Since September 2004 he has been blogging and since October 2004 I have been reading.
I never miss a post and get kind of excited when my Google Reader has a number other than (0) next to his feed.
I recommend the site to all of my friends and my habits in restaurants have morphed, undeniably because of him. Now whenever I eat out I tip 20% minimum. Some call me crazy, but after being let into the world of the service industry, it makes a lot of sense to look after your server, especially if you intend to be a repeat customer.
The blogger that I am talking about is of course The Waiter, of Waiter Rant fame.
His style of writing is unlike any other blog that I have ever read. Others have tried to imitate, but none have succeed in winning over the hearts and minds of the dining public quite...
Ers cyrraedd adra ma'na lot o betha wedi dechrau fy ngwylltio gormod. Digon teg gwylltio ond ddim cweit gymaint ag ydwi. Digon teg trafod y gwylltio hyn â phobl erill ond ddim ei drafod eto ac eto ac eto. Felly dyma eu trafod mewn blog a cheisio cael eu gwared o'm mhen: er fy mwyn i a fy nheulu.BysusMae'n ddiogn o boen i orfod dal bys i bobman bethbynnag ond dwin shwr ei fod yn anoddach yng ngharmel. Does dim bysiau ar ddydd Sul nag ar wyliau'r banc fell dim penwythnosau i ffwrdd heb fod yn barod i gerdded 2 filltir adra. Ond dwi i raddau wedi derbyn hyn, jesd abowt.Ond mae'r ffaith fod fy mysiau i gyd yn mynd drw bob man a nunlla yn fy nghorddi i yn llwyr. Dwin gwybod fod rhaid i'r bysiau fynd drwy'r llefydd yma, fel y mae rhaid yddyn nhw fynd trw Carmel, ond tydwi ddim eisiau bod arnyn...
OF Blog of the Fallen: Yet another post on reviewing epistemology
Reviewing a book is an inexact science. In many ways, reviews are idiosyncratic and they reflect the reviewer’s personality and his/her take on reading. While some might argue that reviews are a take ‘em or leave ‘em affair, many have commented on what they call a “bad” review. When I say a “bad” review, I am not talking about whether or not a book was well-written or not, but rather whether or not the work being reviewed ever really was “reviewed.”
This blog post raises a few interesting questions and it addresses things I do and don’t do in my own reviews. My reviews fall into what this post calls the ABCs (”A) Plot Summary, B) Liked it/Disliked it, C)...
In my previous post on ‘ebook displays’ (for won’t of a better term) I forgot to mention the important bit. You buy a real book and you can read it anywhere you like. Not so with an ebook. There is the dreaded DRM (digital rights management) to battle with. I know an ipod has it when you buy music from itunes but I can’t see me changing from itunes at any point soon and I’m more inclined to rip a CD from Tesco’s than download an MP3. Plus my mum was adding music to her Nano the day it arrived even though they only had the computer. That alone makes the ipod/itunes combo a good deal. And they’ve kept the prices low.
The same can’t be said for an ebook. You can’t rip a book the same as a CD so you’re left with the download only...
From the Academi Newsletter:
Writers’ Copyright Protests Escalate
The following letter recently appeared in the Western Mail .
SIR – The National Library of Wales is currently digitising 90 Welsh periodicals and magazines. This project, Welsh Journals Online, aims to provide “free, online, searchable access” to complete runs of such titles as Barddas and Poetry Wales.
Set up by librarians and academics, the project does not seem to have consulted creative and professional writers or the bodies that represent them.
The project is receiving more than £840,000 in public funding. The Library, though, has not allocated any money for the people who wrote the articles, reviews, stories and poems that make up the magazines. Instead, it hopes that rights holders will allow their...
I had a funny-five-minute-moment today. Whilst watching daytime TV I managed to come across a show called ‘Loose Women’, which is quite a good chatshow, not that I’m an avid fan I hasten to add. Anyway Michael Winner (currently famous for selling car insurance but formally the director of some of the Deathwish films) was plugging his new book Fat Pig Diet. This is the second time I’ve heard about it so i thought I’ll try and track down a copy.
