd been working on my PhD for three years - time initially very well spent and which produed enormous amounts of reasonably good-quality work. Over the first two and a half years or so I produced around sixty thousand words on models of the mind, mythology, story-telling and identification; I'd taught various undergraduate classes on drama, mythology and Ancient Greek language and I'd produced two papers (on on anachronistic interpretation and one on The Bacchae) which I delivered at national conferences in Nottingham and New York. However, from the end of my second year I started experiencing a slow deterioration in my work, had a number of crises of motivation and started to feel that I was being overwhelmed by the material and sheer amount of commentary and opinion that I needed to get to grips with. I started to feel that I was never going to be able to produce work that I was going to be happy with - that I was never going to find the answers that I was looking for. Then followed a few months of highly self-destructive behaviour when I felt that I was starting to fail, followed by a few months of anti-depressants and then the final realisation that if I was going to complete my work it would take me years of penury and misery and that I was likely to have problems finding any kind of employment afterwards. And then the realisation that I no longer had faith that the work I was producing would have any kind of impact or be taken in any way seriously. And that's when I decided to quit.

    If you believe the narrative that I've just told you (and there's no reason why you should simply swallow it whole - I've taken considerable license with it for speed and clarity) then you might well be asking yourself why I went from doing good work to leaving academia completely, and whether I regret it. I ask whether you believe it because I'm not sure that I believe it myself - I find the whole period difficult to interpret and difficult to feel confident about because of the sheer weight of the different interpretations, personal relationships, arguments, tensions and various senses of betrayals that I came - by the end - to associate fully with my time in doctoral work. And here's where the article about the cultishness of Graduate School comes in again. Because whlie I don't necessarily believe that it does have cultish tendencies, I do feel programmed by circumstance to forfeit my right to a public opinion about it. Any statement I make about academia - or my experience of academia - that isn't entirely complimentary must necessarily be seen in the context of my own failure to complete the process. Because I'm not now Doctor Coates, any statement I make that puts any blame on anyone other than my own inadequacies can be dismissed as sour grapes or an inability to accept failure or inadequacy in one field or another.

    I'm not going to fight this assumption - I feel comfortable in admitting that whatever else may have led to my ungracious departure from academia, I clearly did not have the necessarily discipline to carry through the work I'd started to its conclusion. I failed. But I've seen a lot of other people fall hard off the back of the academic lorry as well, and a good number of them I believe have done so not because they've failed the system but because the system has failed them. And they feel similarly confused and conflicted - unable to determine where the failure was their own. Even many of the people I know who have completed their doctorates have experienced the burn of tarmac on their departure from the academy. These people were intellectually able, self-disciplined and strong and fought through the academy with all the discipline and strength they could muster and were still brought low by it. And worse still, these people feel the same anxiety that I do about talking about it - any rejection is in itself an admission of failure. Here's where the academy's cultishness emerges most strongly - because it's an institution where you can only fail yourself and your leaders. They can never fail you.

    I want to talk a little about the reality of post-graduate work for people who are considering it because I think you should know what you're letting yourself in for. Courses which are mostly taught are almost always achievable. That's not what I'm talking about. I'd recommend a Masters course to almost anyone. On the other hand, Universities often encourage their pupils to stay with them at their University because they get money for students. I would advise you to never do this. It can be very difficult for undergraduate students to adjust to the new roles and status that undertaking a Masters should afford you. It's particularly difficult if you're doing those role-changes with people you have been used to being highly deferential towards. And why would you want to work more with them anyway? Unless they really are the world-leading experts in their fields, you should be looking elsewhere for different perspectives, different expertises and different lessons to learn. You'll learn much more from a new teacher than from the one who has already articulated much of their approach and beliefs and ways of seeing the world through your undergraduate work with them.

    Masters aside then, what of the research degree? Here I'm going to be blunt. First things first, please believe that academic departments get money for postgraduate students and that more money means more and (and more stable) jobs for the staff. You must never forget that while all academics have altruistic motives, they also have a vested interest in encouraging you to stay with them. Again consider why they're suggesting you continue your work, and think particularly hard if they're advocating you staying with them.

    Next think about your skills and expertises and whether or not you actually want to be an academic after you've tried to complete your course. Now think about whether or not you're going to be the person who actually gets the really hard to come by academic job afterwards (this is particularly true in the Humanities). If you don't want to be a History lecturer and do academic research for the rest of your life, then don't do a doctorate. If you're not sure, then get sure before you sign on the dotted line. Academic jobs are not easy to get and they'll all be looking for certain skills and expertises that are relevant to the teaching of your discipline. If you want to spend years doing research into an incredibly obscure branch of history, then bear in mind that no one may wish to teach courses in that particular obscure branch of history. If you're going to be revolutionarily cross-disciplinary, then consider - are there any departments in the world who could hire you when you were done? And if not, then don't do it!

    Doctorates don't count for much outside academia - and in fact they may count against you. If you can't find a directly relevant area for subsequent professional work, then many employers are likely to look at a 25-30 year old person with three-six years of post-graduate work as being a strange and slightly worrying employment prospect - they're going to be too smart for their own good, too ivory-towerish, too specialist, out of touch with the way that the "real world" works. If you're working in an area where there's a lot of commercial interest (say the way in which people use technology) then you may very well find enormous career opportunities open up before you. This is not likely to happen if you've spent six years writing on gender roles in Baudelaire - no matter how ground-breaking the work.

    And here's the other lesson - doctoral work is professional training. You have to think about it like that - you're being made into a lecturer / professor / teacher / researcher. The aim of doctoral work is not - no matter what anyone tells you - to think up good stuff and write great works and reveal your genius to the world. The aim is to make professional people who can teach undergraduates, deliver papers and - yes - also (subsequently) push the discipline further in one direction or another. You have to approach your post-graduate work in this way. The most successful doctoral students in my experience are the ones that are thorough and careful and take on relatively unambitious projects which don't stretch the assumptions or structures of the discipline too much. They're the ones that finish their doctoral work and go on to useful teaching positions (and then may or may not start exploring more widely). It's definitely not the best and the brightest, the most imaginative thinkers or the people with the great ideas that get through. If they get through its because they're thorough and their careful and their professional and treat it as it should be treated - as a job of work rather than a calling or an exploration.

    Which brings me to drop-out rates. Another thing you won't be told is how many people don't complete their doctorates. I've heard various figures mentioned, but I believe that around 50% of people who start doctorates don't get a PhD out of it. This may be humanities only or it may be throughout the academy. An enormous proportion of people simply never finish the things because it's not quite what they were expecting when they started. And many of these people will feel like failures, will come into the job market late and will find it harder to get ahead in their new chosen career. It's not clear to me whether it's harder to get a job with a completed irrelevant doctorate or an incomplete one. It's not easy with with either.

    And then there's the day-to-day atmosphere of it. When you're doing research, you work almost exclusively alone - for three to five years. You should spend large periods of that time in a library - ideally (again taking into account that this is a training course and a career) you should use the working hours that you might expect from a job - eight hours a day. You will get paid either nothing or a barely livable wage to do this work (again - more true for humanities students). This is not a glamourous occupation, by any means. And as I've said before, there is no glamour in the work itself, a restricted chance that you'll get a career in academia and a very real possibility that by undertaking this work you're going to make yourself less employable. The "positive" aspects of the lifestyle (apart from your gradual progress towards getting your doctorate) are limited, but you do get relative freedom to think and explore ideas, you are forced to be self-motivating and self-determined and - when things are going well - you will get self-respect and the respect of some other people (who in my opinion are rather easily impressed). These freedoms, and the self-respect and the respect of others that you get from undertaking a doctorate will stay with you (to an extent) if you go into the badly paid field of academia. If you do not, they will swiftly evaporate.

    Which brings me (briefly) to my final point. Do not believe there is no worthwhile life outside academia! It's difficult sometimes, when you've been in the education system for getting on for twenty years to remember that there's an enormous panoply of jobs outside academia and not al of it is sullied by the feeble crust of crass commercialism. It is more than possible to find enjoyable, ethically-sound, world-improving work outside academia - and in fact it's probably no harder than it is to find similar work inside the Academy. The stereotype (and the assumption of many potential postgraduate students) that study for the sake of study and the stretching and mental gymnastics of intellectual work are somehow naturally superior and elite practices would holod more water with me if such warming up regularly translated into actual attempts to build or refigure the world in positive ways. If such goals are your intent - consider carefully what effect you are actually likely to have. Is the respect of a narrow and dishevelled set of peers (and a steady stream of undergraduate neophytes) enough to get you through the night? If not, consider that there is good work to be done outside University and that some of it pays rather better and is equally interesting.

    If you're considering a longer research-based degree, please consider carefully what you're letting yourself in for. Remember the key facts: only fifty percent of people come out of the other end of this process with a doctorate and even then they have to look towards finding (mostly pretty badly-paid) work. Many of them won't that work despite having proved their discipline, committment and intelligence. Do yourself a favour and make sure that you go in with your eyes open - that you know how unpleasant the work can be, that you know what a risk you're taking with your time and with your life, that you're strong enough to deal with the self-doubt and the humiliation and the shame and the anxiety that the work can cause and that you're totally sure of the career path that you are choosing for yourself, before you agree to continue with your studies. If you don't do this, then you may very well find yourself in a cult that genuinely believes that everyone else is basically wasting their lives and from which there is no easy or elegant way to escape.

    Note added 25th September 2004: Thanks to Phil Young for sending in this link which I hope might be useful to people who enjoyed this article: Beyond the Ivory Tower.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard Boyer EMAIL: arebee@nexusvector.net IP: 64.78.121.10 URL: http://chaotic.nexusvector.net/ DATE: 07/03/2004 09:50:13 PM I'm entering my 4th year towards and undergraduate physics degree at RIT in the fall. Ever since my first day of college, I've been unable to figure out what I want to do with my life afterwards. I one way I feel that I owe it to myself to move on to graduate school so that I can learn about more advanced subjects like General Relativity and more complicated maths. I've done a small amount of summer research in physics and I'm uncertain if pure physics research is something I'd enjoy doing for another 3 or 4 years. Everything is very cloudy and after reading all of the above, I feel more in touch with my goals than before. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 213.94.251.131 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 07/03/2004 10:03:55 PM I am currently completing a (taught) Masters, and I am seriously considering further study. You're making a lot of sense to me and you've provided me with a perspective that I really haven't come into contact with until now. This article goes into the slot beside the oneOn the existence of God... that I will recommend that friends consult. It's pieces like this that make the web (and the weblog) a life-enhancing tool. Thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nick Sweeney EMAIL: nick@nonspace.org IP: 24.179.29.36 URL: DATE: 07/03/2004 10:17:35 PM Postgraduate work in the UK is a very different beast from its US equivalent, though: in part because doctoral students become the teaching base for undergraduate courses in American colleges, and in part because the doctoral course itself is much more directed than the typical British Ph.D. or DPhil. And there's the whole money question, as well: most American doctoral students leave with astronomical debts. I feel very alienated from academia right now, even though I finished my DPhil -- once you spend any time away, trying to get back up to speed is very much like chasing that speeding wagon. It's especially difficult for a couple of reasons: firstly, having moved from the UK to the US, I don't have the teaching experience that's a given for American doctoral graduates; secondly, I've been advised that taking 'any old job' actually works against you, even if I do so in order to gain teaching experience. One advantage, though, is that almost by accident, I found myself taking web- and writing work during my doctorate, which bumped up my CV. I still look at friends, though, who left university after the BA or a Masters, and get the feeling that I'm five or six years behind them. Gah. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Liz Lawley EMAIL: ell@mail.isc.rit.edu IP: 24.24.47.125 URL: http://mamamusings.net/ DATE: 07/03/2004 11:18:37 PM For those of you considering graduate degrees, it's worth reading in a few other places as well. Much of the archives of the Invisible Adjunct (which remain, although the author has stopped posting) are devoted to these issues--the comments are full of interesting discussions of the pros and cons (mostly cons) of graduate school. Dorothea Salo's "Academia Anonymous" archives are replete with condemnations of academe's garden path, as well. And Timothy Burke at Swarthmore has an excellent essay entitled "Should I Go to Grad School" that should be required reading for anyone considering it. As I've said to Dorothea, and to others, however, there are significant differences among academic fields. The 50% attrition rate is not accurate for all fields of study, nor are the dismal placement rates the same for all. A doctorate in Classics is quite different from one in Library Science, which in turn is not at all like one in Engineering or Physics. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.155.10.77 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/03/2004 11:30:17 PM Yes. Absolutely - doctoral students in some fields are quite likely to get work, and even in fields which are running short of places, some doctoral students will find no trouble getting work. And there are differences between doctorates in the States and the UK, and between the sciences, social sciences and the humanities in terms of funding, the daily structure of work (you won't find a science postgrad working in a library every day for three years) and potential employment prospects. And of course if matters who you studied with and where you went as well. This is why I talk about choosing your area of study carefully in order that you will be able to complete your work, and appeal to either academic or commercial organisations on your completion. I would not want to condemn an academic lifestyle in any way - I think it can be a profoundly satisfying lifestyle, a rewarding lifestyle and a very valuable one. I'm not sure that many students who approach post graduate work are necessarily aware of some of the illusions of the trade either, or of what it's substantive value is in the world, or have a sufficiently unromantic view of the work they'll be undertaking. I don't believe it's a negative view to advocate that people don't enter with hopes and dreams that the academy cannot and should not be attempting to fulfil. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ole Eichhorn EMAIL: ole@pacbell.net IP: 68.170.38.131 URL: http://w-uh.com/ DATE: 07/04/2004 12:13:39 AM I've never done postgraduate work and I haven't been in college for over twenty years, so my comments must be weighted accordingly. I attended Caltech, where the primary focus is scientific discovery and secondarily commercial applications of technology. There are humanities departments at Caltech but they exist to provide the illusion of balanced education and not because anyone takes their work seriously. Anyone doing graduate humanities work at Caltech has left the tracks. Within the science disciplines, I found that the emphasis on doing important work was refreshing. Nobody was encouraged to do things which merely pushed a field slightly in a known direction, or which prepared one for teaching. It was assumed that students were interested in doing serious new work, innovation was encouraged, and communication skills things like public speaking and writing were actively taught on the assumption they'd be needed to communicate work in seminars and papers. This emphasis extended down to undergraduates as well who were sometimes invited to coauthor research papers, attend conferences, etc. From this I conclude that graduate experience varies widely with the chosen field and the institution. It would seem working at a university where the field of interest is emphasized would be most important. As well, the style and target of the ongoing work should be considered; this varies widely. I would definitely echo a theme from your post, that it is important to know what you want to do before embarking on a graduate course of study. I never had the desire to become a research scientist and headed straight for commercial opportunities upon my departure, despite having tremendously enjoyed and profited from my undergraduate studies. As with almost any endeavor, graduate students who know what they want and are willing to focus on getting it will be the most successful. Again agreeing with you I would say that while it is okay to enter undergraduate study with no idea where you're going to end up (most of us do), one should not enter post-graduate study the same way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: PZ Myers EMAIL: pzmyers@pharyngula.org IP: 199.199.226.109 URL: http://pharyngula.org/ DATE: 07/04/2004 12:56:52 AM Doctoral degrees in the sciences are a bit different from the perspective I see here. You do not graduate with a debt; if you aren't getting paid for your work in grad school, there's something very fishy about the program. Successful completion rates are higher: the majority of my cohort in the biology program I was in finished with a degree. All who passed their preliminary exams in the second year made it. I know of two who took over 12 years to complete their degree, but let's not dwell on that... Relatively few end up in academia. Jobs are scarce there (has anybody mentioned that? There are no jobs? Sure.) and, as it turns out, laboratory skills are reasonably marketable elsewhere. I'm not as discouraging about student prospects after grad school in the sciences as most social sciences people seem to be, but I'm not sanguine, either. You've got to be deeply thrilled by extremely esoteric stuff for it to be worthwhile. If you're thinking about a career and a job and money, you aren't in the right frame of mind for grad school. Even if there is a little bit more security in a science Ph.D. than some others, it's still economically insane -- I suggest dental school instead. Or a plumbing apprenticeship. Or, as my own dear father recommended to me when I proposed throwing myself into the chasm of academia, refrigerator repair. Refrigeration specialists are always in great demand and make very good money. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: redking EMAIL: redking@theplasticcat.com IP: 212.2.175.32 URL: http://www.theplasticcat.com/ DATE: 07/04/2004 11:06:44 AM My advice to anyone seeking work after postgrad studies would be to fully articulate to any potential employer (or recruitment agency) precisely what you've been doing for the past few years, in terms of responsibilities, projects completed, etc. I found most people didn't really grasp what was required to complete postgraduate research, imagining a typical daytime tv watching student existence (which is of course only partly true). Other responses included "yes, your cv is very good but could you please underline that you know how to use Frontpage". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rory EMAIL: rory_ewins@hotmail.com IP: 81.131.193.229 URL: http://speedysnail.com/ DATE: 07/04/2004 03:18:30 PM Good points all, Tom. You might be interested in a letter I wrote to The Australian a few years ago about the situation there, borne out of similar experiences. The only point I'd disagree with is your claim that 'it's definitely not the best and the brightest, the most imaginative thinkers or the people with the great ideas that get through'. Plenty do, including many people I've known. What I'd say is that whether you're the best, brightest or most imaginative bears no direct relationship to your chances of getting through, although it may play a role. I wouldn't even weight thoroughness and professionalism as heavily as you do. What's most important is your own determination to see it through. Where that determination comes from can vary enormously from person to person - it might come from a belief that you're making a valuable contribution to your field, or even that you're the best and brightest or most professional - but once it goes, it's very, very hard to finish. I came close to dropping out 18 months in, and only a successful stint of fieldwork turned it around for me; if that had gone badly, I'm not sure I'd have made it. And I would have been the same person with the same degree of imagination, thoroughness, or whatever, either way. I'm not saying that people who don't finish the damn things aren't determined, or that they lack stamina; I'm saying that determination to finish the Ph.D. is the most important factor in doing so. If finishing it stops being important to you, for whatever reason, or other (incompatible) goals in your life become more important, then you'll be far less likely to make it. Which all seems pretty obvious, really. The most important message for those contemplating the Ph.D. path is (as you say here, more or less) that the motivation you feel at the outset might not always be there when you need it, and that you owe it to yourself to consider (and to find out) the implications for your life and career if you don't finish. And, for that matter, if you do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Newfred EMAIL: newfred@newfred.com IP: 80.40.42.91 URL: http://www.newfred.com DATE: 07/04/2004 05:59:39 PM Thank you for this post, Tom; it is thought-provoking. You make your starting point your own experience, as I'm sure we all do, but this, as you acknowledge, raises problems. I've just finishing a B. A. and am contemplating further study, aware of its various connotations. I suppose the personal value of academic work depends very much on the corporate value of academic work; I think that many students, myself included, work hard for personal success, and a desire to discover and write well for personal glory, while veiling it thinly in the desire to add to the reservoir of academic knowledge constituted by the entire system. It seems to me that your Ph. D. may have been this conflict in action; I work in an area with similar stigma as Classics, and while my concern for adding to corporate knowledge is genuine, if I decide that my personal work will not be at a standard high enough to really add to contemporary debates, then the chances are that, however successful I was being, I would chuck it in. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but I know that in today's world there is a danger of reducing university qualifications to an economic question. Yes, everything in life has its economic importance, but knowledge for knowledge's sake is the founding principle of scientific, and academic, inquiry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jyri Engestr–m EMAIL: je@iki.fi IP: 194.80.39.213 URL: http://www.aula.cc/jyri/ DATE: 07/04/2004 07:26:50 PM I don't know if "cult" is the right word. I'm currently entering my 3rd year of management school doctorate at a UK university. I went in knowing it'd be the toughest project I've taken up, and that has proven to be the case, for many of the reasons Tom so eloquently described. I appreciated Phil Agre's piece for undergraduates considering grad school in the U.S. Still, I opted for the UK instead of the US because in the UK there was less coursework and I wanted to work with social scientists, who started to populate British management schools during the Thatcherite era. (This is a bit of tangent, but by cutting social science funding and seeing to it that the business schools didn't go empty-handed, Thatcher booted the British management education deep into the left field. The sociologists simply moved with the jobs... I'm curious to see what will happen to British-run companies over the next decade as managers brought up on Bruno Latour take over at the helm). Contrary to what Tom says, I don't think you can know the reality in advance. The whole point of graduate studies is that you make up those realities as you go. In the absence of formal prescriptions for doing the work, the personal relationships between those involved really start to matter. Hence the number one issue for a grad student in my position is the healthiness of the relationship with one's supervising professor. I'm a "departmental" PhD student, not part of a formal programme, so supervisors are really the only ones that provide external structure to my work. Being social scientists, the interventions they make are often so subtle it's not at all what I as a student think is required to do away with the ambiguity that's keeping me up at night. It's precisely this ambiguity that can do you in: not being able to explain to people what you're spending your time on because it's not clear to yourselfñand living with that diminished self-image for years! Tom says it's a lonely job. He's right. But to overcome the ambiguity, to weave those fragile storylines, requires good conversation, and good conversation requires relationships with people who care about you, who are able to contribute to your work, and whose reactions make that work feel like it actually matters. I can't overemphasize the importance of having that person around. If I had to make a guess, I'd say had those people been around Tom in his grad school years, today we'd be reading the blog of Dr. Coates (as if it mattered!) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David EMAIL: dave@davidmadden.org IP: 62.252.192.8 URL: http://www.greasy-spoon.org DATE: 07/04/2004 07:50:26 PM I went through a similar realisation on doctoral work. I did a taught masters in history at birmingham and loved it. Then started a PHD there. Did a year or so of research while working at the uni in IT to fund it. I eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be worth it. I realised that if I ever got the PHD, I would most likely be overqualified and unemployed. Your right, it does take a while to work out what a PHD actually is and how hard they can be. I thought I wanted to be an academic. But realised that I didn't like ivory towers and the mentalities they breed. I also saw people who had been working on their PHDs for years and didn't seem to be getting anywhere. The internet happened and I jumped out of doctoral research into online and have never looked back. Best thing I ever did. I still enjoy research and have a couple of little 'for fun' projects. Your absolutely right - think very carefully before you take the plunge and sign up for years of doctoral research... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew EMAIL: mmullane@earthlink.net IP: 69.69.44.122 URL: DATE: 07/05/2004 02:46:41 PM I often think about entering law school, a field which I do not necessarily enjoy, however, a degree in law would easily afford me the time and money to do independent work elsewhere. For instance, many very well known authors have done the following: Baudelaire, Kafka, etc. Anyhow, I simply feel that such a pursuit of knowledge may be satisfied outside the academic sphere. Additionally, my primary pursuit, not of knowledge per se but of creation, would, I feel, suffer horribly in a strict academic setting, thus I am considering the path of law, for it is one I feel I can accomplish, yet afterwards, or even during, I can focus on the areas which I am interested in i.e. poetry, philosophy, art history, music, and then harness this knowledge and apply it towrads a project which will satisfy that "will to power" or that will to creation. In closing however, I feel it is necessary to state that it is possible to take a selected field further without being in the field of academia (although once you do make a contribution, your name will be dragged into that sphere), your pursuit of knowledge is easily attainable without this masochistic sense of college education. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tom q EMAIL: tom@idiolect.org.uk IP: 132.185.240.121 URL: http://www.idiolect.org.uk DATE: 07/05/2004 05:38:05 PM Oh but the freedom that comes with studying a PhD! You want to study abroad - possible; cities across the world have universities. You want to take out a month to go and work for an NGO - possible; research is lonely, but the benefit is no one will miss you if you go for 30 days. You want to spend six months learning about information theory / web design / supply side-logistics - possible, now is the time to broaden your intellectual horizons- and as part of your day job. (This is probably most applicable if you're in the sciences, where you should be getting paid). I tell friends doing PhDs "Don't hurry to finish!" You have an autonomy in organising your life that you might not get again; and you can use that autonomy to equip yourself with skills and experiences that are invaluable whether you finish the thesis or not. Not that i'm saying it's for everyone - there are certainly more important things in life than academia, but i got a lot from it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Claire EMAIL: chlgeorge@hotmail.com IP: 129.234.4.76 URL: http://www.17th-century.info/news DATE: 07/07/2004 06:23:20 PM How refreshing to read about a British rather than an American PhD. I went into my PhD with completely naive and unrealistic expectations of what I was going to get at the end. Like many students I was just so utterly impressed that I was being allowed to do one. I was definitely seduced by the ivory tower. Having said that, I'm in my final year now and whilst I accept there's a high probability it might not help my career, I don't regret it for one moment. It's trained me to think, research and write. I'll carry those skills with me for the rest of my life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: renzotramaglino@hotmail.com IP: 81.103.144.92 URL: DATE: 07/10/2004 12:47:09 AM I was more or less suicidal when I finished my (scientific) PhD. Had lost all motivation along the way, the prospects were grim as hell, I didn't know who I was anymore. At that point I stumbled upon a finance textbook - the last thing I thought I would be interested in. Started studying just for curiosity, and realised there was a whole real world out there where you could use your brain but keeping in touch with reality. I went for an interview with a bank, got the job, stayed on, got promoted, found another job - the sort of thing normal people do. Now I'm way happier than I ever was in academia - why the hell did I feel I needed to discover the universe. The world's full of interesting things and there's plenty of rewarding ways to apply your intelligence besides pure research. ----- PING: TITLE: Drop-out Guilt URL: http://peteashton.com/04/07/03/dropout_guilt.html IP: 216.129.251.28 BLOG NAME: Pete Ashton's Weblog DATE: 07/03/2004 08:54:12 PM Tom's written a huge piece, What you should know before starting a doctorate..., most of which is irrelevant as I'm not starting a doctorate, but the first chunk, about his dropping out of academia before completing, rang some bells. Specifically: Any ... ----- PING: TITLE: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/learn.html#001415 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/learn.html#001415 IP: 203.194.209.195 BLOG NAME: Links DATE: 07/09/2004 08:03:44 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | What you should know before starting a doctorate...... ----- PING: TITLE: do I need a doctor? URL: http://www.annetteclancy.com/archives/000213.html IP: 69.93.213.58 BLOG NAME: thinking out loud DATE: 07/10/2004 02:08:26 PM Although I've just handed in my Masters' dissertation (and am awaiting white smoke), I've decided I want to go on a do a PhD. I met with my (now ex) supervisor yesterday who gave me some background information on PhD... ----- PING: TITLE: Links for 15th of July URL: http://www.idiolect.org.uk/notes/archives/cat_links.html#000160 IP: 62.115.254.51 BLOG NAME: idiolect.org.uk DATE: 07/15/2004 12:10:56 AM Global Rich List - you're on it To PhD or not to PhD? at plasticbag.org. "She's only Two Cats Mad on the Spinster Eccentricity Index" Steveberlinjohnson.com on Fahrenheit 9/11 Corante.com/loom on Machiavellian Monkeys, social intelligence and cortex s... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: London on a Saturday = Hell on bloody earth... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/03/2004 09:59:30 PM ----- BODY:

    You go away for two days and all hell breaks loose. But then again, who cares - it's someone else's hell, right? Completely randomly and spontaneously on Wednesday I decided that I'd go up and visit my family for a couple of days to try and get some mental perspective. Two days with my brother and beautiful views and use of a car and some decent food and totally quiet sleeping environments. Terrifyingly calming. See if you can guess the common feature of the following photos:

    That's right! They don't have any bloody fucking people in them! Arriving back in London on a Saturday afternoon in Midsummer was like being stuck in a bloody battery farm after being free range. I'm finding it harder and harder to deal with all .. the .. bloody .. morons .. milling around London at two miles an hour, holding hands while walking about three feet apart from each other, glancing in each other's eyes longingly and casually swinging their pastel shopping bags around while behind them fifty or sixty people are stuck at their pedestrian snail's pace - each and everyone thinking so loud it must be practically audible, "What the fuck is wrong with you people?! And would there be a jury in the land who would convict me if I pulled out a sword right now and ran you all through?!"

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Matthewman EMAIL: scott@matthewman.net IP: 213.218.252.174 URL: http://www.matthewman.net/ DATE: 07/03/2004 10:48:30 PM I know *exactly* what you mean. But, while they're fuckwits and are determined to prove such status to anyone unfortunate enough to be within half a mile's radius of them, our reactions to such people tell a lot about ourselves. A month or two ago, I would get so worked up by similar things. Working in Carnaby Street would exacerbate my ire, because it attracts all sorts of feckless tourists. But much of my anger was projected: I was stressed beyond all hope by my job. I have friends who can testify to the state I was in, and the palpable relief once my redundancy was confirmed (luckily, I'd been looking for a new job and managed to walk staright into one). Since my change in job status, I've been much less likely to blow up in frustration at other people, no matter how bollock-wrenchingly egocentric their selfish behaviour becomes. You've been working amazingly hard over the recent weeks and months, to fantastic effect -- which must have put you under phenomenal pressure. I'd be amazed if that wasn't having an influence on the impact other people are having on you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aegir EMAIL: aegir@hallmundur.com IP: 80.3.75.92 URL: http://www.paperpixel.co.uk/log DATE: 07/03/2004 10:56:47 PM Oh yes! You've no idea the number of times I've thought exactly this, really non-pc violent thoughts that raise shocked looks from even the most liberal of friends, and comments, "Why do you hate everyone so much?" A long time ago a friend and I discussed this, and we agreed that individuals, persons are fine, but the problem is people. It's a subtle difference. Persons are individuals you know, and they are real, but people are just this bunch of mouth-breathers that clog up Brighton every summer. Ah, this explanation only really goes well after lots of beer in a loud pub. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: steve EMAIL: junk@oclipa.com IP: 81.130.184.217 URL: http://www.oclipa.com/wysiwyg DATE: 07/04/2004 06:02:32 PM Move to Sussex - land of the free! A place where a traffic jam consists of three cars and 50p parking rates are considered daylight robbery. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Some dumb stuff I bought off iTunes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/05/2004 10:02:59 AM ----- BODY:

    Over the last two weeks I have bought 53 songs from the iTunes Music Store. I didn't expect to buy any. I just get bored easily and then I'm there, mucking around, roaming around, desperately looking for some new exciting way to throw money away. And yes - it's true that there's a fairly limited selection of music on the store and that is a considerable problem (of the five hundred and fifty odd songs that my iTunes stash considers to be "Five Star", only 135 are anywhere on the store that I can find (Music Store link: One Hundred Pounds of Plastic Perfection). But despite the limited selection, if you dig around it is more than possible to find some really good old classic stuff (The Slits: I Heard it Through the Grapevine) or stuff you've discovered from Audioscrobbler (Modest Mouse's Float On) or really interesting cover versions (Ryan Adams' Wonderwall or (for geeks) They Might be Giants' Whe Does the Sun Shine). And then there's all that stuff that you listened to when you were a teenager or a kid and realistically you can't just go out and buy it because that would be really embarrassing, but you can just download it and - it's not the same as buying it, OK. Which I think excuses some of the cheesier things that I've bought (cough - the shame). And then there's the watching something on TV and just going, "Well I kind of like it, and it's only 79p..." (Music from the OC How Good it Can Be). And the odds and sods of Classical Music that the store actually excels in providing... Like when I needed to listen to Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz about million times at work a couple of weeks back.

