notes: October 2005

Sub-editors for weblogs

There's one thing that webloggers lack, one thing they could really benefit from, and that's sub-editing.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a sub-editor is there to read through a journalist's work, correct and re-write it where necessary, and prepare it for publication.

Here in the UK (I speak from my own direct experience), subs are usually in charge of writing headlines, standfirsts and boxouts. They will often re-write intro pars to make them more interesting. They are also usually in charge of the layout for printed publications, ensuring the copy physically fits on the page in the gaps between the adverts.

The best thing about subs from a writer's point of view is that when you've got three or four of them reading your work before it gets printed, mistakes get spotted. You get a chance to correct them before they are made public, thereby saving yourself from shame and your employer from the possibility of legal action.

One very irritating thing about a lot of the very best weblogs is that they have no subs. The writing may be wonderful, witty, informative and entertaining, but is ruined by simple errors that would get fixed by a good sub.

Here's an idea: a subbing service for webloggers.

People sign up for a service called blogsub. When you sign up as a blogsubber, you have to declare yourself willing to read through a certain number of posts from other people every week. Maybe just one, maybe several a day. When another blogsub user wants to post something to their weblog, it is randomly assigned to a blogsubber who checks it through, offers a re-write if they think necessary, and corrects basic errors. The original owner gets a chance to review the subbing (something that doesn't happen in professional newsrooms, but I think there'd be uproar without such a facility) and confirm the post as ready-to-go. Only now does it go live on the owner's weblog.

There might even be demand, in future, for a professional level of service. Some team weblogs, especially those partially or completely dependent on advertising income, might want to pay for subbing services to give their online publications an extra coating of sheer professionalism. Indeed, you could argue that some of the biggest-earning and best-known weblogs ought to start employing sub-editors of their own.

Labels: tech, writing

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
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Into the mist

Into the mist.
Originally uploaded by stonefaction.

Endless beach, endless sand. In my mind's eye, I picture an otherwise lazy dog going mad with excitement and scampering off to find something disgusting to roll in; while I, preoccupied, stare at the waves and imagine.

Saturday, October 22, 2005
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The wonderful song

Northern Harmony, an extraordinary vocal group based in New England are touring the UK right now.

I attended a workshop of theirs last night, and a concert this evening. Wonderful, uplifting, inspiring singing in many different styles and traditions. You know these guys are good when they tackle some of that insanely complicated Balkan singing with its unusual (to English ears) rhythms and tones.

The Northern Harmony concept is simple yet remarkable. Just a few weeks ago, this group got together for the first time. There were no auditions - the group is self-selecting. Then they spend a couple of weeks singing all day, every day, rehearsing themselves into something incredible. Then they go on tour.

After last night's workshop I spent the whole day today singing a simple South African song that has such harmonic and rhythmic delights nestling within it that it makes my spine tingle. When the group performed it again this evening, it took every ounce of willpower not to stand up from my front-row seat and sing it aloud at the top of my voice.

Between now and the end of November, Northern Harmony will be performing or doing workshops in Oakhampton, Stroud, Stourbridge, Bangor, Dent, York, Derby, Lincoln, Cambridge, Colchester, and Canterbury. Then there's a few gigs in Ireland too. If you're within striking distance of any of these places and like quality vocal music, make an effort to go see them. You won't be disappointed.

Labels: singing

Friday, October 21, 2005
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Yokohama

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Originally uploaded by ishiguro.

I am a fan of ishiguro's images, always arresting and colourful.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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When beer was 10p a pint

In the pub, Gus and Phil tell me how it used to be.

"Back when we were students, you got a full grant and you could live on it," they say.

This is back in 69, 70, 71 or thereabouts.

Phil says: "I ended up with £12 a week. Three pound covered rent, three pound covered food, so I had six pound a week for booze. And beer was 10p a pint in those days."

Turns out that while they've only known each other here for a few months, Phil and Gus both frequented the same cider house in Exeter when they were students, years ago. They share names of old friends. They probably pissed side-by-side in the same stinking pub toilet, 30 years ago or more.

"If you could stand it, you drank 'Natch' - Taunton Natural Dry. Amazing stuff, it had a world-altering effect," says Phil wistfully.

"We called the Natch drinkers 'natch-heads'," adds Gus. "You knew who they were. They walked out of the pub at the end of the evening and just fell over - boom - like that." He slaps his hand on the table.

"It gave you godawful hangovers, terrible headaches," says Phil. "But then by about four or five in the afternoon you'd start to feel better, and by God you'd be back down the pub that night to do it all over again. Bloody madness."

Labels: writing

Friday, October 14, 2005
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Hugging the Hedgehog

Partly to broaden my computing horizons, partly as an exercise in exploring new things to write about professionally, and partly to fill the hours of an otherwise dull Friday evening, I thought it might be fun to install Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog on my aging iBook.

