Category: Wired World

Archive for the ‘Wired World’ Category

16 Sep 2013: Rape and gaming communities: not funny, not a win

I play Dota 2 on Steam (have I lost you already by saying that?) It’s like one of those board games that is so well-designed and nuanced that people play it for decades. But I never play against real people. Here’s the email I just sent the game’s designers, Valve, explaining why.

22 Aug 2010: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

Yesterday's walk – the HOOP around Hitchin. http://twitpic.com/2fb1x0 # Powered by Twitter Tools

15 Aug 2010: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-15

Tweets for this week.

15 Aug 2010: Upset

The downside of the wonders of the internet – someone I’ve never met, nor ever expected to meet, is dying, and I feel like a friend is going.

8 Aug 2010: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-08

Tweets for this week.

23 Aug 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-08-23

Tweets for this week.

16 Aug 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-08-17

Tweets for this week.

9 Aug 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-08-09

Tweets for this week.

2 Aug 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-08-03

Tweets for this week.

26 Jul 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-07-26

Tweets for this week.

19 Jul 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-07-19

Tweets for this week.

12 Jul 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-07-12

Tweets for this week.

5 Jul 2009: Twitter weekly updates for 2009-07-05

Here we go again. Late Sunday and I'm still bloody working. Just filed the WSR report, now to Justin Wilson's brilliant victory at the Glen. #

1 Jul 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-07-01

Went for a walk in an attempt to clear my head and improve efficiency. In this regard it succeeded. But back has now locked up. Pain… # For them as like small balls of squawking fluff, see this new site that we built and sent live yesterday for a client: http://bit.ly/SE8bb # This heat is […]

30 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-30

Calm before the – well, not the storm, but the busy period. Got a half-day marketing training session here at our home office. Wish us luck. # Emerged unscathed from seminar, plenty of ideas, but now hungry and a bit raw. #

29 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-29

For a day that started so dismally, it seems to be picking up as it goes along. # http://twitpic.com/8r2kb – The Spitfire goes in for repair next week – will be so good to have it running again! # Andy Murray getting murdered out there… #thecuckooclock #

27 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-27

feels rough. # is looking back fondly to the days several years ago when weekends last weren't working days too. # More shaky arms after garden strimming. Poor tortoises – all the clumps of long grass they were used to hiding in have suddenly disappeared. # Can't believe how many idiots failed to put their […]

26 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-26

Gah. Head hurts, back hurts, feel very woolly-headed. Supposed to be having a biz dev away-day today but the word is thunder and bad roads. # BBC NEWS: Web slows after Jackson's death http://bit.ly/hQD2M [I hope you're all pleased with yourself – you broke teh interwebs.] # Off the mark quickly: http://www.ismichaeljacksonstillalive.com/ (via PL on […]

25 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-25

Another day very much like other days before and yet to come. So please feel free to insert your own witty comment here: [ ] # Had good business dev day looking into pricing etc in prep for marketing consultation (note, will block all Twitter marketers, don't try it) # is deeply amused to find […]

24 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-24

So difficult to focus today. Working from home is great but on days where your brain is fuzzy there's nothing to force it back into shape. # Frantic few minutes updating our motorsport site & @britsonpole after Max Mosley announced he won't restand as FIA boss http://bit.ly/19MXEw # has taken off his web onliney hat […]

23 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-23

Finished Freya North's 'Secrets' last night. As ever, she transcends her genre. Not saying it's great art but it's far above usual chicklit achat cialis 20. #

22 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-23

In foul mood today after heavy working weekend. Have vented by being rude/angry to two cold-call salesmen. One asked for it, one didn't :o( # Good stuff from MySociety on the Govt and what it fails to understand about the web: http://bit.ly/iIkg9 Should be compulsory reading. # Right. I might just feel ready to face […]

20 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-21

RT @radioriel Today on Radio Riel we take you back to the years of WWII http://tinyurl.com/lz2a7w [wonderful music & interesting story] # Have written up our visit to #F1 Silverstone yesterday here http://bit.ly/staof – really interesting day on a lot of different levels #

19 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-19

Still scheduled to be at Silverstone later as Shell/Ferrari guests despite last night's implosion. Could easily be cancelled, obviously. # http://twitpic.com/7sev2 – Silverstone weather holding up, just. #

18 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-19

Still a bit stunned: if it all kicks off tomorrow in Formula One, we'll be in the Silverstone paddock as Ferrari/Shell guests to witness it. # is back from a trip into town to buy a camera and dictaphone. I swear the guy in the gadgets shop hasn't aged a jot since I was a […]

18 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-18

WTF? Am awake and it's barely 6am. Not Want! # RT @ElrikMerlin @billt:http://twitpic.com/7lyr7 – Pizza with radius "z" & thickness "a" has volume pi*z*z*a ! [Oh bloody hell that's bad…] # RT @girlonetrack INCREDIBLE hi-res photos by Boston Globe of gov't violence post #iranelection http://is.gd/13o9W [via @Swerdloff] # One door closes, another opens – Renault […]

17 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-17

Good day so far: a van has arrived with 24 bottles of Cornish real ale, bought from Sharp's at http://bit.ly/cfvne. I <3 teh interwebs. # RT @white_hart RT @unblinkered Will be "living" in Tehran for a while…..explanation here http://bit.ly/GNyon #iranelection #

16 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-16

All hail the healing power of tea and cornflakes when faced with an early-morning splitter of a headache. Almost feel human at the moment. # RT @girlonetrack We should line up all the blog commenters who shout "First!" in front of a firing squad and ask them, "Who's first, then?" # Headache returning: need more […]

15 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-15

Is this 'counting data' proof Iranian election was fixed? Looks pretty convincing to me. http://bit.ly/EDpoD via @ElrikMerlin & @MusicThing # Am sitting here thinking 'okay, it's the weekend. What now?' Tea probably. May well go to watch the town cricket team in Herts Cup later. # http://twitpic.com/7ddtc – # Hmmm. Test of sending photo to […]

14 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-14

Despite forgetting all about it, managed to grab http://www.facebook.com/andydarley. Clearly there is not much competition for this very fine name. # Brilliant steampunky b&w advert showing how the world might have been if the web had come first and newspapers followed: http://bit.ly/GfjzG # Is really enjoying having a non-working day site fiable pour cialis. Done […]

13 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-13

RT @Astrofiammante Suspect in US Holocaust Museum killing has BNP links http://bit.ly/oMd0L # RT @helenduffett Blogged – How to opt out of the mobile phone directory: http://bit.ly/2e4vU4 # Working on an email template. In HTML tables. It's making me feel dirty, and not in a good way. It's like CSS never 'appened. Ack. Ugh. Ick. […]

12 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-12

is feeling surly. # is feeling quite cheerful as three nice things have happened so far today. # Up to my elbows with emergency re-skin of our motorsport site following WP2.8 upgrade disaster. Will be using @justintadlock 's Hybrid theme # The BBC's @the_magazine produces one of the year's most groan-worthy headlines on a story […]

11 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-11

Today looks very much like yesterday, which is not on the whole a recommendation. # You know you’re past it when you see the headline ‘Pop star Stevens robbed at home’ and assume it means Shakin’ Stevens. http://bit.ly/JTKAh # Here’s a fun game: hunting for perfectly-camouflaged tortoises in torrential rain to check they’re somewhere sheltered […]

10 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-10

If there is a theme to today, I have yet to discover it. #

9 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-09

RT @Kate_Butler anti-BNP demos today: Liverpool 1730 Town Hall; Manc 1730 Piccadilly Gdns; Sheffield 1700 Town Hall; Preston, 1800, Flag Mkt # Some background on one of the UK’s new MEPs. Source isn’t exactly impartial, but oh my what a pleasant character he is. http://bit.ly/TZluO # RT @ElrikMerlin RT @theplayethic: Post-BNP, if any video should […]

8 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-08

Just settling down to do my half of the live blog of the Turkish GP. Did the report on the IRL Texas race earlier this morning. Need tea. # If this is true http://bit.ly/5RNJk it’s way worse than anything UK reality TV ever did. Passports seized, quitting contestants locked up… # Toast and Marmite = […]

7 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-07

Back from London & what turned out to be a pan-European (or even global) humanist conference. Brilliant speakers from UK, NL, BE, DE & India # is adjusting to life after Second Life. The withdrawal symptoms are pretty severe. Getting unhooked from absinthe is nothing on this… #