    Okay - I admit it. The iTunes UK Music Store UK may have opened up a few really good songs for me, but it's also almost forced me to download about a million really cheesy bits of crap. You guys have to save me. Have you found any hidden gems?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: mo@mckinlay.me.uk IP: 81.6.204.34 URL: http://indigofruit.blogspot.com DATE: 07/05/2004 10:51:57 AM I found the same. I've ended up with an assortment of things that I'd never normally buy in HMV - including Cher's "If I could turn back time", which I can't honestly remember the reason for downloading. iTunes does make it far too easy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Green EMAIL: andrew@lowerelement.com IP: 81.6.252.42 URL: http://www.lowerelement.com/ DATE: 07/05/2004 12:00:11 PM Here's my playlist of iTMS discoveries (which, I fear, won't mesh entirely with your tastes!) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: quis EMAIL: me@quis.cc IP: 172.188.197.112 URL: http://www.quis.cc DATE: 07/05/2004 01:13:08 PM I'm afraid I don't have iTunes here on Windows98, but if you like Modest Mouse (and can get the song) I'd highly recommend "Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AKMA EMAIL: akma@disseminary.org IP: 24.13.251.214 URL: http://akma.disseminary.org DATE: 07/05/2004 02:29:36 PM Oddly, I can’t buy the Slits or whatever you were ashamed of (since iTunes USA doesn’t stock the number, I can’t find out what it was); so the one of the results of the international copyright/licensing economy seems to be enforced aporia. The Russian alternative Allofmp3.com may not be worried about licensing, but the taste to which they cater leaves out a lot of excellent material. Oh, well; I’ll keep my eyes open for you on chat networks. . . . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: matt_jones@blueyonder.co.uk IP: 82.39.117.254 URL: http://helium3.blogdns.com DATE: 07/06/2004 08:33:42 PM There's quite a lot of stuff from the excellent Thrill Jockey label on there: Califone - Quicksand & Cradlesnakes Sam Prekop - Sam Prekop John Parish - How Animals Move Chicago Underground Duo - Synesthesia ... to recommend a few. ----- PING: TITLE: It's not really buying.... URL: http://askpang.typepad.com/relevant_history/2004/07/its_not_really_.html IP: 66.151.149.25 BLOG NAME: Relevant History DATE: 07/09/2004 10:18:18 PM Tom Coates reflects on the iTunes Music Store: Over the last two weeks I have bought 53 songs from the iTunes Music Store. I didn't expect to buy any. I just get bored easily and then I'm there, mucking around, ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Graf report published... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/05/2004 01:02:42 PM ----- BODY:

    The Graf report - the independent review of BBC Online - has just been published. Despite the fact that I'm basically on holiday today, I am now going to start reading it in earnest. I'll probably knock out a summary of the key points later in the day, but in the meantime I'm going to keep the most pertinent quotes below. Be warned - this is likely to be a very long post, and only really of use if you want to get a quick sense of the material suggestions in the Graf report:

    Ultimately, if BBC Online is to continue to operate in content areas that go beyond traditional programme support, the Board of Governors or whoever regulates this service will have to exercise some fine judgements. They must do so, and be seen to do so in a rigorous, open and fair minded way. (Page Six)
    When asked how much they individually valued the BBC internet site, 18% of the sample said ìvery muchî or ìquite a lotî. This grew to 36% of 16-34 year old internet users. Also, when respondents in our audience research were made aware of the amount of their licence fee invested in Online (approximately 3%), most respondents, including light and nonusers of BBC Online, felt that this sum was fairly insignificant. They considered that the opportunity presented by BBC Online, to access BBC resources in more depth and at their convenience, represented value for money. This was a similar finding to public responses at a Board of Governors Seminar in early 2003. (Page Six / Seven)
    The remit and the strategic objectives, which guide BBC Online, should be more clearly defined around public purposes and/or programme-related content and should be clearly communicated to the public and the online marketplace. I recommend that:
    BBC Online should be clearly distinctive from commercial offerings. The quality of a particular service, however high, does not constitute distinctiveness per se. At times, it seems that BBCwide Online goals are not effectively transmitted to actual deliveryó for example, goals of distinctiveness can lose out to the day-to-day realities of competitiveness and, in some cases, there seems little real difference between BBC Online and its commercial rivals, apart from advertising content. [particularly highlighted: What's On / Linking Policies and Homepage design]
    Given that search is becoming such a fundamental part of how the internet is used, it is worth keeping a publicly funded, UK competitor in the market place. The size of the BBC site means that it needs an internal search engine in any event; a condition of also providing a worldwide web search facility should, however, be that it is reorganised to provide a truly independent capability, i.e. not one that favours BBC sites. (Page Ten)
    In future, therefore:
    I, therefore, recommend that: The BBC sets a target of, at least, 25% for online content (excluding news) supplied by external and/or independent suppliers by the end of the current charter (Page Twelve)
    The technical delivery of BBC Online is of a high standard. For example, BBC Radio Player, which enables users to access their favourite radio programmes or missed interviews within a two-week window has boosted radio listener numbers, and it has been met with broad consumer approval. If additional costs can be managed, the BBC might encourage more users to access rich, audio/visual content by the use of alternative streaming products, such as Windows Player and associated codec, or an open source alternative. (Page Twelve)
    The BBC should continue to develop a ënew relationshipí with users through more extensive engagement in community/user-generated content, which would further deploy the capacity of the medium to provide opportunities for interaction between users and producers. (Page Thirteen)
    The present management structure of the BBC, however, can make it difficult for an outsider to engage constructively with the organisation. Its operational structure reflects the relationship of New Media to the BBCís Television and Radio divisions, as well as to its central policy and strategy units. BBC Onlineís resulting matrix management structure has encouraged ë360ƒí commissioning, and more coherent internal budget and strategy setting processes. It can, however, also create a culture and organisation that, at best is confusing and, at worst, is a recipe for dodged responsibility when dealing with third parties. (Page Thirteen)
    In practical terms, a precautionary approach means that, if there is a ìclose callî between the public service benefits of a proposed BBC Online service and the costs of that service, the proposal should not be taken forward. If the governors take this approach, they will be wary of any proposals for new online services that are not accompanied by a reasoned judgement on market impact. (Page 14)
    With respect to any positive market impact of BBC Online, although it is clear that BBC Online will have stimulated some internet take-up, the evidence that this has been (or will be) a significant impact is weak. (Page 15)
    Page impressions are an industry standard (in the commercial sector), which describe, or at least give some indication of the pattern in consumer demand. The BBC News websiteís page impressions have grown from 21.6 million page impressions per month in December 1998 to 187.6 million in December 2002. However, any assessment of the impact of BBC Onlineís news and information services presents challenges, in so much as which metrics are capable of giving a fair and meaningful description. Whilst the only consistent year on year metrics for BBC Online are page impressions, they only provide a description of how many pages have been delivered to users rather than how many individual users (or ëunique usersí) the site has, or any sense of the ëstickinessí of the site in terms of time spent. (Page 19)
    BBC Sport online has, as an example of the impact of these types of services, reported an increase in page impressions from 33.2m to 92.8m between December 2000 and December 2002, and it now reaches 17% of the UK internet universe. Factual evidence alone, however, cannot accurately illustrate this objectiveís impact on audiences. The reviewís audience research revealed users and non-users alike were surprised at the extent of information and features on topics that did not necessary align with BBC broadcast programming.
    The BBC has also used a number of technological solutions to enable users to access programming relevant to their interests at any time, from across the networks. For example, the BBCís Radio Player, which streams live and archived radio programming, has been a significant step in the BBC opening up its audio archives (now available within a seven day window). It should be noted that the provision of streaming services, such as the BBC Radio Player which provides live and archived material, is a relatively complex technical process and, as a consumer proposition, constitutes a new and innovative technology-based service. However, the BBC Radio Player primarily relies on users using a single streaming application, provided by Real. Such downloads can deter new or inexperienced internet users and, on the BBC site, users cannot in most instances choose to use an alternative steaming application such as Windows Media player, which is pre-installed on any computer with a Windows operating system.
    The reviewís audience research presented some reservations about the design and ease of navigation from the BBC Online home page. Users, other than the very inexperienced, tend to be goal orientated, seeking to find a specific service or information as quickly as possible, but members of the public found the BBC Online homepage too cluttered and that it did not adequately serve as a guide to the rest of BBC Online. They did however find that the navigation within specific genres such as News and Radio was generally effective, particularly when indexes were kept concise and sites used minimal graphics, which they felt could unnecessarily slow download times. (Page 25)
    Applications developed by the BBC, such as DNA 26 have also enabled user-generated content to be more stimulating for the user and more efficiently managed. The current growth in web log usage also allows users to contribute richer content (e.g. to news stories) in the form of text, pictures, and audio and video clips.
    MORI research, conducted for the BBC, found that 7% of UK users were encouraged to go online specifically by the BBC 30. However, more detailed research would need to be undertaken to establish whether the BBC had played a key role in developing skills or building confidence.
    News, education, provision for minority communities, and developing usersí confidence and skills base in new technologies reveal themselves to be the serviceís key priorities. (Page 31)
    There would seem to be, at best, a lack of understanding of BBC Onlineís core purposes by the wider market, and at worst, an unnecessary adverse impact on their investment priorities due to other providers loss of trust in BBC managementís intentions. Such lack of understanding and trust would not be surprising given that there is some evidence to suggest that even within the BBC, the online serviceís limitations are not consistently well understood. Whilst pseudo mini ëE-bayí sites for the sale of junior football kit or downloadable mobile phone ëRing tonesí may be quickly withdrawn by central editorial policy, their very emergence would suggest that Onlineís remit is so broad that it risks being at times mistaken for universal. (Page 31)
    Reach is a key means to ensure that increasing numbers of licence fee payers can derive some value from the BBCís online services. This strategic goal does, however, risk the BBC being perceived by commercial operators as an aggressive, and unfairly advantaged competitive force. Submitters to the review also argued that the BBCís current inconsistent approach to linking, the prominence of BBC Online results in its search engine, and the low level of joint venture or externally commissioned projects have compounded this impression.
    The reviewís discussions with BBC staff made clear that, at a senior level, content divisions have an acute sense of their responsibility to make a ëgoodí judgement as to an appropriate balance between popular services and those that more obviously provide public service value. For example, whilst Sports feel they have a responsibility to provide up-to-date, impartial sports news, they also have an obligation to provide some entertainment and encourage participation in sports (for example, through Sports Academy). This strategy of case-by-case judgement has not, however, been actively articulated or discussed with the wider market, and the Board of Governors seek the publicís views on a particular serviceís success in this regard on only an ad hoc basis. (Page 34)
    BBC Onlineís survey of users in early 2003 revealed that approximately 22% of users were from outside the UK 40. The BBC has developed geo-locators that can, with reasonable success (particularly for broadband content), re-direct overseas traffic to the BBCís internationally facing site, which is funded by the World Service (and subsequently Grant-in-Aid rather than the licence fee). However, until such tools can guarantee 100% accuracy, and there is no risk of licence fee payers being blocked from reaching BBC content, more stringent measures have been deemed unworkable. Members of the public who took part in the reviewís research were also not unduly concerned that non-licence fee payers were able to access the content and indeed, many felt proud that the UK had such a good advocate of the British nations on the internet. Some users were also appreciative of being able to access BBC content when abroad themselves, on holiday or on business. (Page 37)
    Targets relating to ëreachí and consumption appear as priority targets throughout the period under review. The apparent prioritisation of reach as a target for BBC Online, particularly during the services rapid build has been interpreted by many competitors as evidence of the BBCís fiercely competitive drive to gain audiences to the disadvantage of other commercial content providers. The BBC has argued that a reach target is essential to ensure public value is maximised. The BBCís current reach target is based on users reached amongst the UK internet universe, rather than as a percentage of licence fee payers. (Page 38)
    Submissions to the review made clear a sense of cynicism towards the Governors capacity to sufficiently challenge BBC managementís advice and strategic priorities for BBC Online. The dramatic growth in BBC Onlineís budget, content genres and capabilities were cited as evidence of a service that been allowed to develop under a culture of ëimperialismí, unfettered by careful consideration of the public value or market impact. (Page 39)
    It is the nature and purpose of the BBC as a public-sector body (funded by the licence fee) to affect the mix of services consumed, and nature and conduct of other suppliers involved in the markets concerned. Thus, it might create economic changes or alleged ìdistortionsî, or ìcrowd outî private enterprise and investment. Such effects are inherent to public provision. (Page 41)
    The KPMG report estimates that BBC Online may have reduced the total expenditure on UK online advertising by around £5 million per annum (out of an estimated total of the order of £200 million). However, while this figure has been the subject of significant dispute, its relationship to the public interest has not been established. We have not seen any reason why an online advertising market worth £X million per annum is any better or worse for the public interest than an online advertising market worth £Y million per annum. Some commercial operators have sought to demonstrate that BBC Online has an adverse market impact by showing that it diverts audiences and thereby revenues away from their own businesses. However, we found no reason why a consumerís decision to use a BBC Online service rather than a commercial service should be considered in itself to be a factor operating against the public interest. (If BBC Online attracts audience in a way that has an adverse impact on competition this would be relevant to the assessment, as explained below.) (Page 43)
    A common complaint about the BBC is that ìthe playing field is not levelî. BBC Online has considerable competitive advantages derived from its access to licence fee revenues, and the cross-promotional and other resources that are connected to the BBC. If the BBC wants to provide certain online services it will almost certainly be able to do so, and does not need to receive any user revenues in order to justify its investment. However, genuine though they obviously are, and even though they might have adverse effects on competition as discussed below, these advantages do not preclude effective competition in the markets supplied by BBC Online. Effective competition does not need a level playing field. For instance, in the context of television the BBC competes against ITV1, Sky One and many others, and competition for audience appears generally effective despite the BBCís funding advantages.
    The development of the BBCís online activities may also affect competition in other types of markets, such as those for technology. For example, the BBCís principal choice of Real Networksí proprietary audio and video encoding and streaming technologies means that consumers wishing to access the BBCís online multimedia content will generally need to download and install RealPlayer on their computer. This feature could be considered to increase competition in markets for encoding software (on the grounds that other online providers can rely on the existence of a significant UK user base with access to RealPlayer, as well as to Windows Media Player which is pre-installed on the majority of computers), or to damage such competition (on the grounds that other/new encoding technologies are shut out from the market and cannot match either Microsoftís or Realís ability to establish a significant installed user base).

    However, any potential adverse effect on competition arising from a requirement for Internet users to install RealPlayer in order to access BBC Online content would only exist if there was no alternative way for users to access substitutable content, which is to say in connection with a relevant content market in which BBC Online was in a dominant position. In these circumstances, competition law would place a special obligation on the BBC to avoid such a lessening of competition (as it would amount to an abuse of a dominant position).
    For example, the existence (and editorial strength) of The BBC News website may have deterred newspaper publishers from introducing subscription charges on their online news websites, and thereby precluded investment in enhanced or specialised services on these sites, such as better archive searching tools and/or personalised news delivery services that would produce a genuinely customised online newspaper. At the current stage of market development we observe a mixture of free, registration-only, pay-per-view and pay-subscription models for online news content, which suggests that managerial decisions over appropriate business models could be a close call. For this reason, the impact of BBC Online, with a deep and wide supply of free news content, seems capable of having affected such decisions, and therefore of having affected the business models currently applied. In this way, BBC Online might have prevented ìfocusedî competition in these value-added and/or specialist services, and instead forced all UK mainstream news providers to compete with the BBC and with each other in broader online news markets. This outcome can be contrasted with professional business and financial news, where BBC Online does not operate and commercial providers compete in supplying a range of high-value-added subscription services. (Page 54)
    Whilst these examples indicate that, in theory, BBC Online may have lessened competition in a range of online content markets, commercial stakeholders did not provide robust evidence (such as business plans or strategy papers) that could support these hypotheses. It has been put to us that the impact of BBC Online is so large that many investment ideas never get off the drawing board. This factor could reconcile the lack of evidence with the hypothesis that BBC Online has a significant deterrent effect.
    Whilst this review did not uncover incontrovertible evidence that BBC Online has lessened competition in online and related markets, the level of concern among commercial operators and the inherent plausibility of the mechanism can be taken as an indication of the probability of future impacts of this nature. These impacts may be caused both by BBC Onlineís supply of online content markets and by its supply of wholesale content markets. (Page 57)
    Increased broadband and 3G access speeds and new compression technologies are already allowing a faster transfer of data to PCs and mobile handsets and this trend will accelerate over the next five years. Average broadband connection speeds will increase rapidly, permitting the reliable delivery of high resolution streaming and the rapid downloading of near-broadcast quality video. Mobile handsets will also become viable mainstream devices for downloading and consuming content, as hardware (including processor, storage, and display features) and software develop ñ although such services are unlikely to become widely available at ëmassmarketí prices for several years. These developments will make the Internet a genuine potential ëthird broadcasting mediumí for BBC content and services. BBC Online already provides live and archived (from the previous week) access to all of the BBCís radio services, which can be consumed via a narrowband (at a tolerable sound quality) or broadband connection. Over the next two to three years, it will also become perfectly possible for many Internet users to stream or download full-length BBC television programmes (as opposed to just video clips); within the next five years, the majority of mobile devices will be capable of receiving and storing live and archived BBC radio (e.g. the ëChart Showí) and limited television (e.g. news bulletins; comedy clips) services. (Page 60)
    The growing popularity of audio and video services over the Internet makes them a central component of future online service offerings, from a consumer point of view; as such, these services will be an area of core strategic importance for the BBC (and its competitors) in the coming years. As a publicly funded content provider, the BBC must strive for the optimal balance between distinctiveness, on the one hand, and audience reach on the other ñ as well as the ability to influence the overall market. The provision of an appropriate level of audio and video services will be an important element in achieving this balance, and in preserving the attractiveness and relevance of BBC Online in the future. (Page 61)

    More to come... (Sorry about the length - I'm really just pulling out the stuff I think is immediately pertinent and I know there's a fair amount of it). I might filter it down a little later, or embolden the stuff that I think's particularly interesting.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Philip Graf evaluiert BBC Online URL: http://www.wortfeld.de/2004/07/philip_graf_evaluiert_bbc_online.html IP: 82.165.30.94 BLOG NAME: Wortfeld DATE: 07/05/2004 10:05:42 PM Der Graf-Bericht untersucht das Onlineangebot im Regierungsauftrag. ----- PING: TITLE: the broadcaster in the online age URL: http://dox.media2.org/barista/archives/000897.html IP: 203.20.76.8 BLOG NAME: BARISTA DATE: 07/13/2004 01:54:42 PM The Graf Report into BBC online has now been published - important particularly in light of the policy experiments attempted willynilly by our own public broadcasters. plasticbag.org has pulled out some fascinating preliminary paras. The paper is undou... ----- PING: TITLE: the broadcaster in the online age URL: http://dox.media2.org/barista/archives/000897.html IP: 203.20.76.8 BLOG NAME: BARISTA DATE: 07/13/2004 02:06:13 PM The Graf Report into BBC online has now been published - important particularly in light of the policy experiments attempted willynilly by our own Australian public broadcasters. plasticbag.org has pulled out some fascinating preliminary paras. The pap... ----- PING: TITLE: the broadcaster in the online age URL: http://dox.media2.org/barista/archives/000897.html IP: 203.166.107.243 BLOG NAME: BARISTA DATE: 07/13/2004 06:47:32 PM The Graf Report into BBC online has now been published - important to us in light of the policy experiments attempted willynilly by our own Australian public broadcasters. plasticbag.org has pulled out some fascinating preliminary paras. The paper is u... ----- PING: TITLE: the broadcaster in the online age URL: http://dox.media2.org/barista/archives/000897.html IP: 203.166.107.243 BLOG NAME: BARISTA DATE: 07/13/2004 07:00:51 PM The Graf Report into BBC online has now been published - important to us in light of the policy experiments attempted willynilly by our own Australian public broadcasters. plasticbag.org has pulled out some fascinating preliminary paras. The paper is u... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Phil Gyford's in the Guardian... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/08/2004 02:34:40 PM ----- BODY:

    Much-loved weblogger, ex-colleague, dim-sum consuming, ultra-tall super-geek Phil Gyford got a well-deserved high-five today from the Guardian today in the online supplement (Man of the Moment). Much deserved, old chap! You are the r0X0r!

    "It hadn't really bothered me until it launched and everyone kept telling me what a big commitment it was," he says. At the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference last year, Clay Shirky, the respected web expert, said that he realised weblogs had a future because of Gyford's 10-year commitment to the Pepys site. He seems taken aback that others might look to him as a shining example as what is good about the internet, but his admirers are legion. "Phil's one of the few people in this industry who produces much more than he promises; the complete opposite of the loud new media bullshitter," says one friend. "He not only has the savvy to understand and build complex projects ... but the motivation to see them through and keep them going for years."
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Armitage EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 195.172.62.98 URL: http://www.infovore.org DATE: 07/08/2004 03:47:39 PM Surely: teh r0x0r? (A minor point of misspelling, really. Congratulations to Phil, of course!) ----- PING: TITLE: Politik och bloggar URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/002380.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 07/09/2004 10:14:40 AM Svensk politik saknar Âtminstone en sak som finns i h–g utstr”ckning i engelsk: n”tbaserade verktyg som l”nkar samman v”ljare med... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ben and Mena come to London... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/08/2004 10:35:15 PM ----- BODY:

    So Ben and Mena and Loic have been in London for meetings and a few of us managed to get together and hang out with them for a bit. We've got Ben drinking warm flavoursome beer, Mena puffing away on cigarettes in pubs and Loic's been trying to run over small children with his push trolley. We even got to roam around Television Centre with them a bit today - Mena making a particularly fetching weather presenter.

    Loic took some pictures too:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mena EMAIL: mena@dollarshort.org IP: 195.68.50.5 URL: http://mena.typepad.com DATE: 07/09/2004 11:19:41 AM It was a pleasure being corrupted by you Londoners. In these past six days, I've smoked my first cigarette (or 2), flew a plane and rode a motorcycle for this first time in my life (through the rainy streets of Paris, no less). Europeans know how to live. I hope that fetching comment isn't being too sarcastic. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jm EMAIL: jm-typekey@jmason.org IP: 68.4.10.228 URL: http://taint.org/ DATE: 08/05/2004 07:11:18 PM Wow! Where did Cory get that VT100 t-shirt? it is seriously teh cool. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Fahrenheit 9/11 STATUS: Draft ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/10/2004 03:24:45 PM ----- BODY:

    Yesterday I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 with a few friends, and while I'm not prepared to get involved in all the various bits of mud-slinging that are going on around the web at the moment, I thought I should maybe put my immediate impressions somewhere - if only so that I can have a personal record for years to come.

    First things first, let me get my cards on the table. I'm an atheist of long-standing (nearly twent years now) and religious people worry me. I am of a centre-left disposition within the spectrum offered to me by the political climate of the United Kingdom - I have voted for the Labour party in two general elections and for the Liberal Democrats in one. I am a gay man. I dislike socially repressive government and laws, and I believe that we are all individually responsible for the actions of our governments today and for any actions in the past that we still benefit from today. I dislike any attempt by government to remove rights from individuals, and am profoundly uncomfortable by concepts of perpetual surveillance or by overt displays of governmental power over individual actions. On the other hand, I believe that it is the responsibility of government to defend the weak, protect minorities from unfriendly majorities and attempt to redress iniquities in society. And while I understand and believe that free trade and capitalism are more often than not the lubricant that allows societies to operate efficiently, I believe that it is the responsibility of government to restrict the inequalities and abuses and exceses of that system where necessary. I believe fundamentally in the idea of people as citizens, and not simply consumers.

    let me say that I never get tired of laughing at the apparent stupidity of George W Bush. I can't claim to like the man, he makes the most inhumanly terribly gaffs and I'm afraid I am one of the people who thinks he's inarticulate, clumsy and more than a little bit dim. I don't like the rhetoric he uses - I'm uncomfortable with nationalist imagery, I don't much care for celebrations of flags or the continual frantic desperate appeals to love your country. And - as a confirmed atheist of long standing - I find the idea that a member of America's religious right should be running the country absolutely terrifying. I am a liberal. I am a lefty. I make no apologies for this, and every time the President appeared on screen I pissed myself

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Why I won't be buying any Muller products... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Advertising CATEGORY: Advertising CATEGORY: Gay DATE: 07/10/2004 09:35:59 PM ----- BODY:

    I sent this letter to consumers@muller.co.uk today because I finally had enough of the stupid bloody adverts in which mincing gay men flounce around the place looking at straight men's cocks. I'm sorry to be crass, but it pisses me off...

    Dear Sir / Madam,

    I am writing to complain about the Muller adverts which include a highly camp and stereotypical gay air steward mincing through a hotel (or on a plane) staring suggestively at the crotches of vulnerable and anxious-looking straight men. I was horrified when this advert was on a few years ago, but had assumed that it had been withdrawn because it was so crass. Now I see that it has returned to our screens I've decided I should complain.

    As a gay man I find this representation both insulting and dangerous. When I was growing up gay I was under the misapprehension that gay people were dirty and sickening and pathetic because of adverts like this. When I became an adult I realised that these stereotypes were only used by small-minded, petty, vindictive and scared little people - people desperate to 'belong' and unable to handle anything even vaguely different from themselves. Unfortunately other gay teenagers didn't have the luxury of coming to terms with these images as easily as I did. While working with the Bristol University Gay and Lesbian society, I met and tried to counsel an enormous number of young gay men who were coming out and who had experienced considerable abuse - including harrassment at school, on the street and even - in one occasion - being stabbed by their own father for being a 'disgusting sissy'. Your advert is prolonging precisely the stereotypes that cause children to be harrassed in this way - and contributing to the culture that results in twice as many attempted suicides and successful suicides among gay teenagers than straight, as well as an enormous over-representation of gay teenagers among the homeless.

    I will not be buying any more of your products until I am reassured that this advert has been withdrawn and I will be doing my best to encourage other people to boycott your products as well. I have also written a complaint to Ofcom.

    Yours,

    Tom Coates
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Gay Toilets In Advertising URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/reading/2004_07.php#002898 IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Reading DATE: 07/12/2004 04:43:31 PM Tom Coates' recent post on the current Muller ad. campaign, in which, to quote Tom, 'mincing gay men flounce around... ----- PING: TITLE: Gay Toilets In Advertising URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/gay_toilets_in_advertising.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 07/12/2004 04:47:05 PM Tom Coates' recent post on the current Muller ad. campaign, in which, to quote Tom, 'mincing gay men flounce around... ----- PING: TITLE: Gay Toilets In Advertising URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/archives/gay_toilets_in_advertising.php IP: 81.3.64.11 BLOG NAME: Submit Response DATE: 07/12/2004 04:51:09 PM Tom Coates' recent post on the current Muller ad. campaign, in which, to quote Tom, 'mincing gay men flounce around... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I'm reading... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/10/2004 09:50:27 PM ----- BODY:

    I linked to this the other day in the linklog, but it occurred to me that maybe I should do a kottke and pull out my contribution to Phil's What Webloggers are reading post and stick it up here just in case anyone's interested:

    I’m currently reading Dave Eggers’ You Shall Know Our Velocity, which I was slightly dreading but now would highly recommend. After that I was hoping to muster the enthusiasm to have another stab at the last half of Larry Lessig’s The Future of Ideas. The arguments aren’t new to me, but I thought I should probably go back and read the man himself. I really need to start reading more fiction again. For a start, I need to catch up with my Neal Stephenson — I’ve not read The Confusion or Quicksilver yet. But I’ll probably end up trawling through the various social software related bits of social science that I’ve been meaning to read for ages (Schelling, Goffman, Olson, Hall) and bunking off occasionally to grab a bit of Kim Philby’s My Silent War. I’ve become a bit obsessed with the whole Cambridge Spy thing since starting work at Broadcasting House.
    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Naming and shaming Apple UK... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/11/2004 01:23:43 PM ----- BODY:

    Random consumer-action week on plasticbag.org continues today with a shout-out to my colleague Matt Webb, who has been having considerable trouble with his no-longer quite so new Powerbook 12". More specifically he's having considerable trouble with Apple's replacement and repair policies. He received the machine on Apil 30th, it went wrong on the 12th of May and he's been trying to get it fixed pretty much ever since. That's a full two months of effort during which he's gone through Apple's diagnostic tests, not had his computer picked up, had the machine kept by Apple for 28 days and then had it returned to him with precisely the same problem he started off with.

    No. I've had people not call me back, an official complaint ignored, kept in the dark about time estimates, my machine sitting in a repair center for a month and not even picked up for 2 weeks. I'm not going through that again.

    Customer services open at 9am Monday morning. I've talked with them before, they obey The System. They can't do anything. In fact there's no-one who can. If I don't do what The System says, there's nothing they can do. Enough. I've dealt with a broken product, tried to be a good Apple user and done what they asked. Enough. I've been writing down the time and length of phone calls to Apple, and what they've said, for the last month and a half. I've got the names of the people who haven't called me back.

    Enough with official channels.

    I want a new computer, one that works, and I want it not in a month, but now, as it should have been to begin with. I want an apology. If it were possible, I'd want the days I've spent on this back, because the time this has cost me, on the phone to Apple, doing tests, moving things around,is now worth more than the machine itself.

