Category: Uncategorized

No not the insect I mean the game of Cricket. I present here two cricket related posts that I would have done separately but then I didn’t.

Every few years the rights to screen cricket test matches on television are auctioned off to the highest bidder, which from 2006 will be Sky Sports. This pisses the hell out of me, there’s no way that I’m paying a subscription and make Rupert Murdoch even wealthier to watch cricket. This is going to backfire horribly I feel.

Coincidentally I noticed the following at Coudal Partners today.

How To Explain the Rules of Cricket

You know the big tent at the east end of the county fairgrounds? Next to the show barn? Imagine it’s an oval filled with 90,000 Pakistanis who love to watch pie-eating— who love pie-eating more than soccer —even though it seems to the rest of us that eating pie would be a fairly unpleasant reminder of British Colonialism.

OK. Got it.

The area where the table is, where the pie-eaters sit, is called “the pitch.” At either end of the pitch is a line marking “the crease.” Now, let’s say that inside one of these creases, your pies are cooling on top of three sticks, which are called “stumps.” This contraption is called a “wicket” and there’s a man attempting to knock the wicket over by throwing a ball at it.

Is he the other pie-eater, trying to ruin my pies?

No, the other pie-eater is on your team, and he’s standing in front of his own wicket of pies at the other end of the pitch…

As well as explaining cricket they produce excellent Jewel Boxes for CDs and DVDs, which I have put to good use in my CD-ROM Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes.

Tags: sport

The title of a dumb little movie I made at dfilm.com is Motherfuckin’ Shoes.

Thanks to Spiderlegs for pointing me to the site.

Matt Jones shares more than just a first name with me as we are both fans of fiction about alternate timelines and what-ifs.

It’s thanks to Matt that I learnt that Robert A. Taylor of Today In Alternate History will be serialising some of his timelines.

Beginning today, TIAH will be selling our novels in serial format – 1/3 of a book every month. At the end of the 3rd month, the serialized parts will be replaced with the complete novel for sale, and the next serialization will begin. By responding to our polls, you will determine which timelines produce novels and which remain curiosities only available here on TIAH. The price for the downloads will be very reasonable – each serialized part will be US$1.50, the complete download will be US$5.00, and the trade paperback version will be US$12.00.

At those prices especially given the exchange rate between the Dollar and the Pound I’m sure to be downloading some of these. Best of all the first of his serialisations concerns the enigmatic alien beings the Mlosh in Warp.

In 1720, the alien race known as the Mlosh landed on earth. The warping effect that their presence has had on society leads a band of human racists to drastic measures in this alternate London of 1861.

Tags: alternate history, books

Home Secretary David Blunkett has resigned, and there was rejoicing throughout the kingdom.

Unfortunately I don’t think the National Identity Card Scheme will go the same way.

BBC News link.

David Blunkett has quit as home secretary following a string of newspaper claims that he fast-tracked a visa for his ex-lover’s nanny.

Mr Blunkett denies the claims but has faced increasing pressure in recent days from members of his own party.

Downing Street has stood by Mr Blunkett as an inquiry was launched into the allegations.

But his position became more uncertain after he criticised a string of Cabinet colleagues in a new biography.

Tags: politics, ID cards

Topping the list of The 10 most accurately rated artists in Rock history is…

1. Van Halen: This band should have been the biggest arena act of the early 1980s, and they were. They had the greatest guitar player of the 1980s, and everyone (except possibly Yngwie Malmsteen) seems to agree. They switched singers and became semi-crappy, and nobody aggressively disputes that fact. They also recorded the most average song in rock history: “And the Cradle Will Rock.” What this means is that any song better than “And the Cradle Will Rock” is good, and any song worse than “And the Cradle Will Rock” is bad. If we were to rank every rock song (in sequential order) from best to worst, “And the Cradle Will Rock” would be right in the fucking middle.

I wonder where “Do They Know It’s Christmas” comes, probably well below “And the Cradle Will Rock”.

Tags: music

Security expert Bruce Schneier has published Safe Personal Computing, a guide for the average user to improve their computer security.

I am regularly asked what average Internet users can do to ensure their security. My first answer is usually, “Nothing–you’re screwed.”

But that’s not true, and the reality is more complicated. You’re screwed if you do nothing to protect yourself, but there are many things you can do to increase your security on the Internet.

However not everyone agrees with Schneier’s advice.

Disagreements with Bruce’s Home PC Advice

I think I’m pretty much in Schneier’s camp on this and I have plans to write a book along similar lines in order to help intelligent but not particularly tech savvy people like my mum to be secure online and in general.

Tags: computer security, security

http://michaelpaulus.com/gallery/character-Skeletons

Weird and intriguing.

I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass.

Tags: art

In honour of my dog who’s poorly at the moment, I present here the theme tune to The Littlest Hobo.

There’s a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road is where I’ll always be

Every stop I make, I’ll make a new friend
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Down this road, that never seems to end,
Where new adventure, lies just around the bend.

So if you want to join me for a while
Just grab your hat, come travel light – that’s hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want settle down,
Until tomorrow, the whole world is my home.

So if you want to join me for a while
Just grab your hat, come travel light
That’s hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

There’s a world, that’s waiting to unfold,
A brand new tale, no one has ever told,

We’ve journey’d far but, you know it won’t be long,
We’re almost there and we’ve paid our fare, with the hobo song.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

So if you want to join me for a while
Just grab your hat, come travel light – that’s hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll find what I call home
Until tomorrow, you know I’m free to roam.

Tags: me

Bird flu ‘far deadlier than SARS’

The bird flu virus is far more lethal than the SARS virus that struck Asia last year and might unleash a pandemic that could kill many millions of people, a World Health Organization official says.

You are all going to catch bird flu and die BWA-HA-HAHA said Shigeru Omi, regional director of WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office.

Tags: science

If you are like me you may be facing what the experts are calling the Band Aid Dilemma, the record is dismal but it is for a good cause so what should you do?

There is however a solution on hand.

The Band Aid Dilemma….
You want this record to succeed, because you feel for the plight of the refugees in the Dharfur region of Sudan and this project is funding aid projects on their behalf. However, you hate this recording and feel your musical ego looming and refusing to be bruised.

The answer?

• Buy as many copies of Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid 20 as you can afford.
• Destroy them in amusing ways, on camera.
• Send us the pictures.

Charity. Violence. You know it makes sense.

Tags: music