I hate computers

Posted on January 29, 2003 by acb

For reasons too complicated to mention in public, I got portscanned by a freind of a friend on Sunday night, and he concluded that I had been completely hacked and there was evidence of two trojans running on my machine. I’m beginning to think he was wrong, but only after spending almost an entire day stalling, installing, and reinstalling software.

Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 1 Comment

How long, oh Lord

Posted on January 27, 2003 by acb
When the Earl pulled out his bloody great tool at tea
To do the pageboy wrong,

His chaplain cried in incredulity

“How long, oh lord, how long!”
And so, I suppose, we are meant to cry when we see the length of the President’s willy, stretched out alongside Saddam Hussein’s. But the question ‘How long?’, when applied to this war, has another sense, which is brought out very clearly in Thomas Friedman’s call to arms in the New York Times today. It is as good and clear an argument for the war as you will find. It is pitched at grown-ups, and addresses serious problems. But it really does commit the West to generations of imperialism — and so of wars — all around the Muslim world:

Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off on How long, oh Lord

apologies for total silence

Posted on January 24, 2003 by acb

But I have been ill, and then stupid. Unbelievably stupid. The little project to turn my archives into another MT blog has so far taken two whole days without getting any results except a slew of error messages I defy anyone to believe. I think I will just have to give up entirely. Two thoughts occur: whatever happened to manuals, explaining in English what things do? And why did I ever think fiddding with computers could be fun?

Posted in Blather | 1 Comment

American Rights

Posted on January 22, 2003 by acb

I have just, rather to my delight, agreed a deal with Columbia University Press, who will publish the worm book in the States in the autumn of this year.

Posted in Worms | 3 Comments

so much for the nonsense

Posted on January 19, 2003 by acb
about OOo being mainly a Unix tool, or even, in any important sense, a volunteer effort (in other words, one that is not dependent on Sun spending $5m a year or so on 100 full-time professional developers): one of the more important community figures posted this to the database developers list:
SAPDB is, unfortunately, simply too large for most OOo users. Don’t forget that 80% of our users run on Windows 95/98/ME … platforms that SAPDB doesn’t support.
IN other words, OOo is overwhelmingly used as a tool to extend the life of second-hand PCs. It must be horribly slow there. One would almost rather use it on linux.
Posted in Software | Comments Off on so much for the nonsense

Words to live by

Posted on January 17, 2003 by acb
From an interview with the heroic Aki Kaurismaki in the Guardian:
I am a lousy film-maker, this I admit. But I refuse to make shit. Bad films I can make. Shit, no”.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on Words to live by

too late:

Posted on January 16, 2003 by acb
The others all got here years ago.
I suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and depression and find the net a gold mine of information. It is great to keep in touch with fellow sufferers through Yahoo Groups. I also do my grocery shopping and banking online. I have many friends online in the chatrooms and it is a great way to get things off your chest. If there are any mental health sufferers out there who are thinking or getting the net then I urge them to do so.
From a letter to the Guardian’s Online section.
Posted in Software | Comments Off on too late:

Glamour profession

Posted on January 14, 2003 by acb

(OK, another gratuitous Steely Dan reference); but Gawker says all that basketball stuff is so passé in New York.

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on Glamour profession

fame at last

Posted on January 14, 2003 by acb

Danny O’Brien links to me! perhaps I should start a reward programme.

Posted in Travel notes | Comments Off on fame at last

get there

Posted on January 14, 2003 by acb

William Gibson blogs!

Posted in Literature | Comments Off on get there