6 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-06

Green Party surge helps Tories win Hitchin N by 6 from Lab and saves them in N Herts Rural by 73 against LDs. BNP scum win in S of county. # Ruddy Norah – the Dutch have beaten England on the final ball of the opening match in the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup. Astonishing stuff. […]

4 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-04

Fascinating piece in the Indy. Newly discovered World War One photographs, help needed to identify people/units in them. http://bit.ly/geSFI # Nice tinkly piano music/squiggly jazzy stuff on @radioriel at the moment. Perfect for when (as now) one’s head is stuffed with cotton wool. # RT @danieljowen loves headlines mentioning gay penguins. Makes you just want […]

3 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-03

And… relax. That’s the last of the election leaflets done, with help from Beloved Other Half comparatif cialis. Back is a bit of a wreck but rest will cure. # Just been watching nesting blackbirds in the creeper on the garage wall. Very sweet. # I love a dual-monitor set-up: work on one monitor, live […]

2 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-02

Bloody tortoises. One came into the house when we weren’t looking, crapped on the carpet, and toddled merrily off into the garden again. #

1 Jun 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-06-01

Woke up with my back locked solid… bloody leaflet rounds. # Bof. Tired and battered after a ridiculous working Sunday. #Scrum estimation meeting, IRL & Indy Lights and more motorsport. Need a weekend. # (Bof)x2. Just remembered I have to do a quote for a possible new client. Think I’ll review it tonight and nail […]

31 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-31

OK, have had tea. Let the day begin. # Certif arrived from FSB, with comical covering letter: “Now, as a member, high-handed gvt officials will be too scared to bully you’. ROFL. # Sniffing an upset in Britain’s Got Talent. Suspect Susan Boyle might have peaked too early and Stavros Flatley might snatch an surprise […]

30 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-30

Last day of sprint & suddenly none of the network clients can access the #scrumworks server. Firewalls check out OK. Odd, maddening. #scrum # is suffering uncontrollable twitching in the dead nerve deep inside his leg and feels sick because of it. Meralgia Paresthetica is a bitch. # thinks life seems a lot better with […]

29 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-29

needs breakfast, coffee, inspiration, animation, tea after the coffee, a clear head and a rocket up the arse. Apart from that, all’s well. # Well, never did get the inspiration or the animation – but my old contracting agency did just send a case of wine so it’s not all bad. #

28 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-28

feels all grown up and professional cos he went to a seminar yesterday and is now about to have a phone conference with a marketing expert. # thinks life would be a lot easier if only it wasn’t so difficult. Although perhaps it’s only difficult because it’s not easy – who knows? # is having […]

27 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-27

is off to London for training seminar later. Hopeful of good stuff but West End agencies – bah. Black holes for clients to pour money into. # doesn’t like London and doesn’t want to go back. It’s crowded and too full of people and smells. Can’t we just wall it off, be done with it? […]

26 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-26

Happy Towel Day folks – do you know where yours is today? #towelday # Absolutely wiped out after yesterday liveblogging F1 in Monaco and doing live Twitter updates on Indy 500. Going to have a quiet day today. # Tired but happy after a burst of gardening (and pouring cold water on shagging tortoises) #

25 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-25

Meh. Woke at 6am from bizarre and upsetting dream about a lack of blue cheese. Never got back to sleep again. Long working day ahead. # #3drunkwords “I wanna tattoo” # #failedtvpilots Life on Pluto # #popefacts The Pope IS Spartacus # Heh. Twitter memes, the Chinese takeaways of the meme world. Gone in a […]

23 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-23

RT @Astrofiammante Hurrah! Just got tix for British #Humanist Assn’s Darwin, Humanism and Science conference with Dawkins & Grayling in June # Lovely day… tempted to take the laptop into the garden and work there. # Jesse “The Body” Ventura: can we get him back into politics please? http://tinyurl.com/qmsr6b # A simple job of sorting […]

22 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-22

Argh. Webserver running slow. Laptop with IE6 (for testing) booting slow. If I put kettle on while waiting I bet that’ll never boil either. # #CSS Universal #IE6 stylesheet – neat solution to IE6 headaches, but not convinced many clients will buy it. http://tinyurl.com/odf43t # Just had a visit from Papa, John, Ben and Jerry. […]

