Penguin Marginalia

del.icio.us links for 7-14-2009

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:03:40 GMT

New Live Poll Allows Pundits To Pander To Viewers In Real Time | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

(tags: video funny tv)

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:15:46 GMT

I'm wondering whether I am stressed, tired, sick or caught the sun yesterday - all of which are true to some extent, and also interrelated - but I feel like death today.

Weather's quite nice now though.

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:15:46 GMT

I'm wondering whether I am stressed, tired, sick or caught the sun yesterday - all of which are true to some extent, and also interrelated - but I feel like death today.

Weather's quite nice now though.

iPhone GoogleFodder - screen going dead on left hand side and how to get it fixed

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:35:26 GMT

I mention this less because it's of general interest and more because somebody else might have the same problem, try to google it and find that they can't find a damn thing.

Problem: The left hand edge of my iPhone's screen went dead. It wasn't responding, which is a bit of an issue, since in landscape turned anticlockwise that means the space bar and shift don't work, and in portrait you can't type Q or 1 (though you can do shift, just).

Solution: Take it to the Apple Store and say "uh my iPhone it don't work proper, look". Wait a bit to see someone, because you don't have an appointment. Apple Store Genius in blue shirt says "okay I'll reseat the screen" i.e. take it off and plug it in again. iPhone then works properly. Repair process takes about five or ten minutes; it's a connection that's come a bit loose. I suppose if you were confident and had all of the teeny screwdrivers and pincers and whatever else is required, you could do it yourself, but if you live a couple of miles from an Apple Store like I do, why not take advantage of that and pop along after work?

Lack of chives

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:43:37 GMT

Where are all the chives these days? I remember from my childhood, we always had chives for potato salad or normal salad or... er, well, that's about it actually, I'm sure there are at least three other things you can do with chives though.

I have not seen a single chive for at least ten years.

It is not right. It is like sparrows disappearing.

del.icio.us links for 7-4-2009

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:02:40 GMT

Periodic_Table_of_Typefaces_large.jpg 1575Ã1050 pixels

Links for 2009-07-03 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

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pontificating on the young persons' music

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:15:10 GMT

"Dubstep" is very much like "trip hop", in that there is plenty of decent music which has been defined as being in that category, but anyone you hear in a pub talking about the genre is a wanker. They were wankers ten years ago with trip hop, they're wankers today with dubstep, and doubtless pubs will continue to be plagued with arrogant twenty-somethings pretending they know anything until the heat death of the universe.

Swings and roundabout

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:12:13 GMT

Pub prices are the lifestyle surcharge I pay for not having a garden.

Park morning hammer

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:04:12 GMT

Every so often I pop down to a small local park - a green space between roads, really, though it's well maintained - to work out what the hell it is I'm supposed to be doing with my time. Conveniently enough, this morning there are two men discussing taking up the paving stones around the bench I am sitting on. With hammers. I may go and sit on the grass.

Just have a damn thunderstorm

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:24:33 GMT

Worst sleep ever. Too hot anyway, then shenanigans outside with some random guy in a sparkly red cap reportedly hitting party guests in the street, and one particularly loud and unsympathetic guest complaining about it loudly and repeatedly.

After that had calmed down I just continued to wake up every so often to cough and sweat - far too confused to actually know what the time was on these occasions.

The consequence now is that I don't know how much sleep I had, only that I feel terrible. "Tired" is just one aspect. I would rather try to get some more sleep than get up, as it's at least unlikely to make me more tired, but at this time of day the weather is tolerable and I might manage to achieve something before I am hammered into a sweaty lump in my chair by the heat.

Links for 2009-06-30 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

BBC NEWS | UK | Menezes officer given a top job
"The senior police officer leading operations on the day Jean Charles de Menezes was shot has been promoted to a top role in the Metropolitan Police." fuck's sake

del.icio.us links for 6-29-2009

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:03:17 GMT

Comics creator stopped by TSA for carrying script about writer under suspicion by TSA - Boing Boing

Somebody should write a comic about this.

(tags: self-reference)
The Guardian | Squatters seize 'main' house of MP couple

"A house designated by married Labour MPs Alan and Ann Keen as their main home for expenses purposes, but which they have not lived in for months, was taken over by squatters yesterday. "A group angry at the expenses claims of the couple said they entered the three-bedroom property in west London through an open window. They plan to invite Iraqi refugees to move in.

