Folks, all I can say is this:
My ADSL is now installed. Praise the Lord.
My router has arrived. (I’m now dancing to my work in the mornings).
My PCMCIA network ethernet card for my laptop has arrived.
However, my PC is an outdated box of shit and I seriously need to upgrade it.
In the meantime, check out this amazing confessions weblog, Grouphug.us.
Let it all out.
A rather poor list of conspiracy theories from The Guardian.
Go right to down the last one – what on earth does redacted mean?
Elizabeth McMeekin from Channel Four’s Ideas Factory did a feature interview with me a few weeks ago, it’s available now in the New Media Zone.
I stopped reading this article on why Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill will never be a cult film when Stephen Dowling of the BBC News Online entertainment staff stated that Reservoir Dogs and Pulp fiction were not box office successes.
Reservoir Dogs had a production budget of around $400,000, and earned $2,832,029 worldwide – over seven times the cost to make the movie.
Pulp Fiction had a production budget of $8,000,000 (that’s eight million dollars) and grossed $212,900,000 worldwide (that’s two hundred and twelve million dollars).
Over half of Pulp Fiction’s gross was earned in the US.
Both of these movies have since grossed even more money from sales of video and DVD.
Reservoir Dogs remained on show at the Glasgow Film Theatre for over a year beyond it’s UK release date.
If these two films “did not do so well at the box office”, I’d be interested to read Dowling’s definition of a successful movie.
Updates on The Copydesk continue to remain spurious, mainly due to my connection difficulties at home whilst BT make up their minds over whether I’ll be getting ADSL or not.
As far as I’m aware, they will be visiting my home next Monday (20 October) to re-test my line and provide the service.
However, having received an email confirmation of this date, I have subsequently received a letter informing me that my ‘preferred date’ of activation is Friday 17 October…
Nice of them to inform me, again…
Update: Jersey police claim the whole thing was a hoax.
I watched Derren Brown’s Russian roulette stunt on Channel Four last night, and it was among the best television I’ve seen in years.
It also ranks among the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt in watching a television programme, the first 50 minutes or so aside.
Irrespective of whether the entire affair was a stunt or an illusion, the sight of Brown gambling with his life was utterly spellbinding.
Statisticians, skeptics, cynics and psychologist can explain away the odds all they like – but I seriously doubt if any one of them would let someone put a bullet into a revolver, then point the weapon at their own head and fire repeatedly, before accurately guessing which chamber the bullet was actually in.
Brown’s unique form of psychological trickery makes David Blaine look like Ali Bongo.
According to BBC News, Madonna is being sued for poses in her Hollywood video.
According to Samuel Bourdin, son of the famous French photographer Guy Bourdin, the video infringes copyright on at least 11 of his father’s works.
Like my post from Sunday about stolen ideas, copyright infringment is very difficult to prove.
In most cases, nine distinctive similarities must be found in law.
In Bourdin’s case, he claims the composition, background, wardrobe, lighting, narrative, camera angle, decor and objects in Madonna’s video are all “strikingly similar” to compositions devised by his father.
