January 2009
Birmingham bans apostrophes from road signs →
Good lord.
Places I Have Been Asked To Leave (Chronological)
Private residence, Berkshire - alcohol/inappropriate nudity
One Minute Silence concert, London - alcohol/inappropriate sexual conduct
Supermarket, Newbury - alcohol/inappropriate use of shopping trolley
Private residence, Ecchinswell - alcohol/unwanted sexual advances
Party at private residence, Chievely - alcohol/property damage
Private residence, Ecchinswell - alcohol/further unwanted...
Fol Chen - “No Wedding Cake”
Telepathe - “Chrome’s On It”
Dance Mother is one...
A Soupçon of Catachresis →
Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the rhetoric of Obama’s inauguration speech.
An inaugural address is like an Olympic equestrian event, where the course and maneuvers are precisely spelled out and marks are given purely for form and execution. Obama’s speech made all the required moves: it was grave but not doleful; resolute but not belligerent, eloquent but not grandiloquent. Its acknowlegments...
“Paris syndrome (French: syndrôme de Paris) is a constellation of symptoms...”
– Paris syndrome. Fantastic.
Pirating the 2009 Oscars →
Waxy’s annual roundup.
I’ve been tracking the distribution of Oscar-nominated films every year, culminating with the release of six years of piracy data last year. I’ve updated those spreadsheets with this year’s 26 nominees, for a total of 211 films from the last seven years.
Always worth a link.
Apps I Didn't Know I Needed
I tend to keep a fairly casual eye on what’s new for OS X in terms of useful applications, but sometimes something great passes me by. So I thought it might be useful to point out a few excellent apps that have come on to my radar recently.
Path Finder — Path Finder is a replacement for Finder. I see people complain about missing features, like tabs, in Finder quite frequently, but...
Cheating at Roulette →
Something called sector targeting came up on today’s episode of Hustle. (The episode is still available on iPlayer for Brits.) In the most basic terms, it’s a method for getting an edge (not cheating, quite) in Roulette whereby you calculate the speed of the wheel’s spinning, the ball’s speed, and how quickly they were both decelerating, which would give you a rough idea of...
Kid Cudi - Day and Night (TC Mix)
I want Rusko...
Writing "Loose" when you mean "Lose" →
Pro tip: If you’re going to insist on complaining about things like misspelling loose/lose, please double check that you have not incorrectly labelled a spelling mistake as an error in grammar.
Thanks in advance!
Modest Mouse - “Gravity Rides...
neologasm →
The pleasurable feeling from having coined a new word. Combination of neologism and orgasm
(via tristanjay7)
Pat Benatar - “Love is a...
“When is modern science going to find a cure for a woman’s mouth?”
– 30 Rock
“Cockney Violin” - Caspa
Still...
Joker - Purple Wow Sound Mix →
An excellent 43 minute mix from dubstep producer JOKER. Well worth your time if you like grimy dubstep with a video game influence.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-
Droppin’ knowledge: calling the US on a Vodafone mobile phone costs around £1.20 per minute! Glad I don’t do that regularly.
Hey, what’s up Skype, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal?
E-mail
Purely administrative: my new e-mail is nostrich at quisby.net.
Let’s see how long before the spam floodgates open.
Survive 2009 by learning to love and share →
In case you missed the bulletin in your post-festive daze, let me bring you up to speed. According to the latest predictions, here’s what we’re in for this year: MISERY. Yes, not just misery, but MISERY. In capitals. Just like that.
Charlie Brooker on his usual top form.
Retitled
I mentioned my problems with Media Temple a little while ago. (And a number of my followers were kind enough to offer me the necessary funds to rectify the situation; thanks guys!) As promised, once Christmas (and then New Year’s Eve) was over, I got into action and started to sort it all out.
Long story short, the Media Temple representative I spoke to got his facts wrong. My account was...
Logitech MX™ Revolution →
Ordered! Hopefully the first of many Jesus-Christ-I-really-can’t-afford-this purchases this year. Thanks for the suggestions, Internet.
Fuck Robots
Robot: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. If you require assistance, please say "help" to be put through to a customer service agent.
Me: Help.
Robot: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. If you require assistance, please say "help" to be put through to a customer service agent.
Me: Help.
Robot: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. If you require assistance, please say "help" to be put through to a customer service agent.
Me: HELP.
Robot: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. If you require assistance, please say "help" to be put through to a customer service agent.
Me: Fuck you.
Robot: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. If you require assistance, please say "help" to be put through to a customer service agent.
Mice
I’m in the market for a new mouse. Anyone got any recommendations?
Likes: extra buttons (I like to have a back button for browsing, and one for expose in OS X, so it needs at least 2, ideally), lightweight, simple and modest in appearance. Dislikes: wires! It needs to be wireless, preferably with a recharging dock.
