23 June 2006
[google] The Devil’s Guide to Google — a dummies guide to fucking with Google … ‘Buy 2 million cheap domains, heavily interlink them, and wait until they go up in Google’s ranking. Start using them to sell Viagra.’
22 June 2006
[comics] The Myth of Superman — Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers on Superman … ‘Other heroes are really only pretending: Peter Parker plays Spider-Man; Bruce Wayne plays Batman. For Superman, it’s mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent that’s the disguise — the thing he aspires to, the thing he can never be. He really is that hero, and he’ll never be one of us. But we love him for trying. We love him for wanting to protect us from everything, including his own transcendence…’
21 June 2006
[tv] Scaryduck on Ben Elton: ‘I’m a pretty confident chap. So confident, in fact, that I am willing to lay a wager. And it is this: “I bet you ANY MONEY that at some stage before the next UK General Election, Ben Elton will stand up and declare his allegiance to David Cameron and the Conservative party.” I tell you, it’s going to happen…’
20 June 2006
[bb7] Grace Dent’s Big Brother Blog 
— well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’
— well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’ 19 June 2006
[wikipedia] Un_Wiki — watch crap get deleted from Wikipedia in real time … ‘So I’m told that Scotty doesn’t know? Matt Damon sings this song? Octavio has a really hot girlfriend and gets none?’ [via Haddock]
17 June 2006
[gtd] 43 Folders Podcasts — an archive of Merlin Mann’s audio accompaniments to the the 43 Folders website.
16 June 2006
[comics] D’Blog of ‘Israeli — the blog of comic artist D’Israeli … ‘Want to know what being a comic artist is about? Packing, that’s what. I always start out with the intention of making some great new thing that’ll redefine the medium, but in the end, it’s always comes down to packing, cramming it all in.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
15 June 2006
[gtd] The Perfect Apostrophe — amusing podcast where Merlin Mann discusses his procrastination whilst abortively attempting to write an O’Reilly Life Hacks book.
14 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#1 – #25) …
- Alan Moore.
- Grant Morrison.
- From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
- Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
- Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli.
- Cerebus by Dave Sim and Gerhard.
- St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist.
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
- 2000AD (between 1977 and 1989).
- The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé.
- Steve Bell.
- The Playboy / I Never Lived You by Chester Brown.
- Dan Clowes.
- Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Various Artists.
- Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- Hate by Peter Bagge.
- It’s A Good Life if you Don’t Weaken by Seth.
- “Gaze into the Fist of Dredd!”
- Peep Show by Joe Matt.
- Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau.
- The Alec McGarry Stories by Eddie Campbell.
- Daredevil.
- Rupert the Bear Annuals (Probably the first comics I ever read).
- Brendan McCarthy.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.
13 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#26 – #50) …
- Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III and Jay Geldhof.
- Charley’s War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.
- Hellblazer #27 – Hold Me by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
- The Batman TV Series.
- Shadowplay: The Secret Team by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
- Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
- Judge Dredd.
- Stray Bullets by David Laptham.
- Alan Moore on Swamp Thing with Various Artists.
- Carlos Ezquerra.
- Ghost World by Dan Clowes.
- Evan Dorkin.
- We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
- Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon by Hergé.
- Brian Bolland.
- American Flagg by Howard Chaykin.
- Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (the Manga and the Film).
- Warren Ellis.
- DC comics from the 60s with go-go checks on the cover.
- The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kyle Baker.
- The Incredible Hulk.
- Hellblazer.
- America by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil.
- Lex Luthor.
12 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#51 – #75) …
- Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker.
- Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
- The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
- Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
- John Garrett.
- The Time Machine (from 2000AD #324) by Alan Moore and Jesús Redondo.
- The Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy and Role-Playing Club comics by Evan Dorkin.
- Philip Bond.
- All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
- Neilalien.
- Eightball #22: Ice Haven by Dan Clowes.
- Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
- General Zod as played by Terrance Stamp.
- Comics Letterers — Tom Frame, John Constanza, John Workman and Tom Orzechowski.
- Issue 6 of Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III.
- John Wagner.
- Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.
- The 600 page novelisation I did of the Judge Dredd story Apocalypse War which is now sadly lost to history.
- scans_daily on LiveJournal.
- Barry Allen.
- The smell of old comics.
- Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly.
- Moon Knight by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.
- Walter the Wobot.
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#76 – #100) …
- Rom the Spaceknight.