    Both Matt and I are tremendous fans of Apple computers, Apple UI and the innovation that comes out of Cupertino. But this has been happening now for months. Just from watching it happen, I've found myself turning from a rabid Mac evangelist to someone who wouldn't want to risk inflicting this kind of insane process on anyone. My mother has been thinking of getting a new laptop - and I've been trying to move them to a Mac. But I can't put them through this kind of thing? Do the right thing, Apple! Bloody sort yourselves out!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: mo@mckinlay.me.uk IP: 81.6.204.34 URL: http://indigofruit.com/blog DATE: 07/11/2004 03:23:21 PM On a semi-related note, I recently spent a week trying to recieve goods I'd purchased from the Apple Store online. Thanks to normal debit card policies, I could only get the items delivered to my home address, but like most people, I work during the day. TNT left a helpful "If you wish to arrange re-delivery, please call..." note. Three phonecalls to TNT later, three promises of 'Yes, it will be delivered tommorrow to your work address' (my work address is literally five minutes walk from my home address), two more "If you wisht oarrange re-delivery..." notes through my letter-box at home, and one day where they didn't even bother to try delivering later, I finally got my goods. I wouldn't mind so much, but TNT managed to deliver a package from Cancom to the same address *on the same day* that they initially failed to deliver the package from Apple. I know it's not Apple at fault, necessarily - but it's their choice to use TNT in the end, and I'm not seriously wary of buying anything from them in this way again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Insam EMAIL: tom@jerakeen.org IP: 82.133.67.115 URL: DATE: 07/11/2004 07:14:33 PM I know that, in the 18 months I have owned/used macs (a personal ibbok and a work powerbook), I've had to send the ibook back 4 times and the powerbook back twice. Seems excessive. I've started seriously looking at a dell for my next machine - I have experience of them, and while I'm not impressed by their quality, I _am_ impressed by the next business day on-site warranty I can get for them. Assuming that all laptops break, I now care about how fast I can get them fixed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: filchyboy EMAIL: filchyboy@gmail.com IP: 64.30.194.235 URL: http://chronotope.com DATE: 07/11/2004 07:40:22 PM I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. I wrote a lengthy post on a Friday about 5pm PST about the situation and Apple's inability to come to terms with the problem. I posted it to my busiest site. I then wrote a personal email to Apple's CFO detailing the events, the url to the post I had made, the number of visitor's who would see the note over the weekend, and I cc'd an editor at a Mac weekly rag. On Monday morning I received a call from an Apple rep who arranged to have my laptop replaced that day if I consented to taking down the post. Worked like a charm. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: apple hater EMAIL: apple@apple.com IP: 66.177.127.87 URL: DATE: 07/11/2004 10:32:16 PM Post it on every blog and get google to display this with "apple powerbook" - or get a thinkpad. apple sux. too much style, not enough substance. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: cubic.archon@gmail.com IP: 151.197.200.170 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 07/11/2004 11:38:22 PM To Tom Insam: I would seriously not advise moving from Apple to Dell on the basis of reliability and customer service. Really. What they say they do and what they *do* do are two different things entirely. The only advantage I can think of in buying Dell is that they're common enough that indie repair places have parts and know how to fix them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Cox EMAIL: james@imajes.info IP: 62.252.64.14 URL: http://imajes.info/ DATE: 07/12/2004 12:15:28 AM I have to say i've been mega lucky. My 17" pbook died (as in, completely) about a month after i got it. I was fortunate that it was about christmas time - and low load at the apple repair shop. I got it back in two days. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Insam EMAIL: tom@jerakeen.org IP: 82.133.67.115 URL: DATE: 07/12/2004 12:25:41 AM fridgemagnet: the experiences I've had with the actual people who come out have been good. The magic phone dance, on the other hand, is certainly very annoying. Are there _any_ brands of laptop that don't suck? I don't even care about OS any more - I can work round software issues, but having to live without the thing for 2 weeks every 3 months is really bloody annoying. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lou Rosenfeld EMAIL: lou@louisrosenfeld.com IP: 68.40.200.164 URL: http://www.louisrosenfeld.com DATE: 07/12/2004 01:11:25 AM My iBook backlight went on the fritz. Part probably cost $20. Sent it back to Apple, who sent it back, still broken, a week later. Sent it back, a few more weeks go by, it comes back, still broken. Sent it back a third time, and--you got it--it came back broken again. Three months without my iBook... All along, I was talking with people at Apple "Customer Service" who promised to call back and never did. Or made other unfulfilled promises. What worked? Apple has something called an "Escalation Department". This was mentioned by a very blase phone rep to a very frustrated me in an almost happenstance way. I replied that, yes, if Apple has an Escalation Department, I'd very much like to be transferred to someone there. The person there was reasonable, and arranged to replace my iBook. Lost some data along the way--still quite angry about this, as the problem was with a friggin' backlight--but at least I got some help. Moral: Don't screw around, just ask for the Escalation Desk from the start. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Plantada EMAIL: johnplantada@mac.com IP: 69.86.84.246 URL: DATE: 07/12/2004 01:51:52 AM I actually just got a powerbook with a bad headphone jack. Went into the store, they sent it off to be repaired after trying to tell me that it was "in spec", and it came back and was still broken. So I decided to email steve jobs and let him know about my experience. I sent messages to steve@mac.com, sjobs@apple.com, and steve@apple.com. Just a shot in the dark really, I didn't expect it to work... I did that on saturday at about 5:00pm. By 9:00pm the same day I was on the phone with the regional manager of apple stores, who then offered to take care of the headphone jack free of charge. Apparently when it comes to service at apple, you have to go straight to the top to get what you want. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jeremy hunsinger EMAIL: jhunsinger@mac.com IP: 128.173.37.63 URL: http://www.tmttlt.com DATE: 07/12/2004 01:54:29 AM maybe it is because i'm an education customer at virginia tech, but i have to say, i have an ibook,a tibook, and an xraid with applecare and i've never had more than a 4 day turnaround on 11 different fixes some of them quite significant. while they don't give me a new tibook, which is at 7 repairs itself:( i'm fairly happy that when they do fix it, only once has it come back not completely or better fixed. the ibook is much sturdier of course and handles the daily use much better, the xraid was a bad drive, turnaround for that was less than 16 hours. all in all, what i say is A. BUY APPLECARE B. use it. C. be happy you can justify its cost D. don't worry about it or try to fix it yourself unless you really enjoy feeling guilty about your actions. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Charles EMAIL: none@nospam.com IP: 67.41.92.105 URL: http://ceicher.homeunix.com DATE: 07/12/2004 02:04:42 AM Let me see which scenario I think is more likely: 1. PowerBook has major parts replaced but a hardware problem still persists. 2. User has incorrect mutt install that attempts to write to a read-only directory. Continued usage of incorrect config renders the system unbootable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awfurby@hotmail.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 07/12/2004 02:14:36 AM I've had a Sony Vaio for three years now - it has never died on me, never had any trouble, and took a Linix partition without even a whimper. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mattw EMAIL: matt@interconnected.org IP: 81.153.16.52 URL: http://interconnected.org/home/ DATE: 07/12/2004 10:01:44 AM Hi Charles, thanks for your comments. Two further datapoints: - During the many reinstalls, I tried running without much of the software I usually use, including mutt. Same problems. - I use the same mutt setup on my iBook (with same base system), and it's the default install from fink. I hadn't specified any of those two points, so you're quite right to suspect software. That's why I tried to diagnose the problem myself, before talking to Apple. I must say, my previous encounters with Apple have been fine. I'm 10 year+ Mac user. When my iBook's screen went, turnaround for Apple to fix it was a few days and they were enormously helpful. But there are two things here: The individuals, who are in the main very pleasant, and Apple's bureaucracy, which sucks if anything is even slightly not what they expect. I would say "fight the machine, man" now, only I'd sound like a hippy so I won't. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: blogs@longmans.net IP: 193.131.186.189 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 07/12/2004 01:22:41 PM I had a Sony Vaio and it went round Oz in the back of a 4WD on all manner of dirt tracks for nine months and then did 2 years of home office use: it was fine. Still is. A mate had a different Vaio model and despite very light usage and staying on desk all the time, it packed up a week after his warranty ran out. He went to Sony twice and each time customer services replied telling him it was out of warranty and quoted a huge repair price. Eventually, I drafted him a letter, the nub of which was that he had used it lightly, and that Sony surely did not want its public position to be that it only guaranteed its laptops for a year of static, light use. Sony got back pretty sharpish and fixed the laptop for free. Good on 'em. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cal EMAIL: cal@kaius.com IP: 209.87.135.69 URL: DATE: 07/12/2004 07:14:00 PM i have an ibook and a viao. the harddisc in my ibook died just as it went out of warranty, which was annoying bu gave me an excuse to upgrade to something bigger. my viao and my ex's vaio have never broken. but that's just a tiny sample, ymmv. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Thair EMAIL: david.thair@consumedmag.org IP: 213.122.131.219 URL: http://www.consumedmag.org DATE: 07/13/2004 01:11:48 AM "Are there _any_ brands of laptop that don't suck?" When I ordered my laptop from Tiny in 2001 (before they went bust) I thought it was a gamble. Tiny weren't renowned for producing solid workhorses. And laptops, as this discussion has demonstrated, are generally tempremental things - especially, it seems, my friend's 17 inch PowerBook which I was initially very envious of. We've both just finished a degree course that required a high level of computer use. Since upgrading to XP from Me (least stable OS ever?), I have never had a serious problem with my computer. I kept expecting it to break down. I'm still using it right now after three years of near-constant daily use, being carried on trains, tripped over in our lounge, and the keyboard *ahem* apparently acting as a tray to pick up crumbs. My feverent Applefan friend on the other hand spent over a thousand pounds more than me on his computer (essentially so he could have a keyboard that lit up) only to face paying for additional Mac support packages that ended up letting him down at the most crucial points. I am not a PC advocate or Mac evangelist. I am in a position to enjoy using both platforms. But the blind dedication of some Apple users bewilders me, apparently valuing asthetics over all else: my friend is frustrated with Apple but simply won't consider an 'ugly' alternative. Now that's a powerful exercise in branding. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris Jones EMAIL: chris.di@btinternet.com IP: 81.152.20.210 URL: DATE: 08/13/2004 04:07:08 PM iPod Mini ( The Not so Fantastic New Product from Apple ) ÖÖÖÖÖ or maybe itís the Customer Service Department On a recent trip to the USA I arranged to buy one of the first new Ipod miniís ñ Great, it was, for a while and then two months into ownership it stopped working ñ Well I couldnít hear anything. And it hadnít really had a great deal of use. I sent it back via the UK Customer Help Line who told me that it would ëProbablyë only take a couple of weeks. I was very impressed with the service once I had gone through what later appears to be the 35 minuts plus waiting period to get anyone to talk to youÖÖÖÖ.. A bag arrived to pack it in a couple of days after the call A UPS vehicle pulled up the next day and took it away I even had an email saying that it was in transit Since then nothing unless I phone Apple Customer Help Line usually based out in India or some other far flung place (with that annoying delay in the transmission of the signal so you talk across each other) I left it 3 weeks and called them. 37 mins. I was left hanging on waiting for Customer Services (???) to answer the call. When I eventually got through I was told that the iPod was being replaced and had already been despatched back to me, within a week of my original call. On checking that turned out to be the envelope to return the broken one ñ so far not good omens They eventually told me that the iPod mini was being replaced and that I could expect it within two weeks. 9 WEEKís and 5 x 40 minute plus phone calls later I am still waiting During last call I said :- ( Me ) Just credit me and I will buy one. I can now get them in the UK it will save us all time. ( Apple Customer Services ) We cant do that we can only replace it for you once you send it back to us ( Me ) When can I expect to receive my replacement then? ( Apple Customer Services ) Canít tell you at the moment but within the week I expect ( Me ) Thatís what you said last time I called and the time before that and before that ( Apple Customer Services ) We are having problems with supply from Taiwan ( Me ) So it looks like you are not going to be able to replace it for a some time so please credit me ( Apple Customer Services ) We canít do that, you will have to wait for the replacement ( Me ) OK If I want to complain about the Customer Service who do I call? ( Apple Customer Services ) There is no level higher than us, I am sorry sir ( Me ) Good Hey ! so if you donít perform then there is no Recourse for the customer? ( Apple Customer Services ) No sir! You complain to Customer services ( Me ) Which is you ? ( Apple Customer Services ) Correct ( Me ) Ok I am complaining what happens next ? ( Apple Customer Services ) Your complaint has been noted and we will send out the replacement as soon as we can ñ Have a nice day I wish I could run a business like that Make a product and then when it stops performing Give Crap service ÖÖÖand just employ a few people in a third world country who fob the customers off with Bull S**T ----- PING: TITLE: Vad man kan anv”nda sin pagerank till URL: http://www.gustavholmberg.com/tomrum/archives/002395.html IP: 209.68.1.93 BLOG NAME: Det perfekta tomrummet DATE: 07/14/2004 09:42:49 AM Konsumentombudsmannen 2004: Matt Webb k–per en defekt Powerbook och behandlas illa av Apple. Hans ber”ttelse plockas upp av boingboing, plasticbag.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A proposal for Wifi-hubs to be built into landlines... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 07/11/2004 04:47:02 PM ----- BODY:

    Brief summary for people with too little time: slap an ADSL modem and wifi hub into every landline phone and allow them to network automatically with each other and you suddenly have a simple way to bathe an entire home in net-enabled connectivity without needing a computer. A more detailed investigation of this concept (with pictures) follows:

    So I've been thinking a lot about ubiquitous home networks recently, and the ways in which various appliances might start hooking up to the internet and through the internet to other people - social hardware if you will - and the problem keeps coming back to how you introduce the network into the home in the first place. There needs to be a way of wrapping all the core parts of a home in a network without it being something that requires complex set-up and specialised hardware. It also seems to me that the key to true ubiquity is to detach the networking completely from a its current reliance on a computer. Your home network of the future should not require a perpetually-on computer in a cupboard. Your gran should be able to have the benefits of internet enabled appliances without having to figure out the configuration of modems and puzzle their way through a complex OS-based interface.

    And if - as I assume - we're talking about wrapping the home in a wireless network, then it also seems to me that we should be looking for a way to do all this without introducing lots more widgets and boxes and cables around the place. Ideally - we would also try and avoid having little appliances stuck into random power supplies around the house (unless of course we can take them in a different direction and use them as control nodes as well as bridges cf. Airport Express - but more on that kind of paradigm another time). Essentially, we need a model in which home, net-enabled networks are treated more like a utility than a technology - more like water or electricity provision than ...

    Okay - so now we've got the criteria in place, how should we go about making this wifi-enabled network space? Probably the place to start is at the bridge between the appliance (including potentially a computer) and the network. Since these appliance could be in pretty much every room, then the first thing we're going to need is a series of wifi points littered around the premises. These ideally would cover the entire home, but if they couldn't cover it completely they'd have to be in key areas like kitchens, studies, sitting rooms, bedrooms and the like. They would not be as useful initially in storage areas, hallways, lavatories, bathrooms or on stairs - although clearly it would be an advantage if the bled into those areas. These points need to be powered in some way and they'd presumably need to connect with one another as wifi bridges. One of these appliances has to be able to connect to the internet. More than likely they'll do this via the telecommunications grid through a phone socket. And then there will have to be some kind of interface for setting up the connection and protecting it with some kind of password, encrypted and connectable to by some kind of industry standard protocol. This interface would not need to do anything else, but conceivably could do...

    So here's my contention. Given that it would seem to be a good thing to split the provision of wireless network access from computers, and given that we'll still need an interface and given that we need a point in all the core rooms of a home and given that we need to connect this network to the telephone network in some way - isn't the telephone itself the ideal appliance to be the heart of the home network? Unlike the television or the radio or the stereo, any place in a home where people are likely to spend a lot of time is likely to have a telephone point in or near it. They have small interfaces on them already - a numeric keypad for one and often a small LCD screen for recording input, and they're already connected physically to the telephone network.

    So here's what I'm thinking - and forgive the slightly ugly 80s styling of the phone itself. I tried to do something beautiful and isometric but it came out looking really nasty. So we make do with gradient fills and basic Illustrator shapes...

    So the ADSL modem and wifi antenna/bridge/hub are both included within the device. This means that in terms of buying a wifi network for your house, all you have to do is purchase the phone and plug it into a phone socket. By sticking an Ethernet port into the base of the phone you could immediately use it to connect to printers or any non-wifi enabled networkable device. If you bought a second phone, however, it would operate like a wifi bridge (there's already considerable precedent for hubs also acting as bridges - with the Airport Extreme being the most recent example), extending the network around the home. If ADSL modems did not reduce significantly in cost, then perhaps you could remove that from the additional phone units, creating master and slave phones, each of which could be strung together to extend the network still further. If ADSL modems came down in price, however, it might be useful to build them into all the devices - allowing each phone unit to negotiate with the other phones as to when it should become the dominant provider of access to the internet (ie. if the connection broke down or if it became clear that one phone could provide more throughput because of the local quality of the line or intra-phone connectivity). Either way, you'd expect the network to self-organise purely by bringing a new phone home and plugging it into a socket. The blue-lines in the following image would be self-organising connections between phones based upon proximity and strength of signal:

    So now we have a wifi network in the home, where all you'd need to do to extend the network is purchase a phone and plug it in. And we have a number of devices capable of connecting to the web. Except we've left out questions of user names / passwords / encryptions and the like. Since we're talking of this service as a utility, then the most obvious way of handling it would seem to me to be to get your ADSL along with your telephony from the same operator. Since the operators already know the telephone number that the phone is plugged into (and will know this whenever you use a phone on that network) it seems most obvious to consider that telephone number to be your user name for connectivity and the name of the local network. This would mean that when the phone was initially connected it could attempt to connect immediately to the operator. At this stage the operator (or the phone) could generate a numeric key with which to access the network. All you'd have to do is plug the phone in and then ring up your operator. Since they already have security provisions in place to help identify a caller, they could easily determine that a user was legitimate and give out an initial code which said user could then use to login to the network.

    In practice this would mean the entire process to set up the network was to plug in the phone, ring an activation number and get your code, hang up and type in the number. Any other phones you wanted to connect would just require you to plug them into the mains and type in the activation number. And then to login from any device all you'd have to do is connect to the network which was called your home phone number (Network Name: 020 7286 ####) using (again) the activation number. Piece of cake!

    The process would have other possibilities too. By using a numeric key rather than an alphanumeric key you immediately open up the number of devices that can be easily set up to use the network. Numeric keypads are far more common than full text input devices and faster to use. It would take no time at all to connect your mobile phone, television, DVD player, Tivo, Radio, CD player, tape deck and computer to such a network. But that's just the beginning. Radio Alarm clocks have keypads, Microwave ovens have key pads. In fact the only electrical things that I can see around me in my flat that don't immediately present some kind of numeric interface are my lights, iPod, digital camera, kettle, X-box, toaster and oven - and four of those have an interface that would allow you to choose numerals in different ways.

    So that's the concept in a nutshell. I can see some problems with it with regard to the separation of telecommunications services and the necessary connections that you might need to make between hardware and service providers that might make the whole thing unfeasible. I'm also more than aware that there have been explorations about ways of connecting telephones and connectivity elsewhere - some of which no doubt overlaps, encompasses or surpasses my thoughts - and no doubt I've made a few errors through the piece as well, but nonetheless I thought it was an interesting enough idea to push out into the real world and to receive feedback around. And that's what I'm after now - please feel free to leave any thoughts, fixes, suggestions or extensions below or write a post and trackback to this one, so any interested parties can follow the discussion (if there is any) more easily...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: mo@mckinlay.me.uk IP: 81.6.204.34 URL: http://indigofruit.com/blog DATE: 07/11/2004 11:08:37 PM It's a nice idea, but... The way telecommunications is heading is away from the landline as it stands - I suspect a device as you envisage is probably on the cards, but I suspect the connections might be in a slightly different order. There's three contributing factors to my opinion here: firstly, you can now get ADSL in the US without an associated telephone service; secondly, BT is slowly (but surely) moving towards IP across the PSTN (Cable & Wireless have had an IP voice network for quite some time now, other operators have similar); finally, an awful lot of people are abandoning their land-lines in favour of mobile telephones. So where does this leave us? In my opinion, this means that rather than an RJ-11 telephone socket in every home, it'll be an RJ-45 ethernet port. The great British Telecommunications company will present you, one way or another, with IP connectivity - whether it's a small box in your home, some gizmo in the green box in the street, or IP direct from the exchange. As for phone service, this will increasingly be carried over IP. This may or may not be via a telephone plugged into an ethernet socket, however. Devices which can roam transparently between IP, PSTN (via DECT), GSM and UTMS already exist in the labs - though we largely don't have the infrastructure to support their use in the real world, yet. It's only a matter of time, though. After all, almost everybody who has a landline has a cordless telephone nowadays, and BT are trialling DECT/GSM roaming (although typically they haven't figured out how charging will work). As for network addressing: associating additional information with telephone numbers is precisely what ENUM is for. Unfortunately, ENUM in the UK isn't really going anywhere - and it's going there very slowly. If you're not familiar with ENUM: it's a mechanism by which DNS records can be associated with telephone numbers. The current public ENUM tree is stored under the 'e164.arpa' domain. As an example, the telephone number +290-510-2000002 has the domain name 2.0.0.0.0.0.2.0.1.5.0.9.2.e164.arpa. A couple of seconds with 'dig' and all should become clear. There's absolutely no reason why an ENUM domain couldn't have an A record associated with it -- for example, the IP address of the network gateway associated with that telephone number. Either way, there are going to be a lot of changes in this arena over the next couple of years. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.153.198.232 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/12/2004 12:05:33 AM Ah excellent! Technical feedback! So first things first - the VoIP stuff I knew about - or at least had a sense of - particularly as BT recently announced they would be handling their exchanges with TCP/IP rather than switches. This whole area was one of the things that suggested phone-based hubs to me. I'm not convinced that everyone's going to have an ethernet connection instead of a phone socket in short order though - that seems to me to be much less likely. The cordless / roaming stuff doesn't seem to me to be strictly relevant (or at least I don't think it breaks anything) since you could easily replace the phone terminal itself with the hub of a cordless or with a basestation for roaming mobiles that switch to local landline-alikes when they're within reach of their home terminal. I think you're quite right about the DSL connections without phones though - that's where I'm slightly stumped. And the stuff on ENUM and the like is really interesting indeed. Slightly terrifying telephone domain, but I guess that doesn't need to be seen by humans. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: mo@mckinlay.me.uk IP: 81.6.204.34 URL: http://indigofruit.com/blog DATE: 07/12/2004 01:17:29 AM You could well be right about the Ethernet thing - maybe I'm thinking slightly too long-term (VoIP is my day job, so I get pretty emersed in this stuff!) Yes - ENUM domains are horrible to type in. Fortunately, they're something humans never need to see. On our VoIP platform, we use real telephone numbers (though they can't be dialled from the PSTN). When somebody dials the number of someone who isn't one of our users, we use ENUM to try and get a SIP or H.323 address for them, so we can route the call via IP. If that doesn't work, we can punt the call off to the PSTN (preferably in the destination country, rather than the source). ENUM has the potential to do a whole lot more, but committees and working groups and the ITU-T and DTI and Ofcom and everybody else are conspiring to make it as painful as possible :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.219.133 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com DATE: 07/12/2004 04:24:44 AM two problems i see: 1) i have a cell phone and cable modem - no land line. an american land line costs about $30 a month even if you never use it. that plus the actual internet access fees is too high a base rate for enough people to use this to make the products reasonably priced. that's my guess, anyway. 2) the security sounds incredibly weak. if the access number is the phone number (and maybe i'm not really understanding this part?), all i need is a wifi-enabled laptop and your phone number to access your network? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.153.198.232 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/12/2004 08:31:08 AM With regards to the security - no, that isn't the model I've proposed. What I've described would mean that your home would have a network which had as its name the number of your telephone, that you would need a password to log into that network and that the initial password you would use to log into that service would be something that was negotiated between your ISP/service-provider and your phone and which you would ring up to activate. My thought would be that a user would be able to change that password via a web-form interface on the website of their ISP. It does remove one level of password complexity / security in that it conflates first network name and ISP login name and secondly ISP password/network access password - but realistically I only did this because it seemed to me to reduce set-up complexity. There doesn't seem to me to be any reason why they couldn't be different if you were supplied with a suitably rich interface through which to change them. With regards to the landline - there's a few things there - landline companies are trying to sort out the relationship between the mobile phone and the landline, including possibilities that mean that while you're at home your phone works like a landline and while you're out it operates as a mobile. And appliances like this clearly require some kind of local hub plugged into phone sockets, so that would still work. Also, clearly we're not talking about a model here that everyone would have to go with. I'm fairly sure that there is still an enormous proportion of people with landlines in the States and that this market is unlikely to collapse completely over the next ten years. With regards to cost - I'm basically proposing that the phone companies move closer towards a TCP/IP based business - with wifi internet access and telephony increasingly starting to be merged together as a service (as some thing like "home connectivity"). The assumption would be that telephone calls would start to move towards Voice over IP-based models and be included within one rate. I think it's difficult for us today to state conclusively the economic models around future technology. Clearly bandwidth is on the increase, clearly prices will drop further and clearly what starts as expensive technology becomes almost trivial in reasonably short order. Whether these prices drop fast enough to make the phone I propose practical before the technology is obselete is, of course, far from a certainty... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris H EMAIL: typekey@deaddodo.com IP: 192.100.124.219 URL: http://www.anti-mega.com DATE: 07/12/2004 09:08:38 AM I think the sentiment is correct, but I think the devil is in the details. Random thoughts: The biggest problem is that companies that make phones don't tend to be those that understand IP and wi-fi. They're used to people buying a phone once or twice in 5-10 years, and the cost of the phone has to be as low as possible. Sure, there are lots of companies making business phones with VOIP, but they are stupidly expensive. Next problem is that most houses aren't cabled well for phones - they generally have one or two sockets at most. Also, the phone socket tends to be in some stupid place - normally near the front door, and generally somewhere without power (rather than an old-fashioned telephone table to go in my hallway, I'm going to get a little ADSL table). Makes more sense to use the wifi for other phone connections, not the copper phone system. Or do IP over the power network (useless on a large scale, can work ok in the home environment). Setting up ADSL isn't easy - there are lots of variables, mainly at the network level, but then there's also lots of different ways to authenticate. Many networks rely on MAC address authentication. Setting up this sort of thing is going to take more than typing in a number. One solution (that contracts other points) is to add a POTS modem in there too, so after ringing up to subscribe, they can dial in and set it up for you. Using phone number for a wi-fi network name is pretty bad, security wise. Unless you want tech support calls at 3am in the morning from someone wardriving outside your window. Wardialling is back. Wi-fi bridging is pretty untested - what happens when you have large meshes of networks? What happens when all your neighbours set up similar networks? What happens when you have 100 bits of consumer electronics trying to get on the network? We've all seen the problems of wi-fi at conferences with 100+ wireless users. Must admit, I doubt BT will ever be able to give you an Ethernet jack. Their POTS system is just too old and tired - until ADSL, they were busy trying to double up phone lines onto one piece of copper (with noticable drop in voice sound quality). Maybe it'll happen in other countries, especially those with good cable TV networks, or some of the LLU companies in cities. But anyway, great post, ridiculously easy home networking is a really interesting topic. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek McKellar EMAIL: derek.mckellar@accenture.com IP: 213.199.128.148 URL: DATE: 07/12/2004 10:54:36 AM Hi Tom, I know a lot of carriers are interested in the 802.16d standard (WIMAX)which aims to be a last mile broadband solution. Have a look at http://www.wimaxforum.org/ I believe BT and Eircom (here in Ireland) are keeping a close eye on this. "Wi-Fi and WiMAX are complementary technologies. As WiMAX is a "last mile" technology, meaning that it connects businesses and homes to the high-speed Internet. Wi-Fi provides the wireless LAN connectivity within a building or a home. In the notebook computer of the future, you may have both WiMAX and Wi-Fi technology to make connections to the broadband Internet. These two technologies have been architected as close cousins, and will work together to provide the best connection for your needs." - http://www.intel.com/netcomms/technologies/wimax/index.htm Digressing a little -> What would be cool is if we replace mobile phones with little devices like the Vocera pagers (http://www.vocera.com/products/products.shtm) and you as individual is reachable via a DNS entry / URL instead of a phone number :) Complete IP solution (threat to GSM from landline data carriers ?) Derek ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: mo@mckinlay.me.uk IP: 81.6.204.34 URL: http://indigofruit.com/blog DATE: 07/12/2004 11:50:53 AM and you as individual is reachable via a DNS entry / URL instead of a phone number :) The only problem with that one of practicality. Ever tried typing a URL on a telephone keypad? It sucks :) (Which is part of why ENUM was created, of course) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 195.172.62.98 URL: http://www.infovore.org DATE: 07/12/2004 01:26:18 PM Chris's comment about the phone socket/power socket problem is an important one. Whilst many people now use Dect/cordless type phones, which require a mains socket to charge from, and other devices such as answerphones also require power, the standard corded phone in this country doesn't require any form of power socket to run. It gets all its power from the phone socket. To run the kind of device you're proposing means that every comms socket (be it RJ11 or RJ45) must have a power socket next to it. Even if BT go onto ethernet, what's the chance of them providing power-over-ethernet (or even if it's enough power). Of course, using power cables for connectivity gets around this problem, but it's certainly a unique little problem brought on by houses designed a long while ago around phones which didn't need a mains plug. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek McKellar EMAIL: derek.mckellar@accenture.com IP: 213.199.128.148 URL: DATE: 07/12/2004 02:00:48 PM Yeah - i agree. The problem with small form factors is that our hands don't scale that well :) What about storing a voice recog label on a server somewhere that maps to the ENUM address. That way you don't have to type. Still have the problem of calling someone new... Wireless broadband is the way to go and it would be great if technologies like 802.16d become commercially available (soon!). There are lots of stuff we can pipe down IP, voice being just one. Somewhat related to the house wireless network is Zigbee (http://www.zigbee.com/) which is a proposed standard for home control and building automation using cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products. The industry big players seem keen to get some WIFI broadband solutions out there. The major obstacle seems to be getting agreement from local regulators managing the RF spectrum. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: dan@digitaldust.org IP: 132.185.240.122 URL: http://www.digitaldust.org/ DATE: 07/12/2004 06:21:13 PM I thought you said landMines as I scrolled past. Which is an interesting but horrifying concept. I've read a few thoughts about smart mines and they all require wifi like communication. Brings a whole new meaning to war driving. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stephen EMAIL: steve@sk2.org IP: 82.228.207.51 URL: DATE: 07/18/2004 07:51:51 PM A bit late in the game on this one, I'm catching up on my newsreading... Anyway, this kind of device is already available in France, I've got one in my living room. See http://www.freebox.fr for details (in French only). The general idea is that you subscribe to an ADSL service, with the option of disconnecting from your usual telecom supplier (the equivalent of BT) so you only pay your ADSL service. You are lent a small box, called a Freebox in my case, which plugs in to your land line and provides a SCART socket for digital TV, a phone line (with your old land line number if you disconnect from your old supplier), an Ethernet jack and a USB socket to connect a PC to the Internet, and optionally Wifi (802.11b only for now). The device can also act as a NAT router... Hey presto! One box anyone can plug in (literally - there are no passwords to provide, the box you are sent is keyed to your subscription), buy the Wifi card and activate the Wifi and router functionalities (easy enough as long as you don't want to forward ports, which most users won't), and all your Wifi-equipped friends can surf without there being a "master" PC to share the connection. There are other advantages too, the main one being free phone calls within the whole of France... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian EMAIL: adrian-blog@mcqn.net IP: 62.253.133.230 URL: http://www.mcqn.net/mcfilter/ DATE: 07/27/2004 02:37:01 PM Interesting idea, and we'll need something like that for WiFi+Internet networking to become properly mainstream. Some (random) thoughts after reading the post and the interesting discussion afterwards... I don't see them heading in this direction, but Amstrad could do this fairly easily with the eMailer - swap the POTS modem for ADSL and add a WiFi access point. Ericsson used to sell a combined GSM/DECT handset, the TH337. I don't know much about it, but the big downside seemed to be that it was DECT form-factor, rather than GSM form-factor. If you include a VoIPPOTS gateway in the unit then presumably people could buy WiFi VoIP handsets for any extra handsets they want, plus they'll be futureproofed for when (eventually) the POTS stuff is ditched in favour of all IP. Actually, mobile phones are starting to gain WiFi, so VoIP/GSM(/UMTS) roaming can't be too far off. The difficult bit in all this is the UI for configuring the device (where, of course, the best UI is no UI :-) ----- PING: TITLE: Link Harvest URL: http://dwlt.net/archives/2004/07/26/LinkHarvest IP: 217.163.9.108 BLOG NAME: dwlt.thinksOutLoud DATE: 07/26/2004 01:34:22 PM The 10 greatest Scots of all time: according to the Adam Smith Institute; A feature, not a bug: Telepocalypse point out smsBug, with linklove for my recent mobile search article; Ex-Symbian Chief Predicts the Future of Mobile Software: Services... ----- PING: TITLE: Link Harvest URL: http://dwlt.net/archives/2004/07/26/LinkHarvest IP: 217.163.9.108 BLOG NAME: dwlt.thinksOutLoud DATE: 07/26/2004 01:34:48 PM The 10 greatest Scots of all time: according to the Adam Smith Institute; A feature, not a bug: Telepocalypse point out smsBug, with linklove for my recent mobile search article; Ex-Symbian Chief Predicts the Future of Mobile Software: Services... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have no opinion about this whatsoever... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Television DATE: 07/13/2004 11:17:14 PM ----- BODY:

