Blog – Page 35 – Hello Curns

Junk Mail Is Now 70% Of All Mail

Junk mail now accounts for nearly 70% of e-mails worldwide, according to filtering firm MessageLabs.

There are a lot of reports around at the moment about the levels of spam. BBC News is saying that junk mail now accounts for nearly 70% of e-mails worldwide. If this is true then I am doing rather better than most people. You may recall that my ISP is Demon who introduced spam filtering earlier this year. This has had a fantastic impact on the levels of spam I receive. Musak is hosted with DreamHost who use razor spam filtering server-side and then I use Mozilla’s junk mail filter at my end of the chain. If one message a day gets through then I am surprised indeed. I’m so used to this level of filtering that I hardly ever look at the spam folder. I just looked at it and while there are lots of pre-filtered messages there none of them were mails I should have had. All-in-all this is working very well indeed.

Missed Todd’s Coming Out

Sounds like it was a fab night on Coronation Street yesterday.

Reading the Yahoo group, it seems the story line for Coronation Street got all exciting last night and so I now have to remember to catch the ITV2 repeat. It’s funny but I really do only watch it for the gay story line and fast-forward through the rest of the episode.

For the uninitiated, Coronation Street is a classic British soap that has been on screen screen forever (see the faq). Rumour has it that Adam and Eve watched it back at the beginning of time. Anyway, Todd (engaged to be married, father) had a ‘moment’ with his fiancee’s brother (who, to be honest, is hot). It was the first ever openly gay moment on The Street (which is what it’s known as here and has no link whatsoever to stocks and shares and New York City). So, Todd gradually realises his preference is for men and falls for hunky nurse Karl. This week was the big coming out moment. The storyline is helped by the fact that Bruno Langley is also cute as hell too. So, despite the fact I don’t watch the soaps anymore, I keep watching bits of this storyline (and so, apparently, did lots of other people).

And if my friend Steve is reading this I am expecting a nice long comment about Gail Tilsley and what a joy she has been since her arrival on The Street (a hundred years ago – or so).

Palme d’Or

Michael Moore wins an award for a film most people can’t yet see.

Congratulations to Michael Moore for winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Fahrenheit 9/11. Previously I have enjoyed his books and films not just because, personally, I often find myself agreeing with his points but also because I believe it’s important for any democracy to have people who challenge the accepted wisdom. The fact that the film has not been distributed yet suggests says a great deal. I find it amusing/ironic/scary that we will happily criticise countries where government media censorship is quite clear but when censorship happens by the back door we don’t stand up to it. When big business censor media does this really make our democracies any better than when government’s take their scissors?

UPDATE 25 May: Just come across an interesting piece at BBC News today about documentary films: Documentaries turn up cinema heat. I am quite interested in seeing ‘Super Size Me’.

Apparently, there is also a film in the works, Michael Moore Hates America and the makers can’t get an interview with Mr Moore.

They’re Not All Like Her

Not all in Massachusetts are opposed to gay weddings.

Despite what I said about gay marriage earlier in the week, Spiked Online reports that the protests were fewer than expected,

This was not quite the scene that opponents of gay marriage had either anticipated or hoped for. Yes, a few bedraggled protesters held banners outside the City Hall in Boston – but their numbers were few and their message was all but ignored by the gathered national and international press corps [source]

Perhaps my open letter was not really needed.

What’s Happening on Channel Four?

Next Friday night is Channel Four’s big Friday.

In 1992, Kate won Big Brother 3. I started the summer with little interest and then, gradually, watched more and more of it. Last year, I seemed very aware of Big Brother 4 from the beginning. Then I grew to support Fed despite the bad press and gradually you get sucked in.

So, this time next week – in a clever bit of scheduling – we will see the last episode of Friends and then watch as the new contestants enter the new house for Big Brother 5. Perhaps I will try and avoid it again this year. Still, it means interest in Dermot O’Leary will pick up again and that tends to go hand in hand with the beginning of summer. It’s a good time of year!

Channel Four will have a big night next week but C4’s boss Mark Thompson won’t be clebrating with them as he’s just jumped ship back to the BBC.

Thursday In Milan

Flying into Milan yesterday I watched as the plane flew over the channel and across the French borders.

Flying into Milan yesterday I watched as the plane flew over the channel and across the French borders. I have never noticed how beautiful the French countryside is from above, a big patchwork of browns and greens stretching before you. It was a lovely clear sky and thus I could see for miles. It really was a beautiful sight.

Arriving in Milan and a 40 minute train ride into the centre of town I made my way to the Windsor Hotel – which was very nice and, despite its name, not very British. I spent most of the evening in the bar with one of the sales guys from our Italian office. Usually, these trips are pretty lonely as I arrive late and am holed up in a hotel room until it’s time to get up and make a meeting, taxi or office. This was nice but I still managed to get to bed at a decent time last night to make this morning’s meeting.

Open Letter To The Woman in Massachusetts

One of the facets of a cavilled society is that it strives to be better for all its people. At this moment in history Massachusetts seems to be at the forefront of those striving to improve upon what we have.

Yesterday, I was in a my hotel room watching BBC World news. I generally have it on in the background when I am alone in hotels; mainly for the company rather than the fact that I am interested in the repetitive cycles of 24-hour news programming.

I looked up from what I was reading when pictures of the first legal US gay weddings in Massachusetts came on. Obviously, this is a topic that I have a personal interest in. My congratulations go out to all who legally wed over the past few days. While I understand that not every gay couple wants to marry I strongly believe in the equality that this decision represents and the dignity it affords all people in the state.

Of course any balanced media coverage had to include those who objected. There were scenes of people praying and some placards but nothing looked like it had turned into mass rioting and I took that to be an encouraging sign. However, the was one female opponent to the legalisation of gay marriage who did frustrate me – perhaps irrationally – more than the others. Her comments to camera went along the lines of. ‘They want to destroy traditional values’.

Despite the whole ridiculousness and stupidity of that comment and the fact that it doesn’t even make sense it angered me more than anything else I heard.

Dear Madam
I saw your comments last night on the television news and how you feel that, through the legalisation of gay marriage, ‘they’ (who I take you mean to be homosexuals in Massachusetts) are trying to destroy traditional values.
I wanted to ask you about your traditional values but you were a vox pop on the international news and I will never get the chance. So I choose to write my thoughts here. Perhaps one day you will read them and think.
A tradition is usually something that has been around of a long time. It has roots and a history. Culturally, traditions are often important and significant but they have not always existed nor have they always been as they are. Traditions develop with human life on earth. They are of their time. Your implication is that traditions are good and anything that changes (or – in your eyes – erodes them) is bad. But, forgive me for my rudeness, this is pure crap.
For centuries we burned people we considered witches. That tradition is gone. Should be fighting to keep it? There was a tradition of denying women the vote, or perhaps I should say that traditionally men voted while women stayed at home. I don’t hear you shouting for that tradition. Can I say there was a tradition of slavery? Perhaps not, but certainly – at one time – reasonable, decent people of the age thought it was acceptable. Quite rightly we deny that tradition now.
Bur regardless of my flippancy here, your comments angered me for they tried to dress your bigotry up. Your tried to hide it by using an argument that says because it has always been one way that is the way it should stay. If I was from your country I may attempt to rationalise this for you by saying you were outside your ‘comfort zone’ and that’s why you react as you do. Fortunately I am not and thus, from a distance of an ocean away, I can see your intolerance for what it is.
So, let me set the record straight. Nobody is trying to destroy tractional values for there really is no such thing. Massachusetts has seen that so-called traditions that uphold prejudice, intolerance and preach inequality must, like witch burning, slavery and dancing around a may-pole, be consigned to a part of human history where peoples of the future can look back and laugh at us.
I wasn’t angered by the prejudice of the religious zealots who were featured in the news. While I believe them to be ill-informed and not speaking for any deity I perceive, I do understand the roots of their opposition. I am angered by your hiding behind reasoning that because something has always been it should always be so. Traditions are often no more than superstition justified by repetition over extended periods of time. So, please, accept the fact that your opposition is rooted in fear (I did want to say prejudice but I hope that your prejudice is caused by fear) and embrace the inclusive new traditions of your state.
One of the facets of a cavilled society is that it strives to be better for all its people. At this moment in history Massachusetts seems to be at the forefront of those striving to improve upon what we have. Perhaps, in the north eastern corner of the US, we are seeing one of the most civilised places on earth emerging. That is a cause for celebration.
You don’t realise how lucky you are to be living in such a place.
Jon

Free Software?