It started at Borders who knew there was four instock somewhere but not sure where. So I was out of luck there. Seeing as I wasn’t in the mood to be beaten so easily I tried my local Asda, which has quite a good selection of bestsellers and high profile books. No sign . Nor was there any sign of a copy in my not...
I am a little behind with my reading pile, which should be no surprise really considering all the marvellous books that there and my reading rate of six books a month. So I might not get through this lot but I’m up for a challenge though it might not be in this exact order.
From last month’s reading pile I have The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke. I have a feeling that this is going to stay on the shelf though I really should read this before going to see Stardust, which is itself based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, which itself is based on a comic collaboration between Gaiman and Charles Vess. The Ladies of Grace Adieu is a collection of short stories and I’m hoping that it’ll let me into her style gently before tackling the opus that is Jonathan Strange...
Now you’d think that all publicity is good publicity right? But what if the publicity department and other associates seem to have the worst email system in the world? So somewhere were between the sending and replying something happens so that no communication takes place?
This is one publisher in particular. All the others be it big or small that I’ve had dealings with are great in their own way.
At this point I’ll let you into a secret about why I accept and request review copies. It forces me to read them. That’s it. I’ve said it. And that means that once I’ve read them I’ll mention them in the hope that other people will buy them and read them. I try and champion the debuts as they are ones that need the push at the begining. It’s good...
Dwi'n eistedd yma o flaen y teledu yn byw bywyd i'r llawn. Ddim yn codi tan amser cinio, prin yn gadael y ty oni bai am i fynd allan i feddwi, yn treulio'r diwrnod cyfan o flaen sgrin. Boed hwnnw yn sgrin deledu neu gyfrifiadur (neu'r ddau yn yr achos yma).Mana drefn dyddiol sydd yn helpu rhoi trefn i'r diwrnod. Neibys, Doctors a Diagnosis Murder. Wedyn ambell i raglen wahanol fel Sudo-q, Countdown a qavanna QC. Wedi gwylio sudo-q am y tro cyntaf erioed heddiw a sylweddoli ei fod o lot haws na beth sydd yn y papurau newydd gan nad oes gymaint o sgwariau (ar y mwyaf, 6x6 yw'r grid yn sudo-q yn hytrach na'r 9x9 arferol). Derbynniaf, dyw'r cwestiynnau ddim ynhawdd iawn, gan nad yw fy ngwybodaeth gyffredinnol mor wych na hynny. Er gwaethaf hyn, dwi'n hanner ystyried ceisio bod ar y gyfres...
Chwarter awr yn ddiweddarach, dwi nol. I gwyno am debots. Pam o pam fod angen neud te mewn tepot? Ma'r te yn oer cyn iddo fo gyraedd eich ceg chi! Iawn denin arbed ambell i fag te ond ydio werth i'r te ddiodda? Nadi yn fy marn i. Te tramp i mi yr holl ffordd.Yn ogystal a hyn, ma tepot ty ni (gafodd ei ddefnyddio am y tro cynta heddiw) yn wirion ac yn tywallt te ar y llawr yn ogystal a mewn i'r myg. Felly pwynt arall yn erbyn te tepot.Bethbynnag, dyna fi wedi gorffen fy rant sydun. Nol a chi i'ch bywyd arferol, diolch am wrando!Hwyl a...
While I’ve no doubt as to the popularity of the World Cup (an estimated 1.5 Billion people will be watching the opening game) I’m actively avoiding all forms of TV, radio, websites etc where the shite is going to be droning on non-stop for the next howeverlong. I couldn’t give a toss about Wales or Engerland or Outer Mongolia. Infact, I hope England and Wales get knocked out in the first match, so this bloody country can get back to normal. Arse, mate, arse. Trouble is, its either that or Big bloody Brother. Gah… hold on a sec, they don’t get the World Cup in the BB house, do they? Hmmmm… is it too late to smuggle myself in?...
I switched on Yahoo Messenger earlier ( Beta 8 ) on my PC, and lo-and-behold there is a huge fecking banner ad at the bottom of it! WTF? We never had that before! Arghghghgh… now that Yahoo have joined forces with Microsoft, YIM is turning into bloody Messenger. Grrrr… I’ve been using YIM for six or seven years. But unless Yahoo switch off those ads I’m never launching the thing again. Customer lost.