    I have no opinion about this whatsoever. Here are just four links in a row, presented in a reverse-chronological (most recent first) fashion with no attempt whatsoever to make a point, which nonetheless are prefaced with a proviso that any position you may infer that I have is entirely mine and not that of my employer. And I don't have one anyway:

    That's your lot. Move along. Nothing to see here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave EMAIL: david@davidoneill.net IP: 137.71.226.54 URL: http://davesrants.com DATE: 07/14/2004 01:21:29 PM Tom, have you got the last two the wrong way around? Shouldn't the Ofcom report predate the Fox segment on the Hutton enquiry? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Curious George EMAIL: debenture@yahoo.com IP: 217.44.61.127 URL: DATE: 07/14/2004 08:29:06 PM So are you and Cory dating then? ----- PING: TITLE: Foxes And Spiders URL: http://missiedith.bentbacktulips.co.uk/archive/000724.html IP: 63.247.72.82 BLOG NAME: LaceOverSand DATE: 07/15/2004 11:44:43 AM From Ofcom, via plasticbag.org. Fox News said that the BBC had appointed a special executive to monitor ëpro-Arabí bias at the network; that tapping the phrase ìBBC anti-Americanî into Google resulted in 47,200 hits; that the BBC ìcontinually bashedî A... ----- PING: TITLE: Foxes And Spiders URL: http://missiedith.bentbacktulips.co.uk/archive/000724.html IP: 63.247.72.82 BLOG NAME: LaceOverSand DATE: 07/15/2004 11:58:03 AM From Ofcom, via plasticbag.org. Fox News said that the BBC had appointed a special executive to monitor ëpro-Arabí bias at the network; that tapping the phrase ìBBC anti-Americanî into Google resulted in 47,200 hits; that the BBC ìcontinually bashedî A... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On IMwatching.net... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 07/16/2004 12:59:03 AM ----- BODY:

    I don't even know how to describe IMwatching.net except that it's imaginative and awesomely creepy. The concept in a nutshell - it's a way of keeping track of when someone was online in IM and when they were not and what their status messages were. One for stalkers, obsessive compulsives and those who think their husbands lie to them, I guess...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marcus EMAIL: web@neverthink.com IP: 81.154.3.190 URL: http://www.neverthink.com/home/ DATE: 07/16/2004 03:20:03 AM MSN Messenger has had similar (albeit fairly clunky and/or unreliable) web-based programs available for quite a while now which let you find out if somebody who appears to be offline actually is offline, or if in fact they've simply blocked you. I did actually use one once when I'd had a heated IM-based row with a girlfriend over - well, it could have been anything to be honest, let's say it was about potatoes - and suspected that she'd blocked me, a suspicion backed up by surreptitious use of the block detector. I phoned her up (in hindsight the fact that we preferred to IM rather than chat on the phone probably says a lot about why that particular relationship never led to marriage and six children) and told her that I knew I'd been blocked and wanted an apology. My speech was delivered with the same kind of self-righteousness asserted by those mad women who hire actresses to chat up their husbands in order to prove their paranoid suspicions that they're being cheated on. In retrospect, using a block-detector wasn't quite the noble and entirely justified move I thought it was at the time, but I did get an apology - and one only slightly marred by the accompanying accusations that I was a paranoid weirdo. Hurrah! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: badly dubbed boy EMAIL: andrew@badlydubbedboy.co.uk IP: 132.185.144.120 URL: http://www.badlydubbedboy.co.uk DATE: 07/16/2004 11:15:03 AM Having friends who are cyberstalkers with their gfs/bfs/dolphin lovers, I can't imagine this is particularly useful. Anyone who's savvy/sad enough to use this will also presumably be logged in to their IM all day on a big fat broadband connection at work/home, and will notice anyway. All this does is concentrate the data - but how useful is this data, really? Unless of course you've made a pact with your gf/bf/dolphin not to go on AIM! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Budd EMAIL: info@andybudd.com IP: 62.49.5.25 URL: http://www.andybudd.com/ DATE: 07/19/2004 11:29:12 AM Having arguments with your girlfriend via IM. What a modern world we live in! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On scientific truth and Christian truth... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Science CATEGORY: Science DATE: 07/16/2004 12:24:38 PM ----- BODY:

    In the middle of an article about the way that the religious right have interfered with scientific work in the US, I find a troubling paragraph:

    At a time when biology is poised to undergo a fundamental revolution, the US government, arguably the most potent government in the history of the world, is rife with White House appointees who believe that scientific truth and Christian truth cannot be synonymous, and may well be in opposition.

    I ask myself - do I believe that scientific truth and Christian truth can be synonymous? My answer - no. I ask myself - do I believe that they may well be in opposition? My answer - yes. The only difference between me and the people from the religious right then, is that we disagree with which 'truth' is the more reliable. I stick on the side of the people who test their conclusions and refine their belief systems with reference to evidence - they stick to the side of the people who believe that a magic being sets bushes on fire and turns women into salt.

    So the scary bit for me is not that the nutters in power believe that the two are incompatible, but that the assumption is that for reasonable, normal, run-of-the-mill scientists all across America that it's normal to be able to reconcile meteorology with the concept of rains of blood and biology with people who bring people back from the dead...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stephen Newton EMAIL: spam@nospam.com IP: 81.153.208.84 URL: http://www.stephennewton.com DATE: 07/16/2004 02:00:36 PM A variation of a joke on proof you may like: An astronomer, physicist, mathematician and a medieval priest are on a train to Scotland. They cross the border and see a black sheep. The astronomer says, ëAh, Scottish sheep are black.í ëNo,í says the physicist. ëAll you can say from that observation is that some Scottish sheep are black.í ëNo,í says the mathematician. ëAll you can say from that observation is that there is at least one sheep in Scotland, at least side of which is black.í The priest then pipes up, ëI divine from that observation that the sheep was blackened by a dragonís breathí. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.221.229.25 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com DATE: 07/16/2004 02:15:02 PM Not all Christians believe those stories are all literally true. Some take a large chunk of the bible as metaphor. There are christian "scientists" of whom you should be reasonably frightened, but not all of them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jonathan LaCour EMAIL: jonathan-lists@cleverdevil.org IP: 63.162.56.10 URL: http://www.cleverdevil.org DATE: 07/16/2004 06:00:08 PM Well, I just had to pipe up on this one. While I certainly think that there are plenty of Christians here in the U.S. that have a totally distorted view of reality, truth, and science, I think that you are making some blanket judgements here that aren't really true. There are lots of stupid people in the world, and since many people in the world are Christians, there are a lot of stupid (or shall we say, uneducated, or uninformed) Christians. I am a Christian, but I am also educated and intelligent and willing to think for myself. You make a divide between "scientific truth" and "Christian truth" which is very disturbing to me. There is no such distinction between "scientific truth" and "Christian truth", there is only truth. To be more specific and general all at once -- the rules of logic state that something is either true or false, not both. There is a set of information that is produced by research, scientific principles, and evidence that is put forth, which I think we can equate to what you refer to as "scientific truth". The thing is, there are many different assumptions made in science, and many different theories that conflict with one another, and plenty that we just plain don't know or understand yet. Now, if you take that set of information and boil it down to what we can refer to as "scientific concensus", the set becomes a lot smaller, but a lot more likely to be "Truth" (notice the big "T"). There is considerably less internal conflict in this smaller set of information, and generally there is much more evidence. Remember, there are *still* people around who believe that the earth is flat, but their group certainly has not formed a scientific concensus :) Similarly, there is a set of information that the Christian world puts forward as "truth". Not everyone agrees, the Bible is interpreted many different ways, and a lot of this information conflicts both internally, and with information in the scientific set of information above. Now, its a bit more difficult to distill this set of information down to a set based on mutual evidence and consensus, because you can't prove much in this set of information. However, there are many well-respected theologians and well-expressed "core belief" sets from all the major sects of Christianity. This can be used to come up with some consensus information that is pretty well accepted in the Christian world (there is a God, he had a son named Jesus, people sin, there is a heaven, there is a hell, etc). So, I have rambled a lot here, so let me see if I can bring this all together. The bottom line is that there are lots of people in this world who decide to bind themselves to understanding the world through only one of the "spheres" above -- science or religion. If you marry yourself only to the scientific sphere, there is a lot of Truth (again with the big T) that you are missing out on. If you bind yourself to only the religious sphere, then you are similarly missing out on a lot of Truth! I believe that the real way to experience and understand life is not to limit yourself such believing only things that scientists tell you or only things that religion tells you. You cannot prefer one sphere over the other. Life is about the search for understaning through Truth. Personally, I do my best to reconcile the two spheres of science and religion to live a more complete life. I can use one to polish the other! Science tells me all about the mechanisms of evolution that God used to create the universe! The Bible tells me *why*. How great is that? Science will never be able to tell me the answers to the "why" questions, but will help me to better appreciate the beauty, logic, and elegance of the universe, and will help me to better understand its Creator. It frustrates me greatly that Christians get such a bad name because people overgeneralize and criticize things that they do not fully understand. Bottom line -- there is Truth, and it can be known and understood through many methods. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 213.94.252.23 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 07/17/2004 04:54:06 AM Normally I dislike long comments but I'm just so darned worked up on this issue that I beg your indulgence. I don't want to retread old ground (plasticbag On the existence of God...), and I am also aware that writers of the calibre of Richard Dawkins and Douglas Adams (to pick my personal favourites) have given voice to similar sentiments far more eloquently than I could ever hope to; but some things need to be said over and over again - after all, there is plenty of evidence that people will believe anything if it is said loud enough and often enough, and surely a perspective that makes sense will find an easier home in people's minds than something that doesn't? I usually try to be nicey-nicey about this issue, but Tom is 100% right here, and points like this one need to be driven home. There seem to be a lot of people who work in scientific areas that seem to have chosen this field simply as a profession, and who happily maintain a fence around their religious beliefs. Christians necessarily believe in a guy who died and then came back from the dead to talk to all of his buddies. I don't know which of the miracles some Christians apparently take as metaphor, but that is entirely irrelevant: reasonable people should never ever believe some crazy spiel about a guy coming back to life or anyone's physical remains moving to some ill-defined alternate plane - this is about as far removed from scientific truth as it is possible to get (without going into *shudder* Creationism). It is a tragedy that so many people have been indoctrinated into this craziness, and it is appalling that someone can be a professional scientist and then completely turf all of their methods and standards of evidence out of the window when it comes to their religious beliefs, basically because religion makes them feel nice and fuzzy on the inside. As far as 'Truth' goes, standards of proof appear to be nonexistent these days: I graduated with a BA in Philosophy from a place with a Philosophy course on 'Evolution: Myth or Theory?' - and this from the largest University in the country! This just goes to show that people will accept any kind of crazy claim as meritorious, no matter how wrong it is. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to point out that the only method that has proven even slightly consistent or useful in determining 'Truth' is the scientific one: observe, generalise, test. Of course we could ask: 'what is truth?' and then we would have to admit that our method is not always right and we do occasionally go the wrong way or misinterpret data, but I challenge anyone to come up with an alternative method for determining truth that makes any kind of sense. Since the whole universe thing seems to make sense without the whole 'God' complexity, there is no coherent explanation for leaving it in, other than that 'I really want it!í and sadly, wanting doesnít make things true. If that's the way you want to choose what you believe then fine, good luck, but you should consider why you use objective scientific criteria in any circumstances: maybe you might want to cease doing so until you can come up with a some excuse for applying it to some propositions but not to others. In fact, it amazes me that so many Christians can have the Santa-Claus myth debunked when they are children, and yet go through an entire lifetime without taking a more general lesson about the power of myth and circumstantial evidence from the whole business. I'm sorry if you choose to believe in god, because you're just plain wrong - as wrong as someone who chooses to believe that the earth is flat or that there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and for the very same reasons. It may seem like a harsh reality check, but in fact Keats was right - truth really is beautiful - and that is why people should be scientists. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: vernaculo EMAIL: vernaculo@gmail.com IP: 66.215.50.139 URL: DATE: 07/17/2004 06:12:53 AM Science starts from zero. Religion starts from within the zero. They both get perverted, and the best in both are threatening to how things really are. The idea that the current administration has any representatives of "Christian thought" in it is laughable. Unless by Christian thought we mean anything anyone thinks or says who calls themself Christian. The two camps are like football teams. Seemingly in opposition, but playing on the same field, by the same rules, for the same powerful interests behind the scenes. Religion and science were once the same thing, the division is what's false; now they're both incomplete, each lacking the strength of the other. The world and the universe don't change because we see them differently, and there's no one here who sees it all for what it really is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michel EMAIL: michel.galle@oomu.org IP: 80.119.205.241 URL: DATE: 07/17/2004 11:23:44 AM I don't care about who is the "right christians" or "perverted christians" religious is just religious : old mythical stories, legends, and believings , built from book and old tellings and culturals history. Science is just a TOOL, a way to manage the world : observe, theorize, confront theorie, proove, explain. Science is not about some stories or whatever believings, it's about study , theories, to change theory when observation proove it's false and go on : science is not dogmatic. Dogmatic scientist are _bad_ scientist (they close their mind) religious and science are NOT opposite side of the same thing, it's just completely different things. nothing to argue, to compare or to debate. and if physical science tells you proton and neutron are useful to explain electrical stuff happening, it doesn"t tell you anything about god (or gods) or faery or whatever you want to believe about spiritual things : why I go ? where I go ? from where I go ? why people want to know that ? science is not about that. so no worry ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 213.94.253.20 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 07/18/2004 12:18:46 AM piffle. if religion was just considered to be myth there'd be no problem, but it's not - people claim that religious stories are literally true. The point is that applying a scientific eye to religious claims should immediately lead to their rejection of religion. It is bizarre that this doensn't happen. Of course religion tries to inhabit the same ground as science: it makes claims as to the nature of the universe, and as to what things can happen. Science exposes these claims as nonsensical, but religious people believe them anyway. Once again I ask you - how can a scientist believe that a guy lay dead for 3 days, came back to life and then bodily disappeared into 'heaven'? see: it's nonsense! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Camilo EMAIL: camilo@confusedkid.com IP: 207.140.66.1 URL: http://www.confusedkid.com/primer/ DATE: 07/23/2004 04:34:30 PM Sadly for the ones interested in equating religion with science, Tom, this is a self-correcting problem. Soon afterwards, they have to face increasing costs and diminished efficiency just because they do not have the conceptual tools. Soon thereafter, other countries emerge as research powers, thus advancing further on and developing that tipping point advantage that overturns paradigms. And we will be all buying our medical treatments from a lab in Rio or Shanghai. The problem, as noted above, is self-correcting. How long does the powerful country remain in power when it ceases to be competitive? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: wookie EMAIL: the_wookie@hotmail.com IP: 213.208.104.187 URL: DATE: 07/23/2004 11:10:49 PM Jonathan, If I accept for a minute your idea that there is such a thing as 'The Truth' at all, I wonder what made you select religion as the body of thought that best answered the questions about life, the universe and everything that science doesn't cover? And furthermore, why your particular religion over the vast array on offer? Surely, if you can weigh up what forms a consensus within the areas science deals with you can do the same for religions? How does Christianity compare to Islam or Buddhism, say, if we're looking for where world popular opinion lies? And why stop at the religions, after all there are plenty of rational philosophical areas of thought that deal with many of the same areas as religion. Despite saying that ìthere is no such distinction between scientific truth and christian truthî you then go on to immediately set up a false dichotomy between science and religion; there are many other areas of human thought that can be called upon to draw your personal conclusions about the nature of the universe and your place within it. Generally speaking I feel that religious people of any denomination are taking the easy way out, opting to choose something that has a nice simple system to explain questions that might concern them, rather than dealing with the questions that arise in their lifes by coming to their own conclusions based upon seriously considering the issue. I canít accept that someone who has rationally thought about, for example, ëwhy people do bad thingsí can come to the conclusion that ëbecause they are influenced by the devilí is the best answer available. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: peter@wildbard.co.uk IP: 213.130.141.21 URL: http://www.wildbard.co.uk/lunartalks.html DATE: 08/05/2004 12:19:43 AM There's some entertaining discussion about this on www.gruts.com/darwin and my own site. We;re in the North East where a fundalmentalist Mt Vardy is funding city academies where creationism is being taught next to evolution and biblical christianity is being infused into each lesson. In America, Christians use Darwinism as shorthand for a secular society and use the education system to attack evolution through Darwinism, an intellectually bankrupt but effective strategy. How distressing that Tony Blair is allowing a similar fundamentalist front to open in Britain. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kenneth EMAIL: hello@hello.com IP: 218.208.251.3 URL: DATE: 08/15/2004 05:47:17 PM There are no 'different' truths. Only one truth. Any multiple ways of interpreting truths are just that - interpretations of the truth - even if as you say one interpretation (science) is more believable because it is tested and refined with evidence. Unfortunately, this evidence, methods of testing and so on - what we call 'science', is bounded by our limitations as human beings. Unconscious unknown - you wont know something you never knew existed unless it makes itself known. You can never seek it, prove it, or disprove it. Hence, you cannot prove or disprove God - if He exists. Only He can do so. Do you think just because a large majority of humanity believes in a 'truth' observable and tested within our short existence - that is must be so? That because we've not proven the hand of God he must not exist? That because humans have not been able to reincarnate it is not possible? How do you prove this? It is impossible to do. I would propose to keep our minds open. The truth will be revealed if it will - because if it doesnt - we wont be able to find it anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Grudge EMAIL: m1111p@hotmail.com IP: 165.254.160.32 URL: DATE: 10/18/2004 08:17:37 PM In that case, you cannot disprove or prove anything. I think at some point we have to agree that we're all working within the context of 'human understanding', of which religion is self-admittedly out of the realm of. I think the better polish to put on this skin is the following: fine, noone can prove or disprove the existence of God. But we CAN prove the full extent of manipulation of texts of all major religions since they were born without a label and without a mission on day one of their 'existence'. ----- PING: TITLE: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/software.html#001428 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/software.html#001428 IP: 203.194.209.195 BLOG NAME: Links DATE: 07/18/2004 11:10:07 PM plasticbag.org | weblog | On scientific truth and Christian truth...... ----- PING: TITLE: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/religion.html#001428 URL: http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/religion.html#001428 IP: 203.194.209.195 BLOG NAME: Links DATE: 08/10/2004 06:13:03 AM plasticbag.org | weblog | On scientific truth and Christian truth...... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The New Musical Functionality... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 07/17/2004 01:04:15 PM ----- BODY:

    Over the last few months webloggia has been full of discussions about the new musical functionality that's starting to emerge around the web. I wasn't immune from this trend - I wrote about MediaUnbound (On MediaUnbound and Recommendations Engines) and linked to the (currently pretty awful) Music Recommendation System for iTunes. Dan Hill has also been talking around the subject, talking about first Socialising mp3-based music listening and then about whether whether recommendations scale. And those minxes over at 2lmc linked and commented upon the views of people who are suggesting better ways that iTunes could handle transitions between songs. And of course the new version of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store also now has the user-generated iMix feature - standard web-native functionality which allows people (and now people in the UK, France and Germany rather than just the US) to put mix tapes on the web where other people can rate and/or buy them. And that's just the tip of the iceberg...

    Then of course there are the staples of this new musical functionality - from the rapidly-becoming-indispensible audioscrobbler (which uses the flexibility and granularity of net-enabled MP3 playing devices to create charts, lists and recommendations) through to the self-generating radio stations like last.fm and launchcast. And then there's all the little hook-in tools like iChatStatus (publish current listening to iChat's presence display) and Kung-Tunes (publish current listening to the web) that have slowly becoming integrated into my life without my really noticing how they all hook together, communicate, branch off and build upon each other.

    All this new funtionality is emerging at the same time (or at least starting to be adopted at the same time) because we're beginning to see a world in which a decent number of early adopters are now starting to do a substantial portion of their listening on digital devices. Obviously the iPod has been the major success story here - the definitive product that has been encouraging people to do the necessary work to transfer their music into more easily manipulatable digital files. But the increasing prevelance of broadband and wireless connectivity is helping too - becauase it's the connection of these appliances to the internet that has created the explosion in interoperable, interconnected devices, applications and people. Clearly, the number of people listening to music through these channels is still tiny compared to the entire music-consuming public. There may be many people using iPods, but there's still an adoption path for moving all your listening into digital jukeboxes and being perpetually connected to the internet (ubiquitous, always-on, non-computer-centric internet in the home is a bit of an obsession of mine at the moment).

    But this small proportion looks like it is set to grow. One of the first questions you have to ask yourself in any organic R&D role (which is I think how I'd characterise what I do) is am I a freak or am I an early adopter? You have to have some sense of how much your instincts and excitements are in tune with real people in the world because otherwise you cannot possibly evaluate how those people might respond to the products, concepts or propositions that you think are exciting. In this case, it's becoming fairly clear that people who are listening to digital music and in connected ways are very definitely more like early adopters than they are freaks. They're pointing in roughly the right direction. And there are now enough of them that it's becoming more and more worth people's time to build little tools or widgets or applications or paradigms or appliances or business models around them. Which in turn appears to be making the whole area still more attractive, creating a feedback loop that is pulling more and more people towards new ways of listening. I don't want to sound too cheesy but I'm afraid I can't help myself - it's pretty clear that we've reached a critical mass and that new musical functionality is about to explode. The only question now is what will be there when the smoke clears?

    Over the next few days I'm going to write about some of the core trends that I'm seeing in people's use of digital music, attempting to extrapolate from some current behaviours that we're all observing around us - concentrating on how people wish to interact and use their music. I'm not going to spend too much time on the way some people may wish to legislate against these desires or build around them - because I believe for the most part that any attempt to do so will inevitably fail. Competing models that more adequately fulfil those needs will rise to take over in their place. The model that meets the most needs (while having the least obvious incumberences) will probably win in the really long-term, even if the market, commercial advantages or monopolist practices deform it in the short to medium term.

    I'll be talking about four major areas that seem to me to be indicative of the unevenly-distributed musical functionality of the future - (1) portability and access, (2) navigation, (3) self-presentation and social uses of music and (4) data use and privacy. These trends within these areas are - I believe - representative of much larger trends across the consumption of all text-based, audio-based and video-based media and so it might be possible to draw conclusions beyond the consumption of music. I am however not planning to do so. And I make no claims that these areas of enquiry are absolute or canonical, or that there are no other areas that I should also be investigating. All I'll argue is that these four areas are core to the movements that we're currently seeing and that they are each likely to play themselves out in the product designs, interface designs and business models of the near future.

    Of course what comes after that remains to be seen...

