blogjam

I’ve lived in London for over fifteen years, and until I settled in Kilburn in 1997 ago I moved to a new location pretty much annually – more than anything else to keep myself one step ahead of the law. Now a new map of the London Underground has been drawn up which casts a whole new light on all those places I’ve found myself. According to this document, I’ve lived in Peel & Polish, East Hell, Hell Central, West Hell, Homosexual, Satan’s Bumgut, Lucifer, Cumbucket Town, Cuntish Town, West Meat Noises, Toni Braxton and finally at my current place of residence, Killed. (via linkmachinego).

Blogger needs your help. It what is an undoubtably unusual yet somehow refreshing move from a dot.com, Blogger is asking for donations from its users to help them build much needed server space. I generally blog when I’ve finished work, and as I live in London this co-incides with California going online in the morning. As a result, blogging can be an extremely frustrating, not to say time consuming business. Filled with the spirit of the season I decided to donate $100 to the cause – if raising money from it’s users leads to a more efficient system, then I’m happy to contribute. Sadly, despite Blogger’s conviction that the method they’re using to collect money (PayPal) is “international”, it’s impossible to insert the required information if you live outside the good ol’ US of A. So they’ll just have to wait.

Today’s Open Letters reports on a real downside to the dot.com coin. The piece starts “The writing has been on the wall for about six weeks now. In about two more weeks, the writing on the wall will come to an end”, and signs off by saying “I think it’s easiest if I just blame computers. I fucking hate computers.” The author, Scott, is refreshing in that he refuses to blame the failure of his company on the boom and bust nature of the digital market, or a sudden reticence on the part of his backers, and instead applies the responsibilty fairly and squarely to his own shoulders. “I’m twenty-eight years old. I don’t belong at the helm of a company, and it’s clear to me now that that’s one of the major reasons our business plan met with such little success.”

A strange way to see in the new year. The evening was organised at the last moment to offer a home away from home for the stragglers amongst our friends who hadn’t got round to arranging anything themselves. Midnight saw us congregated on the roof our our flat looking out across the London fireworks, but within five minutes a number of folks could be found on their mobile phones wishing a Happy New Year the people they’d obviously much rather have been spending the moment with. 3am saw us joined by a Swedish guy from the flat downstairs (none of us had met him before) who proceeded to steal lots of food from our kitchen. A slightly odd choice of crime considering we know where he lives…

Tonight we’re having some sort of New Year’s Eve soiree at the house. To be honest, there’s somewhere else I’d rather be, but that’s another story. I’m sure it’ll be a grand evening, and as the year draws to a close there’s probably no better way to celebrate the birth of a new era than by casting your eyes down the extensive list of musicians who tumbled off this mortal coil during 2000. Happy New Year everyone. See you in 2001.

The last Sunday of the millenium statrs like any other; a trip to the newsagents to score cigarettes and a copy of The Observer. This week’s Life section previews the future, and reveals how advances in computer technology are continuing to blur the boundaries between science and science fiction. Featured in the piece are Kevin Warwick, cybernetics professor at Reading University, who has a tiny computer inserted under the skin of one arm, and Sun Microsystems boss Bill Joy. Joy predicted earlier this year in an article for Wired magazine that “Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.” With many parties reasonably certain that personal computers will be a million times more powerful in 2030 than they are today, only one thing is certain; Northampton Town are unlikely to get promotion to The Football League’s division one this year, especially after yesterday’s lacklustre home draw with Wycombe Wanderers. Damn.

More insight into the mind of a killer? It appears that Michael “Mucko” McDermott had an Amazon Wishlist. DVDs Mucko was keen to acquire include Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2, Lethal Weapon 3 and, er… Lethal Weapon 4. No further comment necessary, methinks. Further investigation also reveals the registration for a Mucko website.

Yesterday wannabe Australian author Brett De La Mare landed his paraglider in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, provoking much tabloid outcry about the state of the monarch’s security etc etc blah blah blah. Brett’s website reveals the background: “I’ve written a book called ‘Canine Dawn’ and I’m out to get it published. Brother, let me tell you.. so far it’s been hell. But until it is, I’m prepared to do whatever craziness it takes.” Well, that’s pretty obvious. The freshly launched official free Brett La Mare homepage brings our story up-to-date. “I’m a novelist” he proclaims, “not a terrorist”. Well I’m sorry Brett, but what you are is an idiot.

Blogging receives a boost! ” In the past two years, thousands of people have started their own Web logs, creating a vast sprawl of sites that, to the uninitiated, might feel like a parallel Web universe.” The New York Times introduces weblogging into the mainstream. Is the end nigh?

Possibly. Blogging receives a blow! Wired reports on how some online news agencies are attempting to introduce a new revenue stream by charging for links. Yep, just for the privilage of promoting their sites. I’ve just sent Wired $50 to compensate them for the liberty I took in linking to their story about sites charging $50 to link to their stories, and I feel far less guilty.

And so the saga continues. The always excellent Riothero has borrowed my blog about borrowed blogs borrowing my blogjam blog about Random Walks borrowing my blog about borrowed blogs borrowing my blog from, well… me. Which was borrowed from Metafilter. Maybe. I’m losing track. New visitors may have to scroll down to understand any of this.

Two days ago Michael McDermott walked into the offices of his employers, Edgewater Technologies, and killed seven people before sitting down in the lobby and calmly waiting for the police to arrive. Apparently a frequent Usenet user, postings alleged to be his can be found at deja.com. Most contributions are to the alt.engr.explosives newsgroup, where topics covered include “Where Can I Buy A Landmine?” and “Info on Acetone Peroxide.” Scary stuff indeed. Other deja.com users react here.