Microsoft Software Development

I saw this on Slashdot, where in true Linux Nazi tradition it is bound to be savaged and mocked, since it is obviously true that a disorganised bunch of zealots can always produce better software than the biggest software company in the world, and that of a necessity everything that comes out of Redmond is truly hideous and not worth the attention of those with Greater Perception. Nonetheless, this article is pretty interesting.

Suzanne Vega

My girlfriend and I went to see Suzanne Vega at the Carling Academy in Glasgow last night - what an excellent show. Her voice on her albums isn't particularly strong (although perfectly suited to the songs she sings), but in real life she has excellent projection. It was a shame that there wasn't more new material - it was mostly her well-known numbers along with a smattering from her newest album: Songs In Red and Gray. She did an excellent cover of Behind Blue Eyes during the main concert, and another cover of The Look of Love during the encore. I was a little disappointed that she didn't say something along the lines of 'And now, we're going to do a song from our upcoming new album', but I guess there's no new album imminent. That's a shame... I think I may be wearing out the ones I have currently. The disappointment was only slight, however - the fact that she sung an entire chorus of 'The Look of Love' while staring directly at me was more than enough to make up for that.

There is however a feature length documentary coming out - I guess that will have to satisfy me for now.

We were front-row, center stage - a mere five feet from Suzanne herself... she doesn't have much in the way of a 'stage act', but her voice is so beautiful and her songs are so powerful that she is thoroughly mesmerising when she sings. She is an immensely talented woman, and if you have a chance to catch her show at any point in the future, I wholeheartedly recommend it. I will certainly be first in line to see her again the next time that she's in Scotland.

Serenity

After its complete shafting at the hands of the Fox management, it's very gratifying to see that the Firefly movie is coming along so nicely. The characters and the stories are so well realised that it would be a crime to let the show fester and die. Kudos to Joss for pushing so hard to have it translated into movie format. Here's hoping it kick-starts a relaunch of the series.

The Americanisation of British News

It's pretty futile to consider Britain as anything more than a satellite state for America these days... even our news is converging towards the orthodoxy regarding certain controversial topics... in particular, the Israel and Palestine conflict. We've known for a long time that mainstream American news is biased and misleading. It is perhaps vanity, or wishful thinking, to assume that the British media is not similarly compromised.

So...

So then, how *is* the War on Terrorism going? Unsurprisingly, it's going in exactly the direction you would expect after the heavy-handed bully-boy tactics of the US in the middle-east.

I don't believe that the original assertions that cases of terrorism were at their lowest since 1969 were intentionally fraudulent... as the saying goes, never ascribe to malice what you can adequately explain with incompetence. The final figures are illuminating, but not even remotely shocking. It was always going to be the case that the war in Iraq would be a breeding ground for terrorism... but then, breeding terrorism is what the USA does best. After all, let's not forget that Osama Bin Laden is a good old CIA boy who received training and equipment from the United States so that he could fight the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

As the report illustrates, we have miles to go before we sleep.

Neat

The internet is a scary place. After all, where else are you likely to stumble upon this during casual browsing?

Civilization 4

A lot of my time in the past few days has been spent playing civilization 3. As a game, it pales in comparison to the much more satisfying Alpha Centauri, but with all the expansion packs installed it's pretty entertaining.

Now I hear that civilization 4 is in development - exciting stuff. Alas, the expounded philosophy of 'simplify, simplify' is concerning, since I don't want Civ to be less complicated - I want it to be more complicated. Specifically, I want a unit workshop. I want social engineering on a grand scale. I want to be able to micromanage my empire's budget. I want a painfully complex diplomacy model. I want a mystifyingly complex espionage system. I want civil wars. I want a vast technology tree. I don't want Civilization to be simpler - it's a complex game, its very charm is in that complexity.

Luckily, it seems like most of the game will be moddable - perhaps I can realise my dream of writing an Alpha Centauri scenario for the new Civ when it is released. I had a go at it a while ago, but Civ 3 is a much more limited game than Alpha Centauri, so I didn't get very far.

Anyway, exciting news!

Futures of Past Shadows

As usual, Robert Fisk provides an immensely though-provoking analysis of the Iraq situation. Those who do not learn from history, etc, etc.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is indivisible - I'm not entirely sure what the EU hopes to achieve with this preposterous notion. The United States have adopted a much more sensible approach to the problem of hate on the Internet: "...the United States believes the best way to reduce hate speech is to confront it, by promoting tolerance, understanding and other ideas that enlighten."

It's especially stupid to think that the Internet is responsible for the rise in racism throughout Europe, when the courts and the Bush/Blair administrations have done their level best to ensure that when people hear 'Muslim' they think 'Terrorist'. Conflating Islam with Fundamentalism has been a useful political myth that has provided an impetus for some brutal restrictions of civil liberties (mainly in America with its ironic PATRIOT act), and a moral high ground for the modern crusades against the middle east.

Of course, it's no surprise that France and Germany can't handle free speech - after all, it is a criminal offence in both countries to claim that the holocaust never happened. Sure, holocaust revisionism is a pretty stupid (and even offensive) argument to make, and the people who support it tend to have less than pristine scholastic records... but a criminal offence? Please. There are a hundred thousand other stupid and offensive arguments that aren't illegal, and yet we just trust in the natural order of things to ensure that they are forgotten, dismissed, and passed from record.

So, what do we get in Britain to promote racial tolerance? We get this. In Europe we get this. Valuable citizens are being denied their religious rights under the flimsiest of excuses ('she might fall and trip'. What the fuck is that?) and the vaguest of pretexts.

