Yearly Archives: 2008

Silence getting old

Posted on June 18, 2008 by acb

I know, I know. I have an infection of the middle ear, which has been on for nearly a fortnight now. The symptoms are tedious, and involve unpredictable and incapacitating giddiness, rising to occasional vomiting, and steady, well-established stupidity even … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Housekeeping | 5 Comments

Nerdly weekend note

Posted on June 15, 2008 by acb

Opera 9.5 is out and I am back too using it instead of Thunderbird/Firefox. This is mostly because it is very much faster, especially at mail. But it comes with most of the essential Firefox add-ins built in—Ad-blocking, Javascript blocking, … Continue reading →

Posted in nördig, Software | Comments Off on Nerdly weekend note

Small grumpy whinge

Posted on June 14, 2008 by acb

I was trying to post a comment on Rupert’s blog but stopped when I was threatened with registration. “Threatened”, you say? HOw else to interpret these “Benefits”: “Your ZDNet membership gives you many more benefits including entry to our community … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Net stories | 2 Comments

Anglican energies

Posted on June 14, 2008 by acb

This post will veer, you’ll notice, between the sublime and the faintly ridiculous. I have often wondered, when dealing with the clergy of the Church of England, how it is that such palpably intelligent and thoughtful people, many of whom … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism | Comments Off on Anglican energies

Market failure

Posted on June 11, 2008 by acb

or possibly Amazon failure. I was putting the world’s smallest and most discreet book-buying link into the sidebar right now (obviously it would be wrong to link to it here) and thought that I might as well point the links … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Literature | 4 Comments

In the long run, even the dead don’t stay grateful

Posted on June 10, 2008 by acb

via John Naughton, I see that Paul Krugman has resuscitated the argument that the Dead were pioneers of the new economy by allowing taping of their concerts and making their money as much from merchandising and touring as from record/CD … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Net stories, nördig | Comments Off on In the long run, even the dead don’t stay grateful

As you value your sanity

Posted on June 8, 2008 by acb

Don’t click here. Really. Don’t. And don’t send me the therapist’s bill if you do. Found via Making Light, which has more, and worse in the same vein.

Posted in Blather, Net stories | Comments Off on As you value your sanity

Also, I may murder my own mother

Posted on June 7, 2008 by acb

I went round to see her this afternoon, because her smoke alarm was cheeping, and tried the change the battery. When I twisted it, as the embossed instructions said to do, I wrenched the whole damn thing off the ceiling. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, God, Journalism | 1 Comment

Incidentally

Posted on June 7, 2008 by acb

The current issue of the New Yorker is a real winner. There are some classic cartoons, an unspeakably grim story by Annie Proulx about lives of two poor soldiers from Wyoming, and a series of small, thoughtful and illuminating stories … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, War | 1 Comment

Widespread revulsion at Andrew Brown

Posted on June 6, 2008 by acb

Various people—well, the religious affairs journalists Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Damian Thompson, and Ruth Gledhill—have complained about my column this week in the Church Times on the grounds that what I wrote about Chris Morgan was “despicable” (Damian), “totally distasteful … incredibly … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism | 37 Comments