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London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 1 January 2005
[comics] Time Magazine on the Best Comics of 2004 … On Eightball #23: ‘For most comic books, when a nobody teenager discovers super powers and a gun that zaps anything out of existence, it usually results in his getting buff and facing the dilemmas of responsibility in between fist fights with ubervillans. Forget that. This is Clowes’ world.’
2 January 2005
[blogs] Belle de Jour Updates … ‘When I stopped blogging, someone wrote to say that if I was a real blogger I would be back. And here I am.’
3 January 2005
[bdj] Peep Show — Belle de Jour interviewed over IRC by the Guardian. Belle proves she’s a real blogger:
Belle: so, which browser do you use on your mac?
[google] Bypass Google’s Regional Pages — Google has been redirecting requests for google.com to google.co.uk. Very annoying but this page will fix that – just visit it.
4 January 2005
[tech] Life Interrupted — interesting article about how multi-tasking is affecting our lives … ‘Two Harvard professors see evidence of what they call “pseudo-attention deficit disorder” — shorter attention spans influenced by technology and the constant waves of information washing over us. When the brain gets excited over some rapid data and is stimulated, it releases a “dopamine squirt,” they say.’
[documentaries] True Films — a list of documentaries recommended by Kevin Kelly. On The Thin Blue Line: ‘The film hypnotically plays out his alleged murder of a cop over and over, each time according to different witnesses, until the “evidence” of the crime collapses under the tainted weight of so many versions. This was a new form of nonfiction film and it helped free an innocent man from prison. How many films can claim that?’
5 January 2005
[blogs] Six Apart to buy Live Journal … ‘Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad, and Moveable Type is about to acquire Live Journal, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is a mix of stock and cash, and could be announced sometime later this month, according to those close to the two companies. If the deal goes through, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million users.’ [via Kottke’s Links]
6 January 2005
[linky] Recent Links culled from my del.icio.us …
7 January 2005
[bdj] Belle de Jour Spotted in Oxford Street …on the shelf at Waterstones.
9 January 2005
[history] Desperate Lucan Dreamt of Fascist Coup — great article looking at Lord Lucan’s fascist tendencies as he cracked-up before murdering his children’s nanny … ‘…One [Lucan] biographer, Patrick Marnham, said: ‘Seen from the Clermont Club [Lucan’s favourite gambling haunt], the country was starting to resemble the less stable years of the Weimar Republic. Sir James Goldsmith began to develop his theory of “the Communist infiltration of the Western media”. Over the smoked salmon and lamb cutlets, the talk turned to the pros and cons of a British military coup.’ It may seem difficult to believe now, nearly eight years into the most secure Labour government in British history, but across the country pockets of the traditional ruling class were preparing for military action.’
[flash] The Duel — Duelling Banjos as performed by a squirel and a penguin. Co-starring some pigs, the Dukes of Hazzard, the RSPCA and a cameo appearance by Burt Reynolds.
10 January 2005
[books] It Pays to Trust Your Gut — Wired reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Blink … ‘[This is] Gladwell’s point: People make instant decisions, and it is possible to learn how to make them good ones. He’s not saying that snap judgments are always good. Instead, he says, when they are backed by experience and knowledge, they can be good.’
[comics] This will be a good comic… good enough? — Metafilter discusses All-Star Batman and Superman … ‘Warren Ellis penned a column in 2000 regarding why Ultimate Marvel was a good idea and the logic holds for All-Star DC. Writers don’t want to be handicapped by decades of backstory. The fans that slavishly want icons frozen in narrative stasis are a miniscule, but loud voice, and they really should be ignored.’ [via Feeling Listless]
12 January 2005
[blogs] Blogger sacked for sounding off — UK Blogger sacked by Waterstones for entries on his blog … ‘On one occasion, he ranted about his “sandal-wearing” manager he nicknamed “Evil Boss”, which he said was a caricature like the “Pointy Haired Boss” in the Dilbert cartoons. In another posting, Mr Gordon joked about “Bastardstone’s”. After he was suspended pending an investigation into his blog, he was called before a formal disciplinary meeting and sacked last week. “The book trade can only exist with freedom of speech and information,” he said last night.’
13 January 2005
[death] Watery Grave — article about dead bodies found in the Thames and some of the stories behind them … ‘I must must have walked along, over and indeed under the River Thames hundreds of times. A bald and astounding police statistic comes back to me every time I look into its steely waters: along the 213-mile long Thames, a body is retrieved from the river on average every week. The majority (39 last year) are found in the London area.’
