plasticbag.org

• You see the thing about Ruby on Rael is that it makes it so much easier to get complicated things done… Like, er… Pick apples from high trees or um… Keep Sam Ruby from getting tired…

• Top 10 dot-com flops “Few of these companies actually made enough money to recoup that cash, and when their investors fled to the hills, these start-ups died dramatic deaths. These are the celebrity victims of the new-economy bust.”
• In which Daring Fireball takes Cory to task for a post on Apple and Trusted Computing Interesting one this – Cory treats any technology in his machines that could potentially be used to limit his freedoms as an invasion and an imminent danger, John points out that it’s not in Apple’s interest to utilise it. My head’s with John, my heart’s with Cory.
• Google Maps EZ Some easy code and a walkthrough for using the Google Maps API on your own sites
• Remote-Controlled Humans – by delivering electric currents behind the ear, you can steer human beings… “A demonstration video shows a young man walking down the street nearly run over by a passing motorcycle, steered to safety at the last minute by a guardian angel wielding a remote control. “
• “American researchers claim to have found convincing evidence that locates the site of the lost kingdom of Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus.” I used to teach myth at University and for the most part the academic approach to this is to say that the myth or idea of Atlantis is way more important than any real place – and to remind people that Plato used a lot of metaphors and fables to illustrate his philosophy.
• Bacteria froze the Earth, researchers say “Humans apparently aren’t the first species to change the climate of the planet. Bacteria living 2.3 billion years ago could have plunged the planet into deep freeze, researchers at the California Institute of Technology claim in a new report.”
• Apparently you can ‘hack’ lifts by pressing ‘door close’ and the floor you want to go to.. I’ve tried this at the BBC several times and the results have been inconclusive. Treat with suspicion!
• Ruby and Python Compared I’m just getting myself started in programming, after years of concentrating on navigation design, client-side design and code – Ruby is looking like it might be the language for me…
• What I’d say to the Martians (being a really funny New Yorker rant) “People of Mars, you say we are brutes and savages. But let me tell you one thing: if I could get loose from this cage you have me in, would tear you guys a new Martian asshole”
• An uncut interview with Joss Whedon from In Focus… “An interview with Joss Whedon, the renowned script doctor and “Toy Story” scribe who created “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” – and makes his feature directorial debut with the sci-fi actioner “Serenity”
• BBC News’ obituary of Robin Cook “Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, 59, has died after collapsing while out hill walking in Scotland.”

Day One was frantic panic and mopping up water and washing saturated clothes and trying to clear everything up. Day Two was all launderettes and friends coming around and newspaper and second order mopping up. Day Three is a day at home half-working and half-dealing with landlords and people coming to see if the carpet’s salvageable. Day Four (and maybe Day Five and Day Six and … ) will be back at work, and dealing with the insurance company and trying to work out how to get all the carpet in all the rooms of the house replaced at the same time while working normal hours and keeping everything I own somewhere inside the flat. It’s just a distraction, but it’s clogging up a lot of my time at the moment.

• After Apple’s Mighty Mouse, comes their new – and funnier – Danger Mouse Probably only funny for British people of a certain age…

Too much work to do, but lots of interesting ideas going on in the background which makes a nice change. I was interviewed briefly on BBC Essex yesterday morning alongside a pretty smart American lady from HitWise. It was a pretty genial affair, even though the guy did ask me whether or not I kept a diary as a child (answer, “No, I don’t really think weblogs have anything to do with diaries”) and whether or not I have a life, to which there really aren’t answers that don’t make you sound like an arse. I’m assuming that no one who reads this thing actually heard the interview in question? I’m also assuming that no one who heard the interview came onto the web to find my site either.

Which reminds me – I got no traffic whatsoever from being mentioned in the Evening Standard. What does this mean – do people who read the Evening Standard not use the internet at all? Are they just completely uninterested in technology? Are people unable to make that context leap from a newspaper to a website without an immediate functioning hyperlink to click on? Was the article just a bit dumb? Seems to me that there’s a remarkable disjunct between lean back media and the internet. People just don’t seem to go to URLs mentioned on air. Makes you wonder a bit about all the URL-based advertising you see on TV, and why so many people seem to think it’s the only way to get traffic to your site.

• Yahoo! Search – Audio Search Now this is very interesting indeed. I’ll be exploring this one a lot more over the coming days…

• It’s kind of been everywhere, but Apple have announced their new ‘Mighty Mouse’ product Interesting design decisions – electronics replacing mechanics, non-obvious physical interfaces – but still kind of compelling…