|
|
The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Death to Spammers
To Saeid and Daniel Yomtobian, creators of the Xupiter toolbar: You are the worst kind of bottom-feeding scum imaginable. I hope you both die horrible, slow deaths. I hope little poisonous spikes are hammered into your fingernails and large earthworms worms feast on your eyelids.
Pardon my uncharacteristically violent outburst, but I've just spent the best part of an hour removing the Yombtobian's nasty little piece of spyware from my PC. I didn't ask for it. Xupiter just installs itself. When you visit a client website, it worms its way into your browser, changes your homepage, stops you from searching for anything else, and causes a zillion pop-ups to appear whenever you launch a new window. Sadly, it is thus far immune to the Internet's best spyware remover, Ad-Aware. You have to go in and delete it manually: here's how. It's a long, complicated process involving going into the registry and using the DOS command prompt. I shudder when I think of the thousands of innocent, techno-challenged PC users out in the heartland who are going to have to deal with this.
Do the Yomtobians really think this is clever? Do they actually make money this way? How do they sleep at night? According to Wired News, the father and son team are infamous spammers and porn site merchants from Sherman Oaks with several dozen lawsuits pending against them. Generally I'm against the death penalty, but I'd be willing to consider it in this case.
|
|
|
|