21 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-21

OMG – Radio Riel is playing ‘The Good Ship Venus’ (Loudon Wainwright III version)… Just Google the lyrics if you don’t know it… # Am having a battle over whether the blind should come down because of glare on my PC. The more things change, the more they stay the same… # Pushing 10pm. Time […]

20 May 2009: Twitter Updates for 2009-05-20

Hair cut and eye test today. Preferable to eye cut and hair test, I suppose. # http://twitpic.com/5he1q – Early morning head-clearing Tai Chi. # Mmmm – pancakes! # Haircut: emphatic. Eye test: passed. Good stuff all round. # And AGAIN I am moved to state, clearly and unambiguously, that Internet Explorer 6 is a syphillitic […]

14 Jan 2009: Lynne Featherstone's new portfolio (video)

Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has been given the new job of overseeing the party’s online campaigning as chair of its new technology board – this video illustrates the sort of issues she’ll be grappling with.

4 Feb 2008: A year ago today…

Quite the most bizarre day of my life, when I got up at four in the morning, drove to a frost-covered wood, and dug up a prize worth £100,000.

6 Dec 2007: Huhne overtakes Clegg – sort of

Look – it’s close, OK? Too close for the difference to be meaningful. And it may not actually be good news for Huhne anyway. But there has been a small but measurable swing to him from Clegg in the attention they’re both receiving among bloggers.

31 Mar 2007: Wordage

If I type this really fast it may just sneak under the wire and count as a March post, thus keeping up my new average of a post a month in 2007. Pretty grim stuff, compared with the several a day I used to manage when writing this thing was fresh and new in late 2002.

17 Feb 2007: Perplexity

So, well, yes, it's been a while since I last posted. Quite a bit's happened, actually.

5 Jan 2007: Loans that change lives

Numerous things to write about – Christmas Day on the Cornish cliffs with Beloved Other Half, dashing across Heathrow Airport in the rain to meet Ali before her flight to LA, good books by Gordon Ramsay and Monty Don to review – but they can wait for another day.

31 Dec 2006: 2006 and all that

And so it's time to do my annual round-up of the year's highlights in this journal, just like in 2004 and 2005. Except, this year I've written so little that I'm not sure there are any.

21 Dec 2006: I deny everything

Just to clear up any ambiguity caused by this post on Northern Irish uber-blog Slugger O'Toole, let me state clearly that I have no inside knowledge of whose hands have been delving into Lembit Opik's underpants, or for how long. A few days ago, when the news broke that the Lib Dem MP had split […]

4 Oct 2006: Moo!

Here's a really cool thing: mini business cards with your Flickr photos on the back.

27 Sep 2006: Life is not as self-evident as it should be

These days I spend most of my working life as a web designer, often while wearing a look of genuine bafflement that anyone will actually pay me to do anything that's so much fun.

15 Sep 2006: Hanging around with the cool kids

I'm not wholly surprised that this letter wasn't published in Lib Dem News – there must have been a backlog building up while the paper was “off the air”, so to speak. But since I was cross enough to write it, I reckon I'm cross enough to post it here…

11 Aug 2006: Friend of yours?

Perplex City, the £100,000 game to find a valuable cube buried somewhere on the planet, is building up to a climax – and they've set us a particularly tough task as part of it.

6 Jun 2006: Incoming

Time for another look at the search terms that have brought people here. Fewer political ones than in recent months, and a bit of a historical flavour here and there.

5 Jun 2006: Sod's law

Brilliant.

4 Jun 2006: A sound idea

I can’t imagine many people (or even any people) signing up for this, but you can now subscribe to podcasts of this blog using the Talkr button in the right-hand nav column, so long as you don’t mind hearing it in a robotic American monotone that bears no resemblance to my own Home Counties mumbling.

26 Apr 2006: Life is art

The latest challenge thrown up by the ever-fascinating game Perplex City requires players to take part in a personality test in order to schmooze a researcher who holds a key piece of information. It’s a nice take-off of the meme craze. Here’s my results for today’s (second) challenge. Random’s View On What is it like […]

1 Apr 2006: Raspberry crush

You had to be there… But if you were, grab any you fancy.

25 Mar 2006: The final condemnation

White stilettos.