- Dave’s Long Box.
- The 1989 Batman Movie. directed by Tim Burton.
- Winker Watson from The Dandy.
- Mek-Quake.
- Animal Man #26 by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog.
- Mike McMahon.
- Diesel Sweeties.
- Dave McKean.
- Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks.
- Captain Haddock.
- John Romita Jr.
- The V.C.s
- DR and Quinch by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.
- Green Arrow.
- Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu by Doug Moench and Various Artists.
- Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Micheal Avon Oeming.
- The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
- The Watchmen Smiley Face Badge.
- The Mighty Tharg.
- Jack Chick’s Comics.
- Robert Crumb’s Cross-hatching.
- The Original Superman Movie.
- DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli.
- Chopper (aka Marlon Shakespeare).
10 June 2006
[fruit] Innocent Drinks Blog — a blog from the popular Smoothies Company … ‘We need somewhere to share our thoughts and to give other people a chance to comment on what we’re doing. We need somewhere to post our pictures and tell our stories. We need somewhere to let off steam. We hear that there are these amazing things called blogs that help you do all of this.’
[comics] The Diary Of Ralph Dibny … the weblog of the superhero formerly known as Elongated Man … ‘It’s been a couple of weeks since the unpleasantness with the alternate earths and the killing and the shouting and all and my therapist thinks I should start keeping a journal of my inner thoughts and feelings. Well screw you Dr Willis. If you were any kind of therapist I wouldn’t respond to a serious global emergency by sticking a goddamned gun in my mouth. I blame you for the last three suicide attempts, you quack.’
9 June 2006
[tech] 18 Days of Reckless Computing — How to Kill a Dell Computer in under three weeks … ‘I ask friends and relatives to forward me their nastiest-looking spam. In response, I start getting emails from my mom with discomforting subject lines like “Dating for kinky people!”‘
8 June 2006
[history] Britain celebrates the Queen’s Silver Jubilee — on this day in 1977 … ‘All things considered, it was not a good day for the anti-monarchists. “We were going to have a proper meeting and then march to Buckingham Palace to proclaim the republic,” the organiser of one stuff-the-jubilee rally, Terry Liddle, observed. “But unfortunately it was too cold and only five people turned up.”‘
7 June 2006
[news] Ten things I learned by reading the Daily Express — one man reads the Daily Express so you don’t have to … ‘7: There is insufficient police brutality.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
6 June 2006
[pi] The Mountains of Pi — the 1992 New Yorker article which influenced Darren Aronofsky’s Pi about two mathematicians who build supercomputers in their Brooklyn flat. ‘…the digits of pi may ramble forever in a hideous cacophony, which is a kind of absolute perfection to a mathematician like Gregory Chudnovsky. Pi looks “monstrous?” to him. “We know absolutely nothing about pi,” he declared from his bed. “What the hell does it mean? The definition of pi is really very simple — it’s just the ratio of the circumference to the diameter — but the complexity of the sequence it spits out in digits is really unbelievable. We have a sequence of digits that looks like gibberish.” “Maybe in the eyes of God pi looks perfect,” David said, standing in a corner of the room…’
[comics] New Comics Blog: Blog@Newsarama.
5 June 2006
[comics] All-Suck Batman and Robin — a review of Miller and Lee’s All-Star Batman … ‘The thing is, the book IS immensely enjoyable. It’s like watching a really fascinating train wreck. I simply cannot tear myself away from reading it, and I’ve gotta tell you, I eagerly await the next issue as much as any of my favorite books.’ [via Metafilter]
3 June 2006
[tv] BBGossip.com — one stop shop for Big Brother updates, gossip and chat.
— one stop shop for Big Brother updates, gossip and chat. 2 June 2006
[comics] In praise of … Tintin — from today’s Guardian Leader … ‘Journalists envy Tintin as a reporter who never feels pressure to file a story, but everyone else can just enjoy the plots. The early books are of their period, stereotyping Africa and Africans but, from the Blue Lotus on, Tintin sides with the oppressed, fighting Nazis, communists and capitalists alike.’
