Monthly archive: November 2007

There's nothing I like on TV these days.

Apart from the fantastic Flight of the Conchords, all saved up on the PVR for a rainy day marathon, all I record now is filler TV, the kind of stuff I play back at 1.5 speed while folding laundry (i.e. Project Runway, The X Factor and Ugly Betty).

Last night I folded laundry while watching The Secret Millionaire, that I had recorded after a hammering multi-media (including Facebook status updates) promotional campaign by Chig.

I shall not go into details in case you want to download it from 4OD or catch the next repeat. Let me just say that Terry George, the millionaire, is a very decent chap.

I managed to fight back the tears throughout the programme, but when it ended the PVR switched back to BBC3 and the All New House of Tiny Tearaways. All new because Dr Tanya Byron is not running it (she has been busy writing Vivienne Vyle with Jennifer Saunders)? Or all new because the latest set of families seeking help with unruly children are teenage pram faces lounging around, fag hanging from pinched lips, effing and blinding and declaring they're bored.

I felt I was watching Big Brother, a show in which I lost interest since they started putting borderline psychos in the house.

That's when I finally cried.

I seem to be unable to travel without electronics to keep me entertained during trips. A what? A 'book', you say? Is it something I can download on my phone?

So when I book seats I try and get one that's got a power outlet for laptops and phones.

Not if you book online, you can't. You can only choose airline, front or back. And even then, you are warned your choice might not be available, and even if it is, you might have to travel the opposite way because the train switched directions.

They might as well write 'Enter the big seat lottery – click here!'.

I booked a front seat, non-airline, and once again I was allocated a non-table backwards-travelling one in an otherwise empty and mostly unreserved carriage.

I have of course scattered my belongings on four available seats around a table, phone plugged in and happily surfing the power-hungry 3G network, my originally reserved seat unoccupied behind me.

It's not as if the data is not there: a few minutes ago I changed my return reservation at the ticket office, explained I needed a power outlet, and was given a 'table – window' seat.

All this data, and still a long way from seamelessly accessing it from anywhere.

A sullen, angry, or indignant humour.

Read more about dudgeon at Answers.com

Any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy. Pompous, bombastic, and ranting.

Read more about fustian at Answers.com

A bowling pin of the type used in ninepins – or (in England) skittles.

Read more about skittle at Answers.com

To swerve off course momentarily or temporarily. To move unsteadily; weave.

Read more about yaw at Answers.com

Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account last week:

• Move your iTunes music while preserving library data
  How to move your iTunes music while preserving library data (when you don’t let iTunes manage your music library)
• Hand-Crafting My FOAF
  '[...] if you want to play around with FOAF take over control of your own public data, I've included detailed information on how to get started in hand-crafting your own FOAF file.'
• Tim Berners-Lee on the Giant Global Graph
  'It's not the Social Network Sites that are interesting — it is the Social Network itself. The Social Graph. The way I am connected, not the way my Web pages are connected [...] I express my network in a FOAF file, and that is a start of the revolution.'
• Fair Share Fountain
  '6 champagne glasses, each one a bit smaller than the other, hand made out of Pyrex and each one has a tiny lip so that the champagne will flow over into the next smaller glass and all 6 together hold the content of one standard bottle!'
• Block Facebook Beacon
  How to block Facebook's advertising partners to send you cookies that post stories on your Facebook profile detailing what you did online.
• Internet Commenter Business Meeting
  'This is what happens when corporations change pwn3rship.'

Not interesting; dull. Lacking maturity; childish

Read more about jejune at Answers.com

Harsh, often insulting language.