14 January 2005
[bdj] Belle de Jour Answers your Questions — from the Guardian’s Newsblog …
‘Guardian: Which do you miss more, blogging or your work as a call girl? 15 January 2005
[bdj] Review of Belle de Jour — from the New Statesman … ‘What Belle does best is reveal the scant, prosaic motivations of men who pay for sex; and it is this lack of embellishment that finally convinces you of the authenticity of her strangely banal document. As she asks one client, a bestselling author: “Wasn’t it Dashiell Hammett who said you don’t pay a call girl to do what she does, you pay her to leave afterwards?” Her customers are not losers, and rarely are they kinky. Mostly, they just want the same things all men want, only quickly, effortlessly, without all that risotto and Sauvignon, without any clever talk or gooey eye contact. I suppose what I am saying is that the sex in The Intimate Adventures is – well, of course it is – transactional.’ [thanks Tom]
[linky] “So what’s so cool about del.icio.us? I don’t get it.” — Metafilter discusses del.icio.us … ‘[I] love just watching the main feed. It’s like this waterfall of transient reference needs, online velleities and obsessions.’
16 January 2005
[royalty] Harry’s Crew — The Observer profiles Prince Harry’s social circle … ‘At Cotswold Costumes, Harry had tried on an SS costume only to find it was too small.’ [via Memex 1.1]
[mac] How the Mac was born, and other Tales — interview with Andy Hertzfeld regarding his new book Revolution in the Valley … ‘I had a talk with [Steve Jobs] about a year ago where I was telling him, “Hey, there’s this huge opportunity, things are shifting.” And he kind of said, “No, they’re not. Windows is going to be dominant for at least the next 10 years.” I said something like, “Is it going to be the rest of our lives?” He said, “Depends on how long you live.”‘
17 January 2005
[funny] Some Amusing Classified Ads …
 Update: Sick Children, Genocide and other Funny Stuff — a number of readers have pointed out these ads were created by Jimmy Carr — I got them from a viral email doing the rounds … ‘The “other stuff” section of this year’s show sees Carr read from small ads that he has placed in various unsuspecting buying-and-selling publications. “They’re just quirky little things,” he says. ” ‘For sale: bonsai tree – large.’ There’s another advert in which I’m selling some rubber sheets for £40; £45 clean. Which is quite funny, but I’m doing that in the watersports section of Loot, which I think is a joy.”‘
[books] Digested Read: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl by Belle de Jour … ‘The first thing you should know is that I am a whore. Prostitution is steady work. I open my legs. And then I close them. It beats working in an office.’
18 January 2005
[comics] Six Degrees of Snapper Carr — I would have guessed that the Kevin Bacon of comics is Rick Jones but what do I know? … ‘You can play the Six Degrees game in comics by linking a character via a chain of acquaintanceship to Snapper Carr. Scrooge McDuck is Donald Duck’s uncle. (Many, many Disney duck stories.) Donald Duck was a partner with Daffy Duck in an entertainment act (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) Daffy Duck has met Batman (Superman v. Bugs Bunny miniseries) Batman knows Snapper Carr.’ [Related: Captain America Wins Superhero Networking Crown]
[support] Blow the Dust out of the Connector — some useful advice for people who do Tech Support from Raymond Chen. ‘…Say “Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?” They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, “Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.”‘
19 January 2005
[words] Cliché Finder … ‘A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest LINK.’ [via linkbunnies.org]
20 January 2005
[speccy] Jet Set Willy Remakes — old-ish page covering new versions of Jet Set Willy for the ZX Spectrum … ‘Jet Set Willy isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s much more important than that.’ [via The Coffee Grounds]
21 January 2005
[bdj] Tracking BDJ — the Book Club Blog is doing a much better job than me at following news about Belle de Jour. Amusing comment from Mil Millington: ‘…Belle De Jour happens to share an editor and a former agent with me, but that is purely because she got in touch with me, and I put her in touch with the two people in London I trusted. We have had email contact, but I have never met Belle in person. Honest! That was a fun moment, having to tell Margret, “Dear, you are going to read something in the newspapers tomorrow about me and a prostitute. Now, put that hammer down…”‘
23 January 2005
[religion] I have an Image of Jesus on my Penis — amusing posting on Craig’s List … ‘My girlfriend is a devout Christian, who, when she first saw this apparition, dropped to her knees, exclaiming, “Jesus Christ”, which I at first arrogantly misinterpreted as an exaggerated compliment on my manhood. Needless to say, I was more than a little disappointed to learn the true reason for her impulsive ejaculation. She has now taken to worshiping daily at this makeshift “shrine”, which is OK, I suppose, but she no longer wants to have sex with me for fear of offending the real Jesus. She even brought her entire womens’ church group over…’
24 January 2005
[wikipedia] Unusual articles in Wikipedia … ‘This page is for Wikipedians to list articles that seem a bit unusual. These articles are valuable contributions to the encyclopedia, but are somewhat odd, whimsical, or… well, something you wouldn’t expect to find in Encyclopedia Britannica.’