I can’t write code so I can’t contribute in that way so I really ought to pay something for it. I think it’s only right.

I am sat in Madrid thinking a little bit about my last post about Movable Type. Yes, I am on another business trip. This time the hotel is close to the airport and was a quick taxi ride away. I should be asleep in thirty minutes but I have been thinking about software that is, apparently, free.

As I noted earlier, I don’t have much problem with the concept of Movable Type morphing into a proper paid for, licensed, piece of software. They say it will not be crippleware and that trust will very much be part of it. Six Apart allow you to determine how many ‘blogs’ make your site (it’s not a hard-coded limit) and allows you to determine how many users really are active in using the software. There is a great deal of trust there which I am not sure is sustainable. Nonetheless, I think this is a good approach.

When I look around I look at what else I use regularly (and I will stick with personal software rather than work-based software). My version of Windows XP at home was pre-installed a properly licensed. I use HomeSite if I ever need an HTML editor. It’s a fully paid-for. Paint Shop Pro is my image editor. It was a full free version which they chose to give away on some magazine cover or other so it is, therefore, properly licensed despite being unpaid for. I tend to use Windows Media Player (which is free) but I have paid for Real Player Plus to get some of the additional features.

So far so good. I’ve noted before that I have licensed Opera as a browser even though I do not use it a great deal. But the most-used piece of Software on my machine is Mozilla. I use it for web-browsing and for mail. It handles all my mail accounts. I think it’s superb. I have never contributed to it since the very beginning when I acquired a licensed version of Netscape 0.9/1.0 (and even then the company I worked for bought it for me). I can’t write code so I can’t contribute in that way so I really ought to pay something for it. I think it’s only right. As with Movable Type there are people who work for the company that makes it. If I want them to be around I should support them.

And that’s why today I will make a donation to Mozilla.

Sticking With Movable Type

Movable Type must continue to lead and if it is to keep my trust. I will pay for this version and I hope my commitment to the product is rewarded.

So Six Apart have finally announced Movable Type 3. I have to confess that, from what I have read, I will be disappointed. It doesn’t appear to be loaded with a great deal of new features which is sad. I hope this is the foundation for some new development. To be honest, if there was some way of handling photo galleries from within the tool then I think I would be very happy. I will, however, not pass further judgment on it until I have installed it and I am going to wait until it is released properly (rather than the developer’s edition) before I install. In that way I hope some of the plug-ins that I would like to install will have been tested and then I can upgrade and add functionality all at once.

The views of other users also saddens me. There has been a long history of collaboration online. I remember when I first joined the connected world having some basic legal questions answered via Usenet. How great it seemed back then. In the end, of course, nobody was going to dish out free legal advice forever and proper paid-for advice will always have a place. In the end, good things will – in the main – be worth paying for.

I believe the good folks of Six Apart deserve some recognition for the work they have put into building a publishing tool that’s as easy to use as Movable Type. It was never Open Source software. It’s always been the work of Ben and Mena (and now Six Apart). I find it sad that the large number of negative comments does not reflect the fact that continued development of such a fantastic tool requires a full-time commitment from people and, somehow, these people have to be paid for. Even Mozilla has a staff!

I honestly believe that we can be sad at the lack of additional, out-of-the-box functionality but we should not be sad that Six Apart is turning into a business that needs finances to support it. Of course, our expectations as users will now change too. Six Apart are really going to have to show that this is a professional product backed up by proper support. Once, user’s would forgive the lack of customer service (we weren’t paying anything) but no longer. And in my experience it is the mishandling of customer service/support that always lets people down.

Movable Type must continue to lead and if it is to keep my trust. I will pay for this version and I hope my commitment to the product is rewarded. If, in the future, Movable Type does not live up to user’s expectations (brought on by the way it was streets ahead of other systems at first) then the company suffer. Yes, as Jason Kottke notes, the pricing structure is wrong at the moment – but that’s no reason to leave. Yes, there are alternatives which really are free (as Mark Pilgrim notes and goes on to prove by – apparently – switching seamlessly) but for now I am sticking with Movable Type because they haven’t let me down. They’ve shown that they have addressed the need to turn it into a product that needs people to develop and support.

But please, sort out the pricing structure.

Odd Thoughts

The oddest things come into your mind while traveling. While I was sat on the plane earlier in the week I started to think about humour.