Read more about billingsgate at Answers.com

1. Echinacea products made from the leaves and stems are not known to be clinically effective. I just hope the root is as good as they say, because I've been using it to keep a cold at bay for a week now.
2. Tecknonik (a blend of hip hop and techno dance styles) is a registered trademark, and the first time that a dance is protected that way.
3. There are no trains on Boxing Day on most lines in the UK, which could be a bit of a problem because I have to travel down to London to go to work on the 27th.
4. [Warning: Heroes S01E14 spoilers] Christopher Eccleston was originally offered the role of Sylar in Heroes. He declined, then Zachary Quinto auditioned and blew the casting panel away.
5. A Beddian year is the one in which your age matches the last two digits of the year you were born. Mine will be in 2034. What year was I born in? [via kottke]
6. Although you can strike out text with either the <del> or the <strike> tag, only the latter displays correctly in Google Reader. This is a bit odd, since the <strike> tag was deprecated in HTML 4.01. I noticed while reading Joe.My.God's 'Time Machine' post and not making much sense because the deletion sign did not get through, and then noticing that Kottke's post on Kindle, where deletions marked with <strike> displayed as intended.
7. Mehrabian's well-known 7%-38%-45% rule that says words only account for 7% when used to communicate (while the tone and body language that go with them account for 38% and 45% respectively) only applies to communications of feelings and attitudes (likes and dislikes). It is often wrongly overly interpreted to cover communication as a whole.

To mislead by means of a petty trick or fraud; deceive. To persuade or induce to do something by cajoling or wheedling. To obtain by deceit or persuasion.

Read more about cozen at Answers.com

An alarm sounded on a bell. A bell used to sound an alarm. A warning; an omen.

Read more about tocsin at Answers.com

You might be aware of Beacon, Facebook's new advertising platform that allows Facebook's partners to place a cookie on your machine when you shop with them, and next time you log on to Facebook you are notified that the retailer is sending a story to your profile that says 'X bought (played, watched, etc.) Y at Z'.

I am not against the idea per se, in fact I'm quite excited about the possibilities. If I bought tickets to the Tangled Up Arena Tour I'd love it to be entered automatically into my events, for all my friends and colleagues to see. OK, bad example here perhaps ;-)

You will not hear my cry out at an invasion of privacy. It is your choice to share some personal details on Facebook. Your choice to add your colleagues as friends. You must be prepared to face the consequence of your actions. Don't come to me crying when your boss totally susses out your lame excuse to skip work.

The problem is that Facebook can't control the way partners use Beacon, and retailers don't always warn you when you shop with them that they are going to place the cookie and send the story to Facebook. You do have the option to refuse the story afterwards, when you log on to Facebook with the same browser, but what if someone else has used your computer, say to buy you a surprise present? Or, heavens forbid, a surprise present for someone else you are not even meant to know about?

If you use Firefox you can just use the BlockSite plugin and enter http://*facebook.com/beacon/* in the input box. Other browsers might not make it so straight-forward but you can still do it.

Of course, you can avoid being on Facebook. Or stop shopping online altogether. And then you'd be the modern equivalent of my dad who stubbornly refused to let anyone in the family watch the second TV channel that launched in the sixties because one channel is just enough, why would anyone want to be able to choose?

UPDATE [30 Nov. 2007]:

'Facebook has just announced that they will be updating their Beacon system. Stories will no longer be published "without a user proactively consenting."'

Without advantage or benefit; useless.

Read more about bootless at Answers.com

Any of a class of organic compounds corresponding to the inorganic salts and formed from an organic acid and an alcohol.

Read more about ester at Answers.com

An ugly, squalid dwelling.

Read more about hovel at Answers.com

Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account last week:

• Destination of 'recycled' electronics may surprise you
  'Most Americans think they're helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.'
• Firefox Exploit can Hack Gmail
  '…Google user accounts can be accessed through a dangerous Firefox exploit. The vulnerability, which is still in the wild some 10 days after its discovery [...] allows hackers to access Google accounts, including Gmail'
• Android Demo on YouTube
  Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz discuss the availability of the SDK, that it will be open source in the future, and demo applications on the Android platform.

A protruding rim, edge, rib, or collar, as on a wheel or a pipe shaft, used to strengthen an object, hold it in place, or attach it to another object.

Read more about flange at Answers.com

(slang) give a minor bitching about something, esp. something trivial.

