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Saturday, November 17, 2001


Your Name hand-carved in 5lbs of Cheddar Cheese, only $69. I'm so tempted!

posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:56 AM



As I've long suspected there's a Guide for everything -You can now be fully prepared for eternal damnation with the ever-so handy Traveller's Guide to Hell!

posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:41 AM



Anarchist Squatter Monkeys. A group of Monkeys in Calcutta, India occupying a derelict building are defying the Bank which wishes to replace it with a more modern building.
"..the alpha male of the monkey tribe is having none of it. Somehow he's understood that the Bank wants to pull down his home and he's protecting his property with his life. Agile and measuring over five feet in height, he has engaged in sit-down protests on the stairways, preventing developers from passing to examine the building. Anyone who tries to forcibly remove him is treated to a slap round the face from the monkey squatter"
Way to go Monkeys! Smilie

posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:31 AM



Friday, November 16, 2001


"The browser in your trouser" Our little device made the Daily Star today. The world just got weirder.

posted by John Dalziel at 5:26 PM



The poetic reporting of the goings on in a small town: Police reports from Arcata, California

posted by Chris Wood at 5:13 PM



Amazing Birds!

posted by Andy Buchanan at 4:51 PM



John, Here's one for you, further to our chat in the pub (where else! Smilie) the other day, I decided to do a quick web search on the wonderful word "blootered".
  1. It's on a fairly short list of inebriation terms: You're...what? Nice idea, but missing some classics, and the submission form didn't seem to be working Scowlie

  2. Entry on the www.peevish.co.uk Slang page. Not a bad slang dictionary at all, and much more accurate than Roger's Profanisaurous!

  3. The Scottish Liberal Democrats seem to like the word a lot.

  4. The domain name blootered.co.uk is for sale for £1000!. Bit rich for my blood
So there you go! What a great word!

posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:38 AM



Thursday, November 15, 2001


Clockless Chips are coming!
"The founders of modern computer technology contemplated asynchronous design as early as 1946"
In 1997, Intel developed an asynchronous, Pentium-compatible test chip that ran three times as fast, on half the power, as its synchronous equivalent.
Eventually......

posted by Andy Buchanan at 11:24 PM



According to the Beeb, Terry Wogan auctioned a pair of Kylie's knickers today for the Children in Need appeal. Damn, I found out too late! Smilie (Mmmmm Kylie)

posted by Andy Buchanan at 10:44 PM



"Suddenly Everything Sucks". Class piece of XP adbusting in London.
4/12/01 - Link died, new link.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 10:27 PM



The Intel 4004 Microprocessor, the chip that marks the start of the microprocessor revolution is 30 years old Today! And it almost didn't happen, story at Yahoo
In 2000 alone, 385 million microprocessors were shipped and 6.4 billion microcontrollers went out factory doors
Here's Intel's History of Microprocessors. There is more specific 4004 info on sites here and here.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:09 PM



Now you can make your very own freaks of nature with this nifty little flash thingy switcheroozoo

posted by Chris Wood at 12:42 PM



Star wars rap movie - sooooo cool ( oh yeah - looks like I'm a hufflepuff too according to the sorting hat )

posted by Chris Wood at 11:46 AM



I am the fearsome Viking Hundi Madhawk. Find out your Viking name and come join me in a nice pillage.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:11 AM



Wednesday, November 14, 2001


Well you've had your raveness, gothosity, geekolity and punkality analysed by Fuali.com online tests, now it's time to check your Grungeness. How grunge am I? A bit...
I am 48% Grunge.
Sort of Grunge
What's this? The longest I've been without a shower is three days? Not even close, man. I should go sit out in the rain for a week.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 11:07 PM



It seems I'm a HufflePuff too! ( Sorting Hat )

posted by John Dalziel at 10:39 PM



Is it cheese? Is it a log? No, it's Cheeselog. And damn fine it is to. A bit runny though.

