Jump in my car.

[reddragdiva]

• Second best audiophile product of all time ... and first.

• The FreeBSD daemon falls on hard times.

• Wikipedia explained by the LaRouchians. Of course!

I'm coming up to my week off after my week on-call. I have pretty much failed to go out anywhere I was planning to, rebuild the house, see anyone I was hoping to (apologies to faithais, godgirl and pndc) or do much except a lovely birthday drinks.

But I got to spend two weeks playing with Freda, so I'll call it a win. She's almost a toddler! She's got enough teeth (two top and two bottom) to smile properly! She's getting into every bloody thing! I am quite definitely the happiest daddy ever. Happier than you.

The high quality wiring has blown a third expensive daylight spectrum compact fluorescent bulb and taken out the rest of the circuit, so downstairs has no ceiling lights. We're enormously pleased. mirrorshard tried applying his suicidal insanity theatre tech wiring skills suicidal insanity to replacing the melted fuse and the replacement promptly blew, so we're waiting till someone paid to deal with this stuff is here to do so.

I think I'll be trying for Vagabonds tomorrow night. I expect to see a pile of other leftover B-Movie refugees. Anyone going?

Update: wefixtech.co.uk is a virtual private server. It just got wiped by an idiot at the hosting company. So davidgerard.co.uk, reddragdiva.co.uk, arkady.org.uk and redcountess.co.uk are down until they can recover from the February 17th backup. Good thing we got shot of the actual paying customers and it's now strictly our toy.

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I love the way that Codename Turquoise completely ignores the nature of digital signals.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Or, for that matter, of light.

[reddragdiva]

But not of Barnum's Laws of Birth (one per minute) or Ethics (it's wrong for them to keep their money).

[pndc.livejournal.com]

Am I weird in that I want to go to Vagabonds to see the *architecture*?

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Yes. You'd do better to go during the week when it's not full of filthy gothics.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, during the week it's full of filthy yuppies. Or was when I went there briefly. (It's a very pretty pub.)

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Ah. Filthy gothics are probably preferable.

[redcountess]

Heh, I love the name of the pub too :)

[jauncourt.livejournal.com]

Those products can't be real, can they?

They smack of new-agey crap-therapy, except for machines.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Audioph00l product lines are... special. Though not as special as the audioph00ls.

[jauncourt.livejournal.com]

I thought they looked like a mechanical equivalent of "Put this crystal on your head and your cancer will go away!" sort of "therapies."

The human mind is an extremely powerful and gullible organ.

[reddragdiva]

I have considered making up a fake catalogue of the most implausible audiophile produce I possibly can, except I'm fairly sure I'd get orders. And then one day I'd have to explain to Freda where the money for our vastly opulent lifestyle comes from ... hmm. I'll start on that tomorrow.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Oh come now. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, what's the best way to do it?

[reddragdiva]

I submit that this counts.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Do you really want to argue about Scientology here?

[reddragdiva]

Ron's totally professional sound credentials are utterly unimpeachable!

Consider that some people still believe humans brought death into the world

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

...by eating a fruit that a serpent told them to eat.

audiofools

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

OK, I got all the way to the PayPal page, so I am willing to believe this is not a joke.

I am really uncomfortable, though, accepting that this is serious:

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue23/clock_nespa.htm

Frankly, it undermines my sense of ethics. If people are truly that rich and that stupid in large numbers, it's practically a historical inevitability that I, personally, have been sent here to separate them from their money.

(Pls note: standard blackmail rate of 10% will be divided among the people on my friends list who can see the sticky post with my real name in it.)

[alixandrea.livejournal.com]

I wanted soooo much to come to Vagabonds, but have a housemate's secret birthday do (shhh!) up here in Cambridge so won't be there. :-( I hope you have a wonderful time though! :-)

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Hey. It didn't blow after I fixed it. It just inexplicably stopped working again.

[reddragdiva]

While not removing my sincere gratitude, nor does that remove my opinion of the wisdom of it ...

