Signs of Clue in the UK media
I'm interested to see some of the UK media establishment diving into weblogging, and evidently with some gusto. Some of them are starting to understand the concept.
Following The Guardian's lead, The Times has a list of weblogs by op-ed writers and columnists (well suited to the blog format), but what's more interesting is that they've allowed the blogs to live off the main Times site.
All the Times weblogs live off timesonline.typepad.com, and the newspaper's webmonkeys have made no effort to incorporate the Typepad service under their own domains. To me, is shows signs of a more relaxed attitude and I think that's a good thing. Back in the 1990s, the corporate image would have counted more and someone high up would have insisted that everything be carried under thetimes.co.uk. Now, they're just more relaxed about this sort of thing.
This is a sign of Clue at the Times. Yay.
Now the Beeb has finally started 'proper' weblogging for reporters. (I say proper because they've had content they called 'weblogs' before, but it was just pages buried in the rest of the site and loosely linked together under the 'weblog' title. They didn't have an easy-to-find front page, or a particularly 'webloggy' feel to them.) Starting with a weblog by political editor Nick Robinson, they're now using MT (or Typepad, I dunno) and they're doing things the way you'd expect; a front page, archives, comments, all the shazzam.
Assuming other media jump the wagon as they do in the past, I forsee that within a year, The Sun will have blogs; The Mirror's 3am will have been spun off as a separate bloggy site; the Telegraph will have limped into line behind The Times; even the Daily Mail will have a House Prices blog. The Express will continue to be publishing shite about Princess Diana and not have a fucking Clue about anything.
Labels: work
Thursday, December 22, 2005
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The why phase
Don't touch the sharp knives, Barney.
Why?
Because they've got sharp blades on them.
Why?
So they can cut things.
Why?
To make them smaller.
Why?
That makes things easier to cook.
Why?
Because small pieces of food cook faster.
Why?
It's something to do with conductivity, I think, but I can't remember all the details.
Why?
Because I'm getting old.
Why?
Everyone gets old.
Why?
That's what happens to people.
Why?
Something to do with entropy. And chemistry, I suspect.
Why?
Because bananas.
I want a sandwich.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
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The new news
When I heard about the Buncefield explosion on Sunday, the first thing I did when I got to the computer was check BBC news.
But the second thing I did was look for photos tagged with Buncefield at Flickr; and the third thing I did was look for links tagged with Buncefield at del.icio.us.
These two sites have become a perfect news filter, although neither of them try to be. Whenever some major event takes place, you can be sure that photos of it will be on Flickr in no time at all - and that with sensible use of tags, you'll be able to find them.
It only struck me later on that my efforts to find images of the disaster on Flickr were entirely automatic; I didn't stop to think about where to look next, it was done without hesitation. My mind now associates poking around inside Flickr's tags with the act of finding out about news.
A digression: now that del.icio.us has been bought by Yahoo!, and Flickr is already owned by Yahoo!, might we see Flickr's "interestingness" technology being copied over to the del.icio.us links database?
Monday, December 12, 2005
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gilest x 3
If you've got a birthday in November or December, you'll know what it's like. Suddenly you get a rush of people asking you what gift you'd like; so you give them a suggestion; then they say "And what about Christmas too?" You have to start thinking fast.
It's been a long time since I looked at my Amazon wishlist but I'm really impressed at how much better it has got since the last time I looked. The Compact View is really useful, especially now it lets you make changes to multiple items at once (select a bunch of stuff you've decided you no longer want, remove them all in one go).
Of course I'd forgotten where my wishlist was, so I used the "Find a wishlist" feature and banged my name in.
And look - there are two other Giles Turnbulls with Amazon accounts! And one of them's not far away from me, in Marlborough. I'd heard of one other Giles Turnbull before, but the thought that there's potentially four of us in the UK is exciting indeed.
I wonder what stuff they want?
Giles Turnbull from Abergavenny has modest requests. Giles Turnbull in Marlborough only wants a Curtis Mayfield CD, and has wanted it since 2000. I'm almost tempted to get it for him.
Neither of them are anything like as greedy as me.
Labels: writing
Sunday, December 11, 2005
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Wok cooking
I'm really enjoying using the new wok that Kate got me for my birthday the other day. It's quite small as woks go, but that makes it easier to store and to lift (some cooking pans can get so heavy!), and I like those things.
Simply having a wok in the kitchen has inspired me to look for new recipes. The first thing I tried was to make a decent egg fried rice, which I have not done for years, and lo and behold the shiny new wok made it easy. Excellent egg fried rice, I was proud of it.
I enjoy myself when I'm in the kitchen. It's a place I can be creative without the need for a computer. I can listen to the radio while I cook (the radio is actually as essential as the cooker or the fridge; no radio, no activity). Using the wok makes the process all the more physical, because there's the need to be swift. Everything has to be chopped up quickly while the oil heats, then cooked on a high heat, with much stirring and swishing. It gets the blood flowing, almost as much as the saliva.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
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Barney singing "Land of the silver birch"
Land of the silver birch (Odeo browser stream thing, or MP3 download)
His nursery class did a project about North America, and they were taught this song.
Labels: singing, tech, writing
Friday, December 02, 2005
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