Blog software: bBlog and Snurf

A PHP implementation called [bBlog](http://www.bblog.com/about.php) is [Smary](http://smarty.php.net/)-centric. Neat.

Look also at [Snurf](http://bdash.bluewire.net.nz/2004/08/02/snurf-a-python-based-blogging-system/), which is a Python-based blogging system. Snurf’s designer calls attention to [a W3 document](http://www.w3.org/TR/chips/) about problems any blog designer, or CMS designer could run into.

He also [points out in a blog entry](http://bdash.bluewire.net.nz/2004/07/28/new-website-backend/) the problems he had with bBlog, what made him hack his own.

Also, from today’s heap of news: [the gbaunix](http://www.kernelthread.com/publications/gbaunix/). Cool, very cool.

Evil humour and 80s Movies

[Vice Guide to Everything](http://www.viceland.com/issues/v11n7/htdocs/the_vice.php) was weird. The world becomes clear, in a sexist fashion. If more people thought these exact things about these things, what a world.

Tiresome.

Ah, but this here was funny: [The Ruthless Guide to 80s Action](http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/80saction/80saction.html) collects the greatest 80s movies from 1980-1992. And some goodies are there.

Big sweaty men! Big noisy guns! Dozens of people getting slaughtered, per scene! Entire cities razed to the ground! Simple handguns become judge, jury and executioner!

And the only repercussion is that the Stupid Chief revokes your badge and gun for the weekend…

THE
RUTHLESS GUIDE
TO 80s ACTION

Accessible FORMs

The article [“An Accessible Method of Hiding HTML Content”](http://www.webaim.org/techniques/articles/hiddentext) shows some problems with screen readers, that is tools for those with visual disabilities. When creating websites for *everyone*, the small things matter.

A Deleuze blog

[Intermezzo](http://www.aquasonido.net/current/) blogs his progress through Gilles Deleuze’s “A Thousand Plateaus”. He mentioned it in an Orkut group as an emergent trend amongst bloggers.

I might do that someday: and all you see me type is some inane logging of what I read: I, an automaton of thought.

Still, the idea of “blog as tool for thought” is compelling.

Update: Aiolos and Glänta, two Swedish publishers of books and magazines have created [a theme issue on Deleuze](http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=121&a=173274) . And now [Daidalos](http://www.daidalos.se/) has published Deleuze’s “The Fold” in Swedish.

And the blog [Copyriot](http://copyriot.blogspot.com) told me about the joint issue, which has cut a few lines of “Samtalet”, and it is all in Swedish.

Roma, Roma!

As we draw near to our leaving home ground, I start gathering info on Italy. We pray that Heler’s rain rams stay out of the sky during our stay.

The [weather in Rome](http://www.dmi.dk/dmi/verdensvejr.htm?city=150039001&country=Italien) seems a little wet for the next week, but we’ll try to keep it sane.

New Finnish blog on literature

This might come as no surprise to anyone connected to the Finnish role-playing set, but they have, according to Mike Pohjola, and in evidence online, started a new blog “focusing on literary and media criticism.” It is called [Perkeleen periskooppi](http://periskooppi.blogspot.com/) and is all-Finnish.

Now I really need to learn that language, again. I sorely want to hear what Mika Loponen thinks about this item: “Kirja: China Miéville, Iron Council (2004, Del Ray)” I already know that Kirja means book, and I have one piece of fiction by Miéville, still unread. I also saw a copy of this new book in a store window. And I was but little intrigued. But if the headline *Sosialistista fantasiaa* can’t get me interested in this review, few things can. Loponen is a great opinionator.

If you are fortunate enough to already know Finnish, go there.

Theory of Everything: I feel uninformed

This happened a while ago in Copenhagen, when my friend Andreas and his friend Marie were visiting. We are in a corner bar called Café Falken. Not the one in Frederikberg, the one on Christianshavn, which has no reference to it at all on the Internet — up until now, that is. The place had mostly old people in it. *Authentic* written all over it.

So me and mine were there, *bourgeoising* it all up, like cats do milk.

— “[Theory of Everything](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything)” is the shit, says Andreas.
— Sure, but at which conference was it released? counters Marie, citing three or four examples of heroics in physics.

This launches a long back-and-forth on physics, of which I know next to nothing. Good lesson to me. Techno-babble can kill.

I learnt that one can not understand [string theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory) to any meaningful extent, without getting high-level math first. The abstractions just turn into playful imagery, not explanations.

But the above links can lead you and me, dear reader, to more information on the subject of TOE. And, maybe, at the end of the day, this information can be turned into understanding. But do not count on it.

Another thing I remember was that Marie was interested in [primitivism](http://www.primitivism.com/), as preached by [John Zerzan](http://www.primitivism.com/zerzan.htm). Myself, I am an armchair eco-philosopy reader, it’s a bit like collecting records. The books are on import, extremely expensive, from small pubslihers, in small print runs. Very seldom one meets another collector, and it was nice meet another eco-geek. (I’d like to point out that eco-geeks of that level are bookworms, mostly.)