[godgirl.livejournal.com]

wow. walking distance from marge-ville.

yet nothin to wear and six quid is much money.

oh, did i mention no clothes?

i must apply to be the recipient of a charity clothes drive... or a vanity-free lobotomy.

or starve til next one.

or just stay in with crap wifi.

i think the last wins.. for now.

[reddragdiva]

No clothes? Wear nothing!

*cough*

I can spot ya the six quid if you like!

[godgirl.livejournal.com]

no rilly, is too fat for no clothes.

[reddragdiva]

And I'm piking tonight anyway - too frazzled. Bah!

[godgirl.livejournal.com]

there's money in sticking sparklies on cables?

ooh, when i get my stuff back* i can become rich!


*stuff in storage. timeline undecided. do not hold breath.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

My personal experience with editors including particularly SlimVirgin and Jayjg lead me in the general direction of those LaRouchian conspiracist views, I'm afraid; if they're not actually part of a coordinated Hasbara-like campaign then they're certainly playing one on the internets. Now, I've been heard to joke that Israel is a Nazi plot to make the Jews look bad and so I am by definition an anti-Semite, but it seems to me likely that frustration with the professional double standards and double-speak of editors like those two and their frequent collaborators have resulted in greater loss by way of valuable editors discouraged from contributing than their combined contributions are worth. Certainly, I essentially abandoned wikipedia after about 3K edits in a year after observing the results of their tactics.

[reddragdiva]

"Assume good faith" means "it's stupidity rather than malice." Both are entirely capable of jawdroppingly oblivious obnoxiousness (as am I), but if you think the LaRouchians are onto something here then you too are smoking crack, and not good crack.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

"it's stupidity rather than malice."

None of these people are stupid. Jayjg in particular is ferociously intelligent and exceptionally tactically sophisticated, knowing exactly when to back off and when to persist, when to allow proxies to take the heat and when to step in with the full force of ArbCom.

if you think the LaRouchians are onto something

I came to my own conclusions back in 2006, on the basis of my own observations and experience. Just because some nutters also believe it (or at least a bizarroworld version of it) doesn't mean it's baseless. Still, I'm not expecting to convince you, just explain my own reasons for no longer actively contributing to the project.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

oh, come now, surely http://machinadynamica.com/machina44.htm is *first*.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Actually, after looking at the rest of the site, I think the Clever Little Clock (a small battery powered alarm clock that need only be in the same building to enhance sound) and the Teleportation Tweak (a technique by which they can enhance you audio equipment with a phone call, even if it is not on at the time) are possibly even better audiophile products.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

And I add - I suspect the site might be a sophisticated experiment of iterative testing off audiophile willingness to spend. Each product less plausible sounding than the last, when will they finally stop buying.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

When I first saw Codename: Turquoise, sure, I was skeptical, but then I saw the Brilliant Pebbles, and I knew that guy was onto something, since audiophiles will buy anything.

That FreeBSD condom machine is brilliant.

What does it say about Islington that you can buy inflatable sheep from a vending machine?

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Hmmm according to http://www.naughtyvend.com/ that's not Viagra. Nope. It's Vishagra Blue Pill!

They also sell disposable cameras with the BSD Chum, and vibrators.

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

Does the BSD vibrator have a usb attachment?

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about Vagabonds. I've arranged to go to someone's birthday do so I'll be at the Pembury on Sat eve (as long as I am up to it).

Whenever life pisses me off I dream of getting my revenge through quackery. Snake oil for the stupid? Anti-mobile phone mast stuff?

Independent readers have it coming to them..

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

The audiophile website looks like what goes into my head when I'm trying to read scientific papers while so tired that I randomly skip lines and misread words. "Mikro" in particular cracks me up.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

*You*fixtech and someone else has to fix your server? :-P

I've mailed both Kirk and Naughtyvend about their logo.

[faithais.livejournal.com]

no need to apologise to me, dear. is is I who should say sorry for standing you up.

I am going to Dead and buried. Would you change your mind and go there instead? It'd be nice to see you...then maybe we can set another date!!!

hugs,
FAITH

[reddragdiva]

Looks like I'm not going to either tonight! Too much to do at home, particularly with no downstairs lights ... gah! Domesticity is fun but takes a lot of time!