Mat Bowles

Philosophical conversation…

Tee hee:

: I love arguing with philosophers, you can’t lose.

: Well, you can lose.

Pause

: You bastard.

: Some of us aren’t playing.

Those confused by this conversation will find a link in my sidebar called “don’t click this”. It’s been there for awhile now. provided the url for me, very useful.

Also, despite being fully networked and connected via Mike’s ADSL line, my dial up box pops up randomly. Especially true when streaming via youtube and similar, very annoying. OTOH, I now understand all the fuss surrounding Olberman and Colbert, very very cool.

Firefox 2.0 RC1 has been DLd, it has some good bits, some bad bits, and it’s disabled all my favourite extensions, which will annoy when I get home, may go back to 1.5 for a bit. Not keen on the close tab red x now being in each tab, that’s four years of mouse habits needing retraining there. Ah well, someone’ll do an extension to change it within a few days of release as always.

September 30th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 9 comments

Clockwork vibrators?

OK, firstly, I am not sober. Not drunk, but not sober. Second, the link in my last post was to here at , I used LJ Hook to insert the link and didn’t check it as I was running out the door.

Fourth, I love LJ. As in, I love the community. Just over a year ago, I went to S-C with . When there, I met two cool people. She who was to become and the lady known as . I’ve obviously got to know the former rather well, but I’ve actually met the latter three times in person total. Today was the third time. Yet we talked, got on, chatted, as if we knew each other and were old friends. Because of LJ. Because we’ve commented, helped each other out, advised, consoled, taken the piss, etc. I think this is a good thing. Tonight, also met , who seems slightly more insane. Not as nuts as some on my f-list, but still.

No matter how much I dislike the management, the ads, etc, I really like the LJ community and the way that 90% of my real life friends are on here. So, until and unless works out, I’ll be here for awhile. And, given I need some of the paid functions and hate the ad layouts with a vengeance, a paid account is sorta needed. And some of the staff below ownership level seem both human and helpful. Anyway, rambling. comment on last post good. Will respond when sober enough to think, in the meantime, I really like being in London.

Oh, the title? It’s a reference to his next book. Which sounded very cool. And involved a joke with a clockwork vibrator. Seriously.

Oh yeah, ? here. Red Dwarf + Buffy. As discussed.

September 29th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 2 comments

Economic illiteracy.

Economics should be taught at a basic level right from age 11. Understanding the ruules of supply, demand, a free market and a free economy are essentials to get on in the modern world. Otherwise?

You get this sort of thing. Still, it killed time while I was eating lunch.

You either believe in a free society with markets, or you want a command/control economy where everything is fair and there’s no dynamism or diversity. This little socialist gets it, why can’t the ‘normals’? Seriously, there are some obtuse people in there. Apparently, touts are killing live music? WTF?

ETA: Link fixed. OK?

September 28th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 15 comments

Touched by his noodliness!

OK, in my bio, the bit that says I don’t need broadband? I stand by it, I don’t. But, well, staying at ’s does have one advantage, we’ve netweorked up and he has a 7.5 Mbs connection. I mean, the exchange in Paignton can only manage 2.5Mbs for our business line, he has 3 times that all to himself.

So, what do you do with sucha fast connection? Porn? Don’t be silly, Mike wouldn’t approve (and there’s only so much I can be bothered to look for anyway). YouTube. I’ve heard so much about the place, now I can see it in all its glory. For example:

Paxman interviews Dawkins about The God Delusion. Dawkins namechecks the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (via)

Now, Dawkins can, at times, be difficult, obnoxious and intemperate. He says he’s an agnostic not an atheist because you can’t disprove God (this is also Scalzi’s position). I say I’m an atheist because I believe there is no god, and assert it’s as valid a belief as any other. The line between our views is semantics. But his point is sound. YouTube rocks.

September 28th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 14 comments

London is cool, I think…

Drove up yesterday, got stuck in traffic (and, let’s face it, I was late leaving anyway), then got lost (really must contact Merton council about how crap their signage is), but eventually got to ’s.

