Category: Uncategorized

Fascinating post by Joi Ito on village life in Japan, specifically on traditional roles following a death in the village.

Mitch Benn – known to fans of The Now Show and, indeed, people who like people who are just plain funny – has a single out: “Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now.”

[update 7pm: Richard tells me they’ve topped off their bandwidth. I wish I could claim a ‘Daily Grind Effect’ akin to Slashdotting, but the link was also on Metafilter today. I suspect that may have had a more substantial impact.

In unrelated news, Slashdot managed to slashdot their own site today, with this article. Which is gloriously self-referential an’ meta an’ stuff.]

Google is doing some weird things of late, and I’m not referring to their whacko stripped-down-Windows-only-and-why-would-we-want-another-one-anyway IM client. I’m talking results. For example, pages at The Daily Grind are the second hit for ‘ugly wedding dress,’ and the first for ‘Ridgeback Genesis,’ a type of bicycle.

A search for ‘CITV,’ the children’s bit of national broadcaster ITV in the UK, quite reasonably produces the CITV homepage (warning: noisy embedded Flash) as the first link – but the next result that refers to this particular CITV, 14th in order (update: up to 11th while I type this entry?!), is this story I wrote about the new CITV channel. Indeed, I’m the top Google hit for ‘CITV channel,’ which is ludicrous.

The lessons? There are three. Firstly: comments like the weird ALL CAPS one from ‘hammad’ can be useful in alerting one to oddities. Secondly: hiding web content behind Flash sites or login systems is self-defeating. Let me repeat that, since it’s something I thought website engineers had learned years ago: hiding your content means that Google can’t find it, and hence nobody else can either.

See, Ridgeback’s site, while functional, is impossible to link to (frames? What is this, 1998?). If I wanted to point you to my bike – and I do, I think it’s terrific – I couldn’t. Bad bad bad. The story I wrote on it is rambling and mostly not about bicycles at all, but what I do say about the Genesis is positive – so, happily, anybody doing their research will walk away with at least vaguely reasonable impressions. But really, they should walk away with a link to Ridgeback’s site, not mine.

The CITV Channel thing is even more stark. There’s a decent story at The Guardian Online, which is where I learned the news. But it’s part of the Media Guardian area of the site, which is freely accessible once you’ve signed up. Result: no Google hits, and anybody looking for more information on the channel ends up at my site.

Folks, get a clue. Hire Hugh, or something.

The third lesson? There’s something odd about Google’s results, I just can’t put my finger on it. But I’ve a feeling that if anyone does, they’d be able to take a big chunk of Google’s market share. Lots of people were top dog in search before Google, and it’s not obvious to me that Google will have the last word on the subject.

I have something of a love/hate relationship with my current car, a Smart Roadster Coupé. On balance I think it’s fantastic, but at times it’s borderline rubbish. Mostly, the quirks keep it interesting, and it screws the environment somewhat less than most other cars out there (not exactly grounds for feeling virtuous, but there’s a relative aspect to such things). Whoever designed the gearbox must have really, really hated their employer, but the car’s still a hoot to drive. Mostly as a result of the engine, which was clearly fettled by people with an altogether different sense of engineering aesthetics. It’s a tiny, highly-strung, three-cylinder, turbocharged, wailing lunacy of a motor, stashed right behind the driver’s bum, barely bigger than a bundled-up sleeping bag but with a somewhat different character. 80bhp from 700cc is quite impressive, and they’re good for at least 105 with various insano-tune options, including a factory-fit version.

It has character, and even if that character is a bit moody it’s still fun enough for me to enjoy the thing. Overall, however, I have to admit that my previous Mini Cooper was as much of a blast to drive, considerably better bolted together, and somewhat more practical. The Roadster isn’t as impractical as you’d think, but I can’t get my bicycle in it let alone three or four people. In short, the Mini was the better car, though there’s a good argument that if the Roadster sported a ‘Lotus’ badge it’d be a modern-day classic with genuinely amazing residuals: it’s not as a easy a win for the Mini as one might expected.

Here’s the dilemma: I’m still rather attached to the whole concept. A car with relatively good fuel efficiency and low carbon emissions, that’s neither rubbish on motorways nor, crucially, as dull to drive as watching cabbages grow? Well, pinch me, but I have sampled the future and it isn’t entirely sterile. So… being a good little consumer, to what car do I aspire in oooooh… say eighteen months’ time? Ignoring the most likely occurrence that I just keep the thing and run it into the ground, that is.

Another Roadster isn’t an option – production stops at the end of the year, and they’ve not sold well enough to expect a replacement based on the new Smart due whenever it’s due, should they still go ahead with the whole US rollout thing. Going back to the 2006/7 Mini could work, but unless BMW pull some rabbit out of a hat with the new engine I can’t see it going much above 40mpg except in the diesel version. It’s heavy, see, and that’s a Bad Thing with cars. At least until an SUV hits you, but at that point frankly all bets are off anyway.

But there’s really nothing else like the Smart. Things like the Daihatsu Copen and whatever the open-top Ka is called just aren’t in the same league, and certainly aren’t equivalently practical. And I’ve seen nothing on the horizon that was an even vaguely similar idea – surprising, given the whole ‘trying not to mess up the planet as much as we used to’ vibe towards which many of us stumble.

And then Mazda go and do this, the Sassou. A concept car that looks suspiciously like the sort of thing they might actually build. Small, sporty, hatchback… and clattering along on a one-litre three-cylinder turbo. OK, so the interior is the usual concept-car spaceship nonsense, but apparently the (USB!) key allows you to uplink flight plans and playlists, which is cool as heck and hence almost certainly wouldn’t make the cut if the car headed into production.

Lots of other articles out there. At least one of which mentions a ‘y-type twin-clutch 6-speed powershift transmission that is shifted using paddles on the steering wheel.’ Which is – the same sort of gearbox that serves as the Smart’s achilles heel. Arrrghhhh!

Why – why oh why – did I not own any Rolling Stones until last week? I’m sitting in the office scripting furiously, writing ridiculous visual gags and set-ups, rocking away on my iPod to All Over Now and… actually, all of it.

Damn. Over the weekend I asked Mark to knock me up a stylish badge reading ‘(just outside the) TOP 100 (thousand) BLOGS’. But this morning I’ve picked up another link from somewhere, and Technorati now lists me as rank 98,443.

Merde.

Zombiemobs: the second in a series of posts intended mostly to allow Mac users to marvel at the swashy italic Baskerville dropcap ‘Z’. But wait! There’s also a link, to this hilarious Daily Texan article about a zombiemob hijacking an American Idol audition, then getting hijacked themselves and ending up being filmed for the show. No-one was hurt. According to a spokeswoman for the Austin Police Department, the city has no history of zombie-related crimes.

That’s odd. I was under the impression that Mechannibals was due on BBC2 at 8pm next Monday, but it looks like Map Man is starting instead. Do still watch it – my chum Richard was one of the directors – but… darn! My parents happen to be in Glasgow and everything; I was going to have a little TX party.

Harrumph.

“One of the more tense moments of the series.” No shit, Richie.

Phew! Damn. Now I’d better do some work.

In my previous post, I mention a discussion in which it took me a few seconds longer than normal to understand what was being said to me. That is, the message started to arrive considerably earlier than its content.

Somewhere in there is a lovely metaphor for the concepts of phase and group velocity, and hence why we keep seeing stories along the lines of ‘light exceeds the speed of light’. Unfortunately, I fear it’s in that subclass of neat metaphors which make sense only if one already understands the subject of the attempted explanation.

Which is in itself an interesting concept, deserving of a adjective. Or perhaps an explanatory metaphor.