Monthly Archives: January 2004

What must an elk do to get served?

Posted on January 19, 2004 by acb

Dagens Nyheter reports that an elk has done a runner from a restaurant in the centre Kungsbacka, a small town south of Göteborg. The monarch of the forest had broken in — at lunchtime — thorugh a plate glass window. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Good software is boring

Posted on January 19, 2004 by acb

There are two astonishing statistics in the latest OpenOffice.org newsletter. The first is that nearly 25m downloads of the software have been reported. 24,800,000 — that’s a lot of 60mb downloads, and the rate is climbing steadily. The second is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in OOo | Comments Off on Good software is boring

What kind of a machine is writing this?

Posted on January 18, 2004 by acb

One of the most enjoyable things that ever happened to me in the God business was meeting John Lucas, the philosopher who came up with one of the early arguments against AI. It is much more subtle than it’s usually … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Science without worms | 3 Comments

what kind of a thing might a meme be?

Posted on January 16, 2004 by acb

How does meaning emerge in the world? How can it? How did it? What new forms might arise? Continue reading →

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Interview technique

Posted on January 15, 2004 by acb

Playing the tape of my interview with Dan Dennett, I hear myself, and think ‘what was I thinking’; then I can hear in the following silence the other party thinking the same thing and desperately trying to discover some peg … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

Creepy liars

Posted on January 14, 2004 by acb

I’m not a huge fan of Carl Hiaassen’s, but one of his books has a marvellous PR campaign waged against a crooked theme park. The kind of exuberant lying that both sides indulge in seems like satire, until you read … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Downhill from here

Posted on January 13, 2004 by acb

In everyone’s professional life, there comes a moment that can never be surpassed. Is it happier not to notice? I don’t know. But for Roger Boyes, the Times‘s man in Germany, the choice is past. Nothing can ever live up … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 1 Comment

Hot geek news

Posted on January 13, 2004 by acb

The latest developer build of OOo is slithering out: it has, I hope, integrated python scripting, along with a number of bug fixes that I don’ t understand. I have merely downloaded it, and not played with it at all, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Hot geek news

The ideal birthday present

Posted on January 13, 2004 by acb

For anyone worth knowing must be this. If they don’t get the joke, they are too young to be worth knowing at all. Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

Tragedy

Posted on January 12, 2004 by acb

There is a long interview in Ha’aretz with Benny Morris, an Israeli historian(via ). He has done more than anyone else to expose the extent to which Palestinians were deliberately driven out of Iarael in 1948, and was for many … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment