Category: Blogosphere

be sorted @ nimbo.net

[Via MissNewOrleans, via Susan.]

New addition to the blogroll: Globalful (a.k.a. Tim Caynes), because… oh, what the hell, I can’t explain it. It’s like one of those songs you wake up with playing in your head, and you can’t get rid of it even by listening to audible emetics like It’s A Small World After All. You have to read it the same way Archangel Michael has to sniff the whiteboard markers in the PSP/PVS/BFF episode of South Park. Sorry.

Following my colleague Pat Patterson, I’ve added a BlogMap to my blog – you can find it at the bottom of the sidebar. Click on the Bloggers nearby: total to see a map of other registered blogs. It feels slightly weird to translate this abstract web-stuff into the physical, but no matter.

Before the web, the best Internet jokes were disseminated via the Usenet group rec.humor.funny, run by Brad Templeton. A discussion on an internal Sun email alias just now reminded me of my one and only r.h.f contribution

Music, maestro
Seen in yesterday’s Parade magazine that probably accompanied a couple of million Sunday papers: an advertisement for a beautiful little scale model violin. According to the ad, it’s a 1/24 scale replica, measuring 8 inches long.

Screw the violin, I want to see the fiddler who can tuck a 16 foot violin under his or her chin….

[This was posted to r.h.f on Sunday April 25, 1993, at 4:30 am EDT, apparently from my Sun workstation called tyger.east.sun.com. I wonder was I was doing at the office that early on a Sunday morning. Or maybe I was travelling, and logged in remotely. On reflection, I suspect that I emailed it to the moderator, Maddi, and she finally posted it to r.h.f. on Sunday. Just think of the mind-boggling level of detail that the web captures for posterity….]

Another web quiz…

Which OS are You?

I just checked out the Activity Log for my blog. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the MT-Blacklist module that I installed back in February has been doing its job. The bad news is that in that time it has detected and blocked 5,109 trackbacks and 854 comments. (In the last 30 days alone, it’s nailed 1,012 and 60 respectively.) Just think about the bandwidth involved, and then remember all of the unprotected blogs out there….

Picked up from soldiergrrrl (via Terry):

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Geoff
2. Geoffrey (only my mother and the tax man)
3. ???
THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. geoff_arnold
2. seat2a
3. off_base
THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My hands
2. My hair
3. My good health (tempting fate, but still)
THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Overweight
2. Collar size (19 - try finding shirts...)
3. Incipient RSI
THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. English
2. American
3. Social democrat
THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Physical violence
2. Blind faith
3. Drunk drivers
THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. My laptop
2. A philosophy book
3. A pleasant surprise
THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Glasses
2. CEC2005 T-shirt
3. My Treo 650
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Porcupine Tree
2. Al Stewart
3. October Project
THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Shared curiosity
2. Finding the same things funny
3. Trust
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
1. At 54, it's time to plan the next 25 years
2. The most exciting thing is learning how little you know
3. I finally understand
THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX(es) THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Brain
2. Eyes
3. Smile
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Reading
2. Travelling
3. Listening to music
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Get over to England for a few days
2. Get my FY06 budget and goals sorted out so I can plan the rest of things
3. Simplify!
THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING/YOU'VE CONSIDERED:
1. Astronomer (as a kid)
2. Philosopher (as a teenager)
3. Historian (maybe)
THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Painted Desert
2. Kyoto
3. St. Petersburg
THREE KID'S NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Kate (& variations)
2. Chris (& variations)
3. Sarah
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Write a book
2. Fly in a glider
3. Surprise everybody
THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GUY:
1. Take things apart and fiddle with the pieces
2. Driving is more than just getting there
3. Won't ask for directions
THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK:
1. Sentimental
2. A good eye for colour and fabric
3. Scent matters
THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
1. ? Don't
2. ? do
3. ? celebs....
THREE PEOPLE THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
chris
kate
stephen


With the publication of IBM’s blogging policies, there’s been a fair amount of discussion on the internal Sun bloggers’ alias about our own policy. Tim Bray has a piece on the subject over at ongoing. I’ve never bothered with a disclaimer on this blog, since (1) it’s not hosted at blogs.sun.com or any other Sun site, and (2) I have always felt that if a lawyer was out to get you, the degree of protection provided by a disclaimer would fall in the category “None at all”.* Nonetheless I have reluctantly decided to follow my colleague, and have shamelessly plagiarised the disclaimer from ongoing. I’ve also taken the opportunity to reorganize the sidebar, eliminate a few placeholders that I never got around to creating content for, and generally do a bit of spring cleaning.

—
* From HHGTTG:
“Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you?”
“How much?” said Arthur.
“None at all,” said Mr Prosser.

Seems a bit over-simplified to me, but never mind….

You scored as Materialist. Materialism stresses the essence of fundamental particles. Everything that exists is purely physical matter and there is no special force that holds life together. You believe that anything can be explained by breaking it up into its pieces. i.e. the big picture can be understood by its smaller elements. Materialist 81% Modernist 75% Existentialist 75% Cultural Creative 50% Idealist 44% Fundamentalist 44% Romanticist 25% Postmodernist 19% What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com

UPDATE: Amusing to see that David Chalmers took the same test, and came out as postmodernist.