A new book by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe’ on e-mail etiquette, Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home is already billed as the “genre’s Strunk and White,’, but proposes that we use exclamation marks willy nilly.

Because email is without affect, it has a dulling quality that almost necessitates kicking everything up a notch just to bring it to where it would normally be.

Please. God. No!

On the overuse of exclamation points. - By Jacob Rubin - Slate Magazine

If even the Wall St Journal gets locats, is internet culture over?

Where as I say “gowan then” to people who ask to use my Flickr pics, there’s a certain type of people that seemingly don’t want you to even see theirs. D_morton (who probably doesn’t want the link ; ) ) always puts “You may not use, copy or print my photographic image files without my permission.” in the description of the hundreds of photos he uploads - usually candid shots of people in Brum and Walsall.

While anyone is entitled to do that - and there are licensing settings and other tools to prevent that on Flickr (although the only safe way would be not to put them on the ‘net) - it seems overkill and for some reason it annoys me when I see the photos in one of my RSS photo feeds. Rant over, I wonder if it’s possible to do exclusions by username for Flickr RSS - yahoo pipes perhaps?

EDIT: Yes it is, annnnd relax.

Naboo and Bollo decide that INSIDE the couch is funOriginally uploaded by bounder
My mate just asked if I had any pictures of the cats with ‘green eye’ (like red-eye, but for cats) for a book on photoshop he’s writing (not these, but one like them he does loads) and I sent him a couple. Of course you wouldn’t charge a mate, but quite a few of my pics from flickr have been purloined (with permission) for magazines (and no doubt a fair few I don’t know about) and I haven’t asked for more than a credit there either.

Then I think of all the free writing I do as well, snippets for The Birmingham Post and some charity magazine this month alone.

So I suppose the question is, do you have to start charging or do you have to say no?

Not often I recommend people going to that London, but…

may I draw your attention to the exceptionally rare opportunity to ascend to the top of the Gherkin and to stare down on London from the 40th floor. Only 500 Londoners will get the chance, and you need to be ready on the Open House website on Friday morning (17th August) to have any hope of booking your place.

from diamond geezer

It’s not often you get to read a Marxist appreciation of Elvis:

Elvis posed a dilemma for capitalism, but it was not an insurmountable one. Eventually it preserved him as a commodity but destroyed him as a musician. Often this is blamed on “Colonel” Parker. Parker was both incompetent and scared that Elvis might do something outrageous or unpatriotic.
But things would have gone the same way without Parker. As Karl Marx noted, “capitalist production is hostile to art and poetry”.

Elvis Presley: unlikely rebel - Socialist Worker

Oh noes!

Originally uploaded by bounder

Remind me to back up my apps when I get back in.

Birmingham Beach, originally uploaded by MartianMarvin.

People can hate as much as they like, I still think that this is an interesting juxtaposition between technology, history and frivolity.

Copying an idea here. I deliberately did this quickly, without recourse to my shelves iTunes, or any other electronic means - No particular order, except they are in the order I thought of them. I’m surprised by the absence of The Jam, The Who and any soul - I guess I either couldn’t think of one album above others, or it’s the tracks themselves that I like best.
Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
Homogenic - Bjork
Parklife - Blur
(Come Join The) High Society - These Animal Men
The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
Moon Safari - Air
Imposible Princess - Kylie Minogue
Elastica - Elastica
Exile on Coldharbour Lane - Alabama 3
Scream Dracula Scream - Rocket From The Crypt
Now I Got Worry - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
These Foolish Things - Bryan Ferry
Hatfull of Hollow - The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
Vauxhall and I - Morrissey
Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Pink Flag - Wire
Songs Of Love And Hate - Leonard Cohen
Elvis : That’s The Way It Is - Elvis Presley
Nuisance - Menswe@r
On - Echobelly
Is This It - The Strokes
Nashville Skyline - Bob Dylan
Velveteen - Transvision Vamp
Actually - Pet Shop Boys
Specials - The Specials
Maxinquaye - Tricky
Dummy - Portishead
The Wicker Man OST - Paul Giovanni
Love In The Time of Science - Emiliana Torrini
We Love Life - Pulp
Elephant - The White Stripes
Five Leaves Left - Nick Drake
The Rat Pack Live At The Sands Hotel - Frank, Dean & Sammy
Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army
Becoming X - Sneaker Pimps
Gold Against The Soul - Manic Street Preachers
Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous - David Devant and His Spirit Wife
The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
Memories Of A Colour - Stina Nordenstam
Gorilla - The Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band
Eat To The Beat - Blondie
Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam Ant
If You’re Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
Unhalfbricking - Fairport Convention
Dare - Human League
I Will Cure You - Vic Reeves
The Italian Job OST - Qunicy Jones
Greatest Hits - Goldie Lookin’ Chain
Slade in Flame - Slade
Your turn?