posted by John Dalziel at 9:50 PM



"Go back to bed America,
Your Government is in control again,
Go back to bed America,
You are Free to do as we tell you,
You are Free to do as we tell you..."
-- Bill Hicks (1961-1994)
What would the great man have said if he was still with us? I wonder...

posted by Andy Buchanan at 1:40 AM



Tuesday, November 13, 2001


I seem to have bought one of these new Protected CD's. The ones where they stuff up the CDAudio data in an attempt to foil CD Duplicators, but to keep computer users Happy they provide a digital version too. In this case the digital version is encrpyted and encoded at a totally lame 80kbs and 32KHz. And of course it can only be played with the supplied player, which is shit. Considering that I never encode mp3's at any less than 192Kbs and 44.1KHz you might not be shocked to learn that I find the supplied digital version totally unacceptable. To be honest it's barely listenable. I'm sure the CD Audio plays fine, but given that I mostly listen to music at work on my PC or on my portable MP3 player while commuting I feel that my rights to enjoy this music have been severly restricted. I think BMG will be getting my thoughts on the matter - not that it'll do any good. <sigh> Screw it, I think I'll scan the usenet binaries for the mp3's tonight, someone will have them.....

posted by Andy Buchanan at 6:40 PM



Monday, November 12, 2001


Just reported by CNN, a plane has crashed in the New York borough of Queens.
CNN confirmed the plane was American Airlines Flight 587 from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Santo Domingo

A New York police spokesman said the plane crashed in the Rockaways section of Queens. At least four houses were on fire, and a huge plume of smoke could be seen rising from the site

posted by Andy Buchanan at 3:02 PM



Yahoo is saying the UK Government will declare a "state of public emergency" today. Supposedly this is merely a technicality required before the Government can circumvent some articles of the European Convention on Human Rights it finds inconvenient I find this disquieting, what's next?
Blunkett insisted on Sunday that the legislation would not be an abuse of civil liberties, but human rights advocates have decried the moves.

"We can live in a world with airy-fairy civil liberties and believe the best in everybody - and then they destroy us. that's not the world we live in," Blunkett told London Weekend Television on Sunday.
Story also at the BBC.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 7:55 AM



Sunday, November 11, 2001


The Harry Potter map of Britain from the British Tourist Authority, a complete guide to all the locations used in the movie, will be going live on the 19th. But SF Gate has a list you can check out now Smilie.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:40 PM



The US Intelligence agencies are now employing psychics to help track down Bin Laden. The psychics are of the "Remote Viewer" variety.
Prudence Calabrese, whose Transdimensional Systems employs 14 remote viewers, confirmed that the FBI had asked the company to predict likely targets of future terrorist attacks.
Story found at the Sunday Times.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:06 PM



I'm looking forward to seing the movie "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" soon. I still wonder why the American imprints used "Sorcerer's Stone". After all the legend of the Philosopher's Stone is well travelled territory. And you could almost have predicted that the word "Sorcerer" was going to be somewhat provocative to the Christian Right loonies. Anyway, I just came across a web Sorting Hat and I have been Sorted! The Sorting Hat has extensively analysed my character and declared me to be.......
...a Hufflepuff!

posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:36 AM



Speaking of Musicals, here's an altogether more palatable prospect, Buffy: The Musical. The recent episode "Once More, With Feeling" has been getting some pretty [Warning! Spoliers] positive press. Sounds great, I just wish Sky One would hurry up and start season 6 over here - I need my Buffy!

posted by Andy Buchanan at 1:23 AM



Diana: The Musical. According to Yahoo News the Germans have put this together. The report goes on to state the musical is entitled "Lady Diana - A Smile Enchants the World" and is a no-holds-barred telling of her life.
A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said members of the royal family were "highly unlikely" to go and see it.
Is it just me or does this sound pretty crass, like on the scale of "Spingtime for Hitler"? I've never much approved of the whole Cult of Diana thing, and especially not the medias relentless promotion of it. I just hope the shows owners decide to forward some of the proceeds to the charities she supported. Otherwise it just sounds like more cheap explotation.

posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:45 AM