[con] The Perfect Mark — the inside story of a Nigerian 419 Con … ‘An enduring trait of Nigerian letter scammers — indeed, of most con artists — is their reluctance to walk away from a mark before his resources are exhausted. On February 5, 2003, several days after the checks were revealed as phony, after Worley was under siege by investigators, after his bank account had been frozen, after he had called his partners “evil bastards,” Worley received one more e-mail from Mercy Nduka. “I am quite sympathetic about all your predicaments,” she wrote, “but the truth is that we are at the final step and I am not willing to let go…”‘
1 June 2006
[telly] Paul Daniels’ eBay Transactions — a blog forensically tracking Paul’s activities on eBay … ‘On April 26th 2006, Paul Daniels purchased a book for only 22p! This has got to be one of Paul’s best ebay experiences ever. So, he paid 88p for postage taking the total to £1.10 and the book looks pretty ropey… it’s a 1964 pot boiler called Jealousy…’ [via Mr Biggs]
31 May 2006
[dvd] How to convert episodes from a TV Series DVD to DivX/XviD with ease using free software — a simple howto using Windows software.
[oil] Rob Newman’s History of Oil — 45 minutes long but well worth it … ‘Rob Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years – but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage.’ (Also mentions Peak Oil and gaylord tennis).
30 May 2006
[film] Blade Runner Final Cut Due … ‘Warner Home Video will issue a new remastered director’s cut of the classic SF movie Blade Runner in September now that it has cleared up rights issues, followed by a theatrical release of a version promised to be truly director Ridley Scott’s final cut, Variety reported.’ [via Feeling Listless]
[film] Predilections — a profile of Errol Morris … ‘I like the idea of making films about ostensibly absolutely nothing,” Morris says. “I like the irrelevant, the tangential, the sidebar excursion to nowhere that suddenly becomes revelatory. That’s what all my movies are about. That and the idea that we’re in possession of certainty, truth, infallible knowledge, when actually we’re just a bunch of apes running around. My films are about people who think they’re connected to something, although they’re really not.’ [via Kottke]
[film] An Inconvenient Truth — movie trailer for Al Gore’s documentary about climate change.
27 May 2006
[bb] Charlie Brooker on Big Brother: ‘Of course, there’s one bit of knowledge Shahbaz can comfort himself with: whatever his faults, at least he isn’t Sezer. Sezer: yuk. Just what we need on our screens: a pint-sized, pixel-eyed, monotone, priapic, hair-gelled rodent, so in love with himself he probably masturbates to videos of himself masturbating. And it’s misplaced adoration…’
26 May 2006
[comics] Warren Ellis on Superman Returns: ‘…[the Superman Returns Trailer] hits the high points of the mythos in a sequence of painterly, carefully composed shots over an altered John Williams score. My appreciation of the Superman movies stops about halfway through the first one, but those high points have over the years accreted the strange magic of Judeo-Christian myth about them, and as a writer I can admire that.’ [from Bad Signal]
[ebay] What doesn’t sell / what to buy on eBay — more tips from an eBay store worker … ‘Here’s a general tip about eBay: brand names are everything. People search for brand names 1000 times more then they search for “home-made”.’
25 May 2006
[internet] Rumors Rife on Internet Mergers … ‘Speculation is rife on Wall Street that a big internet deal or alliance is in the works, with Google, Yahoo, eBay or Microsoft as possible partners — and a Yahoo-eBay partnership seen as most likely…’
[comics] Graphic Novels for People Who Hate Comics — a list of serious comics for serious people … ‘Did you notice how the good graphic novels plumbed teen angst and autobiography for material? Did you further notice how the great graphic novels covered bigger subjects: the Holocaust, the Islamic Revolution, the Trojan War? Coincidence? I don’t think so.’ [via Waxy’s Links]
24 May 2006
[empire] Ben Hammersley: ‘Rome did not create a great Empire by organising committees and holding meetings…’
[spy] Tomlinson v MI6 — the blog of a former MI6 agent who has a long running dispute with the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service. ‘…readership has gone ballistic to the extent that I may run out of bandwidth this month. So suddenly, my long-standing dispute with MI6 is back in the public domain. Well MI6 have only themselves to blame for the creation of this blog…’ [via PeterCooper.co.uk]
23 May 2006
[bb] Diamond Geezer nicely sums up the contestants on Big Brother 7. … On Shahbaz: ‘unemployable flirt. camp tactile nightmare. hysterical egomaniac.’
