I've added an Atom feed, which is like RSS but has the benefit of being a nice easy Blogger feature that requires almost no work from me. And, since I don't pay myself very well, that's a good thing.
The link is at the bottom of the right-hand side of this page, and here:
The BBC has kindly written some info on how to use an RSS feed, if you need help.
My Atom feed can be read on Windows with the good, free RSSReader. Added bonus of the developer apparently being a cold-fusion conspiracy nut.
If you are on a Mac, I'm sure you are already excited by the news that the next version of the Safari browser will include an RSS reader. Also, that you are cuter and smell better than PC users, even if you can't get any decent freeware.
Sure, you may have the Starck watch, Starck glasses, Starck stool, Starck sheets, Starck cutlery...but do you have the Philip Starck-designed organic food?
If not, you are ugly and poor!
OAO organic liquid sugar by Philippe Starck
So the votes are in.
Good job Canadians for not being completely insane and electing Stephen Harper.
I have a theory that the NDP and the irritating but left-leaning Bloc Quebecois are going to control Canada through a benign puppet-master-like secret minority control. Yeah.
I've had reports that my site images aren't showing up on Macs. If you are using a Mac, and you see a plain gray banner across the top of the page (rather than a pretty white and red image of the space station lounge from "2001") please email me and let me know.
Thanks!
Canadian Elections
Man, I wish there was a Canadian equivalent to Air America. Then I would have found out a little earlier that the elections are coming up muy soon.
What is going on with the Canadian elections? I read the news today and they are saying maybe a minority Conservative government?! I can't believe people are voting for them again. I miss the brief heyday before I left, when they were a little party of old white guys run by Joe Clark mark II, and they almost seemed kind of cute becuase you knew they couldn't hurt anyone anymore. Like Joe was a nice guy with cool glasses and you could kinda hang out with him as long as you didn't talk about politics.
I guess all the religious freaks and hicks are back in the fold after they got rid of the Alliance or Reform or whatever they came up because the Conservatives wouldn't go on TV and say that being gay meant you were going to hell. It's loco. And still with the Bloc Quebecois. Are they not done yet? It's not gonna happen you guys. Move on. Start a party that supports something fun, like being Francophone and cooler that all the Anglos. Think positive!
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Tonight I am going to a really fun night at Trafik in Shoreditch. Yeah so come on down! Last Friday of every month. It's all about people...people who know people....la di da di da.... (not a Streisand theme night, if I am giving that impression).
Firefly was an American TV show (from the guy who made Buffy) that flared and died after 11 episodes last year. I got well hooked by downloading the show online, and so I'm thrilled that they are making a Firefly movie!
Everyone go pay your 8 bucks and fuel my geek interests. :)
I really want to subscribe to Film Movement, which gives you monthly home deliveries of independant films on DVD. But, because of film licensing issues, I can't subscribe outside of the US. :(
Dude, that is so lame. I hate it when stuff isn't allowed to cross borders. What about the infobahn? What about globalization? I want my MTV!
Won't one of my friends who lives in the US start a small pay-per-use mail forwarding cottage industry?
Or at least subscribe yourself and then put the ripped DVDs up on your FTP site. Or give me the used DVDs for Chrismas. :)
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I heard about FM due to my weird obsession with Air America Radio. I listen to it all day at work. It's so funny! But now I know scary amounts about American politics. And I do mean, scary. And I've started reading the Financial Times. I'm not sure what it all means!
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My question for today is: when will I stop having anxiety dreams about missing university final exams? Like in how many years? Grads please write in!
Yes, you are in the right place
I am in geek nirvana right now.
I was quoted on BoingBoing (under SpaceShipOne blog, part 5).
I got a GMail account.
And I have put up a XHTML yada yada fancy blog redesign! (Let me know if you have any trouble with it.)
This redesign is dedicated to everyone who ever bugged me to update my blog. You are my inspiration.
I feel just like Wesley Crusher in the episode where he uses his tractor beam science project to win the battle simulation that time...remember? Remember?
Trying to watch the SpaceShip One launch online
The state of the modern streaming media:
CNN:
Video: People sitting against fence next to empty runway.
Audio: Camera operator doing up her/his zipper. Guy asking if he has time to go to the truck for a Powerbar.
BBC:
Video: Blurry (rubbish?)-filled lot.
Audio: Janet Jackson's "I Miss You Much".
TheSpaceShow free stream:
Video: None.
Audio: Irretrievably amateurish. Not allowed into the media area.
SpaceShip One Launch
Note these are live streams and so they don't work anymore. Live is live!
If you are a space geek like me you may be interested in listening to the live coverage of the first privately-funded manned space launch right now.
You can get the free trial RealOne pass and listen/watch the CNN coverage here.
(For some reason, when they run out of things to say, CNN is playing disco and Western theme tunes over the video stream. It renders the shot of a little white place flying up into the sky even more unreal.)
Or you can hear the somewhat cheesy TheSpaceShow free stream here.
Or (thanks Craig) listen/watch the free BBC stream here.
This project is financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen -- that's what I would do if I were a bajillionaire too.
I'm saving up for my trip.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Weekend feature: American homeland security
A very frightening story by a freelance reporter, working for my favourite UK paper, The Guardian, who was denied entry at LAX for arriving without a journalist visa.
"...in addition to not being a drug smuggler, a Nazi or any other sort of criminal, I had inadvertently declared that I was not entering the US as a representative of foreign media ("You may not accept unauthorised employment or attend school or represent the foreign information media during your visit under this program")."
This reminds me of a hundred crossing-the-US/Candian-border stories, which are about how something scary lurks under something that has become second nature.
"'How dare you treat an American officer with disrespect?' he shouted back, indignantly. 'Believe me, we have treated you with much more respect than other people. You should go to places like Iran, you'd see a big difference.' The irony is that it is only 'countries like Iran' (for example, Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe) that have a visa requirement for journalists. It is unheard of in open societies, and, in spite of now being enforced in the US, is still so obscure that most journalists are not familiar with it. Thirteen foreign journalists were detained and deported from the US last year, 12 of them from LAX."
I have arrived at Heathrow with visa problems before...I would have been scared witless if I had been given the treatment that this reported received.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Weekend feature: American homeland security
