Re the earlier google talk - this is quite an interesting article about the way google run their datacenters. 100,000 is a lot of servers...

Hello chaps,

Claire, Jenny-pops and I are heading north for a week in Scotland. Will attempt to do some photoblogging of our North British sojourn.

toodle pip

US secret agents quiz boy over art. Things still completely FUBAR on the other side of the pond then...

Let's get a rapping Welsh policeman along to our next pub night. His world view would be sure to inspire some heated debate...

As penance for the recent frivolity of my posts, here's an interesting piece by Dick Morris in today's Times about the Bush/Kerry election prospects. More equivocal than his article in the NY Post that I posted the other week, and thus slightly more hopeful for liberals.


Essentially, he says that if terrorism is the main election issue Bush will scrape it, but if the economy or anything else is Kerry should sneak in. The problem is that when something like Faluja is going on, the US electorate get more gung-ho about terrorism, even though Bush actually created the situation in the first place. Thus you get republicans denigrating Kerry because he voted against purchasing the arms which US marines are now using in Iraq -- yet if Bush had never started the bloody war in the first place, they wouldn't need the arms. It's so frustrating how war and jingoism seem to short-circuit people's sense of reason.

Seumas (and Tom and Colin if you're interested) - you up for a Green Lanes pint 4pm tomorrow? Can you mail me at my yahoo address (I've broken my work email).

Ta

As well as the exploits of Dirty Desmond, did you quys catch this in yesterday's Grauniad?

One of the greatest living Englishmen is no longer living..

So gutted that Richard Desmond has elected to support the tories...

You may have seen this before, but if not, Andy Serkis at MTV awards gives the Best. Acceptance speech. Ever. (warning: some swearing).

BTW, when I signed into blogger.com today, I got offered a Gmail account (which I took, out of curiosity). Anyone else get this?

Derelict London.com

Poets 'die younger' than authors

Aaaaaaaaaargh. Britain's brickies build a fortune

Bloody excellent - jet packs reach Stoke Newington

Haven't been any pictures for a while, so thought I'd subject you all to these photos of Maradonna:

    

(Aged 43, 39 and 25.)

Nice one - the dullest blog in the world!

Not like this one, oh no.

Guardian Unlimited | Arts special reports | Blog all about it

Google news rendered in diagramtic form as a 'map' of the biggest stories.

Google Search: miserable failure

The Islamic Onion

Strange spam

I just received a spam email with the following subject line and body copy (plus a hyperlink, which I've removed); it's like trying to read Finnegan's Wake:

Subject: craig ambassador parody bent haddock carburetor epsom jiffy retract abed fullback acadia churchgo criminal

Body:
Out of energy...if so, I think I've found the answer

[link was here]

datum holt areaway carolyn hanover declivity bengal brevet rhine indispensable sealant caribbean

indigo elizabeth penalty adaptation alienate hampshire biggs efficacy aftereffect centrifugate histamine infantrymen proffer away checklist compare alp eclipse ftc audible bloc indoor clark magi homebuilding consignee algal dc orthant guyana homologue equinox bryozoa bullfrog infrequent patrolmen carrion christ

Oh, I forgot. Knoppix is a Linux distribution that runs from CD. No need to install anything to HD, just burn the ISO and boot from the CD.

Stephen Hawkings gets new transport

Oh, the company who've got the wonder tanning drug working...there was something about it in the Sunday Times apparently.

Get a tan, get thin, feel sexy. The Chemical Generation is just getting started...

Meanwhile the MP3 generation is still in full swing. Just get proper software like CDex.

Devon: The villages of Lynton and Lynmouth are connected with a really cool water powered railway. Lots of details at this site. This is a Must See if you are ever passing that way...

Not talked about, but since I didn't sleep again last night (arghh!) I watched early morning cartoons and....Trap Door is back!!! You remember Trap Door surely? Go here and choose it from the side menu. You know you want to.

High tech band have high tech website. Thank you, John, for bring that into my life...

That's all I remember....

Good to see everyone last night

Topics I recall include: tanning/libido/weight-loss drugs; mp3 rippers and alternative audio compression software; Devonian water-powered gravity trains; running linux OS from CD-ROM; Richard Herring's number plate game; Stephen Hawking; investing in the Computing 30; The Fog of War; Kill Bill as computer game; Thalidomide; narcolepsy; oh, and incorrect table numbering.

Anything else?

SaveThe73.com

Incredibly, opinion is gathering that Kerry's going to miss an open goal.

Amazing - somebody's blogging their experiences of using the no. 73 bus route.

History of the International Herald Tribune centerpiece

Sorry to lower the tone, but is it true that Condoleezza Rice is a lesbian?

An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden: By Chevalier James R. Reese, Grand Prior of the United States