Tales from the BitfaceTales from the Bitface - LiveJournal.comMatter, by Iain M Banks (Books 2008, 1)- February 26, 2008 So, the latest Banksie. Always a treat, of course, and especially so when it&8217;s a novel of The Culture. This one, though, is slightly disappointing. It&8217;s not actually bad&8212;certainly not badly written (though he does overuse the phrases &8220;appeared to be&8221;, and &8220;looked like&8221;, when describing things; I was told off years ago (by Lisa Tuttle, no less) for using &8220;seemed&8221; when describing something: &8220;it either is, or it isn&8217;t.&8221; I&8217;ve...http://devilgate.livejournal.com/56919.html Eee! PC.- February 25, 2008 My new Eee PC relaxes on the bed: A photo of one of my recent technological acquisitions, as taken by the other. It&8217;s hard to take a photo of a new camera, unless you have another. And since this Canon Powershot G9 is the first digital camera I&8217;ve had&8230; Both of them are fabulous. The Eee is finally an almost perfect replacement for the Psion 5 as mobile writing platform (much more powerful, but not as pocketable). And I&8217;m taking the camera everywhere and filling up...http://devilgate.livejournal.com/56762.html Messing around with the blog- February 22, 2008 I&8217;m trying out a different theme on here for a while, along with a Wordpress Plugin called QuickPost . Both the plugin and the theme are supposed to make WordPress be usable a bit like Tumblr. There are a number of flaws, though. The theme (Tumble-Hybrid by Tribe) is perhaps a bit too simple. I&8217;m all for a clean, simple look, but this might have gone too far. And the plugin doesn&8217;t allow for a preview before posting (as well as not working properly with Flickr, though...http://devilgate.livejournal.com/56044.html Human rights and human gains- February 15, 2008 It is a tragedy that a member of the public, when interviewed on the radio, should say, when the phrase &8220;human rights&8221; comes up, &8220;Oh, bloody hell, human rights, suffin fussin wussin mumble grumble,&8221; in a tone of disgust. The subject being discussed was the call to ban this &8220;Mosquito&8221; device, which is intended to stop kids and teenagers from hanging around shops or elsewhere by emitting an annoying noise which is too high for older ears to hear. But it could as...http://devilgate.livejournal.com/55600.html |