Yearly Archives: 2003

who is this man

Posted on March 7, 2003 by acb

and what is he smoking? I only think I know the answer to the second question Continue reading →

Posted in Worms | Comments Off

The oddest gig of my professional life to date: I spent most of the day in the windowless basement of the Hilton Mews hotel in Mayfair helping to choose the books which will be introduced into the National Curriculum at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment

Class warfare

Posted on March 5, 2003 by acb

The Daily Mail leads today with the news that the government has finally declared class warfare on the Middle classes: a delicious, blonde 18-year-old with three A-Level As, whose interests are world peace and nudism (oh all right, I made … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

Improbable wealth

Posted on March 5, 2003 by acb

Three small items of financial news today. Someone made an offer onthe Japanese rights of the Worm Book. I accepted. My friend Damian told me what he he’d got for three hours’ work writing about Rowan Williams for the Daily … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | 3 Comments

90 years of tech support

Posted on March 4, 2003 by acb

Two phone calls this morning: one from the mother of a mediaeval friend, for whom I had bought a laptop last February. I had set it up with Windows 2000 and two accounts, and Administrator one, and a User one … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | Comments Off

about bloody time

Posted on March 3, 2003 by acb

There is a first cut of the book’s web page up here. I await comments with resignation. If you’re still using Netscape 4.7, it will probably look even worse. I suggest you upgrade to something more useful. Continue reading →

Posted in Worms | 8 Comments

Gibbon fix

Posted on March 3, 2003 by acb

Click here for some real writing. Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Comments Off

(under)footnote to history

Posted on March 2, 2003 by acb

I’ve never seen the point of wasting my nice fresh morning mind listening to people tell lies on Radio Four, so I try to keep a worthwhile book for waking up to. At the moment, It’s Natasha’s Dance. From this … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off

getting it right

Posted on March 1, 2003 by acb

God knows I spend enough time whinging about OOo but just because of this I need to say that the beta of version 1.1 is a huge improvement. Everything seems to work about twice as fast as v1.0, especially loading … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | Comments Off

Applying dynamite

Posted on February 27, 2003 by acb

to feet of clay: John Leonard (Andrew’s dad) takes down Norman Mailer in the New York Review of Books: But his footwork is fanciest when he gets to style. Why Are We in Vietnam? does not seem to have been … Continue reading → Continue reading →