    Tomorrow: The New Musical Functionality, Portability and access

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gerrit EMAIL: gk@planetgk.de IP: 217.229.99.12 URL: DATE: 07/17/2004 03:44:54 PM A good (better imho) alternative to Audioscrobbler is Musicmobs (http://musicmobs.com/). While Audioscrobbler only monitors what one is playing while a software like iScrobbler is running in the background (and using resources), Musicmobs analyses the Playcount of tracks in your whole library, meaning songs played on, for instance, the iPod are considered aswell. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@neuronwave.com IP: 203.51.152.151 URL: http://www.neuronwave.com DATE: 07/17/2004 10:45:26 PM Tom - I'm looking forward to your notes. Its of particular interest to me having founded a music recommendation company 5 years ago and having been through the nuclear winter of tech startups along with the recent interest in music stores. From a business perspective, it is interesting to note that music of the online stores have very little money left after they divide up the pie to pay for commercial music recommendation services. Take for example, Media Unbound which reportedly got 0$ for Pressplay. Other companies, such as Mood logic and Savage Beast, Kick, Gigabeat etc. have come and gone or are struggling by focusing on additional revenue streams hoping to come out of this environment in a few years. Services such as audioscobbler and other home built community resources may well be the future as they are run on a shoe string rather than funded businesses....but time will tell. With such a small amount of global music sales being done online it will be very interesting to see how the alpha-geek (not freak) early adopter style translates to the general population. My belief is that the user experience will need to have personalisation built seemlessly into applications and that implicit rating and profiling systems will be mandatory, versus explicit rating of music from 1 -5 for example. We have also experienced that people looking at music recommendation systems are significantly different from the general music listening population, in so far as our experience shows that a simple collaborative filtering style people who bought this also bought this is 80% perfect and for a 1 line sqal statement the ROI on this is VERY compelling, making it difficuly to justify additional expense for the 20% for system xyz which uses technique a or b or c (each of which are perfectly valid). A bit of a dump but its early Sunday morning ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jack EMAIL: jack@submitresponse.co.uk IP: 81.154.154.208 URL: http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/ DATE: 07/21/2004 04:16:49 PM This is at a bit of a tangent, but, since I'm certain I'll never move to listening to music by digital means alone - I have too much vinyl - one thing I find incredibly frustrating is that services like Audioscrobbler only represent a small corner of my listening habits. I use an iPod constantly when out of the house, but tend to listen to vinyl at home almost exclusively, ie. my out-and-about listening is all downloaded and digital, my at-home listening is all analogue and paid for. And there's a big difference between the two collections, which makes taste-tracking services like Audioscrobbler next to useless, unless it's somehow made absolutely clear that they represent a particular subset of my musical tastes (an odd combination of 'disposable' music and rare or hard-to-find music). I doubt anyone will be making a device to scan the labels of 12"s on my turntable as they play and upload the record's details to the web, but that's the sort of thing we need, I think, in this interim period when people consume both digital music files through web-enabled players as well as, erm, real albums and singles. And I suppose you could take that further - it would be great to have a mobile device hooked into a service like Shazzam that would not only track and publish music I consciously choose to listen to, but music played for me by other people, in nightclubs, etc. Not sure if that's any use to you, Tom, but this is certainly a fascinating area for a bit of research - music is curious in that folk seem to wear their music tastes as a badge in a way that they don't with film, telly, even literature; so attempts to track listening habits and use that information in a social software-ish way should start throwing up some interesting possibilities. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: grant EMAIL: grantimatter@yahoo.com IP: 198.172.230.2 URL: DATE: 07/22/2004 10:38:51 PM some of the core trends that I'm seeing in people's use of digital music, attempting to extrapolate from some current behaviours that we're all observing around us On a band's fansite bulletin board that I frequent, there was a discussion a few months ago about digital music meaning the death of the album. At least, that's how I interpret the discussion. The album as we know it sprang directly from the invention of the long playing record (LP) -- before that, it was all singles. CDs mimic that form, but not entirely (the idea of "sides" has gone out the window). And the iTunes Music Store pretty much uses albums only as a time-based filing device, if you think about it. Oh, this song goes here, in this period of this artist's output. The fact that singles from tribute albums & samplers show up on the screen in chronological order between singles, EPs and "proper" albums just kind of reinforces that way of seeing songs as separate songs, rather than as being of-a-piece. In the indie crowd, there's been a trend lately for semi-concept albums, I think (Mountain Goats, Wilco), that's possibly a preconscious, nostalgic reaction against this... people thinking "Hey, they don't make albums like that any more." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Barry Ritholtz EMAIL: ritholtz@optonline.net IP: 24.46.87.104 URL: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2003/09/the_napster_coo.html DATE: 07/24/2004 12:27:15 PM I lamented last year of the ìmissed opportunityî the music industry had in failing ot create a ìcooption modelî via Napster as a centralized downloading center. This involved a "jiu jitsu" of the Napster sharing framework. The goal of the model would be to turn the Napster network into a massive data mining / advertising promotion / sales machine. Each aspect of this model emphasizes the accumulation, analysis and application of consumer music data. The first goal would be to find out a) what people are listening to; b) what else they might want to listen to; and c) extending their relationships with the artists whose music they appreciate. Of course, any industry as technophobic and and paranoid as the music biz could never see through to a system such as that. No matter. they are slowing mismanaging themselves out of existence. Lets just hope that whatever replaces them is more consumer friendly than the RIAA is (was) . . . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: richard EMAIL: staff@zerophase.net IP: 68.105.159.253 URL: http://zerophase.net DATE: 07/25/2004 07:17:02 PM This is sort of a tangent as well, but at Zerophase we are working on a method that lets the artists get 100% of the sales of digital music downloads from our site, no matter how much they happen to sell. We will derive our revenue in other ways, such as merchandising, premium artist pages, sales of comp discs, etc... We will only offer it to our premium (paying) artists, so we can pay the bills. It's looking good from the theoretical side, and hopefully the implementation will work well too. Bookmark us and check in from time to time :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: awful EMAIL: awfurby@hotmail.com IP: 165.228.130.12 URL: DATE: 07/26/2004 04:19:10 AM "Jetpacks with streaming audio" was my facetious suggestion on Slashdot a few weeks ago when someone asked "Whatever next?" I'm not sure about the jetpacks bit, but I definitely like the idea of walking around like I'm my own personal radio station. I guess I would have a broadcast radius of about 10 metres (maybe that's a bit too much), and as long as you've got a listening device that can tune in to my stream then you can listen to the tunes that I'm listening to. And if you like my choices, you might want to stick around me for a bit. But if all I play is teh suck then you can just head off and find some other mobile radio show/person. And of course no need to ask what songs I'm playing - that info will just show up on your player. Oh, but what if there are a lot of people all broadcasting at once, like on a bus or train? I guess maybe there would be signal strength issues, and maybe also there could be a way that the devices could negotiate frequency or something. And there'd be a note on the display telling you how many other streams are currently active in your area. And finally - there would be a class of music players that would have Uber-narrowcast Status, so that if they sensed that everyone needed to get funky now! they could just override everyone else's streams with one song guaranteed to get everyone dancing. This feature could be especially useful in times of trouble. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Loic EMAIL: loic@sixapart.com IP: 195.68.50.5 URL: http://www.loiclemeur.com DATE: 07/26/2004 07:13:08 PM Hi Tom, sorry for using comments but I don't know what I have done with your email address. FYI I answered Stephanie's post (Climbtothestars.org) on my blog an hour ago if you are interested. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Molly EMAIL: molly@girlwonder.com IP: 66.199.93.79 URL: http://www.girlwonder.com/ DATE: 09/11/2004 05:37:52 PM I'm a total latecomer to this thread, but this is something that I began researching before I left Ivrea. (In fact, I've just posted much of what I've written here at Social Beasts, since my comment got really long!) I've been very curious about how we build our identities via music, and how we learn about other people through their musical tastes. I've been in love with iTunes, Audioscrobbler and Last.FM since i encountered them. I'm really curious about how these applications will change our relationships in smaller, closed networks, and how this transfers onto cities and neighborhoods. Ivrea is a small, closed community where people know each other face-to-face, and initiating contact with somebody is easy. Outside of the permanent residents, a variety of professors and visitors pass through the Institute. I realized that thanks to iTunes and the closed network, I was learning about my students, colleagues and school visitors in a way that I wouldn't have an opportunity to do previously. It demonstrated that I had commonalities with people I would not have guessed, and gave me a basis for conversation about something else other than our typical relationships would have suggested (interaction design, teaching, what do you think of Italy, and so on). Being a huge music fan, I've always done this by looking at people's CD collections. But that requires a level of intimacy -- you need to be invited into someone's home, or be able to pick up their Case Logic, or ride in their car, or run into them at a record store or show. As I interviewed people, I learned that for some, music is incredibly personal, "like family pictures," said one student from India. A researcher from Venezuela said he kept his CDs in his bedroom because that's how intimate music was to him: maybe (and just maybe) you'd get to see his music collection. A Japanese student said that when she first got to Ivrea, she would only share some of her music on her iTunes -- she didn't want to give people the wrong idea about who she was. There were a few pivotal people that always came up in the interviews. Two British students had expansive musical tastes. One was known for the scope and size of his music collections (he had different ones: one at home, the other portable). The other, a very quiet guy, had a very eclectic collection -- one that had many things that I had or would want to have. For many people in the community, they got to know a side of this student that they would have waited for longer in conversation, since he was rather shy. A Stephen Aubrey and Katie Brown, students at Wesleyan, refer to this as Playlistism , where you make judgments about people based on what's in their playlists. The Wesleyan Argus article looks at the pop-culture and negative sides of this, but I found it very positive and downright fascinating at Ivrea. iTunes was the killer community app, when it was possible to generate face-to-face context. Music is, after all, a high-context thing. Looking at and judging someone's musical collection requires knowledge about the music, the band, the label, and accessing one's own connotations. Two students I interviewed, an Italian man and a Turkish woman, were similar to me in that regard: they are huge musical fans, and look at a collection as a whole to determine someone's taste. (Which is to say a little BeyoncÈ or Justin Timberlake wouldn't derail a collection, and would even indicate ironic pop sensibility). ----- PING: TITLE: The New Musical Functionality URL: http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/07/22/the_new_musical_functionality.php IP: 64.94.116.60 BLOG NAME: Many-to-Many DATE: 07/22/2004 10:47:09 PM Tom Coates has the first of what looks like a fantastic series of posts on the new musical functionality, an extended musing on the distribution of production, reproduction, and filtering of music, covering especially the newly social context. Over the... ----- PING: TITLE: verbal be mine URL: http://www.floozyspeak.com/blog/archives/2004_07.html#000529 IP: 66.93.208.166 BLOG NAME: Floozy Speak! DATE: 07/23/2004 01:53:39 AM Hey flooz kittens whats happening?  I've just returned from a three day ottawa bonanza research trip.  It was good.I'm sitting here compiling some fresh tracks for my gym workout experience and listening to Verbal here from Amon Tobin.. and y... ----- PING: TITLE: The New Musical Functionality URL: http://www.unmediated.org/archives/001063.html IP: 68.89.226.140 BLOG NAME: unmediated DATE: 07/23/2004 07:08:15 PM Tom Coates has the first of what looks like a fantastic series of posts on the new musical functionality, an extended musing on the distribution of production, reproduction, and filtering of music, covering especially the newly social context. Over the... ----- PING: TITLE: Am I freak, or...? URL: http://robinsloan.com/newmedium/am_i_freak_or/index.html IP: 203.194.209.77 BLOG NAME: large is the new medium DATE: 07/23/2004 10:39:12 PM Tom Coates, writing about the new musical functionality of the Internet, says: One of the first questions you have to ask yourself in any organic R&D role (which is I think how I'd characterise what I do) is am I... ----- PING: TITLE: MusicMobs URL: http://blog.germuska.com/archives/000389.php IP: 67.162.109.157 BLOG NAME: Through The Wire DATE: 07/28/2004 04:08:50 AM In reading the comments to Tom Coates' The New Musical Functionality..., I found a link to a site called MusicMobs. MusicMobs is a music information site which is driven by individual users uploading their exported iTunes music libraries. That means th... ----- PING: TITLE: MusicMobs URL: http://blog.germuska.com/archives/000389.php IP: 67.162.109.157 BLOG NAME: Through The Wire DATE: 07/28/2004 04:26:03 AM In reading the comments to Tom Coates' The New Musical Functionality..., I found a link to a site called MusicMobs. MusicMobs is a music information site which is driven by individual users uploading their exported iTunes music libraries. That means th... ----- PING: TITLE: Notes on Tim O'Reilly's Oscon 2004 speech URL: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002081.php IP: 66.246.98.37 BLOG NAME: Read/Write Web DATE: 07/29/2004 03:33:19 AM One good thing about audio on the Web is that I can listen to things while I'm working. Which is precisely what I did this morning with Tim O'Reilly's keynote speech at the Open Source Convention currently being held in... ----- PING: TITLE: P2P killed the Radio Star URL: http://www.gigaom.com/2004/07/p2p_killed_the.php IP: 66.36.229.134 BLOG NAME: Om Malik on Broadband DATE: 07/29/2004 06:13:49 AM One of the biggest problems with ITunes is that despite easy downloads, one finds it difficult to get recommendations on songs, especially if you don't like mainstream crap. But no more, thanks to new P2P tools like AudioScrobbler. Song Buddy,... ----- PING: TITLE: The New Muscial Functionality URL: http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2004/07/the_new_muscial.html IP: 213.92.76.66 BLOG NAME: Marc's Voice DATE: 07/29/2004 06:04:13 PM Clay raps it out - some more..... Tom Coates has the first of what looks like a fantastic series of posts on the new musical functionality, an extended musing on the distribution of production, reproduction, and filtering of music, covering especially ... ----- PING: TITLE: Audioscrobbler URL: http://soreeyes.org/archives/001558.html IP: 193.111.200.5 BLOG NAME: Sore Eyes DATE: 08/15/2004 07:48:08 PM Tom Coates mentioned the Audioscrobbler music recommendation service last month in the first of his series of posts about what he terms "the new music functionality". The service was temporarily closed to new accounts while they upgraded their hardware... ----- PING: TITLE: Sharing music and "playlistism" URL: http://www.socialbeasts.com/archives/000989.html IP: 66.100.236.82 BLOG NAME: social beasts DATE: 09/11/2004 05:42:25 PM I'm a total latecomer to Tom Coate's thread on the new musical functionality . This is something that I began researching before I left Ivrea. I've been very curious about how we build our identities via music, and how we... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The New Musical Functionality: Portability and access STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Radio & Music CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 07/26/2004 11:42:04 PM ----- BODY:

    The other day I started this run of posts on the New Musical Functionality by arguing that the behaviour of an until-recently small group of digital music fans seemed to be now spreading into the mainstream. I also listed four areas that seemed to me to be where the most significant changes in consumption patterns were occurring - areas to which I believe that anyone building sites, services or hardware around music should be paying close attention. These four areas were (1) portability and access, (2) navigation, (3) self-presentation/social uses and (4) data use and privacy. Today I'm going to concentrate briefly on the trends towards portability and access.

    This may seem like an obvious place to start, but I think it's an important thing to get out in the open: the core difference between an iPod and a CD Walkman isn't audio quality. That's not to say that there isn't a differences in the audio quality between the MP3/AAC file and CD 'originals' because - of course - there is and it is a significant one. However, in defiance of the normal path of technological achievements, the newer technology does not have the advantage in reproductive fidelity. In the future this may change (Apple's lossless compression and increasingly cheap storage space are just two of the reasons why), but at the moment MP3s and AACs use lossy forms of compression and for this reason simply do not sound as good as their CD originals. It would probably be pushing it to say that this is the first significant change of popular audio format that actually made the sound quality worse (vinyl fans have been criticising the CD for that for years), but it does at least seem to be one of the first where claims of improved sound haven't been a major selling point.

    So why are these new formats and players starting to occupy the mainstream so effectively? What is it that means people want iPods so desperately even though they're effectively purchasing a technology that will result in a decrease in audio quality? Again the answer is so obvious that it hardly bears repeating - particularly given that it's on every single bloody advert that Apple produce. The reason that people are buying iPods is because they want 10,000 songs in their pockets. They want access to music wherever they are in the world. More still - they want access to all their music everywhere. Every last bit. Every last place.

    As I've said, this sounds obvious but it is important. It's important because once we understand the need that a product is filling, we can attempt to find other/better ways of filling it. The iPod's current success has demonstrated that the need exists - and how - but I would argue that in the longer term it is by no means obvious that the need would be best served by small portable hard discs embedded in MP3 players.

    It doesn't take a lot of foresight to see the scope for development in this area. In the short-term, the trend seems fairly clear - storage capacity looks set to increase and/or devices look set to get smaller. This has been the trend of almost all computing technology over the last few decades (cf. Moore's Law for the near-parallel phenomenon happening in processor speed). Given these fundamental developments, there aren't an enormous numbers of directions that these devices can go.

    The first two options for future product directions around this stuff are (1) larger capacities and (2) smaller form factors. We have already seen movements in both of these directions (iPod Mini / 60Gb iPod coming). However, there's only so far that either of these trends can develop.

    Increased capacity ceases to be interesting at the point where there is more capacity than data to fill it - hence the problem with saying that newer iPods can hold 10,000 songs. There are very few people in the world who would be capable, let alone interested, in sourcing that much music. After listening to my music exclusively through a computer for the last two or three years, I've still only got 8,000 MP3s. And I'm hardly representative. If we're talking about significant subsequent increases in capacity then there are some pretty clear limits in place. 10,000 songs is about a month of solid listening. 100,000 songs would be getting on for a year. 1,000,000 songs a lifetime. Somewhere between a month and lifetime, the marginal utility of another song being on your iPod reaches zero (even assuming that physics lets you get to that size in the first place).

    Of course when we talk about capacity in terms of songs we're kind of missing the point. From this point on, advances in capacity are more likely to allow us to listen to higher quality audio than they are to increase the number of songs that people want to listen to. A tenfold increase in portable storage would mean that a future iPod could carry the same number of songs as a current iPod except in Apple Lossless formats that have all the sound quality of a CD. A parallel increase in bandwidth speeds could mean that the last few decades of work on compression could become fundamentally redundant - much like the techniques that meant programmers had to write whole applications to run with 8k of RAM are now pretty much irrelevant. So this is clearly a direction things are likely to move over the next few years. But even this has its limits. Once you've escalated disc size ten times there's nowhere to go in terms of audio quality - or at least, nowhere that will make the slightest difference to most individual consumers. So again any subsequent growth in capacity will have to be sold in terms of an increased number of songs that could be held - and as such the gradual diminishing marginal utility problem comes in again. Increased capacity, therefore, has only so much of a shelf life - can only go so far before it collapses under its own weight.

    The other potential obvious future direction - as I've said above - is to make the appliances themselves smaller. Here again there are limits to utility. There would seem to be a size under which a device ceases to be practical - that size being directly related to the size of interface elements, screens and buttons, which in turn relate directly to the size of fingers and thumbs and the limits of human vision. Now again, you can merge this in as a direction with the increased capacities and find a bottomed-out form factor and gradually increase the capacity on it - and no doubt this is the main approach that people like Apple will take over the next few years. At least that is until physics steps in or human interest (in having unlistenable amounts of music) begins to wane - both of which are probably a way off, but remain definite limits to future development in these directions.

    Of course, there are certain conditions where an appliance may usefully shrink below the size of its interface, and that's when it shares that interface with a number of other pieces of technology. This is the approach that the mobile phone manufacturers have taken - as the phones became almost unmanageably small, people's attention moved instead to enhancing functionality and adding in cameras, PDAs, web-browsers, comms equipment, bluetooth and the like. This had the effect of keeping the form factors at manageable sizes while still allowing competition and product development to occur. There's absolutely no doubt that this kind of hybridisation will be / is already a core part of the development of portable digital music players. Much of this hybridisation results in useful connections and possible new products emerging from music devices that are permanently network-enabled.

    All of this previous stuff has been relatively uncontroversial - it's no more than the immediate development along a couple of pre-existing axes of the products we have in our stores today. The incorporation of network-enabled devices has the capacity to change things a lot though. This is where alternative models for fulfilling a design for universal access and portability are likely to start emerging more strongly. We currently seem to be moving towards a world with greater and greater connectivity and one in which some kind of flat-rate, always-on broad-ish band internet access is likely to be integrated into pretty much all portable devices. This opens up other possibilities for having access to all of your music wherever you might be - and without actually carrying any of the files around with you. We could be looking towards a near future in which all of your media (and perhaps applications and information) can be held 'in the sky' and streamed/downloaded down to whatever appliance you like as and when required. Where this repository would live (with an ISP, with your home server, on your TV's set top-box, on Apple's iTunes Music store) is not immediately clear. But it's conceivable that - given enough bandwidth and centralisation - massively redundant models like we have at the moment where everyone has their own copy of a music file could be replaced completely by centralised music-on-demand services. Personally, I'm not much convinced that particular extreme is likely - people still seem to like to own music and still think of it as an object rather than as a service - but that's not particularly relevant. The important aspect is simply that the same user need can be met in different ways.

    So will we move towards larger portable hard discs or towards connected repositories explorable through massive bandwidth? Probably the direction that we take here will depend on nothing more elegant and interesting than financial cost. If enormous storage options were to become enormously cheap and small, then carrying a significant hard disc is likely to remain the preference of individual music fans. On the other hand, if bandwidth became cheap, then we'll probably find ourselves in a more service-driven and centralised streaming-based world. The model that's most likely to dominate is likely to lie somewhere in between the two - in hybridised technologies that use hard disks as local copies of stashes of music held in more centralised locations - using the network to syncas and when appropriate (see note) as well as a mediator for various forms of engagement, navigation and data-mining around and in-between individual listeners. But more around that stuff in the next part of this sprawling rant around the New Musical Functionality: On trends in navigation.... (Coming Soon)

    Note: Syncing becomes very important in a world with innumerable devices and limited connectivity. On a slight tangent - there are innumerable hybrid models where increases in portable data collide with the ability to access data at a distance. At the desktop level you can imagine computers running off the wired internet creating the impression of your 'home' computer wherever you sit, and on the portable level with large local storage being kept up-to-date perpetually via slower trickle-fed syncing protocols.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jay Fienberg EMAIL: siteinfo@icite.net IP: 68.120.137.5 URL: http://earreverends.com/notes DATE: 07/27/2004 03:52:23 AM Great post--I am enjoying this series and looking forward to the rest. You might find my series that ends with a post on "The future of music playback" ( http://earreverends.com/notes/200406/playbacks_future_music.html ) a largely speculative, but generally corroborating, compliment to your series. In general, I think it is important to recognize that there is a "new musical functionality" that is having an impact on both the personal and social / community experience of music, and likewise is beckoning new possibilities for the who, what, how, why, when, and where music is created. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joh EMAIL: joh@happeningfish.com IP: 213.28.151.115 URL: http://www.happeningfish.com DATE: 07/27/2004 08:53:45 AM You may have also seen Trendwatching.com's excellent write-up on Life Caching, the practice of recording as much of one's life as possible (mostly talking about pics and video, although the audio extensions are obvious) and the ability to carry your entire life with you at all times. Imagine if every photo album you ever made, and selections from your friends' albums, was stored in a keychain. Babies would get their family history on a miniscule hard drive as a christening gift... or, in the more here and now, there are possibilities for using the iPod in the traditional mix tape fashion, either by setting a playlist or loading music on someone's iPod -- and still presumably to make friends and get laid. w00t! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Aaron EMAIL: none@none.com IP: 82.35.64.196 URL: DATE: 07/27/2004 04:40:23 PM But, but, but, there's very little value in having higher quality sound on an iPod than that provided by an average MP3/AAC file. For home listening, sure, but not for cars or iPods. We haven't got an affordable device yet that really takes 'digital' (for want of a better word) music into the living room yet, but it's not that far away. That's when audio quality will become an issue. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anti EMAIL: antithesis98@yahoo.co.uk IP: 209.94.206.176 URL: http://antithesis98.blogspot.com/ DATE: 07/28/2004 12:21:54 AM Damn, that was brilliant, I can't believe I understood it, but I do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@snowgoon.co.uk IP: 82.40.22.83 URL: http://www.gordonmclean.co.uk DATE: 07/28/2004 09:30:53 AM I'll bite (in a devil's advocate kinda way). I'm classic early adopter. I had minidisc way before most people (before most people realised it was dead as well). Why did I get minidisc (portable, home and car!)? The sound quality 'issue' isn't one really, the large majority of people won't readily notice or care about minor drops in quality. Portability is the key I think (at the moment anyway). So the reason I went to minidisc away from CD was simple. Have you tried a strenuous walk with a CD Walkman? Skip skip skippity skip. Awful. Hard drive based players don't suffer from this. I DO agree with the number of songs issue though, I'm at 7575 tracks (according to iTunes) and have a 10GB iPod. I rarely have more than 3 or 4 GB on it at any one time - too much choice ya see. Anyhoo. Loving this 'series' can't wait for the next one. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: groc EMAIL: groc@groc.org.uk IP: 81.152.217.6 URL: http://www.groc.org.uk/blog DATE: 07/30/2004 10:30:31 AM Huh? I don't get it. Why are you obssessing only about sound/music? The iPod looks to be soon superceded by complete portable media players* - which as well as playing music, will store and display digital photos, and video files and whatever - these things certainly gooble up the gigabytes. (*and will probably be able to plug into TV sets and monitors as a matter of course) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/30/2004 07:49:26 PM As I say through this piece and the one before, I'm talking about music because it's the first major one of these media that has stuff like this happening to it. Most of the things I talk about here are applicable to a certain extent to other media. Having said that, while access and portability will clearly be important for video and stuff, the contexts of their use will be very different. You might want to watch a TV show when you're at work and bored, or at a friend's house or in the office. And yes - people will watch them on buses and trains and stuff as well, but much less often than with music, which can be backgrounded while you're working / walking / thinking / travelling, and which doesn't have as a major part of its apparatus the necessity of a big screen (although of course we can probbaly expect some form of portable TV in glasses or in something similar at some point in the future... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: A Reader EMAIL: areader@mailinator.com IP: 213.78.8.168 URL: DATE: 07/31/2004 01:21:25 AM Tom, congrats on a very well thought out post here. However, I have to agree with Gordon to a certain extent. The central idea is portability. As a user I really don't give a flying whatever how this is achieved, as long as I can access the music, sorry 'media', I have paid for WHEN I WANT, HOW I WANT!!! Which is why I applaud Real Networks' Harmony. With them I can put the music I have bought on the hardware I have paid for. Fcuk the DRM systems and the politics. Has anyone else gotten riled by the way Vodafone have b*stardised the Nokia 6230 to only accept DRM'd MP3s as ringtones? WTF? I paid for my Dire Straits CD almost 20 years ago. Who are Vodafone to tell me now how I should use that music? But to return, I will pay once to play my music anywhere. Twice to make sure I have it on CD. More than that to have a 'licence' to play it at the RIAA/BPI's discretion? GFY! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.154.160.64 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 07/31/2004 03:35:55 PM As the name of the post might indicate, I clearly believe that portability is a more important thing than sound quality - the question is just what direction people can take portability and for some versions of it (hard disk size) it's reaching the edges of it... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Frankie Roberto EMAIL: bf15f8b6cb91b32edcc19227c3fce1aa207ac00f IP: 62.252.192.8 URL: http://www.frankieroberto.com/weblog/ DATE: 08/03/2004 02:38:56 PM Towards the end of your post you come across an age-old argument between the benefits of having a centralised, networked 'thin-client' structure, or decentralised individual 'fat-client' structure. You can see how the pendulum between these two extremes has swung by looking at e-mail. When the internet first took off in the UK, with ISPs like AOL, Compuserver and then Freeserve leading the way, most people used e-mail clients (largely Outlook Express or Eudora) to receive their ISP-allocated e-mail address. Then Hotmail and the like took off and almost everyone started using web-based e-mail. Why? I think there are two issues. Firstly, portability. Having an e-mail client on your home computer and using POP3 means you can't easily check your e-mail when at work or on holiday. Web-based e-mail can be accessed at any internet terminal. On the flip side though, if you've got a portable device capable of reading and storing e-mail (a notebook, PDA or even a mobile), then that can be even more portable - allowing offline reading anywhere you take your device. There's a second, important, issue at play though, and that's ownership. Switching ISPs is even more of a drag if it means losing your regular e-mail address. On the other hand, can you trust your webmail provider to continue to provide a good service, at price you're prepared to pay? (something users of another.com discovered to their cost) There may often be a trade-off between portability and ownership, and so users may have to decide which is more important. As always, there are compromises. In terms of e-mail portability, there is IMAP, with its use of server-based hosting and local synching. In terms of e-mail ownership, you can buy your own domain name for ultimate ownership, pay Hotmail (or whoever) to get some ownership (ie not get deleted when you go on a 30-day holiday) or simply trust Gmail (or whoever) to play nice with your e-mail address. The question of ownership is even more important when it comes to music, as people are a lot more protective of their music collections (be it on vinyl, CD or hard disk) than their e-mail address (there's more of an emotional attachment). Will we trust service providers to look after all our music and give us access to it whenever? That would take some doing. The actions of the big record labels have done a lot to damage consumer trust. For the time being, people will want to be certain that they are in control of their music. However, if the service is compelling, useful, and if the company builds a good reputation for being fair and trustworthy, then people could be convinced - no-one owns their phone numbers after all. In the end, I think that network-based services will be used for easily, portable access to fulfil your fairly mainstream music needs. However, everyone will still want to retain control of their more obscure, rare, old, or most-loved music tracks, the ones they hold the most attachment to - and a hard disk full of MP3s is a good way of keeping them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John EMAIL: jvk@mac.com IP: 80.177.117.180 URL: http://www.jv21.com/blog.html DATE: 08/04/2004 10:57:27 AM Might work, but one wrinkle is that if I am out there -- somewhere -- and want to listen to (for instance) Bring Back that Packard Car by Ducks Deluxe on my Moto which is in my iPod because I digitized it from my vinyl copy, but which is probably not on anyone else's iPod because that track never made it to CD -- like a lot of stuff I have on tape or vinyl -- then the central repository will have to be supplemented somehow by one's own network-linked hard drive, or in a perfect world gaily added without any copyright control to make everyone's life more merry. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: andrew EMAIL: andrew@andrewbarnett.net IP: 203.29.225.246 URL: http://andrew.typepad.com DATE: 08/04/2004 11:25:40 AM > … the first significant change of popular audio format that actually made the sound quality worse … Christenson gives a strikingly similar example in The Innovator's Solution: Sony's original transistor radio. The sound quality was far worse than existing large radios but it offered the never-before advantage of portability, something incredibly important to teens wanting to listen to their music away from parents, etc. Someone cleverer than I might want to apply Christensen's ideas to the subject under discussion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Flying Nematode EMAIL: markp@earlham.edu IP: 159.28.7.18 URL: http://theflyingnematode.typepad.com DATE: 08/09/2004 10:33:02 PM DUCKS DELUXE!! You don't happen to have the live double 10" Christmas at the Patti Pavilion do you John? I'm kicking meself for getting rid of it when I emigrated to the States. There's another major difference between LPs/CDs & iPods in addition to portability and that is music listening habits. Last night while cooking, I bunged on the venerable turntable Little Feat Waiting for Columbus (disc 1, side 1) closely followed by Steely Dan Can't Buy a Thrill (side 1; I knew exactly what track was coming up next and any other order of play would have been a travesty. But many ipod listeners would'nt bother with listening to a whole album or perhaps they would not be concerned with the order of tracks, and listeners (like myself) are much more likely to mix & match artists material. Take Dark Side of the Moon - the track order is dead important to the music but when it get's onto your iPod it ends up in a totally disconnected order. Now, when you deal in digital the emphasis switches from *collections* of music on albums or CDs to individual tracks or 'tunes' as they are called. This is a radically different way of listening - artists can no longer create 'filler' tracks to fill out a record or CD; they would just be ignored. Could we be seeing to return of the 'single' reincarnated in digital? Will the MAN band reform for the umpteenth time? Will I ever hear the drum solo from 'Life on the Road - live at the Mumbles Run' ?? These questions need answering! ----- PING: TITLE: Music, music everywhere URL: http://soreeyes.org/archives/001523.html IP: 193.111.200.5 BLOG NAME: Sore Eyes DATE: 07/26/2004 11:58:20 PM Tom Coates has posted the first two articles in a series he's using to lay out his thoughts on what he calls 'The New Musical Functionality' - the effect on our music-listening habits of massively more capable portable players, wireless connectivity an... ----- PING: TITLE: Linkapolllooooza URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/weblog/2004/07/27/linkapolllooooza.html IP: 69.20.61.178 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent DATE: 07/27/2004 12:04:02 AM Oi! You! Stop buying pirate goods! Kalashnikovs, for example. I was about to email the chap and ask him to put it online, but Andrew Brown's tremendous essay this morning has appeared without intervention. This bit is perhaps more true... ----- PING: TITLE: Post, interrupted URL: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120356/2004/07/27.html#a623 IP: 81.65.78.41 BLOG NAME: taliesin's log DATE: 07/27/2004 08:17:38 PM Tony, back from another adventure in Switzerland, finally saw that film. ----- PING: TITLE: http://www.cabezal.com/blog/archives/000880.shtml URL: http://www.cabezal.com/blog/archives/000880.shtml IP: 217.154.231.66 BLOG NAME: Hugh's ramblings DATE: 07/30/2004 04:57:49 PM Tom Coates is writing a series of pieces "arguing that the behaviour of an until-recently small group of digital music fans seemed to be now spreading into the mainstream"...One of the first questions you have to ask yourself in any... ----- PING: TITLE: Anarchist in the Library URL: http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/001481.html IP: 64.39.15.88 BLOG NAME: BookBlog DATE: 09/19/2004 05:42:34 PM I loved Siva Vaidhyanathan's last book, Copyrights and Copywrongs. It's a superb excellent intellectual and cultural history and critique of... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Disorganised, behind and apologetic. Again.... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/01/2004 10:44:01 AM ----- BODY:

    Quick brief apologies to people who are waiting patiently for the next part of the New Musical Functionality series. I'm off to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the middle of the week and this means I have to get a number of work and home things sorted out quickly before I go and and hence I'm a little behind. I wrote the first draft all the way through about a month ago, but the more I look at it the more I want to enhance and extend it without doing the same thing I did to the portability and access section (ie. drown it in detail and almost completely lose the core point). Anyway, hopefully I'll get the rest of the series out before I leave for the States. Thanks for being patient!

    On the subject of the USA, I'm probably going to try and say hello to a few of my favourite geeks while in San Francisco - probably culminating in some kind of frenzied uncool geek-out booze in somewhere cheesy like The Tonga Room sometime between the 12th and 18th of August (I love the Tonga Room). So there's a possible date for your diary...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dinah EMAIL: tongatongatonga@metagrrrl.com IP: 67.120.102.41 URL: http://www.metagrrrl.com DATE: 08/03/2004 05:43:59 AM Count me in for your SF eatin' & drinkin' geekouts! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Screw you guys! I'm going to California! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/05/2004 10:24:32 AM ----- BODY:

    Right then! I'm off on holiday. If I get any free time, I'm going to try and polish off the rest of the New Musical Functionality series on the plane or in a cafÈ in San Francisco, but no promises, because frankly I need a bit of a break from all this web nonsense. Updates are likely to be sporadic in the meantime and when they occur are likely to be more chatty and journally than normal. Otherwise LA, San Francisco - California in general - here I come!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Bowden EMAIL: bods@durge.org IP: 132.185.240.122 URL: http://www.bods.me.uk DATE: 08/10/2004 04:48:50 PM Right! Who fancies burgling Tom's house? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: In which Tom gets a bit ranty... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/05/2004 03:11:10 PM ----- BODY:

    Hmmm. And I talked too soon, it seems, because here I am stuck in the bloody airport as the flight has been delayed three and a half hours. Which means I'm left at the mercy of T-mobile's extortionate £10-for-three-hours Wifi in an enormous room without any bloody power sockets. And there are queues everywhere. And it's really hot. And... And... And...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Barry EMAIL: teppic74@hotmail.com IP: 217.155.109.97 URL: DATE: 08/05/2004 03:33:27 PM At least you've got an interesting magazine to peruse; it's not so bad! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: padawan EMAIL: apprentice@padawan.info IP: 81.64.154.46 URL: http://www.padawan.info/ DATE: 08/06/2004 09:03:28 AM Consider yourself lucky, at Paris CDG, it's 10Ä/hour, twice as expensive! Have a great trip to sunny California ;-). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: blurb@blurb.com IP: 62.255.32.11 URL: DATE: 08/06/2004 08:16:19 PM £3.33 ain't too bad for broadband net access! I'm pretty sure that net cafe access is around about the same price - but of course you haven't the luxury of using your own machine! Stop moaning! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 66.159.202.237 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/10/2004 07:40:23 PM Sorry - the flat is being well looked after and supervised by people and stuff. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Stuff I've done since I've got here... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/10/2004 07:58:30 PM ----- BODY:

    So I got to America several hours late and was then taken off to Immigration because some American doofus with the same passport number as I (except from America rather than from the UK) had his passport stolen. Hence I had to be taken off into this little room for an hour and a half while they checked that I wasn't trying to steal American children and sell them into slavery or something. I left home at 11.30am UK time and actually got out of the airport in the states at around 9am UK time the following morning. That's a full seven hour delay! Grr! Which was annoying for me but more annoying for Kerry and Erik who were waiting for me in the arrivals lounge...