25 January 2005
[ebay] eBay People — Steve Bowbrick on buying from eBay … ‘eBay people are people people. Grumpy, impatient people needn’t apply – they can’t be bothered to lovingly package and despatch hundreds of low cost items, manage feedback and handle dozens of trivial customer queries. Only nice people do this, so buying something on eBay is almost always a pleasant experience.’
[mac] Kottke: Video of Jobs introducing the Macintosh in 1984 … ‘Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag! Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I’d like to share with you a maxim I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe: Never trust a computer that you can’t lift!’
26 January 2005
[blogs] The Law West of Ealing Broadway — anonymous blog from a UK Magistrate. ‘…a colleague, faced with sentencing a Living on Immoral Earnings charge, whispered to the Clerk “How much do you give a ponce?”. “Never more than a tenner, sir” came the deadpan reply.’ [via The Policeman’s Blog]
27 January 2005
[codes] Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers … ‘Alexander d’Agapeyeff wrote an elementary book on cryptography in 1939, entitled “Codes and Ciphers.” In the first edition, he included a challenge cipher. Nobody’s solved it, and he embarrassedly admitted later that he no longer knew how he’d encrypted it. It was left out of the second and later editions. Some think it was botched, and many think it could still be solved despite that. It has lots of “phenomena” noted, but nothing close to a crack.’
28 January 2005
[comics] Stewart Lee interviews Alan Moore — on Radio 4’s Chain Reaction … ‘For the working classes British comics were just something you had like Rickets…’ [Update: Alan Moore “Chain Reaction” Interview Transcript … On Swamp Thing: ‘The whole thing that the book hinged upon was there was this tragic individual who is basically like Hamlet covered in snot. (audience laughs) He just walks around feeling sorry for himself. That’s understandable, I mean I would too…’]
29 January 2005
[advert] Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain – the original updated — an quicktime advert for the new VW Golf GTI but amazing nonetheless. [via Ben Hammersley]
31 January 2005
[tv] Trashbat.co.ck — trailers for Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris’s TV comedy Nathan Barley.
1 February 2005
[spam] Interview with a link spammer — The Register meets a Blog Comments Spammer. ‘…he’s confident he’ll stay in what is primly called the “search engine optimisation” business for a while yet. Why? Because the demand exists. “The reality is that people purchase Viagra, they require porn, they gamble online. When people do that, there’s money being made.” And if this sounds suspiciously like an “ends justify means” argument to you – it does to us too.’
[advert] Blingin’ in the Rain — the Guardian covers Volkswagen’s remix of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain … ‘The 60-second advert was filmed on the same set at Shepperton Studios where the 60s musical Oliver was filmed and recreates the early part of the sequence showing Kelly singing and dancing in the rain but then breaks into the 21st century with a club mix of the song. The dancers wore prosthetic face masks and wigs and were filmed many times to replicate as closely as possible the moves that Kelly made and his face has been digitally added to the film.’ [Previously: Singing in the Rain – the Original Updated]
[blog] New UKBlog: Rising Slowly — The UK Weather Blog.
2 February 2005
[prison] US Prison Overalls, Bright Orange – £37.50 — as modelled by inmates in Guantanamo Bay … ‘These jumpsuits, coveralls, whatever you want to call them are the genuine artical imported from the US from the main supplier to US correctional institutions.’ [thanks Phil]
[tv] Cleaning Coinage with Cillet BANG! … ‘I, like all Brits love the Cillet BANG advert. It’s cleverly shot, presented and produced. Its a modern day classic, which I hope to remember as long as the J.R. Hartley ad. But is the new revolutionary product really as good as Barry Scott will have us believe? Can we trust TV? Would my life improve if my pockets were full of sparkling coins?’ [via Grayblog]
3 February 2005
[comics] London Crumb — the Londonist blog covers a bunch of upcoming events about Robert Crumb in London during March … ‘All we need now is for Chris Ware to come back to London and we will be in geek heaven.’
