The Library of Alexandria or Babel

The Open Library project seeks to build the ultimate catalogue of books broadly using the same principles as Wikipedia. Its goal is to become the authoritative cataogue online so that users can find information quickly (currently only Amazon seems to have this depth).
I wish them well and really hope that they can create the library [...]

Doctorow on DRM in the Guardian

Cory Doctorow has this comment piece in the Guardian about DRM continuing the ongoing fight against ridiculous practices which tend to fail dismally eventually.
No Tags
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yatterings.com%2F2007%2F07%2F31%2Fdoctorow-on-drm-in-the-guardian%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Doctorow+on+DRM+in+the+Guardian’;
addthis_pub = ”;

Famous poems as limericks

I’ve just seen this on BoingBoing, famous poems written as limericks. It includes a really cool precis of the Raven and Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.
No Tags
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yatterings.com%2F2007%2F07%2F23%2Ffamous-poems-as-limericks%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Famous+poems+as+limericks’;
addthis_pub = ”;

Second Life, Metaverse

Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash createdthe Metaverse which was the inspiration for Second Life but would he have dreamed of a conversation like this on the Wonderland blog? I really ought to re-read Snow Crash and see if it stands the test of time.
No Tags
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yatterings.com%2F2007%2F07%2F05%2Fsecond-life-metaverse%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Second+Life%2C+Metaverse’;
[...]

Another part of Cory Doctrow’s world is true?

In Someone Comes to Town, Kurt goes scavenging in bins for bits to build the free network. In the pullout New York Times, there was a brief article about the Freegans. Essentially they do the same and recycle most of the stuff that we throw out.
No Tags
addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yatterings.com%2F2007%2F07%2F01%2Fanother-part-of-cory-doctrows-world-is-true%2F’;
[...]

Dinner with Joss Whedon?

Oh I so wish!
Dark Horse have just sent out a publicity leaflet about an eBay auction for dinner with Joss Whedon. Its not a candle light one, I’m afraid, but a chance to win a seat at his table during ComiCon this year. The auction will run from July 2nd to July 12th and there [...]

The end of the road for the book?

Bill Thompson has an article on the BBC website about the changing nature of the printed medium. As he points out, books will not be replaced by the Internet but they will co-exist in the same way the fountain pens co-exist with screens and biros.
Digital publishing will not replace the printed book because of the [...]

Reviewing

Damn the Australian courts for patronising critics. A judge has just said that a bad review of a restaurant (now deceased) is defamatory. As Liz Hand says on the Inferior 4+1 blog, “time to start that legal defense fund“! This is not the first judgement, I believe, as a (if I recall correctly from yesterday’s [...]

Browsing, disorder and ordered chaos

Cory Doctorow over on BoingBoing has this link to Dave Weinberger’s new book, Everything is Miscellaneous. This book intrigues me in its chaos thesis of the web and how our lives are being re-ordered by the new atoms - bits. It also fits in with my interest in Neal Stephenson and the conversations that Daniel Waterhouse has [...]

Short burst delivered by hod carrier

Warren Ellis has this piece on publishing on the web. Its an intriguing rant delivered by burst and states the bleeding obvious. The fact that it needs to be stated says something about views of the internet as publishing platform. The Net doesn’t really lend itself to long articles which you need to spend ages [...]