Singing Hexadecimal

It's interesting that the biggest tech story of the week in some quarters has been a string of hexadecimal numbers:


It's the code for unlocking encrypted HD-DVD content, for the non-geeks amongst you…

Birthday Beads

It's Rev Stan's birthday!


Video share fair in progress


Oops

Heading back to London but stuck in a M25 nightmare.


When Snow Comes to London

Some footage I shot back in February but have only just got around to editing:



QotD: I Should Make A List

What do you always forget to pack? 
Submitted by quornflour.

Cufflinks. I habitually wear double-cuffed shirts for work functions (and anything smart, really) but I have a terrible habit of fogetting cufflinks.

More than once my first port of call when away is a shop selling the things. As a result, I now have an excitingly large collection of them.


New Wurzels Release

Oh, yes.

It's on iTunes, too.


QotD: What Blogging Means

What are the positive and negative associations that you and those around you have with blogging?  Have attitudes changed over time?

Ah, good question, given that my day job* is getting a whole company's worth of journalists up and blogging. And, to be frank, the major problem is negative associations. Journalists' pre-conceived ideas of blogging tend to fall into two schools:

  1. Lonely losers blogging in their underpants in their bedrooms
  2. Rabid, opinionated ranting.

The reasons for those views are pretty clear to me: those are the versions of blogging that have seen the most exposure in the mainstream press, and hence have penetratrated journalists' busy minds. However, I do find it more than a little worrying that so many people who are, by nature, publishing professionals have been happy to just accept the recieved wisdom from another source, rather than exploring the issue for themselves.

As I've pointed out on more than one occasion saying "blogging is all losers ranting in their bedrooms" is a bit like picking up a copy of Horse & Pony and going "not sure I like this magazine business, it's all about teenagers and their horse obsession. It's confusing the medium with the message.

The positive side is the unbridled enthusiasm I see in some journalists' eyes when the idea of connecting directly through to their readers via the blog becomes clear to them. These are the journalists who genuinely care about providing the best information for their readers and want to interact with them. And that's just cool.

*Yes, I did have an evening job in the past, writing game stuff for White Wolf. But I no longer have the time, and they no longer seem to have the money (pay rates down, author comps cut?) to make that worthwhile part of my life.


Vox Hunt: It Came From The 70's

Audio: It's 70's music Wednesday.

Proof that anything could hit the charts in the 70s…

Vox Hunt: Here's Some Stuff

Show us a pile of stuff.
Submitted by The Eugene.



Fields of rape

Suffolk is yellow this time of year


(Although, now I see this from my desk, I can see how lousy colour reproductiosn is from my mobile phone).


Gilbert & Sullivan's Baby Got Back

Baby Got Back - Gilbert and Sullivan Style


Respect My Authoritaaaah!

Convincingly broke the Technorati top 40,000 blogs with my main blog this morning.

30,000 here I come!

All together now: Wince!

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
Man cuts off penis in restaurant
A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant.

Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the man was aged between 30 and 40 and that his injuries were self-inflicted.

The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis.

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Checking Out

The tattered remains of a wedding…


Lewisham blogging drinks


New haircut time again

What do you think?


Still They Come!


St George

A statue at St George's Hospital, created by one of the staff.


Sinister Bins

First Andrew captured them massing.

Now they ATTACK

Is there no escape for any of us?