6 February 2005
[comics] The Sinister Ducks — a flash animation of the song by Alan Moore … ‘What are they doing at night in the park? Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Think of them waddling about in the dark. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Sneering and whispering and stealing your cars, Reading pornography, smoking cigars. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack!’ [Previously: March of the Sinister Ducks – MP3 Download]
[blogs] Jon Ronson on Jonathan King: ‘Apparently JK is walking around prison with a t-shirt that reads “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”.’ [Previously: The Fall of a Pop Impresario]
7 February 2005
[coffee] Latte Nerve! — article on the gridlock caused by Starbucks offering wi-fi in their coffee shops … ‘Alex Jacobson, a 32-year-old Internet developer who spends 40 hours a week at the Union Square branch of the ubiquitous coffeehouse. “Working in my apartment became very isolating, so when Starbucks rolled out wireless, I started working here.” The advantages are manifold: For the price of two decafs a day, his new office space offers a short walk to work (he lives above the store), high-caliber eye candy (“lots of models come here in the afternoon for meetings”) and friendly co-workers (the informal network of fellow Starbucks surfers who also run their virtual empires from Javaville). The only real disadvantage: He has to take his computer with him to the bathroom.’ [via Feeling Listless]
8 February 2005
[comics] The Craft — yet another Alan Moore interview … ‘We obviously have, as a species, a number of problems at this current time. The only way I can see for us to get round them is thinking our way round them — I can’t see us spending our way round them, we’re not going to be able to bomb our way around them. I could be wrong, maybe we can spend and bomb our way around them, but I would say on balance that if we’re gonna get round them at all, we’re gonna have to think our way around them, and that is gonna need new forms of thinking. I don’t know what they are, but I’d just say let’s try some of the options, and see if anything interesting comes up.’
[buy] Cocoon for Men … ‘It’s a big scary world out there, full of responsibilities, difficult situations and death. But you simply don’t want to face it. If you’d rather have kids toys delivered direct to your door and spend your weekends playing with remote controlled AV technology, you’ve come to the right place!’
10 February 2005
11 February 2005
[books] Neal Stephenson’s Past, Present, and Future — Reason Magazine interview the author of the Baroque Cycle … ‘It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say. So the technical class is caught in a pincer between these two wings of the so-called culture war. Of course the broad mass of people don’t belong to one wing or the other. But science is all about diligence, hard sustained work over long stretches of time, sweating the details, and abstract thinking, none of which is really being fostered by mainstream culture.’
[advert] Golf GTI commercial and Elsewhere — Kottke interviews one of the dancers behind the Gene Kelly Golf GTI advert … ‘The sound stage was cold and we had to dance under artificial rain for hours. To avoid freezing we wore wet suits under our already thick, tight costumes. This restricted my movement a lot. My shoes were quite uncomfortable and fake flooring we danced on was soft and spongy. I had to keep my head up and smile constantly which was very unnatural for me.’
14 February 2005
[tv] So Was It “Well Weapon”? — the Londonist blog reviews Nathan Barley … ‘… the concept itself feels a bit less red hot. Since Nathan Barley emerged on Brooker’s (now defunct) TV Go Home website, something over five years ago, the dot-com boom has bust and, rather than being an apparently emergent master-race, its illegitimate Carhartt-wearing children now seem automatically self-mocking. That’s not to say that Nathan and his ilk aren’t funny on screen. They are. But they are also funny off screen, which means that Nathan Barley is not the vitriolic weapons-grade satire C**T was, and is instead more of a freakshow.’
[blog] Another UKBlog: linkbunnies.org … ‘Interesting Web Stuff for Short Attention Spans’
15 February 2005
[comics] New take on life in Bradford — the Guardian looks at Grant Morrison’s new comic Vimanarama. ‘…the story is primarily a ripping yarn, with Ali and Sofia discovering a subterranean world beneath Bradford when a crate of turkish delight cracks open a hidden entrance in one of the family’s shops. Promotional material from DC Comics sums up the plot as “a modern-day Arabian Nights in the form of a Bollywood romantic comedy set on a celestial stage”.’
16 February 2005
[blog] French Picture Blog: 09h09 … ‘Every day a self-portrait at 9:9am’
17 February 2005
18 February 2005
[gladwell] How to Start a Revolution — a digested version of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell … ‘What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push; just in the right place; it can be tipped.’ [Related: More Gladwell Links]
[comics] Ask Metafilter: What’s Your Favourite Webcomic?
19 February 2005
[web] net.history: Was this the first image on the Web? [via Waxy]
[politics] Bloggers will rescue the Right — Iain Duncan Smith wonders if weblogging will be the saviour of the Conservative Party … ‘[Blogs] should put the fear of God into the metropolitan elites. For years there have been widening gaps between the governing class and the governed and between the publicly funded broadcasters and the broadcasted to. Until now voters, viewers and service users have not had easy mechanisms by which to expose officialdom’s errors and inefficiencies. But, because of the internet, the masses beyond the metropolitan fringe will soon be on the move.’
