May 2004 Archives

Location: Maastricht, Begijnenstraat.
When: Mondaymorning 9 am.
Who: Unidentified woman.
What: Loud, persistant 'O' noises through open window.

Partner seemed very quiet. Perhaps electric.

Location: sportswear shop in Amsterdam-Zuid.
When: Saturday afternoon.
Who: American woman customer to friend/salesperson.
What: "... and this is my lover Melvin."

Do people actually say that?

This coming Monday is Whitmonday, (yet another) public holiday in the Netherlands. The Sunday's called Whitsun and together they form 'Pinksteren' (Whitsuntide, also known as Pentacost) a holiday that I've noticed is not very well known among my English speaking friends. That's OK, because sadly some 50% of Dutch people have no idea what Pinksteren stands for either, other than it being the last public holiday before Christmas. Look it up, people. Disciples, Holy Spirit, fire, speaking in tongues. It's oodles of fun. What were they smoking, eh?

I've been having lots of problems with RSI and need to get away from behind the computer. So I've got it in my head to make use of this break to go to the city of Maastricht in the province of Limburg, two and a half hours south of where I live. It's almost like going abroad for a Hollander like myself. Maybe I'll even stay overnight.

There's no grand plan other than 'rent a bicycle, chill' and hopefully take enough pictures to keep my photolog filled for a while.

A propos of two posts at MeFi (and I swear I've seen the subject discussed there and elsewhere before) and AskMeFi, what is your favourite soft drink?

Though I prefer tea, water and juices, mine's a (Vanilla) Coca Cola with lots of ice. Also like or liked Dr Pepper (Mr Pib when I was little) and Exota red 'gazeuse' (no longer available) which came in Grolsch type bottles. These days that particular branch of hypercolour & carbonated water market's nicely filled by Fernandez.

When I was twelve for the longest time all I wanted was ginger ale.

Update: ha! Vindicated, it WAS discussed before.

For this year's MeFiSwap (the first time I participate while my burner is actually operable) I procrastinated as usual and then quickly threw a compilation together last night. Read on if you want to know the playlist which has no agenda at all. The U2 track is on it for its rarity (an unreleased track), the rest is simply 'tunes I have enjoyed at some point in time'.

If you tried to comment on the quicklinks section and were asked to 'register', apologies. Things should be fixed now. Let me know if they're not.

It's Angel finale night and the end of the Buffyverse on TV. I woke up at 3AM to join our site's chatbox at Flickr.

I am watching people chat as they watch the finale on USA television. I won't be able to see it until later tonight (early Thursday morning) when the download becomes available. They're trying to chat without spoiling the story for me. Which is nice.

Stupid WB.

Post finale coda: There's more and it's got spoilers in it, so lasciate omni speranze voi ch'entrate, and all that jazz:

... when you have to lower your screen resolution from 1280 x 960 to 1152 x 864.

How about you?

I dump whole sets of photos in the /view/ directory of this site most of the time, but it's not pretty. So here, long overdue, is my photolog (note pleasant p-g p-g symmetry). I couldn't think of a cool name for it.

I'm embarrassed with the code which doesn't validate and makes use of tables for positioning. There's no commenting yet and no navigation to other parts of this site. So it's rudimentary. But it's got pictures!

6A's Mena asks: How are you using the tool?

An overview:

On U2log.com we have currently 11 authors, most of which are doubles or dormant. Current active authors: 4. When U2 start touring next year, our team will grow to between 6 and 10 authors.

I was going to pay for the new 3.0 release anyway, but with the recent changes to the license, it works out even better for U2log.com. I'm impatiently waiting for the personal release so we can switch ASAP. TypeKey is a godsend for our site.

But of course I use MT elsewhere too. Here at prolific.org, the free version will cover things nicely.

Then there's gavinfriday.com (1 author, 1 blog, but possibly more in future). All MT does there is run a simple news log. I don't really have to upgrade from 2.6, unless things change drastically with this year's impending rethinking and redesign. Gavinfriday.com is an odd fish, in that it is an 'official' site, but it's not commercial - I do not get paid for the work.

Virginprunes.com (2 authors, one blog) is completely MT driven. Static pages as well as the main news blog are all done with MT templates. No real need to upgrade, although it would be nice to be able to switch comments back on with the upcoming re-release of the band's entire back catalogue.

Then there's a new site I was hoping to start. 1 blog, 3 authors or more. I could use MT, or I could use Pivot. I don't mind using other software for it. It's nice to stick with what you know best. Eventually, I would be ok with paying for a second license for this one - it would be great if there was some sort of discount for that.

My main concern is with these multiple installations of the free version. I'm not sure I am allowed to do that - I bet I'm not.

(... and by the way, I've just noticed that control-shift-a (to link text in the editor) doesn't work anymore in MT3.0)

Prolific.org (a one author, one blog site) is now running MT 3.0 (free version). Upgrading went smoothly. Some tips:

On my way to the theatre on Friday, I saw an old friend on the street. She looked the same as ever. Same hair, same clothes, same walk.

We used to move as one, talk as one. An inseparable, pre-sexual partnership. Built to last forever. But it broke.

I turned in my step and waltzed right out of her way, pretending not to see her. She did the same, I'm sure.

