LinkMachineGo

[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…’

[royalty] Royal Wedding Cam — Watch Charles and Camilla get hitched tomorrow.

[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]

[comics] Frank Miller On-Line — comprehensive list of Frank Miller / Sin City links.

[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.’

[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:

‘Belle De Jour’ Identified As Male London Novelist … ‘With the Belle diary, while the forensics suggest even to the most sceptical observer that he has, at the very least, an extremely strong case to answer, the nearest I’ve heard of his making an admission is a touch on the side of the nose, given furtively to a mutual friend who was about to raise suspicions a little too high at a party.’
Clues that Stewart Home is Belle de Jour … ‘As readers of “Belle de Jour’s” book will know, Belle mentions several male friends and lovers. However, there is one male friend who gets mentioned in the weblog but not in the book. This is “SH”, a reference to Stewart Home, the real author.’

[ukelection05] On Flickr: UK General Election 05 Photo Pool

[election05] Election 2005 — The Guardian launches another blog to cover the Election on May 5th. [Feed: Election 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’

[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]

[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…’

[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]

[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.’

[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.’

[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]

[unix] All The Quickies — long list of useful UNIX tips. [via delicious/unix]

[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]

[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]

[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]

[funny] Cillit Bang Remix … ‘Limescale. Rust. Ground-in Dirt.’ [Related: Another Remix]

[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.’

[unix] Learn UNIX in 10 Minutes — very useful Unix cheat-sheet.

[ukblogs] Call Centre Confidential: ‘Dear Bernard, Please accept this letter as my resignation. Thanks for all your support and encouragement. Yours sincerely.’

[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.’

[comics] R. Crumb (at the NFT): ‘I can crosshatch like a motherfucker”

[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.’

[politics] Bloggers4Labour … ‘Uniting all Labour-supporting bloggers (and web sites) under one roof.’ [via Mad Musings of Me]

[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.’

[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]

[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.’

[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…’

[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.’

[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]

[web] Words from Flickr [via Waxy]

[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.’

[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]

[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?’

[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.’

[comics] Doonesbury: Duke has ‘…some nasty karmic shift.’ [Useful: Doonesbury RSS Feed]

[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] 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.’

[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.’

[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”.’

[comics] Comics Motivational Posters [via jwz]

[comics] Frank Quitely Cover to All-Star Superman #1 [from BeaucoupKevin]

[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.’

[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?’

[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…’

[useful] Paypal Fee Calculator … ‘We Calculate Them. Paypal Takes Them.’ [via Waxy]

[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.’

[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).

[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.’

[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]

[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.’

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