5 Mar 2006: Horror story

This post by SusanG on the Daily Kos about the South Dakota abortion ban is very, very angry and very, very brilliant. Read. In South Dakota, I Am Disposable Imagine this: One day you wake up and discover an entire state has passed a law that declares you are worthless. You are no longer a […]

3 Mar 2006: BAA are no fun at all

I got this email from another.com, which allows you to have an extra nine email addresses that are aliases of the main account one. I had “no-terminal-five@heathrow-airport.co.uk”, or something very similar. I'd almost forgotten about it, in fact, until this came. Dear Andy, We write with reference to the alias email address you have @heathrow-airport.co.uk […]

24 Feb 2006: Only in America

You couldn't do this over here. Someone – probably those great defenders of children, the tabloid press – would call it a shopping catalogue for paedophiles. But over in Tampa, Florida, there's a project called the Heart Gallery that's making a real difference for kids with no families who are hoping for adoption. Briefly, amateur […]

7 Feb 2006: It's more fun there than here

That's it. I want to move to Bozeman, Montana. It just seems so much more peaceful there. Bozeman and district police reports An intoxicated woman on West Oak Street was having personal problems with a neighbor. She was told to leave her neighbor alone. A man's “soon to be ex-wife” stole the hubcaps off his […]

23 Jan 2006: What the public wants

The last 20 visits to the Journalspace version of this blog from Google used the following search terms (just so you know what the world is interested in…

19 Jan 2006: That's my girlfriend, that is

Is there no end to her talents? Ten Top Trivia Tips about Astrofiammante! When astrofiammante is swallowed, she will enter the blood stream within twenty minutes! Astrofiammante once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest. The original nineteenth-century Coca-Cola formula contained astrofiammante. The first domain name ever registered was astrofiammante.com. Birds do not sleep in astrofiammante, […]

19 Dec 2005: With grateful thanks…

Sent by : My heartfelt appreciation goes out to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me “forwards” over the past 12 months. I want to wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, […]

28 Jul 2005: Should we be excited… or scared?

Excellent, if rather scary, piece on the past, present and future of the Net here on wired.com (found via Michael Hanscom). It starts off utopian, heralding the marvels of an internet where ordinary people have created the grandest knowledge base and network in history… The scope of the Web today is hard to fathom. The […]

8 Jul 2005: London Pride

Drink deep, folks Some of the best of the blogs today: Make My Vote Count: Being British is Great We did not panic, we did not crumble. We did not burst into irrational fits of anger and go rushing out looking for a scapegoat, a religious group to lynch or a country to bomb. We […]

17 Dec 2004: A post that does exactly what it says on the tin

A while ago, someone compiled a page of links to things that are the new black. Here, in tribute, is a short list of things that do exactly what it says on the tin: The Canaries, movie titles, electricshop.com, Wildcard TDM400B: PCI FXO/FXS 1-4 ports, men, 'cigarette up the nose' magic trick, oral rehydration treatment, […]

9 Jul 2003: Not entirely sure about this one at all…

Which Remarkably Cliche Harry Potter Slash Ship Are You? You are sick. I’ve discovered you for who you really are. You’re a regular old Snape perver, aren’t you? You plaster pictures of Alan Rickman all over your website and write morbidly depressing tales about his troubled, precocious childhood and claim that he’s simply “misunderstood” and […]

13 Jan 2003: If adverts had to tell the truth…

That's the latest theme on www.b3ta.com, where PhotoShop whizzes diddle with photos. Here's some crackers:

10 Jan 2003: All zones please

I just added this journal to the London Bloggers' Tube Map under my local station. Dunno whether anything will come of it or not, but I thought, why not? No-one else in my area has. The map seems to be the work of the same guy who set up the make-you-own-HotOrNot site stuff. Not sure […]

22 Nov 2002: I'm curious…

How many people spend their time bouncing around deadjournal by hitting the 'Random!' button again and again until they find something they think is worth reading? I know I do. So: if you're reading this, leave a message to say 'hello'…

21 Nov 2002: So true…

Yeah, I know this has probably gone round the internet three times over and everyone's seen it already, but I found it in a dusty corner of my webmail inbox earlier and thought I'd post it. Feel free to pinch it for your journal or whatever. I'm sure there's an American version of it somewhere […]

15 Nov 2002: Lagos mon amour

I got *another* of those west African scams via e-mail today… that's three in about four days. I love 'em – they're the funniest criminal activity in the world. Yet the amazing thing is people fall for them. Honestly – would you respond if a complete stranger asked for your bank account details so he […]