Went out in town last night, to College Arms initially, then wandered down Oxford street to meet and , we, eventually, found a pub that wasn’t shut. In Soho, all the pubs still shut at 11. WTF? There were, of course, other places open, but, well, a bit pricey for entry…

Anyway, up most of the week, only set plan is to be back in the office Monday, and going to Reading tonight to see people, anyone want to suggest something I could do other than maybe go see pTerry on Thursday evening?

September 26th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 11 comments

Even the code is useless

Entry #5003 in the ongoing 6 Apart are useless series to be found on this journal. This time, courtesy of an unusual source:

Apparently comma-separated lists are too complicated now, so we give you checkboxes to ask if you’re interested in emo or snowboarding:

http://www.livejournal.com/manage/profile/

Wow.

Also note the lack of <label> tags.

Typical LJer whinging about how Emo is a popular interest? Well, only if by typical you include the founder of the whole thing . FFS, interest searches worked badly in the first place, then they added in the userpic disply thing making it dial up unfriendly, now they’re actively promoting the most popular interests so that there will be even more users with them. Ye gods, will they never learn?

’s also not happy with the way it’s coded, and is apparently no longer in charge. So, the solution? It appears to be a dynamic list of interests (I mean, who would select emo as a promotional tool for the site?). So, um, join the checkbox tyranny resistance by adding it to your interests? ‘Falsifying statistics’ is another good one as well, that’s been going for ages though.

In fact, tell your friends. Tell all your friends. Meh, things continue going downhill.

Wonder when the venture capital runs out and the company gets split up as the loss making mess it is? Ah, wait, LJ is the only profit arm, ergo LJ’ll be bought by someone like Murduch. We’re screwed. Here’s hoping ’s project works off, so you can have all the utility of LJ but hosted on your own space and not relying on a datacenter built over one of the most famous earthquake zones in the world…

September 24th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 2 comments

Make your choice

Right, comments to my last post reveal that far too many of my friends lists are uncultured barbarians who don’t appreciate good coffee. This is no good at all. Something must be done.

In the meantime, I want to find out what else you’re all making the wrong decision about. So I thought I’d poll it good.

It’s a big bunch of either/ors. Like all good polls, there’s no sitting on the fence, make a choice. I’d have posted more, but apparently 15 is the limit.

Might do some sort of meme quiz thing out of it if I can figure out how to code one, I’ll get there eventually…

September 22nd, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 42 comments

Damn fine coffee

Urbandictionary.com:

Pete Martell: “How do you like your coffee?”
Special Agent Cooper: “Blacker than midnight on a moonless night.”
Pete Martell: “…pretty black.”

Special Agent Cooper: “MMM, that’s damn fine coffee!”

Always did disagree with Coop about how to take coffee. It should first be made as black as midnight, but then? You need to add a little something special.

I mentioned my fridge is broken, right? I can now afford to replace it, but I’ve got used to not having one, and, well, I’m almost certainly moving soon so pointless. Anyway, last night, I made myself a cup of coffee, but the milk was off. Pas de problem, I can do something special. Y’see, Tesco seem to have over ordered Carte d’Or Vanilla this summer. Normally, a little pricey, and not a brand I normally get, nor a flavour (Green and Black’s Orange Chocolate please. Or Ben and Jerry’s). But, if it’s on two-for-one? I’ll buy that for, well, a bit more than a dollar TBH.

Mat, what has ice cream to do with coffee?

Well, y’see, little trick I picked up on from a Slovenian friend (really should have tried to keep in touch with her, ah well). Instead of adding milk, add ice cream to your coffee. She called it ‘iced coffee’, but it’s not Greek Frappé style, it’s real ice cream in real coffee. The more expensive the ice cream, and the better quality the coffee, the better this works.

Put in about two spoonfulls of ice cream into a nearly full mug of coffee, stir gently and allow to melt. Use a spoon to eat the froth off the top, then drink the coffee. The froth? A mixture of cream and coffee taste, much better than from a latte or a cappucino. The coffee itself? Soooo gooooodddd…

I’m about to make my second mug of this evening. Um, this may effect my ability to sleep properly this week. Ah well, off work next week, of to Londres. ? We may need to investigate a cheap way to get you a freezer compartment for some ice cream.