Anyone have a hack so we can turn off those banner ads?
Thank god for Adium and Trillian, thats all I’m saying…..
–
EDIT: fortunely, there is a fix to remove the banners. still, I’m not happy about them suddenly appearing in the first place...
I’m a sucker for trying out betas, so I downloaded the beta of Windows Media Player 11 from Softpedia. (Don’t worry, this isn’t warez, Microsoft link to that page from their WMP11 page).
First impressions, it looks a lot better than WMP10, and works a lot better too. So far. There have been a couple of lock-ups though (one forcing me to switch off my PC at the mains) but that comes with the beta-territory.
A couple of things that bug me so far. Why are m4a files shoved into “other media”? And where are the m4a tags? And why doesn’t it import id3 lyrics made in iTunes?
So come on Microsoft. I know you’re pusing your mwv format, and can’t blame you for that. But this is the age of mp4/m4a/aac. Better support would have been nice. ah...
As the title suggests, Rogue Thoughts is back. After almost a months hiatus we’re now back up and running. Postings will resume as normal shortly.
Reason for the seizure: SPAM!
Yes. Spam! After becoming (marginally) popular Rogue Thoughts was bombarded with oodles of spam comments which made the site, especially the backend, inoperable. So after eradicating the hundreds and thousands of spam comments from the database, I’ve implemented some anti-spam measures to prevent future problems.
I also took time out to update the database and reinstalled Wordpress, which all means you lucky people get a faster website to browse with ease.
Welcome back and enjoy!...
As the title suggests, Rogue Thoughts is back. After almost a months hiatus we’re now back up and running. Postings will resume as normal shortly.
Reason for the seizure: SPAM!
Yes. Spam! After becoming (marginally) popular Rogue Thoughts was bombarded with oodles of spam comments which made the site, especially the backend, inoperable. So after eradicating the hundreds and thousands of spam comments from the database, I’ve implemented some anti-spam measures to prevent future problems.
I also took time out to update the database and reinstalled Wordpress, which all means you lucky people get a faster website to browse with ease.
Welcome back and enjoy!...
So, the BBC is planning to introduce advertising on its website, for overseas (outside UK) users only. This has caused quite an uproar amongst overseas readers, as you can imagine. “The BBC is free - keep it free!!”. Except the BBC isn’t free. Every single person in the UK pays £100+ a year to fund it. If you overseas types want free BBC services, then either cough up the licence fee or put up with ads (like you do on BBC America).
Thats all I have to say on the matter....
Must just say I’m a little disappointed that this is not on the Xbox 360 as a Live Arcade title and there’s no mention of online play either.I just hope Codemasters are saving that announcement for E3! Apart from that the game looks the part, simple graphics with hopefully finger blistering speedy gameplay.
It should be good… if not it’ll be the Codemasters team that will be on the receiving end of a good kicking.
Sensible Soccer Screenshots...
Just when you think ElectronicArts (EA) are content with their little money making scheme i.e. buying other people’s well crafted products then releasing endless, tiresome, unimaginative sequels of them, they’ve found themselves with another tidy little earner.
Xbox360 Dashboard Themes.
Now it’s not too bad yet, but it seems that EA are somewhat taking advantage. So far when other companies have released a game on the 360 they let loose one or two fancy new themes. EA on the other hand go a bit overboard and release 5 or more and that’s not even including the large selection of gamer pictures they slap onto the marketplace. And before I get bombarded with emails… yes, having a wide selection of stuff is a nice thing, but generally their themes aren’t inspiring nor even...
I finally managed to get iScrobbler working on this Mac. Talk about mission impossible! I’ve installed Audioscrobbler plugins in Winamp, iTunes, and Foobar (on the PC). No problems. Do you think I could get the Mac version to connect? Could I hell…. “Bad Auth” all the way. Well, after some keychain fiddling it works now, so my “Recently Listened” should be updating again.
Well, it keeps me happy anyhow. Small things please small minds lol
Now if only I could get Tagworld to work…. I can’t change my profile, tried in Safari and Firefox. Gah…....
