February 2012
14 posts
Klout Partners with Badgerville →
Klout + Badgeville = Badgelot.
When I first started highlighting the idiocy of Klout, I didn’t think that they would partner with a company called Badgeville. I thought Badgeville was a Zynga game where you collected badges, and the sparkly badges cost more money. What i like to call a ‘badgemium’ model.
“But why did Klout, a tool ….need the help of...
2 tags
Neil Young: Cow Palace 1986 (Live) Review
Something intensely STRANGE has happened.
Sugar Mountain is a Neil Young complete live setlist website that is brilliant. Brilliant in the old version of the word meaning “thorough”.
A few years ago, Thom Gibbs managed to find a gig Neil Young played at Cow Palace, Daly City CA on 21 November 1986. The gig appeared to be the greatest gig Neil Young could ever play, mainly for playing an...
In Praise Of Tim Montgomerie
Two relatively exciting things have happened the past week, in relation to Conservative Home and its editor Tim Montgomerie.
POINT 1:
Montgomerie, who is a practising Christian (think “High Church” not BONKERS BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN), wrote in favour of gay marriage which was excellent! And very unexpected. He’s been bashed by his previous chums in a Tory Christian group he set up...
Tumblr Develop A Revenue Stream
“Highlight This Post” option.
This is quite exciting in lots of ways. Have i missed something? Was this announced last week and i’ve missed it? It’s massive!
Social Media Conference Describes Journalism
This article
This article struck me as someone who could be talking about journalism in general, at any point in the last 100 years. I think it’s from a conference on social media, and the article is written by a social media expert. All of the points made can be applied to journalism as opposed to social media concerns.
My general point is: why did this talk happen, and what value does it...
Siamese Dream (Deluxe Edition) →
[All links are Spotify]
The extras are amazing. If you too think Siamese Dream is top 5 albums of all time then you will really enjoy the extras. Special “call outs” to Ache (Silverfuck Rehearsal Demo), Luna (Apartment Demo), well it’s all great.
Don’t be worried: this is not a completist’s wet dream it’s just brilliant. This is not hand on chin, contemplating...
January 2012
17 posts
All The NOW That's What I Call Music Albums As... →
via @hithomgibbs
Dungeon Master II: The Legend Of Skullkeep...
Three faces of feminism: Louise Mensch, Laurie... →
alexmacpherson:
And after that link-dump to my own stuff, here’s something not by me and way more important, via @dipod on Twitter:
The paradox of feminism is that it’s not just about feminists: it’s not about us, it’s about all women. Feminism is useless if it’s only interesting to the women who are on Newsnight, or watching and tweeting about it. It’s useless if it’s only about people who know...
Midnight In Paris Notes
I went to watch Midnight in Paris last night, it was the final screening in the whole of London. It was at the Panton St. Odeon, what a strange cinema! With very noisy a/c, cruddy seats. Midnight In Paris Notes Overall: Woody Allen In Paris Sponsored by France! The first 5 minutes are shots of contemporary Paris, from its green pastures to its bonkers motorway around Place De La Concorde, its...
An American Director In Paris
Off to see Midnight In Paris this evening who knows why.
My favourite line on wikipedia entry! is:
He confides his predicament to Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Luis Buñuel, but being surrealists they see nothing strange about his coming from the future.
Hmmmmmmm…..I really hope this is how it pans out.
INCIDENTALLY BEING A SURREALIST HAD 0 TO DO WITH ACCEPTANCE OF PEOPLE FROM TIMES...
Blue Lines Revisited: It's Not About The B-Bling... →
tomewing:
Also also, I listened to “Price Tag” because some people voted it into the Freaky Trigger songs of the year list, I think what I really detest about it - and there’s a long list - is the bit at the very start where she goes “COCONUT MAAN”, like “Yeah hi, I’m Jessie J and I’m in the studio with my very cool friend COCONUT MAN, we’re kicking back but I’ve got this urge now to ‘lay...
In Defense DEFENSE DEFENSE of LDR
Lana Del Rey - Lyndon Delenor Roosevelt
-Saying she has a binary voice: value of 1 or 0 - 1 being low and 0 being babyish and high - is PLAIN WRONG. She actually has 4 different singing styles: -1. LOW DRAWL: -2.LOW MORE EXCITED: -3. HIGH MUSICAL-STYLE: -4. HIGH BABY-VOICE: She’s at heart an ACTOR less a singer {citation needed}. Which is fine, she’s good at telling stories, and...
A quote from Ricky Gervais Golden Globe's...
“They’re ridiculously gorgeous specimens, they’re extremely talented, and probably very interesting,” Gervais had declared as he introduced presenters Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek late in the show. “I’m not sure…I couldn’t understand a (expletive) word they said.”
“lol they’re spanish lol” FFS that’s awful
I have a new phone
New Google Nexus is great. Some rather interesting user interface notes: Priority Inbox is defacto: it is quite hard to get to normal inbox. It feels like Google are playing Apple: this is the way you will interact with your phone, don’t try and do stuff differently. Which is shiny and pretty but a bit annoying if you don’t trust Priority Inbox.
Smileys have their own button on...
danielbower.com: A Tale from the Recruitment Front... →
danielbower:
Have you ever been lined up to do an interview and have the candidate not show up? It’s a normal occurrence: candidates get cold feet, they renegotiate with an existing employer or take new position elsewhere. While it’s frustrating that all the preparation you’ve done has gone to waste, in the…
An incredible story of intrigue, deception and recruitment consultants....
What is a Chino Wanker?
“Chino Wanker, follow Chino Wanker, lots of your friends do” says twitter. Originally i thought it was the amusing one from One Direction being completely out of the box and changing his twitter handle to Chino Wanker, possibly as a badge of pride after being insulted with it ‘oi you chino wanker fuck off’ ‘@person chino wanker, love it!’ *changes twitter handle...