    Since I've got here though, things have got much more entertaining. Let's see:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms. Jen EMAIL: blackphoebe@earthlink.net IP: 66.74.180.34 URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen DATE: 08/11/2004 07:51:47 AM Stuck in LA? Need a ride to SF? A small carload of us are going on Thursday morning. Email me if you would like to join us. smiles, jen ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 66.159.202.237 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/11/2004 09:26:02 PM Ooh - that could be very cool. I shall e-mail you immediately. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bravo EMAIL: signal@signalshift.com IP: 205.229.54.254 URL: http://bravo.typepad.com/ DATE: 08/12/2004 07:53:34 PM So, you spent the ENTIRE weekend with me. How's that make you feel? ;) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Next stage of trip in the planning stages... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/12/2004 03:21:25 AM ----- BODY:

    Briefest of updates:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: San Francisco, baby... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/13/2004 06:16:56 AM ----- BODY:

    Ping. Now in San Francisco after cool drive with fun people in which I mostly slept and pointed at wind farms and acres of densely packed cows. Had subsequent great fun at the SixApart Mixer thing where I met loads of people - some for the first time, others not. Looked slightly nervous around some people who do really good work. Touched a couple of them without them noticing (or at least without them calling the police - hey Doug!). Got a free USB dongle thing and saw the 3.1 release of MT which doesn't seem overly dramatic at first but kind of sits in the back of your head and wiggles its tush in the direction of interesting things. Cab back to Leslie's place - talking about The O.C. and TV shows in general when I get to pull out my trump card - super-secret super-cool thing that made Leslie go oooooh. Don't think I'm going to make it to LobbyCon now though. Shame!

    I'm quite enjoying not taking this weblog as seriously as normal for a few days. It feels pretty liberating, although possibly not very productive or good in the longer term. God knows what it's going to be like going back to London. I can already feel it on the horizon and must confess am vaguely dreading it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Road Trip and MT Party! URL: http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/archives/000379.html IP: 209.68.2.78 BLOG NAME: Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen DATE: 08/20/2004 08:45:35 AM Most summers contain a good vacation or two, if not a real vacation then at least a weekend or two away from it all. Other than my week laying down with my eye mask on due to my head... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So what shall I do today? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/13/2004 05:11:33 PM ----- BODY:

    So I'm in San Francisco. It's 9am. What shall I do today?

    Thought around 11am: There are lots of films I would love to see and I am pretty wiped out after Los Angeles... Maybe one of these would be a ncie way to spend the early afternoon? Collatoral, Alien vs. Predator, Bourne Supremacy, Manchurian Candidate, The Village, I, Robot. Or I could go book-shopping. I want to get that copy of All The President's Spin that I saw on Jon Stewart last night. And I'd like to go down to Kid Robot and look around there. And I really fancy some good seafood (been obsessed with fresh shrimp ever since we stopped off on the way back from Malibu the other day). And I need more T-shirts.

    1pm: Oooh - The San Francisco Apple Store is really awesome. It looks like someone dumped an enormous Apple box in the middle of the street and filled it with lovely lovely shiny mac-related products. I'm going to have a quick explore around here and see if I can get my iPod a new case. Then I think off to the Metreon to look at film times. God you guys must be fascinated. This stuff is pure weblog gold...

    5pm: So I just went to see The Village and goddam it if I didn't think it was pretty okay actually. I mean I think I had the twist spoiled for me a bit by a stray comment I heard the other day, but generally pretty watchable. And now I'm in the Starbucks over the road trying to work out what to do next! Will it be Aliens vs. Predator? Or a bit of shopping? Or a bit of a walk? It's all so terribly exciting...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 08/13/2004 05:44:22 PM If you're hungry, you could go have brunch at Zazie in Cole Valley (just south of the Haight). If you've never been there, I'd also try to visit Dave Eggers' Pirate Store at 821 Valencia in the Mission. It's one of my favorite places to take people from out of town, and it seems like something you'd like. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 08/13/2004 05:58:55 PM Sorry--just noticed I got the Pirate Store address wrong. It's *826* Valencia, not 821. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: heather EMAIL: h@hchamp.com IP: 216.150.61.101 URL: http://www.hchamp.com DATE: 08/13/2004 06:06:07 PM 1. The Child: Works by Gottfried Helnwein at the Legion of Honor 2. Breakfast at the Pork Store (Haight or 16th Street) 3. Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile at the Asian Art Museum 4. Try and find all the "Hearts in San Francisco" that are littering our streets. 5. Get Leslie to put you to work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: carolinascl EMAIL: carolinacevedo@hotmail.com IP: 64.81.64.232 URL: DATE: 08/13/2004 06:55:39 PM If you want to see a funny movie, check NApoleon Dynamite. It is hillarious! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Ely EMAIL: davextreme@mac.com IP: 209.101.135.132 URL: http://www.davextreme.com/ DATE: 08/13/2004 07:21:04 PM Skip The Village. Garden State is good if you're in the mood for a quarter life crisis kind of vibe. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Andrews EMAIL: mail@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 80.3.228.190 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 08/13/2004 11:06:20 PM On the Mac note, I became an Apple owner for the first time this week when I took ownership of a lovely new Powerbook. So, re: your link to OSX Planet, I thought I'd offer up EarthDesk (http://www.timepalette.com/earthdesk.html) and EarthBrowser (http://www.earthbrowser.com/). It's cool to display this stuff on the desktop. What can they do? Which do you prefer? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tomcosgrave EMAIL: tom@tomcosgrave.com IP: 195.218.110.95 URL: http://www.tomcosgrave.com DATE: 08/14/2004 01:02:23 AM I recommend the Metreon, it's a good cinema. Be sure to visit Ocean Beach (take the N from Market and ride all the way to the end of the line). Also be sure to spend some time in the Castro (no, really - it's the most civilised part of the city). And please don't stop with the less serious posts - truth be told, your normal postings, while interesting, tend to induce slight drowsiness! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dinah EMAIL: tongatongatonga@metagrrrl.com IP: 63.203.207.83 URL: http://www.metagrrrl.com DATE: 08/14/2004 06:18:57 AM Tom, if you want company, I would very much enjoy seeing the Geisha exhibit, riding out to the beach and/or taking you around my lovely neighborhood, the Castro. Just find me in AIM or drop me a note. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@neuronwave.com IP: 203.51.173.121 URL: http://www.neuronwave.com DATE: 08/14/2004 09:12:47 AM My recommendation is for a late afternoon foccacia (sausage is the best) at Marios which is in North Beach right on the corner near Washington Square/Park. It is without a doubt the BEST foccacia I have ever eaten...with a half caraf of house red its a great way to spend some time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: http://asan102.spymac.com DATE: 08/14/2004 09:45:31 AM I really liked the Villiage. Contrary to what most people seem to think, I thought Sixth Sense was really kind of boring, but really liked Unbreakable. Signs wasn't bad (some pretty scary parts). I really liked the mood of this movie. I already new the ending going into it (I actually thought it was based upon a book I read in 5th grade with a similar plot when I first read the summary online, but they never mentioned it, although I still thought they may throw that in anyway ó plus I got confirmation from a family member who saw it) so maybe that's why I liked it and other's didn't ó they were expecting some big shocker ending which never came. The creature's were absolutely terrifying just in appearance if you ask me, and I jumped in my seat when the first one walked under the tower (something I don't usually do in movies). I also loved how he did the stabbing scene ó how it's completely silent, and at first you think he's looking at Noah waiting for response, then just as you realise he's been waiting a little too long, and then notice his stare is a little too blank, you see the knife. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Pepper EMAIL: davidpepper@timeout.com IP: 212.58.43.1 URL: http://www.timeout.com DATE: 08/17/2004 05:18:19 PM Several years ago you let slip something about the Sixth Sense that did exactly the same to me. Funny how these things come back to haunt you. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: San Francisco: Saturday morning... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/14/2004 06:22:06 PM ----- BODY:

    So I kind of slacked off yesterday, if truth be told. Not a lot of exploring, not a lot of drenching myself in San Francisco - just a fair amount of doing things I like to do that I don't really often get the opportunity to do. So I went to see two films (the other one was the Manchurian Candidate - much recommended), bought a couple of books, a case for my iPod, had a really nice Clam Chowder and portion of Fish and Chips at San Francisco's best American restaurant and sat in Starbucks for a bit (thanks Anil) starting to catch up on all the cool stuff that's been going on around the web in the million years since we started working on representing programming on Radio 3.

    Today I think is going to be more about getting some of the flavour of the city - or at least starting to ramp up my mucking around with local geeks. Hopefully I'm going to go see Danah's kittens in the next couple of hours, go see Heather at Taco Bell around lunchtime, and then go see a movie with Leslie this afternoon.

    But all of this is really preamble to the main event which should be happening this evening - a drink and catch-up with local geeks at San Francisco's famous Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar from 8.30 this evening. Come along if you can. It'll be fun...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The day after the night before... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/15/2004 05:09:10 PM ----- BODY:

    Well frankly, last night was bloody good fun. I'm just going to throw out a quick good morning to David Galbraith, Jish, Heather, Derek, Ben & Mena, Rebecca B, Lance, Sippey, Webb, Ezra, Jim Speth, Ben Cerveny, Min Jung and the other million other people who I can't quite focus on or remember at this precise moment because of slightly too many cocktails with long straws.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: San Francisco day four and a bit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/16/2004 06:03:40 PM ----- BODY:

    So the day before yesterday didn't go quite as I'd planned. I didn't go and see Dinah or her kittens, but I did get to give Flakes to Heather and then go with her to Taco Bell where we consumed about $16 worth of faux Mexican cuisine between us. Then there was the car wash, and the drive back into the city to go say hi to Derek, two chihuahuas and a cat named Spoo before wandering off to kid robot (dumb toys purchased: 2) and then Giant Robot in Haight Ashbury. Then there was a nice "Blue Meanie" smoothie in a wifi-enabled cafÈ which was pretty bloody pleasant, all things considered. The next planned excusion was the epic walk over to the Tonga rooms, which would actually have been pretty bloody epic if I hadn't walked in completely the opposite direction for the first twenty minutes or so. So I got a cab with a driver who listened to light country and suffered manfully the hell of Tim McGraw's My Next Thirty Years (and I quote):

    My next thirty years Iím gonna settle all the scores
    Cry a little less, laugh a little more
    Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear
    Figure out just what Iím doing here
    In my next thirty years

    Oh my next thirty years, Iím gonna watch my weight
    Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late
    Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers
    Maybe Iíll remember my next thirty years

    You see what I'm talking about? Anyway - so I got to the Fairmont a bit early and so decided to loiter around a bit in the foyer and read my new book while all the smartly dressed people looked at me strangely and tried to remember my face just in case they'd need to identify me in a Guantanamo tribunal later in the year. And then the event began and I got to talk to a couple of dozen neat cool web people that I just don't get to see enough. I danced (badly) with Mena and Dinah and Heather and chatted a lot to David about what it was like to be an Englishman living in the States at the moment which was extremely interesting. I felt a bit sorry for my poor ex-flatmate Mella who had just got off the plane in San Francisco and come straight to the bar because she didn't know anyone, but I think she enjoyed herself. And of course the bar's fake thunder, lightning, rain and floating boat/island/band were as awesome as ever...

    Yesterday started a little more sedately with an enormous cooked breakfast over at the Pork Store with Leslie, Lance (also here) and Mella. Mella and I then wandered up into town, up Valencia and past a few second hand stores up to the Civic Center and then up Market for a bit of an explore. (This feels a bit like a 'what I did on my holiday' tract, so apologies for that.) And then after a few confusing disorganisational miscarriages, we ended up with a friend of Mella's called Emily driving through Chinatown, then walking up to Coit Tower and then down to Pier 39 for Oysters and general seafood. Then Mella wandered off to meet Emily's parents, while I returned back to Leslie's (past the San Francisco Bear Fair), met up with Ben Cerveny and Webb, drove around the city in a convertible car before wandering up to Molly's place and drinking a few glasses of wine and basically passing out. Nice evening!

    And what's next over the next couple of days?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dinah EMAIL: neithercatsnorbats@metagrrrl.com IP: 63.202.81.140 URL: http://www.metagrrrl.com DATE: 08/17/2004 06:16:35 AM Tom always sweeps me off my feet with the literary references. People who properly identify the source of my name rise tremendously in my estimation. (Do recall, Tom, that I live 3 blocks from the rainbow flag. Should you be passing through en route to the "gay stuff", say hello. If you like I'll take you to dinner at Jasmine and you can dazzle my favorite waiters - very cute guys as is required by Castro laws - with your accent and roguish good looks. Unless you've shaved, in which case, fall back on the accent and see how that works). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ms. Jen EMAIL: blackphoebe@earthlink.net IP: 66.74.180.34 URL: DATE: 08/17/2004 07:04:02 AM Yeah! I am glad to hear that your visit to SF is going well. On cabs and music thereof: Friday Sandra, Tink and I took a cab from the Ferry Terminal back to the hotel. The driver was a lovely Sikh gentleman who was playing Bolly-Trip-Hop and kept asking us why we weren't taking the Muni? "Well, we are tuckered out and couldn't figure out which bus take," I said. He hrumphed, turned up the music, and promptly kicked us out at 7th street. We later laughed at the idea of a cab driver who thought we ought to take the bus rather than pad his pockets. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Jones EMAIL: matt@blackbeltjonesnospam.com IP: 82.181.5.95 URL: http://www.blackbeltjones.com DATE: 08/17/2004 07:22:11 AM It is what you did on your holiday, because you did it, and you're on holiday (as we all seem to have to keep reminding you). Muppet. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: heather EMAIL: h@hchamp.com IP: 216.150.61.101 URL: http://www.hchamp.com DATE: 08/19/2004 09:19:37 PM lies! lies! lies! i have the receipt right here. it was $14.14. (smacks lips) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 217.42.186.1 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/19/2004 11:18:32 PM It was? Dammit - a full $1.70 out... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: San Francisco update... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/17/2004 08:38:04 PM ----- BODY:

    So what did I do yesterday... Er... Basically went for lunch with Kevin and Jesse where we talked about Apple and set-top boxes and food and stuff, wandered into Technorati and said hi to people (wave to Tantek), micro-bumped into Joi, then got the CalTrain up to see Six Apart (purely for fun), got a train back with Anil and finally wandered off to The Cafe for my required dose of gaydom, which was a bit weird as it was hip-hop night and I felt like everyone's fat beardy grandfather. So I got a bit drunk and danced clumsily and collapsed back at Leslie's unconscious at about one. Funny day.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ernie EMAIL: ernie@littleyellowdifferent.com IP: 69.110.49.52 URL: http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com DATE: 08/19/2004 06:01:35 AM Tom, you realize that the guy playing hip-hop at the Cafe was my boyfriend, right? You've met him before. If I knew you were there I would have crawled out of my dreary surburban and said hi. Oh well. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A quick Flickr Odyssey of my time in San Francisco... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/20/2004 12:44:19 AM ----- BODY:

    A quick Flickr odyssey of my time in San Francisco - I'll probably pull out some of my favourite photos and post them on the site proper, but in the meantime:

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jargo velp EMAIL: jvelp@gmail.com IP: 69.86.67.223 URL: DATE: 08/20/2004 03:50:22 AM Looks like a fun trip. Seen this one yet? http://privatedick.blogspot.com ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Yesterday San Francisco, tomorrow the Netherlands! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/20/2004 01:01:36 AM ----- BODY:

    So I'm back in London, basically, and haven't written up the last couple of days of holiday (which I really want to do because it'll help me remember it), but am now a bit hectic and confused because having landed in London this morning around 10.30am, I'm now still awake at 1am and have to get up at 5am tomorrow morning to fly to Amsterdam. And my alarm clock is unreliable and I'm scared I'm going to sleep through everything...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: From San Francisco to Holland and finally back home... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/22/2004 10:12:20 PM ----- BODY:

    So this is probably the last part of my little travelogue, so it's probably going to be a bit long and probably more than a little self-indulgent and rambling. And I've already written the whole thing once twice and then lost it due to an accidental depression of the power button on my Powerbook at an innopportune moment (and a subsequent random crash, of all things). And I'm also pretty tired and jet-lagged. So I guess some of my usual vigour might be a little lacking.

    So when we'd last spoken, oh patient readers, I'd been out at a hip-hop evening at a gay bar in San Francisco that (it turns out) was being DJ'd by Ernie's bloke, although I didn't know that at the time. And after feeling a bit like everyone's dad, I'd collapsed back to the house of the most lovely Leslie and slept like one of your more sound-sleeping and reliable logs. Which was nice.

    The following day was to be the last full day I would have in the city (and of the holiday) and I had a lot to pack in (which I did with varying degrees of success). I tried to start early and keep up the momentum. So first up I went off to this really big Starbucks with loads of space and wifi and about a billion Apple Users in it down on 9th and Howard to meet up with Jim Speth, the creator of iCommune and hopefully a future collaborator. So we talked for a while, which was neat and then met up with Ben Cerveny and ex-Barbelite Schlomo for an awesome, but slightly disturbingly enormous lunch (see terrifying pictures) down in a caf&eacuate; in an industrial dockland area of San Francisco.

    From there Jim and Ben swapped travel buddies and Ben dropped me off near Union Square so that I could meet up with Mella and wander around the place. We got the trolley up towards Castro after roaming around downtown and then had one of the most awesome Cheesecakes I've ever had in my life (with strawberry goo) and then walked up to Haight Ashbury where Mella did some shoe-shopping. And after a slightly unfortunate delay in the centre, we again returned to Leslie's to relax and watch TV for a bit. And once we'd gone our separate ways I wandered to an evening's entertainment at "Tranny Shack" - a highly entertaining evening at a bar down on Harrison. And then bed, and muchos sleeping.

    My final morning saw me wandering around the shops a little and then heading off to the airport where there was enormous and useful amounts of wifi. On the flight, I managed to watch Hellboy and sleep for seven hours (thanks for the tips, Heather) before we landed in London. And I know this is almost unbelievably interesting to you people, but then I went into work for a few hours and then I came home and then basically I went to bed!

    I'm going to speed things up a bit now, because otherwise we might be here all night. So after staying up jet-lagged until around four in the morning, I got a full hour of sleep before wandering off to the airport for the next leg of my trip to Enschede in Holland with a group of other geeks to talk about geek stuff, which involved a number of interesting talks, driving around a go-karting track, avoiding foam parties in nearby clubs, watching the Olympics with Hammersley and playing Zendo.

    Anyway, I'm back now, and I can't quite believe the difference that this last couple of weeks has made to me. I feel astonishingly relaxed, clear-minded and calm. Lots of the doubt and anxiety I've been stuck with over the last few months has disappeared completely and my mind seems ... well ... I guess my mind seems quiet. Peaceful. Which is all really cool and nice and everything, I guess, except now I've got a new fear - that I'm going to get as wound up and tense and unlike myself again when I return to work in the morning. And that's scaring the crap out of me.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: God I'm cool... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/23/2004 12:20:48 AM ----- BODY:

    Not a lot to be said about this really except that I look awesome and I kicked ass on the go-carting front in the Dutch University town of Enschede...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Armitage EMAIL: tom@infovore.org IP: 195.172.62.98 URL: DATE: 08/23/2004 01:35:50 PM Nigel Mansell lives again! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sarcosos EMAIL: sarcosos@mail.ru IP: 81.227.42.242 URL: DATE: 08/23/2004 01:46:59 PM You look indian - Tom Kumar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: duncan EMAIL: duncan@suttree.com IP: 82.69.64.58 URL: DATE: 08/23/2004 02:49:24 PM It's StrongBad! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex Nieminen EMAIL: alexnieminen@mac.com IP: 213.243.156.4 URL: DATE: 08/23/2004 06:20:26 PM Hey. You didn't exactly "rule" the kart track. You were OK, I admit (and kicked my ass), but it was Herkko, the Mika-H”kkinen-in-disguise who ruled. I was the token other Finnish guy, and you beat me... ----- PING: TITLE: EuroFoo URL: http://www.benhammersley.com/weblog/2004/08/23/eurofoo.html IP: 69.20.61.178 BLOG NAME: Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent DATE: 08/23/2004 08:40:33 AM I'm in Amsterdam airport, replete with Wifi and Caffeine, on my way back from EuroFoo, the Sooper Sekret Invitation Only Geek Camp run by O'Reilly. As always with such events, it'll be a week before my brain buffers have emptied... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: San Francisco - LA - Enschede - Ashridge STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 08/25/2004 11:39:26 AM ----- BODY:

    So, back from Amsterdam for one day and then off to Ashridge for a day/night for a work thing. I got a decent night's sleep for pretty much the first time since I've been back in the country and am feeling slightly more creative and desperate to make something since coming back from Eurofoo. In the depths of last night we went into the grounds to try and find the bible circle - a stone bible on a plinth in the middle of a ring of enormous pine tress - and I managed to walk into a huge branch and scrape up half my face. And on the train this morning, I saw a woman wearing a T-shirt that read "I seem to have mislaid my boyfriend" reading a book called "It's Ok, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers". DNS on my work wifi network appears to be buggering around or I'd try and find you some links... Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll start writing about proper grown-up things again. But in the meantime, have fun!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 81.154.160.89 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 08/29/2004 02:33:34 AM I just think I should add a brief apology to everyone for being so slack and not getting the new musical functionality posts finished. I'll try and get that done shortly, honest! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sam Walker EMAIL: asan102@spymac.com IP: 216.70.46.3 URL: http://asan102.spymac.com DATE: 08/29/2004 08:13:39 AM What's so special about the wikipedia page on the Medulla Oblongota? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medulla_oblongata Is this a hint of Bj–rk's new album coming out at the end of the month? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Tiley EMAIL: tiley@vicnet.net.au IP: 202.137.86.110 URL: http://dox.media2.org DATE: 09/03/2004 07:11:28 PM I presume the abandoned camera meme is a nifty hoax. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Testing up here too. STATUS: Future ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/12/2004 12:48:01 AM ----- BODY: Test. Super test. Test with knobs on. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Off the top of my head: linklog refactoring required... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 09/12/2004 12:14:55 PM ----- BODY:

    So Paul Hammond created webkit2png which is a lovely little command-line script for a Mac that goes and grabs a full screenshot of a web-page - full length on the page. It can also do a variety of other whatsits and hoojis which are really cool. So what I want someone to do now is to make a little app that sits your Mac which you can stick your remaindered linkloggery into - a little app that:

    1. Is templatable;
    2. Posts the links to del.icio.us and any other link aggregation place (damned if I'm going to leave all my lovely posts on someone else's system without hooking into mine);
    3. Grabs a screenshot of the page concerned (can be overwritten if you're linking to something random);
    4. Posts the whole she-bang to your linklog (complete with lovely little screencap) via the various weblog APIs;
    5. If someone could make it some kind of plug-in for my browser or make it triggerable via an AppleScript or something, that would be nice too.

    To be honest, I'm not sure this is quite what I want, but it's becoming clear to me that the area of the linklog is in enormous need of some refactoring and rationalisation work. I don't really think it'll sort itself out until one or more of the weblog companies actually puts in some templates and structures designed to support it directly, but I'm not sure how likely that is to happen...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ramanan EMAIL: no@no.com IP: 64.229.170.246 URL: http://funkaoshi.com DATE: 09/12/2004 03:31:41 PM scribbling.net does something like you suggest. I'm not sure if she has completely automated the process or not, but you might want to inquire with her. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 24.7.126.97 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 09/12/2004 05:50:34 PM I've actually written a Cocoa application for posting to del.icio.us and searching your posts, which you might be interested in checking out: http://www.scifihifi.com/cocoalicious/ I could theoretically add the features you're talking about to that... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gina EMAIL: gina@scribbling.net IP: 24.90.253.118 URL: http://scribbling.net DATE: 09/12/2004 06:57:41 PM Not quite to the level of what you're talking about, Tom, but my little script couples thumbshots.org and del.icio.us. http://scribbling.net/screenshots-for-your-linklog ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: m@mullenweg.com IP: 70.241.119.92 URL: http://photomatt.net/ DATE: 09/14/2004 02:29:38 AM http://dev.upian.com/hotlinks/ used to do something just like this, but it looks like the screenshot part of their site is down temporarily. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@snowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.gordonmclean.co.uk DATE: 09/14/2004 10:56:38 AM I looked at del.icou.us as well but couldn't see an easy way to pull it into my site with the look *I* want, currently I'm still using a separate Blogger blog for my miniblog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Koranteng EMAIL: amaah@excite.com IP: 66.30.25.43 URL: http://koranteng.blogspot.com/ DATE: 09/16/2004 10:25:41 PM Why screenshot? Why not simpy Furl it since that captures both the url, any metadata and most importantly the webpage in question and archives it. I like del.ico.us's focus on the link but I think Furl also does the capture which sounds like what you're asking for. Plus they have a nice REST api I believe ----- PING: TITLE: Linkin' logs due for some rethinking URL: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2004/10/07/linkin_logs_due_for_some_rethinking.html IP: 160.79.147.123 BLOG NAME: Radio Free Blogistan DATE: 10/07/2004 05:34:28 PM At plasticbag.org Tom Coates has some ideas for how link logs should work in this day and age: So Paul Hammond created webkit2png which is a lovely little command-line script for a Mac that goes and grabs a full screenshot of a web-page - full length o... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Return to San Francisco (already)... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/14/2004 12:16:20 AM ----- BODY:

    So I might - note might - be in San Francisco again in about three week's time for a few nights, well actually only really two or three nights: 6th October, (maybe 8th October) and 9th October. I'd be going to an event in Sonoma on the 7th and 8th, so it would really be a flying visit. Does anyone have a convenient pile of floor or sofa that they might be prepared to lend me?

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris J. Davis EMAIL: foo@bar.com IP: 12.158.57.141 URL: http://chrisjdavis.org DATE: 09/15/2004 08:11:23 PM Not for SF, but if you are every going through central Kentucky look me up, I have a spare room for various and sundry people to stay in. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Donnie EMAIL: donniejeter@gmail.com IP: 66.169.242.139 URL: http://www.ooler.com DATE: 09/17/2004 07:58:34 AM Hit up Derek Powazek @ Powazek.com he lives in San Fran! Plus, he seems super nice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sw EMAIL: inorderofappearance@yahoo.co.uk IP: 194.120.163.5 URL: DATE: 09/22/2004 01:39:58 PM have just had a look at some of the photos - esp norfolk i live in ireland, and seeing photos of the british countryside is a real thrill - makes me homesick - thanks for posting them ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Assmonkeying Mail.app needs to be kicked to death... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/25/2004 07:53:34 PM ----- BODY:

    So Mail.bloody.app has just chewed up and spat out around two-years of e-mail from my lovely Mac and not even Danny O'Brien could fix it for me, so that's pretty bloody annoying. And of course while I used to take regular back-ups, it's been just long enough after the last time that this happened for me to (1) stop taking back-ups several months ago and (2) have deleted the back-ups I had made to make space for other crap.

    Which leaves me in the unenviable position of asking anyone and everyone who was expecting anything from me or had planned to do something with me or with whom I've been talking recently in pretty much any capacity to get back in touch and remind me where we'd got to in the whole bloody conversation. I feel a bit like the guy in Memento at the moment, only on a much much larger (but no less fatal) timescale.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ramanan EMAIL: no@no.com IP: 67.71.62.89 URL: http://funkaoshi.com DATE: 09/25/2004 08:33:36 PM I miss Claris Emailer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: cubic.archon@gmail.com IP: 151.197.200.170 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 09/26/2004 12:54:48 AM As an entirely unhelpful closing-barn-door-horse-bolted suggestion, IMAP boxes kinda remove this hazard, unless the mail server goes tits-up, and that's unusual. $20 a year Fastmail account gives you 600 meg now, or will as soon as they get round to implementing it. (incidentally, comment posting gave me an "enter your name" error even though I signed in with typepad) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: heather EMAIL: h@hchamp.com IP: 64.174.47.196 URL: http://www.hchamp.com/ DATE: 09/26/2004 02:49:46 AM tom, i'll forward a copy of your email where you offered me that free trip to hawaii. xox ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve EMAIL: stephen@freakymousemats.com IP: 193.35.129.161 URL: DATE: 09/26/2004 12:54:07 PM Eeep, sorry to hear about that Tom, it's a danger of pretty much any locally stored mail program. Might I suggest you consider IMAP and keep all your mail server side? Has lots of other advantages too. Also, I found investing in a cheap firewire HDD and using Disk Utility to backup my whole system now and then quite handy. Can even make it bootable should the internal HDD fail in your Powerbook (already happened to me once). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Derek EMAIL: dkmiller@pobox.com IP: 209.121.230.71 URL: http://www.penmachine.com/ DATE: 09/26/2004 05:01:06 PM I think no one takes backups seriously until we've had at least one (but sometimes more) horrible, awful, no-backups-everything's-gone experience. Here's mine. (It happened to me twice.) I have to say, though, that if you not only stopped making regular backups, but also _deleted_ your old ones, you've been treading on very thin ice for some time. Of course, you know that now, so I shouldn't be rubbing it in, should I? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stewart EMAIL: stewart@llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllludicorp.com IP: 216.232.164.215 URL: DATE: 09/26/2004 08:06:32 PM Reminder: you owe me 10 quid. From that last email. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: arseblogger EMAIL: notmyaddress@arseblog.com IP: 80.58.34.170 URL: http://arseblog.com DATE: 09/27/2004 12:49:14 AM Much as I love Apple, Mail has done that to me too many times and I use Entourage now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jay Gooby EMAIL: jay@gooby.org IP: 217.207.100.167 URL: http://jay.gooby.org DATE: 09/27/2004 10:53:31 AM And there was me just about to switch to Mail.app after Entourage did exactly the same to me on Friday. Sigh. I've got all my mail backed up via Gmail (incoming and sent items) and it's yet another reminder to get a Zoe server up and runing at home. Just need to sort out one of those Python gmail exporters now... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: krusty EMAIL: chris@ainslie.co.za IP: 196.37.229.110 URL: http://www.ainslie.co.za DATE: 09/28/2004 04:08:37 PM It's a black day, isn't it. Well, I had to do a format & reinstall the other day, as you generally do need to when running \/\/indows. I backed up about 68Gb to DDS3 tapes, with verify on, then restored all the tapes, just to make sure they worked. Format, reinstall, restore....restore....restore? Oh no, sorry, "Please see the removable storage MMC". WTF? There's nothing to see, not in the Event Viewer, nothing! Well, that's about 6.5Gb of mail since 1997, loads of docs, pictures (normal, everyday, *clean* pictures :), and misc other stuff. I suppose I'm a bit of a hoarder in many ways, but that was my data, dammit! What right did the magnetic gods have to take it from me? *sigh* I suppose I'll get over it, but damn, it's not nice. I feel for you buddy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmial.fm IP: 62.253.64.16 URL: http://go-blog-go.blogspot.com DATE: 09/29/2004 06:22:19 PM Bleah. Don't forget you should be able to strip at least the text out of your mailbox folders: the unix command is strings IIRC: "strings mbox > mboxtext". This will at least let you manually find things you know about. IMAP is OK but try to get one with a webmail interface as occasionally your client app's configs corrupt irretrievably (happened to me recently) POP3 fudge: set your client app to leave mail on the server for, say, 30 days. Effectively a rolling snailtrail email backup. Easy to forget backup. And doesn't it suck. I have LifeBalance set to nudge me for 3 rolling backups on alternating fortnights, giving me a month-and-a-half rollback ability (great for when you discover only corruption later) and average loss of only a week. But if you have the cash, here's an idea for an effortless constant backup: plug in say a £100 drive internally, Retrospect scheduled to incrementally backup data daily + weekly grand/fathers. Protects transparently against corruption & accident, if not fire & theft. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: peter mcgrath EMAIL: peter@wildbard.co.uk IP: 213.130.142.42 URL: http://www.wildbard.co.uk/lunartalks.html DATE: 09/29/2004 10:23:39 PM And there was me thinking I was lone sufferer. Only had one mail wipeout so far, but does anyone else suffer the endless 'completing address' problem? Given the recent success with Jeff Bezos, maybe someone should email Steve Jobs and ask him to fix mail. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmial.fm IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://go-blog-go.blogspot.com DATE: 09/30/2004 12:27:20 PM >fix mail Eudora Core architecture from the same people who brought you Mosaic/Netscape: NCSA; and still the benchmark mail app. ----- PING: TITLE: Links of interest (2004-09-26) URL: http://www.penmachine.com/journal/2004_09_01_news_archive.html#109621793561136393 IP: 67.18.73.162 BLOG NAME: Penmachine words music comment DATE: 09/26/2004 06:10:51 PM If you not only stop maintaining your backups, but actually delete the old ones, you're on thin ice. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Let's help Amazon shut-down comment-spammers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 09/26/2004 07:46:00 PM ----- BODY:

    From an e-mail I sent to Amazon today:

    I don't know if this is the right e-mail address to contact you on, but I just thought I should mention that onlineshop.us.com - a site that is using the Amazon affiliates scheme - has started comment-spamming thousands of weblogs.