It’s been a couple of days since my last serious entry, for good reason, I’ve been waiting for my anger to subside.
A couple of days ago I got myself involved with the Developer Showdown on Xbox.com, where you could play online with two of the Project Gotham Racing3 (PGR3) developers and have the chance of winning a limited edition Xbox360.
To cut a long story short, I ended up in a PGR2 lobby with one of the developer gamertags (PGR100 3). I then sat in the lobby waiting for two hours for a race or a chat but didn’t get either. It seemed that whoever was running the event forgot that there were people on PGR2 waiting to play. I later learned that the developers only played on PGR3 all night despite advertising that they would also be on PGR2.
Saying I was furious would be an...
One thing I noticed whilst playing on my Xbox360 the other day is that it doesn’t always tell you when you’ve been disconnected or signed out from Xbox Live.
It was during a single player session of the underrated (yet overpriced) Bankshot Billiards 2. I was trying to unlock a couple of the games achievements, so I pressed the guide button to check out what needed to be done and noticed that I had been logged out of Xbox Live.
Now you might be thinking ‘so what’? Well, had I managed to unlock an achievement whilst being ‘offline’ the next time I’d sign in, it wouldn’t have updated my profile, because in order to unlock achievements you must be signed in and connected to Xbox Live for it to update your Gamertag.
In many ways this does suck but I can understand why...
Coincidentally, after my little rant last night, it’s now possible to extract your PGR3 photos from a Xbox360 straight to PC, albeit with a little bit of 360 modification.
Chaps at 360gamesaves.com are currently developing a bit of software called Xplorer360 (Beta2) which, as the name suggests, allows eager gamers to explore a 360 HDD or memory card and extract any data they require - like PGR3 photos.
I can’t say I’m overly keen on hooking up my 360 HDD upto my PC and using software which may or may not corrupt the whole thing, but it is an option at least.
For further details on this check out the forums at 360gamesaves.com or www.xbox-scene.com for updates....
I’ve tried (and I’m still trying) to enjoy Gran Turismo 4 for the PS2 but it’s doing very well at ticking me off at any and every opportunity. I bought the game springtime last year and I’ve yet to complete it due to the games own inadequacies.
Why GT4 is so highly rated is beyond me?
I did manage to hit 70-80% (or there abouts) complete in the first month or so, but the game decided I was too close to finishing and opted to corrupt its own game save, forcing me to start again from scratch.
It took a while for my rage to die down (several months in fact), before I picked up a PS2 pad again but GT4 is still as bad as I remember.
Poor visuals, cropping, pop up, jaggies, awful sound effects, floaty handling (it’s even worse in *rally* mode), ropey rear view...
General Sir Michael Rose:
…three years ago this country was somehow led by the prime minister into war in Iraq where few, if any, of these requirements were met.Most importantly a clear justification for the war in Iraq was never sufficiently made by Tony Blair - for the intelligence he presented was always embarrassingly patchy and [...]...
It’s been a while since I have had enough energy to write anything, and I’m not really going to now, but I will add a few links to the best bloggers around who somehow manage to write consistantly - and brilliantly - about the fetid, rotten, sceptic, world in which we live.
Starting off I am [...]...
Diplomacy. What does this word actually mean? Is it the process of sorting out national and international problems through rational, peaceful, inclusive, arguments? Or is it the gunboat, or nuclear threat curtailing any arguments against largely Western nuclear hegemony?
Whatever it is in recent times it has been paid largely lip service by Western governments [...]...
Tony Blair, complete and utter nonsensical twat (abbreviated to CUNT), continues to push the boundaries of unbelievable hypocrisy, and continues to smugly grin in ignorance. The subject is becoming a favourite for the international messiah: Iran. Blair’s comments basically assert that Iran is responsible for preventing progress in the Middle East because:
the regime is doing [...]...
Whilst the storm troopers prefer the Sun for it’s brash xenophobia, racism in short easy to understand words - and tits - the higher echelons of the modern National Socialism phenomenon prefer something a little more highbrow; but nonetheless obvious.
The sports section is surely pretty innocuous in any newspaper? Or is it… this little [...]...
