Category: Random

How come I keep seeing adverts for flats suitable for single women and none that are suitable for single men? And even when they’re not specified as such, how come I keep getting told when I ring up the landlords, “No, sorry, it’s for single women only,” with a tone of voice that suggests that if I ring again, they’ll call the police…?

The lady at the hairdressers yesterday said that the receeding temples look was really hot at the moment and that all the young guys were having their heads shaved in that pattern. But I think she might have been humouring me.

An e-mail I sent to Channel 4:

Dear Channel 4,

I watched “The Truth about Gay Animals” and frankly I was appalled. I’m a gay man in my late twenties and I was actually looking forward to the program, but it turned out to be the worst kind of rubbish I’d ever seen. It completely disgusted me. The fact is that there’s a really important issue there. It’s all to do with whether or not homosexuality is perceived as something that happens in nature or whether it’s a purely human thing – a thing of choice, of ‘morality’ rather than something that happens cross-species.

It may be a facetious thing to have to argue, but a lot of people around the world still believe that homosexuality is an unnatural practice perpetrated by the godless and the evil. Whether or not there is any evidence for different sexualities in other species cuts over issues of sexuality, issues of morality, issues of genetics, issues of society, prejudices of science. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Scott Capuro in my eyes looked all the way through it like he was bored and frustrated out of his mind and spent a good proportion of his time being cruel to people from previous generations who were taught that gay people were disgusting and evil. The people he was being cruel to – although I think personally that they should probably know better – were nonetheless clearly trying to be as nice as they could, even though they clearly felt uncomfortable.

I was actually EXCITED by the prospect of this program, that it was on at all! I thought it would be an interesting insight into scientific prejudice, origins of sexuality and the like AND have a few laughs in it. All in all the best kind of documentary. But in the end, I turned off about 2/3rds of the way through in disgust. There was NOTHING to redeem it in the parts I saw. And I was essentially offended by it. I have even written to Channel 4 to complain! I mean – I love Channel Four!

But this made Channel 5 look enlightened.

The debate continues… Which is the side to be on? Is it Ninja or Pirate?

What happens when the Plastic Bag is finally consigned to history’s landfill. Will the world’s antipathy have been rained down on it so hard that the name itself will live through history in infamy? In which case – excellent – no problems there – I can keep the domain name cheerfully! But what if it becomes a name lost in history? What if in two years time no one has even heard of them. People forget so quickly. I know – after all the barbelith was a perfectly cromulent word for ‘happy fun place’ merely three weeks ago… But today, no one has the slightest idea what it means…

I don’t know what’s more terrifying frankly – that the European Union are considering an eye-bleeding new logo to represent themselves with, or that the logo resembles almost exactly an eye-bleeding site I’ve just built for the BBC‘s intranet… [also BBC News]

So what will be in the next release of OSX? A build-in chat app for one (although I’m not sure that’s strictly useful any more), SMS-messaging via Bluetooth phones, a map interface to Sherlock, AI-based spam filtering in the Mail app, an upgrade to Quartz to speed up rendering times. Plus – spring-loaded folders, graphics-tablet functionality, network software, Quicktime 6…. I’m drooling already…

Bank “Holiday” Weekend:
Saturday: Work in the office (4 hours), Movie (Panic Room), Drink (2 Mojitos), Meal (New World)
Sunday: Work in the office (4 hours), TV (West Wing, Strictly Ballroom, Empire Records), Sleep at 2.45am
Monday: Work in the office (3 hours), Lunch (Dim Sum at New World), Shopping (1 magazine), More Work in the office (4 1/2 hours)

Rolling Stone’s 50 uncoolest records that you should buy immediately: I am deeply ashamed that I don’t own any of them… I used to own Listen without Prejudice, but I gave it away to my best friend’s sister when I was seventeen. I maintain that Pet Shop Boys’ Actually is a really good record, even though my tape copy of it (which I bought cheap as a knock-off in Turkey when I was sixteen) wore out about a thousand years ago. And although I never had the Barenaked Ladies album, I think my friend Glyn did, and I seem to remember it being played when we drove around the south of England when I was nineteen, camping in fields and by the sides of roads. I do quite want the Weezer record though.

So, Mr Webb is off to San Francisco for the Emerging Tech Thing– and I’m putting out an appeal on his behalf – will someone look after him for us? He’s too valuable to the UK New Media elite to be damaged… Plus he knows all there is to know about Googlematic Aimbots…