    Today I received no fewer than fifty automated comments on my site from them - each containing dozens of URLs they want to get higher in Google - each one a site that uses Amazon affiliate links to get money. I imagine I'm one of thousands of webloggers in a similar situation. As I'm sure you can imagine, comment spammers piss off a hell of a lot of people, and bring Amazon's good name into disrepute by association. From looking through your terms and conditions I notice that you demand that associates obey laws regarding marketing spam, and as a result I imagine that you would consider the unsolicited and automated posting of marketing materials without any way to 'unsubscribe' whatsoever as (at least) highly inappropriate. The people these individuals are targeting are also highly web-savvy individuals who are more likely than most to be regular Amazon customers as well. I imagine this gives you even more reason to be concerned.

    If you could ban the person concerned from your programme for violation of terms I would be extremely grateful - as I'm sure would hundreds of other people who have sites suffering abuse from this individual/organisation. I'm assuming that there's probably a way that you could refuse to pay accumulated revenues as well, and I would ask you to seriously consider this as a way of directly hurting people who try to abuse their relationship with Amazon and with the general public. Perhaps if they realise that there's no financial incentive any more for behaving like the bottom-feeding scum that they are, they might change their ways and consider getting proper jobs.

    Yours, Tom Coates

    Have you had comment spam from an Amazon affiliate? Help get rid of it by sending Amazon an e-mail today. If they refuse to do anything about it, then there's always the possibility of a boycott of affiliate links or a refusal to buy or promote anything from them. Hopefully it won't come to that though - I'm sure Amazon will see this as a problem...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Barry Ritholtz EMAIL: ritholtz@optonline.net IP: 24.46.87.104 URL: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/ DATE: 09/28/2004 03:06:47 AM This is actually a good email address: Jeff.Bezos@Amazon.com I only use it for real serious shit; This qualifies . . . ----- PING: TITLE: Help Stop A Comment Spammer URL: http://davextreme.com/extremities/2004/09/help_stop_a_com.html IP: 64.207.184.2 BLOG NAME: eXtremities DATE: 09/26/2004 11:57:56 PM Help Stop A Comment Spammer... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Success against the blogspammers! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/28/2004 08:25:20 AM ----- BODY:

    Thanks to Cory we have a result against the blogspammers! Cory chucked an e-mail to no less than Jeff Bezos drawing the post to his attention and within 36 hours received a reply. Onlineshop.us.com has now been dropped from the Amazon affiliate scheme and so hopefully will no longer be comment spamming all and sundry! Take that evil scum!

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 193.1.172.146 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 09/28/2004 11:16:04 AM Pld, as the online gamers would say. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pogo EMAIL: pogothemonkey@talk21.com IP: 193.130.83.216 URL: http://goopy.blogspot.com DATE: 09/28/2004 02:09:23 PM *applause* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: fridgemagnet EMAIL: cubic.archon@gmail.com IP: 192.154.91.225 URL: http://www.fridgemagnet.org.uk/ DATE: 09/28/2004 05:27:17 PM Wouldn't they say "pwned"? Or am I past it? Anyway, it's good to know Amazon actually pay attention to this stuff sometimes. I reported one of their sellers for adding me to their mailing list without permission, and they did nothing about it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 83.70.29.57 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 09/28/2004 11:49:21 PM 'Pld' is short for 'played', implicitly preceded by 'well'. Although 'pwned' and its derivatives, 'pruned' 'prawned' 'shrimped' among countless others, would probably figure. I'll go now before this starts to seem any more like gratuitous commenting ----- PING: TITLE: One spammer down URL: http://vantan.org/asides/2004/09/one_spammer_dow.php IP: 69.72.229.98 BLOG NAME: vantan.org Asides DATE: 09/29/2004 01:01:35 AM Glad to hear that Amazon does take action against comment-spamming affiliates.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More about the onlineshop.us.com comment spamming debacle... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 10/01/2004 12:28:10 PM ----- BODY:

    Another response has come through to me via Cory from the people at Amazon Associates about the comment spam problem I was having a while back. It's actually fairly interesting how little response I've personally had from Amazon (ie. none), and how much response Cory's e-mail to Jeff Bezos has engendered (ie. lots). Anyway - I can't fault how helpful they're trying to be. An excerpt from today's e-mail reads as follows:

    We have contacted the Associate with the Website mentioned in your email. After further investigation, it appears the spam you received may not have come from the owner of this site. Unfortunately, there is no way to confirm the origin of this spam based on the information provided in your email.

    In order to identify the culprit and attempt to put an end to this type of activity, we are asking for your assistance in identifying the origin of this spam. If you have any further information you can provide, such as the IP address listed in your log files etc., we ask that you please forward this information to us.

    So anyway, I sent them a list from my MT-Blacklist logs of about a third of the 370-ish comment spams that I've received from onlineshop.us.com, but I've unfortunately deleted the original comments. So here's an appeal to you guys out there - if any of you have been comment-spammed by the onlineshop.us.com people could you send an e-mail about it (and a copy of any logs or comment-alert e-mails or whatever other evidence you might have that might help pin down the culprits) to associates [at] amazon [dot] com. There's still a good chance we could nail these bastards and stop them making money at our expense...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Flickr, Favcol and my experience of weblogging... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/02/2004 11:04:55 AM ----- BODY:

    So I love Flickr. I think it's absolutely awesome. I've been weblogging for five years (almost - see me in thirty days) and the fun I have using Flickr reminds me of the immediate joy and excitement that I used to get from writing on my site. The stuff I post there - the stuff I write there - is resolutely frivolous and personal and bears no relationship to my job, technical/design interests or the industry in which I work.

    As my weblog over the last few years has changed to become more sober and more work-oriented, and as the pieces I tend to write have become longer and less-frequent, it has at times felt like posting had ceased to be a pleasure and was becoming a chore. I don't know why that might be - possibly it's a result of Movable Type's posting interface interface, the obvious practical utility and web-native aspects of the post-per-page format or maybe it's just because of my own determination to bore the world slowly to death. Whatever the reason, I think Flickr's gradually making me feel more positive about the whole thing. I think it's helping me find a different parallel space where I can post in a completely different register.

    For all these reasons, and because I finally got moblogging working on my Nokia 6230, I was more than happy to pay to go Pro. And thanks to Feedburner I've even merged plasticbag.org's feeds with my Flickr feed to create a slightly more varied and nuanced reflection of my life (that isn't monomaniacally obsessed with social software, comment spam or music technology). So hopefully now, those of you who are subscribing to the plasticbag.org feed (around 1,000 of you by my reckoning) will actually have something to read each day.

    Of course one of the greatest things about Flickr is that it has an API that other people can hook into. My favourite example of its use recently has been the Flickr Rainbow applet that uses tagged up photos and what amounts to a tiny (and obvious) controlled vocabulary filter around colour to assemble a rainbow of photographs. I only wish that Mr Webb's favcol was still around so that he could build use Flickr to determine the web's favourite red or purple...

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: azeem EMAIL: azeem@azhar.co.uk IP: 212.158.227.67 URL: http://azeem.azhar.co.uk/ DATE: 10/02/2004 05:01:15 PM Flickr is amazing. I sent 42 photos from my US trip --I fear for the MMS costs-- and the great thing about flickr is that it really adheres to Mark Twain's advice: the letters are very short indeed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmial.fm IP: 62.255.64.7 URL: http://go-blog-go.blogspot.com DATE: 10/02/2004 06:24:48 PM Re: your linklog's "Oxford Circus god-ranter", you might like this: "If you don't stop calling me Satan, I'll have to start singing show-tunes." http://www.livejournal.com/users/koaloha/29646.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Carden EMAIL: web@tom-carden.co.uk IP: 135.196.5.60 URL: http://www.tom-carden.co.uk DATE: 10/04/2004 12:17:05 PM Thanks for the link to the Flickr Rainbow. I'm having a bit of trouble with the speed of the initial searches, but Cal says that they are working on scaling issues with the API - http://lists.iamcal.com/pipermail/flickr-apis/2004-September/000115.html /me misses favcol too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rikaBLOG EMAIL: rika_rika716@yahoo.co.jp IP: 61.205.92.53 URL: http://www.mblog.com/rikablog/ DATE: 10/10/2004 08:15:02 AM Thanks for great information. After having read this, I visited Flickr and found it's awesome! I wrote about it in my blog with link of this page. Thanks again! ----- PING: TITLE: Flickr URL: http://www.mblog.com/rikablog/093402.html IP: 66.203.67.130 BLOG NAME: rikaBLOG DATE: 10/10/2004 08:29:41 AM Below pic was posted from my flickr. Flickr has very unique and interesting systems, not only posting photo, but also posting to my own blog from there. Last weekend, I read about Flickr on plasticbag.org. As soon as I read it, I visited Flickr and reg... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Meet up with me in San Francisco... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/02/2004 11:47:15 AM ----- BODY:

    Right. So I'm going to San Francisco again on Wednesday, but I'm only in town for a very short period of time as I'm spending Thursday and Friday in Sonoma for the Online Community Report Summit 2004 and then flying back to the UK on Sunday afternoon. I think I'm booked up for the Wednesday night too catching up with Web 2.0 people, but Friday night / Saturday and first thing Sunday morning I think I'm free to do stuff, talk to people or muck around. Does anyone have any ideas about what I should get up to?

    More importantly, my current plan will be to be in The Pork Store on 16th / Valencia around 10am on Sunday 3rd October for my last Californian meal for a good few months (or at a pinch maybe that place down by the dry docks that Jim and Ben took me to last time). If anyone should feel like they want to join me, then they'd be more than welcome... I'll post more nearer the time.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jason EMAIL: benito67@mac.com IP: 63.201.36.198 URL: DATE: 10/03/2004 03:38:22 AM The Pork Store is okay;the REAL Pork Store is on Haight St. The one you speak of has been like 8 restaurants in 10 years... If you really want the best breakfast in town-I can't believe I'm giving this one up-but I trust your writing and stuff so it's okay-try the SOMA INN.It's on Folsom St. right near the shitty MacAdam Store between 7th & 8th Sts. in South of Market. I'm telling you,great everything-especially breakfasts.And no one is ever there.Plus you can walk to the MoMA or down 6th. St. to see the "Junkie Parade"...have fun in SF!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andy Budd EMAIL: info@andybudd.com IP: 62.49.5.25 URL: http://www.andybudd.com/ DATE: 10/04/2004 03:00:05 PM So you're into meeting up with folks in SF. Cool. Would you be up for meeting with a few UK web folks when you get back sometime? A bunch of UK bloggers are planning a private London get together in Nov and it would be cool if you could come. I emailed a couple of times about the last one but unfortunately never heard back. Dunstan did the same with the previous one but also never heard back. Could be that we've just been getting your email address wrong so why not give me a shout and we can sort something out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/04/2004 06:53:39 PM I'm always interested, but works been insane for the last few months. I'm coming out of a coma with this stuff now as the particular project I was on has now ended. You've probably noticed that I've just started to post slightly more regularly to my site for a start... What kind of thing did you have in mind? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Two minor brushes with fame... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/03/2004 11:40:58 PM ----- BODY:

    So tonight I've had two minor brushes with fame. I decided to go and see Layer Cake at the Odeon Marble Arch but arrived a little early. And while waiting for the theatre to open, I suddenly heard Drop The Dead Donkey star (and somewhat early nineties crush of mine) Neil Pearson barking into a mobile phone, "Well it's been slammed by the press but the box office is huge". I have no idea what he was talking about since he doesn't appear to have been in a film for a while, but hey. If you're interested, he went to see Saw (IMDB rating 7.3 - not bad).

    And while still reeling from this little piece of celebrity spotting fun-gossip stuff, when Layer cake finally started it didn't take long for me to start recognising little parts of London - particularly our gangster hero's West London den, which it turns out is just at the end of my road. I pass it on the way to get the tube into work. Unless I get the bus. If I get a chance I'll take a picture tomorrow so that you film buffs can get all excited by it when you see the movie. This is the second weird "check out where I live" moment that I've had in the last couple of days. The other one being this pic on Esther Dyson's Flickr Photostream which turns the map of my area into a cool Union Jack. I live on the top left of that picture. Mr Layer Cake Gangster bod works at the bottom left.

    Which leads me to the film itself. The plot's pretty generic gangster - small-time-ish crook gets in the middle of some larger intrigue and tries to get out of it by being smart and canny - but it's assembled carefully, paced pretty well and doesn't look cheap. It's got a few stylised bits in it, but essentially it's a good old-fashioned gangster film that doesn't try and be too clever with the format. It's pretty well-acted, pretty exciting, the women are pretty much breasts with legs or nagging psychos but then you could say Daniel Craig is pretty much breasts with legs as well and you won't see me complaining. London looks great and I pretty much enjoyed myself. Not a stunner, but a good way to spend a couple of hours...

    Addendum Looks like (from the comments and from this link that Neil was talking about his role in the Kevin Spacey-directed Cloaca, currently showing at London's Old Vic. It is indeed true that the press are not keen.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rob EMAIL: rob.hinchcliffe@gmail.com IP: 213.212.70.122 URL: DATE: 10/04/2004 08:51:52 AM I'm pretty sure Mr Pearson would have been talking about his role in the Kevin Spacey / Old Vic production of Cloaca: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3699546.stm ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: blogs@longmans.net IP: 193.131.186.189 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 10/04/2004 12:32:20 PM I'm pretty sure he will have been talking about Cloaca too. I went on Friday night. I think he may be exaggerating a little - although the theatre was mainly full, my row was entirely empty. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chuck Olsen EMAIL: waltmink@mac.com IP: 24.145.186.198 URL: http://blogumentary.typepad.com DATE: 10/10/2004 05:15:10 AM Re:blog history, for context that clip follows an interview with Rebecca Blood explaining the origin of blogs as link filters and commentary. But I can't not mention LJs, so this seemed like a good place to put them. Besides, journals and blogs morphed and merged, and most of my audience (i.e. people who aren't already deeply versed in blogs) probably won't care too much about the distinctions. ----- PING: TITLE: Cloaca - clunker? URL: http://www.matthewman.net/archives/2004/10/04/cloaca_clunker.php IP: 212.227.109.134 BLOG NAME: Scott's place DATE: 10/04/2004 12:09:38 PM According to Tom Coates, Neil Pearson, star of the Kevin Spacey-directed Cloaca at the Old Vic, was overheard saying into a mobile phone, “Well it’s been slammed by the press but the box office is huge”. And indeed it’s been we... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wikiproxy "enhances" BBC News Online... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Journalism CATEGORY: Journalism DATE: 10/04/2004 09:14:23 PM ----- BODY:

    So my old boss, bluntly, often talks quite a lot of balls. Having got that out of the way, I should also add that on occasion he does come up with some pretty bloody interesting (if almost certainly soon to be cease-and-desisted) ideas. Case in point: BBC News Online Wikiproxy - a service that takes any article page on BBC News and (1) turns key terms in the article into links through to wikipedia and (2) adds a section to the right-hand navigation that references weblogs that are linking to the story. You can see an example of it in action on this story: Sir Elton attacks 'mime' Madonna.

    Before I go any further, I think - since I work for the BBC - that I probably need to make it clear that I'm not condoning or sanctioning this service and that the tiny amount of commentary that follows does not in any way represent the BBC's opinions etc. etc. Individually I think I can say that there's a lot in Stef's assessment of BBC News Online that I don't agree with. Nonetheless, this is a pretty bloody neat illustration of one possible future direction that news sites could move in - a site that's much more part of the web than just on the web. There are other directions of course, and no end of complexities, legal and editorial issues that might arise if the BBC just went ahead and did this stuff, but if you view it purely as a thought experiment then I think there's a lot of intellectual value to be had from it.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gordon EMAIL: gordon@snowgoon.co.uk IP: 62.189.46.34 URL: http://www.gordonmclean.co.uk/ DATE: 10/05/2004 11:22:16 AM Yes and no. Yes in as much that I think more sites need to be 'part' of the internet as you say. No as it's often hard enough to get the 'true' story as it is, further links to places like wikipedia may only serve to blur the lines further? Not sure, but sometimes too many sources of information can be confusing and this may detract from the reputation BBC Online has established. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: cdeskinfo@copydesk.co.uk IP: 81.155.100.150 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 10/06/2004 12:00:43 AM You've already pointed out on your linklog how the BBC are using Moreover to link to other news stories, but this particular system of linking to allegedly relevant items within a news story has already been in use for a while at The Scotsman newspaper website (www.scotsman.com). Whilst at first, it seems interesting to be able to go directly to items like the Scottish Parliament website in a story about Holyrood, it soon gets distracting. The BBC News 'related links' down the right-hand side of a story usually suffice. ----- PING: TITLE: Wiki But Verify URL: http://www.blueherenow.com/blueherenow/archives/004904.php IP: 66.113.130.225 BLOG NAME: BlueHereNow - Your Local Wireless Station DATE: 10/05/2004 06:20:40 AM The BBC Goes wiki.... ----- PING: TITLE: BBC Wikiproxy and The Issue of Accuracy URL: http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2004/10/06/bbc_wikiproxy_a.html IP: 67.18.65.42 BLOG NAME: Smart Mobs DATE: 10/06/2004 06:20:09 PM BBC News Online wikiproxy is an experiment by the author of whitelabel.org blog that takes the BBC News Online site and turns words in text into links to Wikipedia articles. And, it links on the right hand side of a... ----- PING: TITLE: BBCi News and Blogs - Continued URL: http://www.frankieroberto.com/weblog/259.xhtml IP: 80.71.16.102 BLOG NAME: frankie roberto blog DATE: 10/07/2004 04:18:30 PM A while ago, I published the idea that the BBCi News website should accept pings (to allow it to link to blogs discussing the article. Tom Coates points towards a BBC-external website, Wikiproxy, which is pulling together exactly this information.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Towards tag-based bookmark management in web browsers? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Social Software DATE: 10/04/2004 11:46:11 PM ----- BODY:

    So since playing with Flickr and working on a little fun project at work on (cough) folksonomies with Mr Webb, I've become obsessed with tags and the ways in which they can be used to build better navigational interfaces. Currently I'm interested in how we might use tags for better folder-less bookmark management in web browsers.

    The way I see it, most people find the style of bookmark management commonly used in web browsers pretty much totally useless. Once you've added the two or three sets of bookmarks that you might use every day the bookmarks section of the web browser swiftly becomes very quickly a wasteland to which links may be consigned and never looked at again. After a while even the simple job of finding a URL that you previously bookmarked becomes so difficult that it is often easier to instead use Google to find the page afresh. Clearly there is something wrong here.

    The most obvious thing that is wrong with bookmarks (other than that not enough browsers make them easily searchable) is that keeping them organised is an intensely complicated job. If you bookmark things regularly, it takes almost no time for your lists to grow to be hopelessly out of control. And then we're expected to organise them into folders. But URLs and links can talk about any subject and can be categorised along enormous ranges of axes - they are much more suited towards databased organisation than they are the simple heirarchies that folders can afford. One URL will seem to fit into your 'social software' bin - but also would fit equally wellin your 'do something about this URL' bin, and perhaps should also be in your 'relevant for latest project' bin. Currently the only solution is to put the same thing in three separate folders - creating three bookmarks and no sense of how they relate to each other semantically. And putting things into multuple folders can be a slow and flow-disrupting process.

    To summarise the problems with current bookmarking systems then, we could say that (1) the process is slow and annoying (2) that it requires us to continually refine and redevelop our taxonomies if we're going to keep track of everything, (3) that URLs can belong in a number of bins and that (4) we can be left with unmanageably large lists. An ideal system would therefore speed the process up of both bookmarking a site and retrieving it later. An ideal system would try to alleviate the problems of categorisation and would work as an a priori assumption that a URL might wish to be stored in multiple bins. An ideal system would not display all the links by default. An ideal system would, in fact, use tags...

    Now I've not worked through this completely yet, and I know there are some systems that allow the use of keyword addition and searching to a URI (I think it's either in Firefox or is a simple plugin to it), but I don't think they're quite there yet. So let me walk you through where my thinking is at the moment and hopefully some of you guys can take it further or develop it in an interesting way.

    So first things first, the process of adding a bookmark. On a mac you can either use a keyboard shortcut to trigger this or you can go to "Add Bookmark" in the main menu. Here's one suggestion about what you might get when tried to bookmark a site:

    Basically it's all pretty similar to normal really except that you're immediately given the option to type in keywords/tags that help describe the bookmark you're trying to make. Now in this diagram I've kept in the option to edit the name of the bookmark itself, but I actually think this is a mistake. In the next picture (a mock-up of the preferences screen) you've seen that I've put in an option to make that name editable or uneditable. I'm thinking of the minimum practical keystrokes and suggesting that a user needs to be able to click on Apple-D and then immediately start typing keywords before pressing return to save the whole thing. Editing the name would seem on the whole to be a waste of time and user effort.

    Now by removing the need to edit the name we've saved a little time (if we can get away with it, which is at best debatable), but surely adding the tags in by hand must take longer? Well the other thing you could add to the preferences would be the option to pull out the page's meta keywords description and use them by default as tags (restricting it to the first ten or so, obviously) to create a basic set of tags to work with. Fast typists could turn this option off. If you wanted to really explore extreme possibilities then I'm sure it would be possible for a Google-created browser (for example) to pull useful keywords out of dmoz.

    The next problem would be how to present this stuff to the user. Safari by default has a number of views of bookmarks. There's no need to get rid of any of these - each should be simply a different way of allowing the user to browse through the stored addresses. I would be proposing adding a new browse option to the ones that already exist - one that looked rather more like one of the Flickr tag-views (either top tags plus search or all tags). These pages would not display any URLs by default, just ways of slicing down into the database. Only after clicking on "music" would all the links pertaining to music appear. More interestingly you could then show not only all the links pertaining to music, but a newly filtered set of tags allowing you to drill down still further. And by putting a cancel button by each of the selected tags you could start by looking at things that were tagged "music", then move to seeing the links filtered "music + country" and then move to all things tagged "country" by deselecting music before moving to "country + Turkey + history" with only a few more keystrokes.

    I've tried to illustrate what I'm talking about with a few mock-ups, but they're not terribly good.

    Here you can see a detail showing a selected left menu and an interface for selecting an initial tag. The full mock-up is here. Now here's a detail of one in which someone has selected country, and is prompted to either refine their query further by adding another tag, to cancel their current query (small cross after 'country' or to follow a link directly through to the site in question:

    The full mock-up for this one is here.