Dallas teen missing since 2010 was mistakenly... →
…wtftf
RIP Ronald Searle
Headmaster Grimes (BA, Stoke on Trent)
December 2011
7 posts
Kl0ut Perks
Possibly another reason why Klout isn’t a measure of anything. It’s revenue model is daily deals (first come first served) WITH A TWIST (completely useless pieces of tat that’s not aimed at selling you anything; aimed at selling the advertisers 2 seconds of eyeballs).
“Klout Perks are exclusive products or experiences that you earn based on your influence. Influencers...
Yahtz Shot: My year in status: 2011 part one →
thomgibbs:
I change my GChat status whenever I’m going to be online for most of a day.
Having always struggled with longform blogging it’s a neat way to highlight the sort of internet verbal ephemera which tickles me endlessly.
I like that my statuses stand alone, without explanation or context.
“The Miami Heat retired the number 23 jersey on April 11, 2003, even though Jordan had never...
Cash Peters' show is leaving 5Live
The End of Cash Peters’ slot on 5Live is truly a sad moment in the history of radio. I know this sounds OTT but i don’t care. I’ve listened to it on and off since it started. The same year i got my first radio was the year Radio 5 was re-launched as 5Live, i distinctly remember the front of the Telegraph’s TV and Radio, which had all the names of 5Live dressed up as Formula...
The Thommys 2011
Every December, my great friend Thom does The Thommys. It’s been running for 10 years, i joined about 5 years ago. There are now 155 people on the email list. The premise is: Thom asks 40 questions, and everyone replies all with the answers. This year has been a particularly enjoyable year for 4 reasons: -Smartphones: reading them on the commute is complete JOY -Good year of music:...
Jack and Jill thread on reddit
A really interesting thread on reddit about Jack and Jill, the new Adam Sandler vehicle. SOME BACKGROUND J&J has been given 4% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2.8/10 on imdb (7x the score!), generally PANNED by everyone. The thread is “Does Sandler realise that his movies are shit? Does he care?” A very valid point, every film Adam Sandler has made has been terrible. A quick audit shows...
Google and Citizens Advice Bureau Partnership...
The news facebook have been [w]rapped on their boring knuckles for destroying privacy online is very interesting indeed. Especially if you’re interested in UK offline display ads. Building up to yesterday’s announcement, Google have been running a campaign with Citizens Advice Bureau, alerting to Average Joe how e.g. Google know where you are in the world (using your IP address who...
November 2011
17 posts
Some Thoughts About Snowflake by Kate Bush (and 50...
Her son Bertie has the same lisp as Kate! I can’t remember what this lisp is called, it’s r’s into w’s ‘cweepy cwallies’. I thought it was once called a Devon Lisp but can’t find anything (help pls).
Kate Bush previously noted she was not able to hit the same notes as she once could (after the release of Director’s Cut, in rare, wonderful videoed...
tomewing:
“A story about an overworked Oxford student’s suicide currently tops the most shared and most viewed lists on the Independent’s website despite dating from 1997. ‘Sean, 12, is the youngest father’ (January 1998), and ‘Scotland’s ugliest woman honoured’ (May 1999) are another two that highlight the trend. (…) It’s most likely that the old stories were discovered by chance or a Google...
Follow Friday On Tumblr
You should all follow http://ovd.tumblr.com/ it’s a really brilliant photo blog. Makes me chuckle every time a new pic goes up.
http://ovd.tumblr.com/
I work with a majority of people younger than me
This is the first job i’ve worked in, where the majority of ppl are younger than me. Which is incredible for a few reasons: -They are all really nice. -They can drink and not get hangovers. Even the ones who think they have a hangover don’t even know what a hangover is. -They stay out partying till 4 ALL THE TIME. And then come into work feeling fine. -Even the ones i think are older...
Block Jimmy Wales' Face On Wikipedia
Growing frustrated with the tech communities slow reaction to blocking Jimmy Wales’ face on Wikipedia, i decided to try my hand at a bit of code. This plug in will work with Chrome or Firefox, and marks my 2nd foray into building browser plug-ins.
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Notes on possible return of Dizzy →
The happiest time of my life was playing Magicland Dizzy with various siblings on the Spectrum, at the age of ~8. I don’t think we ever completed it, what having 1 tv in the house, and that needing to be turned off when something exciting was on television. The only time open to completion of complex, non-sensical, electrifying games (“use Dozy’s fish-wand to summon the...
Someone has reviewed Kate Bush who doesn't like... →
“Like trudging through drifts, 50 Words can be a frustrating listen, where dour piano motifs have the edge over catharsis.”
Like trudging through a laboured simile based on the album title being about snow, this review is like walking through brown snow, 2 days after it stopped snowing, with all the snow melting and mixing with the brown crap mud. 2 days since it snowed, and...
The Xtra Factor is this year's Christmas Number 1...
Quick comment about this year’s X Factor:
The Sunday night shows aren’t working, possibly because of how rushed they are.
The total, hands-down greatest thing about the whole X Factor this season is The Xtra Factor:
The Xtra Factor
Previous hosts have been Ben Shepard, Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby and Konnie Huq. This year they’ve gone with Olly Murs and Caroline Flack!...
Blue Lines Revisited: A Google+ Mystery →
But more importantly, Google integrates Plus into its web-dominating search engine. With Google+ Direct Connect, searchers can insert a “+” before their query and jump directly to a business’s Google+ page. Type “+YouTube” into a Google search box, for instance, and Google will take you straight…”
“But why would you? The Direct Connect feature would really help if G+ was...
Three Types of People to Fire Immediately →
4. The PAGINATORS