The oddest things come into your mind while traveling. While I was sat on the plane earlier in the week I started to think about humour. I have no idea why. But I wondered what the reactions were like to the first joke? What was the first joke?

I can understand how language developed. As we evolved we need to find ways to communicate (where is the food or what dangers are there out there?) But how did the first joke happen (and by that I mean the first gag rather than the first thing somebody did that brought on laughter). How did those who heard that first joke know to laugh? What were the cues?

I’ve no idea why it came to me but now it’s fascinating me.

Euro Winners

A few more words on the Eurovision winners 2004.

So to update. Voting was very political (as always). Terry was funny and James Fox did not disgrace us – although it was not the best song. There was a disproportionate amount of male singers and some, like the French, resorted to gimmicks (stilt woman) to try and draw attention to the song. I like the fact that all countries can now vote (even if they did not make it to the final) despite the fact that the voting process takes longer.

The apparent political dimension to the voting could pose interesting questions on the future for Europe but I think I just choose to find it amusing. Ukraine won (Ruslana was her name) which must have had something to do with the fact that it was visually stunning but I really do think that Sweden deserved to win.

This year we found a whole new dimension to the contest by watching the extra coverage on BBC Three although we did not get to watch the translated lyrics as subtitles – a feature I think just goes to prove that even the BBC don’t take it too seriously.

And what should I say to my Norwegian friends about another ‘nil points’?

Eurovision 2004

James Fox is Britain’s entry to the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.

And so it comes to pass that another year has passed and tonight is the Eurovision Song Contest. James Fox is our entry but I don’t hold much hope based on the fact that voting is so political these days. As I wasn’t aware of him on the television show that brought him to light (I think it was the BBC’s Fame Academy) but I got to hear him last November when he supported Liberty X at a charity concert I went to. He mainly performed cover versions (with a couple of original songs thrown in) which were fine but not fantastic but he had charisma and a small but very vocal fan base (they probably sounded loud because I was stood right next to them).

I haven’t heard his song for this year’s contest so it will be a first for me. As always I look forward to the event for it’s more ridiculous elements. I’m sure Terry Wogan will have plenty to be sarcastic about. I do wonder if I will watch it (if anybody will watch it) when he stops commentating. PY and I are visiting friends to watch it. I think I will end up over-eating and undoing all benefits of the gym.

Traveling from Central London to Heathrow Airport

Off to Rome again.

This is a note to myself. I must remember that for a journey from Central London (in my case Piccadilly Circus) to Heathrow you should allow a good 45 minutes. Heathrow is in Zone 6 which means I need a extension to my travel pass for that (thank goodness for Oyster as the pre-pay option which means you don’t have to think about buying a ticket while you are rushing for a train). The Piccadilly Line was quite a pleasant journey.

Office Alone

I’ve been in the office alone all day today – with Radio Four as my only company,

Today has been a very strange day. I have been alone in the office; all of my colleagues are on the road or on holiday. Despite previous thoughts of working alone and/or from home I can categorically say that I like the stimulation of the office environment and I am pretty certain that I won’t be looking for employment from home in the future. I currently work in a small four-person office space and even that gets very difficult at times. Since early 2002 I have worked with three other people in two different jobs. I think next time I will be looking for something larger. If you work alone or from home, how do you manage it?

While sat alone this afternoon I started listening to Radio Four for a little bit of company and was reminded how good PM was as a news show. I don’t be live there was anything that stood out today – part from the obvious talents of Eddie Mair – but I can recommend it if you’re in need of company! Also, while I was working through my tasks earlier I got a call which means I will be attending a hastily organised meeting in Rome on Friday morning so I will be spending this evening trying to get as many of my belongings into the smallest possible bag that I can. It is at times like this that I wish my employer has purchased a lighter laptop for me.

Tate’s Anniversary

The Tate Modern is celebrating four years this year.

I’ve mentioned before that the South Bank is one of my favourite areas of London. Although I am not a big gallery goer (can I say that?) I do like the Tate Modern – basically because you can wander in and out as you wish and, for the most part, it’s free. I have always been a big fan of the exhibitions/installations in the turbine hall. There’s something about the sheer size of the art that is appealing. The turbine hall allows for some huge installtions or just a lot of space in which to interact (or lie on the floor as we did for the weather project). They are celebrating their fourth anniversary this year and BBC News has some great pictures from some of those bigger exhibitions.