{ Seen 14/5: 'Unzip', 'Nocturne' (see photo) and 'Sister Fury' by Scapino Ballet, Rotterdam @ Stadsschouwburg, Utrecht
Seen 15/5: 'Dans voor Mei', at de Engelenbak, Amsterdam. Photos off site. }

This combination of articles explains the MT 3.0 release and its perceived problems very well:

Briefly (and roughly, since it's 2.30 am already) then, my take on today's Movable Type 3.0 release and its pricing scheme.

Good software costs money. Well, a lot of the time, anyway. Deal with it. That said...

Do they EVER need a full time PR person! 'Mena's Corner' did very little to improve communication. The announcement was very abrupt and confusing. They could save themselves so much trouble if they got it together in that department.

So, beta testing had ended? How come we didn't know? Hey, I had signed up for beta testing. Never did get in, despite being told everyone would be phased in.

The naming is confusing too. Developer? Huh? It took me a few hours reading comments and threads to find out there will be another version later on for non 'developers'.

Equally, all the talk about 'commitment to developers' and other corporate quack meant zilch to me. Dumb user here, what's in it for meeeeeeee? (What I got from it all was the impression I should be using TypePad, not MT. But I don't wanna!)

How many announcements do you need? A blog entry here, a statement with quotes there. Yet nothing on the Six Apart homepage itself?

I am quite willing to pay. When Six Apart quizzed users on this, I said I'd pay $100 dollars for a version that had comment registration.

The site I 'needed' MT 3.0 for (and put on design hold for many months to wait for this release) can just about fit into the 6-author license. Just about. There's not much leeway. Still, we could ask users to donate to get the next license up. or I could kick some editors out. Heh.

Since you can only install the free version on one computer, all the other sites I use MT on will have to stick with the 2.6xx version as I simply cannot afford paying for multiple installs. And that's ok. (God knows, I can live without comments.) But I do think the schemes for personal usage at least need to be re-evaluated.

By the way... Blogger? That redesign/launch was some impressive timing.

Update: Here's some other people who say a lot of sensible stuff about MT 3.0 'developer''s pricing scheme.

Yesterday I said to myself: "I want Google mailing lists, and I want them now."

I think I should ask for world peace next.

Google Groups. Beta.

It's very beta, not a lot seems to be working yet, or working slowly. But what a relief to be able to get away from Yahoo for this sort of thing. Cool: every group gets its own xml feed.

Now playing: The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free.

Three songs in it strikes me: The Streets' Mike Skinner is this century's Ian Dury (Bless 'im). Punk music hall.

Time to dig out the aul' vinyl.

{ GOTR, Melkweg, Amsterdam. May 11, 2004. Click to enlarge.}

Yes, it's 'Spike'. I went to see actor James Marsters' band Ghost of the Robot. I was the only person my age there who did not bring their children. Average age of audience: 16. (There were 20-year-olds there complaining about 'the kids'.) Keep that in mind. Longer write up to follow.

More photos (off site, preserving bandwidth here)

Fun game:

1. locate discussions of Blogger redesign.
2. Find those people who say the design is crap and the designers are worthless.
3. Then follow the links to their own weblogs.
4. Laugh heartily.

Sunday afternoon, stuck three cameras (EOS, OM10 (wide angle lens) and Ixus) in a bag and cycled around Amsterdam-Zuid. Here are the digital shots. Very little canal, lots of green.

Rufus Wainwright starts his set with Agnus Dei, finishes with Hallelujah and tosses in a Gay Messiah ('baptised in come') in the middle. Suits the venue, a former church, just fine.

More about this later.

One visitor to prolific.org says his Norton firewall gives a 'Hi Risk' warning every time he goes to this site.

Anyone else got the same problem, or can anyone tell me what that's about? Could it be the .shtml pages?

".... and meanwhile, The Immortal is eating COOKIE DOUGH."
Bwah!

We're deep into 'holiday snaps' territory with this series of shots taken in Rye, a very pretty village in Kent which Mr Hg and I visited after our morning in Dungeness.

I hadn't even noticed until now, but existing Gmail beta testers can now give away two gmail accounts to friends. If you weren't aware, log in and look at the bottom of the left hand column (underneath 'labels'), there should be a dark red link 'Invite a friend!'.

(All my invites given out.)

Available from Time & Space toys.

I had been wondering why some people who hadn't responded to my original Orkut invite suddenly accepted after a few months. Here's the answer:

Many-to-Many: Orkut spams in your name.

(update: it appears to have been a server glitch)

Recipe for a succesful (and gezellig) birthday celebration:

• One scoop of friends
  
• A sprinkling of parents
  
• An outlet of Chinese delicacies
  
• 6 seats in a quaint watering hole
  

Toast vigorously.

In 1986, Derek Jarman took his partner Keith Collins on a trip to Dungeness. "There's a beautiful fisherman's cottage here, and if ever it was for sale, I think I'd buy it," he said and as the two approached the cottage there was a 'For Sale' sign in the window. Jarman bought it and spent much of his time there, creating and enjoying his 'nuclear garden' up to and until his death in February 1994.

'Prospect Cottage' still stands, in the shadow and perpetual hum of Dungeness nuclear power station. It is bordered by brilliant golden gorse, surrounded by 3,950 acres of shingle beach. Its front garden's a little less organised than before. We did not venture round the back.

On the side of the black and yellow building are written the words of John Dunne:

As mentioned before, I've wanted to visit Dungeness since I saw Jarman's work at the Barbican retrospective in 1996.

The 'sunne' did shine on us as we combed the beach for photogenic objects. My series overlaps and hopefully complements the one at Hydraganic.com.

{ EOS 300, Kodak Gold 200 }