20 February 2005
[tv] Trendies twitch over a TV Tease — the Sunday Times covers Nathan Barley. Chris Morris: ‘Hoxton types are just a subset of Nathans. Before writing, we became Barley twitchers, spotting Nathans in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, and Penzance. Hosegate is not Hoxton — it’s a fictional construct in response to the fact that Nathans are absolutely bloody everywhere. This is worse than bird flu.’
21 February 2005
[blogs] Robot Wisdom Weblog — Jorn Barger, the original linkblogger returns … ‘blink and you miss me’
22 February 2005
[hst] Depraved and decadent: adventures with Thompson — Ralph Steadman on Hunter S. Thompson … ‘We got drunk a lot together but the only drug I ever took with him was psyclobin, a hallucinogenic, in Rhode Island, when we went to screw up the Americas Cup. It scoured my innards, in a way that I cannot deal with. When I woke up the next day, the first thing I wanted to do was spray “Fuck the Pope” on a boat, because when Hunter had asked, “What are you gonna write, Ralph, with your spraycans?”, it was the first thing that came to mind.’
[blogs] Metafilter: Kottke goes Full Time … ‘Are we looking at the modern day equivalent of “I’m going to quit my job and start a farm?” If so, I’ll gladly take some oranges.’
[hst] Up The Creek — Warren Ellis on Hunter S. Thompson. ‘…how you leave the stage is at least as important as how you enter it. And he left it alone in a kitchen with a .45, dying in — and wouldn’t it be nice if it were the last time these words were typed together? — dying in fear, and loathing.’
23 February 2005
[comics] Scans from Misty Comic — complete set of scanned issues of the 70’s Girls Horror Comic (some of the stories were written by John Wagner and Pat Mills). [via Orbyn]
24 February 2005
[comics] 100 Things That Actually Sort-Of Annoy Me About Comics — from PostmodernBarney.com … ’40) Trying to convince people that, no, really, tech stocks are probably a better investment than comic books. 39) Trying to do this to people I’m positive have a garage full of pogs and Beanie Babies.’
[blogs] British Blogs Top Ten — what are the top British Blogs rated by their public stats. (It’s missing Samizdata.net and other notables such as Arseblog).
[search] Keeper Finders — Paul Boutin compares five desktop search programs … ‘You probably won’t find all the Steely Dan songs in your iTunes library or every PDF with the phrase “owner’s manual” using the Windows search. If you use the right desktop search application, it’s a snap.’
25 February 2005
[useful] Paypal Fee Calculator … ‘We Calculate Them. Paypal Takes Them.’ [via Waxy]
28 February 2005
[bdj] Belle de Jour: The Case So Far — Nick over at the Book Club Blog provides a massive summary of links covering much of the available reviews, commentary and gossip on Belle de Jour. … ‘We could continue to allow those who know who Belle de Jour really is to play their games within games and wonder whether RP should be a little more suggestive than last week? [..] Is HGW still satisfied with sales? Have CH4 commissioned a scriptwriter or a director, or cast a leading lady? Is VSM either RP, TY, LH, PW, HGW, CB, MA, CH, AC, or merely VSM? Who are N and As 1 to 4, and where are they now? Did PR ever really know whether she was PR, DA or AD? What do AF and LAF make of all this? However, this merely leaves us with so many questions, yet so few answers. Alternatively, we could simply follow the trail of circumstantial evidence that has been strewn across the public domain and draw our own conclusions…’
[tivo] Rumors Apple Acquiring TiVo — interesting report from PVRblog … ‘So what would an iTiVo look like? White plastic all around? Complaints about there only being one TiVo button on the remote?’
1 March 2005
[comics] Well, what do you know? — interesting, spoiler-filled, review of Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers #0. ‘…in the final scene, the Seven Unknown Men are seen, all of them aging bald fellows in fine suits, fleeing their base of operations, a gigantic sewing machine that apparently creates the timestream of the universe. But they don’t abandon ship before selecting seven more conscripts, for seven more miniseries.’
2 March 2005
[comics] Frank Quitely Cover to All-Star Superman #1 [from BeaucoupKevin]
3 March 2005
[ukblogs] Random Acts of Reality on Mobile Phones: ‘I’ve been trying to resuscitate dead patients when their mobile phone has rung – I look at the screen and see that the person trying to call them is “MUM”.’
4 March 2005
[lmg] LinkMachineGo is Five — I made it. What do I link to now? How many links must a man click on? More links to pictures of Keith Chegwin naked and quotes from Grant Morrison? Definitely … ‘Veni, Vidi, Blog.’