Read more about ding at Answers.com

1. Your teeth get smaller as you grow old and that makes your face sag. You can have a dental facelift to increase the size of your teeth and fill out your face.
2. Band Aid II did a cover of Do They Know It's Christmas? in 1989. I was at the time living abroad and was therefore mercifully spared the embarassment.
3. Green tea tastes better (read: a bit less like poo) if you make it with not-too-boiling water.
4. I thought my T-Mobile MDA Vario III was 3G but it also uses HSPDA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) , kind of 3.5G.
5. The font used in German car number plates is difficult to forge because usually similar numbers/letters bear no relation.
6. There is a free version of BT Callminder, but because it's called something completely different (BT Answer 1571), the BT helpdesk fails to mention it when you ask for a free version of Callminder. Sure, the free version has less features, but it still takes messages (as if anyone still called landlines these days). We switched this morning, thus saving 2.5 pounds per month. We could bypass BT altogether but we're too happy with Pipex and Pipex (as almost all British ADSL suppliers) requires a BT line.
7. You can charge an iPod with Gatorade and an onion.

The young of various fishes, especially the herring, considered a delicacy when fried. Any of various similar or related small edible fishes.

Read more about whitebait at Answers.com

(Also plum. Informal) Utterly; completely: plumb worn out.

Read more about plumb at Answers.com

A friend sent me this notice he found posted at his gym, which I don't think it's even one of the gayest in town.

You go to a gym? Then you are expected to be supple enough to soap your own back.

Otherwise, they will preserve it as inappropriate behaviour. Preserve, regard, same thing…

Any of various small clawed monkeys of the genera Callithrix and Cebuella, found in tropical forests of the Americas and having soft dense fur, tufted ears, and long tails.

Read more about marmoset at Answers.com

A fit of violent emotion, such as anger or panic. Also called conniption fit.

Read more about conniption at Answers.com

Playful, often noisy and rowdy activity, usually involving mischievous pranks.

Read more about high jinks at Answers.com

Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account last week:

• DivX and Xbox 360: A Potential Win-Win For Everyone
  The Xbox 360 may soon support DivX. I would love not having to encode video every time I want to enjoy HD on the big telly.
• Nabaztag WordPress Plugins
  'first Nabaztag API plugin for WordPress [...] every time a user will leave a comment (not moderated by Akismet as spam) the bunny will notify via Text-to-Speach API [...] in the future I'll work on ears and light support too.'
• Graceful E-Mail Obfuscation
  'a transparent and fully automated solution [...] all addresses that appear on our website are safe—even the ones that show up in blog comments.' Includes elegant fallback solution if JavaScript is unavailable.

A sneaker or rubber overshoe. Slang. An investigator, especially a detective.

Read more about gumshoe at Answers.com

(architecture) A slope; an inclination; e.g., the inclination (from the horizontal) of an auditorium floor.

Read more about rake at Answers.com

1. Jason 'J' Brown from boy band Five (originally spelled 5ive) is taking part in the new I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! I've always hated the show. But ten years ago I use to kiss the ground J walked on. Thanks heavens for PVRs and fast-tracking through hours of footage at 3x speed searching for footage of shirtless J.
2. Death From Above 1979 used to be called Death From Above. They changed their name after a legal wrangle with LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, who had been using it as a working name.
3. 2002 was the Year of the Whopper, in Infinite Jest's chronology of subsidised time. David Foster Wallace's novel still puts me off, at over 1000 pages, but the more I read about Infinite Jest the more I want to dig into it.
4. If a cab driver is wearing his seatbelt, he is not for hire. 'As taxi drivers do not have to wear a seat belt when they are working, any driver wearing one is likely to be driving home'.
5. The C7 2-conductor 2.5A appliance connector (which I usually call 'kettle cable') is also known as 'figure of eight cable'.
6. Kirsten Bell has 'energy hands' in real life. And is great pals with Zach Quinto (WARNING: Heroes S02E05 spoilers – these links go to Greg Beeman's fantastic Heroes production blog).
7. Nek's debut single Laura Non C'è (a surprisingly low 10th place at Sanremo 1997, the year Jalisse of Eurovision notoriety won); was not only recorded in Spanish as Laura No Está (a huge success in Latin America) but also in English as Laura Is Away (a, hem, not huge success I believe, not even as Laura Is Away – the Club Mix), and then again in 2005 re-recorded as 'Laura', with Céréna singing some verses in French. He could sing it in Esperanto and just flutter his eyelashes around his lovely lovely blue eyes, for all I care. And Nek gets hotter as he ages. Swoon.