Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies are a set of cards designed (or at least, intended) to help with the creative process. Subtitled "100 Useful Dilemmas", each deck contains 100 or so cards - each asking questions or making suggestions - intended to derail or rethink (or even subvert) the creative process.. Cards could include phrases like:

"Call your mother and ask her what to do."
"Not building a wall but making a brick."
"Do something boring."
"Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them."
"Bridges -build -burn"

Oblique Strategies are a useful tool, something that helps break out of a rut. While the 5th edition cards can now be bought from Brian Eno's online store, they've also spread out across the net. There's an online version, and a rather nice MacOS X version has just been released.

Clearing space for the builders I found my climbing gear, which reminded me of this old poem, written back in June 1990 - shortly after my first big climb.

The rock yellows
in the spring sun,
as I look down
at the sparkling sea
and feel the wind
in my hair.
I turn to Judith
and smile
(I've made it this far).
She grins back,
and returns to work,
bringing in the rope
and encouraging
as Cathy climbs.

Like Dukes of York
we sit halfway up
(not halfway down,
as the rising tide
has swallowed our beach).
The sea is almost
at the first pitch,
and David might
just get wet
(the starfish in the cave
is now hunting limpets,
that graze over
their fossilised ancestors).
Cathy joins us on our ledge,
as David watches for the rope.
"Below."
"Are you on?"
"Aye, on"
"Climb when ready."
"Climbing now!"
He'll be here soon,
(David's good,
and the tide is
an incentive.).

There's a supertanker
on the horizon,
heading down-channel
empty (she's high in the water).
Off to Araby ports
for aromatic crudes
(the new king's ransom).
Two jets scream past,
they've been let out
for exercise.
And beside me
a white flower blooms.
I hear a curlew call,
I suppose it'll rain then.

(Originally posted in rec.arts.poems - and recovered thanks to Google!)

...as today I am being paid to do the ironing.

(well, actually to review a steam iron, but there is this big pile of freshly laundered shirts which will work well as test subjects...)

...not quite literally, but near enough...
( ...yes, I did a 'which famous feline are you' quiz... )

...or how much of an online old timer I really am...

1. When did you first connect ("go online"), and how?
1988 was my first Usenet post. I'd been using JANET for a while before then, and email from about 1984 or 5... groups.google traces me back to rec.arts.sf-lovers back in May 1990

2. What was your first communications program?
mail. That and rn for Usenet.

3. When did you first chat over the internet, and how?
1990 or so. Using talk over JANET from Bath to akicif in Leeds

4. What chat type program(s) do you use now?
Trillian for most of the IM networks I'm on, and JAJC for Jabber.

5. Who was your first service provider?
JANET and the University of Bath for academic stuff, then Demon for dial up IP. Then I was the technical manager at UK Online for their first two years.

6. Did you ever use AOL?
Yes, but that's because marypcb used to run the Technology and Computing channels there, and I needed to see (and admire) her work! And I wrote their original web card system in three evenings, as well as writing technology content for them...

7. Do you admit using AOL in public?
Yes. I even wear an AOL jacket at times. I'm still proud of the work I did for them.

8. Who is your current ISP?
Me for mail. I get fixed IP DSL from Astra, though. The web site is on a shared Raq at Wizards, who also host my DNS.

9. What was the first computer that you used to access the 'net?
A GEC mainframe, the infamous gdr.bath.ac.uk. Prior to JIPS going live I padded from there to nfs-sun at Imperial for IP access to the rest of the world.

10. What computer do you use to access the 'net today?
All of them (so it'll depend which room of the house I'm in).... Even the phone!

11. What was your first 'net handle?
My first one I can find on groups.google was eesshlgb - don't you just love those old mainframe usernames. I used to use Ignatz as a non-de-plume on alt.callahans

12. Did you use any other handles for any length of time? If so, what were they?
No, not really. Standard user names tend to be simon@ or sbisson@, and I occasionally dig out the old Ignatz...

13. What 'net handle do you normally use now?
simon@ and sbisson@

14. Are you active on any websites other than LJ? If you're willing to say, what ones?
As the NTK T-t-shirt says, "I spend all day bitching about you on IRC channels you don't know about". That and CiX...