22 May 2006
[nlp] Don’t worry, get Therapy — Jon Ronson profiles NLP, Paul McKenna and Richard Bandler … ‘Throughout the interview, I’m sitting on a low sofa with Bandler standing above me. Something suddenly dawns on me. “If I was standing and you were sitting,” I ask, “would I be forming different opinions of you?” “Yeah,” he says, “of course.” “So, are you deliberately positioning yourself in my hopes and desires eyeline?” I ask. There’s a silence. Bandler smiles to himself. “No,” he says. “My leg hurts. That’s why I’m standing up.”‘
21 May 2006
[comics] Out-of-Context One Panel Theatre … ‘You’ve got to earn my ring, boy.’ [from scans_daily]
20 May 2006
[comics] Free Scott Pilgrim — Brian Lee O’Malley’s comic for Free Comic Book Day available online. ‘SCOTT PILGRIM. PREPARE TO DIE.’ [via Do You Feel Loved]
19 May 2006
[photos] London Daily Photo … ‘A London photo every day. Some pictures will be there for their own sake, some because they are places you may like to see, all because they are part of what makes London what it is.’ [via Diamond Geezer]
18 May 2006
[id] Q. What could this boarding pass tell an identity fraudster about you? A. Way too much — the Guardian on personal data and identity fraud. ‘…surfing publicly available databases, we were able – within 15 minutes – to find out where Broer lived, who lived there with him, where he worked, which universities he had attended and even how much his house was worth when he bought it two years ago. (This was particularly easy given his unusual name, but it would have been possible even if his name had been John Smith. We now had his date of birth and passport number, so we would have known exactly which John Smith.)’
[radio] BBC Radio Streams … nice, simple lists of the BBC’s Radio output for the last week-or-so.
17 May 2006
[comics] Top 50 Marvel Characters List — if I were to do a list my #1 Marvel character would be the legendary John Garrett (from Elektra: Assassin) … On Iron Man: ‘Tom Selleck in a can! With Bluetooth compatibility!’
[comics] Dave Sim Reads the Bible to Feed the Hungry … ‘No Preaching: Just the Scripture.’
15 May 2006
[comics] 52 Pickup — a blog looking at DC’s new weekly comic series 52 (which is partially written by Grant Morrison). ‘Ralph Dibny believes himself to be hopelessly imperfect; he couldn’t save his wife, he couldn’t do much in the crisis, he’s a relic of the Silver Age, etc. Hence his near-suicide attempt. But he is a detective, after all, like Batman — and, actually, like Montoya. And what detectives thrive on is mysteries…’
12 May 2006
[comics] Evan Dorkin: Did Someone Say “Pirate Monkey”?
11 May 2006
[comics] He say Blade Runner — BeaucoupKevin posts a page from Marvel’s comic adaptation of Blade Runner.
10 May 2006
[business] What does Amstrad actually do? … ‘[Paul Tulip], who said of himself, “I think I’m brilliant”, had not exactly done scrupulous research before going on the show. Quizzed on air about what Amstrad actually does, he replied with his usual stirring confidence. “Computers.” “Amstrad doesn’t actually make computers now,” came the reply. “They distribute them,” Paul tried, gamely. “They don’t.”‘
[belly] Why doesn’t my belly button heal over? — also answers the important medical conundrum: Where does belly button fuzz come from? … ‘Belly button fuzz (or lint) comes from the clothes you wear. Some fabrics shed more than others. Some shapes of belly buttons are better collectors. A hairy belly button will collect fuzz better than a hairless one.’
9 May 2006
[ebay] A beginner’s guide to eBay: Confessions from an eBay store worker — many useful tips (especially if you’ve just starting eBaying). ‘…always remember these key facts: Items closing on Sunday do better, and items closing in the evening do better. Be sure to close your auction at a time when people get home from work, or are done eating dinner.’ [via Lifehacker]
8 May 2006
[film] Top 10 Sci-fi Films — voted by a panel of scientists. Aubrey Manning on 2001: ‘…the brilliance of the simulations – still never done better despite all the modern computer graphics. The brilliance of using Brazilian tapirs as ‘prehistoric animals’. The brilliance of the cut from the stick as club, to the space shuttle. Kubrick declaring that once tool use begins – the rest is inevitable. Hal: the first of the super computers with its honeyed East-Coast-Establishment voice.’
[numbers] Ask Metafilter: How is this lame maths Trick Possible? …
- Grab a calculator
- Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
- Multiply by 80
- Add 1
- Multiply by 250
- Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
- Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again
- Subtract 250
- Divide number by 2
7 May 2006
[comics] Sean Phillips has a Blog … ‘The Hardest Working Man In Comics…or a hack…U decide!’