    So anyway, there's a hell of a lot more I could say around this subject and no doubt an awful lot more I could write about it, but I'm conscious of how long this piece is getting and how much attention I'm demanding from people. So I'm just going to swiftly bring this to an end with a few suggestions about how you could move these things forward. Because one of the great things about the tag systems that are used in both Flickr and del.icio.us is that they becoming infinitely more useful when they're aggregated. There's any number of ways you could do the same for locally held bookmarks - for a start you could use the social power of Rendezvous to aggregate tags and bookmarks together to create a local taxonomy of URLs which would allow you to say to a friend, "I've got a whole bunch of bookmarks on this subject tagged up as social software" and if they were in the room they'd just be able to see them immediately = and perhaps drag them over to their own local bookmarks. And better still - why should this be an action restricted to people physically close to you? Why not socially close? I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why the social relationships that I have described with iChat aren't a more implicit part of all of my applications. A social networking system that aggregated all the bookmarks of every mac user you keep in touch with (and built around tags) could create a new and significant form that hybridised concepts of presence and zeitgeist and took the concepts that the folksonomy sites are promoting one stage further.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/05/2004 04:35:21 PM I'm probbaly going to edit this back a bit later in the day and improve some of the flow of the language. I just thought I should warn people. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James Stewart EMAIL: lists@james.anthropiccollective.org IP: 69.209.125.60 URL: http://james.anthropiccollective.org DATE: 10/05/2004 05:05:10 PM Some friends and I were discussing bookmark management after I introduced them to delicious. Not being a regular Firefox user I hadn't yet explored their 'live bookmarks' feature, but it seems like you can use that to subscribe to your delicious feed. It's pretty rudimentary; but it does allow me to keep my 'toread' or 'toblog' collections close at hand (when using Firefox). And it did give me some indication that what I had till then considered a pretty useless feature did have some applications even for those of us who are already using aggregators. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: richs EMAIL: kokeshi@gmail.com IP: 195.10.250.125 URL: http://del.icio.us/kokeshi/ DATE: 10/05/2004 05:31:27 PM This is really interesting, and it's lovely to see your thinking in such detail. There's a couple of things I don't quite get though. One, isn't this just a different (lovely and attractive) UI on top of cocoa.licio.us, the MacOS client for del.icio.us? And secondly, this line: "if they were in the room they'd just be able to see them immediately" made me think, if you want to share your bookmarks, isn't it better to use the web? That way, if you wanted to share them you could show them to anybody, not just people in your office. In fact, you could subscribe to your del.icio.us RSS feed and tag feed using Firefox's Sage sidebar extension, and have something very like this already. Probably better to use cocoalicious, from a UI point of view. But I may have missed the main thrust of your post: sorry if I have. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adrian McEwen EMAIL: adrian-blog@mcqn.net IP: 62.253.133.230 URL: http://www.mcqn.net/mcfilter/ DATE: 10/05/2004 05:38:29 PM Interesting ideas. Better bookmarks was one of the reasons I started a blog, and one of these days I'll revisit del.icio.us and actually sign up :-) Just a minor point about the bookmark names - I agree with the default focus being in the tags field because most of the time you're going to just want to enter tags. However, some sites don't have particularly useful titles so from time to time you will want to change the name of the bookmark from "Insert title here" or "Main page" or "Photos" to something actually relating to the page... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee Bryant EMAIL: lee@headshift.com IP: 81.86.117.89 URL: http://www.headshift.com DATE: 10/05/2004 09:34:29 PM Good idea Tom. On a local machine (which is where bookmarks live for most people) the closest we have right now seems to be Quicksilver's bookmark plugin. It lets you type CTRL-SPACE and the first few letters of what you are looking for and displays bookmarks with title matches. It's easier than folders anyhow. Apart from bookmarklets in the bar, I no longer use bookmarks for collecting links because they are unmanageable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott reynen EMAIL: scott@randomchaos.com IP: 12.223.147.214 URL: http://weblog.randomchaos.com DATE: 10/05/2004 09:58:29 PM nearly everything you describe here already exists in the firefox del.icio.us plugin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob EMAIL: web1@ryskamp.org IP: 12.151.32.25 URL: http://ryskamp.org DATE: 10/05/2004 10:12:00 PM Tags are fun, but I'd really rather have the browser do the work. Perhaps a screen scrape of the data, filtering for the most common words and automatically tagging it? Once tagged, however, I like your concept of browsing through your bookmarks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joshua EMAIL: joshua@burri.to IP: 68.174.103.8 URL: http://del.icio.us/ DATE: 10/05/2004 11:05:34 PM Much of what you're talking about is stuff I've actually already implemented in del.icio.us, aside from the non-local part. You might consider actually trying it out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: plemeljr EMAIL: plemeljr@gmail.com IP: 66.149.36.22 URL: http://www.grubbykid.com DATE: 10/06/2004 12:17:50 AM I think that your ideas are admirable - hierarchical bookmarking is broken - and something needs to happen. I also think dependence on any local system is also part of the problem - I move between multiple computers daily, and yearly. If your new fangled local tagging systems works great, but then your computer dies along with your data, you are back to square 1. I also think del.icio.us would solve most of your problems. I can't stress how much del.icio.us has changed the way I "bookmark" things. I no longer bookmark items locally - I just popup the del.icio.us tagger, and bam there it is. I have been experimenting with pulling the del.icio.us bookmarks to a local "backup" every time I login to my powerbook in order to seed the aforementioned QuickSilver bookmarks plugin. I also have been experimenting with tagging sites which I visit daily using book:per.pol, book:nyc, and book:blog which I then pull into a "links" page via MagPie RSS (with full caching on to spare joshua the load). I chose those tags on purpose because those are "special" tags which I wouldn't use on a daily tagging basis. Additionally, I pull in my inbox links via MagPie to populate the bottom of the links page. You could very well create a web interface which is exactly like your mockup, but the del.icio.us interface is constantly improving, so I would start there. Of course, if joshua takes his ball home, all 1300 or so of my bookmarks are toast. Perhaps a solution is some sort of backup, both locally and to another webserver would be a solution, but then you get into a whole 'nother problem. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: crazyMunchkin EMAIL: atalmadge@speakeasy.net IP: 64.241.242.18 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 12:45:11 AM Furl.net also allows you to tag your books marks, search them, share them, import/export them. And it even stores a personal copy of the page for you on a central server in case the original site goes down. Definitely worth checking out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: crazyMunchkin EMAIL: atalmadge@speakeasy.net IP: 64.241.242.18 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 12:45:31 AM Furl.net also allows you to tag your bookmarks, search them, share them, import/export them. And it even stores a personal copy of the page for you on a central server in case the original site goes down. Definitely worth checking out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 17.201.20.74 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 10/06/2004 02:08:42 AM Tom, I am personally doing a lot of work in this area with my Cocoal.icio.us app: http://www.scifihifi.com/cocoalicious Any chance I could steal that cool tag icon (as well as your other ideas) for use in there? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@timzilla.net IP: 80.229.229.241 URL: http://www.timzilla.net DATE: 10/06/2004 02:35:16 AM I couldn't agree more about the problems inherent with bookmarks as they currently exist - but for me the problem was solved instantly with a linkblog. I've got the whole of the post body to drop in as much metadata as I want, and the blog search engine to find it again once it's dumped. The hardest part for me was letting go of the idea that 'my' bookmarks should live on 'my' machine - eventually I came to the conclusion that it was a daft hangup. If I'm not online, then the bookmarks are useless anyway, and if I was that paranoid I could run the linkblog locally on my Powerbook. The two factors that trouble me about social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us is a) what if they become evil and b) how do I protect links that I want to keep private? Both resolved by blogging... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: joshua EMAIL: joshua@burri.to IP: 68.174.103.8 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 03:43:22 AM Tim: I provide the beginnings of a way to extract all your bookmarks from delicious in one go, and I will add more. It's XML and a bit ugly and I'm working on that. I'm not planning to become evil. I haven't added full privacy partially because I want people to get used to remembering in public, and partially because it's complicated issue (you don't want to show anyone, or you only want to show specific people, or you want to show specific groups, etc) and I don't like to add functionality until I've properly thought it out. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dj drue EMAIL: djdrue@gmail.com IP: 4.31.30.10 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 10:12:37 AM working at a computer all day and then coming home to blog has often put me in not only a bind by having a ton of lost bookmarks at home, but all the recent bookmarks I want to blog are at work. Furl.net has really come in handy here. In addition of keywords, searching, and public viewing of your bookmarks. it also snapshots sites, so if they die, you will still have them. Also, you can set up xml feeds of your links and then add that feed to your blog as a link-blog. I think that might be closer to the funtionality you are looking for. anywy, it's working for me. Good ideas though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rowan EMAIL: rowann@hotmail.com IP: 213.202.146.113 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 10:31:01 AM I like the A9.com toolbar for IE. It has a "Diary" button which lets you tag the current page with whatever text you like. Then every time you search A9 (e.g. from the same toolbar, or from a different browser) you can set it to search your diary entries too. There's a web interface for adding tagged bookmarks too. Now if only it would index the whole page as well as just the diary entry I'd be very happy. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ANON EMAIL: ANON@aon.com IP: 168.187.1.11 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 01:18:25 PM PowerMarks from Kaylon technologies (kaylon.com) has been doing this for three years past. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew EMAIL: andrew@heyotwell.com IP: 65.120.138.116 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 03:37:05 PM So why limit this to bookmarks? Couldn't this type of tagging interaction be a service available to all the Mac apps? It could work identically in iPhoto and iTunes at least... Also, why not steal one more Flickr idea: scaling the tag words? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Eric Costello EMAIL: eric@schwa.com IP: 216.254.102.135 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 04:33:40 PM I think you are smart. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: archdata EMAIL: archdata@rogers.com IP: 216.94.16.34 URL: DATE: 10/06/2004 04:47:27 PM The only problem I have with del.icio.us is the tagging function. Training as an archivist means that I like to tag things, however, we have sets of tags and categories already laid out (e.g Library of Congress). When tagging your bookmarks you should a) be able to pick keywords that you used before instead of typing them and b) see how others have tagged the URL. If 100's of people tag a URL differently how can you be expected to find the info you are looking for. Imagine if every library had a different method of describing books - in one a CSS book is tagged as "programming", in another as "web language", and maybe another as "page layout" (and yes many times it is done this way - and it still drives me nuts) I am not calling for a set keyword list, but if this is to be a true social bookmarking scheme then the tags should be social as well. If you see that 1000 people tag a URL under "CSS, Programming, Box Model" then would it not make sense that you do as well? This way you can start to classify the URL's into a scheme that everyone can use. This of course does not mean that you can't add your own. Maybe a way for private tagging and public tagging. This way you can keep your own strange way of categorising your bookmarks, and a public categorisation system as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: plemeljr EMAIL: c77173c9f2b64188e4fe2de568969447db95b483 IP: 66.149.36.22 URL: http://www.grubbykid.com DATE: 10/06/2004 11:34:06 PM archdata, you have a good point - there are times when strict classification systems are needed. Libraries and books are one of them. But web pages don't fit into neat little LoC, Dewey, whatever ontology of classification. The power of tags, are not the tags themselves really, but the connections groups of tags make to each other and the algorithm which links them. Perhaps at some point, a bug/feature would be to "clean up your tags" along a socially (collectively) ontology. So that your "CSS, Programming, Box Model" problem is "solved." I'm not sure if anyone would want to really do that, and to me, it strikes exactly against the nature of tags and should not happen. Perhaps a sythesis of tags and strict ontology could work. Right now, I am working on a project where we use a strict, industry standard system, and a user-centric tagging system. Hopefully it would be the best of both worlds. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hans Gerwitz EMAIL: typekey@phobia.com IP: 66.93.192.21 URL: http://phobia.com/ DATE: 10/07/2004 03:09:25 AM archdata, nutr.itio.us offers a del.icio.us posting interface that you would find quite pleasing. By providing shortcuts for re-using popular tags (your own and the world's), it encourages a sort of organic collaboration on tag selection. Joshua has indicated he'll be providing these functions in the standard del.icio.us posting interface in the future. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jackson Fox EMAIL: jacksonfox@gmail.com IP: 4.12.235.52 URL: http://zeppox.ath.cx/~jackson/ DATE: 10/07/2004 03:13:28 PM Actually, there is a browser that already uses tags for bookmarking, though the implementation and UI need a little polishing (tags must be defined before they are used). Check out Epiphany ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: archdata EMAIL: archdata@gmail.com IP: 216.94.16.34 URL: DATE: 10/07/2004 03:35:53 PM I think that both Hans and plemeljr have it right but let me clarify some points. If you think about it - there is a book for every LoC subject that any webpage could fit into, from programming reference to Personal Journals (but maybe not - read on). Before I go into the system let me give an example to clarify the issue. I donít have access to the LCSH at the moment so I am just pulling these out of the air. Say you want to plan a birthday party for your kids? (not that I have any but stick with me) You could collect books/webpages from under subjects such as Arts and Crafts, Party Planning, and maybe Costume Design. All these have LoC classifications, that help you find the books/pages. They are of course cross references and multiple subjects - these all aid in the finding of the information. However, the user doesnít care once they have found them and piled them all up (or stuck them all in a folder). Once they have collected all these sources/references they would apply a personal tag, perhaps ëBirthday Party Ideasî. This personal tag/subject heading would not be available to the outside world (or it could be, just in a different place). Even with the personal tag/subject, you still have all the data from the original classification available in case you require more sources. The LoC and similar systems (like the CSH we used up here in Canada) is used to find things, used to categorise and create a finding aids. When you look at some user lists from del.icio.us how are you to find anything of interest if everyone uses something different to classify and organise their bookmarks publicly? I see a system working like this : You bookmark a page and the systems looks to see if other have bookmarked this already. If it has been bookmarked (by 1 or 100ís of people) it presents you with the subject headings that they have assigned to the page. There could be one set of classification (such as Computers, Programming, Languages, Reference, CSS, Box Model Hack) or multiple ones. You can accept or add your own. If it has not you classify it as best you can. At the same time you also add your personal tag/subject. One goes into the system and your personal set stays with you. The system will keep watch over how this bookmark is used. How do most people find it using the classification system? How many different classifications are there? How many people have classified as a, or b or c. If people find one particular bookmark by always going to ìComputers, Programming, Languages, Reference, CSS, Box Model Hackî then the system can start to drop the other less used classifications down (not get rid of them, but just give them less prominence). This basically creates a social system where as a group we create a catalogue of sites, classified and structured. However, the system also allows for personal classification. You should be able to put bookmarks in personal categories such as ìNeed to Do Something About Theseî and ìThings that make me giggleî and so on. With both systems attached you get the best of both worlds a system for finding sites (and since all these sites are personally reviewed they are of a better quality than say a general Google search), and a personal systems that meets your needs. Of course I donít think that LoC may be the best choice, but why recreate the wheel when the work has been done. Imagine going to a library catalogue and not only getting the books but web pages also. The reason that something like LoC and similar systems is useful is that it is extensible. You can add Subject Headings when there is not one that fits your needs. In this case the social nature of the systems vets and weeds out the really dumb and confusing subjects headings. I think this is long enough and if you want we can continue over email. I know that this needs work and tweaking, but I think that with a systematic classification and a fuzzy personal tagging you get the best of both worlds. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tim EMAIL: tim@timzilla.net IP: 80.229.229.241 URL: http://www.timzilla.net DATE: 10/07/2004 05:22:38 PM Joshua: I wasn't implying that *you* had any imminent plans to turn evil ;-) but there's always that risk when you hand your data over to someone else. I guess the question is what balance you need to strike between the obvious utility of something like del.icio.us and rampant paranoia... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kasei EMAIL: greg@evilfunhouse.com IP: 68.9.132.121 URL: http://kasei.us/ DATE: 10/07/2004 09:35:39 PM A good step in this direction is just to use delicious, and import those links into Safari's bookmarks in a tag hierarchy using delicious2safari. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stavrosthewonderchicken EMAIL: stavrosthewonderchicken@hotmail.com IP: 169.140.198.38 URL: http://emptybottle.org DATE: 10/08/2004 02:54:17 AM Brilliant, and bang-on, Tom. This is exactly what I've been chasing Matt Haughey to do at Metafilter (especially for Ask.Me) for a while (no doubt to his immense annoyance), using exactly the same new-canonical examples of de.licio.us and Flickr, both of which make my nipples hard. In a bitwrangling way, of course. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: quis EMAIL: me@quis.cc IP: 134.225.163.180 URL: http://www.quis.cc DATE: 10/08/2004 12:24:14 PM I've been use the Sage plugin for Firefox for quite a while (live bookmarks borrow a lot from this). The idea of extending the bookmark metaphor seems like a very good one but in reality I don't find live bookmarks nearly as useful as Sage, I certainly can't see many people replacing their existing RSS readers. Extending bookmarks with metadata/tags on the other hand seems like a fantastic idea because it gives more flexability for storing and finding content but in a way that isn't restrictive. I also never liked the IE method of storing each bookmark as a file within the "favourites" folder and its subfolders. Having one single (XML?) file which could be standarised for storing bookmarks would make it a lot easier to distribute storage and availability of bookmarks. Obviously most of what your talking about is targeted at Safari, but even on OS X I'm a firm user of Firefox so a standardised bookmark format would be a great way that work like this could be used by any browser. I'll be following this with interest... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Otis EMAIL: none@example.com IP: 194.152.247.111 URL: http://www.simpy.com/simpy/User.do?username=otis DATE: 10/08/2004 07:38:04 PM Tim: Have you tried Simpy? It addresses both of your worries (privacy + export/backup). Rowan & archdata & plemeljr: Same as above? Give Simpy a try, it offers just that - recommendations of tags used by community for any link that Simpy knows about. You can choose to go with those, come up with your own tags, or a mix of both. URL: http://www.simpy.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ollie EMAIL: plasticbag@ollicle.com IP: 218.185.127.6 URL: http://www.ollicle.com DATE: 10/11/2004 01:56:03 AM I'm a little embarassed about my trackback appearing three times for this post. I not sure how that has happened and I don't mean to spam you - please delete where appropriate. Sincere apologies, Ollie ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Michael Leuchtenburg EMAIL: michael@slashhome.org IP: 65.96.124.10 URL: http://slashhome.org/ DATE: 10/17/2004 04:53:42 PM I think it would also be very useful to incorporate a way to search based on hyper- and hyponyms (more and less generic versions of words). That way if I have something categorized under "nosering" I'll still find it if I search for "bodypiercing" or somesuch. The other way around is less useful, but I can still imagine it being useful in some circumstances, especially if I have something tagged in a way which I don't quite remember. The data for this could mostly be taken from WordNet, but it would need to be possible for users to add things to it, as "nosering" and "bodypiercing" are probably not in WordNet at all. A hierarchy of tags, in a way, except that a tag can have multiple parents. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Adam Bramwell EMAIL: adam@octapod.org IP: 134.148.20.1 URL: http://www.octapod.org/adam DATE: 10/25/2004 04:45:28 AM In answer to Andrew's comment above, work is underway to scale the tags for delicious users. Also, the delicious2safari functionality is now mirrored for mozilla users in Foxylicioushttp://dietrich.ganx4.com/foxylicious/ (Tom: 3x trackbacks autogenerated, delete where appropriate) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vladimir Vukicevic EMAIL: vladimir+blog@vlad1.com IP: 69.226.0.102 URL: http://www.vlad1.com/~vladimir/blog/ DATE: 10/26/2004 06:27:23 AM Tom, this is a great idea; I'm the guy who implemented Live Bookmarks in Firefox, and I have plans to do some heavy reworking of bookmarks after 1.0 ships. One of the things I'd like to do is unification of history and bookmarks -- with keywords/tags, you could even have a rough scoring of sites based on the site-provided keywords and the keywords you already have for your bookmarks. I'll have to reread your ideas here once I have time to draw up a plan in the next few months. ----- PING: TITLE: A very good idea URL: http://www.brianmitchell.com/links/archives/2004/10/a_very_good_ide.php IP: 66.159.239.3 BLOG NAME: BrianMitchell.com Links DATE: 10/05/2004 06:20:33 PM plasticbag.org: Towards tag-based bookmark management in web browsers?... ----- PING: TITLE: Creating a Folksonomy URL: http://words.grubbykid.com/2004/10/05/creating_a_folksonomy.html IP: 64.49.254.53 BLOG NAME: Grubbykid.com :: Words DATE: 10/06/2004 01:48:05 AM For anyone who has struggled to create or use a system to classify objects in a logical fashion, finds that once you add one other person to the system, the system breaks. The more people you add to the system,... ----- PING: TITLE: Simple Web Services Anybody? URL: http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/000175.html IP: 217.160.250.31 BLOG NAME: tecosystems DATE: 10/06/2004 03:54:41 PM There's a lot of current debate on the growing complexity of Web services (big W) which in general conversation most take to mean the SOAP/WS-*/etc stack. I'd outline it, but Martin LaMonica's done a great job of that already here.... ----- PING: TITLE: Late night thoughts on browsing the Iraq tag on Flickr URL: http://www.thebishop.net/geodog/archives/2004/10/08/late_night_thoughts_on_browsing_the_iraq_tag_on_flickr.html IP: 66.132.150.8 BLOG NAME: Geodog DATE: 10/08/2004 10:39:30 AM One of the most striking developments in the web over the last year has been the sudden popularity of sites like Furl, Flickr and Del.icio.us, where users can categorize the data or photos they save with keywords, more colloquially called tags. Everybo... ----- PING: TITLE: Tag-based bookmarking, tree structures and other rants URL: http://www.matthewman.net/archives/2004/10/08/tagbased_bookmarking_tree_structures_and_other_rants.php IP: 212.227.109.134 BLOG NAME: Scott's place DATE: 10/08/2004 10:48:04 AM Tom Coates has written a great piece of thinking about better ways to structure bookmarks within web browsers. ----- PING: TITLE: A dream delicious client URL: http://www.ollicle.com/2004/10/11/delicious_client.html IP: 66.216.102.163 BLOG NAME: ollicle DATE: 10/10/2004 03:19:05 PM A little over a month ago I mentioned my contemplation of tag based bookmark management. Since then I have made a commitment of sorts to move my links to del.icio.us. Lately, instead of working though my bookmarks and uploading the links I want to keep... ----- PING: TITLE: Tag-based bookmarking in a browser and why people need bookmarking URL: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/10/18.html#a1392 IP: 130.89.167.145 BLOG NAME: Mathemagenic DATE: 10/18/2004 07:29:25 PM Tom Coates on tag-based bookmarks in browsers ----- PING: TITLE: links for 2004-10-22 URL: http://www.octapod.org/adam/mt/archives/000878.html IP: 203.12.146.250 BLOG NAME: Word up - It's the A-Dawg DATE: 10/22/2004 01:14:42 AM said the gramophone (categories: tunes) fat planet _ new international music (categories: tunes) Resolution dependent layout (categories: css design layout) What the Bubble Got Right Over the long term,... ----- PING: TITLE: Towards tag-based bookmark management in web browsers URL: http://www.leuschke.org/quick/archives/2004_10.html#004100 IP: 66.33.193.51 BLOG NAME: leuschke.org links DATE: 10/24/2004 08:20:40 PM a potential solution to a problem Kord and I have been talking about for years now ----- PING: TITLE: Keywords, the enemy of the hierarchy URL: http://www.octapod.org/adam/mt/archives/000877.html IP: 203.12.146.250 BLOG NAME: Word up - It's the A-Dawg DATE: 10/25/2004 04:30:22 AM You may have noticed I am starting to mix in some low and no-commentary links with my photos and other posts. Eventually I will rearrange the site and put... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What I did on my flight... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/07/2004 12:36:06 AM ----- BODY:

    Eurgh - long flights. Or should I say: Eurgh - long flights, other people's screaming children, no room for a laptop unless you're in the most extraordinarily complex and intricate of positions and why do people feel the salmon-like urge to walk directly into my elbows while walking down the bloody aisle. I mean it's not even like they were lolling out everywhere... Still, I saw an episode of Will & Grace, an episode of The Simpsons, an episode of Arrested Development and two three films - 13 going on 30, Dodgeball and The Stepford Wives. I would say that was several hours of my life that I'll never get back, except of course the alternatives were worse. Ooh. Check it out. The guy in front of me is actually bouncing up and down on his seat. That's a new one...

    Not a lot to add except that I got bored and in a fit of feckless lunacy decided to try and make a new hybridised NetNewsWire stylesheet on the plane out of two of my favourites - Daring Status Bar and Dashed+ - to try and make something that suits my needs a little better. Trivial problems with those two stylesheets being - not enough right padding on Daring Status Bar and not great handling of multi-line titles, not enough styling on Dashed + to make me happy. The CSS that I've bastardsed is atrocious and dirty and wrong and I give alll professional coders out there permission to barf when they see it. And I lost categories somewhere along the way... But if you want it, it's here.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cal EMAIL: cal@kaius.com IP: 209.87.135.69 URL: DATE: 10/07/2004 05:46:17 AM isn't that three films? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Leonard EMAIL: john@jjleonard.co.uk IP: 213.202.135.88 URL: http://www.jjleonard.co.uk DATE: 10/07/2004 09:25:12 AM OT - I saw 13 going on 30 the other day (the fiancee got a dodgy copy from a friend) and I felt like my brain was melting while watching it. Never again. Can't speak for the other two films though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: blogs@longmans.net IP: 193.131.186.189 URL: http://longmans.net/blog DATE: 10/07/2004 01:04:40 PM My personal favourites on long flights are people too dense to grasp that the thing in front of them is a seat for a person, not a) a strength training device for their legs. b) a remarkably flexible handrail for getting up at 3am. c) anything else they might kick, grab, prod etc ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ryan Schroeder EMAIL: ryan@whole-studios.com IP: 199.103.242.1 URL: http://www.whole-studios.com DATE: 10/07/2004 04:50:39 PM The CSS is 404. I keep switching back and forth between the same two styles, I'd love to see what you hacked together. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: stephen EMAIL: me@stephenbrophy.net IP: 213.94.249.134 URL: http://stephenbrophy.net DATE: 10/07/2004 11:33:17 PM I can never seem to get my elbows in far enough when using my laptop, nor can I angle the screen right. it is for these reasons that 'regular book' is superior to Powerbook, on this one occassion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Saltation EMAIL: saltatoin@fastmial.fm IP: 62.253.64.16 URL: http://go-blog-go.blogspot.com DATE: 10/08/2004 12:07:23 PM quality-of-life tip from an ex-business traveller: sound-cancelling headphones they kill the engine noise and you escape with near-zero jetlag. more importantly, your brain is as sharp and fully functional on arrival as at departure: important if you're travelling for meetings or wish to problem-solve/code/achieve something nontrivial at the other end. (also, if you plug them in, you can hear the movie near-perfectly instead of having most of it killed by the engines) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jyoseph EMAIL: email@jyoseph.com IP: 24.107.186.132 URL: http://www.jyoseph.com DATE: 10/09/2004 05:52:29 AM . . was doing some random surfing and came across your site. Wicked work you have here. screaming children would be enough for me to crawl out of my skin. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A trivial complaint about the title field in Movable Type's posting interface... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/09/2004 03:05:00 PM ----- BODY:

    Okay so here's a completely trivial little irritation of mine. Can someone please explain to me why it is even possible in Movable Type to put more characters in your title field than the system can record in the database. I just don't understand it. Surely adding a character limit would be the simplest thing to do, and the consequence would mean that if my title was too long, I wouldn't have to wait to press "Save" to realise it. This was never really a concern until I started using the Title field to put in all the text for my linklog. Now it drives me insane.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: One last day in San Francisco... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/09/2004 05:01:25 PM ----- BODY:

    I'm back in San Francisco after the Online Community Report summit and most of a reasonable night's sleep (didn't wake up until nearly 6am) and now trying to work out what to do for the next twenty-eight odd hours or so before I have to be back at the airport. A few days ago I mooted the possibility of a big breakfast with cool people somewhere tomorrow morning - however (1) Cory has suggested that my proposed venue wasn't terribly practical and (2) I don't know how many people are interested in coming... So I'm not totally sure what to do about that. Anyone got any ideas?

    Otherwise pretty much the world's my oyster today. I need to get some clothes and visit the Apple store while I'm here (mmm - weak dollar is gooood) and I think I'm going to visit Gayland this evening, which should be cool - but the rest of the day is totally up for grabs. Ping me if you've got any ideas... I'll be on- and off-line all day.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@neuronwave.com IP: 206.13.51.194 URL: http://www.neuronwave.com DATE: 10/09/2004 05:51:26 PM Tom - As a visitor to SF this weekend you might like to check this out. http://fleetweek.us/fleetweek Its fleet week here and aside from the camp Hello Sailor implications ;-), there are going to be some very cool plane demos. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xian EMAIL: me@x-pollen.com IP: 64.160.53.146 URL: http://thepowerofmany.com/ DATE: 10/09/2004 06:07:45 PM Come over to the east bay (hah! not half-likely) ... Actually, I'd love to crash the brunch if you settle on a place. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buzz Andersen EMAIL: buzz@scifihifi.com IP: 67.180.252.46 URL: http://www.scifihifi.com DATE: 10/09/2004 08:20:30 PM Tom, Last time you were in SF, I recommended Zazie in Cole Valley (near the Haight). It's one of my favorite places for a Sunday brunch, especially if you can get a table out back on their patio. It also happens to be right next to where I live, so if you go that way I might join you... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben EMAIL: ben@neuronwave.com IP: 206.13.51.194 URL: http://www.neuronwave.com DATE: 10/10/2004 12:39:13 AM Tom - I'm staying downtown so if you want to catch up for a coffee or such....I'd be more than happy to. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Late breakfast plan proposed: Luna / Castro STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/10/2004 05:54:22 PM ----- BODY:

    It's a bit late in the day, but if anyone wants to join Jim Speth, Ben Cerveny and myself for a breakfast around 18th and Castro, we'll be at a place called Luna from around 11 until around 1ish. That's when I have to head off to the airport.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lee LeFever EMAIL: lee@commoncraft.com IP: 24.19.27.24 URL: http://www.commoncraft.com DATE: 10/10/2004 09:37:04 PM It was great to hang with you Tom. Have a great trip back across the pond- and for crissakes get some rest. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Andrews EMAIL: mail@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 62.252.32.12 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 10/11/2004 10:48:18 PM Did you miss Spooks? God, it's great to have it back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: jack e. jett EMAIL: jack@jackejett.com IP: 67.64.112.50 URL: http://www.jackejett.com DATE: 10/13/2004 11:34:18 PM i am digging your site. new your city is home for the new jew review. i am a heeb through and through. i am a homo on tv. i like your verbiage. i am too fat too fuck and too old to love i have been sent from up above. canada. jack e. jett www.jackejett.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: savior EMAIL: myownsavior@gmail.com IP: 68.3.30.166 URL: DATE: 10/15/2004 07:42:52 AM I came across this site from kottke (I believe) and am commenting for the sole purpose of telling you that you have a beautiful layout going. Slightly minimalistic, yet so well presented. I commend you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cigars EMAIL: senagfl@aol.com IP: 65.10.3.85 URL: http://www.cubancrafters.com/index.php DATE: 10/17/2004 03:00:21 AM How do you find time to hang out for a 2 hour lunch??? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Sandi Toksvig talks about politicians and gay rights... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/15/2004 08:40:49 PM ----- BODY:

    Sandi Toksvig - a bright and highly entertaining British comedian and presenter - has this to say about the upcoming civil partnerships bill:

    About three years ago I asked a member of the Labour NEC why the government, with its huge majority, was taking so long to get rid of the iniquitous section 28. The white, middle-aged, middle-class man said: "You have to understand Sandi, we're all middle-aged, white, middle-class men and actually we don't give a damn about gay rights."

    If the government had truly cared, the legislation would have started in the Commons and the Parliament Act could have been used to push the law through. Sadly it is a way of doing business which is reserved for foxes and not human beings.

    Thanks to thegayvote.co.uk for that one. I find the world extremely depressing sometimes. Extremely. Extraordinarily.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott Matthewman EMAIL: scott@thegayvote.co.uk IP: 213.218.252.174 URL: http://www.thegayvote.co.uk/weblog/ DATE: 10/15/2004 11:08:13 PM On the other hand, in this week's debate we had Charles Hendry, the very epitome of a middle-aged, white, middle-class straight *Conservative*, standing up in the Commons and giving one of the best speeches arguing for full equality that I've heard in a long while. And then, come the vote, more Tories voted in favour of the civil partnership bill than against (just). As I said in my blog post, I try to be optimistic :) Mind you, whatever the outcome, civil partnerships will *still* come in way before I find a partner to be civil (or otherwise) with... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rachel EMAIL: rachel@baresark.freeserve.co.uk IP: 80.176.83.129 URL: http://www.baresark.freeserve.co.uk/ DATE: 10/18/2004 12:10:51 AM As you say, Sandi Toksvig is bright and highly entertaining, but not British I'm afraid (at least by birth, and I'm happy to be corrected if she is British by "legal" marriage). Not that it really matters but I'm one of those pedants who also writes to the Guardian on a weekly basis. R ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: cdeskinfo@copydesk.co.uk IP: 132.185.240.122 URL: http://www.copydesk.co.uk DATE: 10/18/2004 09:57:30 AM You can't be serious? Sandi Toksvig "a bright and highly entertaining British comedian"? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-16 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/16/2004 01:14:55 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-19 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/19/2004 01:17:17 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-21 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/21/2004 01:15:39 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-22 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/22/2004 01:16:05 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-23 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/23/2004 01:14:54 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-25 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/25/2004 01:15:40 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-26 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/26/2004 01:15:35 AM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: John Peel has died... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/26/2004 02:00:47 PM ----- BODY:

    As of 2.00pm today, it's just been announced that John Peel - bastion of English radio - has died suddenly in Peru. Here are a few links that I've found following the announcement:

    Recent news about John Peel from BBC News: Radio award for 'unrivalled' Peel and Veteran DJs in radio hall of fame. You can keep up with the news about his death on the Google News Search Results page. There's a discussion on barbelith and on metafilter too. You can send in tributes to the BBC on this page and there's a list of all the tributes on this page. Phil Gyford has also posted his personal feelings on the subject as has Mo Morgan.

    ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Andrews EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 193.63.146.194 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 10/26/2004 02:43:07 PM It's awful; a terrible, terrible shame. We can add little more than has already been said about Peel over the years. Suffice to say, the lessons he taught me were - be open-minded, not judgemental. Are you in BH? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tom Coates EMAIL: tom@plasticbag.org IP: 212.158.225.111 URL: http://www.plasticbag.org DATE: 10/26/2004 03:27:49 PM Yeah I'm based in Broadcasting House - why do you ask? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert Andrews EMAIL: weblog@robertandrews.co.uk IP: 193.63.146.194 URL: http://www.robertandrews.co.uk DATE: 10/26/2004 03:40:38 PM Because I'd imagine the mood is quite sombre. ----- PING: TITLE: John Peel RIP URL: http://blog.dave.org.uk/archives/000473.html IP: 217.160.182.120 BLOG NAME: davblog DATE: 10/26/2004 03:12:52 PM This will be all over the blogsphere within hours I expect. I don't know anyone that appreciates good music who... ----- PING: TITLE: John Peel Dies URL: http://www.frankieroberto.com/weblog/274.xhtml IP: 80.71.16.102 BLOG NAME: frankie roberto blog DATE: 10/27/2004 12:35:56 AM Like everyone else today, I was shocked and saddened to learn of John Peel's death. He is a true radio legend, and I don't think any one other single person has done as much to advance new music. I've always... ----- PING: TITLE: Genuine vs manufactured grief URL: http://andrew.ulimit.org/archives/pop_culture/000837genuine_vs_manufactured_grief.shtml IP: 82.138.249.1 BLOG NAME: badly dubbed boy DATE: 10/27/2004 12:46:28 PM As has been reported across the British blogerati and the Internet, broadcasting institution (in the very best possible sense of the word) John Peel died suddenly, aged 65. Unlike previous deaths of very-famous-people, John's passing has provoked surpr... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links for 2004-10-27 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 10/27/2004 12:50:06 PM ----- BODY: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Five years of weblog data to rip apart as you please... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 10/28/2004 12:06:25 AM ----- BODY:

    This weblog - originally located at barbelith.com but which subsequently moved to its current location at plasticbag.org - will hit its fifth birthday on Monday. That's five full years of random plasticbag.org posts - 4175 of them in fact, plus 1517 links in the linklog before I moved over to using delicious to manage them in the last couple of weeks. In terms of the non-linklog posts alone that works out at over two posts a day, each and every day of each and every week or each and every month and year since November 1999.

    In terms of words written it's difficult to be precise. I've exported all the posts from my site, worked out the number of words in a given header, multiplied that by the number of posts and removed that from the total number of words that BBEdit tells me are in the exported dump. Clearly this is not going to be a terribly accurate way of measuring word count (God knows what HTML does to these things) but if you believe what BBEdit tells you, I've written in excess of 1.1 million words over the last five years. To put that in perspective, English versions of the Bible have only around 750,000 words in them. I've written a bible and a full third of a sequel.

    Which brings me to why I'm mentioning all this stuff. I'm not sure I believe those figures. Hell, I'm not sure I want to believe those figures. But one thing is clear to me - there's a lot of data here in one form or another - and there must be any number of ways to visualise that data or explore it or rip it apart or whatever. So I thought maybe what I should do is just open it all up - stick up a big MT export of everything I've done to date - and see if anyone out there can think of any interesting visualisations or ways of processing or graphing it. Obviously, I have no expectations - it could easily be that no one finds this the slightest bit interesting. But if you do, let me know (normal e-mail address tom [at] plasticbag [dot] org) and of course if you want me to post what you've done, or link to it in any way, then I'd be more than delighted to do so. It would be great to be able to stick something up that I've got from you guys on the fifth anniversary itself...

    So here's the dump: Every full post made to plasticbag.org over the last five years including - in an intriguing self-reflexive twist - this one. Have fun with it!

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