Links for 2009-06-28 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Comics creator stopped by TSA for carrying script about writer under suspicion by TSA - Boing Boing
Somebody should write a comic about this.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:48:52 GMT

One issue about going to your sister's wedding is that it is considered inappropriate to make bunny ears behind her head during the photographs. With this in mind, I only did it once.

Links for 2009-06-25 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | 'Stoned wallabies make crop circles'
"Are you in Tasmania? Have you seen stoned wallabies? Send us your comments using the form below."

r4war

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:14:21 GMT

Is it just me or do there seem to be a lot of military types on Radio 4 at the moment?

I can't really point to specifics as I've not been keeping track - apart from Book Of The Week being "The Junior Officer's Reading Club", that's an easy one - but I seem to be hearing a lot of, say, radio plays about soldiers in Afghanistan, or programs with guests who just happen to be ex-military and talking about their experiences, usually in the context of a book they have out. Maybe there's a quota.

The drama always seem incredibly uncritical and politically naive, "y'know it's tough out there and sometimes people get a bit cross but they're doing a good job in the end", and also just, well, bad. (A lot of Radio 4 drama is bad in my opinion, and is just saved by the quality of the acting, which is generally high.) The guests... how interesting they are depends on the individual, but it always feels as if the host is sitting there in awe at the fact that they've been in a war, and asks lots of dumb questions. Which the guests probably find quite irritating I imagine.

Of course you won't hear anything remotely critical said about Afghanistan on Radio 4 anyway. Remember, it's the good war.

pro tip for bad days

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:44:19 GMT

Here's a good way to make me feel like a twat - ask me an urgent question, or ask me to do something urgently, then when I research an answer or report success, completely ignore it. Extra "make fridge feel like a twat" points can be gained by

not even acknowledging the reply;
not acknowledging the reply, and then going "Away" on Skype;
asking for the same thing later on;
asking for the opposite thing later on.

doesn't like tuesdays

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:04:39 GMT

All the bad things that people say happen to them on Mondays, happen to me on Tuesdays. Apart from finding that I have no clean pants, I've already knocked over a glass of Coke Zero that I left overnight on my desk, and then proceeded to drop porridge oats all over the kitchen floor.

I've been reduced to shouting "fuck OFF... oh just FUCK OFF FUCK OFF", initially at whatever object was involved but after a while, at everything. It's the sort of thing that makes me want to take a holiday. I don't particularly enjoy holidays, but at least they're "different day different shit" rather than "different day same shit".

Comedy locals again

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:46:56 GMT

Not involving stabbings this time.

1. They were painting the picket fence in front of the restaurant white, yesterday. How domestic and suburban! Oh okay, that is connected with stabbings.

2. While walking along this afternoon, a man addressed me on the pavement, pointing to my t-shirt and saying "do you know what that means?" I look down at my t-shirt and thought "um, maybe it's a symbol of some group or band or something, I don't know, I've never seen it anywhere else and I don't think my mum would have bought me anything like that". So I didn't say anything.

"Do you know what that means?" he said again, then walked ahead to catch up with his friend or companion who had passed us by. "Do you see what he's wearing?" The friend or companion gave me an embarrassed smile as if to say "yeah don't worry".

"Satan! The devil!" I heard the first man say as they walked on. I looked down at my t-shirt again.

"It's not Satan!" I called back. "It's an antelope, man!"

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:01:48 GMT

Okay, so this seems to work. It doesn't do anything really unprecented I suppose, but it's generally snappier, has a pretty good camera, and it does have a compass should I ever really get confused. And it's mine.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

gadget news: iphone

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:52:49 GMT

Oh, and I booked an appointment at the Apple Store to get one of the new iPhones on Friday. I know I'm going to get one at some point, so I might as well get it now - it's not like it's going to come down in price, or get better. I have some line rental left with Vodafone to pay off, but only 'til September.

16 gig on PAYG I think. I make almost no calls so it will end up cheaper, and O2's tethering charges are a rip-off (also I have an existing 3G dongle contract with T-Mobile which hasn't run out yet, and I doubt tethering using Bluetooth will work with my EEE).

Slightly concerned that I may not have my PAC to transfer my number by Friday which might confuse matters, but I can always not activate the phone until I get it; there's a thing on O2's site which you can use after receiving a phone in the post after all so it should be fine.

that's it really

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:13:24 GMT

See, what was the point in that? Did I really gain anything overnight except a different sort of headache? No, I did not.