This machine runs OS X Tiger acceptably, but there's a lot of slowness and disk-grinding to put up with. It's an early model white dual-USB iBook with 600MHz G3 processor, 20GB hard disk, and 640MB RAM. I installed Ubuntu from one of their nicely packaged disks ordered from the web site. I had previously tried downloading a .iso and burning my own disk, but for some reason it didn't work.

I took some notes as I went along. These are, of course, just the notes from one evening's noodling. There's likely to be more notes as more evenings present themselves, and more noodles are partaken.

Things I didn't expect to work, but they do

installing and running in the first place. This is hardly an up-to-date machine, but Hoary Hedgehog seems to be running very happily. It seems fast enough for daily use (but let me try using it for a few days before I conclude further on that)
customisable toolbars
auto software updates
USB mouse and scrollwheel (this is a really old mouse that's been lurking in the cupboard for years, too)

Things I am very impressed by

'apt-get install epiphany-browser' ... zap! A new browser installed, and an alias to it inserted in the Applications menu without me looking. Smart.
themes and design. It all looks nice; not pretty-pretty like OS X, but still nice. I like the tendency towards minimalism.

Things that I did expect to work, but they don't

control-clicking instead of right-clicking (eventually I added a mouse and found things much easier)
Online documentation in the Ubuntu wiki - almost everything I search for doesn't exist

Mysteries

where's the hash key? In fact, where's a bunch of special characters? (Some time later: hmmm, found hash at least. And some others. Some serious keymapping required for long-term use, though.)
how do I put the machine to sleep? (Some more time later: looks like the post from areitze on this page offers a solution to this problem.) (Even later still: Yes! It works.)
key command variability. To quit some apps, it's Control+Q. Others, it's Alt+F4, or Control+W. Annoying.

Things I really miss from OS X

Quicksilver
Command keys
Expose
Markdown
TextEdit, rather to my surprise
BBC Radio Player working
A simple online software repository, along the lines of Hyperjeff

I have no doubt there exist Gnome alternatives to all of these. I just haven't had the chance to find them yet.

Labels: tech

Friday, October 07, 2005
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Under South African skies

Vredefort in South Africa is the site of the Earth's largest impact crater, and of the most catastrophic natural disaster in our planet's history.

The original impact would have turned bedrock to liquid in a matter of seconds, effectively liquifying a huge chunk of Africa. Massive pieces of debris, themselves kilometres across, would have been thrown into the air and flung across a wide area. The impact crater was 300km across. Needless to say, there was a 'nuclear winter' style atmospheric effect that cooled the planet at ground level and had a serious effect on life.

But this was thousands of millions of years ago, long before the dinosaurs, who were wiped out by a smaller, but just as devastating impact in Mexico. What basic lifeforms existed at the time of Vredefort might have been able to simply 'shut down' their essential functions until the planet had recovered, and they were able to reproduce once again.

Astoundingly, the evidence of the impact is still visible in the African landscape. While most of the crater's features, once huge, have been eroded away, some of them remain in situ. There are pieces of rock that you can pick up in your hand, that haven't changed since they solidified shortly after the impact and subsequent earth movements. Looking at the rocks in detail, you can see broad bands of grey melted rock surrounding chunks of original granite that survived unmelted. Elsewhere, there are huge walls of rock that descend into the ground - dykes made when molten rock poured down into the cracks created by the force of the impact. These walls have been eroded, too, leaving unobtrusive lines of pale rock snaking across the ground.

The bolide that hit southern Africa two billion years ago still affects us today. South Africa's famous gold deposits, formed millions of years prior to the impact, were covered with a protective layer of rock and dust which shielded them from erosion. Without the Vredefort event, that gold would have long ago been washed away by the rain.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005
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Exploring Portishead and Clevedon

Portishead is an odd sort of place. The town centre, with a lacklustre High Street of charity shops and small independent stores, is separated from the sea by a raised headland. The sea here is a fierce, dangerous one. The beach a mix of mud and mess. Despite a nice promenade and a well-kept public park, the seafront is not a welcoming place for visitors. The sea itself is brown and foreboding, the beach unusable. At one end sits an incongruous, ugly, 60s-built open air swimming pool, nestling into the high ground in an effort to hide itself from view.

The best thing about this sea front is the geology. On the beach near the pool you can see dramatically folded rock strata exposed by wave erosion. Barney and I collected rock samples and looked at the rock waves, echoing the water waves beyond, before squally rain rushed in from the sea and forced us indoors.

Later we drove down the coast to Clevedon, which offers another (slightly nicer, less dangerous) beach and a pier. The wind was strong, but so was the sun. Clevedon has more character and more spark to it. There's also more geology, with another set of rock folds visible beneath the pebbles on the beach.

More photos of Portishead and Clevedon in the gallery.

Monday, October 03, 2005
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Becky and Tom got married

Just two weeks after Andy and Rosa's wedding, which featured many of the same people, my old school friend Becky got hitched to her fella, Tom, in the Kent sunshine. More photos in the gallery.