6 March 2005
[comics] Interview with Grant Morrison on SuicideGirls (interview is SFW – website isn’t) … ‘The comic universes are living breathing alternate worlds we can visit. And, if we’re lucky enough to be comic book writers we get to play directly with the inhabitants and environments of the 2nd dimension. I wanted to travel in those worlds.’
8 March 2005
[comics] ‘A feast of ink lay in wait’ — Steve Bell on Robert Crumb … ‘His style is dirty, utterly realistic, yet strangely innocent. It has a documentary quality that enables him to tackle any subject head on. I was young and impressionable so I tried to draw like him. I’ve been trying ever since and never quite succeeded, which is probably just as well.’
[comics] Doonesbury: Duke has ‘…some nasty karmic shift.’ [Useful: Doonesbury RSS Feed]
9 March 2005
[windows] How secure is your computer? … ‘Windows Service Pack 1, or SP 1, however, was another story. It’s an older version of Windows that was sold in computer stores until a few months ago. SP 1 was attacked 4,857 times. It was infested within 18 minutes by the Blaster and Sasser worms. Within an hour it became a “bot,” or a machine controlled by a remote computer, and began attacking other Windows computers.’
10 March 2005
[tv] Face Facts — Charlie Brooker on Nicky Hambleton-Jones: ‘She’s slightly synthetic and ethereal; the ghost of a listless graphic designer. Weirder still, for someone fronting a show about facelifts, her own face is almost entirely featureless. She looks like Mrs Spoon from Button Moon. She looks like a baby new potato in glasses. She looks like Michael Jackson’s mugshot snap. But most of all she looks like a Crayola sketch drawn by a very very stupid child. There’s a Ten Years Younger spin-off book in the shops right now: the front cover features a simple cartoon drawing of Nicky Hambleton-Jones, and curiously, it looks more like her than her actual photo does. She’s a freak. How DARE she tell other people what to do with their faces when she hasn’t grown one of her own?’
11 March 2005
[comics] No complaints about ‘Doonesbury’ tribute to Hunter S. Thompson — article about Garry Trudeau’s tribute to Hunter S. Thompson … ‘For Trudeau’s Duke, in the end, is a character far more sinister than the self-created, self-destructive gonzo artist who shot himself last month. Duke has a “predatory nature,” the cartoonist explained. Once parachuted into a hot spot such as Haiti, Kuwait, Panama or Iraq, his “relentless opportunism” will always take over. He stands for “a certain kind of mad unconditionality. Duke is never ambivalent, never in personal conflict. His take is resolutely binary: Is this in my self-interest or not? It’s a kind of weird state of grace.”‘ [via The Comics Reporter]
12 March 2005
[spyware] Adware-infected PCs net slimeware firms $3 a pop … ‘Webroot’s spy audit suggests an average PC on the net (whatever that is) has at “least two pieces of adware on it”. ClickZ Stats indicate that there are 280m active PCs on the internet. Multiplying the number of PCs by the average number of adware items on each by the revenue per app figure allows Stiennon to guesstimate that the illicit advertising market is worth $1.6bn a year.’
13 March 2005
14 March 2005
[blogs] The Inner World of Joe Blogs — a balefully negative review of Scottish Blogs from the Sunday Times … ‘Unconstrained by the need to be interesting in any way whatsoever, blogs are the background radiation of the intellectual realm, the white noise of the collective unconscious, scrolling out their narratives whether anybody wishes to read them or not. In one sense a Warholian tribute to the fascination of banality, blogs confirm Martin Amis’s claim that where once it was thought that everyone had a book in them, that book has now become an autobiography.’ [via The Book Club Blog]
[comics] Another run out for Fat Freddy’s Cat — Guardian readers letters regarding the Robert Crumb feature in G2 last week … ‘Your Crumb pages displayed explicit sex, violence to women, incest, bestiality and child abuse. I read the interview, to see what attempt was made to justify giving publicity to it, but none appeared. It was a case of “a work of genius” justifying the prostitution of a talent.’
[politics] On David Blunkett and Simon Hoggart: ‘…did Blunkett tell Jim Naughtie on the Today show, whilst talking about the British sense of humour, “I even used to like the News Quiz, but I can’t listen to it any more. Jim Naughtie almost choked, “I think we will leave that one right there” was all he could say. The presenter of the humourous News Quiz show is of course Simon Hoggart…’
16 March 2005
[comics] ‘When I was four, I knew I was weird’ — Guardian’s G2 section profiles Robert Crumb … ‘I ask Aline, who depicted herself losing her virginity in her first cartoon, who she thinks is the less politically correct of the two of them. Erm, she says, tough one – he just about edges it. “Well, he is a sexist, racist, antisemitic misogynist,” she says.’