I reject the Sandman

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:06:15 GMT

Honestly, I used to enjoy sleep, but these days I really do view it as an utter waste of time which gets in the way of things that I would like to do.

I feel quite tired at the moment, partly because I got only a few hours' vague sleep last night. Hot weather always means I sleep very badly. Three or four hours of proper coma, then another three or four drifting in and out and playing with my iPod in bed, until I eventually had to get up in order to Skype somebody and do the "work" thing.

The tiredness doesn't actually make me want to go to sleep, though, it makes me want to be less tired. I would rather skip the whole "sleeping" part and move straight on to morning, coffee, breakfast, activity. I feel quite aggrieved that I can't, and that I am going to have to go through the whole stupid sleep business.

Links for 2009-06-09 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

what consumes me, bud caddell » how to be happy in business - venn diagram

del.icio.us links for 6-9-2009

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:03:51 GMT

what consumes me, bud caddell Â» how to be happy in business - venn diagram

yeah that's great

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:51:06 GMT

BNP wins Euro seat

Brons, whom I have just seen on streaming BBC video appearing as a fairly avuncular sort talking about rejecting European domination, is hardcore National Front, the sort that you can really call a Nazi without anyone saying "oh no what has he done to suggest he's a Nazi maybe he's just a nationalist". He's got a long swastika history and was chairman of the NF for heaven's sake.

Just thought I should mention it

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:47:02 GMT

Oh, and Lord Sir Alan Fucking Sugar, well. A "TV Personality" whose company once made some shit computers (or imported them from China) and has kept going via making Sky boxes and engaging in property speculation. I don't know which is worse, the fact that we're expected to think he's great cos he was on the telly, or the demonstration of New Labour fawning over even the crappest of the private sector.

Brown doesn't really seem to have grasped that The Apprentice, Dragons Den et al are in fact satires on capitalism, designed to show that every single one of these people are awful, their awfulness proportionate to their level of "success".

Well that's a big surprise

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:57:22 GMT

The English Democrats got a mayor elected in Doncaster, and amazingly enough:

The newly-elected mayor of Doncaster has threatened to cut funding to the town's Gay Pride event as part of his pledge to fight political correctness.

Peter Davies, of the English Democrats, said: "My policy on gays and lesbians is very simple.

"I don't think councils should be spending money on them parading through town advertising their sexuality."

...

Mr Davies has also stated he intends to cut funding for translation services for non-English speakers in the borough.

Not surprising at all really; he's sticking closely to the party's manifesto, which is a bigoted one. (The EDs have a vague English Nationalist base - and there are some perfectly decent English Nats - but their other policies are basically the Daily Mail comments section in party form, with the same confused "we know it when we see it" definitions of "political correctness" and "Englishness", and the same nasty undertaste of something unpleasantly rotten. Last time I said anything rude about the EDs, by the way, when Gary Bushell was their candidate, I was flooded with stupid trolls; I wonder if the Google Alert is still going.)

The point being that if you protest vote for twats, fine, you've sent a message to the political establishment that you don't trust them and are not happy with expenses etc, but the elections you're actually protest voting in do have consequences. While mayors in the UK rarely have the power that they do in many places in the US, say, they do still have some power.

value politics

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:06:22 GMT

I'll give Labour one thing - I quite like the way that more and more ministers are giving us good value at the moment. They resign from the cabinet now, thus allowing me the opportunity to laugh and say "go on, fuck off Purnell, yeah that's right, go on", and then lots will lose their seats later in the General too, which will allow me to laugh twice.

Both are meaningless laughs, I'm quite aware of that.

Links for 2009-05-02 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Bagger 288! - rathergood.com
A music video devoted to the true function of the Bagger 288, the world's largest bucket excavator and possibly machine in general. Including an arctic fox.

Links for 2009-04-23 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 PDT

BBC NEWS | Politics | BNP leader defends policy on race
"British National Party (BNP) chairman Nick Griffin has defended a party leaflet which says that black Britons and Asian Britons "do not exist"... The BNP's "Language and Concepts Discipline Manual" says the term used should be "racial foreigners"... In a BBC interview, Mr Griffin said to call such people British was a sort of "bloodless genocide" because it denied indigenous people their own identity." Whoops, Nick.