Yeah, it really does seem like the big danger to cultural unity in these modern times is that some jackasses post their racist diatribes on some neo-nazi bulletin board frequented only by tattooed fuckwits.

9/11 Panel

After all we've heard of Iraq in the past months, does this really come as a surprise to anyone?

Bob Dylan

I'd be so happy for Bob Dylan and his honourary degree, if it weren't for the fact he so recently sold his soul for some corporate gold. He's playing Glasgow the night before my girlfriend and I go see Suzanne Vega, and I was thinking about going to see him... he's getting on and doesn't sound his best (and his best was never very good, voice wise), but it's Bob Dylan... he's a Living Legend. Alas, in the end I decided not to go... the Bob Dylan I love died along with his artistic integrity.

Thousands of Blogs Fall Silent

I don't have a lot of sympathy for those affected by the recent Blogocide over at Weblogs.com: Thousands of Blogs Fall Silent

As in all cases, you get what you pay for - Weblogs (like Blogger) is a free service... everyone knew this going into it. Sure, it would have been nice if Winer had given some notice and made arrangements for people to have access to their archives - but if he wants to shut the server down, then fair play to him. It's not his fault that you didn't have a backup routine in place. If your blog contents were that precious to you, you had a personal obligation to ensure that you had archives stored in a safe location.

Not that I'm particularly defending Dave Winer, but in this case he had every right to do what he did, regardless of the reasons.

New objections to Fahrenheit 9/11

Heh... for all the conservative claims that Moore is nothing more than a shameless self-promoter, it seems that the right does more for his publicity than he could possibly ever do for himself: New objections to Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11'

Saddam Hussein

Considering how quiet that the US have been about their capture of Hussein, I wonder how they will react to this: Red Cross Challenges U.S. on Detention of Saddam Hussein

Of course, considering how little the current US administration cares for due process, judicial accountability, international law or even basic human decency... I can't see this having the Powers That Be shaking at the knee.

ITunes UK Launch

It's nice to see that the legal downloads industry is starting to gain some profitability, as is evidenced by the UK launch of iTunes, but until the prices come down to something that accurately reflects what you are getting, I can't see there being any major paradigm shift in the music world.

For now, I'll keep with AllofMP3 for all my music needs.

Firefox

Oo... the RC version of FireFox 0.9 is available to download from here. Those of you who haven't moved over to FireFox should most definitely give it a try.

Google's Zeitgeist

Google as usual proves that it's not just a nifty search engine, but also a powerful cultural archivist. Check out their Zeitgeist page for some interesting information... in particular, the web-browser graph is at once interesting and depressing.

Michael Moore

I'm glad to see that Mr. Moore is learning the lesson from his past experiences.

With Stupid White Men, he made the mistake of adopting an informal referencing system... 'I saw this article in the New York Times'. Alas, the slow-witted on the right then used his conversational style against him by taking comments out of the context in which they were provided and saying that he had just made everything up.

So, for 'Dude, where's my country', a formal reference notation is used throughout.

Then with Bowling for Columbine, he waited months and months before responding to his critics .

Now, as you can see from this article, he has decided to face his critics head-on and ensure that his work is not misrepresented when Farenheit 9/11 is criticised (as it will inevitably be).

I'm really looking forward to the UK release - Moore is much more talented as a film-maker than he is as an author, and Bowling for Columbine was an astounding piece of work.

19th Century news

This is pretty cool: 19th Century news going online

It's things like this that make me glad that we have a nationally subsidised broadcasting corporation, especially when you combine it with news like this.

Labour's Electoral Kicking

It seems like Labour's mismanagement of every issue from Iraq to tuition fees is actually starting to stir the electorate into action. Perhaps we'll see the Thatcherite Toyboy we have in Number Ten toppled like a rotted oak in the forest.

Of course, Michael Howard won't be any better - but at least he's evil in a more obvious way.

If there was any justice, the people would see from this that voting Liberal Democrat isn't a wasted vote - that it is purely the media propoganda that has fooled us into believing we have a two party system. Although I don't think they're ready for government, it would be nice to have them as the Official Opposition party.

Anyway, enjoy: Electoral Kicking

The Reagan Legacy

Ah, good on The Nation... as usual they're on the right side of the issue. Check this out: The Reagan Legacy

Blogger

Say what you like about Blogging as an internet phenomenon, it really is pretty neat. The Blogger website (click the little icon on the right hand side of this page) provides a web-link that you can build into your favourites toolbar - click it, and it brings up a handly little window for you to type into. Then you click a little button, and BANG... your blog is updated.

Of course, I get bored really easily. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon.

A Rainy Day In Dundee

Today was quite exciting, weather wise. One minute, all is calm... the next, the skies open up and dump an ocean of rain on the city. I looked out the window and it was like Day After Tomorrow out there!

Anyway, as I'm sure is obvious, I'm still testing out the blogging setup. Expect more inane observations in the days to come.

Turning the Tide: The Reagan Phenomena

Noam Chomsky has this to say about the recent death of the Gipper: Turning the Tide: The Reagan Phenomena

And Greg Palast weighs in also

Personally, I'm glad he's dead. The recent hagiographic revisionism is really disgusting. Just think, it's going to be exactly the same when Maggie Thatcher croaks.

A New Beginning

So, I started keeping a blog a year or so ago. It didn't work out.

However, I'm going to try again. Just because I'm stubborn like that.