[bdj] Belle de Hypothesis (Fictional Account of a London Publishing Scam) — a neatly-detailed conspiracy theory about Belle de Jour being the work of a bunch of writers from the Erotic Review … ‘The second stage of the project is the delivery. The ER’s circulation is XK and declining. Why not, says RP, harness the power of the internet to show how thoroughly modern our heroine is, and as an adjunct reach out to an entirely new readership in the evolving blogosphere, reach out to the future tweed wearers while they still have beards and sandals or even better, Ipods. The blog must be simple (Blogger, basic template) not be based on exact events (too easy to check, identify, and must be anonymous, to show that necessary element of guilt, naughtiness and suspense to complete the formula.’ [via The Book Club Blog]
17 March 2005
[religion] Mystery shoppers hit London churches … ‘The Mystery Worshippers will visit churches across London Sunday 24 April and take note of sermon quality and length, pew comfort and the quality of after-service coffee. All visits are anonymous but the Mystery Shoppers will put a calling card, complete with picture of the Lone Ranger, in the collection plate.’
18 March 2005
[politics] Bloggers4Labour … ‘Uniting all Labour-supporting bloggers (and web sites) under one roof.’ [via Mad Musings of Me]
[bdj] Belle de Jour Interview — from a student magazine from Edinburgh … ‘Q: Has anyone you know put two and two together and worked out Belle de Jour was written by you? A: So far not to my knowledge. I have a friend whom I think suspects, but he’s far too polite to say so. A few of the candidates who have been put forward are reasonable guesses based on what is known about me, but unfortunately incorrect.’
[comics] R. Crumb (at the NFT): ‘I can crosshatch like a motherfucker”
20 March 2005
[comics] I Married R. Crumb — interview with Aline Kominsky-Crumb. On Robert Crumb: ‘He’s been a cranky old guy since he was 25 years old. I’ve been with him for over 30 years. He was like an old man when he was young. Now he’s an old, old man. [Laughs.] Without drawing, I can’t imagine how bad he’d be. In his old age, I have to say, he’s become a lot more mellow.’
[ukblogs] Call Centre Confidential: ‘Dear Bernard, Please accept this letter as my resignation. Thanks for all your support and encouragement. Yours sincerely.’
22 March 2005
[unix] Learn UNIX in 10 Minutes — very useful Unix cheat-sheet.
24 March 2005
[comics] 1000 Things to Like About Comics — another list from Tom Spurgeon … ‘…a simple list to remind us of the many ways in which the comics medium justifies and rewards our attention.’
[funny] Cillit Bang Remix … ‘Limescale. Rust. Ground-in Dirt.’ [Related: Another Remix]
26 March 2005
[crime] Don’t fuck with Ovid — A LiveJournaller tracks down his credit card thieves. ‘…they found yet another piece of damning evidence. Credit card companies will sometimes send out “checks” that you can use to make a cash advance. One of them had one of my Visa checks in his pocket. Signed.’ [via Waxy]
[comics] Steve Bell interviews Robert Crumb … ‘We live in a different world now – we got too much fun, too many distractions. I don’t believe in fun. I’m too obsessive-compulsive to have fun. Fun’s for normal people. Sometimes I look around at a party and I go, “Look at those jerks over there, actually having fun.” That’s incredible. They’re so fucking well adjusted that they’re enjoying this situation with the loud music and too many people. To me, there are so many existential factors that are so deeply disturbing about that scene that I couldn’t possibly imagine how people have fun at something like that.’ [Related: G2 in Crumbland]
27 March 2005
[bdj] Named: the Belle de Jour of the net — The Sunday Times writes up Belle de Hypothesis and outs Lisa Hilton as Belle de Jour… She kinda, sorta denies it: ‘I am afraid I can neither confirm nor deny (involvement). I really do not want to say it is not me, because I do not want to engage to that extent. I really do not want anything to do with it. I have never read any of this woman’s writing. I know nothing about her. As far as I can see it is just tittle-tattle and coincidence.’ [Related: Belle Updated Last Night]
28 March 2005
[unix] All The Quickies — long list of useful UNIX tips. [via delicious/unix]
29 March 2005
[ukblogs] Tories plan to beat “bias” by bringing in Bloggers … ‘The faction behind it denies that it is “rocking the boat” in the pre-election period and says that in the early weeks the website will be used to campaign for a Conservative victory. It wants people to use the increasingly popular practice of “blogging” — writing on-line diaries — to break the power of the broadcast media.’ [Related: conservativehome.com]
30 March 2005
[film] Aliens at the Abbey Road Film Festival in London (31/3) — fancy a free ticket? Sashinka’s got some up for grabs … ‘I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.’
