Alasdair Watson

Not driectly realted to this link, but I was chatting with a friend whose job places him firmly on the side of the PRS in the Youtube/PRS debate, and I find myself wondering: for how long will the notion of musicians getting paid for re-uses of their recordings last? I mean, the basis of my employment is that I continue to create new code and assign the copyright in a manner that allows others to use it. I am not paid based on the number of people that use my code, except in an indirect sense. But when the need for new code runs out, so does my job and the money. What's the argument for treating musicians as a special case?

Iain Sinclair talks with typical eloquence about living in Hackney over the last 40 years. It strikes me that I would be entirely happy if I were in a position to do this about Tooting.

"Unsolicited tip for media company c-levels: if your reaction to this crate of magic is 'Hm. I wonder how we’d go about suing someone who did this with our IP?' instead of, 'Holy crap, clearly, this is the freaking future of entertainment,' it’s probably time to put some ramen on your Visa and start making stuff up for your LinkedIn page."

Spot on.

Everyone's already blogged this pile of ace. I'm blogging it as context for another link. If you've been under a rock, and haven't seen it, this guy has created something truly astonishing by editing together loads of other people's youtube videos.

Everyone and their dog is linking to this today. And do you know why? Because it's *fucking awesome*.

Everyone and their dog is linking to this today. And do you know why? Because it's *fucking awesome*.

PHP code of no interest to anyone but me. Move along. This is just so I can find it another time

"We have failed in our duty to open up alternate forums for technology to express itself and touch our lives beyond productivity and efficiency. Blinded by our quest for 'smart technologies' we have forgotten to contemplate the design of technologies to inspire us to be smarter, more curious, and more inquisitive."

Michael Moorcock's essay in which he makes the strong case that Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and their contemporaries were basically writing Winnie-the-Pooh on a grand scale, and that broadly speaking, This Is Not Good Enough.

Different wallpapers for different Spaces in Leopard.

I want one of these. A lot of her other work is worth a look too, but I really want one of these.

As some of my friends know, I am 100% fascinated by the abandoned city of Pripyat, and these photos are just stunning.

Clear analysis of why Google's might wish to acquire Twitter, and an interesting note about the likelihood of them being able to acquire the microblogging platform.

Stop whining about your lack of a fucking jetpack. Take a look at this lot, and tell me we're not living in the future.

Very pretty short film – a simple plot description will not do it justice, so just go watch. It's ten minutes out of your life, and will make your day better.

An address given in 2005 to the RSA about design and the world we live in. No earth shattering insights if you've read a lot of the design stuff I've linked to before, but some excellent commentary, interesting examples and nice turns of phrase.

Your one stop primer on controlling your relationship with Big Brother.

There are a few truly beautiful grunge-look themes in here, and I've been thinking about switching to a grunge look for at least one, maybe two of my blogs, just to get away from the very formal look, and mark them out as obviously personal. I'll try a few out, and see what I think.

"we need to learn to talk about the future through things"

This is a dozen kinds of cool. Made slightly less so by a particularly rubbish website, but take the time to watch the video, because it's sodding ace.

Pretty, interesting, and faintly voyeuristic.

I can see this being a useful thing to be able to do.

Jamais Cascio on the difference a change in language may make when dicussing the many vast problems that are heading our way over the next generation or two.

Someone has finally taken a look at the design of the park bench, realised that it's signiificantly sub-optimal for modern uses, and come up with an alternative design. Ace!

Some interesting comments about recent portrayals of social media in the press and parliament. Particularly interested in the commentary re: Dunbar's number, the Economist article I linked to the other day.

i *know* I saw an agency take *exactly* this approach to their site about 18 months ago – just having a nav overlay that simply linked through to relevant social-media contact. I just can't remember who. Bet you it's not the people who built the skittles site, though. Sincerest form of flattery, I guess.

Now you too can pick an ASBO. Just visit central London.