Warren Ellis on Web 2.0

Is there a Web 2.0 at all? Or is it just a buzzword to bring in new Venture Capital?

Yeah, there is. Web 2.0, at its heart, is an attempt to bind us back down to our desktops and force us to tidy up our shit and arrange it nicely. From del.icio.us to Structured Blogging to DLA to 47 Things and Backpack and all -- it's all an ongoing attempt to take the Wild West out of the web experience and make it all nice and orderly and organised.

I fucking hate it, to be honest.

Where do you think these tools are taking us?

Into a universal understanding of what it's like to have Aspergers, it would seem...

On the infinitely recursive nature of both the internet, and blonde jokes

budgie_uk posted today about a blonde joke he'd heardm with a link to it.  I clicked the link, clicked the link on the second page, and realised it was one of those infinite chains, where each level just says "click here to see the funny joke" and the first entry is 5000 entries down.

So, having nothing else to do except tidy the flat, I decided to see how deep it was.

The trail left LJ, wandered around various blog sites, back to LJ, back off LJ, then back onto it again, and onto the LJ of theferrett - back in December 2003!

So I followed it a few more links, and discovered an infinite loop going:

theferrett
samverick
mistressxenobia
laurapink       
fuzzyduck
ribbitrules
boredom_strikes
elfiepike
ktnb
stoptocheer
dmlaenker
shawnj
theferrett (go back to top of list)

leaving me wondering, how did this get started, and was it originally an infinite loop?

Care and Feeding of Andys - #1754 : Achievement

I've recently been feeling conflicted about achievement.  On the one hand, I despise the focus on success and achievement that pervades much of modern culture - the overwhelming push to be the best you can be, at the expense of actually enjoying life.  On the other hand, while fulfilling someone else's criteria for success is completely pointless, feeling a sense of achievement at what you do seems to be vital for mental health and well-being.

Over the last while it seems that I've been too aware of the former, and not aware enough of the latter, rebelling against 'success' has left me feeling unsatisfied with myself.

So I've decided that I will _make_ myself do something productive on a regular basis, even if it kills me.  When something annoys me I shall go and do something about it, and then share the results with others, making me feel better about the thing, better about myself, and like I'm helping other people.

First item - go look at GreaseMonkey and see how to make a small change to the way that LJ comments work...

Full Stop

Well, two hours later, having got _somewhere_ despite never having played around with either GreaseMonkey or JavaScript before, I've hit a brick wall.  If anyone here knows much about either or both and fancies taking a look at this I'd appreciate it.