September 21st, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 16 comments

2000AD: Malone’s shocking identity

The only comic I buy regularly these days is 2000ad. It’s British, it’s normally well written, it’s grown up with its reader base (and I do shudder when it’s put in the kids comic section of a newsagent, kids really shouldn’t be reading it), and it’s an anthology.

The advantage of an anthology comic is that there’s always something you like. If it’s a standard comic, it’s one story, one character, one writer. If it sucks, it all sucks, you’ve wasted your money. With 2000ad, there’s always something I like, even if it’s just one little story in an issue full of dross. With the current arcs, I’m a bit meh about the Judge Dredd (just kill him off and give us Rico already), Stone Island is a bit arse, but Nicolai Dante is always good, and Banzai Battalion is just silly. But Malone? Who cares? It’s the denouement today, the final installment, it’s even on the cover. Meh, says I, but buys it anyway.

Y’see, Malone is the story of an amnesiac drifter getting a job in a bar in an obscure colony world and trying to figure out who he is and where he’s going. He’s obviously ‘useful’, and good with a gun, but hasn’t got a clue who he is. Cue the local gang boss trying to recruit him, a relationship of sorts with his cute younger neighbour etc. So far, so dull. Last week, at the end, a character shows up at the door who knows who he really is. The art is pretty poor, but it was a character that looked vaguely familiar. Meh, says I, I still care not, it’s a crap strip, move on.

This week? I read it through, again, as I always do on Wednesday lunchtime. The guy introduces himself as Rocky Rhodes. My memory refuses to tell me who that is. I turn the page, still not caring. I turn the page to the next panel, he’s going to say who Malone is, I’m hoping it might pique my interest. Speech bubble. “Your name is Finnigan Sinister“. Interest piqued. More than piqued.

Oh boy did that get my attention

It’s no longer a Malone story. It’s no longer a story abot an obscure backwater colony world. It’s about Downlode. It’s about Finny. It’s about what happened. It’s cool. Crappy story about a character I didn’t care about? It was until today.

The art’s still crap though.

D’you like how I did the lj-cuts? Do ya, do ya? Meh… Anyway, next post? Damn fine coffee

September 21st, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 4 comments

Ye harr me hearties…

Meh. Um, yeah, pirates. Talk like a seagoing criminal day? historical seagoing criminal day? Spacegoing criminal day? Humourless git day?

I like movie pirates. I like pop culture pirates. I also, (whispers) like ninjas. Like most Lib Dems, I want it both ways and am somewhere in between. Real, modern day, pirates? An old CCG contact is currently serving in the Brazilian navy. Brazil has a navy? Yup, it does a lot of work chasing pirates. They’re real, they’re bastards, and they’re not to be glorified. But Talk like a pirate day? It’s fun. Because, at the end of the day, Johnny Depp is cool, right?

As for software “piracy”? That that terminology has taken root is due to good marketing within the industry, it doesn’t make the descriptor accurate, and it may even have played a roll in making piracy ‘cool’. Anyone who’s had the conversation with me knows my opinion on illegal copying. It’s illegal for a reasong godsdamnit. All the software on this PC is 100% legit, and mostly Open Source. I don’t have any dodgy DVDs and the only copied CD I have was something I couldn’t get hold of (and I managed to break it recently anyway, d’oh!). But it’s not piracy.

It’s the markets method of getting around excessive regulation. As legit sources for downloads came around, illegal downloads reduce. As different formats become available and movie DVDs are released earlier, the desire to buy them early, etc, is reduced. Crappy regulation is not a reason to break the law, it’s a reason to change the regulations, that the industries took ages to adapt and, supposedly, lost billions (they didn’t), is a sign that they’re dinosaurs in a dynamic economy.

So, yeah, talk like a pirate. Use a silly icon. Have a giggle. Only, LJ? Next time you decide to celebrate International Talk like a pirate day? Could you make it so the little tricks you put on the profile and update pages showed up for people using English English as well as US/LJ English? Thx muchly.

notes from the basement

managed to get to 1000 comments. Utter insanity. Cool.

Also? How not to hunt for a place to live in London. Not a good day. More seriously, really could do with a stroke of luck finding a room to rent in London. If anyone reading this knows someone that could help?

September 20th, 2006 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 4 comments