1 April 2005
[election05] Please stop calling us Tories, say Tories … ‘Though the label Tory has been used for years as a term of abuse by the left, it has never been deemed pejorative by the Tories themselves. Indeed, Conservatives have for centuries been proud to call themselves Tories.’
[comics] Sin City Comic-to-Screen Comparisons — Compare Frank Miller’s comics with the upcoming Movie … ‘Not an exact match by any stretch, but the mood is there…’ [via Waxy]
2 April 2005
[science] 13 things that do not make Sense — from the New Scientist … ‘IF YOU travel out to the far edge of the solar system, into the frigid wastes beyond Pluto, you’ll see something strange. Suddenly, after passing through the Kuiper belt, a region of space teeming with icy rocks, there’s nothing. Astronomers call this boundary the Kuiper cliff, because the density of space rocks drops off so steeply. What caused it? The only answer seems to be a 10th planet. We’re not talking about Quaoar or Sedna: this is a massive object, as big as Earth or Mars, that has swept the area clean of debris…’
3 April 2005
[crime] The Last Request — a Flash animation listing some of the Last Meals of Texas Death Row Inmates … About Last Request: ‘I’m by no means glorifying the men you see in this production because I honestly don’t know if they were really guilty or not. I just know that when I consider the choices they made for their final meals they were trying to tell us something.’ [via Metafilter]
4 April 2005
[london] Evening Standard Headlines — a flickr set showing how the Evening Standard’s Headline writers attempt to stamp out positive thought within the London area …
 ‘Transplant Patients get Rabies’ 5 April 2005
[election05] Election 2005 — The Guardian launches another blog to cover the Election on May 5th. [Feed: Election 2005]
[ukelection05] On Flickr: UK General Election 05 Photo Pool
6 April 2005
[bdj] The web’s Belle de Jour? — the Evening Standard proposes another suspect for BdJ — an author called Stewart Home. I’ve been sent two files of information mentioned in the Standard by verysunnymeadow (a prolific commenter on The Book Club Blog’s investigations into BdJ). Both articles are linked below:
[ukelection05] Alastair Campbell’s Weblog — almost certainly fake … ‘Out getting eggs for R, C and G. Couldn’t help notice Britney Spears has a perfume out. Was tempted but don’t think Fiona would be too happy. Or Tony!! He prefers Christina Aguilera.’
7 April 2005
[comics] Frank Miller On-Line — comprehensive list of Frank Miller / Sin City links.
[blogs] Bloggers Pitch Fits Over Glitches — Wired News on Bloggers recent Technical Problems … ‘Last month there was even a glitch with the Blogger status page, which prevented tech staff from posting service updates. Sometimes software glitches cause these outages. Other times it is a hardware hiccup. And when the service is just achingly slow? That’s due to a lack of power — “actual electricity, if you can believe it,” according to Biz Stone, an HTML freak who works at Google on Blogger. (He says Google is working on it.)’ [Related: Blogger Status]
8 April 2005
[royalty] Royal Wedding Cam — Watch Charles and Camilla get hitched tomorrow.
11 April 2005
[comics] Pleased to meet you, Reverend, your cousin is insane — on meeting a relative of Dave Sim … ‘”We’re not really in touch,” Chris said. “Is he popular?” “That’s kind of hard to answer,” I said. Your cousin is a total freakin’ genius but he’s batshit insane and did a 300-issue comic story about an aardvark with a sword crossed my mind. Thankfully, my brain had spooled back up to speed…’
[comics] Katsuhiro Otomo Interview — the Onion AV Club interviews the creator of Akira … ‘I can’t create a movie by myself. It is worthy only because many staff bring new ideas and techniques. I think the appeal of being the director is to encounter such new things, which I don’t possess. It is absolutely wonderful to create something new based on teamwork. It is something that I couldn’t appreciate in my cartoonist days.’ [via linkbunnies.org]
12 April 2005
[bdj] Will the real Belle de Jour please stand up? — Jane Perrone emails Stewart Home to find out if he is Belle de Jour … Home on BdJ: ‘I’m no more interested in who Belle ‘really is’ than I am interested in who Jack The Ripper ‘really’ was. The endless speculation about the identity of such figures serves only to obscure any understanding of them.’
13 April 2005
[comics] Unintentionally Sexual Comic Book Covers … ‘I can only imagine the condition of a society in which a comic featuring wet, well-trimmed, virile young man gazing romantically in a monkey’s eyes could be published without raising some serious red flags.’
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